The Victory Cry of John 19:30

Pastor Tim

When Jesus cried in a loud voice from the cross, "It is finished," it was not a cry of despair, but rather the cry of a victor. The One who had come to do His Father's will (John 17:4), had completed His mission and accomplished the atonement necessary for the forgiveness of the sins of all who would ever believe in Him.

Because He has redeemed us through His bloody death, it is an insult to God for us to attempt to earn His favor in any way. What is left for us is not to work, but to receive the finished work of Christ upon the cross through repentance and faith.

Here is a great quote from A.W. Pink on the phrase: "It is finished."

"This was not the despairing cry of a helpless martyr; it was not an expression of satisfaction that the termination of His sufferings was now reached; it was not the last gasp of a worn-out life;
No, rather it was the declaration on the part of the Divine Redeemer that all for which He came from heaven to earth to do, was now done; that all that was needed to reveal the full character of God had now been accomplished; that all that was required by the Law before sinners could be saved had now been performed: that the full price of our redemption was now paid." (A.W. Pink, "The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross," p. 102)

Composure in Chaos: John 18:1-11

By Pastor Tim

John 18:1-11 records the account of the betrayal and arrest of Jesus Christ. As always, Jesus is the central figure in the narrative, and John wants to focus our attention on the absolute control and total authority of Jesus over the events of His trials and crucifixion. Several ways in which John highlights the control of Jesus are: (1) The supernatural knowledge of Jesus concerning the event at hand – “So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him” (18:4) – in other words, these events did not take Jesus by surprise! He was not an unwilling or uninformed “victim” of these events, and chose not to avoid arrest; (2) His confrontation of His accusers – “he went forth and said to them” (v. 4) – (what fugitive when being hunted by a mob of perhaps 600 or more armed soldiers, comes forth to meet them rather than taking every possible measure to evade arrest and to escape?); (3) His supernatural power – “when He said to them, ‘I am He,’ they drew back and fell to the ground” (v. 6) – a simple word from Jesus rendered the entire ‘enemy’ force dazed and powerless! – and (4) His command of the situation – “let these go their way” (v. 8) – the tender care and compassion of the Lord for His own disciples was foremost in His mind as He (standing alone against a force of hundreds of armed men) commands His accusers to let His disciples go free! This is total and complete authority!!

But there are two lesser characters in the story that also put the power and majesty of Jesus Christ on display: Judas and Peter. Judas represents someone who intentionally wanted to harm Jesus and oppose the will of God, and Peter represents someone who intentionally wanted to help Jesus and ‘fulfill’ the will of God.

The account in John’s gospel does not include the detail of Judas betraying Christ with a treacherous kiss. The reason for this is because it was unnecessary. Judas had intended to identify Jesus to the arresting officers by this vile kiss, but Jesus upstaged him by coming forth voluntarily. The application for us is this: even the vile enemies of God, who maliciously and intentionally are working for our harm, are rendered helpless and meaningless in the plan and purposes of God!

The account does show Peter, courageously and boldly drawing his sword to fight this large force and to protect his Master! But the rebuke of Jesus “put the sword into the sheath” (v. 11), demonstrates that Peter’s best intentions and actions were entirely unnecessary as well. Jesus didn’t ‘need’ Peter to come to His defense. In fact, Peter unwittingly was standing in the way of God’s will for Christ to “drink the cup” set before Him.

Therefore, both the intentions of Christ’s enemies to hurt, and the intentions of His followers to help, are both rendered unnecessary in the presence of a sovereign God! Behold the glory of Jesus Christ, the majestic Son of God!

“Lazarus, come out.” (John 11:43)

By Jason Lapp



Do you get excited to read these words from our Savior, Jesus Christ? Most of us know the story but do we see the huge significance of what occurred with the words, “Lazarus, come out?” These are words of great hope spoken by Jesus. He claimed to be the resurrection and the life (John 11:25) and now backs His claim by raising Lazarus from the dead. “Lazarus, come out.”



The account begins with Jesus hearing the news of Lazarus’ illness. Jesus says, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). The greatest purpose for all God does is for His own glory. He will not give His glory to another (Isaiah 42:8).



Second, Jesus tells His disciples, “Lazarus has died, and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him” (John 11:14-15). When Jesus first heard of Lazarus illness the text says “He two days longer in the place where He was” (John 11:6). Why would Jesus delay in going to see Lazarus? The answer is so He may be glorified through it and so the disciples would believe.



Third, we hear Jesus tells Martha, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Martha had to be wondering why Jesus delayed in coming to be with Lazarus. We see Martha’s faith in Jesus being able to heal her brother while he was still alive but now Lazarus was dead and Martha’s faith is shaken. Jesus then makes the claim that should bring joy to our hearts: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this” (John 11:25-26)? This is the question we must all ask ourselves: Do you believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life? The claims are there but why believe? Why does Martha respond with “Yes Lord; I believe” (John 11:27)? Is Jesus who He claims to be?



Here is my final point. The claim is laid out by Jesus that He is the resurrection and the life and that no man shall perish who believes in Him but He also backs the claim. Jesus instructs them to remove the stone from the front of the tomb. The people are confused wondering why Jesus would want them to remove the stone due to the foul odor inside. Jesus says, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God” (John 11:40). The stone is moved then Jesus lifts His eyes to the Father in prayer and cries out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The text says “The man who had died came out” (John 11:44).



This is a picture of our spiritual state. We are all born into sin. We are all dead in our trespasses. Unless Jesus is the resurrection and the life we all remain in our dead state but He is has He says. Jesus went to the cross, He took the place of those He came to ransom then on the third day He resurrected conquering sin and death. Through His death, burial and resurrection we can have eternal life if we believe He is who He claims to be. When we are humbled by His holiness, His Spirit cries out with a loud voice: “Dead man, come out.” Then we who were dead in our sins are made alive by His mercy, grace and great love (Eph. 2:4-5). To God alone be the glory.

When God Delays

By Pastor Tim

In John 11, we read the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It was a magnificent demonstration of compassion and power on the part of Jesus, and the story ends with the triumph of “the resurrection and the life” over the power of death and the grave.
Embedded within the story, however, is a challenging and practical difficulty that we as believers will face in life: the ‘delays’ of God. In John 11:6 we read that when Jesus heard that His friend Lazarus was sick to the point of death, He deliberately “stayed two days longer in the place where He was.” Later we read that both Martha and Mary expressed to the Lord that if He had been present to help Lazarus while he was still alive, that their brother would not have died. When Jesus did arrive at the scene, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Thus, Martha and Mary were faced with a difficult question that represents what many of us have experienced with God: Why did God delay?
Put yourself in the place of the two sisters. The messenger would have returned with the good news, “Jesus said that the sickness is not unto death.” But as the hours passed and Jesus did not arrive, Lazarus grew more and more ill. Hours turned to days, and the sisters watched their brother die. “If only Jesus were here,” they must have said. But Jesus didn’t come, and Lazarus died. How are we to respond to these “delays of God”?
Have you ever been there before? You’ve cried out for Jesus to help you and His answer has been delayed? The temptation is to say, “If God loves me so much, why is He letting this happen? Why is He letting us suffer so much?” “Does God care? Is He indifferent to my needs?” The delays of God are very difficult for us. But Jesus is neither indifferent nor insensitive to us. He knows exactly what He is doing.
Why did Christ delay? For two reasons: First, Christ delayed His coming to his loving and faithful followers in order to gain glory for Himself. In the death of Lazarus, He was going to perform one of His most marvelous miracles and was planning to demonstrate His own supernatural power. This is why He had said, “This sickness is … for the glory of God” (v. 4). Thus, we can say that God uses the occasions of difficulty and trial in our lives to demonstrate His power and glory.
Second, Christ delayed His coming in order to strengthen the faith of His disciples and the family of Lazarus; and to bring others near to the situation to saving faith. Christ could have healed Lazarus and prevented his death (He could have even done this from a distance), but what He was about to do was for His greater glory and for the good of believers. God’s delays are puzzling to us, but they are delays of love. One man has said, “The delays of Deity are not because of insensitivity to our present needs, but because of greater sensitivity to our ultimate needs” (Erwin Lutzer). In other words, God’s goal for us is not that we be comfortable on this earth, but that we have great faith and holiness. We must learn to not judge God’s love by our present circumstances, but rather judge our present circumstances by God’s love.

Quote: Hudson Taylor
“Trials afford God a platform for his working in our lives. Without them I would never know how kind, how powerful, how gracious he is.”
Are you currently waiting upon God for some answer to prayer; to some change in your circumstances? Trust in God, because although His timing might not line up with our desires, His timing is always perfect! God is always right on time!!

He Took My Place

By Pastor Tim

The First Easter Through the Eyes of a Condemned Criminal. Matthew 27:11-26

Early one Friday morning, on a spring day nearly 2000 years ago, a prisoner named Barabbas sat chained in a prison cell in the city of Jerusalem, Israel. He was a prominent prisoner because he had committed the crime of insurrection or revolt against the Roman Government. As a criminal against the state, he would have been locked in the Tower of Antonia, which was located about 1500 feet from the palace of the Roman Governor.
Barabbas hated the Romans, because they had invaded his nation of Israel and oppressed and abused his people. He despised being under their rule and authority, and determined that he would lead an uprising and revolution against the empire. He committed robbery and murder in this revolt, and was tracked down and arrested by the Roman authorities and thrown into prison.
Here Barabbas waited to be executed by the Roman government for having committed murder and revolt against the government. The form in which prisoners were put to death in that day was by crucifixion, a torturous death in which a person’s hands and feet where nailed to a wooden cross. The nails that impaled the prisoner were excruciatingly painful, but they were not the cause of death. Rather, when the pain experienced in the feet would become unbearable, the prisoner’s body would sag and hang limp on the cross, putting all of the weight upon the wrists as well as not allowing air to reach the lungs – thus the criminal could not breathe. Fighting for air, the prisoner would then have to put pressure back on their feet in order to stand upright and draw another breath. This process would take hours and sometimes days, as the slow battle took place between the resolve of the prisoner to take another breath, and the unbearable pain of the nails. In the end, all lost the battle and succumbed to a death by suffocation.
As Barabbas looked out of the prison window that morning, he could almost feel the pain of the nails shooting through his arms and legs, and he gently rubbed his wrists as he thought about the nails being driven through them. Little did he know that his life would dramatically change that verymorning. A man named Jesus was about to change his life. In fact, because of Jesus, Barabbas would be pardoned!
In the courtyard of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, Jesus Christ had been brought by the Jewish authorities in order to be placed on trial because of His claim to be the Son of God. Jesus was a kind of revolutionary of His own. But He did not stir up trouble, but rather only did good and showed love and mercy to others. Jesus was a man who went around serving and helping people who were in a desperate condition. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, caused the paralyzed to walk again, and raised the dead!
Jesus claimed that He had come down from heaven, and that He was the very Son of God come to earth to perform God’s will of rescuing people from their sins. Anyone claiming to be the Son of God might either be crazy or lying – but Jesus backed up His claim by performing miracles that only God could work! He calmed a huge thunderstorm by telling it to “Be still,” and He walked upon the Sea of Galilee! These are things that only God could do!
Jesus taught that all men are sinful, and that because all men broke God’s laws, that they deserved the condemnation and punishment of a just God. He said that He had come in order to set men free by dying in our place and taking our punishment, and that through His death, we could be forgiven and pardoned by God. Jesus claimed to be free from sin, and no one could prove that He had ever done anything to hurt another person! The religious leaders were extremely jealous of Jesus because many people wanted to follow Him rather than them, and they felt their power slipping away from them. Although Jesus never committed a sin or any crime, the religious leaders arrested Him and found Him “guilty” of crimes against their nation – they said that He had committed a crime by calling Himself the Son of God. They wanted to kill Him, but because they were subject to the Romans, they had to take Jesus before the Roman Governor in order to seek the death penalty against Him.
The Roman Governor Pilate heard the accusations against Jesus, but found no guilt in Him. And yet because He feared that the crowds would riot, He felt pressured into handing Jesus over to be crucified. He was torn between saving his own skin, or saving an innocent man! Pilate remembered a practice or custom of the Jews, in which they out of mercy would extend a pardon to one criminal during their feast of Passover. Because Passover was at hand, he asked the crowds if they would like to release the well known murderer Barabbas, or Jesus. He hoped that the crowds would pick Jesus since He had done so much to help others and had never done anything wrong. But the religious leaders stirred up the crowds to release Barabbas and to crucify Christ, and because of his fear of the crowds, Pilate condemned an innocent man. He decided to release Barabbas, and he sentenced Jesus to die.
Back in his prison cell, Barabbas wondered what all the commotion was over at the Governor’s Palace. He was curious as to why such a large crowd had gathered at the Governor’s mansion and strained to see and hear what was taking place. Although he was too far away to hear what Pilate was saying, he could hear the chanting of the crowd. What he heard sent chills down his spine!

“Barabbas” – They were chanting his name! But what we they saying? Unbeknownst to him Pilate was asking the crowd to choose between Jesus and Barabbas. Whom should he pardon and set free?

“Crucify Him!” – he could not hear the name Jesus, and thus thought that they wanted his blood. “Crucify Him!” The shouts of the riotous mob continued.

“His blood shall be on us and on our children!” – Barabbas resigned himself to the fact that he would be crucified that very day.

Barabbas waited for the guards to come and drag him out of his cell – his time to die had come. But as the guards opened his cell, they took the chains off of his hands and feet and dragged him outside. They said, “You have been pardoned” and threw him down on the ground. As he walked past the crowd perhaps he asked someone, “What is going on here?” The reply, “they are letting Barabbas go free, and are going to crucify Jesus instead.” At that moment, Barabbas realized that Jesus was going to die in His place!
What can we learn from this story? First, Barabbas is a picture of our sin. Barabbas lived his life for himself. He was going to do what was good for him no matter who he hurt, and he would not have anyone else tell him what to do or submit his life to the rule or authority of anyone else. Because of this self-centered and selfish attitude, the Bible says that Barabbas was a sinner. A sinner is someone who wants to be the “King” and ruler of their own life, and does not submit to the rules of the God who created them.
In this sense, we are no different from Barabbas. The Bible says that all of us have “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Each of us has told God to “get lost” and that we want to be in charge of our own life – and because of our selfishness, we end up breaking His two most important rules – to love Him before anything else and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Because we choose our own way instead of following God’s, we make some pretty bad choices in life.
The Bible teaches that because of our sinfulness, we will be judged and punished by God with everlasting pain and suffering in a place called hell. It is what we deserve for rejecting God and hurting others. Without a pardon from God Himself, we will all die in hell.
Secondly, Barabbas is a picture of what has to happen in order for us to be pardoned. Barabbas becomes a picture of what the Bible calls the substitutionary death of Christ for sinners. Although He was innocent, He was treated as a sinner and put to death in our place. Although were are guilty, we are pardoned and allowed to go free. The Bible says, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). He died so that we could live.
And just in case you are thinking that Jesus got a raw deal, He said that He would willingly offer up His life so that we could be forgiven!!!
In the person of Barabbas, we see a picture of our sinful condition, and of how we must have a substitute take our punishment if we would escape the penalty for our sin.
Because of His death on the cross, Jesus offers a pardon to all those who will repent of their sins and place their full faith and trust in Him alone for salvation. By humbling acknowledging your sinfulness to God and asking for His mercy and grace, you will receive an eternal pardon and forgiveness of your sins! By entrusting yourself to Christ, you are submitting the rule and authority of your life to His Lordship and asking Him to be the King over your life. All those who trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, the promise of the Scripture is this: “You will be saved” (Romans 10:9-10).
He had died! He is Risen! Pardon and eternal life are offered to you! Will you receive Him? All those who receive Him stand humbled at the foot of the cross this Easter and reflect, “He died in my place.” What love! What grace! What a Savior!

What's Your Motivation?

By Douglas Allison

There are few things mentioned more in the Bible as motivations for Christians to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength than the fact that Christ died for them and presently lives for them. Our hope and motivation, therefore, is found in the fact that we love (which encompasses all good deeds) because Christ loved us. This “loved” however, is not an action which began in the past when God decided He would save us from our sin and was completed when Christ died on the cross. Christ was raised from the dead, remember? Our motivation for loving God and others (and therefore doing good) exists because Christ still loves us. God is not old. He was never young! So also, Christ’s love for us is as vibrant and heartfelt as when He wept for Lazarus, and also when He lovingly reappeared to His disciples (who thought He was dead forever) to comfort them. Jesus even cooked them breakfast!
Before Jesus was taken up in the cloud He promised He would return (Acts 1). So what is our motivation to wake up every single day with the intent of loving the Lord with all that we are and others as much as we love ourselves? Not only that, what is our motivation to be killing sin, besides the fact that we know if we are not killing sin then it will be killing us? Jesus is coming back! And when Jesus comes back it is not going to be like Grandma and Granddad coming to stay for the week. Jesus is coming, not to live with us where we are, but to take us back to where He is! Right now he is busy preparing for our first homecoming (John 14). We are like babies born in the hospital. We haven’t been taken home yet! But our Heavenly Father is coming, and you are not His only child. He has many children, and they must all be born into His kingdom before He comes. When He comes He will pick us all up together. You can be sure that when the final cry of repentance is heard in Heaven then the order will be given for the trumpet to be sounded and the gates of Heaven be opened for the whole family to be perfectly united for the first time. There will be joy which we will probably need new words to express, awe which would cause our jaws to fall to the floor, seriousness of the kind which you might expect to feel when you meet and directly perceive the glory of the Maker of the universe, thankfulness which Hallmark could never express and no gift could ever repay and so much more.
So, to finally answer the question: what is our motivation to obey the Lord? The answer is simple: hope. Tit 2:11-14: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
Our motivation as Christians to do the right things ought not to be from selfishness, pride, envy or jealousy. If you are motivated by these things then you may be doing the “right thing”, but it does not come from the Holy Spirit’s work in your life. And if the things you do which seem right to others do not come from the Holy Spirit’s work in your heart through His Word and other people than your “righteous acts” are no more evidence of your salvation than your ability to put a cup of water to your mouth. Isaiah 66:2 says: "For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Today, don’t perform for peers or parents. Live every moment looking to the blessed hope of Christ’s return, and be asking the Holy Spirit to make and shape your heart like it will be in Heaven; without sin, perfectly loving, holy and sanctified; awed by God’s power, staggered by his glory, grateful of His love, imitative of His grace, desirous of His Presence.

The Silent Witness of the Loaves

By Pastor Tim

The miraculous story of Jesus walking upon the waters of the Sea of Galilee not only gives us insight into the Savior's incredible glory and power, but also into His incredible goodness and love.
It had been both a long day and a long night for the small band of disciples, who were sent by Jesus across the Sea of Galilee back to their headquarters in Capernaum. Matthew 14:24-25 says that they were "battered by the waves, and the wind was contrary." The fact that they had departed at nightfall and were still rowing during the "fourth watch of the night, i.e. between 3-6 a.m." demonstrates what a tough night it had been for them. Knowing that the Master had sent them into the sea, perhaps these questions came to their minds: "Why did Jesus send us into this storm?" "Does He even know what hardships we are going through out here?" "Does He even care?"
The physical storm that the disciples weathered provides a ready application for all followers of Christ - we go through trials and storms in our lives as well - and we, like they, need to be reminded that Christ has absolute power and control over the situation. He can 'come to us' at any time and calm the storms of our lives. But few of us question whether or not Jesus has the power to help us in our time of need.
Mark 6:52 adds this detail, "the disciples had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened." They had not learned through the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 that Jesus not only has the power to help in our time of need, but He also has the compassion to help. He fed the multitude not to awe them with His power, but to demonstrate His compassion and mercy. And the lesson the disciples should have learned in that event is the lesson we need to learn when we are in the midst of trials. In fact, the story of the feeding of the five thousand says that the disciples picked up 12 full baskets of leftover bread (Mark 6:43). It is reasonable to assume that they picked up 12 baskets because each disciple filled his own basket. It is also reasonable to assume that when Jesus sent them to the boat to cross the lake, that they would have taken their baskets full of bread with them into the boat.
Therefore, if it is true that on that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee, that any of them entertained the question whether or not Jesus truly cared for them, the baskets of bread in the boat gave a silent but powerful testimony in response - YES! HE CARES! Just look at the baskets!
The baskets represent times in our past in which Jesus has given us mercy. When we are in a trial, we often forget about His past mercies, and fail to see that it is in the remembrance of His past work in our lives that we should have great hope and courage for the present difficulties. If you are questioning the goodness of God during a difficult time, remember the testimony of the baskets and the loaves - Jesus is powerful enough to deliver you; and Jesus is merciful and compassionate enough to help you. In His perfect time, He will intervene and come to your aid. Just trust Him.