God’s Love & Wrath At The Cross

Introduction

Much for being with us tonight to worship the Lord with us and to study from his word. We’re thankful for, I’m thankful personally for many good friends in the audience from near and from far away, but we’re thankful for everyone who has come to worship the Lord. We are so blessed, as Brother Mark stated, to be able to worship the Lord openly, to come together on this night.

And I always just extend these introductions to prepare for my adjustments. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Just come up here with me tomorrow night, Josh, and maybe that’ll save me the trouble. But I can truly say with confidence. And there is nowhere better you could be right now than right here. And I say that not because of who is speaking, but I say that because of what we’re speaking about. These are the central events in human history. These are the events where I, your salvation and my salvation was hanging in the balance. They’re a culmination of everything we’ve been talking about this week. As we’ve talked about the wrath of God, and we’ve talked about the love of God, but the wrath of God and the love of God meet at the cross in a way that God both judges sin and yet at the same time saves sinners.

1. Betrayal and the Cup in Gethsemane

And I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew 26. And what we want to do, we’re going to largely follow Matthew’s gospel. We’re going to incorporate other gospels as well, but largely following Matthew’s account, we simply want to tell the story of the death and the burial and resurrection of Jesus. Remember how the woman at the house of Simon the leper takes a very expensive box of perfume, a vial of perfume and anoints the body of Jesus. Her act of unbridled devotion stands in contrast in verses 14 through 16 of Matthew 26 to the treacherous act of Judas. Judas is described in verse 14 as being one of the twelve. He’s not described that way because we haven’t met him before. He is described that way to underline how treacherous this act is.

Here is one in the closest conceivable relationship with Jesus who is going to betray him for 30 pieces of silver. As Jesus eats the Passover with his disciples in verses 17 through 25, he tells them, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. The text tells us that he was deeply grieved, and the disciples were deeply grieved at this. And they began to say, Surely not I, Lord. And Jesus said, It’s the one who dips his hand with me in the bowl. It is he who will betray me. Now, I don’t think in saying that that Jesus is giving these specific sign to identify Judas. John 13 seems to indicate that Jesus took a piece of bread and dipped it and gave it to Judas as that sign.

I think what Jesus is doing is often in the Old Testament particularly, you see that eating meals together was a way to seal a covenant. You see that in Genesis 26, in Genesis 31, in Exodus 24, the covenant between God and Israel. And he’s saying it’s one of you who’s been in the closest possible relationship with me, who’s eaten at my table, who’s eaten my food. It’s he who’s going to lift up his heel against me. When Judas finally says, Surely it’s not I, he says, it is as you say. Jesus took the bread of that Passover meal. And he says, Take it. This is my body. And the cup, drink from it. For this is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus said, You will all fall away because of me tonight.

The shepherd will be smitten, and the sheep will be scattered, quoting from Zechariah 13. Peter said, Even though all may fall away because of you, I will never fall away. And all the disciples said the same thing. And with all of you who’ve studied this so much. If you have an answer for this tonight, I’d like to hear it. But I’ve never understood why it was the disciples are afraid in verses 21 through 25 that they might be the one who is going to betray the Lord, but in verses 31 through 35, they’re so confident that they will not forsake him. I don’t know why the difference in those verses and the attitude of the disciples there. But Peter says, Lord, if I die with you, I will not deny you.

And Jesus goes out to the Garden of Gethsemane. And the text tells us that he begins to he takes his disciples. He brings Peter, James, and John, who are the inner circle, in effect, a little bit closer to him. He tells them his soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and keep watch. And the text tells us in verse 39 that he prays, my Father, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me. We talked a little bit Sunday night about that imagery of the cup as God pours all his judgment in the cup, and he forces the wicked to drink it down. You see that in Psalm 75 in verse 8. And in Isaiah 51, Jeremiah 25, that they use that imagery for God’s judgment on the wicked.

But here Jesus is drinking the cup that the wicked drink.

And he’s begging the Father, let this cup pass from me. Hebrews 5 7 talks about him offering up prayers with strong cry and tears, apparently referring to this particular incident. Luke tells us that the sweat began to fall as great drops of blood. Does that mean they were simply huge beads of sweat? Or does that mean that he is literally sweating blood under all of this distress? Difficult to determine all of these things. But truly, Jesus is bearing the weight of your sin and mine. And he is begging the Father that if there’s any other way, let the cup pass from him. He goes back to the disciples who moments before have vowed loyalty. Lord, if we die with you, we will not deny you. And he finds them asleep.

Simon, could you not keep watch with me for one hour? Keep watching and pray. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away and prayed a second time and a third time, each time coming back and finding the disciples asleep. While he was still speaking, Judas arrives in the garden with a great company with swords and clubs, and they have come to arrest Jesus. And Judas goes up and kisses his master, to whom he owes so much, to whom he ultimately owes everything. Because he’s given them a sign that whomever I kiss, he’s the one. Hold him fast. And he goes up and kisses Jesus. The disciples ask, Lord, shall we strike with a sword? But apparently don’t wait for the answer. Because Peter begins to draw his sword.

He cuts off the right ear of Malchus. We’re informed of the details in other gospels. Peter draws the sword in Luke. Malchus is the name of the man who loses his ear in John 18. Here we’re told simply that one of the disciples drew a sword. He cut off the ear of a slave of the high priest. But Jesus says, Stop. Put up your sword. No more of this. Those that live by the sword will perish by the sword. Don’t you know that I can pray to my Father and He would at once send more than twelve legions of angels. We must understand that our Savior is going to the cross not out of weakness, but in spite of strength. He could have requested twelve legions of angels to stop this.

But ask, how then will the scriptures be fulfilled? But all the disciples leave him and flee. Mark adds the note in Mark 14, verses 51 and 52, that even one young man was there whom they grab by the garment, and he runs, leaving his garment behind. Some have thought that that is an autobiographical note that Mark inserts into his gospel. It may well be. But I heard a preacher preaching on that on the radio one Sunday morning, a couple of years ago. He just went through all the times that nakedness is mentioned in the Bible and how it is associated with shame. And he just emphasized the point, the fact that he flees naked in that particular context is just an indication that he is a living illustration of the shameful behavior of the disciples.

2. The Trial of Jesus

In Jesus’ greatest moment of crisis, no one is there for him. And I think they are representative of all of us. We have all, in effect, at his moment of crisis, forsaken him and fled. In the trial of Jesus. This is my fault by this. Okay. In the trial of Jesus, there were several stages. One stage to this trial, in the Jewish stage of his trial, Jesus is first brought before Annas, the high priest in John 18, verse 13, and in verses 19 through 24. Now Annas was high priest from about 6 to 15 A.D. He had been removed from that position by the Romans. But some of the Jews still regarded him as high priest because that position was to last for a person’s lifetime.

Annas was a very powerful man. Five of his sons and one son in law, Caiaph or Zarcaiaphas, that we will mention later, serves, uh serve as high priest in the first century. We do not know much of what happened in Jesus’ trial before Annas, except the fact that Jesus is slapped on the cheek and he states that he is being wrongfully treated in that matter because they can’t find anything against him. The trial that is covered the most in the synoptics is a trial before Caiaphas and Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin. I believe this is a trial that is talked about here in Matthew 26 in Mark 14 and in Luke 22. And the text tells us that in this particular case that all these people had assembled, and they have already decided that Jesus is guilty.

They have already decided the verdict is death. They are simply looking for some charge to pin on Jesus. Notice in verse 59, the chief priest and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death. They’re looking for evidence. They’re looking for some ground on which they can execute him. So notice the word false testimony in verse 59, the word false witnesses in verse 60. But yet they can’t get their testimony to agree. The closest thing they come to a charge from the gospel of Mark is that they say, and they also say this here in Matthew, destroy this temple in three days I’ll raise it up. Mark tells us, not even in this respect, was their testimony consistent.

So they have Jesus here. They have a group that’s ready to convict him, but they still can’t find a charge. And the high priest finally tires of this process, and he just asked Jesus directly. I adjure you by the living God, you tell us, are you the Christ, the Son of God? And he said, I am. And you shall see the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven, coming with power and glory. The quote that Jesus uses there is a combination of Psalm 110 and Daniel 7. Both triumphant passages that speak of the conquering king. And yet at the moment that seems that like it’s a defeat, he is actually winning his greatest victory. But the high priest tears his clothes and says, You’ve heard the blasphemy.

What need do we have of witnesses? And they began to spit in the face of Jesus and to slap him with the palms of their hand. Meanwhile, his most vocal disciple is outside. And a slave girl. Notice that in verse 69. I missed that a long time. It’s a slave girl. It’s somebody that doesn’t have any political clout. This is somebody that is a nobody. And she comes up and she says, weren’t you one of his disciples? And he’s not even willing to say to her. He doesn’t even have the courage to say to this woman who couldn’t get him in trouble if she wanted to. Yes, I’m a disciple. He said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. It happens again. Same denial. Finally, when they begin to say, Surely you’re one of them, for even the way you talk gives you away.

You’re a Galilean. And he began to curse and to swear and to say, I don’t know him. And I read an argument recently where the writer was trying to state that he believes this means that Peter was literally cursing Christ. And a rooster crows. And Peter denies three times the Lord has known him. How would you feel if your wife or your husband treated you like that? And Jesus, most loyal disciple, acts in that fashion. We know later from the Mishnah that the Sanhedrin did not try a case at night. And so as a result of that, they have an official meeting in the morning. Now, the Mishnah comes from a later date. We don’t know if all its details were applicable in New Testament times.

But there’s an official meeting of this same group that is mentioned in verses 57 through 68 of Matthew 26, again in Matthew 27 in verses 1 and 2. But Jesus has been through this Jewish trial. Jesus is convicted of blasphemy. Jesus is worthy of death. They have spit in his face. They have mocked him. But the problem is in John chapter 18, 31, that they don’t have the power of capital punishment. And so as a result, they have to give him over to the Romans. Another problem is the Romans don’t care about what the Jews consider blasphemy. Do you remember Acts 18, where Paul is on the missionary journey in Corinth, and he’s there on that journey. He’s brought before Galeo. And some begin to say, this man encourages men to worship God contrary to the law.

Paul is about to speak, and Galileo interrupts. And Galileo says, Oh, Jews, if this were a matter of real wrong or crime, I’d be willing to put up with you. But if it’s about names or questions about your own law, I am not willing to be a judge of such matters. You look after such things yourself. I don’t want to hear this kind of thing. The Romans were not interested in Jewish internal religious squabbles. They didn’t want to hear about them. And so they don’t want to hear about Jesus’ blasphemy. That’s not something they’re going to convict him of. And so what they do is they change the charges against Jesus. In Luke 23 in verse 2, what it says is they find Jesus guilty of misleading our nation, of forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, of saying that he himself is Christ a king.

And they bring him before the Roman governor Pilate, Roman governor from 26 to 36 A.D. And it doesn’t take Pilate very long before he recognized that Jesus is innocent.

Three times in Luke’s gospel, he says that this man has done nothing worthy of death. Nothing worthy of death. And yet each time he lacks the courage to simply let Jesus go. On one occasion, he hears that Jesus is from Galilee. And this may be the answer. He sends him to Herod, something only recorded in Luke 23. Because Herod has jurisdiction over that area. And Herod is wanting to see Jesus for a long time and wanting to see some miracle that he would do. But when Jesus stands before Herod, Jesus says nothing. And Herod sends Jesus back to Pilate. The interesting note in Luke 23, 12, that Herod and Pilate were brought together by the events of those days, that previously they had been antagonistic toward one another.

That’s a picture, I think, of how Jesus was going to bring together all types of people. He was going to bring peace between people who have been at odds with each other. And finally, as Jesus stands before Pilate again, Pilate says, Neither I nor Herod find any fault in this man. And he’s determined to let him go. Even his wife has come to him. And his wife has said in Matthew 27 19 Have nothing to do with this righteous man. For last night I suffered much about him in a dream. And Pilate knows that Jesus is not guilty. But he thinks of a way that he can get out of this without taking all of the blame. And he’s going to release a prisoner to the people.

That’s the custom, after all, to release a prisoner to the people at the time of Passover. And so he gives the people a choice. A choice between Jesus and a choice of Barabbas. And the people shout, Barabbas, Barabbas. When he says, What shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? The crowd shout, let him be crucified. Let him be crucified. Pilate says, Why? What evil has he done? The crowd doesn’t answer, but continues to shout, let him be crucified. Let him be crucified. And Pilate finally takes water and washes his hand in front of the crowd and says, I am free of this. I’m free of this man’s blood. And the crowd responds, Let his blood be upon us and upon our children. And Jesus is taken.

3. Led Out to Calvary to Be Crucified

The crown of thorns is placed upon his head. And his claims to be a king are mocked. And he’s ridiculed before the Roman authorities. Jesus is scourged. Now, this may have indeed been before the pronouncement of guilt from John’s gospel, it seems that way, because Pilate took Jesus out to the crowd and said, Behold the man. He wants them to feel that Jesus has suffered enough. You know a little bit about scourging, don’t you? I always stated that there would never be a movie that portrayed scourging in all its horror because no one would be able to watch. Well, indeed, a few years ago, there was one that came close to portraying the horror of scourging. As a man was stripped of his clothing from his waist up, and a soldier came down with the whip across his back.

Sometimes pieces of bone and metal may have indeed been tied in the end of that whip, and the person was beaten and scraped across the back, and another soldier on another side came down with his whip, beating the person as well. Jewish law stated in Deuteronomy 25 that when a man is flogged, he was not to be beaten with more than 40 stripes. And I’ve heard some people invoke that here. Remember, this is the Romans. This doesn’t have anything to do with Jewish law. They wouldn’t have cared about beating a man with more than forty lashes. And as they continually brought their whip down across the back of people in scourging, Josephus said that he saw people beaten until their bones and internal organs were visible.

He saw people beaten, he says, until they died under the penalty of scourging alone. So scourging took the lives of some people in and of itself. But this was just the beginning of horrors for our Lord as he was led out to a place called Calvary, or in the Hebrew Galgotha, to be crucified. New Testament writers do not explain crucifixion in detail. They didn’t need to. Alfred Eddersheim says in his book, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, that in the first century the Jews crucified so many that it seemed as if they were going to run out of crosses on which to hang them all. They killed many people by crucifixion the first century. In our country, capital punishment is practiced to take the life of the criminal as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

Crucifixion was the exact opposite of that. Crucifixion was meant to prolong the pain, to prolong the suffering of the victim as much as it could possibly be done. Again, Josephus mentions that people sometimes hung up on the cross for days before their life expired. And someone was hanging in agony for days, just waiting for the end to come. How horrible this form of death was.

Not only from the standpoint of the physical pain involved, but was a horrible form of death from the standpoint of the social stigma involved. From a Jewish standpoint, it was a dishonorable thing. Because in Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23, the Bible says, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. A fact that New Testament writers didn’t hide from, but continually call attention to in Acts 10 39, in Acts 13, 29, Galatians 3 in verse 13, that Jesus died under a curse. But that was hard to convince Jewish people that the Messiah has finally arrived. The Messiah has finally come, and now he dies under God’s curse. As Paul was to say in 1 Corinthians 1 23, we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, it’s a stumbling block.

But to the Greeks, it’s foolishness. It’s a stumbling block to the Jewish people. And the Greeks regarded as foolishness. When the Romans crucified a man, they were regarded, they were labeling him as trash, not fit to live. And when they put over Jesus the sign, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews, it’s an insult not only to Jesus, but to all the Jewish people. This is the way we treat your kind.

As he’s being taunted and mocked by the crowds. If we were to see someone suffering this way, we would think surely he has suffered enough. Surely he’s experienced enough pain. This would be equivalent to you going to the hospital in the ward where there are the sickest people who have only a few days to live, dying some painful form of death, and going down the halls and taunting those people and mocking those people and ridiculing those people. How long would a person get away with that before they would be taken away? But they got away with it with Jesus. If you’re the Christ, come down from the cross and we’ll believe in you. He said he’s the Son of God. He saved others. He can’t save himself.

Let him come down and we’ll believe in him. Well, they’ll get their chance. Because he’s going to do something better than coming down. He’s going to rise up from the grave. If we were able to be transported back in time to this scene.

But to grasp everything that’s going on, I don’t think any of us could have bared to watch. And yet this is what he goes through for us. He cries on the cross, Eli Eli, Lama Sabakhthenai. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Some misunderstood his cry and thought that he’s crying for Elijah. And they ran to get a sponge and dipped it in sour wine and put it upon his lips. And said, Let’s see if Elijah will come to save him. He cries out again, maybe with the cry and his finished. And he gives up the spirit. And as he dies, the Bible says the bell of a temple shook. Rocks began to split. Tombs were opened. And after his resurrection, the bodies of saints came forth from the tomb.

We don’t know what happened to them after that. But we are recorded, we are told that event in verse 52 of Matthew 27. But anyway, these events are so overwhelming that the centurion sees it and he says, truly, this man was a son of God. It’s fascinating to me that this Roman centurion can see what the religious leaders of the Jews can’t. The religious leaders ask him in 2663. I adjure you, the high priest asked him, I adjure you. Tell us whether you’re the Christ, the Son of God. And here the centurion can see what the religious leaders can’t. Truly, this man was the Son of God. Joseph of Arimathea had been a disciple secretly for fear of the Jews. But after this, he decides to come out of the closet and to be identified with Jesus.

He gathers up the courage. He goes in before Pilate. He begs the body of Jesus. He takes the body of Jesus from the cross and places it in his own tomb. You will get more benefit from simply reading over the crucifixion narrative than anything. For any telling of the story is inadequate compared to what God has told us here in Scripture. So read those accounts and meditate on them. And we can read a multitude. We can learn a multitude of lessons from the cross, but let’s focus on a couple of them.

4. How Grotesque Sin Is

How grotesque sin is.

Those chapters are strikingly bold. Now, all of those pictures of sin are intentionally grotesque to help us to see what may be tempting and tantalizing to us to help us to see it in its true light to see how ugly and how horrible sin is, but nothing quite shows us how horrible sin is, like the cross, where an innocent man, a man whose crime, as Peter says in Acts 10 38, was to go about doing good and to heal those who were oppressed of the devil. This man who never sinned and had never done anything wrong, is taken and he’s beaten and he’s mocked and he’s ridiculed and he’s killed, murdered in the most shameless fashion, that is what my sin led to, and that’s what your sin led to.

It is overwhelming to see God’s wrath against sin displayed at the cross. God is a consuming fire. If you think sin is no big deal, if you think sin is just a minor thing, look at the cross. What do you see? Several years ago I had a relative. He was always a good man in many ways. He was never, never a religious man. And I can remember my father and I went to visit him when he only had about a week to ten days left to live. And as we said goodbye, he started to cry. I’d never seen him cry. My father had known him all his life. He said he’d never seen him cry.

Try to talk to him about Jesus.

His wife was a Christian. He’d never come. His dad tried to talk to him and persuade him to become a Christian. He put him off, he said, don’t you think? Don’t you think when we when we get there before God? I’ve been a kind I’ve been a pretty good person, you know that. Don’t you think I can just kind of talk my way through? And I simply use that as an illustration. Because I think his mentality represents that of most people. I think that’s exactly how most people think. But no, you can’t just talk your way through.

5. The Cross Shows the Depth of God’s Love

Not from a God who put his son through this. Because he loved us so intensely that he was willing to deal with sin in such a way that he could save us. The cross shows us the horror of sin, the absolute disaster that sin is. And sin and the cross shows us the depth of the love of God. John 15, 13, no greater love is a man than this, but to lay down his life for his friends in Romans 5, verses 6 through 8. Some would die for a good man or a righteous man, but God demonstrates his love toward us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We know love by this. He laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1 John 3 and verse 16. 1 John 4, 9 and 10. This is the love of God that he gave his son to be a propitiation for our sins. As Cottrell said, it is difficult to find a New Testament verse that talks about the love of God that doesn’t mention the cross of Christ. It was so difficult last night to preach about the love of God without mentioning the cross. Because there’s hardly a New Testament verse that mentions God’s love that doesn’t connect those subjects. Because the cross is the preeminent display not only of the wrath of God against sin, but it is a preeminent display of the depth of God’s love. What length God goes to to save us.

In that time frame.

Who was named the rookie of the year, the offensive rookie of the year in the American Football Conference. I believe his name was Joe McElroy, but I confess I always get this story a little confused. If you want to, this is a real story, it’s a true story, but you may have to look up the guy’s name on the internet. But this was his story. He was rookie of the year. He came from Louisiana Tech, I believe. Goes home to Louisiana in the offseason. He has a bright future awaiting him. He has a lot of money awaiting him. One afternoon, he’s in his backyard. A sudden storm had come up in Louisiana that day. And the storm had created a flash flood, and there were a couple of boys who were being driven by the water, who were called up in some type of uh some type of drainage system, and they were they were begging for help as the water was was a swirling around them, and this man jumps in the water.

He pushes one boy to safety, but the other young man dies. And McElroy himself also died. This is what fascinated me about the story. When they talked to his family after that story for all of his athletic ability, you know what he could never do. He could never swim. And so when he jumped in there that day, he knew that there was an awfully good chance that he wouldn’t ever make it out, and that he was sacrificing his life to save somebody else’s. And that makes him a hero. A lot more than anything you do on a football field. But if we can be touched by stories like that that are true, that are inspiring. If we can be touched by stories like that, how much more so?

The ultimate demonstration, the ultimate illustration of love, of which all these other illustrations are but dim glimpses. The ultimate illustration of love that God gave his son to rescue us from sin. That God gave his son to save us from separation from him. In the cross of Christ, truly, the wrath of God and the love of God meet.

6. Not the Death of Jesus, the Resurrection

Because that’s not how it ends. It fascinated me, and I just picked up on this a couple of years ago. Genesis ends with the death of Joseph. Joshua ends with the death of Joshua. A lot of these books, 1 Samuel ends with the death of Saul. How the gospels end. Not the death of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus. Death cannot keep its prey. Jesus, my Savior, he tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord. On the first day of the week, the women who had been so loyal and so faithful went early that morning to finish anointing the body of Jesus. And they discussed with one another, who’s going to roll away the stone. As they get there, they find the stone is rolled away already.

They go into the tomb. And the text tells us they look in the tomb and they can’t find the body of Jesus, and suddenly angels appear and say, Why do you seek the living with the dead? He is not here, but he has risen. What has happened according to Matthew’s account in Matthew 28, verses 2 through 4 is that an angel is descended from heaven. He’s rolled away the stone. The Bible said the earth began to quake.

They ran away. They reported this to the chief priest. The chief priests, the type people who were saved, that if you come down from the cross, we’ll believe in you. Now he’s given evidence that he’s raised from a dead. And what do they say? They say to these Roman soldiers, you just say the disciples stole the body while you were asleep, and we’ll protect you if you get in trouble to the government. Death cannot keep its prey.

Jesus, my Lord. Are you troubled at the thought of dying? We ask.

We all are. But the Bible tells us that when the Lord Jesus comes, that those that are alive will be changed.

In a twinkling of an eye and be called up to be with the Lord. O death, where is your sting? When Paul contemplated this in 1 Corinthians 15. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is a law. But thanks be to God who gives a victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4 warns us not to be troubled like those that do not believe. I am the resurrection, the life. He who lives and believes in me will never die. I am the resurrection and the life. As one writer said, if you want to look for how to behave at a funeral, don’t look to Jesus as an example. Jesus interrupts every funeral he attends by raising the victim from the dead.

Several years ago I ran across this story. It was told as a true story, but I’ve told others that were told as true stories that later found out were not. But it was related in this fashion. There’s a 12-year old boy who was severely handicapped, disabled. And this boy was living in a town where there weren’t many educational options. One teacher finds that he is her student in second grade. And he is a constant source of distraction to her. And she’s trying to teach the others. She’s constantly distracted by this disabled young boy who is several years older than the rest, but doesn’t know the norms of behavior. And finally she decides she just can’t take it any longer, and she’s going to call his parents, and she’s going to talk to his parents about his circumstance, about his situation.

And she calls him, she puts it the best possible terms. Jeremy is so much older than the other children. We’re just not being fair with him by having him in this school. And his parents began to weep, and his father tries to patiently explain, but there is no special school around here. Jeremy’s life expectancy is so short. And he has so few things in life he enjoys. And this school is one of them. And we hate to take it away from him. Teacher thought to herself that she was being selfish. After all, these people are dealing with this problem with their only son. I can surely put up with him for a little while in class.

She was going to call them often and tell them of assignments. And things got a little bit better. She would call them and tell them things. They would work with in some and he would do a little bit better. Wasn’t quite as distracting. But didn’t understand all that was going on. It was near the end of the year. And she had brought to each of the students a large plastic egg, and she said, Your homework is to go home to get something that symbolizes new life. And to put it inside this egg, bring it tomorrow, and we’ll talk about it. And all the students listened to this, and they were excited about this excitement assignment. This is fun homework. And they were all listening with excitement.

And all except one. Teacher could tell by the dazed look on Jeremy’s face that he had no idea what she just said. And she made a middle note that when she got home, she was going to give his parents a call.

She forgot about it. She goes to school the next day, not conscious of her mistake. And when it comes time to open up the students’ eggs, all the students are excited, and she would open one up, and she would say, Oh, this is great. This flower on the inside is exactly what we’re looking for. And the student who brought the egg would talk about what he brought and or what she brought. And all the class was joining in the excitement. And she’s opened several eggs, and they’ve all talked about them. All the students had done a good job till she finally opens up one that’s empty.

She doesn’t have to ask whose egg this is. And she instantly remembers her mistake. She hasn’t called Jeremy’s parents. And so, not wanting to embarrass him, she simply lays the egg aside without saying a word. But Jeremy said, You didn’t say anything about my egg. The teacher is frustrated and says, But Jeremy, it was empty. To which he responded. And so was the tomb of Christ. The teacher was stunned at this brilliance from this handicapped boy, not knowing what to say. She said, Why was his tomb empty? Jeremy.

Conclusion

And the teacher was so overwhelmed with emotion at the piece of wisdom that had come from this babe that she had to dismiss the class for a few moments. That handicapped boy passed away shortly after school ended. And someone thought up the idea that as a tribute to him, his classmates were to bring a plastic egg empty on the inside and place it upon his casket. Because the tomb of Jesus is empty. One day the tomb of all those who have put their trust in Jesus will be empty. Oh death, where is your stain? Oh grave, where is your victory? I am the resurrection and the life. Put your trust in him. And one day we will be raised with him for glory. Do you believe what we’ve said tonight?

Do you believe this story? Do you believe these things are real? I do. I believe them with all my heart. And I’m convinced that you believe them too. If you believe them, are you willing to say, I’m not going to walk in my sins anymore? I’m going to turn from my sins. I’m going to turn to him. Repent of your sins, and be baptized into Jesus Christ to have your sins washed away. We want to help you become a Christian tonight, to become his followers. For we want on that glorious resurrection day, you to be with us and with him throughout eternity. Come as we stand and sing.