What Was Behind His Death

The Greatest GiftAudio2009

Nov 2

Tom Shrader walks through ten questions about the crucifixion of Jesus, tracing why He was betrayed, tried, and condemned, and what His death accomplished for sinners. Drawing from Luke, John, Mark, Hebrews, Colossians, and 2 Corinthians, Shrader explains propitiation, redemption, and justification as three interlocking realities secured at the cross. The teaching closes with an urgent pastoral appeal: that trusting in one's own goodness rather than in Christ's atoning work leaves a person without hope before a holy God.

“Jesus on the cross was treated as though he were guilty of all the sin of anyone who would ever believe.”
— Tom Shrader

Series: The Greatest Gift

Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 48 min

Themes: crucifixion, forgiveness, sin, salvation, atonement, hope, redemption, the cross, seeking salvation, feeling hopeless, new believer, questioning faith, spiritually lost, young adult, skeptic exploring christianity, struggling with self-righteousness

Scripture: Luke 22, Mark 14:55, John 18:29-38, Matthew 27, Colossians 2:14-15, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrews 10:14, Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10, Romans 1, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, Luke 23:44

Theological Themes: propitiation, justification, redemption, substitutionary atonement, imputed righteousness, forgiveness of sin, sanctification, the gospel

Handout Link

Full Transcript

Why Was Jesus Betrayed, Arrested, and Tried?

If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and the guys will bring you a copy. You're going to need it. We are in week three of a six-week series, and we are talking about how you can have a personal faith, how you can know God.

Week one, we talked about the question: what's the matter with people? We said that sin is the matter with people. Sin is universal. It affects every person that has ever lived or will live. We are all sinners, and the wage of sin is death, which means literally separation — in this case, separation from God. We left that first week so that when you walked out, there was a kind of darkness over it, a cloud over you. Perhaps you felt helpless, perhaps hurting, perhaps even hopeless — and that was by design. If that's how you felt after the first week, that's good. That's what we had hoped God would do in your heart. You are hopeless on your own. You are a sinner separated from God and there's nothing you can do about it.

Last week, we talked about what's so special about Jesus. We pointed out what the Bible teaches us: that He was born of a virgin, that His birth was foretold before it happened, that He would deliver His people from their sin, and that He was God come in the flesh. We looked at what He did in terms of miracles — the deaf could hear, the blind could see, the lame could walk. We saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead. We also saw that He claimed two very important things: He claimed to be God, and He claimed to have the ability to forgive sin. He also predicted not just His death, but His resurrection as well.

When we ended last week, the point was this: what's so special about Jesus is that He actually rose from the dead. If He rose from the dead, that should capture our attention. Nobody else has done this. It ought to at least prompt you to explore what He said about Himself, what He said about us, and when He describes our condition and the situation we're in, He is very clear that the only option we have is Him — that He is God come in the flesh, that He died for a reason.

To remind you where we're heading: next week we're going to talk about how you can actually know this God. Then on the 20th and 27th, we're going to talk about what it looks like to be in a right relationship with Him and how that begins to affect your life. But today, we're going to talk about a specific event in Christ's life — and that sounds odd to say — His death. We're going to talk about that moment of the crucifixion, and we're going to do it as we did before, by asking ten questions.

The Charge of Blasphemy

The first question, found in Luke chapter 22 — page 67 in that Bible — is: why was Jesus betrayed, arrested, and tried? The second question goes with it: why did the Jewish leaders put Jesus on trial? Let's take those together.

Luke chapter 22 records that when it was day, the council of elders of the people assembled before the chief priests and the scribes and led Him away to their council chamber. There's a dialogue going on, a discussion back and forth, and they're hearing testimony. Finally they said to Him, "If you are the Christ, tell us." This is very similar to what we looked at last week in John 10, where the Jews said, "If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus said, "I tell you, but you do not believe. And if I ask a question, you will not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God." They all said, "Are you the Son of God then?" And He said yes. Their response was, "What further need do we have of testimony? We've heard it from our own ears."

Why was Jesus betrayed, arrested, and ultimately tried? Because of blasphemy — He claimed to be God. They said they didn't need any more witnesses. They had heard it themselves. There was the charge.

The Goal of the Trial

The second question is found in Mark chapter 14, page 40 — just a few pages to the left. Why did the Jewish leaders put Jesus on trial? They wanted a trial not only before their own council, but also before Pontius Pilate, and they had a specific goal in mind. Mark 14:55 says: "Now the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death." Their entire intention, the whole point of this trial, was to somehow justify the verdict they had already decided upon, which was guilty.

They had a defendant — Jesus. They had a verdict — guilty. They had a sentence — death. But they had to go through the trial in order to justify it, in order to explain it. What becomes a critical issue at this point is the question of punishment. The Old Testament had prophesied that the Messiah would die and would be crucified — and those prophecies were made before the means of execution known as crucifixion had even been invented. The Jews could not crucify anyone. That was a right taken away from them when the Romans conquered them.

Pilate and the Civil Trial

The Jewish authorities were able to operate and land verdicts, but Rome had taken away their ability to carry out capital punishment. So they desperately needed Pilate. Pilate typically stayed in Caesarea — to put it in terms we would understand, he spent all the time he could at his home away from Jerusalem. But periodically, especially for holy days, he would come back to Jerusalem because he served there as an occupying force. He wanted to make sure that if something was going on in Jerusalem, he was present and informed.

So Pilate is there. What did Pilate conclude about Jesus' guilt? Turn to John chapter 18, page 88 in that Bible, verse 29. Pilate is in the Praetorium — his home quarters, his command center. Verse 29: "Pilate therefore went outside and said, 'What accusations do you bring against this man?'" This is the formal opening of the civil phase of the trial.

They answered in verse 30 that if He were not an evildoer, they would not have brought Him to Pilate. In other words: we don't need accusations, we don't need witnesses, we don't need due process — we wouldn't be here if He wasn't guilty. It is the same reasoning some people use to get out of jury duty: assuming the accused must be guilty simply because he was arrested.

Pilate replied that if Jesus was guilty, they should take Him and judge Him according to their own law. They answered that they were not permitted to put anyone to death. They already had their verdict and their punishment — crucifixion — and that is precisely why they brought Him to Pilate. John records in 18:32 that this fulfilled the word Jesus had spoken, signifying what kind of death He was to die.

Pilate Questions Jesus

Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium and summoned Jesus. You can picture the scene — Pilate going back and forth, deeply uncomfortable with what is being asked of him. He asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?" Pilate replied that he was not a Jew, that this was occupied Roman territory, and that Jesus' own nation and chief priests had delivered Him up. "What have you done?" he asked.

Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up by the Jews. But as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." Pilate pressed further: "Are you a king then?" Jesus replied, "You say correctly that I am a king, for this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Pilate said to Him, "What is truth?"

After this exchange, Pilate went back out to the Jews and declared in John 18:38, "I find no guilt in Him." That was Pilate's conclusion: innocence. He returned to that verdict several times, unable to find any charge against Jesus. Being a skilled political leader, he looked for ways to navigate the situation without making a definitive and dangerous decision.

He offered them a way out, reminding them of the Passover custom by which he would release a prisoner. "Do you wish that I release for you the king of the Jews?" he asked — trying to let the crowd resolve what he himself would not.

What Is Truth?

Tucked inside this dialogue is a moment that has always captured my attention. Jesus says He has come into the world to bear witness to the truth, and Pilate responds in verse 38, "What is truth?" It is genuinely helpful to consider how Pilate said it. Did he ask in a skeptical, dismissive way — "What is truth?" — brushing the question aside? Or did he ask it as someone searching, someone genuinely wanting to know — "What is truth?"

We have no way to hear his tone, just as we have no audio from the great moments of history. Reading the Gettysburg Address recently, the thought occurred to me how remarkable it would be to simply hear Lincoln's voice deliver those words — we have descriptions of it, but not the voice itself. In the same way, we cannot hear how Pilate spoke those words. But however he meant them, the question itself is one our culture desperately needs to take seriously.

There is truth. It can be discovered and known, and it truly matters. I have been in an alarming number of conversations lately with people who identify as Christians but do not seem particularly concerned with what the Bible actually teaches. I am not referring to obscure theological nuances or debates that frankly hold little interest for me. I am talking about foundational matters — salvation, heaven, how we get there.

In some of these conversations, men will say they are Christians and then immediately qualify it with something that contradicts the faith, almost as if the content of belief does not concern them. When you press a little further, the conversation reveals that they have not thought it through carefully. Truth, in these cases, has been treated as negotiable — and that is a serious problem.

Truth and Sincerity

As we pursue truth, it's important that we find truth. What matters is not whether we are sincere as we seek it, but whether we arrive at what is actually true. Consider the Heaven's Gate group in San Diego a few years ago — 39 people whose leader had convinced them that a spaceship was coming to take them away, but that in order to board the ship, they had to be dead. These were very sincere people. Part of joining Heaven's Gate required that male members be castrated. By any measure, that represents an extraordinary level of commitment. And yet they were sincerely, catastrophically wrong.

This next point always has the potential to get me in trouble, not because it is incorrect, but because it can easily be taken out of context. The men who piloted those planes on September 11th were very sincere about their faith. Misguided in every way — but deeply sincere. If sincerity is the standard you want to use, it is hard to imagine a more extreme demonstration of it. You are flying that plane, you see that tower, you are moving toward it, and you know what you are going to do. That would take a certain level of courage and a certain level of conviction. I am not saying it was anything other than despicable — but you see what I am saying about sincerity as a measure of truth.

So when you tell your neighbor, "They're off, but at least they're sincere," understand what you are actually saying. They are sincerely wrong. Nobody made any of us king — He is the King — but He told us the truth, and we know the truth, and we need to begin to understand that. That is not judgmental. That is not a negative.

If you genuinely love someone, and you genuinely believe in your heart that salvation came through Christ and Christ alone — that He is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Him — then it is going to be very hard to sit across from someone and say, "Yeah, they don't get it, but they're sincere." I want to challenge you to walk through your office one morning and, to the best of your ability, based simply on what you observe, ask yourself where each person stands. Then sit down, get something to drink, and begin to contemplate: the people I work with, the ones I camp with, the ones I boat with and water ski with — where are they headed? Does it matter to me at all? The question of what is truth is a deeply important one.

Pilate's Conclusion About Jesus

What did Pilate conclude about Jesus' guilt? He concluded that Jesus was innocent. And this is again very important — Pilate is not asking what is true for you personally. He is asking what is objectively, actually true.

A Lesson from Tiger

People have been talking about Tiger Woods all week, and I want to create, as best I can, a Tiger-free zone — but I do think there is a lesson we can draw from his situation, so bear with me for a moment. I am genuinely troubled by everyone's preoccupation with this story, as though we have a right to know the details of his private life. He is not a senator. He is not a governor. We seem more fascinated with Tiger and with Michael Jackson's death than with the economic terrorists who destroyed Enron and thousands of people's lives. He is a golfer. He does not owe you a thing, and the fact that you are curious about his personal failures is more evidence of your own sin than of his guilt.

Having said all that, there is a lesson here. Humanly speaking, you cannot look at this man and see a need. His house is the size of a campus. He has every toy, every possession, every advantage — private jets, everything you could want. He is the best in the world at what he does. He is married to a beautiful woman. Humanly, you look at this and say: this man has everything. Why would he do something like that?

We talked about this in the first week. There is something wrong with everyone, including Tiger. It is called sin. I want us to move from that wide, Broadway-corner view — the big picture where we say, yes, everyone is a sinner — and bring it all the way down to the narrow and personal, because the goal is to get to your heart and help you see that this is your condition as well.

The Nature of Sin in Your Own Life

In your individual life, sin is not simply that you drink too much, or that you are promiscuous, or that you are greedy, or that you gossip, or that you lie, or that you tear people apart with your tongue, or that you steal. Those things are symptoms.

The Problem Behind Every Problem

Your symptoms are symptoms of your problem. Your problem is that you have sinned, and it has separated you from the one true God. The only solution to that problem is what we are looking at today.

"What is truth? Can I know truth?" Well, let's start with the fact that it exists. The spiritual truths that exist — we at least know where to look. We look right here, to this Word. That is why it is East Valley Bible Church. Our hope is that we teach it and all the ramifications of that. But there is truth.

Pilate's Verdict and the Cross

Now, in the story in front of us, here is what happens. Pilate looks at Him, and he is not trying to judge His heart or spiritual truth. He is looking at the incidents and the charges against Him, and Pilate declares Him not guilty. But like many political leaders, he does not have the will to carry that out. So he goes through that process, and Jesus is declared innocent three times. But ultimately, He is crucified — put to death on a cross in the public thoroughfares.

In that day and age, crucifixion as a form of capital punishment was designed to do two things. Number one, it was punitive. Number two, it was designed to be a deterrent. We have, potentially, a convoluted view of crucifixion. Because we see Jesus' form of crucifixion, we think that is how everybody died — but that is not true.

Crucifixion was designed not so that you had to die immediately, but so that you could live for days or weeks, as long as they gave you nourishment. There was a little seat, and as long as you could press up on that seat, you could breathe and live a long time. So you would be walking by, and there would be a person crucified over there. As you got closer, you would see what this was, and there would be a sign posted over them declaring their crime.

The Fourth Question: What Crime Was Posted on the Cross?

The fourth question is this, answered in Matthew chapter 27: what crime was posted on Jesus' cross? The crime posted was that this is a man who declared himself to be king of the Jews. The accusation was that He had blasphemed.

The process with Jesus moved very quickly — three hours, plus or minus. But under normal circumstances, crucifixion was also designed to be a deterrent. You would be walking along one day, see someone crucified, and there above them would be their crime posted for all to read. It was designed so that anyone passing by would think twice. Posted on Jesus: He is king of the Jews.

What God Posted on That Cross

But what did God post on that cross? Turn to Colossians 2, page 157. Paul is talking about our sin and Jesus' death, the glory of Christ, how He is absolutely unique and cannot be compared to anyone. He writes this in Colossians 2, verses 14 and 15: "He canceled out the certificate of death consisting of the decrees against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to a cross."

Here is what He is saying. He is wiping out the charge, the guilt, the transgressions, and the debt that we have. There is a debt that we owe, and what God is saying through this crucifixion is that Christ's death was perfect. It wiped away the guilt and the responsibility of all of those who would ever come to Him.

The Sixth Question: Whose Place Did Jesus Take?

The sixth question is this, found in 1 Peter 2:24, almost all the way to the back of your Bible: whose place did Jesus take on the cross? "He Himself bore our sins" — that is whose place He took — "our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed."

Let me talk about that last phrase first. Almost every day on what is called Christian television, you will see somebody teach, I think inappropriately, from this verse. They will be proclaiming some sort of physical healing. They will say: you are out there with cancer, you have had a heart blockage, you have a back problem — you need to understand and pray about it, because 1 Peter 2:24 says, "by His wounds you were healed." I do not believe that the death of Christ and the atonement of Christ included physical healing in that sense. Jesus did not die so you would not have back pain.

Here is why He died. Your wounds were healed — your transgressions were healed. You were made right with God, made whole with God. He bore our sin on the cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

The Seventh Question: Once and For All

Now, staying near 1 Peter, move left to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, page 174. "By this will we have been sanctified." He is talking about the death and resurrection of Christ. "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who were sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).

Here is a great example of why this matters. When we take communion, we will tell you this is just bread and a cup. In a Catholic church, they will tell you that is not just bread — that is the body and blood of Christ, and He is sacrificed millions of times in a single week around the world. That is a very significant distinction. We would say no — He died once and for all. That act of communion is a remembrance of what was accomplished completely and finally on the cross.

Propitiation: Satisfying the Wrath of God

The cross itself is where the removal of sins took place. He died once and for all so that our sin could be paid for. There are three terms here that are really important, so let me give them to you in sequence, starting with the hardest one.

The first term is propitiation. It appears four times in the New Testament: Romans 3:25, Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2, and 1 John 4:10. As summarized in 1 John 2:2, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sin." It means to satisfy the wrath of God.

That is what we looked at in week one. Romans 1 tells us that the wrath of God is being poured out on all who remain in that natural state — poured out on the ungodly and the unrighteous. So what do you have to do to experience the wrath of God? Nothing. It is how we come into the world — a child of wrath, a child of disobedience, in rebellion to God.

That is who we are by nature. Some people cover it up better than others. Some little children look like little angels on the outside, and others do not — but the reality is that inside, all are the same. God is a God of love, absolutely, but He is also a God of righteousness, and sin has to be judged. His justice demands that sin be paid for, and so God will pour out His wrath on people.

Redemption and Justification

The second term is redemption. It means to loosen or to buy back. Think of the old pawn shop: you bring something in, you receive a ticket, and hopefully the day comes when you have the money to go back, present that certificate, and buy back — redeem — whatever the item is. Christ's death provides us redemption in exactly that way.

The third term is justification, which means to be declared righteous. A divine God — and this is an amazing thought — declares us, sinful people, to be holy.

The Triangle Illustration

You do not need a slide for this. Simply draw a triangle, and as you look down at it, write "Jesus" on the bottom left corner, "God" on the top right, and your own name on the bottom right — if you are a follower of Christ.

From Jesus to the Father flows propitiation: Jesus dies on the cross, and that satisfies God's wrath. From Jesus to us flows redemption: He has loosened us and bought us back. From the Father to you flows justification: He declares you holy and righteous.

When you sit and look at that drawing and set aside all the words, what strikes you is that everything is flowing toward you. There is nothing in this process of salvation that you generate. Out of all of this, by the way, should come one thing — transformational worship. Once I understand that this is true, I should have a heart filled with gratitude and a desire to please my Father.

What Happened to Jesus When He Was Crucified

Now we come to the eighth question: what happened to Jesus when He was crucified? Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Paul is writing to this church, talking about Christ, what He has done, how He has redeemed us, and how that begins to transform our lives.

He says in 2 Corinthians 5:14 that the love of Christ controls us — what drives us should be His love for us. In verse 17 he says that if anybody is in Christ, we are a new creature, and the old things have passed away. Then in verses 18 through 20 you see the word reconcile — and its derivatives, reconciliation and reconciling — appear three times in those five verses, describing the putting of God and man back into a right relationship.

Then Paul summarizes everything we have been talking about — subjects on which endless volumes have been written — in a single verse: "He," that is God the Father, "made Him," that is Jesus, "who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God." The Father sent Him, and the Son freely came to the cross and sacrificed His life.

The True Agony of the Cross

Jesus on the cross was treated as though He were guilty of all the sin of anyone who would ever believe. You and I and our sin deserve God's wrath. Every sin ever committed by every person who has ever lived must be paid for, and will either be paid in full by Christ on the cross, or the individual will attempt — though never succeeding — to pay in full, and will suffer eternally in a place called hell.

That is what happened on the cross. I cannot fully explain it, and language breaks down quickly, but Jesus was treated as though He were guilty of your sin, my sin, and all the sin of any person who would ever come to Him in repentance and faith.

That is the agony of the cross. The agony of the cross is not the nails, the thorns, or the whipping — that is not the agony of the cross. The agony of the cross is that moment in time where the Father pours out His wrath on the Son — where Jesus, confronting the very thing He hates most, sin, begins to experience God's wrath for it. That is what drives Jesus to cry out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

The Reality of Christ's Death

It is in that moment where Jesus feels that separation. He feels the wrath of God poured out on Him. And in that moment in time, Christ pays for all the sin of all the people that would ever come to Him in repentance and faith. Is that you? That is what happened on the cross.

This is the ninth question, and it may sound odd: Did Jesus really die on the cross? We ask it for a couple of reasons. The answer is in Luke chapter 23. By the way, as you are turning there, let me just remind you that we rarely teach on a topical basis like this. The vast majority of our time is spent working through a book, chapter, and verse. Starting January 10th, we begin our study in the book of Ephesians, and I would guess it will take us thirty weeks or more. But right now we are asking this question: Did Jesus really die on the cross?

Luke 23:44 says, "Now about the sixth hour, darkness had fell on the whole land until the ninth hour. And the sun being obscured, the veil of the temple was torn." We are also told the temple was torn not from the bottom to the top, but from the top down. That demonstrated that God had broken that barrier. He broke down the barriers between us and Him through tearing the temple. And Jesus, crying out in a loud voice, said, "Father, into my hands I commit thy spirit." And having said that, He breathed His last.

He really died. Why is that important? It is obviously important because we are saying that in the death of Christ, this was accomplished, and we need to know that He really did die.

Answering the Resuscitation Theory

The second reason this matters is more pragmatic: there are many theories that have emerged about Jesus, and one of them is the resuscitation theory. It attempts to explain the resurrection by claiming that Jesus never physically died on the cross — that after the intense pain, He lapsed into a coma. According to this theory, after His side was punctured, they took Him down, wrapped Him up, and placed Him in a tomb. After a period of time, He supposedly woke up, shook it off, mustered the strength to move a two-thousand-pound stone out of the way, and then disappeared.

For me, that takes far more faith than simply believing God raised Him. But there are those who hold to that view. The point is, He died on the cross. And in dying on the cross, He declared, "It is finished." Mission accomplished.

The Purpose Behind His Death

What is behind the death of Jesus? He accomplished His mission. And that leads us to the tenth question: What was His purpose on earth? We could turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21. His purpose was so that we would know He had achieved what He came to do. He had come to earth to save His people from their sin, and He had done it in that moment. He had succeeded. He had delivered us from sin, from the bondage of sin, from the wrath that sin deserves. And now that becomes a point of great joy in our lives.

A Widow Who Knew the Truth

I did a funeral a while ago for a man who was 83. His wife was 80. They had been married 63 years. They had met in kindergarten. When she was telling me this story as we met to plan the funeral, I thought, that is just really cool. She had a little oxygen tank, and she was very sick. She kept saying, "I love him so much. I can't even remember life without him. I don't know how I'm going to live." Somebody asked her, "Do you wish he were here with you today?" And she said, "No. Because I know he is in a far better place than this. I know how sick he was and how much he suffered. I really love him." She loved him so much that she was willing to let him go.

Is that just the wishful hoping of a sick old woman? I do not think so. She knew the realities of these truths. And we have to ask the question: Do you?

The Hard Conversation at the Bedside

Susan was a chaplain — I am not sure if she is still active — but she served as a chaplain at Desert Samaritan. She had to go through the chaplaincy program to be able to go in and minister to women there. She came home one day very alarmed. I asked what happened. She told me she had been with a woman who was very sick and would likely die within the next couple of days. Susan said she had a significant conversation with her. She asked the woman, "Are you afraid to die?" The woman said no. Susan asked why. The woman said, "Well, I really don't know." Susan pressed further: "Do you think you're going to heaven?" She said yes. Susan asked why.

Notice the why questions. Every meaningful question in that kind of conversation is a why question. Rather than arguing and debating, rather than trying to win the culture war and all the other things that go on — and I am not against any of that — that approach is not moving the ball down the field. Let the other person talk. Stop arguing about things they are not even asking you. "You think you're going to heaven? Why?" The woman answered, "Because I've been a good person." It just ripped Susan's heart out.

Susan told me, "Tom, this is a little grandmother lying in that bed. The kids are gathered around saying, 'Nana, we love you.'" And Susan made three trips in twenty-four hours to that woman's bedside to continue the conversation. That is the weight of it. That is why this matters.

The Danger of Thinking You Are Okay

Here is something I want you to hear. If you are in here today and you are just a mess — strung out on drugs, or you have been, or you have all kinds of things going wrong in your life — if you walk in here knowing you are a mess, you are actually far easier to talk to than the person who thinks they are fine. Society may say you are a mess. Your friends may say you are a mess. And in your heart, you already know it. If you come in here a mess, the conversation is straightforward.

The harder conversation is with the person who thinks they are okay. You pay your taxes — and you get the chance to pay even more. You do good things. You are a good person. You are a great person. Those are the ones who are hardest to reach, because they believe they are fine when they are not.

The Danger of False Security

There is no greater form of denial than someone who doesn't know Christ but thinks they're okay. People think they're okay because they're doing good things. Good things don't make you good. Good things don't make you holy. Good things don't make you righteous. Only coming to Christ in repentance and faith will do that.

Susan made three trips to that lady. It's so hard when you're around a deathbed and everybody is saying, "Nana, oh, she used to bake me cookies. She was a wonderful grandma. She was a great mom. She taught me how to bake." And then fill in the blank.

A Five-Year-Old's Honest Question

I had a man who came to one of my studies whose mother had died. He told me about going to see his mom and taking his five-year-old son with him. They went through that experience at the hospital — his mom wasn't quite ready to die, so she could converse a bit, and he thought he'd bring his son in for that.

On the drive home, the son asked, "Is grandma going to die?" Yes. "Does grandma believe in Jesus?" And the man started working through it: grandma didn't go to church, did she? No. Grandma didn't believe in the Bible, did she? No. Grandma didn't ask Jesus into her heart, did she? And finally he said no. The five-year-old said, "Well, then grandma's in hell, isn't she?" Not judgmental — just the facts.

Either this stuff is true or it isn't. Jesus rose from the dead or He didn't. And if He didn't, then being honest, I'd rather stay home and watch NFL football. If this isn't true, I don't make my living doing this. I believe with all my heart that if you don't know Christ, you're going to hell. I believe with all my heart that if you do, you're going to heaven.

The One Thing That Truly Matters

Whatever is on your to-do list, your wish list, your bucket list, or any other list you have — the most important thing, and it isn't even close, is whether you know Christ or not. That is the only thing on that list that is truly urgent.

We just had five birthday parties in ten days, and I found myself telling my grandson Brayden what my son-in-law Tyler had been teaching him. He'd say, "Papa, I need a chip," and I'd say, "Buddy, you need Jesus — you want a chip." About five minutes later he'd say, "I need a cookie." I'd say, "No, you need Jesus — you want a cookie." He thought about it and said, "Yeah, I want a cookie." And I said, okay.

Raising Children to Know the Truth

Haley called the other day and read me the catechism they're working through with him. She said, "Tom, you ought to teach this instead of that first lesson you did," because it was on the depravity of man. Do I think he fully grasps it? No. But he just turned four, and I can tell you that both of my daughters understood the idea of sin and the weight of it at around age five — as a five-year-old understands it, but I'm genuinely convinced they made a real profession of faith at that age.

We didn't push them. We never asked them to come to Christ. We never asked them to ask Jesus into their heart. Both of them, on their own, in their bedrooms, came back out after we put them to bed. I was ready to say, "Get back in bed," and they said, "Dad, I want to tell you what just happened." I know many parents have been through something similar. All I'm saying is that as a parent, I knew that if that was indeed real, I could handle everything else that came in their lives.

The Heaviness in a Parent's Heart

Some of you haven't had that experience with your children, and I understand that. I've talked to countless parents, and I know school is a big thing, work is a big thing, tattoos are a big thing. They're all big things. But I can tell from the heaviness in a parent's heart that there is no issue bigger than this one. That's a parent who gets it — a parent who feels the incredible pull of loving God, loving the truth, and loving their child.

You also have people in your life — not necessarily children, but brothers, sisters, neighbors — and if you really love them, you'll tell them about Jesus. You might say, "Well, I haven't taken the class yet." You don't need to take a class. If you know enough to believe in Jesus, you know enough to share about Him. You may want to go deeper, and a class can certainly help, but there is no process you must complete before you begin sharing this truth.

What Made His Death So Special

Part of the tension I feel every time we do a class on evangelism is that people sit there and think, "I haven't taken the class, therefore I don't need to evangelize." That class is just a tool. The question before us today is this: what was so special about Jesus? What was so special about His death? He redeemed His people there. Do you know that truth?

Maybe you're sitting here right now with questions, or perhaps you want to respond. There are men at the front of the room — both here in the chapel and over at the conference center — whose most important reason for being here today is to talk with you. They would love to speak with you about this. Next week we're going to close this loop and talk about how you can really know God in an intimate way.

God, I pray for this amazing truth that You have placed right before us, and I pray You open our hearts to see it.