We welcome you to the We Are Zion sermon podcast.
We are a church based out of Chennai, India.
We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will
be refreshed, revived, and energized by what you hear.
Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of
purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.
If you were to choose between life and death, what would you
choose? This Good Friday we look at how
through Jesus's death, we find life eternal, fresh and
abundant. Amen.
Even as we just ruminate on what Good Friday is about.
You know, I've been reading the book of Matthew this whole
month, the past month. And reading the book of Matthew
really helped me understand what an eyewitness account looks
like, and especially of the scene on that, that Good Friday
when Jesus was accused, he was betrayed.
He was handed up to the elder as the chief priest and then he
was, you know, sentenced to death, flogged, beaten, spat
upon and then put on that cross where he died.
The entire narrative really looks so dark.
It looks dismal and and just like we just saw in this video
that there is this heaviness and grief that tends to settle on us
on Good Friday. Many times growing up, I
remember I would have to sit in church for about 3 hours.
The service was long. We had a lot of pastors who were
preaching. We used to have buttermilk at
the end and hot cross buns and that was the big highlight.
But as I get older, I realized there's so much to rejoice on
this day. There's so much to look at, so
much to meditate on, and so much to grow into from this day on.
And I hope that as we look at God's Word today, we're going to
be looking from Matthew 26 at different players in this story,
so to speak, and how everyone of them had a choice that they had
to make. Before I get into that, I want
us to look at Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19.
I'm reading from the ESV version.
It says I call heaven and earth to witness against you today
that I've set before you life and death, blessing and curse.
Therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live,
loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding
fast to Him. For He is your life and length
of days that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to
your to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them.
He says choose life, preferably. That's almost what he's saying.
He's saying I'm presenting before you life and death, but
choose life. If you choose life, there are
so. Many benefits that come from it.
And the question today, even today, is this, would you choose
life or would you choose death? When we look at the story of
Jesus's death, what we are actually looking at is different
people who made a choice at that moment either for death or for
life. And we're going to be looking at
three different sets of characters.
And so I titled today's message as life versus death because as
much as these men, these ordinary men unschooled, some of
them, some of them were criminals, some of them were
leaders, as much as they had a momentous choice to make, you
and I have the same choice every day, Every single day we make
choices that either lead us into life or they lead us into death.
If you are married, you know that sometimes in an argument,
some of the things that we say, some of the words that we use,
some of the declarations we make don't necessarily promote life,
but promote death. Maybe you've spoken that over
your child. Maybe as a child you received
such words. And so you so understand when
the writer of that verse in the Bible says that you know your
tongue has the power of life and death in it.
And so every single day we are making choices between life and
death. And today I want to present that
to you, life versus death. What will you choose?
The first set of players. That I want to look at are
herid. And Pilate, King Herod, he was
the local ruler at the time. Him and Pilate were actually
enemies. They became friends during the
trial of Jesus. Luke chapter 23 verses 8 to 11
when Herod saw Jesus. He was greatly pleased because
for a. Long time he had been wanting to
see him. From what he had heard about
him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort.
He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no
answer. The chief priests and the
teachers of the law were standing there vehemently
accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers
ridiculed and mocked him, dressing him in an elegant robe.
They sent him back to Pilot. Now, if you have read the book
of Matthew, the last Matthew 26 and 27, you will see the moral
crisis and dilemma that Pilot finds himself in.
He's got Jesus has come into his courts.
He's about to be. He's coming in for sentencing.
Pilot knows this man is innocent.
Pilot also applies him with question.
Jesus doesn't respond and he says, will you not respond?
There are so many claims against you and he doesn't respond even
then. And he said, do you know, I have
the authority to put to hand you over?
And he says you have no authority other than what I have
given you. What a powerful statement.
And Pilot knows he's in a he's, you know, between a rock and a
hard place. And to top it all, his wife has
a dream. And she sends word to Pilot at
the court saying, I have nothing to do with that.
Just man, I have suffered in a dream because of him.
So all of this is on Pilot's mind.
And yet he's forced by the chief priests and the elders to
sentence Jesus to death. So he subjects him to flogging
and sends him to death. And as almost like a public way
of showing people that he didn't want any blame in this, he very
ceremoniously washes his hands before the people, as if that
could cleanse. A broken conscience, as if that
could cleanse him of the guilt of condemning a guilty man.
It couldn't. But the interesting thing is
this towards the end of that narrative in the book of John,
John chapter 19, it talks about a different thing that Pilate
did. Remember that when Herod met
Jesus, he was hoping for some sort of sign.
Herod seemed to be all about, you know, drama.
You can see that when he, even before he killed John the
Baptist, he had this dramatic. He had a flair for the dramatic.
But Pilate on the other hand, towards the end, it says in John
chapter 19 verses 19 to 22, Pilate also wrote an inscription
and put it on the cross. It read Jesus of Nazareth, the
king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this
inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the
city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.
So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilot, do not write the
king of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am king of the
Jews, Pilot answered. What I have written, I have
written. And it is at this moment, I
believe it's a very pivotal moment because I realize the
more I read God's word that everything that is put in there
that seems like a seemingly insignificant detail is not.
It is there to highlight something about someone and
about God. In this moment.
I feel like Pilot redeems himself.
Yes, he condemned Jesus, but nothing was outside of God's
will. He did everything that was in
alignment with God's will. Did he have a heavy conscience?
He probably did. He probably had to go back home
and answer his wife. She probably said, why did you
do that? I told you he's just, he's
innocent. And at this moment, Pilate took
a stand for the truth. I think it's in the book of Luke
or John when having a conversation with Jesus just
before he sent him to be crucified.
Jesus said that I testify to the truth and Pilate, they say it's
a sarcastic reply. He says what is truth?
And I think he asked the wrong question because the one who is
truth was before him. He was embodied in person and
standing before him. He says what is truth, right.
And at that moment on the cross when he put that multilingual
label, the truth about who Jesus was, the king of the Jews, the
Jews disowned him. But this foreign official
publicly declared who he was. I believe it was a moment of
redemption. I believe it was a moment when
he maybe had grappled with the truth and declared what he
believed to be true. And here's the thing.
Herod and Pilate both had choices.
Each made one Herod ridiculed, mocked, spat upon Jesus.
Pilate, yes, wrote him off, declared him guilty, released an
innocent, released a guilty guy in in lieu of Jesus who was
completely innocent. He knew it.
He said he, it says the text says that he knew that the chief
peas were jealous of Jesus and out of jealousy had brought him
in and yet he didn't do what was right.
But in this moment he takes up his authority.
He puts that mantle on and says what I have written, I have
written. It's amazing because, you know,
many of us grapple just like this, in these pivotal moments
at work, at home, in our neighborhoods, in our colleges,
the places that we interact with others.
We have moments where we get to say the right thing, where we
get to defend the truth, where we get to defend things that God
would defend. And at that moment, what do we
do? That's a question for us to
grapple with. That's a question for us to
ponder, and I hope that we don't know what happened to Pilate and
his wife after this, but my hope is that her having that dream
about Jesus must have been a God thing.
Those kind of dreams where God alerts someone about something
is from God. And I'm hoping and believing
that Pilate and his wife had a new life after that, just
knowing who Jesus was, understanding what he did for
them on that cross. The second set of people are
going to be looking at is criminal one and two.
You remember Jesus was crucified on a cross in between two
criminals, right? And this is what Luke chapter 23
verses 39 to 43 says. It says one of the criminals
were hanged railed at him saying are you not the Christ save
yourself and us? But the other rebuked him,
saying. Do you not fear God since you
are under the same sentence of condemnation?
And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward for our
deeds. But this man has done nothing
wrong. And he said, Jesus, Remember Me
when you come into your Kingdom. And he said to him, truly I say
to you today you will be with me in paradise.
I I for one find this to be one of the most poignant passages in
the New Testament because there was number ritual into entering
the Kingdom of God. This man proved it.
He knew the truth. The truth set him free.
He was at the, the, you know, the fag end of his journey.
He was right at the end. And at that moment he knew who
Jesus was. And he doesn't pray the sinner's
prayer. He doesn't say, get me baptized.
And then we can, you know, see where this goes.
At that moment, all he said was Jesus, Remember Me when you
enter paradise, when you come into your Kingdom.
Wow, I don't know if he heard Jesus preach before that, if he
had heard about something about him.
I don't. But between the two one shows
death, 1 railed at Jesus, one said save yourself and save us.
There are many times when I I watch the arguments between my
children and if one wants a favour from the other, they
don't have the tact to ask for it.
Well, they accuse and insult the other one, hoping they'll get on
their side and do the work for them.
And it's the worst tactic. And this man was not helping his
case. He's insulting Jesus and saying
get us off the cross and get yourself off the cross.
Utter disbelief, mockery. Whereas the other man, in that
crucial moment, just as his life was ebbing, he made the right
choice. 1 screamed, 1 demanded. One felt you know what?
Use your power one last time, but the other chose eternal
life. I love that Jesus says truly.
I say to you today you will be with me in paradise.
What joy for that man that as soon as he closed his lives here
life on eyes here on earth, he walked into paradise with Jesus.
Can you? Picture that.
And I wonder how many of us, how many of us realize that our
lives on earth are just a dot, Just a dot.
It's almost like a mist, like the Bible says, here today, gone
tomorrow. But life and eternity is
everything. It is a forever situation.
And so, so many times we're building foundations here on
earth through houses and cars and bank accounts.
And while all of those things are important, they're not all
important. Eternity is what counts.
What am I doing in the now that determines my forever?
That is the question and this man picked well.
The third and final comparison I want to make is between Peter
and Judas. Both were disciples.
One was probably he. He was moving around in Jewish
circles, had a certain idea of how he wanted God's Kingdom to
invade the Roman Empire. That was Judas.
That was Peter who was an unschooled fisherman who was a
pro at his craft, right? He was a married man.
He he had a brother who had brought him into ministry.
This is these are the two guys and they worked at close
quarters for three years with Jesus, but.
Both made mistakes towards the end of Jesus's ministry time.
Judas. It says that he had begun
talking to the elders and looking for an opportunity to
betray his master. What a sad thing and adamant
says at that Last Supper. It says that Satan entered him
and he left it to go meet with the priests.
Jesus knew what he was going to do.
Imagine this. Jesus washed the feet of his
disciples that night. He even washed the feet of
Judas. Even then, Judas.
Judas was so hardened by the enemy's work enemy, it corrupted
his soul so much. He didn't feel any remorse that
the man he was going to betray with a kiss was at his feet,
washing his filthy feet. And then there was.
Peter, Peter also got his feet washed that night.
But Peter of course likes a bit of hyper bully.
So he was like, you know what, I need a bath, give me a bath.
He says you're already clean. Some of you here aren't talking
about Judas, but he said I want you to do this so that you will
do that for each other that there would be no competition
that you would serve each other in love so that all would know
that you belong to me because of your love for each other.
So Jesus modeled this and then we see what happens with both
these guys. Judas goes on to betray Jesus
comes and kisses him in the Garden of Gethsemane hands him
over to the elders. Peter follows Jesus from a
distance once he's arrested and at different locations within
the the area where Jesus was being held.
He. Goes on to.
Deny Jesus three times, servant girls.
Ask him, Hey, weren't you with Jesus?
You have a Galilean accent. Are you sure you weren't with
Jesus? Peter denies him three times.
And when the rooster crows, this is what it says.
Luke chapter 22, verses 61 and 60.
The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.
Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him
before the rooster crows. Today you will disown me three
times. And he went outside and wept
bitterly. I don't know if I can even
condemn Peter at this point. Because what would you and I
have done if we were placed in that position where everything
we had believed and had run based on for three years was now
at stake? When the man who had spearheaded
our movement was standing there helpless and broken, of course
there would be a tendency to think, I don't know if I can
sustain this. I don't know if I can carry
this. Should I say that I know him,
That I love him? That, that he he's the most
incredible thing that happened to me.
But then look at what Judas did. Matthew 27 verse 5 S Judas threw
the money. This is the money, the 30 pieces
of silver that they paid him to betray Jesus and left.
Then he went away and hanged himself.
Peter saw Jesus, felt remorse, wept, went back to fishing for a
while, but Jesus calls him back. Once Jesus is resurrected, he
calls him out of the water, reinstates him for the three
denials. He reaffirms his love three
times for him. He calls him three times.
Will you feed my sheep? Will you feed my lambs?
Will you look after my sheep? He was literally giving him a
fresh assignment. He was giving him an assignment
for the rest of his life. He reinstated him.
He forgave him, His grace, Harvard, Peter, on the other
hand, Judas prematurely gave up. I think his regret got to him.
The shame, the guilt, all of it must have bogged him down, he
realized. The depths of his sin.
And that's what the enemy does many times.
He will use us to fulfill His purposes.
He will use us to speak that horrible thing to someone.
He will use us to set someone's life ablaze by immorality.
He will use us and demolish us at the end of it.
He has false. Promises false claims.
Everything that he says he wants to do for us is attached to
something else. There are hidden agendas.
There's fine print that we miss when it comes to the enemy.
But Jesus, when he invites us into this abundant life, there
is no fine print, there is no hidden agenda.
He says come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. There is no agenda, no motive
except for Him to embrace us and love.
US. Judas missed the point.
He knew this man for three
years. He saw that every time he heals
someone, he would say your sins are forgiven, Go, your faith has
healed you. He knew that this man had the
power to forgive sins. And yet Judas missed it.
Judas thought what he did was unforgivable.
He missed the point of the cross.
And so he chose death, as we understand from these. 3
situations. Each of them had a choice.
These were very pivotal moments. These were hard pressed moments.
They were not easy. These were moments when everyone
was watching them and yet they had to make a call between life
or death and to understand the gravity of the life that Jesus
actually gave us when he died, which feels oxymoronic because
Jesus died and how can he give us life?
But I want you to just watch the short clips from one of my
favorite Disney movies is movie Hercules.
And there's this little clip of where, of course, it's a
different story in the sense that Hercules falls for a woman,
right? He falls with this woman.
And actually, she's 1 of Hades Hinch women.
She's one of the bad girls. But The thing is, she grows A
conscience and she does what is right.
And so Hercules goes to rescue her and falls straight into the
lap of Hades, which is the underworld.
He's a Lord of the underworld, and he comes there to rescue
Meg. That's the girl.
And that's the scene outing those three women, those Furies,
they work for Hades. They work in the underworld when
they cut. This is all part of Greek
mythology. I don't believe in it, but it's
very interesting reading, and it really applies to what we're
looking at today. These three women, the Furies,
work in conjunction with Hades. The minute they cut the life
threat, someone dies and their soul goes to hell, Right?
And they're about to do that to Hercules, who so selflessly is
going to rescue this woman who is good to him, even though she
first started out, as, you know, seducing him and, you know,
trying to get him by hook or crook for Hades.
She eventually comes to a place of actually doing what is right
and this guy goes to save her and in the process his divinity
comes to the surface and they try to cut his life.
So did you notice it became purely gold?
He was immortal. And I believe that when Jesus,
and this is spoken of by the episodes of how Jesus descended
into the depths of hell and then rose again victorious and in the
descending to hell, He was the perfect sacrifice.
His sacrifice covered every man, woman and child sin from before
unto eternity. The length, depth and the breath
of God's plan is beyond our person.
We cannot understand it. But the beautiful thing is this
Jesus, his life didn't really end in death.
He brought all of His life and if you notice when he comes out,
he just gives a punch to Hades ending it.
And I want you to remember this. This is what Jesus died for.
Jesus died to triumph over the enemy, over every scheme, over
his minions, over his Kingdom. He's brought his dominion down
on earth. And not just that, he did that
so that you and I can live victoriously also.
You and I can live and really live because the truth is many
of us just on life support, I've said this before, many of us are
just getting through each day. We're in just on surviving
space. We just get up, we just do what
is required and then go back to bed at night.
We don't feel like we're making an impact.
We call ourselves slaves to our jobs.
We look at the the beauty of our ordinary days as mundane.
We missed the miracle in the mundane.
And I want to bring us back to three things today that Jesus,
when he died, he died to give us life, but not just an ordinary
life. It's three kinds of life.
The first thing is he gave us eternal life.
Like we saw that criminal he chose.
He said Remember Me in paradise because he realized this life.
Was done, but the next one was beginning.
So the first kind of life that Jesus died for was for you to
have eternal life. The second thing that Jesus died
in order to give you was new life.
It was not the old, because our old life is distinctly
different. Jesus was coming to give us new
life and the third kind of life that.
Jesus desires to give us is. Abundant life like we see in
John 1010. And so I want to leave this with
you today. The first thing, eternal life,
the word for it actually means in perpetuity, forever,
everlasting. John 316 says For God so loved
the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
The minute you and I are saved, the minute I say Jesus come into
my life, eternity has begun. Up until then eternity was not
on my books, but the minute Jesus came in, eternity entered.
And the beautiful thing is the writer of Ecclesiastes says he
has set eternity in the hearts of man, which means every person
on the earth has a God sized. Void in their life and they're
trying to fill it with something or the other, you and me
included. But the beautiful thing is when
I accept Jesus in, I choose eternal life and my life here
knows no end. It just goes.
When I close my life here on earth, I open it in paradise
with Jesus. John chapter 6 verse 54 says
whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I
will raise them up at the last day.
Jesus is talking about the new covenant that he instituted on
that night before He died. When he presented the wine and
the bread, he said this is my body which is being broken.
This is the cup of blood which I spill for you.
And when you do it every single time, you are doing it in
remembrance of what Jesus did for you.
And Jesus did it so that you will have eternal life.
Every time you have communion, you are remembering, wow, my
inheritance is eternal. I may not have a house here, I
may not have a car, I may not have much money, but I have
Jesus. I have eternity secure.
It changes how we live here and now.
But you know the problem? There is a problem to everything
that we face in our lives, even a lot of our biblical
principles. Many times it fails at the place
of our problem. We don't take it past that.
So while there are challenges and problems I want to produce,
I want to present to you what you can actually do with those
problems. Some of the problems we have
that while we are here, we don't have eternity issues.
We have temporal issues, we have joint pains, we have bone pains.
We have diseases that sometimes touch us.
We have struggles with finances. We have relationship problems.
We have work struggles. We have issues knowing Our
Calling, our purpose and I believe that the way to navigate
earth with a heavenly mindset once we are saved is very
important. And what does that mean?
Jesus taught his disciples in the Lords Prayer that let your
will be done your. Kingdom come on earth as it is
in heaven. So while we live on earth, the
minute you and I have saved, eternity has begun.
How I start to live at that very moment matters.
Do I intentionally invite heaven to earth?
Do I intentionally invite Jesus to invade my current reality?
I'm in that hard space with the boss.
Lord, I invite you into this moment.
Can you tell me how to speak? Can you teach me how to respond?
They are disrespecting me. Lord, what do I do?
What do I say? This marriage is taking a toll,
Father. How do I handle it?
I'm inviting heaven into earth. Earth and eternal life begins to
play a role in my everyday. That difficult Co worker, that
rocky marriage, that troubled child, all of it is real.
Just because we're talking about eternal life doesn't mean we
negate the reality of our present.
Because remember, we are in the now and the not yet.
We are in the middle and it's a very vital stage.
It's the time when we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
We are being shaped into the likeness of Jesus while also
being prepared for eternity while fulfilling Our Calling on
earth. It's a lot of things happening,
so how we live now matters. So the challenge I want to offer
you today, yes, we are made for eternity.
Eternal life is the is the destination, but it's also a
present reality. Are you and I walking in close
communion with God right now? Because sometimes we think,
well, in eternity I'll manage. I know Jesus have accepted him.
So eternity sorted. But we run our businesses.
However, we live in our marriages, completely
disconnected. We are not bothered about our
children because, you know, the Sunday school we'll handle,
they'll be fine. They'll turn out OK.
Someone's praying somewhere for them.
We we look at our lives with scant attention.
We are not soaking in the word and not declaring the word, but
instead quoting Instagram poets and authors.
I would urge that whatever your sources are, you will bring it
back to communion with Jesus, that you will come back into
communion with him and you'll go to him and say, Lord, I heard
this, but I need to hear from you.
I love that God has positioned us in such a time with social
media and other influences are all around us.
We have YouTube and other things which need to be supplements to
our primary diet of Him, which means I need to be in such close
communion to Him that all of those things only confirm or
reconfirm the things He's already telling me.
Do you obey His word to you? That's how you live with an
eternal mindset. God, I believe I'm set for
eternity, but right now I will obey You.
Do I know His desire for me? Do I desire to share the good
news that changed my life with others?
Do I use my resources for Kingdom pursuits?
Jesus himself talked about this. Don't accumulate things on earth
where it will, you know, grow rust and moths would attack it.
But start investing in things that will last for eternity in
people, in bringing people to the light of the gospel.
Are you investing in those things?
Do I speak with the consciousness that every word I
have has eternal ramifications? It always scares me when Jesus
says that. I think he says in one of the
Gospels, he says you will have to give account for every word
spoken. And I think, Oh my goodness,
I've had it. Thank God for his forgiveness.
Thank God for the gift of repentance.
There's so many times in a week that I've had to go, God, I'm
sorry I said that. I'm sorry.
I thought that that was not right.
That was not something that could please you.
Imagine if we start looking at every rupee or dollar you earn
and viewing it with eternity in mind.
Lord, what do I invest this into so that eternally there is
rewards, There's a harvest. If every glance that I do, the
second look that I give, every choice that I make in friendship
in in life choices, if every single thing I do, I'm more
intentional in because it's eternal.
Think about the changes in my life.
Heaven touching earth is a possibility.
When I start inviting Jesus into everything I have begun.
This is something that I do very subtly even.
We're dealing with my maids, right?
One has a daughter who is pregnant, one has a mum who's
very ill and ailing, is in a terminal season of cancer.
And when I deal with them, as much as they're not able to come
to work, I keep inviting the Holy Spirit into that moment
where I have so much work. Lord, I can't cook.
I can't clean all of the time. But to be so compassionate, what
would Jesus ask me to do in this moment?
To grant them those leaves, to manage a meal or two by myself,
To give them that extra something to help them buy
medicines at home? That's on me because God has
called me to eternity. How do I bring heaven into this
moment, Lord, with that that argument with a spouse?
How do I stay mindful of what I'm speaking?
How do I not speak death over my spouse in this moment, but
choose life even in that heart moment, even if it means being
quiet so that I sort out what I'm going to say?
Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, you know, like being so
subtle yet being so complete. He talked about E, which is
being mixed into flour, that it's mixed and then it the whole
flour rises up. He talks about the mustard seed
being so small and growing into the largest tree where all the
birds come and perch. What was he saying?
He was saying the Kingdom of God is small and subtle, but it's
powerful and it's all-encompassing.
And therefore when we talk about having an eternity mindset,
talking about heaven coming to earth, it begins with the small
things, It begins with the right words being spoken to each
other. It begins with that
compassionate look or touch. It begins with doing what is
right even in secret. And then heaven begins to invade
like never before. So that's the first thing,
choosing the eternal life. When Jesus died, he gave us
eternal life. Would you choose that?
The second kind of life that Jesus died to give us was the
new life, right. And the new life, actually the
word for it is kinos. Kinos means fresh.
When we look at the New Testament, Jesus says that he's
pouring new wine into new wineskins.
And it doesn't mean that you take the old wineskin and throw
it away and get a new one, much like some what some of us who
try to declutter do we, We are clearing things out.
We threw it on. Then later, a month later, you
realize you needed that thing that you threw out, so you have
to go buy a fresh thing. That's not what he's talking
about. In that case, the wine skin has
got an old and brickle. It cannot hold wine molecules
that are fast fermenting and growing in volume.
So what they do is they invert the the, you know, the wine
skin. They soak it in olive oil and
what the olive oil does as it soaks in it, it starts making
the skin supple again. This is made from animal
bladders. So the more they soak in the
oil, they get supple and they're able to hold the ever expanding
and fermenting wine. Fresh is the new we're talking
about. We're not talking about throw
the old out, get the new thing. That's not what we're talking
about, but the important thing to understand about the new life
that we have in Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17,
it says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. In a Indian context, when we say
someone has died, we say they passed away.
In this context, the old things have passed away means the old
things have died. I have crucified myself with
Christ so that it's not just me living, but Christ living in me.
That's what it looks like, and many times for many of us.
The old feels familiar, the old feels comfortable.
You know that? That way in which I snap, that
just gives me it makes me who I am.
I'm I'm witty and I can be sharply witty and hurt someone,
but that's who I am. I'm used to that, but when the
Holy Spirit starts working in me, he shapes how I speak, he
shapes how I respond. My response time slows down.
I don't speak everything that's on my mind.
I I want to be more consistent and not as Moody as I was in the
old life. You see what I'm saying?
The old seems comfortable. The old seems easy.
And we're like, well, I've lived with this.
My family is like this. We have anger issues, but we're
OK. We, we, what if Jesus is saying
the old was OK, but I want to give you fresh because in the
fresh wine skin is where the new anointing flows.
There won't be room in the old wine skin for the new.
And God desires to fill us with more.
It says that He gives the Spirit without measure.
But in order for that the old stuff has to be cleared out, and
the way we do it is putting it to death.
Luke chapter 22 verse 20 says in the same way after the supper he
took the cup, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood
which is poured out for you, a new covenant.
What was the old covenant? It was a law, it was the Mosaic
law. It was given to Moses, told to
the people, he offer these sacrifices.
If you've done this, this is for atonement.
This is a guilt, sin, offering, burnt offering, grain offering,
wave offering. If I lived in that time, I would
have failed at those things. I would have not kept track of
it. My husband and I would have
probably messed it up. I am so grateful for the new
covenant that I live in. I'm so grateful that Jesus was
the perfect sinless one time offering who was the perfect
atonement for me. He was the scapegoat who carried
all my sin. I'm so grateful to him for that,
that today I just can walk into that throne room because I am
clothed with the the robes of righteousness that Jesus placed
on me. I am so glad for the gift of
repentance that when I mess up, which I do, I can say Jesus
forgive me, forgive me, and he is faithful and justice to
forgive me of every sin and give me access once more.
Isn't that amazing? So the New Covenant requires me
to be fresh and open and available to the work of God in
my lives, which means the old has got to go.
The old has got to go, which means you don't use this as
license to say, well, my, that marriage that I had in my days
of being unsafe, that has got to go.
I need to look a fresh no. It means that you get rid of
those old biases, those old thoughts and thought patterns
and attitudes and say, Lord, I'm ready to learn.
I'm ready to make this marriage the best possible thing that you
could help me do. It is looking at your children
with fresh eyes and saying I will not speak death over them.
I will not believe that this is that all is lost.
I will pray them through anything.
I will stand in the corner and cover them.
It is believing that Jesus is doing a fresh work, not just in
me but in others also. So it's giving others the room
to change. It's giving myself permission to
change. The Old Covenant was powerful in
its own way because it made people aware of sin.
If I didn't know don't steal was a law, I would have not known
stealing was a sin. So the law made me aware of
where I was messing up, but the law couldn't save me.
In fact, the law added more judgement on me.
And so therefore I needed grace to come in.
And where grace came, sin couldn't stand a chance.
Because now I realize, Oh my gosh, God's unmerited favor is
on me and I had to renounce my sinful ways and come in
alignment with Jesus. That is what this new covenant
entails. And it's amazing that when I
keep choosing this new life, I'm able to do the new things that
God created me for. Imagine Pilate's wife may not
have ever had a dream about a holy man before that.
Until that very day when her husband is going to judge this
so-called King of the Jews, she has a dream about the very same
man saying have nothing to do with that just man.
I have suffered much in a dream because of him.
We don't know the details of that dream, but God saw it fit
to meet with her. And I believe on some level that
was not for nothing. It was the beginning of a new
life. And I want to ask you, when God
has met you through salvation, how has it changed you?
Are you still living like the old person that you were?
Are you still living in those old problematic sin cycle cycles
of not trusting cycles of losing your cool?
Cycles of completely abandoning your faith when the going gets
hard. Or are you saying, Lord, I'm
willing? I'm willing to embrace the new,
which means I trust you and quiet confidence.
It means that I'm steady in the way I follow you.
Even if there are days when I falter and fumble, I'll still
keep my eyes on you. What if that is the fresh thing
God wants to do in you? God desires to pour Himself out
on your life. He desires to enliven your work.
He desires to enliven your marriage.
He desires that you would connect with your children on a
level you have not been connected with by your parents.
But it has to happen in a place, in a setting where you move the
old out and you say, Jesus, I'm emptied out, will you fill me?
It requires that you empty the old out to make room for the
new. The new covenant enables us to
come into a love relationship with the one who made the
covenant with us. The old covenant desired for
them to draw near, but it actually served to keep a block
because they were so afraid they would mess up and they kept
doing so. But in the new covenant, there's
a covenant relationship, and Jesus by his own blood
established that relationship. So you and I are now in close
quarters with him. So you don't even have to strive
to experience the new. That's the interesting thing.
You know, the more I walk with Jesus, the more I realize that
just being in communion in him changes certain things.
He changes the way I look at certain situations.
He look changes the way I perceive certain people and
that's what's so beautiful about it.
So I would ask that you would live in the freshness that
Christ. 'S blood has brought.
You he has brought you into a new covenant.
Or that you would not live based off the old covenant, but you
would live in the new where there's a covenant relationship
where more than pleasing anyone who just live.
To know God and enjoy him. The third kind of life that I
believe Jesus died to give us his abundant life.
John chapter 10 verse tense my favorite verse in the Bible.
The enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.
I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
The word for steal is klepto, from which you get kleptomaniac
thieves, people who are always taking something off someone
else and that's the enemy. He came into Judas not.
To help Judas have his agenda established on earth, but in
order to take the life of Jesus away, in order to take the joy
of Judas away, in order to steal Judas's life.
And Judas missed it. The same enemy was at work with
Peter, but Peter knew better than to give in.
I remember that interesting episode where Jesus turned and
told his disciples, guys, I'm going to be betrayed, I'm going
to be killed by the chief priests and the elders.
And Peter says never, Lord, that's never going to happen to
you. And Jesus looks at him and says,
get behind me, Satan. He was not insulting Peter.
He was calling the enemy out who was using Peter as a mouthpiece.
Because Jesus, in complete contrast to Satan, desires that
you and I thrive in life. He doesn't want you and me to
just get by. He doesn't want us to just crawl
through life on our knees begging and hoping for the best.
Jesus came to give us abundant life.
The word for it is, I think it's perizo, which is just super
abundance, superfluous, exceeding, overflowing.
That is the life that you and I were given when Jesus came into
your life. The enemy, on the other hand,
seeks to deplete you. He seeks to dry you out.
He seeks to leak you out of all your joy, your peace, leave you
high and dry. But the Lord with this Holy
Spirit who is like a river that's flowing within you, so
that out of you will flow rivers of living water, He fills you to
overflowing in abundance. Many times when we look at John
1010, we assume, but He came to give us abundant life, which
means that I don't have to just believe for one house, I can
believe for five. I can believe for so many cars.
I can believe for so much of jewelry and cash.
And I'm not going to get into that.
I don't believe that. That's what it means.
I believe. It's talking about abundance on
another level. It's talking abund, abundance
of. Soul, like John writes to the
disciple and I think it's in 3rd.
John, he says. I pray that your.
Soul prospers because most of our times our soul is not
prospering. I was reading a news article
that in India currently the greatest crisis is the mental
health crisis that is touching every young person starting from
school kids to college students. They're saying it's almost like
an epidemic. What a tragedy that our soul is
not prospering and therefore every part of our life struggles
and Jesus desires when he comes in salvation.
The word salvation is not just saving of your soul, it is
bringing wholeness into every part of your life, which means
physically you are made whole, spiritually you're made whole,
your soul is made whole. Every part of you, every
dimension of you is being changed.
Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?
Psalm chapter 130 verse 7 says, O Israel, hope in the Lord, for
with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant
redemption. If there is abundant redemption,
which means for what I've done wrong for my sin, when His grace
covers it after my repentance, He brings redemption, which
means He buys me back and brings good out of that.
Can you imagine? The possibilities are infinite,
abundant. That is our God.
His compassion towards me is abundant, which means that I
become a not just a reservoir, I'm like a bubbling brook.
So when He fills me with His redemption, I'm bubbling up and
I bring redemption to others through my work, through my
calling, through my speaking, through my being.
The compassion I've received in abundance, I start to pour out
on others. The forgiveness I've received, I
pour out on others. It's such a beautiful thing that
when we live under grace, we live with abundance.
When I live under the law, I live constrained.
I live restricted. But when I live under grace, I
can live abundantly. I can live with arms open wide.
I'm not gripping onto the things I have so tight.
If someone likes what I have, I just give it to them.
If someone wants something, they're welcome to take it
because you know what? God gave me that you can have
it. That's how we would live.
We would live with fists that are loosened.
The only thing that we hold on tight to is God.
Everything else we hang loose. That is what the abundant life
looks like. We've got it wrong many times.
We think the abundant life is more stuff.
Can I encourage you to do with, do more with less stuff?
Give it away. See who you can bless with it.
Ask. God, Lord, I have these things.
What? Can I do?
How can I bless someone else? How can the abundance you have
blessed me with bless someone else?
God abundant life. By the same logic, you were not
meant to just get by on peace on a large scale of for the year,
but he desires to give you a peace every single minute of
every single day, which guards your heart and mind in Christ
Jesus. Which means even at that moment
when you're so in such a state of upheaval, you can still say,
Lord, I'm inviting you into this.
Can you help me to feel your abundant peace?
Just today my son had to get his passport renewed.
So he was. He had gone with Geshom to the
passport office. I was at home.
I was finishing up some work and I was so exhausted because I'd
had a long day. I was out.
So I was really tired and drained out.
I was just about to rest when my husband calls and says we don't
have these documents. And both of us being first
borns, we are extremely hard headed and we get in each
other's business. So he was on the phone, He was
tense. I was tense because I couldn't
find the documents. You know, I don't know where he
keeps some of these things. So I was at home rummaging
through things. I was already tired.
I was crabby, He was tense. And then finally, you know what?
I, I, you know, I had to get some certificates sorted.
I didn't find half of it. We, we got off the call.
He said he'll figure it out. In the meantime, I was doing
some background to find out who I could get it from, etcetera.
And at one point I had to just sit on the bed.
I was so tired. I hadn't accomplished what he
asked me to accomplish. I was feeling a bit like a
loser. And I was just sitting there and
I said, Lord, I don't know if they're even going to let him,
you know, process the passport appointment today.
But I trust you to give him peace and to give me peace.
We've done what we could. Could you just come through?
And all of a sudden, the person who was in the passport office
gave my husband a brilliant idea of going through the Aadhaar
portrait and finding the documents that we didn't have.
Within 1520 minutes, the entire process got over.
My husband doesn't know this, but I had to invite God into my
moment because I was losing it. I was getting angry, I was
getting upset. I was like, Oh my gosh, why
didn't we know? We needed these things, You
know? And it's as petty as this.
It's inviting him and saying, Lord, this is your thing.
If you don't want him to get the passport right now, it's fine.
We're completely OK with it. But can you please invade this
moment And this tremendous peace entered me.
I was able to rest for 15 minutes.
I had a power nap while everything got sorted out there
and they came home safe. And I want to ask you, maybe
you've been living on this edge, tense, stressed, anxious.
God desires that you live in a place of abundant peace,
abundant joy. Or that we would laugh more with
our children, that we would just play games with them and enjoy
them. Because you know what it says?
That the Father rejoices over us with singing Zephaniah 317.
He rejoices over us. And the original transcript
actually talks about him twirling around us in circles.
Our God is a joyful God. Why are we not having joy?
I often pray that I say, Lord, I want to have the joy that I had
when I was younger with less stress.
And you know, The thing is, we have piled up stress on our
lives. We are trying to do so much
more. It's the same amount of time we
had back then. We have set these targets for
ourselves or people have set it for us and we're struggling.
But I want you to ask God that in this season, as busy as you
are, as hectic as life is, as as you're balancing all these
plates that you would have is abundant peace, abundant joy.
Because when He looks at you, He's delighting in you.
When He looks at you, His love is just at its fullest.
How can I live any differently? Some of us are filling up the
discontent in our lives with more stuff, but He's asking us
to think about what we're investing these things.
Abundance doesn't come from the abundance of things.
It comes from knowing God and all His abundance so that as I
experience that, I become a conduit to others.
With that abundance, I start to overflow and others receive it.
And so I ask that you won't settle for the meager remains of
the salvation life and call it the Christian life and say, oh,
you know what? It's I'm kind of managing.
It's been stressful. I'm just kind of holding it
together. And you don't have to live like
that. You need to come to a place of
saying Lord, even when this is really hard, I'm balancing a
sick parent, I'm managing my work.
I'm still struggling for finances.
In the midst of this, I will find time to experience your joy
over me. I will find time to pour your
love over to someone else. It is an intentional decision.
Salvation was not just about saving you that one moment.
It was about bringing wholeness into every part of your life so
you can ask God for anything. Because that's what salvation
implies. It means that you are wholly,
completely saved by Him and you are saved for him so.
Stop living with this cramped mindset of just yourself and
just how you should get by. Abundance is God.
Who can I bless today? When you wake up, say Lord, who
can I bless today? Who can I encourage today?
Who can I just call and check up on?
Who can I give a little bit of what you have given me too?
How can I give? Them something, there are going
to be obstacles, they're going to be ailments, they're going to
be struggles, they're going to be setbacks.
But his abundance is not limited limited by our circumstances.
In fact, it actually exponentially increases because
when I'm lacking, when I'm emptying myself of the old, he's
filling me with the fresh. I have a greater capacity to
overflow onto others. So His abundance is never
limited, not by our circumstances, not by our
situations. In fact, it excites him because
then He gets to come in with His abundance, His super abundance,
and fill us. Ephesians 320, another one of my
husband and I, my favorite verses.
He will do exceedingly abundantly, more than we can ask
or imagine superfluous. He is going to do way more than
you could ever ask for. Think about that.
That's the abundant life. So if you've been asking, God
bless me so I can be a blessing boy, is He going to make you
abundant? If you've been saying, Lord, I
want to know what my calling and my purpose on earth is, He's
going to make it abundantly clear to you.
So I encourage you, even as we close this service, I just want
you to remember that because of Jesus, because of his death, you
have eternal life. But how are you living today?
You live with eternity in mind. Are you fixated on the temporary
or are you fixated on the eternity?
Remember also that He came, He died so that you would have new
life. Not the old stuff where you just
got by, where you just managed on on.
You know the basics on where you just survived, but where you
actually thrive and live in a fresh way because the Holy
Spirit is the one who brings that freshness.
He's the one that soaks you and brings out the new essence and
owe that you would live the abundant life because Jesus died
to give you abundant life. Not an ordinary life, not a life
that is cramped, but He brought you into wide open space where
you will not just be blessed by yourself, but you'll be a
blessing to many others. So even as we close, I just want
to pray this over you. One of the things that touched
me in John 18 verses 5 to 6 was this.
They answered him. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus said to
them, I am He. Judas, who betrayed him was
standing with them, and Jesus said to them, I am He.
They drew back and fell to the ground.
Verse 11 So Jesus said to Peter, Put your sword in it, into its
sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that
the Father has given me? I am He.
Who are you? Seeking for today on this Good
Friday. Who are you seeking for?
Are you looking for a healer? He would say to you, I am he.
Are you looking for a Redeemer? He would say to you, I am he.
Are you looking for someone who will sanctify you from all that
has defiled your life? He's saying I am he.
He is everything you and I need. I need him to be my healer.
I need him to be my restorer. And he comes to me and says I am
he. And so I pray that even now as
we close the service, God, I pray that you will reveal
yourself each. Person as they desire you to be
revealed, and I pray that you will do even more abundantly
than they ask or imagine. Father, I pray that you will
reveal yourself to them. I pray that Lord, you will bless
us through the season and beyond, into the rest of the
year, that you would help us live with eternity in mind.
Help us to live this new life with courage, with strength,
with vigor. Lord, help us to live
abundantly, not just for ourselves, not limited by what
we have or don't have, but to look at things with a Kingdom
mindset, to look at things through a wider perspective.
Fill us, oh God, with your spirit.
Spirit of God, would you soak into your people right now?
Would you begin to Lord shape those old wine skins into fresh
wine skins that can hold your glory, that can pour out your
anointing not just on themselves, but on everyone
around them? We love you, We thank you.
Thank you, Jesus for dying for us.
Thank you for that Good Friday which has made our lives
infinitely better. I pray that your people this day
onwards would choose life every day, would choose life every
day. We love you and we thank you.
In Jesus name I pray, Amen, Amen.
God bless you even as you get into this weekend.
I pray you know they call it Holy Week, but I'd like to think
that every week is a Holy Week. And so through this year, if you
could keep this in your mind that you would have your eyes on
eternity, everything on earth changes, that you would keep
inviting heaven into earth. It will transform your life.
We hope you enjoyed today's message and we're blessed.
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Most importantly, remember that whoever finds Jesus finds life.