Jesus Christ Stayed With the Plan

Jesus Christ Stayed With the Plan

Please take your Bibles and if you will turn with me to Hebrews 12 this morning. Hebrews 12. Having read in the previous chapter about those men and women who died in fates trusting in God’s promises, those men and women that were in various different situations delivered out of the mouths of lions and delivered from the will of their enemies. They were protected and provided for in so many ways, and even in death they died in faith. We see now it says in Hebrews 12:1. Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. And let’s mark our Bibles to those verses. This morning I would like us to consider those three verses in God’s word that really say so much. Let’s mark our Bibles there and acknowledge the Lord in prayer.

Father, we bow our hearts at this moment asking for your blessing upon your word that we have read the blessing upon it, Lord, that we would receive the blessing and that we would hear and receive the instruction also that you have for us in this passage. Help us, Lord, to make the application in our lives. We pray that you would help us not only to come to the water, but to drink of it. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

So this is Passion Week. We remember the Passion of our Lord as he prepared for Passover, as he prepared to be the Passover for us. As we think of this week, we also think about his whole life being geared toward this. He made a conscious decision to come. The Father made a conscious decision to send him. And there was agreement. There was no disunity, there was no disagreement in the Godhead about this choice, this decision to come for Jesus to come. And yet we’re seeing in the Passion Week of our Lord that everything, all those, all those things, even from the foundation of the world are coming to fruition now. They’re coming into clear focus, coming into very. Coming to a head, if we can say it that way. And now Jesus is at the crucible hour as he is offering up himself, laying down his life, preparing to the very hour that he’s been waiting for even throughout his earthly life. He would say many times, my hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. And now the hour it’s come. The hour is upon him. The hour is here. We sing that hymn, man of Sorrows, right? What a name for the Son of God who came ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior. But he is truly we see here the man of Sorrows. We sing another hymn, the one of that name. My Savior became my Savior Calvary. My sins nailed him there. My burdens he bare. He suffered all this for me. He suffered all this for me. Christ’s road to the cross was 33 plus years in the making. His road to the cross. We want to consider that this morning, even in our passage that we read, we were told that we are to. What did it say there in chapter 12? We read that we are to be looking unto Jesus and we are to. Verse 3, consider him. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners. The idea of this word consider is to think it over, to ponder it, to reason up to a conclusion by thinking not on the surface of the thing, but really ponder this at length and in depth. Think through it well and come to some conclusion about all of it. That’s the idea of this considering.

You know, there is. I have recently been, you know, when I was a child, a young person, my mom worked part time in the herbal store here in Rocky Mount. And I got to smell and handle and, you know, help her doing some things with the dry herbs. And I read all of those names and I saw them and, you know, and when I hear them now, I remember them. I remember some of these things. And it’s only been more recent times that we’ve started growing some of the herbs in our yard. We’ve been growing different things and learning more about. The Lord says that herbs are for the service of man. What benefits do these have? What are some of the values, medicinal values of some of these herbs? And I’ve taken the time to just consider some of those things and look into it. It’s very interesting, in fact, that God had already put these things here for us. He put them there to help people. It’s amazing how many things are growing in your yard you probably didn’t even realize are growing in your yard. And when you stop, when I stop and consider those things, it’s just amazing on the macro as well as on the microscopic level, on the small scale, how many things God has thought about in his creation. And when you think about that, it just makes you go, wow, that’s really amazing. But nothing is more amazing than when we consider the Creator become our Savior Himself. In a sense. God always knew that the so called Plan B, it was already in his mind and heart. But he did not intend for man to sin. But man did sin and he knew that he would. And therefore he already made provision from the foundation of the world forbids salvation. And think about that. There’s so much tied up in all of that. Not only that God would know about it and not only that God would plan for it, but that he would actually go through with it and he’d be able to do it and that he would be able to save us and that he would go and Jesus would be willing to go all the way to the death of the cross for us. That’s a lot to think about. That’s a lot to consider. That’s a lot to learn. That’s a lot to know. Not only to know up here, but to know here in our hearts that Jesus would do all of this for us. So consider him. Consider not only that it was a mere kind of like a bank transaction that happened, but he had skin in the game. We can say it that way. Does that make sense? He. He became the sacrifice. Not only is he now the high priest, but first of all he became the sacrifice for us. He became the one who laid down his very life for us. He suffered all this for me. How can it be? We just sang a few moments ago that God should love a soul like me. So when I consider Jesus, I find a life poured out for me. Not only the moment of his death on the cross, but an entire life and a preparation from all eternity to do it. A plan, an execution of the plan. And this the love of God is manifested. That Jesus would lay down his life, that he sent God sent his only begotten Son into this world, but that Jesus would lay down his life for us. I find when I consider something that I cannot comprehend, I cannot fathom fully, we sing another hymn that says, I suffered much for thee, more than thy tongue can tell. You can’t put it into words fully of bitterest agony. To rescue thee from hell I’ve borne. I’ve borne it all for thee. What hast thou borne for me? That’s a logical question to ask in light of all that he’s done for us. When we think through all of this and we consider it all, the question has to come forth, what have we done for Him? When we consider all that He’s Done for us. He says, take up your cross and follow me. Deny yourself, do my will, not your will. Your life is really not even yours if you belong to him. We’re not only his by creation, but we’re doubly his by salvation, by redemption. Think about what burdens bowed our Savior’s head. Think about that, that hymn. I don’t think we have this one in our hymn, though. But, O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head, our load was laid on thee. Thou stoodest in the sinner’s stead. And thou, it says, didst bear all ill for me a victim led, Thy blood was shed. Now there’s no load for me. And yet it says that it was for joy that he did it. Look in verse two of our text today. Verse two says, we are to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The motivation is that joy that was set before him. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. It was for that joy that was in front of him before him. He pressed toward that joy. What was this joy? The greatest sorrow and agony was not merely the nails that were pierced through his hands. Which was not a mere, was not a light thing. But it was, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? Father, why hast thou forsaken me? And yet, when we consider that, we also think the great joy that must have filled his heart when he said, it is finished. It is finished. I have finished the work that you sent me to do. Oh, what joy, even as he was dying, must have filled his heart as he said, I finished it, Father. I was obedient to the death of the cross. And I did it because I know you love me. And I love you. And I love all these that you’ve given unto me. And I did it because I wanted to do your will. I gladly did your will. And he knew that as soon as he died and was buried and raised again. He would go back to the throne. The right hand of the throne with the Father. What a joy filled his heart to do this. He didn’t have to do it, but he wanted to do it. We notice that this same joy filled the disciples after Pentecost, didn’t it? This same joy. They said we ought to obey God rather than men. They didn’t get great joy out of all of them except John. Church tradition will tell us. Church history will tell us that all but John were martyrs. And they tried to martyr him. Evidently, Peter, it would say that he wanted to be crucified upside down. But yet we see that men took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. They were. Some of them thought they were drunk on the day of Pentecost, right? And yet the joy of the Lord was filling their hearts.

You know, God. God and his Son showed us what it looks like to trust his will. God and his Son showed us what it looks like to trust his will. Jesus. It was even thrown in his face, so to speak, when he was hanging there on the cross. He trusted in God. Let him deliver him. Well, he did trust in God. And God is the one that put him there, right? God is the one that Jesus said to Pilate, didn’t He said, if my Father hadn’t delivered me up to you, then you’d have no power at all against me. It was God’s will that I be here. I even asked the Father in the garden, if there be any other way possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but what you want to be done. And so he went to the cross. He went to the cross. He suffered for us. He suffered the agony of the physical pain, but also the spiritual torment that he went through with the agony of the Father, why hast thou forsaken me? And yet he stuck with the plan. He stayed with the mission. He stuck with it all the way through to the end. What we read about in the Passion Week is the consummation of a life that was dedicated to doing the will of the Father, a life that had stuck with the plan sinlessly. I can’t even imagine. But you know, Jesus is a model for us. He’s our Savior, but He’s also an example. That’s why we’re to look unto him, as the passage tells us this morning, look unto Jesus. Consider his example. Look to him. And remember that you have a great cloud of witnesses who have also looked to Him. Remember, you have a great cloud of witnesses that have also trusted in God and His promises. Remember that you have a great host or company of brothers and sisters who’ve gone before you, and their example also becomes an example and encouragement to you as well. And so we notice oftentimes or really always in our lives, when we come short of doing what God wants us to do. It’s because we lack trust in him. We lack faith in Him. We get our eyes on ourselves or on our circumstances, and not on our great example and not on his ability, his love for us. We notice that Jesus, when he suffered extensive contradiction, as this passage tells us here, of sinners against Himself. He suffered great opposition he suffered great adversity in doing the Father’s will. But that did not dissuade him from going through with it. He was obedient. That’s what’s necessary to do. What is the Father’s will? He didn’t seek his own will, did He? He did not seek to do his own will, but he did the will of the Father. He did not try to get even with those who mistreated him. He did not try to retaliate against those who harmed him. But he committed himself to the Father. He committed himself, entrusted himself to the Father. Let’s look over in First Peter, chapter one, or chapter two. First Peter, chapter two. What does it say there? First Peter 2, 23, that Jesus, when he was reviled, that’s with words hurled at him. He did not hurl those words back. He reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. He committed himself. This becomes our example. We’re told in this passage this morning. We’re to consider him. We’re to look unto Jesus, who is both the author and the finisher of our faith. He’s the source and the origin of our faith. But he’s also the one who. Who will bring it all to fulfillment and completion. He’s the One that will carry us through. He’s the One that will be with us through the thick and thin and bring us to the end of the path. In fact, he’s the one that stands at the end of the way. And we’re to look unto him. We’re to have our sights set on him. Looking unto Jesus. Sometimes he did speak. He spoke seven sayings on the cross we know well. He preached and cried out against sin. He told of the love of the Father. He did speak many words. He called the Pharisees hypocrites. He rebuked his disciples when they needed it. Sometimes, though, when there were things that were just falsely said against him, as in his court trials, he just opened not his mouth. He took it. He was brought, as Isaiah would say, as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before his shearers is dumb. So he opened not his mouth. He didn’t retaliate against his accusers. He simply said that my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is the kingdom of truth. His kingdom was a kingdom of righteousness, is a kingdom of righteousness. And we’re told to follow his example, aren’t we? Paul would tell the Romans, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. You see, that’s not God’s will for us to take wrath into our own hands, vengeance into our own hands. And we need to obey that right. We need to be obedient to that. It is not our place to serve up retaliation for the wrongs done against us. We are not to take wrath into our own hands. He turned the other cheek when he was reviled, when he was smitten. He did not try to avoid the cross, but he was always ready for when that hour would come. He said, well, my hour’s not yet come. When they tried to stone him in Nazareth, right, He went out from among them. He walked out through their midst because his hour had not yet come. And so many situations where they tried to stir the crowds up against him. His hour had not yet come. He faced the devil with Scripture. Think about that. He faced the devil when the devil came to him and tempted him with not persecution, but pleasure. You know, if you will just bow down and worship me, I’ll give you all these kingdoms. If you will just bow down and worship me, I’ll give you whatever you want. You jump down off the pinnacle of this temple. Remember what the Scripture says. He’ll give his angels charge over thee, to bear thee up and to keep you. He tested the devil, tested Jesus in his weakest moments, in the moments where he was suffering hunger and thirst, when he was feeling weak. Kind of like Esau filled in, right, you can have my birthright. Give me some food. Right, you can have my birthright. But he did not in Luke 4. 8. Let’s look over there. Luke 4:8. Jesus said this to Satan when tempted in Luke 4, verse number 8. What did he say there? He answered and said unto him, verse 8. Get thee behind me, Satan. For it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. We need to consider Jesus, how he did the will of the Father. He did not. Not only did he not yield to temptation, but He. He faced temptation with the word of God in hand. And he knew what the Bible said. He knew what the Scripture said. And he faced even the devil with the Word even when Peter opposed him. Remember going to the cross. Matthew 16:21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem. My time has almost come. And suffer many things of the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him. Oh, Jesus, and began to rebuke him. Don’t talk like that. Don’t say those kinds of things. That does not make us feel good. That does not. You know, sometimes we say that to loved ones. Don’t talk like that. I’m going to die soon. Don’t talk like that. I don’t want to hear that kind of talk. They loved Jesus, no doubt. And maybe he thought I’m doing the right thing here. Be it far from thee, Lord. Don’t talk like that. This shall not be unto thee. But he turned. Jesus turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. You’re being sentimental here. Satan has influenced you to oppose me. Even if you mean well. Even if you mean well. I must do you know, I have always told you, Peter. Can we read between the lines here? Peter, I’ve always told you I have come for one purpose. And that is to do what the Father wants me to do. I’m not here just to hang around forever and we just have a chummy good time. No, I have come to die. I have come to accomplish what the Father’s will is for me. And if you stand in the way of me doing that, you’re going to have to get out of the way. Because I’m going to do what the Father sent me to do. I’m going to accomplish it. We see in Jesus the determines the tenacity, the urgency with which he sought to do God’s will. He said in Matthew 12:50, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother. The same as my brother and my sister and my mother. We love the brethren. We love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. But our trust must be in God. We cannot place our trust fully in one another. Jesus. Peter failed Jesus, no matter how deter. How much he thought he loved him. He was opposing the will of God in his life. But when Peter tried to save him, remember, with a sword. Well, I’m going to save him from death because I’m going to fight these folks off with a sword. Jesus had to save Peter. Put your sword away. You know, you might need the sword to protect yourself on the road. But this is not God’s will for you to intervene with my death. Put the ear back on. And even when the disciples denied they knew him and fled and were scattered like sheep, Jesus didn’t waver in his resolve to do. He was sinless in his mission. He was sinless in his perfect work for us because he fully, perfectly, sinlessly trusted in the Father. What though the way be lonely we sing and dark the shadows fall I know where’ er it leadeth My Father planned it all. Do we always remember that the Father, even though he may bring us through dark valleys? He planned it all. We said this morning, I mentioned this morning, that even we know that all things do work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. As we said this morning, the book of Psalms probably would have, at least most of them would never have been written if Saul didn’t exist. Because it was because of Saul and many of those occasions that it clearly inspired the writing of the psalm. The persecution that came against David. David had not done anything to hurt Saul. Saul was just envious and jealous of him. If it wasn’t for that, though, David would not have been the king that he was. David would not have been used in the way that he was. And God uses the wrath of man. He uses the jealousy and the bitterness and the envy and the rage in his plan. We don’t always understand the plan because we might just see the slice of the pie that we’re at right here at this moment. But God has a great plan in mind. He’s working all of this together for good. To those that trust in Him. He’s working it all together for good. It didn’t seem to be joyous to the Lord to go to the cross, but it was all working out in his plan for our salvation. It didn’t. He despised the shame he faced, the contradiction, the opposition, the difficulty of both the words that were hurled at him as well as the cat of nine tails that scourged him and ripped open his skin. He went to that cross for us because he knew it was the Father’s plan. The Father’s plan. Likewise, Abraham trusted the Father’s plan when he gave. When he was willing to give his only son, Isaac. Of course, God wasn’t asking for his son. He wanted to see what’s the heart of Abraham. What’s in your heart, Abraham, toward me? Do you trust me? Do you trust that even though I may ask you to do something very difficult, that I know what I’m doing? And so we know that he did that. He did that. And Jesus life had been. His whole life had been a preparation to be the Passover lamb to take away the sins of the world. His name shall be called Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. He was prepared throughout his earthly life for this. They tried to stone him. They called him a drunkard, a wine bibber. They raised up false witnesses against him at his court trials, as we said. They scourged him with that cat of nine tails and countless other things that were done against him that would paint the picture of what we read. He endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. He suffered all this for us, for you and for me. He didn’t give in to the fear of the world, but he simply knew that the Father had a plan and he was bringing him. Shall I say, lord, save me from this hour, he said, for this purpose came I into the world. I came into the world to die for sinners. That’s it. It’s baked into my name, Jesus. Yeshua, this is the salvation of Yahweh I’ve come to save. The Father has prepared a body for me, Spirit, specifically to do this in a special body for this purpose that I might be offered up. That I might be offered up. Well, in John 19, let’s look there in John 19:9. And we notice here in verse number nine, it says, and he went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus, and whence art thou where you come from? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate unto him, speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and I have power to release thee? Jesus answered, thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered unto me, delivered me unto thee, hath the greater sin. You know there’s many. That great cloud of witnesses. Among that great cloud of witnesses were those like, you know, Esther, Mordecai. Even though they were not specifically named by name in that passage, they put their lives on the line, trusting in God. And he delivered them from wicked Haman who sought to destroy them. They obeyed God at the risk of their own life, as did many others, like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Like Noah, who put his life on the line because he feared God, because he trusted God. But the greatest example we could ever look to, because as we read long enough about any of these people, we’ll find failures and sins in their lives. But Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us. He was made our sacrifice so that we would be able to live forever. We would not have to die for our sins. And so whether the Lord chooses us to live through the trials or to die in the trials. We can trust him. We can trust him for his grace. You know, Jesus showed us how to trust and to obey, didn’t he? He showed us how to trust even all the way to the point of death, which didn’t seem good at the moment. In the weakest possible position, the Son of God could be. And yet in that weakest possible position, from man’s eyes, he was perfectly safe in God’s plan. He was perfectly safe trusting in the Father’s plan. And so let’s learn from Jesus. Stick with the plan, stick with his word. Trust in him, no matter whether it’s thick or thin, no matter whether it’s on the mountaintop or it’s in the valley. This week reminds us of Jesus. Perfect resolve to do the will of the Father. Oh, we’ve already failed, haven’t we, at many times in our lives to do all that the Father wanted us to do. But let us look unto Jesus, lest we be weary and faint in our minds, let us look unto him. Let us consider him. Well, you know, if we get our eyes off of ourselves and get our eyes on him, we can’t help but be encouraged, can we, to think that someone would love us so much to do all that for us. How can it be? How can it be?

Let’s pray. Father, thank you for sending your son, Jesus. We get disappointed regularly as we look at the world around us. We get disappointed regularly because man is a failure in so many different ways. Oh, Lord, we thank you for those many times you’ve used people and how many times people have kept their words. And we thank you for friends, we thank you for brothers and sisters in Christ that have been a blessing to us. But Lord, even in our best state, Lord, we will fail each other. But there’s one who never fails, and we’re to look unto him. There’s one who created it all. And Lord, though we don’t always understand the way and the why that you move and the way that you do, Lord, we know that as we trust you, you’ll make it plain in due time. And as we trust and obey, Lord, we can still have that gladness and joy trusting in your way. Because we know that if left to our own devices, Lord, we will surely make a mess of things. But Lord, thank you for what Jesus has done. Thank you that he stuck with the plan, that he was willing to go all the way to the cross for us. And Lord, thank you for this opportunity today to stop, to pause, to consider and to adore the one who loved us and loves us, has not only died for us, but is risen and is ascended right now sitting, making this prayer possible to be our intercessor at the right hand, at your right hand, at the throne of grace. Bless now as we sing a final hymn. Lord, help us as we have drunk from these waters this morning. Help us to go out and to find strength in your word to do what you want us to do. In Jesus name, amen.