When a Jewish boy turned twelve, He was “a son of the law,” taking on the full obligations of the law. If Jesus had lived within 20 miles of Jerusalem, it would have been his obligation to attend the Passover feast, but he didn’t, Jesus lived in Nazareth, about 60 miles from Jerusalem. But because his parents went to Jerusalem every year for the Passover, and because he was now old enough to go, Jesus took the long journey with his parents to Jerusalem for the Passover feast.

At the feast, for the first time, Jesus celebrated the death angel “passing over” the homes of those who placed the blood of the lamb on their doorposts in Egypt. Later, Jesus, “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world” would fall into the hands of the Roman soldiers after celebrating the Passover for the last time with his disciples in the upper room.

I don’t know if memories of that first Passover celebration wafted through his memory as he celebrated the Passover for the last time on the day he would be betrayed.

In the midst of their meal, Jesus took some unleavened bread and held it up, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” In the Passover meal, the bread celebrated the people’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage. But at the Last Supper, Jesus reinterpreted it to celebrate the Christian’s deliverance from eternal bondage.

When Jesus handed the cup to the disciples, they naturally would have thought of the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorpost of their ancestors’ homes in Egypt. As the disciples drank the wine, they remembered the blood covenant. But Jesus reinterpreted the wine to symbolize a new covenant. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus’ blood now symbolizes more than salvation from a single night of terror, instead, it celebrates eternal salvation.

At his first Passover, I don’t know if Jesus was aware that He was “the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world,” but I’m certain he knew it at his last one. After dining with his disciples, Jesus walked out into the night-into His destiny. And in doing so, he ensured our eternity.

It was a night that was different from any other night.

“For hardship does not spring from the soil, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. [7] Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward” (Job 5:6–7 NIV).

I’d like to think that calamity will visit everyone but me, but I know it isn’t true. Calamity will visit your home, and it will visit mine too.

Everyone suffers. Why?

Well for one thing, random selection will mean that I’ll have my turn. If one out of a thousand people will get a certain disease, then I have one chance out of a thousand that it will be me.

Other times, I suffer because of something stupid I’ve done. If I eat too much, I can’t blame anyone but myself that my stomach hurts, or for gaining weight.

Sometimes I suffer because Satan is attacking me. Satan is alive and well, and he will do anything he can to keep God’s people from touching lives and changing the world.

But sometimes, I suffer at God’s hand. God uses trials to discipline, instruct and build character in me.

My first reaction to trials is “Why me?” But the more I think about it, my first response should be, “Why not me?” I mean, am I not a part of the human race, and statistically, won’t some bad stuff happen to me? And don’t I do stupid stuff that has consequences? Why would Satan pick on everyone else and leave me alone? And doesn’t God love me and want to discipline, instruct and build character in me?

After my initial emotional reaction to trials, I’ve learned to clear my head and ask myself some questions. Is there something I need to learn from this? Am I doing something stupid that I need to stop doing? Do I need to build defenses against a satanic attack? What is God trying to teach me?

In the quiet moments that follow those questions, I hear the voice of God. And when I do, the trial becomes an asset, not a liability.

It was my sixth birthday; I felt so special. We had a party with hats, decorations galore and a great big birthday cake. All my friends came and that was good. All my friends came with presents, and that was better. I made my wish, blew out the candles and smiled. I felt invincible on August 27, 1965, like everything would always go my way.

I was not quite thirteen. We lived on the plains of West Texas, where everyone, including children, worked hard. One afternoon, I was helping a farmer move his equipment from one section of land to another. He drove the tractor, I drove his bright red, new Chevrolet pickup.

I put my foot on the accelerator trying to catch up to him, the wheels turned sharply when the front end hit a sandbar in the middle of the dirt road, the pickup went from one side of the road to the other until, finally, I lost control. It crashed into the bar ditch through a barb wired fence onto a nearby field. The impact thrust me through the windshield leaving me bleeding, dirty and disoriented. I didn’t feel invincible.

Most days, I’m not the birthday boy. People don’t bring presents and there are no candles to blow out. Neither do I go crashing through the windshield of the boss’ pickup.

Today is somewhere between those experiences. Not everything will go right, but neither will everything go wrong.

We are not better because of the sum of our good experiences, nor are we worse because of our negative ones. Life is full of both. How we handle prosperity and adversity shows everyone who we really are. Our attitude determines our happiness.

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” (Philippians 4:11 ESV).

“And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV)

In the Christmas Classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey has the opportunity to see what the world would be like if he’d never been born. If he had never been born, he wouldn’t have been able to rescue his brother when he fell into the icy pond and his brother would have drowned. And of course, his brother would not have been able to be a war hero and save the lives of other soldiers, like he did.

Bailey’s wife would not have had a husband if he hadn’t been born and they wouldn’t have had the joy of raising their children. If he hadn’t been born, he wouldn’t have been able to stop the pharmacist from putting poison instead of medicine into a capsule while filling a prescription and the pharmacist would have spent 20 years in jail for murder. If he hadn’t been born, no one would have been there to keep old man Potter from milking every last penny from the people. In general, everybody’s life would have been worse off if George Bailey hadn’t been born.

But what if Jesus hadn’t been born and there was no Christmas and Easter? Paul says that if there were no resurrection faith would be in vain.

Think about it for a moment. What if God didn’t look down from eternity into time and choose to become man so He could bear our sins, die on the cross, and raise from the tomb to secure our salvation?

We’d be faithless, hopeless and left on our own. But because he was born, lived a sinless life, died on the cross for us and raised from the dead there is hope.

Q1How is the agenda of man different from that of Jesus?

Q2How is it that the people who were once celebrating Jesus have not turned on him so viciously that they now want to kill him?

Text: Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)

Q2Why is a unified church a great witness to the unbelieving world?

Preaching at Lakeshore City Church on February 4, 2024

“Hail, King of the Jews,” they cried, as they put a crown made of thorns on his head.  They spat in his face, they pulled his beard and they mocked his Holy name.

They put a 300-pound cross on his back, and in His weakened state, He stumbled beneath the load.  Simon of Cyrene carried the cross for Him as he walked up the hill to His destiny.

The soldiers ripped His robe from Him, reopening his wounds and forced Him on the rough hewn cross. Though it was customary to use ropes to tie a victim to the cross, the soldiers used fourteen-inch spikes to nail Him and our sins to the cross. First one spike and then another through the quivering flesh of His hands.

He stayed on the cross for six hours before the ridiculing, mocking crowd, and then He became sin for us. Paul wrote, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21 ESV).

There, He forgave our trespasses, and there He “nailed our sin to the cross.”  And God turned His back on His Son refusing to look at the sin He’d become.       

The earth trembled, the skies blackened, and the veil in the temple split, and Jesus exclaimed. "It is finished."

Some would say that the Romans took Jesus’ life from him. Others understand that no one took his life. He gave it willingly.