Jesus Is In Control

Did anybody ever conquer death? Did they make a way for me to conquer it?

It’s amazing that in the midst of their insistent and persistent sinning and general disregard for God, much of the world stops every year at this time to celebrate hope, life after death, and resurrection. Even though it is sometimes only a token of religion offered to Christ, it nonetheless reveals that from deep within the human heart, there is that hope.

The question that grinds away in every heart is, Can death be conquered?

John 10:17. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man 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.

Jesus controlled death for His own good, for His own end, and for our good. In the case of a Christian believer, He controls our destiny, including our own personal death and resurrection, to life with Him. God planned the sacrificial death of Jesus, and Jesus, in an act of submissive obedience as a Son to a Father’s will, carried out the eternal plan. He laid down His life and took it again. He was never a victim, but always and only a victor.Jesus Is In Control Of His Death

John19:16 Then he delivered Him therefore unto them (Roman soldiers) to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led Him away.

It seems a small thing to say “they led him away.” Isaiah 53:7 says, “He is led as a sheep to the slaughter.” Jesus was a sheep, the final sacrificial Lamb, for all the sins of all the ages.

Jesus was tried in the morning and He was on the cross before afternoon. That did not follow Roman law. Why the hurry? Isaiah 53:8 said that’s the way it would happen. Jesus was controlling the process of Roman Jurisprudence, so that it even violated one of its own rules.

John 19:17a And He bearing his cross went forth… He went outside the city walls. Roman law said no one can be crucified inside the city. Exodus 29:14a But the flesh of the bullock, you shall burn with fire without (outside) the camp: Because it was a sin-offering, and God Himself instituted the offerings for sin, He said they are to be taken outside the camps. Jesus died outside the city, as the perfect sin offering.

John 19:16 says ‘”they delivered Him to be crucified.” The Jews did not crucify people, the Romans did; the Jews stoned people. John 3:14 said Jesus would be lifted up, on a cross, as the serpent was in Numbers 21:6.

John 19:23 Then the soldiers took his garments, and made four parts and cast lots. Psalm 22:18 had said: ‘They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture.’ (cloak).

Jesus Is In Control Of His Burial

John 19:38 And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.

The most unlikely guy, a secret disciple who has not said a peep about what he believes, all of the sudden comes to the front and goes boldly to Pilate. So Jesus, even while dead, moves upon Joseph of Arimathea.

Isaiah 53:9 And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

John 19:39 And there came also Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds in weight.

Nicodemus was also a little clandestine about the whole thing, but now he comes to the front: he is bringing what is needed for Christ’s burial.

Jesus Is In Control Of His Resurrection

John 20:1 On the first day of the week came Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulcher.

But Mary stood outside of the sepulcher weeping, while Peter and John were long gone.

John 20:12 And saw two angels in white, sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain.

Jesus is seen by Mary, between two angels.

Exodus 25:17 And thou shalt make two angels, of gold, on the two ends of the Mercy Seat. Exodus 25:22a And there I will meet with thee.

Where did God meet man throughout the Old Testament? He met man between two angels on the Mercy Seat where the blood was sprinkled.

Since Jesus Christ left the tomb, where does God meet men?

God now meets man between two angels, but the Mercy Seat is no longer the Ark of the Covenant, it’s the resurrected Christ’s tomb.

God meets each of us on the basis of a resurrected, living Christ.

He is control. Jesus conquered death for you! Meet Him; recommit to Him. He is there.