April 7, 2012

“The Message & the Cross”

Genesis 3:14-15
So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you will be punished. You are singled out from all the domestic and wild animals of the whole earth to be cursed. You will grovel in the dust as long as you live, crawling along on your belly. From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head and you will strike His heel.” (NLT)

Before the Lord was nailed on the cross to die; before the Lord was buried in a tomb; before the Lord was risen back to life and before the Lord ascended back into Heaven, He, the Lord God our Savior, Jesus Christ, fulfilled God’s promise to the Serpent many years ago after the Devil succeeded in deceiving Adam and Eve, causing mankind to fall away from God’s Presence. It was thousands of years ago that Jesus, knowing He was about to be crucified, took His disciples to the Mount of Olives to pray. And when Jesus went off alone to pray to the Father, an angel from Heaven came to give Him the strength He would need to do God’s will, rather than His own human will (Luke 22:43). While alone and on His knees with His spirit in agony beyond human words, Jesus prayed so intensely that the sweat dripping from His brow onto the ground was that of blood. But with the strength from Heaven, Jesus stood on His feet and stomped fearlessly on the head of Satan crushing forever the power that the Devil held over mankind. Because Christ Jesus overcame the power of Satan, He was able to do for us what we could never do for ourselves; defeat both the power of sin over our lives and the grip of death that holds us captive to our fears and failures. What a power-filled Message the Cross has for any and all peoples everywhere, for once you believe in the Message of the Cross and the resurrection and redeeming power that its truth holds, you will begin to understand the significance of what our Lord our God volunteered to do for the salvation of mankind. Then, we, too, will humbly fall to our knees asking God to forgive all our ignorance in sinning, and to fill us with the resurrection power of God to fight the everyday battles against the Enemy of our souls so that we can live out our lives in thanksgiving and praise to the awesome God who saved us from all Hell. Jesus was the first of many to rise from death into eternal life. In this selfless act of love, Jesus defeated the power of sin and death that Satan had over our human existence (1 Corinthians 15:57). Jesus has indeed risen from the grave into eternal life, my friends, after being murdered at the hands of Satan, so that we, too, can experience His resurrection power and have a share in God’s Glory, where we will once again live and walk and breathe in God’s Holy Presence on a new Earth, in a new universe, for all eternity.

Luke 22:39-46
Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives. He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will, not Mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. He prayed more fervently, and He was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. (NLT)

2 Corinthians 15:54, 55, 56
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death.

How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death
through Jesus Christ our Lord! (1 Corinthians 15:57)