Atonement

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. We greet you this morning in Jesus name. As I think of the message this morning, I think of several scripture verses and I would like to just simply read from several verses and then maybe I should get some input from you. [00:00:33] So, what do you think of when you think of atonement? And we'll just leave that right now. Read a few verses that talk to this issue. In Matthew chapter 20, verse 28, Jesus' words here himself says, It says, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and then the last phrase especially, and to give his life a ransom for many. I think he is talking about atonement in that last phrase, to give his life a ransom for many. [00:01:09] And then in 1 John, chapter 2, verse 2, it uses a word, I think this is the only place in scripture where this word is used. But I think this word means much the same as atonement 1 John chapter 2 verse 2 And he is a propitiation for our sins And not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world I don't know what word we could substitute there without doing violence to propitiation [00:01:41] Or to the translation of the word But I think ransom there is very close as well I remember, I don't know where I heard this, but at some point in time I heard somebody give this illustration that helped me to remember the word, what the word atonement really means. They said take a look at the word and then take it apart. Make several words out of it. This is making a word that is not really a word. [00:02:15] But somebody said, think of it in this way, at-one-ment. And that is what atonement does. It takes that which was apart, and it brings it together. Brother Ethan had a stone here, and it gave me the idea of using a stone. And this stone has been around at our place for quite some time, and I wasn't sure what I would find. It's just simply a red stone that was out in our field. but the way we see this stone is [00:02:49] I would like for us to think of this as man before the fall but when man fell something happened and something happened between God and man they became apart and that is what we just leave those there and bringing those back together Bringing God and man back together. That's what atonement is about. The other evening we were at Fairhaven, and this is relating to the second part of the message then. [00:03:27] But Brother Lee nicely talked to us about the fact that God redeems, and I'm not sure of the exact words, but he said something like this, God redeems even our failures. God works in spite of man's failures sometimes. And I gave that some thought and I knew what I was thinking of preaching about and it was helpful to me to think about that. But the first part of the message here, I would like to think about bringing these two together, bringing us together with God. [00:04:03] That's what atonement does, at least when we accept God's atonement for us. In Leviticus chapter 25, verses, I'm not going to read these verses, but in verses 47 to 49, you have the account here, and God gives a hypothetical situation. He said if you have a foreigner come in living among you and this foreigner becomes well-to-do and your fellow Israelite becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner [00:04:38] Then he said there are several things that can happen Either a relative of the man who sold himself into slavery may redeem him by buying him back Or if the man is able he may do it himself And, you know, that's what Jesus did for us. Jesus is the one that paid that price for us. And I'd like to think just a little bit about the nature of Jesus' death with you, if you allow me to. [00:05:10] Joseph Parker said this, and this is not all of what he said, but just choosing a few words of what he said His death is my life, his atonement is my pardon, his crucifixion the satisfaction for my sin That puts in a nutshell what atonement is Now, looking at some other things of the atonement of Christ It was by divine decree in Acts chapter 2, verse 23, says he was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. [00:05:46] God knew what was happening. God wasn't in the dark. Some other translations make it a little bit clearer. Modern Berkeley says this, he was delivered up in the determined will and foreknowledge of God. I think the Amplified makes it even clearer than that. This Jesus, when delivered up according to the definite and fixed purpose and settled plan and foreknowledge of God. Was God surprised? It was his plan. It was man working in cooperation with God, even though they didn't know that. [00:06:20] Number two, it was voluntary. Jesus said in several places in scripture, and you remember this, he said, I lay down my life. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. That's from John chapter 10. And those are phrases taken from verses 17 and 18. It was penal. I don't know what you think of when you think of penal, but penal, I relate to punishment. That's a word. Our penal institutions are places where men are incarcerated, where the covenant choir goes to minister to people. [00:06:57] Penal. Jesus' death was penal. It was punishment, but not punishment for his sin, but for ours. Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6 says this, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And I already read from Matthew chapter 20 verse 28, a ransom for many. Okay, Jesus took our punishment. It was expiatory. He paid the price to cleanse us from all sin. First John 1.7 says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. It was also vicarious. I don't know what you think of when you think of vicarious, but vicarious is one person doing it for somebody else. [00:07:46] Jesus did it for you. He did it for me. Another word there might be substitutionary. Jesus took my place on the cross. I belong there. You belong there. But Jesus took our place. It was also mediatorial. Mediatorial, if I say that word correctly. He is our mediator. In Hebrews chapter 9 verse 15, he is the mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of transgressions that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. [00:08:25] It was also heart-rending. Jesus' mother stood there. His disciples stood there. But especially if I would have been in his mother's shoes, how would you have felt as a parent to see your child? You knew they were innocent. Not only were they innocent, they were people of merit. And they were falsely accused. Killed an excruciating death, taken by a mob and tortured, and then killed an excruciating, drawn-out death [00:09:00] I'm not sure how it affects you when you read those words But how do you think it affected his mother if it affects us? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Those were the words of Jesus on the cross But on the other hand, his death was also glorious And the glory of his death is seen in several ways But to me the glory of his death is seen in the fact that Jesus did not pity himself [00:09:33] He did not, I don't know how much he thought of his pain I'm sure he thought of his pain But who did he think of? Who did he minister to while he hung on the cross? Did he minister to himself? The Bible says he could have called, what was it, 10 legions, 12 legions of angels to take him from the cross. He didn't do that. As the soldiers were nailing him to the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. [00:10:08] Thinking of the others. When the one thief rebuked the other and asked Jesus to think of him when he comes into his kingdom Jesus replied to him today, shalt thou be with me in paradise And then finally he made provisions for his mother's well-being after he was gone from here three instances where Jesus was looking out for other people [00:10:39] the glory of that is something that that passes what I could have done except by the grace of God. Now God's redemptive work is seen most clearly in providing for our salvation experience and it's important, it is of utmost importance of utmost importance. And the reason that I say that is because of eternity. If we don't make it, if we don't get back together with God through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, if we don't do that in this life, it's going to be forever too late. [00:11:25] And forever is a word that, you know, we only, we can only try to describe that word. I've heard some people try, but we think of it in context of time because we are in time and I have never been in eternity. I suppose some of us have heard the words of some preachers where they said that in trying to describe eternity one person said if a worm, if it were possible for a worm to crawl around all the way around the world [00:12:06] and we'll have to give him a track through the dirt all the way around the world because it wouldn't work as far as the ocean is concerned and would crawl over there and go around and around until he would wear the world through. Eternity would only have begun. Now, I cannot imagine that. You know, going around once, by the time the worm came around again, the track would be obliterated. Or somebody else said it this way. If a bird would come to the earth once every, what was it, every hundred years and take one grain of sand away and would carry away the earth, that would only be the beginning of eternity. [00:12:53] Those things stretch a person's mind, but we need to have our minds stretched to be able to think of eternity and to be able to be right with God. As I was thinking of this, this is a rock. It will never be one again the way it was before I broke it yesterday. But I thought of one thing that perhaps helps us to understand a little bit, perhaps can help us understand a little bit better how we are without God. [00:13:24] Some of you know what it's like to have an arm broken or a leg broken. I remember having seen a number of you cope with a broken arm or a broken leg or something else that was broken. And as I think of that, I think of the fact that there's a lot of pain involved when there's a broken bone. There's something else involved. It has a crippling effect. [00:13:55] In fact, a person with a broken leg is not going to walk like usual. It's going to take some time. But the thing that happens when that bone is set right and God's healing power comes to work in that bone, there's something that happens that was interesting to me. And I read this and I had to confirm that indeed it's so. When a bone is broken and it heals again, the bone doesn't look quite like it did before across that break. [00:14:34] And there is something there that some people call like a callus. There is an extra layer of tissue there. And I understand the reason for that is to give additional strength. As that bone is knitting, as it's growing together, it is not immediately as strong as it was before. And that extra tissue adds extra strength to that bone. And I wasn't aware of this until just recently that with time that tissue will disappear as the bone is as good as new again. [00:15:08] But isn't that a picture of us apart from God? Now it is important for us to be restored to God and I trust that most of us here this morning have that in common that we have a relationship that is similar to what it was for Adam and Eve before they fell but there are things that happen in human beings lives that need God's redemptive work after our salvation experience. [00:15:45] If you think with me of in John chapter 21, verse 15, why was it that Jesus grilled Peter? Three times he asked him, Simon, lovest thou me? And Peter answered him. And he asked again. Peter answered him again and a third time and finally Peter I suppose Peter thought to himself what is going on [00:16:16] but as we look at that situation I believe that Peter had something to take care of that he had not taken care of Peter had acknowledged Jesus if you would look in scripture you could find a number of places Jesus recorded that Peter said, we know that you are come from God. You're the son of God. He acknowledged that. The salvation experience. Peter had it, I think. And I recognize that maybe Peter didn't have the Holy, he did not have the Holy Spirit in full at this time. [00:16:53] But I think Jesus recognized that Peter needed something. Maybe there was a part of this stone that was, a different part was broken off and Jesus recognized that Peter needed the redemptive, the restorative work of Jesus Christ on his life. And that's what happens with us at times when you and I do things that we regret later, but we don't know how to fix it. [00:17:29] In fact, we cannot fix it, but God can. And God offers us the redemption of even those places where we have failed miserably. You know, God is not a stranger to human failure. And as I was thinking of this message, I had to think of the lineage of Jesus Christ and the people that God used in the lineage of Jesus Christ. [00:18:02] And I know that God wants for us a life that is whole in Him. And I am not trying to make license for failing or license for sinning. But I am saying that perhaps God looks at our lives and He looks at our failures And somehow the failure is not as important to God as it is what we do with that failure after we fail. [00:18:35] And that is one of the things that I would like to say to us this morning, is that when we fail, let's not stop there. And let's not say, oh, that was a boo-boo, I'm going to have to do better than that. Let's do what we need to do to make that right Let's confess as we are admonished to in James chapter 5 verses 13 through 16 If you look there you find one of the things that we need to do is to confess our faults [00:19:10] And we will be healed if we confess these faults But as we look at the lineage of Christ There are a few women that are named there. Did you ever stop to think who these women were that were named in the lineage of Christ? Rahab. Well, what's significant about Rahab? Okay, she was heathen. What was her livelihood? But God could use Rahab. What's another woman, and I'm not just picking on women, I want you to understand, [00:19:46] But it just happens that these women, or I shouldn't say it just happens, maybe that's not correct, but there's another woman that's in the lineage of Jesus. Ruth, that is the other one that I was thinking about. And Ruth was what? A great-grandmother of David, right? I think so. It was Ruth, Obed, Jesse, and then David. Who was Ruth? What was her nationality? She was a Moabitess. [00:20:19] If you look back in the, if you look at her ancestors, you find that they were the enemies of God. Now, I say this and I want to, I want you to understand that, well, maybe we should turn to Ruth And just simply look at what was said about Ruth there. I looked at this. I don't have the chapter and the verse. I think I can turn to it. But as Ruth went back to the land of Israel after her father-in-law, her husband, and her brother-in-law died, [00:20:55] she went back with her mother-in-law. You are acquainted with the account there. In chapter 3, she lay at Boaz's feet, and then he became aware that she was there. And what he had to say was interesting. I'm not, yes, chapter 3, verse 11, this is what Boaz said. [00:21:26] This was the testimony that Boaz, this is what Boaz knew about Ruth. Verse 11, I'll just read the verse in its entirety. And now, my daughter, fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requirest, for all the city of my people know that thou art a virtuous woman. She was not of God's people, but she embraced God's people through her love for her husband, I suppose, and her mother-in-law. [00:21:57] You remember those words that she, those words that have become immortal, you know, your people are going to be my people, your God is going to be my God. and with a woman of the caliber of Ruth and with that dedication to God those are people that God can use and God uses us in spite of our failures not because of our failures [00:22:29] but in spite of our failures if we treat them as we ought to treat them If we address that situation, if I have a problem in an area, ignoring that problem isn't the answer. Finding help for that problem is the answer. If there was a time when I wronged somebody, to go on and to act as or to ask God for his forgiveness is one thing I think that's important. [00:23:03] But it is also important that we go back and to the wrong brother or sister or if he's not a brother or sister to just simply confess, I wronged you. And I'm not sure if it's right to ask, can you forgive me? but let that person know that I am truly sorry for what I have done that I am seeking reconciliation both on the part of man and then on the part of God. It is important to confess it to God. Don't take me wrong. It is. [00:23:34] But may God help us to deal redemptively with our failures. It would be one thing that I would say to us this morning But let's not ignore them. Let's not try to act as though they didn't happen. Let's acknowledge them and let's go from here. And let healing come by forgiveness of other people, if that's possible, and by God's forgiveness on us. It is important that we address our failures. [00:24:08] and it's a blessing for me to notice how God works in spite of men's failures. By the way, I could have talked about men's failures in the lineage of Jesus. Think of Judah and the kind of things that Judah did. I'm talking about Jacob's son, Judah. And in spite of all this, that's the very lineage through which we have our Lord Jesus Christ. I am blessed by the fact that I do see people doing what they could to make things right and that is what we must do. [00:24:48] If we want to be at peace with God, if we want to be with him eternally, we need to take care of those things that happen that would fracture relationships, that would hurt my relationship with other people. May God help us to do so in a way that is redemptive, is redemptive and brings us together as people, brings us together with God. And if it brings us and God together, it will bring us and other people together. [00:25:23] Because if I understand correctly, the way I relate with my fellow human beings is an indicator of this. And if my relationship with God is what it should be, then my relationship with my brothers will also reflect that. And I think I'm correct when I say that. And I say that based on John chapter 13, I think, verse 35, where it says, [00:25:56] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another. We will know, Jesus said, by the way we relate here. May God help us to keep our relationships so that they will be what they ought to be. I use the term relationships here. And sometimes people chafe when we talk unduly about relationships. Relationships. But as I stop to analyze what it's all about, our walk with God, if you take relationship away, what do you have left? I'm not sure what you have left, but I don't think we have very much left if we take away relationship. [00:26:43] relationship. Now, there are things that relationships do for us, but you take away relationships, friends, we don't have a great deal left. But I am grateful that there's something about our relationship with God that men can't, they can't take that from us. There are a lot of things people can take from us, but our relationship with God, our relationship with one another, it has to be by our consent. that people get in between us and God [00:27:16] people get in between us and our brother we can have that relationship we can have that intact regardless of other things may God help us to have our relationships so that they are at one so that we are at one with one another and with God shall we come before him in prayer