We Believe: He Suffered, Crucified, Died, and Buried

INTRO Welcome to the Gospel Focused: Family Moment. I'm your host, Eric Novak. Each week, we pause as a family to remember what matters most — the good news of Jesus. This podcast is brought to you by GospelFocused.com OPENING LITURGY For our opening liturgy today, I'll be our leader and ask a question, and then you follow along and repeat with your family: Eric: "Christian family, what do we believe?" All: "We believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. We believe in the Holy Spirit, Who gives us life and makes us one." SCRIPTURE READING "It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last." This is the word of the Lord. MAIN STORY / REFLECTION Hello friends! We’re in the middle of studying the Apostles’ Creed together. A creed is basically a list of things that people believe. That’s what the word means: Credo, or “I believe.” Let’s start by reading the creed, and then we’ll unpack our line: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Today we’re going to talk about something pretty sad, our line here is "he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried." but it’s so important to what we believe as Christians. So far we’ve talked about who God is and who Jesus is, but we haven’t really talked about what Jesus has done. The next several episodes are dedicated to understanding what Jesus did, and how it affects us. First, I think it’s important to understand what sin is and how it functionally separates us from God. Let’s say you really want to get a candy bar from the store, but your mom says you’ve had enough treats for the day. Even though you know it’s wrong, you grab the candy bar and slip it into your pocket. Now normally, even though this is wrong, it’s not something you’d go to jail over, but for the sake of this example, let’s say you have to go to court, because a judge is going to give you a consequence for stealing. In court, they show they have you on camera, and you know you’re guilty. Now here’s the big question: it’s against the law to steal. It’s wrong. We all know it. So when the judge has to pass sentence, is it okay for him to say, “It’s not a big deal, just don’t do it again”? No! For the judge to be good, he can’t look the other way. He has to do his job and give a just sentence for what was done wrong. It’s the same with God, but it’s a much bigger deal. Anything that is not in service to God is sin. On our own, we can’t hope to make up the gap that sin creates. Because God is holy, something has to be done about it. He can’t be good and holy and just look the other way at sin. Ephesians 2 calls us “children of wrath,” meaning we are naturally under the consequences of our sin. But it doesn’t stop there, because as much as we deserve to be punished, God is rich in mercy. Mercy means God doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve. And grace, its close cousin, means God gives us good we could never earn. Here’s exactly how Ephesians puts it: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” In theological terms (theology just means the study of God), this is called penal substitutionary atonement. Let’s break that down: penal means it has to do with punishment, the penalty our sin deserves; substitution means someone taking our place for what we’ve done wrong; and atonement means paying for those sins so we can be brought back to God. Now I don’t want to skirt around what that means, and it’s why I said this is a sad episode. But it’s also the best episode, because of what it means for us. Jesus never did anything wrong. He lived the perfect life that you and I couldn’t. And still, He was sentenced to death and crucified. This was no accident, and it was not just powerful people getting their way. It was God’s own plan to rescue us. Remember the courtroom? In God’s courtroom, the Judge Himself, God the Son, steps down and takes the sentence in our place. He willingly gave up His life for you and me, so that we could be made right with God. He truly died, and His body was taken down and laid in a tomb. And did you catch what happened the moment Jesus died? Luke tells us the curtain in the temple was torn in two. That curtain was the barrier that kept people out of the presence of God, and when Jesus died, God tore it open from top to bottom. The way back to God that our sin had slammed shut was thrown wide open. The easiest way to understand this is: I sinned, Jesus paid, God forgives, and now nothing can separate me ever again. I don’t want to get too far ahead, because in the next episode we’ll talk more about how Jesus rose from the dead, but it’s hard to talk about Jesus dying without knowing that He defeated death. Jesus didn’t stay dead. He actually, physically came back to life, and when He did, He appeared to more than 500 eyewitnesses, people who actually saw Him. Then He sent those people out to share the gospel so everyone could know the good news. I’m so glad I get to share it with you today. When we say the Apostles’ Creed, these are a lot of big words and concepts to understand, but I hope that going through them together makes it easier for you to know and believe what Christians have believed for two thousand years. Thanks for listening with me! MEMORY VERSE Our memory verse for today is Romans 5:8: "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." PRAYER Father God, we thank you and praise you for the sacrifice of your holy Son Jesus. He came to earth to live the life that we couldn't live, to reconcile us to you. Thank you for the faithful men and women who wrote creeds that we have today, creeds that teach us more about you and your heart for us. Give us faith in you, give us faith in Jesus. Amen. OUTRO Thanks for joining us for this week's Gospel Focused: Family Moment. I'm your host, Eric Novak. Until next time, keep your eyes on Jesus and your hearts focused on the gospel. BENEDICTION Go as a family in the peace of your Savior and closest friend, Jesus Christ. See you next week!