What Jesus Death Means

Pastor Mike will be speaking on What Jesus Death Means. He will be in John 14: 28-31.

The basis of my faith is not because I need a crutch to help me through the problems of life. It’s not a leap into darkness, but the basis of my faith is rooted on the promises and truths of Jesus Christ.

Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. We’re gonna be back in the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 28 through 31. Here’s what it’s before us. What does Jesus’s death mean to us? What does it mean to us who believe in Christ?

And so I want you to see this in the text of how God reveals that the death of Christ has a significant impact upon us. So make sure that you get your Bible, pen, and paper. Make sure you’re ready to study maybe a cup of coffee, tea, whatever works for you, but let’s dig in together as we study the Bible.

If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in the Gospel of John chapter 14. We’re in the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 28 through 31. I want to talk to you about what does the death of Jesus mean.

On March the 28th, 2002, the Canadian National Post ran this headline, and I quote, Worshiping God Can Keep You Sane. The article was written by Tracy Tong, and she said that regular religious worship can relieve the severity of mental health problems and shorten the hospital stays of psychiatric patients.

She went on to say that religious commitment has a significant impact upon depressive symptoms, satisfaction with life, hospital use, and alcohol use. You and I know that we have a God who works powerfully every time that we assemble together as believers, that He works effectively within our heart.

Therefore, it is no surprise to us that prayer, Bible study, church attendance would help people to stay mentally healthy. For we understand that God has created the psyche and that Christianity is uniquely designed to minister to the mind, the soul, the spirit, the individual.

When we come to the Gospel of John, Chapter 14, Jesus and His disciples have gathered together. It is very close to His crucifixion. The shadow of the cross, if you will, is upon the life of our Savior as they are gathered in the upper room.

The disciples are under duress, there is anxiety, and Jesus is is speaking to them in the midst of their anxiety. And he shares with them very powerful words from John chapter 14 all the way through.

And as we have been studying this passage, this chapter, we have learned that this is a wonderful chapter. And there are many promises in John chapter 14. But as Jesus ends this chapter, he gives his disciples a prescription for joy, for faith, for obedience in their hearts.

I want you to pick up with me in verse 28. The scripture says, you have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said unto you, I go unto the father for my father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it came to pass that when it is come to pass, you might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh and have nothing in me, but that the world may know that I love the father.

And as the father gave me commandment, even so I do arise. Let us go hence. What does the death of Jesus Christ mean? Jesus wanted his disciples to understand the significance of the meaning of his death into their everyday life.

He wanted them to capture the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ for their life and how that is fleshed out in their decisions, in their behaviors, in their responses and the choices and decisions that they would make as followers of Christ.

I submit unto you that the death of Jesus means. first of all that you and I have a basis for joy. Again look at the text in verse 28 and note Jesus says you’ve heard how I said unto you I go away. Jesus frequently told his disciples that he was going away and that he would return.

As a matter of fact let’s just real quickly navigate through a few chapters here in John chapter 7 start there and we see the redundancy of this message that Jesus is telling his disciples I’m leaving I’m leaving I’m going to go to the cross I’m going to die on the cross I’m going back to the Father but I’m coming again.

Verse 33 of John chapter 7 Jesus said unto them yet a little while I am with you and then I go unto him that sent me, you know, the disciples are like you and I. Have you ever been just like driving down the road, maybe as a husband and your wife just pouring her heart out to you and telling you all these details and you’ve really just never listened to one word that she said?

And she said, what did I just say to you? And you’re scrambling because you was thinking about the ball game you’re missing. And you was thinking about all the things you need to get done and how you’re behind on this project at work.

And you say, pastor, how did you know that? Because I’ve done that. I’ve been there, church. And that’s the way the disciples were. Often Jesus would tell them things and it just did not even resonate with them.

We jump over to chapter eight and verse 21. Again, Jesus said to them, I go my way and you shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Whether I go, you cannot come. And his point is that I’m leaving. You’re gonna be left to yourselves.

I’m leaving, he was talking to unbelievers who refused to trust in him. But his message was that I’m leaving. I’m not staying on this earth forever. We jump over to chapter 13 and verse 33. Chapter 13 verse 33, thank you for bringing your Bibles this morning.

Little children, yet a little while I am with you, you shall seek me. And as I said unto the Jews, whether I go, you cannot come. So now I say to you. Verse 36, Simon Peter said unto him, where are you going?

Jesus answered, whether I go, where I go, you cannot follow me now, but thou shall follow me afterwards. And then we come to this chapter that we’re in. And out in the front of this chapter, Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so. I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also so this should not be a new revelation to the disciples but yet it is and Jesus says to them in verse 28 of chapter 14 I’m going away I will come again unto you you know what it’s like you understand how the disciples feel because you’ve noticed perhaps you’ve experienced in your own life the sadness of people leaving the sadness of people separating sometimes this sadness is born into the heart of those who are left behind someone is promoted to heaven and they are left there to try to figure out life you understand Maybe a mother and a father,

they raised this beautiful child and now this child leaves for college and there is an excitement for this new adventure for the child. And here, mom and dad go back and to an empty house. There’s nobody running around, nobody spilling milk, nobody to trip over.

And so there is sometimes this sadness. This is what the disciples are feeling. The sadness of their Savior leaving Jesus was going to return to heaven. For Him it was a restoration of His glory and the disciples were told that they should rejoice in this.

They should be glad. The Scripture says in Acts 2 .33, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, referring to Christ, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.

Peter stood before the multitudes and said that our Savior is now at the right hand of the Father and the coming of the Spirit is upon us. And what you are witnessing and experiencing is a part of the promise that Jesus had made when He said, I am leaving, but I am coming.

John MacArthur said this about this text, they saw the Lord’s death only in terms of what would be lost to them, but not what would be gained in Christ. And that’s what happens in our life as believers, that we lose that sense of joy in our hearts, that we so much think about us rather than what the going, the promotion of our loved ones into heaven.

We are more focused on us than we are, what joy they have when they enter into those pearly gates and when they go to be with their Lord and Savior. and finally receive the reward that God has for them.

And for us, as we look at the life of our Savior, the basis of our joy is His crucifixion and His resurrection and His ascension, and that because of the redemptive work that He has done, you and I can hear the words of our Savior and see the life of our Savior and the death of our Savior, the resurrection of our Savior, and we can rejoice today because it is His work that is the foundation for the joy that you and I have today.

But here’s where we go wrong. We base our joy on circumstances. We base our joy on people. And then when we do that, when that is the foundation of our joy, then… when our circumstances change or go south, when people step out of our lives for whatever reasons, good, bad or ugly, then all of a sudden we become overwhelmed with depression and discouragement rather than recognizing that the basis of our joy is our relationship with Christ and what he has done for us and that no matter what this world throws upon us,

church, you and I have the joy of knowing that Jesus Christ has saved our soul and that our future is with him throughout all eternity. Jesus said, I am coming to you. He wants us to know that his suffering and his death is not the end, but rather it is the beginning for all who follow Jesus Christ.

When the disciples heard Jesus say, I’m gonna die on a cross, they thought that all that they had encountered, all that they had accomplished, all that they had achieved was coming to an end. But Jesus said, no, this is the beginning.

This is the beginning of the spirit of God filling you. This is the beginning of God empowering you to do greater things, greater things than even Christ had done. Not in, not in quality, but in quantity in that we would be able to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth and that we would be able to reach people in multitude fashions of helping them to come to Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, I’m going to the Father. And the point is that we should rejoice because the work of Christ is complete. The moment that Christ ascended into the heavens and went to the right hand of the Father.

The Hebrew writer says that he sat down, he sat down. The high priest never saw it. sat down, and why is it that the high priest would never sit down? Because the work of salvation was not finished, it was not complete, but my friends, our savior, who is our high priest, he is sat down at the right hand of the father, and why is that?

Because the work of salvation is finished. And yet there are some, even in our midst today, that are still trying to work your way to heaven. You’re still trying to be good enough to go to heaven. You’re still trying to earn points with God so that you can go to heaven, but I tell you that Christ has done all that is necessary for you to go to heaven on the cross and through the resurrection, and by his ascension,

he has vindicated and validated his mission is finished, and he now has brought salvation to each and every heart that believes in Jesus Christ, which takes me to my second point. that not only that the death of Christ means you and I have a foundation or a basis for joy, but number two, we have a basis for faith.

We look at verse 29 and the Scripture says, now I’ve told you before it came to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe. The uniqueness of Jesus Christ upon this earth as He walked among us is that as He spoke, He not only spoke with great authority, but with great accuracy.

For Jesus spoke and He was the fulfillment of what the prophets had proclaimed would come to pass. But Jesus Himself being a prophet spoke, He prophesied of things that would come to pass in a very apologetic way.

Not that Jesus was sorry, but in what I mean in the sense of the word, in an apologetic way, in the defense of the faith, that Jesus said these things will take place. And He said, when you see them take place, that you might believe.

The basis of my faith is not my emotions. The basis of my faith is not because I need a crutch to help me through the problems of life. The basis of my faith is not a leap into darkness. The basis of my faith is not because I’m an ignoramus and I need some kind of help and religious movement in my life so that I can function.

But the basis of my faith is rooted on the promises and truths of Jesus Christ. I’m not asking you to believe something that is a fantasy. I’m not asking you to believe and follow Christ because somehow it is something that is a wonder.

nice story, I am challenging you to check the record. I am challenging you to examine his words, examine his life, for Jesus Christ prophesied and predicted his death and resurrection and ascension and all of it came true.

Paul said that after the resurrection of Christ over 500 people saw him. In our free witnesses are sufficient to prove a fact. Jesus always making our cup run over doing more than what we ever asked.

Had over 500 witnesses say that he was a lie. The political leaders of that day, the religious leaders of that day did everything that they could to make sure that Jesus did not come out of that tomb but my friends he did come out of that tomb.

Amen. The basis of your faith! Is that we have a savior who came from heaven and he lived a miraculous and sinless life He lived a flawless life never sinned and as he came He performed miracles like no other prophet like no other religious leader He didn’t just heal a man and make a man walk out of a wheelchair He didn’t just make someone rise up out of their sick bed Jesus interrupted funeral processions and raised the dead Jesus showed up four days later after a body was in the tomb dead and raised them to new life I’m just here to say to you that Jesus Christ Did not live some ambiguous life Making great decorative statements that never came true But if you research his life,

you will see that he was sinless You will see that he performed great miracles that stand out You will see that he went to a cross and bore the sins of mankind And that three days later he rose again And then walked upon this earth for 40 days teaching his disciples What it meant to be in the new covenant and experience the power of the spirit of god in their life and to Advance the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth And then he ascended as they watched him leaving into the earth The angel said to him that this same Jesus that you see leaving will be coming back For his people again.

Can god’s people say amen? My friends your faith is not based upon a whim or a story But it is based upon the truth and the promises of our savior that he has fulfilled and will fulfill I want to give you a quick example of that In john chapter 2.

I just want you to back up in your gospel back up in your Bible and notice in John chapter 2 verse 19 just a simple example and this is multiplied throughout the scriptures multiple times verse 19 of chapter 2 Jesus answered and said unto them destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up Wow the disciples were enamored and fascinated with what man had built and Jesus said destroy this temple and in three days I’ll raise it up but he wasn’t talking about the physical temple he was talking about him himself then said the Jews 40 and 6 years was this temple and building and wilt thou rear it up in three days verse 21 he spake of the temple of his body when therefore when he was risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them and they believed the scripture and the Word which Jesus had said.

Every time you investigate the life of Christ and the words and promises of Jesus and they come true, your faith is not only birthed, but it is rooted. It is enhanced as you realize that the basis of your faith is in the promises of Jesus Christ.

My third thing that I want you to note this morning is what does Jesus’ death mean? It means I have a basis for joy in my heart. I rejoice that he finished and completed the work of Christ, that my salvation is authentic and now he has done what is necessary so that I can live with him eternally.

I rejoice. His death means that I have a basis for my faith, that what he says will happen, does happen. He is a faithful God and his promises are true, but thirdly, we have a basis for our obedience in Christ.

We look at verse 30 and verse 31 of the chapter and we note that the Scripture says, hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world comes and hath nothing in me. The prince of the world is Satan himself, but Jesus says that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do, arise and let us go hence.

Jesus spoke of his suffering and his death and his resurrection and he says to them, I’m not gonna talk to you any longer about this. I’ve already told you all that needs to be said. Satan’s coming, but he has nothing in me.

This phrase when he says that he has nothing in me or he has no ability, he has nothing in me, he has no ability to accuse me. You see, Satan. is an accuser of the brethren. Satan could not charge Christ with any sin.

Satan could not hold Jesus in the tomb. Satan could not hinder what Jesus’ mission was to go to that cross and die for your sins and my sins. He has no power over me is what Jesus is saying. He has no authority over me.

He cannot accuse me because my life is sinless, because I am the son of God. You and I, we could not redeem people. We could not save people from their sinfulness because the truth is that Satan can charge every one of us in this room, including Mike Sanders of sin.

I don’t wanna shock anybody, but I am flesh and blood. And there’ve been many times when I hit that golf ball and it didn’t go the right direction, that thoughts went through my head that are ungodly.

and deserve to be confessed to God almighty, amen? I’m sorry, but there is none of us that is sinless. But my friends, because Christ came and lived a sinless life, there is no charge. There is nothing to say from the lips of Satan.

There is nothing that he can say. The Scriptures put it this way in Hebrews 2 .14, and as much then as the children have partaken of the flesh and blood, he himself referring to Christ, likewise shared in that same, he was like us, flesh and blood, that through death, he might destroy him who had the power or the authority of death, that is the devil.

You see, no one has silenced Satan better than Jesus Christ. No one, I’ve been helping our school out driving a bus and you know, one thing I forgot that little kids love to tell on each other, amen?

And I looked this little four -year -old in the eyes and I said, do you wanna be like Satan? He’s always accusing, tattletaling, pointing out all our faults and failures. You’re saying, Mike, how do you have time for all this on a bus?

I don’t know. You might not wanna send your kid on my bus. There’s too much theology going on. Satan can accuse and tell on all of us, but he can’t, the Savior. That’s why I love the words of the Scriptures.

He has nothing in me. He has no authority. He has no power. He has no accusation in me, referring to Christ. And so it is, my friends, that we see the heart of our Savior. We see his motives in verse 31.

Why would Christ do all this? Why? That the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. The obedience of the Savior. was because of his love for the Father.

The Father sent him on a mission to save your soul, and he sent him on a mission to save my soul. And the basis of my obedience is not in Mike’s flesh. It’s not in what Mike thinks he can muster up today, because the accusations are many.

But the basis for my obedience, get this church, is the obedience of Jesus to the Father. And here’s what I want you to know, is that when Satan is beating you up about your past, when he is reminding you of all your failures, when he is exposing all your flaws, and he is like that little kid that keeps running to the bus driver and saying, Johnny’s not sitting down.

He’s standing up in his seat that you remember this, that in Christ, you are righteous. You are perfect, my friends. that in Christ you have obedience, you have the robe of righteousness because you put your trust in Him, and that when you stand before God, when you stand before the Holy Father, when your time has come to leave this world, when you stand before God Almighty, He’s not going to measure your life and whether you obeyed enough or whether you were able to persuade Him why you were standing up in the seat of the bus when it was moving and you should have been sitting down,

but the Father will look to Satan and say, put tattletaling on my child. He is under the blood of Jesus Christ, my Son, and His sins are washed away. Can God’s people say amen? And so the chapter ends, arise and let us go from here.

Church, I want you to walk out, not in defeat, not in discouragement. I want you to walk out of here in the victory that has been accomplished and achieved in Jesus Christ. I want you to strive to obey God, not in your own strength, but the power of the Spirit and the power of the victory that has been won at the cross.

I want you to do it because you love the Father, not because you’re trying to be better than others, not because you think that somehow you are above others. I want you to obey God because you love Jesus, you love God and the basis of your obedience is the obedience of Jesus Christ.

Jesus frequently told His disciples that He was going away and then He would return. Now they didn’t quite connect the day. They didn’t fully understand the full scope of all that God was doing. But praise the Lord, when Jesus Christ gave His life on that cross, He gave us a basis of having joy in Him, in that providing for our payment of our sin, Jesus Christ, now gives us the joy of true salvation in the Lord.

And so I hope that you’re understanding the depth and the breadth of all that it means for what Christ did for you on the cross, and that you’ll be encouraged in the days that we are living in. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.