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Sunday 4/05/26
Title: Together forever
(United in His Death & Resurrection!)
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Together forever
(United in His Death & Resurrection!)
Last week we entered Jerusalem with Jesus, the shouts of Israel saying
“Hosanna! ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ (10) Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”.
We covered how that week Jesus revealed Who Messiah really was as compared to what they believed He would be.
He shattered their expectations and thereby revealed the face of God, realized and sent in Jesus to redeem His people from their sins.
He was in Jerusalem for four days to be inspected by the Jews as worthy to serve as their passover/paschal Lamb. By the end of the week, the vote was in. Israel, for all the wrong reasons, judged Him worthy by crying out “crucify Him”.
Now perhaps like me, you may have wondered why God chose to separate Passover from the annual Day of Atonement.
From a human perspective, there is a certain logic to assume that they would have been on the same day and even be fulfilled in the same sacrifices, but they were not. These were two events, separated in both time and significance.
One of the differences, which may in fact, be the most profound is that Passover was an individual event, while the Day of Atonement was a national event. We will circle back to this later.
Passover was far more symbolic in that it accomplished more.
- It separated those who offered the sacrifice from the Egyptians among whom they were slaves.
- It covered each Israelite family with the sinless blood of a pure lamb without spot or blemish and without a broken bone.
- They had to take the lamb within themselves – all of it and so become one with it.
- Finally, it marked the day in which Israel was liberated from slavery to Egypt (a type of sin, death and the world).
The Day of Atonement however, only had one symbol regarding the sins of Israel.
- The Day of Atonement began with a ritual for Aaron and his sons first where they were ritually cleansed by water and covered with sacred garments for service.
- Then a bull sacrificed for the sins of Aaron and his sons.
- Then two goats were taken from all of Israel.
- One goat was offered to God in the same manner as the one for Aaron and his sons – and was for the purification of the temple and its altar from the ritual impurities, sins, and transgressions of the Israelites that accumulated throughout the year. This process purified God’s dwelling place so he could continue dwelling among the people.
- Then the second goat, often referred to as the scapegoat was not sacrificed, but rather had the sins of the nation laid upon its head by Aaron and was escorted out of the camp to die in the wilderness alone – separated from the camp.
To have had Jesus crucified on the Day of Atonement, in many ways would have sent the wrong message.
The truth is, if the Passover sacrifice had been enough to eradicate sin from Israel, then there would have been no need for a national Day of Atonement.
But God in His brilliance, brought to most important aspects of both events which historically were separated by about 175 days each year and He brought them together in Jesus.
Both events are said to be finally fulfilled, once for all, in Jesus our Messiah.
Jesus is identified as our Passover Lamb in:
- 1 Corinthians 5:7-8: Paul explicitly instructs believers to act as unleavened bread because Christ, their Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
- John 1:29 & 1:36: John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the “Lamb of God” Who takes away the sin of the world.
- John 19:14-16: John presents Jesus being sentenced to crucifixion on the day of preparation at the same time the Passover lambs were slaughtered.
- 1 Peter 1:18-20: Presents Jesus as a lamb with Paschal attributes, being “without blemish and without spot,”. This answers the requirements for the Passover lamb in Exodus.
- Revelation 5:12: Describes Jesus as the Lamb who was slain and Who is worthy of praise.
Jesus is furthermore identified with the Day of Atonement in:
- Hebrews 9:11-14, 24-26: Explicitly describes Jesus as the High Priest Who entered the greater, more perfect tabernacle (heaven) once for all with His Own blood, achieving final atonement, mirroring the high priest entering the Holy of Holies.
- Hebrews 10:1-14: Explains that while the old sacrificial system (including Day of Atonement offerings) was repeated by remembering or recalling the sins of the nation, Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins forever – making them “remembered no more.”.
- Hebrews 13:11-12: Connects Jesus‘ crucifixion “outside the city gate” to the sacrificial animals of the Day of Atonement, which were burned outside the camp and the .
- 1 Peter 2:24-25: Explicitly refers back to the straying sheep imagery in Isaiah 53:5-6 and connects the suffering servant’s sacrifice to the forgiveness of sins, thus mentioning from association the scapegoat for in that same passage, it says, “God has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all”.
- Additionally 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Galatians 1:4 – both theme Jesus as bearing our sin(-s).
- 1 John 2:2, 4:10: Identifies Jesus as the “propitiation” (atoning sacrifice) for sins, the Greek term (hilasmos) relating to the mercy seat where blood was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement.
On the day that Jesus was offered up as the Holy Lamb from Heaven, it wasn’t just Israel who had deemed Jesus as worthy to be their Passover Lamb. As Jesus was on the cross, being in His person both the high priest and the sacrifice, He offered up His soul a sacrifice for sin. And having hung there on display between earth and heaven, and having the sins of the whole world laid upon Him – made One with Him as Paul said in Corinthians, “He made Him Who knew no sin, to be sin for us”. In that state, separated for a time from the presence of the Father, but empowered by the Spirit, He cried out “it is finished”. The Temple veal being torn from the top to the bottom, revealing that the Father had also judged Jesus as the Lamb Who was worthy to take away the sins of the world.
So while the national Day of Atonement definitely had significance, I believe a case can easily be made for Passover, being the more relevant of the two for these reasons:
- It was more personal in that each family inspected and sacrificed their own lamb.
- Each family became one with the sacrifice by consuming it.
- Each family passed from death to life because of the sacrifice.
- Each family exited the world, sin and death in Egypt by means of the blood of the lamb.
Day of Atonement was national:
- Sins of Priests
- Sanctified tabernacle
- Scapegoat sent away with sins
Passover was personal:
- Lamb was inspected in the home by the family
- Forgiveness was personal (per family)
- Family consumed becoming one with the lamb
- This preceded their exodus from Egypt (a type of the world, sin and death)
There is MUCH more I will have on the website regarding this including the passages in the New Testament where Jesus is specifically identified as fulfilling both the Day of Atonement and the Passover Lamb.
Now today we are going to cover…
- TWO main passages for consideration
- 2 for description
- 1 for communion
But first, the Lord dropped this verse in my heart this morning to set, as it were, a type of outline for what we are learning today. Namely how Jesus was the seen Who was sown into the earth so as to bear the fruit of many sons and daughters of God into the kingdom. Which is mentioned in John 12:20-26.
“(20) Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. (21) So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him,
“Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”
(22) Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. (23) And Jesus answered them,
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. (24) Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (25) Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (26) If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there will My servant be also. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.”
Now there are three ways in which this is predominately seen in the New Testament and that will loosely serve as our outline for today.
- The first is in Jesus Himself, which we just read.
- The second is in we His children as the later portion of the passage introduces.
- Thirdly, the seed of Jesus’ character in us, guiding us into the fulfillment of the “Goal” of our faith which is Christ’s likeness.
1 John 3:9,
“(7) Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. (8) Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (9) No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. (10) By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”
Now having in fairly quick and simple terms, covered the significance of what Jesus did, let’s examine a few passages before we symbolically reenact our own Passover from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from the world to the kingdom of God by communion.
Turn with me to Galatians 2. In Galatians Paul is addressing all of the churches in the great province of Galatia most of which were largely Gentile. These, like the church at Antioch, were being influenced to attempt to mix aspects of the Old Covenant in the Law with the redemption they already possessed in Christ. So Paul used an incident that happened in Antioch as a segue into arguing that you cannot do both. Peter would eat and drink with the Gentiles in Antioch until Jewish brothers visited from Jerusalem, at which point he would segregate and only eat with those visiting Jews. Now he no doubt did this to avoid conflict. To Peter this was not a doctrinal deviation, but a consideration. But his act of consideration for his fellow Christian Jews, he was not considering Christ and so it was still a doctrinal statement regardless of his intentions. Paul called him out on this quite publicly. Then Paul repeated the event here in this letter for Christians of all time periods to read and learn from.
Now that intro was important because Paul was addressing an issue of nullifying the grace of God, by returning to Old Covenant practices for justification.
If that was all we could learn from this passage, then it serves almost no purpose to Gentile Christians today in any way. But the lesson it teaches goes beyond the sample problem to anything which effectively sets aside the grace of God.
Today, this is realized less from expressions of legalism and more in terms of moral relativism and an apparent freedom from the restricting influence of grace on behavior.
Galatians 2:16-21,
“(16) yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
(17) But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not!
(18) For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
(19) For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God.
(20) I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.
(21) I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”
By “nullify” or “set aside” Paul is using both legal & covenant language. It functions as a forensic term that means to invalidate or reject the validity of a legal agreement. Many are familiar with the phrase “null and void” and that applies here. To render something null means to make it invalid, void, or without legal force, essentially treating it as if it never existed. It signifies that a contract, agreement, or action has no binding power or value and therefore signifies a total loss of effect.
Additionally Jesus said we can do this simply by being the 3rd heart in His parable of the heart soils. “…the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things – entering in, completely strangles the Word and it produces nothing.” – Mark 4:19
Now turn with me to Phil. 3 –
“(1) Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.
(2) Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. (3) For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—”
This word “worship” as applied to Gentiles would have been very offensive to Jews. You see as Kenneth Wuest points out in his excellent commentary, the word “worship” here is the translation of the Greek word referring to the service of Jehovah by His peculiar people, the Jews. As such, quite naturally, a Jew would have been scandalized its use in relation to a Gentile.
Paul uses it to designate the religious service and obedience of the believer in the Church. The best Greek texts have “worship by the Spirit of God,” not “worship God by the Spirit.”
“(4) though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: (5) circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; (6) as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
“(7) But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
(8) Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—”
Now both here in Galatians as well as in the passage we will read in Philippians, many translations rightly have the word as the “faith of Christ” or even by “Christ’s faithfulness”. Both are more accurate than what I just read, but they are also equally misleading for the same reason.
Wuest offers an explanation and it touches on one of the more recent things we learned in our teachings on Faith and Hope – namely that Jesus is the author and He who matures our faith.
This is what Wuest says,
“The phrase, “faith of Christ” refers to the faith which Christ kindles, of which He is the Author, which also He nourishes and maintains. It is therefore the faith which is furnished the believer by God and with which he appropriates the blessings of grace.”
Philippians 3…
“(10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, (11) that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. [By which Paul is NOT referring to the rapture, but his personal maturity in and conformity to Christ’s likeness, which is made clear in the next verse.]
“(12) Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His Own.”
It is important to our life in Christ that you see Paul’s taking personal responsibility for and involvement in making maturity his own! Scripture does not argue with itself. The branches in Jesus’ teaching of His disciples on the night of His betrayal, were represented as abiding in the Vine. Revealing personal responsibility for and involvement in their production of fruit. Not that they produced likeness to Christ by their own efforts, but by total dependence upon the Vine Who is Christ. Or as Paul put it here – by faith in Christ. By faith that is both relational and personal, we are empowered to have accomplished IN us and through us, what we of ourselves cannot do!
In addition to what Jesus counseled His disciples, Paul encourages us to live in the present with Christ, rather than in the past with failures. To let go of past failures and press on…
“(13) Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
What is this “goal of the faith” we have in Christ? The very maturity into His likeness Paul just mentioned. This is further illustrated by Peter in 1 Peter 1:
“who by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. (7) Such trials show the proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold – gold that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away – and will bring praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (8) You have not seen him, but you love him. You do not see him now but you believe in him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, (9) because you are attaining the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:5-9
Phil. 3…
“(15) Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”
So trust for the future is encouraged here as well. Even the mature are not fully mature and so with trust we continue – believing that the One Who called will perfect us and the Spirit Who was given to lead and guide, will do so until we arrive at our goal of maturity in Christ!
So what does it mean by “knowing Him and the power of His resurrection?”
Well, Romans 6 helps us here. It defines the power of resurrection and connects it with Paul’s statements regarding righteousness gained & and applied by faith.
Mechanical faith or superficial Christianity which knows but does not live the Word is external and circumstantial as opposed to internal and abiding. One is a product of either knowing but feeling at liberty from doing or is an adherence to the law by fleshy effort & human will. Both represent filthy rags. This is because they are presented as a reason to accept based upon action or belief alone rather than produced through union with Christ.
As we have pointed out time and again, the whole point was life eternal not just forgiveness of sins.
So let’s turn to Romans 6 where we will close before taking bread and the grape juice symbolic of our union and communion with Christ.
Romans 6:1-23,
“(1) What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
(2) By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
(3) Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, JUST AS Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
(5) For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
(6) We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing [or rendered inoperative], so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (7) For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
“(8) Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
(9) We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.
(10) For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives [perpetually] to God.”
Now lest you miss it. The wording in English only implies by association what the Greek clearly says. Christ’s death to sin was once for all – so by association, we have to recognize that His living unto God is also a once for all decision. The word “lives” is a present active indicative tense, which in this context conveys a continuous, ongoing, or perpetual action!
We aren’t called upon to just choose to enter into a life lived with and for with Him on the day of our rebirth, but it is a decision we continuously make in our every decision. It is a decision which is consistent with our having proclaimed Him as our Lord!
“(11) So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
“(12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. (13) Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. (14) For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Like Paul who decided to not set aside the grace of God. And just as Paul was taking personal responsibility for and involvement in making maturity in Christ his own!
“(15) What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”
“(16) Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
(17) But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, (18) and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”
“(19) I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
(20) For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (21) But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
(22) But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
(23) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus OUR LORD.”
1 Corinthians 10 has Paul telling us that in taking communion it is “participation” in his sufferings.
1 Corinthians 10:15-23,
“(15) I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. (16) The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (17) Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
(18) Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? (19) What do I imply then?”
That …(21) You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.
(22) Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?
(23) “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.”
1 Corinthians 11:26-32,
Paul told the Corinthians that as…
“(26) For as …often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
The word “proclaim” (Greek: katangellō) means to actively announce, declare, or make public the significance of Jesus‘ death. So it is to be a testimony of Christ.
“(27) Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
(28) Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
(29) For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
(30) THAT IS WHY many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
(31) But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. (32) But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
1 Corinthians 11:23-25,
“(23) For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, (24) and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said,
“This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
So take the bread, and as I pray, break it as symbolic of Christ being broken for you.
“(25) In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Blessings!
Blessings!
