June 2, 2013
Scripture:
Scripture:
I was thinking this morning of the Lord and how He went to the lowest place; but He has been raised and glorified. Read Ephesians 2:6. The Lord was given a place that never existed before: a man in the glory. Before God, He represents us, because we have been raised with Him. As God looks upon Him, He sees you and me.
Hymn 327 – When mothers of Salem
Prayer
2 Kings 6:24 & 25
The king of Syria took his army to Samaria, to attempt to overtake it. Samaria was a city with very high walls, so getting into the city was not easy. The king had his men encircle Samaria, so that no one was able to go in or out. Because of this, there was a great famine. The people in Samaria started to eat abnormal things and the king of Samaria blamed Elisha, the prophet, for the famine that had come upon them.
2 Kings 7:1-17
Elisha told the King that there would be food to eat the very next day. There was one man in the king’s court that didn’t believe what Elisha said and Elisha told him that he would see the food, but he would never get to eat it.
At this time, outside the walls of Samaria, there were four lepers. They had been sent out of the city because the people didn’t want to get sick of leprosy. These men were also out of food and hungry. They reasoned between themselves on what to do about food. They knew they would die of leprosy or starvation, but maybe if they went to the Syrian camp, they would be able to get some food. Of course, someone there might kill them, but they were dying already, so why not try? When they got to the Syrian camp they found it abandoned; nobody was there. God had frightened the Syrians with sound of horses and chariots, so that they thought Israel had recruited help from the neighbouring countries. They had left all their food and clothing when they fled. This is picture of how God has defeated the enemy and we have been blessed. Our lepers had good news for those in the city. So we also have good news for those that are trapped in their sin.
The lepers knew they couldn’t keep this all to themselves, so they went to Samaria and told the king. The king thought the Syrians were tricking them: he thought that the Syrians were hiding and would come and attack them when they went for the food. So, he sent some men out and they found it to be true! That day, everyone in Samaria had food (except for the one man who didn’t believe). Even though Israel had sinned; God showed mercy to them and protected them.
Luke 23:44-56
Last week we looked at the story of the two malefactors. One of them turned to the Lord for salvation, and was promised a place in paradise.
The sixth hour was about noon. The sun should have been at it’s brightest, but darkness covered the land. Instead the Son was at His brightest. He had come as a light into the world, and was cast out. We can’t comprehend what happened in those three hours of darkness, and God can’t tell us. The Lord took upon Himself the sin of the whole world, and we pass over it in a few words! Psalm 22 may give us a slight glimpse into what He was feeling, but even that contains a lot of His suffering from man, not God. Those watching Jesus could only see what He was suffering physically, not spiritually. In the darkness, God drew a curtain around His Son as He suffered. We sing, “Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in, when the incarnate maker died for man, His creature’s, sin”.
Again, it’s hard to comprehend this. Your sin deserves eternal punishment, and yet Jesus bore not only your sin, but the sin of the whole world. The punishment went on until God could say, “That’s enough”, His righteousness was satisfied, and His grace could begin to flow.
God was with the Israelites in the wilderness; and yet He was in darkness, behind a veil, and unapproachable. The cloud of His glory just indicated His presence. God was The Light, and yet He had to hide in darkness in the Old Testament, and in the darkness surrounding the cross as He took on the sins of man. Once that work was completed, the darkness moved and the veil of the temple was rent in twain. God’s darkness, His holy spot, was open to man. Sin is always a barrier between God and man. It had to be dealt with, and that is what the cross was all about. Once sin was dealt with, God could take down that veil as the barrier between Himself and man. What an event!
God was yearning to come out from behind that veil; if only Israel was longing to go in! The cross was where Jesus restored that which He took not away: access to the Father. The Father was longing to put His arms around someone and say, “I love you”, but there was no righteous ground on which to do so. Now He can! It’s like the Father with the prodigal son. He can now be just and the justifier of those that believe in Jesus.
The wages of sin is death. We need to know that Christ died for our sins in order to be redeemed, but we also need to know that Christ has suffered for our sins. He had to pay for them. That’s where those three hours of darkness come in. During that time Jesus was still alive, suffering to pay the price of sin. Psalm 22 says, “My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” Can we comprehend that? The work for our salvation was done by a living, suffering, Christ, in the midst of darkness.
Did Jesus expire because of weakness? Verse 46 shows us that He could still speak with fulness of strength. He didn’t die offhand; He gave up the ghost in a voluntary act. He had the power to give and take life, and He handed His life back to His Father. Jesus said in John 10, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again…Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” Jesus gave His life here, and re-took it in resurrection.
Blood had to be shed for our redemption, and yet Jesus didn’t die from shedding that blood. He purposely laid His life down. Can there can be any two words that are more opposite than the “Lord’s death”? 1 Corinthians 11:26. It’s an oxymoron!
Jesus had to die as a man. He needed to come into the realm of humans—be made like the offenders—in order to die for us. Now He is the Man in the Glory, a new position that was no one had ever held before; and we have the privilege of remembering these things every Lord’s Day morning.
Hymn 116—See mercy, mercy, from on high
Prayer