5th Sunday in Lent!
Introduction:
A. How many have seen an old Western Movie where someone waves a white flag to show that they were surrendering?
B. This
meant that they had given up and would yield to
the enemy, going with them
peacefully.
C. It
put their life on the line because they didn't know what the enemy would
do to them!
Trans.
With this idea in mind of
surrender, let's look at "A Heavenly Surrender."
Prayer
Matt. 26:47-56
I. The cause of the Conflict.
A. Judas
betrays Jesus, a friend who had walked with
Jesus. Yet, a human being who fell
to the temptation,
A terrible thing to do (vs.
47-50)!
B. But
before we get too hard on Judas, let's consider another reason for
the conflict.
C. How
many here are without sin? The real
cause of the Conflict was and is Sin!
People had chosen and still choose sin.
1. God has created us with free will!
2. All of us at some point have chosen sin!
3. That sin separates us from God; our sin
breaks
the image of God
within us!
4. God wanted to provide a way of
reconciliation, to
restore us back
to Godself!
II. To win a conflict, what do we do?
A. The
first thing we think of is to fight to the finish.
B. That
is what Peter thought (vs. 51-52)!
C. Peter
believed that Jesus was the promised one, and he was ready for Jesus to
establish his Kingdom - NOW!
III. Jesus didn't have to surrender (vs. 53).
A. As the song goes, "He could have called
ten thousand angels to destroy the world and set him free!" That is
basically what Jesus says here.
B. But
Jesus saw one important problem with doing that:
he would win the
conflict for Himself but not for you
and me!
1. Something had to be done to put us back in
relationship with
God; to forgive or erase our
sin!
a. We can’t just turn over a new leaf and live
without sin from
here on.
b. We can’t earn our way back to God with good
works!
2. In what Jesus did on the cross, God did what
needs to be done
for us to be forgiven and made
right with God!
3. God did it! God made a way! God, incarnate in
Jesus Christ,
reconciled us to Godself!
V. Christ going to the cross fulfilled prophecy!
Read -
Isaiah 53:5-12
VI. So that is why Jesus made "The Heavenly
Surrender!"
A. The
mockery of a trial.
B. The
beating.
C. He
surrendered to it all!
D. He
went all the way for us!
Conclusion:
A. Jesus
has made a way for us to be put back in
relationship with God.
1. The
next step is up to us; what will we do?
2. Will
we respond to God's grace by accepting what God has done through Jesus?
B. Judas
had walked with Christ within the inner circle
of Christ's
friends and supporters; yet, he betrayed
his Lord!
1. Next Sunday, we will do the 30 pieces of
silver offering as we shift to the passion to remind us of
Judas’ betrayal!
a. Will we do that and then walk away and
betray Christ the
next week?
b. Will
we walk away and betray Christ this
week?
2. For
today, Judas' fall is a constant reminder
that we always
retain our free will and can turn
from God.
3. Have
we as Christians betrayed our Lord by the
Way that we live?
C. As
we encounter Christ at the table this morning, do
we have
unreconciled sin in our lives? We can
make
things right
today! We can accept what God has
done for us in Jesus!
We can recommit our lives to
Christ so that we
can live closer to God in the future
than we have in
the past!
Prayer
of Confession
Service
of Communion
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