013. The Cross

Friends, I’d like to pray before we start. 

“Father please bless every person here that we will go away understanding some bigger things about the cross than we ever understood before. Thank you for your blessings Father, in the name of Jesus, Amen. 

I want to read two verses with you and firstly we’re reading what is called the most precious verse in the Bible and it’s …. 

PP John 3:16 (and here it says) 

“For God so loved the world (that’s you and me, the whole world, He so loved the world) that He gave His only begotten Son, (that’s Jesus) that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

---- And so Jesus is saying here regarding the gift of eternal life, everlasting life, that we need to accept Him as our Saviour and we will receive the free gift of eternal life. 

Now as we come across to Mark 8 verse 34, it’s about taking up the cross and following Jesus. …. 

PP Mark 8:34 (It’s speaking here about Jesus) 2 

“When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.’ “ 

---- So here we can see that Jesus is saying He wants us to do some action as well. He doesn’t want us to just be fans of His, accepting the free gift of eternal life. He wants us to be followers of His, disciples of His. 

So in this message, we’re going to put a cross up on the screen. And interestingly, Delphine and I looked through hundreds of pictures of crosses on the internet and we could not find a cross that was rugged, and rough and splintery. All we could find were gold ones and silver ones and ones with pearl inlays and beautifully carved ones and polished timber ones and all sorts of stuff, but we couldn’t find the kind of cross that Jesus would have been crucified on. 

And so we just made one out of cardboard, and here it is ….. 

PP picture of cross (that’s right, we just couldn’t find what we were looking for, a rough, old, splintery cross) 

---- Friends, let’s see if you and I fit into this little story. 

“Well, here I am Lord. You said, ‘Take up your cross and follow Me.’ and I’m here to do it. It’s not an easy task You know, this self-denial thing. But I mean to go through, and I’ll bet You wish You had more disciples like me who were 3 

willing. I’ve counted the cost and I’ve surrendered my life and it’s not an easy road. 

Lord, do You mind if I look over these crosses? You see I kinda would like a new one, not that I’m fussy You understand, but a disciple has to be ‘relevant’ these days. 

Lord, I was wondering if You have any vinyl padded crosses? You see, I’m thinking of attracting others, and if I could show them a comfortable cross, I’m sure I could convince a lot more people. 

Oh, is there one that is sort of flat so it would fit under my coat? One shouldn’t be too obvious. 

Funny, there doesn’t seem to be much choice here, just coarse, rough wood. Lord, that would hurt. Don’t You have something more distinctive? I can tell You right now, none of my friends are going to be impressed with this shoddy workmanship, these rough crosses You have. They’ll think I’m a nut or something ----- and my family will be upset. 

What’s that? Did You say it’s either one of these or nothing? 

Well, Lord, You can just forget the whole thing. -- B but Lord, I want to be Your disciple. I mean, just being with You is all that counts, but life has to have a balance. 

Lord, You don’t understand. Nobody lives that way today. Who’s going to be attracted to this self-denial bit? I mean, I want to, but let’s not overdo it. If You start getting radical like this, they’ll have me off to the funny farm. 

Lord, do You know what I mean? I mean, being a disciple is challenging. It’s exciting and I want to do it, but I have some rights too you know Lord. 

--- Now let’s see - no blood, ok? I just can’t stand the thought of blood. --- 

Lord, --- Jesus! Now, where do you suppose He went?” ------ 4 

------ Jesus asks us, friends, … 

PP “All this I have done for you, what have you done for Me?” 

------ Today friends, we’re going to talk about something that many people think is quite foolish. Let’s read about it in … 

PP1 1 Cor 1:18 

“For the message of the cross (that’s the Gospel or Good News) is foolishness to those who are perishing,” (people who are perishing, people who’ve got no interest whatsoever in God, who are walking down the wrong track. They think that the Good News about the Gospel, about salvation, is foolishness. But then it goes on to say…) 

PP2 

“… but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 

---- Yes, it’s powerful to us if we’re wanting to walk the track correctly and we are interested in God and doing the right thing. It is great what we know about the cross and the Gospel. 

Now, even though the preaching about the cross is considered foolishness by the vast majority of the people on this earth, it is actually one of the greatest things we can ever speak about. And even though the cross is one of the greatest things we can ever speak about, my effort to do the subject justice today will be completely inadequate. As humans, we’ll never fully understand the incredible depth of 5 

meaning in the cross of Jesus Christ. We’ll never complete our understanding of what God did there. 

I pray today that we’ll gain one or two faint human glimpses of this incredible subject, THE CROSS! I pray that we’ll have learnt to love the One who hung on that cross a little more by the time we leave today. I pray today that our love for our Saviour will strengthen a little more today, so that we’ll leave with some pet sin left at the foot of the cross. 

Which sin? Well that’s a personal question between each one of us and Jesus. Satan would rather we didn’t stop to think about anything that’s coming between us and our Saviour. So today we’re going to defy Satan. We’re going to stop for just one minute. 

Like on Anzac Day, a minute’s silence --- this time to personally and confidentially pray a silent prayer to God to ask Him to show us some little pet sin in our life that shouldn’t be there, something we know we should not have in our life, something we know we should really get rid of and leave at the foot of the cross before we go home today. ------ 

One or two of you might think this idea is foolishness, but believe me, it’s not foolishness, it’s not! 

So just for one minute I invite you to be honest with God in silent prayer. His Spirit, like your conscience, will show you some wrong thing or things, some sin in your life, that you know shouldn’t be there. Let’s pause for one minute of silence while we talk to God about which sin He wants us, with His help, to leave at the foot of the cross, today. …. 6 

PP ONE MINUTE’S SILENT PRAYER 

----- Friends, if just one of us goes from here with a sin left behind at the cross, then heaven will be richer for it, and so will we. The Bible says in ….. 

PP Luke 15:10 

“There is joy in the presence of the angels of God, over one sinner who repents.” 

----- Now, the Cross! 

In the Bible, Paul was almost obsessed with this subject of the cross. In 1 Cor 2:2 he said this to the church folk in Corinth, …. 

PP 1 Corinthians 2:2 

“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 

---- He kept talking about the crucifixion and the cross. He tries to tell us there’s something deeper in the meaning of the cross than meets the human eye. 

Did Jesus experience something more than just the suffering of an ordinary human on the cross? Thousands of people died on crosses. Was His death different? Did He somehow suffer more? 

Luke, who also wrote in the Bible, was a doctor, and he often explained sickness and death in much greater detail than any of the other writers because medical things were 7 

of special interest to him. Then why did Luke give only one verse to the actual crucifixion scene? 

Listen to it in ….. 

PP Luke 23:33 

“And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him ....” 

---- Why so brief? 

Why didn’t he elaborate on the suffering? Luke was one to notice those things. Why didn’t he dramatise the fact that it was a slow death, unlike the electric chair, or hanging, or the guillotine or by injection? Why didn’t he tell us that a man could take at least three days to die on a cross, with tongue swollen, crows picking out the eyes, in nakedness that meant freezing at night and burning by day, being jeered at by the passers-by because the cross was beside the public road where all criminals were crucified. Why didn’t he tell us that the agony of the criminals’ cross was used as a lesson to discourage others from disobeying the laws? 

Why was Luke so brief as to simply say, “They came to the place called Calvary, and there they crucified Him.”? 

Why didn’t Luke pile horror upon horror or agony upon agony? ----- 

I wonder if God, through His Spirit, omitted to inspire Luke to dwell on the physical sufferings because our Lord’s suffering was actually far greater than the physical? 

Did it go far beyond physical pain to a spiritual area? Something that the natural human eye could not interpret 8 

or understand? Something that the average human could not conceive or describe? Something beyond human comprehension? ---- Yes, the suffering of Jesus was far, far greater than physical. It was mental and spiritual. 

Sure the physical was awful, but the pain was more than that -- far more! 

Let’s see if we can think about it for a little while. Someone once wrote,… 

PP1 “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day, contemplating the life of Christ, especially the closing scenes of His life on earth.” 

-----And another …. 

PP2 “There is too much bustle and stir about religion, while Calvary and the cross are forgotten.” 

------- It’s important that we begin by understanding that two separate things were happening on the hill called Calvary. One was being done by men, and the other was being done by God. And there is a huge, huge, difference between these two events at Calvary. 

Both things were happening at the same time, at the same place, and around the same Man. 

One was the horrible crime of men, the callous crucifixion of a sinless being, the visible execution of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And the other was the indescribable and amazing love shown by the voluntary death of Jesus. The self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ shows the huge love of God for the sinful human family. 9 

------- Let’s say one side represents…. 

PP1 The crucifixion by men 

and the other side represents, … 

PP2 Jesus dying on the cross 

On one hand, the crucifixion is, … 

PP3 Man at his worst 

and on the other hand, Jesus dying is, … 

PP4 God at His best 

The crucifixion represents … 

PP5 The hatred of man for God 

and Jesus dying represents, … 

PP6 The love of God for man 

The crucifixion is … 

PP7 The attitude of man toward God 

but Jesus dying is … 

PP8 The attitude of God toward man 10 

The crucifixion according to the world is … 

PP9 Foolishness 

as we read in our opening verse, but Jesus dying on the cross is the … 

PP10 Wisdom of God 

The crucifixion is … 

PP11 What man was doing to God 

but Jesus on the cross is 

PP12 What God was doing for man 

The crucifixion was … 

PP13 Man trying to take the life of Jesus by force 

But Jesus dying on the cross is … 

PP14 God’s Son giving His life voluntarily for man 

And finally, the crucifixion was … 

PP15 The greatest crime 

the world has ever known, … but God’s Son dying on that cross was … 11 

PP16 The most beautiful act 

this universe will ever see. 

----- Basically, on that Friday called ‘good’, ‘Good Friday’, two things were happening. The universe was witnessing the supreme criminality of man, and the supreme holiness and the love of God. The darkness of the crucifixion makes brighter the glory of the cross. ----- 

Now really, what was this crucifixion? 

The devil had been tempting Jesus all along, and now he brought out his ace, the supreme temptation, the crucifixion. 

The temptation at Calvary, was to come down off the cross, an almost overwhelming temptation. The gospels record at least five times where the people tempted Jesus to come down. This was what He must not do if we were to be saved. 

Remember some of the temptations? In Matthew 27:42 …. 

PP (it says that the rulers mocked Him and said,) “He saved others but Himself He cannot save.” Matthew 27:42 

---- Jesus quietly stayed there. They were testing Him. “If You really are the Messiah, we will not be able to crucify You”. The crucifixion was the proof in the mind of the reigning religious authorities. The crucifixion was the 12 

supreme test in their minds that Jesus was not the Messiah. “If He were the Messiah, we couldn’t do this to Him.” 

In Mark 15:30, it says, even the passers-by laughed at Him and said, … 

PP “Save yourself, and come down from the cross.” 

(He could have, but He didn’t.) 

---- In Luke 23:37 it says that the soldiers mocked Him and said to Him, … 

PP “If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” 

(But He didn’t!) 

---- In verse 39, one of the thieves, hanging on another cross beside Jesus, turned to Jesus and said, 

PP “If You are you the Christ, save Yourself and us.” 

(But He didn’t!) 

---- There was a tremendous temptation to get down from that accursed cross and show them all. He could have, but He was thinking of you and me. And He knew that if we, undeserving, so often unthankful, if we were to live eternally, then He’d have to go through with it. 

Could the devil break His will? He tried. Desperately He tried. 

In Matthew 27:49 …. 

PP (the crowd called out,) 13 

“Let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” 

The devil had never been so sincere in all his fallen life as he was now. The crowd was working for the devil, tempting Jesus to come down. Would He weaken? He wanted to. 

In Matthew 26:39, He said to His Father, …. 

PP “If it is possible, take this cup of death away from me.” 

But then He knew it wasn’t possible, if we were to live eternally. 

------ As Jesus looked down, He saw hopelessness written on the faces of Mary and the disciples -- their hopes were smashed. They would have prevented His death if they could have. All they could see through their tears was years of work wasted. A hopeless end, a tragic end, a crucifixion. They were devastated and Jesus knew it, but He couldn’t come down to ease their suffering, He must go through with it.------- 

But friends, praise God, there was one man at Calvary who understood what was going on. He was the bright spot. The encouragement that our Lord had. That man was one of the thieves who were also hanging on the crosses either side of Jesus. Luke 23:42 tells us that he turned to Jesus and he addressed Him, …. 

PP “Lord, (Lord,) remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” 14 

One man alone saw that Jesus indeed was King, and called Him ‘Lord’. 

PP Friends, today, many of us want Him as our Saviour but we don’t want to fully own Him as our ‘Lord’. We don’t want to follow Him all the way. We want to be fans of His, but we don’t want to be real followers, disciples. 

------ Friends, you ask Jesus, “How big is Your love for us?” 

“This big”, (stretch hands out) He said,-- 

PP Picture of Jesus on cross 

as He dropped His head and died. 

----- The thief knew that this wasn’t the end, but the beginning. He could see - we can see (unless we’re in a blind lukewarm condition) that this man Jesus was different. ----- 

----- Many times the heavy hammer was used to pound the spikes through the tearing flesh of criminals into the wood. But this time it is different. This time, no fight, no struggle, no pleading, no curses. This man lies on the cross on the ground, completely submissive, while they nailed Him there, before they stood it up in place. No resentment, just forgiveness – and love – unconditional love. 

The man is Jesus. The Son of God in crisis. In crisis, not because He is in trouble but because we are in trouble. God in crisis because people are in crisis. People like the thief, people like you and me. People who cannot make it without 15 

the Man who made it. How much does He love us? This much! (hands out). ------- 

----- The crucifixion, a scheme by the devil to break the will of the Son of God. … 

PP1 The Devil: “These people don’t love you! They hate you! They don’t want you. Give them up, these dogs. Let them die! Get down off the cross!” 

----- Friends, what the devil wanted to accomplish in the crucifixion of our Lord, didn’t succeed. The devil lost, because Jesus said, …. 

PP2 Jesus: “No, I won’t let them die. Because I love them. I love them. I’m going to go through with this.” 

------ Now let’s turn over to …. 

PP THE SACRIFICE OF OUR LORD. 

---- Please listen carefully and prayerfully. 

Here is the truth that we must take into our hearts and minds. … 

PP JESUS DID NOT DIE AS A RESULT OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 

----- I’ll repeat that. He did not die because of the crucifixion. His death had nothing to do with the crucifixion. ---- Please hear me out . ---- 16 

----- There were three men who ultimately died, and when the legs of those two thieves were broken and the stress was put across the chest and lungs, and the broken legs couldn’t support the upper body, and hanging of course from the spikes through their wrists, their chests stretched downwards with the weight of the body, the rib cage was compressed and the lungs couldn’t work properly, and those two men died from asphyxiation, they couldn’t breathe. There were three men who died, but only two were killed by crucifixion. 

Please come with me to ….. 

PP John 10:17,18 (where Jesus said about Himself ) 

“Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No-one 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. This command I have received from My Father.” 

----- Jesus was saying, “I don’t have to die, and nobody is going to kill Me. I am going to lay down my life myself, and no man takes it from me.” 

You see friends, the birth of Jesus was different from any other birth. The life was different from any other life. And the death of Jesus was different from any other death. ----- 

---- Let’s notice how it was not actually the cross that killed Jesus. We’re going back to Matthew to see how he explained what happened. ---- 17 

PP1 Mathew 27:46,50 

v46 “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ ” 

v50 “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” 

And you say, “We know that Ray.” But we need to read between the lines.------- 

------ It takes a great deal of physical vigour to speak with a loud voice. When our Lord cried out just before He died, “My God, My God,” the fact that He could speak with a loud voice was very significant. And it’s also significant, that when Matthew wrote his gospel, God’s Spirit inspired him to let everyone know that our blessed Lord was still possessed with physical vigour. ----- 

------ If you’ve been at the bedside of a dying person, you will know that they cannot cry out with a loud voice. Touch a dying person’s hand. They may open their eyes and they may try to speak, but having no strength they give up, because they are dying. But for Jesus it was different, He still possessed physical strength. -----Sometimes in movies you see Christ on the cross and you see His head is lolling. That’s not true. Our Lord’s head was up. Up till the very time He died. The moment He died He lowered His head. He had strength to hold up His head. There is no picture here in the Bible of a Saviour whose head was swooning. Not in the Scriptures. And then in finality, He said in …. 18 

PP2 Luke 23:46 “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, ‘Father, into Your hands I (do what?), I commit My spirit.’ 

Having said this, He breathed His last.” 

---- His was not a life that was taken. It was a life that was given. By the act of giving Himself, our Lord redeemed us. We are not saved by what man did to Him. We are not saved by the crime of the crucifixion. We are saved by the noble, sublimely moral act of our Lord giving Himself for us, giving His life, laying it down as a Good Shepherd, bowing His head, committing His life to the Father God. ------ 

PP Then, if it wasn’t the cross that killed Jesus, what was it? 

----- Well, we know that He took upon Himself the sins of everyone who’s ever lived. Remember when you’ve done something wrong? You feel funny inside. You feel all chewed up. You feel bad. Imagine what would happen if all of the sins that you’ve ever committed were piled up on you all at once? The massive guilt and sadness might even kill you. 

Well what happened to Jesus? The guilt of your sins, all your sins, and the guilt of all my sins, and of all the sins of the whole world were taken on by Him, and He couldn’t handle it. Of course He couldn’t handle it! If you’d taken on the amount of sin that Jesus had taken on Himself, then you couldn’t handle it either --- there’d be no hope for you. 

So He cried out with a loud voice, and died. Then the Bible says 19 

in ….. 

PP Mark 15:44 (that) “Pilate marvelled that He was already dead.” 

It was very strange for a man to die so early on the cross. And then the Bible says in … 

PP John 19:34 (that) “One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.” 

----- The doctors tell us that for this to happen, Jesus must have died not from the crucifixion, not from the pain, not as a result of the loss of blood, but His heart had actually burst from the load of our sin that He was carrying and also from grief, and from rejection by His Father. Yes, also, rejection from His Father. Can that be so? Yes! Calvary reveals hate and love. It reveals the hate of men against God and it reveals the hate of God against sin. 

Remember what Jesus said in … 

PP Matthew 27:46 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 

----- On the cross Jesus had all our sins piled on Him and in the darkness of the cross, He felt that His Father had turned His back on Him. All Jesus could feel was that He had been forsaken. In this action the Father is declaring, “I hate sin so much, that if My own Son, My eternal Son, whom I love with the totality of My being, if He is involved with sin, I have to turn My back on sin.” 20 

At the cross, the Father pronounced His hatred for sin. Eternal hatred for sin. God pronounced a verdict against sin in all of its forms, little sins, big sins, all sins. 

But not only does the cross speak of the hatred of men towards God and the hatred of God towards sin, but it also speaks very, very, very strongly about God’s great love. God the Father, through His Son, was saying to you and me, … 

PP “I love you so much, so very very much, that I would rather die than let one of you die eternally.” --- Unconditional love! 

--- Jesus felt that He was dying the second death that’s talked about in the Bible, the death from which there would be no return. 

He had earlier said that He’d rise again, but now, in the blackness of the cross, with all your sins and my sins loaded on Him, He couldn’t see that there was any hope. He couldn’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. Just blackness! And so it was recorded in Matthew 27:46 that He said to His Father, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” ----- 

---------- Well friends, what should we do when we get to the cross? We also should stand with the Father and declare our eternal hostility against sin. 

PP My brother and sister, what personal sin that has been dogging you, are you going to leave at the foot of the cross today? 21 

----- Friends, Jesus died in a few hours, when a strong carpenter like Himself could live for up to a week on the cross? Why did He die? Because our sins killed Him. So when you go to the cross, you are not seeing a martyr, but you are seeing God’s Son dying on purpose. There was only one way that the human race could be saved and that was for God’s Son to die in our place. ---- 

------- I want to tell you a true story about a man who worked on the railways. 

His job was to work in the control room and to work the points whereby he would change a train from one set of tracks to avoid accidents and all the rest of these things. And one day this man took his little son with him to work and he said, “Sonny, you stay right here beside me. Don’t get down near the tracks because it can be dangerous.” But he was just a little boy and he was tremendously interested in railway engines, and all of a sudden this father realised that his son was missing and the control room was about 9 metres high. As he looked out the window, horror of horrors, his little boy was way out there playing on the main track. 

The express was due at any minute and he was about to throw the lever and divert the points so that the engine could proceed down the main line instead of the dead-end track. If he left it on the dead-end line, the engine would plummet down that track and all the passengers would be killed. 

But he desperately didn’t want to change the points because he could see his only son on the main track. 

The express was coming up the line, he could see it, he could feel it coming, he knew what would happen whichever 22 

way he left the points. It was either his son, or the people. But he desperately loved his son. Slowly, in a cold sweat, he pulled the lever, the points changed, and the express went thundering down the main line where his only son stood. ----- True story! ------ 

---- Today, this human race could have been left to go down the dead end track. Only death was at the end. There was only one way that the human race could be saved, and that was for God to allow His only Son to die for us. ---- 

-----Today, maybe nothing has happened to our hearts, or maybe our hearts have even been hardened. Or maybe they’ve been softened as we’ve come to view the cross. Either we’ll go away apathetically, carelessly, and once again put our sins, our work, our pleasure, and the cares of this life ahead of Jesus. ---- 

---- Or, we’ll say, … 

PP “Lord, I want You to take this pet sin of mine. This sin that I treasure. That I think I can’t do without. I want to leave it at the foot of Your cross.” 

---- Friends, it took courage for Jesus to go to the cross, and it takes courage for you and for me to go to the cross. ------ 

------ Jesus says in …. 

PP Matthew 11:28 

“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 23 

---- Jesus never asks us to make a change in our life that isn’t good for us. Friend, if He’s speaking to your heart today, He says, “If you’ll give up your precious little sins, then I’ll give you in exchange, joy and peace like you’ve never known before.” 

Friends, will you, will I, as an individual, follow Jesus all the way? Or am I asking, “How little can I do for Jesus and still scrape through into heaven etc?” Or, am I asking, “Jesus, in appreciation for all that You’ve done for me on the cross, how much can I do for You? How much can I do for You in this community? How much can I do in appreciation for what You’ve done for me?” ----- 

--------- I’d like us in reverence to bow our heads, --- or to stand, ---- or kneel, ---- as we pray. ------ 

------- Thank You very very much Father for letting Jesus die on the cross for us. Please bless these dear people that they will come closer to You and with Your help will be able to leave some pet sins at the cross, and move forward as better people for You, for themselves, for their partners, their children, family, other people in the community. Please bless every one Father, in the name of Jesus, 

Amen. 

PP 24 

Friends, if you have been blessed and challenged by this message, then please take time now to send it on to your friends.