The issue of Christmas, the issue of Easter, the issue of Christianity, the issue of one way, the issue of I’m the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me, the issue of you must, you must, you must deal with this man. And if you’re going to deal with this man, it’s imperative, it’s an absolute must that you know who he was.

And that’s a great goal for all of us, to learn more and more every day about who he was and most importantly, who he is.

We know who he is because of what he did. What he did is that he gladly went to an execution that he did not deserve. He had done nothing wrong to anybody.

He did no ill deeds against the Roman government, but through political finagling, twisting, turning, and because of some unique situations, he was crucified.

Make sure you understand that that didn’t just happen.

It didn’t just happen that he died on a tree.

In the Old Testament, it was stated that he would die on a tree. And that was a horrible, horrible thing to do. It was considered a horrible way to die. Somebody who died upon a tree was to be looked down upon.

And of course, the Romans looked down upon anybody who died upon a tree.

Very few Roman citizens died through crucifixion.

This is a method of execution that they borrowed from a number of different countries, different nations, but probably the Phoenicians brought it to the Romans and they used it for about 500 years.

Interesting the man we look to who made it legal to be a Christian.

He didn’t make Christianity the national language, but it was legal to be a Christian, and that was a change, was Constantine. And he was the one who ended crucifixion.

Interesting.

This crucifixion was noted by a number of people, which was unusual in that this man that was crucified was just a guy from northern Israel, not to be looked down upon only for that, but because he was a carpenter. A carpenter from northern Israel.

For those who lived in Jerusalem, he was sort of down or wrong or two in the status quo.

And the fact that he actually had people following him and saying that he might be the Messiah was a real irritation to the religious leaders of Jerusalem.

And when he healed the sick and became more popular, and when people started listening to what he had to say, And then Lazarus was brought back from the dead.

They decided now is the time, a very difficult time for the leaders to do what they did.

But they felt it was an imperative to be done right then and now because he was becoming far too popular.

And they feared that the people would rise up and revolt against Rome.

And in spite of their efforts and killing Jesus, that did take place about 40 years later and Jerusalem was destroyed.

Unique situations.

Rome borrowed this method of execution that they used for 500 years, but most of the countries that Rome conquered were allowed to take care of their legal process, and Israel was allowed to take care of their legal process.

They had a group of men, about 70, most of the time, and it was called the Sanhedrin.

And prior to this epic, this time that Jesus lived in Israel, they could execute people.

And the method was by stoning.

For centuries, Jews executed people by stoning.

But at this particular time, when Jesus appeared on the scene, they were not allowed to execute.

It wasn’t all that long that they were kept from taking care of their own business in that legal realm.

But for that particular time, Rome said, “You cannot execute, it must be done through us“. So this prophecy of dying on a tree took place through those legal matters.

There are different estimates, but one estimate comes up at 300. 300 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus in His coming. His coming to us. Starting with Christmas and ending with His ascension.

About 300, let’s cut it in half. Let’s give the critics half so that we’re not standing on something that might not be true.

I’m gonna stand with the 300, but just for argument’s sake, have 150, 150 prophecies fulfilled, and some of them so specific and so strange, like this one, at that particular time, Jews that were executed were executed through crucifixion, prophesied.

A friend would betray him, prophesied.

Oh, we could go on and on and on, but we’re going to talk about the positives today.

What’s the positive? He is Risen!

And what does that mean for us? 

We too can rise. We can rise now in a new life in Christ, and we can look forward to a life with Him forever.

One of the things I’d like to impress upon you today is that this didn’t happen through accidents.

It wasn’t serendipity. It was God’s plan. And it was an old, old, old plan. He planned it century well. We won’t even talk about the number of years. It was planned from the beginning.

From the beginning, God planned that there would be the sacrifice because that was the only way we could understand and in that understanding respond to have the relationship God wants to have with us.

And I’m thinking how important is it to communicate.

Well moving to Italy is brought new life to the idea of communication to be tough.

I love Pastor and Old Baptist Church. If I didn’t I’d I’d be an idiot to stay here for 22 years. Next, well, at the end of this week, it’s 22 years. I love the international experience.

I love the fact that we have people from around the world, but communication can be challenging. I love being married and in marriage, communication can be challenging.

The man went to the doctor and he says, “I want you to help my wife”. She just doesn’t hear anymore. We can’t communicate.

He said, well, what you do is you start from where you’re communicating, and if she doesn’t hear, then step forward and repeat it.

And so as he was trying to communicate to her this wonderful question that men love to ask, and I don’t think we understand what it really means to cook, but what’s for dinner.

We’re trying to say we appreciate your cooking, and I’m excited about the time with you and we’re gonna consume this meal together and what she’s hearing is hurry up and it better be good.

Sometimes that in itself is not the best communication but as he said, honey, what’s for dinner.

Well, the doctor said walk closer and repeat myself, honey, what’s for dinner.

And nothing, and so he walks closer, real close, he’s right behind her, he says, honey, what’s for dinner.

I’ve told you two times we’re having pot roasts tonight.

Where’s the problem in communication. Sometimes it’s us.

What is it worth to communicate? According to God, to make sure we understood his love for us.

And according to God, for us to understand how horrible our situation really is without him, It was worth a death on the cross.

It was worth him taking on the sins of the world. And that second part we will never understand. ‘Cause we kind of like sin.

That’s the real problem we kind of like sin sometimes.

Where Jesus lived his entire life without sin.

understanding just how devastating sin can be for the one who sins and for those that he influences.

God communicating to us. He didn’t go to committee. He didn’t go online to find out what other people thought about the idea.

He decided this is what had to be done And the plan rolled itself forward through time with so many educational experiences for the nation of Israel and the rest of the world.

God was communicating for the ultimate communication.

And he didn’t need to ask anybody else.

The most important decision in the world was made at the Garden of Gethsemane.

I was just there a couple of weeks ago And remembering what I read, I didn’t need to read it as I was walking around going to the two different churches dedicated to this experience of Jesus going and praying and the disciples sleeping.

We looked at that last week.

And I wanna wake up those disciples and tell them how stupid they must be to go to sleep when Jesus asked and pray.

And then I sort of remember sometimes when I’m not there, when Jesus asked me to be there.

And if you have that problem, So at this place where Jesus makes this most important decision that was made in eternity, we recognize God knew what he was doing. And Jesus as a human, the human part of Jesus had to reconcile the evil that he was going to face. And he did.

Why?

I would like for you to say it with me, because he loves us. He loves us a whole lot. That was the decision. Watch to re-watch part of a movie that I’d seen before. I think it’s a good movie.

It’s a difficult movie to watch because it’s true and it’s tragic.

It’s called Duncork and it deals with the politics that was going on in England as they began to enter World War II, and as Churchill was appointed to lead the country through this war, and as he faced some very, very difficult questions.

And if you’ve seen the movie and if you’ve studied World War II history, you know better than I do, but for those who haven’t, the British sent a vast majority of their troops into France and Belgium and France and the interior nations were collapsing.

And everything was collapsing towards the ports of Dunkirk. And they were coming to the conclusion that if something crazy didn’t happen, England was going to lose most of its force. And Germany would essentially have won.

Many within the cabinet who weren’t all that interested in going to war in the first place were trying to persuade Churchill to pursue a peace pact with Germany.

When they came to the table to discuss peace, England would have been at such a lower level since all of their troops were about to die.

They were overwhelmed. They were outnumbered. They had better equipment.

The British were looking at an instant defeat if something didn’t happen.

And so a tremendous amount of pressure was being put on Churchill to pursue a peace agreement which would have left England very, very weak and probably vulnerable to an attack later.

Churchill struggled, had trouble sleeping, and then he took it to the streets according to the movie.

I haven’t fact-checked this but in the movie, he takes it to the streets. He goes into a subway and he starts asking people, “What do you think we ought to do?” And it was a movie that depicted everybody from every walk of life on this subway.

Children, people from other backgrounds and British backgrounds, and he says, “What do you think we ought to do.

And they all said, “Go to war”. “Stay in the war”. “Continue to fight”. “Do what we have to do”. “Do not admit defeat”.

So he goes to Parliament and he asks Parliament, “What should we do?”

And Parliament says we should continue on. We shall not admit defeat.

If that’s true or mostly true, my hat is tipped to Winston Churchill because my country had a skirmish with them back in the 1770s saying, you don’t tell us what to do.

Your Parliament doesn’t tell us what to do. We have a vote.

And so Churchill took his own poll, his own vote in this movie at least, to say, “What do you think we ought to do?”

And they decided to stay with it, and it was a decision that changed the world.

Everyone here in this room know that that decision changed your world.

that it gets so many when Jesus decided to die.

To take on your sin and mine.

He didn’t ask anybody. He didn’t need to take a poll. No vote was taken. No canvas was made. No questions were asked other than the question of Jesus asking the Father: “Do I really have to do this?”

Knowing that he really had to do this, If you and I were to be redeemed, put back where we belong, he was going to have to pay the price no other way.

That’s sort of the bad news, isn’t it.

When I think of the cross, I think of me swinging a hammer.

That’s the only way really to understand the cross.

We all helped swing the hammer.

But here’s the great news: God planned it. God knew it was necessary. God loves us so much.

He was willing to die for us and take our sins upon him so that we would understand and we would be able to make the choice. Yes, God, I want this new life. And we can know we have this new life.

Why?

Because he came out of that grave. And he showed himself for about 40 days, 500 people. And even later, he showed himself to Paul. And even later, through the Holy Spirit, he showed himself to me. And he showed himself to you if you’re a Christian.

Unlike Paul, I didn’t really have that experience of being knocked down, blinded, and then going to spend time with people that I was planning on throwing in jail.

As they fed me and took care of me and healed me, remembering my intent was to either kill these people or put them in jail.

That would have been the most humbling experience anybody could have ever known.

Paul had that experience that changed his life and his giving of his life by dying to self has changed the lives of millions upon millions.

As God wrote through him, gave him the wisdom to share the truth that we all count on, the promises that we all hope for and hopefully know are going to become real.

Paul’s life changed because he had an encounter with the risen Christ, a very strange encounter indeed.

But then don’t expect normal with God. Just don’t. Don’t demand anything.

And hopefully you’ve had that experience with this outlaw, because that’s what it’s really about.

Who was he?

‘Cause if he wasn’t who he said he was, his crucifixion on the cross was just one of millions.

But if he is who he said he is, he’s changing lives.

He’s changing lives by making his reality real in us through the Holy Spirit.

when we hear and let Him teach us the truth and make that truth a reality, our lives are changed forever, forever.

We oftentimes miss the experience. We sometimes miss the experience. This guy is not all that sharp. He’s got a girlfriend that really likes him.

She calls and says, “Hey, come on over and help me put together a jigsaw puzzle”. You all know those puzzles, you put the pieces together.

And he says, “Well, maybe I can come and help you get it started”.

What’s it supposed to be when it’s finished.

What’s the picture going to be?

She says, “It’s going to be a tiger”.

According to the picture on the box.

Her boyfriend decides to go over and help with the puzzle.

She lets him in, shows him where she has the puzzle, all over the table.

He studies the pieces for a moment and he looks at the box and he says, “First of all, no matter what we do, “we’re not gonna be able to make these pieces come together “in anything that resembles a tiger”.

So he takes her by the hand, “I want you to relax,” and he sighed, “and we’ll put all these frosted flakes back in the box”.

I don’t think he understood the real reason she wanted him there, nor did she understand what the picture was about.

Sometimes even when we come to church, we don’t understand what the picture is about. We miss it.

It’s extremely important to recognize, as Paul said, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we’re wasting our time.

It’s an historical fact. That’s extremely important to nail down. It’s an historical fact and we need to remember who this guy was. Outlaw, sorcerer, politician. How about the Son of God. We need to remember that.

But even when we when we see the picture on the outside of the box, we have to understand the inner workings.

All of this was done, not just to prove he could do wild and crazy things.

All this was done so we can have a new life and be redeemed back where we belong in the arms of God.

We’ve got to get it. We’ve got to get it. I hope we all get it.

Not just a matter of the historical fact, not just a matter of the character of Jesus and who he really was and why he came, but we get it through the experience of knowing him.

If you don’t know him today, please talk to me after the service.

If you’re interested in knowing more about this or if you know you want to have this relationship with God that you were created to have, if you realize that there’s something missing, What’s missing is Him putting the puzzle together in your life. And when He gets done putting them all in place, oh, you’re gonna love the picture.

You’re gonna love the picture of your life when He’s done putting things together within you.

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Father, we thank you that you love us as much as you do.

We thank you that you’re willing to pay the price, To leave heaven, to deal with human beings in love always, making the right decisions, to make the lessons known, and then to pay the horrible, horrible price of dying on the cross for us.

Help us to recognize that your plan that made this happen.

Not the schemes of the religious leaders, not the Roman government being held at bay, but it was your plan so that each and every one of us can have the opportunity to say, “Yes, I want the new life you died to give me.

I want your resurrection power in my life.

Amen.