Why did Jesus die?

A sermon based on Alpha Week 2

(with an invitation to join an Alpha course)

In the pews today you should all have found one of these green leaflets. Please take it home with you.

It tells you about our Alpha course.

Alpha is something which has really taken off in recent months, ...you may have come across it on the telly or in the newspapers. It is estimated that a quarter of a million people will be going on an Alpha course this year.

As many of you will know, we started our first Alpha course here in Binley last October. It's a ten week course which meets at the vicarage on a Tuesday evening.

This was followed by a second course which began in January, and we are looking forward to the next course which will start after Easter.

Alpha is for anyone interested in finding out more about the Christian faith. And we have two main aims:

- First, Alpha's for people who never, or hardly ever, come to church. On our last course, about ten people were like that.

Some were quite open about the fact that they are not Christians, ...but Alpha gives them the opportunity to learn about the Christian faith, and to ask questions. We have a saying that "Alpha is a place where no question is regarded as too simple, or too hostile."

- But secondly, Alpha is for our regular church members, people like you, who want a refresher course. On our last course, ten regular church members came, (some of whom are here this morning).

We find that over the years people learn a little hear and a little there, ...rather like collecting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, ...and Alpha gives you an opportunity to fit these pieces together. People ask questions that they have always wanted to ask, or share things that they find difficult to believe, ...and when they do so, they discover that several others have thought the same thing but have never dared to mention it.

I feel that everyone in our church would benefit from coming on Alpha. But there's one problem, ...and that's the size of David's front room! So, we can only take about 20 people at a time.

So what exactly happens on Alpha?

Well we start at 7.30 pm, and every week we begin with a meal together. Nobody has to bring anything, because we have a team of caterers who do the lot. And what a great job they have done.

The main meeting begins at 8.00 pm, and after a few notices we have a twenty minute talk. This is given by David or myself, and covers a different topic every week.

We look at questions like:

Why did Jesus die?

How can I be sure of my faith?

Why read the Bible?

How can I resist evil?

How does God guide us?

Then after the talk we split into groups of 8-10 people, for anyone to discuss issues or raise any questions they may have.

The meeting ends at 9.30 pm, ...but often it's hard to drag people away from their discussions!

At the end of Alpha we asked people in what ways they had benefited from it. And this is what they said, (and these responses were all from regular church goers):

- I found that most people have the same queries about the Bible. I feel much happier in knowing that I am not alone.

- Comradeship, and feeling of well being.

- Listening to the talks, and the group discussions, seemed to give me a bit more confidence.

- I have learnt quite a bit from fellow Christians.

I could go on. As I said before, I think that everyone in our church would benefit from Alpha. And if you would like to come on a future course, you can tell us by ticking the top box on the white slip (inside the green leaflet).

Because numbers are limited we can't guarantee you a place on the next course, or even the one after that, ...but we'll let you know as soon as there is space available.

Whether or not you would like to come on an Alpha course, you are warmly invited to our Alpha party. Details are in the notice sheet, and it starts at 8.00 this Tuesday at the Coombe Social Club. It's purely a social event, apart from 10 minutes when David will be talking about Alpha from his perspective.

There's no charge for the evening, but to help us with catering we would like to know how many are coming, ...once again you can tell us by ticking the box on the white reply slip.

If you are interested in either of these events, could you hand me your reply slip when you leave church this morning.

I've talked a lot about Alpha, ...so I thought this morning that I would give you a taste of one of the Alpha talks.

As mentioned, the talks normally last about 20 minutes, ...so you'll be pleased to hear that I'm only going to give half of it.

It is taken from the second week of Alpha, when the topic for the evening is, "Why did Jesus die?"

And this talk is very appropriate for this Sunday, when the theme throughout the Anglican church is "the Victory of the Cross".

- We have made the cross a thing of beauty.

- In our churches we have crosses which are silver plated, with beautiful engravings.

- Many people wear crosses as an item of jewellery.

- The cross has always been seen as the symbol of the Christian faith. Yet we are so used to seeing it that we fail to see how shocking that must first have been. You see the cross was the one of the cruellest forms of execution known to mankind.

- It would be rather like a religious group today deciding to choose an electric chair as the symbol for a new religion.

- Yet the early Christians chose a cross. A form of punishment which was abolished in ad 315 because even the Romans considered it to be too inhumane.

- So why did they choose a cross?

- Well it was because the first Christians realised that the death of Jesus, on the cross, was the single most important event in history.

- Most people are remembered for their lives. But Jesus is primarily remembered for his death.

- So why was the death of Jesus so important?

What did it achieve?

- But in order for us to understand why Jesus died, I have to tell you some good news and some bad news.

- Which would you like first?

- The bad news concerns the greatest problem which confronts every person.

Our Greatest Need

- If we are honest, we would all admit that we do things which we know are wrong. Is there anyone here who thinks that they have lived a perfect life?

- The Bible has a word for such things, SIN, ...and it reminds us that we have all sinned (Rom. 3.23).

- Now I'm told that the word SIN is also used in archery. If an archer fires an arrow at a target, but the arrow falls short and it doesn't reach the target, it's called a sin.

- In a similar way, we sin when our lives fall short of God's standards.

- If we compare ourselves with other people we might feel that we are doing pretty well. But when we compare ourselves with Jesus, we see how far short we really fall.

- Now sin has a damaging effect upon our lives.

- First of all, sin gains a power over our lives.

Jesus said that everyone who sins is a slave to sin (Jn. 8.34). The things that we do wrong have an addictive power.

- It is possible to be addicted to bad temper, arrogance, pride, selfishness and so on. We can become addicted to patterns of behaviour which we just can't break on our own.

- I told you that this was bad news, ...and it gets worse. For sin also carries a penalty.

- There is something within us which cries out for justice. When we watch the news and see the terrible things that some people have done, we all feel that such sins should be punished, ...people should not get away with it.

- But it's not just other people's sins that deserve punishment. It's our sins too. The Bible tells us that one day we will all stand before God on the day of judgement. Furthermore, the penalty for sin is death (Rom. 6.23).

- That's the bad news.

- People sometimes say that they have no need of God in their lives, ...but the greatest need of everyone is that:

- we be set free from the slavery of sin;

- we escape the penalty of sin.

- And that brings us to the good news of what God has done.

What God has done

- The good news of Christianity is that God did not leave us in the mess that we make of our lives.

- No matter what we have done, God still loves us.

- Many of you know that I have got three children. From time to time they do things that they know are wrong. Recently my youngest daughter Jennifer smuggled a set of felt-tip pens to bed, ...and when she woke up in the morning she had a set of multi-coloured sheets! But no matter how naughty our children are, I still love them. I will always love them. ...and God will always love us.

- And because he loves us, God sent his only son, Jesus Christ to be our substitute. Let me explain what I mean by that.

- A true story is told about a group of prisoners who were working on the Burma railway during the Second World War.

On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing, and demanded to know which man had taken it. No one moved, and so in a fit of rage the guard aimed his rifle at the prisoners and started to shout "All die! All die!".

At that moment one of the prisoners stepped forward, and the guard clubbed him to death.

When they returned to camp the tools were counted, but no shovel was missing.

That one innocent man had gone forward as a substitute to save others.

- In the same way Jesus came as our substitute.

- The Bible tells us that Jesus endured the agony of the cross, not for the wrong things that he had done, but for our sins. He died in our place, ...an innocent substitute to save others.

- But what relevance has the death of Jesus for us in Binley here today?

Well, to answer that question we need to understand what the cross achieved.

What the Cross Achieved

- The New Testament uses several different images to explain what Jesus achieved on the cross.

- The first image comes from the law court.

- Imagine two school friends who were very close, but who lost touch with each other in later years. One of them went on to become a judge, the other turned to a life of crime.

One day the two men met in court. The judge was sitting at the bench, and his friend was standing in the dock. His friend pleaded guilty.

The judge faced an awful dilemma. On one hand he knew that he had to be just, ...he couldn't let him off. But on the other hand he didn't want to punish his old friend.

After careful thought the judge decided to impose the maximum fine for the crime. That is justice.

Then he came down from the bench, took out his cheque book, and paid the fine himself. That is love.

- That's an illustration of what God has done for us. In his justice he judges us because we are guilty. But then in his love, he came down in the person of Jesus Christ and pays the penalty for us.

- On the cross, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.

- The second image comes from the market place.

- Debt is a big problem for many people today, but it's not a new problem. In the ancient world the consequences of debt were even more sever.

Someone who had a serious debt problem might be forced to sell himself into slavery.

Imagine a man standing in the market place. He owes £100,000 and he is offering himself as a slave. A rich landowner comes along and pays the £100,000 ...but instead of taking the slave to work on his land, he does an amazing thing. He lets the slave go free.

In doing so, the landowner would have 'redeemed' the slave by paying the 'ransom price'.

- That's an illustration of what God has done for us. We are slaves to sin, but God has redeemed us by paying the ransom price.

- But we weren't bought with money ...by his death on the cross, Jesus paid the ransom price with his own life.

- In this way we can be set free, ...free from the power of sin.

- It's not that we never sin again, but sin no longer has a hold over us.