In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of not taking the resurrection of Jesus lightly. They encourage the audience to let the risen Christ have a transformative effect on their daily lives. The speaker acknowledges the heartbreak and significance of the details of Jesus' death, but urges the audience to look past them and understand the purpose behind it. They highlight the resurrection as the foundation of their faith and emphasize that it is a testable fact of history that cannot be explained away.

Will we ever get to the bottom of this amazing love? Will we ever be able to... Will it sink deep enough into our hearts, into our minds, to fully realize what it meant? As grandpa was reading here, I was thinking, why did he let him suffer so much? Why did it have to come to that? Why did it have to be such a humiliation of the Savior? It was absolutely the worst possible thing they could have done to him. And the question... The thing I want to speak about today is not so much the details of his death and like we know him, grandpa just read it. A wonderful... It's a wonderful story, but the details in itself, they just... They just break our hearts. We know that is what it had to take and for this we praise him and thank him, but to just sit and ponder of the details. What went on on that Passover morning 2,000 years ago, it really makes us aware. There was a lot more to it than meets the eye. There was a lot more to our Savior's coming to this earth than we just simply accept. We have to... I think it would be good for us to consider deeply and ponder why. And you know as a Christian, and I'm sure many of you have had the same thought, thoughts that I've had over the years, was this the only way mankind could have been delivered? Was that the only way? Couldn't there be another way that God could have reconciled us and made right the fall? Did Jesus need to come as a suffering servant? Why couldn't God just simply forgive us? Why did He have to put out His only begotten Son into our place? If those questions have ever crossed your mind, well, you're not alone. They certainly have crossed my mind. Because the cross is a symbol. And if there's one symbol that stands central to all time in history, past, present, and future, it is the cross of Christ. It symbolizes shame and death. It represents something. It represents the end of a life. It also represents the end of a covenant. It represents the death of the testator. And so this topic is very deep, and there's no way we can simply cover that and think it's all been said. There have probably been hundreds of thousands of sermons preached on Christ's crucifixion, of His death and what it means. And I'm sure nobody has ever attained to the full meaning of it and the full depth. But to really answer those questions, to really know what it all signifies and what it meant, we need to go right back, right back to the beginning of time to understand the significance of Christ's death and that's the message I have today. It's called the purpose of Calvary. The reason behind what God was doing. Why He had to do what He had to do. As you all know, from the very beginning, God said to Adam, the day you eat of that fruit, you're going to die. And that's what happened. That vital relationship between God and man was severed. It was broken. And there was no way that man can ever connect that link again. Man broke it through the cunning of the devil and his wiles. That link was broken way back in the garden. And he said death. And that means not just physical death. It means spiritual death and separation from the One who created us. From the very creator of mankind. And so this is something that to really understand it, we have to go back and just skim over parts of the Old Testament, parts of the Bible, to get to the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection. See, God had to introduce the way to reconcile man again. God had to introduce it. He had to open it up again. Man severed it, so there was no possible way that man could restore it. God had to make the first step. He had to do the groundwork. And that naturally just brings up another question. I don't know if all of you have ever asked it, but I certainly have as well. Why didn't he just send Jesus sooner? Why did he have to introduce the first covenant? Why did he have to introduce the law? Why couldn't he have sent Jesus sooner, 2,000 years before that, at Abraham's time or at Noah's time, or during the children of Israel's time? Why did he wait as long as he did to send Jesus? Well, Scripture has many answers. Scripture gives us many reasons why. But it all boils down to one. God is holy. So in order for him to teach man his ways and to know of his holiness and his justice and his truth and his love, he first had to open a way of communication with him. And we all know it started with Abraham, way back shortly after the flood. If we turn to Galatians this morning, Galatians chapter 3, verse 19. Before I go on here, we'll read this passage. Wherefore then serves the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness would have come by the law. But the Scriptures has concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore then, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. And we may think what this has to do with Christ's suffering. The law revealed to man his sinfulness. And God had to start somewhere. God had to start with the law to show man his sinful nature. And just like parents with their children, they keep them under the law to bring them to Christ. And so the entire history of humanity can be summed up as a father dealing with his children. First, giving them the law to show them that they need a savior. It can be illustrated as a father with his children. And that's why God introduced the first covenant. He had to teach man about himself. He had to make known to them his holiness, his righteousness, his justice, his truth, his love, and most of all, his utter hatred for sin. How else could he have done it if he would have just brought Jesus on the scene without first making sin exceeding sinful? He couldn't have done it. So the law put forth a standard that if they kept it, they could reconcile themselves with God. But you know, and I know, that they couldn't keep it. Even the apostles said when they came together for that great first conference, they said, let's not burden the Gentiles with the law of Moses, which neither we nor our fathers could keep. They knew it. The law just exposed the sinfulness of man. And God knew they couldn't keep it. If we turn to Romans chapter 3, in verse 19, he says, Now we know that what thingsoever the law says, it says to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what the purpose was for it. To bring to light man's inherent sinfulness. But God is holy and he is just. He cannot introduce his standard to mankind without offering a way of escape. Without offering some kind of way to be reconciled and to be restored. And so right with the law he introduced the blood offerings. Because he knew they were not going to be able to keep it. Because he knew if he would just give them that high standard without some kind of way to atone them, men would despair. Men would just cease from even trying. And so he introduced the sacrifices. The yearly sacrifices, the yearly lambs, five or seven times a year they keep together for different feasts. And there were offerings made constantly. Why were those offerings made? To show men that he hates sin. And that for every sin we commit something has to die. To show men that sin is exceedingly sinful. Why not just forgive us? If we break the law, forgive us. No, he made it clear from the beginning that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. He made it clear from the beginning that if the Holy God would simply forgive us our sins he would be violating his own righteousness. He would be violating his own justice and his holiness. He cannot simply just forgive us. And we have to understand that. He cannot simply forgive the sinner. The demands of his justice and of his righteousness have to be met. Otherwise he would be contradicting his very nature. That's why he introduced the blood offerings. That's why he introduced the lambs. But we know, and as it's written in Hebrews Hebrews 9 and 8 and 7 and 10 if you ever read these chapters they're wonderful. He introduced them for a covering. To make atonement for the sins of the people. To make atonement so that people can feel at least the sense of forgiveness. Feel justified by doing those offerings. And why did he wait so long? I believe he deliberately waited 2,000 years with the law so that he could really, really impress it upon his people that you can't make it. He could impress it upon them that you are sinful to the core and you cannot make yourself right with me. I believe that's one of the reasons he waited because it says when the fullness of time came God sent forth his son. Why was the fullness of time almost 2,000 years before he sent Christ? No, almost 2,000 years after the law. To show men. To make them aware of who they were. And so as it's written in Hebrews 9 it was clear that the patterns of things needed to change. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 we'll start at verse 11. There's many beautiful verses in 7 in chapter 8 and even more in 9 here and in chapter 10. If we want to know why God had to do what he did if we want to know and understand what the Lamb of God accomplished, these chapters here really clear it up for us. And to who else should he have written this? He could have not written Hebrews to the Romans. He couldn't have written it to the Corinthians. He couldn't have written it to the Ephesians or any other church. They had no inkling about God's righteous laws and his demands and his ways. He wrote it to the Hebrews because they understood. They understood the old. It was taught them from a child. That's why he wrote to the Hebrews what he did. But Christ being come and high priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions take very careful note of these words that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament that means what the law revealed to us as sin he came now and purged it that they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance for where a testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator for a testament is a force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people saying this is the blood of the testament which God has enjoined unto you moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry and without and almost all things are by the law purged with blood almost all things and without the shedding of blood is no remission it was therefore necessary that the patterns of the things in heaven should be purified with these but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these let's stop and think about this why now we get back to that question again that I asked at the beginning was there any other way was there any other way than for Christ to shed his blood while God would have had to go back on his word God would have had to make himself contradict his own nature his own word had it been any other way think for a moment if we were put on trial for murder or for some kind of a breaking of the law of this land if we would be summoned to court for breaking a major law which condoned a life sentence which was worthy of a life sentence in jail if we could stand before that judge and weep and cry and do whatever we want say we're sorry we did it we're sorry we killed that person or whatever it was that would all be fine repent but you would still have to serve your sentence you would still have to it would not affect the outcome of the penalty justice needs to be served or else you can throw the whole judicial system out the window justice needed to be served in order for God to have his righteous demands met because sin brings death he had to serve justice so our sins bring death and we don't get away with it unless something or someone takes our place that's what in the old covenant the blood was for the blood took their place took their place and made atonement for their sins why did Jesus need to suffer? just to show us that he is a holy God it satisfied Jesus' death his suffering on the cross satisfied God's righteous demands you cannot earn or work off or just simply ask for forgiveness it is not possible or if he could just simply forgive us of our sins he would be violating his own nature nothing unholy can enter heaven and you see if he only forgives us without meeting the demands of justice if he only forgives us just look what that does all kinds of vile wicked immoral and unclean people from the heart would enter heaven there is no place in heaven for people like that there is no room for them they have to be purified they have to be completely washed and cleansed and that is why Jesus had to do what he did he had to be that substitute he had to meet God's righteous demands of justice so that we could live Romans 3.23 it says it declares his righteousness for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness it declares God's righteousness Jesus Christ hanging himself giving himself on the cross declared God's righteousness and his justice brothers and sisters Jesus hanging on the cross giving himself for our sakes should make us aware of how exceeding sinful sin is it should make us tremble and first and most of all it should make us very thankful that he offered that substitute there is no way he could look at us and our sin except through what Christ did that is the purpose that is why he had to come to appease God's wrath to appease and he didn't love his son as Grandpa said he loved us more than he loved his son the judge who stands to judge that murder let's say on earth here he finds the murderer guilty and declares the penalty that's all the judge does and you can say you're sorry a thousand times over the penalty stands but bless God because God gave his son and in between us we don't have to pay our penalty we don't need to pay our the cost that we incurred he has done it he put himself in between and that should make us love him and honor him and worship him out of fear and love for going to that extreme to redeem us because it is his righteousness it says it declares his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare I say and then he repeats it at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus if that isn't the best news that the human ear has ever heard I don't know what is a human being who understands by the law how sinful he is this this is the best news that he can hear he put himself in between in Leviticus it writes how they did the sin offerings and all that stuff it's tedious what they went through to be purged from their sins and finally they brought in the scapegoat and Aaron laid his hands on that goat and confessed all the sins of the people and then they sent the goat off out into the wilderness that was supposed to take away their sins it was symbolic the same way we lay our sins on Jesus and he takes them away we read a song this past week or a couple weeks ago as far as the east from the west he removes our transgressions from us the psalmist David did not say as far as the north from the south did you know the north and south can be measured there is a definite distance between the north and the south the north pole and the south pole are roughly 12,000 miles apart he never said that but he said as far as the east from the west that's a distance that is impossible to measure because no matter where you go on earth this way is west this way is east and they never meet you never come to a place where east stops and west begins that's how far he removed our sins from us for what? who are we? that he did that for us let's think about it giving himself so willingly so like a lamb to the slaughter that we might have life and when David read that song wrote that song that's Psalm 103 he was already as a prophet speaking about the atoning work of Jesus Christ in the future east from west so Jesus met all those requirements that's why in my mind I cannot see him doing it any other way for him if he would have simply forgiven me for my sins and you for your sins he would not be a holy God and he would not be worth worshipping he could take all kinds of smut into his kingdom and he can't do that he will only take holy righteous people into his kingdom and they are made righteous by that one and only sacrifice of Jesus Christ brothers and sisters we could talk a lot more about later as the mediator after we become a Christian how his blood work how his atoning work and his 30 years living on this earth was also necessary for Christians now to be a faithful mediator on our behalf now in the new covenant he also needed to go through all that but that's not what we wanted to talk about today see the first covenant could not deal with the problem turn to Hebrews Hebrews chapter 10 this time verse 1 Hebrews 10 verse 1 for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commerce thereunto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered but that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins but they did they came back year after year after year why? but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins they only cover them up they were only symbolizing what Jesus Christ would eventually do wherefore when he cometh into the world he said sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a buddy thou hast prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said I lo Jesus said that lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God verse 10 verse 9 then said he again lo I come to do thy will O God he takes away the first that he may establish the second by the witch will by whose will? his will Christ's will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all now it is an operation of faith for all who don't understand it yet who don't haven't accepted and received this gift yet it is an operation of faith by his atoning work on Calvary and I don't want to go past that today just stick just that finished work on the cross we are healed not forgiven forgiven is shallow compared to healed yes there is forgiveness but that is not the full that is only half of the gospel to be forgiven of our sins that is only half of the gospel the full gospel is healed blooded out taken away removed obliterated gone death is what he did on the cross he could have kept on forgiving us but what would have been the purpose of Jesus resurrection death and resurrection there would have hardly been a purpose in it by those sacrifices men cannot be purged by our keeping of the law we can't be purged by doing all kinds of righteous deeds maybe to try and balance the scales you cannot be purged we can only deceive ourselves purged means flushed we speak of purging when we clean something out purged means to flush out flush out until there is no trace left it says verse 2 worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins that's how thoroughly Christ purges us from our past so thoroughly that there is no more conscience the old covenant couldn't do it but Christ was fully able and not only is he able brothers and sisters he is willing for those who haven't done it yet he is willing to purge out that old covenant the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was the old covenant and so I believe he did introduce Jesus to the scene for that very purpose first to make men see how exceeding sinful he is and then I will introduce the way of escape that's good news his suffering his death the details we should read them often but let's look past the details and see the purpose behind it guaranteed that changes our lives that changes our outlook on life that changes our past our present and our future God bless you and to God be the glory Amen to that one and praise God for Jesus Christ praise God that he rose because that's our hope as we sang in that song and as grandpa mentioned that is the foundation of our faith that is foundational that resurrection as brother Ben pointed out several different concepts here about the significance of it and what it means to us there's even more and I think if we would talk for months we couldn't get to the bottom of it we couldn't fully comprehend what that resurrected Jesus really means to us and as I was studying it a little bit here yesterday and the day before it's clear that we can't possibly speak of all the significance of what that resurrection means obviously before one can be resurrected he has to be dead and that's very true for Jesus as well the resurrection could not have occurred if Jesus would not have been first crucified that just goes logically one step after the other the resurrection is also the testable proof of history that Jesus was who he was who he said he was the resurrection tells us that Jesus was not just some fanatic who came on the scenes and was murdered and cast into a grave the resurrection proves for all men and all time that Jesus was who he said he was it cannot be denied it cannot be refuted and many people have tried the resurrection is the one miracle you can explain the others away the other miracles that Jesus did skeptics can explain them away we believe them but the resurrection cannot be explained away it is a testable fact of history so Jesus was the real son of God which of course we know but mankind we are slow to learn we are slow to learn just like those two and his disciples those two that went to Emmaus on the Sabbath on the first day of the week they were walking and they were sad they were walking there communing with each other what had happened Jesus walked up beside them and said why are you sad and then he even called them fools slow to heart, slow to believe mankind is that same way so many of us know about the death and the resurrection of Jesus but has it really really been applied to our account are we walking along that road as well to Emmaus, pining away pining away sad and sorrowful not realizing that he is alive you see the resurrection is the second part of the good news the second half, the first half is the crucifixion as we talked about on Friday that's the first half of the good news Jesus being put to death for our offenses reconciled us to God blooded out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us he nailed it to the tree, to the cross that was the first part and that was an absolute necessity he cannot he cannot be our mediator now if he wasn't our reconciler first in Romans 4.25 there's one verse here I'd like to discuss Romans 4.25 he says I guess I could read verse 24 as well but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification let's think about this for a few moments here he was delivered for our offenses and then he was raised for our justification you see Jesus I'll backtrack here a little bit Jesus could not be the true lame of God if he hadn't met if he wouldn't have had the credentials first and what I mean by credentials he wouldn't have had the qualified he was perfectly qualified to be the lame of God and I didn't speak of this on Friday here one thing that qualified Jesus to be the perfect lame of God was his sinless life never sinning the other thing that made him a perfect sacrifice is his obedience that he learned to the Father's will through suffering that's clearly written in Hebrews chapter 2 and the other thing that made him that qualified him to be the perfect sacrifice was to live in the same world that we live in the world of sin and hurting the world that was marred if he would not have done that he would not have fully qualified to be the lame of God that takes away the sin of the world so he met every condition he qualified in all parts tempted like we were yet without sin he qualified to be the lame of God and that's the first part first part of the the wonderful story in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 he says for he has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made for righteousness of God in him he had to be the perfect sacrifice the perfect lame so that he could put the sins of mankind on his shoulders on himself and therefore Jesus fully qualified but the second part is what I want to talk a little bit about here is the resurrection Hebrews 4 Hebrews chapter 4 verse 14 you see Jesus death crucifixion was for the ungodly but Jesus did not die for the righteous he died for the ungodly for those who were dead for those who died he was raised for the believers he was raised for us who believe and it's the same way if he died for the ungodly the ungodly have access to God by putting Jesus sacrificial death on their account and then his resurrection is for us who believe seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed in 4.14 by the way that is passed into the heaven Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our profession for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need so therefore Jesus Christ met the requirements to be the lame of God and he met the requirements to be our high priest as a resurrected Savior sitting on the right hand of God and interceding on our behalf and he met all the requirements and what were those requirements? it says right here he was tempted in all points as we are what else? he cannot be touched we don't have a high priest there's a double negative here so we'll just say it positively we have a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities you see what it means? it says we have a high priest he feels for us he feels and he sees and he senses our need and he can present us faultless see that's what is the good news about the resurrection if he would have just died for our sins reconciled us to God and left us hanging high and dry there would be no hope just like brother Ben said no hope for us that would be just another sacrificial lame raising from the dead this was the life all points tempted like we are fully able to bear with us fully able to feel our hurts our needs the high priest in the Old Testament had to go in first and sacrifice for his own sins and then for the peace Jesus Christ did that once for all and with that one sacrifice he perfected forever them that are sanctified now this is the high priest that meets our needs this is the high priest that we can boldly come to for the throne of grace Hebrews chapter 7 a couple chapters ahead Hebrews chapter 7 verse 24 but this man because he continues forever has an unchangeable priesthood wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them for such a high priest became us the NIV says such a high priest meets our need who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins then for the people's for this he did once when he offered up himself for the law maketh man high priest which have infirmity but the word of the oath which was since the law makes the son in other words makes the son a high priest who is consecrated forevermore this is the high priest that is the purpose that is where our hope hangs that we can now rest in him and trust him that he is going to take us from step one which is the new birth and lead us into a sanctified life to step two, step three step four of the Christian life in step one and step two and in step three we make many mistakes the believers who have been planted into Christ through his death have confidence and hope if they have been truly planted in him that he meets every need that they have when we fail we know we have someone we can turn to of course we know it doesn't give us a license to do it and we hope everybody here knows that but he meets our needs so that when we fail he presents us faultless before the throne of glory so that we don't have to live in constant fear of death he delivered them it says in Romans who were all their lifetime subject to bondage and in fear of death Jesus completed the work see God never does half finished work he completes what he starts the death reconciled us to God the resurrection gives us the life keeps us reconciled with God keeps us in him so that he can finally and fully work out his will in our lives I believe the reason many Christians take their Christian life seriously I mean many Christians don't take their Christianity seriously because they are slow to learn they don't realize what a tremendous God they have and they make excuses for their carnal selves make excuses for their actions and their attitude and whatever else their weaknesses they have saying that's the way I am it can't be changed it's part of the fallen nature yes it's part of the fallen nature but as brother Ben said we are raised into a glorious body just as Christ was raised from the dead in a glorious body so he can transform our mortal bodies and give us a true life not half life a true life is a life free free from condemnation free from living in the loss of the flesh and in sin because he is able he is able to save us to the uttermost it doesn't say he is able to forgive us to the uttermost he is able to save us to the uttermost that means save us from our sins save us from our selfishness save us from our pretending, from our pride whatever it is that's preventing the life of Christ from manifesting itself in us he can save us from all that he can make us humble humble considerate gentle loving, peaceful kind merciful those are the attributes of Jesus Christ and he came to plant them in us that's what the resurrection will do the full world he is sufficient for us we don't have to live in in constant state of knowing now we can live now in a constant state of knowing we are his and that should give us hope joy peace and rest for we have this faithful high priest that's why he was resurrected just like those disciples that went from Jerusalem to Emmaus not fully comprehending what does death signify and that he would rise again let's not be slow to learn let's be quicker to learn we have the whole book we have the story from the beginning to the end I can sympathize with the disciples they didn't have the bible at least they didn't have the new testament even though Jesus foretold everything about his resurrection it's still slow to learn but we have it today we look back and we see the whole picture the beginning, the middle and the end let's not be slow to learn the resurrection is to transform our mortal bodies as brother Ben said into his glorious body and we have that confidence that he is able to do what he said he would what a glorious savior what a wonderful story let's not take it lightly let's not pine away let's not be flippant about it thinking it happened fine, good I'm now saved let's let that risen Christ have a sanctifying effect on our daily lives and he is able because he is sitting on the right hand of God right now interceding on our behalf