Second Sunday In Lent
Sun 7, March 2004
Jeremiah 26:8-15
Psalm 4
Phillipians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
Sermon: (Merv Desens)
(Quotes Luke 13:31-35). Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ shows the Jews as the killer of Jesus. But who really killed Jesus? Some people say Pilate. Others say Judas or the crowd. Some say the chief priests or the roman soldiers. Or is it you and I? It was God who was responsible for the death of Jesus. John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. The wages of sin is death. In Genesis, before the flood, God regretted making man. Jesus died the death we deserved. We are now called to repent and be renewed. The disciples and other people told Jesus to get out of Jerusalem before they killed him. He challenged their teachings and lifestyle too much, and they didn't want him around. Jesus sought to fulfill the promises of God. He came to clear our personal sin records.
In the Family Circus comic strip, there is a little ghost that the kids talk about all the time called "Not Me." They blame everything on it. We have our own "not me's." We like to play the blame game and rationalize our sin, or not care about what God says for us to do. If we want to be clean, we have to confess our sins to God and let Him wash us with the blood of Jesus.
"Create in me a clean heart," the psalm says. God is a god of love and compassion.
One man, in his search for truth, said, "If God were good, the wickedness in the world would break his heart." It did. Jesus displayed in his life and death the breaking heart of God.
A Sunday school teacher, after teaching a lesson, asked her students, "Why does God love us so much?" One child replied, "Because there is only one of each of us!"
There is only one of each of us. God loves each and every single solitary soul. He loves us more than we love ourself. Our names are carved "in the palm of my hand," says God. He has graven our image into the palms of his hands. That's how much he loves you and me. We who were once condemned by the law now have our sins washed away.