Punished for Me, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. You see, when you go through pain, you got two choices. Choice number one is you can conclude that your pain means that Jesus really is not who he says he is and that he lacks the power to save you. The second option you have is you look at the cross and you say, wow, he really does love me. He really does care. Look, he's dying for me. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch, and we're so glad that you're back with us today. You know, sometimes I find it helpful to place myself into the stories of the Bible to see how I might have seen them in the moment. Well, have you ever thought about how you might have responded if you had been present during Jesus's crucifixion? I know that's a hard one to maybe start with, but there are four different characters and responses that Pastor J.D. is going to walk us through in order to give us pictures of how we might have responded then and how we can still respond to Jesus today.

Are you up for it? As always, if you miss any of our programs or if you're in search of our featured monthly resource, you can find it all online at jdgreer.com. Now let's rejoin Pastor J.D. as he teaches from Matthew, Chapter 27. What Jesus said from the cross as he died was the opposite of what every other religious leader has given as their final message. Buddha, for example, the Buddha, the Buddha's last words were strive without ceasing. Jesus's last words were the exact opposite of that. It wasn't strive without ceasing.

It was I have done all the striving for you and now it is finished. And you will be saved not because you strive hard enough but because I have finished it for you. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes. Believes means you understand that he is the payment for your sin, that it was done in your place, and you rest in it. And when you claim that as yours, all the victory of Christ, all the striving of Christ, all the things that Christ did for you, they become yours when you believe and you will not perish but you will in that moment have eternal life not because of what you do but because of what Jesus has done. Salvation is the free gift to all who simply put their trust in Jesus.

The gospel we say is in four words. Jesus in my place. Jesus did not merely die for me. Jesus died instead of me. He took my place and was abandoned, beaten, killed, and condemned in my place.

That's what happened. Like I mentioned, not everybody, not everybody there saw this happen, saw this in the same way. And so what Matthew does is he puts at least four different characters there in this story to give you ways that people respond to the cross.

And I want you to see yourselves represented in different ones of these. Number one, around the cross we see the suffering criminals who rage against God. Verse 38 tells us about two criminals that were crucified there beside Jesus, one on the right and one on the left. And it tells us that they were yelling insults at him and shaking their heads and saying you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Save yourself if you are really the son of God. Then come down from the cross. Now according to Luke, one of these criminals as the crucifixion went on would eventually have a change of heart. But what Matthew shows us is that here at the beginning these criminals are both raging against Jesus and calling him a fraud and a phony because he won't save himself or them. I want you to understand that these criminals, listen, represent people who in pain curse God for not delivering them from that pain and say to God things like if you really are who you say you are then you would make this pain stop. Think about it. If you were dying like these men in agony, why would you hoist yourself up through all that pain and use that breath just to hurl an insult at the man who is dying beside you?

I'll tell you why. Because when you're in pain, nothing makes you angrier than the idea of a God who could relieve that pain but doesn't. I want you to see in these two men every single one of us who has raged against God in a moment of pain and said God if you are who you say you are why don't you fix this issue? Maybe you're not really God after all.

Maybe you don't even exist. Now like I said eventually one of those criminals came around and what he said was so important because it shows you what real repentance looks like. What he said, Luke tells us this, he looked at the other criminal and he said the suffering that we're undergoing we deserve. This man does not deserve what is happening to him.

He is dying for us. This is a confession of every person who finds repentance and faith. They basically come to a place where they acknowledge I deserve my suffering but Jesus didn't. Now in saying that please hear me I do not mean that you conclude that every single moment of you pain that you've been through was in direct response to something that you've done because that's not true. What I mean is that you confess that ultimately you and I live in a world that is filled with pain and suffering because we live in a world that is condemned because of our sin and that you and I because of our sin we deserve the judgment of God and we deserve to go to hell and so yes even the pain and suffering that we live with in the world is part of that judgment and that is a judgment that ultimately we deserve and then we acknowledge that the only one in history who actually deserved to feel no pain Jesus because he'd never sinned voluntarily chose to enter it for us for no other reason than that he cared for us and wanted to save us.

That's what repentance looks like. You see when you go through pain you got two choices. Choice number one is you can conclude that your pain means that Jesus really is not who he says he is and that he lacks the power to save you. The second option you have is you look at the cross and you say wow he really does love me. He really does care.

Look he's dying for me. You see Michael Green the Christian philosopher from Cambridge over in Great Britain says whether you believe in him or not the God of the gospel is the only God that doesn't simply offer platitudes or perspective about pain. The God of the gospel is the only God that doesn't merely say to us here's an explanation for your pain.

The God of the gospel is the only God that came down and shared in the forsakenness voluntarily that we feel in a universe gone wrong. He is the only God that did that and see what that means is that when I look at him and I believe in him I may not understand. I may not understand everything that is happening in my pain. I may not know what God is doing but I know what my pain in light of the cross when I see Jesus there I know what my pain cannot mean. My pain cannot mean that God has either forsaken me or that God lacks power to deliver me. The cross shows me that my pain cannot mean that God of all things has demonstrated his love to me and I can trust him even when I don't understand and even when he's not delivering me from the cross that I'm buried at that moment because he bore my ultimate cross so that he could save me eternally. So we see criminals that rage against God. Number two we see creation itself that quakes under the weight of glory displayed.

Verse 45 from noon until three in the afternoon darkness comes over the whole land. Verse 51 tells us this is accompanied by an earthquake. It is as if creation itself has to respond. I mean think about the image of an earthquake something quakes when it encounters a force that it cannot withstand.

I mean think of it like if I were walking across a pond iced over pond and the layer of ice was really thin and it couldn't support the weight of my body at some point that ice would begin to quake and then it would crack and I would crack and I would fall through. It is as if creation itself cannot withstand the weight of glory that is being displayed on its surface and so it's like the sun itself and Matthew's telling has to turn away and the earth itself cannot withstand it it has to respond. I point this out to show you what Matthew is saying basically is this the cross demands some kind of response from you.

You simply cannot look at these things and pass on by. You have to ask yourself was this true? Is it true? Listen if you're not a believer this is not a historical curiosity. If this is true it means that the God who created everything the God who created you came down and bore the penalty of your sin and your place so that he could save you forever.

That is beyond a historical curiosity if that's true it changes everything and you got to decide if it's true or not it deserves more than just a passing on by. You either quake in front of it or you ignore it as the worst lie of history. Believer do you understand it demands a response from you? Do you understand how insulting it is to God for us to sit in a place and hear about these things unmoved by them or maybe to sing about them while barely moving our lips hands in our pockets holding the coffee cup with expressionless faces. These things demand a response not even creation can withstand the weight of glory being displayed and and when Jesus said if they were silent the rocks would have cried out. That's what the rocks are doing they're crying out to this and Matthew saying it demands something from you.

It demands some kind of response where we say God this is what you've done we're the whole realm of nature mind. That would be a present far too small oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise the glories of my God and king the triumphs of his grace. I don't have a thousand tongues so I'm just gonna make this one sing like it's a thousand people and I'm gonna sing that loudly because that's the kind of glory that he displayed and this is the kind of response that he deserves. I love this one right here by the way next verse for 52 the tombs were also open many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and they came out of the tombs after his resurrection and entered the holy city and appeared to many.

Honestly I'm not totally sure what to do with that verse I really am not. I don't know what that was like but what it tells me is that Jesus death was so amazing that it was like some of the dead couldn't even contain themselves. Some of the dead believers just leapt out of the graves and they had to run around leaping and praising and telling people and what Matthew is doing is he's saying you who have been raised from the dead by Jesus Christ can you hold yourself back from leaping and praising God in worship and don't you have to run around town just telling somebody?

If that's what the dead happened then we who are spiritually raised from the dead that's how we ought to be. You're listening to Summit Life with JD Greer and a message titled Punished for Me. We'll be right back with the conclusion of today's message in just a moment but first did you know that you can find Pastor JD on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter? Social media is a great place to receive daily encouragement as well as an easy way to share Jesus with those that you care about. Let's flood our feeds with the life-changing message of the gospel.

Just search for us on all platforms and give us a follow but for now let's get back to our teaching. Here's Pastor JD. Number three we see the outsiders. We see the outsiders in this story who recognize that he's doing this for them. In verse 46 when Jesus calls out, Eli Eli lema sabachthani, says that a lot of the people were standing around a lot of the Jewish leaders looked at each other and said he's calling for Elijah.

Eli is short you know it's like the nickname for Elijah. The point is they're totally clueless. They have no idea he's even quoting scripture. They have no idea he's talking about being abandoned by God.

They think he's just calling out in the prophet's name. Watch this verse 54 but when the centurion and those with him when they saw the earthquake and they saw the things that had happened they were terrified and they said truly this man was the son of God. Many women next verse who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him were there watching from a distance. Where were the disciples?

They were a long way away. They weren't even there at least at the beginning. Why is it that the only people around the cross who get what is happening are those whom the Jews considered to be outsiders? Second-rate gentile soldiers no less and women. The disciples don't get it. Chief priests they're the one of the religious and moral leaders. They don't get it. Here you've got the Roman soldiers. They spit out the first line of the Nicene Creed and the women refused to leave. Why them?

I'll tell you why listen to this. Because the gospel can only be seen from a posture of humility and the weakened those who recognize their need of Jesus the guilty the ashamed the despised the discriminated against they're more likely to perceive him and lean into his grace than the proud will be because they never feel any need at all. When my oldest daughter was about three years old I always noticed that she'd not be walking outside I'd be holding her hand and she would always point out to me dad a plane a plane and she knew I loved planes so she'd always point them out but I was like how does she always see the planes and I never do does she like have like really good hearing and she can just hear it way up there and she looks forward and then one day I was like no duh I know why she sees it it's because she's always looking up at three years old the whole world is up to her and because she's always looking up then she's able to see that thing which is high above both of us but me I'm always looking down right and because I'm always looking down I never perceive what's there above us C.S. Lewis not using that analogy but something similar C.S. Lewis said I'm always looking down that's why the humble always see Jesus and the proud never do because the humble are in a place where they know that they need help and so they're naturally in a place where they perceive the grace of God but the proud the rich those who feel no need they're always looking down and so they miss the God whose grace they desperately need which is why Jesus said listen to this it is easier for the camel to go to the eye of the needle than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven and that means rich in money it means rich in power it also means rich in religiousness I am talking to a group of people many of whom have been raised in church you are among the most religious people on the planet I'm also talking to a group of Americans you are in the richest most powerful nation on the planet I am talking to people in that very nation that are among the richest of the people of that nation it means that it is easier for the camel to go through the eye of the needle than it is for you to go to heaven which means that you ought to be very very careful just because you have ascended mentally to the doctrines of Jesus does not mean that your soul has ever come to a place where you realized how desperately you needed the grace of God simply confessing Jesus is Lord is not what the Bible is talking about when it means confessing it with your heart it means you are at a place where you recognize I have nothing and I need Jesus and I give him all of my life because what am I without him he is my hope my righteousness my everything right be warned be careful one more number four Simon of Cyrene who helps Jesus carry the cross let me end our reflection time here by returning to Simon the man forced to carry Jesus cross and we know this should have been a terrible event to have had to watch but you know if you had to be there and you had to play one role isn't this the role that you want to play I mean wouldn't it just to think that Jesus in his hour of weakness his hour of need that somehow you could do something that would lighten the load somehow you could do something that would help him you see I think Matthew puts this picture in there because he wanted to give the early church a picture Jesus's followers of what they had a chance to do to give them an invitation where they could willingly pick up Jesus's cross and help him continue to carry it you see it is true in one sense that Jesus's work is finished it is finished there's nothing I can do nothing I need to do that adds to the payment Jesus made for the world's salvation but in another sense it is not finished because it's like Martin Luther said it wouldn't matter if Jesus had gone through this a thousand times if nobody ever heard about it because the only way it brings benefit to them is that they hear about it they can only believe on the one they've heard about and they can't hear unless we preach it to them and we can't preach it to them unless we embrace the sacrifices that are necessary to get the gospel to them and the early church was receiving an invitation of oh you wanted to be there you wanted to take up the cross well now you got a chance because people around the world still haven't heard and it's going to cost you dearly to get the gospel to them but if you want to pick up his cross then here it is you can pick it up and take Jesus to the people that he died for and what that means is that you begin to carry the cross when you choose to leave a place that you're comfortable with like here and you go live overseas among a group of people that have never heard the name of Jesus so that they can hear about him from you we got a hundred two hundred and some members of our church that have done that by the way that have left this place not because by the way they don't like America and not because they got a travel itch and not because they really want to live seven thousand miles away from their parents they've gone to live overseas in places because people there need to hear about Jesus and they're doing it for him because they know that his death the work of his death is not complete until people hear and believe and so yes it is a sacrifice and yes it is costly but they would tell you it's worth it it is worth it because how can they hear how can his work be complete unless I go and I share the gospel with him you want to know why you choose to go into a ministry and stay into a ministry it's not because it makes you feel happy and makes you feel like oh I feel like this is what I'm created for it's because without that they can't hear and believe and it's picking up a rough hewn cross that tears your back as you carry it but you gladly do it out of love for the one who gave his life for you you embrace that cross when you embrace the awkwardness of talking to somebody about Jesus people when I people are you know they talk to me they they oh I never get to tell anybody about Jesus how these things happen to you like people just I'm walking down the street people just fall on my knees and say what must I do to be saved that never happens to me in fact it only happened one time in the bible what must I do to be saved it was after Paul had been beaten with stripes and then you know put in prison overnight and there was an earthquake which to me doesn't sound awesome either the point is people just don't ask the question without our personal investment and embracing the cross means that you embrace the awkwardness of saying hey this is really important to me and it's important to you and I know it's going to create a weird tension here but you've got to know this that's what it means to embrace this cross that's the invitation that's given to you that is the invitation that is given to you to pick up this cross and carry it maybe it's when you extend forgiveness to somebody that you feel like I don't know how I'm going to forgive them but you do it you do it because you want them to be able to taste the grace that you've received my family and I saw the movie I can only imagine the story of the behind the song it's I think the most popular song in terms of cells in Christian history Bart Miller there's a little section in the movie where it's like one of these live scenes for him at the national prayer breakfast and he's standing in front of the president members of congress a few years ago and he explains the story behind the song and he said I wrote this song after my dad died he said my dad was abusive to the point that he literally drove me out of the house he was an alcoholic he said toward the last years of his life he came to faith in Jesus Christ and totally transformed him he said but I couldn't forgive him he damaged me too much he said but the last six or so months of his life he said I saw the power of Jesus turn an abusive man into the father that I'd always longed for and then he said I I also experienced the power of Jesus through his death give me the ability to forgive my dad the way that God had forgiven me and he said the reason I sing about these things the reason that I stand in front of you right now is because I've seen the power of Jesus who can change an abusive father I've seen the power of Jesus that can transform a bitter bitter heart I've seen him transform me and I know that it's true and I know that it can transform you as well you see Jesus unleashed a power through this that was more powerful than all the armies in the universe amassed together the question is have you picked up that cross and begun to carry it so that others can experience it which brings me back finally to where I started this message are you ready to be baptized you say well that I don't understand how that connects well the first identification that you make with Christ's cross happens through baptism that's what Paul said Romans 6 3 therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death you your first act of obedience as a disciple is to identify with the cross the way that Simon did where you stand up essentially in front of everybody and you say I'm not ashamed that cross for me and I'll gladly pick it up I will gladly pick it up this is my identification with Jesus have you ever done that the time for excuses for you or it's over the time for obedience is at hand it's like I told you baptism is supposed to be your first act of obedience your profession that you're going all in with Jesus how could you possibly say you understood the magnitude of the cross or feel any appreciation for it if you have not followed Jesus's first and clearest act of obedience as you say why I got baptized as an infant you were talking about me at the beginning listen I want you to hear this with respect it really did I mean this is I realize it's not the most important thing in Christianity but just hear me say this as a baby were you publicly identifying with the death of Jesus is that the choice you were making were you putting your own faith on display for other people I mean the New Testament it's always a display of your own faith Paul I am I mean buried with him by baptism I'm confessing my union with Christ by baptism were you doing that when you were a baby I don't think you probably had much saying I think somebody was doing it to you and listen thank God for that thank God that your parents were doing this with a desire that one day you grew up and followed Jesus and now you have and I'm just telling you it's time to ratify that decision you're listening to pastor JD Greer on Summit Life if you joined us late you can always catch up by visiting us at jdgreer.com as we approach Easter this week and celebrate Jesus's resurrection we have a new book of 10 devotionals to help you refocus on the gospel and several important teachings of Jesus JD in our newest resource you begin with a parable that's actually about parables yeah the story about the sower who threw out the seed is a parable on parables it's a picture of how you and I and other people encounter the word of God the word of God always bears fruit and listen if you've seen fruit in your own life you need to thank God for that and ask him for more but here's the thing you got to drive the word deep into your heart because the weeds of temptation and the the sun of persecution or difficult circumstances and then even our enemy the devil is is coming to try to get rid of the seed and so you've got to you got to drive that word deep into your heart our newest resource is going to help you do that it is 10 devotionals that take you beyond just the hearing and take you into diving into the bible we would love to give you a copy of this if you'll just reach out to us today go to jdgreer.com and reach out to us and and we can get you a copy of this and i think you'll i think you'll find it to help we think this study will be perfect to help you create consistency in your walk with God and we'd love to get you a copy today we'll send it as our way of saying thanks when you donate 35 or more to support this ministry summit life is entirely funded by listeners like you so your giving really does make a difference it's easy to donate when you give us a call at 866-335-5220 that number again is 866-335-5220 or you can give online at jdgreer.com i'm molly vinovich inviting you to join us again thursday on summit life with jdgreer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries