JOURNEY TO THE CROSS
John 19:16-18; Gal. 6:14
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. It’s not real fun to get old, but you can make the best of it.
2. Knitting is a passion for a woman named Elizabeth, who is a caregiver for the elderly. When she brings her clients to doctor’s appointments, she knits while she waits.
3. Recently she showed a friend a beautiful scarf she had made. Her friend asked, “How long did it take to make that?”
4. She answered, “One stress test and one colonoscopy!”
B. IMPORTANCE OF THE CROSS
1. Os Guinness tells of a man who was imprisoned 15 years by Russian authorities for political dissidence, who became a Christian while in the terrible Gulag.
2. He was sustained throughout that long ordeal by His faith in the Savior and by the memory of his 4 year old son he hoped to see again one day.
3. When he was finally released, the man anticipated the reunion with heart-pounding excitement. How thrilled he was to notice, as he hugged his son, that his son was wearing a Cross!
4. He asked his son, 19 years old, just what the cross meant to him. His heart dropped at the answer, “Dad, for my generation, the cross is just a fashion statement.”
5. It’s a temptation for Christians today to try to fit the Cross into Society. Paul wasn’t ashamed of the Cross; he chose to make it front and center – all his hopes and affections entwined about it.
6. God forbid that we should ever view -- with a passionless eye or lethargic soul -- the sweet wonders of that Cross on which our Savior loved and died.
C. TEXT & THESIS
1. “So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle” John 19:16-18.
2. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” Gal. 6:14.
I. WHY THE CROSS WAS SPECIAL
A. AN EMBARRASSMENT
1. Paul did NOT say, “I’ll not glory save in the DEATH of Christ,” but rather, “I’ll never glory, save in the CROSS of Christ.”
2. The term “Cross” would grate on the refined ears of the Galatians – it was like adoring the hangman’s gallows, the electric chair of execution, or the injection gurney of capital punishment.
3. It was connected to criminal disgrace. A family normally shrinks if one of its members has been executed for a crime.
4. ILLUS. The children of a prominent family decided to have their family history written up into a book. They hired a professional biographer to do the work. They warned him of the family’s “black sheep” problem: Uncle George had been executed in the electric chair for murder.
5. The biographer assured the children: “I can handle that situation so there will be no embarrassment. I’ll just say that ‘Uncle George occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties and his death came as a real shock!’”
6. But Paul doesn’t try to soften or cloak Jesus’ shameful death; instead he “gloried” – (diff. translations) “bragged, boasted, rejoiced, was proud” about it!
B. WHY WAS THE CROSS PRECIOUS? BECAUSE IT WAS JESUS’ CROSS!
1. Not just any old cross was precious, but that one that Jesus, Immanuel, died on! In Gen. 1:11, Jesus made the trees; He created them. Rev. 13:8 says He was “slain from the foundation of the world.” Thus, He was the One who fashioned the tree He was to die on. He caused His rain to nurture it and His sun to shine on it – knowing He would someday be impaled on it.
2. Jesus, of course, formed the iron ore that would used to make the nails and hammers. There was nothing used in the crucifixion that He did not have a hand in making!
II. CHRIST’S CROSS: 1ST TIME CARRIED?
A. THE TIMELESS CROSS
1. So when the Bible says that Jesus took up His cross, does that mean it was the first time He’d ever taken it up? No! He had borne that cross from all eternity! Hear the scripture again, “the Lamb SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD!”
2. So was He first slain 2,000 years ago? No! EVERY DAY OF HIS LIFE WAS LIVED WITH THAT GREAT EVENT IN MIND.
3. 1 Pet. 1:11, “the Spirit of Christ in them...testified beforehand to the sufferings of Christ.” It was a done deal, already entered into the tapestry of Christ’s life. See Ps. 22:16.
B. THE WEIGHT OF THE CROSS
1. Matt. 27:31-33 tells the story of Simon of Cyrene. Normally condemned men bore their own crosses. Jesus couldn’t (due to blood-loss), so they conscripted a visitor to Jerusalem, who had come to sacrifice the Passover Lamb! He REALLY got to sacrifice the Passover!
2. Do you think there was a difference between the weight of the Cross Jesus bore and the weight of the Cross Simon bore? Yes!
3. Simon bore a piece of wood; Jesus bore the weight of the sins of the world. Our crosses will never weigh what Jesus’ did. Thank God!
4. Simon of Cyrene represents that all believers are to take up their cross and follow Jesus.
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. J. Vernon McGee tells the story of the country boy who wanted to join a church. The deacons decided to ask him a few questions. "How did you get saved?"
2. His answer was, "God did His part, and I did my part." They thought this statement might reveal the young man was depending on his works, so they questioned further, "What was God’s part, and what was your part?"
3. His explanation was a good one. He said, "God’s part was the saving, and my part was the sinning. I did my ‘lost boy’ best of running from Him as fast as my evil heart could go. But thank God, He took out after me till He ran me down!"
4. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, but taking up our cross is much more than a single prayer.
III. MEANING OF THE CROSS TO US
A. SUBSTITUTIONARY SACRIFICE
1. Isa. 53:4-6 says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6...and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
2. JESUS TOOK OUR PLACE. HE BORE OUR SINS. HE DIED FOR OUR SINS. HE WAS OUR SUBSTITUTE. HE PAID THE PRICE FOR OUR SINS SO WE WOULDN’T HAVE TO. WE ARE JUSTIFIED, CLEARED OF OUR SINS – BECAUSE OF WHAT JESUS DID.
B. JOURNEY OF EXTINCTION
1. “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35 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” Mk. 8:34-35.
2. Taking up our Cross is meant to be the Journey to Extinction of the “Old Man” and a. his thinking, b. his habits, c. his world view, and d. his dominance.
C. LIKENESS TO CHRIST
1. Bearing His Cross means LIKENESS TO CHRIST in the principles which animated Him in His path of obedience: a. the entire surrender of His self-will; b. the complete denial of the flesh (desires, pleasures); c. separation from the world in all its ways of thinking, acting, losing & hating one’s life; d. giving up of self and its interests for the sake of others.
2. These are the characteristics of those who’ve taken up Jesus’ Cross. They say with Paul, “I no longer live but now Christ lives in me” Gal. 2:20.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION : CHURCHILL’S SAVIOR 2X
1. A gathering of friends at an English estate nearly turned to tragedy when one of the children strayed into deep water.
2. The gardener’s son heard his cries for help & got the gardener, who plunged in, and rescued the drowning child. That youngster's name was Winston Churchill.
3. His grateful parents asked the gardener what they could do to reward him. He hesitated, then said, "I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor." "We'll see to it," Churchill's parents promised.
4. Years later, while Sir Winston was prime minister of England, he was stricken with pneumonia.
5. The country's best physician was summoned. His name was Dr. Alexander Fleming, the man who discovered and developed penicillin.
6. He was also the son of that gardener who had saved young Winston from drowning.
7. Later Churchill remarked, "Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same person."
8. What a parallel to Jesus! Jesus not only died for us on the Cross, but He helps us learn to die to our own will, to take up our own cross, and follow Him. We owe our lives to Him twice over! [Ron Hutchcraft, Wake Up Calls, Moody, 1990, p. 22]
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you realize that God laid your sins on Christ? It’s the divine switch: when you trust in Jesus as your savior, your sins are transferred to Him and His righteousness is transferred to you.
2. If you want to be a part of God’s marvelous transferal of GRACE, raise your hands.
3. Prayer
