I am very glad to be back with you once again for another edition of the Weekend Sermon. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I pray each day that those who read these sermons might receive some benefit from them. My great desire is that someone who has not trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord will read the sermons and come to faith in the Lord Jesus.
This week has gone fairly well. My health seems to have stabilized, and I am thankful to the Lord and for your prayers. I am still working at the same job. Please pray that I can find a job in full-time ministry as that is the desire of my heart.
In prayer this week, please continue to pray for those affected by the extreme flooding in Texas and Louisiana. This is truly a terrible situation. Also, please pray for those who are suffering with the Zika virus. Let us pray that this virus will end.
Something that I really would like everyone to concentrate their prayers on this week is the situation that Christians are facing in the Middle East. Christians are facing horrific persecution in Syria and in Iraq. Let us pray that this will end. Pray that our brothers and sisters in Christ will find safety from relentless persecution.
Let us continue to pray for the spread of the message of Jesus around the world. Please pray for Tajikistan, Comoros, Somalia and Myanmar this week.
For the past several weeks now, we have been studying the Apostles' Creed and what it has to teach us. Last week, we focused on the atonement of Jesus on the cross. I want to continue with that a little bit this week and also focus on the next section of the Apostles' Creed.
One thing that always moves me greatly when I meditate on Jesus' crucifixion is His statement recorded in Luke 23:34. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." The love of Jesus is truly amazing. He was even willing to forgive those who nailed Him to the cross and hurled insults and hate at him.
If Jesus was willing to forgive those who crucified Him, He is willing to forgive anyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith. Jesus wants to save any person who will turn their life over to Him and trust in Him.
Since Jesus was willing to forgive us and those around His cross, we ought to be willing to forgive those who sin against us. I know that this is a hard thing to do, but we have the example of our Lord. When we face the difficulty of forgiving those who have hurt us, we must look to Jesus for strength to do the right thing.
The cross is about forgiveness. God loved us and gave us His Son so that whoever would believe in Him might be saved.
Now, I want to look at the death of Jesus for a few moments. The Bible makes it quite clear that Jesus actually died a literal, physical death. There were some false teachings in the earliest days of the church that said that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body, so He didn't really die. This is not the teaching of the Bible. Jesus suffered physical death. Jesus bore our sins on the cross, and He died in our place.
A few years ago, it was popular in some more liberal theological circles to doubt the fact that Jesus really died. One way that some tried to explain the resurrection was to say that Jesus was just in a coma when He was placed in the grave. Later, He revived and came out of the tomb. That is why His followers thought He rose from the dead.
The Creed will have none of that. Jesus died and was buried in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. He tasted death and was the victor over it.
Jesus' physical death was part of the suffering that He endured for us. It is part of His identification with us as our High Priest. Jesus knows what it is to experience death, so He can comfort us and help us in our experience.
After Jesus' burial, the Creed uses the phrase, "He descended into Hell". Some versions of the Creed say, "He descended to the grave." The Bible is not very clear on where Jesus was is spirit when He was in the grave. When we went through our study of I Peter, we came across a controversial passage that I discussed where it states that Jesus preached to those who were in Hell. Some believe that Jesus went and proclaimed victory over the forces of darkness during the time His body was in the tomb. Others believe that He went and preached to those in Hell giving them an opportunity to accept Him and get out of Hell. For a fuller discussion of this, you can read the sermon I posted about this.
The Bible makes it clear that death is the enemy of God, and it is the final enemy that is defeated. The powers of death tried to keep Jesus in the grave. Death is the consequence of sin. When sin came into this world through the first Adam's disobedience, death passed upon all people because every person has sinned.
When Jesus was on the cross, He bore our sins and the punishment for sin. When He rose again, as we will see more next week, He conquered the consequences of sin. The grave could not hold Jesus. The powers of Hell could not hold Jesus. He was the victor. All the powers of sin, death and Hell have been defeated.
That is what I want us to focus on so much today. Jesus is victorious. When we face the powers of darkness in our lives, sometimes we feel that we can't overcome. Temptation seems to always get the best of us. We can't seem to get the victory over things in our lives. Jesus is victorious. If we look to Him and trust in Him, we can know without a shadow of a doubt that His love fills us and we cannot ultimately be defeated.
When we face temptation and dark times in life, I believe that one way to overcome is by focusing on the great of love of Jesus such as what we talked about when Jesus forgave those who crucified Him. If we meditate on the love of Jesus, the light of His precious love will drive the darkness from our hearts and minds and we can have victory.
As I have stated on the blog previously, I have suffered with depression since I was in my late teens. I have had some really good periods, and I have had some bleak times when I did not know if I would make it. The darkness was really dark at times. One thing that helped me make it through was concentrating on the love of Jesus. When I would focus on love and light, the power of Jesus would drive back the darkness and help me to make it through another hard day.
I also focused on Jesus' love through all the good things He had provided for me. He had given me a good home, my parents and my friend Toby.
Today, when I am facing a dark time, I focus on Jesus' love, and it feels in my heart like Jesus is right there in the room with me strengthening me and taking care of me. As I've said before, I would never be able to make it without Jesus.
Jesus won the battle over the powers of darkness. He will give us strength when we turn to Him.
I didn't plan it this way, but our study of the Apostles' Creed will bring us just where we want to be next week when we focus on the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Next week, I will post the memory verses on Monday. On Wednesday, I am not yet sure what I will post. I may post a review, but I have something that I have wanted to post for awhile, so I may do that. With next week being Holy Week, I will have posts for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. With that being the case, I will post the sermon on Saturday next week. May God bless you all, and may you experience the love of Jesus this week. Amen.
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