This week, we began a series called “What Happened at the
Cross?” In preparation for the Easter holiday it is important for us to grasp
what exactly was accomplished at the cross by the blood of Jesus Christ. There are seven specific places and ways in
which Jesus shed His blood. Each one is significant in what it represented and
what part of the curse it addressed. In this first part, we talked about Jesus’
bleeding in the Garden
of Gethsemane
Jesus went “as usual” to pray (are we known for such
routines in our lives?) to the mount of olives.
This is where the olives were pressed to get the oil out. So Jesus went there when He was under
pressure, and we saw what came out of Him when that happened. Notice that Jesus didn’t ask them to pray for
Him but to pray that THEY would not fall into temptation. Then He asked for another way and then was
strengthened by angels. God will always
strengthen us for whatever we have to endure.
Jesus then became in great anguish and sweat blood.
We spoke about two main things that this event addressed.
First, we need to understand exactly why Jesus was under so much strain that he
actually bled out of His pores. Certainly, there was worry over the physical
punishment He was destined to receive, but His stress was much greater than
that. I believe that this time in the garden is when the weight of man’s sin
was placed upon Him. Think of even just
one time where your sin caused you grief, pain and regret. Now multiply that by
every sin and mistake in your life. Then multiply that by the many billions of
people who have lived on this planet. All of that was on Jesus. We were not
designed to have sin on us. This stress
and worry causes our bodies to break down over time, but Jesus took so much
that His physical body was literally breaking down under the strain. He took all those sins and their consequences
upon Himself. It is important for us to
remember that all of the consequence of our sin was ON Him. As is says in 1
Peter 5:7, we should cast all of our cares and anxieties on Him. In fact, He
already took them. For us, we need to not take them back!
The second significant part of this story we focused on
was the restoration of all that was lost in the curse of Adam’s sin. This is
why this occurred in a garden. In
Genesis 3, God cursed Satan for deceiving Adam and Eve. If you read closely you
see that God never cursed man. That is important. You never were and never will
be cursed by God! What was cursed was the ground – the dirt. Your body is made
of dirt. You are a spirit and God sees your spirit, but the dirt breaks down. The only other thing He cursed was the
Enemy. He said He will bruise the heel
of Adam’s offspring and that Adam’s offspring will crush the enemy’s head. I’ll take a bruised heel over a crushed head
any day. He also told Adam that by the sweat of his
brow he would work the soil and have it produce thorns and thistles. The dirt of this earth was cursed. That
was until Jesus changed it. You see, I believe that this time in the garden was
a second temptation. He was tempted by Satan in Matthew 4 for himself and He
defeated the enemy with the Word. Here, in His most vulnerable time, he had to
resist the temptation to not follow through. This temptation was for us. He
resisted the temptation, but did not speak to the enemy. He had to take the sin
with him to the cross.
But when that blood came out of His pores as He
sweat (like the sweat of the brow), it hit the earth, the dirt, and that
temptation-overcoming blood began to heal the dirt – to reverse the curse. I
picture it like one of those Hollywood special
effects. As those drops hit the ground they began to spread and bring life to
the earth once again. Our job is to continue the spread of that life to
all the corners of the earth – redeeming that which had been lost. Jesus overcame everything we will ever face
for us.
In all of this, Jesus reversed the curse. You are not
cursed. The enemy wants you to think you are cursed, get you to speak “cursed”
words and live a cursed life. But he has already been defeated. Jesus paid the
price for the curse of sin. We will not truly live a victorious life until we
remove all of the curse thinking from our lives.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on
online media. To learn more about Living
Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
