First Word On The Cross
by Anil Gundugollu at
Good Friday Service - 2004
For
he bore the sin of many,and made intercession for the
transgressors Isa 53:12b
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Then said
Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they
do."Luke 23:34.
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Our Ignorance: For they know not what they do
Who crucified Jesus? Was it the
Romans or was it the Jewish? In light oF the movie, The
Passion of Christ, there has been lot of discussion in
the media about this. In order to make his point, the
producer, Mel Gibson, answered the critics by saying,
that it was his hand that drove the nails, in the movie.
Some one put it very well, every time you sin with your
hand, you are driving a nail in Jesus hands and every
time you sin with your legs you are driving a nail
through his legs, every time you think evil thoughts you
are piercing crown of thorns upon his head.
Acts 2:23
Apostle Peter says to the crowd on the day of Pentecost,
..you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by
nailing him to the cross.
Then, why
is Jesus saying, they know not what they do. In Acts
3:17, it is written, Now brothers I know you acted in
ignorance, as did your leaders.
All these
people were not ignorant of the facts of their guilt,
but they were ignorant of the enormity of their crime.
They never realized that they were crucifying the Son of
God.
Apostle
Paul also writes in I Cor 2:8, None of the rulers of
this age understood it, for if they had, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory.
Many
times we justify ourselves as saying that we did not
know the rules. I can remember one instance during my
student days in NYC, where one of my room-mates was
stopped for speeding, instead of waiting inside the car,
he got out of car and stood outside smoking waiting for
the cop. He was in big trouble. The law clearly states
that you need to stay in the car and wait for the cop,
but because of my friend being new to the country was
ignorant of the law, violated it and got penalized for
it. His ignorance did not make him innocent.
We all
know deep in our hearts that we are offending God when
we sin, but we dont realize the gravity, the
seriousness of our sin. In the Old Testament God
prescribed special offerings for the unintentional sins.
As we study the scripture diligently and we grow
spiritually, we are convicted our many sins, which we
previously thought were OK. But sin whether you
committed knowingly or unknowingly is an offense to God
and the penalty needs to be paid and thats the penalty
Jesus is paying on our behalf.
As we
look at this gruesome event in history, lets once again
try to understand the gravity of our sin, how detestable
it is to God. The good news of the gospel is that, while
God is Just and Holy and cannot tolerate sin, He also
loves us so much that He is willing to pay the penalty
himself. Our God is the judge who convicts us and
declares us guilty, but He is also Our God who takes the
penalty upon Himself, that we might be saved.
The Cross
shows us Gods Absolute Justice and His Absolute Love
for us. And unless we realize the seriousness of sin, we
will never understand the love of God and the
forgiveness he has to offer us.
Our Intercession:
One of important festivals of the
Jews which the LORD God had commanded them to observe
was the Day of Atonement. On this day, the High Priest
sacrificed the animals for atonement of his own sins and
the sins of the people of Israel and interceded for
them.
The study of these festivals
recorded in the Old Testament and how they point to the
life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ is quite
fascinating.
A few side notes, regarding the Day
of Atonement (Yom Kippur):
The Day
of Atonement happened only once a year, to teach us that
only once should Jesus Christ die; As it is written in
Hebrews 10:12 when this priest had offered for all time
one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of
God.
On this
day, the High Priest did most of the rituals by himself,
no assistance from other priests. In the same way, Jesus
our High Priest, fulfilled all that needed to be done,
for our Atonement. God accepts us based on the atonement
of Christ and nothing else.
To study
further, I would like to direct you to the following
websites,
http://www.tedmontgomery.com/bblovrvw/C_5b.html
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q0408/
According to Hebrews, Lord Jesus is
our High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. Lord Jesus
is our perfect model when we think about intercession,
He interceded for you in the Upper Room(John 17), He
intercedes for us here on the cross, He is interceding
for us even now, as it is written in I John 2:1-3
But if
anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence
of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he
served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin
problem for good--not only ours, but the whole world's.
I John 2:1-3
We need to be intercessors for the
people God has brought in our lives. We need to be
people who stand in the gap. "I looked for a man among
them who would build up the wall and stand before me in
the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to
destroy it, but I found none. (Ezek 22:30).
We need to be like Abraham who
interceded for Lot, like Moses who interceded for the
children of Israel during the Exodus, we can learn lot
of things from these the ministry of intercession.
In Eph 6 Paul after he explains the
armor of God, commands us to pray in the Spirit on all
occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With
this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for
all the saints.
Lets
focus on these two truths regarding
intercession:
1.
Passionately: We need to be
passionate for our neighbors. We need to love them
passionately and be concerned for them, and intercede
for them. When man had done his worst, Jesus prayed, not
for justice but for mercy.
2.
Persistently: The Greek text
of the verse we are studying implies that Jesus said
this repeatedly, Father Forgive them. He interceded
for us persistently. Persistance of the parable of poor
widow granted her favor with the wicked judge(Luke 18).
How much more when we persist with a loving and just
God.
In
conclusion, God has called us as His children to
Priesthood. In I Peter 2:9 says, But you are a chosen
people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
belonging to God. Let us remind ourselves that our
unbelieving friends are also ignorant of the seriousness
of their offense against God and let us lovingly
intercede for them as a compassionate priest, so that
they may also come to accept the gift of forgiveness and
salvation.
http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0897.htm
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