The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Your good works, your going to church, your tithing, whatever it is, your baptism, all of these things are good and wonderful, but absolutely none of them can save your soul but the blood of Jesus Christ.

It's my joy to greet you again. I am Pastor Jack Morris. I have a very special message for you today. It has to do with Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, drinking the cup of our sin that we might be saved and drink His cup of everlasting life. Jesus, it says in Mark chapter 14, went into the garden with His disciples. He asked them to stay and to pray while He went deeper and the cup of our sin, the cup of the sin of the world was presented to Him, and He drank it.

Friend, today you and I can be alive in Jesus not only today but forevermore because of what He has done for us. He took our place, He took our sin, He took the wrath of God, He took our punishment. Friend, you and I can be free and live today provided we come to Him. Listen friend, He made His move. He did what God sent Him to do. He did what He came to do. Now it's up to you, it's up to me, if we give our hearts to Him by simply asking Him to come in, He will save us, forgive us, redeem us, and we will know the joy of His great and wonderful salvation. Let's go into the sanctuary, hear this message, be blessed, may this message today lift you into the very presence of Jesus.

The power of the cross. I don't think this is going to be a long lengthy message, but I have three points here that I want to bring to our attention: the cup, the cross, and the resurrection. Last Sunday, the first Sunday of June, I spoke more at length about the cup, Jesus drinking our sins into His own body. There is so much that happened in Gethsemane, and I keep looking at this passage that tells us about Gethsemane and what happened there.

I see the truths ever new and ever fresh. I think I could almost spend a lifetime talking about this one holy sacred event and still not exhaust the truth that is found there in this passage. So I'm going to see something else today, and I'm going to point out to you that something else that I'm seeing, which is I see two sides of Jesus in Gethsemane. I see the human side of Jesus and I see the spiritual side of Jesus. Throughout the New Testament, we often see glimpses of Jesus' human side and His spiritual side, but we also see it in Gethsemane.

Looking at His human side, His human side is the need of prayer support, the need of companionship. He's in the upper room with His disciples, He institutes what is called the Lord's Supper, He takes His disciples with Him into Gethsemane, and then He separates Peter, James, and John. Those three, I'm not sure exactly why those three, but those three were with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were with Him in the room with the Centurion's daughter when Jesus took her by the hand and she arose.

But again He takes Peter, James, and John and He goes a little deeper into the garden. It's letting me know that Jesus needed companionship. Then He asks them to sit and wait, those three, while I go further. This is what He said, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James, and John along with Him and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled. Then He says in verse 34, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death." Another translation has it that His soul is overwhelmed with horror and anguish.

Jesus saw the need of people being together. In John chapter 17, He prayed the prayer, "Father God, You make them one." He's talking about His people, His church, His disciples. "You make them one even as We are one." He's talking about unity together, togetherness. In Hebrews chapter 10, the apostle Paul, who wrote Hebrews, I truly believe that, He said that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Even already back then in the New Testament, people started missing church and staying away from fellowship with one another.

He said forsake not or neglect not. Friends, as Christians, there are certain things we are not to neglect. When we have opportunity, we need to be together to strengthen one another, to encourage one another, to rejoice with one another, to cry and shed tears with one another. We're a church, we're a church. The scripture tells us that we are to be together. We need to follow the example of Jesus. Even Jesus knew He needed the church with Him, brothers and sisters in Christ who would pray for Him and be with Him.

Now, one of the prayer requests in the bulletin, let me see where is it, on the back, Ernest Irving's son is in a coma in a hospital in one of the southern states. Ernest called me the other day and shared the situation with me. He's greatly concerned because his son has an aneurysm, he's in a coma. Greatly concerned, he's down, he's discouraged. That man, friend, when you're in a situation like that, sometimes the last thing you want to be is alone.

He got on that airplane, but listen, when you're doing God's will and following the Lord, God's going to look out for you, isn't He? He got on the airplane, Ernest did, and he sat down and he started talking to the man next to him and the man is a pastor. They had a wonderful spiritual conversation. Then the man asked him, "Where do you go to church?" He said Largo Community Church, and the pastor turned to him and he said, "I watch your pastor on Changepoint."

Friend, God knows you. He knows where you are. He knows what you're going through, and He's going to send somebody into your life who loves you and prays for you. Don't scorn that person, don't back away, don't put up any resistance. Open your heart and embrace God's church in that person that has come to you. Now let's look at the spiritual side of Jesus, redemption. He goes into that garden to drink the cup of our sin. Even though He knew that He needed companionship and those three brothers with Him, Peter, James, and John, yet down deep in His heart, He knew that He must drink the cup alone.

No one could share a portion of His passion with Him. He drank the cup alone. That's why He said "You stay here, I'm going a little further." Two times He came back, two times Jesus tried to get those guys to wake up, stand with me, pray with me. But you know something friend, when your spirit is cold, when you're not in the word, when you start absenting yourself from God's people, there is something that happens to you. Oh, you're still a Christian, but the fire doesn't burn anymore, and you can go to sleep easily without any conviction of conscience.

You stay away and pretty soon it doesn't bother you to stay away. But Jesus came back and He says, "Could you not watch with me one hour?" Now they couldn't because they had lost something of a relationship with the Lord, yet the Lord knew and wanted that relationship to continue on. He says in Isaiah chapter 63 verse 3, "I have trodden the winepress alone." He finally submitted to the will of God. He has always, Jesus has always been submitted to the will of God, but He allowed us to see that He had a will.

He could have even called for 10,000 angels, but it was not His will. It's not my will, it's not your will, it's what the Bible says. You and I have a will to decide whether we're going to listen to the Bible and do God's ministry. Friend, when you're sick and in the hospital, when you're having financial problems, marital problems, whatever you're having, you're going to need prayer. But right now everything is smooth and you're on the mountaintop, you're healthy and well, everything is okay, but there will be a time.

Are you still with me? We need one another. I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, "I thank God for you." I see a lot of husbands and wives doing that. Husbands and wives need to thank God for each other too, and I'm glad for that. But when He said "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," horror and anguish, His sweat becomes like drops of blood. His blood vessels opened up. His sweat from the sweat glands produced the sweat that merged the blood and the sweat together, and then it began to come forth.

Listen, Jesus didn't take the easy way. Not the sleep in and roll over, the cup of coffee. No, He took the way of the cross, taking our sins in His own body. Friend, how much you and I are loved, and we're going to come to this holy table in just a moment and remember. I want you to remember this, Jesus didn't die on a cross between two candles. He died a horrible death for you. I need to pray. I need the word. I need God's people.

I need to do what Jesus asked me to do because I look at what Jesus did for me, and my heart cries out Hallelujah, praise God for saving me. Then I hear Him say in His distress, "Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" If this is the will of God, then surely I ought to do it, shouldn't I? And He makes His will very clear, "Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" What God gives me, I'm going to do by the grace of God.

Now, it was sin in that cup, the transgression of all the world from the beginning of human history until the time human history ends. There was sin in that cup. Jesus wasn't afraid of dying. He wasn't a coward. I read in history where Socrates, I guess he's maybe the considered the father of philosophy, Socrates drank the cup of hemlock in a prison in Athens. The history tells us that his mind was very brave. He was very brave. He had a follower, a disciple, another philosopher, Plato.

Plato also died in prison, and history tells us that Plato died with a cheerful mind and with comfort. Now listen, do you mean to tell me that Plato and Socrates were braver than Jesus? That Jesus was afraid of death? That He was afraid to die? That He was afraid of pain? Every one of the disciples of Jesus died a martyr's death. Peter, tradition tells us, was crucified on a cross just like Jesus was crucified on a cross. But when they were going to crucify Peter, Peter says, "I'm not worthy to be crucified like Jesus in that way.

Turn me upside down, crucify me with my head on the ground." That being the case, the blood would rush to his head and come out his ears and his eyes and his nostrils. He loved the Lord. Now, what I'm saying is Jesus was not a coward. He was not afraid of pain. What His anguish was was your sin. Your sin, my sin. He took our sin in His own body on the cross. What He was afraid of was the separation that was going to now transpire between Himself and His Father.

He and His Father had never been separated throughout all eternity, never. But He knew that sin separates. Friend, when you get slack with the word of God and you're not circumspect with the word of God, sin moves in and sin separates you from God. We need to be on our tiptoes for Jesus. We need to be right with God, serving the Lord. It was the cup, it was the sin, it was the separation. Now Jesus took our separation so that you and I could be united with God, be one with God, call God Abba Father just as He did.

He called God Abba Father. Notice verse 3, "Abba Father," He said, "everything is possible for You. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will but what You will." I'm not going to do what I feel like doing. I'm going to do what You command me to do and I'll find joy in it. This is basically what Jesus was saying. Now the cross. The cross is a symbol. Would you put some of the symbols up on the screen for me now, please? It takes a moment, I understand.

There they are. Now, I only put up a few because I didn't want to do any more research and I didn't want to take any more time, but there are symbols for ideologies and for religions. There you see the symbol for Judaism, the Star of David. The crescent for Islam. The hammer and the sickle for Marxism. Nazism had their symbol. Christianity has its symbol. That's why Paul said, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ who died for me."

There on the cross Jesus satisfied the justice of God. You see, when a crime is committed, justice says that justice must be done. Now, God couldn't just say, "Okay, I forgive you. Go ahead, you're free. You don't have to do anything. I just forgive you." Now, we would become enraged as a nation. We have lawyers, we have judges, we have courts, and we want justice when a crime is committed. Justice must be done. And this was the heart of God.

God says all have sinned. Sin must be paid for. Justice must be done. Jesus stepped over and said, "I'll take that sin, I'll take that justice, I'll take that separation so that You my people, my church might be one, go free, go to heaven when you die and live the abundant life here and now." Put up the other symbol, the symbol of the fish. Now this was an earlier symbol of crucifixion. The Greek word for fish which simply means Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

I can't go into all of this now, just take that off. But that was before the cross. But the cross became the centerpiece of Christianity. It's the centerpiece of Christianity. Jesus drinks the cup. Now notice the progression. Here it is, and this is the way it's done to this very day. Jesus drinks the cup, He becomes guilty of my sin. Now He's arrested in the garden. The guilty, the police found Him and they arrested Him. Now the next thing is He goes to trial.

That's the way it is today. When something is done that is wrong, a sin against society, a sin against the universe, a sin against the local, state, federal government, when that person is caught, they're arrested. After the arrest, they go to trial. After trial, they have a sentence that is carried out. So Jesus becomes guilty of my sins, He's arrested. He goes to two trials. There was the religious trial and the political trial. It lasted all night.

Now, during that time, my sin and your sin was in His veins. He took it in, into His stomach, it now assimilates with His body through His bloodstream all night long. Your sin and my sin was coursing in His veins. It was like a vaccination, it was building up an antitoxin so that a serum would come forth at Calvary. And in the morning, I know it was all night because in the morning Jesus said to Peter, "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times."

So the cock began to crow. All night long your sin was in His body and His heart was beating it through His bloodstream so His blood would build up that antitoxin. And now they take Him to the cross, they nail Him, they sworded His side, His veins are opened up, and a holy overcoming blood comes forth. Healing blood, overcoming blood. That's why we say what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. The vaccination took, the serum now is there for your healing.

That's why your good works, your going to church, your tithing, whatever it is, your baptism, all of these things are good and wonderful, but absolutely none of them can save your soul but the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the blood, it's the blood, it's the blood, it's the blood. And we're going to come to this table in just a moment and remember it all. Without the blood of Jesus you only have a shell of religion even though you may be a member of the Largo Community Church. It's the blood of Jesus Christ.

So I talked about the cup. I talked about His human side, His spiritual side. We've talked about the cross and the symbol of the cross. And I think the cross is such a simple sign. Here's the perpendicular, here's the horizontal. I think and I know in my heart God designed it and in my mind I see that cross reaching all the way to heaven, reaching all the way to the earth, connecting God, connecting earth. And I see His hands stretched out as though they were reaching out all around the world to embrace everybody.

What a God, what a Savior, what a Lord we have in Jesus. Okay, now very quickly I'm going to mention the resurrection. Why is the resurrection so important? It's now so remote and so far removed. We knew He took our sins on the cross. How do we know that? The cross is where He atoned for our sins, but in His resurrection He authenticated what He did on the cross. People will say, "Well, how do you know the blood was an overcoming blood, a washing of that blood? How do you know that?"

Well He arose. The apostle Paul said if Christ had not risen, we are still in our sin. So we have the proof today that it all happened just like the Bible says it happened on the cross because He arose from the dead and the cross confirmed it or it validates it. Friend, I must close now, and I told you this was going to be a brief message. Sometimes don't believe everything I say, only when I talk from the word of God.

How would you like to be remembered when your life is over? And your life will be over someday. How would you like to be remembered? Jesus said, "This do in remembrance of me." Remember the cross. Remember the broken body. Remember the shed blood. Remember, remember. So easy to forget, remember. He didn't ask to be remembered by His teachings. He didn't ask to be remembered by His miracles. He asked to be remembered by His broken body and His shed blood.

We hope that today's message has been a blessing and has strengthened your faith in God. But before we go, here is Pastor Jack Morris with a special invitation. Hello friend, I just want to take a moment to thank you for listening to the Healing Word. You're a blessing to me. Your prayers, your financial gifts are making this ministry a reality and I want to thank you.

If you have a prayer request, if you'll send it to me, I will personally pray over it. Thank you also for sending an offering to help support this ministry. You are a blessing and I trust this ministry is a blessing to you. We invite you to stand with a Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.