Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 15:1-15, 33-40 in our “Finished” series. He said that Jesus intercedes for us. Lector: Asia Filipiak
Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Mark 15:1-15, 33-40 in our “Finished” series. He said that Jesus intercedes for us.
Lector: Asia Filipiak
Each week as we consider the last days of Jesus' life, we have said these stories provide us with good news.
In the story of the woman anointing Jesus at Simon the Leper's house, we learned:
Jesus sets us free in this life and the next
The death and resurrection of Jesus free us from our world of scarcity, fearing there isn't enough to go around.
Jesus grants us entrance into the Kingdom of God, a world of abundance.
In the Last Supper, we learned the good news that:
Jesus provides total salvation
The death and resurrection of Jesus provides the forgiveness of sins
It liberates us from spiritual oppression and the fear of death
Satan, sin, and death all overcome by Jesus. We are victorious!
And last week, we saw Jesus in the garden and learned the good news that
Jesus is with us
He faced the sting of disappointing friends and betrayal
He faced a lonely, hard road
So that you and I would NEVER be alone
In the Kingdom of God, we are NEVER alone! Incredible news.
In each of these stories, Jesus faced something for us so that our story would be different.
And we see that the good news goes even further this week.
Today, as we consider Jesus' trial and execution, we will learn that
Jesus intercedes for us
That's an unusual word in our daily lives, intercede.
Here's what it means.
Before being a pastor, I was trying to become a multi-millionaire world changer.
Since I'm here with you today, you can guess how that went.
A good friend and I bought a house in Florida we could not afford.
We put 3% down on an adjustable rate mortgage...which meant you paid the bank very, very little in the beginning. Hardly anything at all.
We were going to sell it in 6 months and pocket the proceeds.
This was 2005. Real estate was going crazy. Everyone around us said sure bet.
Can't lose. Throw a dart board on a map and you'll be a millionaire in FL.
A few months after we moved in. The market collapsed. Almost overnight, we owed more than our condo was worth.
But our mortgage payment was $700 a month for a condo at the beach. We good.
A year later, worth even less, payment was 1500.
A year later, worth basically nothing, payment was over $3,000 a month.
I had 4 jobs. We were sinking. We called the bank and explained the situation.
"You're not behind on payments." "But we will be." "But you're not. Good bye."
Totally stuck. No idea what to do. A problem INCOMPREhensible to us.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Barely any income. Drowning.
We needed help. We needed someone who knew what to do.
We needed intercession. Someone to step in our place and do what we could not.
See, some of us are still trying to defend ourselves.
That's not really free, though, is it? Policing everyone's opinion of you.
Constantly trying to maintain your image for the sake of what others think.
Always afraid someone will misunderstand...how exhausting that is, amen?
Watch Jesus' reputation management here:
Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "you have said it." Then the leading priests kept accusing him of many crimes, and Pilate asked him, "Aren't you going to answer them? What about all these charges they are bringing against you?" But Jesus said nothing, much to Pilate's surprise.
-Mark 15:2-3
I love Jesus' first response. Know you are but what am I? You said it man.
And then he just sits there and takes it. Over and over as they spew lies.
He's silent, like a lamb before its shearers, and takes it.
Accusations, lies, distortions. He sits there and he takes it.
Some of you know what it feels like to be lied about.
Some of us know what it feels like to have false accusations made against us, lies told about us, and it can feel so helpless. It can feel like chasing the wind.
Jesus sits in that same place as many of us have sat, and he takes it.
This one who healed, who loved, who announced good news, watches as the crowd demands a hardened criminal be released and Jesus crucified.
He sits there and he watches. He listens. And he accepts his fate.
To pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
-Mark 15:15
Whipped and beaten within an inch of his death, and he takes it.
The soldiers mock him, and he takes it.
Can you imagine a scene more unfair than this?
At one point, as Jesus is hanging from the cross suffocating to death, he endures verbal assaults even from people walking by:
The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. "Ha! Looks t you know!" They yelled at him. "You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days! Well then, save yourself and come down from the cross!"
Mark 15:29-30
Jesus endured physical pain beyond our comprehension
And he endured unimaginable emotional pain.
False accusations. Lies. People twisting his words and throwing it in his face.
A criminal chosen over him.
And those he came to save abusing him with insults and mockery.
Can you imagine a scene more unfair than this?
And the last heart wrenching scene comes as he finally breaths his last breath:
At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. Then at three o'clock Jesus called out with a loud voice..."my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"
-Mark 15:33-34
Perhaps the loneliest, saddest words spoken in the Bible.
If you're willing to really immerse yourself in this story, you'll have to deal with the nauseating pain, on every level, Jesus endured.
And if you sit with that pain long enough, you'll let out a feeble "why?"
Why would he stay silent? Why would he just take it? Why endure so much?
He did this because you and I were in over our heads. You and i had a problem beyond our ability to solve.
Like me in Florida, we incurred a debt we could not repay.
Like me in Florida, we did not have the ability on our own to figure it out.
Do you know what happens to your relationships when you work 4 jobs?
They disappear. There's no time for anything else.
And this is the core of our problem: because of our sin, we have been separated from relationship with God and each other.
Plagued by fear, shame, and guilt, intimacy, safety with each other is nearly impossible
So we cannot go to God, and we struggle mightily to go to each other.
We need intercession.
So here's how my story in Florida ends. We prayed for help. Incredible, right?
It was a very holy prayer. "God we are doomed."
My whole broke life flashed before my eyes. Bankruptcy. Decades of paying off debt.
It was all over and my adult life had barely begun. So we cried out for mercy.
Then a friend Randomly told us we need to call Craig Baranowski.
We called Craig and explained our situation. "Stop paying your mortgage and call me in a year."
"What? That doesn't make any sense."
"I know what I'm doing. Stop paying your mortgage and call me in a year."
We stopped paying our mortgage. A year later letters came from the bank.
We called Craig. Conversation lasted 5 minutes. Asked a few questions.
He called 2 weeks later and said, "it's taken care. You owe 400k, but the bank has agreed to let you sell it for 90 and they'll forgive the rest."
Boom. It is finished.
And maybe that sounds like good news to you. It was to me. But here's the kicker.
Craig kept working. My bank, Countrywide Mortgages, was sued.
Predatory lending. They lost. They've made movies about it.
A few years later, I received a check for a few thousand dollars. Unimaginable amount of money to me at the time.
I called for help, and someone fixed my problem. I did nothing but ask for help.
And he fixed it. He fixed and more.
So listen. Stop paying your mortgage people. Not your real life one.
But all that work you're doing to justify yourself in this life.
Stop defending yourself. Stop fighting to maintain public opinion of you.
Stop trying to pay back the debt you never can.
Instead, cry out for mercy. You need to call Jesus.
Jesus did all of this because we need intercession.
We needed someone to step into our problem and say "I'll take it from here."
And this is exactly what he's done.
There were many priests under the old system, for death prevented them from remaining in office. But Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever. Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to INTERCEDE with God on their behalf.
-Hebrews 7:23-25 (emphasis added)
God on one side, us separated from on the other.
Jesus puts both hands on your shoulders, looks you in the eyes, and says "I'll take it from here."
He suffers, dies, and resurrects, leaving one hand on your shoulder and placing the other on the Father's.
He looks to his father and says, "this one belongs to me."
And now, when God looks at you, he sees you through Jesus.
Your sin and suffering filtered to the father through the purifying blood of Jesus.
You don't just get purification. You don't just get your debt forgiven.
You get adoption. Life with God. Eternal citizenship in his Kingdom that will not pass away.
And can you imagine how free you will be when you experience this kind of love?
Can you imagine how free I felt the day I received the paperwork saying my debt was forgiven?
Jesus intercedes for us. If this is new news for you, cry out to him. That just means pray something holy like I did, "I'm doomed! Help! Save! Where are you?"
Cry out to him for mercy and come to him.
If this is old news for you, be free. Stop paying your mortgage.
Jesus lives forever to intercede for you, so believe the good news.
Jesus intercedes for us.
Let's pray.