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Atlantis ‹the domain of the Stingray›
There are 3 kinds of people: those who can count and those who can't.
‹anonymous›
Atlantis: the domain of the Stingray
9Apr
2017
Sun
16:52
author: Stingray
category: Sermons
comments: 0
trackbacks: 0

Palmarum

Matthew 27:11-54

Palmarum 2017 Wordle
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

YHWH met with Moses on the mountain where He gave him the Ten Commandments. Moses could have taken the dictation in several ways. He could have written it on a papyrus scroll; after all, he just came from the land of papyrus, so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities to think that they had plenty of it with them in the wilderness. He could have written on clay tablets; again, not a difficult resource to get a hold of. He could have even written it in the sand as a means of helping him to memorize what God had said. But he didn’t record the Ten Commandments on paper or clay or even in the sand, but they were carved in stone.

That phrase “carved in stone,” should cause you to think. Something carved in stone has endurance. Paper soon becomes brittle, and the writing on it can fade. Clay, likewise, can be brittle and easily break. And anything written in sand is quickly lost in a breeze or when the rain falls. But something carved in stone has a permanence that those other methods do not. Something carved in stone lasts. When you carve something in stone, it conveys an importance because of its permanence. The Ten Commandments are carved in stone.

This is God’s everlasting covenant with His people. His people will obey His will and keep this commandments. But these laws are not only for His people, but for all mankind, as they are all His creation.

When Moses came down from the mountain, He found the Hebrews worshiping an idol. He dashes the stone tablets in their presence, an object lesson in the people’s brazen denial of God’s Law. That doesn’t mean that the Law isn’t permanent; it is, and Moses would get a second set of stone tablets. First or second, it doesn’t matter, the Word of the Lord endures forever, whether it is actually carved in stone or not, and that includes His Law.

The Law was given, and God expects you to follow it. God expects you to stand upon these stone tablets as your own will—this you will do and not do. You are to stand on these stone tablets because they are important—they are the will of God—much like you should build your house on a stone foundation, and not sand. (cf. Matthew 7:24-27) Do you? Well, not exactly.

No, instead you write your will on lifeless and fragile paper, you take your finger to sand and write one thing while you say another and do yet something else. The winds change, and so does your will except for one point: that which God had carved in stone is to be avoided. This is your bound will: enslaved to sin and bound in chains.

So, what would you expect God to do? He who is greater than you, mightier than you, holier than you, reveals His will to you and you would rather do something else. What’s God to do? Well, right along with revealing His will, He also reveals what He will do: “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me...” (Exodus 20:5) Throughout the Word of God, you can find God speaking of His wrath, and even showing it, to those who sin again Him, and the result is always the same: death.

Jesus stood on a stone pavement—Gabbatha—before the Roman governor. As He stood there, He was bound and bloodied, having been captured the night before as He prayed in the garden. That night, He stood before the Sanhedrin whereat He was accused of all manner of evil. The next day found Him before the governor, where accusations were made against Him again. He stood on stone, being accused of not standing on the stone tablets which came down from Sinai. The chief priests and elders, speaking on behalf of the people—on behalf of you—accused the Son of God of sinning, and He didn’t respond one word, just as it was before the Sanhedrin.

Oh yes, you were right there along with those despicable priests and elders. Remember, your will is bound—that which God declares as holy, that which He tells you is His will, you are at work to contradict and countermand. God’s Law says, “Do this,” and your will says, “Hell no!” And your bound will delights in accusing the Son of God of lies—just as is the will of your father, the devil. (cf. John 8:44) Your sinful life—your sinful nature—is a contention with God, and it is that which was standing with the crowd before Pilate accusing innocent Jesus, standing on Stone Pavement, of breaking the Law carved into stone tablets.

So, you see, while you accuse Jesus of sinning through the voices of the priests and elders, they speak your evil against Him. And Jesus’ silence spoke volumes! He received the guilt and the shame—your guilt and shame—without a word, as a sheep before its shearers is silent. (cf. Isaiah 53:7) He received it because He was becoming your substitute. He who became one with you in His conception and birth—a man in every respect as you are, except without sin—stood before the Sanhedrin and Pilate and received your sins and the sins of all into His perfect flesh.

Listen closely to His silence, dear hearers, because the Great Exchange is happening right before your ears!

Or, as St. Paul put it, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) He stood at Gabbatha becoming your sin for you, but He wouldn’t remain at Stone Pavement for long. Later that day, He would be led to Place of a Skull—Golgotha—and there become the sacrifice for sin. Like the goats at the Temple on Yom Kippur, He would shed His blood as a propitiation for many—as your propitiation—and die with your sins for your atonement.

At Sinai, the Law was Given. At Gabbatha, the accusations were made and the guilty verdict pronounced. At Golgotha, the sentence was carried out. Jesus, with every one of your sins and every bit of your sinfulness, gave His life, crucified in your place, your substitute, died the death that the Law demanded for sins. And for His sake, you live.

Gloriously, however, His stay in death did not last long. His agony and forsakenness lasted only three hours; his death, only three days. Dead and buried, on the third day, He rose again from the grave. Jesus is victorious over death, and as much as His death is for you, He gives you the victory too. Death is swallowed up in victory! (cf. Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:54)

There was another goat present on Yom Kippur—the scapegoat. Here is the goat upon which the sins were confessed, and, despite that confession, it is allowed to live. Yes, in the Yom Kippur ritual, it was led out into the wilderness and abandoned. In so doing, the sins of the people were removed from them as the scapegoat was led out of the camp and into the wilderness. Still, but it lives for the sake of the sacrificial goat.

In one sense, Jesus is the scapegoat as He removes sin from you as far as east is from the west. (cf. Psalm 103:12) But there is another sense in which to understand the scapegoat: it lives, despite it sinfulness, because of the goat that is sacrificed for sins.

That day before Pilate, Jesus stood on Stone Pavement as the sacrificial goat, but there was another goat, too. Jesus stood before the governor, having done no wrong, and accepts all guilt and blame on your behalf. But, as was the custom of Pilate, he presented a criminal to the people, one he thought would surely be considered a worse offender than Jesus, in order to release Jesus, for His custom was to release a man of the people’s choosing at this time of year. But, Old Adam’s hatred for the Son of God won the day, and Barabbas was set free.

He was allowed to live for the sake of Jesus. He was cast back out into the wilderness while Jesus was sacrificed in His place. Dear Baptized, you are Barabbas! For the sake of Jesus and His sacrifice, you are allowed to live, despite having committed the sins. Jesus died for Barabbas, and He was redeemed. Jesus has died for you, and you are redeemed.

And this, by grace, you believe and receive. Therefore, as St. John wrote, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name...” (John 1:12) You are Barabbas, the Son of the Father as His name means, spared death and given life for the sake of the only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ. From manger to cross, from Gabbatha to Golgotha, to grave and the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ is your atonement, standing on the Stone Tablets and Stone Pavement, hanging on the cross, and seated in glory for you, so you are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Download media: 20170409.palmarum.mp3 (5.8 MiB)
audio recorded on my digital recorder
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