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Thesis - God loves you and wants a relationship with you. He’s done what’s reasonable to reach out to you. Now it’s your turn to allow him to change your heart, causing his priorities to become yours. Nothing is more important to God than a soul!
God loves Mankind and wants a relationship with the Lost! (Eph 2:12)
* The height of God’s creation
- A word on evolution
* The height of God’s creation
- A word on evolution
- Free will
* The Redemption Plan
* The Cross
* Heaven
Humanity
In Genesis 2 and 3 we see God creating mankind at the pinnacle of his creation.
All those in favor of evolution raise your right hand!
All three leaders tried to get the people to serve the state over their worship of God.
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), surpassed even Hitler in eugenic zeal, murdering at least ten times as many "inferiors" (estimates range from 60,000,000 to 100,000,000 people). Was Stalin wrong? Not if you subscribe to the evolutionary worldview. In fact, to the philosophically consistent, uncompromised evolutionist, Hitler and Stalin ought to be considered role models. And so we see how a worldview can impact human behavior.
Eugenics is the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population, usually referring to the manipulation of human populations.
Hitler and Stalin were very much on this page rooted in evolutionary theory.
One of the best strategies to get people to not believe they are valued by God is to make them exist because of random chance. Evolution potentially causes people so see themselves as nothing more than a highly evolved animal.
Darwin published in his book The Origin of Species that he believed God orchestrated the process of evolution however there are many who have come to power and used the ideas of evolution as an alternative to God being the creator, thus devaluing people’s importance.
Romans 1:20,21
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
God from the fall of man has been planning how to redeem mankind for himself. This effort alone shows God’s love and thus the value of a soul.
The Protovangelim
Genesis 2:15
15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The idea of free will allows for Man to make decisions that are foreknown by God but not controlled by God. God created man to have a relationship with him knowing many would not seek after him. However, for the ones that do find Christ and surrender, he redeems them. God is after a love relationship that can only be honestly expressed if there is free will.
From the very beginning of the fall of man, God has been designing a plan to satisfy his own nature and still have a relationship with the creation he loves!
The Cross
1. Avoid the Cross
*Come Down From the Cross
Matthew 27:40
Matthew 27:42
Mark 15:30
Mark 15:32
"Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!" Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him.
The Devil and thus the world and world system didn’t want Jesus to go to the cross. They wanted him to come down.
I believe the human side of Jesus wanted to come down also.
* Gethsemane in Luke 22
Why would the Devil Want Jesus to avoid the Cross?
Colossians 2:15
15[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].
2. Announcement on the Cross
Pilate has a sign made for the cross.
John 19:19-22
19Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
Why did Pilate stick to his Guns?
- Pilate had revelation knowledge that Jesus was the King of the Jews!
- He didn’t have the courage to release him but he did have a knowing that this man was the King of the Jews.
- Matthew 16:18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
3. At Fault for the Cross?
Who’s Responsible for Putting Jesus on the Cross?
* Is the Romans leadership to blame?
* Is the Jewish religious leadership at fault?
* Is the Jewish religious leadership at fault?
* Are the people at fault?
* Is Judas to blame?
All these are natural components that were used to carry out the crucifixion event but the real reason Jesus went to the cross was because he wanted to pay for your sin debt so he could have a relationship with you.
His love desires a relationship and his justice demands payment for sin.
The solution is the cross! He went to the cross because of love.
4. Adoration of the Cross
Jesus Adored the cross because that meant he could have you!
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Romans 5:7,8
7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
5. My own Accord
John 10:17-18
17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
Matthew 26:52-54
52"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?"
A suffering Messiah
The most vivid and detailed prediction about the sufferings of the Messiah is the prophecy of Isaiah, which occupies one and a half chapters of his book (the end of the 52nd and all of the 53rd). This prophecy contains such details of the sufferings of Christ, that the reader gets the impression that the prophet Isaiah wrote it at the foot of Golgotha, even though, as we know, the prophet Isaiah lived over seven centuries BC.
The “military might” of One Angel
2 Kings 19:35
That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!
How many people could 12 legions of Angels handle?
13.3 Billion
6. Authority from Above
John 19:8-12
8When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10"Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" 11Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin." 12From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar."
Pilate in an effort to save his own skin passes the buck of responsibility over to the Jewish leaders for the crucifixion of Jesus. But as we just read, the authority behind the crucifixion was “from above”.
7. Adjusted Meaning
1 Corinthians 1:17,18
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Same Message
*Different Interpretation
- To the perishing the cross is foolishness
- To the saved the cross is the power of God
In View of god’s Mercy
Heaven
John 14:1-4
1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
1 Thessalonians 4:17
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
Conclusion: God loves you and wants a relationship with you. He’s done what’s reasonable to reach out to you. Now it’s your turn to allow him to change your heart, causing his priorities to become yours. Nothing is more important to God than a soul!
If you live in Batesville please tune into KBAP 88.1 FM to listen to contemporary worship music.
Jubilee Family Church
45 Thunderbird Dr.
Batesville, AR 72501
(870) 793-9124