John 14:5 (The Way Of Christ: Good Friday)

The Shepherd's Church

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From the very moment that Christ arrived here on earth from heaven He was on a collision course with the cross

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In fact from the very moment that reality itself was created from the very design plans of the universe and even the design plans of the

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Earth God ordained that it would be on a collision course to the cross

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It's not surprising That reality began with human beings in a garden

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And the author of life in a garden tomb These realities are not ironic whatsoever tonight.

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I Want us to look at the way of Christ the word way meaning the road the journey.

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I want us to look at the way that Christ traveled and What he accomplished and Also what it means for us the gospel of John begins with This way

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John chapter 1 John the Baptist is announcing that The Christ has come to make straight the path of the

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Lord the way of the Lord It even begins like this here in John 1 23 John the Baptist says

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I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness make straight the way of the

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Lord He is saying that the Christ has come and that there will be no encumbrances or Obstructions that will hinder the

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Christ on his way That there is a straight line From his birth to his death and nothing

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Would get him off of that path This is why all throughout the gospel of John Jesus says my hour is not yet come

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I can't do this miracle because my hour is not yet come. That's why in John 13. He says now My hour has come because Christ was safeguarding vouchsafing the moment of his death

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Vigilantly Now this way is a way that no one else seemed to understand in the gospel of John As soon as you get out past John the

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Baptist who seemed to understand that Christ had come for a way You see confusion abounding all over the place

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People were confused in the gospel of John where he came from and they were confused on where he is going

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That confusion begins in John 1 Where his future disciple

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Nathanael said can anything good come out of Nazareth? He thought

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Jesus came from Nazareth. He didn't know where he was from He didn't know that his home was eternally in heaven

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John 7 the Pharisees says or the crowd in Jerusalem say the Christ isn't going to come from Galilee is he

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The Christ isn't gonna come from Mocksville, North Carolina is he Like that's what

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I think about when I think of Galilee this podunk town that nobody loved. Nobody respected everybody looked down upon Where the first century

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Galilean cars were on center blocks that kind of town Christ can't come from there

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Kenny Because they didn't know where he was from They also didn't know where he was going

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The Jews are often confused about where the Christ is going John 7 33 through 35 They thought

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Jesus was running away from them to hide Because the pressure was getting too high look at what it says therefore

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Jesus said for a little while longer I am with you and Then I will go to him who sent me you will seek me and you will not find me where I am.

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You cannot come Then the Jews said to him Or they said to one another

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Where does this man intend to go that we will not find him? He's not intending to go among the dispersion

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Among the Greeks and teach the Greeks is he they have no idea where Jesus was going When he said where I am going you cannot come they thought he was going to a different town or different region as the pressure continues to mount as Their anger continues to intensify.

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They still don't know where he's going by John 8 But now they have a different theory on where he's going.

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They think he's gonna kill himself They say in John chapter 8 Or that Jesus says then he said to them

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I go away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin where I'm Going you cannot come So the

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Jews were saying surely he will not kill himself. Will he? Since he said where I'm going you cannot come nobody in the

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Gospel of John for the first 11 12 chapters knows where Jesus is coming from or where Jesus is going, but he has a way

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About him that he's traveling He has a way that he is journeying a straight line path from the beginning

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That's gonna lead to the end that is gonna lead to the redemption of our souls, but none of them seemed to get it

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We see this in our passage tonight in John 14 One of his closest friends a man named

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Thomas who's quoted three times in the Gospel of John This is the second in John 14 3 through 5.

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He has no idea where Jesus is going either So if you will turn with me to John 14 3 through 5 as we examine this as We use this passage as a launching pad to show from the upper room where Jesus goes in his journeys

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What's gonna happen in the final 24 hours of Jesus's life what that means for his way and How we're supposed to understand that tonight.

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So if you will, let's look at John 14 3 through 5 by the Lord's great providence This is our very next passage anyway

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So what a blessing Jesus said if I go I Prepare a place for you.

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I Will come again and receive you to myself where I am there. You may be also and You know the way where I am going and Thomas said to him

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Lord. We do not know where you were going How do we know the way?

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Let's pray Lord, there's so much confusion that abounds in the first 14 chapters of the gospel

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Men and women didn't know where you were from They didn't know what you were doing. They didn't know where you were going

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Lord tonight I Pray that you would allow us to see Those pivotal steps that you took in your final 24 hours the way that you were going

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Lord, I pray that we would see it that we would understand it or that we would be able to look at it Maybe in a deeper level layer than what we've seen it before and Lord, I pray that even on Easter When we hear you say

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I am the way that we would understand what that means Christ's name.

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Amen. I Want to begin by talking about the way of Christ and I'm gonna these are guesstimates on my part

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So if I if it was 9 59 p .m. Forgive me. I'm estimating. I'm rounding up here, but at 10 o 'clock p .m

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After Jesus has spent this time in the upper room the largest discourse in the Gospels of Jesus teaching and preparing his disciples of him washing their feet and of him

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Spending time with them preparing them for the fact that he's leaving them and he's gonna be going away this after this

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Amount of time whatever it was sometime around 10 o 'clock at night Jesus takes his disciples one less than they began with because you'll remember

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Satan entered into Judas and he left and he abandoned the group and Then left the upper room with the weight of the world pressing down upon Jesus, but they left singing and then they went from there and they left the city and they crossed the

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Kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem and they made the ascent up to the Mount of Olives and they went to a place that was one of Jesus's favorite places a place that he had been

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Many times a place that was so familiar That Judas knew exactly where to go to find him.

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It's the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus waited in the garden

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The place where human life began where he waited to be arrested He set aside three of his disciples to keep watch for him while he prayed

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That's the way of Christ He left the upper room to pray To set himself apart for what

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God was calling him to do and guess what the disciples did whether it was because of exhaustion Whether it was because of Emotional turmoil have you ever been so frustrated so broken so angry that you fall asleep

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There's been times. I am NOT like this But there's been times when Shannon and I've had wonderful discussions about a topic and she falls asleep and I'm like Because she's tired of dealing with me

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Whatever it was whatever made the disciples fall asleep They collapsed three different times while Jesus was praying in agony over what

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God had called him to do he said if there's any other way take this path away from me and But he said

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I Lord not your will but my will or not my will but your will be done Jesus in that moment

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Accepted the way of the cross and it was only moments later when the

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Roman cohort led by Judas with the betrayals kiss Shows up in that garden to arrest our

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Lord and Savior You can imagine the the energy was high all the disciples around him would have believed that this is the king

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That this king is going to have a kingdom that he's gonna sit upon a throne that he's gonna rule and that he's gonna reign

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The puppet Empire the Empire that that they probably were thinking that this Christ was gonna replace is there

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With swords and with flaming torches to arrest him. You can only imagine why Peter in a moment of Peter Eskness Grabs the sword and chops off the high priest ear the high priest servants ear

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Malchus that would have caused a Massive little civil war to happen right there in the garden had

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Jesus not picked up the man's ear and Put it back on and healed it right then and there with a wonderful and beautiful sweet Tender miracle of our

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Lord right then and there says Peter put down your sword He rebukes those who arrested him

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For arresting him in secret because he was out in public doing all of these things teaching and yet they arrest him in secret

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Around 11 o 'clock p .m They take Jesus handcuffed to a man named

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Caiaphas first, they go to a man named Annas That's the high priest father -in -law, but then they go to Caiaphas For the sham trial that would ensue

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He had assembled a council of elders against Jesus That means that the Sanhedrin was there and he had all sorts of witnesses who had said many things about Jesus and in the

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Jewish custom of the law, they needed two witnesses to agree. You can tell how phony This court was because for a long period of time they could not even get two witnesses to agree

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It was only after a Little while that they finally were able to bring a charge an accusation against him

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That would that would stick and that was he claimed that he would tear down the temple and on the third day He would raise it again.

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That was the accusation Because the temple had become more important to them than the very living

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God who was standing right in front of them the two witnesses Brought their false report and the high priest interrogated

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Jesus and Jesus answered him He said are you the Messiah?

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He said you've said it so he tore his clothes And he allowed the guards to beat him and he allowed the guards to blindfold him and mock him and he allowed the guards to spit in his face and he allowed the guards to Shamefully treat him

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That's the way that Christ accepted to take the way of Christ was the way of condemnation abuse and mockery

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They held him in somewhat of a holding cell There until about four or five o 'clock in the morning till they brought him to pilot the praetorium where they were gonna experience sentencing pilot multiple times tried not to Crucify this man his wife had a dream telling him not to have anything to do with this man

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But the city was swelling to population sizes That it only happened once per year when the

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Passover happened when the city would go from about a hundred thousand people and it would Multiply ten times the size people were everywhere and the

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Jews Were trying to turn the city against pilot. It was a political move

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See pilots career and his success Was dependent upon how much peace he could bring to the riotous rebel rousing city of Jerusalem So if a riot broke out in the city

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Caesar was gonna hear about it, especially when the Jews said You're no friend of Caesar The Jews were blackmailing pilot into killing the

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Christ and because he loved his career More than the

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Christ he came up with a middle -ground plan that he was gonna try to do to try to To try to keep the blood of this

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Jesus off of his hands So what he did was is he took his Roman lectionaries and he told them to beat him 40 lashes

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At that time they used a whip that was called the cat of nine tails. It was leather straps.

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It was bone it was glass and it would wrap around the body of the victim and the

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Broken shards of pieces would dig in and when you pull back the meat would be ripped away over and over and over most people died at number 40 or They were so severely broken that they would enter into what's called circulatory shock.

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This is what Jesus was going through at 9 a .m that Friday morning It would have been possible that muscle tissue was exposed it would have been very possible that even some bones were exposed in this process

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And then they would have put a crown of thorns on his head a twisted mockery that this is your king the thorns in the

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Jewish region are not like thorns in Southern North Carolina or maybe thorns here on roses or whatever else

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These thorns were sharp and they were long and they would have been forced down on top of his perfect head

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They put a royal robe on his body and they bowed before him mocking him as their king

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They handed him a scepter the fake scepter to to sort of signify that he was there to rule over them all while Shamefully mocking him and one of the things

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I think is so fascinating is how Christ never said a word He had the power in a moment to end their life

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With a thought because he created it when they were in their mother's womb This was the way of Christ To endure the pain to endure the mockery to endure the shame around 10 45 in the morning pilot

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Presents Jesus to the crowds and he says How about I give you barabbas?

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The crowd said we don't want barabbas To be crucified. We want christ crucify him crucify him

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The longer that they were standing there and the more pilot pleaded the louder that the chanting became so that the entire city

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Was getting ready to wake up at the end

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Pilot knew that he could not control the crowd. So he washed his hands ceremonially

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In front of them sort of a a token of his assuaging of his guilt There is actually legend and I don't know that it's true that pilot became insane in his later years and he could never

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Wash the blood off of his hands. I don't know if that's true or not But in this moment he pretended to wash the blood off of his hands and the jews actually take a curse upon themselves

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They say let his blood be upon us. Let his blood be upon our children. They're making a covenantal declaration of their cursing

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Their hatred had fueled them so deeply That they wanted this man dead even if it alienated them from god 14 hours earlier.

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The disciples were singing They were praising they were going up the mount of olives with joy 14 hours later

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Jesus was not even physically recognizable to them They put a cross on his back the cross beam

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The open meat on his back would have been exposed so that the thorns So that the so that the splinters and the wood would have would have touched every fabric of exposed meat

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His body was collapsing under the weight of his own Brokenness at that point he was stumbling

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At some point he couldn't carry the cross any longer So they appointed a man named simon of serene to carry the cross for him and to finish the job carrying it up the hill

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Called calvary where golgotha the place of the skull lies And there jesus was nailed onto the board

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And there The mockery reached its climax They put a sign over his head that said king of the jews

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And they wrote it in three languages So that everyone who came to jerusalem would see that spectacle and they would say this is why you do not rebel against rome

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That was a billboard that rome put up there to the power of its own might Jesus was being taunted

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By the sign above him. He was being taunted by the roman guards below him He was being taunted by the thief that was hanging beside of him

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And he was being taunted by the crowds that were standing in front of him The way that this all ends is about as ironic as you could possibly imagine

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The king of heaven the author of life the one who made adams the ones who made us

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Is hanging on a cross in bitter defeat

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And yet the irony goes so much deeper than that, doesn't it? As jesus was hanging on the cross irony

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Was in the air As I said earlier life began in a garden and here you have life ending the author of life expiring

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In a garden it was in a garden where the breath of life was breathed first into the first adam

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And here you have the second adam the true and better adam breathing out expiring his life on a cross

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You have adam in the garden who had a companion and here you have christ jesus who is hanging totally alone

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You have adam who was made for fellowship with god happiness with god here. You have jesus hanging enduring the wrath of god

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You have adam choosing the easy way And here you have christ choosing the hard road

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The way And what gain was all of that for christ?

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The irony runs really thick throughout this entire passage You remember when adam sinned adam got mercy

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He said in the day you eat of the fruit of the tree you will surely die adam didn't die that day He got mercy

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Christ Was not getting mercy here. He was getting god's judgment and wrath

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Adam when he was kicked out of the garden, it was guarded by flaming swords Jesus when he was arrested was arrested by men who came with swords and torches.

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Do you see the irony? Everything that happened in the guard and all of the sin all of the failure christ is taking upon himself

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Adam was allowed to live with the crimes that he committed Jesus christ was dying innocently for the things that he had not done the thorns that sprang out of the ground

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When jesus or when adam sinned and when the curse came upon the earth the thorns that came into the ground were now being shoved down onto christ head

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You remember it says that adam is to try to deal with the thorns by the sweat of the brow christ is dealing with the curse

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By his not by his sweat, but by his blood You remember adam was clothed in animal skins in his sin clothed in his nakedness

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Jesus was hung naked on a cross skinned alive by the cat of nine tails. Do you see the irony that jesus is?

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carrying here Adam brought judgment upon this earth at the foot of eden's tree christ at the foot of his adam took the sweet fruit and brought

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Pain and misery upon the earth jesus drank the bitter cup And brought life misery began in the garden

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On the cross jesus says it is finished.

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Do you see the irony? The way of christ and that's what we're talking about tonight is a path of undoing

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All of the knots all of the sin all of the mangled effects of the curse

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Christ is walking back through all of it. He's walking back through all of adam's failure He's walking back through all of adam's sin

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He's walking back through all of those things why? Because when you have a mess

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It has to be untangled first before you can make something beautiful out of it You think about every christmas and you get your christmas lights out and it looks like clark w griswold's big ball of christmas lights

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The only way forward is to untangle the mess christ jesus in his life

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Is untangling the curse of adam so that life? and peace

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And joy will forevermore be found in him At adam's tree death came upon the world at christ tree life exploded

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As old creation wound down that good friday evening As the darkness had snuffed out the light as the demons were singing their song of victory

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As the pharisees ate their passover meal with smugness and pride The souls of sheol heard the gospel message

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The darkest day turned into morning And in less than 24 hours after that the savior would be alive

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This is a dark day This is the day that our christ our lord and savior died for all our sin, but do not forget

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That on the darkest day that has ever occurred in human history You look just upon the horizon and you see the breaking of gospel night

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That's the way of christ That's the way of christ. Let's pray

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Dear jesus as we examine the path that you took You didn't do what adam did

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You didn't prioritize your comfort You didn't skip steps You didn't disobey

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You went back to where the mess began and you began cleaning it up You went back to where the thorns came out of the earth and you took them upon your brow

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You went back to where the man was clothed with animal skins and you were treated shamefully like an animal for us

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You went back to the moment Where rebellion began?

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Where adam should have laid in the garden dead? And you took his death and our death upon you lying in a garden tomb everything that you did

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In the undoing of all the mess You did for your people

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You did a work that we could not do You did a work that we would not do

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So that we could have a life that we could never earn never imagine never dream of Lord as we look to the cross this evening, let us see your sacrifice

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Let us see the depth and the beauty of it And lord, let us prepare for sunday in christ's name.