29th March 2024

29th March 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (John 20:1-18 focus v12)


Message (Alan Burke)


The emotion of all that is playing out here is intense, the pain of loss mixed with the body of Jesus haven for all that Mary knows been taken by grave robbers. There she stood, weeping, looking into the tomb. Anyone near would have heard the sound of Mary with the pain of grief. Looking into the tomb she saw two angels where the body of Jesus had bene laid. In our haste to get to the resurrection of Jesus we often miss the wonder of what is being shown to us in the empty tomb with the angels where Jesus’ body had laid. We are told that one at the head and the other at the foot (12), only in John’s gospel are we told this detail of the angels sitting where Jesus’ body was laid with one at the head and the other at the foot. John wants us to see something, he wants something to register with us, of who Jesus was and is, of what he had done for us, otherwise there is no need to tell us so clearly the position of the angels in the tomb. 


What we have here is a profound truth that is being conveyed to us that we can just passover without giving much thought to. After the fall God placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen 3:22–24). The Cherubim there were set to guard the way to the tree of life, they were placed there to protect God’s holiness, to prohibit sinners to access the Lord. Later God when giving the instructions of how to approach Him in worship in the book of Exodus make it clear that he is to be worshiped not by the imaginations of man but as he reveals in his word. In chapter 25 the Lord gives details for how the tabernacle is to be constructed and how his people are to approach him. In the most holy place was to be placed the ark of the covenant, it was a box that that was overlaid with gold, atop of the ark was a gold slab which was known on the mercy seat, on that mercy seat there were two cherubim of hammered gold, one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other (Ex 25:19). It was here between the cherubim that the Lord met his people, he declared to them, There I will meet you (Ex 25:22)


Surrounding the most holy place was a curtain that separated the presence of God from the people of God. Once a year on Yom Kippur, known as the day of atonement, the high priest entered the Most Holy place. Blood was spilt to make an atonement for the sin of the people and blood would be sprinkled on the ark of the covenant on the mercy seat between the cherubim to atone for the sins of the people. What John wants us to see that we often miss in our haste is that Jesus has atoned for our sin, for the angels sitting where Jesus’ body was laid with one at the head and the other at the foot that Mary saw before her as she wept pointed to how Jesus had provided the atonement for sin. He was the true propitiation for our sins, the sacrifice of bulls and goats on the day of atonement needed to be reacted every year but the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross atoned for sin, he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2:2). 


Though the death of Jesus Christ came victory. Only a true man could make atonement for the sins of man. The Old Testament sacrificial system shows us this. The animals could not satisfy completely for the sins of men. Only a man, a man who was without sin, could satisfy God's justice. But man is not without sin, and therefore could have no hope in making atonement for himself. So God would, if he were to redeem man and uphold the covenant of grace, have to provide a way for a true man to make atonement for the sins of God's elect. And he did. Christ is our propitiation, he is the one who made amends for all our sin. This is the wonder of the resurrection, though this atonement we have access to God through faith because of Jesus and his atonement for us. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q106 What do we pray for in the sixth petition?
In the sixth petition, (which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, (Matt. 6:13)) we pray, That god would either keep us from being tempted to sin, (Matt. 26:41) or support and deliver us when we are tempted. (2 Cor. 12:7–8)