Cross

Jonah said “No!” but Jesus said “Yes!”

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"But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord..." Jonah 1:3a ESV


When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, Jonah decided he had a better idea. Maybe he even asked God if He had read the news about how bad Nineveh was. When we consider how evil and violent the people of Ninevah had been, I can sympathize with Jonah. It would be as if one of us were asked to attend a Ku Klux Klan meeting and tell them they were completely wrong, needed to repent and start loving blacks, Jews and others they didn’t approve of. “No! I think I will just pray for them from here God!” might easily be our first response. Jonah even went so far as to distance himself as far as possible from obeying God by taking a cruise to the opposite end of the known world. He was a guy who took disobedience to a whole different level. But God had another idea and as the book of Proverbs tells us, “Man may make His plans, but God has the last word.” Proverbs 16:1 (my translation). God prepared a fish to swallow Jonah, take him back to his starting point by the scenic route and give him a second chance.

Jonah getting a second chance at obedience was good, but even better is the news that, while Jonah had said “No!”, Jesus said “Yes!” When God sent Jesus to the stable of Bethlehem, Jesus could have asked to stay safe and warm in Heaven seated next to the Father: but He didn’t! He freely chose to grow up in a poor village, be misunderstood, rejected by the religious leaders, arrested, spit on, beaten and nailed to a cross. Jesus prayed in the Garden, “…“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39b ESV

And the wonderful news for me and you is that because Jesus said, “Yes!” our sins are forgiven. Because Jesus said, “Yes!” we are given even a better second chance than Jonah. Because Jesus said, “Yes!” we have a home in Heaven if we will put our faith in Him and follow Him. Have you said “No!” to God? I am so glad that God doesn’t take “No1” for a final answer but through the Cross, He offers us a chance to say, “Yes!” to His grace, forgiveness and will for our lives! Will you say, “Yes to Jesus today?

The Cross is Enough

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Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4:25 ESV

When Jesus rose from the dead, things were confusing, and the world seemed to turn upside down, but everybody knew one thing for sure – The tomb was empty! When the men guarding the tomb saw an angel, they passed out cold! Later, that morning when the women came, they saw that the was stone rolled away and they ran as fast as they could to tell the disciples! By the time Peter and John arrived, all they could find was the empty burial cloths. Can you imagine what kind of questions filled their minds? Finally, the answer came as Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb, Jesus came close to talk with her, and He wants to talk with you and me today.

Just as all of these people found something far better than what they were looking for: God wants you to find that same something today. He knew that we needed hard evidence because the grip of past failures in our lives could only be broken by a victory stronger than any failure or sin. That something is our resurrected Lord! His life is proof positive that God forgives our guilt, and His resurrection tells us that the cross was enough to wash away our sins. No matter who we are, there is good news, because all the selfish choices of our past have been washed away by the blood of Jesus. God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, not just for us to celebrate on Easter, but so that every day, when we face our failures, we can remember that the cross was enough. The empty tomb is proof positive God has forgiven and set us free to serve Him forever!

Psalm 22 before Psalm 23

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"My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1a

Most people would agree that the most comforting Psalm in the Bible is the twenty-third Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Is a verse many of us have memorized. It is stitched on pillows, hung on walls and inscribed on the flyleaf of many a Bible. But before Psalm twenty-three, comes Psalm twenty-two, which begins with the terrible cry, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? The suffering of the psalmist is only second to his lack of understanding of why God could allow this to happen to him, and that cry is the one Jesus spoke while in the agony of death He struggled to breath on the cross. This, of all the things that Jesus said has always been the most puzzling to me. I know how terribly He suffered, and that the pain and agony of His crucifixion was more than I could ever bear. But as God’s Son, how could He ever think that He was abandoned? He knew what He was getting into from the moment of his birth, from the instant He was acclaimed by John the Baptist to be the Lamb of God, who had come to take away the sins of the world. But the sin was so heavy; it was heavier than even He fully understood until in HIs final moments. That is when He cried out with that terrible question, “Why have you…. You my God…forsaken me?” The answer is almost more puzzling than the question: He was abandoned for me and for you. Abandoned on the cross for a guilty thief, a centurion who had given the orders to drive nails through His feet and for disciples who had run away at HIs arrest. Crushed under the heaviness of the sins of the world He cried out, but then we must remember that there is more to the Psalm than its opening line. Those words were also a signpost that pointed to the last words,

"They shall come and declare His righteousness to a people yet unborn. that He has done it." 
Psalm 22:31

And then, after the closing of the door on the suffering of Jesus in Psalm twenty-two, the doorway opens for us to the comforts of Psalm Twenty-three. There, our suffering Savior, becomes our Good Shepherd. There, He leads us into green pastures, righteous paths and through even the valley of death to a banqueting table and the Father’s house where we will live forever! I pray that as you consider the depth of the suffering of Jesus for the gift He offers of forgiveness and eternal life that you will spend time with Him today worshipping and surrendering yourself to Him.

This is probably the most important message which I have shared this year. I encourage you to listen to all of it in this morning’s video and that it may bring you hope and comfort, whatever you are going through right now. May God bless and carry you through both now and always.