[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the Erickson Covenant Podcast. We are so glad that you've joined us today.
We confess that we don't have all the answers, but as a community, we seek to find and follow Jesus and to discover daily the life he has always wanted for us.
We hope this message will be encouraging and will inspire you to take the next steps on your spiritual journey.
If we can help you in any way, please connect with us. The easiest way is through our
[email protected].
let's get started.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Can anyone tell me what holiday we celebrated yesterday?
Anyone?
Anyone?
That's right. Reformation Day.
What holiday were you thinking of?
Yesterday was October 31st.
You know what Reformation Day commemorates?
The launch of the Protestant Reformation.
Yoo hoo. Yes. Yeah. Okay.
To the abject horror of the Roman Catholic Church, a priest named Martin Luther executed the worst kind of door knocking trick or treat ever when he showed up at the church in Wittenberg, Germany and jump scared the pope by nailing 95 theses to the front door, challenging a number of serious errors that had seeped into the then Roman Church.
And the primary error that he challenged, well, it was that salvation could be earned through what we do, through our works, or particularly through the financial giving rather than by grace alone, through faith in Jesus alone. You see, good old Martin, he got all riled up by a creative fundraising campaign at the time for St. Peter's Basilica. The Roman Catholic Church fundraisers decided that they would let you purchase a get out a Purgatory early card, particularly for your loved ones who are stuck there.
You haven't heard of that? It's called Indulgences, Directly contradicting the scriptural teaching that salvation is of course by grace alone, through faith alone. And so Luther posted his spooky challenge in Latin because he intended it to be an academic debate for his fellow colleagues.
But it was quickly translated into multiple common languages through that newly innovative Gutenberg Press.
And then it spread through Europe like a Catholic nightmare.
And the Protestant reformation was launched 509 years ago yesterday.
It just so happens that was on a Saturday too.
And then November 1st.
What's today? November 1st is All Saints Day. Yes, same thing back in 1517.
And Martin Luther knew that. He knew lots of people would be showing up on church on All Saints Day, just like you when you woke up this morning, you said, I've got to go to church today because it's All Saints Day. Yes, I knew it.
So he showed up beforehand and and nailed his challenge to the door.
For Luther, this was all about having total supreme confidence in Jesus only in who Jesus was and what he did. As Luther himself put it, faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
Or, as we might sing today, in Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song, this cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm in Christ alone.
Well, today we come towards the climax of our journey through Luke's Gospel. And our faithful Jesus is going to enter into his darkest valley. His. His valley of the shadow of death, a valley that will culminate in his excruciating death for the sins and the salvation of the whole world.
And he enters it alone, utterly alone.
Coming from the upper room with his disciples, having reinterpreted the true meaning of Passover, Jesus then heads out into the darkness, out into the garden, deep in sorrow and heavy with anguish. And he does it for all of us.
And this is the gospel.
This is the good news.
It's because of Jesus Christ alone that we have any hope in our despair, any light in our darkness, any strength in our weakness, any song to sing in the midst of the sorrows we bear in Christ Jesus alone. Jesus is the one, the only One who stood firm through the fiercest drought and storm, taking the sin of the world upon his shoulders and bearing it unto death and doing it for all of us.
The majesty of the gospel is this, that Jesus Christ was faithful on behalf of all of us who were faithless.
This is the core of the good news that we cling to. We are saved by grace alone, through faith in the faithfulness of Jesus alone. Our salvation does not depend on our faithfulness, which is a very, very good thing, don't you agree?
Because, as we'll see today, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah was the only one faithful among a host of faithless people.
Jesus remained faithful when everyone else around him failed. Be they friend, be they foe, they all forsook faithfulness as Jesus carried on alone. The only one who was still faithful to his Father, the only one faithful to the mission, the only one faithful to us.
So thanks be to God.
So our story today begins in that brief moment between the Last Supper and the betrayer's kiss during a prayer vigil in the garden, where Jesus affirms his faithful, fateful decision to be our Messiah, submitting himself again to His Father's will, that he should go to the cross and suffer for us and for our sins, so that we could be saved from sin and death. So join with me. Let's turn to Luke chapter 22. I invite you to open up a Bible, and if you don't have one of those paper Bibles, which I've been urging you to bring, open it up on your phone, because I'm not going to have it all on the screen here today. I'm going to have some pictures and a few choice pieces, but I will not have it all on the screen. We're going to just dive right into it in Luke, chapter 22, verse 39. Here's how it begins.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
On reaching the place, he said to them, pray that you will not fall into temptation.
He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed. Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me.
Yet not my will, but yours be done.
An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
In his great distress, Jesus calls his disciples to join him in prayer so that they might all be prepared for the great trial that was coming upon them. And Jesus did just that. He went and prayed. And we're given a window into the deep struggle and the heartfelt anguish of Jesus as he prayed to his father.
Did we ever think that going to the cross was easy for him?
Did you think that the prospect of suffering for the sins of the world, for my sin, for your sin, was something that he managed with delight?
Jesus was in such tremendous grief that his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
He was so wasted that he needed an angel to come and give him strength.
No man before or since has ever known the depth of this sorrow.
No human being has ever endured the anguish that Jesus experienced here on this night.
And through the streams of that sweating, dripping blood, Jesus pled for another way to save us.
Father, if you're willing, take this cup from me.
Jesus was not keen to suffer the way of the cross, though he knew it was the only way.
In the midst of a very human angst and anguish, he asks the Father one last time for an alternative way of salvation, a less dramatic route, a less costly sacrifice, some hidden way forward that didn't include the suffering and shame that might spare him from the crushing weight of the world's ugly sin and the hellish depravity that he was about to endure in the dark.
And yet, at the very same moment, with barely A breath between. Jesus also submits to His Father's will, surrendering himself to His Father and to His Father's plans to work out salvation for us in just this way. Yet not my will, but yours be done.
And everything that transpires, we need to see this. Everything that transpires over the next hours of darkness and pain.
It flows directly out of his faithful submission to His Father's will. Never forget that Jesus submitted himself to His Father and endured everything willingly out of the faithfulness to His Father's love for us.
Every awful indignity, every biting scourge, every filthy curse, every mocking insult, every every slanderous word, every hammered nail, every malicious blow, all will be received by Jesus as His Father's will for him.
That he should be lifted up on the cross for all the world to see, displayed in glory as the faithful Son on behalf of a faithless world.
And so I want to read now for us this whole story of Jesus standing faithful among the faithless. And I won't give any comment commentary as I do. We're going to pick up the reading there in verse 45, right from the disciples failure to pray. We're going to carry on through the ugly betrayal of Judas, the sham trial before his enemies, the vile prisoner exchange, and then his eventual condemnation to crucifixion. And as I read this, I want you to fix your attention on Jesus, the one who is faithful among the faithless.
Look to the one who stood faithful for you, for me, for all who were not faithful at all.
And hold on to that central truth. Jesus here on this dark night, he was faithful for you, you who often fails and falters.
Jesus, on this long night was faithful for me as one who so often fails to follow through.
And so picking up in chapter 22, verse 45. Let's hear the story.
When he rose from prayer and went back to his disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.
Why are you sleeping? He asked them.
Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.
While he was still speaking, a crowd came up. And the man who was called Judas, one of the 12, was leading them.
He approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus asked him, judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?
When Jesus followers saw what was going to happen, they said, lord, should we strike them with our swords?
And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear.
But Jesus answered, no more of this.
And he touched the man's ear and healed him.
Then Jesus said to the chief Priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. Am I leading a rebellion that you have come with swords and clubs?
Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and and you did not lay a hand on me.
But this is your hour when darkness reigns.
Then, seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest.
Peter followed at a distance.
And when some there had kindled the fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them.
A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight.
She looked closely at him and said, this man was with him.
But he denied it. Woman, I don't know him, he said.
A little later, someone saw him and said, you also are one of them, man, I am not, Peter replied.
About an hour later, another asserted, certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.
Peter replied, man, I don't know what you're talking about.
Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter.
Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows, today you will disown me three times.
And he went outside and wept bitterly.
The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded prophesy. Who hit you?
And they said many other insulting things to him.
At daybreak, the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and the teachers of the law met together. And Jesus was led before them.
If you are the Messiah, they said, tell us.
Jesus answered, if I tell you, you will not believe me. And if I asked you, you would not answer me.
But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.
They all asked, are you then the Son of God? He replied, you say that I am.
Then they said, why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.
Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.
And they began to accuse him, saying, we have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Messiah, a king.
So Pilate asked Jesus, are you the King of the Jews?
You have said so, Jesus replied.
Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against this man.
But they insisted, he stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here.
On hearing this, Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he learned that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction. He sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased because for a long time he'd been wanting to see him.
From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer.
The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate.
That day, Herod and Pilate became friends.
Before this, they had been enemies.
Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people and said to them, you brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion.
I've examined him in your presence and have found no basis for your charges against him. Neither has Herod, for he sent him back to us.
As you can see, he has done nothing to deserve death.
Therefore, I will punish him and then release him.
But the whole crowd shouted away with this man, release Barabbas to us.
Barabbas had been thrown into prison for an insurrection in the city and for murder.
Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate appealed to them again. But they kept shouting, crucify him. Crucify him.
For the third time, he spoke to them, when? Why?
What crime has this man committed?
I have found in him no grounds for the death penalty.
Therefore, I will have him punished and then release him.
But with loud shouts, they insistently demanded that he be crucified.
And their shouts prevailed.
So Pilate decided to grant their demand.
He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.
Was there ever anyone so faithful as Jesus and who stood for him?
Who stood with him?
Absolutely no one.
Not one.
He was faithful among faithless disciples who failed to pray and fell asleep and were most certainly not able to not fall into the temptation that befell them.
He was faithful before faithless Judas, who betrayed him with an insulting kiss and for filthy money.
He was faithful among faithless disciples who struck out in violence, Jesus choosing to heal rather than hurt.
He was faithful among these faithless chief priests and temple guards and elders who came to arrest him in the darkness.
Jesus was faithful. When faithless Peter failed, denying three times that he even knew his Lord, Jesus was faithful among the faithless guards as they mocked him and beat him and insulted the only one who was worthy among them, Jesus was faithful before the faithless leadership of Israel, declaring him fit for death as a blasphemer.
Jesus was faithful among the faithless rulers of Rome before this weakling Pilate and the most wicked Herod.
Jesus was faithful among the faithless crowd screaming for his death and demanding Barabbas in exchange, trading a faithless criminal for the faithful Christ.
And it's one thing to see how Jesus is faithful among the faithless. It's very obvious. It's unmistakable.
But what we must see is that Jesus is faithful for the faithless, that he remained faithful for the sake of the very friends who forsook him and the very foes that sent him to his death.
He died to save all of them.
And this is the whole story, this is the complete gospel, telling that Jesus, on that dark night and through that long next day, remained faithful to his followers. Father's will that he would be the one who steps into our faithless place and pay our sinful price, shouldering our condemnation and suffering our rightful punishment, so that we who are unfaithful, we who are faithless, could be freed from that judgment and redeemed from our sin and restored to the Father and renewed as human images and actually granted the status of faithful, not because of what we have done, but because we now stand by faith in Christ alone, the only faithful Son.
People sometimes mistake Christianity as somehow holding up the faithfulness of people. Oh, those are the real faithful over there. Yeah.
As though our faithfulness is what makes us good or right or saved or Christian.
Friends, that is total nonsense.
Total and utter craziness, as the Brits would say. Bollocks.
We're not saved by our faithfulness because we're not faithful.
If salvation depended on our faithfulness, friends, we'd all be toast.
Amen.
We're saved by faith. Yes.
That is, we're saved by placing our trusting faith in the faithfulness of another Jesus Christ, the only one who is faithful to his Father, the only one who is faithful on our behalf. We place our trusting faith in Jesus, who was faithful when we were not, who was faithful when we actively denied him, betrayed him, disobeyed him, ignored him, mocked him, abused him. Faithful when we were his enemies, faithful when we failed and we fled.
Jesus is faithful. I want you to hear this. I hope you're hearing it today. Was faithful for all of us who falter, faithful for all of us who fall asleep. And I hope you, as I reading this story, you begin to see yourself in the story.
Yeah, I'm the guy who falls Asleep.
Faithful to those of us who betrayed him with malicious intent or denied him out of cringing fear.
He was faithful for all of us who bring baseless charges against him or rage against who he is.
Faithful for all those who can't see or won't hear.
Faithful even to those who choose to exchange the very best for the very worst and call it good.
Jesus is the faithful and the true. The one who remains faithful to his Father's will. Not my will, but yours be done.
His will that his Son should not only suffer on our behalf, but at our hands.
And therein lies the good news that we proclaim, the good news that we stand on.
We don't trust ourselves at all.
Rather, we entrust ourselves into the hands of Jesus who was faithful to stand, faithful to suffer, faithful to sacrifice himself for all the rest of us.
For the Father, who is rich in mercy, sent his one and only Son to step into our faithlessness, to suffer at the negligence and the weakness of his closest friends, to act in sacrificial love toward his greatest enemies. We'll see next week. He forgives them from the cross to receive from their hands and their lips the mocking scorn, the bruising blows, the utter contempt. And then here at the end, in a wild display of the gospel obvious, where the faithless crowd rises in a deafening crescendo and demands that an exchange take place, where a murderous brigand is released and the innocent Jesus is condemned in his place. I mean, could it be. Could it be that the foulest sinner finds his place taken by the faithful son?
It's the gospel.
That's the good news.
And if we're paying attention, if we're honest with ourselves, if we are, we can humbly admit that we're the ones who've fallen far short of faithfulness.
And we see ourselves in this final, ironic exchange of the faithless for the faithful, the sinner for the saint, Barabbas for Jesus, us for him.
Because Jesus didn't just take Barabbas place on the cross that day, my friends, he took my place.
He took your place.
This is the gospel. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages of that sin is death.
And we would get payment in full if it were not for Jesus. All of us were dead in our transgressions and sins. Paul tells us all of us were Barabbas. All of us are the walking dead. All of us without hope and without a future. But. But God.
But God. Ephesians, chapter 2. God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. Christ, who died for us sinners as the gift of God in exchange for our lives, our eternal life. Jesus snatches us out of the jaws of death just in time, exchanging places for us before we even knew it was happening.
Releasing us from sin through his own death for our sin. This is the most wonderful exchange, and it sits at the very heart of the Gospel. And remember, this is not because Jesus was some helpless victim who couldn't do anything about it.
Jesus is making his choice.
At the very end, we're told that Pilate released Barabbas, this insurrectionist murderer. And then it says, surrender Jesus to their will.
My friends, you need to hear this. The only reason that faithless, spineless Pilate could surrender Jesus to their will is because Jesus had already surrendered himself to His Father's will. That's the only reason that's taking place. Yet not my will, but yours be done. And his Father's will was that Jesus would be the faithful one on behalf of a faithless will.
Faithless friends, faithless enemies, faithless rulers, faithless priests, faithless teachers, faithless men, faithless women, faithless crowds, faithless criminals.
His Father's will was that Jesus would be for us what none of us could ever be Jesus. We'd be faithful to the Father's love. We couldn't be. He would be faithful to His Father's justice. We couldn't.
Faithful to His Father's holiness. Pah.
Not us.
Faithful in the midst of trial, Faithful in the midst of hate. Faithful when everyone and everything has turned against you and no one is standing with you. Faithful to the end and never wavering. Jesus is the faithful One and all others failed.
What's our response to this, friends?
What do you say to this?
What can we say?
Thank you comes to mind.
Thanks be to Jesus Christ, our faithful friend.
Because it's only in his faithfulness that we place our faith. It is only in his faithfulness that we place our trust. It is only because of his faithfulness that we have any hope at all.
As followers of the Faithful One, we do not confess our faithfulness, do we?
We know the truth about our failings.
As followers of the Faithful One, we exalt his faithfulness. We make much of it.
We make much of it with our friends. We make much of it with our family.
We are bragging about Jesus and his faithfulness, not ours.
As sinners saved by grace, we never confess our own steadfast standing. We are all too aware of our weakness. We point to Christ alone. He's the One. He's the One. He's the One. And it's only because of him that we can stand it all. It's only because of him that we are righteous as flailing apprentices of the Master.
Here at the end of the story, we confess that we, though we are faithless, though we are faulty, though we are frail, though we are fallen, though we were by nature deserving of wrath, God, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, God made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved.
As worshipers of the faithful Son, we proclaim with hearts full of praise that Jesus, he's the one. Jesus is the one faithful for me. And if you want to know anything about me, you need to know that I am trusting his faithfulness on my behalf.
I'm receiving his righteousness imputed to me. I'm not standing in the base of anything I've done.
I'm standing only in what he has done for me.
Jesus was faithful for you.
And your only call, your only claim, your only hope, is to place the full weight of your trust, his faithfulness.
Will you do that?
Have you done that?
Have you looked at Jesus and looked at yourself and said, whoa, I am not trusting this guy.
I am not trusting her.
I am trusting only Him.
If you have not made that decision to place your full weight of trust on Jesus and His faithfulness, I urge you to do so. You can very simply say to Jesus, jesus, I need you to save me because I am a mess.
My sin earned me death.
But I believe that you, Jesus, died for me so that I could be saved.
And I'm asking you to save me. That's all I need to say.
And he will respond in gifting you with forgiveness and His Holy Spirit.
At the end of the day, our only response is humble confession and heartfelt praise.
And whenever we do feel the weight of our sin crushing us, whenever we feel the conflict of struggle, when we're faced with just how weak and foolish we are, when we're disappointed yet again with our frailty and our failure, we look to Jesus, our faithful One, and we declare yet again, in Christ alone, my hope is found.
In Christ alone, my worth is determined.
In Christ alone, my salvation is accomplished. A done deal.
He is the faithful one, faithful for me, faithful for you, and faithful for us all.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, for your faithfulness, we are so grateful.
If it were not for you, we would be eternally lost.
If it were not for your willingness to stand, to endure, to submit to your Father's will, to take our place, we would not have any hope.
But because of you, Jesus, we have great hope.
Because of Jesus. We can stand confident.
We can stand cleansed and forgiven.
We can stand righteous and free.
Because of you, Jesus, and your faithfulness.
We can know that. We can approach you with confidence.
We can call your Father Father.
We can know that your presence lives in us and dwells in us and walks with us and is in this process of transforming us into your very image. We can know that all of this is true and beautifully true because of you and your faithfulness to us.
And so today, with tremendous gratitude and heartfelt praise, we give you praise for being our faithful one, for standing faithful among the faithless, for standing faithful for us who are faithless.
And so we place our faith firmly upon you and you alone.
We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Thanks for listening in today we hope you feel encouraged and challenged.
If you know someone who would benefit from what you have heard today, please share this podcast.
For more information or if you have questions, you can connect with us through our website and Erickson Covenant ca.
You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Erickson Covenant Church.
