All Sermons

28 March 2004 By Richard Wilson

As we look at this passage preceding the Great Declaration of what Jesus was about,
he saw himself not as a great teacher, not as a religious leader,
but he saw himself as a grain of wheat falling to the ground.
And that grain of wheat would accomplish such a glorious work of salvation
that it would be incalculable in terms of its results.
And we are still bearing that fruit in our own day.
And those of us who have come to know the Lord
will be able to say it is for this reason that I am what I am.
This is the only explanation for my life as it stands at the moment before our God.
Now as we look at this we see Christ coming as a King for glory is to come.
The people of God or the people of Zion proclaimed him to be the King of Israel.
And that was the Ephataph that was over the top of the cross of Christ just four days after this.
We find that the Gentile King or the Gentile Lord said in infatigal terms,
Jesus, the King of the Jews.
And it was written in Latin, Greek and Aramaic over the top of his head.
They complained, he said or he claimed to be the King of the Jews.
Now they had claimed that he was the King of the Jews on this particular day,
four days before his glorification.
Now the contrast between Jesus' ministry at this point is quite remarkable.
Before this he was teaching and preaching openly,
well relatively openly in the synagogues.
But he was also teaching in the backwaters of Israel.
And he had done many miracles and signs and wonders where John says,
if they're all recorded he would suppose that all the books could not be stored in this world.
Such was the magnitude of the signs and miracles of our Lord and Christ.
And then suddenly there was a shift in the ministry of Jesus
where he became far more recluse.
He only taught in the desert places, yet all Israel went out to hear him speak.
On several occasions he fed them in the wilderness.
On other occasions they came out to him in droves and he healed their sick.
He sustained a people that came out to him in the desert places.
And we find that suddenly out of this so-called obscurity,
he suddenly presents himself publicly upon an Asses cult.
And he is proclaimed the king of Israel.
And we find that his triumphant entry was a grand entry.
He did not come in secretly or in a clandestine way or just amongst the people,
but he came in a grand manner where it was seen that he was the one that they were looking for.
And they even cut down the palm branches and laid it before them.
They laid their own clothes down so that the donkey didn't have to walk on virgin ground,
but that they were to be upheld by a king's entry.
And we find that this entry into Jerusalem was in a cloud of controversy as well.
The whole world was going after him, said the Pharisees.
And therefore they've said that you've accomplished nothing.
But they had plotted to put him to death.
And they'd also plotted to put Lazarus to death,
whom he had raised from the dead some little earlier period.
And people were going out on the account of,
he is a man not only performing miracles of cleansing and miracles of healing,
but he was even raising people from the dead.
Who could stop this man from such powerful signs?
And so as he was entering this final Passover passion,
as he was entering into this final few days of his life,
we find that Israel was congregated in Jerusalem.
According to the vitical calendar and religious calendar of Israel.
And some three million, it's estimated,
people had inhabited Jerusalem in that time during the Passover.
It was a tent city, as it were.
It was a place where people just found a place to lie down,
to be amongst these celebrations.
And any devout Jew would be there.
And we find that the explanation for Jesus' life
is going to become revealed on this occasion.
This last Passover, last valid Passover,
was going now to be performed.
And we find that Christ came at last when,
and it was that he would be cut off.
He would die for the sins of the world.
Now, he would be that true Passover lamb,
the true blood that would atone for our sins.
He would be that Messiah, that King of Israel,
that was to be cut off to fulfil the covenant
that God had established, even from the beginning of time.
And we find that this was necessary in Daniel chapter 9.
Daniel chapter 9 says that this Messiah is going to be cut off.
And after 62 weeks, the Messiah shall be cut off and not,
he says in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 26,
and not for himself.
And the people of the prince who is to come
shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
And the end of it shall be with the flood
until the end of war.
Desolation are determined.
Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.
Now, there is much prophecy in that that's very controversial.
But the thing that isn't controversial and is very clear
is that the Messiah shall be cut off.
And so that's a point that the Jews completely misunderstood.
They said, how can a Messiah, the King of the Jews, be cut off?
That is, to be put to death.
They understood it, but they lived in some kind of schizophrenic
understanding of it, some double understanding of it.
And so Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9
says just how he was to come in and quoted here,
blessed is he who comes of the Lord, the King of Israel.
Now, this person that they were looking at
was to be the one that was to be cut off.
Behold, the King is coming.
Now, we see that the way into the Holiest of Holies
was to be opened by the priest, the high priest.
Once a year, and he would dare not come into that Holiest of Holies,
into the temple place, that sanctuary where the Ark of the Covenant was,
and he'd lift up the corner of the curtain,
and he would go underneath the curtain to observe observed humility,
and he'd bring the bowl of blood
and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant,
symbolically atoning for the sins of Israel once a year.
Now, this would take place in a most ceremonious way
and in a very exacting way according to the law of Moses
and according to the law of God, really.
And we find that Jesus, the Passover Lamb, was coming.
And it's interesting, if you look carefully at the event,
I want to just go through those with you
because it is very important to see how exacting this whole thing was.
On the Friday that is referred to on the sixth day,
sixth day in verse 1 of chapter 12 of John's Gospel,
on the sixth day before the Passover,
Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus had been dead,
whom he had raised from the dead.
Now, he'd come there six days before the Passover.
And Jesus, having left Jericho and made his trip,
his final trip to Jerusalem in readiness for the Passover,
spent the evening, which was a very favourite place for him to stay,
at Lazarus's house.
And with Mary and Martha, they were very close friends of Jesus.
And there on that sixth day, he was dwelling with them.
Then on the Sabbath day, which is the Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath,
Jesus remains in Bethany.
Jesus remains in Bethany.
Many came to see Jesus on account of what had been done with Lazarus.
Now, on the Sunday, that is the day after the Sabbath,
which according to the law of Moses is the 10th of Nissen.
And in the 10th of Nissen, the whole of Israel was to bring a lamb
that was a yearling lamb without spot or wrinkle.
And they were to bring that lamb to Jerusalem for the Passover
that would be performed on the 14th of Nissen.
Now, Nissen was the first month in the Jewish calendar.
That was the first day of every month.
And we find that in Exodus, chapter 12, that is spoken of.
He says in verse 3 of chapter 12 of Exodus,
speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying on the 10th of this month,
that is the 10th of Nissen, every man shall come to himself,
take for himself a lamb according to the house of his father
and the lamb for the household.
And then in verse 5, your lamb shall be without spot,
without blemish, a male of the first year.
You shall take, you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
And then in verse 6, now you shall keep it until the 14th day,
that is four days after the 10th day and shall end on the same month.
And then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel
shall kill it at twilight.
Okay, so at the end of the 14th day of Nissen shall be killed on the,
at twilight.
That is, if you follow the sequence of events,
on the Sunday, which is the 10th of Nissen,
a lamb shall be brought to Jerusalem,
along with the people coming into Jerusalem.
It was on that day that Jesus came on the cult,
the donkey's cult.
It was on that day that they proclaimed him as king.
It was on the 10th of Nissen, that is the Sunday,
that the people were commanded by the law of Moses
to bring their first yearling of a sheep or from the goats
who had to be a male without spot.
And it was interesting that in that whole time
that there would have been a continuous stream
of people coming from all sorts of places to Jerusalem,
that in the midst of all this,
many sheep would be coming along with them.
Jesus came on the cult's back.
And we find that he remained there in the temple
and he established and just had a look around
and then returned to Bethany that night,
quietly without a lot of pomp and ceremony.
And then on the Monday, Jesus returns to Jerusalem
and we see this in another gospel,
whereby he cursed the fig tree as a symbol of the world.
As a symbol of the way in which God was going to curse Israel
and it withered and he would then cleanse the temple
by turning over all the money changes and that sort of thing.
And he said, you made it a house of commerce
but I require it to be a house of prayer.
And then he returns to Bethany again.
On the Tuesday, which is the 12th day of Nissen,
he comes back to Jerusalem with his disciples
and sees the withered fig tree that was cursed
and his disciples commented, this is extraordinary.
And then the temple, then we find the temple discourse
on the Mount of Olives, where he looks over the temple
and he says, look at all this temple.
And he says, not one stone will be left on top of another.
The temple will be destroyed
and it will be raised up again in the body of Jesus.
And that whole discourse, he remains there on the Mount of Olives.
On the Wednesday, he sends his disciples
to make preparation for the Passover,
which he had eaten with the disciples, but no Passover lamb.
It's interesting that Jesus did not bring a Passover lamb with him.
He was that Passover lamb.
And it means that Jesus was therefore arrested on the Wednesday night
and he was arrested after towering sometime at Gethsemane,
the Garden of Gethsemane.
And then it was the 14th of Nissen, which is on a Thursday,
which was the day that his trial came and it was the day that he was crucified.
And on the evening of that day was buried before the twilight
when all the lambs had to be killed for the Passover.
That's why it was necessary for Joseph of Arithymia and Nicodemus
to bury Jesus in their own tomb.
It was necessary for the women to just quickly put some spices
and bind Jesus in the tomb in preparation for his anointing
and burial anointing afterwards.
And so all the talk about Good Friday as being the day that Jesus was killed is not true.
It could not have been true according to the Law of Moses
and according to the sequence of events found in John's Gospel.
And we find that on the 14th of Nissen, that is on the Thursday,
four days after his triumphal entry, we find that the Jewish Passover,
at dusk on the Thursday evening, the Passover Sabbath.
Now on this particular occasion, there was two Sabbaths that followed.
We find that in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 1,
the word that was used there, Sabbath, 28,
I'll take that one for you because it is of interest.
Now after the Sabbath, that is the first day of the week,
now the Sabbath there is actually in the plural.
Sabaton is actually the plural.
And it would seem that it would be quite clear that at that point on the Friday,
there was the Sabbath for the Passover.
And that's where they observed the Sabbath for the Passover.
And then we find that the right following that was the Jewish Sabbath that they also observed.
So there was two days there, two clear days that was set between Thursday evening and
and Sunday morning, that there was two Sabbaths where they did not do any work.
And the women could not come to anoint Jesus in the normal Jewish way.
And they had to observe that until Sunday, the first day of the week.
And it was on the Thursday of the week,
those three days after his crucifixion, that he rose again from the dead.
And we find that that is true to the record.
On Sunday, the first day of the week, that Jesus was risen from the dead after his crucifixion.
Now here is a good explanation and a biblical explanation for what really took place.
And it was said on the day that when he entered on this particular day,
that is on the 10th of Nissen, the triumphal entry of Jesus,
a census was taken apparently by one of the religious leaders and recorded by
Josephus, the Jewish historian, that something like 256,500 lambs were brought into Jerusalem
at that time. It was a variable flock of lambs at that time. Enormous numbers were killed.
And can you see the significance when Jesus breathed up his last, that he breathed it up
before the Friday Sabbath, where they had to sacrifice the lamb at twilight.
No doubt they would take in those lambs and they were said, this is too coincidental.
Jesus had died on the beginning of the Friday Sabbath
and they would be taking the lamb and they would be sacrificing it according to the Passover ritual.
Now if this was the fact of the death of Jesus and surrounding that a whole Levitical law
of the Passover procedures and exactly observed by God the Father in heaven,
where God the Holy Spirit directed and God the Son established the precise
timetable for all this to happen, in itself was revelation to all of Israel
that this is the one to fulfill the Scriptures. This is the one that they were looking for.
This is the one that would redeem Israel. And he says on that particular day when he enters into
the temple, he says that my primary purpose is that I'm like a grain of wheat that falls to the
ground because some of the Gentiles come and said to the disciples, we would see Jesus, sir.
And they led him to Jesus and Jesus answered and he said,
the hour has come that the Son of Man is to be glorified.
He says, most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground
and dies and remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain.
Now, he was pointing to his own life, that his life was, yes, a king of Israel,
but it was the redeemer of all God's people. He was to be the lamb as all the lambs were coming
into the city. He was the lamb that takes away the sin of the world.
And he illustrates this fact that this lamb will be sacrificed on the 14th of Nissen as the lambs
were to be sacrificed as well. And we find that this was to be accomplished where he dies
and remains alone. He's the only one that could do it. And upon the cross of Calvary,
upon the cross of Calvary, the primary focus of his life is that he was to be the sacrificial lamb
that would atone for the sins. And therefore, Jesus being the representative head of all those
that would live and die and rise again from the dead, he would establish that purpose
and demonstrate that purpose as a placard of the gospel for all generations to see that this
was the hour that he had come to. And the climax of his ministry was the cross. It was the primary
purpose. And he was not therefore a teacher, he was not a healer or a religious, a head of a
religious movement, but he was to accomplish redemption. He was to pay the price for our sin.
And that price being paid, we could therefore be justified and declared righteous on the basis
of his sacrifice. And so that we might know the true pardon of God, we would be set free
from our sins to live for the glory of God. Now for this to happen, of course,
is not only that Christ's work has to be accomplished, but also we have a work to do.
And that work is that all servants of God must follow Jesus. If we, as it says here,
seek to keep our lives intact, he says, he who loves his life shall lose it.
In other words, if we hold on to this life, we shall lose it.
And he who does not hate his life in this world will keep, sorry, he who hates his life in this
world. In other words, we don't live for it, and in fact we don't preserve it, but we surrender it
to the Lord, then we will keep it to eternal life. In other words, the way of the Gospel is death.
And the way of death in Christ is resurrection. But it means surrender to Christ. Surrendering
our lives. Count it as nothing that we are to hold on to, because if we lose our life,
we shall gain it. If we keep our life, we shall lose it. In other words, there is no room for
some kind of in-between position. We cannot keep both. We cannot be a Christian as well as a
worldling. We cannot be a believer as well as an unbeliever and behave as unbelievers.
We must surrender to Christ so that we can enjoy the resurrection of Christ,
and therefore our only satisfaction will be Christ living within us, which is the hope of glory.
This is the first lesson I learned as a Christian. In fact, before I became a Christian,
when somebody said to me, you must be born again, I went home that night and I realised
that yes, how can I be born again? Well, as a grain of wheat falls to the ground,
it must die before I can live. It took three months for me to accept that, but in the end,
total surrender to Christ is first and foremost the passage to true life.
And therefore we are to surrender to Christ, to apply this truth. Not all religious services
is well pleasing to God in the scriptures. We must learn to know to go through the narrow gate
surrender our sin, surrender our lives, and go through the narrow gate that leads to eternal
life, because broad is the way and easy is the way that leads to destruction.
To do the will of our Father in heaven means that we must not accept the way of this world.
And I want to say to you that this will be the only basis for your life if you're going
to live it with God.