Alpha Session 2 - Why did Jesus Die?

Why did Jesus Die?

The Four 'P's of sins

1. The Pollution of sin

It pollutes us and makes us unclean. Sins are not just external acts but they come from within, which is our hearts.

Mark 7
²⁰He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' ²¹For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.'

2. The Power of sin

When we continue to sin, we allow the devil to have control over our lives.

The Bible says that we become a slave to sin and it has power over us.

John 8:34 – Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

3. The Penalty of sin

This is like how the referees give a red card to the player for diving, injuring other opponent's legs – it is called penalty. What happened to the players who are penalized? They are out for the next match.

Every bad thing we have done has a penalty or a punishment that we cannot pay on our own. If God does not punish us for the sins we have done, he is not a good and holy God. When God is not good or holy, he is not worth following or worshipping.

Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

4. The Partition of sin

Sin separates us from God and creates a high wall between God and us. This makes us feel far away from God.

Isaiah 59

² But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

This is how we commonly don’t know God due to the separation.

Demonstration - Water (Us), Iodine (Sins) and Bleach (Jesus)

• When God first created us - we are like the clear water, pure and clean.
• We started to sin (stealing, lying, cheating, gossiping etc.) - the water becomes light brown with the introduction of iodine.
• In the beginning, we think it is fine to play with our sins since we know that our sin become part of us. But what happened if playing with sins suddenly became serious burden?
  
• Growing sins began to chain us and we became slaves to our sins. The water becomes darker and darker brown in colour. We find it impossible to break the chains.

• We do good works like donating money to the needy and poor, obeying our parents etc
• We go to the church to worship every sunday or even if we go to temples and offering something to the gods,
• We study hard for a good degree, become a successful businessman, manager, actresses,
• What would happened to us? Sadly there is still a bad new for us that we still fail to reach GOD because of our sins despite of good works, good religions and personal achievements.
• God’s holiness can’t be denied as this is why God declares his stand as a holy God.

God sent Jesus to die in our place and to suffer the results of our sins. God loves us much!

Jesus is our substitute and because of Him, we do not need to pay the penalty of our sins and die. Jesus’ death on the cross took care of the results once and for all.

Romans 5:8

“God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinner, Christ died for us”

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Perish mean lost

Eternal life do not mean up to 100 years old. It means after our death, we go up to the heaven with Jesus!

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Once you believe Jesus, what happened to you?

Congratulations to you, you able to walk closer to God through Jesus Christ as a Bridger.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

When you believe Jesus, you are set free.

When you have that freedom,

1. Pollution of sin removed – cleansed (set free to be holy)
2. Power of sin broken – redeemed (set free to obey God)
3. Penalty of sin paid – justified (set free from condemnation)
4. Partition of sin destroyed – reconciled (set free to fellowship with God)

God gave you a gift - His Son, Jesus, to die for you so that you will be saved and have eternal life).

Will you accept this gift today?

Alpha Session 1 - Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus?

Historical Facts about Jesus

These are facts that everyone agrees on, historians, not just Christians.

1. We know he was a Jewish Man born in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago.
2. Famous as great teacher and miracle worker
3. He was crucified by the Roman Authorities.
4. His followers believed He was the Son of God and he rose from the dead and he took the good news throughout the world.

Jesus was fully Human

Jesus was fully human. He had a body, emotions and experiences just like ours.

• Jesus was tempted in the desert.
• He was hungry after 40 days.
• He was angry when people were doing evil things in the name of God.
• He was sad and cried when his friend died.

Let’s look at What he said about himself

1. “I AM” the bread of life: People are hungry for significance.’ Jesus said: “I am the bread of life.” In other words, `If you want that spiritual hunger satisfied, come to me.
2. “I AM” the light of the world: Many people are depressed, disillusioned, in despair—they’re in a dark place. Jesus said: “I’m the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
3. “I AM” the resurrection and the life: Mother Teresa was asked before she died: `Are you at all afraid of dying?’ And she said, `How can I be? Dying is going home to God. I've never been afraid. No, on the contrary,’ she said, `I'm really looking forward to it!’
4. “I AM” the truth: The world has been confused. We think if we have the latest phone and the best clothes, we’ll be happy. But when we get it, strangely…we’re still empty. Jesus said: “I'm the truth. I’m what will satisfy”
5. He claimed to be able to forgive sins (Mark 2:5).
6. He claimed to be Son of God (Mark 14:61).

Let’s think…

1. A good man | 2. Tell the truth | 3. God

6. A mad man | 5. Disillusioned | 4. Not God

9. A bad man | 8. Lies | 7. Not God

• If Jesus was a good man, a good teacher as everyone says he was
• then he would tell the truth
• If he told the truth and he said he was God, then he must be God.

• If Jesus is not God,
• One possibility is that he could’ve really believed he was God, so he was disillusioned
• That makes him a mad man.

• Now, if Jesus is not God, there’s another explanation.
• He lied about being God, just to be popular,
• If he lied to be popular, then he was not a good man or good teacher but a bad man
• then, he couldn’t have been a good teacher or a good man, because he was a bad man

He was either a Con Man, Mad Man, or the one and only God.
So, why do Christians believe that Jesus was not a mad man or a con man but the one and only God man?

Well, we look at some evidence

1. Well, the first area we cant look at: what did he teach? His teachings formed the foundation of Western Civilization. Many of our laws were originally based on the teaching of Jesus. We're making progress in every field of science and technology—but no one’s ever improved on the moral teaching of Jesus. They're the greatest words ever spoken. They're the kind of words you'd expect God to speak.
2. Then what about his lifestyle—what about the things that he did. Miracles: Healed the sick, women with haemorrhage, fever, leprosy, made the lame walk again, gave sight to the blind. And this guy was simply a carpenter by profession.
3. His Character: He was kind, compassionate, welcomed those rejected by society, treated them with respect. Look at Jesus’ courage. When he was being tortured, he said: “Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.” Could such a person really be evil or mad?
4. Fulfilment of Old Testament Prophecies: He fulfilled over 300 prophecies. Maybe you think he was a kind of conman who went to read all these prophecies and he thought, `Right, I’m going to go through all these and I’m going to fulfil them in my life.’ …. It would be really difficult! Because firstly, there were so many prophecies, and secondly, he had no control over many of these things—there were prophecies about how he would die and even about the place of his birth – he couldn’t have controlled that!
5. His Resurrection: How do we know the resurrection really happened?

• His absence from the tomb
• He appeared to many people at different times – Some people say it was hallucinations. It is highly unlikely that even two people would have the same hallucination. Jesus appeared 11 times, once to 500 people. 500 people cannot possibly have the same hallucination at the same time!
• The immediate effect – here was a group of disciples who were discouraged, depressed, fearful, hiding—and something occurred that totally changed them such that they went around telling everybody – it’s a phenomenon, the way the church grew
• Christian experience through the years. Millions of people down the ages have experienced the risen Jesus Christ. And it’s people of every ethnicity, continent, nationality, every economic, social, intellectual background, from all walks of life. They have this common experience of the risen Jesus

Few of those who are famous now will be remembered next year, let alone next century. 2000 years after Jesus lived not millions, but billions of people follow him.