Reintroducing Jesus, Beyond Religion

Dr. Abel Damina: Father, we rejoice that tonight, the word of God is glorified among us, even as it is with us. We rejoice tonight that the word comes with clarity, revelation, precision, and power. We decree that veils fall off the minds of your people, illuminated by the power of the gospel.

We rejoice tonight, all over the world, wherever people are connected to this service, revelation knowledge is gifted your people. Revelation knowledge like never before, the eyes of men's understanding being flooded with light. We decree that everyone connected to the service tonight is strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man. Christ dwells in your hearts by faith. You are rooted and grounded in love. We decree that the word of the Lord rises big on your inside in the name of Jesus.

Father, we rejoice that tonight, nobody leaves this service the same way they came. We give you praise, glory, and honor for answered prayer in Jesus' precious name. Every believer says a powerful, "Amen." Glory to God.

Lift your right hands to heaven. Let's release our faith together as we say these words: I am born of God. I am born of the word. The word of God is my nature. I do not struggle to do the word. I do the word naturally. Therefore, today, I will understand the word of his grace. I will be built up. By the end of this service, I will never be the same, never ever be the same again in Jesus' name. Every believer says a powerful, "Amen."

We want to welcome everybody connected to this service by way of Kingdom Life Network, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, all our platforms around the world. We're so glad to have all of you, and everyone in Akwa Ibom State connected to the service by way of Comfort FM and XL FM tonight. We just have the joy of bringing you the word of his grace.

I want to welcome all of our house centers and campuses. The word is going to come with clarity tonight. For those of you connecting for the first time, fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be an exciting adventure in the word of his grace. Grab your pen, your notebooks, and your Bibles, and you can be seated with your sweet, smart self as we get into the word of Almighty God.

We've been on our 30 Days of Glory 2020, and we are in this series of Soteria Season 7. We've been examining in detail the legal and vital work of salvation. To the social media community, do me a favor: tag some people, invite some people, and create watch parties. Let's flood the entire blue marble planet tonight with the fragrance of Jesus' grace. I tell you, there's something good coming tonight.

Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 2, verse number 1. "Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." Verse 2: "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?"

"God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will." We've said there are two things from this text of scripture we've been reading since we started the series. Number one, there is the law that was given by angels, and every transgression and disobedience was punished. Number two, there is the salvation that Jesus provides, which is so great salvation, and that is our escape from the law and the consequences of the law of Moses.

We've been dealing with the legal and vital work of salvation in this series, and yesterday we began to examine something that is very important. I'd like you to pay attention tonight. In the book of 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 24, Brother Peter looked at an aspect of redemption: "Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." Brother Peter examined the physical aspect of salvation—how Jesus bore our sins in his body.

Then Brother Paul dealt with the spiritual aspect in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Brother Paul deals with the spiritual aspect that Jesus became sin. Remember the two goats: one goat was the sacrificial lamb, and the other goat was the goat of escape.

The sacrificial lamb was the goat that the blood was smeared so that Israel could approach the tabernacle. Meanwhile, the escape goat, or the goat of escape, was the goat that was separated from Israel but was kept alive on that point of separation, which represented the spiritual aspect of the sacrificial work of Christ.

Now, God didn't crucify Jesus. Men crucified Jesus. We saw that yesterday in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 8: "Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." So the princes of this world crucified the Lord of glory. Acts chapter 2, verse 36: "Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Now, what happened on the cross? Galatians chapter 3, verse 13: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." Jesus was made a curse for us. The word "curse" means he was made an unholy thing, or a despised thing, or the opposite of a sacred thing. God didn't crucify Jesus; men crucified Jesus.

So let's see what the cross of Jesus was like. In Hebrews chapter 6, verse 6, it says the cross is an open shame: "Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." Why was the cross an open shame? Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2: "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame." So the cross is a place of shame.

Jesus actually humbled himself. He humbled himself and was obedient to death. Philippians chapter 2, verse 8: "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." So Jesus obeyed unto shame. Why was the cross shame, or why was the cross an open shame? To be able to explain, let us examine what the cross meant to the Jews and what the cross meant to the Gentiles.

Let's begin with the Jews. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." So the cross was, to the Jews, a tree. Somebody hung on a cross. What was the cross of Jesus about? 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22: "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom."

Verse 23: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness." The cross of Jesus to a Jewish man is a stumblingblock. The cross of Jesus to a Greek person is foolishness. That means the cross doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to a Greek person; it is foolishness. A Jewish man seeing Jesus on the cross has no reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God because the cross is a stumblingblock to a Jew.

In a moment, you will find out why. What are we talking about—that the cross makes no sense to both the Jew and the Greek? If you observe when they took Jesus to Pilate, what did Pilate say to Jesus? What did Pilate say Jesus did? John chapter 19, verse 15: "But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar."

They rejected God. They said God is not their king; we have no king but Caesar. They denied God. Verse 16: "Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away." What did they say he did? When they took him to Caesar, look at what they said. John chapter 19, verse 5: "Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!"

Next verse: "When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him." Look at verse 7: "The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." By their law, he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God—that is, he equals himself with God. The same thing happened in John chapter 10, verse 30: "I and my Father are one."

Jewish people know that when you say, "I and my Father are one," you are saying, "I am the Father." They have that understanding. It's only those that are not from the Jewish culture that won't understand the import of that statement. For you to say, "I and my Father are one," you are saying, "I am the Father." Look at their response in verse 31: "Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him."

"Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." Did you see that? When he said, "I and my Father are one," what he was actually saying is, "I am God." They understood, so they took stones to stone him.

He said, "Gentlemen, why are you stoning me? What about the good works I've done for you guys?" They said, "Actually, we like the good works. We're not bothered about that, but you're blaspheming—that you, a man, makest yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken."

So they calmed down because he took care of them. But that is the same thing that they were using against him before Caesar in John chapter 19, verse 7. They said, "We have a law. He has equaled himself with God; he has to die." Under the Jewish law, the punishment for blasphemy is stoning. That's why they always took stones. When he says, "I and my Father are one," they would take stones. When he says, "I came from God," they take stones because that was the law concerning Jesus.

You'll see that law in Leviticus 24, verse 16: "And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death." So blasphemy was death by stoning. That's why they took up stones to stone him.

John chapter 19, verse 8: "When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid." Pilate was the more afraid because Pilate heard them saying they're going to stone him, and Pilate knew that he did nothing. Pilate knew that Jesus didn't do anything that should deserve death by stoning. Look at verse 10: "Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?"

Jesus answered, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar."

Pilate wanted to release him, but they cried the more. The question is, why did they insist? They insisted because they wanted something else. They thought that stoning him to death is a lesser evil; they wanted a bigger evil. So that's why they were insisting. Otherwise, they would have started stoning him. But they wanted something heavier than what the law prescribed. They wanted him hung on the tree. They wanted something that would bring shame, so that the scriptures might be fulfilled.

So they insisted they wanted him on the tree. Why? Because cursed is he that hangeth on a tree. If they had stoned him, he would not be a curse. But because they wanted him accursed, they wanted a heavier sentence. What is their law? Deuteronomy 21, verse 22: "And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree."

Verse 23: "His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; for he that is hanged is accursed of God; that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." That is, once a man is hung on a tree, he is accursed of God, and you must bury him the same day because that man is a defilement.

That is why they wanted Jesus crucified, so that to the Jewish people, he would be a stumblingblock. How can you follow a God who was hung on a tree? How can you believe in a man that is accursed of God? That was the intent. That is why to the Jewish man, the cross is a stumblingblock, and to a Greek, it is foolishness; it makes no sense.

How can you say you came to earth to save man, and you are hung on a tree? And you say the way to save a man is to be on a tree? Why can't you bring a battalion of soldiers to show your power? But the foolishness of God is wiser than men. The weakness of God is stronger than men. Please stay with me. I'm heading somewhere. So the issue with the tree is: don't defile our land. And the people say, "His blood be upon us." They wanted the curse of the land on Jesus. They moved from blasphemy by stoning to put him on a tree.