Monthly Archives: April 2012

IT IS FINISHED!!!

God Loves You, Spiritual Food

John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

On Friday we remembered the night that Jesus was unjustly arrested, disrespectfully slapped, viciously beaten, wrongly accused, disgustingly spit on, illegally convicted, and hung on a Cross and left to die like a criminal.  Yet with all of that being done to Him, there was only one thing on His mind at the time.  Finishing His assignment, completing the work that He was sent to do; publically displaying the LOVE that He had for each of us (we were on His mind; you, me & everyone).  But on that night, what exactly did Jesus finish?

1.  Life under the LAW: God gave the LAW to Moses on Mt. Sinai, this LAW was a covenant that God made with the Children of Israel.  The LAW was a set of rules that all had to completely uphold in order to be in right standing with God.  If for any reason any one of these rules were broken, then it was as if all of them were broken and only a sacrifice could be made in order restore one’s standing with the most Holy God.  God had put in place a standard where man would be judged by his own righteousness, a righteousness the bible reminds us in Isaiah “(Isa 64:6) but we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”  How could this be fair, there was no way for anyone to keep this LAW, why would God make such a covenant?
We need God, and the best possible way to see our need, is to measure ourselves to this unbelievably high standard, a standard nobody but God could attain.  Jesus came to fulfill this LAW, so that we could stop trying to work for His attention and start trusting in Him as our true & loving Savior.  When Jesus yelled It is finished on Calvary’s Cross, He let us know that the LAW was no longer.  He had become our High Priest and when we accept Him as Lord “(Heb 8:6)…He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”  This New Covenant, well let me just let God tell you Himself “(Heb 8:10) For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”  The LAW, It is finished.

2.  Judgment for Sin:  Judgment is used 254 times in the bible (NKJV), God’s Judgment is simply put, God’s punishment for sin.  The bible shows us that God’s punishment for sin was shown numerous times, when Adam and Eve banished from the Garden; Able was sent away as a vagabond; the great flood came in Noah’s Day; 3000 died the day the LAW was given; the Children of Israel (including Moses) were not able to see the promised land; David’s son to an adulterous affair died; Israel was overtaken by the Babylonians and even the book of Romans tells us “(Rom 6:23) For the wages of sin is death.”  Yet, Jesus not only fulfilled the LAW but He also received every one of our sins on that dark day.  As if it were not bad enough, all of the beatings and ill treatment he received before crucifixion, while on the Cross all our sins, sicknesses and diseases were placed on him, “(Isa 53:6)…And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  Jesus knew that He was coming to the earth to die and be judged for our sin, yet he did it anyway.  His love for us and for His Father is amazing and was on display “Phil 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
Jesus yelled out Tetelestai, the Greek term for It is finished, the tem meant that a debt has been fully paid.  It signified that whatever someone once owed had at that very moment just been completely paid for.  God’s judgment for all of our past, present and future sins had come, He lashed it out on His only begotten Son, and even after all that Jesus was alive (He’s a powerful and awesome Savior) to let us all know that everything we would ever owe (be required to pay) was indeed PAID IN FUL!!!.  Judgment for Sin, It is finished.

3.  Condemnation:  Jesus told Nicodemus of his purpose for coming into the world, “John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  His purpose was to save us and not condemn us.  Paul also tells us this awesome truth for believers “Rom 8:1 there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Condemnation is the Greek word “Krima” meaning judgment or damnation; essentially it means declaring an evil doer guilty.  Satan uses condemnation trick believers into thinking that God disapproves, blames or is angry with us because we have sinned.  We have often felt so guilty that we give up on living for Christ and choose to live sinful lifestyles.  Even worse we begin to hide condemnation so deep in our hearts that the guilt impacts our health, we begin to see sickness in our bodies, depression in our minds and pain in our hearts.  All Lies!!!
God is just and Jesus received all of God’s judgment for our sin on the Cross, everything past, present and future sin.  If we were still being judged for our sin today, then it would mean a.) God would be unjust (can’t happen), b.) Jesus’ sacrifice was not good enough (not possible), c.) We are just so bad that God is not smart enough to figure out how to cover our sin (really??).  God’s word is true, it will always be accurate, and will accomplish everything is has set out to do.  God’s salvation plan in Jesus Christ, was more than enough to cover all our sins and allow us to be loved and adored by God forever; “(Jude 24) Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 25 To God our Savior, Who alone is wise,Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever.  Amen.”  All Condemnation, It is finished.

Seeing Like Never Before

Spiritual Food

Mark 10:46-52  Now they came to Jericho. As He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great multitude, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the road begging.47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”  48 Then many warned him to be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called.  Then they called the blind man, saying to him, “Be of good cheer. Rise, He is calling you.” 50 And throwing aside his garment, he rose and came to Jesus.  51 So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?”  The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.”  52 Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road.

This is a very familiar text with so much meat; Jesus heals a blind man, proving that the blind can see.  A beggar named Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was passing by and believed that Jesus could help him see.  This story is multifaceted because it speaks to both non-believers as well as believers, but what is it saying?

For the Non-Believer:  Bartimaeus represents the man/woman that does not yet know Jesus and remains in sin.  He comes to a point in life where he realizes that life as he knows it is not how he wants to live.  Many are living life without Jesus Christ as their Savior and are far from satisfied in life.  They will prayerfully come to the same realization that Bartimaeus did, Jesus can bring light to the darkest of situations.  If you have not accepted the Loving Savior, who died on Calvary’s Cross so that all of your sins could be forgiven, Jesus is your salvation.  He did everything so that all you have to do is believe in His sacrifice for you.

For the Believer:  Bartimaeus was the son of Timaeus, which means “highly prized.”  He was therefore a son of significance, yet still could not see.  There are times in our Christian journey, where we as sons/daughters of the “King of Glory” cannot see Jesus as He is.  Jesus is so much to behold that we will never be able to comprehend Him fully, at least not until He comes back to get us.  Blindness is hindrance to sight and when our sight is hindered, we are unable to fully grasp the truth found in 1 John 4:17, “as He (Jesus) is, so are we (every believer) in this world.”  When we are unable to SEE who Jesus really is, we limit our ability to have a fulfilled life here on earth.  Bartimaeus needed more, his life was limited not just because of his blindness, but because he had not seen all that Jesus had to offer.  How we view Jesus will determine how we view ourselves and how well we live our lives every day.

We recently took the kids down to Disneyland; you know the happiest place on earth.  While there, we had a ball and one of our favorite things to do was to go to their 3-D theater shows.  The interesting thing about these shows is that Disney had to provide us special eye-wear in order for us to fully enjoy the show.  Had we watched the show with our own eyes, we would not be able to see the show the way the producer designed it.  Our vision would be blurry and unable to clearly make out what was on the screen, things would not appear to us as they really were.  Bartimaeus was given his sight, but also allowed to see the most beautiful sight ever known to man, JESUS.  The very first thing Bartimaeus saw when his eyes were opened was the “Alpha & Omega,” he received so much more than just healing.  Jesus always wants to show us more of him, and like Bartimaeus we will not only receive what we ask for but our eyes are opened to see Jesus clearly.  We see His Love, His Power, His Mercy, His Wisdom, His Favor, His Friendship, His Protection, His Omnipresence/Omniscience/Omnipotence, and our Savior.   Enjoy seeing Jesus like never before.