THE CROSS OF CHRIST
Philippians 2:5-8
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A Texas oilman died and went to Heaven. After a few days, his bragging was getting on Peter’s nerves. No matter what part of Paradise he was shown, the oilman claimed it failed to measure up to Texas.
2. Finally St. Peter took him to the edge of Heaven so he could look straight into Hell.
3. “Have you got anything like that in Texas?” demanded Peter. “No, we don’t have any fires that big in Texas” the oilman replied. “But I know some ‘ol boys down in Houston, like Red Adair, who can put it out!”
B. THE IMPACT OF THE CROSS
1. Christ’s death on the cross was not a negative thing, but a supremely positive one. God didn’t send Jesus into world to condemn people to hell. We already are condemned because of sin. God sent Jesus to save us!
2. John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son (on the cross), that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
3. Max Lucado wrote "[The cross] rests on the time line of history like a compelling diamond. History has idolized and despised it, gold-plated and burned it, worn it and trashed it. History has done everything but ignore it. Never has timber been regarded so sacred.”
4. To believers, Jesus’ death, though sad, is the most wonderful thing that’s ever happened. The cross of Jesus demonstrates how serious God is about sin and how serious He is about saving us from sin!
5. Lois A. Cheney wrote a thought-provoking poem:
I stand before the cross and wonder.
I stand before the cross and fear.
I kneel before the cross and weep.
I pray before the cross and rejoice.
To know the cross is to know Christ.
To feel the cross is to feel Christ.
To gaze at the cross is to gaze at Christ.
To carry the cross is to be a Christian,
And not until then.
6. The cross of Christ provokes wonder, fear, tears, and yet joy. To know the cross is to know Christ, to feel some of what He felt, to behold Him, to live for Him, to live as He lived.
C. THESIS
1. So this morning we’re looking at the Death of the Cross, the Blood of the Cross, and the Power of the Cross.
2. The title of this message is “The Cross of Christ.”
I. THE DEATH OF THE CROSS
A. OBEDIENT TO DEATH
1. Phil. 2:5-8 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”
2. Jesus became obedient to death. What a strange phrase? Does this mean that He didn’t have to die on the cross? I would say “yes.” Death on the cross was a matter of choice for Christ.
3. Remember, in the garden He prayed, “Let this cup pass me. Nevertheless, not MY will but YOUR’S be done.”
4. CHRIST BECAME OBEDIENT TO THE FATHER EVEN TO THE EXTREME – TO DEATH!
B. THE KIND OF DEATH HE EXPERIENCED
1. The death of Christ is a critical matter, because it’s through Christ’s death that we’re saved.
2. A medical examiner in New York once spent 30 years studying the crucifixion. He characterized it as “Cardiac and respiratory arrest due to severe pulmonary edema due to cardiogenic shock, traumatic and hypovolemic shock due to crucifixion.”
3. Listen to what he meant by those words. First, Christ suffered intense mental trauma (hematidrosis) in the Garden of Gethsemane, which caused blood to be forced out of His skin (Lk. 22:44).
4. Jesus was kept up all night in very chilly weather (Peter warmed by a fire) weakening His system’s resistance to stress. At times He was slapped and roughly handled.
5. Next, Jesus was severely beaten with a whip of leather thongs that had small bits of metal, glass, or bone. This beating cut through the flesh into the subcutaneous muscles and produced a mass of shivering ribbons of flesh. The result put Christ in traumatic shock, causing Him to no longer be able to stand, and to crave water.
6. He later was beaten with reeds and was forced to wear a crown of thorns. While carrying his cross to Golgotha, He suffered severe loss of blood, weakening Him to the point He couldn’t carry His cross.
7. Next came the ordeal of the crucifixion. Farrar said, “A death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can offer which is horrible and ghastly: dizziness, cramping, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, shame, long continuance of torment, asphyxiation, horror of anticipation, mortification of unattended wounds…” Jesus suffered a horrible death on the cross!
C. THE SPIRITUAL DEATH HE SUFFERED
1. But as excruciating as the cross was, Jesus suffered even more torment and agony. Physical suffering alone did not set Jesus apart from the rest of mankind.
2. The Bible indicates that when Jesus died on the cross He suffered separation from God! Why else did Jesus say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
3. In Jn. 19:34 John said that when the soldier pierced Jesus side “immediately blood and water came out.” Doctor’s have identified this as cardiac tamponade; HIS HEART LITERALLY BURST and the blood from His heart mixed with the fluid in the sac that surrounded His heart.
D. JESUS EXPERIENCED THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL WHILE ON THE CROSS
1. In hell there is outer darkness (Mt. 25:30). When Jesus was on the cross, a literal darkness covered all that region. Matt. 27:45
2. In hell there is thirst (Lk. 16:24). The rich man cried out from hell and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue…” On the cross, Jesus cried out, “I thirst.” John 19:28.
3. In hell there is great torment and agony. Rev. 20:10. On the cross, Jesus experienced unspeakable torment and agony as He bore the sins of the whole world upon Himself.
4. In hell there is separation from God (Luke 16:26 and 2 Thess. 1:9). At Calvary Jesus suffered separation from God. Matt. 27:46 “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”
E. SUMMARY OF THE DEATH OF JESUS
1. II Cor. 5:21 “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2. Have we realized what Jesus suffered for us in His death on the cross? Even if we have caught a glimpse of His suffering, we will never know the depths of pain He felt.
3. When Lincoln’s body was brought from Washington to Illinois, it passed through Albany and it was carried through the street.
4. It is said that a former slave woman stood on the curb and lifted her little son as far as she could reach above the heads of the crowd and was heard to say to him, "Take a long look, honey. He died for you."
5. If I could, I’d transport you back in time to Calvary. “Take a long look, because He died for you!”
II. THE BLOOD OF THE CROSS
A. GIVING BLOOD
1. Col. 1:18-20 “For God was pleased…through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
2. James Harrison was recognized in 2003 by the Guinness World Record for the most blood donated by one person, over 1,106 donations and counting.
3. The ‘Man With The Golden Arm' has saved 2.4 million babies – because he carries the Anti-D antigen in his blood (Rh neg.). He has donated 138 gallons, mostly of plasma.
4. He started donating because at 14 years old he had to have a lung removed and received 13 units (2 Gal.) of blood, and decided he would pay it back.
5. Apparently, no one has given more blood to others than James Harrison, BUT SOMEONE HAS GIVEN BETTER! It’s not the quantity that counts, it’s the quality!
B. THE ATONING SACRIFICE
1. I Pet. 1:18-19 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
2. During the O.T., the blood of thousands or perhaps millions of bulls, goats and calves were offered as sacrifices for sin. But on the cross of Calvary it took only the 10-12 pints of the blood of Christ to secure the forgiveness of sin for all mankind!
3. Heb. 9:22 says “…and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” That’s why Jesus’ blood had to be shed.
C. CLEANSING POWER OF THE BLOOD
1. For an experiment in a chemistry class, the professor gave his students samples of gold and instructed them to dissolve it. The students left the gold overnight in the strongest acids found in the lab (hydrochloric, sulfuric), but none of the acids even tarnished the gold.
2. Then the professor brought out a bottle labeled “Nitromuriatic acid (Aqua Regia), and asked them to submerge a piece of gold in it. The gold instantly disappeared in the “royal water.” The gold had at last found its master.
3. The professor then said, “There is another substance that’s just as impervious as gold; it cannot be changed or altered no matter how many attempts are made. I’m speaking of “the sinful heart.” But there’s one substance that can dissolve sin and wash it away and that’s the precious blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you!”
III. THE POWER OF THE CROSS
Eph. 2:13-16 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ….His purpose was to…reconcile…through the cross…” The power of the cross is reconciliation.
A. THE CROSS RECONCILES US TO GOD
1. It is possible to live under a delusion. We may think we’re kind, considerate and gracious when we really aren’t. We may think we’re a good example for our children when we’re not. What if we could read our own obituary? How do people really see us? Listen.
2. One morning in 1888 Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, woke to read his own obituary. The obituary was printed as a result of a simple journalistic error. You see, it was Alfred’s brother that had died and the reporter accidentally reported the death of the wrong brother.
3. Any man would be disturbed under the circumstances, but Alfred experienced shock because for the first time he saw himself as the world saw him. Alfred was described as "the Dynamite King," the great industrialist who had profited from explosives. As far as the general public was concerned, that was all Alfred’s life meant. None of his other efforts were given serious consideration. He was simply remembered as a merchant of death!
4. As he read the obituary with horror, he resolved to alter the purpose of his life. His last will and testament established an endowment of five annual prizes for outstanding contributions in the sciences, literature, and peace. Today, we know them as the "Nobel Prizes."
5. God sees us as we really are: sinners. Jesus died to change that description. Now we can be the Children of God, reconciled to God!
B. THE CROSS RECONCILES US TO PEOPLE
1. Christ’s death on the cross also enables us to have peace with one another. Today people are at odds with one another. We hear about it every day on the news: war, disputes, arguments, fights, killings, violence, etc.
2. But Christ’s death on the cross enables people to be reconciled to one another in peace regardless of differences: Jew and gentile; black and white; male and female.
3. ILLUSTRATION
a. Many years ago in a Western city a husband and wife became estranged and finally separated. They left the city and resided in different parts of the country.
b. One day the husband happened to return to the city on a matter of business. He went out to the cemetery to the grave of their only son.
c. As he was standing by his grave, remembering, he heard someone approaching. It was his estranged wife. Their first thought was to turn away, but instead they first stood side by side, then held hands over the grave of their son. Eventually they were reconciled to one another.
4. Since Christ’s death is great enough to reconcile us to God, it surely should do the lesser mission of reconciling us to each other.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: How a Citizen Became a Soldier.
1. D.L. Moody was walking through the streets of York, England and saw a soldier coming toward him wearing the red uniform on of the army.
2. When he came near me, I asked him, "My good man,
if you have no objection, I would like to know how you first became a soldier." "Yes, sir, I will tell you.”
3. “You see, sir, I wanted to become a soldier so I went to a recruiting officer and said I wanted to enlist. He said, “All right.”
4. And the first thing he did was to take an English shilling out of his pocket and put it into my hand. Now, the very moment a recruiting sergeant puts a shilling into your hand, sir, you are a soldier." D.L. Moody said, "That is the very illustration I want!"
5. He explained, “That man was a free man at one time—he could go where he wanted; do what he liked; but the moment the shilling was put into his hand he was subject to the rules of war, and Queen Victoria could send him anywhere and make him obey the rules and regulations of the army. He is a soldier the very minute he takes the shilling. He didn’t have to wait to put on the uniform.
6. And if you ask me how a person may be converted at once, I answer, just the same as that man became a soldier. The citizen becomes a soldier in a minute, and from being a free man becomes subject to the command of others. The moment you take Christ into your heart, that moment your name is written in the roll of Heaven! [D.L. Moody]
B. ALTAR CALL
1. This morning I’m the enlisting sergeant; I’m recruiting for Heaven. If you haven’t enlisted yet, this is your morning to sign up.
2. Jesus chose to die for you; now you must choose to live for Him. Let’s all stand. If you’d like to make a dedication to Jesus Christ, step out and walk up here and meet me for prayer.
3. Some of you need to be reconciled with another person: family member, neighbor, someone at work or school, friend, etc. Why don’t you join us at the front and begin the work of reconciliation.
4. Prayer.
[This is a rewrite of Steve Shepherd’s message of the same title.]
