Plus Sign
Little Zachary was doing very badly in math at school. His parents had tried everything…tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help him with his math work and nothing was working.
Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took him to the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying.
• Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed.
• She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time he was back hitting the books as hard as before.
• This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference.
• Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books.
• With great trepidation, his mom looked at it and to her great surprise little Zachary got an “A” in math. She could no longer hold her curiosity.
She went to his room and said, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns? Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no. “Well, then,” she replied, was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? What was it already?
Little Zachary looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they were not fooling around.”
This is Typical of Our World
We know various business logos but not the cross.
Most do not know much about the Cross of Christ]
Most do not know much about the Christ of the Cross
Slide – Well-known Logos
Essentially the meaning is gone – crosses merely are jewelry or decorations
We have beautified the cross and forgotten about its purpose and its horrors.
When we boil down the issues, what stands out as most important?
DBR – Cross
Power of God – Romans 1.16
Promises of God –
1 Corinthians 1.18-25
We center on the cross because it is:
I. The Cross Is Our Way to Holiness
God has high expectations for his people – “Be holy for I am holy.”
More than appeasing an angry God.
He has expectations of us.
The Cross Shows the Seriousness of Our Sins.
It is destructive
Internal Sin I-262
A huge tree in Colorado fell to the ground with a resounding crash. It had stood for over 400 years. It was a sapling when Columbus discovered the new world. It had been struck by lightening fourteen times, braved great windstorms, and even defied an earthquake. In the end, however, it was killed by beetles. They bore into the bark to the core of the tree and eventually brought the giant to the ground.
The same is true of our sins. If we allow sin to go unchecked, it will eventually bring us down. Yet, God provided a way to remove our sins.
It has eternal consequences – Romans 6.23
The Cross shows that God is Serious in “setting us apart.”
II. The Cross Is Our Way of Humility
Dependence on God
Arrogance of Man
18And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' 20But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' Luke 12.18-20
Need for direction
23I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Jeremiah 10.23
5Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3.5
I-130 Guidance of God
In Thirst for God, Sherwood Wirt tells of serving as quartermaster in the Alaska Game Commission on an 80’ patrol boat called the Teal. He was at the helm when Captain Cole took over and briefly changed course north toward Juneau. He pointed to the compass reading and said, “Steady as she goes.”
As the boat cruised along, Wirt noted that they were edging toward the land and altered the course slightly to steer straight up the channel. The Captain snapped, “You are off course. Go back to the heading I gave you.”
Wirt said, “My dead reckoning had led me to believe one thing, but the chart indicated something else. Following my intuition might have led to shipwreck.”
The Bible is God’s chart. He marks life’s hazards for us. He also marks the channels of safety.
III. The Cross Is Our Way of Hope
Socrates and Education – “The secret to a successful society is education.”
SLIDE -- Challenger – Education/Science/Technology/Military/Politics/Money
We are hopeless without the Cross
[Hopelessness I-24
A group of students visited a psychiatric institution to observe a variety of mental illnesses. One of the individuals was a tragic case. He was referred to as “No hope Carter.”
He was a victim of a venereal disease and was going through its final stages when the brain is affected. Before he began losing his mind, his doctors told him that there was no known cure for him. He begged for a ray of hope but was told the disease would run its course and then end in his death.
Gradually his brain deteriorated and he became more and more despondent. Two weeks before his death he paced in his small room. He was in mental agony and his eyes stared blankly. Over and over he muttered two words, “No hope! No hope!”
God understands and provides for us
19If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 1 Corinthians 15.19
IV. The Cross Is God’s Way of Healing
[I-111 The Cross that Frees
John Bolton, a prison guard in Ontario, Canada, noticed a cross on the neck of a prisoner he was transporting. Bolton thought it was odd because the prisoner was not a religious man. So he questioned the man about it. He told him that it was a “good luck charm” designed to look like a spoon for sniffing cocaine. Bolton thought it looked like a handcuff key. So, he took the cross and played with it in a set of locked handcuffs and was able to open them.
There is a cross that sets us free from sin. It is the cross of Calvary. It is a cross designed by God, not by man.
Through Substitution –
5But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53.5
Substitution I-262
Charles Dickens’ novel, Tale of Two Cities, tells the story of Charles Darnay, a young Frenchman condemned to die on the guillotine. When his friend, Sidney Carton heard of the sentence, he determined to find a way to save him.
He gained admission to the prison the night before Darnay was to be executed. The two men exchanged clothes and the next day Carton was led out to be executed as Darnay, who had escaped dressed as his friend. One man exchanged his life for another.
Through Appeasement for Our Sins –
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Romans 1.18
Through Redemption – Romans 6.23;
18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 1 Peter 1.18-19
Through Grace –
11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2.11-14
V. The Cross Is Our Way of Helping
Preach the Gospel -- 1And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2.1-2
[St Francis of Assisi said “Always preach the Gospel, and when necessary, use words.”
[Telemachus I-262
In the late 4th Century a Telemachus decided that the only way to protect himself from a corrupt world was to live as a hermit in the wilderness.. One day it dawned on him that if he wanted to serve God, he had to also serve man. Living alone in the desert was not serving God and there were many people in the cities that he could help. So, he arose and went to Rome.
By this time the terrible persecutions of the first three centuries were over. Rome was celebrating its temporary victory over Alaric the Goth in its usual manner, by watching gladiators fight to the death in the arena. Suddenly there was an interruption. Telemachus advanced upon two gladiators who were engaged in their life-and-death struggle. Laying a hand on one of them, he sternly reproved him for shedding innocent blood, and then, turning toward the thousands of angry faces around him, called to them: "Do not repay God’s mercy in turning away the swords of your enemies by murdering each other!"
Angry shouts drowned out his voice. "This is no place for preaching! On with the combat!" Pushing Telemachus aside, the two gladiators prepared to continue their combat, but Telemachus stepped between them. Enraged at the interference of an outsider with their chosen vocation, the gladiators turned on Telemachus and stabbed him to death.
The crowd fell silent, shocked by the death of this holy man, but his death had not been in vain, for from that day on, no more gladiators ever went into combat in the Colosseum.
1. We are who we are because of the Cross of Christ.
2. It is more than jewelry or decoration. It is our hope.
