Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

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https://youtu.be/SSezUuKPd7Y?si=XxMnJTmb7YRh7iBi

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Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

The Whys of Easter

Greg Lavine and Dustin DeJong

So diving into God's word, we're. We're focusing on Jesus. I know that sounds strange for a church to do. No, we're, we're leading up to Easter by specifically focusing on Jesus and asking, asking some why questions of why Jesus had to live, why Jesus had to die, and why Jesus had to rise from the dead. And I joke with focusing on Jesus.

If you're ever a part of a church that does not focus on Jesus, find one. Because Jesus is everything. He is not only the way by which we are saved. It is his name that caused demons to shudder. It is his name that sets us free and forgives our sin.

And so we're focusing on Jesus. And this morning we're considering why did Jesus have to die? And that can be an odd question. Death is kind of a gloomy, cold subject. In fact, we don't like to use the word die.

Even if a loved one or family member dies, we don't say it. We say they passed away, they fell asleep. I like to say they graduated to glory if they knew the Lord. We don't like to say the word die. We avoid it at all costs.

So why would we spend a week fixed on the question, why did Jesus have to die? And I would propose to you that it is enormously important. In fact, what we're going to do this morning is go through a top 10 list of reasons why Jesus had to die. And as we go through, there are truths in every single one. But I want you thinking, even as we go through all of these profound truths, there is one reason that I believe biblically rises higher than all the others.

It is, it is the most right answer to the question, why did Jesus have to die? And we'll save that for number one. So I'm going to jump right in with the 10th reason. What's a reason that Jesus had to die? And I would say to fulfill everything that came before.

To fulfill everything that came before. The shadows all through history were pointing to Jesus and even specifically his death. When Abraham took Isaac up out Mount Moriah in, in Jerusalem, that was a symbol and a picture that pointed to Jesus when, when Moses and the Israelites painted their door with the lamb that was slain for Passover. So they would sacrifice a lamb, they would take the blood, they would put it on their doorframe. And because of that, the angel of death would pass over their homes because of the blood of lamb.

The blood of the lamb pointed to Jesus. The day of atonement, Yom Kippur, the most holy day of all of the Old Testament, it points to Jesus. The entire sacrificial system is pointing to Jesus. So I want to read just one passage. This is in the Psalm, Psalm 22, and it's David in the midst of suffering, and he's crying out to God and listen to the words that he writes.

Psalm 22, verse 1 and 2. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. If you've been in church for very long, you might recognize those words as words that Jesus spoke on the cross.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And so I would suggest that even King David and his suffering, it's pointing to Jesus dying on a cross. Everything that came before points to Jesus paying the price on the cross. Why did Jesus have to die to fulfill everything that came before? Number nine.

Why did Jesus have to die? He had to die to be fully human. I mean, think about your own human experience, something that we all go through. Jesus entered into that Last week. Pastors John and Greg were preaching and they shared out of Hebrews chapter four that we do not have a high priest in Jesus who cannot sympathize with our weakness.

No, no. Jesus in every way experienced the human condition, and yet he was without sin. Jesus experienced triumph and loss. He experienced great glorious joy, and he experienced loss as well. These are all experiences that you and I share as well.

Jesus came as both fully God and fully man. And in being fully man, he experienced everything that we experience. Read these words out of Hebrews, chapter 2, verses 14 and 15. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, that is Jesus, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. Jesus himself partook.

Of all the things that we experience in humanity, Jesus ultimately experienced death as well.

Something that we are all promised to experience. Something that even though we know it's

coming, still brings great, great hardship to us. Just a few weeks ago, I went and did a hospital call. I got a phone call in the afternoon, and they had requested that a pastor come out to do a visit.

So I came out almost immediately. And as I walk into the hospital room, this lady was in her mid-80s. She, she coded like right as I was walking into the room. And her family was Just devastated. I mean, this, this is a lady who loved the Lord, who lived a great life.

She was, you know, she was in her mid-80s. She. She was content with where she was at. She was content to go home to heaven. And yet her family was still experiencing the sting of death.

They knew that she had hope in Jesus, and yet they still, they, they. They were still devastated. Death is all of our experience. It's all of our destiny. And Jesus being fully God and fully man, he didn't avoid death either.

He stared death in the face and he defeated it. Death had power. And Jesus says, no longer will death have power. We just sang these words a few minutes ago that death once had a sting, that it once held power over us. And yet through Jesus life, through his humanity, he proved that death is not the end of the story.

And so why did Jesus have to die to fully experience what it means to be human? Why did Jesus have to die to fulfill everything that came before to be fully human? A third reason. Number eight. To show us the cost of our own sin.

To show us the cost of our own sin. As human beings, we constantly diminish the holiness of God and we constantly overestimate our righteousness. Consider the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. All of the blood. Sometimes I get asked, why the blood?

Why the sacrifices in the Old Testament? When we ask that question, we acknowledge that we don't understand the significance of the gap between our sin and God's holiness and the stench and the vile offensive nature of who we are in our selfishness to a holy and pure God. Consider these words in Leviticus 4. So there are five offerings in the book of Leviticus. One of those five is the sin offering.

These are a few words describing the sin offering. Beginning in verse four, he shall bring. Talking about the priest. He shall bring the bull to the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord and lay his hand on the head of the bull and kill the bull before the Lord. And the anointed priest shall take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting.

And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle part of the blood seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense before the Lord that is in the tent of meeting. And all the rest of the blood of the bull he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering that is at the entrance of The Tent of Meeting. Now, you can read that verse and think of the blood like, that's a lot of blood. It's being sprinkled, it's being wiped down.

The rest of it is being poured out at the entrance. Why the stench? Why the smell of it? Why the sight of it? Why the horror of it?

To teach us the whore of our sin, that we would acknowledge God is holy and pure and righteous.

And on our best days, we underestimate the blackness and selfishness of our own heart. We

constantly diminish our own sin. We diminish God's glory, and we exalt ourselves. Jesus died that we would gaze up at the cross and recognize.

My sin did that, My sin did that.

Why did Jesus have to die to show us the cost of our own sin?

Another reason that Jesus had to die was to practice perfect obedience. Now, Jesus, who was both fully God and fully man, he had to live, like I said, by the same human experience as we do, which includes a conflict of wills. Jesus, though he lived a perfect life, we like to elevate the deity of God in that moment and say, well, yeah, I mean, Jesus was God, so of course he followed God's will. And yet we lower his own humanity. I mean, consider these words out of Luke, chapter 22.

This is Jesus the night before he was to be crucified, starting in verse 41. And Jesus withdrew from them about a stone's throw. And he knelt down and prayed, saying, father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Do you hear these words of Jesus? He doesn't want what's coming.

He knows what's about to happen. He knows that he's going to be arrested, that he's going to be flogged and beaten and hung up on the cross. And Jesus says, God, if there's any other way, will you please take this away from me? I don't want to experience this. He was agonized.

He was under distress. Let's jump down to verse 44. It says these words, and being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. And his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Jesus, yeah, he was perfectly obedient, but at great cost.

And yet, what did he say? The second half of verse 42, he says, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Jesus experienced the cost of obedience. He realized that he had to sacrifice his own will in order to follow the will of God in order to enact all that needed to be done on the cross. And so he stepped up.

And where Adam failed He succeeded. We read these words last week out of Romans, chapter 5. That through the death, through the sin of one man, that all have now trespassed against God. And yet through the obedience of one man, that is Christ, that all now have a way back to God through Jesus obedience. We now see what it means to be obedient.

Verse 43 says this. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. This is the key. Jesus didn't depend on his own strength in order to obey Jesus, who is fully God and fully man. He did not depend fully upon himself and his own strength.

He needed the strength of God. He needed the strength of the angels to come and to help him. And it was through his dependence on God that he could perfectly obey. And so we're fooling ourselves every single day if we think that we can be obedient our own will. No.

Jesus proved that if he, fully God and fully man had to depend on God, then we too must fully

depend on God for perfect obedience. Why did Jesus have to die to show us what perfect obedience looked like? Number six. Why did Jesus have to die for cosmic justice? Think about this for a moment.

Before the cross, God had forgiven sin. Throughout the Old Testament, he forgave sin. He forgave David. His sin washed over his sin and didn't hold it against him. In fact, you could make the accusation God was not fair.

By what right on a cosmic level did God have to forgive David? Consider this. Go back to Moses. God forgave Moses, but held Pharaoh's sin against him.

It's unfair. Why? On what grounds? God forgave Jacob and holds Esau's sins against him. Why?

It's unfair. It's unjust. Consider these words from Romans chapter three. He says, Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, as a. As a sacrifice, essentially as a sacrifice by his blood to be received by faith.

This was. This is the reason. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. How did God forgive Moses and hold Pharaoh's sins against him?

Because the blood of Jesus Christ was applied to Moses. The justice of God was on the line because God had been benevolent and forgiving up to that point. And no blood of a bull or no sacrifice while it pointed to Jesus, it couldn't forgive sins.

Jesus died that on a cosmic level the justice of God would shine. There's times I picture an angel before that whispering in God's ear, how can you possibly forgive him? The answer, of course, is in Jesus Christ dying. Reason number five. Why did Jesus have to die?

To die in our place. To die in our place. The doctrinal title for this is Substitutionary Atonement. That he didn't. He didn't just die as a blanket for all people.

There's a sense in which he did. But he died. He died in our place. That when I gaze upon Jesus, I know that he paid my price, that I deserved to die for my own sin. And if I had faced that consequence, my own death wouldn't be good enough to pay for my sin.

But Jesus then raises his hand to say, I will die in the place of Greg Levine in the place of. And you can fill in your name in he died in our place for us directly. Consider these words. You could go lots of places with this. I'm actually going to go back to the Old Testament.

Poetically, this is portrayed in a beautiful way in Isaiah. Chapter 53 says this beginning in verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. With his stripes, we are healed. You hear it in the language? Yes.

He died in our place. In fact, what I'd like to do is go back and read those two verses, personalizing it. The words will be on the screen.

Would you read it with me? If you're comfortable. Surely he has borne my griefs and carried my sorrows. Yet I esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for my transgressions.

He was crushed for my iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought me peace. And with his stripes, I am healed. We can never forget to gaze up at the cross and recognize in that moment, he died for me. He died for you.

He absorbed my sin. He absorbed your sin and paid our price. Why did Jesus have to die to die in our place? Another reason that Jesus had to die was as the ultimate display of selfless glory. When we think of glory, we often think of being on the highs of life, accomplishing all the things that we desire.

Just last week in the NCAA men's and women's tournaments, they crowned champions and the athletes after winning the championship went up on the ladder and cut the nets. We often picture that as the picture of glory. And yet Jesus had a vastly different picture of glory. Read these words from Philippians chapter two. And being found in human form, Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus didn't consider glory being on top, being elevated above everyone else, no, he considered glory lowering himself to the point of death. Jesus went straight to the cross with joy in his heart, lowering himself so that he could elevate us. Now, the cross was Rome's greatest way to show dishonor, to dishonor another and to elevate Rome above all that they had the authority to completely embarrass and make somebody unhuman, subhuman. And Jesus says, no, that's not embarrassment, that's not the bottom, that's. See Jesus, he sees our version of glory and he flips it, says, it's not about being on top, it's about helping others to be on top.

It's not about elevating myself, it's about elevating others. And so what does Jesus do? He descends. He lowers himself so that he can elevate us. That is what we experience in Jesus.

That's what we see in him, is the ultimate display of selfless glory. We read these words in Mark 10:45, for even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That is the picture of selfless glory. It's not in elevating yourself, but in lowering yourself in service to others. Jesus showed us what the ultimate true picture of.

And it's not self seeking, no, it's self giving love. Jesus asks, you want to know what glory means? It's sacrifice, it's service, it's love, it's elevating others at your own cost. Why did Jesus have to die to show us the ultimate picture of self sacrificing love? Why did Jesus have to die to fulfill everything that came before, to be fully human, to show us the cost of our own sin, for perfect obedience, for cosmic justice, to die in our place as the ultimate display of selfless glory?

Reason number three, perhaps one of my favorite. To triumph in victory over death, sin and darkness. To triumph in victory over death, sin and darkness. Colossians chapter three or chapter two, says these words beginning in verse 13. And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.

God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross. So we were spiritually dead and he makes us alive. We were spiritually in debt and he washes that away. He does it by nailing it to the cross.

And he closes with these words in verse 15. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In Him. He took the sting out of death. He took the shackles off of sin.

He sets us free in victory. He makes it so that Satan is bound on a tight leash and tweeted or

tweeted, treated like the little twerp that he is. He took Satan and demons and he bound them and shackled them and pushed them under his authorities. The principalities and powers of darkness were total defeated. Why?

Because Jesus Christ died on the cross. He gained victory over death, victory over sin, victory over darkness. In this we have nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear as we gaze into death. I get the challenge and I'm just a young pup, you know, I'm getting older all the time.

Yesterday, weren't you invited to the seniors ministry recently?

Yesterday there was a little joke going around campus during the extravaganza that there was a silver alert for me because I was lost. That's where it's going. I'm getting there now. I. You know, these things, they.

Now what was I in this room for? What did I come in to get?

Sometimes I've knelt down to pray with people who are near to death. And I always ask, are they afraid at all? Is there any. Is there anything that they want to pray about as they approach God. Sometimes people been saved longer than I've been alive will confess fear.

I've never been in those shoes. I don't think it's wrong to. To wrestle. It's death. It's a big thing.

Here's a sweet truth you should never forget. Jesus Christ's death on a cross proves victory over death, over sin and over darkness. And we can rest in that victory with nothing to fear, nothing to hide. Amen. Number two.

Why did Jesus have to die? He had to die to forgive our sins. That is a great promise that we have. And yet it came at a great cost to Jesus. It came at his own life.

Hebrews 9:22. We read this. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus forgave our sins and yet he did so at a great personal cost.

And think about this for a moment. Every time we forgive, it comes at a cost. I don't know how many of you have ever borrowed money before, especially money from family. It's usually not a good idea to borrow money from family. But if you do, have you ever had that debt forgiven?

I don't know. I've never had a debt forgiven by a bank. But I have had a debt forgiven family before. I've borrowed money, and then I've been told these words, don't worry about it. It's our gift to you.

Now, that money that was given, it was free to me, and yet it wasn't free to the one who gave it to me. And in forgiving the debt, they gave me a great gift, and yet it cost them something. It cost me nothing, but it cost them the full amount of what they gave me, the full amount of what they forgive. Jesus gave us a great gift in the forgiveness of our sins, and yet it wasn't a free gift. Not for him.

It cost him everything. We often think that in Jesus forgiving our sins that, you know, that we

ultimately don't have to, like, pay the full price. And the great thing is that we don't have to pay the price because Jesus stood in our place. And yet we still kind of get things wrong. We often think that it's not really about the blood of Jesus covering us, that it's more if our good outweighs our bad, that somehow the scales of justice tip in our favor.

And yet the entire sacrificial system of the Old Testament shows us, and even in the New Testament, it proves the point that that is not the case. It says, only death can satisfy our debt. In the Old Testament, it required blood. We'd go before to the temple, we'd make a sacrifice, and that would cover our sins, and yet that would only cover the sins of our past. That wasn't sufficient for the sins that were to come.

And what Jesus did on the cross is, he said, not only are your sins that are behind you covered, but the sins that, that you haven't even committed yet, those are covered as well. Jesus paid a great price for us on the cross, both for our past, for our present, and in the future as well. Jesus blood doesn't just cover the sins behind us, but it covers the sins ahead of us at great cost to himself. Jesus, why did he have to die to forgive our sins? There's aha moments all through there.

Which brings us to number one and a Question like what? What reason would rise above all of those profound reasons? And I genuinely believe there is a reason that is woven all through Scripture, through all the reasons we just read. Kind of feel like we need a, you know, David Letterman drumroll or something. Coming into number one, what is the reason that Jesus had to die?

Because God loves you and your neighbor. God loves you. God loves you. I used to think of the message, God loves you is just milk and cookies, the soft stuff. Like, you want a real meaty sermon.

That's a sermon on obedience, on the Word, you know, that's a sermon. God loves you. That's a little kiddie thing. Jesus loves me. This I know.

But it's the most profound truth we can go into. And it is ultimately the reason that Jesus died. In Romans, chapter five, we read these words beginning in verse six. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person.

Though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But here's the reason. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The song, beautiful name. We used to sing it a little more. It's a little more rare now. Has a line in it in one of the verses that says, he didn't want heaven without us, so Jesus brought heaven down. My sin was great.

His love was greater. What could separate us now? Think of that. We just sang it in the song today. That was the first time I heard that.

I forget the chorus. But it was like he was wildly. What was the phrase? He was wild. He wildly loves us.

Madly. He madly loves us. Madly loves. That's a truth we need to receive. And if the truth.

Oftentimes we don't.

In this room there are many with voices of the accuser whispering in their ear, saying, God, God could never love you. You're not worthy enough of his love. We speak it over ourselves. God doesn't love me. God loves you.

God loves you. God loves you. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. So that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. God loves you.

Would you close your eyes just for a moment?

Just receive. Speak it over yourself. God loves me. Speak that. God loves me.

God loves me. Let that soak into your souls. God loves me. Now turn to a neighbor, someone on your right or left. Say, God loves you.

God loves you. Turn the other way, across the aisle. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you.

We forget this truth.

Why? Why did Jesus die on the cross? Because he loves you and he loves you and your neighbor. It doesn't stop with us. In fact, he loves you and the person who cut you off in traffic this week.

He loves you and the person who stole from you. He loves you and the person that you're fighting with, not talking to right now. He loves you and your neighbor. That's why Jesus died on the cross, that we would receive his love and share it with others. So how do we bring this home?

What do we need to do in order to live out the truth of why Jesus died for us? Number one is this is to receive God's love. We just talked about this. To receive God's love. There's a hundred reasons why we feel like we're not good enough to receive God's love.

And the truth is we're not. We can't earn God's love. There's no amount of good that we can put out into the world. There's no amount of good deeds or service to others that can help us to earn God's love, to earn the gift of Jesus sacrifice. That's what the cross is all about.

The cross proves the point that we can't earn it, that we're not good enough. And yet Jesus died nonetheless. And so what does it look like then, for us to receive God's love? I'd say, for starters, it looks like to lay down striving because we can't earn it. We can't clean ourselves up enough to earn God's love, to earn his respect.

I don't know about you, but that's a personal struggle of mine. I feel like I have to clean myself up first. I have to be presentable. I have to do the right things. There's got to be a track record of that before I am worthy of love, before I'm worthy of being honored or approved of.

And yet the cross says it's not about that. No, we are to simply rest in the love of God. We often talk about like, I can't forgive myself. And I don't think that's the right question. It's not about can I forgive myself?

It's can I receive the love and the forgiveness that God had died for, to offer for me freely? Will I receive the love of God? Will I receive the good gift of forgiveness of sins that I can step into being a child of God? For those of you who are parents, just think about it that way. Can your kids do anything to earn your love?

Absolutely not. You love them because they're your kids. In the same way, we, as God's children can live in the beauty of knowing that we are God's love. I mean, that we are God's kids, and that we can receive and rest in his love. So, number one, we receive God's love, and number two, we share God's love.

There's a thousand reasons not to share God's love with others, and yet God calls us to share it nonetheless. I was having a conversation recently with somebody who said, hey, Pastor, can you talk to my friend? I've been having conversations with them about God, and I think it would be better if you had the conversation. I'm like, no, you need to have that conversation. You don't have to be a Bible scholar.

You don't have to have been a Christian for 50 years. No, all you have to do is offer yourself to say, this is what God has done in my life. 1st Peter 3:15. Always be prepared to share an answer as to the hope that you have in Christ Jesus. No, you just.

You share the hope that you have. And let's be real, I can have a conversation with your friend. I can have a conversation with your neighbor. The reality is they're going to see the gospel lived out through you way more, way more legitimately than they'll ever have in me from listening on a

Sunday morning. We are to share the love of God.

I mean, think about that for a second. We share all sorts of things. We watch a good movie, we watch a good show on Netflix, and we go to the office the next day. Oh, my gosh, Greg, have you watched this yet? Have you watched the Quarterback show on Netflix?

Yes, Yes. I have a lot of respect for Kirk Cousins after that. Yeah, I didn't feel as good about Patrick Mahomes after that. But, like, we do that kind of stuff all the time. I went to this new restaurant.

Check this out. You should. We share it with meaningless things like food and tv, and yet we received Christ, Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins. And we're scared to share that. We don't have to preach a sermon.

We don't have to lead them in prayer to receive the gospel. It can be as simple as bringing a plate of brownies. A couple years ago after day camp one one summer, the challenge was to share love with your neighbor. And so my kids made a batch of brownies and brought it to our next door neighbor and said, God loves you. It can be as simple as sharing a plate of brownies.

Let's not just say simple. That's one of the best ways ever. Yeah. Yeah. It can be having somebody over for dinner and just sharing the love of God and say, hey, God loves you.

God loves you. So I want you to think about that. Who is it that God's placing in your heart? Who is it that needs to receive and hear about the love of God? Who in your family, in your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your school, who needs to hear of God's love?

I want to challenge you this week to go to that person. Whether it's a meal, whether it's, whether it's bringing them a coffee, whether it's just sitting down for a minute and saying, God loves you. How can I pray for you this week? Consider two things. One, that we need to each receive the love of God.

And number two, that we then go and share God's love as well so we have the privilege. I'm

glancing. Don't look at your watches. We have the privilege of closing with baptism this morning. A grand, glorious celebration.

So for those being baptized, if you want to head back, you can. I, I, I, I will say this. Being baptized is receiving God's love. And then because you've received God's love, taking a step to give your life to him, you receive God's love. And because of that, you make a commitment to say, jesus, I will follow you all of my life.

And when you do that, you pass through the waters of baptism. It's been there all through scripture. Noah received God's love, made a commitment, and passed through the waters. Moses set on the Nile passed through the waters. All of Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea.

Again, all of Israel through the waters of the Jordan River. Jesus himself talked about his own

baptism as fulfillment. Baptism is, is this first act after you receive God's love to say, jesus, I want to follow you and obey you all of my days. We'll watch a video of some of the testimonies, and we'll join in the celebration of baptism.