Our Struggle Against Sin

Again, good to see all of you once again this morning. And it's absolutely wonderful that God knows us so well that we can rehearse each year through the Holy Days an understanding of different facets of the plan. The plan and purpose that He has created for us, but He also has something at stake in this as well.

He wants to grow the divine family. He wants each one of us, each son, each daughter of God. He wants us to be a part of that divine family. And so He's made a way whereby we can be cleansed, where we can be forgiven, where our sins can be eradicated, and where we can grow in His divine nature. Now, you could say the key to all of that plan is correctly understanding Jesus Christ, correctly understanding the Son of God and why He came to the earth.

Now, a lot of people know the name or the Word, Jesus or Jesus Christ or the Son of God. They may know that. But to fully comprehend the depth of what it is that the Father and the Word were doing.

When 2,000 years ago, they sent Jesus to the earth, and He willingly came. He willingly. Subjected Himself to what He knew was going to be difficult as a human being. And He did that for us, those of us who are a part of a called-out group of people over the last 2,000 years. And ultimately, God wants to extend understanding and to extend the opportunity for eternal life to people who have lived even earlier than that. 4,000 years of human history elapsed before Jesus was even sent to the earth.

So He has a plan that will take care of all of that. I want us to look in 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1, or actually chapter 2, I guess it is. Paul is writing to Timothy, and he is encouraging him as a young minister to focus on what's really important. And here in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 1, he says, first of all, I urge that supplication and prayer and intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone.

And so he's encouraging Timothy to not only himself pray, but encourage others to pray. And of course, when we read it, we realize that we're to pray for kings and all who are in high positions. So, and here he gives the reason, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. So that's why when we watch the violent and violence going on around the world, you pray that God will allow us to continue to do our job in peace and with dignity.

And it says in verse 3, this is right, and it's acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. So we see another place, I think it's back in Peter, where it talks about, you know, God wants everyone to come to repentance. He wants everyone to receive the saving knowledge of the truth.

But here he just says, this is right and acceptable in sight of God, our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there's one mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ Himself, having become human, in verse 6, who gave Himself a ransom for all, and this was attested at the right time. And so Paul goes ahead to discuss, you know, that I've been appointed a herald. I've been appointed a messenger about this truth.

And yet what I want to focus on is in verse 6, where it says, Jesus gave Himself as a ransom. See, now, what is a ransom? Well, a ransom, whenever we think of it, usually is where someone has been taken captive, and perhaps someone trying to extort, trying to get money for that other individual to be released, to be given a release from that captivity. Now, clearly, what God is writing about here is not nefarious in any manner.

It is talking about redemption, and it's talking about Jesus giving Himself as a ransom for all of us. That ransom, His life, His blood, is what paid for our freedom. See, we can have a life that can be free. We can have a life that is a life that you could say has been given a release, that has been rescued, that has been delivered. We have freedom in Jesus Christ, not to disregard the law, of course, but we have freedom to live our lives with hope, with joy, with anticipation, because who's in charge of the plan?

Well, not us. You know, we're participants in the plan. We're involved in the plan, but the design of the plan, the purpose of mankind being put on the earth, comes from the one who is completely reliable, absolutely trustworthy, and completely faithful.

God the Father. And so, we have a lot as we think about the observance, as we will tomorrow evening. We will go through a ceremony. The Passover service, the New Testament Passover service, is one that the Son of God instituted. Now, we see of the Passover in the Old Testament. We see it, God was even saying numerous different times in different ways how it was that ultimately a Passover lamb would serve as a ransom for all of our sins.

And yet, what we see Jesus doing the night that he was betrayed, the night that he was then taken and throughout the next day crucified, what we see Jesus doing was instituting, in a sense, new symbols that had new meaning. They were going to have meaning that was far beyond whatever the lamb and the herbs and the bread of the past, what that symbolized. Because it was all going to point to Jesus Christ. It was going to point to how important it is that we are, we talked last week about Jesus being our mentor, about how we could learn from what he did, but also from the relationship that he had with the Father. And we want to have those. We seek that.

And yet, a part of that is following his instructions. We back up here to 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11. You see Paul saying in verse 23, I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, the Lord Jesus. And the night when he was betrayed, he took a loaf of bread. When he had given thanks, he broke it. He said, this is my body. It is given for you, broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me in the same way he took the cup.

This cup is a new cup of it in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

See the observance that Jesus instituted. He began the pattern of what we are to do, how we are to take a tiny piece of bread and a small amount of wine, and have that become a part of us.

Have that, as it symbolizes the body and the blood of the Lord, have that become internalized? Have that, in a sense, change our heart and mind, our outlook. Everything about us can be different because we're focused on Jesus Christ. See, as Paul described here, this was a memorial.

It wasn't something we did every other week, or every week, or every quarter, or several times through a year, or whenever you feel like it.

It has significance to realize that we're thinking back on the evening when Jesus was with his disciples. He had them, in a special sense, go and prepare a preparation of the Passover. That's what he told them, and they went, and somehow miraculously, there were a certain level of things already taken care of and prepared, and they were able to share in that Passover service meal.

And yet Jesus instituted the symbols of the bread and the wine that indicated his body and his blood. And of course, we read about that here in John chapter 6. You know, John chapter 6 is really an incredible chapter, because in the beginning of this chapter you read about Jesus feeding thousands of people, giving them fish and giving them bread miraculously. He was able to provide. Not only did he heal people, as we read about in the sermonette, not only did he heal people, but you know, he fed people, he nurtured people, he cared for people, he had compassion on people. He did raise at least a couple of people from the dead. He healed numerous people. He cast out demons. He was able to provide the spiritual healing, as well as physical healing to physical people who needed help. See, we often think of the physical healing we need, and we do need that. And from time to time, we're better, and other times we're worse.

We struggle with a lot of things physically, but spiritually our healing also is important.

To be healed of the plague of sin. That's what we're able to do through the sacrifice that Jesus extended to us. And so we're reminded, we're focused, and that's what I'm going to encourage us to do today. I want us to be focused on that sacrifice. I know we're going to celebrate. You could say celebrate, I guess, or we maybe would be better to say observe the Passover service tomorrow night. But it has two sides of it. Yes, it is sobering, and it is solemn, and it is to be approached in a reverent manner. But there also is a great deal of joy, a great deal of benefit, a great deal of encouragement, because we continually be reminded of what we're extending. We're extended forgiveness and hope and assurance through our relationship with Jesus Christ. I mentioned John 6, and of course Jesus would later enter into a discussion with the Jews who would be talking to him, and who wouldn't they wouldn't really believe that he's the Son of God. That was really the issue. They didn't want to believe he was the Son of God. Even though, and we won't take time, but you perhaps should, you can go back and read Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 details the predictions of what the Son of God, the suffering servant, would go through. The few verses before chapter 53 in chapter 52, and then throughout the 12 verses in chapter 53, you read to begin with a prediction of what he was going to do, of how he would be marred, of how it is that he would bear the burdens for all of us, that he would offer himself as a sacrifice for sin. That's the first part of it. And then the remainder, I think about verse 5 or 6 on down to the end, really talks about how glorious that is. How incredibly amazing it is that he extended that to us. But here in John 6, Jesus claims to be the bread from heaven. He said, it's not like the manna that your ancestors received earlier. So we can go back to Exodus 16, and you can read about how God provided manna. He did that miraculously. The Jews were all aware of that. They took a lot of, in a sense, special notice of, we've received bread from God or bread from Moses. And Jesus said, well, that was really just a type. I'm really, here in verse 35, he says, I'm the bread of life. Or he says up in verse 32, I am the true bread from heaven. Or, as he repeats down in verse 48, I'm the bread of life.

Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and died. And yet, in verse 50, this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that none, or excuse me, one may eat of it and not die.

He says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. And whoever eats of this bread will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. See, now those were, in a sense, to the people hearing him, those were troubling words.

Those were, you know, this doesn't make sense. How can he give his flesh for the life that he calls eternal life? Well, I think most of us here understand what he meant.

We understand that because we embrace the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. We embrace the fact that he existed with the Father before. We embrace the fact that he came to the earth and took on a human form out of love for us. He did that not because he had to, but because it was a part of the plan, of course. But he did that out of not only love the Father had for us, but that Jesus had for us as well. And so, when we read verse 52, the Jews, of course, argued among themselves, how can he give his flesh to eat? Now, that makes no sense to us. We can't figure that out. And Jesus said, well, verily I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, then you have no life in you. Now, that's what we're able to benefit from, from understanding what that means. He says, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up in the last day.

See, do we exist eternally right now? Well, no, we're still in physical form.

And we can die. And yet, in a sense, that first death is somewhat immaterial, according to what Jesus said, because he says I can resurrect them from the dead, as he would later do here a few chapters later. And yet he tells us, you know, that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God is what will ensure us. In verse 55, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh, drink my blood, abide in me. And I abide in them. See, that's what observing the Passover is about. It's about a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's about a connection to understanding, you know, the bread that symbolizes his body. And of course, there are many different things to think about in connection with that.

And even understanding about the body of Christ is the church and how we all, you know, in a sense have a relationship with one another because of Jesus Christ. We have that relationship because he said so. God said so. And the blood would clearly cover our sins as it says in 1 John. But it says, those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me.

See, he makes this clear over in John chapter 15 that we won't take time to go to.

You may want to read it, but it's very clear. He says, on your own you can do nothing.

But being attached to the vine as a branch, you can bear a lot of fruit. And that's how he works in us. The Father and the Son are going to create a family. They want us to be united with them. We have to come into alignment with them. Part of that is done through our observance of the New Testament Passover, of taking the symbols of the bread and the wine and relating to the one that we understand to be the Son of God. He says in verse 57, just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like what your ancestors ate and died, but the one who eats this bread can live, will live forever. Now, he said this when he was in the synagogue. He had come to Capernaum. He had been on the lake wherever he had fed the people with the bread and fish.

And yet he came back and he was in Capernaum, and this is where he was talking.

In verse 60, the remainder of this chapter of chapter 6 is really kind of amazing, because clearly Jesus knew that the Jews didn't identify with what he said. They couldn't comprehend it. They didn't want to accept it. Why they didn't want to believe Isaiah 53?

I don't really know, except God does need to help us as we realize.

But since in verse 60, many of his disciples heard what Jesus had said, and they said, this teaching is difficult.

Who? They were saying, well, this is disagreeable. This is offensive. What you're telling people to do, eat your flesh and drink your blood, that's unheard of. And in a sense, you know, they were offended because they thought, how can he say something like that? Jesus, verse 61, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, he said to them, does this offend you?

See, did he have any idea, you know, what their level of understanding was? Well, sure he did.

Did he have any comprehension about who he was talking to?

Well, clearly he was talking to the twelve, one of whom was a betrayer, one of whom would betray the Son of Man. And yet, there would be eleven others, and it would appear of numerous other disciples, you know, people who were following and learning and aware of what Jesus was teaching. But he says in verse 62, what if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? He was actually predicting what's going to happen.

He was saying, well, you know, you think this is hard to understand, or you think this is offensive?

What's it going to be like for you if I just ascend up into the clouds and disappear into the air?

What are you going to think then? Of course, that's what was going to happen.

And he was going to, even after his resurrection, he was going to interact with them numerous times.

See, he really wanted to impress upon them who I am.

Verse 63, it is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits little or nothing.

The words that I've spoken to you, they are Spirit and they are life.

See, whenever we study the Word of God, and whenever we have understanding, see, there are many people who could read this chapter and have no idea what Jesus is talking about. You know, those of you seated here today have some understanding of it. We all have some understanding. It may vary some, but we all have some understanding of what Jesus was saying.

But verse 63, of course, points out that his words are Spirit and they are life.

And that's why, whenever you study the Bible, now I know we teach, we should pray, we should study, we should meditate, we should fast. Those are all spiritual disciplines that we should do, and clearly we're going to grow if we do those, which I think we do at least some.

And we tend not to like to fast much more than we need to, but we will. As all of you know, a couple of weeks from now, we're going to have a fast day for the Church. And yet, sometimes you can study the Bible and not remember that Jesus says these words, his words and the words that he inspired to be a part of the Word of God, are Spirit and they are life. Whenever we read a section of the Bible, there's a certain transformation that takes place.

In our thinking, in our heart, in our outlook, in our attitude, that we're not fully in control of, because it has to do with the Spirit of God.

It has to do with relating to the Father and to His glorious Son.

It has to do with what he said about, you know, my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink and those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I abide in them. He's going to later talk about how that family relationship exists between the Father and the Son. He wants that to be expanded to all his sons and daughters.

And so physically, yes, we'll observe the Passover. We will follow God's instructions.

We will ask His blessing on the symbols of the Unleavened Bread, and every one of the baptized members here will eat a little bit of it. And the same thing will happen with the wine.

And yet, He says what's really important, doing that is important and following that, but the meaning of that is so much more important, that Jesus Christ comes to live in us and that we're able to relate to Him and the Father.

He says in verse 64, as He was talking to these disciples, there are some of you here who don't believe, because it says, Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones who would not believe and even who was be betraying Him. See, He understood who He was talking to, and He said, that's why I said, for the reason I told you. So He repeated what He had said in verse 44. For this reason in verse 65, I told you that no one can come to me unless granted by the Father. See, how much does God love you? How important are you to the Father? How important are you to the Son? He makes this real clear in John, chapter 6.

He repeats it a couple of times, and then there are numerous other places that you could go that would show the same thing. But God drawing us to Jesus Christ and then Christ revealing the Father to us is what abiding in Him is all about.

Now, in verse 66, it says, many of the disciples turned back and no longer went about with Him. That's kind of a sad verse to read.

It's a sad verse, in a sense, because obviously they didn't understand the significance of what He was explaining to them. And He said to the Twelve, and so He directed this to the ones that He knew that He was going to work through, and even the one who would betray Him. He says, do you also wish to go away?

In a sense, this was somewhat early in His ministry. You know, this, I'm not sure exactly of the timing, but it wasn't right toward the end like we read more so in the latter parts of the book of John. But it had to be a little earlier, and so their understanding, perhaps, was not as great. And yet He says, do you plan to leave as well? And Simon Peter told Him, Lord, where would we go? Where? What else is important? What else is significant? We have forsaken all and follow You. Where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. You have the information that I need, I need, and everybody else needs. Peter said, I need it. Now, this, of course, even long before, He would turn His back and reject Christ. As a human being, He couldn't have or gain eternal life by His own actions, and neither can we. We can't earn what God has to give, but we can accept in faith the fact that He loves us so much, He is willing to work with us. He is willing to forgive us. He is willing to give us hope. He is willing to give us encouragement. And so Peter says, well, Lord, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've come to believe that You're the Holy One of God, that You are Jesus the Christ, You are the Messiah.

And of course, you know, you can read another verse where Jesus is talking to His disciples, and He's asking them, well, who do people say I am? And they mentioned several, and He later said, well, who do you think I am? And Peter says, well, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And He said, flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but that's come from the Father. And when we fully understand that, when we comprehend that, when that is the driving motivation in our life, well, then we're relating to the Father. We're relating to the Son.

This is not only when we might be praying, which many times we feel a little closer to God when we're praying. But see, this is all the time. This is a abiding in Jesus Christ.

Now, I just think it's incredible when you see what Jesus had to tell them.

If we back up to verse 35, He says, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

See, we want to truly focus on that as we look forward to observing the solemn and yet joyous Passover service tomorrow evening.

Now, I would imagine many of you have read some parts of one, at least, of the Gospels here in the last few weeks.

All of them contain the last few hours in the death of Jesus.

You know, Matthew is one we commonly read. Usually, we're somewhat familiar even with the terminology that's there. Mark is a little more concise. Luke has a few other details.

And John has some incredibly important things in the 18 to 20 chapters of John.

And see, those would often be what we read. And I had intended to actually go over one of those today, but I think maybe going over John 6 is even more important because, you know, we can read those on our own. And we can see how it is that Isaiah 53 was fulfilled. See, Jesus was betrayed. He was taken. He was forsaken. He was rejected. He was tried, you could say, in a kangaroo court.

He faced his accusers and yet didn't straighten them out right then. He was brought later, as they would beat him ever now and then, later to Pilate.

And of course Pilate ultimately said, I think we better, you know, just get out of here.

This doesn't look right because there's no just conviction that we could give to this innocent man. But that was, of course, God's plan, that he would be taken, that he would ultimately then be scourged and flogged and beaten. And, you know, we often think about that and many times you can read articles that graphically describe that. And that is, you know, it should make an impression upon us. But even when you see the attitudes of the people involved and the mocking, and the taunting, see, those were revelations of human nature.

Pilate even said, I can tell that the Jews have just offered you up because they're jealous of you.

That's another failing of human nature that we want, of course, to set aside. If we're truly allowing Christ to abide in us, well, then we're going to be concerned about being jealous or being arrogant. Of course, there's a lot of different descriptions of things that you could describe as human nature that are undesirable. But here in Isaiah 53, as I said, we've probably read through or you will. Reading through just one of the examples of Jesus being crucified.

And, of course, I didn't even mention being in the garden, praying to the Father, pleading, you know, is there any other way out of this? And, of course, he says, I know there isn't.

It's not my will, it's your will that we want to have done.

Perfect example of how it is we want to live. But here in Isaiah 53, it says, starting in verse 6, all we like sheep. So this is talking about people.

All of us have gone astray. We've all turned to our own way. The Lord has laid on him, talking about the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. See, that was, you know, whenever he was accused, it's so humanly predictable that we will counter. We will retaliate. We will, I couldn't believe it the other day, they said this even on TV about, you know, the back and forth that goes on mindlessly in our system here in the U.S.

And yet, they were talking about how revenge is just so sweet.

Yeah, wonder why everything is broken. Well, because that won't ever work. And certainly, it is not the example of Jesus, because it says when he was oppressed and afflicted, he didn't open his mouth, but like a lamb that has led to the slaughter, like a sheep that, before it shears, is silent, he didn't open his mouth. See, he didn't talk back. He didn't retaliate. Now, he did answer Pilate a time or two, and he gave at least a correct answer any time he needed to say something, but he wasn't retaliating. He wasn't out to get revenge. He says, I'm out to give my life because I love you, my creation, who are killing me.

That's what he had to say. Verse 8, by a perversion of justice, he was taken away.

Who could have imagined his future, for he was cut off from the land of the living.

Quick and stricken for the transgression of my people.

He made him his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, there was no deceit in his mouth.

See, this is how much God loves us. This is how much he wants us to benefit from his plan.

Yet, in verse 20, it was the will of God. It was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.

When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring in prolong his days. Through him, the will of the Lord will prosper.

Out of his anguish, he shall see light. He shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, will make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

See, this was predicted hundreds of years before Jesus would come. He would enter the human realm.

He would come down into the darkness, and he would illuminate the light of God. You know, we have, brethren, every reason to look forward to not only the Passover, but the beginning of the Holy Days, the days of unleavened bread, the seven days of observance of eating unleavened bread, a fabulously significant emblem of what it is to be like Jesus, what it is to take on His outlook and His mind and His heart.

Now, we know, even during that time, we do that as well as we can, but sometimes we fail.

We know, yes, we're still human, we're still limited, but see, we still have hope.

We have hope because God is the author of the plan. He is the one who is going to carry us through. We sing a song like that. He's going to be the one who carries us through, and that's exactly what's going to happen. But I hope that we, as we have examined ourselves, that's what we're told, in order to properly prepare to take the Passover, don't beat ourselves up necessarily, but at least examine and see, well, I need God's help. I need His forgiveness. I need His mercy. I need Jesus Christ to live in me because I want to be in His divine family and live forever.

Thankfully, God has made that available to all of us. We simply want to respond out of respect, and then, I think even with a joyous aspect, be able to take the Passover and then know that God will continue to help us, that He will stir up the gift of God that is in us. The Holy Spirit needs to be stirred up. It needs to be excited. We need to be excited as we go into the Holy Days and then as we go into the remainder of the Holy Days throughout the year. And we're beginning that with the focus on the only one who can really make it possible, and that is our Lord and Savior, our Redeemer, who was ransom for us, Jesus Christ.