Heavenly Father, we thank You once again for today. Today is the day that You have made, and we are rejoicing; we are glad in it. We woke up; You have brought us to Your house.
We've been able to sing praises to You, read from Your word, give back to You, and now we will sit at Your feet as Mary did and soak up Your word. We thank You that Your word is living and active; it's powerful. It changes hearts and lives; it radically transforms us from where You first found us into where we are now.
You promise that He who began a good work in us will complete it, and You will complete it when either we take our last breath or You come back for us. Either way, we look forward to being with You. We thank You for Your word and all of its promises.
In Jesus' name, Amen. I'm taken from a Reader’s Digest article published just this past October. Here are some of the funniest responses from applicants during job interviews, as submitted by actual HR reps.
The first one is this: An individual applied for a customer service job, and when asked what he might not like about the job, he said dealing with people might not be the best for him. Next, the candidate told the interviewer he was fired from his last job for beating up his boss. I'm sorry; I shouldn't laugh at that.
Okay, and lastly, we asked prospective job applicants at our business to fill out a questionnaire for the line: "Choose one word to summarize your strongest professional attribute. " One woman wrote, "I'm very good at following instructions. " Let that one sink in.
Okay, even though these were a lighthearted way to start our message time this morning, we're starting with several responses from various witnesses to Jesus' death on the cross. These responses reveal where their hearts are. Like I mentioned before, over the past few weeks, our messages have been directly connected to the very moment of Jesus' death, as recorded in John 19:30b, while also adding the supplemental information from the other three gospels and looking at the deep theological significance it holds for us as Jesus' followers today.
This week, we're moving on from John 19:30b, and we're jumping back into the immediate responses we have recorded for us in God's word by those right at the foot of the cross to Jesus' death. While not in the order as recorded, the first one I want us to see is the general Jewish crowd's response. We have that recorded for us in Luke 23:48: "And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts.
" Back in this time period and culture, when people mourned and grieved a death or a situation, they would slam their fists against their chests as a public display of that emotion. As has been noted, this sounds a little odd, though, doesn't it? Weren't these the exact same people who were hurling insult after insult at Jesus while He hung dying on the cross?
In short, yes. Why were they now mourning and remorseful? Because it clicked; they just realized what they had done, and it was too late.
To help us understand a little bit better, this is the exact same response that Judas Iscariot gave when he saw that Jesus had been officially condemned to crucifixion by Pilate. Judas was so remorseful that he threw the 30 pieces of silver he had received for betraying Jesus unto death at the hands of the Romans back at the Jewish officials and went and committed suicide. But, like we discussed at the time we covered those verses, just because Judas was that remorseful didn't mean he was repentant.
We know that from Jesus' words given prior to all of that: Judas was the son of perdition; he was always chosen to be the son of damnation and personally followed through on that. It didn't matter one ounce how remorseful he was; Judas was elected to be condemned and thus never repented for what he had done. It's the same with this crowd.
Remorse can lead to repentance, but remorse does not equal repentance. You can feel remorse temporarily and move on, never having been changed by the situation. On the other hand, repentance requires change; it requires turning away from what you've done and seeking transformation from the Holy Spirit to never be that person again.
This crowd was remorseful in that they realized they had jeered at Jesus while He was dying—at the very least, a prophet of God—but, in many cases, they didn't come far enough to actually put their trust in Him as the Messianic Deliverer, God the Son. Next, we have the believing Jewish response, specifically of the women who had been supporting Jesus and His ministry all this time: “Many women who were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, were ministering to Him; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. ” Now, over a month ago, we talked about Jesus entrusting the care of His mother, Mary, to His beloved disciple, John.
When we talked about that, we mentioned there was biblical evidence to propose that the Mary’s sister recorded in John 19, who was with Mary, is the same woman as the mother of the sons of Zebedee, or the apostles James and John, the sons of thunder, making John Jesus' earthly cousin. Thus, it made both spiritual and natural sense for Jesus to entrust His mother's care to John. John 19 also mentions Mary, the wife of Clopas.
Noted, this is most likely not the same woman as Mary, the mother of James and Joseph. Mary, the mother of James and Joseph we have recorded here, is most likely the same as Jesus's mother, that Mary. Mary, the mo—I'm going to say that again—the Mary, the mother of James and Joseph is most likely the same woman as Jesus's mother, Mary.
As was customary in this time period and culture, a woman was referred to by her closest and oldest male relatives. Like we talked about before, Mary's husband, Joseph, was most likely dead at this point, necessitating Jesus to entrust her care to John. Jesus was Mary's next eldest male relative.
But what had just happened? He had just died, leaving Jesus's half-brother James, who had become the leader of the Jerusalem Church and author of the New Testament book of James, and his next oldest half-brother, Joseph, named after their father, to be Mary's male name references. The Salome that Mark mentions is most likely the name of Mary's sister and mother of Jesus's disciples James and John.
See, she's not mentioned by name here, but Mark mentions her name. That's probably the same woman there. Salome is the same named woman that is the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
And John 19's Mary, the wife of Clopas, may be the same as the Mary, mother of Jesus's disciple James the Less and Joseph that Mark mentions. Okay, I know I went through that. You remember all those, right?
Okay, altogether the named women looking on at Jesus's death are several Marys—a popular name back then—and Salome. So we have Mary Magdalene, we have Mary, who is Jesus's mother and also the mother of James and Joseph, we have another Mary, the wife of Clopas and the mother of Jesus's disciple James the Less and Joseph, and then we have Salome, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee. That makes it a little bit easier to get it all straight in your mind, right?
Okay, there were several other women who joined these, and as has been pointed out, took care of the daily chores of Jesus's ministry, freeing him to teach and the disciples to learn. Now, the three synoptic gospels make mention that all these women are watching from a distance. John tells us, however, that at least his mother, Salome, and Mary, the wife of Clopas, were close enough to hear what he was telling his mother—what Jesus was telling his mother.
So what is the best way to understand this term "from a distance"? Well, as has been noted, this may refer to an area designated by the Roman soldiers, separated from the immediate crucifixion site for those who wanted to watch and was still within earshot. It was just referred to as "the distance.
" It was a designated area. Why were these women there? As has been pointed out, they were there because of their faith in Jesus.
They weren't there for the spectacle like the Jewish crowd we read about; they were there because of their faith in Jesus. They had faithfully served him these past few years and were not going to give up on him at his greatest time of suffering. This was in direct contrast, right, with 11 of the 12 disciples.
One of them had already killed himself, and the other ten physically deserted Jesus. There was only one who stuck around through every stage, even if it was from far back, following Jesus's arrest, and that was the Apostle John. These women bore witness to Jesus's death; these women would also be the first to bear witness to his resurrection.
Finally, this was recorded in three out of the four gospels to show the faithfulness of women in Jesus's church. At Jesus's death, they remained in faithful service to him, showing their support, even though that physical support of being present at his crucifixion was also dangerous to their well-being and future in that society. Even though women were treated as second-class citizens in that time period and culture, Jesus had ensured their worth to his kingdom, and their service to his ministry would be the foundation for that continued role of faithful service in his church.
Thirdly, we have the Gentiles' response to all of this. So we have the unfaithful Jewish crowd, the faithful Jewish response, and thirdly, we have the Gentiles' response. Matthew records for us that now the centurion and those who were with him, keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, "Truly, this was the Son of God.
" Mark describes it as when the centurion, who was standing right in front of him, saw the way he breathed his last. He said, "Truly, this man was the Son of God. " And Luke says, "Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, 'Certainly this man was innocent and thus the Son of God.
'" At least one of the soldiers standing guard and overseeing Jesus's crucifixion, along with the two other crucifixions on either side of him, declared, both out of fear and out of faith, that the Nazarene they had just actively put to death truly was the Son of God. Now, what was going on here? First of all, this wasn't one of the common legionnaires; this was a commander of a group of a hundred soldiers, or a century of soldiers, giving him the title of centurion.
That's where the name comes from. As has been pointed out, even though this Roman centurion was pagan in background, this was both a declaration of Jesus's innocence that we see here in Luke and maybe, at the very least, a declaration in taking steps toward. .
. Most likely a declaration of faith in Jesus, we do know of at least one other centurion who believed that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, in whatever capacity he understood that to be. In Luke 7, we read about the centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant, and Jesus praised his faith in him as the Messiah, even going so far as to say that this centurion, the Roman pagan centurion, had more faith than any Jewish person in all of Israel.
Similar to the crowd's jeering, the title of "Son of God" may have been used by these Roman soldiers against Jesus in mockery of him, but now it's being turned around in faith for the Roman, especially with a pagan background, seeing the darkness that had lasted for three hours in the middle of the day with no explanation, and now the earthquake, so powerful that rocks were literally split open, was enough for this centurion to affirm Jesus's deity. As an execution centurion, this man had overseen and watched dozens, if not more, of grisly crucifixions. As one scholar put it, he was no stranger to death, and yet this was the only one where anything like all this phenomena he had just seen happened.
We don't know anything about this particular centurion; perhaps he had heard Jesus teach before and those seeds were planted. Perhaps he had heard what the Jewish rumor mill was saying about him. We know he witnessed Jesus's dignity in not fighting back, but willingly allowing himself to be nailed to the cross, and he most likely heard all the things Jesus said and declared while he hung on the cross.
All of those seeds planted culminated in this declaration of faith: the man he had just overseen the execution of truly was God. Truly, in any sane person, the realization that faith brought about would instantly seize him with fear, as I think it would any one of us. He had just had an authoritative hand in killing God.
I'd be scared too! Now, I like to think that somewhere along the way, after that—maybe as one of the 500 that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15—that Jesus revealed himself to post-resurrection, and that this centurion received the joy—not just the fear, but the joy—of Jesus's resurrection in his faith. Nevertheless, the eyewitness response of the centurion, one who had the reputation of objective credibility in that world, carried with it a lot of weight in affirming who Jesus really was.
Now let's get a little into this morning's passage from John. So if you brought your Bible with you today, please turn to John chapter 19. We're going to be picking up in verse 31.
If you didn't, that's okay; there should be one located in the pew in front of you. Please also turn to John 19:31 or look this up on your favorite Bible app on your smartphone. This is what we read, John 19:31: "Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
" As we've talked about in the recent past, this day of preparation is most likely referring to the day before the Sabbath when the Jewish people would prepare everything to be ready in time for the Sabbath. In the year Jesus died, most likely 30 A. D.
, as has been pointed out, this day of preparation also fell on Passover, making that Sabbath the day following that a high holy Sabbath, as it also occurred on the same day as the first day of the subsequent Feast of Unleavened Bread. That's why we just read in verse 31 that that Sabbath was a high day. This is doubly why the Jewish officials were so insistent on getting the bodies of all three crucifixion victims off their crosses by sundown, which is when, according to the system of reckoning time that those in Judea and Jerusalem used, the Sabbath would begin.
Like we talked about when we discussed the actual acts of crucifixion, men who hung on a cross would sometimes last for days, depending on how much they were scourged, if at all. Not only would that have been a gruesome and disgusting sight for that high holy Sabbath, but as has been noted, it was technically prohibited by Jewish law. It was prohibited by Jewish law to leave a body dead by execution hanging on a tree, or in this case, a wooden cross overnight.
If it was, the Jewish people opened themselves up to being punished by God themselves. Deuteronomy 21 states: "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree; but you shall surely bury him on the same day, for he who is hanged is a cursed of God, so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance. " Seeing as the next day was the Sabbath, those Pharisees who had created a bunch of their own laws so that no one would actually come close to breaking God's laws certainly would not want to run the risk of one of those criminals dying overnight since they couldn't be buried the next day.
Their solution to this was to ensure that all three men on those crosses died before sundown and the Sabbath even started, so they could be taken down and buried if desired by their family or friends, avoiding all conflict. Since most who were crucified had to breathe by exerting what energy they had left and lifting themselves up. .
. By their impaled wrists and ankles, bearing their weight to take each breath, most would die when they were completely exhausted or dehydrated, simply not being able to lift themselves up any longer; and they would die—die by suffocation—as their chest cavities would collapse. The easiest way to speed up that process was to destroy the one mechanism those crucified had to lift themselves up to breathe, and so it was to break their legs (verse 32).
So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. However, these professional executioners noticed something about the Nazarene they crucified when they came to him (verse 33). But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
The soldiers who performed these crucifixions were highly trained executioners; they weren't amateurs. They could tell when someone was dead—they'd seen it dozens of times. Furthermore, they were commissioned by Pilate to carry out his orders for crucifixion, so if they were wrong, guess what happened?
They were the ones killed. These guys were professionals. Moreover, as has been pointed out, who was gathered at the cross to absolutely make sure their desire to have Jesus killed at the hands of the Romans was 100% successful?
And they could very well say, "Uh-huh, he's not dead yet; we want to make sure he's actually dead. " Who was also there? Those Jewish officials.
There is absolutely no way they would have allowed Jesus to stay alive by the start of the Sabbath. Secondly, Pilate had risked everything to save his own skin, so he wouldn't allow Jesus to leave the cross unless he was fully satisfied Jesus was dead. In fact, before Pilate grants Joseph of Arimathea Jesus's body, he inquires of that centurion we just talked about if Jesus was indeed dead, and that centurion confirms it.
Lastly, we already know how much blood loss and shock Jesus endured through the Roman scourging, collapsing only a few steps from the exit way of the Gath gate, and the cross merely finished it all off. But just to be absolutely sure, one of the executing legionnaires does something, as personally witnessed and described by the Apostle John standing with those faithful women in the designated area for onlookers (verse 34). But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
Like we referenced when we talked about the details of crucifixion, a medical physician who studied the medical observations of death by Roman crucifixion, along with other scholars, explains this observation made by John here: even here, 2,000 years ago, Roman executioners understood enough about human anatomy to know that if you stab the side of the chest of someone you presume dead, if what looks like blood and water flows out, that person is 100% undoubtedly definitively dead. Here's the medical explanation for that: According to multiple scholars, this is undeniable proof, undeniable scientific proof, that Jesus was physically dead at this point, as what John describes here only occurs postmortem; it only ever occurs postmortem. And according to that physician, Jesus died not the usual way of crucifixion by suffocation, but by heart failure, because Jesus had lost so much blood starting with the scourging and lasting all this time up to and being impaled on the cross.
His heart has been trying and failing to pump what thick, completely dehydrated blood is left. As that's happening, the physical response to that is that the sack around Jesus's heart, called the pericardium, started to fill up with clear serum, which then slowly started crushing Jesus's heart to death. Immediately after Jesus gives up his spirit to the Father's hands, his heart fails due to the shock and this pericardial crushing.
If a spear is thrust in what is called the fifth intercostal space and between the ribs, as this legionnaire evidently knew enough to do, it would tear into this pericardium and the heart, releasing what blood was left in the heart along with all that serum in the pericardium—looking like, for all intents and purposes to an eyewitness there, like blood and water escaping from Jesus's side. Lastly, as has been pointed out, it's a confirmed historical fact—it's a confirmed historical fact—that Jesus of Nazareth existed in the first century and was put to death by the Roman governor over Judea at the time, Pontius Pilate. That is a confirmed historical fact.
While the New Testament books themselves should be considered ample historical evidence for Jesus's death by crucifixion, there are also extra-biblical sources that also give evidence to this. Marabar Serapion wrote around 73 AD, just 43 years after this, that the Jews killed their wise king. Myones, a medieval Jewish writer who was incredibly hostile to Christianity and denied that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, also admitted that he was "executed by the court.
" A Greek satirist named Lucian of Samosata wrote a piece around 166 AD which mocked early Christians and referred to them worshiping a "crucified sage. " Roman historian Tacitus, who was thoroughly pagan and had no reason to affirm anything about Jesus, wrote in 116 AD: "Christus, from whom the name had its origin for Christians, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius, that was the emperor at the time, at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate. " And in 93 AD, a Jewish historian, Josephus, who again had no reason to corroborate the beliefs of Christianity, wrote that that extreme penalty that Tacitus refers to here was condemnation to death by crucifixion; Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die.
This eyewitness account, the Apostle John specifically says, is to lead to faith in Jesus as the sacrifice for sins (verse 35). Who has seen, bore eyewitness to all of this, has testified, written about it right here, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth so that you may also believe; that's the whole point of John writing all of these things in his book.
John was there; he saw everything and he recorded everything he saw as the truth so that those reading his book, both around 90 AD originally and us today, would believe in Jesus for our salvation. John wanted it crystal clear to his readers that what he had written about Jesus's death, and indeed everything about Jesus's life, was the truth and they could believe it as the truth. Since it's the truth, what were his readers going to do with that truth?
That same question is directed to us today, which we'll come back to in a few minutes. As has been noted, John also includes the previous clear declaration that all he had written was the truth that people needed to reckon with, along with two prophetic fulfillments to this as well. John has given other prophetic fulfillment references in connection with Jesus's death by crucifixion, and once again he's making a point by including these specific ones.
The first one is this: verse 36, "For these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture: 'Not a bone of him shall be broken. '" This is a reference to a couple of different Old Testament prophecies; one is in the book of Psalms, the other is in Exodus 12:46. Exodus 12:46 goes all the way back to God's original commandments to the Israelites on the night that they were going to go free from Egyptian slavery.
In order to escape the destruction of God's judgment of death on all the firstborn, they were to kill a Passover lamb and spread its blood on the whole doorframe of their houses. They were then to roast and eat the meat of the lamb, but there is a very specific command in connection with this lamb: it is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. That was the original command to the Israelites on the night that they left Egypt.
As has been noted, the whole point of that original command that God gave for none of the Passover lamb's bones to be broken had nothing to do with the original Passover lamb; it had everything to do with so that it could be fulfilled by Jesus 1,500 years later. That was the whole single purpose of Exodus 12:46, was so that Jesus could fulfill it perfectly 1,500 years later. Remember, Jesus was already dead by the time the Roman legion were breaking the legs of those still alive on their crosses and thus didn't need to break his legs, opting instead to confirm his death by spear.
We cover this more extensively in the recent past, but remember what John has been making references to shortly before, during, and here immediately following Jesus's death by crucifixion. He's been making several references to that; it was on the same day as the day of Passover. He's been making several day references to that while the Passover lambs were still being slaughtered at the temple before sundown, the priests careful to not break any of those lamb's bones.
John was making a reference to Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb, whose bones were also not broken and whose blood covers those who believe in him for their salvation from the wrath, judgment, and destruction of God. Secondly, John writes in verse 37, "And again another scripture says, 'They shall look on him whom they pierced. '" This is a quote from Zechariah 12:10, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication so that they will look on me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
" As has been pointed out, this verse is part of a larger portion that refers to something that will happen in the future, in the end times. In this verse, this is Yahweh, the Lord God Almighty, who is speaking. He will pour out his Spirit, or the Holy Spirit, on his people so that they will be led to mourn over him as if they had lost an only son.
Why? Because through the Holy Spirit they will realize that they pierced God himself and rejected him, and instead of embracing him as their God. Going back to the beginning of our message this morning, while some of those in the Jewish crowd at Jesus's death were led by their remorse to repentance and placing their faith in him for their salvation, many most likely did not.
Israel's rejection of their Messiah has lasted for 2,000 years through to this day and will continue. But that will all change someday during the battle of Armageddon when the Antichrist's armies have besieged Jerusalem. The majority of the nation of Israel will again, due to the Holy Spirit's movement, repent of their sins, realize that Jesus was God, and that they pierced him in rejection instead, and cry out to God for deliverance.
In connection with that repentance, when all hope seems lost in Jerusalem, nearly all destroyed, God will answer their prayers by returning himself, and he will answer their prayers by returning the one whom they pierced on a white horse, rescuing them by annihilating all of the Antichrist's armies. To avoid all confusion, the Apostle John is declaring point-blank right here in verse 37. .
. That the Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jewish people had a hand in killing, is one and the same as the God whom Israel will seek as the pierced one in repentance for their deliverance someday, the tables will turn. Connecting to the response of the crowd and the original context of Jesus's death, however, along with all the other responses, we have a question we all must come to grips with: How do we respond?
How do we respond to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ? How do we respond not only to the crucifixion but to the resurrection? How do we respond to that as historical fact?
John clearly tells us this from an eyewitness standpoint, as we read in this morning's passage. So the question is: What are you going to do with all of it? Like the believers in the crowd who were just there to see this gruesome circus, do you do nothing with it?
As has been noted, it might make you give pause, think about it, like the majority of the crowd and their remorse; but that’s as far as it goes. It never leads to repentance of sin and trust in the crucified and resurrected Messiah for salvation from sin and God’s wrath and judgment. Be warned that if you always continue in a state of rejection of Jesus and all He claimed to be, or if you simply never make a decision about it, or what some claim is agnosticism—which is really just a mirage and not a legitimate state of faith—because the Bible treats both rejection and agnosticism as the same, you will be judged by the one who was pierced and thrown into the lake of fire for physical, emotional, and spiritual torment for all of eternity.
Like the Roman Centurion, will you respond to all you've learned and heard about Jesus's sacrificial death for salvation with faith in all that He said He was and all He did? You may not fully understand all there is to know about theology and the doctrine in connection with salvation, like the former Roman pagan, but the basic trust in that Jesus, as God, paid for your sin so you could be restored to God and, therefore, you surrender to His authority as King. None of us knows how much time we have left in this earthly life, and when it’s over, it’s over.
There’s no second chance. We have to move from a response similar to the unbelieving crowd to a response similar to the Roman Centurion, or it’s too late. We certainly can’t claim ignorance now because we’ve heard what the truth is; we can’t say we didn’t hear it.
We can’t stay on the fence, as we’ve also seen. We have to make a decision on what to do with Jesus’s death and resurrection on our behalf before it’s too late. If you’ve never come to God in prayer, knowing your sin separates you from God, recognizing that Jesus paid the death penalty for your sin on your behalf as the only way to be reconciled to God, and knowing that repenting, or turning away from it and turning to Jesus as King, and living for Him is the only way to have salvation from God’s wrath and judgment, do it today.
Saving faith must start there in order to have the 100% assurance that you will be in the joys of heaven with God for all of eternity. Faith in Jesus must start with that basic foundational faith, but it cannot remain stagnantly there. The Holy Spirit, who comes and makes a home within us at that moment of trust in Jesus, ensures that by starting to transform us and grow His fruits in us.
If we can look back on our life and we don’t see the Holy Spirit making changes in our lives, then we need to have a serious conversation with God about whether or not we’re really saved from our sin and from His wrath. The Holy Spirit grows that faith in us to live a life of serving God, and through that, serving others just like the faithful service of the women gathered near the cross during Jesus’s crucifixion. I’m sure they weren’t perfect.
We know they weren’t perfect; they were just human like us. But they sought to serve Jesus’s cause and kingdom without complaining, without gossiping, without being offended all the time, and with humility, with gentleness, with peace, with love, according to God’s standards. They remained faithful to Him even, and especially, when it posed physical and societal danger to them, invisibly connecting themselves to Him.
And even though society didn’t think much of them, they received their reward from God as being the first to witness Jesus’s resurrection in His glorified body. May we too firstly put our faith and trust in Jesus’s death and resurrection on our behalf for our salvation from our sin, and then may we too serve God and His kingdom faithfully, diligently, and wisely, teaching His gospel truth and the truth of living according to His standards, following that and serving one another as the body of Christ in that same love. In light of all of this are Paul's words in Romans 12: “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. ” Here is the text with correct punctuation: Measure of faith, for just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another.
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly.
Do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Jesus died and rose again; that is a historical fact.
A: What are we going to do with that truth? And B: How are we going to allow the Holy Spirit to change our lives because of it? Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, the several passages in your Word that give us the physical, scientific proof that you were indeed dead. You physically died to fully satisfy the penalty of our sin, and that is death, so that we could be restored to you. You did it as a substitute for us so that we didn't need to go through it.
We can be rescued from the second death, or eternal condemnation to hell. We can be reconciled to you; we can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit; we can be adopted into your family as your children, and we can have the hope of eternity to look forward to. We thank you for these various responses we have in your Word as well, that of the unbelieving crowd, and never being moved to repentance, never being moved to put their faith in Jesus for their salvation.
We thank you for the faithful Jewish people who served you during your ministry and continued to be faithful to you as you hung on the cross. May we serve you with those same hearts, and we thank you for the Gentile centurion whose simple faith led to his salvation. Lord, we pray that you wouldn't just keep us there in that simple state of salvation but that you would continually grow us through the transformation of your indwelling Holy Spirit, that we may each day be made more and more into the image of your Son.
May we all glorify you with our lives, and I pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
