From Rags To Riches: The Sacrifice Of Jesus Christ

A woman said something to me that really floored me. She said, Christ had it easy. He only had to climb up there one time. We have to climb up there every day. She was referring to the cross or the stake in terms of sacrifice. I'll reference these two scriptures. We won't turn to them right now, but in Philippians 2.8, and we'll turn there later, it says, "...and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross." Luke 9.23, which again, we'll not turn there right now, Luke 9.23, and he said to them all, if any man or woman, of course, will come after me. Let him or her deny himself, herself, and take up his cross daily and follow me. In other words, when you see the word cross, let him make whatever sacrifices that are necessary in order to follow me.

Christ had it easy. He only had to climb up there one time. We've got to climb up there every day. She said it just about like that. She said it flippantly, with a certain edge of resentment and sarcasm to her voice, and I just stood there.

Now, she wasn't a member of the church, but she knew quite a bit about the truth, but I just stood there because I was kind of shocked into silence. I mean, I could see that she meant it. She wasn't kidding. She wasn't joking, and that that was how she really felt about it.

And frankly, it was pretty sad. It was pretty pitiful what it revealed about her, because I realized she doesn't get it. She doesn't get it. She has no true comprehension of the measure and the magnitude of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Christ had it easy? What a misleading statement, and what a lie to the reality of His sacrifice.

And also, what a statement of ignorance, a statement lacking understanding.

You know, did she think that His sacrifice only involved being nailed to the stake? And even so, if that was the extent of it, that that was easy?

Again, what a total misunderstanding and shortchanging of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, of what He went through, what He dealt with, what He gave up, what it cost Him of the price He paid for us.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, she shortchanged it. I will not. And we will not do that.

You know, the reality is, it's the greatest sacrifice that the universe will ever see or ever can see.

It doesn't matter how long eternity is. You can't say how long it is, because there's no length to it.

It's existence. It's existence without end. There's no marking point of time of its ending. Eternity is forever and ever and ever, on and on. And there can never, ever be another sacrifice that can even match this sacrifice.

It's the greatest that can ever be. And the total magnitude of that sacrifice is so great that I'll speak for myself. And I think you would echo me on this. The total magnitude of that sacrifice is so great that it's like my finite mind can hardly grasp it.

I mean, I grasp it, yes, but just trying to wrap my mind around it fully.

And I know that every year, as I come up on Passover again, with another year behind me of additional life and experiences and events and learnings, that it's more meaningful to me. But we are going to try to grasp it a little bit more fully today.

You know, many movies, many books, and there are many movies and there are many books and there are many songs, have played on a particular theme.

Now, there are numerous themes, but I think one of the most common themes that movies and books and songs have played on is the theme of from rags to riches.

How many movies have been made about a story about someone going from rags to riches, Prince and the pauper, whatever.

Rags to riches. How many books? How many songs?

You know, it's interesting. That kind of thing sucks you in. It just pulls you in because there's something about an account or a story of someone who is in rags who winds up with riches.

It always makes for a good book. It always makes for a good movie. It always makes for a good song. It's a good storyline.

But the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the greatest riches to rags, account of all time.

Think about this. It's the greatest riches to rags account that you and I, we, might go from rags to riches.

That's in Scripture. You know where? 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9.

2 Corinthians, because that's what Paul was saying to them here in this letter. 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 9.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. For you know. He's talking to the baptized membership there in 2 Corinthians, talking to the church. He says, for you know the grace, the mercy, the giving, the pardon, the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich.

Sitting at the right hand of God and being God, you couldn't be richer than He was.

The epitome of riches in every sense of the Word, every proper and right sense of the Word. He was rich. Yet for your sakes, and you can drop the why off of that if you want to, our sakes, because it applies to us today as much as it did to those He was writing at that time. Yet for your sakes, though He was rich, He became poor.

How poor did He become? We're not just talking about money. How poor did He become? That you, through His poverty, His poorness, if you understand it, went to the level of poverty in the true sense of poverty.

Though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor, that you, through His poverty, might be rich.

So let's put a title on this subject.

From riches to regs, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. From riches to regs, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Because that's what it was.

The supreme eternal sacrifice and fullest account of going from riches to regs. Because that's what His sacrifice was. And it started. When did it begin? When did that sacrifice of going from riches to regs that Paul is speaking of here, when did it begin? It started when the Word was made flesh. John 1.14. This is when it began. When it actually began to be carried out. John 1 and verse 14.

It didn't start when they arrested Him. It didn't start when they began to brutalize Him.

It was coming to the culminating point at that point in time. No, it began when the Word was made flesh. And the Word, John 1.14, and the Word was made flesh. This eternal being was made temporary. This eternal being, the composition, changed.

Think about it. From Creator of all things, the being through whom, and by whom we have been created, and the whole creation, the Son, the stars, the universe, the One we know of as God the Father, has done all of that through the One we know of as Jesus Christ. That being, known as the Word, who was God, with God and was God, Creator, when He was made flesh, to go from Creator of all things to a fleshly, limited part of the creation, to have His composition changed from indestructible Spirit composition to muscle and blood, ligament and bone.

You know, it's kind of hard to grasp, I think, for us the full scope of that. I think we can grasp it, obviously, but I wonder if we can grasp the full scope. The chasm that was crossed, the gulf that was crossed from Creator to creation, the Creator becoming part of the creation. Those are two totally different dimensions. It's like, you're looking at me, I'm looking at you, we can shake hands, we can touch each other, you know, we can hear each other, we live in this world of matter. There's certain light rays we can see and all of that, and we breathe air.

But all around us is a world that exists. There's another dimension around us. We don't see it. We don't hear it. Now, in some cases, some of that, whether it's through an angel who's unaware, allowed to appear and manifest, or in some cases fallen angels that create apparitions and things like that. But it's like the prophet of God who said, God, open his eyes, the servant, his servant's eyes, open his eyes and let him see. And he saw the whole mountain side, the whole area full of other life forms that were there about them.

And God's holy angels there also to protect them. There's another whole world, another dimension. There are two different dimensions. And the Creator lives in that other dimension, something we won't fully understand until we are spirit. And we'll understand it then, very fully, obviously.

What came from that into this dimension? Let me ask, what did you lose? What did you lose? What did I lose? What did we lose by starting out as an embryo, two life-sales coming together and our life being generated? What did we lose by starting out? We didn't lose anything. When we were an embryo, when conception took place and our life began and we began to form according to that blueprint that was formed, we began to form in the womb according to that blueprint. When we were an embryo and then a fetus, that was our beginning.

I know when my beginning was. There's no ambiguity about it. Earlier in the earlier part of 1950, I was conceived and I was born in December of 1950. I had nothing before. I didn't exist. You and I had no pre-existence. We had no pre-existence. It was our beginning. But that's not so with Christ. When He became a human embryo, He lost a lot.

He gave up a lot because He had eternal pre-existence. He had eternal pre-existence. It's like right here in the book of John 1, if you're still there. I haven't left it. I'm there right now. Verse 1, chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, with the woman who I was the Father, and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is as much God as God the Father is God. He's no less God. But He is the one of the two who voluntarily was willing to come and die for us, and the Father okayed it.

He sanctioned it to be, to allow it. But when He became a human embryo, He lost a lot. He was God. He had existed for eternity. Now, He still was God, but He was God in the flesh, and He was made off flesh. He was no longer made of spirit composition. He did have God's spirit without measure. But His composition was flesh and blood, ligament and bone, etc. He had existed for eternity. Think about it. He had never, ever been without that, ever. For Him to become flesh. See, that's all I've ever been is flesh and blood, ligament and bone. And I have the opportunity to step into eternity someday.

But that's what I've always been since my beginning is flesh. But for Him to become flesh, He had to give up far more than we'll ever fully realize in this life. Let's go to Philippians 2. Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7. Philippians 2, verses 6 and 7. Speaking of Christ here, it says, "...who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God..." Paul is pointing this out to the Philippians. "...being in the form of God, because He was God..." John 1.1, we just read.

"...thought it not robbery to be equal with God, because He was with God, and He was God." It was God, John 1.1. "...equal with God, comparable in knowledge, comparable in understanding, comparable in power, in ability..." No less. No less in any of that. Totally equal. The only way He was lesser was in authority. Lesser only in authority. And He divested. He divested, or that is, He emptied Himself of His Spirit, composition, and Godhead, in the sense of what goes with the Godhead. All that power, all that might, all that energy.

See, in verse 7, "...but made Himself of no reputation..." The way it words it in the King James. "...made Himself of no reputation." He divested, He emptied Himself, He was no longer Spirit-composed, He no longer had the power and the might and the glory that went with Godhead. He surrendered that full power. That had to be surrendered to become flesh and blood. He surrendered that.

He gave up the power and glory that went with it when He was made flesh. And so, we meditate on that. We sit, we think, we pray, and we say, God, help us to really grasp the measure and magnitude of the sacrifice that was made. And, of course, one of the things that sometimes helps us to grasp what He gave up is when, even if it has to be through the words of another, or the experience of another recorded force in the Bible, that helps us to see that and to know that.

Let's take a glimpse through somebody else's words. Let's take a glimpse through an example in the Bible, just briefly and brief. It doesn't have to be stretched out. Remember Paul's vision? I'm not going back there, but in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1 through 4, Paul's vision of the third heaven of God's throne, 2 Corinthians 12, verses 1 through 4. Paul basically says, I was caught up to the third heaven. You know, it was a vision. No man's gone to heaven. He said, what I was given to see was so real, he couldn't tell by his physical senses, by sight and hearing that he wasn't there, because he was given such a strong vision of the third heaven, allowed to look upon the throne of God.

And even though the King James says, unlawful to utter, basically what it means is, I'm unable to really express it. He couldn't fully convey. It's like you're wanting to really, you're moved to really try to say something, and you can't find the right words that really define what you're trying to say. There were no words that could do justice to the glory that he saw. But remember what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 8, 18? And once the Corinthians talks about being given a vision, caught up to the third heaven, in vision, being allowed to see the throne of God, in all the colors and the brilliance and the beauty and the power, and the angels, holy angels coming and going, and the flashes of energy and all that John spoke of later, because John was given to see that also.

The great thunders or the great noises of tremendous energies were unleashed and sent forth. He was given to see that. And so he writes to the Romans in Romans 8, 18, he says, for I reckon that word reckon, that's how we know he was southern anyway, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared, he says, with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Because he had been given a view of the glory that was waiting for him. He had been given a view of the glory that he was going to inherit. And nobody, at least in what's recorded in the Scripture outside of Christ, suffered physically with all the beatings and all as Paul. And I guess you could put him and Job in the same category. But he said, with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Stephen, Acts 7, verse 55 in particular, in the account of Stephen, called on the carpet, had to witness for God, for Christ. And we know the account. It cost him his life. He was murdered as a witness to the truth and to God, to Christ. Notice when it gets to the point, and he knows what's coming, he knows his death is imminent because he knows what they're going to do to him. He can see that. He can see it in their countenance, their words, their actions. And also, in the midst, them literally running upon him and biting him. I mean, like a bunch of madmen, verse 54.

Verse 55, "...but he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven." Now, you go outside and look up towards the heavens. See if you can see the third heaven. You can't see it. I can't either. So, how was it that he could look up steadfastly into heaven and solve the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God? Because God gave him the ability at that moment to be able to do that. And when he looked into heaven, given the ability to do that, like Paul was given the ability, given the ability at that moment to do that and solve the glory of God, again, the power, the magnitude, the brilliance, the colors, all of that, solved God's throne and didn't see Jesus sitting at the right hand of God. You come out of your seat when you're really pulling for somebody, whether it's a race or whatever. You just automatically come up. He comes up out of his seat. He's standing. Stephen, you can do it! You can do it, Stephen! He's pulling for him. You know, I've often thought in death, especially if God were to require a martyrdom death of any one of us. In death, just preceding death, God could give us a glimpse of the glory that's going to be ours that would make all the difference and get us over the hump. But what I'm expressing is just a little bit of an illustration of the glory that Christ gave up. Left. Vacated it. Came to earth. Hebrews 12, verse 2. Hebrews 12, verse 2.

It says, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, notice this phrase. Who for the joy that was set before him? For the joy set before him. Endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So before it talks about enduring the cross, despising the shame and all of that, it says, Who for the joy that was set before him? He remembered that glory. The joy that was set before him, part of that entails those memory banks, those visions, those views, that realization of the glory and what it was like and is being reminded. That's what you're coming back to. Keep your finger here, but I'm going to just swing back to John 17. 5 and read it.

John 17 and verse 5 on that final night as flesh and blood with us. It says in verse 5, John 17, when he's praying to the Father and he says, Now, O Father, glorify you, me, with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world was, the glory which I had with you. He knew he was going back to that glory and he couldn't wait to get back as well as by going back, he was creating and opening up a way to others to follow him as the door, as the way back into that glory.

He was returning to the glory. The others that would follow in due time, they wouldn't be returning, they would simply be going. And he gave up the glory of the universe of eternity for a time and he was willing to give up that glory for a time in order to make a path back there for me and for you and for the others, for all humanity in the due time of their calling and when they properly and responsibly respond, a path back there for many to follow into that glory. That was part of his joy that was set before him. See, here in Hebrews 2 verse 10, Hebrews 2, in verse 10, it says, For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, what in bringing many sons to glory?

And again, you can put that in both the masculine and the feminine gender, as 2 Corinthians does in chapter 6 verse 18, but many sons into glory. To me, one of the greatest scriptures in the Bible along this line is Romans 8 and 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he, the son, might be what? The firstborn among, or in the midst of, many brothers and sisters.

For the glory set before him, for the joy set before him. Knowing that glory, knowing he's going to return to it, and knowing that he's making a way for many sons and daughters, many younger brothers and sisters, to also be able to share in that glory.

Jesus likes people. God, the Father, and Christ created us. They love serving and sharing and relating. They're looking forward to an eternal family encased forever in peace and happiness and joy. Health and energy is unbelievable in all plans and purposes, where eventually there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering. For the glory that shall be revealed in us, as Paul said, we go rags to riches, because he went from riches to rags.

And again, that's what Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. You and I are offered the glory of the universe, and Christ had to give it up for a time in order to make it possible for us to have it. You know, I ask myself sometimes, I say, what sacrifice have I ever made, or could I make, or do I make that could ever begin to compare? And there is none. Do I make sacrifices? Yes. Have I made sacrifices? Yes. Do I make them?

Yes. Will I make them? Yes. But what sacrifice do I make, do we make, that can ever begin to compare? Now think about something. I tend to be a realist. Now, if somebody says, are you a realist or an idealist? I can tell you what I am. I am a realistic idealist. Well, let's turn that around. What I just said expresses the way I am. But I am also an idealistic realist. I look at what is and do the best I can to make the best of it.

And I don't hide my mind from what God gives me to see. And one of the things I am given to see is, what did I own to begin with? As I said, I came into existence in 1950.

I wasn't in some kind of previous existence and was brought into flesh and blood being in 1950. No. 1950 is when I was conceived. 1950 is when my life began. 1950 is when my birth occurred. 1950 was my beginning.

What did I own to begin with? You think about it, my life. That was given to me. You know, life, you think about life, health, children, material things. Even that's come from God. If you think about it, it doesn't mean that we don't have a role and a hand in integrity and honesty and work ethic and being responsibly minded and all those kinds of things.

There is a response factor that we have to apply. Yes, because that's part of where, and a big part of where, character and all comes in. Yes. But see, James 1.17 says that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above, from God above. Our time, our energy, our talent, our ability, our capacity. And I touched upon a lot of that when I gave the sermon on, Where Would We Be Without God?

When we realize the cost of the Creator, the cost He may require of us doesn't seem as heavy, does it? It kind of shrinks to proper size. I did reference Luke 9.23 previously, so I will go over there at this point and read it.

Luke 9 and verse 23.

And of course, what He said to them then, off of the lips and out of the heart and mind of the One who doesn't change in terms of righteousness, character, the spiritual principles and all.

Who's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He said to them all, Then if He were right here, bodily present with us right now, and He is in spirit, He'd say the same thing. If any, and man is in italics, it's not in the original, so if any person, or man, or woman, if any person will come after Me, let Him deny Himself and take up His cross daily and follow Me.

All it means when you see the word cross, and it's from the Greek, staros, not a cross like is being used today by many, but staros or stake. All it means when you see the word cross in the King James or your Bible, all it's talking about is sacrifice. That's all it's talking about.

Let Him make whatever sacrifice it is necessary to follow Christ. And that comes off of the lips of one who made the greatest sacrifice that can ever, ever be. It cannot even be matched.

Think about something. For 33, and again, we're talking about from the riches of those glories, that glory, those glories, to the rags of being flesh and blood, and limited, and mortal.

For 33 and a half years, He risked everything. That's something that's not addressed many times. He risked everything. He risked it all to make possible a golden opportunity for you and me, for us.

He's played with, and for the highest stakes, you might say, the universe can or ever will see.

Back in Philippians 2, there's aspects of it that we don't always stop and really weigh.

In Philippians 2, and again, picking it up in verse 6, 6 through 8, Who being in the form of God, being in the form or the composition of God, because He was God, but it not robbery to be equal with God, because He was God, and He's just as much God as God the Father is God, but 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.

And, of course, His humility in humbling Himself didn't begin again when He submitted to brutal hands.

It's when He voluntarily offered to come and become the way for us to have entry into eternity into the family of God.

He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. And not just to death, because there are easier ways to die, much easier ways to die, but even the death of the cross or crucifixion, because that's a horrible way to die.

You know, when the sword came down across Paul's neck when he finished his life with a martyrdom death, he had suffered a lot, but the final blow, literally, no pun intended, but the final blow, literally, when his head was sliced off, was merciful.

It's gruesome, it sounds gruesome, but it's one of the most merciful ways to die.

The guillotine effect is very quick.

Crucifixion isn't.

Found in fashion as a man, he humbled Himself.

Humble Himself? He lowered Himself. Think about it.

He lowered Himself through a series of miracles by the power of God and His Spirit.

This whole miracle arrangement was done in a way I don't understand.

I know what happened, I read it, but how it was done, that one of those two beings, the one we know of as the Word, who we know today as God the Son, how He was changed into flesh and blood and the womb of Mary.

God will tell us someday, and we'll have minds to be able to really comprehend it, but we know it happened.

He lowered Himself from heaven to earth, becoming flesh composed of earthy composition, enclosed Him within the limitations of the flesh.

He got tired. He got weary.

He could get so exhausted that He'd be in such a deep sleep that the others are terrified with a storm going or whatever, and He's sleeping soundly.

He got weary. He got tired.

He experienced all that goes with the limitations of the flesh in that regard.

But it also put Him within the potential, I said, the potential reach of sin.

See, there are some folks who don't want to recognize that it put Him within the potential reach of sin. They want to say, well, you know, He was God in the flesh, and so it was not possible ever for Him to sin.

No, no, no. He wasn't within the reach. That's not what the Scripture says.

And a far greater authority than I am, but inspiration made it plain in Hebrews 4.

In verse 15, He said, For we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

He was tempted. Temptation is not sin. It's when you give in to temptation in the mind, the sin starts.

You can be tempted to sin in your thoughts. You can be tempted to sin with your words. You can be tempted to sin with your actions. The temptation itself is not sin.

But when you give in and start toying with it and playing around with it, when you give in to it, then sin has occurred.

He was a normal, red-blooded, healthy, physical specimen, male specimen. He had to be a perfect sacrifice. He was God in the flesh, and He was a perfect, physical human being.

With the right balance of hormones, testosterone, and all.

No, He was tempted like as we are. In all points it says, yet without sin.

He knew that while He was here in flesh and blood, He had to stay close to God. He had to make sure He stayed close to God like nobody has ever stayed close to God before, to God the Father.

But just think about what Hebrews 4.15 is saying just for a moment.

Think about it put Him within reach, so to speak, of His adversary, within His potential grasp.

Think about it. Why Matthew 4? Why Luke 4? Why the battle in the wilderness? Why 40 days and nights of fasting and going head to head with the devil?

And the devil pulling out all stops doing everything he could.

You know, it's like from the devil's viewpoint, it's only if I'm just getting to sin one time.

I don't need two sins. I don't need three. I just need one.

If I can get Him to sin in thought, in word, in action, just get Him to sin one time. Then not only does that nullify Him as a Savior, and God's plan is shot to pieces can never be, but He can't go back to heaven either.

He'll have to die for His sin, and He'll be gone forever.

Think about it, the perspective the devil held on it.

See, before He came as flesh, He was untouchable.

Because as God composed of spirit, full of the composition, the Godhead, the power and the glory, He's not touchable. He cannot be tempted. But by giving that up for a time to be composed of flesh and blood, He's touchable.

That took some calculating and considering. I don't sell it short.

That took some kind of calculating and considering and counting the cost to give the former Lucifer a shot at destroying Him forever. That took some kind of sacrifice, but there was no other way. No other way. Christ had to die.

And He had to be flesh to die. But He had to die innocent, or He would lose it all, and there would be no way for us. Remember that phrase in Philippians 2, verse 8? Obedient unto death, the death of the cross.

This was the death of the Creator of all things.

John 1.3 John 1 And verse 3. All things were made by Him.

And without Him was not any thing made that was made.

Let's read Colossians 1, verses 16 and 17.

Colossians 1, verses 16 and 17.

For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist, or that is exist.

He functioned that way forever, and then He became flesh, knowing that at the end of that road was death and the death of crucifixion. But don't you think about for a little over 34 years, because He is 33 and a half when He was crucified, add to that nine months in Mary's womb. So for a little bit over 34 years, Michael and Gabriel and the Holy Angels, who come and go in serving God and serving His plans and serving God's people, every time they came up to God the Father or looked at the throne, the seat at the right hand was empty. The one that had sat there forever, that had been with the Father forever, that had always been there as long as they had existed since their creation, the Angels' creation, it's empty now. At the right hand of God, it's empty. Also, that means that for a little over 34 years, no energy came from there to maintain the sun, the universe, the spin of the earth, all the things that have to be held in their positioning through the outpouring of energies and powers that, again, we may not fully understand, but they are there. It all had to be done directly by the Father. Just like when Christ walked up to the grave, the tomb of Lazarus, who had been dead four days, and prayed very briefly to the Father, and knew that the Father heard Him and said, Lazarus was a loud voice, said, Lazarus, come forth. It's the Father that poured out the power to bring Lazarus forth, because that kind of power, Christ, had given up to be flesh and blood. So even the maintenance of the universe had to be done directly by the Father for over 34 years. If the angels wanted to see the one who had created them, they had to look upon the planet, upon earth, to see Him. They didn't see Him in power and glory. They saw Him like another human being. They knew who He was, and they knew He was God in the flesh, but they saw that He was made of flesh and blood, like fellow human beings, that blood flowed in His veins, that air went in and out of His lungs, that He had to eat, He had to drink. And, of course, irony of ironies, the ultimate sacrifice of the Creator, allowing the creation to kill Him.

John 15.13, the ultimate sacrifice.

John 15.13, greater love has no man than this.

Because what can you do that shows greater love than to give your life for somebody? Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

God the Creator ceased to have conscious existence for three days and three nights. For three days and three nights in the tomb, He was dead.

Scripture is plain. There's no conscious thought during that time. You don't know if a day's past or a thousand years. There's no conscious thought. And so for three days and nights, He experienced death.

For three days and nights, God the Creator, as flesh and blood ceased to have conscious existence.

There's no greater love as a man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Romans 5, 7, and 8. Romans 5.

Verse 7 and 8. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die.

But God commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Again, not to turn back there, but Philippians 2, 8. Even the death of the cross crucifixion. Think about it. Being flesh, Christ was within the reach of pain. And think about something else.

He had a perfect set of nerves. He had a perfect set of circulation, nerve endings, all of that. There was no defect or affliction of any kind like that with His body, His being. He was a perfect Lamb of God to be a perfect, complete sacrifice.

And everything worked at 100% optimum capacity and ability. And of course, when that's true, you also feel pleasure, yes, but you feel pain greatly also. Being flesh, He was within the reach of pain. And one of the most painful and humiliating ways to die was that of crucifixion. I mean, again, there's a lot easier ways to die.

The way Paul's life finished was merciful. And if God ever said to me, somehow, some way, through words or actions, not that God talks to me in that way, but if it became obvious, He was going to allow me to have a martyrdom death, and He did give me a choice as to how it would be, I'd probably just say, I tell you, stand me up against the wall and put a 30-0-6 right between my eyes. I'd never feel a thing. I might see the flash of fire at the end of the barrel. That's all. And then I'm waking up to the sound of a trumpet because you don't know when the... Look, I knocked myself out when I was 10 years old with a eye-connected head first, free-fell, connected head first with a slab of concrete. I can still see the concrete coming at me, although I was going at it. That's all I remembered. Didn't hurt a bit. That's all I woke up later. Easier ways to die. But I want you to notice something else. Hebrews 12. In verse 2, we read it, but let's go back and focus on something there. Hebrews 12.2. Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, for that joy that we've touched upon Psalm, endured, put up with, set His mind to get through it, endured the cross. You'll notice despising the shame. He despised the shame. He despised being mocked. He despised being spit on. He despised being made fun of. He despised being beaten and brutalized. It wasn't that He enjoyed it. He despised being hung up like something that wasn't even human anymore. All of that that went with it. He despised the spitting, the nakedness, the scourging, that went on till He was no longer human. He despised it, and He endured, and He did it for the joy that was set before Him. You'd always think about how that in one sense Passover is bittersweet. It's bitter from the standpoint of grasping what Christ went through to make this opportunity for us, for us each individually. But it's sweet knowing the tremendous opportunity that He has granted us. Not only did He give up His spiritual composition by the time they were through with Him, if you understand what He really went through, He hardly looked human. It says that in the prophecies, His visage was marred more than any man. Basically what that means is those years that they went in and out of Jerusalem, crucifixions took place. They'd seen others crucified, no knowing how many they'd seen crucified. But they had never seen anybody as beat up and marred and torn as what Christ looked like when they got through with Him. When we talk about rags, when we talk about poor, when we talk about poverty, the poverty that Paul is referencing, it basically is notating how Christ gave it all up. Think about it. Number one, He gave up His Spirit composition with all the power and the glory that went with it for over 34 years. Number three, He gave up His health and His body because the state He was in when He hung on that stake and what that finished doing to Him. If He had been brought off of it and given life to live, He would have been a crippled, ruined human being. And thirdly, He gave up the last vestige of His life. He gave up His blood.

Brethren, He purchased you and me with blood and pain and suffering. He purchased us with everything He had. He came from the greatest riches that can ever be to the most miserable poverty when you really understand it that can exist, so there was nothing left to give that you and I might go from our poverty to the greatest riches that exist. And realizing the depth of His sacrifice and love for us is so crucial. I want to close with Hebrews 7 and verse 25. It says in Hebrews 7 and verse 25, "...wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost, forevermore, as it can be rendered, that come unto God by or through Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." He can save to the uttermost because He gave the uttermost.

See you, folks, Thursday night.