At the Cross
Luke 23:32-43
Good Morning everyone-
We are glad that you have joined us this morning and I invite you to open your bibles to John 12 and then Luke 23:32-43
We have been in a study of the final week of Jesus ministry where He goes to the cross and his resurrection celebration on Easter Sunday.
I think if we are not careful we can miss some of the lesson Jesus taught to his disciples and to us.
We started the study looking at Jesus leading prayer at the garden of Gethsemene. Jesus was there wanting his disciples to be praying while He was spending time talking to the Father. His disciples lost focus and tired physically and numerous times fell asleep while they should have been praying.
You remember – the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Jesus continuously is looking for those that are not asleep at the wheel and desire to do kingdom work.
Last week we looked at Humble Jesus washing the disciple’s feet.
It seems like a job for anyone else but the savior but here is Jesus washing the dirty feet of his disciples to show us his humility and his focus on doing what the Heavenly Father wants done.
Remember the talk between Jesus and Peter?
John 13:6- “He came to peter, who said to him, Lord are you going to wash my feet?”
Jesus rebuke Peter- “unless I wash your feet Peter, you have no part of me.”
Jesus spoke these word to them all- “you don’t realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”
Jesus was always teaching his disciples something and He teaches us today-
He taught us prayer at Gethsemene.
He taught us to be humble and not think too much of ourselves as he washed the feet of his disciples.
John 12:1-8 read from Bible slowly
He teaches us that the perfume Mary poured out and put on Jesus was not about the poor getting and the rich giving but about Jesus fulfilling his task of going to the cross.
Preparing Jesus for the cross and burial and resurrection.
Sermon title “At the Cross” We will look at the cross to see what Jesus has done for us and provided for us. It will conclude as we look at Palm
Sunday as Jesus enters Jerusalem and the empty tomb and His resurrection on Easter Morning.
The most common religious symbol in the western world is the cross.
Crosses on churches/ though not all churches preach salvation
Crosses on jewelry/worn by people that have no relationship with Jesus
Athletes blessing themselves before an event while holding a cross.
Pointing into the sky and you wonder who they are giving praise too
I want you to understand that during the time of Jesus that a cross was a symbol of shame, embarrassment, and a symbol of terror.
No Roman would wear a cross around his/her neck.
Romans used it as a very painful way to execute someone, so bad that no Roman citizen could be executed that way. It was reserved for slaves, robbers, rebels, and assassins.
To Romans to die on the cross would represent the worse way to die.
Luke 23:32-43 read from Bible slowly
What does the cross mean to you?
It was not always a sign of being a Christian. If fact, no Roman citizen ever pictured the cross as being religious.
It was not until Constantine in the 4th century adapted it as a religious sign. It was his good luck charm. He also had it put on his soldiers shield.
What does it mean to you personally?
Good luck charm?
Kissing it like a blessed symbol of God’s protection?
What it means to you will determine how you live your life.
How you picture Jesus on or off the cross influences how you live your life.
On the cross- The man Jesus who suffered and died- story unfinished.
Off the cross- The God/Man Jesus who suffered and died and was resurrected.
Two thieves, both criminals, hung on a cross aside of each other and Jesus.
One hurled insults- “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us”!
The other rebuked him- “Don’t you fear God?
(42) Then he said, “Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
The eternal words of Jesus that changed his life forever- “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
According to Roman culture it may be a shameful way of dying, but to a believer what Jesus did on that cross was a symbol of life, love and forgiveness.
The God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the one that was before time died on that cross to find us and to rescue us. If that is not love, I don’t know what love is.
Even if the story ended there, you could not deny God’s love for each one of us. Thank God, it did not end there.
He loved us and rescued us before we even realized that we needed saving.
The criminal that hung there and blasphemed God reminds us of how our world is today.
Most people would drive Jesus to the cross again if they could.
There rebellious attitude, their lack of commitment, there looking only for the blessing of God without serving or knowing God.
Demanding God to show them something or proving He is God by miracles and blessings to people that have no regard for God.
Listen…there is no greater love God could have shown mankind than what He did on the cross of Calvary.
John 3:16-
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Romans 5:8-
“But God demonstrated his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”
Galatians 2:20-
“I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me, and the live which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
John 4:10-
“This is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
See the cross for what it is- The love of God in action!
Jesus loves you! He went to the extreme of the cross to show you.
There was no other way He could have shown you His love that leaves us with an opportunity of eternity with Him.
We have more in common with the criminal than we want to admit.
God tells us we must do it His way- we tell God I’ll do it my way.
When things don’t go our way, we doubt His love.
We begin demanding God prove Himself again to us and show us that He loves us by our standards.
To truly experience God’s love, we have to grasp this truth- “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
The Romans did not put Jesus on the cross, our sins did. He freely chose to go to the cross because He loves each one of us.
To truly experience God’s love, we have to have a change of heart- just like the criminal condemned to die.
(40) “Don’t you fear God? He said, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. Jesus answered him, I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
When we truly experience God’s love, it changes us.
We stop mocking God and begin serving Him.
We have a change of heart.
We confess our sinful life so that He can fully shed His love upon us.
Sorry is a start, but is not enough. It takes a 180 degree turn.
Repentance without change is not repentance.
Some are trying to experience God’s love without change.
He loves you the way you are, but His love will change you.
At the foot of the cross is God’s love. You cannot experience it in its fullness without going to the cross.
If we try to get His love any other way, we deceive ourselves.
If we think the simple message of the cross is not enough to describe the love of God, we have missed the mark.
Could we stand before our heavenly Father and say that sacrificing His only son was not enough?
Could we stand before Jesus and telling Him that giving His life was not enough?
Could we possible say to all the martyrs over the centuries who have died for their faith and say that it is not enough?
To promise an unbeliever anything more than the full mercy and compassion of Jesus on the cross would go beyond scripture.
Paul said “I determine not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
What is happening this morning is God wants to show you His love.
In fact, His word promises it if you will let Him, you can experience His love today.
Begins with repentance, just like the criminal on the cross. You and I must realize that without Christ, we would get what we deserve instead of mercy and God’s love of forgiveness.
Repentance brings the Spirit of God flooding our souls with God’s love.
I repent of my life as a criminal.
I repent of my mocking God by doing things my way instead of God’s way.
I believe that you died for me and that you love me.
(Isaac Watts)
At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith, I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.
Ephesians 2:4-5
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgression- it is by grace you have been saved.”
Our response back to God for His love is to love Him back.
To be thankful.
To love Him and to love others.
Hebrews 12:28-
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
The three things we know about God;
God is Spirit
God is light
God is love
Love is the very character of God.
It is not influenced by our response because he loved us first.
He purposed to love us before we respond.
God loves us even if we do not respond, we just won’t experience His love.
Just like the thief on the cross, there has to be a time of repentance and a time to respond to God’s love.
A time when we look at the face of Jesus and say “remember me when you enter the kingdom”
Cal Thomas wrote- “Love talked about is easily ignored, but love demonstrated is irresistible.”
Jesus has demonstrated His love to each one of us. He modeled it and lived it.
Will you respond this morning?
Maybe take a hard look at your life.
Stop running from God and run toward Him this morning.
Take down all the barriers that have been put up.
God’s love has a guarantee from Jesus-
“I will never leave you or forsake you”
“God’s love never fails”
Love is an action word- more than just an emotion.
What brings us to God or back to God is experiencing His life.
We love because He first loved us. We respond because He desires to draw close to us.
His love cast out all fears of eternity and cast out fears for everyday living.
His love causes us to open up our hearts to God and He will change our lives forever.
Illustration- Don’t Try This at Home
Many years ago, before the sensitive and politically correct society in which we live today, there was a boy who was continually in trouble.
He was forever breaking the rules and always getting into trouble at school.
His father could not understand why.
He provided for him in every way with a good home, he spent time with him fishing and going to his ballgames, and he showered him with his unconditional love, but the father just couldn’t figure out why the boy wouldn’t mind?
He had been raised in the church and had even been in Sunday school for five years.
His father was consistently reading the Bible to him and his father had never provoked him to anger. His son’s behavior was a mystery to him.
One day when his son was upstairs playing around with his baseball, which he’d been told repeatedly not to do, he ended up breaking one of his bedroom windows.
The boy was ten years old and certainly knew better because his father had told him time and again to not play ball in the house.
The father headed upstairs and took off his belt.
The boy knew what was coming so he voluntarily bent over and kneeled next to his bed but the father said, “Son, here, take this belt” which his son did.
Then his father took off his shirt and kneeled down on the bed and said: “Son, I want you to give me seven lashes with this belt across my back.”
His son started to cry and said that he couldn’t do it.
His father kept insisting until the son finally relented and started hitting his father across the back with the belt but it wasn’t hard enough.
He said, “Harder son, harder!” When the boy finally lashed the belt across his father’s back seven times with greater force the father asked him “Son, do you know why I had you do this?” The son said “No.”
The father said, “When Jesus went to the cross for us, He took the worst punishment that has ever been inflicted upon any man. He was pummeled, He was beaten, His beard was plucked out, and He was punished like no one has ever been punished.
Who do you really think did this to Jesus?” The boy, still whimpering, hesitated and finally said he thought it was the Jews or the Romans but the boy’s father said, “No, it was God the Father who punished Jesus for everything that we have ever done wrong and or will ever do wrong in the future (Isaiah 52:14-15; 53:1-12).
He took the punishment that He didn’t deserve to save those who didn’t deserve saving.
That is how much the Father and Jesus loved us” (John 3:16).
It was God’s love most gloriously displayed for us who deserved actually His wrath.
The boy was shaken deeply by this lesson and from that day forward, the boy never seemed to get into the same amount of trouble again…not perfect but changed.
Maybe it was because he wasn’t sure how his dad would react again.
The boy didn’t ever want to use the belt on his dad again although the father never said anything more about it.
Whatever it was, the message of God’s love displayed on the cross by Christ forever changed this young man and it has forever changed us.
The boy was not perfect after that, by no means, but neither are we after being saved but that doesn’t take away what was accomplished at the cross.
Close-
