Main Idea: Jesus died on the cross so that forgiven people can go to heaven.

Easter is always a season filled with a mixture of emotions. It is a time that is filled with tradition in the way we celebrate it usually with our close family, a special meal, new clothes and going to church. Those celebrations are sentimental and can become even more so as the dynamics of our traditions change. Family members may not be able to be with us or adopt new traditions that change ours. For others, it is an emotional time because someone who made the tradition truly meaningful isn’t there to share it with us.

Easter is a time of questions: Who is coming for lunch? Where will we eat? What will I wear? Can I get a good seat at church? How much candy will there be in my basket? Will Mom make me wear a tie? Will I get a new dress? What is amazing, though, is that we get so comfortable with the story of Easter – Jesus dying on the cross and rising again – that we ignore the meaning of those events. The story becomes something like the background music at a restaurant—you know it’s there to only drive out the quiet.

Over the next two Sundays rather than us focus on the sentiment or emotions associated with Easter I want to ask significant questions about Easter. I want us to explore two questions about the key events of the Easter story, the Cross and Resurrection, and ask: Why did Jesus die and why did Jesus rise? Virtually any child or adult who has some knowledge of the story of Easter can tell you: Jesus died on a cross and rose again three days later. Yet knowing the facts of the story doesn’t give you the reason or meaning behind the story. Knowing what happened doesn’t tell you why it happened.

Our key text for these two Sundays will be Romans 4:25, which tells us in one simple sentence the answers to our questions. Paul wrote, "He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God." In one brief sentence Paul concludes a very important explanation of why Jesus died on the cross and why he rose again three days later. Today I want us to examine that first part of the verse that says, "He was handed over to die because of our sins…." In this simple phrase we will discover that the reason Jesus died on the cross was so that forgiven people could go to heaven.

Paul begins that sentence with this statement: "He was handed over to die…." You may have the word "delivered" or "delivered up". That raises some questions for us: Who handed him over, to whom was he handed over and why was he handed over? Well, to understand that I want us to go back to Matthew 20:17-19. This conversation occurs just days before the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. There we read, "As Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him." When we get to Jerusalem," he said, "the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, whipped, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead." Reading that gives you the idea that the ones who handed Jesus over to die were Judas, who we know betrayed Jesus, so the Jewish leaders could arrest him. Then the Jewish leaders would hand him over to the Roman government so they could crucify him. So, on the surface it seems like Jesus merely has a premonition regarding his death and spells out the major players in the drama as it unfolds.

When at last Jesus and the disciples do arrive in Jerusalem, Jesus clearly is in charge of the events as they take place. He enters Jerusalem on Sunday as Jews from all over the region are gathering to celebrate the Passover on Friday. Everything in Jesus’ ministry has been moving toward this moment. He carefully instructs the disciples to go and find a donkey’s colt in order for him to ride on it into the city. Jesus did this with the intent of fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, which said, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

As they enter the city, people spontaneously began to place their coats, their outer robes, and branches of trees on the road for the colt. There is in that moment great excitement because the people believe that there is some sense that Jesus may be the Messiah that had been promised. Others are amazed but not quite sure who he was and ask, "Who is this?" The crowds responded, "It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee" (Matt. 21:11). Jesus did this to symbolize that he was the promised Savior, the Messiah, they were looking for and he did that in a way that demonstrated his humility.

The Gospels record a variety of events that occur between the entry into Jerusalem on Sunday and the gathering of his disciples on Thursday evening for their final meal before he was arrested. As those disciples had finished eating, Jesus took some bread and a cup of wine and shared it with them. He told them that the bread represented his body and the cup of wine was a symbol of his blood. He said in Matthew 26:28 that his blood was to be "poured out to forgive the sins of many." Whether the disciples understood what he meant at that moment we really don’t know. What we do know is that less than twelve hours later Jesus’ blood would pour from his body, staining the cross on which he hung. For six hours that Friday Jesus’ body would hang naked on a cross until at last he died.

To all those who watched that day, it seemed that Judas, the Jewish leaders and the Roman government were the ones who handed Jesus "over" to die. Yet Peter would say to the Jewish leaders who listened to his first sermon, "But you followed God's prearranged plan. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to the cross and murdered him."( Acts 2:23) while it appeared that other forces were at work and completely in control, the reality was that God was directing every single action for a specific purpose and plan. If anyone handed Jesus over to die, it was God himself.

Why did God do this? Paul said, "He was handed over to die because of our sins…." Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his experience of all the events that led to his crucifixion were not just scenes from some "passion play," but the steps toward providing the way for forgiven people to go to heaven. When Jesus came into Jerusalem he came to a city whose message was simply this: Good people go to heaven. The entire Jewish religious system was based on one single principle: Only good people go to heaven. In fact, the group of religious leaders who manipulated Jesus’ death were giving their lives to accomplish this one thing: They were doing all they could to be good enough to go to heaven. It just made sense that if God was good, then only good people go to heaven.

If people are honest with themselves, it is easy to believe the same thing now: Good people go to heaven. On the TV sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray’s wife Debra was asking why he didn’t go with them to church on Sunday. He said he was a good person and did good things and immediately began to list all of the good things he does through the week that made going to church on Sunday needless for him. He said, "I even dodge the squirrels when they run across the street." To which Debra replied, "Well Ray then we all ought to come to the house and gather around you on Sunday." People believe that good people go to heaven and that is usually followed by the belief that, "If anybody is going to heaven it will be me because I’m doing all I can to be good." Why? Because good people go to heaven. We may say, "I know I’m not perfect but I’m trying to be good." Even people who understand the story of Jesus’ death on the cross will somehow want to add, "While Jesus’ death on the cross is nice, still I’m trying to be good because good people go to heaven."

Why, though, do people think this way? Why does this work? It works because it’s fair. We believe simply that it is fair that if I’m good then good things should happen to me and if someone is bad, then bad things should happen to them. Another reason this works is that people believe somehow they will make the cut. Others may not make it but they believe they will because they are good. Also, this works because it motivates people to be good. If you believe that only good people go to heaven, then you are going to do everything you can to make sure you are doing good things. The last reason this works is because it is consistent with our idea of God. God is good and God likes good people so only good people go to heaven. It just seems logical that good people go to heaven. I’m not saying this is right but that is the way we think.

Now here is the major problem with this idea: If God only lets good people into heaven, then why did Jesus die on the cross? Why did God plan this whole thing and let his Son go through all of the whole experience from birth to the cross if we go to heaven if we are good? Some people would say that Jesus’ death was an example to inspire us that we can go through hard times and be okay. That seems like a really cruel way to teach me a lesson. You see, people want this whole Easter story about the cross and the resurrection but what they really believe is good people go to heaven.

What are the problems with this idea other than it makes God look very silly? One problem is if you believe good people go to heaven is that there is no clear standard of good and bad by which we can measure. The truth is that if God only lets good people go to heaven, then he owes it to us to tell us what "good" is. Some of you will say that he has done that in the Bible. So the Bible is God’s standard for telling us what is good and bad. This breaks down, though, when you realize that you can never be as good as the Bible directs you to be. In fact, the Bible says that, "For no one can ever be made right in God's sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God's law, the clearer it becomes that we aren't obeying it. (Rom. 3:20) The reason is that the Bible itself says, "No one is good—not even one." (Rom. 3:10) and "…all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." (Rom 3:23) All that says is that everybody tried and nobody made it. None of us can be this good! If you believe good people go to heaven then what is the standard with which to measure?

Here’s another problem with this idea: We don’t know how we grade out? How do we know when we have done enough? Is it 51% or is it 75%? What makes the grade? Also, when does the grading start? Is it five and a half, seven or fourteen? The challenge is that you can’t live long enough to make sure you have done enough if you don’t know where the line is that tells you if you are in or out. You have no earthly idea where you stand with God! It is like taking a course in school and asking what the study material is and how you will be graded only to be told, "Sorry, it’s just pass or fail." You may protest and say, "That makes no sense!" In the same way it makes no sense to believe that good people go to heaven if you don’t know when you have made the cut. As a result we end up making up our own standard but we are never sure if that really works or not because we don’t know where we stand.

The last problem with this idea is that it makes a liar out of Jesus Christ. When Jesus told the disciples that his blood was going to be "poured out to forgive the sins of many," then that was a lie if only good people go to heaven. It makes someone like Paul a liar because he said, in our verse for today, "He was handed over to die because of our sins…." That little word "because" is very important. It is important because it tells us that there was something about God and something about the sins that we have committed that made the death of Jesus on the cross necessary. It tells us that if we were to ever find forgiveness for the sins we have done then Jesus would need to be handed over to die not so good people can go to heaven but so that forgiven people can go to heaven.

Imagine for a moment that the Bible I have in my hand contains the record of all the good and bad things you have ever done. If you believe that good people go to heaven then you hope that at the end of time when you face God that the good things are greater than the bad. Let’s say that you were really good and only failed to be good three times a day. In other words you sinned three times a day which would be pretty good. You got mad at the dog, maybe didn’t tell the whole truth to someone and went over the speed limit by five miles an hour. For the sake of argument let’s say that you got a ticket when you were speeding and for the sake of argument let’s say you started getting a ticket every day for a month. Sooner or later you will be in trouble because you have consistently broken the law. You may have all the excuses in the world for why you were speeding but if you did it every day for a month, guess what-you will not be driving for a while. The judge at Traffic Court is not going to say, "Oh well we can forget all these tickets because you are good. You go to church and you are nice to dogs and children. So we’ll just forget that." He might do that once but he is not going to do that thirty times! I have some bad news for you: God has a zero tolerance policy and you can’t be good enough to make up for all the bad!

Because God has a zero tolerance policy he made the decision out of his love for people that Jesus would take the responsibility for all the wrong things that I have ever done. God takes the record of all of my sins and the weight of that punishment and placed it on Jesus. The Bible says, "For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins…We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us…" (Rom. 3:25) Did you catch that one phrase, "We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us…" It doesn’t say "We are made right with God by all of the good things we can do." No it say’s "When we…believe…" When you accept the fact that you can never do enough good things to make you right with God and believe that Jesus died on the Cross to forgive all the wrong things that you have done then you understand why Jesus died. Going to heaven is not about what we can do to be good enough but believing that Jesus has done all that was needed for me to go to heaven. Why did Jesus die? His death was necessary to forgive us for our sins. Good people don’t go to heaven; forgiven people go to heaven.

Why is this fair? Why is this better than the idea that good people go to heaven? Three reasons: first, everybody is welcome. It doesn’t matter what you have done or not done everybody gets the same offer; second, everybody gets in the same way. There’s not one way for you and one way for me it is all the same and last everybody can meet the requirement. The way we get to heaven is by believing that Jesus death on the cross was enough for everyone, especially me.

Here is what I want to ask you this morning, "Has there ever been a time in your life when you understood that good people don’t go to heaven but only forgiven people go to heaven? Because you understood that you then placed all your hope for going to heaven on what Jesus has done on the cross to forgive your sins?" Have you believed that for your self? When you get to heaven I assure you that you are not going to stand before God and tell him about you and all the good things you have done because they won’t be enough. All God wants to know is, "I sent my Son to die on a cross to forgive your sins did you believe that?" Today we celebrate Jesus entering into the city of Jerusalem 2000 years ago. He entered for the purpose for which God sent him-to die for our sins. The real question today is "Have you let him enter your life to be your leader and forgiver?" Why did Jesus die? He died so forgiven people can go to heaven. Are you good or are you forgiven?

(Portions of this message were adapted from the message "How Good is Good Enough?" by Andy Stanley)

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org