INTRO: 1. We must realize, as the early church did, that Calvary is not merely about how Christ died, but also how we should live.
a. Modern day Christianity has often limited the Cross of Christ to the doctrinal boundaries of Salvation.
b. But it’s clear from the epistles that they had learned to live in light of the cross, not merely as a result of it.
c. As we hear Paul here in Galatians we must admit that to him the cross was the standard, not just for salvation but for living.
2. If you can view what took place at Calvary and just walk away saying “Oh, Look how much Jesus did for me!” then you’re only half-way there.
a. A true revelation of the cross in our lives will leave us also crying “What can I do for you, Lord?!”
b. Since you’ve gave so much for me, what can I give to you?
c. Since you’ve suffered so for me, how much can I suffer for you?
d. Since you’ve lived for me, how much can I live for you?
3. Paul here let’s us know that the cross must be more than a historical reality for us…but a personal, daily reality for us.
a. Salvation is the personal power of the cross in our lives.
b. Salvation is dying to sin, to self and to ownership of our lives.
1 Cor. 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
c. But the power of the cross is letting that Crucified Christ live in me.
4. Nothing demonstrates who Jesus was more than his cross does…not his teachings, not his miracles, not even his resurrection…His light shown the brightest in the darkest hour of his life.
a. If we are to allow Jesus to live through us, instead of allow our old man be resurrected, we must recognize Christ in us.
b. I suggest to you tonight, that the way they could recognize Jesus at work in them is by continually revisiting that cross and what Jesus proved of himself there.
5. Tonight, I want to endeavor to trace in the epistles how practical the early church found the cross in their everyday living.
6. Calvary became their standard for living, let’s see just how.
a. Leave your bibles open tonight and go with me as I tour a number of references to how the cross impacted the lifestyle of those early apostles.
b. Not come here with the intent on stirring you emotionally or giving you a warm and fuzzy feeling about your faith, but to lay the foundations of a life crucified, a life in which the crucified Lord is revealed and glorified in all I do.
7. If I can just show you how to apply the cross in every area of your life, I’d consider tonight an eternally significant one.
a. I want to show you how to glean the examples that Christ crucified gave you.
b. This will not be a complete message, since the cross fills the epistles… but merely a starting point.
I. CALVARY SET THE STANDARD OF LOVE IN OUR LIVES
a. Yes, it is true that there is no greater demonstration of love than what Jesus went through for you and me on Calvary.
b. But Calvary goes farther— it set the standard for what Christian love is all about.
c. The cross pushed Jesus’ teachings concerning love to the limit, we see the conviction of these principles in his life.
d. Jesus did more than preach this kind of love, but on Calvary demonstrated it.
e. What I’m about to preach is a ‘radical love’ for real Christians…it’s not popular even among religious church folk…but it’s still the standard the cross has set.
A. A LOVE THAT LOVES THE UNDESERVING.
1. Mocked, spat upon, and treated with the depth of cruelty…yet loved them still.
2. I’m not talking about a love that comes naturally, but one that still flows from the cross through you and me.
3. When you think someone is undeserving of your love, remember how undeserving you where of calvary.
4. Jesus left us no grounds to hold grudges and harbor hate in our hearts…if he can be treated that way and pray for those who did he wrong… so should we.
5. But I can’t! Then you hadn’t really seen Calvary yet.
6. You can if you let the same crucified Christ love through you.
B. A LOVE THAT TURNS THE OTHER CHEEK.
1. Peter uses the cross to teach about dealing with those who wrongfully mistreat you.
1 Pet. 2:19-24 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
2. Peter declared a love that reviled not, threatened not.
3. Often the problem with loving this way is our pride…our old man…which is suppose to be crucified with Christ.
4. Learn like Paul to “die daily” so you can love as Christ loved with a cross.
C. A LOVE THAT ABSORBS EVIL.
1. Jesus proved that this kind of love isn’t defeated love or weak love, but victorious love.
2. He taught us evil can be disarmed by being absorbed, that’s what Jesus did on the cross.
3. Mankind doesn’t know how to handle someone who loves them and treats them well when they’ve done you wrong…they have no defensive mechanism for it.
4. The soldier at the foot of the cross declared that this truly was the Son of God, because he never saw anyone love like this…no-one with that kind of goodness.
5. Love is victorious when we commit to do it God’s way.
6. Your life can bring glory to God by Loving in light of the cross.
II. CALVARY SET THE STANDARD OF SUFFERING IN OUR LIVES
a. Listen to the words of Paul
Phil. 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
(NIV) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
b. Paul was saying he wanted to respond to suffering, like Christ responded to suffering on the cross.
c. Not a sadistic bent on intentional suffering, but a willingness to let God use even our suffering for His glory.
A. HE SET THE EXAMPLE FOR ENDURING
Heb. 12:2-3 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
1. The writer of hebrews tells us that if we don’t wish to get weary and faint in our minds, we need to keep considering what he went through for us.
2. When you feel you can’t go on look at Christ under the weight of that cross who didn’t stop on the road to Golgotha but pressed on.
3. When no one appreciates what you are doing, consider Christ who was abandoned by his disciples that he had poured into their lives and mocked by those walking by the cross.
ILL. The crown of thorns that I had this morning, I’ve decided to hang in a prominent place in my office to serve as a reminder of what he did for me, to continually stir me to do more for God and live in the shadow of that cross.
4. We need to revisit that blood stained Cross so we can renew our strength to go on.
B. HE SET THE LIMIT FOR SUFFERING
1. The writer of hebrews adds this verse to the thought.
Heb. 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
2. In other words, you have no excuse to give in until you’ve endured what he has endured.
3. Jesus set the limit of suffering high, so we can endure the most unthinkable things for the cause of Christ.
ILL. A generation later they would unleash wild beast on entire groups of Christians in the Coliseum, how could they endure such a terror…they fixed their eyes on the one who endured more than they ever could…Jesus!
4. I find it disturbing that in modern day Christians circles that suffering has been mockingly removed from our theology… producing weak believers who will fall at the first real attack of the devil.
5. If your treasure is in what God can give you, suffering will crush you… but if you “cling to that Old Rugged Cross” you’ll stand even unto death.
C. HE REVEALED VICTORY IN SUFFERING
1. The message of the Cross is that there is Victory IN suffering, not in spite of it.
2. The victory is not in the fact that we’re suffering but in HOW we suffer or respond to the pain in our lives.
ILL. A few years back on Sept.15, a gunman entered Wedgwood Baptist Church and killed 7 people and injured 7 others before taking his own life. In the wake of such a tragedy we wonder if any good can come from a tragic and senseless nightmare. But before he entered the pastor had asked the church to join him in praying that whatever it takes to expand the church…a church in a bad location. The seven who died were bold Christians and their witness and funerals where televised so all could see. The church received over 10,00 e-mails and 5,000 cards from all over the world. Then governor Bush went and spent time with the pastor, who had a spiritual impact on his life, not knowing he would be the next president. The church had received 70,000 hits on their website. Now everyone knows where Wedgewood Baptist Church is, because God gave them victory IN their suffering, not merely in spite of it.
3. Calvary proves that I can be victorious because of the struggle.
4. Don’t buy into the lie that Christianity is an exit from struggling, but it is victory in.
III. CALVARY SET THE STANDARD OF SERVICE IN OUR LIVES.
a. Jesus made it clear that not only will He have a cross to bear, but we as well.
b. True discipleship is costly
Mark 8:34-35 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
A. THE POWER OF ‘BEING’ THE SACRIFICE
1. We think of sacrifice as something we give or something we lose, but Jesus proved that our lives are designed to ‘be’ the sacrifice to others.
2. Jesus said “let him deny himself.”
3. The really wonderful and fulfilling moments of life is not moments of self-absorption, but self-forgetfulness where we give more than what we have–we give ourselves.
4. Paul refers to us as presenting our bodies as a “living sacrifice.”
5. Jesus held nothing back but gave us his all.
6. If you truly want to live a life to his glory—give your all—be the sacrifice!
B. THE POWER OF SERVANTHOOD.
1. Jesus before he went to the cross in that upper room set the standard for greatness in his kingdom by way of foot-washing.
2. We don’t by nature have a servant’s heart…we live for the most part for me and my own.
ILL. Want to see how many people has a humble servants heart call for a “foot-washing.” You’ll hear more excuses, you’ll see people conveniently have something else to do.
3. But Calvary was Jesus dying giving His all for you…O, what a standard for service in our lives.
ILL. I recently read a story about a pastor that shared honestly about his experience he had with a young man in his church. He had come to call on this pastor after finding out that he was diagnosed with AIDs. This young man would call on him when he was depressed. After months of talking it seemed this young man was just simply resistant to the gospel, but wanted someone to talk to. Eventually, his condition grew worse and one night after a long hard day for the pastor the phone rang. The pastor tired and frustrated at his overwhelming schedule picked up the phone and heard the weak voice of this young man on the phone. The pastor was inside very angry at this interruption. The young man was very sick and needed the pastor to come over, there was no one else to care for him. When the pastor arrived, he found the man sick on the couch unable to get up, but around him was vomit and the stench was unbearable. The pastor went got a sponge and began to clean up the floor in front of the couch, fuming inside at this indignity. About that time the young man on the couch began to cry and said, “Preacher, I want to invite Jesus in my heart. Because tonight, I came to realize as I saw you clean up this disgusting mess that Jesus must be just like you.”
4. In a world consumed with self-absorption, be the servant that Jesus was.
IV. CALVARY SET THE STANDARD OF GLORY IN OUR LIVES.
a. Until self is crucified, we can only boast in self.
b. Calvary means the death of a self-exalting lifestyle.
Gal. 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
c. Paul is saying that it becomes my boasts, my greatest treasure.
d. Jesus reveals to us a life committed to the glory of God.
A. THE MEASURE OF THE VALUE OF EVERYTHING
1. Notice he said the “world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”
2. Because the world is no longer our treasure.
3. Jesus didn’t even value heaven as much as he did that Cross.
4. Jesus didn’t value the favor of man as he did the work of the Cross.
5. Jesus didn’t value the understanding of those nearest him like he did that rugged cross.
6. He knew that the cross would not just set us free…but glorify God in the process.
7. O, what a perfect picture of a life that glorifies God above everything else.
B. THE MEASURE OF OUR LIVES
1 Cor. 6:19-20 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
1. A life that cherishes him is a life committed to glorifying Christ is all we do.
2. In what do you boast… your stuff, your accomplishments, your charm and personality.
3. Let us measure our lives and boast only in the cross.
CONCLUSION: How is your walk in light of the cross? Is his standard of Love what you’re living out? Do you respond to suffering as he did? Do you possess a sacrificial servants heart?
What can I do for Christ? You can be crucified with Him and let the Crucified Christ be manifest through you.
