Evangelical Free Church of Embarass

Pray with me.

Our Father, this is an important time as we’re reminded of the tremendous act of love at Calvary. Thank You for this time of the year that causes us to stop, remember, and focus again on a wonderful event – Jesus dying for us, and then rising again on the third day. I pray, Father, that You would guide us in our thinking now, and challenge us. Help us to leave here feeling very grateful. Help us to leave here closer to You than when we came. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

The scripture says, “And they crucified Jesus.” That means that the Roman soldiers laid Jesus on a wooden cross. One of them took a spike of some kind and drove it through His left hand into the wood. They pounded another spike into the wood through His right hand. After that, they did the same with His feet, driving a spike through them and into the cross. Then they lifted Jesus up, set His cross in place, and watched Him go through hours of torturous suffering before He died.

We are told that as Jesus was hanging there, suffering on the cross, some of the people down below were mocking Him and throwing insults up at Him, saying things like “Come down from the cross, save yourself.” “You saved others, can’t You save Yourself?” “Let this Christ come down from the cross, then we’ll see and believe.”

I wonder if Jesus, while He was hanging there hearing those challenges, felt any temptation to respond to them. He was still a man. The scripture says, “He was tempted in all ways as we, yet without sin.” I wonder if, while He was hanging there in pain on the cross hearing that mockery and those challenges to prove Himself and come down, there wasn’t a tinge of temptation to do just that. He could have – earlier in the garden He said He had thousands of angels at His disposal. He could just call for them and they would deliver Him. He knew who He was. He knew He could release Himself from that cross, hop on down and say, “Okay, here I am, what are you going to do now?” But He didn’t. Despite the challenges, mockery, and insults, He stayed on the cross.

Here’s the question: What held Jesus to that cross? I’ll give you a clue: It wasn’t the Roman nails. No Roman nail had the power to hold Jesus Christ on a cross. So, what did keep Him there? What prevented Jesus from doing what He was able to do and just come down, ending it right there?

I want to suggest that there were four “invisible nails” that kept Jesus on the cross that day. You couldn’t see them, but they were holding Him there. We will look at two today, and at the other two at our Good Friday communion service.

Loyalty – to the Father and the mission

The first invisible nail was loyalty. Loyalty to His Father and His Father’s plan kept Jesus on the cross.

Before I read you some scriptures, I want to tell you something about the war in Iraq that has really impressed me. As I have watched and listened to the news, I’m impressed with the commanders and soldiers of the Coalition and their loyalty to their mission. On the entire journey from Kuwait to Baghdad, there was opposition to the soldiers from all directions. Troops were being killed and taken captive. There were sandstorms that stopped everything for a while. It was difficult, but the commanders and soldiers didn’t quit and turn back to Kuwait. They didn’t try to do it another way, but kept going toward Baghdad because they were loyal to a mission. How many times did we hear the word “mission”? Even when almost the entire world criticized, even when many here in the U.S. criticized, they kept saying, “We have a mission,” and they kept going. “We are loyal to a mission, and it doesn’t matter what happens – we will carry it out.”

In Mark Chapter 10, verse 45 Jesus said that He came to give His life as a ransom for many. It was His mission. “I came to this earth to give My life, and My life given would be a ransom” – a price paid to provide freedom. That’s why He came.

In John 4, verse 34 Jesus tells His disciples that His food is to do the will of the Father and to finish the Father’s work. In John 10:18 He says that no one will take His life from Him. He will lay down His life on His own initiative because “that is the command I received from the Father.” In John 12:27, as the time to die draws near, Jesus is really struggling within Himself. He says, “Shall I say, ‘Father, deliver me from this hour’?” He answers His own question by saying, “No. I came for this hour.” It was His mission.

In John Chapter 14, verse 31, Jesus says, “Out of love for the Father, I always do exactly what the Father commands.” Then we come to Luke 22, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus in agony, just hours from dying, says, “Not My will, but Your will be done.” The mission was to die.

And so, He ends up on the cross, and they’re saying “Come down, prove you can save yourself. You saved other people. If you come on down, we’ll believe in You.” But He stayed. Why? It was the invisible nail of loyalty. He was committed to His Father’s mission. The Roman nails didn’t hold Him. It was loyalty that kept Him on that cross – loyalty to see it through to the end. Aren’t you glad for His loyalty?

Love – for us

The second invisible nail that held Jesus on that cross was love for you and me. Love kept Him there, preventing Him from coming down, even though He was very capable of doing so. He loved us.

There are scriptures to remind us of that. John 3:16: “For God so loved the world He gave Jesus.” Romans 5:8 says that Christ’s death was a demonstration of God’s love for sinners. In 1 John 4, verses 9 and 10 John says, “This is love. God sent His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins.” John said it was God’s love for us that sent Jesus to the cross.

Turn to Ephesians Chapter 5, verse 2. The Apostle Paul says, “Live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” He’s talking about Christ’s love and how He expressed it – by giving Himself up for us as a sacrifice. In verse 25 of that same chapter, “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” That’s how He loved us – by giving Himself up for us. He went to His death out of love.

In John Chapter 15, Jesus said, “No greater love has any man than he lay down his life for a friend.” The supreme act of love is to lay down your life for someone else. Earlier, in Chapter 10, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep.” He practiced the supreme act of love and laid down His life for us.

Turn to Philippians Chapter 2, verses 5 through 8. Paul says that we should have the same attitude that Jesus had: “…who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

Paul describes a choice that Jesus made out of love. Neither selfishness nor pride was there, but when Jesus made the choice that Paul is describing, it was totally out of love for us. He chose to leave heaven, to lay aside the privileges of His position, to take on the form of a human being, and to come to earth to die.

Ken Davis, a Christian comedian, tells a story of how he came to understand the love that Jesus expressed when He made His choice. Ken Davis and his wife loved living in Colorado. It was where they had always wanted to live. Finally, they made it there, and loved everything about it – the mountains, the climate, skiing, no bugs – they loved everything about Colorado. To top it off, their daughter and son-in-law and their granddaughter lived there, too. Ken and his wife got to see their granddaughter whenever they wanted to. Ken said that the granddaughter had him wrapped around her finger, and he didn’t care.

But one day, Ken’s daughter and son-in-law broke the news that they were going to move to Nashville. They couldn’t believe it. Ken said, “Don’t they know that there are bugs in Nashville? Don’t they know it’s hot and humid in Nashville? Don’t they know they’re not supposed to take my granddaughter to Nashville?

But they went. Ken Davis and his wife grieved. As they were grieving, his wife said, “Ken, maybe we should move to Nashville.” His response was, “No way. I’m going to miss them and I miss our granddaughter already, but we can’t move to Nashville. We’re settled here. This is where my ministry is based. We’ve got the mountains, the skiing, the climate, there’s no bugs – we can’t leave Colorado. It’s our dream come true.” But she said, “let’s just think about it.”

He went to his office that week and he sat down with a piece of paper. Someone taught him that a good way to make decisions is to divide your paper in half, think about the reasons for doing this and the reasons for doing that, and compare them. So, he got out his paper. The left hand column was “Colorado – Stay Here.” The right hand column: “Nashville – Move There.”

He started listing reasons for staying in Colorado. He filled that entire column with a long list. Then, he moved to the right hand side, “Move to Nashville.” He thought for a long time. He put down the name of his granddaughter: they could be close to her. He thought some more, but couldn’t think of any other reasons to go to Nashville.

Today, Ken Davis and his wife live in Nashville. He said, “When I looked at my two lists and saw all the good reasons to stay in Colorado and on the other list just the name of my granddaughter, I knew we had to go to Nashville. Then I understood the choice Jesus made.”

Perhaps Jesus made two lists. He titled one list “Stay in heaven, hold on to deity and all the privileges of deity.” That list was long – all the things about the glory of heaven that he would experience for eternity. He labeled the other list “Become a man and go to earth.” The only thing he could put on that list was your name. So He came.

He came because He wanted to see us saved from sin. He came because He wanted us to belong to Him and have a relationship with Him. He came because His love for you and me was greater than all the reasons for staying in heaven.

Jesus was committed. The Roman nails weren’t keeping Him on the cross. It was the invisible nail of His tremendous love for you and me and what dying would mean for you and me that held Him there. It was also the invisible nail of tremendous loyalty to His Father and the mission He was given that held Him on the cross.

Isn’t that great? Invisible nails held Him there until the end. What have you done about it? What have you done with Jesus, who showed such loyalty to His Father and the mission, who showed such love for you that He would stay on that cross to die?

What have you done about that? Have you chosen to know Him? Have you chosen to surrender your life to Him and have a relationship with Him? Have you chosen to trust Him for the forgiveness and salvation that He provided by dying? It seems that would be the logical choice. This Easter season is a great time to make that choice, if you haven’t already. It’s a good time to surrender to the One who left heaven out of loyalty to His Father’s mission and love for you, to die on the cross.

Let’s pray.

Our Father, we bow right now, hardly believing what we have been reminded of – the loyalty to a mission Your Son Jesus had, and the love He had for us that He would leave heaven to go to the cross and stay there and die for us. It’s amazing, and we thank You. Those of us who have surrendered to Jesus and received His salvation and know Him personally are so thankful, Father, for that loyalty and love. I pray, God, that in Your loving, powerful way you will speak to hearts here this morning who don’t know Your Son Jesus. Remind them of how much You love them and want them. Cause them, Father, to surrender to You today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.