The Death of Christ

We are entering tonight into a part of our study on what the Bible teaches about Christ, the doctrine of Christ, that is really a broad and deep subject. We will not spend as much time on it as we did the deity of Christ, but we will spend probably at least three, maybe a few more studies depending on how our time and discussion goes. We are going to talk about the death of Christ. Now, remember that we are looking at the doctrine of Christ almost in a chronological way, if you would think of it in terms of a timeline, we went back into eternity past and talked about the pre-existence of Christ, and then we talked about his deity because he has always been God, so that reaches back into eternity past as well. Spend a lot of time on that, and then we talked about his incarnation, which is God becoming man when Christ became one of us. So, reaching back into eternity past and then moving to that point in time where he becomes one of us, we talked about the way that he became one of us, the virgin birth, and then we talked about his person, his humanity, and then his person, humanity basically dealing with the fact that he was not only truly God, but truly man, fully man in every sense of the word, and then we talked up last time about how those two natures are indivisibly united in one person, the person of Christ, and we saw that that was a difficult subject to wrap our minds around, but one of our contemplations and study. Tonight, we are going to look at his death, and obviously you can tell where we will go from there, we will talk about his death, then his resurrection, then his ascension, and present ministry, and that will finish up the doctrine of Christ. Lots of things, as I mentioned, to consider, when you consider the death of Christ, it is such a broad subject, but I will give you some idea of where we are going, some things we will not deal with, because this particular doctrine overlaps with the doctrine of salvation, so some things we will leave until then, but we are going to cover these basic areas. We are going to talk about the importance of the death of Christ and the necessity of the death of Christ, hopefully talk about those tonight, and then we will talk about the nature of the death of Christ, we will talk about the meaning of the death of Christ, by meaning we are talking about things like what is involved in the death of Christ, redemption, reconciliation, justification, some of those key Bible words that describe the meaning of his death, and then we will talk about the finality of his death, and that is more important than it may sound, it sounds pretty basic, you died, obviously, finality, but the finality of his death has to do with the fact that there is no more sacrifice for sin, there is no need for that to be repeated, and there are some religions that actually teach in certain ways that it is repeated, and so it is important that we talk about that, and then we will talk about the relationship of the death of Christ to the Christian life, what it means for us as we live out our Christian life, so that is kind of where we are headed, I mentioned some information we will leave until one of these days when we talk about the doctrine of salvation, and we will talk about then the extent of Christ's death, for what did he die, and for whom did he die, the extent of the atonement, and both of those are important, many people think of the extent of the atonement just for whom did he die, but it also, the Bible broadens the atonement to for what did he die, he also died to redeem the curse on nature, and so we will talk about those kinds of things, but we will wait on that, and we will wait on the results of Christ's death until we talk about salvation. I want to begin tonight with not a verse of Scripture, but just an overall view of some of the different views of the death of Christ, some various interpretations of Christ's death. There are different ways that people through church history have interpreted or explained or thought of the death of Christ, and what it was all about. All of these except one are wrong. Some of them have a grain of truth, we're going to go through what seven of them, seven different interpretations or views. Some of them have a grain of truth, but they don't really grasp the essence of the death of Christ, and so we're going to lead up to what we believe the biblical view is, but it's important to know these, at least be exposed to them, because you hear them in different religions and different people's writings, you'll hear some of these things. The first interpretation of Christ's death is the satanic ransom view, and that is some people teach that when Christ died, he was paying a ransom to Satan to free us from Satan's grip. Now the Bible does talk about Christ's death in terms of a ransom being paid. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. Matthew 20, 28, or Mark 10, 45, 1 Timothy 2, 6 says that Jesus is a ransom for all, and so the Bible does talk about Christ's death in terms of a ransom, but the issue is to whom was the ransom paid, to whom was the price paid, and in this view it's Satan, I think it's better biblically to see that the price that's paid is paid to God to meet the demands of his holiness. It's not as though God owed Satan anything. It's not as though God had to pay off Satan to free us. Now we are redeemed from the clutches of sin, and we'll talk about that later, but the ransom aspect of Christ's death, the payment that was made for our sin was a payment to God to satisfy the holy demands of his character, and so the satanic ransom view is not probably not the best view to take, although it was taken by many of the early church fathers, like Justin Martyr and Origen, some of those early church fathers took that particular view. They had a tendency to give Satan more credit than what he really deserves. The second interpretation, and if you have questions about these and anything you want me to talk about further, just raise your hand, and I'll probably tell you, I just told you all I know. But seriously, if we have any questions, please let me know. The eradication view, this is a kind of a strange view of the death of Christ, and what this view teaches is that Christ took on our sinful human nature and gradually overcame that sinful nature in his life, and then finally destroyed it in his death. It's kind of a really weird view of the death of Christ, but it's held by seventh day Adventists, for instance. They teach that. That Christ took on a sinful human nature that he gradually overcame that in his life, and then finally fully defeated it in his death, and he eradicated it in his death, and so that's the eradication view of the death of Christ. Third view is the the martyr view, and these next four basically are mostly liberal views of the death of Christ, taught by liberal churches or liberal theologians that really give a different spin on the death of Christ than what the Bible does. This one is the martyr view, and that is that Jesus died for what he believed in. He had a good cause, he really believed in it, and he died for it, and that's the extent of it, just like any political revolutionary. He died for a good cause, or at least a cause he believed in, and that's the martyr view. Obviously, you know that comes way short of what the Bible teaches. The example view is the fourth one, and this view teaches that Christ died just to give us an example. Now, the example basically is the example of the ultimate level of commitment to what you believe in. Jesus believed in what he was teaching, and he believed in what he believed, and he believed that so much he was willing to die for it, and that's an example for us. We ought to be that committed, and that kind of thing. Well, again, that doesn't do anything to take care of our sin problem, and so that's a deficient view of the death of Christ. One of the reasons why it's so important to understand that people take these different views is you will hear rank liberal preachers preach about the death of Christ, and you're thinking, wow, they believe in the death of Christ? They must be good. No, they're not talking at all about what we believe about the death of Christ. I've mentioned to you the leading liberal of the 1920s, which is when liberalism really became entrenched in the United States denominations, was Harry Emerson Faustick of Riverside Chapel in New York City, and he preached on the death of Christ, and to hear him talk about the death of Christ, you would think, wow, this guy's right on, but he did not mean at all what we mean by the death of Christ. He talked about Christ being an example for us, and we ought to follow his example, and that's what he meant by the death of Christ. That is a satanic view of the death of Christ. Now, there is an example in the way Christ died, isn't there? Remember in 1 Peter chapter 2, Christ left us an example that we should follow in his steps. We'll actually maybe look at that verse later, but the example is in the fact that he did not retaliate when he suffered. That's the example. The example is not the death as a whole. The example is in the way he suffered. Actually, that passage we're going to look at Sunday morning. I was working on that this morning, so I'm confused. Sunday morning we'll look at that. Okay? Example view. The fifth view is the governmental view. And this is a little different. It has a strand of truth to it, but it's not enough, and this view basically says that sin is not against God himself. It does not offend his holiness, but sin is an offense to the government of God. And basically the way things are run in the universe. And so it has to be punished because law has been broken. Okay? There's a sense, there's a grain of truth in that, but that alone is not enough to explain the death of Christ. It basically does not deal with the holiness of God and his character and the issue of justification being declared righteous. It basically just says there has to be some punishment because God's government has been violated. His way of doing things in the universe has been violated. And so Jesus dies to take care of that. Clean up that mess. The sixth view is the influence view. And this was another liberal view of the death of Christ. Basically, this view says that Christ died to show us how much God loved us. And to influence us, to love other people just like that. That is a very common liberal view of the death of Christ. That Christ's death basically was just to show us how much God loved us. God loved us so much he gave his son. And there's nothing there about dying to take our place, to paper, our sin. It's basically Christ died to show us how much God loved us. He loved us so much. He was willing for his own son to die. And that becomes an example to us that we ought to love other people like that. So let's just have a religion of love. That's where that kind of thing comes from. All right. Any question about those views which are either dead wrong or are deficient in one way or another? Any question about those? Okay. You're ready for number seven. Seven, the number of perfection. This is the right view. This is, I believe, the biblical view. And that is, substitutionary satisfaction view of the death of Christ. I believe this is the most biblical view because it combines two truths that are at the very heart of why Christ died. First, Christ died a substitutionary death. As our substitute, he took the penalty for our sin. And that is missing in all of those other views. Maybe they're a little bit in the satanic ransom view, but it's really the substitutionary death of Christ which is taught clearly in the New Testament. We'll see that when we get to the words like propitiation and justification, those kind of words. Christ died in our place. He took the punishment for our sin. And so that's, he was our substitute, substitutionary death. But the word satisfaction also covers the idea that God or Christ satisfied the demands of God's holiness when he died for us. Okay. So not just that God's government had been violated. He's offended because, you know, his way of running the universe has been broken. It's not that. It's that we have sinned and sin is a stench in the nostrils of God because he's holy. And like Habakkuk 113 says, he is more holy than to be able to look upon sin. So Christ's death satisfies the demands of God's holiness, the demand that sin be punished by death. So substitutionary satisfaction view, Christ died as a substitute for our sins and he died to satisfy the demands of God's holiness. Wrath. That I think we will find and we'll look at all the passages or many of them, but that I think we will find is the real biblical view and interpretation of the death of Christ. Okay. Any comments or questions before we look at the importance of Christ's death and just kind of put a big frame around the death of Christ and show how important it is. All right. Still with me? Okay. There are several reasons why the death of Christ is so vitally important. And I think hopefully this will help us gain even a deeper appreciation when we see the big picture. The big picture of why the death of Christ is so important. First of all, it is the central theme of Scripture. It really is the central theme of Scripture, the death of Christ. Think about it. The Old Testament looks forward to his death, prophesies his death, pictures his death in types. The whole Old Testament is moving forward to that event. That is the critical event. I mean, you in the book of Genesis chapter three, verse 15, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. I mean, there it is. It's the first prophecy, if you will, of what Christ will do in his death. He will crush the head of the serpent. And so many other prophecies. There are 11 Messianic Psalms, whole chapters of the book of Psalms that refer to prophecies about the Messiah, 11 of them in the book of Psalms. And some of them are just full of prophecies like Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 are just full of references to specific things about Christ. Isaiah 53, probably the most well-known prophecy of the death of Christ. And Daniel 9 talks about what Christ came to do in the scheme of God's calendar and prophecy and so forth. Zachariah 12 and 13 talk about how Christ's death affects the nation of Israel. And what is second coming? How is second coming as tied to his death? And so it's just constantly being referred to in the Old Testament. It's like they're all pointing toward this event. They're all looking toward the death of Christ. And then you get to the gospels and you find four accounts of the life of Christ, all of which lead up to his death. And a very disproportionate percentage of the gospel accounts deals with the last week of his life. Really focusing upon what happened the week he died and his death and burial and resurrection. And so the gospels are you know, fleshing this out for us. And then in the book of Acts, you find the church taking this message of the death, burial, resurrection of Christ and zealously spreading it throughout the Roman Empire. And then you find the epistles where basically Paul is writing to churches and to individuals and others are writing to these letters to help people understand the death of Christ, to understand the doctrine of it, the teaching of it, and what all it involves. And everything we're going to talk about, reconciliation, redemption, propitiation, justification, all of those terms are Paul's way of explaining what the death of Christ means. That's the epistles. And so they're looking back on the death of Christ. And the book of Revelation is not the revelation of St. John the Divine. It is the revelation of Christ. It reveals Christ and Christ in the book of Revelation is constantly referred to as the Lamb. He is the Lamb. It's the wrath of the Lamb that is poured out in the tribulation time. It is the Lamb who will come, I mean just the focal point of the book. And so everything in the Bible either points forward or backward to this event, the death of Christ. It is the central theme of Scripture. Okay, and then the second reason why the death of Christ is so important is it is the first truth and apostolic preaching, not the only truth, but it is the first truth in the apostles preaching. Let's look at a couple of verses now. You didn't know you're going to get to actually use your Bible tonight, but here we go. First Corinthians chapter two. First Corinthians chapter two. And verse two. Oh, let's look at verse one, too. So it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom. As I proclaimed to you the testimony about God, verse two, for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is the focal point of Paul's message when he goes to Corinth. He says that I wasn't trying to impress you with my ability to spin words. I was preaching Christ and his death. So it was the first truth in Paul's preaching and he says the same thing in another way in chapter 15 of first Corinthians when he talks about the gospel and he reminds them of the message of the gospel that he's brought to them. He says in first Corinthians 15, verse one, now brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel. I preach to you which you received and on which you've taken your stand by this gospel you were saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you, otherwise you've believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as a first importance. Okay? First importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and then the gospel message is completed in verse four that he was buried. They was raised in the third day according to the scriptures. But the first importance, the highest priority message of the apostle Paul in coming to cities like Corinth was to preach the gospel and he defines it as first of all the death of Christ then is burial and resurrection obviously along with that. But the death of Christ is the first message. Now I want to want to be clear on this. It's not the only message. It is the first message. It is the first importance. And the reason obviously that's true with Paul is Paul is always going into new territory. Paul's spreading the gospel message to new places. And so the focal point of his ministry, he's a missionary. He's going to be taking the gospel when he goes into a town. He's not going to start preaching through Ezekiel. Okay? What is he going when he gets to a town where people don't know the Lord? He's going to take the gospel. And so that's the primary message. Now once that gets established and a church gets established, if you read the pastoral epistles, the epistles Paul wrote to two pastors that he was training. Timothy, he wrote two to Timothy, he wrote one to Titus. You find that he tells them, now you stay in that one place and you teach. You teach the word. He reminded Timothy, and second Timothy chapter four, oh yeah, Timothy, do the work of an evangelist. Don't leave out the gospel. Don't neglect that. But as a pastor, after the gospel has raised up a church and people come to know Christ, don't forget the gospel, still preach the gospel, but you're now responsible to teach the whole Bible. So it's more than just the death of Christ that's going to be preached and taught. That's still central. That's still a primary importance. And we never want to lose that. But it's like the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter five, and we'll make sure I get the right wording. He says, we have much to say about this, but it's hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food. Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness, but solid food is for the mature, who the constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary teaching about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from accidentally the death and of faith in God and so forth and so forth. What the writer of Hebrews is saying is it's not that you neglect the gospel or the death of Christ, but a pastor in a church is responsible to build on that foundation and to take people into more truth. And so the reason why Paul said the death of Christ is all I came to give you is because he was in virgin territory where they didn't know the Lord yet. So he's doing the work of an evangelist. He's doing the work of a missionary. The important thing is for them to hear the gospel. It's still important for us to hear the gospel. And I'd rather preach the gospel than anything else, but I have a charge from the Word of God to preach the whole council of God's Word. And so that means times we're going to be in the book of Job and we're going to be in Zachariah and we're going to be in James and it's not all the time going to be the gospel or the death of Christ. You have to build on that and that's clear, but it is the first truth. It is the truth of first importance, Paul says, is the death of Christ in the gospel. Okay, I got a little preachy there. I started preaching rather than teaching. So that's okay. Any questions? I realize I'm not giving you an opportunity to ask questions. Any comments or questions? Pardon me? You can add a cleasiesties to that too. Yes, sir. That's a deep one. You can get a lot out of that book. It's not specifically about the gospel, but yes. Get a lot out of that book. Okay. Other comments or questions? All right, the death of Christ is so important because it is the central theme of scripture. It is the first truth in apostolic preaching. It's the one that you hit the beachhead with. When you go into territory and people don't know the Lord, that's what you focus on is the gospel and the death of Christ. And then number three, it's the heart of the church's ordinances. We're going to observe one of those ordinances Sunday and we're commanded to do that. It's not an option. We're commanded to do that to observe the Lord's suffer, but both baptism and communion are pictures of what? The Lord's death, right? His death. You're familiar with the passages, but Romans chapter six, verses three and four, tie baptism to the death of Christ. Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore baptized with him, buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. And so this concept, this picture of baptism is used to describe our union with Christ. And then obviously the Lord's suffer is tied to the death of Christ. Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 26, after he had described to them, what communion was all about. He said for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show what? The Lord's death until he come. Okay, so communion shows the Lord's death. Both ordinances which Christ gave the church to continue have to do with the death of Christ. So there are the heart. His death is at the heart of the church's ordinances. Okay, then fourthly, his death is important because it is the guarantee of every spiritual blessing. Paul says this in Romans 8 verses 31 and 32, listen to this, what then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us who can be against us, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? All the blessings that we have in Christ flow from his death and come to us because of his death. And Christ's death is the guarantee that God will bless us in every way spiritually that he has chosen to do so. I mean, Christ's death is the greatest example of the love of God. And so surely he's not going to withhold other blessings. He's already given us the greatest gift he could possibly give us. So the point is God is or Paul is saying God is not going to be chancy with us. He's not going to say, no, that's so too much. I don't want to give you that. I'm not going to bless you that way. He's already given us the greatest gift and the greatest blessing imaginable. And that is the death of his son. So it is the guarantee of every spiritual blessing. And that's what Paul's talking about here in the context when he says, he'll give us all things. It doesn't mean, oh, a Mercedes, a million dollar house, new wardrobe, give us all things. Oh boy, no, no, that's not what he's talking about. In the context, Tom, about all the spiritual blessings that are given to us in Christ. Okay, guarantee of every spiritual blessing. Number five, Christ death is important because it is the foundation of all Christian living. It is the foundation of all Christian living. We don't have the time to really examine this passage. But Romans six is the passage I'm referring to now where Paul basically says, okay, as believers, how do we live the Christian life? We are not to continue in sin. Why? Because he says we have been buried with Christ. We have been crucified with Christ and buried with him from in six six. So since that is true, we need to reckon that to be so. Recon, verse 11, reckon yourself to be dead indeed in the sin, but alive in the God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay, reckon means to count it to be so, to put it into practice, live it out. And so, and then he goes on to say in verse 13, therefore yield your bodily members as instruments of righteousness, instruments of, to God as instruments of righteousness and not to sin as instruments of unrighteousness. So the whole concept of living the Christian life flows out of the death of Christ. We can have victory over sin because we have been crucified with Christ. The old person we were in Adam is gone, dead. It was put on the cross. We are now a new person and we can have the power and the ability to have victory over sin because of our position in Christ. We've been crucified with him, buried and raised a walk in newness of life with him. And so because of that, we are to yield our bodily members as instruments of righteousness to God, not as instruments of unrighteousness to sin. So foundation of all Christian living is, is the death of Christ and the fact that we've been crucified with him. All right, any questions, comment there. Number six, it is so important because it is the object of interest to those in heaven. Now this, this is really to me an amazing thought. The death of Christ is the subject of interest to people in heaven. Before Jesus died, did you know that Old Testament saints were very interested in what was going to happen with his death? And why would, why would they be so interested? They've already died. Why would they be so interested in Christ's death? It would be the fulfillment of everything they had heard, preached, taught, prophesied. Yes, sure. They knew their sins would be forgiven based on the death of Christ. Yeah. Yeah, you know, Paul says in Romans that God through his four parents patiently waited and overlooked their sins, waiting to punish them until the death of Christ. So for that reason, in Luke chapter 9 and verses 30 and 31, the amount of transfiguration, remember who met up with Jesus on the amount of transfiguration? Two guys from the Old Testament, remember who they were? Moses and Elijah. And here's the fascinating things. Verse 30 says, two men, Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious splendor talking with Jesus. What do you expect they were talking about? Verse 31 tells us, they spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Departure is an interesting word. It means the way out, the Exodus, literally, they talked about how he was going to leave this earth. And he was about to do that in Jerusalem. He was getting ready to head for Jerusalem for his last trip to Jerusalem. They're talking about his death. The way he is going to leave this earth is through the way of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. That whole package goes together. And so they're talking with Jesus. Moses and Elijah, they're talking with him about his death. And I think they are representative of every Old Testament saint that says that basically is saying, Lord, the time is here, how are you feeling about what you're going to do? I don't know what they said. I don't know exactly what they talked about, but they were talking with him about his death. I just, what's love to have heard that conversation. Wow. So every Old Testament saint was very keenly interested in the death of Christ. But there's another group of people in heaven that are very interested in the death of Christ. I mean, I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about believers. I'm talking about angels. Look at 1 Peter, chapter 1, 1 Peter, chapter 1, verses 11 and to what? Well, let's go back to verse 10 to get the flow of thought. First Peter 1, 10, concerning this salvation, which he just talked about in verses 3 through 9, concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched and tentally and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. Now, that's a lot that's a lot being said right there. But basically what he's saying is when we start talking about this salvation that's accomplished by Jesus dying on the cross, the Old Testament prophets, they were talking about it, they were prophesying it, but they didn't understand the timing of everything. They didn't understand, I mean, they prophesied about the sufferings of the Messiah, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, passages like that, they prophesied about the sufferings of them, but they also prophesied a lot about the glory of the Messiah and he's going to come to earth and he's going to reign and there's going to be a perfect earth and they couldn't figure out the timing of all that. I wish I had a wish I'd thought about this earlier just popped into my mind that we could have had it on the screen. I have a PowerPoint slide that I've used in other places of mountain peaks and it's a symbol of the Old Testament prophets looking into the future and they could see these mountain peaks and one mountain peak is the birth of Christ. Another mountain peak is the sufferings of Christ. Another mountain peak is the glorious reign of Christ, but they saw these mountain peaks, they didn't see the valleys in between so they had no concept of the timing of those things or the spacing of those things. It would be kind of like us getting out here in the side park and lock, parking lot, you know, that thing out here and looking toward East River Mountain and there are a couple of little hills before that, but looking over those, there's no way to really tell how much space is in between those and so you don't see all the time and if those mountains were further away and higher it would be even more pronounced. Well that's what this is talking about. These Old Testament prophets, they prophesied about a Messiah that would suffer and a Messiah that would reign and they couldn't figure out the timing of that. So that's what he's talking about here. Verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, in other words they recognized that what they were talking about wasn't for their generation, it was for the future and it would come true, as Peter says, with you who've heard the gospel. But look at this little statement at the end of verse 12, even angels long to look into these things, even angels long to look into these things. Did you know that angels are fascinated with the concept of the death of Christ? One reason is they never have experienced it and its benefits and they never can. You know the good angels in heaven are confirmed in holiness is the way theologians say it, they can't sin, they can't fall after the fall of Satan, that was all settled. And so they are confirmed in holiness, they need no redemption, they don't need to be saved and so they don't understand personally the effects of being saved, of being redeemed. Stephen Curtis Chapman, one of my favorite Christian artists has a great song. It's about this very thing, it's about I forget the title of the song but the idea is I would love to be able to ask the angels what does God's voice sound like and was he angry when Adam sinned and what did he say? He goes through all these things that he would love to ask angels but every time in the chorus he comes back to the fact that there's one thing angels long to experience that we experience and that is the song of the redeemed, the song of the redeemed because they have never experienced that, they don't know what it's like to be hopeless and sin and to be redeemed. And that's kind of what Peter's talking about here, angels just long and love to, I imagine you know we talk about going to heaven and we talk about I want to look up angels and other people, I think the angels are going to want to look us up and ask us questions about what was it like? Give me your testimony, you know I've heard a zillion testimonies, I got to hear another one, tell me what it was like to be redeemed by the blood of Christ, angels don't understand that. They've never experienced that and Peter's giving us a little glimpse into heaven, pulls back the corner of the curtain just enough to help us see angels are up there trying to figure this thing out, what's it like? They long to look into these things and I'm sure they're asking all kinds of questions up there about it. So the death of Christ is the talk of heaven, you know it was the talk of heaven and the Old Testament, he's going to come, he's going to come, our sins will be taken care of and so they're all looking forward to this, they're talking about the death of Christ and and then of course we know that those who are saved in New Testament times the death of Christ is the talk of heaven because Revelation 4 and 5 tell us that's what we're saying about in heaven, the death of Christ but also the angels are talking about it and they're going around pecking people on the shoulder and come on tell me your story, I'd like to hear a little bit what was it like and you know the angels are trying to figure this out. So the death of Christ is the object of interest in heaven, everybody's talking about it, it's that important. Quickly we got to get these last two in, it is the song of the redeemed in heaven, I just mentioned that the death of Christ, it's importance is seen in the fact that it's what we sing about in heaven and great revelation song, the worship song in heaven, Revelation 4 but especially 5, Revelation 5 verse 8, when you had taken it to four living creatures 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, the Lamb, each one had a heart, they were holding golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of God's people, they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood you purchased for God, persons from every tribe and language and people in nation, you've made them to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God and then they go on singing in verse 12, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, wealth, wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise, then every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth is singing the same thing, so it's the song of heaven, song of heaven is about the Lamb who was slain and then finally number 8, it will be remembered throughout eternity, I don't think we will ever get tired of talking about the death of Christ, we will remember it throughout eternity. Revelation 21 and 22, the last two chapters in the Bible talk about the new heaven, new earth, the new Jerusalem, the new dwelling place of saints for all eternity and Jesus is referred to in those two chapters as the Lamb seven times, seven times in those two chapters, describing what's going on in eternity future, we will still be talking about the Lamb, we will still be talking about the one who willingly gave his life for us and so that's, that will be remembered throughout eternity, so it's the greatest event in all eternity is the death of Christ and just for these eight reasons, you know, we can see the broad scope, the frame of this picture, it is, it is a huge event, the greatest event in all of history and and so it's just, it's an amazing topic to even think we can talk about and and be blessed by and so we're going to get a little further into it next week and we'll talk about the necessity, why, why did Jesus say I must go to Jerusalem and I must suffer and I must die, why was why was it necessary for him to die and we'll talk about that next week, okay, let's pray. Father, we will forever be grateful for the fact that you loved us so much to give your son to die for us or Jesus, we will forever be grateful that you willingly laid down your life for us, holy spirit, we will forever be grateful that you caused us to see that, understand it, be convicted about it, we bow our hearts and our heads before you and ask that as we seek to better understand what the death of Christ means that will not just be academic about it that we will we will grasp it with not only our minds but our hearts and we will come to love our Savior even more it's in His precious name we pray, amen.