Palm Sunday — The Servant King Who Bears Our Sins

Do you know what the most ridiculous statement in the entire bible is? It comes in Romans. It's this, God justifies the ungodly. God justifies the ungodly. Everybody knows that God punishes bad people and rewards good people. Right? But according to this verse, God doesn't carry out justice on the guilty. He carries it out on himself. On the cross, bad people like us get pardoned. And innocent people like Jesus, the one truly innocent person in history, is condemned in our place. And that's the good news. Jesus came to save sinners. [00:56:40] (52 seconds)  #JustifiedByGrace

We owe a huge debt that we could never repay. We deserve that big c word, consequences. But Jesus didn't come to be a famous king. He came to carry the things that weigh us down, to carry the heavy things in life. He came to carry our sadness, our fear, our loneliness, our mistakes, our worries. He is not a king who rules it over his subject, who lords it over his subjects, but he is a king who bears our burdens. He bears what we can't. He carries our pain. [00:52:18] (49 seconds)  #JesusBearsOurBurdens

We can never earn it. We can never save ourselves. We can never pay for that million dollar old window at the Presbyterian church. We can never undo the sin and the mistakes that we create, but Jesus can bear the pain of that, the consequences of that, and he does. Jesus didn't do anything wrong, but he took the punishment for us. And that's what the cross is all about. Jesus taking our place because he loves us. By his wounds, we are healed. Jesus heals our hearts. [00:54:35] (51 seconds)  #HeTookOurPlace

Jesus came to save sinners. We looked at this passage in Luke last year. Jesus loves sinners. He loves broken people. He is most glorified and finds delight and satisfaction when the ungodly become godly, when sinners become redeemed, when us ordinary nobodies who are living an earthly life focus on earthly petty things, when we become sons and daughters of the king of all creation. Jesus came to save sinners. He's the good shepherd. Then no matter how far you wander, no matter how deep the mud is that you have found yourself in, in the muck of life, Jesus can save you. He earnestly longs to save you. [00:57:31] (59 seconds)  #GoodShepherdSaves

The the debt that we're talking about that Jesus paid the consequences for, it takes into account our words, our littlest lies to our biggest fibs, the names that we call people, our gossip. It takes into account our actions that are selfish and foolish, that hurt others, that disobey what God wants us to do. It even takes into account our thoughts that no one else can see or know but you and God. And, yes, even though we may not act out on some of those thoughts, it points to the fact that there is something wrong with our nature, something we can't fix, something that is beyond our control, something that needs a savior. [00:51:30] (49 seconds)  #SinRunsDeep

So here we have a picture of a man who is dying, who is who has been despised in his suffering. Someone that is so going through such a disgusting ordeal, we turn away, and we don't even wanna see him with our eyes. He is a portrait of misery and pain. Assumption that the audience make, the assumption that we make is that God is punishing him. He deserves it. He must have done something terribly wrong to warrant all that is happening to him. God is obviously smiting him, so he must have a good reason to do so. [00:46:47] (46 seconds)  #MisjudgedOnTheCross

We break things, and all of a sudden, we think, how are we gonna replace this? How are we gonna fix this? Or I cover it up, or I try to hide from the consequences. We kinda go through life breaking things. Sometimes we can fix it. A lot of times, we can't. But the debt we're talking about this morning and the debt that Jesus paid for us, it's far more than a broken window. The the debt that we're talking about that Jesus paid the consequences for, it takes into account our words, our littlest lies to our biggest fibs, the names that we call people, our gossip. [00:51:00] (44 seconds)  #CantHideOurSin

So you can be hanging out with the family, the kids are bouncing off the walls. They're unruly, like they just ate all the candy with red dye and booked a pass on a crazy train. But you know they're about to get a dose of reality when mom or dad says, looks like somebody wants some consequences. Yes. The c word, four syllables, consequences. Consequences are earned. You get them because you deserve them. When they hear the word consequences, that means trouble. If someone suffers the way Jesus is suffering on the cross, being whipped, being beaten, we assume he is suffering the consequences [00:48:02] (51 seconds)  #TheBigCWord