When I was about 18 years old, I hurt my back very badly. I was preparing for my university entrance exam, so I was desperate to get well and return to my classes. I asked God – pleaded with Him endlessly – to heal me. I attended healing services. I believed He would heal me. He didn’t. I was in and out of hospital for a number of months. I missed my exams that year. I thought I had wasted a year of my life. God didn’t heal me the way I wished He would.
Looking back, I am grateful that He didn’t heal me in the way I thought I needed to be healed. God is sovereign and He has his timing. God in His wisdom will cause His ways to come into effect. The following year I fell in love with Theresa, my wife to be. Just as important, that period of being unwell gave me an opportunity to read the Bible – cover to cover – for the first time. Also, for the first time, I appreciated the message of the Gospel in its entirety. I saw its context. I began to understand the Bible in its entirety, a little better. Several years later I heard a sermon which threw even greater light on what the Bible was all about. In a word: Jesus. The Bible is about God’s salvation for mankind in Jesus. That in and of itself, is the all powerful gospel.
Genesis 1 and 2 set out the creation of the world. It was a very good world. Some call it paradise. Genesis 3 then sets out the fall of man. It became paradise lost. God then pronounced judgment on man and hinted at salvation. In chapter 3 verse 15 of Genesis God said:
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Most readers at this juncture would ask: “Well who is this offspring of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head?”
Then in Genesis 4 we see Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel. Abel died and Cain was banished. Neither of them is the offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. Seth came next. Nope, he wasn’t either. Next big guy was Noah. He built a terrific ark to save the world. Would he be the one to crush the serpent’s head? No, he enjoyed his wine too much. Unfortunately He and I share a common weakness. Next was an explosion of world population. Things got ugly. Babel happened. Paradise seems to be disappearing even faster. We begin to despair. Where is that offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head? Will paradise ever return? Who was the next possible candidate to bring salvation? Abraham? Isaac? Jacob? Joseph? Moses? Joshua? Samuel? Or was it David? Solomon? Elijah? Daniel? Or is it Isaiah? As we read on in the Old Testament, one after another the giants and heroes came and went, but none of them was the offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head.
But we begin to see, in Abraham, what God has in store. We begin to understand His plans to usher the arrival of the offspring of the woman who will crush the serpent’s head. We begin to see the return of paradise. We are told to expect great things – in the form of the revelation of God’s salvation to mankind. We are told that the Messiah will come. He would come to restore paradise.
And then Jesus arrived. It turned out that God’s very own begotten Son was to be the offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head. That like Paul alluded to repeatedly, is at the heart of the mystery of God’s glory. However, contrary to expectation, his arrival was low key. He was born in a manger and grew up to be a carpenter. His hometown was Galilee, the ancient equivalent of central Queensland – ie nowhere. But from the time when He was a child, He was special. He taught teachers. He performed many types of miracles. He healed. He raised the dead. He knew people’s past. He made bread and fish multiply. He commanded the storm to be still. He turned water into wine. And then there was the greatest miracle of all. Having been killed on the cross, He rose from the dead. He returns to sit at the right hand of God and promised us that He is preparing to return and take us into His fold.
Against that context, the Bible made more sense. It was always about Jesus being the answer for our salvation and reconciliation with God. That, said Paul in Romans 1:16, is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. It is in the gospel that a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last[c] just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
So as we gather this morning to celebrate the communion, let us remember the redemptive act of God in Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus alone is our salvation. The death and resurrection of Jesus alone is what we are to share with the world.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your gift of redemption in and through Jesus, Your only begotten Son. We thank You for Your great act of sacrificial love in sending Him to the cross so that we may not perish for our sin. We thank You for His obedience even unto shameful death. The cross on which your Son bore our shame, you have made Your glory. Help us to look at that Cross on which Your Son died and to that Cross alone for our salvation. We thank You for the empty tomb from which your Son rose. Help us to look at Cross and the resurrection alone for our salvation. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
In Matthew 26, it says in verse 26:
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."
Let us eat the bread together to remember acknowledge Jesus’ death on the cross and our salvation He brings.
Verse 27 – Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28This is my blood of the[a] covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Let us now drink from the cup and accept the shedding of Jesus blood on the cross for our sin. May God bless and keep us all in His loving care.
Ante 