If you would, for a moment, think back with me
to the conversion of Saul in the book of Acts,
what we call his Damascus Road experience. You
might recall the story. Saul is headed towards
that city with authorization in his hand from
the high priest in Jerusalem to arrest anybody
he finds along the way who is a part of this
group they called at that time The Way, followers
of Jesus. And suddenly a light from heaven flashed
all around him, it says in Acts 9. And Saul fell
to the ground and he heard a voice say to him,
Saul, why are you persecuting me? Look at that
last word. Stunned and blinded by what had just
happened, Saul looks up toward the heavens knowing
that something supernatural had just happened
to him. Whatever caused that flash of light from
above, whoever's voice he was hearing, he knew
there was some kind of powerful presence all
around him. And he says, who are you, Lord? And
the voice comes back, I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting. Now, many of us have heard that
story. You've read it for yourself. You've heard
it taught on. But have you ever stopped to consider
the implications? of what Jesus said to Paul
that day about himself and his followers. Remember,
Saul was not literally persecuting Jesus, was
he? By this time, Jesus had been crucified, buried,
raised to life, ascended into heaven. Jesus was
out of the reach of Saul's hostile intent, but
Saul was persecuting Christ's followers. And
so in this story, we learn that Jesus is so closely
united to those who trust in him, he feels such
solidarity with us that it's as if he himself
is being persecuted. Think about that. We are
members of his body. And when we say we are members
of his body, that is not just religious verbiage.
It is deeply and profoundly true of us. And so
to attack his body is to attack Christ himself
because of the deep and inseparable connection
that we have with him. One of the many things
that Christ followers today seem to either not
understand or miss altogether is that the true
church And there's only one true church. It's
all of the elect who are found in Christ by grace
through faith. The church is not just an organization.
It is not just a group of individuals who get
together on Sundays to worship. Together we are
a living organism. We are an extension of the
presence of Jesus on earth. We are his spiritual
body on display for the world to see. And that
means we share in his life. What's true of him
is true of us. And this is the language of a
very essential theological commitment that we
call our union with Christ. And when we begin
to grasp what that term means in all of its fullness,
friends, this will deepen your love for the Savior,
our union with him. Now the concept of union
has two sides of it. By birth and by nature,
we all as human beings were once in union with
someone else, weren't we? We were in union with
Adam. And we were in union with him in all the
wrong things, in original sin, in corruption
of the flesh, and most importantly and sadly,
we were united with Adam in spiritual death.
But God, who is rich in mercy by his grace, he's
redeeming a people for himself, drawing us out
of the world. And when the Lord rescues a man
or woman from the domain of darkness and transfers
him or her into the kingdom of his son, From
that point forward and forevermore, our headship
changes. No longer are we united in Adam. We
are now said to be in Christ. We are said to
be united to the eternal son of David, united
to the savior of the world, united to God's Messiah,
his one and only son. If you know Jesus this
evening, that's happened in your life. You had
a head in Adam and now you have a new head in
Christ. We're united with him. As I shared in
last Sunday's message, if we haven't trusted
in that version of Jesus, his true identity as
revealed to us in the scriptures, then we can't
be in him. And we can't be with him. And we won't
be covered by his garment of righteousness. By
the way, we just heard in the text that Grant
read evidence from Matthew's gospel of exactly
who he is. And ironically, it came from the lips
of his most powerful accuser from Caiaphas, the
high priest of Israel. The high priest said to
him, I adjure you by the living God. And that's
a serious statement for a high priest to make.
By the living God, you tell me the truth, he
said. Are you the Messiah, the son of God? What
a blunt question. Straight to the point, right?
And in front of the entire Sanhedrin, the chief
priests, the elders, the scribes, everybody involved
in that sham trial, Jesus said, you, Caiaphas,
have said it yourself. You, Caiaphas, have declared
what is true about me, Jesus says. I am the Messiah,
the Christ, and the Son of God. And then Jesus
wasn't done stating his case, but I tell you
from now on, Caiaphas, You will see the Son of
Man seated at the right hand of power and coming
on the clouds of heavens. Friends, you have to
understand where that citation comes from and
what it means, what it said to everybody in the
room that night. He's talking about a royal courtroom
scene prophesied by Daniel in the Old Testament.
where we have this divine figure known as the
Son of Man riding on the clouds, and only God
rides on the clouds, but he comes on the clouds,
and he is presented before Yahweh, the God of
Israel, who's referred to in Daniel 7 as the
Ancient of Days. And Yahweh, get this now, gives
the Son of Man glory. He gives him dominion.
He gives him a kingdom that will never pass away.
That's what Jesus is talking about. And of course,
Caiaphas understood that prophecy. He knew exactly
what Jesus was claiming in that moment. That's
why he reacts as he does. After all, who's able
to stand in the presence of God Almighty? But
God. To whom does Yahweh give glory and dominion?
Who but God himself is capable of ruling over
a kingdom that lasts forever? Who but God? We
know that Caiaphas understood it because he says,
He is utter blasphemy, and he tears his robes,
and he says he deserves death. And that's what
Jesus received, a death sentence and Roman crucifixion.
And when we get to the cross, this is where our
union with him becomes so important. Listen to
the theological truth that Paul brings out in
Romans 6. He says our old self was crucified
with him. For the believer, that old self was
the person who was once united to Adam. By virtue
of our union with Christ, that person is now
dead. We're to consider that old man dead because
it died on the cross. Do you understand the massive
implications of that in your life? How often
do we lose sight of that truth? The old man is
gone. Paul goes on in Romans 6, not just dead,
but he says we've been buried. We've been buried
with him. And I know you say, well, look, we
weren't around 2 ,000 years ago. How is that
possible? Because we're united to our Savior
in every way as members of his body. Spiritually,
we don't only share his life, but we share his
death. We share his burial as well. And that
truth produces the best news any man or woman
could ever hear in their entire life, that our
whole body of sin Our whole body of sin, past,
present, future, was nailed to that cross and
now we are free. The whole body of sin nailed
to the cross. That's what Romans 6 confirms.
Our old self was crucified with him in order
that our body of sin might be done away with
so that we would no longer be slaves to sin for
he who has died is freed from sin. So get the
two -fold thing here. The ransom price for our
sin was paid on that cross, and then more, Paul
says that we were buried with him so that we
might walk in newness of life as new creatures.
Peter says the same thing, 1 Peter 2. He bore
our sins in his body on the cross so that, purpose
statement, so that we might die to sin and live
to righteousness, for by his wounds you were
healed. This is the good news of the gospel,
friends. For those who've been rescued by God,
our union with Christ has completely turned our
lives upside down, reversed everything. Our fallenness,
our sin, our slavery to sin, it all died on that
cross and was buried with Jesus all because of
our union with him. Friends, on Good Friday,
we rightly grieve over the fact that our Savior,
who had done no wrong, was unfairly and unjustly
treated as a criminal. We agonize with him in
the garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood.
We shudder when we think about the torture he
endured, the scourging. It pains us to think
of Jesus hanging on that cross, being nailed
there as a substitute for us, having to bear
that shame because of our sin. And yet we also
rejoice tonight. We rejoice because of the truths
we just saw. The glory of the cross. The glory
of the cross. Because as Peter says, by his wounds,
we have been healed. Isaiah prophesied that God's
Messiah would be a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. And as we read the gospel accounts,
we find out that is exactly how Jesus lived his
life. rejected by his own people, misunderstood,
maltreated, scorned, mocked, and eventually murdered.
But we know this too, his sufferings were not
without purpose. As we've already seen this evening,
our life, our salvation is rooted in the sufferings
that he endured for us. But there's even more
that we need to understand. Jesus lived a life
of suffering in order to show us what we should
expect in union with him. Let me say that again.
Jesus lived a life of suffering in order to show
us what we can expect to live in union with him.
That is why one of the core teachings was cross
-bearing. If anyone would come after me, Jesus
said, let him deny himself and take up his cross
daily and follow me. So whether we like it or
not, that is the template of the Christian life.
Now remember, all the promises of God are ours.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God
in Christ, and our hope is certain, but before
we're resurrected to life and glory, we suffer
down here below. That's the promise we've been
given. Our union with Christ explains why this
life is so hard. Have you ever thought about
it? Why is this life so hard? For someone who
loves God, who seeks to serve him, why is it
so hard? Our union with Christ explains it. Above
all the people on the earth, we see how broken
this world is. And it's so difficult for us to
know the truth, to know how beautifully God originally
designed this world, yet to have to watch it
unravel so thoroughly. And of course, God's children
are not exempt from the pain that sin has brought
into the world. Tragedy happens. The loved ones
die. Children disobey. Life goals don't pan out.
Nothing is right. Everything feels broken. And
so the pattern, first for Jesus, and now for
us as his followers, is first suffering and then
glory. First suffering and then glory. We don't
despair, friends. We saw earlier on the Damascus
Road that as we go through the travels of this
life, as we suffer, Jesus is never distant from
our suffering because we're part of his body.
And so we always keep in mind this union that
we have with him. Because he suffered, we're
called, we're actually called to participate
in those sufferings. In fact, this was a privilege
that drove the Apostle Paul in his ministry.
He wrote to the Philippian church that he wanted
to know the fellowship of Jesus' sufferings being
conformed to his death. And to the Colossian
church, he added, I now rejoice in my sufferings
for you for the sake of his body, which is the
church. Now, does that mean that Paul enjoyed
the pain of life? Does that mean he sought out
the pain and affliction? Of course not. But for
Paul, the source of his joy and trials was found
in the meaning behind it, the meaning of why
he had to suffer in this life. It meant that
he could identify ever so slightly with his Savior
to share in the fellowship of the sufferings
of his Lord. It meant that he could feel in a
very strong way the contrast between this fallen
world and the glory to come in eternity. It meant
that he could serve as Jesus did, to become a
bondservant for the benefit of the church, for
his fellow saints and servants. And we know that
the church as well, not just us as individuals,
but the church as well, exists in union with
Christ. Christ is our head as the church. We
are the bride. And so as a collective body, all
believers, we follow him toward Jerusalem. We
follow him into the garden of Gethsemane. We
follow him to that trial. We follow him along
the rocky path to Golgotha and the cross. We
follow our Lord unto death. But here's the joy.
The gospel tells us that we also follow him through
the gates of heaven. And that's our hope here
tonight. Because we suffer with him, we shall
be raised with him. He was humiliated. We will
be exalted. That's what the scriptures tell us.
Because of our union with Christ, our suffering
in this life always has a purpose. It always
has a purpose. And once we come to terms with
the essential role that suffering plays in our
union with Jesus, then all the frustrations of
this life become endurable because we see the
purpose. We see why. We see the fellowship of
his sufferings. But friends, know this. This
is a non -negotiable aspect of our discipleship.
Because of our union with him, cross -bearing
is part of cross -following. And the pathway
to a mature, lasting faith is paved with the
rough stones of this life. But we can know this.
There is nothing, there is no power that can
separate us from the love of God in Christ. What's
the worst thing the world can do to us? They
can kill us, but then we're blessed, Scripture
says, because we've been persecuted. Because
of Jesus. And then even if that were to happen
in that very moment, we'd go to be with them
anyway. So really, what can the world do to us?
What can they really threaten us with? In union
with Jesus, we suffer down here on the earth,
but a day is coming when it will all end. Can
you imagine this? A day when there will be no
more sin, no more suffering, no more disease.
All limitations passed away. And in that day,
we will be united with God the Father who has
faithfully cared for us through all of life's
trials. And we will see God the Son face to face.
And when we see Jesus, after all these years
of wrestling and struggling and sharing in the
fellowship of his sufferings, it will hit us
finally that the years that we suffered here
on the earth are a vapor compared to the vast
endless joy we will have with him forever and
ever. That's Good Friday. That's what it means,
our union with Christ, union with him in his
life, union with him in his death and his burial,
and we'll see Sunday that something else is coming.
Amen.