Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Here you'll find practical, relevant, biblical information.
The Bible will be broken down verse by verse so that you get the full context of the scripture to better grow in your relationship with Jesus.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Sanctuary. It's great to have you with us as always.
Now, this week is a big week for believers. It's Holy Week. Holy Week is in full swing and Easter is this weekend.
And let me tell you, in the world of Christianity, Easter is the second biggest day of the year for church services around the world.
Christmas, of course, being the first. You know, where Christmas is our Super Bowl, Easter has to be like our World Series, right?
That might be a little harsh of a comparison, but that's really how it falls. You know, it's a big deal.
However, let's make sure that our children know that it's not about the bunny, you know, the little make-believe bunny and all that that's out there,
or the eggs or any of that kind of stuff. I mean, go out, have fun, have your barbecues, all that good stuff.
But make sure everybody you know knows that Easter is about Christ and the fact that He is risen.
Now, for the most part, this time of year, most services spend the week looking over the same scriptures, all right?
From Jesus riding on a donkey to palm leaves being laid out, His crucifixion and then rising again, right?
All very good things. There's nothing wrong with it. I mean, after all, I mean, that is Holy Week, you know, that final week of His life
up to the cross and then, of course, His death and then rising again. However, did you know that all of these things were prophesied in advance?
Now, I'm sure many of you did. I also know that there are some out there who may have heard about it, but didn't know.
And here's the thing. The Old Testament predicted what was going to happen in several places.
The New Testament points to the fulfillment of those prophecies, all right? Those that have been fulfilled and a great many have.
And then, of course, there's that smaller percentage that have yet to be and will be the closer we get to the return of Christ.
All right. In the book of Zechariah 9, chapter 9, verse 9, the Bible says, Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion, shout, daughter Jerusalem,
see your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the fowl of a donkey.
So with this, we knew how he would come riding a donkey instead of a horse, humbling himself before the people from the very start.
All right. You know, the people, they knew who Jesus was, they knew what he was about. They recognized him as the coming king.
That's why in John, chapter 12, verses 12 through 13, the Bible tells us the next day,
the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
They took up palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Blessed is the king of Israel. When a king and certain other V.A.P.s would return from like, you know, generals and that sort of stuff, you know,
when these people, they would return from war victorious, they would ride in on their horses to a lot of fanfare.
OK, people would lay out palm leaves and branches and put clothing on the ground.
It was very much like, you know, today's rolling out the red carpet for, you know, V.A.P.s and stuff. Right.
You know, and, you know, while while they would turn on him faster than they greeted him, the people knew he was the Messiah.
They just didn't know that the freedom he brought was different than what they thought it would be.
OK, you know, all of this was foretold in the Old Testament, starting all the way at the beginning.
All right. You know, now, don't you just love how every book in the Bible points to Jesus?
And yes, the Easter story could be found starting all the way back at the beginning.
All right. Now, we're not going to go through everything in the Old Testament or anything that's pointing to what's going on,
but we're going to hit some key key parts and this right here, this key section as well.
So today I'm going to ask you to join me in Genesis, Chapter 22. All right. So Genesis 22.
And we're going to start at the very beginning here, verses one through five.
The Bible says sometime later, God tested Abraham and he said, Abraham, here I am, he replied.
Then God said, Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah.
Sacrifice him there is a burnt offering on a mountain. I will show you.
Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.
He took him with him. Sorry. He took with him two of his servants and his son, Isaac.
When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
He said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.
We will worship and then we will come back to you.
So already this is already looking quite grim, isn't it?
You know, as a parent, I know the first thing that comes to mind is you want what?
What? Are you kidding me?
You know, this is one of those moments where most of us would fail.
It goes against everything in a parent's heart.
Needless to say, this is a horrible, horrible moment for Abraham.
Really, this is the same thing that God was going through with his own son.
Notice the parallels as we continue.
Now, as we know, Abraham didn't know that he was being tested.
We knew he was being tested. He didn't know he was being tested.
As I said, as a parent or anyone really being asked to kill someone that they love deeply,
this is a failure point.
This is that Achilles heel, if you would.
God wasn't trying to trip him up.
However, he was testing him.
He was testing his obedience to him.
At the same time, he was at work building him up even though he didn't know it.
That's something that we all need to keep in mind.
God will often put us in places we don't want to be in in order to work on us.
He will test us.
He does this so that we can see our own weaknesses and know where we need to turn to him for our strength.
Let's face it.
Giving up things that we really love can be really hard, even if it's for God.
Fasting is a great example.
People are like, I'm going to fast from this.
They're like, okay, this is tough. I'm not doing that. Never mind.
But here Abraham is being asked to give up his son, which is way, way harder.
When God tells us to do something, though, we need to do it.
We need to do it and we can do it a couple of ways.
We could do it while we're moaning and complaining,
or we can get the task and see how God is molding us.
Really, knowing how hard this is, we could say it's very likely.
This is probably the greatest act of obedience to God in the history of man.
He loaded his donkey with what was needed and left with his son and servants.
It sounds an awful lot like Jesus entering on the donkey, right?
Jesus took what he needed.
He had his cadre in tow coming behind him and everything when he entered Jerusalem.
Like I said, there's going to be lots of parallels here that you're going to catch.
They traveled over 50 miles to Mount Moriah.
It's documented from where he was. It's probably about 50 to 60 miles to Mount Moriah.
We're not talking about the leisurely drive that we enjoy today.
This was a long, tough trip, even without thinking of what's to come.
They have a donkey. Maybe they had some other livestock with them to ride or whatever.
They're probably walking.
Even with that, if you've ever ridden a horseback or anything like that, it's not the easiest.
It took them a few days to get there even.
With this long trip, it wasn't a leisurely drive. It was tough.
You take into account that's just a travel. That's not even thinking about what lies ahead, what's going to come.
It's during these times of hardship that these are times that remind us that we need to pray.
We need to talk to God more. We need to look to him for our strength.
We need to look to him for comfort and all the other stuff that we need from him as our provider.
The Bible says he will meet our needs.
In addition to all that, think of the torment in God's own heart and his own mind
as he watched Jesus moving closer and closer to the cross.
Everything that he was going to go through, especially when it came down to those final hours.
Not much like Abraham here.
Picking back up in Genesis 22, we're going to look at verses 6 through 8 now.
The Bible says, Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac.
And he himself carried the fire and the knife.
As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, Abraham,
Father, yes, my son Abraham, replied, the fire and water here, Isaac said.
But where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
Abraham answered, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.
And the two of them went on together.
Isaac carried the wood for the offering, much like Jesus carried the cross.
Isaac asked about the lamb. Now, who is the lamb?
Well, Jesus is. Jesus is the sacrifice for our sin, the blood payment for our freedom.
And the promise from the Father of our place with him when we follow the Son.
Now, animals were a very common sacrifice that God accepted to be held in place of a person,
to atone for their sin and to help them to grow closer to God.
Now, you know, this wasn't a small act either.
You know, it was a type of contract of the day that was laid out for everyone to see.
As we can see in Genesis, Chapter 15, verses 10, the Bible says,
Abraham brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite of each other.
See, the animal would be killed and then basically torn apart or cut apart, right?
And separated. And the parties would basically walk around and then walk through the halves
as a visual proclamation that if they didn't honor their word, then they should be killed like this animal.
So that in itself, it shows how serious these things were.
The sacrifice of the blood and the animal used to purify and atone for the sin of the person.
This is a big deal. And look at what happened to Jesus. Jesus, the Lamb of God.
He was beaten. His flesh was torn to the point of barely being recognizable as a person.
This is a beating that many a person wouldn't have been able to endure, let alone survived.
On top of that, he was humiliated and then forced to walk while carrying his own cross.
He was beaten to that point of... you couldn't even recognize him as him.
He could barely be recognized as a human.
And then on top of all that pain, he's having to enjoy the pain of carrying his own cross, which let's face it,
this is no little light thing. This wasn't a tinker toy. This was some big hunks of wood that were put together
in order to support the body of a human after it was nailed to it.
So we're talking some weight.
The question remains though, why would God ask Abraham to sacrifice his only son,
especially when animals were so commonly accepted as a sacrifice in their place?
Well, it was because God wanted Abraham to kill Isaac in his own heart to show that he loved God more.
Now, God, he didn't want Isaac to die, but he wanted it to be clear for Abraham
and really for all of us that we need to love God more than anything or anyone.
God needs to be our first love.
And that's the test that Abraham was enduring.
Now, let's go back to our reading in Genesis 22, verses 9 through 11.
So verses 9 through 11, the Bible says,
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven,
Abraham, Abraham, here I am, he replied.
It's that intense moment in the movie, right?
You got that serious music playing in the background.
It's getting louder and louder.
The thing is, this is reality.
Abraham, he built an altar and altar was erected.
Isaac was basically he was arranged on the wood and he was bound.
Now, in this case, most likely it was just tied.
Jesus, he was forced to go to the place of his sacrifice and then arranged on some wood,
which was the cross he carried.
And then he was bound to it as well.
He was bound to it by nails, sacrifice for us, a bittersweet moment, both for Jesus and for God.
Both knew what was coming.
Both knew what the outcome would be.
But they also had to endure the horror of it.
Things change here for Abraham and Isaac when the angel of the Lord calls out.
But at that crucial moment, right before the knife comes down.
Let's see what happens.
So verses 12 through 14, the Bible says,
So Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide.
And to this day, it is said on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.
The moment of truth for Abraham and for us all, God asked for so little.
Yet his promise to us is that if we are obedient and we trust in him,
that his blessings will outweigh any sacrifice that we make.
Our treasures, of course, are stored up in heaven.
The Bible tells us that here, Abraham's test is finished and his son is spared.
In his place, a sacrifice is found, the ram.
And Abraham recognized it as the Lord's provision.
The sacrifice that was made on Mount Moriah, the ram, a male sheep,
telling us of Jesus in advance.
Isaiah 53 verses 5 through 6, the Bible says,
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our inequities.
The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray.
Each of us has turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all.
The sacrifice for us all.
And let me tell you the significance of Mount Moriah.
You notice here, right there towards the end of that scripture,
it went into detail, the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided.
Now, Mount Moriah overlooks Jerusalem.
And this is an area that, of course, even in the Bible and without the Bible,
history even, tells us this area that's been conquered several times and renamed.
Eventually, it was renamed from Mount Moriah to Golgotha, meaning the skull,
which, some of you may be aware, was translated to a name that many of us know today as Calvary.
That's right, this took place in the same place where Jesus died, in our place.
The sacrifice and blood for our sin.
The price paid in full for what we all deserve.
So back to our reading in Genesis 22.
Verses 15 through 19, the Bible says,
The obedience here, the obedience of Abraham was tremendous.
The obedience that's often overlooked here, though, is also on the part of Isaac.
See, there was a point here where he realized that he was supposed to be the sacrifice,
and he could have fought, he could have run away, he could have done a lot of things, and let's face it,
in the face of death, fight or flight is a very real thing,
and he fought the temptation to run or to fight his father and remained obedient,
which of course the Bible tells us to, and trusted in what the Lord had planned.
Both Abraham and Isaac were rewarded greatly for their obedience.
They were promised that they'd be able to defeat their enemies,
and that the world over would be affected by knowing of their faith in the Lord.
We're talking about blessing that blesses everyone, right?
And this is another case here in the Bible where the Bible is showing that what God blesses us with,
we're supposed to take that blessing and use it to bless others.
With that said, that leads us back to Christ.
Turning to the book of Hosea, chapter 6,
which was written approximately 700 years before Christ.
Hosea 6, verses 2 through 3, the Bible says,
On the day Jesus was killed, Friday, and the following day,
he atoned for our sins, he reconciled us with the Father,
and on the third day, Easter Sunday, he rose from the grave,
conquering death, and fulfilled prophecy.
He fulfilled it!
We can rejoice in the fact that we have a risen, living Savior in Jesus Christ,
and we didn't ask for much.
He simply asked that we be obedient, and we trust in him.
A living sacrifice made in love, the ultimate showing of how much God loves each and every one of us,
regardless of what we have done.
If you haven't accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior in your heart,
now is the time.
Remember, you are loved and you are blessed.
Now go be the church.
Thank you all for joining us here today at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
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We look forward to hearing from you all.
God bless.