"The Power Of The Nail"

The Power Of The Nail

Colossians 2:13-14 (NASB)

I remember reading about a guy who stopped in the grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a couple of items for his wife. He wandered around aimlessly for a while searching for the groceries needed. As is often the case in the grocery store, he kept passing this same shopper in almost every aisle. It was another father trying to shop with a totally uncooperative three-year-old boy in the cart.

The first time they passed, the three-year-old was asking over and over for a candy bar. Our observer couldn’t hear the entire conversation. He just heard Dad say, “Now, Billy, this won’t take long.” As they passed in the next aisle, the three-year old’s pleas had increased several octaves. Now Dad was quietly saying, “Billy, just calm down. We will be done in a minute.” When they passed near the dairy case, the kid was screaming uncontrollably. Dad was still keeping his cool. In a very low voice he was saying, “Billy, settle down. We are almost out of here.” 

The Dad and his son reached the checkout counter just ahead of our observer. He still gave no evidence of losing control. The boy was screaming and kicking. Dad was very calming saying over and over, “Billy, we will be in the car in just a minute and then everything will be OK.”

The bystander was impressed beyond words. After paying for his groceries, he hurried to catch up with this amazing example of patience and self-control just in time to hear him say again, “Billy, we’re done. It’s going to be OK.” He tapped the patient father on the shoulder and said, “Sir, I couldn’t help but watch how you handled little Billy. You were amazing.” Dad replied, “You don’t get it, do you?” I’m Billy!” Life is about choices, isn’t it.

Today is Resurrection Sunday. This message is about some choices Jesus made. The choice to obey his Father’s will completely, the choice to go to the cross and be our perfect sacrifice and also the choice to experience all the things that led up to the cross — the beatings, the ridicule, the betrayal, the refusal of the drink of wine on the cross and even the nails. He chose the nails.

I hope this sermon will give us an even greater appreciation for what our Lord has done for us. Most of all I hope it will deepen our commitment and trust in Him.

Have you ever thought about all the choices the Heavenly Father has made for you? Creating us and then giving us a free will, though he knew we would use it to choose against him. Would you make a choice like that? I wouldn’t. Sending his prophets to warn us about the dangers that lay ahead, again knowing they would be rejected and some put to death. Continuing to receive His people back even though time after time they would wander away. Sending His only Son as our savior, a son that would love with only perfect love, only to see him cruelly treated and hung on a cross between two thieves. Then sending his Holy Spirit to live within us and be there as a guide to us, just to see us do our best to exclude him out of our decisions. 

Why has God made these choices? Because of the great love he has for us. We are his pride and joy! Amen

This morning as you entered, you were presented with a gift – a nail. Go ahead and look at it while I am speaking. Feel it, grip it, weigh it, push its point against your hand or wrist. It’s not too different than the nail used to affix Jesus to the cross. – just about one inch shorter.

When I was in college, one summer, my job was construction. This job had us build a house for a family. As I was helping put the roof on the home, I noticed a difference in a hammer and nail in my hand as opposed to some of the others who have true carpentry skills. I noticed the difference, I am sure that they noticed the difference, and I know that my thumb noticed the difference! It all depends upon whose hand the nail is in.

That’s true of a lot of things in life. A basketball in my hand is worth about $19. Put that same basketball in Lebron James hands and its worth $19 million a year. Put a bat and ball in my hands and it might be worth $13. Put that ball and bat in the same hands of Barry Bonds, and it becomes worth $13million a year. A golf ball and club in my hands are worth about $100. In the hands of Tiger Woods, it is suddenly worth $100 million. It all depends upon whose hands it’s in. Give me a hammer and nail and I can tack down a shingle. Put a nail in the hands of Jesus and he can bring salvation to all of mankind. That’s the power of the nail.

Of course, the kind of nail we are talking about today was the final step in the most awful way to die in the first century. 

Though the Roman army were experts when it came to crucifying people, they considered it such a brutal way to die that no citizen of Rome could be executed in that manner. The Romans had three ways of executing condemned prisoners. The most honorable way was by the sword, or decapitation. That was the way, according to tradition that the Apostle Paul was executed. It is also the way that John the Baptist died as well as James, the brother of John. A second way criminals were executed was by burning them alive. As horrible as that is to imagine, the Romans believed it was more humane that death on a cross. That gives us some glimpse of the agony Jesus endured on our behalf.

The final day of people who shared the fate of Jesus began with a brutal beating. After they beat you, they mocked you. After mocking you, they stripped you. After stripping you, they humiliated you. And finally, they nailed you to a cross, while you were still alive – while your family and your loved ones and your enemies watched. Try to imagine watching something that awful happening to your father or your brother or your husband or your son. Yet, in the midst of that horrific day, the most amazing thing occurred. The salvation of mankind – the redemption of creation was won.

When you were dead in your sins and unclean of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

When Paul wrote that passage of scripture in the letter to the church at Colossae, he depicted the fact that Jesus went to the cross powerless but when his body was taken down, he was all-powerful. Notice what was fulfilled by the power of the nail. People dead in sin were made alive. The written code against us was cancelled. All of the charges were taken down and nailed to the cross.

The terminology Paul uses is interesting. He makes both a legal and a financial reference. Legally, the written code represented the list of charges stated in a court of law against a criminal condemned to die. In the ancient world, those charges were written on a slate of wood, and it was then nailed to the cross above the head of the condemned man. Financially, if a debtor could not pay a debt, the amount due was written down and charged against the one owing money. Until it could be paid, that man was thrown into a debtor’s prison and might remain there the remainder of his life until the debt was settled.

In a moment, we are going to experience communion. The elements of the bread and the juice await us – but, before we celebrate, we must understand that we have no joy today apart from the power of the nail.

When The Passion, was made, the director chose to not show the face of the man who takes the mallet and hammers the nail into the hands and feet of Jesus. All one sees is the strong, brawny hand of the soldier gripping the hammer and then driving it down. It was later revealed that the actor swinging the nail was actually the director of the film, Mel Gibson. He understood what we must understand today. It was his sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. It was also my sins and your sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. May we reflect on that reality this afternoon as we prepare to enter into the communion experience.

The Taking Of The Bread

The last meal Jesus ate before going to the cross was a Passover meal with his disciples. For some 1,500 years, the Jewish people had been remembering the night the angel of the Lord passed over their homes in Egypt. The meal is comprised of strange recipes and flavors – all designed to teach a lesson of the care and protection of God. 

Salt water reminded them of the tears shed while in slavery. Bitter herbs reminded them of the harsh life they led. Fruit pastes with cinnamon reminded them of the bricks they built and constructed with. The lamb reminded them of the sacrifice of blood that saved their first-born child of death. The flat bread reminded them of the haste with which they left Egypt and of the purity to which God called them to live. Along with that, the four cups of wine were taken throughout the meal to remind them of the promises made in Exodus 6:6-7 (NASB) that says…

It was a recipe designed and developed to invite people to taste the Lord and see that He is good. That night, Jesus took a centuries old tradition and infused it with new life and meaning – and we recall that today. More than anything, it reminds us that communion is a call to understand that following Jesus is serious business. Nothing less than his own body was required that we might have everlasting life. When Jesus cried out, “Tetelestai”, “it is finished” – he was stating that finally, the requirements of a holy God for payment of sin had been met – people dead in their sins now had new life – the work Jesus had been sent to do was not complete. All of that was made possible because of the power of the nail.

The Taking Of The Cup

That night, Jesus not only broke the bread, but he also drank from the cup and said, “This is my blood that is shed for you”. The rule for an acceptable sacrifice was clear. The writer of Hebrew said that apart from the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin”. The veil that separated God and mankind was removed from top to bottom due to the blood of Jesus shed. It gives us hope and reminds me what it says in Mark 10.

Mark 10:27 (NASB) reads… Looking at them, Jesus said, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”

When it comes to salvation, all we can do is put trust in God. When you think about it, all that we do, all that we are, and all that we ever will be is in God’s hands. If we find ourselves to be self sufficient, then we err.

What can we do apart from Jesus?

Jesus answers this question himself saying, “I am the Vine, you are the branches, apart from me you can do nothing.”

On the other hand, another verse says, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.”

Nothing is impossible with Jesus.

Get the right perspective. When Goliath came against the Israelites, the soldiers all thought, “He’s so big we can never kill him.” David looked at the same giant and thought, “He’s so big I can’t miss.”

“God honors radical, risk-taking faith. When arks are built, lives are saved. When soldiers march, Jericho’s tumble. When staffs are raised, seas still open. When a lunch is shared, thousands are fed. And when a garment is touched — whether by the hand of an anemic woman in Galilee or by the prayers of a beggar in Bangladesh — Jesus stops. He stops and responds.” 

Brothers and sisters, I began this sermon telling you about a pair of hands. I want to tell you about another. There are a pair of hands with nail scars in them. Those hands were nailed to a cross for our sins, for our salvation. We find those good hands stretched out reaching for us, with a voice behind them saying “come to me, you who are weary and heavy ladened.” Those are the hands that we must reach for if we desire salvation. Those hands are the good and strong hands of Jesus, the hands of God.

Closing Illustration

Two successful brothers, once close, had a falling out. Though their land was adjacent to one another, they had not spoken in years. The older brother hired a carpenter and explained what he wanted built. He told how in recent days that his younger brother had bulldozed down a levee that held back a creek of water. Once it was down, the meadow that once stood between the two lands was now filled with water. The older brother told the carpenter that he wanted him to construct an 8-foot-high fence between his land and his brother’s land so not to see him again. He left for a trip after giving clear instructions to the carpenter. Upon his return, he found the carpenter making his finishing touches. To his astonishment, however, he found no fence built. Instead, a bridge had been constructed over the water, connecting his land with his younger brother’s land. Then he saw that same younger brother whom he had not spoken to in many years approaching with tears running down his face. He embraced his older brother and said, “I have done so many things wrong to you over the years. But look at what you have done. You have built a bridge between us and reconnected me to yourself.” That is what we celebrate today. The power of the nail!