Monday 25 February 2013

Part 2:The World's Greatest Hero - Christ Crucified.


Preached at Gateway 24th February 2013
Isaiah 53.1-9
Hospital - Healing

Focus verse – ’But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and
by his wounds we are healed’, v5.

Main theme: Jesus is wounded so you can be healed.

Introduction

Today is part 2 of our preaching series, The World’s Greatest Hero – Christ Crucified.  Just to remind you or if you’re here for the first time, we’re looking at - in the run up to Easter Sunday - at the most famous death in history, the death of Jesus Christ.  In particular we’re looking at different images and metaphors that that Bible, the Word of God, presents to explain this one message of the death of Jesus and his resurrection. 

The truth is this, you will never understand Jesus Christ, until you understand Jesus Christ Crucified.  Not Jesus Christ Superstar – but Jesus Christ Crucified.

Our focus verse today from the Bible is – But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed’, Isaiah 53.5.

The cross restores your health – hence picture of a hospital ambulance.  Christianity is not just a crutch, it’s the best hospital in the world.  The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart, and Jesus is the only qualified surgeon to deal with the heart problem - sin.  It’s only Jesus who can remove it.  Or to put it another way, through the lens of Isaiah, Jesus was pierced, he was crushed, he was punished, he was wounded, so you can be healed.  Jesus is your substitute.

Ajith Fernando, an Sri Lankan theologian asked, “Have you ever had an infected wound or sore?  When you open it what comes rolling out?  Pus.  And what is that?  It is basically the collective corpses of white blood cells fighting the infection that have died so that you may live.  Do you see?  Substitutionary salvation is in your very blood.”

Jesus is your substitute.  He dies in your place.  Consider this – Jesus is wounded so you can be healed.  Let’s have a closer look.

1) A Suffering God : ‘By his wounds...’ v5.

Isaiah 53.1-9 is part of a very moving chapter that speaks of the suffering servant of God.  What stands out is that the suffering of this servant brings healing and wholeness to others.  It’s no wonder that the church in the New Testament, 700 or so years later, understood this chapter in the light of Christ.  There’s no cover up as to who the New Testament writers think the identity of this suffering servant is – it’s none other than the Crucified Christ.  For example, the apostle Peter, perhaps the one closest to Jesus during his earthly ministry, writes this about Jesus, ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed’ (1 Pet.2.24).  Do you make the connection there?  Where does Peter get the phrase ‘by his wounds you have been healed’?  Isaiah 53.5.

What Isaiah reveals here is the amazing Gospel, e.g. that God enters into your situation and he knows what it is like.  He shares in your pain and suffering.  Indeed, he knows what it is like to die.  ‘By his wounds...’

Let me give you a personal illustration.  I recently had an operation on my right knee to sort out some damage which had been accumulated over the years from playing football.  I’d never had an operation before...so it was really meaningful to me when I spoke to a surgeon who not only had performed the operation many times, but had also undergone the same operation on his own knee.  So the surgeon was speaking, in human terms, as both healer and sufferer.  Christ is both healer and sufferer.  By his wounds you are healed.

This is what makes Christ Crucified so different from every other founder of every other religion.  The God of the Bible knows what suffering is like.  The other day I was in Meadowhall and there was a shop there selling all sorts of ornaments, including various sized statues of Buddha.  I looked at this image of Buddha, with eyes closed, arms folded and legs crossed, with this detached look across his face and a slight vague smile round his mouth.  Has Buddha ever become human and experienced suffering?  Contrast Buddha to the one true living God who is not distant or removed from our world of pain and suffering.  Whilst there are still questions we cannot fully answer about pain and suffering, what we can declare is that the God we worship, Christ Crucified, knows exactly what it is like.  We only have to consider the cross, Isaiah 53 paints the picture of a suffering servant, the gospels fill in the detail of Isaiah’s vision of the torture of Christ, the crown of thorns twisted onto his head, his hand and feet nailed, his back already torn to pieces by two bouts of the most severe lashings possible.  So that’s our starting place, that when suffering crosses your path, God knows what it is like.  He has suffered.  He has been ‘wounded’.  God is a Suffering God.

2) A Healing God : ‘...we are healed’, v5.

‘By his wounds we are healed’.  Therefore, the Bible declares, you need to be healed.  Why?  Because you have been wounded by sin.  In our English language, the words ‘healing’ and ‘salvation’ tend to mean different things in our thinking.  But in the language of the Bible they are closely connected.  In Luke 7 we read about a woman ‘who had lived a sinful life in that town’ where Jesus was at that time (Lk.7.37).  The woman turned to Christ in a quite dramatic way (read Luke 7.36ff sometime).  Then Jesus says to her, in front of house full of people, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace” (Lk.7.50).  In the original Greek language that Luke’s gospel was written in, the word ‘save’ has a range of meanings including ‘heal’ or ‘make whole’.  So it could be translated, quite fairly, into English as ‘Your faith has healed you’ or ‘Your faith has made you whole’.  So that is your first clue...that healing and salvation go together.

·        Psalm 41.4, “O Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you”.

·        Jeremiah 17.14, ‘Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved, for you are the one I praise’.

You may ask, ‘healing from what, I feel in quite good shape at the moment?’  Let’s for a moment define what is sickness?  It’s the state of being ill.  It is a condition which is some kind of deterioration from a healthy state.  It’s some kind of failure in the body or some kind of virus invasion.  You know something is wrong when you compare your condition to what you know to be healthy.  The alarm bells in your body start ringing when you are sick.  So to be healed is to be restored to good health. 

But let’s go to another level with this.  There is a sense that you know as person, even in good physical health, that something is wrong in life, your life.  Despite experiencing good health, deep down there is still something that doesn’t seem to be right in the world, in your own experience.  That’s the sickness which the Bible verses I’ve just quoted refer to. That you and I, the world we are part of, doesn’t operate as it should.  Whether it is the deception of horsemeat being found in what’s advertised as 100% beef burgers, or whether it’s Oscar Pistorius killing his wife, or whether it’s something happening under your own roof, behind closed doors of your household...it is the wound of sin.  It’s an open wound.  You can’t just deal with the symptoms and apply a nice plaster or some soothing cream.  Society is good at that – treating the symptoms.  We might throw money at the problems or seek a political solution, or turn to science, or apply the law of the land.  Whilst all these options may achieve some measure of success, and by the way I believe Christians should be at the forefront of these limited solutions e.g. I went to see my local MP on Friday about one or two concerns I have - nevertheless the root problem of the ‘sickness’ must be dealt with.  The Bible tells us that you are sinful and that you need salvation or healing.  You need restoring.  Indeed, creation needs remaking and renewing.  What Christ has accomplished on the cross achieves for you that healing, so that one day you shall be made whole.  You may yet experience physical weakness, but the promise of God is this for those who trust Jesus Christ - there’s coming a day when you shall be restored as God originally intended.  God is a God of Healing.

3) Present Healing and Future Healing

Let me say a word about present healing and future healing, so that we don’t confuse the sickness of the physical body with the sickness of sin.  Yes, the two are clearly connected, but we cannot affirm and assume that physical health is just as readily available to everybody as forgiveness of sins is – which is spiritual health.  We only have to read the New Testament, starting with Jesus and the Apostles to understand that physical suffering is part of being a Christian in this life, especially persecution. 

On the other-hand, let’s not underestimate God’s healing power of the body.  We can marvel at how God has ‘wired in’ to our bodies therapeutic processes which fight diseases and restores the body to well-being, especially these days through medical and scientific expertise.  Let’s declare that all physical healing is divine healing, including miraculous healing which is without human aid and is instant and permanent.  So I believe, based on the Bible’s teaching, that yes God heals people today – physically – as a sign of God’s love and mercy and power, often in response to pray.  Of course such people who experience physical healing will eventually fall sick at a later stage – so ultimately physical healing in this life is not the be-all and end-all.  Even those who are raised from the dead, and it’s happened, will eventually die again.  My point is this, we must not expect the sick to be healed and the dead to be raised on the same par as we expect sinners to be forgiven.  Or to over-emphasise physical healing at the expense of sins forgiven – spiritual healing, which is far more important.  To do so would be to emphasise the ‘already’ at the expense of the ‘not yet’.  What do I mean?  Let’s clarify...

There is coming a day – if you are a believer in Jesus - when you shall be completely healed, when physically you shall be perfected – never to experience physical weakness again.  There is coming a day when the dead in Christ shall be raised to eternal life, when all God’s people shall receive the full resurrected life – never to die again.  That is to come, that is the ‘not yet’ part which we wait for patiently.  The apostle Paul talks about how we groan inwardly for that day.  ‘We ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies’ (Rom.8.23).

Whilst we believe in physical healing today – naturally, medically, supernaturally – and often we pray to God for healing of people we know, it is not until Jesus returns, when the new life begins in all its fullness, will our bodies be TOTALLY FREE of sickness and death.  That part is the ‘not yet’ part which the cross of Jesus has accomplished.  To inherit that future you need to be forgiven today.  That’s why spiritual healing is more important than physical healing.  By his wounds, Christ Crucified, you have been healed.  This is what Isaiah 53.5 means.

So whilst sin brings the whole range of pain and suffering in its wake, because before sin there was no sickness or death, the death of Jesus offers a comprehensive cure for them all.  As the theologian Theodore puts it, ‘Here is a new and strange method of healing; the doctor suffered the cost, and the sick received the healing’.

Conclusion

The good news is that you can know that promise today.  It starts today.  But you need to admit you are sick, that you have the problem of sin.  It’s like seeing the Doctor, you admit your illness, you are prescribed some medicine. 

So to experience God’s healing – the forgiveness of sins, you must admit your sickness, that is the prerequisite for healing and wholeness in the long-term.  No admission of sin, no divine forgiveness.  Do you have the honesty and integrity to admit that you need care and help?

Mark 2.17, ‘On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”. 

Where do sinners go?  To church!  It’s like a hospital ward, where you mix and mingle with other sick patients who are on the road to recovery, to learn about how to carry out the instructions of the doctor...Jesus Christ.  So you need to be healed from the sickness of sin which will ruin you eternally in its present condition.  But you must admit to God your condition, your sickness, your sin, that you have lived your own selfish way and not God’s way.  You must also believe in Jesus Christ, that by his wounds you are healed.  You cannot heal yourself, it’s only Jesus, by his death, his blood shed on the cross.  He sacrificed his life for yours.  He went under the knife instead of you.  He is your substitute, remember this is even illustrated in your own blood when your white blood cells fight infection and die in order for you to live.  But you must receive Christ into your life, be committed to changing your ways only possible by God’s Holy Spirit and likewise take up your cross and serve him in this world, whilst looking forward to the life to come in the new heaven and earth.

Let me close by sharing with you a scene from the film Ben Hur: a famous old film now – where there are some poignant and symbolic moments.  Yes, the film is centred on Ben Hur and his family at the time of Jesus, but the climax to the film and indeed the turning point it seems to me is the death of Jesus.  The significance of what is happening upon the cross is symbolised in different ways, e.g. Ben Hur’s mother and sister suffer from leprosy and at the moment of Jesus’ death they are cured.  There is a snapshot of Jesus on the cross clearly symbolising how Jesus heals our wounds.  What happens next is the two women walk out into the rain and the rain washes away the scabs of leprosy and filth from their faces.  Simultaneously, there is another snapshot of Jesus.  This time his blood flows down mixing with the rain on the ground as pools and streams are quickly formed – signifying how the death of Jesus and his shed blood cleanses the scabs and filth of our sins and washes them away.  This is the love of God – in all its fullness - that comes to you this afternoon. In Christ Crucified, God comes to your aid and gives you all you need.

’But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed’, Isaiah 53.5.

Opening questions for Q & A: Do you know of a better alternative to the truth of the Bible?  Have you experienced the healing of Christ Crucified in your life?

Prayer of commitment & faith:

Lord Jesus, I have done a lot of things wrong in my life.  I am sorry for going my own way instead of your way.  I am sorry for the life I have led without you.  Thank you for dying on the cross to forgive my sin and offering me complete healing that begins now and will be completed when you return.  I believe that by your wounds I am healed.  Please come and take first place in my life and make me the person you want me to be, filling my life with your healing power and sacrificial love.  Amen.

Monday 18 February 2013

Part 1:The World’s Greatest Hero – Christ Crucified


Preached at Gateway 17th February 2013
Colossians 2.6-15
Battlefield - Victory

Focus verse – ‘And having disarmed the powers and authorities, [Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’, v15.

 Main theme: Jesus conquered so you can have the victory over evil.

Introduction

The death of Jesus is the most famous death in history.  You’re going to discover in this new preaching series why Jesus is ‘The World’s Greatest Hero’ because God’s Word reveals just who Jesus is, why he died, and what his death accomplished for you.  We’re going to do this by looking at different images and metaphors that that Bible, the Word of God, presents.  The Bible is not monochrome. There are many vivid ways to explain this one message of the death of Jesus and his resurrection. 

The truth is this, you will never understand Jesus Christ, until you understand Jesus Christ Crucified.  Not Jesus Christ Superstar – but Jesus Christ Crucified.

Our focus verse today from the Bible is – ‘And having disarmed the powers and authorities, [Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’, Colossians 2.15.  Consider this...Jesus conquered, so that you can have the victory over evil.

Here’s the Big Picture

The risen Jesus said this to his followers, before he returned into heaven, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me’ (Matthew 28.18).  In this declaration Jesus claims he is supreme, he is ruler.  He stands above all other rulers of this world, the good, the bad and the ugly...he excels and surpasses all powers and authorities.

If Jesus is this amazing figure – whom nobody can match, how do you know he is without parallel?  If he is King of kings and Lord of lords...how do you know?  You need to know, before you decide to follow him.

In order to know, I want you to travel back in time to a battlefield.  It’s called Calvary, otherwise known as the place of the Skull (Luke 23.33).  It’s possibly a hillside, that’s shaped in the form of a skull, where some crucifixions are taking place.  According to the historical records three crucifixions are taking place, three people have been nailed to their cross to die.  Crucifixion was a Roman invention which was barbaric.

Upon the cross in the middle of the three, was Jesus.  The world’s greatest hero – Christ crucified.  What is happening?  It’s challenging to truly comprehend.  We need an illustration.  One of the best is portrayed in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’...where Aslan willingly goes to the place of sacrifice in order to break the spell, the deep magic.  The wicked Queen of Narnia and her evil forces are unleashed against and upon Aslan.  But what they don’t realise is that the victim became, in sacrificing his life, the victor.  That’s a snapshot of Jesus, ’the Lion of the tribe of Judah...[who] has triumphed’ (Revelation 5.5); willingly going to the battlefield of Calvary, where he knows he is going to be slaughtered...yet he knows it’s there the curse will be broken and the power of Satan will be crushed.  Here’s what the prophet Isaiah foresaw centuries before, ‘He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent’ (Isaiah 53.7).

Yes, Jesus on the battlefield had been rejected by everyone, even his own deserted him, as he died that lonely death with the forces of evil raging against him, and experiencing abandonment by his own heavenly Father.  What was actually happening, contrary to appearances that looked like evil overcoming goodness, was in fact goodness overcoming evil.  Yes, the brutal power of Rome overcame this one solitary figure, but was really happening was that Jesus was crushing Satan, as prophesied at the beginning of the Bible’s history (see Genesis 3.15 ref. to Satan disguised as a serpent, whose head is crushed).  The famous preacher, John Stott, once said, “The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which [Christ] rules the world” (Stott, The Cross of Christ, p228).

It’s a dramatic cosmic drama that unfolded in the life of Jesus culminating at the cross.  It was by his sacrifice on the battlefield of Calvary that Jesus defeated sin, death and Satan.  That’s the big picture.  Let’s zoom in.

Here’s some of the detail

God created all the world good, but, mysteriously to us, Satan was allowed to tempt Adam and Eve, the figure-heads of the human race.  They choose to listen and obey Satan’s voice instead of God’s voice and consequently the world and humankind has been plagued by evil and wickedness.  Therefore, you too are caught up in this.  For those of you who are fans of the Star Wars movies, you’ll know about the huge space station called the Death Star, which has powerful beam that pulls in enemy ships.  There’s nothing you can do about.  Once you’re in the drag of the beam, there’s no escape.  It’s like that with sin, you are caught in the beam of Satan.  But you are also, at the same time, responsible for your own selfish actions.  You have still personally broken God’s laws – just consider the 10 Commandments, or the greatest 2 that Jesus spoke about concerning loving God and loving your neighbour.  This broken law is what is against us, referred to in Colossians as ‘the written code, with all its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us’, Colossians 2.14.  The idea of the ‘written code’ in the Apostle Paul’s day was that of a document which was hand-written that certified you were in debt.  Indeed, it could well have been a signed confession of being in debt, a debt that was too big for you to repay.  The Apostle Paul applies this to God’s law.  You have broken it, therefore you can never fix it.  It stands against you.

We’ve just been accepted by a Bank to acquire a Mortgage for the first time, Mary Sue and myself.  I know we’ll have a massive debt that will take us over 20 years to pay off.  Thankfully it’s manageable.  But still it’s a written document that stands against me, until the debt is paid.  But the debt of sin, you breaking God’s laws, cannot be paid off by you – not now, not ever.  That is Colossians 2.14.

But at the battlefield, on the cross, Jesus took this certificate, the written code – metaphorically speaking – and he nailed it.  ‘He took it away, nailing it to the cross’, Colossians 2.14.  When a person was crucified, about them was a sign nailed stating the crime of the person.  What’s the Apostle Paul is declaring here is that your certificate, your crime of breaking God’s laws – the unpayable debt, the impossible I.O.U. - is nailed to Jesus’ cross.  In essence, you should be nailed, but Jesus stands in your place.  He pays your debt, he cancels the ‘written code, with its regulations’.  It’s wiped out.  In fact, he has destroyed it – nailing it to his cross of crucifixion.  That is why you can be forgiven for breaking God’s law, but what about Satan and his forces?  Are they still in power, can they still drag you back under their evil hold and power?  No.  Not only has Jesus, at the battlefield, destroyed your ‘written code’, he has conquered the evil powers by his death, his sacrifice on the cross.  No wonder the cross is used as the symbol of the Christian faith.

There was a story a few years ago, recorded in The Times Newspaper, about a mother, Patricia Gearing, who was informed by her local authority to remove a simple cross that marked the grave of her daughter who had died of Battens disease.  This was in Mablethorpe, with the local authority stating, ‘Crosses are discouraged, as excessive use of the supreme Christian symbol is undesirable’.  Instead, the family was given permission to erect a headstone featuring Micky Mouse (The Times 6th Sept 1998),

Let’s never diminish the power of the cross.  Look at Col.2.15, in this one verse we have two graphic images or metaphors to illustrate the victory of the cross...

Here’s the focus - The Victorious Crucified Christ

1) ‘Disarmed the powers and authorities’

Christ Crucified has ‘disarmed the powers and authorities’, he has destroyed the drag beam of Satan.  If you lived in Colosse during the 1st century, you would have lived amongst farmers of crops and sheep, and dyers of wool.  They were very superstitious, believing strongly in having to ward off evil spirits and appease supernatural forces that either brought prosperity or misfortune to their fragile agricultural world.  Imagine their surprise upon hearing the good news of Jesus as it’s described here, this letter originally written to a new church at Colosse.  These evil forces were moving in close, as Christ reached the peak of the battle.  It looked like it was all over, Satan and his demonic beings had triumphed.  But he ‘disarmed’ them.  ‘Disarmed’ or ‘stripped’ is the word used for stripping the weapons from a defeated enemy and his armour too.  What this means is this, as the evil forces began to cling to Jesus, he ‘discarded’ them, as if like disgusting, foul clothing, God in Christ stripped them from himself.  God in Christ ‘disarmed’ them of their evil power.  The Crucified Christ broke their power once and for all. 

2) A public spectacle

The second image is this, ‘he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’, Colossians 2.15.  What the Apostle Paul has in mind here is that of a Roman general who has won a famous victory and is marching with his victorious army through the streets of Rome.  Behind him are the foes, held captive, conquered and defeated, paraded around as the powerless powers. Think of the Light Dragoons and the Yorkshire Regiment when they paraded though Barnsley town centre in recent years with their tanks and armoured vehicles, with thousands turning out to cheer them on.  It’s a kind of victory parade, at least a homecoming celebration.  This is the picture of Jesus, victorious ‘triumphing over them by the cross’, Colossians 2.15.  This was victory and Jesus leads the procession of captives.  But do get confused, because usually you will think of political forces and military powers that conquer enemies, but God does it through utter weakness, the Crucified Christ.  ‘God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong’ (1 Corinthians 1.27). 

So the battlefield of Calvary is a cosmic battle where the powers of darkness surrounded Christ on the cross and attacked him.  If this is unseen, a battle in the spiritual realm, how was it a ‘public spectacle’?  Remember, this victory was prophesied many times, and then began to take hold during the public ministry of Jesus, and was decisively won at the cross.  But how was it a public spectacle?  Jesus rose from the dead.  The resurrection confirmed and declared the victory, the conquest.  The apostle Peter said in the first ever message preached, “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2.24).  Furthermore, this triumph is extended to the church down through the ages and across the world today.  So this local church called Gateway has an explosive message, preaching ‘Christ Crucified’ and calling people to turn from wrong and turn to Jesus Christ, to believe in him.  So when somebody becomes a Christian, a true believer, they turn from ‘darkness to light’ (Acts 26.18), from ‘the power of Satan to God’ (Acts 26.18), and from ‘idols to serve the living and true God’ (1 Thessalonians 1.9).  Every time a person crosses over from unbelief to faith in Christ, the supreme power of Christ is demonstrated because Satan, who up to that point has a hold on the individual life, has to let go.

The resurrection confirms what the death of Jesus achieved.  The resurrection assures you that in Jesus you can have victory.  No wonder, the Apostle Paul who presents death in the image of a scorpion whose sting has been drawn, shouts defiantly like a military conqueror, “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  Silence.  So the Apostle Paul shouts again in triumph, not mockery, “Thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15.55-57).

Conclusion

What about you?  Do you sometimes feel oppressed as if evil is clinging to you?  Do you realise that your lifestyle, your ways, your desires – if lived without Jesus Christ in charge – positions you on the losing side?  What about death, Satan’s final charge?  Do you fear death and what happens afterwards?  You need not fear death.  ‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death’ (1 Corinthians 15.26).  ‘Our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel’ (2 Timothy 1.10).  The cross announces that the blood of Jesus has power to ward off evil destruction.  If you read about the original Passover meal in Exodus, the angel of death passed over every household that had the blood of a sacrificed lamb daubed on its doorframe.  What the Israelites experienced, you too can experience.  You too need to be covered by the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ – ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1.29).  In other words, you need to put your faith in Christ alone.  Go to the battlefield of Calvary, where the battle has already been won – at the cross of Jesus.  Lay down your weapons of pride and selfishness and the rest, and put your trust in the triumphant Christ Crucified. 

Gateway church, you need to pick up the atmosphere of the New Testament, which is one of joyful confidence.  There is no way, any Christian or local church should be defeatist.  Christians in New Testament times spoke about victory.  See Romans 8.37, ‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’.

Why is ‘Christ Crucified’ the world’s greatest hero?  Because he is Christ the Conqueror, who ‘disarmed the powers and authorities’.  God has come into your world to rescue you, to give you the victory over evil.  You don’t need a telescope or a microscope or a horoscope to reach him, it’s Christ Crucified.  In him, God comes to your aid and gives you all you need.  Have you experienced the victory of Christ Crucified in your life?

‘And having disarmed the powers and authorities, [Christ] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross’

Prayer of faith:

Lord Jesus, I have done a lot of things wrong in my life.  I am sorry for going my own way instead of your way.  I am sorry for the life I have led without you.  Thank you for dying on the cross to forgive my sin and give me the victory over sin, death and Satan.  Please come and take first place in my life and make me the person you want me to be, filling my life with your victorious power and sacrificial love.  Amen.