Holy Week! There is so much you could cover during Holy Week. So many trails to go down, so many truths about the Father and Jesus. This week of Jesus' life was a demonstration of God's love.
The week started with a triumphal entry into Jerusalem. John 12:13 (ESV) "So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!'"
Some of the things that happened did during the week ... Jesus cleanses the temple, weeps, cursed the fig tree, Judas betrays Jesus, they prepare the Passover meal, the Lord's Supper, Gethsemane Jesus prays intensely and asking for the "cup" to pass from him but says "Your will not mine". He returns to his disciples and they are sleeping. They couldn't stay awake to pray with him. He was arrested, mocked, beaten to where he was unrecognizable. He was tried and carried his cross for our sins. Jesus was our perfect substitute.
I. Adam & Eve
1. They had one rule...Don't eat the fruit of the Tree
2. They failed and sinned.
3. They realized that they were naked and they were ashamed.
4. The first blood shed in the garden was to cover the shame/nakedness of Adam and Eve. What was the animal that was sacrificed in the garden to provide a covering for their nakedness? Could it have been a lamb? We don't know, but could it be? Perhaps Gen. 3:21 (ESV) "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them."
5. Even though they were kicked out of the garden God gave them a promise of redemption. Gen. 3:15 (ESV) "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
II Abraham & Isaac
Gen. 22:2-7 (ESV) "He said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.' So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, 'Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.' And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, 'My father!' And he said, 'Here I am, my son.' He said, 'Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?'
1. God asked Abraham to take his only son. Do you see the picture? Heb. 11:17-19 (ESV) "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.' He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back." When Abraham spoke to his men he believed that both he and Isaac would be coming back to them after they had worshiped.
2. When Isaac asked Abraham where the lamb for the sacrifice was, Abraham told him that God would provide. Gen. 22:8 (ESV) "Abraham said, 'God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.' So they went both of them together." Romans 5:8 (ESV) "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." God provided a perfect sacrifice for us
3.Gen. 22:9-13 (ESV) "When they came to the place which God had told him, Abraham built the alter there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the alter, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, for me.' And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." Isaac was a "willing sacrifice" he was willing to lay down his life in obedience to his father. Abraham was an old man. Isaac could have overpowered his father as he was trying to bind him and lay him on the wood, but he was "willing". Whenever we see the "angel of the Lord" in scripture it is believed to be a Christophany where Jesus is manifested before His birth. Do you see the perfect picture of Christ? Jesus in the Garden asking God if the cup could be passed from him. The ram was found in a thicket of thorns...like the crown of thorns that were placed on Jesus' head. God provided Abraham a substitute, just as God has provided us a substitute for us. Mount Moriah was the location that Abraham built the alter and called it "The Lord will Provide" The temple that Solomon built was built on Mt. Moriah 2 Chron. 3:1 (ESV) "Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite."
III. The Passover
The 10th plague the was brought on Pharaoh and Egypt that would bring God's people out of captivity. To avoid the plague, Moses told the Hebrew people to put the blood of the lamb on the door frame of their house.
1. Without blemish Exodus 12:5 (ESV) "Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats," They were to choose a perfect sacrifice
1 Peter 1:19 (ESV) "but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." During the week of Passover the people would bring their chosen lamb to be "inspected" in the temple to make sure it was perfect.
Heb. 4:15 (ESV) "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin." Jesus was perfect, he had no sin. Pilate found no fault in him. Luke 23:4 (ESV) "Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, 'I find no guilt in this man.'"
The chief priests and Sanhedrin looked for false witnesses against Jesus. Matt. 26:59-60 (ESV) "Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward." They broke their own laws...the 10 commandments.
2. No bones broken Exodus 12:46 (ESV) "It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, and you shall not break any of its bones."
John 19: 31-36 (ESV) "Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness-his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth- that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'Not one of his bones will be broken.'" Just like the "perfect lamb" Jesus was without blemish, perfect in every way. Like the lamb, Jesus' bones were not broken. Just as the lamb's blood was poured out to cover the sins of the people, when the soldiers pierced Jesus' side blood poured out for our sins.
3. Under the blood (saved) Exodus 12:7 & 13 (ESV) "Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it." "The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt."
Ephesians 1:7 (ESV) "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,"
Hebrews 9:14 (ESV) "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."
John 1:29 (ESV) "The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'"
Jesus offered himself up for our sins. He did not deserve the punishment that he took. The just dying for the unjust. Without the blood there is no forgiveness for sin.
John 3:16-17 (ESV) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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."
4. Jesus took our punishment...our great substitute
1 Peter 3:18 (ESV) "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,"
From the cross Jesus made 7 statements. The final statement was "It is Finished" Tetelestai is the Greek word for finished, completed, fulfilled, accomplished. Paid in Full
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him might become the righteousness of God."
Charles Spurgeon "The atonement and propitiation were made once and for all and forever, by the one offering made in Jesus' body on the Tree. There was the cup; Hell was in it; the Savior drank it-not a sip and then a pause-not a draught (a single act of drinking) and then a ceasing. He drained it till there is not a dreg left of any of His people. The great ten-thronged whip of the Law was worn upon His back. There is no lash left with which to smite one for whom Jesus died."
The Gospel...Jesus died for us
Remember what God had done with the Passover.... Now we have the new covenant remember through the Lord's Supper
Isaiah 53: 2-7 & 12 (ESV) "For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth." "Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercessions for the transgressors."
ai
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