Sermon Recap

Mercy Met Truth

I wanted to take this Easter and talk to you about a young lawyer that I love and admire. 

This lawyer’s first case was a couple, a husband and wife, who had broken the law and were both facing the death penalty. There was so much evidence that they basically had already been convicted. The lawyer brings the case before the Judge. When the husband steps up he blames it all on his wife. The wife passes the guilt onto a third party. Then, the lawyer stands up.

This lawyer’s name is Mercy.

He tells the Judge that he finds Adam and Eve totally guilty and that he knows God told them they would die if they ate of the tree, but pleads for mercy for them. God says, “Mr. Lawyer, I can’t lie. I have to keep my word.”

“What about that lamb over there? Is there any way that you could take that lamb and put their death on that lamb?”

God was moved by that lawyer named Mercy and went down into the garden to find Adam and Eve. And God put their sin on that lamb (a type of Lamb slain from the foundation of the world) and took its life.

And Mercy won his first case.

For Mercy’s second case, God was about to destroy the whole earth with a Flood. Mercy stands up, “Please, God! I found a man named Noah. I know there are so many that are evil, but he’s right before you. Will you let him find grace?”

God once again was moved by Mercy’s plea. Noah found grace in the eyes of God, and Mercy had won its second case.

The lawyer, Mercy, had an opportunity that few do. He became the lawyer for the world and had his own office called the tabernacle and his own seat called the Mercy Seat. But, then he was only given one case a year when the High Priest came in. He was shut in by a thick veil, pacing back and forth, “I can only touch God once a year. I wish I could leave this room. So many people need me. Why must I be shut in? Broken humanity needs me, and I can’t get to them! Will it always be like this?”

Mercy finds his answer.

The only way that he could get out was to find Truth. He couldn’t get out so he needed someone to find it and bring it to him. But, he didn’t realize at first that Truth is a person. And when he found out Jesus is the Truth he was looking for, he longed to meet Him. “David said we have to meet,” Mercy says, “You have to come to me, I’m trapped and can’t get out from behind this veil.”

Mercy had waited thousands of years. People come and tell him the miracles of Jesus. Mercy gets excited, “That’s the one I’ve been waiting for!”

Then, someone comes to the veil one day and lets Mercy know that Jesus, that Truth, had been arrested and that they were planning to kill Him.

“They can’t kill him!” Mercy cries, “We have to meet, and I can’t get out of here! They have to let him go. He’ll come over here and we will be a team. Salvation will come. That’s what David said,” Mercy weeps when he hears all they’re doing to Jesus, to Truth. Mercy screams, “They need me! Don’t let Him die before we meet!”

Mercy can’t get out, so he sends a message to Truth, “Don’t die until we meet.”

The veil rips in two, from the top to the bottom.

It wasn’t for us to get to Mercy, it was so Mercy could get out and run to meet Truth. He makes his way toward Calvary. He hears the mockery and the jeers. 

“Don’t die, Truth! Hold on!” Mercy screams. Jesus held on until every word was fulfilled. Mercy and Truth meet.

“It is finished,” Jesus says and hangs his head and dies. Mercy looks and says, “It’s fixed.” Salvation had come.

Do you know why we aren’t stoned when we mess up? Because Mercy met Truth. There’s hope because Mercy met Truth, and salvation has come.

–Pastor Anthony Wynn

 

Scriptures

  • Exodus 15:13
  • Hebrews 9:7
  • Numbers 35:18
  • Numbers 15:22
  • 2Samuel 6:17
  • Psalm 85:4, 9
  • Isaiah 16:5
  • John 16:13
  • John 18:38

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