The Day the Universe Shook (2 sermons)

The RESULTS of the Death of Jesus

1. Results = the incredible goals and accomplishments achieved by our Lord’s crucifixion.
2. Rebel sinners of a lower race were forgiven and adopted by God’s Son dying (Heb 1:3).
3. It demonstrated the greatest love ever shown or even imagined (Rom 5:6-8; I John 4:10).
4. God delivered His Son to death for us, so He is bound to freely give all else (Rom 8:32).
5. Jesus died a substitutionary death for all and each of our sins past, present, and future.
6. Almighty God the LORD saw the travail of Jesus’ soul and was satisfied (Isaiah 53:11).
7. Sin, condemnation, death, and hell have no further claim on us through a living Surety.
8. The everlasting covenant of God for His elect went into force by blood (Heb 13:20-21).
9. The great mystery of godliness was fulfilled and put into certain force (I Timothy 3:16).
10. God gave Jesus the gift of the Holy Ghost to give to His new church (Acts 1:4; 2:33).
11. Worship drastically changed due to reality trumping ritual (John 4:20-24; Heb 9:10).
12. Intercession began with a blood and life sacrifice offered to God by our High Priest; He perpetually intercedes for us far beyond the initial offering (Rom 5:10; 8:34; Heb 7:25).
13. Satan was defeated and his power of death ended by Jesus’ death (Heb 2:14; I John 3:8).
14. Jesus rescued you from the strong diabolical fiend’s prison and adopted you as His son.
15. The legal doctrine of imputation transferred from us to Him and Him to us (II Cor 5:21).
16. Peace, reconciliation, and atonement, were achieved by His cross (Hag 2:6-9; Col 1:20).
17. Adoption of sons puts human rebel sinners well above the angels in relationship to God; saved sinners as sons of God are in the inner circle; it was all by Him redeeming them.
18. He made us kings and priests to God after washing our sins away by dying (Rev 1:5-6).

The CONNECTIONS of the Death of Jesus

1. Connections = conditions, results, events separate from the cross but dependent on it.
2. The birth of Jesus was for His death, for He needed a mortal body (Heb 2:14; 10:5-10).
3. His resurrection, ascension, coronation, intercession, etc. could not occur without death.
4. For example, the great mystery of godliness does not directly list His death (I Tim 3:16).
5. Paul argued that if Jesus had not risen then His death had not saved us (I Cor 15:12-19).
6. Jesus levitated out of earth’s gravitational pull and atmosphere to heaven (Acts 1:9-11).
7. Jesus arrived in heaven to open the book of the covenant in God’s right hand (Rev 5:7).
8. The gospel went to Gentiles worldwide with great power and success (Jn 12:24,31-33).
9. The war in heaven between Michael and Satan was won by Jesus’ death (Rev 12:5-11).
10. All future events, like a new universe without pain, sin, or death, is by His gory death.
11. He will come soon in glorious, regal majesty, but it is due to His death (I Tim 6:13-16).
12. All judgment over men was given to Jesus based on His obedient death (Heb 1:3,13).
13. Judgment Day’s lake of fire, though distant from the cross, will depend on it (Rev 13:8).
14. The new heaven and new earth depend on our Lord’s death and being king over both.

The PLAN of the Death of Jesus

1. Plan = God’s design for a grand drama for His glory before the creation of the world.
2. The event in time resulted from decisions, decrees, and promise in eternity (I Pet 1:20).
3. No aspect of Jesus’ death can rightly be called a tragedy, for it was all by divine design.
4. To the degree the event is removed from its eternal counsel it loses purpose and power.
5. All details of Jesus’ death were by God’s eternal determinate counsel (Acts 2:23; 4:28).
6. The coming Redeemer was promised quickly after creation and the fall (Genesis 3:15).
7. God that cannot lie promised eternal life from eternity, but it depended on Jesus’ death.
8. Caiaphas prophesied of the event and how Jesus would gather the elect (Jn 11:46-52).
9. All the promises and prophecies of God went into force by His death (II Cor 1:18-20), and there were many prophecies about Him (Psalm 2,16,22,45,89,110; Isaiah 53; etc.
10. The prophetic timetable of God began with Him, foretold of Him, and is all about Him.

The IMPORTANCE of the Death of Jesus

1. Importance = crucial necessity, rank compared to other events, consequences of failure.
2. Without the death of Jesus for our sins, we must die in our sins twice more (John 8:21).
3. Without Jesus dying for our sins, there is no escaping damnation in hell (Matt 23:33).
4. Job knew he lacked a daysman, or mediator, but we have One (Job 9:32-35; I Tim 2:5).
5. You need a lawyer for the Day of Judgment, but you have an advocate, counselor, intercessor, mediator with a perfect record, His personal and professional integrity at stake, His own capital punishment paid for you, and He is the beloved Son of the Judge!
6. After Jesus purged our sins by Himself, He sat down at God’s right hand (Hebrews 1:3).
7. The sins of the elect already in heaven was paid for in arrears (Romans 3:25; Heb 9:15).
8. The death of Jesus for the Testator put the covenant into force (Heb 9:15-18; 13:20).
9. Adoption was paid for by the Son made of a woman to save us (Gal 4:4-6; Eph 1:3-6; Rom 8:14-16), which is an incomparable event resting on God’s will in Christ’s death.
10. He was crowned with glory and honor for being less than angels for death (Heb 2:9).
11. A kingdom was set up that will rule the universe forever and destroy all other kingdoms.
12. Satan was cast out of heaven to the earth when Jesus the Savior arrived (Rev 12:10).
13. Jesus was given authority over the nations like David prophesied (Ps 2:1-12; Rev 2:27).
14. The clock began ticking on all earthly kingdoms from Rome to the U.N. (Dan 2:44-45).
15. God sent unprecedented vengeance on the Jews (Matthew 3:7-12; 23:34-36; 24:21-22).
16. Jesus cannot come and rescue us from this cursed earth without the victory of His death.

The VALUE of the Death of Jesus

1. Value = absolute worth and acceptance and honor by highest authorities and measures.
2. How can we measure its value, for it was God that died for us (Phil 2:5-8; Rev 1:4-6)?
3. A Man was exalted with a name far above all names for universal honor (Phil 2:9-11).
4. Because He was God’s beloved and only Son, God has accepted us in Jesus (Eph 1:6).
5. Imputation of Adam’s sin to all in him, resulting in original sin and death even for infants, was superseded by the Second Adam’s obedience (Rom 5:12-19; I Cor 15:22).
6. God designed Moses’ law to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but where sin abounded due to a detailed law of condemnation, grace abounded more in Jesus’ death.
7. Sin reigns over God’s elect for death, but Jesus’ death reigns for eternal life (Rom 5:21).
8. A Savior came by the cursed event of childbirth to save indicted women (I Tim 2:15).
9. Death was destroyed as far as penal punishment or need to fear (II Tim 1:10; Heb 2:15).
10. The strength of sin, the sting of death, and the victory of the grave were all defeated.
11. The book of life was activated and authorized as the final determinate of eternal life, for its saving efficacy is through its owner, the book of life of the Lamb slain (Rev 13:8).
12. The condemnation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was cleared, and free access to the tree of life was recovered, all by His death on a tree (Rev 2:7; I Pet 2:24).
13. Your eternal inheritance was obtained and reserved for you (Eph 1:11-14; I Peter 1:4).
14. The resurrection of dead relatives and your own body is guaranteed (I Cor 15:20-23).
15. The thrice holy God infinite in all His attributes can accept only His perfect payment.

The DETAILS of the Death of Jesus

1. Jesus begged God in Gethsemane for another way, but obediently submitted to death.
2. Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, but He met them, identified Himself, and went freely.
3. Jesus was offered a sedative by the Roman soldiers, but He refused it (Matthew 27:34).
4. Darkness was over all the earth for three hours during the crucifixion (Luke 23:44).
5. The massive veil of Herod’s temple was rent in two from top to bottom (Matt 27:51).
6. There was an earthquake that shook the ground and split rocks open (Matthew 27:51).
7. It opened graves; many dead Christians appeared to many in the city (Matt 27:52-53).
8. A Roman centurion and those with him declared Jesus the Son of God (Matthew 27:54).
9. Another great earthquake at dawn as the angel of the Lord opened His tomb (Mat 28:2).
10. His flesh body was fully resurrected, for He ate and drank with His apostles to prove it.
11. His flesh body was fully glorified, for John witnessed it and fell at His feet as if dead.

The SUFFERINGS of the Death of Jesus

1. No man ever suffered more in human history than Him, when the virtue of His soul and the hounding of His enemies and all forms of suffering are weighed (Is 52:14; 53:2-3).
2. The physical sufferings from sleep deprivation to lack of sedative to suspended by nails.
3. The psychological sufferings from knowing to nakedness to disowned, ridiculed, dared.
4. The spiritual sufferings from Satan’s attacks at the Last Supper to Gethsemane to cross.
5. The divine sufferings from being forsaken by His Father without the help given martyrs.
6. For many details supporting each of these categories of our Lord’s sufferings … here.

The WORSHIP of the Death of Jesus

1. Water baptism by immersion has its meaning and value in His death and resurrection, for there are three pictures or symbols of burial and resurrection all based on His own.
2. We do not need the pagan-invented holy days of the RCC to honor our Jesus, for Good Friday cannot come close to gospel preaching, baptism, and communion (I John 5:6-8).
3. Jesus the night in which He was betrayed instituted the Lord’s Supper (I Cor 11:23-34).
4. Jesus death brought about the greatest increase in human worship ever (Ps 22:22-31).
5. All religious worship was overthrown, including O.T. worship (Jn 4:20-24; Heb 9:10).
6. Three choirs in heaven celebrated the Lamb’s death to save the elect (Rev 5:9,12-13).
7. The great drama of redemption included impressing angels (Eph 3:10; I Pet 1:10-12).
8. We have obtained the final form of worship by blood exceeding Abel’s (Heb 12:22-29).

The PRACTICAL effects of the Death of Jesus

1. While the emphasis this far has been on eternal, legal, final effects, there is much more.
2. Not until Jesus died did anyone ever leverage prayer in Jesus’ name (John 16:23-27).
3. Not until Jesus died and ascended did we have a priest like Him, touched with the feeling of our infirmities and with the experience of all temptations we face (Heb 4:15).
4. Not until Jesus died could God’s elect go straight to this holy God Himself (Heb 4:16; 10:19-22), but now they can do it with boldness and confidence by their Priest’s death.
5. Your assurance of God’s love and the gift of eternal life is all in His death by His choice, which love and complete redemption cannot be questioned or altered (Rom 8:28-39).
6. Jesus had to die and be put in the ground like a seed for the Gentiles (Jn 12:24,32-33).
7. Not until Jesus died and ascended to heaven did He send N.T. ministers (Eph 4:8-11).
8. Even consciences of the elect were polluted until the gospel of His death (Heb 9:11-14).
9. Husbands have been shown how to love wives by Jesus death for them (Eph 5:25-33).
10. Employees are shown how to work for froward masters by Jesus’ death (I Pet 2:18-25).
11. The blessings of the grace wherein we stand is by His justifying death (Romans 5:1-5).

The DUTY of the Death of Jesus

1. Never has greater duty been obligatory as on those who grasp and believe this history.
2. The Lord’s Supper is not just a ritual – it is a memorial of a transcendent day and event.
3. It is not just a memorial of a transcendent event, it recalls the personal death of a Man.
4. Jesus died for your body that day and thus you must glorify Him by it (I Cor 6:12-20).
5. Living without diligence to bear much fruit proves you forgot this great day (II Pet 1:9).
6. For communion, we must discern Jesus’ body in the elements and examine ourselves.