How Do You Value Calvary?
By: Joe Mack Cherry
I. Introduction
A. How do we measure value?
1. Money or the Luxury
a. Houses – gated communities
b. Cars – Cadillacs, Mercedes, Rolls, Lexus
c. Watches – Rolexes
2. Sentimentality (Eyes of the Owner)
a. Grandma’s quilt
b. Grandpa’s shotgun
c. Old Pictures
3. Indebtedness
a. Someone who help us financially
b. Someone who went to bat for us
c. Someone who saved our life
B. Time has a way of changing our perspective on things.
1. If I get this house, I’ll never let it get dirty, then along comes children and pets.
2. We are so careful not to get the first scratch on a new car but when it gets scratched, we’re not as careful where we park it.
3. After a while, the Rolex becomes just a time piece like a Timex.
4. For a while after Grandma passes away, the quilt is a center piece then it finds its way to the cedar chest.
5. Grandpa’s gun goes to the gun safe.
6. Old pictures go to the same cedar chest as Grandma’s quilt.
7. Oh, we still cherish them but we don’t think about much after a while.
C. Familiarity
1. As we become familiar with a situation or possession, it kinda sinks back into our subconscious.
2. I think sometime the more familiar we are with something, the more we lose focus on it.
3. This is why accidents happen.
a. An electrician gets electrocuted.
b. Factory workers lose fingers and hands.
4. Safe to say that if we lose focus, we can find ourselves in danger.
II. Body
A. Our attention spans aren’t very long sometimes.
1. We get caught up in the day-to-day grind and lose focus on what really matters.
2. It happens to all of us because we are human.
3. The question today’s lesson poses is “How Do You Value Calvary?”
B. Calvary does not depreciate
1. Businesspeople buy things solely for its depreciation.
2. They can take over the course of several years and it helps reduce gross income come tax time.
3. The value of Calvary never NEVER loses it value.
4. In fact, as we grow as Christians it should actually appreciate.
i. The more we see our inability to save ourselves the greater Calvary becomes.
ii. I believe we never know how saved we are until we realize how lost we were.
C. Lord’s Supper
1. I Cor. 11:28-34 – Read
2. During the Lord’s Supper we are to consider
a. Death
b. Burial
c. Resurrection – it is important to remember all the things it means.
3. This should be a sobering time for every Christian.
4. Many have communion on a lesser basis
a. Monthly
b. Quarterly
c. Yearly
5. Many say if you do it too often it loses its meaning or impact.
a. Acts 2:42 – we have affirmation it is to occur the first day of the week.
b. Rev. 1:10 – John said he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.
c. Do you concur that there is validity in train of thought?
d. We have Apostolic Evidence and scriptural inference throughout the New testament.
e. I Cor. 11:26 – “do this as often as you meet” and couple with the references to the first day of the week for scriptural direction in this matter.
D. Adjusting God’s commands to accommodate our own conclusions is not acceptable.
1. When we become a Christian, we die to self and live to glorify Christ.
2. As I just said, the onus is not on God to change things for us, we are to conform to His will.
3. It is up to us to prepare (each week) to take communion.
4. This not an “if I want to” command, it is a command.
5. Going back to the passage in I Cor. 11, failure to do so leads to US bringing judgment on ourselves.
6. In the middle part of I Cor. 11, we find record of how they lost the true meaning of Lord’s Supper and turned into Clique-“ish” lunch/dinner parties.
E. How Do We Keep the True Value of Calvary in Focus?
1. Start by realizing its importance in our everyday life.
2. In the intro, I mentioned greatly valuing a person in the light of indebtedness:
a. Someone who provides us with our daily needs.
b. Someone who goes to bat for us.
c. Someone who saves our life.
3. Jesus is the epitomize of a provider.
a. Psa. 37:25 - … never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
b. Mat. 6:25ff – He provides for nature so He surely will provide for us.
c. Mat. 7:9-11 – He knows how to give good things.
d. Luke 6:38 – we can’t out give God.
4. Jesus is the ultimate friend who even acts as an advocate.
a. Prov. 18:24 – He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother.
b. Remember the gospel song, “No Not One”? There’s not a friend…
c. Heb. 4:15 – He has been tempted as we all are and understands.
d. Jesus takes the “saved” sinner and tells God, he/she is with me.
e. Jo. 15:13 – “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay one’s life down for His friends.”
5. Jesus is our Savior
a. We owe our lives to Christ for His sacrifice.
b. His gift keeps on giving every day!
c. We obey the gospel to gain entrance into the Kingdom but His love and forgiveness keeps us there.
d. I do not believe that anyone goes a day without the need of forgiveness.
e. Without Christ, we would have no access to God.
III. Closing
A. In Him we live, move and have our very being. Acts 17:28
1. With that being the case, we should see Christ/God in everything that we do.
2. Suppose for a minute you are a blind man with no cane or a person to spot danger for you. What would happen?
a. Daily you would be in great peril, constantly.
b. Now, suppose that someone swoops in to rescue you from harm or death every time you incur it.
c. Would we not cherish that person and not forget him if he remained with us and constantly kept us from death due to our inability to do so ourselves?
3. Calvary is the reason that we have the abundant life referenced in Jo. 10:10.
a. Phil. 1:21 – Paul said to live is Christ and to die is gain.
b. If we lift Christ up as He was lifted up on the cross, He said He would draw all men unto Him. Jo. 12:32
B. Calvary
1. We can lay all our burdens down at the foot of the cross and leave them.
2. Calvary represents salvation, forgiveness, and love like nothing else in our lives.
3. Let’s share this with everyone!
