“Our Substitute”

Two weeks ago on Good Friday, we reflected on Jesus as our greatest example. This week I’d like to consider again the amazing grace of God that has been revealed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ in the cross. Jesus truly is the substitute who was delivered for our sins so that we might be delivered from our sins. The cross of Jesus Christ transcends racial barriers, cultural barriers and time and space barriers. God’s explanation of the cross is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. In the 53^rdchapter beginning in the third verse, we read, “He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surly he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” (v.3-6 KJV). There are so many things in this passage that are overwhelming and shocking to consider. To think that Jesus Christ was despised, treated with scorn and contempt because people had an erroneous opinion of what Messiah would be is a rather stunning thing. So many have hardened their heart against the Lord Jesus Christ and presume to be good enough without Him. But there is no pretension of innocence at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many stumbled at Jesus’s death on Calvary’s cross, thinking He was defeated and overwhelmed for His own sin. But we need to contemplate the majesty and the power of His death. Did Jesus suffer for something He had done? No, but people despised Him and reckoned Him as nothing or of no value, thinking God was punishing Jesus for His own sins. But it was in fact for our sins that He suffered and died.

We see in verse four the statement, “that surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”. Think of the heavy burden that you may be bearing today in your life, know that Jesus cares for you. When we experience a sense of rejection in our lives we can find hope in Jesus’ steadfast endurance of pain and grief. The sorrows we bear He desires to carry for us. The New Testament instructs us – “cast all your anxiety on him cares for you”, (1 Peter 5:7 NIV). I believe the idea of  Jesus bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows is connected with the Old Testament scapegoat. Remember the priest would lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat, representing all the sins of the people being placed on that scapegoat and then the scapegoat was driven out into the wilderness.

Jesus Christ is our sin-bearer. He fulfilled the Old Testament sacrifices on our behalf. The people who stood around His cross thought Jesus was suffering for some great sin of His own, but Isaiah makes it perfectly clear that it was for our sins that caused Jesus’ suffering and death. I hope that we would reflect on this truth, not only on Good Friday but on every day as we try to seriously live our faith in Jesus Christ! Not only is Jesus our greatest example but He’s also our substitute. So please take time regularly to seriously consider what Jesus suffered for you. In a daily devotional I regularly read by Charles Spurgeon he writes these amazing words, “Pilate delivered our Lord to the Roman officers to be scourged. The Romans scourge was the most dreadful instrument of torture. It was made of the sinews of oxen. Sharp bones were intertwined here and there among the sinews so that every time the lash came down, pieces of bone inflicted fearful lacerations and tore the flesh from the bone. The Savior was, no doubt, bound to the column, and thus beaten. He had been beaten before, but this beating by the Roman soldiers was probably the severest of his flagellations. My soul, stand here and weep over His poor stricken body.  As a Believer in Jesus, can you gaze on Him without tears, as He stands before you the image of agonizing love? He is at once fair as the Lily of innocence and red as the rose with crimson of His own blood. As we feel the sure and blessed healing that His stripes have worked in us, do not our hearts melt at once with love and grief? If ever we have loved our Lord Jesus, surly we must feel the affection glowing now within our hearts,” (Morning and Evening- C. Spurgeon, pg.194). Whenever we take communion in our church I remind our folks of the sacredness of the sacrifice that was paid for our sins. I hope that you too will give careful consideration to all that Jesus suffered for you. Remember Paul’s writings to the Romans when he stated, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom.5:8 NIV).

Fortunately, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the cross was not the end of our Lord and Savior. For three days later, on that first resurrection day, Christ was gloriously raised so that all could be saved who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Paul tells us this great news (gospel) when he writes – “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to glory of God the Father,” (Phil. 2:9-11 NIV). This is all because of the wonderful work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, let us go forth rejoicing in our substitute and serving Him out of hearts of love and gratitude.

Shalom,

Pastor Rich

One of my favorite Easter narratives is the story of Thomas as recorded in the 20^th chapter of John’s gospel.  Remember on the first resurrection day, Thomas was not present with the other 10 apostles when Jesus revealed Himself to them.  When the other disciples tell Thomas that they had seen the Lord we read Thomas’ response, “But he said to them,” Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it”, (v. 25b NIV). What did Thomas want?  He simply wanted to be put on the same level as the other disciples.  They had seen the Lord Jesus and he wanted to see Jesus in order to believe it for himself.  He wanted the personal touch of Jesus in his life.  His one mistake was that he laid down only one way for God to work.  He appointed the gate through which the Lord must come into his life.  Because Thomas had anticipated the worse he couldn’t believe the best.  I believe Thomas was present at the cross or maybe helped take Jesus’ body down from the cross.  Foremost in his mind was the dead body of Jesus. The death of his Master had been burnt into his soul, his heart was with the lifeless body of Christ.

Finally, a week later when Jesus a second time we see a very different response, we read, “A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.  Though the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and My God!” (v.26-28 NIV).  Thomas had been moping around for 7 days while the other disciples were celebrating.  Here John’s gospel comes to a climax as all the fears and doubts of Thomas are swept away in one incredible moment of revelation.  Yet there’s no evidence in Scripture or indication that Thomas actually touched the Lord.  Overwhelmed by the glory of Christ that now breaks upon him like a flood he makes a profound declaration, “My Lord and My God”!  There is a 3 fold aspect of Thomas’ confession that is very important for us to catch.  First, Thomas speaks of personal surrender.  Notice the word “My”, Thomas yields himself completely to Jesus.  Secondly, his confession speaks of Jesus’ authority over him.  As Thomas uses “Lord” to establish who’s really in charge of his life.  Thirdly, his statement “My God”, is a clear statement of Jesus’ deity.  Thomas connected the resurrection with deity.  He realized that Jesus is not a man-made god but rather God made man.  Sometimes the greatest doubters become the greatest believers.  These are not the words of a chronic doubter but a believer with an ever-expanding faith.

One of my favorite parts of the narrative is the promise that Jesus gives to you and me after Thomas’ confession.  We read- Then Jesus told Him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have no seen and yet have believed”, (v. 29 NIV).  That promise is entirely for us today. We have a greater blessing through faith than Thomas did through sight.  Someone has said, “Thomas’ lack of faith did more for our faith than did the faith of the disciples that believed”.  Jesus is saying it is better to be convinced by moral and spiritual evidence than by the evidence of the senses.  Our faith is a very sensible faith.  It is grounded in the testimony of revelation. There is a warning here for those who seek signs and wonders in order to believe.

How about you- do you long for Jesus’ personal touch in your life?  When we celebrate the Risen Savior every Sunday He stills show up in many remarkable and incredible ways. When we worship Jesus as “our Lord and our God” we put ourselves in the place of great blessing and God can use us to be a blessing to others, as Jesus did in the life of Thomas.

Still Celebrating the Risen Savior,

Pastor Rich Sivo

This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday many churches in Christianity will remember and pay tribute to the triumphant entry of the Lord Jesus Christ during holy week. But Jesus’s reaction to this time of great festivity and celebration is a very different reaction than one might expect. We see Jesus’s reaction and words in Luke’s Gospel when we read, “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you,” (Luke 19:41 – 44 NIV). While the crowd was rejoicing Jesus was weeping. It’s the second occasion in Scripture where our Lord wept openly, the first being the tomb of Lazarus. Here Jesus is weeping over the city, lamenting their actions much like the prophet Jeremiah did at the destruction of Jerusalem. In the Greek language the word “wept” is in the aorist active indicative tense, this means He literally burst into tears with deep sorrow and sadness. All of this is the result of seeing the city of Jerusalem. It is truly an amazing sight when one comes over the Mount of Olives for your first view of the city of Jerusalem. Even visiting there today this is one of the most amazing experiences, when you see Jerusalem from this vantage point for the first time. But when Jesus looked over the city, knowing of the leader’s rejection of Himself, He saw something that no one else could see. I appreciate what Warren Wiersbe writes in this regard when he states –“As Jesus looked ahead, He wept as He saw the terrible judgment that was coming to the nation, the city, and the Temple. In A.D. 70, the Romans would come and, after a siege of 143 days, kill 600,000 Jews, take thousands more captive, and then destroy the temple and the city. Why did all this happen? Because the people did not know that God had visited them! “He came unto His own and His own received him not,” (W.W. – The Bible Exposition Commentary, Vol.1, p.255).

Many times in our lives we have opportunities to change the direction and course of our life. These opportunities are frequently precipitated by some great crisis. Think of America as a nation and think how our world was changed after December 7, 1941, or September 11, 2001. How we react to the crisis’ that we experience in our lives will many times determine our usefulness in God’s hands. The cross is the dividing line not only for the nation of Israel but for each of us as individuals as well. As Jesus rode into the city that day, He was riding on a donkey, an animal of peace. We must take note that God visits us in mercy before He comes in wrath and the sympathetic heart of the Lord Jesus Christ is beautifully demonstrated in this passage and His love for humanity. That is contrasted with the proceeding profound joy and celebration of the people. He wept over the city because its people did not understand the significance of what was going on that day.

Jesus then turns his attention to what might’ve happened if the religious leaders had turned to Jesus in peace and praise. He then reveals the consequences that will befall Jerusalem because of their decision to reject their own Messiah. The statement that Jesus made when He said had they “only known” demonstrates Jesus knowledge of the amazing peace that God purposed to bring upon the nation of Israel. It was the yearning of Jesus’ soul to bless them with true happiness, if only they had listened and responded to Jesus in faith. Jesus was not the kind of Messiah they were expecting, so they rejected Him and by so doing sealed their physical destruction and spiritual separation from God. Interestingly, it is historically documented that no Christians died during the fall of Jerusalem. The Christians in Jerusalem heeded Jesus’ warning about a day of coming judgment when an enemy would come and that they should flee to the hills for safety. That’s exactly what the Christians did.

The Jewish leaders had rejected their King and refused God’s offer of salvation in Jesus Christ when they were visited by God Himself. Soon the nation would suffer but Christians who listened to the teaching and counsel of Jesus were delivered from physical destruction 70 A.D., but even more importantly they were delivered unto eternal life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This Palm Sunday we as believers in the Lord Jesus have profound reasons to celebrate and worship the Lord Jesus Christ for all that He has done for us. Let’s be like those first century Christians who built their lives on Jesus’s teaching and actions and found safety and eternal life.

Shalom,

Pastor Rich Sivo

Last Sunday we started our Easter series in Psalm 22 which is known as “The Psalm of the Cross”. Psalm 22 is without question one of the most remarkable portions of the entire Old Testament. It is one of the clearest cases of predictive prophecy that was fulfilled through the death and suffering of Jesus Christ. Someone has suggested that this prediction of the cross is so exact that it makes you think that it was written by someone standing at the foot of the cross. However, the Psalm is not written from the viewpoint of an observer but the viewpoint of the sufferer. This Psalm graphically describes what the man on the cross was experiencing during those horrifying hours of suffering. The song was written by David a thousand years before the events recorded. Though David penned the Psalm, the events recorded did not occur in his life, but much later on in the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in all four of the Gospels.

The opening verse of the Psalm reads – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?” (v.1 NIV). This verse was quoted by the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung on Calvary’s cross in Matthew 27:46. This mysterious and awful “why” of Jesus’ experience of desertion by God must be considered. The answer to this question sheds a great deal of light on the very purpose for which the Son of God came into this world. The simple and obvious reason was that Jesus Christ was taking our place on that cross. Jesus had been made sin for those whom the Father had given Him before the foundation of the world, and on the cross, Jesus was bearing our penalty. There was no thundering voice resounding from heaven declaring, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased”. Paul concisely explains the answer to the question in 2 Corinthians 5 when he writes, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (v.21 NIV). When Jesus became evil on our behalf, the Father abandoned Him in judgment and would not deliver Him from His agony. No mortal can fully understand what it must’ve been like for the eternal Son of God to be separated from the eternal Father during those dark hours on the cross. There was never a time in world history when there was more spiritual darkness in the world than when the wrath of God was poured out on the Son of God. God even covered the land with darkness during that awful time. The darkness that covered the land found in Matthew 27:24 indicates that a crime had been committed, as the Son of God hangs naked on the cross in shame and humiliation. Jesus experienced in all its horror the separation from God that sin creates. All of nature itself covered that time with this supernatural darkness. This darkness should have alarmed all as to the momentous events that were taking place that Passover afternoon.

Jesus was forsaken by God because He was made sin for us. Paul once again emphasizes this point when he writes- “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree”, (Gal.3:13 NIV).  Someone has written regarding our ability to understand the depths of Christ’s suffering at Calvary – “there the Lord Jesus Christ bore in His own person an eternity of the wrath of God, He being infinite, suffered in a finite moment in time what we, being finite, would have suffered in an infinite amount of time. Eternity was compressed upon Him and through His sufferings He might offer to us, not an eternity of suffering, but an eternity of joy and everlasting life”.

During this darkest hour, the Lord Jesus Christ felt so utterly forsaken. But He was forsaken that we might never be forsaken. God forsakes for only one reason and that is sin. God hates sin and His Son was separated from the heavenly Father, not for His sins but for our sins. That being achieved none of us today need to be separated from God, but we must accept with gratitude the gift that the Almighty God has provided on our behalf. It cost God His Son on a cruel cross to reconcile sinners to Himself but that is exactly what Jesus Christ has done. If you are a child of God and the follower of Jesus Christ today give thanks to God for His most generous gift of eternal life found in Jesus Christ. If you’ve never trusted Christ let me encourage you to consider the price (even being forsaken) that Jesus paid so that you too may have eternal life.

All praise to our great Savior,

Pastor Rich Sivo

The Rev. William “Billy” Graham was laid to rest earlier today (Friday). Over 2000 people from over 500 countries were in attendance at his funeral service. Back in the mid-80s as I began to pursue the Lord’s leading into pastoral ministry several of the churches questionnaires asked me what I thought of Billy Graham. I guess at the time it was a test of fundamentalism because if you have a high opinion of Billy well, you won’t pass the test. He was considered in some circles as a heretic and liberal because of the people that he worked with and those that were on the platform with him during his crusades. I failed the Billy Graham test; I couldn’t say anything bad about him. I never understood this kind of thinking. Billy Graham did everything he could to touch as many people as he could in his lifetime with the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I believe that he was a man of highest integrity. In a day and age when many have dishonored the name of Christ through sexual immorality or preaching a distorted health and wealth, prosperity gospel or any number of other religious scandals, Billy Graham stayed on task and declared the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never dishonored or embarrassed the name of Jesus Christ in all the formats that God had given him to serve Christ.  I think that is one of the highest compliments that I can pay him that in over 75 years of public ministry he never dishonored the name of Christ. I hope that when my earthly sojourn is over the same could be said of me.

The passage that comes to mind is found in 1 Corinthians where Paul writes, “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful”, (1 Cor. 4:1,2 NKJV).  Billy Graham handled the mysteries of God with amazing accuracy and grace. Back in 2005, Billy Graham came for his last crusade to New York City. One of the ladies in our church insisted that we needed to go because she had never been to a Graham Crusade. So we packed up the church van with about a dozen of us and went one Sunday afternoon to that crusade, which I believe was his last public crusade. It was an amazing experience, even though the woman who originally insisted that we needed to go didn’t end up going herself. That’s really how people are, they constantly let you down and are not what they appear to be. But not so with Billy Graham. He was a humble man of integrity who never lost his country roots and his biblical grounding. From his first crusades in LA in 1949 to that last crusade in New York City in 2005 Billy Graham was a faithful minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When I heard last week that Billy Graham had passed, I thought what a great and amazing experience it must have been for him to he wake up on the other side of eternity and heard the words from the Lord Jesus Christ, “well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord”, (Matthew 25:23). What an amazing getting up morning that must have been. I think the challenge for us today from Billy’s life is to be faithful to whatever God has called us to do for Him. The Corinthians passage talks about the role of stewards that one must be found faithful. Billy modeled a faithfulness in his ministry, in his family, and in his life that all of us would do well to follow. I’m glad for the legacy that he leaves behind, for it is a legacy of hearts and lives that have been changed by the amazing power of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was always at the center of Billy’s message. It was never about social issues or political parties, it was about the glory and honor the Lord Jesus Christ. In this day of great division let us stand on the unifying power of Jesus Christ to set people free from sin and the change our world by changing one life at a time. I’m so thankful for a life well lived before us, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to hear the world’s greatest evangelists declare the majesty and splendor of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m also delighted today to know that when Billy passed into eternity that his life did not end, but he entered into a life no longer enslaved to a dying physical body. That is the hope that all of us have who placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Shalom,

Pastor Rich Sivo