church

INI
Reminiscere
The Second Sunday in Lent
February 28, 2010
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

Jesus Obeyed
The ELEVENTH Commandment
John 10:17-21

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
Amen. Our text this morning is found in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of
John, beginning with the 17th verse, as follows:

“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it
again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay
it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from
My Father.” Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of
these sayings. And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do
you listen to Him?” Others said, “These are not the words of one who has a
demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” So far the Holy Word.

In Christ Jesus, Who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our
iniquities, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

There is a crisis of Biblical illiteracy in our country today. I'm not talking, now,
about the thousands of adults who can't read. I'm talking about the millions of
adults - including Christians - who can and do read just about everything -
except the Bible. In a survey by Barna Research, only 18% of Christians said
they read the Bible every day. On the other end of the scale, a full 25% of
Christians admitted that they never read the Bible at all.

Unfortunately, that unwillingness to read the Bible shows up in Scriptural
ignorance. For instance, a third of all Christians surveyed thought that there was
a "Book of Thomas" in the Bible. Almost half weren't sure whether Jonah was a
book of the Bible or not. 30% couldn't name the town in which Christ was
born. A quarter of Christians didn't even know that Jesus had 12 disciples;
guesses ranged from as few as two, to over 20.

How good is your Bible literacy? For instance, what would you answer if I
asked you how many Commandments there are? Well that's easy - you'd say ten,
of course, and you'd be right. Moses brought the Ten Commandments down
from Mount Sinai, written on tablets of stone. But did you know that there was
an Eleventh Commandment, too? This was a special commandment that God
the Father didn't give to everybody - this commandment He gave only to His
Son, Jesus Christ. And our text for today shows us that - in the words of our
theme -

Jesus Even Obeyed
The ELEVENTH Commandment!
This gives rise to three questions:
I. What was the Eleventh Commandment?
II. How did Jesus obey it?
III. Why did it cause such division?

Of course, we know that Jesus obeyed the Ten Commandments down to the
last detail. He loved and served His heavenly Father perfectly. He truly "loved
His neighbor as He loved Himself;" in fact, as we’re reminded this again this
Lenten season, Jesus loved His neighbor more that He loved Himself!

In contrast, you and I have to admit that we haven't kept the Ten
Commandments. Every day we fail to love God and our neighbor as we should.
James reminds us that "...Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in
one point, he is guilty of all." --Js 2:10. And each of us has stumbled in many
points. We've dug ourselves into a hole of sin that we'd never be able to get out
of on our own. That's where "The Eleventh Commandment" comes in. In order
to provide us a way out of our transgressions, the Father gave His beloved Son
a special commandment all His own to carry out. Even though Jesus had kept
the other ten perfectly, God gave Him an Eleventh Commandment.

What was the Eleventh Commandment? Jesus describes it in our text. He says,
“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it
again. …This command I have received from My Father.” This was not one of
the Ten Commandments. This commandment was only for Jesus. It was His
Father's commandment - that a perfect, holy sacrifice should be given to atone
for the sins of the world. Jesus willingly took on the job of fulfilling this special
“eleventh” commandment. Jesus would offer His own innocent life on the cross
to pay the price of sin, "that,” as the writer to the Hebrews said, “He, by the
grace of God, might taste death for everyone." --Heb 2:9.

-That was part of the plan. But the plan included Easter Sunday as well as
Good Friday, the empty tomb as well as the cross of suffering. If Jesus hadn't
risen from the dead on the third day, then Paul says we Christians would be the
most miserable people on earth. The plan was never that Jesus would simply lay
down His life, but that He would take His life up again. That He would emerge
from His battle with Satan alive, with a triumphant victory for Him and for us!
From the very beginning, Jesus predicted, "I lay down my life that I may take it
again." That was the Eleventh Commandment, if you will – the special
commandment that was given to Christ alone. That the Savior should die for
the sins of the world and rise again. That was the commandment Jesus received
from His Father, and that was the commandment He obeyed!

How did Jesus obey it? And I’d like you to notice this: He obeyed it
voluntarily, of His own choice. Jesus stresses that in our text. He says, I lay
down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it
down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

Sometimes people volunteer to take on difficult – even heroic – tasks. I have a
cousin who’s been an emergency room nurse for over 25 years. For a good part
of that time she was a trauma nurse on one of those medivac helicopters which,
as you know, are used only in cases of extreme medical emergency. Some of the
stories she tells are enough to send chills down your spine. That’s why I wasn’t
surprised the other day when I read that emergency room personnel have some
the highest burnout rates of any professional career. It’s always amazed me that
anyone would volunteer for such a difficult and stressful job!

You know what’s even more amazing? The fact that Jesus volunteered to carry
out God's will in redeeming us. I'm afraid we don't often think about the
voluntary nature of Jesus' sacrifice, and how much pain that in itself must have
caused Him. We know that Jesus came to suffer and die to redeem us, so it
seems to us to be kind of automatic - as though He didn't have any choice. But
Jesus did have a choice. He could have passed up the bitter cup of suffering
without drinking it to the bottom. In the Garden of Gethsemane He had a
choice. He even prayed that, if possible, that cup might pass from Him - but He
qualified that prayer by saying, "Father, Thy will, not mine, be done." No
wonder the sweat stood out on his face "...as it were great drops of blood"!
How excruciatingly hard it must have been to make that choice! When the
soldiers came to arrest Him He had a choice. He told Peter, "Do you think that
I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve
legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must
happen thus?" -- Mat 26:54.

Yes, Jesus had a choice whether or not to obey that Eleventh Commandment.
The Father's will was that He die for the sins of the world and rise again, but
He had the power to disobey the Father's will, if He chose to. We've got that
same power, don't we? -The power to disobey God's will for our lives, to break
His commandments, and to go our own way. And much too often, that's exactly
what we do! It's precisely for this reason Jesus could not allow Himself to
disobey. Because we were disobedient, Jesus had to obey. Because we were
rebellious, Jesus had to submit. Because we were weak, Jesus had to be strong.
Because all of us had failed, Jesus could not afford to fail. And praise the Lord,
He did not fail! He obeyed His Father's will, and carried out the plan to
completion!

The Bible says Jesus was "delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our
justification." With His death on the cross, Jesus wiped out our sins; with His
resurrection on Easter Sunday, He announced a verdict of "not guilty" for each
of us. Ever since that day, Christians have been spreading the Good News,
telling people around the world that forgiveness of sins and life eternal is
available in Christ. But a funny thing seems to happen whenever that Gospel is
preached - it always causes division. It happened in our text, and it's still
happening today!

In our text, Jesus tells the Jews plainly that He is the Son of God, and he's
come to do the Father's will by laying down His life for the world. Notice how
they react: Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of
these sayings. And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do
you listen to Him?”

They thought Jesus was crazy! And it does seem crazy, when you think about
it. For instance, Jesus once said, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd
gives His life for the sheep." -Does that sound normal to you? In my previous
parish I had several members who kept sheep. They took pretty good care of
them too, so that they could make a good profit. But no farmer in his right mind
would even think of sacrificing his own life for the sake of his sheep! It doesn't
make sense! And yet, that's exactly what Jesus did for us.

Why does the message of the cross always cause division? Because to the
unbelievers, that message is just crazy. Paul tells us that "The Gospel is
foolishness to those who are perishing." It doesn't make sense to them, and they
get downright angry when people like us insist that what the Bible says is true.
Most of you have already experienced this in one way or another. If you haven’t
yet, believe me, you will! Oh, people won't mind if you call yourself a
“Christian.” That’s not the problem. They won't even care that you're a
Lutheran, as long as you don't stand up for what you believe. In one of my
favorite quotes of all time, Christian author Ravi Zacharious said, “In America
today you can believe anything you want, as long as you do not claim it to be
true.” But if you do claim it to be true, look out! If you insist that all of God's
Word is true, be prepared for trouble. If you actually stand up for the truth that
Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved, and that every other path leads directly
to hell, people are going to get angry. So be ready! Jesus told us to expect
nothing different when He said, "Do you suppose that I came to give peace on
earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division." --Lk 12:51.

That day, Jesus told the Jews about the Eleventh Commandment. His Father's
commandment was that He lay down His life for the sins of the world, and rise
again. And as always, these words caused a division. Some of them thought He
was crazy, or even demon-possessed. But ...Others said, “These are not the
words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Many of them had seen the miracles Jesus performed, and they knew He wasn't
insane or possessed. Some of them asked, Is not this the Christ? When the
Christ comes, could He do more powerful miracles than this Man does?

My friends, you and I have seen the miracles of Jesus, too. Isn't it true? If you
examine your life, each of you will find miracles. Miracles that could only have
come from a loving God. At the top of the list is the miracle that the Holy
Ghost has worked in your heart - the miracle of faith. By faith you believe what
the Bible tells you. You believe that, because Jesus kept all God's
commandments for you - including the Eleventh! - you can now claim perfect
holiness in God's sight. Through Christ, the doors of heaven stand open to
receive sinners, yes, even sinners like you and me! And speaking for myself,
that’s definitely a miracle. If that's not "opening the eyes of the blind," I'd like
to know what is!

As long as the world endures, there will continue to be division. People will
continue to think that the Gospel is crazy. They may even call us crazy to
believe it. But let us, as Paul said, "...continue to hold fast the confession of our
faith without wavering." We haven't kept the commandments, and we know it.
So we’d better make sure we hold on tight to our Lord Jesus Christ, who did
keep all the commandments for us, in our place. During this Lenten season, let
us rejoice that He even kept the Eleventh Commandment - He laid down His
life for our sins. AMEN.