Chestnut Ridge Church
We have all experienced the sinking feeling associated with being lost. It’s a scary feeling. We reach out for something familiar or a sign to point the way. Often, it’s only when we realize we are lost that we are willing to ask for help. Jesus described our spiritual condition apart from him as being lost.
This Easter, we will explore how Jesus is the destination for the lost.
Music from today
Giants, On My Heart, What a Beautiful Name
Easter at The Ridge - Found [March 31/April 1, 2018] Tim Haring
We all are in need of a Savior; spiritually speaking, we all need to be found.
Luke 15:1-7 HCSB
A man would rejoice upon recovering his lost sheep, be glad that his search was successful, but he would hardly summon friends and neighbors and make such a great event of it, and expect that they, too, would regard it as being great by helping to make a celebration[1] - Lenski
[1] Lenski, R. C. H. (1961). The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel (p. 800). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House.
Luke 15:8-10 HCSB
When a Jewish girl married, she began to wear a headband of ten silver coins to signify that she was now a wife. It was the Jewish version of our modern wedding ring, and it would be considered a calamity for her to lose one of those coins.[1]
[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 234). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Luke 19:10 HCSB
This was the veryreason Jesus came to this world: to seek and to save or deliver those who were far from God.
We’ve all blown it. We’ve all been far from God. In this case of Jesus rescuing us involved sacrificing his own life.
That’s what the cross was allabout.
You see, the problem is, we can’t fix our sinproblem which is the thing that separates us from God. We can’t clean ourselves up enough to get right with God. God is perfect and we are not. We are all lost in a sinful spiritual condition!
So God sent his one and only son into this world for the expressedpurpose of dying on a cross in our place and for our sin. Jesus alone lived a sinless life, so he could take the penalty for our sin upon himself. The Apostle Paul put it this way: God made him who committed no sin to become sin for us so we could become righteous in God’s eyes.
God executed his own son for what you and I have done wrong. And he died. But three days later, he roseagain from the dead. That’s why we celebrate Easter. The resurrection means that God accepted the payment Jesus made on our behalf.
Our debt has been paid in full.
John 3:16 HCSB
John 1:12 HCSB
Luke 15:7 HCSB
Repent (μετανοεῖτε). A word compounded of the preposition μετά, after, with; and the verb νοέω, to perceive, and to think, as the result of perceiving or observing. In this compound the preposition combines the two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by after and different; so that the whole compound means to think differently after. Μετάνοια (repentance) is therefore, primarily, an after-thought, different from the former thought; then, a change of mind which issues in regret and in change of conduct. These latter ideas, however, have been imported into the word by scriptural usage, and do not lie in it etymologically nor by primary usage. Repentance, then, has been rightly defined as “Such a virtuous alteration of the mind and purpose as begets a like virtuous change in the life and practice.” Sorrow is not, as is popularly conceived, the primary nor the prominent notion of the word. Paul distinguishes between sorrow (λύπη) and repentance (μετάνοια), and puts the one as the outcome of the other. “Godly sorrow worketh repentance” (2 Cor. 7:10).[1]
[1] Vincent, M. R. (1887). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 1, p. 23). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.