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Good evening. It's good to be here and to be back in home away from home whenever you're with other believers you're at home and we know that the fellowship that we have in Christ is an eternal fellowship and so I'm just so thankful to be back here wish my family could be here.
Don't worry about Caleb he's really proud about this black cast that he gets to wear everywhere and show it off. But we are so glad to be serving Christ in my home in India especially on a day like this when we remember him who changed our lives changed history in the best way possible through identifying with us and dying for us.
There's there's no other message we have and yet there are people in the world that that don't know Christ and many of them are our loved ones and dear ones. And I live in India where and I see a lot of Indians out there you guys are connected to India where there's the majority 95 maybe more that don't know Christ.
Many of them have never heard of Christ and so we are just laboring by God's grace through the cross. Like Paul said we have nothing else to declare except Christ and him crucified. That sounds strange that we would preach a crucified Lord but there is all our hope and we do that in in the nation of India.
One of the ways in which we do that has been to train pastors and I know you know about our work and so I want to spend a lot of time talking about it but we want to train pastors Indian pastors to be sent out and start churches that are the vehicles through which Christ is seen and heard around the country.
We've been there for 12 years now in the pastoral training seminary and we just had our ninth graduation in February 23rd and as professors you know there are three professors I'm one of them my dad is another.
We were weeping as we prayed for these men and sent them out because we were just realizing the great work that God was doing there. It wasn't our work it was his work in sending these men out and just thinking about as these nine men there were nine men that graduated went out.
There's a total of 37 soldiers that Jesus has called to work in and minister in churches and the real work starts after they leave our seminary and and do something useful for Christ in the church. And just to give you an example I was visiting one of our students this last year.
His name is Dinesh. He's actually a surgeon Dr. Dinesh and he lives near Varanasi which is kind of a Hindu Center Hindu capital. We had a chance to go to the the Ganga River which according to Hindus is a source of purification.
It's connected to a Hindu goddess and they put a lot of their dead bodies in that water. In fact they try as much as possible because that's a direct in their mythology road to heaven. And you're there at the Ganga and you can smell the stench.
I don't want to gross anyone out but I'm making a point here of deadness. And we were sitting there with our Hindu guide and I turned to him and I said how can you smell this and look at this water and say that this makes you clean.
And we were just passing by and he showed us some pilgrims that were going in the water and dipping their selves and gargling this this filthy water and trying to get clean and he said look at them are they falling sick.
Well that's a sign right there that this water is clean and it's just it's blindness without without Christ. I mean we're blind. We seek futile things to purify us and Dinesh has planted a church there and he is working there with his wife and his kids and that's a pinpoint of light.
And I had a chance to be with him and there were a hundred people there at his fellowship and he's preaching Christ and God can take those people from darkness and from damnation and put them in a place of life.
And that makes me tremble you know because that's that's all we're here in this life for amen. There's only two reasons Jesus I mean there's only two reasons why why we are here on this earth and that is to worship Christ and share the gospel.
And sharing the gospel is just one thing we can do here that we can't do better in heaven. And so that's something that I know you are laboring with us and working with us in prayer especially. And so keep doing that because there's a real feeling of inadequacy especially when you look at the overwhelming number of people that need to hear Jesus.
We've sent 37 men out. We need to send several hundred more. So keep praying as we do this work for Christ. And this evening I wanted to to focus again on the cross. What a glorious thing to talk about the cross of Jesus Christ the root of all our hope and all our joy.
We look at a bloody cross and we can be energized by it not because we see defeat there but because we see victory there. We see the fulfillment of all the hopes and longings of the Old Testament and all the the life that God promised to us in what Jesus did in his life.
And then particularly in those six hours on the cross. And I think we need to be reminded of that because you know sometimes we can we can look at the cross and get depressed. And scriptures doesn't allow us to do that.
Passages that speak about the cross are passages that are overwhelmingly passages of joy. And that seems weird. It is foolishness in a sense to the world. And therefore I think we need to to saturate ourselves in in what the victory of the cross means more and more especially as we think about our own lives and how we may live for Christ and how we may even speak of Christ.
You can't speak of Christ without what he's done on the cross. And Colossians I want you to turn there this evening is a passage that does just that. It speaks of the cross but it speaks of the joy the hope the victory and the reconciliation that we can have in what Christ has done there.
Colossians 121 to 23 is the passage I want you to look at this evening as we think about Good Friday. And there's nothing special about this day but just about the truth that the Son of God became man took our sin and crushed it forever forever so that we could live through him.
This is how Paul says it. He says it this way. Let me read the passage Colossians 121 through 23. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind engaged in evil deeds yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death.
And this is the key idea in this passage let me say it again because we love this he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
Verse 23. If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven you get a sense that Paul's excited about this and of which I Paul was made a minister.
The book of Colossians is just enthralling to us isn't it. Because it it takes us in a in a never ending way to just the glories and the sufficiencies of Jesus Christ. And I want you to definitely have that in mind.
As we look at this passage Jesus is all we need. There's no one who is greater than him and in him you can be satisfied. And Paul has just been sort of taking us to the the throne room where Christ is and been showing us this even in verses 15 and following.
And I can't preach on it but I just have to talk about it because that's the context that he is great over all of the physical creation and it is sustained and held together because of his greatness in his person.
And then in an even greater way I would say spiritually he is great and sufficient over the spiritual creation that is us his bride the church which cannot live and cannot be sustained through him. And you're just going amen hallelujah Christ you are supreme you are great.
And then he makes this this application of Christ's greatness that I would have never made you know I would have said okay if if Christ is great over creation and over the church then let's just worship him and let's just sing songs and and let's you know do something esoteric.
But he says I want to apply that that greatness to to what God applies it to. I want to apply the power of Christ to what God applies it to. And I want to apply that to the cross. That's where the power of Christ is applied and to what is accomplished through the cross.
The greatest demonstration of Jesus's greatness and power in this context is the cross. It's pretty amazing. It should shock you you know because you can only embrace this through the Holy Spirit. And as Paul talks about this I want to show you not just the context before but even the context after he talks about how the cross is a is a cross of reconciliation.
It brings the impossible to bear upon human history that is enemies of God become friends of God in the cross. This happens. It's the reconciliation of of warring parties that should never be together.
And then you look at at verse 24. And this is why I say you know the cross and communion. And when we remember the cross shouldn't just be depressing but it should be joy. Because you look at what Paul says after he says Christ is great and that's seen most vividly in the cross.
And then he makes this application in verse 24 and he says now this weak man is filled with joy. I rejoice. He even says it in my suffering. He says because I'm a Christian and because I'm serving Christ my body is beaten my soul is beaten and I am filled with energy.
Specifically joy. Right. The joy of the Lord is my strength because of the cross. Do you see why Good Friday is is so central to who we are. We can't live without it. In other words what what Paul is saying is the reconciling power of the cross in this passage is a source of ceaseless joy to the Christian.
The reconciling power of the cross is a source of ceaseless joy to the Christian. Why do I say ceaseless joy. Because the tense even in verse 24 is a ongoing tense that just never ends. Paul says I just can't stop leaping because of what Christ has done through the cross.
And and why is that again. Because as I said very carefully it's the reconciling power of the cross. It's not just the sufferings of the cross that we look at but we look at the reconciliation that took place through that suffering.
And that sounds like a big word. And I would just say it's the fact that Jesus has made us friends with God. We have not just a relationship of salvation but a relationship that is closer than in a sense any other description of relationships.
We are actually the friends of God. And in the Bible friendship is the word that means somebody that offers benefit to someone in need. That's why we love the cross. You know I I remember this this vivid picture of friendship when I was just I just moved to Goa and Goa is kind of a jungle state a jungle town in India.
It's very tropical. And I was driving my car up on a hill and the roads are very very narrow and I didn't see in the brush. There was this huge ditch and I fell in the ditch two of my wheels were spinning in the air and I just remember being there and just thinking I'm in the middle of nowhere what am I going to do.
And then six of my seminary students came by and they said and in India they always respect you even though I look like this young guy. They said sir do you need help. And I said yeah I do. And and literally these six guys they said you get in the car.
They got underneath my car and you know this is an Indian crane if you will. They sat and they lifted me out of that ditch and I drove away. And that's what friendship is. You know it's to see somebody who is desperate and in need and come to their aid.
That's the cross. And that's why Paul is filled with joy. Now let me talk about how this works. There's two provisions that we find in this passage of reconciliation a friendship that come from the cross that can give us joy even tonight as we think about what Jesus has done 2 ,000 years ago there's two provisions of reconciliation and that we find in this passage.
And the first is found in verses 21 and 22. And you can see this this amazing contrast between 21 that is who we were and then 22 that is who we have become because of the reconciliation of the cross.
And I would say and I would summarize it in this way. Verse 21 is us being focused and I'm going to explain this just on ourselves and that's why we were so lost and destroyed. And verse 22 is us being focused on Christ and him alone.
And the first provision is this that he has given us a delight. He has given us a delight through the cross in his will and in his pleasure. Jesus has changed us from being consumed by ourselves through the cross and he has given us a soul delight and a soul appetite for him and his will and his pleasure.
You know this is the reason why we suffer if you will. This is the reason why this world is so cursed is because we're consumed and we're delighted in ourselves. And this is the reason if you will why Christians have great joy is because Jesus has taken us and liberated us from that amazing obsession with ourselves.
And he has given us an obsession with himself and no matter what happens because of that because he never changes you have joy. And if you're saved you know this right. But let's think about it just briefly.
What we were before the cross and that is we were obsessed with ourselves. Verse 21 it says this. And although you were formally and it's great to realize that this is you know just a past gone reality but we need to remember it just so we we love the cross more.
This is who I would be if it weren't for what Christ has done on Calvary. You were formerly what alienated. You were formerly hostile in mind and you were formally engaged in evil deeds. And I would say it this way our obsession with our ourselves was that we were dead we were darkened and we were destructive.
That's who we were before Christ intervened. We were dead in this sense that we were aliens. And this is this idea of being completely separate and without an ability to relate to to who to God to your creator.
You know I can see a lot of different ethnicities here so you understand what the word alien means. And I remember when I first came to the United States and just for me this was my personal experience.
I'd never been on a plane I'd never been outside of the country. You know I was fresh off the boat and so I got to college and I remember this big black guy coming right at me and I wasn't used to that.
You know people just strangers just walking straight up to you and I thought he was gonna you know beat me or something. And then he came up to me and he said what's up dude. And and this is what I did.
I looked up and then he fell down and started laughing at me and I said what did I do wrong. And he said I was just saying hello. You know you what you're looking at the sky for. And it took me about six months before I could understand.
You know this language that seemed to be English. But you know it wasn't because I was an alien but in a greater way. That's how we were before the cross. We couldn't understand a thing God was saying right.
Somebody could even bring scripture to you. And you wouldn't understand it. You would hate it you would run away from it. You couldn't understand that you were a sinner that your righteous acts are are full of pride and they're dead and filthy before God.
You couldn't understand anything God was saying. You couldn't love him. You couldn't understand that you owed all to him life and breath and all things. You were an alien to the very one who had given you everything.
And that's called deadness in the Bible to be separated from the one who made you. It's praise God we're on this side right. Let's change that. But not only were we dead but because we were dead we were darkened because you're not connected to the Creator who made this world and knows how it runs.
Your mind is just stupid. That's what it says. You were darkened. You kept. You know even though you had eyes it was like there was no lights on. And you were constantly banging in a wall spiritually speaking with your marriage with your kids with your family.
You were darkened in your mind. And some of you know what that's like. And you're saying get to the next verse. You know it's important I I grew up in a in a Christian home and I was a hypocrite. My dad was a pastor and I hated ministry and I fought against it and and I won't tell you the whole story.
But I'm saved today because of the grace of God. You know it doesn't matter how much light you have you could be dead and drunk on the street or you could be a pastor's kid you need. I think almost I needed more grace than a drug addict.
You know in terms of God showing me how self-righteous I was and God saved me. I don't know what mess you came from if darkness. But he saved you. And the only reason you're here is because of the cross.
Not only were we we darkened but we were darkened. We were dead. We were separate from God. Therefore we were stupid and darkened. And we were also destructive. Just everything you do hurts people when you don't love Christ and you love yourself you're destructive and and your selfishness makes you want to just kill other people so you can be first.
Right. We call that the rat race. We call that you know marital conflict. And in the end it's all because of this. Because we're so self-consumed. And that's why Christian marriages by God's grace can be more hopeful.
Because God can cause a husband to die to himself. And I'm trying to do that so that you can love your wife. Right. You learn that from where from the cross we were destructive. This word destructive and it shocked me when I was studying it is actually a word that is used for leprous sores in Revelation 16 and verse 2.
That's how God sees it and that's how when you see it you you really understand Lord I was just decaying and I was causing my wife to decay and my kids to decay and my neighbors to decay and people at my job to just die because of how selfish I was.
I was full of rottenness. I was reading recently in Luke chapter 5 and verse 12 of a man that came to Jesus and he was a leper and Luke was a doctor and Luke said he was covered with leprosy. Probably that's a medical diagnosis saying he was just full of pus and sores and he was gonna die in a few days.
Maybe he was not supposed to be with normal people. I'm sure the disciples were thinking of how they could get rid of him and before they could do that in Luke 5 12 he puts his face on the ground. He's eaten the dirt and he he's not even looking at Christ.
And he says Lord if you are willing heal me. And the next verse just makes me weep because this is the kind of Christ we have. This is what the cross is. He reached out in Luke chapter 5 verse 13 and the Greek is very strong.
It says he didn't just talk to him but he grasped him and he grasped him strongly. He held him and he he he held his decay and he held his sores in his hand. I think that's a pre picture of what he did on the cross.
I am willing be clean and instantly all those sores went away and the man was whole. And that man was me and you. And that's the next verse he's given us when you realize what you had before you know through scripture you can't help but just being overjoyed with what Jesus gave you in exchange.
Verse 23 he's given you a delight now not in yourself anymore but in him. And you have become now through the reckoning. This is what friendship is. This is what happened on the cross through the reconciliation of the cross.
The Bible teaches us that in those six hours that Jesus suffered he suffered not because of any sin of his own because he was sinless. He was a son of God and the only thing therefore that was on him and the reason for his suffering was me and you.
And he sat on that cross and he he hung on that cross for six hours experiencing the hell that verse 21 deserved so much. So as Pradeep read he said my god my god. There was never a time in Jesus's life except for that time where he didn't call God father.
And somehow in some divine mysterious way he couldn't say God was his father in that moment as he was forsaken for that leprosy that sin that God put on him that was mine and yours. And you know what the Bible teaches us also that in that cross his righteousness was then made available to us.
Look at verse 23. Sorry verse 22 I'm jumping ahead. He has now reconciled you in his fleshly body and completely identifying with us like with that leprous man on that cross. And he has done this. What does it say.
Not in order to just you know do something abstract but in order to do something really real to give you an obsession with him now to make you what. There's three ways in which we're decadent and sinful.
And there's three exact ways in which we've been changed holy blameless and without reproach just quickly for our deadness and our separation from God. He makes us alive now. That's holy. You know what.
What does it mean to be holy. Does it mean to just you know be pious and holy. Holy holy you know just be be weird. No I think very simply. The Bible says now instead of being set apart to the world you're set apart to God and God alone.
That's what it means. You're alive in the greatest way possible. You're with your creator now. And nothing can separate you from that connection with him. You look like him you act like him you love him.
He changes your mindset. Isn't that tremendous. He makes you alive. And to be alive is not just a breed but it's to be dependent on him for all things. That's what holiness is. It's very real for our deadness.
He makes us alive for our darkness he makes us whole. This word for blameless literally means it was used for an animal in the Old Testament that that was not missing a year and not missing a limb. Like people that are dark and bumping into things.
But that is whole. He takes those deficiencies of understanding and things that you couldn't couldn't live by. And he gives you light makes you blameless for your destructiveness. He makes you above reproach and he makes you fruitful and useful.
What is this idea of being without reproach. It means that people this holiness and this is what blows my mind is not just something that blesses you but it makes people in the world say there goes a man and there goes a woman in whom there is no guile and the glory goes to Christ not to us.
There's something amazing about the way that guy handles his money. He's above reproach. And they come to you and they ask you the reason why. And you say it's not me. It's Christ. He makes you fruitful instead of destructive.
Isn't that fantastic. The gospel is contained in this that people come to you and ask you the reason for how you are and why you are the way you are. And you say it's the cross. You see why. This obsession with Christ and the cross is not just you know it's not depressing.
It's it's victory it's joy even in the midst of suffering. Now Paul goes on to give us. This is why Jesus is our friend. He says Jesus is our friend because he has provided for us in the cross first of all a what a delight in his will and his pleasure in him.
I would say in Christ's will in Christ's pleasure in Christ's. But not only does he do that but he goes on to say in verse 23 the cross is such a great source of strength and joy because it gives us a desperation for Jesus's work.
We delight in his will. But we can't stop there. We're desperate to say Lord with every breath that I have now make do your work and yours alone. That's first 23 look at it. It says if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast now sometimes the translations don't make things too clear.
And you should ask yourself the question is Paul saying okay now Christ has done all this and you can lose it you know just basically by saying okay I'm not going to continue anymore. And it seems like that at first first blush you're looking at this verse that what a difference.
Verse 23 is first it's the security in the cross and then all of a sudden insecurity. And we can lose it all if we decide to. But the original doesn't allow us to do that. And and I think it's better to translate this verse in this way.
It says this it's not an if of uncertainty. And this is something that you can't even express in English. But maybe you could translate it this way since you continue there's a certainty in the way in which Paul constructs this because he's still continuing through the victory of the cross.
And he says because of the cross. And as you look at how Jesus has made lepers into whole Saints you will continue in that as you as you drink upon this. That's the roots of being stable. That's the roots of being firm.
That's the roots of never moving faith in what Christ has done on the cross. It stabilizes you if you continue and you will there's no doubt about it. That's why I say it says it's this drive and this desperation to be consumed with Christ's work.
Look at what he he says as we as we drink upon through faith all that Christ is in the cross it does this. It doesn't move us away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard it fills us with with all passion in the work of Christ the gospel.
It's a gospel of joy. It's a gospel of hope it it impresses itself upon your passions. And Paul says I I'm just energized every day by this cross to be filled with joy Evangelion to be filled with hope that this is certain that I cannot be be moved from this.
If God did not spare his son shall he not with him. Also freely give me what whole things. I am convinced that we are more than what does Paul say conquerors through Christ. And he says there's a sense of me waking up every morning and just saying Jesus is my strength.
I have passion in my life in the midst of trials in the midst of suffering because Jesus is my strength. I was just two weeks ago with a dear friend of mine. Some of you may have heard him. He's a pastor Steve Fernandes and he's dying of cancer.
I think he might have just two more weeks. I was by his bedside. Half of his body is completely paralyzed. They've taken him through a round of chemo and he's dying for sure he's not recovering. And as I held his hand and you know I was just saying Steve how are you doing.
He said Sammy and he could barely speak said I want to get on a plane and go preach in India. One last time I said what makes a man dying have that kind of hope. He's not scared of dying that there's there's hope.
And there is passion. And there is joy even though there is suffering in the worst shadow of death. Because you know I can't die. Jesus already died for me. Isn't that amazing. Do you do you think about that.
I mean I can't. I can't stop thinking about it. Ever since I've been by the side of Steve that death has been conquered. The grave has been conquered. Jesus has enabled us to do that. Oh it gives me passion.
Not only does it give me all passion for Christ's work but there's a sense of being passionate for all people. Look at this. I don't want to just be thinking about God's work just in my life. But I want to make sure that I proclaim this to what every creature under heaven.
Because I realized that there is no other hope. There is no other name under heaven by which sinners can be saved from their wretchedness. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can't stop me from doing this.
Every creature till the day I see him needs to know that I know the Savior and by his grace they they may know him too. That's what motivates missions. Isn't it. It's this idea of man. I don't deserve a minute of my life.
And I look around and I recognize that I was that person. But by the grace of God let me tell them about Christ before they die in their sins. It's all passion for all people. And finally as we think about how the cross energizes our work for crisis it gives us great passion.
It gives us a passion for all people. And it enables us to do this so that we're centered on praise. All praise goes to Christ alone. Look at the end of this verse of which I Paul was made. And if I had written this verse I would have said an apostle a missionary a pastor.
I would have put his title there. And I'm learning from Paul. You know I'm not a pastor. Only Jesus is the chief shepherd. I mean in the sense of making that a title of some great worth. I'm not a missionary.
I mean I'm nothing. I'm the only thing I am. And this is what Paul says. The only thing I am is I'm a minister. Now even that word has been corrupted. You know he's a minister. And a minister is nothing else but somebody that ministers.
Or in the Greek it's very strong. It's a it's the word from which we get the word deacon. Now Paul wasn't a deacon. What's he talking about. He's talking about the spirit that he serves with. He says I want to serve every minute without drawing any attention to myself.
A deacon was somebody that was even a waiter in a restaurant. A deacon was somebody in Paul's day that was even a nurse in a hospital that always pointed to the healing that came from somebody else. So the nourishment that came from somebody else.
And when you realize how redemptive the cross is you don't want to get in the way in any way. You don't want to make people look at you and the way you dress and the way you speak and your words and your philosophy because you're you're dumb you have nothing useful.
The only thing that you have is to serve Christ. And as you serve even you're fueled by a sense of all praise needs to go to him and not to Paul. That's the only way in which people can get saved. When Paul dies and Christ lives in him you know the cross enables us to do this.
That's why Paul says further on I rejoice in my sufferings. What does he say for the body for the church in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions. I want to do in a sense what Christ did now not redemptively.
Redemption is complete. Not redemptively but in what sense. In the sense of dying to myself. In the sense of being completely insufficient in myself in the sense of saying the only thing that can help the church is men that are dead and only filled with who Christ is.
This is Good Friday. That's why it's called Good Friday not bad Friday. By the way it's because what Jesus did makes everything possible. And this evening if you're living in suffering and I know if you're a Christian you are.
If you're living in in a lack of joy maybe you need to learn just these simple truths of the gospel again. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves before we can preach it to others. And you need to learn that the cross is the roots of who you are.
It's the provision of delight in him and his will alone instead of yourself. And it's a provision of a great consummation with his work. All passion comes from him for all people so that all praise goes to him and him alone.
Amen. Let's pray father God we thank you so much for being Emmanuel and sending your son to accomplish that complete identification with lepers like us taking all our wretchedness and vanquishing it and giving us your righteousness so that we may not just live but we may serve you.
We can't even serve you through ourselves help us to to be nourished in your sufficiency alone so that you may use us Lord to shine Christ even in this community to a world that is dying without you. We pray this for your glory in Jesus name amen.