Personal Recognition of and Appreciation for the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ

You notice that time of the year? Time to get personal. So I would ask, what is the measure of your personal recognition and appreciation for Jesus Christ to sacrifice what He's done for you? Not to measure somebody else's, but the measure of yours, the measure of mine, personal recognition and appreciation for Jesus Christ to sacrifice what He's done for us. How personal is it to you? You know, the Passion of the Christ, I assume at this point, since it was quite a few years ago that Mel Gibson produced that, directed it, put it out, the Passion of the Christ, I would assume at this point in time that the vast majority of people have seen it. And I would dare say that many, maybe most, probably all of mainstream Christianity, benefited from it. Because, as I realized years ago, most of Christianity, greater Christianity, had no real idea what Christ truly went through. And we talk about raising awareness. You know, you hear that a lot. Well, we're doing this to raise awareness. Well, that movie, I think, really did raise awareness in the Christian community. Now, I already knew from Scripture and thinking it through and looking at what was there and studying about crucifixion and all of that. I knew enough about what Christ went through that I did not want to see the Passion of the Christ, a slugfest, ripping and tearing and bloody and gory, because emotionally I did not want to try to process that. I already knew that it was bad. And it's like it'd be very difficult for me to watch somebody I love being brutalized that way. And I also knew that they cannot show it as bad as it really or actually was. But the human thing, the human tendency, is to grow used to something over time and take it for granted. And I can guarantee you whatever impact that movie may have had on a person when that person watched it again two years later or a year later or five years later, it would not have had and did not have the same impact on them again. It's just easy as a human being to grow used to something. Can we grow used to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and then just take it for granted? I mean, it doesn't mean the same thing to us. It doesn't have the same impact. You know, how new and how fresh and how meaningful does it stay with us? Does it lose its special place in our hearts, in our minds, our affections, our feelings, our emotions, our operations? How much impact? And our daily lives? How it affects us and our operations? Does it continue to have? You know, there is no greater gift or blessing than the blood of Jesus Christ. It's interesting, and I will reference a number of scriptures, but I'll also turn to a number. And for instance, just referencing Revelation 12, 11. You know, it talks about there in Revelation 12, verse 11, it says, they overcame him, overcame the devil through the blood of the Lamb. There is no greater gift. There's no greater blessing than the blood of Jesus Christ. God makes sure, you know, you think about it, God makes sure that our focus on this cannot go but so long without being challenged again through His annual Holy Day cycle.

And Passover, the Holy Day cycle starts off with Passover. Passover is not a Holy Day, but it kicks off the Holy Day cycle. You know, in Corinthians where Paul had written, Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. Passover, Christ our Passover, kicks off the Holy Day cycle because without what Passover is all about, there's no being unleavened.

There's no receiving God's Spirit. There's no return, no need to, of Jesus Christ to this earth.

There's no setting up a Millennial rule. There's no first resurrection. There's no general resurrection. There's no last great day. There's no eighth day. None of that that follows without Christ our Passover and Passover, and He has the Passover kicking off the whole plan as pictured by the Holy Days. But the annual is a remembrance. It's a memorial. I think about how He told the Corinthians that as they kept that annual, that memorial, how that they were showing His death.

You know, when we gather for Passover, we are commemorating. We are refreshing ourselves, and we're commemorating the death of our Savior. And obviously, what that death accomplishes.

We do show His death, as Paul told the Corinthians. But you want to know something?

It does not make up for a year of neglect. Are we Catholic? No. See, the Catholic believes they can kind of live and do how they want to during the week, as long as they keep their standing with the Church to where they can take Communion, where they can do Mass, where they can take Mass. As long as they are allowed from week to week to take Mass, it doesn't really matter too much what they do during the week.

Now, what they do during the week might require them to spend more time in purgatory on the way to heaven after they die, but they're still on their way to heaven. But if they can just take Mass, that makes everything okay. Well, I've had a rotten year. I've not followed God. I've neglected God. I've not done this. I've not done that. I've done blah, blah, blah, blah. But if I can just make Passover and take the bread and wine, that washes everything away.

Well, if you truly repent, it does. But if the idea is I get washed away, then I'm free to head into another year. And if it's hit and miss with what I do before God, well, it's just hit and miss, but I'll have another Passover coming up. Then that's not repentance. Now, it doesn't make up for a year of neglect. It doesn't make up for spiritual drought. I'm not living with true valuing of that Scripture. See, the sin of taking for granted, of not living daily with deep appreciation of this greatest of all blessings to us, there is no greater blessing.

It can be forgiven. That sin of neglect can be forgiven. Taking for granted can be forgiven, same as any other sin. But again, like I spoke on recently about repentance, repentance here applies also. Learning to live throughout the year from Passover to Passover with a greater and a greater appreciation of Jesus Christ. Learning to live and to do with a constant newness of spirit. See, again, folks, we are flesh and blood. We are human. And there are things that go with human nature. There are things that go with human thought and human operation that are not our friends always. Sometimes our enemies and our own being that we have to fight.

See, with our natural way, we tend to grow used to things, used to situations, used to conditions. For instance, you know, things lose their shine, we say. Things lose their luster.

Things lose their newness. You get some new clothes. Ah, time goes on. There's nothing wrong with them. But, yeah, you know, I just want something new. Get a new car. That new car smell and all. It lasts for a time. And you can be on a little bit of a natural high, which is fine, which is fine. But after a while, you know, the new smell is gone and the new feeling is gone. And, well, it'd be nice to have another new car. I don't need one, but I think it'd be nice. Or get a new toy. And, you know, we see this with kids. They play with the toy for a while, and they're tired of it, and they want something else. Well, all I'm saying is we are made in a way that if we don't guard against it, even the greatest gifts we are given, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can kind of lose appreciation for it. We can lose appreciation for it. We can lose personal recognition and appreciation for it. If you want a title, just title the sermon this way.

Personal recognition of and appreciation for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Personal recognition of and appreciation for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Because I know when I gather Passover evening, and I take that tiny little sip of wine, that tiny little piece of unleavened bread, I want what it represents in pictures to be deep in my heart and my mind. And I want that to be deep what it pictures and what it's all about. I want that to be deep in my heart and mind all year. With God's Spirit actively flowing through active use, that is, we don't have to be the same. We don't have to just always be or respond humanly. We can begin to respond above our humanness. With God's Spirit actively flowing through active use, newness stays and newness increases. You can't fully explain it.

Somebody might say, oh boy, it seems to be so new with you and so fresh with you and all.

Can you really give me that feeling? Explain it. Well, no, you can't really fully explain it.

Again, it's opposite to our natural automatic human way. You have to be living it to experience it. There are some things you have to live to know. You can't convey it, even in words, to somebody else, necessarily. You have to be living in it and with it, experiencing it, to really know what it feels like. Measure your own personal recognition of and appreciation for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, because at this time of the year, that's one of the most important things you can do as far as the self-examination process. But let's take, again, a close look at that sacrifice. Let's examine. Because in doing so, it automatically does have the power and the impact to help raise our personal recognition of and appreciation for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let's do it with this personal question in mind. How much, how truly, how fully do I see and appreciate what was done for me? Bring it home. Bring it personal. Bring it to home plate. Bring it right down to yourself. How much, how truly, how fully do I see and appreciate what was done for me? Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8. Philippians 2.

Philippians 2, beginning in verse 5, Part of that was touched upon with the scriptures in Matthew 5 in the sermon Ed.

Willingly done. It was voluntarily made Himself of no reputation, took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself.

He brought Himself low and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Humbled.

You play that out, you process that, you think about it, you think it through, to be brought low. To be brought low.

Think about it, He was at the highest position that exists in the universe, right there beside the one that we know of as God the Father.

To lower yourself.

You know, even humanly with a human being, they generally will not lower themselves because they don't lower themselves in their own estimation. I spoke in repentance about how Paul shrunk in his own eyes. Job finally shrunk in his own eyes. In true humility, you shrink in your own eyes. You shrink in your own estimation.

To be brought low. Humbled. To be brought low. To lower yourself. To be willing to operate lower.

To be willing to operate lower. This refusal to do so has been the downfall of man. Do you think that Putin is humble?

Do you think he's willing to lower himself? Or he's willing to crush a whole nation of 40-something million people and destroy, literally destroy men and women and children to get his way because he deserves it.

No, the human way. That has been that refusal to humble oneself, to lower oneself. That has been the downfall of man. It was the downfall of a third of the angels, beginning with Lucifer. There's a word we stick on it, pride. See, God operates with humility. God has no... Of course, God doesn't have bones, you know, like we do.

But as we say, there's not a bone in his body of pride. God operates with humility. God has never operated by pride, never shall. And I guess in one sense you could say he doesn't know how. Because he won't do it. He operates with humility. And this is the classic. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the classic, all-time, eternal proof of such.

Jesus Christ humbled himself to the point of allowing total humiliation at the hands of the creation. Think about that. At the hands of those who could not even exist without his living laws. Remember the sermon on miracles? How that our very existence in life is based on a whole series of miracles of maintaining the life-sustaining systems. And here at the hands of those who could not even exist without his living laws that he created and sustains. You know what it's kind of like in that regard? You have a poor family out in the cold. They're homeless. A man, his wife, their three little kids, they're hungry. They're starving. They're dying. You build them a house.

You stock it with food. You fill it with warmth. You put them in it. And then you go visit. And they take you, tie you up, and kill you, and torture you first unto death. Think that's not a real type parallel? Absolutely. And you, as Christ, go knowing what's going to happen. And going for that end purpose. You lure yourself into a state that is killable.

You're not killable. You're not dieable as the spirit being, as God. John 1 and verse 14. You lure yourself into a state that is now susceptible to rending and tearing and bruising and death. Pain and suffering. And the Word, John 1.14, and the Word was made flesh. Again, into a state of composition that is susceptible to fleeing and flogging, to ripping and tearing, to binding and breaking.

Although he never had a bone broken. They were out of joint. He had his joints rendered apart. He had snapped ligaments, and tendons, and muscles. He just did not have a broken bone. But anyway, you go. You're God. You're the Word. And you go, knowing ahead. The hands that you will eventually fall into, and you put yourself under the direct mockery. And I mean, you are putting yourself under the direct mockery of the one who hates you the most, the devil.

You're giving him, the way the devil sees it, his shot at you, his chance at you. And you do it for something that the devil cannot understand. To this day, he doesn't understand. He cannot understand. Because as I said earlier, there are some things you have to live to really know, to really experience it. It's got to be personal. You've got to be in it. It's got to be part of you, for you to experience it.

See, in John 3, 16, when it says, For God so loved the world. God so loved the world, the people, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God so loved the world. Satan cannot comprehend the greatest being there is next to God the Father, coming to earth as a clay part of a clay creation, to be abused and humiliated and killed by that clay creation. Oh, he knows why. He knows why. But he cannot comprehend the motivation. For God so loved his creation, the people, the world in essence, the people. He can't comprehend that motivation. He doesn't feel it. It's not part of him, because he has none of that motivation of love, of outgoing concern in himself.

There is no outgoing concern or love in the devil. It's not part of his makeup, not even one strand of fiber in him. He cannot comprehend why either one of God that he very much knew knows exists, why either one would leave the most coveted position there is, run whatever risk there was of losing it, or even simply just giving it up for a time for these puny peons of pitiful dust. That's how he views us, pitiful peons of the dust, puny peons of pitiful dust. And I say most coveted because that's how he views the position that Christ came from. Oh, if I could just have that.

If I could just have that. And he tried it. It's in the Scripture. We know it. And what he coveted, well, why would either one of them leave that for these puny peons down here in the dust and even submit to what they would do to that one that came?

Of course, he still covets it. That doesn't change. Can't have it. May try it again, according to Revelation. But he also doesn't cease trying to plant that same kind of seed of his nature in people's thinking in human beings. But understanding or not, he's not going, and he sure was not going, to pass on this once in a lifetime, once in eternity, once in the universe, once in eternity, this once in eternity opportunity to try and destroy God.

Now, again, we read in Philippians 2, he humbled himself. There was none of the one that we know of as God the Father saying, Christ didn't, the Word didn't become his son until he was, you know, through the miracle of being born of Mary. But again, just for the identity of the beings involved, the Father didn't say, Son, you've got to go do it. Well, do I have to? Yeah, you have to. You've got to go do it. No, there was no forcing of it. It was totally, willingly done, voluntarily done by Jesus Christ.

He was simply willing to do it, and the Father was willing to allow him to do it to okay it. This is why Christ said of himself, giving up his life in John 10, you know, in John... And again, I'll just reference these, John 10, verses 17 and 18. He says, No man takes it from me.

Now, it was humans that would be allowed to kill him. But when he says, No man takes it from me, I lay it down. He's talking about this positioning that I am going to be in. I voluntarily, willingly submitted to that. I made that decision long ago with the Father.

I submitted to it. And even to Pilate, when Pilate basically was telling him, You know, I have the right to give you life or death, etc. I mean, I'm paraphrasing it. But basically, that's what Pilate was saying, to set you free, etc. Whatever. Christ said, you could do nothing except what has allowed you. But it was voluntary on Jesus Christ's part. I lay it down.

John 3, 16. For God so loved the world. John 10, 17, and 18. Therefore, does my Father love me? Because He and I, I'm referencing John 3, 16. We so love the world. We so love the world. And my Father loves me. Because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man takes it from me. But I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again. This commandment, have I received of my Father? Christ was allowed to make that choice.

He was allowed to make that decision. But you put the two together, love and being willing to sacrifice. Put those two words together, and you have what we call sacrificial love. That's what agape is. Gopi is sacrificial love. You sacrifice in love for those that you love. Sacrificial love, it's a love that generates sacrifice. Just like a human who loves another human, where there's truly love for that other human, they will sacrifice for that human being, that other human being.

Romans 5.8. Romans 5.8. In verse 8, But God commended his love toward us. God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It's interesting, when Christ came, obviously, there was no such thing as a human being who had not sinned. Abraham was his friend who loved Abraham, but Abraham had sinned. Abraham had no passage into eternity except through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And obviously, Abraham knew. We don't know every detail he knew, but we do know that he knew that he had a Savior.

He knew Christ was going to be coming, the one who walked with Abraham and ate with him there and dealt with him. Abraham knew that he was coming at a future time as a Savior. Abraham, in knowledge and understanding, was certainly in Christ, and under that umbrella, we understand that. But Abraham, you know, there was no such thing as, oh, if we can get just at least three people to be totally righteous, to where they're not sinners in any sense, they have no sin on them, then you can go die. But then those three won't need you. It's everybody else.

Father, they're all sinners. Yeah, they are, aren't they? But we love them all, don't we? Yeah, we do. We don't love their sins, but we want them to have an opportunity to come out of those sins. We want them to have an opportunity to fulfill the purpose for why they exist, to be eternal members in our family, the family of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For the covering purpose of Hebrews 2.9, for the covering purpose of Hebrews 2, verse 9, But we see Jesus, who was made, because He was willing to be, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, but made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, for what reason? That He, by the grace of God, which can apply to us, allows Him to taste death for every man, should taste death for every man. The sacrifice has the power to cover every person. See, the sacrifice is a covering. For all mankind, therefore, every human who eventually, eventually, personally comes to Christ through repentance. And it has to be a personal decision. There's an individual that, in one of the congregations, that I will be baptizing here shortly. And when that person was a baby, that person was, quote, baptized, sprinkled. And as that person and I talked, he said, I had no decision in that. And it wasn't baptism. It was just sprinkling. The point being, he is a grown man now, and he, personally, is choosing to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior and be baptized. The sacrifice is a covering. For all mankind, it's there for every human who eventually, personally, comes to Christ through repentance and in God's great, beautiful plan, though it's just a few now, the first fruits, then there's the middle fruits of the millennium, and then the latter fruits or last fruits of the general resurrection, and through the whole plan, by the time the whole plan is processed, every single human being who has ever lived, is living, or yet shall live, will have full opportunity to take this sacrifice on. You know, there are those who say that many who have died over the years on death row were innocent, that many who have been imprisoned were not guilty. There is some truth, some measure of truth to that, yes. Though I don't think the numbers are accurate in the estimation, I know that there have been innocent ones who have been executed, who were not guilty. And I know that there have been those not guilty, imprisoned. But, on spiritual death row, on sin's death row, there are no innocents.

Romans 3, 23. Romans 3, 23. For all. Wait a minute. That word, all, is a 100% comprehensive word. That's caught all of us. That net spreads over all of us. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Oh, well, some may have come shorter than others have. Yes, that's true. But the bottom line fact is, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Wow. Romans 6, 23. For the wages of sin is death. Well, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death, and that is on all of us. And then chapter 5, verse 12.

Death by sin. Now, I was not innocent. I was on death row, personally, personally, me personally, and I am talking very personally. I lived on death row until March 26, 1969. And then that's when I was taken off of death row. Spiritual death row. March 26, 1969. How did I get there? I mean, how did I put myself on death row? How did I get there? Well, I put myself there. That's very simple. It's interesting, with spiritual death row, guess what? You have the power to put yourself there. I had the power to put myself on it, and I did. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But guess what? I didn't have the power to get myself off. Oh, I could just make a conscious, concrete decision that, well, I'm going to live better. I'm going to do good deeds. I'm going to do this. I'm just going to be a better person. Yeah, people can set their minds to do that, and they should. They should. But when you're on spiritual death row, you can have a complete reversal of your life, and it still doesn't get you off of spiritual death row. And beyond whatever time I had in this life, I had no future. This life, this temporary time of flesh and blood was all I had. It had become my personal death row, and when it ended, well, it was going to end in the death chamber. That's where this life ends. It's the death chamber of eternal extinction. You know, and then one day, the great warden of all life began to contact me and bring things to my attention, until one day he came to my cell and he unlocked it. And he had someone with him, someone that I had become very familiar with, that I'd been told about, taught of, given understanding and knowledge of, somebody with him that I was very familiar with, his son. And the great warden of all life told me I was free to go, unlocked the door, told me I was free to go, that his son was taking my place, that his son would die for me. And as I stood there, I realized he's innocent. He's done nothing to be guilty of death, to be, in any sense, on death row, go to the death chamber, whatsoever. He's innocent. I'm not. I deserved what was coming. He does not. He did not. But he was willing to take my place in order that I might live. I didn't deserve it. I couldn't earn it. I couldn't do anything to obligate him to do this. Great warden of life, you have to send your son to take my place and die for me. The great warden of life could say, why? Why do I have, why am I obligated to send my only son to die for you? I had no argument that could obligate the great warden of life. I couldn't do anything to obligate him to do that. It was strictly mercy and pardon and grace. But he knew he had my allegiance. He knew he had my loyalty. He knew he had my obedience now and forever. He knew I would live differently now than I had before, that I would live for him and that his will would become my will.

And as I left that cell, I knew my wrongdoings, my sins were killing an innocent man. That what I had done was the reason for his death. I was a killer, a murderer through my sins and he was standing in for me.

I John 2, 2. He was standing in for me. I John 2.

I read verse 1. I John 2 verse 1. My little children, these things I write to you that you send not.

We have to learn not to practice sin. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation or the stand-in for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

And it says in 1 John 3, 1 John 3 and verse 8, For the devil sinned from the beginning, from the beginning of sin. He is the originator of sin.

Notice for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested. Manifested means he was made flesh and blood.

It was made a human being, a man, flesh and blood, that he might destroy the works of the devil because it was going to take a sacrificial death out of sacrificial love to pay that price.

And it notates that in Hebrews 2 verse 14.

Where it says this, Guess what? You're a partaker of flesh and blood. That's what you are. You're flesh and blood. I'm flesh and blood.

And it always took part of the same. It took part of the same of flesh, of blood. It became flesh and blood.

That through death, because as flesh and blood you can die, as spirit composed you can't.

And there'd be no sacrifice for us if he didn't come and become flesh and blood.

That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, which is hell through the power of sin. That is the devil.

As I left that cell, that prison, I resolved to live free. Free of going back there, free of going back on death row, I would fight what had put me there.

Free from that imprisonment, I would fight what had enslaved and imprisoned me because I was a slave. I had been a slave. I had been a prisoner.

It is an interesting verse here following verse 14, chapter 2 of Hebrews, verse 15. It says, And deliver them through fear of death.

I was smart enough, wise enough, knowledgeable enough, up to that March of 1969, to know that the sword of death hung over me.

Or I could say the fire of death hung over me.

And there was a certain fear there. Yes, there was. A very healthy fear.

Deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime. And this is also touching upon the experience that the vast majority of human beings have gone through on this planet. Through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

I've known people who were scared to death of dying because they don't know what's on the other side, as they would say.

But the fear of death, death hanging over. I never had really been free before. I realized that.

And I began to really and truly realize that very deeply.

And then to touch upon something that became a realization, and it's touched upon in 2 Timothy 2, verse 26, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who were taken captive by him at his will.

I began to see just how subtly he had snared me over and over and in ways I hadn't even recognized.

And as I walk around today in this world with the light of God's Spirit, of his truth, of his knowledge and understanding that I've been practicing for many years, I see how many times people are snared, how they're snared by him, how he so subtly has ensnared them over and over and over in so many ways they don't even recognize.

Romans 6, 16.

And because humans are so easily and subtly snared, they are held captive in a way that they don't realize, someday they will, and that's according to God's mercy, that they will someday.

But like in Romans 6 and verse 16, No, you're not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants are slaves you are, to whom you obey.

Whether of sin unto death, which automatically translates into death, leads to death, or of obedience unto righteousness.

I had truly been a slave, a prisoner, and I truly began to see that the things that run you, own you, they possess you, they rule you, they save you. And Peter spoke of in 2 Peter 2 and verse 19, he spoke of the righteous who get free, are freed by God from that slavery from sin. 2 Peter 2 and verse 19, have that they're freed, but then they go back into the slavery sometimes.

While they promise them, 2 Peter 2 and 19, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for whom a man is overcome.

What overcomes a man owns that man. Of the same is he brought in bondage. What overcomes you becomes your master.

And a servant to sin has only one end, that is death, that's extinction. But a servant to God is life now, a life forever, freedom of life forever.

In wrapping this up and closing, let's go back and read again Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8. Philippians 2. Philippians 2.5 verse 5, As the Son of God, as the Son of the Great Warden of Life, took my place on death row, I realized his death wasn't going to be in the death chamber or in front of a firing squad, which is a very merciful way to go.

In the midst of the prison courtyard was a stripped tree-trunk pole and a gauntlet of men lined up leading to it. He was going to die, but he was going to die the most excruciating death devised by human beings. He would have to pass through the hands of brutal men, and after they were through with him, be nailed as an unrecognizable human being, a hamburgered piece of flesh to a piece of wood that would be stood up and dropped into its hole in the ground. And with the shock of that impact and the scream of pain that tore forth, I went to my knees. And in my mind and in my heart, that's where I will stay.