Faith, Prayer and Fasting

Q: What does the Bible say about the significance of the crucifixion?

The crucifixion is central to the Christian faith, as it signifies Christ's substitutionary atonement for sinners. The crucifixion of Christ is the pivotal event in redemptive history, embodying the supreme expression of God’s love and justice. It was through his death that Jesus accomplished the salvation of his people, fulfilling the law represented by Moses and embodying the prophetic messages of the Old Testament, as reiterated in Luke 24:44. The crucifixion serves as the ultimate sacrifice, where Jesus took upon himself the wrath of God for the sins of those whom he came to save, thus satisfying divine justice and offering redemption to humanity. As stated in Romans, we can only be justified through faith in Christ's completed work on Calvary, illustrating that our righteousness before God is imputed through Him.

Q: How do we know that God will save sinners?

God's promise of salvation is based on His justice and mercy demonstrated through Christ’s sacrifice. The assurance of God's saving grace lies in the faithfulness of His promises and the accomplished work of Jesus Christ. Throughout Scripture, particularly in Romans 8, we learn that God predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies those He has chosen. This is rooted in His sovereign will, which is not contingent upon human effort or merit. The crucifixion serves as the definitive testimony of God's commitment to save sinners, reflecting His desire to demonstrate His glory through His mercy. By declaring that Christ came to save sinners as a faithful statement, we can trust in God's unchanging character and His determination to fulfill His salvation plan for His people.

Q: Why is understanding the law important for Christians?

Understanding the law highlights our inability to achieve righteousness on our own and reveals our need for Christ. The law, as given through Moses, serves as a guide and a mirror to our hearts, reflecting God's holiness and the sinful nature of humanity. As illustrated in Romans, the law is good and just but reveals our utter inability to fulfill its demands due to our sinful flesh. This reality underscores the necessity of Christ's redemptive work on the cross, where He not only fulfilled the law but also bore the penalty for the sins of His people. Without an understanding of the law, we cannot fully grasp the gravity of sin or the significance of Christ's sacrifice. Therefore, studying the law equips Christians to appreciate the depth of God's grace and our dependence on His mercy for salvation.

Q: How do prayer and fasting relate to faith in God?

Prayer and fasting are acts of faith that express reliance on God’s provision and sovereignty. In the Christian life, prayer and fasting are deeply intertwined with the expression of faith. They are not merely rituals or disciplines; rather, they signify a heart posture that acknowledges God as the ultimate source of strength and sustenance. Through prayer, believers communicate with God, seeking His guidance and blessing while acknowledging their dependence on Him. Fasting complements prayer by setting aside physical needs to focus on spiritual growth and dependence on God, illustrating our earnest desire for His presence and work in our lives. Each act deepens our reliance on the mercy and grace of God, aligning our hearts with His will and recognizing our need for His intervention in both individual and communal contexts.

Now, we were talking about how that, what Peter, James, and John saw was the Lord speaking with Moses and Elijah. And what they spoke of was the decease or the death that the Lord should accomplish. Now, why would Moses and Elijah be talking with the Lord? We don't know what they said exactly, except that it concerned the crucifixion of the Savior.

It concerned that which everything concerns. The whole world revolves around the cross. God has a world. He has a universe because He has a people. It's clear throughout all the scriptures. And He came and redeemed those people on Calvary. And that's the purpose that He came. He said, for this purpose I came. It's a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And the way that he saved sinners was by being their substitute on Calvary. He took our place under the wrath of God for our sin. He took our place as a man in his righteousness. He's my sin offering and my righteousness.

Everything that he did, everything that he said, everything that he thought, everything that entered his heart and came from his heart was perfectly righteous, holy, not just outwardly, but thought, word, and deed. He not just kept the law, but glorified it. honored his father always, did always those things that pleased his father. He fulfilled righteousness. He told John the Baptist, behooveth us to fulfill all righteousness.

And because he did, he's my righteousness before God. His holy, spotless person, his righteousness is imputed to his people, and as our sin offering, he paid for all of our sins. So he paid for what I did do and did what I couldn't do. As a man, as me, as my representative, he's called the last Adam. As Adam represented us in the garden, and every one of us fell in Adam, those whom the Lord represented in his life and death are redeemed and given life in Him.

But Moses spoke, and Moses is a key character here because Moses represents the law. God gave him the law on Mount Sinai. He wrote it on tables of stone and sent Moses down the mountain with that law. And for Moses to speak of the death that Christ should accomplish is appropriate Because that death had to satisfy that law.

If anybody's going to be saved, the law that Moses represented must be satisfied. The justice of God must be satisfied. We can't keep the law. We all fall short of the glory of God. What the law could not do, Romans chapter 8, in that it was weak through our flesh, nothing wrong with the law, but we can't keep it. So the law can't save us. but God sent his son to do it, to accomplish it for us. And so you see why Moses, his relationship with Christ crucified is that that law was honored by the Lord Jesus Christ throughout his life and it says up to and including his death. He's fulfilled all righteousness unto death. And that death was what the Father sent him to do. He sent to redeem. He knew that was why he came.

And then Elijah, why is Elijah talking to him? Well, because everything that any of the prophets ever wrote or spoke concerned Christ. That was their message. Isaiah, he rose up as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. who hath believed our report, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And he begins telling about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, by his stripes we're healed. When the serpent of brass was lifted up in the book of Leviticus, that's Christ.

When Noah's ark in the book of Genesis was built, that's Christ. The Lord, it says that He brought them into the ark and shut the door. God shut the door on that ark, and that was their salvation. What was the flood? It was the wrath of God. He said, the imagination of man's heart is only evil continually, and so I'm going to wipe all men off the face of the earth. That was His wrath. But the wrath fell on the ark and not Noah and his family.

That's Christ. the rock that was smitten in the wilderness. The Lord said that rock, Paul said that rock was Christ. Moses was to smite the rock one time and water flowed out of that rock to quench the thirst of the millions of the children of Israel. That rock was Christ.

So everything that the prophet said, prophesied, what everything Christ would do, including his death on Calvary. So Elijah's relationship to Christ crucified is clear. So no wonder, in everything Moses wrote of me, Christ said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. So no wonder they talked about that. That was the subject of everything that they wrote and said.

They weren't talking about how Moses raised that rod in the air and the Red Sea parted before the children of Israel. And he said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And he raised that rod, which is a picture of the power that the Lord had given. and the sea parted and they went through on dry land. What was the people's part in that? Just stand there. You can't contribute to your salvation. Everything you do is just more sin. We have no part in it.

It just happens to us by the grace of God. Of course, we react when God gives us life like a baby. It's going to cry. It's going to breathe when it's born. And so will we. Spiritually speaking, we'll come alive. We'll be able to worship for the first time. We'll actually love God for the first time. We'll know Him. We'll come to know Him.

And so he just sits there and says, they didn't talk about that, although what a beautiful picture of salvation that is. Just stand there and watch me save you, God said. Watch me save you. He doesn't need any help saving us. It's a miracle of His grace, salvation. But that pictures the redeeming power of Christ.

What would they have done? Think about it. What are they going to do other than just stand there and watch God save them? If they run back to where Pharaoh's army is and say, well, we're just going to, you know, give it our best. They're dead. They're gone. They're history. If they run into the Red Sea as it billows and flows before them, their goners, anything they would do would be self-destructive.

That's why the Lord Jesus in a spiritual sense said, quit working, quit striving. It's not of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy, Romans chapter nine. God's just gonna, just stand there and watch God, look and live, look and live. See the mercy of God upon you, Calvary.

They didn't talk about that. And Elijah, you know, remember when his servant woke up and the armies, the enemy army had surrounded their camp, and here's Elijah and his servant, and they're surrounded by the enemy. It looks like their goose is cooked. But Elijah wasn't worried about it.

Listen to 2 Kings 6, 15. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and host compassed the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, alas, my master, how shall we do? What are we going to do? We're goners, we're history, we're done for.

And Elijah said, Elisha, it is not Elijah. And he answered, fear not. for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha. What a marvelous, miraculous event.

They didn't talk about that though. They talked about what that pictured. Moses didn't talk about the Red Sea. He talked about the one that that announced and spoke of and set forth. The death that Christ should accomplish is the salvation that is pictured by those events. When they appeared there with Christ, what else would they talk about? That's all they had talked about when they were alive. This is a picture of the victory won by Christ on Calvary.

All of these Old Testament stories are. how that all things work together for good to them who are loved of God, who are chosen of God, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, and called, and justified, and glorified in Christ. And we know that everything works together for good for those people. And predestination and election, it's not an exclusive doctrine. That's an inclusive doctrine.

Unless God picks some of us out and saves us, nobody's gonna be saved. And he does that by grace through faith in his son. Your business is not to figure out whether your name is written in the book of life. Our business is to believe on the son of God. Believe and thou shalt be saved, he said. Come to me and I'll give you rest." Of course, He's God. Of course, He predestinated everything. He's not like us. He doesn't plan and fail. He doesn't try. He doesn't want to. He just speaks and it's done.

And one of these days, if He hasn't already, He may just speak to you in the gospel and it'll be done. When he said to doubting Thomas, be not faithless, but believing, that's the son of God who said, let there be light. And there was light. He wasn't waiting to see what Thomas was gonna do. He was commanding the blessing. Be not faithless, but believing. If he speaks that to your heart, you're gonna cry what Thomas did, my Lord and my God.

And after this experience, This transfiguration, this voice from heaven, this conversation that they overheard, they were afraid. I don't suspect anybody in their right mind wouldn't be when they heard God's Son and saw Him in His glory. But they were comforted by Christ.

In verse 7, it says, Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. That's the place where the Lord must bring every one of us to the place where all we see when it comes to God's glory, when it comes to the matter of salvation and the glory of God, we have eyes only for the Son of God who gave himself for us. not religion, not decisions, not rituals, but just Christ, just Christ. Back in Luke 24, where we read, where the Lord showed these disciples, you remember we read and he was walking along with them.

They were sad because the Lord had died. And they said, we had trusted that he was the savior. What a sad, sad state they were in, sure enough. And the Lord spoke to them and said, oh, slow of heart to believe all the things that the prophets wrote concerning me.

And in our text later in that chapter, if you would turn with me to Luke 24, 44. And I read this because Moses and Elijah were the ones that met with the Lord Jesus Christ, Moses, and the prophets. Here's what they have to do with Christ crucified. Here's why this conversation was taking place with them in particular. Luke 24, 44, and he said unto them, these are the words, again, directing their minds and hearts to the words that he spoke. The words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me, concerning me.

Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. You see who he is. He opened their, I can't do that. I don't attempt to do that. The Lord's just, he's just commissioned us to go and preach. If you're gonna understand, he's got to do that. He's got to do that. And you're not gonna understand by nature. You're not gonna get it. By nature, we're the children of wrath. When the Lord speaks, it's a mystery to us by nature.

Second Corinthians chapter two, I don't have that in my notes, but let's turn over there and talk about that for just a minute. It says that he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. Let's talk about that. Because that's such an error that's in religion and that needs to be for the sake of God's glory. I'm sorry, I said 2 Corinthians, I believe it's 1 Corinthians 2.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. Not trying to impress anybody. He didn't have letters at the end of his name. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, in whom crucified. Everything else he might have talked about would have just been vain. And Christ is the only hope, there's nothing else worth saying.

And when I was with you, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Albeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, those that understand, that are mature, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to naught, but we speak the wisdom of God in the mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world under our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man. but the spirit of God, only God can reveal to you who he is and what he did for sinners. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

We're not gonna know any other way, he told Nicodemus, except you be born again, except you be supernaturally birthed from above, you cannot see and you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But here's what we're talking about. He opened their understanding.

But the natural man, the way we're born into this world, without the grace and power of God, the revealing mercy of God, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Two reasons why you're never gonna get, you're never gonna understand anything about God, who he is, his son, how sinners are saved. First of all, it's nonsense to you until God reveals it to you.

You're gonna mock, you're gonna do what they did at Calvary. You're gonna despise him, you're gonna mock him, you're gonna hate him per se, and it's not up to you. You're going to hate him for saying he saves whom he will. You're going to hate him for being God because you think you're God. That's what happened in the Garden of Eden. We decided we wanted to be God now, and that hasn't changed. The problem is God himself is on the throne, and he's exalted his son to the throne of God, not you.

And the second reason is because they are spiritually discerned. Unless you have spiritual understanding, which is what happened where we're reading there in Luke 24, you can't understand spiritual things. All you can understand is fleshly things. You can get the doctrine in your head, You can be intelligent enough to distinguish true doctrine from false doctrine, but you're not going to believe on the Son of God and fall in love with Him until God does a work on your heart, until He opens your heart, as it says He did Lydias. He's got to save you. He's got to save you, and that's a hard work. But he that is spiritual, verse 15, judgeth all things. He understands everything about God.

It doesn't mean we know everything. It just means that when God reveals something, we get it, we understand. Yet he himself is understood of no man or discerned of no man, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that we may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ, we have the spiritual understanding because God gives it to us. Hence where we're reading in Luke 24, then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. They knew who he was, they had seen what happened.

And it didn't do anything but made them sad. until the Lord revealed his gospel in their hearts. And then they couldn't shut up for all the rejoicing. You read the end of Luke 24. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer.

It is written in all of the books that he mentioned, Moses, prophets, Psalms, and it behooved him to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem."

And you're witnesses of these things. You saw it happen, but now they know what happened because he opened their understanding. They witnessed his death, they witnessed his resurrection, they knew of it. Some of them saw him in his very glory and heard his very voice, the voice of God testify of him. But it wasn't until by God's grace and the very power of Christ that they understood the scriptures that they could be true witnesses of Christ. He had to show them the Word of God. He had to reveal unto them the Scriptures. So this is where it begins and ends.

If we're going to know God and know His Son, and see how God can be just and justify wretched sinners like us, We've got to hear from God. We've got to see him in his word, hear of his glory and mercy in the preaching of the gospel. They saw with their very eyes, and yet they didn't know what they saw until they understood the scriptures.

And I wonder, has he done that for us? Has he revealed to us himself in all of the word. I pray that he will. And let's look over at Luke 24. I didn't turn there because I had it in my notes, but let me get over there if you're still there. And let's read some more in that chapter in closing. Verse 36. Actually, let's look back at where we ended in verse 26, where he said, Ought not Christ, who suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? You know, you've read the scriptures, but seeing what God said in his word, shouldn't this happen? Isn't this what it said was going to happen? Why are you sad? Why are you surprised? Why are you shocked?

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village whither they went, and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him. The Lord knows what's going to happen before it happens. He's the one that causes it to happen. But he acted like he was going to go on, you know, he's saying goodbye to them. They said, No, no, please don't. Don't go.

Please don't go. saying abide with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent and he went in to tarry with them and he came to pass as he sat at meat with them he took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to them and their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished out of their sight you don't need him there personally it's it'd be nice it'd be wonderful it'd be a great experience wouldn't it But now they really saw him, whether he was with them there or not, they really knew who he was.

And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 gathered together and them that were with them saying, the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon And they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?

Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. In any trouble that you're in, the one thing that will calm your soul is to know it's Him. It's Him. It's Him. It's Him that brought the trouble. It's Him that'll take it away in His time. It's Him that's going to teach you what you need to know in that drought. It's me. He says, it's me. Don't be afraid to hold my hands and my feet.

Remember, I gave myself for your sins. You have no sin. I've washed your sins away. Sin is the cause of every problem you have. So he's showing them your sins are gone. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have.

And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet, and while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have you here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and he took it and did eat before them. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you.

He said it again, didn't he? Remember the word? Remember the scriptures? Remember what I said? that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high.

And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And he came to pass while he blessed them. He was parted from them and carried up into heaven, and they worshiped him. And returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.

God showed, the Lord Jesus Christ showed his disciples who he was, who he is. And they went from sad to rejoicing. They believed not for joy. They said, this is too good to be true. And they worshiped him. That's what happens when his people gather in his name, or two or three are gathered in my name. There am I in the midst of them. He shows us who he is. and all the troubles that this world entails for a little while go away, and we rejoice with gladness and worship Him. Thank God for that privilege, for that wonderful, blessed privilege. Let's pray.

Faith, Prayer and Fasting

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the significance of the crucifixion?

How do we know that God will save sinners?

Why is understanding the law important for Christians?

How do prayer and fasting relate to faith in God?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

Faith, Prayer and Fasting

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the significance of the crucifixion?

How do we know that God will save sinners?

Why is understanding the law important for Christians?

How do prayer and fasting relate to faith in God?

Sermon Transcript

About Chris Cunningham

Comments

More from Chris Cunningham

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Chris Cunningham

Suggested for You

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book