Come to the Cross 2 Corinthians 5:21
PLAY Video following the offertory prayer
I want to invite you to come to the cross this morning and consider what the death of Jesus means for you, and for your world.
If you accept my invitation to come to the cross this morning, I don’t want you to come empty handed.
When you come, I want you to bring five things with you.
1. When you come to the Cross, bring your sin.
I wonder why is it that we carry our sin around with us and even feel bad about it, instead of running to the cross where we find forgiveness, in Jesus.
We need to remember, it was our sin that caused Jesus to die for us.
This should cause us to search our hearts and souls for the places where we have turned away.
We should consider the times we have been disobedient. For the wrong habits we cling to.
Hanging on to our sin is like getting all dressed up for an important party, walking out the door to a huge mud puddle, and jumping right in the middle of it.
But then instead of running back inside and getting cleaned up, we sit there, in the puddle, feeling bad. Feeling sorry for ourselves. Feeling too ashamed.
But while we sit there, we are missing the party.
What we need is to hurry back and get cleaned up, by coming quickly to the cross, confess our sin to Jesus and asking for forgiveness.
Jesus promised us in, [1Jo 1:9 NKJV] “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The truth is, Jesus has already carried our sin on His shoulders, the day He walked to that cross. The penalty has been already paid. He is just waiting for us to see it, admit our sin and let it go.
He’s waiting for you to trust Him with the cleansing, and when you do, you are able to walk away free and whole.
So come to the cross, where you will find forgiveness for you sin this morning.
2. When you some to the Cross, bring your gratitude.
Imagine being in Ronald Smarts’ shoes actually hearing a judge sentence you to death.
You’ve committed a crime for which death is the only punishment.
You hear the verdict…“guilty.”
You hear the sentence…“death.”
BUT then you hear something else. A man in the back of the room steps forward, walks up to the guards who have you by the arm, and gently pulls the guards hands away.
He offers His wrists, and they place the cuffs on Him, and march Him off to take your place; to take your punishment.
You are free to go! Someone else has taken your place.
How would you feel towards that man? Wouldn’t you feel tremendous gratitude? Maybe you would feel a little guilty that someone else took the punishment you deserved.
But years later, as you watched your children grow and your friendships deepen and your face aging in the mirror, you would know – you would remember – that someone else gave their life so that you could live.
Hold onto that feeling. And bring that to the cross because that’s exactly what Jesus did for you/me…
3. When you come to the Cross, bring your burdens.
In the book, Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan describes how the pilgrim realizes his guilt and lostness. Strapped to his back is the heavy burden of sin and shame.
"I fear that this burden upon my back will sink me lower than the grave," he says, as he staggers under its weight.
But then he approaches a hill called Calvary:
“Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came to a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.”
Here’s the picture I want to be burned into your mind, this morning.
When we come to the cross, ALL of the burdens we carry, ALL of the sorrows, ALL of the things which weigh us down and threaten to sink us, can slide off of our back, tumble down the hill into the grave of Christ.
But there is one thing we have to do. We have to let go. Jesus said, “Come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
BUT we have to give up our burdens to Christ.
Can I ask you something?
Do you feel burdened with the pressures of life? Are you weighed down by sorrow, heartache or pain?
Listen to what Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:8-10: “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit. 9We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. 10Through suffering, these bodies of ours constantly share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”
Now I understand that the cross is considered a place of death BUT it is also a place of life.
That is what Paul says in that last verse. Because of the cross, Thanks to Calvary, we share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus might be seen, in each of us.
And that leads to the fourth thing I invite you to come to the cross and:
4. When you come to the Cross, bring your friends
The new life we have in Christ needs to be seen. It needs to be shared, it needs to be made known.
How can we keep from letting others know what Christ has done for us?
That is the heart of being a witness for Jesus.
It’s about sharing what Christ has done for you.
Do you remember the story about the man born blind, whom Jesus healed in John 9? The Pharisees were trying to use the man who received healing to destroy Jesus, so they started asking him and his parents a bunch of questions about Jesus being a sinner, and the man simply replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know, I was blind but now I see.” (Jn 9:25).
You don’t need to lay out some deep a theological argument. You don’t need to be able to answer every objection someone might raise.
All you need to do is share what Jesus has done for you.
So bring others to the cross.
How do we do this? First we bring them in prayer, by asking Jesus to open the eyes of their hearts. We can ask Him to make them receptive to the message of hope in the cross. We need to ask for opportunities to share with them what Christ has done for you.
And Finally,
5. When you come to the Cross, bring your heart.
Please, before you start getting things ready to jump up and get out of here, I pray you’ll see this, moment of our service, as a time of decision.
We, sometimes, sing the hymn “I Surrender All” BUT we give only part but not all to Jesus. We want Him to be Lord of some areas, but not all.
We want to follow when it is easy, when it’s comfortable. The problem with that is that He calls us to follow always, no matter what.
During Jesus’ last week, a Pharisee came to test Jesus with a question: he asked Jesus, “‘which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus told him to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and love your neighbor as yourself.”
The word there is “ALL.”
Remember that when Jesus went to the cross He held nothing back from us. Jesus gave all He had for us and to us. And He asks for all of you/me in return.
So come to the cross this morning and bring your sin. Bring your burdens. Bring your gratitude. Bring your friends. And most of all, bring your heart.
