Hebrews 2:1-10 The cross
1. As we go into this New Year why don’t we pay more attention to the cross?
• Our text today states Pay close attention pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
• Notice The Cross is an image that the whole world recognizes
• Timothy Merrell theologian writes, The cross has been in the public domain from the moment Mary Magdalene ran back to her friends, proclaiming “I have seen the Lord!”
• The cross of Jesus belongs to everyone. It is the central symbol of our faith: an image of awe, wonder and profound gratitude for all who gaze upon it.
• The Cross has never been private when Jesus and the thieves were crucified Rome wanted the suffering of these three men to be a stern warning to all, to devote full allegiance to Caesar.
2. The Cross has been in the eyes of the public for centuries
A. The cross has been in the eyes of people ever since that day at Golgotha, The Place of the Skull, Calvary People there, witnessed the Christ die on the cross and three days later Mary Magdalene ran back to her friends, proclaiming “I have seen the Lord!”
B. The cross of Jesus belongs to everyone. It is the central symbol of our faith: an image of awe, wonder and profound gratitude for all who gaze upon it.
C. John Calvin the great reformer wrote, “ It behoves the godly mind to climb still higher, to the height to which Christ calls his disciples: that each must bear his own cross. For whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard, toilsome and unquiet life, crammed with very many and various kinds of evil.
3. The Cross to the Hebrews
A. The Cross Has saving powers which reach the entire earth.
B. The cross brings “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory,
C. The cross shared Jesus’s humanity “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity”.
D. The cross Frees us from the fear of death “so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
E. The Cross made atonement For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants us he made atonement for the sins of the people.
4. A story of the cross
a. In late 2016, a Missouri pastor Brian Zahnd and his wife went on a pilgrimage walk 500 mile footpath across northern Spain. Journeyed he noticed crucifixes along the way
b. He writes “We arrived in Spain and we spent some time in a 13th century chapel gazing on a medieval crucifix. While sitting in the sanctuary the Holy Spirit seemed to give me four instructions for my 500-mile walk:
c. 1 Enter every church you can.
d. 2 Pay close attention to every crucifix you see.
e. 3 Ask this question: What does this mean?
f. 4 Don’t be too quick to give an answer.”
5. What does the Cross Mean?
1. The Cross Belongs to whosoever will, It belongs to all people
2. The Cross is an image of suffering as John Calvin, “Climb to the height to which Christ calls us, each must bear his own cross.”
3. The Cross saves, brings, frees from fear of death, the cross is sufficient, it is all we need
