March 27, 2016 - Easter-Altar Worship

Tony and Michelle Pawlak

MEMORY VERSE

Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen!

Happy Easter, everyone!  So, what does Easter have to do with altar worship?  Good question.  Today's lesson explores that very thing.  

     An altar is something that is built for making sacrifices to God.  The most important sacrifice was the sin offering; the once a year sacrifice of an unblemished lamb.  This was made by the high priest during Passover for the sins of Israel.  However, the blood of animals wasn't enough to pay for our sins forever.  We needed something better.

     The first altars were built of uncut stones. Later, they built them of cut stones.  Then they built a moveable bronze altar for the Tabernacle and eventually a larger one for the Temple.  However, there was to be one more altar...

     Last week we left off at the Last Supper where Jesus revealed that one of the Disciples would betray Him.  Judas Iscariot then mysteriously left the dinner. The rest of them went with Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane.  There, Jesus told them that they would all abandon Him out of fear.  Peter refused to believe that!  He said he would never abandon Jesus no matter what. Jesus then told Peter that he would deny he even knew Jesus three times that very night!

     Then he took Peter, James and John and went off to pray.  Jesus asked His Father if there was any way to avoid what was coming but completely surrendered to what God the Father wanted. Afterwards, Judas came with soldiers to arrest Jesus. Peter valiantly tried to stop them but eventually ran away with the rest of the Disciples.  However, Peter followed from a distance and waited outside as they took Jesus into the house of Caiaphas, the high priest. 

     Inside the house, Jesus was being put on trial.  They were unable to find people to accuse Jesus of anything so they found people to lie.  Even these did not agree with each other. The entire time Jesus stood there as quiet as a lamb (John the Baptist had called Jesus the "Lamb of God" at His baptism). Finally, Jesus was asked plainly if he was the Son of God.  His answer is in Mark 14:62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Hearing this they saw no more need for witnesses and considered Jesus guilty of blasphemy, a crime punishable by death! They then blindfolded Jesus and began to strike him saying, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?” (Matthew 26:68)

     Outside in the courtyard, Peter is confronted three times with people accusing him of being a follower of Jesus. Each time Peter denies this.  Then, suddenly, he hears the rooster crow and remembers that Jesus said Peter would deny Him three times.  Peter is so ashamed of himself that he goes away and cries uncontrollably.

     Jesus is then taken to see Pontius Pilate, the Roman in charge of Jerusalem.  Since the Romans were in charge of Israel, they had to be the ones to put Jesus to death because the Jews weren't allowed.  Pilate questioned Jesus but found no reason to convict Him.  When he heard that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to King Herod who was in charge there.

     Herod was happy to see Jesus since he had heard of all the miraculous things He had done.  Herod told Jesus to perform a miracle for him but Jesus just stood there silent as a lamb again.  This angered Herod and he said that Jesus was probably crazy but not deserving of death.  Then they decided to mock Jesus.  They put a purple robe on him and pressed a crown of sharp thorns into his head!  Then they took him back to Pilate.  

     Pilate decided to have Jesus scourged but not killed. Afterwards he planned to let Jesus go.  However, the Priests convinced the people to insist that Jesus be crucified (Killed by being nailed to a cross).  Pilate tried one last time to save Jesus.  He gave the people a choice to either free Jesus or a murderer name Barabbas.  The people chose Barabbas and said to crucify Jesus.  Finally, Pilate gave in and gave the order to crucify Jesus.

     When someone was crucified, the Romans made the criminals carry their crosses through the streets of Jerusalem all the way to Golgotha (Calvary) where they would die.  Jesus, however, was too weak after being beaten, scourged, and made to wear a crown of thorns.  So the Romans found a man name Simon from Cyrene to carry it for Him.  

     Once they made it to Golgotha, Jesus was nailed to His cross through His hands and feet.  While He hung there, the soldiers gambled for His clothes, the people mocked Him, and the Priests challenged Him to get Himself down.  Even one of the two thieves He was crucified with started making fun of Him!  The other thief was smarter.  He knew who Jesus was and told the other man to leave Him alone.  He knew they deserved their punishment but Jesus had done nothing wrong.  He then asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His Kingdom.  Jesus said they would be together in Paradise before the day was over.

     As Jesus looked down at the people, He said “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)  Then, after six hours on the cross, the sky went black.  Jesus said, "It is finished."  (John 19:30) and died.  Then an earthquake shook the ground and the curtain in the Temple that blocked the Holy of Holies tore from top to bottom, opening the way to the presence of God to us all.  

     In this way, Jesus was the final sacrifice for the sin offering: the ultimate pure and unblemished Lamb of God.  The altar on which He was sacrificed was a Roman cross.  The Bible tells us “that the wages of sin is death” but Jesus had no sin to die for! This enabled His death to pay for the sins of the world.  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of the sins of any who would believe in Him was the culmination of the Passover story started way back at the Exodus; and in another way, the Garden of Eden itself.  This is how the Easter story coincides with altar worship.

     Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  The Pharisees had the tomb blocked with a huge stone, sealed and guards posted outside because they knew that Jesus said He would rise on the third day.  They were afraid the Disciples would steal His body and claim that He had risen.  

     On the third day, women were going to anoint 
Jesus' body but didn't know how they would move the stone. When they got there, they saw they didn't have to.  Earlier that morning, two angels had come and moved the stone and one even sat on it!  The guards had fallen down from fear and then ran away.  The angels said that Jesus had risen and told them to tell the Disciples.  

     At first they didn't believe the women but John and Peter went to check it out and they found the tomb open and empty.  One of the women, Mary Magdalene, also went and began weeping.  Then the two angels appeared. 

They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” (John 20:13)

    She then turned around and saw who she thought was the gardener and asked him where he had put Jesus' body. He simply said, "Mary."  Then suddenly she knew she was looking at Jesus Himself!  He told her to go back and tell the Disciples.  Later, Jesus appeared to them inside a room that was completely locked.  They thought He was a ghost. To prove He was real and alive, Jesus ate some fish in front of them.  He then spent the next forty days on Earth and revealed Himself to about five hundred people.  He then gave the Disciples the Great Commission and ascended into Heaven before their eyes.