April 2011

April 2011

Dearly beloved in Christ,

The high peak of the Church is Jesus and Him crucified.The happiest news of the church is the risen Jesus!Our meditation in the Great Lent is around the passion of our Lord.

For the month of April let us meditate on the Crucified Jesus.

On the Sunday before His death on the cross,Jesus triumphantly entered the city of Jerusalem.On that Monday,He spoke of His impending coming death Jn. 12:27-33."Now My heart is troubled,and what shall I say? 'Father,save Me from this hour'?--but I, when I am lifted up for the earth,will draw all men to myself.He said this to show the kind of death He was going to die---"The death of Christ embraces the sum and total of our salvation.

The story of the cross was the theme of the apostles (1 Cor. 2;1,2)"And I, brethern when I came to you,did not come with excellence of speech or of the wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" Paul was not a social reformer nor a political activist.Heglorified not in titles, but in the cross.Galations 6:14. "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,by whom the world has been crucified for me,and I to the world."the plain and simple story of the cross will exalt Christ and draw men to his bleeding side.The Cruicifiction of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Gospel 1 Cor. 15:1-3

"--- the gospel which I preached to you,which also you received and which you stand,by which also you are saved,if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain..." Ezek.18:20; " The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son.The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself,and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."Isaiah 59:12. Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy,that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have seperated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He wil not hear." Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."and the punishment for sin is death Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death,but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

In order for sins to be removed,blood had to be shed. Heb.9:22 "And according to the Laws almost all things are purified with blood, and without blood,and without shedding of blood there is no remission." Think of all the lambs slain from the days of Abel till Christ. On a normal passover day in the first centuary over 250,000 lambs would be slain!!

Picture the scene as John the Baptist sees Jesus walking toward him, and hear John say,John1:29 "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."How fitting that Lamb of God be born in a stable.It is interesting that His first visitors were shepherds. Heb. 2:9 "But we see Jesus,who was made a little lower than the angels,for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor,that He,by grace of God, might taste death for every one."

His betrayal by the disciples,His trial,His preparation for crucifixtion, His words on the cross and His death cannot be read without a broken heart and weeping eyes:let it melt our sins from our hearts to see His great resurrection. As we are baptized into Christ for the remission of sins we are baptized into His death.In baptism we re-enact His death, burial and resurrection(Romans.6:1-4).