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Six Sermon Outlines and Discussion Questions to Help God’s People Prepare for Easter

Crucified. Glorified.

Six Sermon Outlines and Questions to Help God’s People Prepare for Easter

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Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016

The vision of CTA is to see Christians highly effective

in their ministry so that Christ’s Kingdom is strengthened and expanded.

We here at CTA pray that the materials in this guide will help pastors and other church leaders prepare each worshipper to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection victory on Easter Sunday. Such celebration can become more deeply meaningful when God’s people set aside time in the weeks leading up to Easter to study the Scriptures and meditate on all Jesus has done for us, personalizing it in our hearts and lives. This meditation invites us to look to the cross, to consider the empty tomb. May you and all who hear these sermons grow closer to our Savior, crucified and glorified.

Each sermon is followed by a set of questions suitable for sparking discussion among the adults or youth in your church. If your worship is more informal, these may be used in the worship setting itself. Or you may use them immediately following the service if that’s more appropriate in your setting.

Alternatively, you may want to use the questions in small-group Bible study or cell groups that meet in homes during the week. They will work well in those settings, too.

In addition to these free materials, these value-priced CTA products will help every member and visitor take the resurrection message home:

* Crucified. Glorified. Devotional Prayer Journal (#CRG19PJ) is designed for daily use by families and individual members of your congregation. It will help members and visitors think more deeply about what Jesus did for them on the cross as, day by day, they prepare their hearts to celebrate his resurrection victory.

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Sermon 1: Death and Glory

Introduction“A picture is worth a thousand words,” they say. But I think they have seriously underestimated the value of a picture. There are some pictures you will never be able to put into words.

For example, you are planning a trip to Arizona and you Google the Grand Canyon. You find a map of Grand Canyon National Park. Along with the map, there are images of the canyon. You can see it at sunrise and then at dusk, from high above in an airplane or from deep below on the river. To capture this wonder and beauty in language is difficult. Instead, you just sit there and stare. Picture after picture evokes a beauty that is hard to put into words. When you look at the world around us, a picture is worth much more than a thousand words.

This is true not only of the world around us but also of the world inside of us. Just as photographers have mapped the physical landscape, neuroscientists are now mapping our mental landscape. Using functional magnetic resonance imagery (MRI), scientists are mapping activity in the brain. To put it simply: They are looking at changes associated with the flow of blood in the brain as you respond to stimuli. Those changes are color coded so you can see what it looks like for a person to laugh, to cry, to be afraid, to have empathy.

In one study, scientists have mapped the brain activity of people listening to different kinds of music. Classical, rock, pop, folk, jazz. Each musical experience has a different pattern. By scanning all of these patterns, they can identify what kind of music a person is listening to simply by looking at the brain.

Pictures open a window for us. They invite us to gaze into experiences of the world. The world around us. The world within us. All of these things can be seen in a picture—a picture that is hard to put into words.

Getting to the HeartBut what about our spiritual world? our relationship with God? What does the picture of being loved by God look like?

This is what we will consider as we draw closer to Easter.

Today, we are beginning a series of sermons called Crucified. Glorified. This series follows Jesus during the last week of his life. Each sermon will focus on one particular moment in the Passion—a picture, if you will. A picture worth more than a thousand words.

We will see Jesus as he enters Jerusalem, as he celebrates Passover with his disciples, as he prays in the Garden, as he dies on the cross. Yet, these are more than just moments in the last week of his life. They are monuments. Pictures of what it looks like when God loves. These sermons, like pictures, will take us from the depths of sin and destruction—Jesus dying on the cross—to the heights of glory and restoration—Jesus rising from the dead. Crucified and Glorified. Jesus will reveal to us the everlasting work of God’s love in the world.

For years, the church has recognized that the last week of Jesus’ life was significant. Momentous. They have called it Holy Week. Crucified. Glorified. is

Notes

Sermon 1: Death and Glory (continued)

about remembering the last week of Jesus. For that last week was a week when everything came together.

Sometimes, it’s amazing to think about the difference a week can make. Consider what happens to parents when they learn they are going to have a child. For parents, the week before you knew and the week after you knew are almost like two different worlds. The week before you knew you were going to have a child, you didn’t care about the extra bedroom or how far you had moved away from your parents. The week after you knew, however, suddenly that extra bedroom becomes a nursery and the short phone calls to your parents become long video chats. One week can change so much about the world.

The same is true with our relationship to God. In one week, Jesus reveals what God has promised for ages to do. After God created the world, Adam and Eve fell into sin and brought the rest of the world with them. Every day, we can look at our lives and see the messes that we have made. Things we have done that can’t be undone. Lies that can never be untold. Hurt that cannot be bandaged up and made better. Without God, we would be lost in a lifetime of sin.

But, God made a promise to do something about our sin. When Jesus came into the world, he came with a mission. As he says in the Gospel of Luke, he came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). And this mission is most clearly seen in the last week of his life.

This week had been foretold by the prophets. Jesus would be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5).

This week had been predicted by Jesus. After Peter confessed him to be the Christ, Jesus taught his disciples that the “Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Luke 9:22).

Foretold by the prophets, predicted by Jesus, we see Holy Week. It is a week filled with pictures of God’s everlasting love. This is the week when God does something about your sin and makes the certainty of his love crystal clear to you. For that reason, we will spend the next few weeks meditating on one week of Jesus’ life. A week that gives us a vision of God’s love.

So, let’s consider our first picture. A picture of death and glory.

The week starts on Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem (Mark 11:1–10). Get a picture of this: Jesus is on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem. He sends his disciples ahead of him to get a colt and bring it to him. Then, he rides down from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem. The crowds are gathering. They take off their outer garments and place them on the road for Jesus to ride over. The children are going out into the field, gathering palm branches and waving them in the air. The people are crying out to God, “Hosanna!” which means “save.”

It looks like a picture of glory. Jesus, riding into Jerusalem to bring about salvation. And yet, there is one small detail that does not make sense. Jesus does not ride on a horse. He does not come as a conqueror. Instead, Jesus rides on a beast of burden—a colt. His salvation will be different than anything that anyone expected.

Notes

Here is where death and glory meet. Rather than come to Jerusalem on a war horse and bring about the Kingdom of God through glorious battle, Jesus comes to Jerusalem on a colt, a beast of burden, and brings about the Kingdom of God by his death. He will die for the sins of all believers and that will be the glory of God. God will make known his glory in the death of Jesus.

John writes that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And that is what happens this week. Jesus dies to bring about forgiveness of sins. He rises from the dead to bring about life eternal. His death is his glory because this is the work that will set us free. Free from sin. Free from death. Free to live a new life in him.

In picturing the human brain, scientists have looked at changes in blood flow. By watching the flow of blood in the brain, they can figure out what is going on. So, too, in picturing the love of God, we look at the flow of blood. The blood Jesus poured out on the cross is the work of God that brings forgiveness, life, and salvation to you and to me.

Taking It HomeIn the Kingdom of God, death and glory are brought together. God takes the hatred of the world and turns it into the love. God takes defeat and makes it victory. God takes weakness and makes it his strength. God takes what is weak in the world, what is despised, what is forsaken, and makes it his own, to be loved and cherished and never forgotten. This is the work of Jesus that we carry with us every day.

Late in his life, Paul wrote a letter to a young pastor named Timothy. As he began writing, he reminded Timothy of this wonderful working of God. Paul writes,

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

1 Timothy 1:15–17

Paul remembers that he persecuted the church of God. Paul remembers how he held the coats of those who were stoning Stephen. Paul remembers his hatred and his sin. But then he also remembers the love of God. God sent Jesus to enter Jerusalem. Not on a horse to triumph over evil by war, but on a donkey to bear the punishment of sin and bring forgiveness to all believers. This work of God is amazing. It is glorious. It is a picture worth more than a thousand words.

So, we find Paul telling his story, how God saved him from sin and brought him into God’s favor. And we find Paul giving us an example of how to tell our story.

God’s work is glorious. Each of us has a story of how God saved us from sin. As we enter the world, we go as his messengers. People who have a story to tell. Across the world, there are millions of people telling millions of stories. Why?

Because this picture of God’s love in Jesus is worth more than thousands of words. As John wrote at the end of his Gospel, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Amen.

Sermon 1: Death and Glory (continued)

Notes

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 1Week 1—Death and Glory

1. Pictures are worth pondering because behind every picture is a story, an experience that we can share. If possible, share a picture from your life. It can be a picture on your phone or a picture you have in your memory.

• Tell about some of your favorite pictures. What stories do they help you tell?

• If you were to choose a picture that captures what it means to be a Christian, what would that picture be and what story would you tell?

2. This week in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, we had the story of Peter’s confession of Jesus and Jesus’ first Passion prediction (Luke 9:18–24). Jesus begins by asking his disciples what people are saying about him. He wants them to know what the world is thinking. Then, Jesus teaches his disciples what he desires them to say about him. He wants to clarify the message of who he is and what he came to do.

• What were people saying about Jesus? What had Jesus been doing in his ministry? What might people have expected his future to look like?

• Today, people still struggle with the mission and ministry of Jesus. What do people say about Jesus today? Who do they think he was and what do they think he came to do?

• After the resurrection, Jesus explains more to his disciples. Read Luke 24:44–49. How was the death of Jesus connected to his mission, the glory of what he had come to do?

3. In his ministry, Jesus predicted his Passion, but before his ministry ever began, prophets had predicted the death of Jesus. After his resurrection, Jesus opened the mind of his disciples to understand the Scriptures and the things that had been written about him (Luke 24:27, 44–47). Read the following Scripture passages. Take note of the connections to the death and glory of Jesus.

• Isaiah 9:1–7• Isaiah 53• Isaiah 61:1–4

© 2019 CTA, Inc. www.CTAinc.com Permission to make photocopies or reproduce by any other mechanical or electronic means is granted and is intended for use within a church or other Christian organization, but not for resale.


4. In writing to Timothy, Paul used his own life as an example of the working of God. He was able to see both death and glory going on in his life and to share that story with Timothy (1 Timothy 1:15–17).

• In writing to the early church, Paul offers another glimpse of God’s glory in the midst of his suffering. Read 2 Corinthians 12:7–10. What does Paul mean when he says, “When I am weak, then I am strong”?

• What times in your life have you seen God’s strength in the midst of your weakness?

• Make a list of ways in which God strengthens you.

5. Sometimes, our bodies carry scars from things that have happened to us. The wounds may heal but the scar remains. Years later, we can point at the scar and tell a story about what happened. We live and hope even though our body bears a scar.

• What scars do you have in your life from carrying your burdens, your cross?

• How can you use those scars to tell the story of God’s love and work in your life, a picture of God at work in death and glory?

As you leave today, pray with and for one another. Share personal prayer requests. Ask the Holy Spirit to draw each of you closer to Christ and to one another as you prepare to celebrate the Savior’s resurrection.

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 1Week 1—Death and Glory (continued)

Sermon 2: Prepare and Watch

IntroductionSometimes a person’s whole life is gathered up into one moment.

During the Olympics, before an athlete competes in an event, commentators will talk about how the athlete spent years training for this exact moment. For example, you may see an ice skater preparing for her final program. The commentator talks about the kind of intense training that goes into this event. As the commentator talks, you see images of a young girl, holding her dad’s hand as she struggles to stand in skates on the ice. You see a film clip of her practicing a jump and falling. Early morning training. Weekend competitions. The images pass by and then you are brought back to the present moment. The announcer says, “She has worked a lifetime for this moment,” and the music begins.

A lifetime of preparation for just one moment.

The same thing can happen outside athletics too. It happens for people like you and me.

I heard a story about a couple, Eduardo and Maria. They had just received news from the doctor. The results were not conclusive, but the doctor strongly believed Maria had MS. They were now awaiting a schedule of further tests. As they sat there in the doctor’s office, Maria felt Eduardo touch her hand. He said, “We’ll handle it.” His words brought a lifetime of memories rushing back. That’s what he’d said when she needed to be on total bedrest during the last weeks of her pregnancy. That’s what he’d said when they closed the factory. That’s what he’d said when their second child was diagnosed with depression. Again and again, throughout all of those years, she had felt him place his hand on hers and say, “We’ll handle it.” And, with God’s grace and strength, they did.

Those words meant work. Hard work. A facing of facts. They led to a deeper reliance upon faith and prayer. And a daily commitment to doing what could be done and entrusting their days and burdens to the Lord.

Suddenly, Maria saw it. Those years of faith in the midst of hardship were training. Training for this present moment. And, although she was devastated by the news and afraid of what this might mean for her family, she knew that they would handle it. God had prepared them for a moment like this.

Getting to the HeartOur theme for today is “Prepare and Watch.” If you have been reading along in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, you will remember last week’s readings touched on the parables Jesus told during the last week of his life. Jesus was telling stories to touch the imagination of his disciples. He wanted them to prepare and watch. He spoke of bridesmaids waiting for the groom, of guests invited to a banquet and needing to be prepared, of people watching and waiting for trees to bear fruit. In story after story, Jesus was encouraging his disciples to watch. Prepare and watch for the coming Kingdom of God.

Jesus wants you to know something, too—discipleship is not one day a week. Living in the Kingdom is not about one hour on a weekend. It is 24/7. Day in, day

Notes

out—preparing and watching. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to keep watching? It is so easy to come to church on Sunday and think we have got God covered. For us, being a Christian can sometimes be reduced simply to going to church. Yet, there’s more to it than that.

“I went to church,” we say to God. Then God responds, “Yes. And now, you’re going out into the world. I’ll meet you there. Be prepared. Watch.”

Jesus wants us to live in deep discipleship with him. He wants us to meet him in our daily lives in the world. But what does that look like?

Today, Jesus gives us an answer not in parables but in a person:

It was now two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest [Jesus] by stealth and kill him, for they said, “Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar from the people.”

And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, “Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me. She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burial. And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”

Mark 14:1–9

Jesus was in the town of Bethany. It was a small village about two miles outside of Jerusalem. With the celebration of Passover, Jerusalem was crowded, and so Jesus was eating dinner outside Jerusalem in the home of Simon.

While he is reclining at table, a woman comes in. She is carrying a bottle of ointment. Expensive ointment. It was a perfume that had been made from the roots of a plant grown in the mountains of northern India. It had come from halfway across the world and brought with it a fragrance that people had only heard about, never smelled.

Coming to Jesus, she broke the long neck of the jar and poured the ointment over his head. Fragrance filled the room. If you have ever wanted to know what wonder would smell like, this was it. Some of the people there were transported to a world of kings. They saw Jesus, reclining at table with oil running down his face and the scent of wonder from a distant kingdom filling the room. They were lost in wonder at this moment. The Kingdom of God was breaking into the world.

While some were transported to a world of kings, others preferred to sit there in a world of merchants.

They began to argue about this anointing. It was a waste of money. This ointment could have been sold. The proceeds could have been given to the poor. A

Sermon 2: Prepare and Watch (continued)

Notes

whole year’s salary—think of the good you could do with that! All of that money, wasted as it was poured out on Jesus.

The room quickly closed in as these men poured out their anger on the woman. They scolded her. They turned everyone’s eyes away from Jesus and onto her. She suddenly looked foolish. Wasteful. Inconsiderate. Uncaring toward the poor.

But then Jesus spoke. He interrupts their hatred to speak love. He stops an argument in order to begin a conversation—a conversation that we can learn from today. Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Mark 14:9).

Jesus connects what she did with the gospel. Why? Because she anointed Jesus for his burial. He would soon be beaten, spit on, scourged and flogged, nailed to a tree. But he was anointed for this work. His death and burial would be a royal act of love. This is how God will bring about the Kingdom. For her, for the disciples, for you. What she did was right—it was foolish, it was wasteful, but it was right. Why? Because it was connected to this wonderful, wasteful love of God.

Jesus is trying to train us. To help recognize love when we see it. Love sometimes looks foolish. Wasteful. Unwise.

That God would send his Son to die for sinners is foolish. That God would love those who do not love him back is a waste. That God would entrust his Kingdom to people who keep on failing him is unwise. And yet that is the wonderful love that brings you into the Kingdom of God. God sends his Son, Jesus, to do the foolish work of love. He dies for you and then rises to teach you what his death truly means. You are forgiven of your sins and you are made a child in God’s Kingdom. Anointed with the Spirit, you now bring to the world this foolishly fragrant, this wonderfully wasteful love of God.

Taking It HomeBy giving us a picture of this woman, Jesus invites us to see the work of God. First in him and then in our lives.

Like this woman, Jesus takes that which is priceless and pours it out for us. The King of all creation pours out his royal blood on the cross. That death, however, is not the end. It is the beginning as it fills the world with wonder. It descends to the depths of hell with victory over sin, death, and the devil. It rises to the heights of heaven with power and glory. It crosses the mountains and travels over the seas. It goes from Jerusalem to Ethiopia and to the ends of the earth. It is found even here. Today. In this place, where people sometimes think that faith means giving one day of the week to God. Here, Jesus comes to share with you the good news that he has given his life for you. You are forgiven.

And now, Jesus invites you to watch the work of God in your lives. Today, he prepares you. He shows you what love looks like. And tomorrow he will meet you out in the world. Watch for him. Wherever an act of love is out of place, wherever a word of forgiveness is foolish, wherever a work of kindness is a waste, there you will find him. Waiting for you.

Sermon 2: Prepare and Watch (continued)

Notes

1. Share a story about a time in life when your training was put to good use. It could be on-the-job training or the kind of personal skills we develop by going through life experiences.

• What is the value of training?

• Think of an example from Scripture that shows how God trains his people for life in his Kingdom.

• Where do you think God is training you right now? Explain.

2. This week in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, we had the story of the widow’s offering (Mark 12:41–44). Read that story again and reflect on how Jesus was using this widow’s action to train his disciples to see God at work in the world.

• If someone asked you, “How much did the widow give?” you could answer, “Two small copper coins.” Why would that answer be insufficient? What did Jesus want his disciples to see?

• When you read this story in its context, you realize that the temple was filled with corruption. Jesus had just recently called it a “den of robbers” (Mark 11:15–19). How does the fact that this widow gave all she had for a corrupt religious institution help us see the wonder of God’s love in Jesus? What was Jesus about to give? For whom?

3. The apostle Paul teaches us that the Gospel is centered on God’s self-sacrificial love for us in Jesus. Read Romans 5:6–11 and meditate on Paul’s description of the Gospel.

• In these verses, Paul uses words like we and us. What does Paul ask us to confess about ourselves before God and one another? Why is this important for understanding and believing the Gospel?

• What happens if we start believing that God came to save people who loved him and not those who were his enemies? How can that shape our lives of faith and service in the world?

• What happens when we believe that God came to save his enemies? How does that shape our lives of faith and service in the world?

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 2Week 2—Prepare and Watch

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 2Week 2—Prepare and Watch (continued)

4. In the story of the woman who anointed Jesus, Jesus teaches us that God’s love may appear foolish and wasteful in the world.

• Sometimes, when it comes to sharing God’s love, Christians look for places where it will have the best results. Where would that be for you? What are you doing to share God’s love there?

• Where do you find it most challenging to share God’s love? Why would it be foolish or wasteful to love in such a place? How do you respond to that challenge?

5. Read Isaiah 55:8–11 and 1 Corinthians 3:5–9. In these passages, God reminds us that his love is never wasted.

• Think of a time in your life when you discovered this to be true about God’s love. Share that experience with others.

• How has that past experience formed you or trained you to think about God and his work in the world?

• How do these scriptural promises from God and these real-life examples help us approach the challenging places in life where we can share his love?

6. God has prepared you for service in the world. He has forgiven your sins so that you will know his boundless love. He has given you his Spirit that you might be empowered to share that love with others. He now invites you to watch for his working in the week to come.

• What concerns do you have about the coming week and the work of God in your life?

• How does Jesus give you courage and hope?




IntroductionImagine walking into a mall. As you pass by a digital advertising display, you hear your name. The advertisement asks you how you enjoyed the jeans you recently purchased. Then, it suggests a shirt to go with them. The shirt is on sale—just $19.99. This scene from a science-fiction movie is actually coming closer to reality.

NEC, a company that produces digital advertising signs, has tested facial recognition software in advertising. Instead of you looking at an ad, the ad looks at you. Cameras recognize you, identify you, and then analyze you as a consumer. By tapping into a database of your consumer habits, the display knows what you like and starts to show advertisements that appeal to you. Facial recognition helps advertisers connect to customers.

Facial recognition hasn’t been used only to connect. It has also been used to protect. Law-enforcement agencies use facial recognition software to identify suspects in crimes. At the 2001 Super Bowl, high-tech facial-recognition cameras scanned the crowd for security threats.

Imagine what would happen, however, if there were another kind of software. A computer system that, instead of reading your face, read your heart. We could call it “heart-recognition software.” What you were thinking and feeling at the moment would be transparent to the people around you.

Your daughter comes in the kitchen and asks what you think about her new boyfriend. You know, the one with the souped-up Camaro and the speakers that rattle the windows when he pulls in the driveway. You say, “I don’t really know him that well.” Her heart-recognition software tells her, “That’s right, Mom really doesn’t know him. But she already made up her mind.” Or your son asks you what you think about him applying to a college halfway across the country. This time, you don’t even get a word out before he knows your reply.

For now, I guess, we are safe. Technology can read our faces, but it is having a harder time with our hearts.

But not Jesus. Jesus doesn’t even need to look at our faces. Jesus knows our hearts. Jesus knows that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). And he has come to do something about it.

Jesus has come to take away our guilt and to give us innocence. His innocence. That is the wonder that we will meditate upon today.

Getting to the HeartIf you have been reading along in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, you will remember how last week’s readings told us of two preparations: Judas preparing to betray Jesus and Jesus preparing to celebrate Passover with his disciples. God has woven these two things together: the betrayal of Jesus and the celebration of Passover. One reveals the hearts of humans and the other reveals the heart of God.

It is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—the day when they sacrifice the Passover lamb. And the disciples have gone to prepare a place for Jesus to celebrate Passover. Mark tells us, “When it was evening, [Jesus] came with the

Sermon 3: Guilt and Innocence

Notes

Sermon 3: Guilt and Innocence (continued)

Notestwelve. And as they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me’” (Mark 14:17–18).

Jesus has read their hearts. Jesus knows that Judas is going to betray him.

What is interesting about this moment is the disciples’ response. Mark tells us that all of the disciples ask Jesus the same question. The question is simply “Is it I?” (Mark 14:19). Notice that the disciples do not say to Jesus, “Who is it? Who is the one who is going to betray you?” or “How can we help?” Instead, they ask, “Is it I?” All of them ask Jesus the same question.

Why?

Because the disciples know that the heart is a mysterious place. Even though they think that they would never betray Jesus, even though they are certain that Jesus will say, “No, it’s not you,” one can never really be sure with the heart.

Our hearts are a mystery to us. Why do we do the things we do?

You are driving to work, listening to Christian radio, when someone cuts you off in traffic. Suddenly, you become angry. One minute, you’re listening to songs about faith and the power of Jesus and the next minute you are adding your own nasty soundtrack to the playlist. Why? Because we cannot read our hearts.

You are sharing a prayer request with a friend at church—Sharon is having difficulty in her marriage. As you share the prayer request with a friend, you find yourself elaborating, adding your own opinion, diagnosing the situation, sharing speculations. Suddenly, something as beautiful as a prayer turns into ugly gossip. And the lips that are going to pray to the Lord are whispering half-truths about a friend. Why? Because we cannot read our hearts.

Why do the disciples ask this question? Because they, like us, have hearts that are inclined to evil from their youth. Today, one by one, we could all stand before Jesus and ask, “Is it I?” because we know the power of sin and we confess that we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

What is beautiful about this moment at the Passover feast, however, is that it reveals more than our hearts. It also reveals the heart of God.

In the middle of this painful, heart-searching moment, Jesus tells his disciples, “For the Son of Man goes as it is written of him” (Mark 14:21). Jesus knows about our heart. He knows it is evil and that it will betray him. But he also knows the heart of God.

He was there in eternity when God chose to love his creation. He was there when Adam and Eve fell into sin in the Garden of Eden and God promised that he would send a Savior. He was there as that promise was taught and prayed among his people, preached and prophesied among the nations. And he is there now, living, breathing, dying, to make the promise come true. Jesus, the Son of Man, will die as it is written of him.

Jesus’ death is that moment when we see the heart of God.

Jesus will take our guilt upon himself and offer us his innocence. He will bear the punishment of our sin that we might experience the joy of salvation.

For this reason, Jesus celebrates Passover. He takes the bread and the cup and speaks of his body and blood. He will be our Passover Lamb. His blood will be our protection, causing the angel of death to pass over us. His body will be our connection. Rising from the dead and giving us his innocence and new life.

Jesus will protect us from God’s wrath and connect us to God’s love that we might have a new heart to live for God.

Taking It HomeWhat does it mean to have a new heart?

It means that, as we look at the past, we will remember God’s works. Here, the psalmist David shares what it is like to give thanks to God:

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 9:1

Having a new heart means recounting God’s wonderful deeds. Reading through Scripture and seeing God at work. Looking at your life and seeing God’s mysterious grace. Take a moment this week to recall the mercies of God. For every sin you recall, remember forgiveness. For every kindness you experience, give thanks for grace.

A new heart also means that, as we look at the present, we will walk in the ways of God:

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Ezekiel 36:26–28

In this prophecy, Ezekiel foresees the day when God restores his people. On that day, God will put his Spirit in their hearts and that Spirit will lead them in the ways God desires them to go. So often we feel like we face the world alone. Jesus, however, has not left us alone. He has sent his Spirit to live within us and that Spirit empowers us to serve God and others in daily life.

With this new heart, we look to the future and we wait to see God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). By nature, none of us is pure in heart. Therefore, by nature, none of us would have this blessing. But we don’t live by nature. We live by grace. Christ has taken our guilt and given us innocence—his innocence. And now, in Christ, we stand pure in heart before God. There will come a day when the earth rolls up and heavens roll open, when Christ returns and brings about a new creation—we will see God!

On that day, we will stand before the throne. Our ears will ring with the songs of Zion. Our hearts will overflow with the love of God. And our eyes will be filled with a glorious vision. On that day, we will have one last moment of true facial recognition. We will see our Savior. Face-to-face. Protected by God for this moment, we will be connected to God for eternity.

Sermon 3: Guilt and Innocence (continued)

Notes

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 3Week 3—Guilt and Innocence

1. Sometimes we talk about an action being “heartfelt” or we say that a person “put her whole heart into it.”

• What do we mean when we say those phrases?

• Why is it important that people “put their heart” into things?

• Describe a moment in your life when you just “went through the motions.” Compare it to a moment when you did something because “your heart was in it.”

2. Sometimes, faith can be reduced to a collection of doctrinal teachings. While teachings are essential to belief, faith is also a matter of the heart.

• In what ways do we ignore the heart in our relationship with God and our life of discipleship?

• What happens when we do that?

• Share a moment in your life when faith became more than a teaching for you and touched your heart.

3. This week in the prayer journal Crucified. Glorified., we read how Judas prepared to betray Jesus (Matthew 26:1–5, 14–16) and how Jesus prepared to celebrate the Passover with his disciples (Luke 22:7–15). When Jesus was faced with his betrayal by Judas, he did not flee from Jerusalem. Instead, he chose to celebrate Passover. In fact, in Luke, Jesus tells the disciples that he has “earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer” (Luke 22:15).

• If you knew that somebody was going to betray you, what would you do? Why?

• Why does Jesus respond to this hatred with love?



• How does this response relate to Jesus’ mission? (See Mark 10:45 and Luke 19:10.)

4. When King David was guilty of adultery, murder, and deceit, he came before God in confession of his guilt and received forgiveness for his sin from the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1–14). David’s prayer of repentance tells the story of a guilty heart that becomes innocent by God’s grace. Read Psalm 51.

• David describes his guilt in verses 3–5. What qualities of his confession are powerful for you? Explain.

• In the middle of the psalm, David prays that God would create in him a “clean heart” (Psalm 51:10). List the actions that David believes will flow from having a “clean heart.”

• What implications does David’s prayer have for us today?

5. Because Jesus has taken away our guilt, we are able to come before God with clean hearts. This changes how we look at the past, the present, and the future.

• Read Psalm 9:1 and retell one of God’s wonderful deeds in your past for which you are thankful.

• Read Ezekiel 36:26–28 and share a prayer request regarding one of the paths that God is calling you to walk this week.

• Read Matthew 5:8 and describe why it is a comfort to know that, at the end of all things, you will see God.


Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 3Week 3—Guilt and Innocence (continued)

Sermon 4: Punishment and Freedom

IntroductionPicture a shipping dock in the dead of night. Fog fills the air. A criminal stands there, surrounded by shipping containers. Some are open, others closed. All of them are rusted. Then he hears it. The sound of footsteps. Slow. Deliberate. He starts to run. He darts down one row and then crosses over into another. He considers hiding in a container—until he hears a voice. It sounds close—a little too close for comfort. “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

That phrase, “You can run, but you can’t hide,” is a favorite in movies. Originally used by a champion boxer to describe his opponent in a ring, the phrase highlights that any attempt at escape is futile. It doesn’t have to be a boxer, dancing around a ring to avoid his opponent’s left hook. It could be a person stepping onto the subway, jumping onto a bike, diving into a river, running into the woods. When someone runs from punishment, the law of entertainment says, “You can run, but you can’t hide.” So, we watch until the subway tunnel stops, the bike path ends, the swimmer surfaces, or the forest clears. And there will be our person, out of breath and soon out of life. “You can run, but you can’t hide.”

This law of entertainment is great for the movies but distressing in real life. Our crime doesn’t have to be dramatic. It could be mundane. Gossip shared among friends. A shortcut we took to get the job done. A lie we told to get someone off our back.

People start putting pieces together and we start to run. We try one thing after another to hide from our sin, but at some point, it is out in the open. What we did in the darkness is exposed to the light. And we realize that this is more than a law of entertainment—it is the Law of God. You can run, but you can’t hide. Not from God. Sin will lead to punishment. Which is why it is so important for us to meditate today on the one scene from the ministry of Jesus: the Garden of Gethsemane. Here, we learn the difference between running from punishment and following Jesus into freedom.

Getting to the HeartIf you have been reading along in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, you will remember last week’s readings that considered the night when Jesus was betrayed. For us, it looks like a typical movie scene. The Garden of Gethsemane is dark and isolated. Jesus is praying. His disciples are sleeping. Suddenly you hear a sound. Torches appear, and in the flickering light, you see faces. Judas. Jesus. Only unlike the movies, Jesus stands there. He does not run. He does not hide. He stands there to be betrayed by Judas.

Behind him, his disciples scatter. Jesus had predicted this would happen. Earlier, he said as much to his disciples:

“You will all fall away. . . . For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’”

Matthew 26:31

While the Shepherd stands there and is betrayed, the disciples run and try to hide.

The scene is familiar. If not to you, then certainly to God. This is how humans have

Notes

Notes

Sermon 4: Punishment and Freedom (continued)

acted since the fall in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they knew they had sinned. They saw themselves. They were naked and afraid. And so, they ran:

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Genesis 3:8

They could run, but they couldn’t hide.

How good are you at running and hiding? What ways are you avoiding God and his will for your life?

For the disciples, running away was how they would save their lives. Rather than die with Jesus, they would live without him. They put a distance between them and their Savior. In our lives, we try not to make it as dramatic as that. We want to live with Jesus, but we also want to run away from confessing our sin.

How do we run? Well, sometimes we run by putting a distance between ourselves and other people. Rather than face the difficulty of admitting our error and working through the consequences of it, it is easier to run away. We run away from a friendship that we broke with our lying. We run away from a relationship that we broke with our anger.

Putting distance between ourselves and other people can help us hide from sins we have done. It can also help us hide from good that God would have us do.

Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37)? A man lies beaten, stripped, and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite, both religious authorities, pass by on the other side. They put the greatest distance they can between themselves and someone needing their help. Whether we drive to church and pass by a homeless person on the street or give God thanks for a meal while someone else goes hungry, we put distance between ourselves and others. We divide the world up into yours and mine. We put a distance between ourselves and others and end up being possessed by our possessions rather than sharing the gifts of God.

The problem with all of this distance is not just the sin that we do and the good that we don’t do. It’s the gap that exists between us and God. That gap will not last forever, though, because God has a way of seeking out his people. You can run, but you can’t hide.

When God came to the Garden of Eden, he knew that Adam and Eve had sinned. He knew that they were hiding in the midst of the Garden, and yet he sought them. He came looking for them and called out to them.

I’d like you to think about that for a moment. Why would God call out to Adam and Eve?

Our first thought is punishment. But actually, there is something more. Have you ever caught your kids doing something you explicitly told them not to do? A father tells his son not to raid the cookie jar. Then he comes into the kitchen and sees it: the chair is by the counter, the cookie jar is open, and his son is sitting

Notes


on the floor enjoying a treat. Rather than fly into a rage, the father asks his son, “What are you doing?” Why does he ask? He already knows the answer. It’s obvious what his son is doing! But he asks anyway.

The father knows that love begins in relationships. In that moment when the son confesses and the father forgives, there is love. And so, the father patiently stands there in the doorway and tries to have a conversation with his son.

In the Garden of Eden, God patiently stands there and calls out to Adam and Eve. He wants to establish a relationship with them once again. A relationship of love. Yes, this involves a confession of their sin, but it also involves a promise of forgiveness. God desires to know his creatures by coming to them, being with them, talking to them about their sin, and offering them his salvation.

This is the reason Jesus does not run in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is faced with a choice. He can run like his disciples or he can stand there and be betrayed. He chooses to be betrayed. Why?

Because he has come to bring salvation. Just as God once came in the Garden of Eden, so Jesus now comes in the Garden of Gethsemane to begin a new relationship with his people. As John writes, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Jesus will do this not just by talking with us about our sin but by taking our punishment on himself.

We run from our sin and hide from God, hoping to be free from its punishment. Jesus does the opposite. He runs to us in the midst of our sin and stands there to bear its punishment. This is what Jesus is doing in the Garden. When his disciples scatter like sheep, he stands there like a shepherd. A Shepherd who is willing to lay down his life for the sheep.

In the Kingdom of God, all sin leads to punishment. You can run, but ultimately, you can’t hide. But Jesus comes to bear the punishment of God for you. He stands there to be delivered into the hands of sinners. He is led to crucifixion and dies under the wrath of God on the cross. But then Jesus will rise, and like a shepherd, he will lead you. Jesus will lead you into freedom. The freedom of being a child of God. Your life of running will end, and you will be invited into a lifetime of following—following Jesus and living out God’s will in God’s world.

Because of Jesus, we no longer need to run and hide. He has taken our punishment and given us freedom. Now we can rise and follow him.

Taking It HomeWhat does it mean to follow this Jesus? It means to live in two kinds of freedom.

First, there is freedom from punishment. Rather than run away from our sin, we confess it to God. John writes, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8–9).

A lot of people think that the Church is full of hypocrites, people who think that they don’t sin or that they are better than others. God’s people, however, live by confessing their sins. They don’t deny them or deceive others about them.

Instead, we know that Jesus Christ has suffered the punishment for our sins and therefore we confess our sins to Jesus and live in the freedom from punishment for the wrong that we have done.

But following Jesus is about more than freedom from punishment. It is also about freedom for good. If the Church were only about freedom from punishment, imagine the kind of people that Christians would be. They could go out into the world and do any kind of evil they wanted and then come before God, confess it, and be free from punishment. Freedom from punishment could lead to all sorts of evil.

This is what Paul is arguing against in his letter to the church at Rome. He writes, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). That is, are we to be people who continually go out into the world and sin because God forgives us all our wrongdoings? Paul answers,

By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:2–4

Newness of life—that is the second kind of freedom we live in. First, there is freedom from punishment, and second, there is freedom for good. Forgiven of our sins, we no longer run and hide. Instead, we rise and follow. We follow Jesus. We do the good works that Jesus would have us do. Rather than avoid the man, beaten up and left for dead on the side of the road, we come close to him and care for him. We share with the world the love of God that we have come to know in Jesus.

In a world where people run and hide, we rise and follow Jesus.

Notes


1. In raising children, parents sometimes punish them for doing wrong. It could be a time-out for smaller children or the loss of phone privileges for a teenager. More important than the punishment, however, is the talk that parents want to have with their children about what happened.

• Why is this talk important? Why is it sometimes difficult?

• What do the parents hope to accomplish?

2. In Genesis 3:8–13, we read the first conversation God has with Adam and Eve after they have sinned. Rather than tell them what he already knows, God invites Adam and Eve to confess to him what they have done. They can run from God, but they cannot hide.

• For Adam and Eve, confession of sin is difficult. They confess what they have done, but only with qualifications. In essence, they say to God, “Yes . . . but . . .” What are the qualifications that Adam and Eve offer to God? How is this another way of trying to hide from God?

• What difficulties do you have in confessing your sins to God? to other people? What kinds of qualifications do you want to make?

• What is the problem with always offering qualifications when you confess your sin?

3. In response to their sin, God pronounces punishment. With this punishment, however, God also makes a promise. In Genesis 3:15, what promise does God make about the offspring of the woman?

• How was this promise fulfilled in Jesus (Hebrews 2:14–15 and 1 John 3:8)?

• Not only did Jesus defeat Satan for us, he also bore the punishment of our sin (1 Peter 2:24). God promises us that those who come to Jesus and trust in him will be forgiven of their sins (1 John 1:8–9). Take a moment to pray to God and confess your sins to him.

• Read Psalm 130. Which verses comfort you with the assurance of God’s forgiveness? Why?

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 4Week 4—Punishment and Freedom



4. This week in the prayer journal Crucified. Glorified., we read about Peter denying Jesus (Luke 22:54–62). This event had been prophesied earlier by Jesus. Read Luke 22:31–34 and consider what Jesus prophesied about this moment.

• After Jesus looks at Peter, Peter remembers the prophecy and repents of his sin (Luke 22:61). If Peter had made a confession to Jesus, what qualifications might he have added to his confession: “Yes, I denied you Lord, but . . .”?

• When you read Jesus’ prophecy of this event, notice that it does more than predict Peter’s denial. It also promises Peter’s restoration. What will Jesus do for Peter and what will Jesus do through Peter after his denial (Luke 22:32)?

• As you think about the life and ministry of Peter after the resurrection of Jesus, how did this prophecy come true?

5. Because Jesus has come to take our punishment and to give us freedom in him, we no longer need to run and hide. Instead, we rise and follow. We are free to serve Jesus in many different ways in the world.

• Read the account of Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1–10. What did it mean for Zacchaeus to rise and follow Jesus?

* Read the parable in Luke 10:25–37. What did it mean for the lawyer to rise and follow Jesus?

• Identify three ways you can rise and follow Jesus this coming week.


Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 4Week 4—Punishment and Freedom

IntroductionPain. We’ve all experienced it. From the bodily pain of arthritis that makes simple chores difficult to the emotional pain of rejection that causes us to pause before we send a text. Pain pervades our lives.

Let’s pause for a moment and consider how pain works.

On the one hand, pain can distract us. Jeff is at his son’s basketball game. They’ve been working on his son’s dribbling. Jeff promised his son that he would watch and give him some tips after the game. But it’s hard to concentrate. Jeff has been having issues with his lower back. Right now, it feels like somebody is taking an ice pick and digging it into his side. He can’t get comfortable on the bleachers, and he certainly can’t pay attention to his son’s game. Pain has a way of distracting us from the task at hand.

On the other hand, pain can focus our attention. She never would have known about the support group if the pain hadn’t become too hard to bear. Manie passed away suddenly. One minute he was in the kitchen getting burgers ready for the grill and the next minute he was lying on the deck as they called 911 and tried CPR. “He didn’t have a chance,” the doctor said. A massive brain aneurysm. She had driven by the church for months and seen the sign for a grief support group that meets on Thursdays. She had never paid attention before. After Manie’s death, however, she saw it. And she went. Her friends wouldn’t believe it. Her? In a church? She couldn’t believe it herself. But she was desperate, and she knew she couldn’t go on. That’s how bad it was. But that’s also what pain does. It causes us to focus. To see things we have never seen before and to find help when help is needed.

So, pain can do two things. It can distract us or it can focus our attention. The question for us today is: What happens with spiritual pain? Does it distract you from the task at hand or does it focus your attention on something good?

Getting to the HeartIf you have been reading along in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, you will remember the readings last week that told the story of Jesus being crucified. First, he was tried by Pilate, then sent to Herod, and then brought back to Pilate and handed over for crucifixion. When Mark records the crucifixion of Jesus, he offers us a glimpse into the power of pain.

Let’s begin by considering how pain distracts. Crucifixion was a painful ordeal. Beaten, stripped, bleeding, Jesus hung there to die. He would not die from loss of blood. He would die from loss of air. With his arms stretched out, he would reach a point when he would no longer have the strength to raise up his chest to breathe. His own weight and weakness would suffocate him. And people would walk by and watch as Jesus hung there in misery.

Mark tells us that people who were passing by began mocking Jesus. They looked at Jesus, hanging there in pain, and they laughed at him. Some remembered how Jesus said he would tear down the temple and raise it again in three days (Mark 15:29). What a joke! “Save yourself, and come down from the cross!” they said (Mark 15:30). The pain of the crucifixion distracted these people from what

Notes

Sermon 5: Pain and Victory

Notes

Sermon 5: Pain and Victory (continued)

was going on. To these people, the very fact that Jesus was suffering on the cross meant that he didn’t have power to save or do any of the things he said he would do.

It wasn’t only those who passed by who were distracted by Jesus’ pain. The religious leaders themselves saw the pain and made a conclusion: this was proof that Jesus was not the Messiah. “He saved others; he cannot save himself,” they said. “Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:31–32).

When Jesus was crucified, the pain of crucifixion and the shame of dying on a cross distracted people from God and from what God was doing in the midst of all of this pain.

It is easy for us to be distracted by pain. It could be the pain of others, as at the crucifixion, or it could be the pain we are experiencing ourselves. Pain can distract us from the ways of God. In fact, pain can make us wonder, “Where is God?”

Think about Paul. He had a “thorn in the flesh.” Paul doesn’t tell us what this was, but he does tell us about its pain. It was a “messenger of Satan” and it harassed him. It beat him up. Three times he called out to God to remove it and God never took it away (2 Corinthians 12:7–8). Imagine the distress. Here was a man who had seen Jesus in a vision. He had been delivered from his enemies. He had made it through storms and through beatings and through riots in the cities. But now, he comes before God with pain and cries for relief—and nothing happens. This pain could very well have distracted the apostle Paul.

Pain like that didn’t stop with the apostle Paul. It continues today. And it still has the power to distract you from God.

When people walk away from their faith, the first step in that journey often involves pain.

Ron left his faith when he walked out of the children’s hospital for the last time. He went to the parking garage and he cried. He had been going to the hospital, visiting his son, and coming to the car and praying each time he went home. This time, however, there was no need to pray. His child was dead and, for Ron, so was God.

Amanda left her faith when she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She had three children, two with autism, and she had recently gone through a divorce. She was estranged from her parents, estranged from her spouse, and now it was like she was estranged from her own body. She didn’t want to face this degenerative disease alone but the pain of the divorce, the pain of the diagnosis, the pain of a future filled with steroids and flare-ups distracted her. She turned away from God.

All of us have pain in our lives. Our pains are different, unique. But they all have the potential to be a tool of Satan. Satan uses pain to beat us up, to make us

Notes


suffer, to make us angry, depressed, isolated, despairing. But even more, Satan always uses pain to distract us from God. His ultimate goal: our giving up on God and walking away.

That’s why Mark’s account of the crucifixion is so important. Because at the crucifixion, we see one Man who did not give up and walk away: Jesus. Jesus endured the pain and used it to focus attention on what he was doing—bringing about the victory of God.

When the soldiers brought Jesus to Golgotha, they laid him on the ground to nail him to the cross. Mark tells us that they offered Jesus “wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it” (Mark 15:23). This was a merciful act. Because crucifixion was so painful, the soldiers offered wine mixed with spices. It would not obliterate the pain, but it might make it a bit easier to bear. Jesus, however, refused.

Jesus would not be distracted. He would face the pain and endure it—for you. You see, pain did not distract Jesus in the crucifixion. No, pain focused his attention on the work of God that would bring victory over pain.

When Jesus died, John was standing there at the foot of the cross. He tells us what he saw. At the very end, Jesus knew it was all finished. He had endured the pain of crucifixion and he had endured the pain of divine punishment for sin. He had endured abandonment from God. When this was all over, he cried out, “I thirst” and was given a sip of sour wine. Jesus wanted this wine not to dull the pain but to wet his lips so that he could declare his victory over pain. He cried out, “It is finished,” and with that, he bowed his head and died (John 19:28–30).

Pain did not distract Jesus. Instead, it focused his attention on the work of God. Jesus would fight against Satan and bear every one of Satan’s afflictions. Jesus would take every thorn in the world and wear it as a crown. He would experience the eternal punishment of sin, drink every last drop of God’s cup of wrath, so that there is nothing left for you. Jesus triumphs over pain by enduring it for you. His pain is his triumph—the victory of God. Now, there is nothing Satan can ever do to him or to his people to separate them from God. There is no wrath or punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus. All of Satan’s weapons are destroyed, all of God’s wrath is endured, and Jesus now reigns as our victor over pain.

Paul knew this. He knew it personally. When he cried out to God because of the thorn in his flesh, God answered him and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God made his power known not by taking away Paul’s pain but by coming to be with him in the midst of it. In the midst of pain, Paul knew the victorious power of God. God would use this pain for his purposes. For this reason, Paul boasts in his weaknesses. He says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

Paul knew the power of Christ. He has taken the thorns of this world and turned them into a crown of victory. In the midst of pain, Paul knew the victory of God. He knew that God’s “grace is sufficient for you.”

Notes


Taking It HomeSo, what do you do with the pain?

We all have pain, but most times, we don’t talk about the pain. We try to tough it out. We think that Christians shouldn’t have pain. And that’s dangerous. Because, when we don’t talk about the pain in our lives, we lose sight of its significance. Its power is not to be underestimated. Satan can use pain to lead us away from God. He can use it to distract us—to cause us to question whether God exists or whether God cares about us.

Paul offers us a different way. This different way does not ignore pain. It does not say, “It doesn’t hurt.” No, Paul cries out in pain to God. And he talks about pain with others. And so should you. Paul models for us how we can share our pain with one another. But that’s not all.

Paul also trusts God in the midst of pain. He knows that God has control. Why? Because Jesus Christ has entered into our pain. He has suffered under it and defeated it by rising from the dead. Jesus brings us victory over pain. Every thorn you bear is known by Jesus. Every pain you experience has already been in his hand. Satan’s claim on you is finished. He is defeated. He cannot conquer you with pain. Jesus is the victor over pain! He promises to be with you in the midst of it and he will bring you closer to God and closer to one another as you suffer through it in this world.

Think about how God worked through the pain in Paul. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he shared his pain. This drew God’s people closer to Paul and closer to God. As Paul writes in the opening of the letter,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4

Rather than distract us, pain directs us. It directs our attention to Jesus, to his victory over Satan, to his promise to be with us, and to his comfort that we share with one another in all of our affliction. In the midst of pain, we hear the words of our Lord, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

1. Pain has the ability either to distract us or to focus our attention. Share a story about a time in your life when pain distracted you or focused your attention.

2. Sometimes, people carry a burden of pain for years without sharing it with others. It could be as dramatic as an experience of abuse or as small as an experience of rejection. This pain is not something that they talk about or share.

• Why don’t people talk about painful situations in their lives?

• When we don’t share our pain with others, what happens to us and to others?

• What happens when we don’t share our pain with God?

3. This week in the prayer journal Crucified. Glorified., we had the story of Simon taking up Jesus’ cross and walking with him to Calvary (Mark 15:20–21). Earlier in his ministry, Jesus called his disciples to take up their cross and follow him (Mark 8:34). Read and reflect on this call of Christ (Mark 8:31–35).

• When Jesus speaks about his crucifixion, Peter takes him aside and begins to rebuke him. Think about what Peter has experienced so far in following Jesus. Why would he believe that this kind of suffering would never happen to Jesus?

• When Jesus corrects Peter, he says, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Mark 8:33). What is satanic about Peter’s thinking? When you read through the temptation of Jesus (Matthew 4:1–11), what does Satan want us to believe about how God works in the face of suffering and pain?

• Instead of doubting God or denying him, we are encouraged by Scripture to trust that God can work in the midst of pain. Discuss different people in Scripture who suffered but trusted in the presence of God in the midst of pain (for example, Daniel in the den of lions).

• Where is Jesus calling you to trust in him in the midst of pain? to take up your cross and follow him, even in the midst of suffering for the faith?

4. Some people believe that once you are a Christian, God will deliver you from all suffering and bless your life with prosperity. If you read about the life of Paul, however, you have to question that idea. Read 2 Corinthians 12:1–10 and meditate on Paul’s understanding of the role of suffering and faith.

Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 5Week 5—Pain and Victory

• Paul does not identify what the thorn in the flesh was for him. Some say it could have been distress over the churches, a temptation he struggled with, the false teachers who fought him, a physical ailment (such as his eyesight), or demons. God, however, does not want us wondering what the thorn was. He wants us to focus on its effect. God would use the thorn to humble Paul. How can pain be a humbling experience?

• God also uses this thorn to draw Paul closer to him. God reveals that his grace is sufficient for Paul—in the present tense. Because Paul continues to suffer with this thorn, day by day he continues to come before God and experience his grace. Identify an example from Scripture or from your own life where an ongoing struggle brought you closer to God.

5. God works in our lives in the midst of suffering. Sometimes we can look back on our lives and see what God has done and other times we are perplexed by suffering and commend our suffering to God, asking that his gracious will be done. If you feel comfortable, describe a moment from your life when God worked in the midst of suffering.

6. When Jesus died on the cross, he endured our pain. When he rose from the dead, he revealed his victory over all suffering and pain. That victory brings hope to all who believe in him. In Romans 8, Paul celebrates the victory of Jesus Christ over all suffering. Read Romans 8:28–39 and meditate on Christ’s victory for you.

• What phrases from this passage give you comfort? Explain.

• To celebrate Christ’s victory, Paul makes a list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:35–39). His list is meant to be expansive, to include everything that we fear or suffer and anything that Satan could use to make us doubt the love and power of God. What items would you add to that list?

• Paul rejoices that the Spirit prays for us in our weaknesses (Romans 8:26–27). We also have the comfort of being able to pray for others. Take time now to pray for those who are suffering. Close your time of prayer by reading verse 26 and remembering that God listens not only to our prayers but the intercession of his Spirit, who prays with groans that words cannot express.


Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 5Week 5—Pain and Victory (continued)



Notes

Sermon 6: Lamb and King

IntroductionIt’s an explosion of color. Disorienting. Dizzying. Your kids have just dumped all the puzzle pieces on the table. You turn them over one by one. Carly is sorting out the straight-edged pieces. Once they are all turned over, you wonder, “Will we ever be able to complete it?” It’s such a mess! Various pieces with various colors. But then Jacob grabs the cover of the box and it gives everyone a picture, a pattern that makes sense of this world. One piece gets joined to another, and slowly this dizzying explosion of color becomes a mountain landscape in the spring.

Experiences in life can be like that puzzle—an explosion of color that doesn’t make sense. Jim and Karen visit Jim’s dad in the hospital. They have good news. Great news! Karen is pregnant. They have brought along a t-shirt. “World’s Greatest Grandpa” it says. Jim’s dad smiles. He is overjoyed, but he will never wear that t-shirt. His cancer is aggressive and it’s progressing quickly. He will only be with them two more weeks, at most. Emotions of joy. Emotions of sorrow. Juxtaposed to one another like pieces of a puzzle spread out on a table. “Why?” you want to ask. “What is happening?”

Sometimes, our lives look like scattered pieces strewn this way and that. They don’t make sense. We try to gather them together in a scrapbook. We sort them out in conversation around a table. We select certain pictures and put them on poster board in preparation for a funeral. How do we order these days? What kind of a story do these pieces tell?

Unfortunately, we don’t have the cover of a box with a picture on it. All we have are the promises of God. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,” God says, “so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9). Although we cannot make sense of our lives, that doesn’t mean the pieces don’t make sense. There is one for whom they have meaning—God.

God has ordered our days (Psalm 139:16). He knows the day you were born and the day you will die and every day in between. He has numbered the hairs on your head and promises to be with you, working in every experience to bring about his good purposes (Romans 8:28).

Today, God gives us a glimpse of the big picture—a small view of how all of his work fits together. Like a picture on the cover of a puzzle box, this glimpse can give us hope when it is hard to make sense of our lives.

Getting to the HeartIf you have been reading along in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, you will remember how the readings last week gave us scenes from the crucifixion of Jesus. We saw Jesus nailed to the cross. Soldiers cast lots for his clothing. Others walked by and mocked him. We heard Jesus cry out. He cried out to God. He spoke to his mother and to his beloved disciple. He even spoke to a criminal. All these bits and pieces of his crucifixion are hard to take in. “Why?” we want to ask. “What is going on?”

Perhaps it would help to have a picture, a glimpse of the cover of the box. Although we can’t see everything, God does show us something. He gives us one picture to meditate on and remember: Jesus is both Lamb and King.

Consider the apostle John. He stood there at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother. He saw everything our Lord went through and I’m sure that he felt like his life was shattered. Later, however, John had a vision. A vision that made sense of these things.

John was exiled on the island of Patmos. Our Lord had risen from the dead and sent his disciples out in mission. But it was not as easy as it sounds. Persecution arose against the Christians. So, when John was exiled on the island of Patmos, Jesus gave him a vision. It was of a lamb seated on a throne.

John saw a “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). John heard their song, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Revelation 7:12). And in the midst of this vision, in the midst of this crowd, in the midst of this song, John saw “the Lamb in the midst of the throne” (Revelation 7:17). Jesus revealed to John that he is both Lamb and King.

Like a picture on a puzzle box, this one image helps us make sense of God’s work in a cross-shattered world.

The cross shattered everything. It shattered the hopes of the Jewish people. For years, they had waited for a Messiah, who would bring the reign of God to earth. They longed for a leader. A strong one who would deliver them from the Romans. But Jesus didn’t do that. He died. And he didn’t just die, he died on a cross at the hands of the Romans. That shattered their dreams. No wonder some of the disciples walked away with hearts downcast and sad (Luke 24:17–21).

Has God shattered any hopes in your life? Are there any dreams that God hasn’t fulfilled?

Sometimes we have the misconception that things will go smoothly once we become a Christian. I don’t know where we get this idea. But it wreaks havoc in our lives. We think that once we become a Christian, our struggle with anger will go away. Our bouts with depression will lessen. Our relationship with our kids will get better. Our job will be rewarding. Our dreams will be fulfilled.

Yet, once we become a Christian, life doesn’t turn out that way. Instead of God pouring blessings into our lives, it often seems like God is trying to remove blessings. He leads us to situations of heartache where he asks us to share a comforting word. Our marriage needs help. Our kids need guidance. We find ourselves in arguments with friends over the things we believe. We go to a hospital to visit a sick co-worker and spend most of the evening there instead of relaxing at home. Our dreams of a carefree life are not working out, and we wonder, “Is God really at work in all of this mess?”

“Yes,” John says. Yes! Why? Because Jesus is both Lamb and King. Jesus rules over all things in love, even in the midst of suffering.

Notes

Sermon 6: Lamb and King (continued)

Love and power. That’s what we find in Jesus. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus has a love that suffers and dies for you. And Jesus is the King, the Lord, who rules over all things. Jesus’ power is at work in all things. Love that dies for you and power that rules over all things for you—that’s what we find in Jesus. No matter how shattered life looks, no matter how confusing the pieces are, these two things will always be true: Jesus loves and Jesus rules—for you.

John knew this when he wrote his Gospel. In the first chapter, when Jesus appears, John the Baptist points to him and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). The very first thing that the disciples hear about Jesus is that he loves. He will die to take away sin. He does what no one else could do. He offers his perfect, sinless life as a sacrifice for you.

But the Lamb who dies is also the King who rules. Throughout the Gospel, John gives us glimpses of the power of Jesus. He turns water into wine. He feeds more than five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. He walks on water. He opens the eyes of the blind. He raises Lazarus from the dead. Jesus is king over all creation and has power over death.

Now, it would be easy to separate these two things. It would be easy to focus only on Jesus as King. We could look at his miracles and see his compassion and think, “This is the God for me. If I believe in Jesus, if I follow Jesus, then he will do great miracles for me.”

But John wants you to know that Jesus is both Lamb and King. He is Lord of all, but he is also Servant of all. Right now, he doesn’t come to take away suffering as much as he comes to work in its midst. He rules with dying love. Jesus sends his people into situations of suffering to share the powerful sacrificial love of God.

Yes, there will come a day when Jesus will return in great power. He will open the heavens, raise the dead, punish the wicked, put an end to evil, and bring about a new creation for the faithful. But until that day, Jesus will rule this world in dying love. That’s how this Lamb is King. He enters into a place of dying and rules in sacrificial love.

And, today, he calls you to follow him, to live in his dying love.

Taking It HomeWhat does it mean to live in Jesus’ dying love?

First, it means that we confess our sins to God our Father, trusting that, because of Jesus, God forgives you. Jesus makes you right with God.

Have you ever seen parents who realize that their child has wandered off in the grocery store? They leave their cart in the middle of the aisle and start looking around. One has the manager make an announcement. The other runs out into the parking lot. Their love will not stop until they find their child and bring him home. God’s love is even greater than this! God the Father sent his Son into this world to find you, lost in your sin, and to bring you home. When Jesus was crucified, we heard this mission. Remember what he said? He cried out to God:

Notes


“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Yes, Jesus was dying, but he was also bringing us life. Life with our heavenly Father. So, to live in his dying love means to come before him now and confess your sin. God, your Father, forgives your sin because of Jesus’ dying love.

Second, it means that we live with hope amidst this cross-shattered world. Life does not suddenly become easier just because you are a Christian. Peter tells us, “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Suffering will come. And it is so easy to feel defeated. We think that we must be doing something wrong, that God has abandoned us or, worse yet, is punishing us.

But God has not abandoned us, and he is not punishing us. Jesus has come as the Lamb and has borne the punishment of our sin. He now rules as the King. For that reason, we live in hope.

The One who loves us so much that he gave his life for us now rules over all things and works through them. He works through suffering, not apart from it. As Paul wrote,

We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:7–9

Jesus is King and rules over all things for us. But Jesus is also the Lamb and sends us forth into the world to live in his dying love.

Notes


Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 6Week 6—Lamb and King

1. Sometimes, our lives look like a mess. We are not sure why things happened the way that they did. Other times, however, we can begin to see a pattern. We can see how God was at work in the smallest details of our lives. Share a story from your life where you see a way in which God was at work.

2. This week in the Crucified. Glorified. prayer journal, we had the story of Jesus interacting with the repentant thief on the cross (Luke 23:39–43). In this account, Luke offers us two different attitudes toward Jesus: one of testing and one of trust. Meditate on what it means to trust rather than test God.

• The first criminal tests Jesus. For this criminal, what would Jesus need to do to reveal that he was truly the Christ? In what ways do people test Jesus today?

• According to the following Scripture passages, why is it wrong to test God? Read Psalm 74:17–22; Isaiah 55:8–9; Jeremiah 18:1–6; and 1 Corinthians 1:18–25.

• The second criminal trusts Jesus. How does this criminal show his trust by what he says to the other criminal and by what he says to Jesus? How can we show our trust by what we say to others in times of struggle and by what we say to God?

• In response to the second criminal, Jesus makes a promise. How does his promise reveal that he is both Lamb and King? How does this promise bring you comfort?

3. Sometimes, people think that becoming a Christian means that your life in this world will automatically become better. Yet, the call of Jesus to “take up [your] cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23) should cause us to question that assumption.

• What examples do we have in Scripture where people’s earthly lives prospered because of their belief in God?

• What examples do we have in Scripture where people’s earthly lives did not prosper even though they believed in God?

• What does Jesus teach us about the relationship between God’s blessing and earthly prosperity in his beatitudes? Read Matthew 5:1–12.

• How does Paul teach us to think about earthly prosperity and faith? Read 1 Timothy 6:6–10 and 17–19.

4. In Revelation 5:9–12, multitudes celebrate the Lamb of God as our King. Jesus is both Lamb and King. Meditate on what this means for God’s people.

• Because Jesus is King, he has power over all things and he uses this power to bring forgiveness to the ends of the earth. Read Matthew 28:16–20. How do these verses reveal that Jesus has all power? How do these verses reveal that Jesus uses his power to bring forgiveness to the world?

• What happens when the Church emphasizes the power of Jesus but forgets about his mission of forgiveness? What happens when the Church emphasizes the forgiving love of Jesus but forgets about his power?

• What does it mean to you that Jesus is both all-powerful and all-forgiving?

• How does this fact that Jesus is both all-powerful and all-forgiving shape us as fellow Christians in our relationships with God, with one another, and with the world?

5. Although we are far removed from the world of sacrifices and the world of kings, the message that Jesus is both Lamb and King still has an impact on our lives. It gives us hope. Peter encourages the church always to be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

• How does the message that Jesus is the Lamb of God give you hope for daily life and for the life to come?

• How does the message that Jesus is King give you hope for daily life and for the life to come?


Questions to Accompany Crucified. Glorified Sermon 6Week 6—Lamb and King (continued)



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