If you are one of those people who have been asking that question: why on earth was Jesus killed? I believe this video is meant for you. In the next few minutes, I'll be taking us through the Bible to unravel that mystery. We want to understand: Why was Jesus killed? Was it necessary for Him to be killed? Couldn’t He fulfill His purpose on earth without being killed? In this video we're going to be getting answer and I'm sure you're going to be excited by the things we're going to see from the Word of God. So, let's quickly go into it.
If you remember very clearly the book of Genesis chapter 3, that was the place that the Bible revealed how man fell from the Garden of Eden that God originally put him and his wife, Eve. The moment man sinned and God's judgment came upon man, man was sent out of the garden to till the ground from which God had made his body from. Now in the book of Genesis chapter 4, we were introduced to something that is very interesting. The Bible says that Adam knew his wife and they got a child, they called his name Cain. Adam knew his wife again and they got another child, and they named him Abel. So over time, the two of them wanted to give God something, perhaps to make God excited and pleased with them.
Now, let's quickly read Genesis chapter 4, and I will help us to see how this connects with why Jesus was killed. Genesis chapter four, I will read from verse three. The Bible says:
And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.” 8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
But before the blood began to cry, Abel was already killed. There's something else we can see from there. But before we go there, I want us to notice what happened. The two brothers wanted to make sacrifices to God, they wanted God to be pleased with them. The first brother, the eldest, actually brought first an offering to God. But the Bible says God did not respect him, neither did God respect what he brought. The younger one brought, God respected him and God respected his offering. And immediately the Bible says the elder brother became angry and his countenance fell. Two things happened to the elder brother that brought about the death of the younger one. The Bible says the elder brother Cain got angry. To be angry is not the big deal. But the Bible says his countenance fell. It is like the self-esteem; he was robbed of that self-esteem. All the things that he has perceived himself with, they were eroded immediately. So, that is very important for us to note.
Shortly after is self-esteem fell, his countenance fell, the Bible says he became angry and he was determined to do something. The Bible says, God was telling him if you have done well, wouldn’t you and your offering be accepted? But see, if you do not do well, the Bible says God says, if you do well you would have been accepted, but if you do not do well, the Bible says sin lies at the door. So, sin was introduced. If you do well, you would have been accepted, you would have been celebrated. God would have been pleased with you, but you didn't do well, so, sin lies at your door. So, because of the sin that lies at the door, and the Bible its desire is for you. The sin that was at the door of Cain wanted to have Cain. But God said you, Cain, should rule over the sin.
But should you fail to rule over the sin, then the sin would have you and then you will become a victim or a slave to sin. And because of that, you would what the sin wants you to do. What was that? The Bible says and Cain rose up and killed his brother. So, the brother Cain killed the younger brother Abel because of sin that entered. So, without sin that entered into Cain, the brother Abel wouldn't be killed. Can you see what is going on? When there was no sin in Cain, the brother Abel was alive, he didn't have to die. But the moment sin came into him, the moment Cain open the door for sin, the brother Abel became a victim and he had to die, as if he became the sacrifice for the sin that has entered. You remember it has been said that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin.
Now, sin came to the life of Cain, the elder brother and the life of the younger brother was taking because of that. Having that as a background, I want us to go to the book of Acts of the apostles’ chapter 8, I will read from verse 26. But before we go on, we mustn't forget that Abel didn't die or was not killed by Cain because Abel did something wrong, or because he sinned or because he broke a law. It was simply because the elder brother became angry. Remember, the Bible says Be angry but don't sin. Do you still remember that? So, the elder brother became angry. And from that anger, his countenance fell and the countenance that fell prompted him to open the door for sin. And the moment sin came in, he needed to do whatever sin wanted him to do. And that's what happens to us as humans. When we fall into sin, when we commit a sin or when we open the door pf our hearts to sin, we will become slaves to that sin. We will be, from that moment, be compelled to do whatever sin wants us to do.
Because of that sin that entered, Abel was killed. And now our question is: Why was Jesus killed? I'm sure you still remember that if sin was not on earth, Jesus would not need to be born and would not need to killed. But for the sin of the world, Jesus needed to be born and today we will notice that that was also the reason why he had to die. Now let's read the book of Acts of apostles chapter eight and I will read from verse twenty-six.
Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. 27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this:
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth.”
We're looking today at Why was Jesus killed? Verse 34.
So, the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
Don't forget our objective here is to know why Jesus was killed. The Bible says He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as the lamb before its shearer is silent so he opened not his mouth. Now, the question is, why didn't he open his mouth? I'm of the opinion that if he had opened his mouth, he wouldn't be killed. Don't forget quite a number of times, the Jews wanted to kill Jesus. But in all those instances, Jesus would escape from them. The question is, why didn't he escape the garden of Gethsemane? Why was He a victim of somebody's anger? Do you still remember that immediately Jesus dipped the bread into the water and gave it to Judas, the Bible says immediately Satan entered into him. Just like what happened to Cain and Abel, immediately after God spoke to Cain that why is your countenance fallen? Why are you angry? If you have done well, wouldn't you be accepted?
But see, since you didn't do well, sin lies at your door and its desire is for you, sin wants to have you but you must rule over it. Now, Satan was also lurking at the door of Judas Iscariot. But the moment Jesus dip the bread in the water and gave him, the Bible says and Satan entered into him. Don't forget the moment sin entered Cain, the desires of the sin became the pre occupation became the predisposition of Cain. From that moment, the only thing in the mind of Cain was let me kill my brother Abel. Now, the moment Satan entered into Judas also, the only thing that he was thinking about his let me betray my master, let me betray Jesus, let me have him killed. I've had enough of him on this earth. Let him live this earth.
But you must not forget, Satan wouldn't enter into him if he was not first angry. So, there must have been a time when Judas was angry with Jesus. He didn't show it but he was angry. And so, when he had an opportunity, he opened the door for Satan, and Satan entered into him. And immediately he went into conspiracy to kill Jesus. So, you must still see that it was anger that led into sin coming in that made Abel to be killed by his elder brother. Now it was the anger that produced the sin that made Satan to enter into Judas, that made Jesus to be killed. But don't forget. Had sin not been on the earth, there would have been no one who would inspire Judas, who would inspire also the High Priests and the other people into deciding to kill Jesus.
So, the decision to kill Jesus was because sin was on ground. Remember again, that without shedding of blood, there is no remittance for sin. It is because there is sin that the blood of Jesus was required. No wonder God was saying that the voice of the blood of Abel was crying out to God. If the blood of Abel could do that much, do you imagine what the blood of the Son of God could do for your sin and the sins of the whole world?
Now let's jump to the book of Isaiah chapter 53 and I will read from verse 4. The Bible says:
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
If you jump to verse 10, look at what the Bible says.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
Now, the summary of all of these is that Jesus was not killed simply because he just needed to be killed. No, Jesus was killed because God wanted it so. God wanted it so because there was a need for the shedding of blood for the remission of our sins. There was sin on the earth. Adam had sinned, the children of men had increased and multiplied in sin. And to cut the chain of command of sin upon the earth, to stop the flow of sin from moving from generation to generation, God needed to sacrifice his own son. And so, God puts the sins of all of us, the weights of our sins upon Him. Because the of the world was upon him, he was liable for death.
He was qualified for death, and so, He was killed. In fact, the Bible says in the book of 1 John 2:1-2. The Bible says: My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
If there was no sin on this earth, Jesus would not need to die. Because of our sins, He was killed, because of our sins, He was crucified. No wonder the apostle Paul said “I'm crucified with Jesus, nevertheless I live… the life that I live in the flesh I now live by faith in the Son of God that loves me and gave himself for me.” Jesus became the propitiation for our sins, so he needed to be killed. If he was not killed, we will have to be killed for the sins of our fathers and our ow sins. So, you don't need to die today because you have sinned. There is nothing you have done on this earth today that requires you to die to pay the price for it. Jesus has paid the price for you; however, you must connect to that price.
You cannot continue to sin and say that the grace of God should abound. You cannot continue to dwell in sin and say the blood of Jesus should flow for you. It will not work. You have to depart from sin. You have to leave sin behind and say, from this day henceforth, I, Gboyega Adedeji, I separate myself from sin, I connect with the blood of Jesus. I live in righteousness, that is by faith in Christ Jesus. You see, Jesus wasn't just killed because people were just angry with him. Jesus was killed because God put your sin and my sin upon Him. And being found in that state, he was killed. And the Bible says if they had known, the people of this world, the authorities of this world, if they had known, they would not have crucified the King of glory. Because crucifying Jesus was them fulfilling God’s plan unknowingly to them. They thought they were just bitter, embittered and angry against Jesus. But in reality, they were executing the plan of God.
The plan of God is that Jesus be killed. Not because He sinned, but because we sinned. Because our fathers sinned. Because the sins of our fathers have weighed us down. And so, God puts the weight of our sins upon Jesus and being found as one who was bearing our sins, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb, He was sacrificed. God sacrificed Jesus as the Lamb, so that your sins and mine can be washed away, so that we can become new creations. Bible says, “if any man therefore is in Christ Jesus (second Corinthians chapter 5:17), is a new creation, the old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new.” I believe the plan of God for you is that by the blood that was shed because Jesus was killed, you should become a new creature, the old things about your life; old attitudes, old addictions or afflictions, they should be passed away, they should be gone, you should start a new life, a new life in Christ Jesus.
Apostle Paul said I am crucified with Jesus. So, when Jesus was killed, I was also killed with Him. Nevertheless, I live and the life that I live in the flesh, that people see around in the offices wherever I go. I live it by faith in Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me. Jesus had given himself for you. He loved you. He did that in hope that when it comes to a time you will grope for Him, you will long for Him and you will become a child of God born unto God after His order. That is the purpose why Jesus was killed so that by his death you can be born. Remember, except a grain of seed falls down, it abides alone. But when that grain falls done, it has the capacity to produce many more. Jesus was killed, even though He was warned that he may bring back more sons unto God and unto glory. You are one of the sons that God has produced through Christ Jesus, stay with Him. Recognize what Jesus has done for you. Do not continue to suffer when Christ has suffered for you.
Till the next time I bring you another interesting episode on this same channel, I want you to remain with Jesus. Connect back to Him, He died for you. I didn't die for you. Nobody died for you except Jesus. Reconnect to him and gain access back to your authority that God has ordained in Christ Jesus for you. I'm sure you've learned something. If you love this video, please like it, share it with your friends and your family. If you are a church leader, share with your members. I'm sure they will learn something very important from the video. This is not to compete with your grace. This is to complement your teachings with your members. And as you do this, I see us as a people moving from levels of maturity to higher levels of maturity in faith in Christ Jesus’ name.
God bless you.
