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Sermon Notes  March 27, 2011

Mark 14: 12-26

Intro:   We are worried & bothered about so many things…

ILL – Dax & tattoo Troubled Julie (unfounded, silly fear)

(something that should keep you awake at night)

The Wages of Sin is Death.  What will you do about your sin?

Imagine yourself a child of 10, a Hebrews child in Egypt.

  • Your father brings from the pasture a yearling lamb, beautiful, perfect really, without a blemish.  You keep him close to the house for three days, feeding, caring, a bond of affection.
  • On fourth day, you watch wide eyed as your father lays his hand on the lamb’s head, takes a sharp knife ..cuts the throat of the lamb.  The life drains out of the lamb, dripping as blood into a bowl.
  • Father smears the blood onto the front door of your house

The lamb is roasted and your whole family eats him

  • Then, you huddle together in your house while death stalks the land, the tenth great plague from Moses on Egypt.
  • By daybreak, you can hears the wails of grief from a distance, but no one in your family is dead…You were all covered by the Blood of the Lamb.

t/s – I have just told you the story of God’s central act of Redemption for Israel.  Every year, God’s people ate the Passover Lamb in order to remember and to celebrate God’s faithful, gracious “Passing Over.”

The Passover is the context for the Cross of Jesus.

Mark 14: 12-26 Jesus gave His Life during Passover

READ

“Christ and His redemption are the subject of the whole word of God.”

Jonathon Edwards

The Bold Claim of Jesus

Instead of the Passover Lamb, ME!  (My Body, My Blood)

ILL – Imagine on Memorial Day… I stood to declare —

From now on… forget about the fallen soldiers, remember me!

App – Jesus, “I am the central act of Redemption!”

The Crucial Claim of Christianity

Jesus Is our Passover Lamb.  He has once for all given His body and blood to cover our sin.

 

The wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

This had been God’s plan all along.  The Passover served to prepare us for the work of Jesus on the Cross….The Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World.

 

Jesus gave his life as our ransom, His blood is payment for our sin.

Do you accept this?

ILL – One Sunday night, I stood in church singing.  My high school

Buddy, no church background next to me…

There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

My buddy leans over to whisper out the side of his mouth,

“That’s gross!”

We have a tendency to avoid all this talk of the Blood.  We find it distasteful, crude, unsettling.  Jesus knew we would, so he commanded us to regularly eat the bread and drink the cup, This Is My Blood!

t/s – Not only physically, but spiritually offensive… Sin is Ugly!

We have a tendency to avoid the issue of Our Sin.

  • Ignore; Deny (basically good); Minimize (balance)
  • At night, we huddle like a child in Egypt while death approaches

 

The Blood of the Passover Lamb forces us to confess, to acknowledge, — to own — the full weight of our sin.

The price of your sin is death, eternal separation from God; but God’s great gift of Redemption is Jesus Death of Cross…Eternal Life!

Be still, Listen, Death is coming for you.

What will you do about your sin?

Prayer

In the OT, God was willing to Passover every Hebrew household; but each one had to apply the blood….Acting by Faith.

In the Upper Room, Jesus offered the bread and the cup to His disciples; but each one had to choose to Take, Eat, Drink.

On the Cross, Jesus died for everyone,…

Today, Jesus offers forgiveness of sin, rich and free; but you must take action….trusting and Receiving His gift for yourself.

I want to give you that opportunity this morning…

For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Whoever will call upon the Name of the Lord will be saved.

If you want to deal with your sin today, asking Jesus to forgive and cleanse, look up hear at me….

Sinner’s Prayer

Standing, Singing, You come… I prayed that prayer trusting Jesus; I want to confess Him now as Lord of my life.