Come And See What God Has Done

For the rest of us, if you look around yourself, you're going to see these little white 4x6 cards um that are prayer cards. What we would love to do is have you throughout the service, grab one of those, put your name on it, fill out your information. Um but the main thing is not because we want to fill your inbox with spam or anything like that, but it's because we want to pray for you. Um, if there's anything that you want to have us pray for, you want to talk about, you want to follow up on in the message that that you'll hear in just a moment, um, we would love to have you fill those out. And then in the back there's a black table. You can drop it in that box, um, at the end of the service.

We would love to be able to have an opportunity to pray for you and do that. For this morning, it's Easter. It's Easter. One of the hardest things about Easter is it's a familiar passage or it's a familiar Sunday that pastors try to make fresh, try to make it new in a way. And um I'm not going to do that today. I'm just going to give you the message as it is because there's power in the gospel.

There's power in the good news of Jesus and what he has done for us. But I do want to start off with a couple of stories. Someone somewhere in 1969 associated with the US Army Corpse of Engineers had the mundane task of sifting through now mind you this is before internet okay they had to sift through weather records in Frankfurt Kentucky from the 1800s to to literally 1969. All right. So over 150 years of sifting through records to see whether or not there were any high floods. And because they took their role seriously, they took their responsibility seriously.

They found one high flood in 1937 where the river crested at 48 ft. And because they took their role serious, they went to the government and they said, "We need you to build a levy that's 51 ft high in Frankfurt, Kentucky." Now again, mind you, this river usually that that flows through there is only flowing at around 10 to 15 ft high and with crests at about 16 ft. Rarely ever does it get above that. So the audacity of this one individual to be able to go to the government and say you need to build a levy that is 51 ft high. I mean it would make anybody look at this person and think they're absolutely out of their mind and insane.

But they took it seriously and they made sure that they built a levey at 51 ft high. Two weeks ago, the rains that came through, I mean, we saw them in Indiana. Everyone saw them everywhere. They came through in Frankfurt, Kentucky. Again, this river that usually flows only 10 to 12 feet with flood range at 24 feet, crested over 48 feet. So, literally a flood river on top of a flood river, but it came shy 2 feet 9 in of breaking the 51 ft levy, saving more than 3,000 people in downtown Frankfurt, Kentucky, and over 100 historic buildings.

Why? Because over 60 years ago, someone took seriously their role and with the audacity asked them to build a levy three feet higher than anything they had ever seen before. Now, risking your reputation for the greater good of others is one thing, but what about risking maybe your kingdom? Let's go back about a thousand years. 980 AD, there was a king named Vladimir who was the ruler of the Keieven Roose, which was a medieval federation of Slavic, Norse, and Finick people. And this was not the kind of ruler that you would want.

This was a pagan ruler who believed in Slavic pagan tradition which meant the way that he ruled the kingdom was building temples to pagan gods. Uh creating opportunities for human sacrifices in these temples and then he would basically rule with an iron fist. Nobody liked him. I mean he was he was a terror but that was the way in which he wanted to rule the people. But then something happened. something changed where his grandmother, Princess Olga, met Jesus.

Someone shared the gospel with her. She met Jesus and she went to Vladimir and she explained it to him as this grandeur, this heavenly experience that she's never experienced before. Taking a step of faith, Vladimir himself converted to Christianity in 988 AD. Literally going against everything that he had already established. So the the culture that the people were following, the the temples that had already been built and constructed, literally his entire kingdom was built on Slavic pagan tradition. And he said no more.

And what he did was every pagan temple that he built, he literally ordered for all of them to be destroyed and instead have churches built on top of them. He gave up his um his own personal um practice of polygamy. He embraced Christian virtue. He became known for his generosity and care for the poor and his efforts literally led to the Christianization of Eastern Europe. So Eastern Europe today, if you've ever traveled there, if you walk through and you see any cathedral that was built in the last thousand years, you can say thank you to the work Jesus did in the life of Vladimir, who is the king of this pagan society, this pagan culture, this pagan kingdom. So much so has he affected Eastern Europe that he ended up getting the name Vladimir the Great.

Vladimir the Great. But more than risking your reputation to build a wall 51 ft high. More than risking your kingdom to take it in a different direction. some 2,000 years ago, born the son of a carpenter, but would later reveal himself as the son of God. Jesus Christ, the nobody from Nazareth, would change the course of the world. Nobody has had a greater impact and lasting influence than Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the chosen one of God.

The way that we've promoted Easter this year is with a slogan, come and see what God has done. Come and see what God has done. And it's my aim to show you today to bear witness so that you have an opportunity to turn from a life that if we can be honest, if it's not a life that's following and treasuring Jesus, you can be honest with yourself, your life is not fulfilling. It's not It's not measuring up to whatever it is you're chasing. It's not measuring up to the expectations that you have for yourself. It's not measuring up to the expectations other people have on you.

You're feeling a certain weight and a burden that was never meant to bear because you're trying to be your own sovereign. You're trying to be your own God. You're trying to find satisfaction that you're never going to find in this life. And that's why it is my job today to tell you come and see what God has done for you. And so the question I want to ask right out of the gate is what exactly has God done? What has he done through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus?

That's the question that I want to answer with you this morning. And I want to answer it by giving you three words that declare three profound truths in the scriptures this morning. These were the last three words that Jesus spoke when he was hanging on the cross. It was interesting in the movie last night when I went to see King of Kings with with some friends, some neighbors, with my own children and father-in-law as well. while we were watching the movie and Jesus was placed up on the cross and and he said literally to to tell us Tai it is finished and the boy next to me asked he goes what what was finished like like I think he thought it was like the end of the movie is it over I want to tell you what was finished John 19:30 when Jesus had received the sour wine while he was hanging on the cross he said it is finished he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit which again begs the question for us what was finished.

You see when I'm working a project and I finally complete it whatever it might be I always stand back and say ah finally it's finished but this was not the finished work but just the beginning of him implementing what he had actually completed in this day on this day 2 years ago as I just mentioned the word that he used because we translate it is finished but it's actually a singular word in Greek to telly Tatelsty and Toellsty actually has several meanings in the original context that are just absolutely incredible for us to understand this morning. Here's what I want you to see that Tatelistai means for you and I today and why when we say the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel is translated as good news. Good news. I want to show you why it is good news. To tell us literally means starting out of the gate that the debt has been paid in full. The debt has been fully paid.

It was literally a a term in Greek culture that was used in a business context in which ancient receipts would have written on them to telly. So whenever they were going to make a transaction as long as payment was full then they would write on there it is finished it is done it is complete to tell us what that means for you and I is that Romans 3:22-26 says there is no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. And if you're here this morning and maybe new to Christianity or new to church, you're thinking, "Okay, you've just said some words in there that I've never heard before." You know, I might kind of know what redemption is, which I mean, honestly, the first time I think I heard the term redemption is going back to iTunes when you would redeem a gift card.

But there's another word in here. The idea of propitiation is a big term that is loaded with meaning and it's how God goes about paying our debt in full. Two things you need to know about propitiation in Ephesians chapter 2. Because of our sin, we are called literally by God. We are called children of wrath. Not a good term.

That's not the one you want to hear when you come in on Easter. All right? You don't want to hear that I'm a child of wrath. I literally am am owed wrath. Like I deserve wrath. Why?

Because we were dead in our sins and transgresses. We sinned against God. And you might ask, well, what is sin? Sin is an archery term which means you missed the mark. You did not hit the bullseye. God created a standard.

He created a perfection called righteousness. And when Adam and Eve no longer believed God and they disobeyed him. They disbelieved him. They turned and did whatever they thought they wanted to do. They missed the mark. They sinned.

And because they sinned, it ushered in sin over all of the world. And everyone who's ever been born has been born considered a sinner. We missed the mark. And there's absolutely nothing we can do to fix it. There's nothing we can do to earn grace. There's nothing we can do to earn forgiveness.

There's nothing we can do to write our wrongs. That's the bad news. That's the bad news. We are by nature children of wrath. But here's what propitiation does for us. How on earth can we go from children of wrath to becoming in Romans 8 what he says we are now by grace children, sons and daughters of the father.

How do we go from children of wrath to children of grace? Well, it's propitiation. You're like, you still haven't answered what propitiation means. It is the term of appeasement whereby you simultaneously satisfy someone's wrath and also simultaneously secure their favor. That's exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. We deserve death.

Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. Your payment to God is death. And Good Friday is Good Friday because it wasn't necessarily good for Jesus, but it was good for you because Jesus went to the cross and the wrath that God was pouring out to you, like if he's your creator and you sin against him, he's not happy about it. We deserve the punishment. But the love of Jesus, the love of Jesus for you while you were still sinners, he went to the cross. And he said, "Whatever their punishment is, I will take it and place it upon myself so that they don't have to receive it to tell us die.

That payment is finished and it's paid in full." And he grants it to us. He takes our punishment on the cross. And so that God's wrath towards you is satisfied in crushing his son Jesus. And then simultaneously he grants you favor from God where no longer are we orphans without a father but he adopts us and brings us home as sons and daughters. Why does he do this?

As he continues to say in Romans 3, this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. God was patient with us. Every time you like literally when you're born and you sin, God could have just killed us right in the moment. Could have cast us into hell right in the moment. He would have remained good. He would remain holy.

He'd remain perfect. He'd remain just if he wiped us out in the moment. But in his divine forbearance, in his patience, in his sending Jesus at the right time, literally as it says, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You see, through Jesus' death on the cross, God provided the ultimate solution for your wages of sin. Jesus bore the weight of our sin, paying the debt we could never pay. I mean, just imagine someone who has fallen into overwhelming debt.

Literally, just no matter like how large it is, you can never repay it. No bankruptcy will ever fix it. You just face the constant weight of the debt always hanging over you. You're receiving the letters in the mail constantly. You owe this. This is the final notice and just that anxiety is constantly building.

That's what we are like without Jesus. Is the debt is piling up and we feel like there's no hope for us. And right at the right time, someone steps in out of sheer love and kindness and writes to tell us paid in full. [snorts] You imagine the relief you feel, the anxiety that washes away and is not because they owed anything but because they care deeply for that person in need. Redemption is a gift we cannot earn but we can humbly receive. So not only does totalist mean that the debt has been paid in full but it also is a term used in the judicial court which means the sentence has been fully paid.

Think about this. Imagine someone trapped in a prison with no way out. The walls are too high. The gates are locked. The guards are unrelenting. No matter how hard they try, there's no escape from the prison.

And you have a life sentence. And not only do you have a life sentence that you're going to serve, but it's going to end with an eternal death. Eternal death. This is how humanity was before Jesus's death and resurrection. We were imprisoned by the power of sin and death. And we are completely unable to find freedom.

But then Jesus showed up through his death on the cross to Tealistie. He entered the prison on our behalf, taking on the chains that were meant for us. And he received the sentence that we deserved. He substituted himself in our place. the penalty and the punishment he took upon himself. Scripture tells us that before they crucified him on the cross, they scorged him.

They scorged him. That's the Roman torture technique where they would take a whip made of leather with individual straps attached with tips of um tips made of bone and metal and rock so that when they took Jesus out before he was crucified and they placed them in the courtyard and they put his hands up on this wooden stake to expose his back, they would take this scorching whip and they would literally lash him 39 times because 40 literally Roman uh torture technique knew that 40 lashes would kill a man. So they would do the 40 lashes minus one. And every single time that they would whip him, that bone and that metal and that rock would embed itself into the flesh. And when they would pull it back, it would rip the flesh from him. That's the sentence we deserved.

And Jesus showed up and said to tell us that that's finished. You don't have to take it. You don't have to receive it. So yes, it's true that Jesus redeemed us by paying our debt, but the payment was also receiving the penalty and the punishment that we deserved. I want you to just listen to what he experienced from the prophet Isaiah. Almost 2800 years ago, the prophet Isaiah etched these words and gave this promise, this prophecy, which is a promise that is going to happen because God assures that it is going to take place.

Some 7 to 800 years before Jesus is even born, this is what Isaiah says. Jesus is going to endure on all of our behalfs. He was despised and rejected by men. a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.

We literally we do whatever we want. We think whatever we want. We try to live life however we want. Even if it goes against the way God has designed it to work. But the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed.

He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it cheers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. He did not stop them from torturing him. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. To crush him, he has put him to grief.

When his soul makes an offering for guilt, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sin of many, yet he makes intercession for the sinners. Guys, that's what Jesus did for us. Everything we feel in this life, that is not measuring up.

every anxiety we feel, every every hurt we feel, every pain we feel to tell us that Jesus removes it from you to take it as a sentence for himself and pays it in full. Not only is to telly mean the debt has been paid in full, not only does it also mean that the sentence has been served in full, but it is a term in a military context. A military context to Talisti, the victory has been fully won. The victory has been fully won. Listen up, church. When Jesus died on that cross and was buried in that tomb and got up out of that grave, death itself was defeated once and for all.

Death was defeated. The devil no longer has the power or authority to bound you by your sin because Jesus, the strong man, has defeated the weak one, the devil. We are set free to live in the hope and promise of eternal life in Jesus. We are victorious because Jesus in him we have received life, resurrecting life that is abundant that he wants to give to anyone. Again, Isaiah prophesied once again a prediction provided with the assurance by God that there would be a man who would come and defeat death once and for all. Why was it important for him to prophesy that there would be a man come to defeat death once and for all?

I mean, after all, if our if our debts already been paid and our sentence has been paid, why does death need to be defeated? Well, let me ask you a couple of questions this week. Have you cried? Have you felt ill? Have you experienced anxiety? Have you dealt with stress?

Does your body ache from pain? Everyone over 30 says, "Amen." Amen. Do you have to monitor what foods you eat or what foods you must steer clear from because they're going to try to kill you or your children? Have you found yourself at times paralyzed from the burden of life? Every single one of those experience are a direct correlation to the fact that death is real.

Death is real and it's coming and it's coming. Well, Isaiah gives us a promise, a person we can hope in to solve our pending death. This is what he says in Isaiah 25:8-9. He, referring to Jesus, will swallow up death forever. Isn't that amazing? Like when Jesus lives the perfect life, dies on the death on Easter Sunday, on resurrection Sunday, when he walks out of that grave, he eats death for breakfast.

He swallows it up forever. And it says, "The Lord God will then wipe away tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth. For the Lord God has spoken." It goes on to say, "It will be said on that day, behold, this is our God. We've waited for him that he might save us."

save us. This is the Lord. We've waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his great salvation. If you think that passage is way too old 2,000 years ago in Hebrews 2:14-15, the author says this, "Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he meaning Jesus himself likewise partook of the same things. He who was God, eternal, sitting in heaven at the right hand of the God the Father, sitting on his throne, ruling and reigning already, left heaven and took on our flesh, and became one of us.

Why? So that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Jesus not only defeated death but he defeated sin and Satan. Man that's good news for us to tell us. Jesus has swallowed up death and he has destroyed the one who has the power of death. Literally Jesus is telling us you may now enter life.

Life. Your entire life you feel like you've been searching for life. Now you get to actually receive it. But it's only found in Jesus. It's only found in Jesus. That's why he says in John 10:10, "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

I came that they may have life." And not only just have life, have it abundantly. Abundantly. Literally, the United States of America for 250 years has been living under this banner that we exist for the pursuit of happiness. And for 250 years, it's been chasing it. Chasing it.

But as Ecclesiastes says, it's just chasing after the wind. You're not going to catch it. We cannot earn enough money to be happy. We cannot build a large enough family to be happy. We cannot get a promotion that's going to make us happy. We cannot get those rock hard abs that you spend 10 minutes a day not doing in order to be happy.

No marathon's going to make you happy. No Botox is going to make you happy. No new car, bigger house, none of that stuff is actually going to make you happy. None of it. You know what makes you happy? To tell us it's finished.

Your debt has been paid in full. Your sentence has been paid in full and the victory has already been fully won for you. You don't have to do anything except receive it once we come to the father. That's why he says in John 14:1, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Don't worry about pursuing happiness anymore. Don't be troubled with anxiety in your life anymore.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. believe also in me. That's the command of Jesus. If you want to have happiness in your life, if you want to have satisfaction in your life, if you want to finally experience true joy, believe in Jesus. And that's why he says down in verse six, Jesus said to him, "I am the way.

I am the truth and the life, and no one comes to the father except through me." Every other world religion says, "Here's all the different things that you need to do in order to reach God. And God says, "Don't do any of that. I'm coming to you through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and I'm going to do all of the work. All you have to do is bring your sin to the table. Confess it to the Lord, and say, "I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that my sin put Jesus on the cross and that he had to come and die in order to reconcile my relationship with you. We believe in the work that Jesus did for us. And then Romans 12 1 and2 says this is Paul's appeal to the brothers. I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to just present your bodies as a living sacrifice to him, holy and acceptable to God. This is your spiritual act of worship. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world anymore, but be transformed.

Transformed. The word for that is metamorpha, which means not just like painting the house on the outside to make it look different. This is a transformation from the inside out. You need a new identity that is no longer who you used to be, but is who you are now in Jesus. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern finally what is the will of God for my life. What is good, acceptable, and perfect?

[snorts] When I think about the Transformer franchise, the Autobots led by Optimus Prime are these robots who come to Earth and they transform into vehicles adapting to their environment to save and protect humanity. Well, Jesus is the best transformer that's ever lived. He left heaven and earth, came and transformed to become one of us, and then living the life we could not live, dying the death that we deserved, and then resurrecting because God was happy and finally satisfied with a payment for our sins. Jesus then applies his transformation to us so that we can be transformed. That's why 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who knew no sin became sin so that you and I who do know sin because we are sinners might actually become his righteousness." Martin Luther calls that the great exchange.

And that's the offer on the table this morning. Do you want to experience the great exchange? It's without a question, without a shadow of a doubt. I guarantee you've lied at some point in your life. Maybe you've lusted, maybe you've stolen, maybe you've cheated, maybe whatever it is, you can just walk through the ten commandments. And to be honest with you, there's over 600 commandments.

When you get to the end of the law, but if you just look at the first 10 that Moses came off of Mount Si with and gave to the people, they're looking at him saying, "Are you crazy? You expect us to live up to these things? It's impossible. Jesus when he shows up on the on the scene and he teaches at the sermon on the mount, he not only takes that law which was externally looking at everyone's behavior, but he then internalized it and he said, you know what? Yeah, a lot of you can say right now, well, I've never murdered anybody. Well, have you ever had someone cut you off in traffic and you just thought in your mind, man, if they could blow a tire and just Have you ever thought that?

Just me? I'll put my sins before you. I have road rage and it's awful. But have you ever been angry with someone? You've committed murder in your heart. Unrighteous anger.

You walk through the ten commandments and you'll see quickly. Oh no, this doesn't look good for me. To tell us the debt has been paid in full. The sentence, the wages of your sin, death, punishment has been served fully. Well Lord, what do I do? Jesus rose, guaranteeing victory, allowing us to have the opportunity to now enter into a new life.

Just as he was raised from the grave, he also gives us the opportunity to rise from our sin and our death. So what has God done? It is finished. The debt of your sin has been fully paid. The judgment for your sin has been fully served and the spiritual war against death, sin, and Satan has been fully won in Christ. I'm going to let you in on one more secret.

On the third day, when Jesus rose from the dead, the Bible tells us that an angel of the Lord rolled the stone away. And I ask the question, why? Why did the angel roll the stone away? Why did he roll the stone away? As I shared in the call to worship, the women showed up and the angel said to them, "Come and see where the Lord lay." Jesus is already gone.

Jesus is not in there. The stone was rolled away not to allow Jesus to come out, but allow us to come in and see what God has done. It was rolled away for us to have assurance that Jesus has once and for all defeated everything that we owe him. That he was satisfied and that he rose from the grave. And Romans 10:13 tells us anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you want to call on the name of Jesus this morning, if you want to come to God and say, "I know that I've sinned against you.

and I believe that Jesus has paid my payment and served my penalty in order for you to forgive me of my sins and restore my relationship with you. If that's you this morning, when we sing this song, as the band comes up, when we sing this song, here's what I want you to do. I'm going to be standing down over here to the front. I want you to come and tell me. I want you to come and tell me, hey, I believe Jesus paid my debt. I know that I've sinned against him.

But I believe Jesus paid my debt. I believe that he served my sentence. And I believe that he has won the battle for me. Would you stand with me? [snorts] We end every single service here at the district church by coming to what we call the Lord's supper, communion, the Lord's table. [snorts] On the night when Jesus was betrayed, which we honored that this last Friday, Good Friday, on that night, he had a meal with his disciples where he took bread and he took wine and he explained to them what he was about to endure, that his body was about to be broken and that his blood was about to be shed because that was the only thing that would satisfy God's wrath towards your sin and mine.

A perfect sacrifice had to be made. Even if we went to God and said, "Yeah, I'll I'll take the penalty. I'll receive the death as long as you resurrect me." It still won't work because you were not perfect. It had to be a perfect sacrifice, spotless, blameless. That's the only thing that would satisfy God because it shows the heart and motivation behind it that he would be willing to lay down his life for those who don't deserve it.

And we remember that every single week because this is the fuel. This is the fuel that calls us to go out and spread the message, the good news of Jesus Christ so that others can hear to tell us and your debt's been paid in full. your sentence has been served in full and the victory has already been won for you. We want you to know Jesus, come to treasure him, follow him, and then begin to help others. We remember that by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And so what we're going to do here in just a moment, the band's going to start singing.

And as they go through this song, if you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you, and you live your life treasuring him, following him, worshiping him, thanking him, then we invite you to come down, grab the bread, grab the I mean, it's grape juice. There's nothing special about it. Bring it back to your seats. And at the end of the song, we will partake together. If this is that moment where you believe for the first time, you know what? Maybe I thought I was a Christian, but really this is the first time.

I'm like light bulb going off. I really do now believe Jesus has really done this work for me [music] and that he's restoring my relationship with God because I believe he died the death that I deserved and he rose because God's wrath was satisfied. What I want you to do is I want you to come over and I want you to tell me and then I'm going to invite you to grab the elements and also bring them back to your seat and then we are all going to partake together at the end of the song. Okay, I'm going to pray and we'll continue. Father, we thank you so much. We thank you for your good news to us.

We thank you that 2,000 years ago you sent your son Jesus to do what we could not do. He lived a perfect life. He never sinned. And [music] then he became our sin to the point of death on a cross receiving our p penalty and our punishment. And because your wrath towards our sin was finally satisfied, God, you brought him back to life on the third day and we are here today rejoicing in that good news. Lord, I pray if there's someone in here in this room who believes that for the first time, I pray that you give them the boldness to bear witness [music] to be able to come and say with joy filling up and overflowing in their life, I [music] trust in Jesus.

I believe he has done this for me. And we along with the angels will rejoice. We'll rejoice praising you for the work that you are doing. We love you Lord. We love you. It's in your name that we pray.

Amen.