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Intro
This week marks the final week of Lent.
It is the height of suffering we remember our Lord going through.
As you will recall and are reminded each week, a significant event that marks Lent is when our Lord and Savior, Jesus, is in the wilderness.
When he is tempted by Satan, after having fasted 40 days and 40 nights.
But that was not the end of his suffering, we recall that the end of his suffering was when His work was accomplished on the cross.
This week is what is known as holy week.
Not because this week is somehow any better than any of the other weeks of the year.
It is not as though we are any closer to God.
Holy week, or sometimes called Passion week, is the 6 days that lead us to the cross.
Included within Passion Week are Palm Sunday, Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
And it all ends on Easter Sunday.
The Bible never labels these days and the events within the Gospels were not necessarily arranged chronologically.
So it is important that we do not become dogmatic about these days or strict about holding on to when the events leading up to Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection occurred.
Palm Sunday - Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem
Holy Monday- Jesus cleanses the temple
Holy Tuesday- Believed to be the day when Jesus faced his several challenges from the Pharisees and Sadducees on marriage in heaven, paying taxes, and the source of his authority.
The day when the 8 woes were spoken against the Pharisees.
Spy Wednesday- Thought to be the day when Judas conspired against Jesus.
It would have been the day when Jesus was anointed with spikenard during his meal.
Maundy Thursday- The day of the Last Supper.
Maundy means command.
What command?
The command to love and serve one another.
We are reminded of Jesus’ humility.
Good Friday- Was the day when Jesus was betrayed and he was crucified on the cross.
It is good because in his death, our sins are atoned for.
Holy Saturday- Reminds us that we live in a world of darkness.
A world that killed the Son of God.
Only biblical event on this day is that the chief priests and pharisees visit Pilate to guard the tomb of Jesus.
Easter Sunday- Christ is risen from the dead.
His resurrection ought to be celebrated daily.
Beware of letting fun and games distract us from what the day is all about.
That is what this week is leading up to.
That day, when Jesus defeats Satan and death is what Lent is pointing us towards.
Redemption!
Body
But before we get to that, I want us to take one final lap through memory lane.
We began in Gen 3, seeing that the world that we live in is not a perfect one.
It has been corrupted in the fall and it began with a rebellion against God.
And we were all rebels like Adam and Eve, and we participants even in their sin.
We looked at Psalm 38 next to be reminded that, when we sin, the proper response is repentance.
Forgiveness is offered by God to those who come to him in godly repentance.
That means taking responsibility and acknowledging your sin.
Not simply blaming others for your sin nature.
We looked to Matthew 4, and looked at that first temptation.
After we looked at our own sins, we looked to Christ.
And we saw that in the first temptation from Satan, not the first temptation that Jesus had ever faced, that Jesus truly is the Son of God.
He was not a fraud, he was the real deal.
And he showed us that there is a way to defeat the tempter, a way that is right to live.
It is to be in dependence on the Spirit and trust in God’s Word.
In Exodus 14, we walked through the grumblings of God’s people at the Red Sea.
And we saw how God was able and did deliver them.
We are also people who are in trouble.
We have the wrath of God on one side and death on the other.
And no one will escape either.
But those who put their trust in Him will find salvation.
The people of God could not do anything and were not required to do anything.
In the same way, we do not contribute anything to our salvation.
We cannot even do anything to earn it.
Just like the cry of Jonah, we acknowledge that Salvation is of the Lord.
In Matthew 15, we remember that we are all worshippers.
And God is not looking for vain, superficial worship.
In fact, His children will bring true worship and we are able to do so because we have hearts that are renewed.
We do not continue to walk in darkness, but in light, because we have hearts that are of flesh and not of stone.
Finally, last week we read of how brokenness is not a sign of weakness but, rather, is what God desires.
And so, we come humbly before our God, repenting of our sins to walk in righteousness.
Which brings us to today’s message which continues on in our sermon series theme.
Let’s say it together, “Lent leads us to repentance and that repentance produces in us sanctified and grateful lives”
Scripture Reading
Charles Spurgeon said: “Here we come to the Holy of Holies of our Lord’s life on earth.
This is a mystery like that which Moses saw when the bush burned with fire, and was not consumed.
No man can rightly expound such a passage as this; it is a subject for prayerful, heart-broken meditation, more than for human language.”
Another writer said, “Surely this is a passage we must approach on our knees.”
D.A. Carson said, “As Jesus’ death was unique, so also was his anguish; and our best response to it is hushed worship.”
So let’s read this text, as David Platt said, “discloses the center of all history and the reality that determines every single one of our eternal destinies.”
All of Lent is pointing us to Christ, just as the Scriptures themselves are centered on Christ.
In our time of self-denial and fasting and prayer, we are looking to bring down the high places in our lives through the aid of the Spirit.
Because there shall be no other gods before Him.
We turn from all of our idols and our sins, and we know that God is faithful, always, even when we are faithless.
And that is marvelous.
I mean how many of us, when we are wronged are looking and scheming on how we are going to get back at the other person.
That is all of us.
Someone cuts us off on the road, we are waiting for an opportunity to return the act.
When someone is rude to us in the office, we look for ways to undercut them.
When our sibling mistreats us, we hold it against them.
When our significant other speaks ill towards us, we devise our perfect comebacks.
How ungrateful we present ourselves to God.
He has bought our redemption with His blood.
And we are faithless.
And even in our faithlessness, we read of Jesus before the day when he would drink the cup, bear the full wrath of God because of our sins, he is sitting with his disciples having his last meal.
And he says, knowing completely what he is saying, “For this is My blood that establishes the covenant; it is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
In light of our sin and rebellion against God, He still chose to die on the cross for us.
This causes us to gain a better understanding of the mercy and grace that He has given to us.
Completely undeserved, but freely given.
We know that we will face trials in our lives.
We will be tested, but we understand the grace we have received.
As Paul put it...
We cannot go back to the way that we were living, and we do not desire it any longer.
And we need to be honest with ourselves.
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