WHAT THE CROSS TELL US ABOUT GOD
A. “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” Jesus cried while hanging on the CROSS.
1. As we discussed last Sunday, undoubtedly these words pierced the HEART of the Father.
COMMENT:
He knew He would hear them. He inspired David to write them in the Twenty-second Psalm some 400 years before the crucifixion. But to hear those agonizing words from the parched lips of His only begotten Son as He hanged DYING upon the CROSS for something He didn’t do and knowing that He had the POWER to stop it at anytime, must have been the most DIFFICULT event the Father ever WITNESSED!
2. As parents we never want to see our children HURT.
ILLUSTRATION:
When your young son comes home from school with a BLOODY NOSE and BLACK EYE and says that he’s going to be BEAT UP again tomorrow if he doesn’t give the BULLY $5.00, you will do everything possible to PROTECT him.
If you are informed by the hospital that your daughter was seriously INJURED in a car wreck, you will stop whatever you are doing and immediately go to her SIDE.
COMMENT:
When our children HURT, we HURT. No LOVING parent will sit idly by and watch their CHILDREN get HURT without trying to STOP it. Yet, if my understanding is correct, when Jesus cried out: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” the Father is turning His BACK on His DYING Son. He can STOP it, but doesn’t!
B. In Psalm 22 David describes CRUCIFIXION, although he had never witnessed one. Crucifixion was a
Roman’s INVENTION. (Listen carefully as I read and imagine what Jesus went through on the cross.)
1. This prophecy describes Jesus crying out for His Father to SAVE Him, and He doesn’t!
a. God had SAVED others who CRIED out unto Him, but not His own Son.
b. The people MOCK because God refuses to RESCUE Him.
2. Why would a LOVING FATHER do such a thing?
COMMENT:
The CROSS of Jesus reveals two ATTITUDES about God that we need to UNDERSTAND before we can fully appreciate what Jesus did for us at Galgotha.
MESSAGE:
I. THE CROSS REVEALS THAT GOD HATES SIN
A. Jesus died a HUMILIATING and PAINFUL DEATH on the CROSS for one reason—yours and my SIN put Him there.
1. Jesus was SINLESS until He HUNG upon the CROSS, and our SIN became His SIN.
a. I Peter 2:24- “He bore our SINS in His body on the tree . . .”
b. II Corinthians 5:21- “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us . . .”
COMMENT:
Our DISOBEDIENCE, our LIES, our IMMORALITY, our HATRED, our GOSSIP, our ENVY—every SIN we COMMITTED in the PAST and will COMMIT in the FUTURE nailed Jesus to the CROSS.
2. Jesus CRIED out from the DARKNESS, “My God. My God. Why have you forsaken me?” because of YOU and ME and a WORLD of people just like us.
a. Isaiah 59:2- “Our sins separate us from God.”
b. I John 1:5- “. . . God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.”
COMMENT:
God has nothing to do with DARKNESS—SIN, EVIL, WICKEDNESS. He cannot FELLOWSHIP it. He cannot be PART of it. Where there is DARKNESS God will not be there.
3. If God is to have anything to do with us, He must EXPOSE of DARKNESS.
a. Romans 3:23- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
b. Romans 6:23a- “The wages of sin is death . . .”
COMMENT:
Because of our SIN, whether GREAT or SMALL, we are DESERVING of death. The reason we deserve death is because God, being HOLY, cannot allow the DEEDS of DARKNESS go UNPUNISHED.
4. Periodically, something happens to stab us awake to sin’s HIDEOUSNESS.
ILLUSTRATION:
There was the BOMBING of the Oklahoma City Federal Building where 168 people died, many of them children left in a DAY-CARE. When I saw the photograph of the FIREFIGHTER carrying the limp, lifeless body of the TODDLER killed in that blast my HEART sank.
Four years later was the SHOOTING at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Twelve STUDENTS and one TEACHER were SHOT to DEATH and several more severely WOUNDED by two disturbed TEENAGERS. All the HOPES and DREAMS that those PARENTS had for their SONS and DAUGHTERS, were SNUFFED OUT by an ASSASSIN’S BULLET.
Never will we forget the TERRORIST ATTACK on 9/11. Over three thousand people were killed when the TWIN TOWERS were hit by two JETS with 157 PASSENGERS aboard that were used in the ATTACK. At the PENTAGON 125 people were killed in addition to 65 more who were in the JET used in that ATTACK. And even more people would have DIED that day if not for the brave souls on UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 93 who thwarted the TERRORIST ATTACK by attempting to take back the HIGH JACKED PLANE—45 people died when the PLANE crashed in Somerset County, Pa.
B. Yet, the UGLINESS of each of these ATROCITIES do not even minutely COMPARE to the CROSS of Christ.
1. At Calvary, God’s BEST GIFT was smashed by HUMAN CRUELTY.
COMMENT:
There the finest example of human life ever modeled was VIOLATED and ABUSED by SINFUL men. Jesus’ highest KINDNESS and deepest GOODNESS were REPAID with VIOLENCE, BRUTALITY, and HOSTILITY.
2. And God watched the TORTURE of His Son unfold without doing anything to STOP it.
a. Why? Because Jesus became SIN and God cannot be where SIN is!
b. Jesus cried out to His Father when He needed Him most, and God refused to HELP because of His HATRED of SIN.
COMMENT:
Sin cannot go UNPUNISHED. God has REVEALED that throughout the Bible. The sinful must die—even when its IMPUTED SIN placed in the BODY of the Only Begotten Son of God.
II. THE CROSS REVEALS THAT GOD LOVES THE SINNER
A. The choice that God made because of SIN, as difficult as it is, was to KILL His Son and let us go FREE!
1. John 3:16- “For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only Son . . .”
2. Romans 5:8- “God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
3. I John 4:9-10 (READ and COMMENT)
COMMENT:
God LOVES SINNERS! He loves LIARS, He loves HOMO-SEXUALS, he loves ADULTERERS, He loves CHEATERS, He loves GOSSIPERS. He doesn’t LOVE their SINFUL DEEDS, and those deeds had to be PUNISHED. But instead of KILLING us, which we DESERVE, He sent Jesus to the CROSS taking our PLACE.
Again, Paul said, “God made ‘Jesus’ who knew no sin to be sin for us . . .” He allowed His only Son to be SIN on our BEHALF. Jesus was EXECUTED for YOU and ME so that we can LIVE forever.
B. Do we understand what it means to have someone DIE in our PLACE.
ILLUSTRATION:
The name AUSCHWITZ brings terror and grief to the hearts of many people. It is the sight of an infamous NAZI DEATH CAMP where 4 million Jews died during World War II. A half-ton of hair is still PRESERVED. The SHOWERS that once sprayed POISON GAS still stand.
Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest who had been helping the Jews ESCAPE the NAZIS, was discovered and arrested, and then sent to AUSCHWITZ. While there he still tried to CARE for the PRISONERS. He BANDAGED their WOUNDS. He SHARED his FOOD. He gave up his BUNK. He PRAYED for his CAPTORS. He was soon nicknamed the “SAINT of AUSCHWITZ.”
In July, 1941, there was an ESCAPE. The CAMP RULE stated that upon every successful ESCAPE, 10 persons would DIE. All the PRISONERS would be gathered in the COURTYARD, and an SS OFFICER would be flipping through the pages RANDOMLY calling NAMES of the PRISONERS who would be IMMEDIATELY taken to a CELL where they would receive no FOOD and WATER until they DIED.
One by one NAMES were called. The tenth person called was a man named FRACISZEK GAJOWNICZEK. He was a SERGEANT in the Polish Army who had been CAPTURED. When his name was called he CRIED, “My WIFE and CHILDREN.” The officers turn as they hear MOVEMENT among the PRISONERS. The GUARDS raise their RIFLES. The DOGS tense, anticipating a command to ATTACK. A PRISONER has left his RANK and is PUSHING his way to the FRONT.
It is KOLBE. One of the GUARDS shout, “Stop or be SHOT!” Kolbe said that he wanted to talk to the COMMANDER. For some reason, they left him. He said to the commander, “Let me DIE in the place of this man. I have no FAMILY. Besides, I am OLD and cannot do much WORK. He’s in much better CONDITION, and more USEFUL to you.” For a reason that we’ll never know, the SS OFFICER let Kolbe take the place of this man.
This PRIEST was marched off with nine other men to a COLD BASEMENT CELL where they were STRIPPED of their CLOTHES and kept without FOOD and WATER until they DIED. On August 14, 1941, the Saint of AUSCHWITZ and another were still wretchedly and miserably ALIVE, until a CAMP DOCTOR injected PHENOL into each one’s HEART and put them out of their MISERY.
Gajowniczek SURVIVED. He was LIBERATED by the ALLIES and was REUNITED with his WIFE and CHILDREN. In his backyard in Warsaw, Poland is a PLAQUE that he carved with his own hands as a MEMORIAL to Maximillian Kolbe. Until his death a few years agp he returned to AUSCHWITZ August 14th of every year and revisited the sight, and he WEPT and he PRAYED and THANKED God that someone CARED enough for him to DIE in his PLACE!
COMMENT:
That’s what Jesus did for YOU and ME. You see, I am a SINNER held PRISONER by Satan, and the “WAGES of SIN is DEATH.” My name has been CALLED, and so has yours. We are all SINNERS deserving to DIE. Jesus leaves heaven and comes to this EARTH as a MAN living under the LAW, keeping its RULES and REGULATIONS perfectly. He lives a SINLESS life. He comes under no PENALTY of DEATH. He OWES the LAW nothing.
But Jesus breaks RANKS, raises His HAND and says, “Father, pick me! Let me DIE in Fred’s PLACE (in _____ place . . . in ______ place . . . in ______ place . . . in______ place).” And friend, if you were the only person on this EARTH who committed sin; if everyone around you lived a PERFECT LIFE except you, Jesus would still RAISE His HAND and say, “Let me take his PLACE!” “Let me DIE for her!”
B. Because of God’s GREAT LOVE, He SUBSTITUTED His only begotten Son for YOU and ME!
ILLUSTRATION:
He watched in SILENCE while they ripped the meat off of His Son’s back with a whip-like instrument called a CAT-OF-NINE-TAILS and EMBEDDED a CROWN of THORNS into His skull.
He heard the INSULTS. He witnessed the HUMILIATION. He saw the PAIN on His Son’s FACE as they laid Jesus on the CROSS and NAILED 9 inch ROMAN SPIKES into His HANDS and FEET.
The deafening cries of His Son, “My God! My God! Why have you FORSAKEN me?” rang throughout the HEAVENS. Yet, God did nothing to STOP it because someone had to PAY for the SINS that you and I COMMITTED, but instead of us God let it be His SON!
COMMENT:
When Jesus was NAILED to the CROSS, our SINS were NAILED there too. But do we fully grasp what it means to have our sins NAILED to the CROSS?
We have placed on STAGE today an OLD RUGGED CROSS as an OBJECT LESSON to help us to better understand the GREAT SACRIFICE of our Lord and the FORGIVENESS available to us through the CROSS of Jesus.
I LIKE TO HAVE SOME OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE TO HAND OUT the SHEET of PAPER. On the paper you will find with a picture of a CROSS and the Scripture I Peter 2:24 written on it: (READ and COMMENT)
I would like for you to take that sheet of paper and WRITE some of your SINS that you STRUGGLE with most on the CROSS. (LYING, GOSSIPING, LUST, ANGER, INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY, (If this makes you feel uncomfortable, just write across the CROSS the words: MY SIN!) (NO ONE WILL EVER SEE THESE, THEY WILL BE DISCARDED IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE SERVICE.)
While Wanda plays NAILED TO THE CROSS, if you feel comfortable doing so, we would like for you to walk up to the cross and take a HAMMER and NAIL and NAIL your sheet of paper (symbolically representing your sins) on the CROSS.
This is only an OBJECT LESSON to help us better UNDERSTAND what God and Jesus did for us because of their GREAT LOVE!
This is not an INVITATION SONG, but just an OPPORTUNITY for you to SYMBOLICALLY NAIL your SINS to the CROSS as a REMINDER of what Jesus did for you almost 2,000 years ago.
I WILL BEGIN AND IF ANYONE WANTS TO PARTICIPATE, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME.
