The love and power of Jesus and his cross - Midweek Message 14th October 2020

 

 

Dear Friends,

Since we returned to the church building for our Sunday morning gatherings, we have been considering selective passages from Luke’s gospel seeking to gain or recover insight and understanding of the person and work of Jesus. For me, the thing that has stood out has been his love for and commitment to those whom others had written off or rejected. The parables in Luke 15 illustrated it so clearly, told as they were to those who were critical of Jesus welcoming sinners and eating with them (15.2) When there was further criticism of his going to the house of Zacchaeus, the despised tax collector, they clearly had misunderstood what he was all about and so he summed up his mission for them and us -  the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost ( 19.10) Last Sunday, we had another wonderful example of that when with almost his last breath, he turned to the penitent and believing criminal crucified beside him, who had asked to be remembered by him as he came into his kingdom, and assured him I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise. (23:43)

These stories are surely meant to be of particular encouragement to anyone beginning to consider Jesus and the Christian faith but wondering, perhaps given their past, if he could possibly have any time for or interest in them. Luke is reminding us again and again there is in Jesus a love that reaches so broadly that none are excluded except those who, in their self-righteousness and self-sufficiency, exclude themselves, and with that  ‘a love that reaches deeper than the depths of self-despair’ ¹ No one can stray so far or sink so deep that Christ in his grace cannot retrieve and rescue them. 

However, I’m also conscious that those who have been on the path of trusting and following Jesus for some time and have a lingering, even crippling, sense of guilt and failure over their lack of progress in their battle with besetting sins, often need similar encouragement. That’s why I wanted to share something from Matthew’s gospel which also reveals Jesus love for his disciples who had been on that path of following him for some time and had often shown themselves capable of getting things wrong in their relationship to him and were about to do so again in major fashion. The scene is the Upper Room and the last meal Jesus will share with his them.  He has just predicted Judas’ betrayal. The agony of Gethsemane is an hour or so away. Speedily after that, will come his arrest, trial and death and Matthew tells us:           

 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."  Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.  This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.  I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom." 

 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus told them, "This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written: "`I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'  But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee." (Matthew 26:26-32)

Hebrews 12. 2 tells us it was for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross, scorning its shame. Have you ever wondered what that joy which sustained him through the pain and shame of the cross was? Certainly, a substantial part must have been the prospect of returning to his Father in heaven following his resurrection and ascension, having completed the work he had been given.  However, here, Jesus gives us further indication as to what else he was looking forward. He was anticipating renewed fellowship with his disciples. Having given his disciples the bread and the wine which spoke of his death and the forgiveness of sins it would secure for them and all who would trust him, he then says:  I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom.  That’s what he is looking forward to, that is part of the joy that is sustaining him – the prospect of renewed fellowship, eating and drinking, with his disciples in his Father’s kingdom. And indeed even before that heavenly reunion, in v32  he looks forward to an earthly reunion with them which will take place in a matter of days following his resurrection: after I have risen I will go ahead of you into Galilee.

What strikes me as amazing about that is that he is speaking to disciples who are about to sleep while he grapples alone with the agonising prospect of his death and then deny and abandon him at the time of his trial. He knows that, and yet it does not shake his commitment to them, nor his love for them nor his desire for their eternal company.  He really wants them, and all who will trust him, to be his forever. Therefore, out of his and his Father’s love for them, even in their repeated sin and failure, he will provide in his death on the cross a sacrifice which will more than cover the guilt and the shame of all their sin and which will also one day cure them fully and finally of its power and presence in their lives.  Such is his love; such is his grace; such is the power of his cross.

That’s why John Newton could write of the preciousness of Christ’s grace the hour he first believed but then go on to write:

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;

‘tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

 Let the love and grace of the Lord Jesus to his people  keep us following, keep us battling with sin, keep us trusting and going back to him and his cross for all we require to live for him here until that day wen he calls us to eat and drink with him in his Father’s kingdom,

 

Yours in Him

 

David