Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

·         When I was in 5th grade I traded w~/ Chris.

A G.I. Joe for a “Bombat” baseball bat.

Not a bad trade.

·         Not as good as Kyle MacDonald.

The guy who started w~/ one red paper clip and 1 year and 14 trades later had a house.

Pretty clever trading.

·         We’re also aware of bad trades, like when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for 100,000.

OOPS.

·         Scripture records for us some bad trades:

 

1.

*Jacob & Esau* Gen 25:29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted.

30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!”

(Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”

32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.”

So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way.

Thus Esau despised his birthright.

2.      *Ungodly & Unrighteous Men *Rom 1: 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!

Amen

·         The title of my message “The Great Exchange” is stolen from a book I’m reading.

This book emphasized the scriptures teaching on justification.

3.      *Us & Jesus *2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

·         Understand context of passage.

Preaching “Be reconciled to God” is not good news unless we are also told the means to that reconciliation.

1.

This trade is God’s idea.

·         The end of vs. 20 tells us who “he” is.

·         *“He made”*

·         Reconciliation is God’s plan!

·         The sinner surely cannot devise reconciliation because he is “dead in sin” Eph 2:1.

·         “Jesus therefore did not go to the cross because fickle people turned on Him, though they did.

He did not go to the cross because demon-deceived false religious leaders plotted His death, though they did.

He did not go to the cross because Judas betrayed Him, though he did.

He did not die because an angry, unruly mob intimidated a Roman governor into sentencing Him to crucifixion, though they did.

Jesus went to the cross as the outworking of God’s plan to reconcile sinners to Himself.

In the first Christian sermon ever preached, Peter declared to the nation of Israel that Jesus was ‘delivered over [to death] by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.’”[1]

·         Acts 2: 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

·         Acts 3:18 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

·         Is 53:10a - Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;

·         It was God’s plan for Jesus to take our sins upon him, and then to punish His own son in our place.

·         Man wasn’t~/isn’t in the place to bargain.

In the garden, Adam & Eve didn’t get together while hiding from God and say, “OK, we’ve blown it.

Let’s ask God to kill His Son, so that we can live.”

·         In fact, Scripture is very clear that because of our sinfulness, we didn’t want reconciliation.

·         Rom 5: 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

2.   Jesus gets my sin.

·         *“Him who knew no sin”*

·         This is unimaginable.

·         1 Kings 8:46 - for there is no one who does not sin

·         Rom 3:23 –  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

·         Our inability to really struggle to understand this shows how finite our minds are.

We cannot comprehend human perfection!

Imagine . . .

someone who doesn’t sin . . .

EVER.

·         b~/c he never sinned

·         I Pet 2:22 - He committed no sin,

·         I Jn 3:5 -  in him there is no sin.

·         The sacrifice needed to be perfect – Jesus was.

The sacrifice needed to be a man – Jesus was.

·         *“He made him to be sin”*

·         Is 53:4-6 helps us understand in what sense Christ was a sin offering.

He was not a sinner and He was not punished for any sins of his own.

God imputed our sins to Christ.

·         Is 53: 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

·         Here God imputes our sin to Christ.

·         “He (God) thought of them as belonging to Christ, and, since God is the ultimate judge and definer of what really is in the universe, when God thought of sour sins as belonging to Christ then in fact they actually did belong to Christ.

This does not mean that God thought that Christ had himself committed the sins, or that Christ himself actually had a sinful nature, but rather that the guilt for our sins (that is, the liability to punishment) was thought of by God as belonging to Christ rather than to  us.”[2]

·         Do we realize the gravity of this?

Jesus suffered physically, was spiritually bearing sin, abandoned by friends & his heavenly Father, and then Jesus bore the wrath of God.

·         It wasn’t the scourging, or the cross, or the nails, or the nakedness, or the crown of thorns, or the plucked beard, or the taunting soldiers, or the mocking crowds that saved you from your sins.

It was Jesus bearing the furious wrath of God against sin.

·         How can I describe this?

Jesus (God) is bearing the unbridled wrath of God for sin.

·         Do you see your sin in this?

·         “It was MY SIN that held him there, until it was accomplished.”

·         Do you see your sin as bad as it is.

You are so bad that God poured out his wrath of damnation on Jesus to “fix” you.

Are you ever repulsed by your sin?

 

 

 

 

 

 

·         Not just when you commit a big sin, I mean when you came into church this morning and thought poorly of someone sitting on your aisle.

When you spoke harshly to your wife yesterday.

When you lusted while watching that movie or internet site.

When you lied to your parents about where you were going yesterday evening.

When you made a mean face at your  mom when she turned around after telling you to clean your room.

3.   I get Jesus’ righteousness.

·         *“so that in him we might become the righteousness of God”*

·         Just as Jesus was perfect and w~/out sin.

There are none of us who don’t sin.

·         It is this aspect of salvation that we often forget about.

·         You see God makes it clear that not only is no sin allowed in heaven, but you need a positive righteousness to get into heaven.

·         Ill: (Conversation w~/ Brad B.) Sitting in the Snack Shop & asking a friend about the “fad” of “the gospel.”

He asked, “If Christ had come to earth just long enough to die for our sins – would that be sufficient?

No, because Christ also lived a perfect life for us – on our behalf – for us!

·         The gospel is not just that Jesus died for us, but that Jesus lived a perfectly righteous life for us and then he died for us.

·         Consider Christ’s words in Matt 5: 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

·         How can I do this?

I can’t.

Yet Christ commands it . . .

because He did it for us.