Romans 183: Romans 6 - Do You Love Enough to Die?Welcome To BARAH MINISTRIES a Christian Church Rory Clark Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark. Let’s begin this lesson in prayer…
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful to you, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Thank you for the chance to celebrate Your Supreme accomplishment today...a celebration of the hardest thing You ever chose to do…harder even than devising an overall plan for all Your creatures and harder than devising a series of personal plans for the individual lives of Your creatures as well…of course we’re talking about Your decision to send your Son to the Cross to die as a sin substitute for all the ones who really deserved to die.
Thank you for the One we call “the lamb without spot or blemish” … thank you for the one “who like a lamb led before the shearers is silent, opened not His mouth” as He suffered the most brutal form of death in divine history, the torture and the humiliation of crucifixion…
Open our hearts to the depth of unconditional love on display at the Cross… and make an indelible mark in our hearts concerning just how much you love us…a love that is unconditional and a love that is faithful for ALWAYS.
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s name...Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY Do You Love Enough to Die?
It is our custom, this time of the year at Barah Ministries, both to remember and to celebrate the two most important days in divine history…Crucifixion Day and Resurrection Day. Welcome to our annual celebration of Crucifixion Day. It’s the day the rest of the world calls “Good Friday.” And while the religious are mourning about the Lord’s death on the Cross, as if somehow He was victimized by and conquered by men, we Christians celebrate… because we know that the Lord’s crucifixion was the first important step in our “so great” salvation…our Lord gave up His life willingly for us…no one killed the Lord Jesus Christ.
<CHRIST ON THE CROSS SLIDES>
He laid down His life voluntarily, and He had the power both to lay down His own life and to take up His own life again, a power no other creature has ever had, nor will they ever have. Death cannot contain the Lord. John, Chapter 10, Verses 17 and 18 say…
JOH 10:17 “For this reason (the prophecy of JOH 10:16, God) the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it up again at the resurrection.”
JOH 10:18 No one (no creature…neither angel nor mankind) has taken My life away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down by My own will, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment is the directive I received from My God the Father in eternity past.”
As believers in Christ, death now has no power over you, either. As Christians…as those who have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our God…we remember that we are residents in Satan’s Kingdom… yet while we are IN this world, we are not OF this world…Philippians, Chapter 3, Verses 20 and 21…
PHI 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which heaven also we eagerly wait for a Savior (to return for us), the Lord Jesus Christ…
PHI 3:21 …who will transform the body of our humble state (this mortal body) into conformity with the body of His glory (a resurrection body), by the exertion of the power that He has (divine omnipotence) even (the power) to subject all things to Himself.
God could MAKE us worship Him. He doesn’t. He leaves the choice to us. Christians don’t see these “worldly” holidays as others see them. There is absolutely no way any of the world’s counterfeit holidays will “dumb-down” the power our God, nor will they “dumb-down” the power of the celebrations we cherish today. Let’s see how the world depicts Jesus Christ and His attitude toward the Cross while in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before His death. Here’s a song from the Rock Opera Jesus Christ Superstar, entitled, “I Only Want to Say.” The words are provided so you can hear the train of thought being attributed falsely to our Lord as He talks to His God, the Father.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
I Only Want to Say
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
I only want to say…if there is a way Take this cup away from me For I don’t want to taste its poison. Feel it burn me, I have changed. I’m not as sure, as when we started.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
Then, I was inspired. Now, I’m sad and tired. Listen, surely I’ve exceeded expectations, Tried for three years, seems like thirty. Could you ask as much from any other man?
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
But if I die, See the saga through and do the things you ask of me, Let them hate me, hit me, hurt me, nail me to their tree.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
I’d want to know, I’d want to know, My God, I’d want to know, I’d want to know, My God, I’d want to see, I’d want to see, My God, I’d want to see, I’d want to see, My God, Why I should die…
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
Would I be more noticed than I ever was before? Would the things I’ve said and done matter any more? I’d have to know, I’d have to know, my Lord, Have to know, I’d have to know, my Lord, Have to see, I’d have to see, my Lord, Have to see, I’d have to see, my Lord, If I die what will be my reward? If I die what will be my reward?
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
Have to know, I’d have to know, my Lord, I’d have to know, I’d have to know, my Lord, Why should I die? Oh why should I die? Can you show me now that I would not be killed in vain? Show me just a little of your omnipresent brain.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
Show me there’s a reason for Your wanting me to die. You’re far too keen on where and how, but not so hot on why. Alright, I’ll die! Just watch me die! See how I die! Oh yeah…see how I die!
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
Then I was inspired. Now, I’m sad and tired. After all, I’ve tried for three years, seems like ninety. Why then am I scared to finish…what I started, What you started - I didn’t start it.
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR “I Only Want to Say”
God, thy will is hard, But you hold every card. I will drink your cup of poison. Nail me to your Cross and break me, Bleed me, beat me, kill me, take me, now! Before I change my mind.
This song portrays the Lord Jesus Christ as a vacillating wimp who is unsure of Himself about doing the thing He had come to do at the Cross. It portrays Him merely as a human. Don’t forget though…the Lord Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is 100% God and 100% true humanity in one person forever (in Greek monogenes). So He knew in eternity past what His life would be like, and what His death would be like, and there wasn’t one bit of hesitation on His part for doing the job He was sent here by His Father to do…the job of saving you.
So sacrifice is the theme of the Cross. First Peter, Chapter 2, Verse 24…
1PE 2:24 …the Lord Jesus Christ Himself bore our sins in His own body (in His true humanity as Jesus Christ) on the Cross, so that we believers in Christ might die to (the sovereignty of) sin and so that we might live to (the gift of) righteousness (the ZOE life); for by His wounds you were healed.
What kind of sacrifice? Voluntary Sacrifice. Philippians, Chapter 2, Verses 5 to 11…
PHI 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves that was also in the Christ, Jesus…
PHI 2:6 …who, although He existed in the same form as God the Father (the same in essence, that is…Deity), did not regard equality with God the Father as a thing to be grasped and held…
PHI 2:7 …but emptied Himself (in submission to God the Father), taking the form of a bond-servant, and allowing Himself to be made in the likeness of men.
PHI 2:8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient voluntarily to the point of death, even death on a Cross.
PHI 2:9 For this reason also, God the Father highly exalted the Christ, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name…
PHI 2:10 …so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and of those who are on earth and of those who are under the earth…
PHI 2:11 …and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The bible tells another story about Christ, a completely different one than the world portrays. Even when He was on the Cross, the world misinterpreted His Words…Matthew, Chapter 27, Verse 46…
MAT 27:46 About the ninth hour (3:00PM) Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” … that is … “My God (the Father), My God (the Father), why have You forsaken Me?”
What did Jesus mean when he said, “Father, why have You forsaken Me?” If you look up the word “forsake” in the dictionary, it means…
FORSAKE To desert…to abandon…
If you look at every version of every bible ever published…you see varying accounts on what the Greek word ENG-KATA-LEIPO means. Here are some of the translations…
Forsaken… ENGKATALEIPO
Why have you… Turned Away From Me
Left Me Helpless and Hopeless In a Time of Need Abandoned Me Rejected Me
Forsaken… ENGKATALEIPO
Why have you…
Left Me Behind in This Place (in a bad sense)
Deserted Me
Left Me Alone
Does that sound anything like what God the Father would do to the Son He sent to a Cross to die for the sins of all mankind? Does that sound like the thing a Father with unconditional love would do to His Son? Hardly. So we need to go a bit deeper to investigate what Jesus meant…and I really don’t think you have to go too deep. The timing of the Lord’s comment about being forsaken was interesting in Mark, Chapter 15, Verse 34…
MAR 15:34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
The Lord made the comment AFTER He had paid for the sins of every creature. As Christians, I think we accept, much too readily, the kingdom of death’s explanation for what Christ did at the Cross. I’ll bet every one of us could spout it off, on key, what He did there…“Jesus died for my sins.” The kingdom of death has adeptly distracted our focus to this issue only, and we contentedly rest there. Now don’t get me wrong, Jesus did “die for our sins” at the Cross… First Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verse 3 says so…
1CO 15:3 For I (Paul) delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures…
But he did so much more than just die for our sins…let’s look at the timing of the Lord’s comment…Mark, Chapter 15, Verses 33 and 34…
MAR 15:33 When the sixth hour came (12:00PM…noon), darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Similar to our death shadowed valley…a brief period of darkness before the light of being face-to-face with the Lord… MAR 15: 34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
At the end of His three hours of suffering, Jesus cries out…and the statement He makes almost seems like he’s blaming God the Father for His fate. Does that sound like a Son who has voluntarily gone to the Cross…a Son who is a Supreme Being and the Sovereign Creator of the Universe? Hardly!
I have come to believe that it IS blame. It’s the same statement unbelievers will mutter to themselves over and over and over again in the Lake of Fire. “God, why did you do this to me?”
But why did the Lord Jesus Christ say it? He’s not an unbeliever. He said it, because for three hours, as He hung from that Cross, under a darkened sky, the Lord Jesus Christ hung alone, as God the Father poured out His wrath on the Lord’s true humanity (his 100% human part) … wrath against the sins of all creatures. God the Father poured out on Jesus the wrath that should have been directed at each of you for your own sins. Instead, it was directed at Christ as your substitute. Jesus Christ, alone, in His true humanity, bore the wrath of God the Father against the sins of the whole world, especially yours.
While that wrath was being poured out, while it was “abiding on Him,” Jesus took it. He was experiencing, for those three hours, the exact same things unbelievers will experience for all eternity…the wrath of God abiding on them. John, Chapter 3, Verse 36…
JOH 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life (the ZOE life); but he who does not obey the (command to believe in the) Son will not see (the Zoe) life, but instead the wrath of God the Father abides on him.”
And he exited that three hours with the sentiment unbelievers will have in the Lake of Fire…they will be asking why…why…why…God why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me? Why have you left me all alone? Why have you rejected me? Why are you leaving me helpless in my time of need? Why have you turned away from me? But they will know the answer…God the Father’s wrath is being poured out on them for all eternity because unbelievers rejected the Person and the Work of His Son…who accepted God the Father’s wrath even for them. Romans, Chapter 5, Verse 8…
ROM 5:8 But God the Father demonstrates His own unconditional love toward us (all mankind), in that while we were yet sinners (ungodly, unrighteous, unbelievers), Christ died for us.
Before we got to break, let’s listen to a song by Prince…it inspired the title of todays’ first lesson…Do You Love Enough to Die? Jesus did.
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
I’m not your woman I’m not your man I am something that you’ll never understand…
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
I’ll never beat u I’ll never lie And if you’re evil I’ll forgive u by and by
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
U - I would die 4 u, yeah Darling if u want me 2 U - I would die 4 u
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
I’m not your lover I’m not your friend I am something that you’ll never comprehend
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
No need 2 worry No need 2 cry I’m your Messiah and you’re the reason why
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
‘Cuz U - I would die 4 u, yeah Darling if u want me 2 U - I would die 4 u
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
You’re just a sinner I am told Be your fire when you’re cold Make u happy when you’re sad Make u good when u are bad
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
I’m not a human I am a dove I’m your conscious I am love All I really need is 2 know that U believe
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
Yeah, I would die 4 u, yeah Darling if u want me 2 U - I would die 4 u
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
Yeah, say one more time
U - I would die 4 u Darling if u want me 2 U - I would die 4 u 2 3 4 U
“I WOULD DIE 4 U” by Prince
I would die 4 u I would die 4 u U - I would die 4 u U - I would die 4 u
Take a five-minute break…
BREAK Lord I Lift Your Name On High
TODAY’S STUDY Do You Love Enough to Die?
Welcome back! How much does God the Father love you?
JOH 3:16 “For God the Father loved the world unconditionally, and SO much, that He gave His uniquely born Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (100% God and 100% man in one person forever) that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
God the Father was willing to do the same thing Abraham was willing to do…yet the Father went through with it to save us. Our Jewish friends must know that this Lord Jesus Christ whom we are talking about is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…let’s look into the Torah, at Genesis, Chapter 22, Verses 1 to 19…
GEN 22:1 Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham said, “Here I am.”
GEN 22:2 God said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
GEN 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
GEN 22:4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.
GEN 22:5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”
GEN 22:6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
GEN 22:7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And Abraham said, “Here I am, my son.” And Isaac said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
GEN 22:8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
GEN 22:9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
GEN 22:10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
GEN 22:11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And Abraham said, “Here I am.”
GEN 22:12 The angel said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you respect God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
GEN 22:13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.
GEN 22:14 Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
GEN 22:15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven…
GEN 22:16 …and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son…”
GEN 22:17 “…indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.”
GEN 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
GEN 22:19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived at Beersheba.
Everything in the Old Testament pointed forward to “the lamb without spot or blemish” who would take away the sins of the world…but there can be no denying by our Jewish brethren that this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state as Yeshua…as Adonai…as Jehovah Elohim…as God the Son…this is the one Abraham believed in after he abandoned the “moon god” of his Muslim father…again back to the Torah, Genesis, Chapter 15, Verse 6…
GEN 15:6 Then Abram believed in the Lord (Yeshua…Adonai…Jehovah Elohim…God the Son) and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.
The Jews of Abraham’s line are spiritual Jews, not just racial Jews.
The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled every single promise that the Messiah had to fulfill, and the odds of that happening were one trillion to one…the odds of the bible predicting it were even more astronomical…yet it happened. And this mere fact means God deserves a hearing from our Jewish brethren, a hearing that is louder than the “white noise” of traditions.
Old Testament Scriptures all point ahead to the Cross…in Psalm 22, Verses 14 to 18…the Lord speaks from the Cross…
PSA 22:14-15 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay me in the dust of death.
PSA 22:16-18 For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
A prediction that came true…do you love enough to die like this?
The prophet Isaiah described the Lord…Chapter 53, Verses 3 to 7…
ISA 53:3 He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was despised and forsaken of men, (He was) a man of sorrows and (He was) acquainted with grief (suffering); and like one from whom men hide their face (like the elephant man, for example) He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
ISA 53:4 Surely our griefs (the suffering we deserved) He Himself bore (in His own body), and our sorrows (our consequences) He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken (we [Israel] thought He got what He deserved for His “blasphemy” … we thought He was), smitten of God, and afflicted.
ISA 53:5 But He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was pierced through for our transgressions (our rebellion against God), He was crushed (punished by His own Father) for our iniquities (personal sins); the chastening for (the purpose of) our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed (we have the chance to be redeemed).
ISA 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray (there is none righteous), each of us has turned to his own way (not even one righteous); but the Lord (God the Father) has caused the iniquity of us ALL to fall on Him (the Lord Jesus Christ).
ISA 53:7 He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth (to defend Himself); like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers (even to his own destruction), so He did not open His mouth (He did not stop it).
Do you love enough to die like this? Finally, here is Peter’s reflection about Christ on the day of Pentecost, forty days after the Lord’s resurrection, the day when the Holy Spirit of God was given…a reflection from a man who betrayed His best friend, yet came to see the light…Acts, Chapter 2, beginning at Verse 22…Peter reflects on His friend and the hope He inspires…
ACT 2:22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God (the Father) with miracles and wonders and signs which God (the Father) performed through Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) in your midst, just as you yourselves know —”
ACT 2:23 “…this (God)-Man (the Lord Jesus Christ), delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God (the Father), you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men (unbelievers) and put Him to death.”
ACT 2:24 “But God (the Father) raised Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for (the Lord Jesus Christ) to be held in (death’s) power.”
Do you love enough to die like this?
And after “being forsaken” the Lord makes it clear that He never lost sight of His Sonship at the Cross…Luke, Chapter 23, Verse 46…
LUK 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Do you love enough to die like this?
It’s pretty hard not to be moved by the love that God has for us, especially when we realize that love is directed to each of us personally. I appreciate it that the Lord found me worthy enough to die for, and that if it had been only me who needed saving, He still would have gone to the Cross. That’s love. That’s my God. My Lord. My Savior. Jesus Christ.
The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ are Guarantees!
1PE 5:8-9 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren (other believers) who are in the world.
1PE 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
1PE 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
CLOSING SONG When I Say I Love You
CLOSING PRAYER Let us pray...
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your glorious Person, Your lucid thinking, Your impeccable work, and Your magnificent essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming! Thanks for watching! Thanks for listening!
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