Poster Archive : MAY 2009
Message: Get Clean
Bible verse: 1John 1:7 "... if we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."
Some time between 7 and 8am some Roman guards shook the cold from their bones and moved quickly to obey an order.
Only a few minutes earlier the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate had agreed to execute a Jewish troublemaker who had come to Jerusalem from the northern town of Nazareth. He was a self-appointed rabbi or teacher who'd gathered a group of followers.
By 9 o'clock the morning chill had gone and the act was almost complete. Jesus's feet had been nailed to the bottom of an upright post with nails driven through hands into the horizontal beam.
He would be dead by 2pm. Mark that moment.
You see, there is the event itself and then there is the meaning of the event.
For the great Empire of Rome, this death meant simply house cleaning. Roman occupiers regularly took out the troublesome trash of their occupied territories and crucifixion was the usual method.
For the Jewish religious establishment, Jesus's death meant the removal of a thorn that had pricked their consciences and deflated their powerbase.
But for God, Jesus's death meant finally doing something about human guilt. Through the prophet Isaiah God had told us that:
we all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (53:6)
God was speaking about his son Jesus who would come and offer his life as payment for our sin. Jesus's life would be a sacrifice that washed away the most revolting garbage of the world. Those things that cause most offense to God: our guilty acts and shameful thoughts, in short, the dirt of our constant rebellion.
The great God of the universe did a gracious thing that awful afternoon. He offered us a fresh start, a chance to 'GET CLEAN'.
One of Jesus's disciples, a man called John, later wrote:
... if we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1John 1:7)
So look to Jesus and let him take away those things that make you feel dirty and unwashed. Then walk with him, clean forever.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for Jesus's death that washes me clean. AMEN.