Why Was the Death of Jesus Different From Any Other?

Les Feldick Lecture � 2 Again it�s good to see everybody, and once again we like to welcome our television audience from wherever you are. For those of you who may be new to our program, we are just an informal Bible study. We started years back in the book of Genesis, and we�ve just been coming up chapter and verse, and we�re now presently in Philippians in what we call Paul�s prison epistles. As most of you realize, Paul�s letters began with Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and beginning with Ephesians are his prison epistles that were written from prison in Rome. They are just sort of head and shoulders doctrinally above the other Pauline epistles which were elementary, such as Corinthians, Romans, and Galatians. But nevertheless as we study these prison epistles, always be aware that it is a step higher doctrinally, positionally, and all these things. So it is really meat for the soul when we get into these prison epistles. Now again I always have to remind our listening audience that all the past programs are available in either video, audio, or the little printed booklets. We do it differently than most ministries. We put 12 programs on one 6 hour long video in order to spare shelf space more than anything, and then of course the audio is the same 6 hours, and the little booklets the same way. So it can be 12 half hour programs, or a total of 6 hours of television teaching. And again we just appreciate so much the remarks that you have written on how you are enjoying either of these. Some of course like the video, some like the audio, and some like to read. Again we always like to let prison inmates know that if they really are interested and really want these little booklets, we�ll send them to prison inmates without cost. Alright I think we�re ready to get back. This is as I�ve said so often, a time for Bible study, and we just want to spend as much time as we can. Back to Philippians chapter 2, where we left off at the end of our last program in verse 6. Philippians 2. 6. Now we always have to remember, and especially when we get into these succeeding verses, never lose sight of who Jesus Christ was, and is, and always will be. He is the Eternal, Sovereign, Creator, God of the universe, and nothing less. And of course there are a lot of groups that have trouble with that, and we�ll make a little more comment on it as we move into these other verses. But He was God in the flesh, and He did not have to feel that when He claimed to be God, that He was grasping for something that was not rightfully His. And that�s what it means when it says here that He thought it not robbery, or something to grasp to be equal with God, because He was God. He could rightfully claim to be God. Verse 7. Philippians 2. But as the Eternal, Holy, Righteous, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Sovereign God, He made of Himself, of His own volition, a servant. Now you want to remember the word servant in our English, in the Greek was a bond slave. Now of course there were various categories of slaves, but I think the epitome of slavery at least back in the ancients, was to be that poor fellow on the bottom part of the ship pulling the oars. Those were slaves, and they sat down in the hulls of those ships and pulled those oars until their hands were like hamburger, and when they died they pitched them overboard and put another one in his place. That was a bond slave, and of course they had other categories, but this is the one I usually think of. When I think of a bond slave, I think of that poor soul that was delegated to that kind of a life until he died. You want to remember that was most of the ancient world. Very few enjoyed the comforts of life, that was just a small percentage of the wealthy in the aristocracy, which of course precipitated the likes of the French Revolution. This is exactly what precipitated, not that it was right, but the masses have been held down and have been causing so much suffering for so long, that finally like a seething pot it just boils over. But whatever, Christ made of His own volition Himself a bond slave, at the very lowest of human categories, made in the likeness of men. Now come back with me to Genesis chapter 18, which I usually teach as an event in the Old Testament account, to show us so graphically how God would come down and appear to the patriarchs in human form. But of course back here in the Old Testament it was temporary, and as soon as He had accomplished that particular purpose for coming down and appearing to Abraham, He would just simply disappear, and go back into glory and to the Godhead. But He still appeared to these people in human form, which was all just a precursor of when He would finally come in the flesh, not to just be a poof and out of their sight, but to be confined to that body of flesh and bone for all eternity. Now back here in Genesis chapter 18, and so verse 1. "...and the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes, and looked, and lo, three men were there." Now men have always looked like men. There wasn't a time when they had funny looking ears, and bulbous eyes, and all that. These men did not have wings, and they did not have glowing halos around their heads. They were three ordinary wayfaring men from outward appearances. But you move on down, and you'll see where Abraham runs, and he says, "...let a little feet rest yourselves under the tree, and then he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them." And he stood by them under the tree, and all three of them ate. Now who are these three people? One is the Lord Himself, and the other two are angels. But you see what happens? They came down in human form, and came walking up the path to Abram's tent, and Abram recognized them as wayfaring strangers, and showed his Middle Eastern hospitality, and fixed a meal for them, and filled their water bottles, and then said, "...you can be on your way." Little did he know of course, that one of them would be Jehovah God Himself. Now it was the same way with Jacob. Jacob wrestled with a man, not some figment of his imagination as the scoffers would say. Jacob wrestled with a flesh type human being, but it was the Lord in a temporary appearance and then He went up from him. But now when He comes by way of the virgin birth, He is the same God, but instead of just all of a sudden making a poof and disappearing from their sight, He comes all the way through the birth of a woman, He comes through His childhood, He comes in the manhood, and He begins His ministry at the age of 30, and begins then to show by His signs and wonders and miracles, His Deity, who He really was. But every time somebody looked at Him or had a meal with Him, He didn't just suddenly disappear, He was there, and they could touch Him, they could shake hands with Him, they could eat with Him. But yet as He was on the roaring waves of Galilee, He could step out into the open, raise His hand, and simply say, Peace be still, and what happened? The wind died down, and the waves slowed up, and the disciples were just amazed, and what did they say? They said, What kind of a man is this, that even the wind obeys His voice? Well I'll tell you what kind of a man He was, He was God. He never, never stopped being God. In the womb of Mary He was still God. As He was the little child playing on the streets of Nazareth in the carpenter shop, He was God. And as He confounded the doctors at the age of 12 at the temple, He was God, and never lose sight of that. So now as you come back into our text here in Philippians chapter 2, even though He had made Himself in the likeness of men, He didn't look one bit different than another average man in Nazareth. He didn't look any different than the average Jew during his 3 years of earthly ministry. They couldn't look at Him and say, Oh that's the God man. No they couldn't do that. He looked just as normal as anybody else. But when the particular situation demanded it, He could show His Deity that He was God in the flesh. Now the next verse, and being found in fashion as a man, from all outward appearances, from all His daily activity, He was just a man. And not only an upper echelon man, but a lower echelon man. Now you want to remember Joseph and Mary in Nazareth were probably next to poverty. I was just reading an account again the other day of a family in Israel where the father was a wood craftsman, just barely eking out an existence. So he did not live in a family and a home of wealth, it was abject poverty. He lived as a bond slave, a servant. That was his level amongst humanity. So being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself. No one else did it. In other words, the governmental authorities of Rome didn't humble Him, the priesthood in Jerusalem didn't humble Him, even God in His heaven didn't humble Him. He humbled Himself. It was of His own free will, of His own volition, He brought it all to pass. Another verse comes to mind, and I didn't intend to use this one, but Acts chapter 2 verses 22 -23. You'll recognize it as soon as you see it. Peter is preaching the day of Pentecost, and he says, Acts 2.2 of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, a man, approved of God among you by miracles and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know." Because most of them had seen at least some of those miracles. Now verse 23. "...him, Jesus of Nazareth, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." Now what does that determinate counsel mean? God had programmed it, God had drawn the blueprint that when man would sin, He would provide a Redeemer. And that Redeemer would have to go to a Roman cross, and so it was all in the foreknowledge of God that Israel has taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now coming back to Philippians, so when Christ sent His eyes as flint toward the cross, it was of His own volition, although the whole Godhead is certainly involved in the operation of it all. Verse 8. "...and so he was found in fashion as a man, from all outward appearances. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, not just an ordinary death, not just a death by execution of the normal way, but even the death of the cross." Now this is what I want people out in television to realize. It wasn't just the crucifixion by itself that made this so unique. Thousands of people were put to death by crucifixion under the Roman emperors. Nero at one time had 2,000 crucified and placed on each side of one of the Roman roads, so that he could ride up and down between them with his chariot and gloat at their suffering. So you see the crucifixion alone was not what made our faith in the Gospel unique. But I'll tell you what made it different from everything else, and if I don't teach anything else today that will sink in the minds of people, this is what I want it to be. That when Christ died on that Roman cross, every sin of the whole human race, from Adam until the last person before we go to eternity, was laid on Him. Now imagine all the horrible sin and guilt of a Hitler was laid on Christ. Every sin and thought and deed of a man like Nero was laid on Him, and every wicked person that you can ever conjure up in your mind, every sin was laid on Him on that cross. That's what we mean by the death of the cross. Now you see, nothing, no one, short of the power and the might and the holiness of an omnipotent Creator God, could have even thought of doing such a thing. And as I said in my first program, I laid awake part of the night last night, mulling this over. Listen, there is not another religion on the face of this earth that can claim to have someone within their belief system that could claim to have all the sins of the world placed upon them. Muhammad couldn't do it, he was human, regardless of what the Muslims may think. The head of the Buddhist religion couldn't do it, the head of Hinduism couldn't do it, the head man of Shintoism couldn't do it, Joseph Smith couldn't do it, or any of these other cult leaders. There has never been another individual that could have ever come close to taking every sin of every human being, and have it put on him. Now this is what we have to understand. Now look at a verse in 2 Corinthians, and maybe this will just sort of explode in your mind. I hope it will. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. A verse I'm sure you all know, but do we really contemplate the impact of a verse like this? What does it really say? 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. It says, "...for he, the God of verse 20, hath made him to be sin for us." In other words, he took my sin when he was on the cross, he took your sin, he took the sin of every human being, even the most wicked, the most ungodly. His sin was placed on Christ, and so he became sin for us, he who knew no sin. Of course not, he was God, he was sinless, and all for the purpose that we as believers now might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Another verse, come all the way back to Isaiah, I haven't used it for a long, long time, and I know when I did use it I had several letters that were kind of shook up. But they never knew that this was in their Bible, Isaiah 52, verses 13 and 14. Isaiah 52, verses 13 and 14, "...behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted," in spite of his role as a servant, and we're going to see this a little further on in Philippians. But now look at verse 14, you'd be surprised how many people don't know this is in their Bible. Isaiah 52, verse 14, "...as many were astonished at thee, his outward appearance was so marred or disfigured more than any man, and his form was so disfigured, it was so marred, it was so utterly distorted than anyone who had ever experienced in human history." Now you know what that tells me? No wonder Mary couldn't figure out that it was Jesus, because again, put yourself in her shoes. This is what she saw hanging on the cross as they left to go home. This is what they had as a mental picture of the Christ hanging on the cross before Joseph Arimathea put him in the tomb. And then to suddenly wake up and in the dim early light see someone standing there who looked very normal, do you see what I'm driving at? This is why she couldn't comprehend that it was him, because now of course he had now come back in his resurrected body looking very normal, and that's why she thought he was the gardener. But listen, the sins of this world were all placed on him, and that's what makes this verse in Philippians so outstanding. That he was obedient to death, not just a death of taking away his life, not just a death even by an ordinary crucifixion, because thousands had done that. But when it says the death of the cross, this is what I feel the Scripture is trying to tell us. That his death was so horrendous, and that no one but the Sovereign Eternal Creator God could have attempted to do such a thing, but He could. And that's what makes Christianity all by itself. Now this is where no other religion of the world can even come close, because they have no one that could make the claim that He has taken all their sin and put it on Himself. And so here again, this is where you and I have to stand up and let it be known all the religions of the world are just so much fluff, because they can't make this kind of a claim. They can't deal with men's sin. All they can hope to do is elevate Him morally, and maybe by His works He can make it, and we know that God will never buy into that. I was so thrilled after our seminar up in Minneapolis the other day, and a very distinguished looking gentleman came up and said, I'm a retired pastor, and I won't mention his denomination because it was totally different than mine, but that's beside the point. And he came up and said, I am so thrilled that you proclaim the same exclusivist gospel that I do. And he said, it is exclusivist. Well I've used the word several years back. Yes, our gospel is exclusivist. It excludes everything else, and it stands head and shoulders by itself. And that's what we're going to see a little later on in this chapter, that the name of Christ stands above every name. And then we have people dare to claim that they have another way of access to God. How ridiculous can they get when they have no sin bearer such as we have. This is what you have to have, you have to have a sin bearer. We can't take our sin into glory, we can't take our sin into eternity. It has to have been dealt with, and it was, and we appropriate it by simply believing it. Adolf Hitler could have believed that his sin was paid for realizing that Christ had done it, and raised from the dead, and oh Adolf Hitler could have gone into glory. Horrible individual that he was. His sins were already paid for, they were already laid on Christ. But you see he no doubt rejected it in unbelief, and you can think of any other horrible individual. And that's exactly what Paul means. Romans 5 verse 20, "...moreover the law entered, that the offence or sin might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." So no matter how heinous the sinner, no matter how heavy his sin load, it's all been laid on Christ, because he was obedient unto death. But not just a death by crucifixion, a death that suffered the sin of the whole world. And this is what sets us apart. No one else can make a claim like that. And so always remember, he was obedient even to the death of the cross.