The Death and Life of Jesus – Acts 25:13-22

Think about some of the people to whom Paul had been privileged to preach the Gospel:

There were the learned elders of Athens – the pseudo-intellectuals of Greece.

There were one or two of Israel’s High Priests and the Sanhedrins which hung on to their coat-tails.

There had been the proconsul of Crete, who actually listened and believed Paul’s report.

There had been two Governors of Judea.

And there had been members of the house of Herod with two more coming up in a matter of moments.

Do you suppose that he ever got nervous or scared as the thought about the power and position that some of his auditors possessed?

Part of me wants to say that he never gave who those people were a second thought.

But then in I Corinthians he said that he was “in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling” as he ministered to those particular people.

Was that a different kind of fear and trembling, under a different set of circumstances?

Let’s say that after Paul’s initial defense before Festus, he was taken away and the governor was left in confusion.

And let’s say that wanting to be the best governor of that province that he could,

Festus turned to his counselors and asked someone to explain all this talk about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus,

but none of them understood it either.

But let’s say that one of them said that he knew that YOU were one of the Christians in city of Caesarea.

Let’s say that, without knowing the reason, you were invited into the office of the Governor of Judea.

You didn’t know if you had broken the law, or someone had falsely accused you,

or if you had been nominated to political office,

but you were brought before Festus.

From what you know of your own heart, what would YOUR emotional condition be in such a case?

And then, if he asked you to explain the facts of the gospel, would your fears disperse or intensify?

“Tell me the story of Jesus; write on my heart every word.

Tell me the story most precious; sweetest that ever was heard.”

This evenings’ message will be very simple, very short, and hopefully very sweet.

I hope that it might be the sort of thing that I would be able to share with Festus, if he asked me to explain what it was about which Paul was talking.

Paul said that Jesus DIED.

We have in this the proof of Jesus’ HUMANITY.

Because, simply put, GOD cannot die.

God is more vitally connected to our existence than is the sun.

If the sun was somehow snuffed out, life on earth would be extinguished as well, in a matter of hours.

I don’t remember how long it takes for the light and heat of the sun to reach earth, but in just a few minutes longer than that, we would all be frozen to death.

It would be the ultimate example of “freeze dried.”

On the other hand if we knew beforehand, and if we had time enough to prepare, I suppose that the richest and most powerful might find a way to survive for a little while after the dousing of the sun.

But if GOD should deliberately or accidentally withdraw His blessings, life wouldn’t freeze to death, it would explode or perhaps implode into nothing.

Despite the foolish notions of sinful men, God cannot die because He is the source of life.

But that is not really the point.

This is not about whether or not God is the source of life: God IS life and he CANNOT die (period).

It is physically – in the sense of spiritual physics – impossible for God to die.

He is no more capable of dying than I am of making that piano over there come to life.

When the Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,”

He was not saying that He had access to truth, He knew the way to God and that He had access to life.

He was saying that he IS Truth, He IS the only way to God, the Father, and he IS life.

When the scientist considers the existence of life he should not consider it apart from the Son of God.

Life and God are, in some ways, one and the same thing.

And so, when Jesus, the incarnate Son of God died, it was proof that in some way He was human.

This is one of the highest of all spiritual mysteries, and no one should expect Mr. Festus to understand.

This is one of those things which requires faith, the gift of God, to accept.

But Jesus is the Theanthropic Person; he is the God-man; both completely God and completely man.

We know that those two things became one in the miraculous conception and the virgin birth, but how to explain that which is this good, I know not.

And yet, I do know that Jesus was absolutely and fully human, because He died.

Also in Jesus death, we have the ultimate ILLUSTRATION OF SIN.

If one death-row murderer killed another death-row murderer, you and I would probably not lose any sleep.

If two of the lowest people on earth did what they do best – to each other – we would not be surprised.

And if two drunks in a bar fight killed each other, we wouldn’t be too upset either.

Fights in bars, among drunks, is something that society should expect.

This is the norm, not the exception.

But if a drunken man killed his non-drinking, pregnant wife, that starts to get people stirred.

The more innocent or helpless the victim, the more heinous the crime becomes.

But the truth is there is not a just man, pregnant woman or toddling infant upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.

There is no such thing as a truly innocent person.

There may be people who are innocent when it comes to a particular set of circumstances, but there are no non-sinners in this world.

There are no genuine innocents, because we are all sinners.

It’s not until we are talking about the Lord Jesus, that we finally reach the highest, best, most loving, and most righteous Person among us.

And when He was murdered it was the highest of all crimes; it was the ultimate illustration of sin.

But Jesus could have prevented His death by exposing or using a fraction of his divine power.

So in the death of Christ we also see an example, the example, of SUPREME SELF-SACRIFICE.

“Greater love hath no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

I don’t want sound blasphemous, but there is a greater love than this.

As I said this morning, Christ died for those who were at the time, his enemies.

In the will and decree of God, those for whom Jesus did were friends,

but in point of fact, before they repented and born again,

they were by action and condition of heart – enemies – not friends.

When Jesus died, it was the highest illustration of self-sacrifice ever to be recorded in the annuls of humanity.

And the death of the Lord Jesus was also a demonstration of the LOVE OF THE ENTIRE GOD-HEAD.

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have ever lasting life.”

The Death of Christ was not done outside the will, sight or approval of God the Father, or God the Spirit.

The decision that He would give His life was an agreement, a covenant, between the three Persons of the God-head.

It was not a unilateral choice made by the Son to appease the wrath of the Father.

Nor did Jesus sneak out the back door of Heaven and shinny down the drain pipe to earth, in order to give Himself to the enemy in order to save the reputation of the family.

In the death of the Son of God, the Father suffered 10,000 times more than any human father ever could.

In the death of the Lord Jesus the entire God-head suffered.

But, it was only the Son, Who died.

Furthermore, in the death of Christ we see AN ATONEMENT made for the sins of many.

If we had the opportunity to explain to Festus what it was that Paul began to say, we’d have to spend a lot of time on this point.

Jesus’ didn’t die as a Jewish criminal as the Priests and Sanhedrin might have said.

He died as John had said, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.”

“He gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”

“He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

The death of Jesus, proved his humanity, but it was not merely as a man he died:

He was “delivered by the determinate council and foreknowledge of God” in order to accomplish the sacrifice necessary for the salvation of a few of us wicked wretches.

Repent of your sins Festus, trust Christ, and prove to us that Jesus died for your salvation.

In the death of Christ Jesus we also have the solution for the SORROWS that sin has brought upon society.

Because Jesus died there is personal escape from any and all of the wicked dregs of sin.

There is freedom from pornography, alcoholism, self-loathing, abusive jealousy, drug-abuse, guilt.

There is no form of human which cannot be resolved through the effects of Jesus’ death.

As Paul said, Jesus died.

That is the beginning of one of the greatest of all human statements.

The second part is: Even though Jesus died, HE IS ALIVE.

In this we have proof of His DEITY.

I believe that when the Bible declares Jesus to be the Son of God, it is a declaration of His deity.

The Sonship of Christ is a sonship of a different kind than that of ours.

We are adopted children, while he is the eternal Son of God.

He has graciously permitted us to share in His inheritance, but He is heir of all things.

He is the only begotten of the Father, and possesses all the fulness of the God-head bodily.

In Romans 1 when Paul says that Jesus is the Son of God, he was declaring His deity.

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

Jesus’ resurrection proved his deity.

In Christ’s resurrection we also have a demonstration of HIS POWER.

This morning, one of the little boys was running around before Sunday School with a crude “gun” that he had made out of big Legos.

A few months ago, one of the older boys made a very impressive ship out of the little Legos.

If that Lego gun fired a bullet into the wall, or if that little Lego boat suddenly sprouted a propeller and started to sail for China, I think that we’d all be impressed.

Our boys might be geniuses or miracle-workers.

But what would it mean if we watched as a box of Legos began to assemble into a boat without the help of human hands?

When Elijah and Elisha, or Peter and John raised the dead, it was done by the power of God.

Those resurrections were miraculous, but the men acknowledged that it was not by their power or ability.

On the other hand, when our Lord Jesus raised the dead, it WAS by His own power.

And just as those prophets testified to their own inability, the Lord Jesus declared that His miracles were by HIS ability.

When the Lego’s begin to take a life of their own – that is a miracle and a half.

For Jesus to raise the dead proved Him to be something special,

but when He gave life to himself, it was a miracle of an infinitely higher order.

Christ Jesus was proven to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead.

His resurrection is also a GUARANTEE of His presence when we need it.

“The eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.

And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

And Jesus’s resurrection means that the saint of God has AN ETERNAL HOPE.

In John 14 the Saviour said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

And earlier in that same chapter He said,

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

Jesus’ victory over death means that you and I can be victorious ourselves.

Not in ourselves, but in the Lord Jesus.

If we had been given the opportunity to explain to Festus what Paul had meant in saying that Jesus was dead, but is alive, I would hope that we could do a good job to the glory of God.