Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

There is a song out there, some of you may have heard it on the radio I’m not really sure if it plays much on there or not.

The title of it is “Love is a Mess” preformed by the group Citizen way.

In the song there are lines such as, “If it were up to me, There’d be an easier road than Calvary, If it were up to me, You would have escaped the suffering, But You saved me through what I would have seen as a tragedy.”

There are also other lines in it that say things like, “I used to think that Love should never have to bleed.”

The idea behind this song is that If the song writer could have been responsible choosing the way that Christ Redeemed his people he wouldn’t have chose the cross.

Surely there would have been a different way for him to do so.

With that being said if you have your bibles with you, I would ask that you join me by turning to Hebrews Chapter 2, I will begin reading at verse 5 to the remainder of the chapter.

From this passage in and my message I would like to demonstrate to you all, that the death of Christ was necessary for the salvation of his people.

Hebrews 2:5-18

Hebrews 2:

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How many of you have been in the same exact place as the song writer?

How many of you have asked yourself or someone else the question of, “Could God have chose a different means of Salvation?”

Why did Jesus have to die?

Surely there was a different way right?

Maybe we haven’t asked those exact questions but I’m sure we have questioned God’s plan one way or another right?

Why did you take him home so soon?

Why did she have to suffer through cancer?

Why did I get pregnant out of Wedlock?

If that would have never happened I would have never been caught in my sin.

Why did they lose their father?

Why did He loose his wife?

We have all been responsible of asking God similar questions to these at some point or stage in our lives.

We have all be responsible for questioning God’s plan.

Sometimes we might even be guilty of saying things along the lines of, if I was God, I would have done that differently.

Questioning God’s plan for our lives and the lives around us can sometimes be very easy to do.

We want to believe that we are smarter than God or sometimes we even believe that God just wasn’t active in that event.

I want to make two things very clear to you real quick, The first one is that we are by no means smarter than God, and the second, God is always present and active in every single one of our life events.

A Crucified Christ Is a Saving Christ

With all that being said I want to come back to the original question, Was it necessary for the Christ to have had to die?

Which leads me to my first Point, A Crucified Christ is a Saving Christ.

So to answer the question was is necessary for Christ to have to die, lets first look at some of the ways others thought salvation could have been brought to God’s Children.

Jewish Way of Salvation

Let’s take a look at how the Jews thought that Christ was going to save them.

The Jewish leaders at the time were not waiting for the suffering servant that was so beautifully displayed in the book of Isaiah.

They were not looking for a servant at all especially one who would suffer and even suffer unto death.

That is why Paul calls it a stumbling block to the Jews in .

The idea of their Lord and savior dying was a ludicrous thought to them.

They had the belief, which is supported no where in scripture, that the Messiah would come as a Military Ruler not a Servant.

They were hoping for one who would reign not one who would be slain.

They wanted a leading tyrant not a dying servant.

We can see this found in the example of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Where they say, “And he said to them, “What things?”

And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

The Jews did not recognize Jesus as the Christ because they were not looking for one who would die.

We can see that the disciples believe Jesus was the Christ until they received news that he had died.

Now we might not be guilty of the same thing that the Jews were guilty of; but we are often guilty of something very similar.

We get caught up asking questions like, why is God allowing me to suffer like this, does he not care about me anymore.

That question is similar because if Christ suffered they way he did on the cross, then we cannot expect to escape the same suffer as he did while we are on this earth.

We often think that our lives on this earth should be easy and pain free, but if the only man to ever walk this earth who didn’t deserve to suffer suffered in a way we can’t even imagine, then we cannot expect to escape suffering either.

One day we will be free from the pain of this world but not in this life time.

Why is God allowing me to suffer like

Other beliefs on Salvation

Now that we looked at how the Jews wanted salvation lets look at some other views real quick.

I remember sitting in class one day and the professor asked the question, “Could Jesus have saved his children without the cross?”

I was quick to find out I was the only one in the class that answered the question, no he could not have.

Many of the other students responded with answers such as, Jesus is God he could save his people however he wanted to.

Which is ultimately a great theory in all but it is far from the truth.

Their fear was that if they said that God couldn’t have done this any other way then they were ultimately limiting God’s ability.

Often times we can find ourselves thinking the same thing, but we can also find in the bible that by saying Christ death was the only way to bring salvation is not actually limiting God.

I am one of the last people that would ever say, “GOD CAN’T.”

Unless God first says it about himself.

We can see examples of that throughout the bible.

God cannot lie: ,

God cannot be tempted nor does he tempt:

God cannot change: ,

There are also others mentioned in the Bible, but I don’t have the time or need to list them all at the moment.

But for the purpose of this sermon I want to focus on a different thing that God could not have done.

That is God could not have saved his people any other way than through the shedding of his blood on the cross.

Now the scripture never directly says, “Christ must must be killed for the redemption of his Church, but the theme is prominent through out the scriptures.

With that being said I want to spend the next little while looking at the scripture and showing you all why the death of Christ was necessary.

Look with me in verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 2, But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Look with me in verse 9 of Hebrews chapter 2, But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

By looking at this verse we can see that there was a purpose behind the suffering Christ endured on the cross.

Specifically from this verse we see two reasons behind the death of Christ.

The first

First Purpose

The first one being that his death was to crown him with glory and honor, as we see directly from this verse.

He was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.

We see Paul mention in verses 8 and 9 that because of his death God exalted him.

Christ died for his glory and honor.

Without the death and resurrection there would be no confessing that Jesus is Lord as we see follow that passage in Philippians.

The author of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus did not solely receive glory and honor because he was the God-man but because he tasted death.

Before the cross Peter denied Christ 3 times, after the cross Peter jumped out of the boat and came running to him.

The Cross brings Glory and Honor to Christ because it allows us through the illumination of the Spirit to see who Christ really is.

Christ death was necessary for the purpose of bring honor and glory to himself.

Second Purpose

The second purpose we see in this verse is that Jesus died for us.

Yes you heard that correctly, Jesus tasted death for us.

“So that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Now church that is something to rejoice over.

Jesus was made less than the angels for a little while, so that he might taste death for each and everyone of you out there.

We see that supported later on in this passage starting in verse 14-18 where it says,

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.