Life In The Death Of Jesus

Okay, all over the world, Christians celebrate Good Friday, right? Good Friday. That’s a strange way to name it as Good Friday. What are we celebrating on this day? I’m calling it a good day, a Good Friday. So we are actually celebrating the death of Jesus Christ and saying that the day he died is a good day.

Can we say that to any other person in this world? So many might wonder why. So do you also wonder why? So let us see why we call it a Good Friday. First, let me ask this question. Where do we find about Jesus clearly?

Where do we find about Jesus clearly? We all know, right? It’s in the Bible. And what is the Bible? It is God’s Word to us. And we believe that the Bible is written by almost 40 different authors. 40 different authors of the Bible. And they were written over a period of 1500 years, and people who lived away from each other, and yet, and yet it has one big story. And God oversaw this great project. Just imagine, 40 different people writing different locations, from different locations, but then if you club all those stories together, there is just one big story. Just one big story. How would that be possible unless God is involved in it, right? So if you open the Bible and read the first two chapters of the Bible, first two chapters of the first book of the Bible called Genesis, you’ll see how God created everything in

this universe. That is, the sun, the moon, the stars in the skies, the land, the oceans, the birds, the animals, and sea creatures on this earth. And finally, God created man and woman in his own image. That is, he shared some of his qualities which he did not share with other living beings. So God’s qualities are shared with human beings.

different from animal kingdom, right? We are not social animals, we are not from monkeys, but then God created us especially in his image, and he shared some of his qualities. That’s why we communicate, that’s why we love each other, that’s why we forgive each other. So you see the creation part in the first two chapters of the Bible. And in the last two chapters of the last book of the Bible — what is that? That’s Revelation, right? You see how God will create everything new again in this universe. Everything new. The present earth, this earth and the heavens, will pass away one day.

And there will be new heavens and the new earth. That we call new creation. Now the question is, why is there a need for new heavens and new earth? So the first two chapters of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we see creation. And the last two chapters we see new creation. Why is there a need for the new creation? We find the answer for this question in the middle of the Bible, in the sense the middle of these four chapters in the two ends of the Bible. So in chapter three of the first book, that is Genesis, we see that the first man and the woman that God created in his own

image rebelled against him in disobedience. They rebelled against him. The first man and the first woman called Adam and Eve. So they did what God commanded them not to do. And that’s disobedience, right? Even not doing what God commanded us to do is sin. That’s disobedience too. And all sin is rebellion against the authority of God. Instead of obeying God’s Word, they obeyed the words of God’s enemy, that is Satan, who came in the form of a serpent in that garden where God created them and kept them. So what happened because of that disobedience? The Bible says that the

wages of sin is death, right? Not just a physical one. We all know that one day we have to die in this world, right? That’s the effect of sin, this punishment for sin. But then that’s just natural one. But then there is a spiritual one, an eternal death in hell. So where the spirits live forever but then endure the torment in hell forever. Why is such a harsh for sin? Because punishment is directly proportional to the nature of the person against whom sin is committed. We need to understand this. Why hell for disobedience? Why hell for sin? Because the punishment is directly proportional to the

nature of the person against whom the sin is committed. Since God is holy, righteous, just and good, he must punish people according to their actions against him. God’s nature demands that he punish people for their sin. He cannot just overlook sin and forget about punishment. He has to punish people. If he is a good God, if he’s a just God, if he’s a righteous and holy God, he has to punish people. Now the big problem is, when the first man and woman sinned, their nature got corrupted, and all those who came from them through birth in a natural way got their corrupted nature as

well. That is their sinful nature. So that is why everybody in this world naturally hates God, disobeys God, disregards God, or sins against God. And it’s a natural thing that people do because of their sinful nature. Have you ever noticed how children tell lies or pick up bad language or disobey their parents?

They do not need to be taught something like that, for it is in their nature to sin. So next time when you see your kids sin, do not assume that somebody taught them to sin. No, but it is your nature that they inherited. That is sinful nature that you have; now they got it.

So we have been there too, right? After growing up we are no different. That sinful nature manifests even more in teenagers and adults, isn’t it? And everyone knows that there is something wrong with their nature, whether they believe in God or not. They know that there’s something wrong with their nature, and that is why people feel guilty when they do something wrong. And that’s why they have this idea of right and wrong as well, good and bad as well. Where did it come from? The Bible tells us that God has placed the law within our hearts, everyone’s hearts in this world. So every time we sin, our conscience tells us that we did something wrong. That’s God-given conscience, and everybody in this room and everybody in this world experience it

daily. Nobody can escape that, right? So if that is the case, then everybody in this world and everybody in this room stands condemned before God naturally, and everybody deserves a punishment for their sins under the wrath of God, the intense anger of God. And all of us are worthy of hellfire forever. That’s what we deserve, that’s what we are supposed to get. That is our natural spiritual status before God. I don’t know what you keep your WhatsApp status, but then our real status is this, that we stand condemned before God naturally. And this is a hopeless situation that our first parents put us in.

Now, is there any hope for us to escape the realities of hell and that eternal punishment that we deserve? Question is Jesus. So Jesus is the answer for this question. So in chapter 3 of the first book of the Bible called Genesis, God has promised a solution for this problem. So when man and woman sinned against God, he cursed them, but at the same time he promised that he will deliver them from their sin. So he who will destroy the works of Satan, that is sin. So in the first half of the Bible, what we see, that is called Old Testament. If you look at the first of the Bible, it’s called Old Testament. And there is an expectation that somebody will come and

deal with this problem of sin. People were waiting for that person to appear in history. There were promises and prophecies about him all over the Old Testament. However, it is only in the second half of the Bible, that is a New Testament, he is clearly revealed. So the first four books of this New Testament, the second half of the Bible, called the Gospels, talk about Jesus, his nature and his work. The rest of the New Testament points back to him and encourages Christians to be faithful to him. So as you read these Gospels, the author is a constantly raising this question: who is this

Jesus? Who is this Jesus whose teachings are authoritative, who has the power to heal and raise the dead, who cast out demons by his word, and who forgives sins, which only God can do? Above all, he talked about his own death and he died and rose again as was prophesied in the Old Testament about him. So who is he? Who is this Jesus? Dear friends, I strongly encourage you to read the Bible and to get to know who Jesus is, really.

I know there are millions of books in this world and there are many biographies we can read and many people. There are many people around us for us to get to know them. But why Jesus and why read the Bible? Because whether you realize it or not, your life and my life, its purpose and its eternal state is dependent on Jesus.

fully dependent on Jesus and what you do with Him in this world. So that is why you need to know Him for the good of your own soul. He gives meaning to your life. Think about it. If you truly want to know who you truly are, why are you here on this earth? What is the purpose of your life? What happens to you when you die? Where will you spend your eternity? All the answers to these questions are linked to Jesus Christ.

So spending time to know him is worth it all. It’s worth it all. And it is infinitely valuable. So now, who is this Jesus that he is worthy of our attention? So we’ll look at few things about Jesus and try to get to know him as the word revealed to us. So first thing is that Jesus is a Middle Easterner. He was born in the Middle East nearly 2,000 years ago in a country called Israel. That name might sound familiar too, right? Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He has been trying for a long time to save his country from the enemies surrounding Israel. Right now we can see in the news that

there are wars between Israel and other countries. So back in history people thought that Jesus would do the same, like Benjamin, that Jesus would deliver the people of Israel from their surrounding enemies. They thought he was a political leader leading a revolution in Israel. However, to their disappointment, Jesus was not that interested in politics of his time. And Jesus kept saying, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Whatever he said, that he came down from heaven and is not of this world. So Jesus claimed that he came down from heaven into this world. So what is — what does he mean by that? So how did

He come so just was prophesied about him in the Bible, in the Old Testament, in the first half of the Bible. Jesus was born to a virgin named Mary. It was — and it was not a natural birth, but a supernatural one. Jesus was always there in the heavens, in the eternity past, stepped into this world through a woman. So regarding the birth of Jesus, this is what an angel said to Joseph, Mary’s husband, and you’ll read it in the gospels. It says, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took

place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.’” After living with Jesus for a few years, one of his disciples named John writes about him in this way. You will see that in John chapter 1. A few verses. “In the beginning was the Word.” Here the Word represents Jesus. So people are using the word.

to talk about Jesus. So, “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Verse 14, “and dwelt among us,” lived among us, tabernacled among us. “And we have seen his glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is about Jesus.

So in other words, Jesus is God in flesh. Or he is the God-man. You might have heard about Superman or Batman. So it's not something like that. He's quite different. He's fully God and fully man. So Jesus is fully God and fully man at the same time in one person. Through the womb of Virgin Mary, he came into this world as a baby and grew up like every other man. But to what end?

Why did he come into this world in the first place? Do you remember what the angel said before? “For he will save his people from their sins.” That is the purpose of his coming into this world, to save people from their sins, to save you and me from our sins. So we have seen so far how God created man and woman in his image and gave them commandments, gave them a commandment to follow, but they failed to obey him and thus brought upon themselves punishment by death. An eternal one. Since God is holy, righteous, just and good. He cannot overlook sin and not punish sinners.

Since we all have sinned, we stand condemned before God awaiting the punishment. However, however, God in His grace, mercy and love chose to save us from our sins. Chose to save us from our sins. That is why He sent Jesus into this world.

So Jesus comes as a savior to save us from our sins. Now how does Jesus do that? A simple answer is by taking our place, by taking your place, by taking my place. There are certain things that we need to understand about his life and his death. So when Jesus was on this earth, nearly 2,000 years ago, he lived a perfect life without sin. Nobody was able to point out to him and say, “You have sinned.”

He was without sin. And the life that God intended for us to live, the life that we failed to live, Jesus lived it out. Jesus lived it out in complete obedience to God. He failed nowhere. He disobeyed no commandment. He never sinned in his life, entire life. How could he live in such a way?

Because he’s a God-man, he’s divine. But why did he live in such a way? Because we have failed to live a holy life. He came and lived it on our behalf. Now here is the key, on our behalf. He lived it on our behalf, in our place, he lived it out. It is like he wrote our exam paper on our behalf and got 100 out of 100 that will be counted for us when we believe in him. And after Jesus lived a perfect life, he died a cruel death, a horrible death. And I will let the Bible speak of his death in a

few verses in Mark 15. So there’s the second book of the New Testament, Mark chapter 15. There are a few verses that I want to read to show how Jesus died when he was in this world 2,000 years ago. Mark chapter 15. So verse 49, verse. “But they” — there is the crowds that were gathered under the direction of religious leaders of that time. “But they shouted all the more, ‘Crucify him, crucify him.’ So Pilate” — who is the governor of Judea at the time — “wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”

Verse 16. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the governor’s headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in purple cloak and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him and they led him out to crucify him. Verse 22. And they brought him to a place called Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull.

And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. 29 And those who passed by derided him of wagging their heads, saying, “Aha! You who destroy the temple and rebuilt it in three days, save yourselves, save yourself and come down from the cross.” Verse 31. So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. So this is what Christ had to undergo for us. And verse 33, and

when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani,” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was a Son of God.” So that is how Jesus died on the cross. But much more was happening there on the cross. Jesus bore all our sin upon, on his shoulders and

died in our place. That is a substitutionary death. But that is not just a physical death. He experienced the wrath of God that we were supposed to experience for eternity long in hell because of our sins. Jesus endured that on that cross. Because he’s God in flesh who is of infinite value and worth, the few hours of punishment that he bore on that cross was enough to pay for all our sins eternally. He paid the full price for all our sin on that cross. He was judged in our place. He was punished in our place. He died in our place. And all those who believe

in him will stand in his place before God and are treated as perfect and righteous in Christ. It is like exchanging our mark sheets which says zero out of hundred, which is ours, with his sheet which is hundred out of hundred. The story did not end there with the death of Jesus. After three days, just as it was prophesied, just as Jesus foretold, he rose from the dead, appeared to many people, and as ever watching, he ascended into heaven. That is where he came from. So in the coming days Jesus will come back again as a judge to punish those who continue in sin and

save those who repent of their sins and trust in him. He will come back again soon. Now God is calling everyone everywhere to repent of their wicked ways and turn to Jesus in faith. To all those who repent of their sins, believe that Jesus lived on their behalf and died on their behalf and rose again from the grave, God grants them forgiveness of sins and gives them eternal life, a life with him forever. It is through faith we receive them from God. It is a gift of God for those who repent and put their trust in Jesus. It’s not by our works, not by

our words. What we need to do is simply look to the cross. Look to what Jesus had done on the cross. And simply trust him. And you’ll be forgiven. Forever. All your sins will be wiped out. That’s the good news. That’s the gospel that we believe. And it was on Friday that Jesus died to secure our salvation, to secure our eternity in heaven, our eternal life with God. And that is why we call it Good Friday.

My friend, did you repent of your sins? Did you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus and his work on the cross to save you from your sins? You might be young or old, you might be rich or poor, you might be strong or weak, you might be an Indian or not, you might be from a different caste or class or religion, it doesn’t matter.

We are all sinners before God and we need forgiveness. And it’s only through Jesus we can be forgiven because he paid the price for our sins fully on that cross. He took our punishment. So would you, would you think about him today? So if you have not repented of your sins, if you have not trusted in Christ, I urge you, I urge you to turn from your sins and consider Jesus and trust him alone for the forgiveness of your sins. And all you need to do is just go to God and acknowledge your sins and ask him to forgive you.

And he will for sure do that. Now what kind of a God you see in the Bible? A God who is loving and gracious, who is willing to forgive people. Who is always ready to forgive people. And all he’s just asking you to just come. Come and acknowledge your sin. Come and say that you have sinned and you’re sorry for that. Come and repent of your sin.

And trust in Jesus, because he had paid the price for your sin so that you can be forgiven. What will you do today? Are you ready to come to Jesus, to accept the forgiveness that he offers? So if you want to know more about it, please ask your friend who brought you here today, or talk to anyone you see on this stage, or talk to the pastors here. Please do not leave this place without clarity or answers for this hope. This Friday will really become a good Friday to you. And if you are a Christian, I'd encourage you to keep trusting Jesus till your last breath. Keep following

him. Let nothing distract you from him. Keep your focus on Christ, on Christ alone. Jesus is worthy of your life, is worth everything. Jesus is enough for us. He is our life. He's our salvation. So just keep looking to Jesus, keep trusting Jesus, and keep sharing this good news, this gospel, to others that they might have life in the death of Jesus Christ.