And then it was Sunday…the third Sunday after Easter, that great and momentous day when our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ rose triumphantly from the grave, sparking a new way of life…that of resurrection, salvation and eternal life, and thus creating a spiritual revolution that has not been matched since, and will never ever be matched!
And that’s because the Easter Sunday triumph encapsulates God’s greatest gift to man; atonement for his sinful soul, through Jesus’ sacrificial paying of the gargantuan price it took to redeem man’s sins worldwide for ever and ever! But pay it He did! And that’s why we LOVE, honour and adore Him so much and trek to His sanctuary every Sunday to praise, give thanks, worship, fellowship and hear His Holy Word that provides confidence and comfort for the upcoming week.
And as always, we open the proceedings with a song of praise, worship and thanksgiving, and today’s hymn is one of my real boyhood favourites, ‘When I survey the Wondrous Cross.’ I remember how at Easter Time that old hymn written by Isaac Watts, apparently on the basis of our Bit, would resound within the walls of the old Anglican Church in Scarborough, Tobago, when a full congregation belted it out. That’s before Hurricane Flora blew it down in 1963.
So please, let’s do it justice this morning nuh, because the Cross is the symbol of our faith; it’s where our sins were laid to rest and our lives given back to us through our heavenly Father’s ambitious and most audacious plan. Enough talk though, (smile) let’s sing out that soulful anthem with heartfelt sincerity and true gratitude.
In one harmonious voice now: ‘When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? His dying Crimson, like a Robe, Spreads o’er his Body on the Tree; Then am I dead to all the Globe, And all the Globe is dead to me. Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.’
People, O people, what a soulful and touching rendition of that old but ever so pertinent song! All of heaven was touched by it, bringing tears to many eyes when they heard the words of gratitude we sang from our souls, and remembered the agonizing, painful and heart-rending moments of Jesus’ excruciating pain on that lonely rugged cross some two thousand years ago!
His ‘sufferation’ was enormous, no doubt about it. But as they say, without Good Friday, there’d be no Easter Sunday and no cause for our pandemonium of celebration! (smile) Because that’s exactly what Jesus’ resurrection caused; pandemonium! But let’s take a few moments and check out some of the remarkable and true words of the song nuh.
That old rugged, but nonetheless wondrous cross, was certainly the one on which the ‘Prince of glory died.’ And He died for us friends! Imagine that nuh? The Prince of glory died for a bunch of ungrateful, disobedient sinners. That’s why the writer could genuinely say: ‘See from His head, His hands, His feet, sorrow and LOVE flow mingled down! Did e’er such LOVE and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?’
Most definitely not my fellow believers! It was the greatest outpouring of LOVE the world has ever seen! And when mixed with the sorrow that was felt by His disciples as well as His heavenly Father, how could there ever be a more momentous moment eh? Not by a long shot friends!
And to be truthful, we have NOTHING with which to repay that sacrifice! Even if the whole universe belonged to us, it would be ‘a present far too small; LOVE so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.’ And it truly does my people! Our lives, obedience, worship, LOVE and honour; in other words, TOTAL SURRENDER, is the closest we can ever come to repaying that enormous sacrifice!
Consequently, all our earthly deeds are rather miniscule in comparison, meaning we have nothing, no accomplishments of our own to boast of. Our one true boast as the song says should be ‘in the death of Christ my God’…and His eventual resurrection! And that was Bruh Paul’s most ardent wish: ‘But God forbid that I should glory (boast), save (except) in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’
And friends that should also be our position in Christ! The world should be dead to us, and we to the world! As Jesus desires of us, we should be IN the world but not OF the world! Bruh Paul renounced all his many noteworthy but worldly accomplishments. As the scholar say: ‘He renounced his old life and all its ways, along with its values and religious accomplishments in which he used to boast. Taking pleasure only in Jesus’ atonement and all the spiritual blessings it brings.
‘What heavenly wisdom my fellow believers! Please, let’s spend some time to day considering and contemplating our own position on the subject nuh. And hopefully, with God’s help, at the end of the contemplation, we will also come to the same conclusion! Much LOVE!
…the ONLY thing worth boasting on…and glorying in…on planet Earth…is Jesus’ atonement for our sins…
SCRIP-BITS 