Hawaii 5 – The Hinge of History

And so last night um we discussed theprophecy of Daniel chapter 9, the 490earprophecy. We saw that the Messiah cameexactly on time in AD27 in the fall ofAD27 and he died exactly 3 and 1/2 yearslater on Calvary in spring or PassoverAD.31. and that that prophecy wentthrough to AD.34 with the stoning ofStephen and the gospel going to theGentiles. And so we've seen so far thatGod is the Lord of history. Would youagree with me on that?

God revealsmysteries uh centuries in advance. Hereveals what is going to happencenturies in advance. And uh fromtomorrow onwards, we're going to getinto some more uh some related topicssuch as what happens when you die.That's one of our topics this comingweek. Uh tomorrow we're discussing whathappens when you are baptized and whenyou are born again in Christ. And we'regoing to be discussing what happens atthe end of time later this week.

Buttonight I want to discuss uh the topicis the hinge of history. And I guess Ishould put it up on the slides for youthere. I hope that appears. Yep, thereit is. The hinge of history becauseeverything in the Bible revolves aroundthe cross of Calvary.

And the entire OldTestament points forwards to the thelife and the death and the resurrectionof Christ. And the entire New Testamentexplains what the first coming of Jesusmeant and what it means to live for hissecond coming. And Martin Luther saidthat scripture was the cradle in whichthe baby Christ was laid. And so tonightwe're going to discuss the turning pointof human history, the hinge around whicheverything else revolves. And it is thedeath of Christ on Calvary.

So as webegin, I invite you to bow your headswith me. Invite the presence of the HolySpirit. So shall we pray? Our dearheavenly father, we [clears throat]thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ,your son, who came into this world, notto condemn the world, but that the worldmight be saved through him.Father, as we dwell this evening on thedeath of Calvary and what it meant, whatit meant then, what it means for ustoday, I'm asking that your Holy Spiritto inspire these scriptures will speakthrough me and you'll bring convictionand conversion and courage Aresh to allthose who are present here tonight andthose who are watching online tonight.We ask, Father, that Jesus will beglorified not just as the savior of theworld, but as our personal savior aswell. I thank you, Father, for hearingthis prayer.

In the name of Jesus, wehumbly ask. Amen. All right. So, uh,being raised in England and this this isour journey tonight. We're going to lookat some of the context for Calvary.Then, God with us, Emanuel, God for us,the Lamb of God, God over us, the Kingof Kings and Lord of Lords.

Then, we'regoing to dwell on what the cross ofCalvary actually means. And then we'regoing to come to our conclusions. When Iwas growing up in in Europe, uh whatEurope is famous for is its history andparticularly its art treasures. And ifyou ever get the chance to go to Europe,I'd encourage you to go to some of thegreat art galleries there because yousee the most fantastic art and sculptureanywhere in the world. One of the mostfamous pieces is the Pieta byMichelangelo um done in 1499.

It showsum Mary holding the the dead body ofChrist. Um, and it's a it's a very verylifelike sculpture made out of puremarble. And when you come close to it,it kind of glistens this soft white.It's an incredible piece of ofsculpture. And then this is one of myfavorite paintings here. It's Christbefore the high priest by Van Hontos.And there's a lot of symbolism in thesepictures, but here you see the lightbetween Christ and the high priest.Jesus is the light of the world.

Thelight, the face of Jesus is lit up.Everybody around him is in the shadows.And the high priest has his finger up.He's accusing. And in front of Christ,there is a light. And in front of thehigh priest, there's an accusing finger.And the high priest, his hand is betweenhim and the light of the world. There'sa lot of symbolism in this particularpicture. And I don't have this at home.Um, but it's a picture I I often kind ofthink about um in my personal life.

Andthis is maybe my favorite picture ofall. It's a very famous picture. It'scalled etch homo. It's painted byAntonio Ceseri. And uh this is a pictureof Pilate presenting Jesus and thejudgment hall to to the crowd of theJewish leaders and the Jewish peoplethere in Jerusalem.

And there's a lot ofdetails in this picture. If you'refamiliar with familiar with the Biblestory, you see the woman on the righthand side with her face turned away fromChrist. That is Pilate's wife. and she'sjust passed her message onto her husbandto have nothing to do with this manbecause she suffered much in a dreamthat night because of him.And there are many other details. If youtake the time, you see the details inthis picture.

But Pilate uh the Romangovernor, he Jesus has been scourged andhis back has been torn open by by the umthe flogging. And Pilate brings him outand Jesus is wearing a crown of thornsand he's wearing a royal purple robe.He's been mocked by the soldiers andPilate brings out this this batteredbleeding body and he says to the Jews,"Behold the mane homo like is thisreally your messiah? Is this really yourking?" It's a poignant moment um in thestory of the crucifixion of Christ andso let's think for a few moments aboutthe immediate context of Calvary itself.So we start on the Thursday nightbecause Jesus we believe was crucifiedon the Friday. On the Thursday evening,Jesus had been in the Garden ofGethsemane. He'd been arrested um byJudas and some soldiers.

He was takenfirst to Annus, who was the ex- highpriest. Then he was taken to Caiaphas,the current high priest. And then he wastaken to the full Jewish legal councilknown as the Sanhedrin, and through anexhausting night of legal exchanges. Andnone of this was legal because theSanhedrin was not allowed to meet atnight. This was an extra legal processgoing on.

They were so determined to getrid of Jesus, they were willing to breakall of their rules. By the time Jesus iscarrying his cross to um Calvary, he'dbeen dragged like a commons criminalthrough the darkened streets. He's beenspat upon. He's been beaten about theface. He's been slapped in the head.He's been cruy bound.

He's beenabandoned by his disciples. He's beendenied by Peter. He's been publiclymocked and ridiculed and condemned todeath. all before his legal trial hasbegun.If you want to know about policebrutality, take a look at this storyhere.And John 19 1-5,[clears throat] Pilate has Jesusflogged.And the text says, "Then Pilate tookJesus and had him flogged. And thesoldiers wo a crown of thorns and put iton his head.

And they dressed him in apurple robe. And they kept coming up tohim saying, "Hail, King of the Jews."and striking him in the face. Pilatewent out again and said to them, "Look,I'm bringing him out to you to let youknow that I find no case against him."So Jesus came out wearing the crown ofthorns and the purple robe. And Pilatesaid to them in Latin homo or inEnglish, "Behold, or here is the man."And so Pilate recognizes that Jesus isinnocent, that there is no case to beanswered, and that Jesus should reallybe set free. But if you look at whatPilate did to Jesus, it's verymeaningful there.

The Romans had threekinds of beatings you see there on thescreen. The first was known as afusigacio. That's a minor beating for amin for a common offense. You might saythat's a track a traffic ticket today orparking ticket. But if if you were to ifyou were guilty of a serious crime, thenthey had what was called fugilatio.

Weget the word flogging from that inEnglish. And that was a severe beatingthat would cause you severe bodilyinjury and that was for a severeoffense. But the intent was not to killyou or to prepare you for death. Butwhat Pilate did to Jesus was a verbatiowhich was a brutal scourging. And uh itwas designed to bring you withinliterally an inch of death itself.

Itwas a brutal scourging designed tosoften up the prisoner literally. Um thethe beatings were so bad with thescourges that it would take all theflesh off the back. Your your boneswould be visible. Your endrails would bevisible. Josephus writes about this inhis Jewish histories in the Galileanrevolt.

He used to do this to peopleuntil quotes their endrails were bare.And so Jesus goes through a brutalscourging designed to bring him quiteright up to the point of death, but notquite to kill him.And the soldiers, they mock Jesus. Theycrown him with thorns. The thorns of adate palm go up to 12 in long. Thesearen't like 2 in thorns. These are longthorns on a on a date palm tree for theMiddle East.

It's like the crown of adivine Greek god on the head of Christ.They give him a robe, a symbol ofroyalty. They put a reed in his hand.They're mocking him with the idea of aroyal scepter. And the soldiers comedown to Jesus and they fall down infalse worship and they think this is theking of the Jews. These people arefighting against us to put this man onthe throne. We're going to make fun ofhim before we kill him.

And thosesoldiers, they pour out their hatredupon Jesus. And if you want to know whatsoldiers will do, look at the killingfields of Cambodia under Paul. Look atwhat the communists did in Chowoescu'scommunist prisons in the 1950s, the1960s, 1970s in Romania. when when lawenforcement and the military want totake it out on somebody, they reallybrutalize the individual involved. Andthen when Jesus has finished goingthrough this process, Pilate brings himout and he says, "Behold the man." Andwhat do they see?They see a man who is tired.

He's gonewithout sleep. He's hungry and thirsty.His gaunt face is actually swollen fromthe beatings. His eyes are puffy fromrepeated poundings. Down his face miruns a mixture of blood and spittle fromthe soldiers. His back is torn toribbons.

The crown of thorns pressesupon his brow. It causes fresh bleedingwith every movement. Maybe the bones onhis back are now showing. He's probablypale and slowm moving from loss of bloodand shock. He's abandoned by friends,denied by colleagues, victim of acorrupt legal system and officialbrutality.

He's a refugee from hischildhood. He's a peasant from aworkingclass area in Galilee. Heprobably speaks uh um Hebrew with afunny accent as his disciples speak likeGalileans. Maybe so did Jesus. Everybodyknows who his mother is, but nobodyknows who his father is.As you might say, he's mama's baby, butpapa's maybe.When Pilate says, "E homo, behold theman."Who do we see?The first thing we see is one of thenames for Jesus is this Emmanuel whichmeans God with us.They see a man who is battered andbruised and bleeding but nonethelessthey see a man standing before them.

TheBible describes Jesus in his flesh. Itsays and the word became flesh and livedamong us and we have seen his glory. Andwhen we imagine Jesus standing there inthe Pilate, the judgment hall of Pilateand Pilate is saying, "Behold the man,this picture removes any doubt about thehumanity of Christ." Jesus knows what itwas to suffer physically. He also knowswhat it means to suffer emotionally. Hewas abandoned by those closest to him.Peter, his lead disciple, denied him.And it's probably better to not toimagine what those soldiers actually didto him.

Jesus suffered physically and hesuffered emotionally. The Bible saysthis, "He was despised and we esteemedhim not." And Psalm 22, a messianicpsalm that Jesus applies to himself onCalvary, he said, "I am a worm and not aman, scorned by men and despised by thepeople."When I think of the ocean of humanexistence out there tonight and all thepain that there is out there on planetEarth tonight, I realize that God hasn'tabandoned us in our suffering. But Jesushas walked the path of suffering foreach one of us. He knows what it meansto suffer. And God with us means thatGod hasn't abandoned us to this littlecorner of the universe.

But God haswalked with us. He's walked my path. Heknows what extreme physical pain feelslike. He knows what extreme emotionaland psychological pain feels feels like.And the good news is he didn't walkaway. What else do we see on that onthat judgment hall of Pilate?

We don'tjust see God with us, Emmanuel, but wesee God for us. That is the lamb of God.At the beginning of his ministry, Johnthe Baptist points to Jesus and he givesthis very famous um prophetic utterance.He says, "Behold the lamb of God thattakes away the sin of the world." Andthe death of Jesus, his crucifixion istaking place at the Passover festival.You know, last night we spoke about thePassover in Egypt and the the angel ofdeath passing over and the Jewish peoplehaving to sacrifice a lamb and put it ontheir doorways and the lentils of theirhomes. This was it. This was lookingforward by faith to Jesus as the lamb ofGod who would come to take away the sinsof the world. Uh the apostle Peter wrotethis about the death of Christ onCalvary.

He said, "He himself bore oursins in his body on the cross so thatfree from sins we might live forrighteousness. By his wounds, you havebeen healed." So the death of Christ onCalvary was a liberating death. It was ahealing death for us. Why is he died onCalvary so that we might live free fromsins.It means we might live free from thepresence of sin. Might we we it means wemay live free from the power of sin, thedominion of sin and addictive andcompulsive behaviors that drive so manypeople today.

It means that we live freefrom the presence, the power and alsothe penalty of sin. For the wages of sinis death, but the free gift of God iseternal life through Christ Jesus ourLord. And so when we accept the death ofthe lamb of God on our behalf, sohealing begins in all those dimensionsof life that are important to me andimportant to you, we start to experiencehealing with our relationship with God,relationship, our relationships with ourspouses and our children and our lovedones. In the Garden of Eden, when theLord God came walking after Adam and Evehad taken of the fruit, God asked them aquestion. He said, "What have you done?"I often think to myself, how did God saythat question?

Um, I'm presuming hespoke English in that moment. So, um, Idon't think he spoke English, but justimagine for a moment he spoke English.Maybe it was in Hebrew, maybe it was inRussian. I don't know what language hewas speaking that moment. But if Jesusspoke, if God spoke that question in inum in English, there are four ways tosay this question. The first way isthis.

What have you done? It's like anexasperated patient, a parent. Anotherway to ask this question is what haveyou done?The third way to ask this question iswhat have you done? And the fourth wayto ask is what have you done?And each of those questions are slightlychanged in intonation has a slightlydifferent meaning. But the question thatGod asked of the first Adam in theGarden of Eden is the same question thatPilate asks of Jesus in his trial as thesecond Adam.

Pilate says to Jesus inJohn 8 John 18:35,"What have you done?" He knows Christ isinnocent. And so he says,"Well, whathave you done?" And the same questionfrom the Garden of Eden that was askedof the guilty Adam is now asked ofChrist, the innocent Adam, at hiscrucifixion and his trial before PontiusPilate. So on that podium, beneath theblood and the gore, the sweat and thetears, and the spittle and the pain,what do we see? We don't just see Godwith us. A God who shows solidarity withus in the midst of our sufferings anddoesn't turn his back on us when we'reweeping and going through health crisesand the the challenges of life.

But wealso see God for us. That is the lamb ofGod, a savior dying to save and dying tosave you and me. And then the thirdthing we see up there on Calvary is notjust God with us. Emanuel is not justlamb of God, God for us, but it's alsoGod over us. that is Jesus Christ as theking of kings and lord of lords and thequestion was asked of Jesus in all fourgospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and Johnthat pilate asked the same question.

Hesaid are you the king of the Jews? Nowthis was a loaded question because ifJesus was the king of an earthly kingdomthen he would be viewed as a threat tothe Roman Empire and Pilate would bejustified in killing Jesus. But Jesussaid to Pilate that my kingdom is not ofthis world or my servants would fight tosave me. So Jesus is a king, but he'snot a kingdom of this world. And so whenPilate had Jesus crucified, the textsays that above the head of Christ,Pilate wrote a little expression inLatin, in in in Greek, and in Aramaic.And there's just um an artist'simpression of there.

I N R I I N R I I NR I which means Jesus Nazarenos RexUdeorum. That's Latin. It means Jesus ofNazareth, King of the Jews. And so whenPilate crucified Christ, he put abovehis head Jesus of Nazareth, the king ofthe Jews. There you see the the the umit's the acronym there in the Latinlanguage.

He was mocking the Jewishhopes of Messiah. So Jesus was a tool inPilate's hands to rub the Jews messianichopes in the ground and he was paradedbefore the crowd in this sense ofmockery. You believe you have a Messiah,says Pilate? Well, here he is. Beholdthe man, a pathetic, a beaten, a bowed,a bloodied figure, his entire regalia,his robe of of purple robe and his crownof thorns, a mockery of what it means tobe a real king.

And the Jewish audienceand the Jewish leaders, they understoodthe significance of the moment becausewhen Pilate said be said, behold theking, behold the man. Later on, the Jewscry out and they say, "We have no kingbut Caesar." And in so doing, the Jewishpeople gave up their official hopes inthe Messiah.They gave up, it was the the abandonmentof the messianic hope of the people ofIsrael. They gave up the fundamentalrelationship between God and Israel.Earlier in the prophecies, the prophetssay, "We have many, we've had manyrulers, oh God, but you alone are ourGod."But when the Jews now say at the trialof Jesus, "We have no king but Caesar."And this is their rejection officiallyof the Messiah of God. But despite themockery and the rejection and the funand the games, the Bible says that Jesusis still a king. And when Jesus comesagain that we read this in Revelation19:16, it says there on his robe and onhis thigh, he has a name inscribed, Kingof Kings and Lord of Lords.So Jesus is a king and he's my king andby God's grace to be your king as well.So what does the cross of Christ mean?Well, the cross of Christ towels aboveevery other moment in human history.

Andwhen Jesus was with his disciples inMatthew 16, he asked them a questionthat has echoed down through the agesand every man, woman or child has toanswer this question. And it is this.Jesus said to the disciples, "Who do yousay that I am?" And everybody has toanswer that question. And your answer tothat question uh determines whether youreceive eternal life or whether youreceive eternal destruction. And you maysay, "Well, Pastor Vine, Jesus died, youknow, 2020 2,000 some years ago. Um, ishis death really that important in mylife today?" Well, let me ask you thequestion.

Um, do does everybody herehave a birthday?Yes. Does anybody here not have abirthday? Okay. I Okay, thank you,brother. So, um, I I've just turned acertain age, like I'm early to mid-40s.I'm not saying exactly where I am, butI've reached a certain point where Idon't want to remember my birthdayanymore.

And I dread my birthdays comingalong because it means I'm one stepcloser to the grave unless Jesus comessoon. And you you reach a certain pointin life where things start going wrongwith your body. All right? And and soyou know when I was 40 years old, I wokeup one morning and um I didn't thinkanything of it. I sat up in beside mybed.

I put my foot down, my feet down,and there was this stabbing pain like uma nail going up through my right heel.I thought, "What on earth could thatbe?" So, I hopped to the to the bathroomand I sat down. I pulled out my phoneand I and I typed in uh stabbing painunder the right heel and it said planttofasciitis.I thought plantto fasciitis. I'd neverheard of this before. So, I did a quickGoogle search. What is planttofasciitis?

Remember it was my 40thbirthday and WebMD said planttofasciitis is a condition thatparticularly affects men aged 40 andabove. I thought, "What remarkableaccuracy."And I go to the doctor at the age of 40and the doctor says, "Mr. Divine, thetime has come." I said, "What time hascome?" She says, "Now you're age 40. Wehave to check your prostate every otheryear." I thought, "Oh, you're kiddingme. Some of you guys know what I'mtalking about.

Some of you younger guys,praise the Lord, you're still younger."And then I turned 50 and the doctorsaid, "Mr. Vine, the time has come." Ithought, "Oh no, what's happening now?"And she says, "Now it's time for you tohave a colonoscopy every 5 years." Ithought, "Colonoscopy?" as far as Iknow, I'm okay. She says, "No, we needto take a look inside you." And so, I'mdreading going to the doctor when I'm 60and we discover there's a whole newrange of tests they want to perform onme.But this question, who do you say that Iam?Each one of us has to answer thatquestion. I was born in, let's say,hypothetically 1975.That's not my real date of birth.But the day, the month, and the year ofmy date of birth are calculated from thelife of Christ.And the day I entered elementary schoolwas calculated from the life of Christ.And the day I graduated from elementaryschool is calculated the calendar fromthe date of Christ. And the day Ientered high school and took my leavingmy high school leaving exams.

And thecertificates that I have, thecertificates on my high school leavingexams have dates which are calculatedfrom the life of Christ.And the day you get married and the dayyou have children and the day you getyour first paycheck and every paycheckyou get here in Hawi today in 2026 has adate on it. Every paycheck you have fromthe daily bread you eat is dependentupon the life of Christ. There isnothing significant in your life that isnot calculated in reference to the lifeof Christ. So whether you believe in himor not as the savior of the world,everything significant in your life isbased on the life of Christ. The day youknow you have your weddinganniversaries.

Some people remember thefirst date, the date of the second date,the date of the third date. Um and somepeople remember the day that you askedme to marry me and so forth. Butwobbitai the man who forgets his weddinganniversary. Yes, that's the one thingyou are not supposed to forget. And uhyour your spouse's birthday and soforth.

But every significant event inyour life in Maui in 2026 is calculatedwith reference to the life of JesusChrist. There is nothing significant inyour life that is not calculated fromthe time from the time of Christ.So you say, "Well, his life has noimpact on my life." Really?If I were to claim social security fromthe federal government next week when Iget back to Michigan, they're going tosay, "Oh no, Mr. Vine, you're not oldenough." Well, how do we know that?Because when we calculate your life fromthe life of Christ, you haven't reachedthe requisite number of years.That's what the federal government'sgoing to say to me. You can't retirewith the federal government systemunless you've reached a certain numberof years from the time of Christ.So everything important in your life isreference to the life of Christ, whetheryou accept him or whether you don'taccept him. And Jesus asked thisquestion of the disciples.

Who do yousay that I am?And your response to that questiondetermines whether you receive eternallife tomorrow and forgiveness for yoursins today or whether you walk a lifethat knows that one day you're going togo to death and then eternalnothingness.This is an important question.So why did Jesus come? The Bible givesus a variety of answers. The first oneis fulfillment of the promise of God inthe Garden of Eden. We've covered this afew times already where God spoke to theserpent after he tempted Eve and Adaminto sinning. And God says to theserpent, "I'll put emity between you andthe woman, between your offspring andhers.

He will strike your head and youwill strike his heel." So, one of thereasons Jesus came was to crush Satanonce and for all. And I say praise Godfor that cuz there's too much sufferingin our world. If you don't believe me,just walk through any hospital ward, goto any assisted living facility, go toany old person's home and you just see alot of suffering. There's a lot ofsuffering going on in Maui right now.There's in all across the United States,people are suffering. And Jesus came todestroy the cause of all suffering.Jesus also came to reveal God to us.

Theapostle Philip said to Jesus in John14:8, he said, "Uh, Lord, show us thefather." And Philip wanted Jesus to showus who God really is. And in Jesus'response to Philillip, two verses later,Jesus said, "Whoever has seen me hasseen the father." So if you want to knowwho God is, you want to know what hischaracter is like, you want to know howhe relates to human beings, you want toknow what his plans for you and hispurposes for you, you need to only lookat the life and ministry and teachingsof Christ, and you're going to get aperfect image of what God the Fathermeans to you and what he wants for youin your life. Jesus came to reveal Godto us. There wasn't a town Jesus walkedthrough, but the sick were not healed.There wasn't a funeral he w he came upto, but the dead were raised to life.there wasn't a leper he would meet, buthe would cleanse him of that of thatdeathdealing um illness of leprosy. Uh Ican just imagine when Jesus walkedthrough town um you might say Jesuswasn't the rain maker, he was the joymaker.

If Jesus walked through yourtown, if Jesus walked through Kihi andevery single individual of Kihi wascured of all their diseases, can youimagine the joy in Kihi? Can you imaginethe joy all across this island? Butthat's what Jesus' ministry was like. Hecame to reveal that there is we have anawesome heavenly father who loves us ashis children and who delights to do goodfor his children. Jesus also came in thegospel in the book of Isaiah.

He came tobe the suffering servant of God. Now thepassages are up there on the screen.We're not going to look through thosepassages here tonight.But Jesus came to be the sufferingservant of God. These are some profoundpassages. The suffering servant of Godis the anointed of God. He is theMessiah of God.

He came to establishjustice on the earth. He came to extendGod's saving ways not just to the Jews,but to the Gentiles all around theworld. He came to be God's agent of oursalvation. And he would fulfill thesetasks by voluntarily submitting to adeath on the cross of Calvary.Jesus also came to leave us an example.He came to leave us an example of whatperfect obedience to our heavenly fatherlooks like. You know, obedience has gota bad reputation these days,but obedience within a lovingrelationship is a sign of love.So, let's say that I know hypotheticallywhat my wife's favorite restaurant isand it's our wedding anniversary andbeing a righteous husband, I offer to mywife, let's go for a meal.

My wife saysyes. and she knows that I know what herfavorite restaurant is. But we driveinto town and we drive past her favoriterestaurant and we pull into Taco Bell.Did I take my wife out for a meal? Yes.Did I win any brownie points for thatTaco Bell? No.

That may be my favorite,the the cheese bean and rice burrito,maybe. Or it used to be the seven layerburrito, but then it got discontinuedfor some tragic reason.But I know what my wife's favoriterestaurant is. And if we go out for ameal, because I love my wife, I want tobring her joy. I'm going to take her toher favorite restaurant. And Jesus said,"If you love me, keep my commandments."And so when you're in a loving covenantrelationship, love is expressed byhonoring the wishes of the other partyto that relationship.And so Jesus came to give us an exampleof what perfect obedience to God lookslike.

He showed us what it means toabide in our heavenly father's love. Heshowed us what it means to please ourheavenly father. And it's because Jesusis our perfect example. The apostle Paulsays that we are to be imitators ofChrist. The apostle Paul goes on to sayin Romans 13:14 that we are to put onthe Lord Jesus Christ and make noprovision for the flesh to gratify itsdesires.

We are to abide in Christ. Weare to walk as Christ walked. And we areto live in love after the pattern ofChrist. So Jesus came to show us how weare to live um uh as as he lived so thatwe can perfectly reflect our heavenlyfather's will. Jesus also came to healthe weak and the sick.Jesus said that the healthy have no needof a physician but the sick need aphysicianand each one of us is sin sick in oursouls.That's the truth of the matter.

Far fromlooking down on the weak and the frail,Jesus paid particular attention to thebroken in body and the broken in heart,he touched the lepers when nobody elsewould go near them. He touched theceremony unclean.He embraced little children. when Jesuscomes to this 12-year-old girl, thestory is in Mark 6, and uh the thewoman, the girl's father is calledGyrus, and he's the ruler of thesynagogue, and he's been begging Jesusto heal his daughter. When Jesus finallygets to that little girl's bedside, hesays to her, and the text says,"Talithakum," and the the English says,the English translation says, whichmeans little girl, arise.But the Aramaic doesn't quite meanlittle girl. It's a term of endearment.Now, I have a daughter and we have aterm of endearment in our family for ourdaughter.

I won't say what it is heretonight, but who here has a child thatyou have a personal term of endearmentfor? Let's say the ch your son's name isJames, but you have a personal term ofendearment for your little boy. Mostparents have that for their child. WhenJesus says that to that Gyrus'sdaughter, that 12-year-old girl who'sdead, he doesn't just say, "Little girl,get up." Um the the the expression inAramaic is better translated as littlelamb.Little lamb. It's time to get up.

AndJesus is the good shepherd who comeslooking for his little lamb. And heraises that little lamb from the deadand she's restored to her father. Youknow, Jesus is the son of David. Davidwas a shepherd boy. And Jesus said toKing Saul before the battle withGoliath, he said, "Um, your servant is ashepherd boy." He says, "When a lion ora bear would take one of my sheep, Iwould go and fight that lion and I wouldkill that liner.

I'd kill that bear. I'drescue the lamb and bring it back to theflock." Now, let me ask you, if you werea shepherd boy and a lion takes one ofyour lambs, let's say you have a hundsheep in your flock, what's the sensiblething to do? Fight the lion for thatlamb or hustle a 99 to safety? Whatwould you do?I'd hustle a 99 to safety. Why?

Becausenext year those 99 will be 150 anyway.And if I were an accountant, I'd justwrite off that one lamb as a bad debtprovision every year. I'm going to writeoff one lamb a year because the lions orthe bears are going to get them. ButJesus is the lamb of God. And whenDavid, that shepherd boy, he fought thelion in order to win back that lamb. Nomatter how badly damaged that lamb wascovered in blood and spittle and goreand probably limp from shock being takenby the lion, David went looking for thatlamb.

He was going to get his lamb back.For David's the shepherd boy, no causewas a lost cause.And Jesus is the son of David and he isthe good shepherd.And for Jesus, no cause is a lost causetoday either. He comes looking for hislambs. He fights for his children. Hefights for my children. He fights foryour children.

He fights for me. And hefights for you. He didn't just come toheal the sick. He came to save us fromthe attacks of Satan. He also came toreveal to us the true extent and horrorof sin in this world.

I've flown on manyplanes.I've been flying non-stop since I was18.I must be at a couple of million milesby now, which is a terrible, terribleachievement in life. If any of you havereached a million miles, you know thatthat's not an achievement you want inlife.But I used to fly a lot into Africa,particularly Kenya and um Sudan, Kartum.And when you're flying in in in KenyaAirways, you read through the in-flightmagazine, and the the rear third of themagazine is filled with adverts. They'readvertising 24/7 armed security unitsand response units. They're advertisingbarbed wire. They're advertisingelectric fences.

They're advertisingautomated steel gate systems. They'readvertising how um steel grates on yourwindows. And you fly into the citythinking what kind of place am I flyinginto here if they're advertising all thesecurity equipment.And so somewhere in buried in all themidst of this security stuff, they'readvertising on the air Kenya air KenyaAirways magazines. They say, "But wehave an incredible culture and a vibranthistory and come to our um the the uhthe traditional market where you'regoing to find traditional handiccraftsall made in China."And I would fly into somewhere likeNairobi.Just outside Nairobi, you've got verylarge what we call shanty towns orcenters where millions of people live inin very very poor conditionswhere the average onset age of sexualactivity for girls is between 9 and 10.And you know that's not of their ownfree will. And you'd fly in under coverof night and you look down and under thecover of darkness there's a whole lot ofsuffering going on down there.And Jesus came to reveal to us thehorror of sinbecause we've kind of gotten too used toit.

We've reached the stage in societywhere if there's a gruesome death in amovie, people laugh.Where if somebody is suffering, we tendto walk by on the other side of the roadbecause we don't want to get sucked intothat vortex of chaos. Who knows? Theymight invite us to come and visit andspend time with them and offer practicalassistance. But Jesus came to reveal tous the full extent and horror of sin inour world. His sinless life rebuked sinand invited us to receive God'sforgiveness and to enter into a unionwith Jesus through baptism who from thefirst has overcome the world and whoalone can save us from the wages of sinwhich is death.

Jesus came to be ourfaithful high priest. What does it meanto be a priest? A priest has two roles.A priest represents gods to the peopleand the priest also intercedes on behalfof the people with God. So a priest hastwo roles and Jesus came to be ourfaithful high priest. He came to um rereveal God to us and he also came tointercede with God on our behalf.

So heis our faithful high priest. But when hecomes to the specifics of what he did onCalvary, the death of Christ on Calvary,he his death was a saving death. Thereare some verses I'll put there up on thescreen that reveal what the Bible saysabout this, how Christ's death was asaving death on our behalf. It says thatJesus came in 1 John 3:8 to destroy theworks of the devil. I can say amen tothat.

We read in 1 John 3:5 that Jesuswas revealed to take away sins. And youmay say, well, that's a theologicalconcept. Well, if if you've grown upwith divorce and disease and drugs anddespair and depression, you know whatJesus came to save you from. Luke 19:10when Jesus spoke with Zakius. Jesus saysto Zakius, "For the Son of Man came toseek and to save the who?" The lost.

Isay, "Praise God for that. God hasn'tforgotten me. God isn't is just notconsigning me to the dustpin ofeternity. He sent his son to seek and tosave the lost. Those who have yet tohave a saving knowledge of Christ." John3:17, we quoted this last night.

For Goddid not send his son into the world tocondemn the world, but that the worldmight be saved through him. And I sayamen to that. And then the final quotethere, 1 Timothy 1:15 says, "The sayingis sure and worthy of full acceptancethat Christ Jesus came into the world towhat?To save sinners." And I say, "Praise Godfor that." God did Jesus did not comeinto the world to condemn sinners. Jesuscame into the world to seek and to savethose who are lost in sin. And if youare a sinner today, Jesus came for you.He didn't come to condemn.

He didn'tcome to wag his fingers. He didn't cometo announce your eternal destruction. Hecame to seek and to save that which waslost. So his death was a saving death.His death was a sacrificial death. Weread in John 1:29, "Behold the lamb ofGod that taketh away the sin of theworld." 1 Corinthians 5:7, the ApostlePaul says, "Christ our Passover lamb hasbeen sacrificed." Romans 4:25 discussesthe death of Christ and says he was putto death for our trespasses.

Ephesians5:2 says, "In his death, Christ was aquote, a fragrant offering and asacrifice to death." and Matthew 26:28um when Jesus spoke in the Lord's supperand he was passing out the the the grapeof the the the glass of grape juice asthey went through the Jewish last supperprocess. Jesus says his blood was quotepoured out for many for the forgivenessof sins.That's really good news. I have a20-year-old daughter. I may havementioned this last week. If I have,please forgive me.

And when she wants tostir the pot at home, she say, "Mommy,do you remember when dad did this a fewyears agoand I look at with I look at my daughterwith something other than pure love inmy eyes cuz I'd hope that was forgivenand forgotten and disappeared in thedustpin of history." But my daughtersays, "Mommy, do you remember when daddydid this? Wasn't he really bad?Mommy, has daddy paid the price for whathe did five years ago?"And she says it with a twinkle in hereye. And I think I say my poor daughter,woe be to whoever marries her.But when Jesus died, the forgiveness ofsins means that God will remember oursins no more. As far as the east is fromthe west, so far he'll remove our sinsfrom us. And so there is no remembranceof sins when we confess him and receiveforgiveness of God by grace.

We alsoread read in the Bible that his deathwas a substitutionary death. Thetheologians call it vicarious. It meanson behalf of somebody else. I'vehighlighted for you there the Greekpreposition hooper or for in the red ineach of these verses. Romans 5:8 says,"While were we yet sinners, he died forus."Ephesians 5:2 says, "He gave himself forus or on behalf of us." Galatians 3:13says, "He became a curse for us." 1 John2:2 says he was the experation or thethe the sacrifice of reconciliation forour sins.

And then Mark 10:45 maybe themost famous verses where Jesus speakshimself. He says, "The son of man didnot come to be served but to serve andto give his life a ransom for or onbehalf of many." That these texts areall very clear. Jesus didn't just die togive us an example. He didn't just guideto show us the love of God. He died inour place that we might have his eternallife.

I was studying once with a bunchof Muslims. It was in the Middle Eastand the they'd come with a very Muslimidea of God. God is out there. God isunknowable. God is implacable.

God sayshe's merciful, but nobody knows whatthat mercy looks like in Islam. And so Iwas going through the book of Romanswith them chapter by chapter. And wecame to Romans chapter 5. And we come tothis verse here um Romans 5:8 the topscreen there and the full verse says butChrist God demonstrated his love for usor God proved his love for us that whilewe were yet sinners Christ died for usand this Iranian girl raised in Islam.She stopped at that momentand she said, "I've never seen a pictureof God like that before."Because in Islam, if I do something forAllah, he'll do something good for me.But the gospel says that before I waseven born, God proved his love for meand for you. That while we were yetsinners, Christ died for us.

Whether weaccept his death or not, he's died forus regardless of how we respond to him.Praise God for that. That lady wasbaptized a couple of days later. And umI asked the next lady, "Do you want tobe baptized?" And she said, "Yes." Isaid, "Why do you want to be baptized?"She says, "Well, I'm the youngestdaughter of a poor man, and my fatherwants to marry me off as the fourth wifeto an old businessman in our city."She says, "I don't want that marriage,and if I go back and tell him that I'm aChristian, he won't want to marry me." Isaid, 'Well, that's fair enough. I said,'But why'd you want to be baptized?' Shesays, 'Because when I read in theGospels, Jesus only treated women withdignity. And he never forced a woman inany way, shape, or form.

He respectedthe dignity and the the moral standingof every woman he met, regardless ofwhether she was a Jew or a Gentile, richor poor, Jesus always treats a womanwith respect. And she said, "Growing upin Iran, I have never been treated withrespect. And I find in the gospels theonly person who ever treats somebodywith respect and it's Jesus Christ. Iasked the men why they want to be debateto be baptized and they gave theirreasons. We had the uh we had thebaptism.

The water was 18 in deep. Itwas in uh Yeravan the capital ofArmenia. It was January. The water wasfrozen in the outdoors baptI couldn't baptize in the traditionalsense. So I said, "I'm just going tohave to lie you down on your back.

ThenI'm going to roll you overand that way you're going to be wet allover. So hold your nose when I roll youover." And they said, "It's cold." Isaid, "Yeah, I'm standing here as well,brother. You know, you and me, we're allgetting cold here. So we're going tomake this as quick as we can." And so wewent through the baptisms. And to myhorror, somebody found um um eightbaptismal robes.

And they all had thewhite robes. One of those robes had gotrun soft pink in the wash. And that wasthe robe they gave me. It was a terriblerobe. They had these beautiful whiterobes.

I was in this kind of soft pinkrobe. And uh anyway, we [clears throat]when we finished the baptism, we wentinside. We had a Lord's supper and thenthere was a choir singing there. Therewas it was a bunch of uh old Russiangrandmas, babushkas, and they had theirlittle scarves on their heads and theywere practicing for the next Sabbath.And I didn't want to listen to thembecause it didn't sound too good.But I know that these grandmas hadsurvived the Soviet Union. They wereheroes of faith.

So I sat and I listenedto these barbers practicing and theyneeded practice.I was getting kind of impatient cuz Ineeded to get to the airport to fly backhome to Chicago. And I said to one ofthe Muslim guys who's now an Adventist,I said, "Shouldn't we leave? Like it'stime to go." He says, Conrad, he said,next Sabbath, you're going to sit in achurch in America and you're going tosing praises to God in your own languagewithout any legal problem. Says, I'mgoing to go back tonight on a coach toTehran. I will never sit in a churchagain in my life.

I will never hear thelive praise of Jesus again in my life.He says, "I don't understand what theseRussian grandmas are singing, but let ussit through the entire practicethat those Iranian young people, theyunderstood what it meant to followChrist." I said, "You know, if you goback to Iran and tell people that you'rebaptized, you could be executed forthis." They said, "Yes, we know." Isaid, "So, why do you want to bebaptized?" They said, "Because we wantto bear the name of Christ."And in a world that hates him, in aworld that says we will not have thisman to rule over us, we know what he'sdone for us. So we're going to be hisambassadors, his representatives inunder the Iranian regime. And so thosebrave young adults, they went back intoIran. And I still don't know whathappened to them.But that girl, she cames that first textthere that Christ proved God proved hislove for us. While we were yet sinners,Christ died for us.

When the Bible saysthat God loves you, God doesn't need toprove it. He's already demonstrated iton Calvary.And then we see that the death of Christwas an atoning death.The Bible says in Luke 1:79 that humanssit in darkness. In Ephesians 4:18, itsays we are alienated from the life ofGod. Colossians 1:21 says we areestranged and hostile in mind doing evildeeds. Romans 8:7 says, "We are hostileto God." The Bible is pretty clear.

Weare alienated from God. And as God isthe source of life, we are born them.But the moment you are born, from thatmoment on, you are slowly dying. Is thatnot right? If there's one thing you cansay about a baby is that one day it'sgoing to die. That's the only thing youcan say with great certainty.

But theBible says in Romans 5:10 that we werereconciled to God by the death of hisson. The death of Christ boughtreconciliation between lost humanity andour loving heavenly father. He himselfbore our sins in his body on the tree asthe apostle Peter would later go on todescribe it. So our time is up heretonight.We just been exploring some whathappened on Calvary,the hinge of history.So when you think of Calvary and youthink of that picture of Pilate saying,"Behold the man."What do you see here in Maui in 2026?I want to encourage you to see thatJesus standing there as God with us,Emmanuel, God become flesh, God notabandoning us in our world of suffering,but God living in this world of pain,and God partaking in all of oursuffering. Jesus took the worst thisworld could throw at him.

He knows whatit means to be brokenhearted, to beabandoned, to be a man of sorrows, to berejected of men. He knows what it is toface unjust legal systems and governmentbrutality and an unjust death. Jesus hastasted the worst this world has to throwat us. He is God with us. He isn't theGod who's abandoned us.

He's the God whoshows solidarity with us today in themidst of our suffering. We also see thathe is God for us. He is the lamb of Godwho takes away the sin of the world.Through whose death he paid the pricefor my sins and he paid the price foryour sins. And not only is he Emanuel,God with us, not only is the lamb ofGod, God for us, but he is the King ofKings and Lord of Lords, he is God overus. He's not just a king from the past,but he's the coming king of humanity.A there's a famous quote by LyallRawlings.

He says this,"The greatest man in history, Jesus, hehad no servants yet they called himmaster. Had no degrees yet they calledhim teacher. had no medicines, yet theycalled him healer. Had no armies, yetkings feared him. Won no militarybattles, yet he conquered the world.

Hedid not live in a castle, yet theycalled him Lord. He ruled no nations,yet they called him king. He committedno crime, yet they crucified him. He wasburied in a tomb, and yet he livestoday.And that is who we follow as Christians.As Christians, we are disciples of JesusChrist. God with us, Emmanuel.

God forus, the lamb of God. God over us, theKing of Kings and Lord of Lords. And sothe Bible, if you may summarize theBible in one verse, there it is on thescreen. For God so loved Maui in 2026,that he gave his only begotten son thatwhosoever in Maui in 2026 shouldbelieveth in him should not perish, buthave everlasting life.The death of Christ is grounded in lovefor broken humanity.All around us, we see brokenness in oursociety. But when we look to Calvary, wesee a love that will not let let us go.A self-sacrificing love.

A love that isfrom everlasting to everlasting. A lovethat transforms sinners into saints. Alove that binds up the brokenhearted.Replaces strife with shalom or the peaceof God. Brings alienation. replacesalienation with reconciliation, turnsdespair into hope, and brings with usthe promise of life tomorrow.

Truly, thedeath of Christ was the most significantdeath in all human history. I'vetraveled around the world. I've been tosee the par the tomb of Napoleon inParis. I've been to see the tomb of Marxand Lenin and Lenin in in uh in in um inMoscow. I've been to see the see thetomb of Shakespeare in England.

I'vebeen to see many famous tombs around theworld.You can even go to Saudi Arabia and youcan go to Medina and you can see the thetomb of the prophet of Islam Muhammad.But there is no tomb of Christ becausehe is risen and he is coming again. TheBible says that Christ having beenoffered once to bear the sins of manythat was on Calvary. He will appear asecond time not to deal with sin. Thatwas what he did on Calvary. But he'sgoing to he's coming to save those whoare eagerly waiting for him.

And that iswhy I'm an Adventist. I don't just lookback to Calvary, the first coming ofChrist. I'm looking forward to thesecond coming of Christ when he's comingto save those who are eagerly waitingfor him. The demons know that Jesus iscoming again, but they're not eagerlywaiting for him. Satan knows that Jesusis coming again, and he's not eagerlywaiting for him.

Merely knowing withyour head that Jesus is coming againdoesn't mean he's coming for you. TheBible says he's coming for those who areeagerly waiting for him. Which means myhead knows he's coming and my heart isengaged. I want him to come back as soonas possible. I want to see my Lord andSavior face to face.

And when he comes,we will be changed, said the prophet uhPaul, in a moment, in the twinkling ofan eye at the last trumpet. For thetrumpet will sound and the dead will beraised imperishable and we will bechanged. And on that glorious day,the Bible describes not just whathappened in Nazareth in Galilee whenJesus did his healing ministry. TheBible says this, "And the rans of theLord shall return and come to Zion withsinging. Everlasting joy shall be upontheir heads.

They shall obtain joy andgladness, and sorrow and sighing shallflee away." What a beautiful promise.And if you're living today with sorrowand sighing,maybe it's time to put your trust inJesus as your savior. So when he comesagain, he's coming not just for thosewho are eagerly waiting for him, buthe's going to be coming for you andcoming for me.And so if we come back to that originalquestion that Jesus asked thosedisciples, our final slide here,who do you say that I am?Your answer to that question willdetermine whether you live with hope ordespair.Your answer to that question willdetermine whether you have the promiseof eternal life or nothing but a graveand then eternal nothingness.Your answer to that question willdetermine whether you experience thefullness of God's blessings in your lifetoday or whether or whether you justfight through life and all the problemsit brings and then die old and tired ofthe battles of life. Jesus asked thosedisciples, who do you say that I am? SoI want to ask you tonight, who do yousay that Jesus is?And your response to that question willdetermine whether you have the gift ofeternal life or not. His death was themost significant death of human history.It was the fulcrum.

It was the hinge ofhistory. Every significant moment inyour life revolves around the pictureyou see on the screen there. The lifeand the death and the resurrection ofJesus.And maybe tonight, maybe for the firsttime in your life, you have to askyourself that honest question. Who do Isay that the man from Nazareth is? Is heGod with me, Emmanuel?Is he the lamb of God that takes away mysins?Is he the King of Kings and Lord ofLords in general?

But is he also theLord of my life?If you can respond tonight and say thathe is God with me and if he's the lambof God taking away my sins and he's myking and he's my lord and he's my comingsavior you will have the gift of eternallife.So who do you say that I am? asks Jesus.Don't let this question leave your minduntil you've answered it. You may wantto answer tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybein this coming week.But don't let this question just slipfrom your minds. Your eternal destinyhangs on your answer to this onequestion. Who do you say that I am?

Myprayer is that each one of us can saywith doubting Thomas when he realizedthat Jesus was alive again. He fell atthe feet of Jesus and he said, "My Lordand my God." And it's my prayer thateach one of us can say that with faithand we will receive the gift of eternallife. May God be with you as you thinkabout this question. May God guide youas you think through the implications ofthis question. And may the Holy Spiritwork on your heart and give you the giftof faith so that with Thomas you cansay, "My Lord and my God." And you caneagerly wait his second coming when hecomes to save those who are eagerlywaiting for him.

May God bless you asyou think about this question. May Godguide you into the answer that will leadto eternal life. for his name's sake.Amen.And so tomorrow we're going to bespeaking about how we enter the kingdomof God. Tomorrow we're going to bespeaking about baptism. Um what doesbaptism mean?

Um what is the theologicalsignificance of baptism? Um what are youleaving behind when you're baptized andwhat are you stepping into when you arebaptized? That's going to be the subjectof our discussion tomorrow. And then onMonday, we'll be speaking about whathappens when you die. Um, do the deadlive forever or do they die?

Do theysleep in the grave or do they roast inhell or purgatory? Or when if you died,do you go straight to heaven? Those areimportant questions. We'll be askingthat question on Monday night. Whathappens when you die?

And tomorrow we'llbe discussing the question, how do youenter the kingdom of God? And hint, itis through the waters of baptism. Butthere's a whole lot more to it than justthat. So, we look forward to seeing youtomorrow night, 6:00. We'll begin againwith some delicious food.

Brother Ernie,Sister Kim, what are we learning abouttomorrow, Sister Kim?>> Washing machines.>> Washing machines. Like the round thingswith water in them. Okay. Washingmachines. Okay.

Thank you very much.Thank you. I know that's going to be afascinating topic. Um, I still rememberI've got my my mind is filled with withum intestinal bugs, those pictures weshowed on the screen the other night.And so I'm now looking at my food withgreater interest. I know I look I boughtsome broccoli recently. And um my wifesays, "You need to put it in the water.Why?" So I put it in the water and theselittle white things came wiggling to thesurface.

Have you seen those on yourbroccoli? So So um I I I look atbroccoli with a new set eyes of caution.You know, as a vegetarian, I don't wantto eat these bugs. But uh anyway, welook forward to seeing you tomorrow at6:00. Uh may God be with you. Go inpeace and go with God.

Amen.