S-ubject: SIN
C-entral Theme: How our sins breaks the heart of God
O-bjective: Every Christian should understand that everytime we sin we are in essence driving the nails into
Jesus’ hands and feet because when we sin we break the heart of God.
R-ationle: I: The Hammer of Selfishness
II. The Nail of Arrogance
III. The Nail of Apathy
IV. The Nail of Aggression
R-esources: Introduction: "The Cross" (pg 31 & 32 The Cross by Max Lucado c1998 Multnomah Publishers, Inc.)
Conclusion: "Why the Cross" (pg 59 The Cross by Max Lucado c1998 Multnomah Publishers, Inc.)
Props: Large Cross, Mallet or Large Hammer, 3 Large Nails
Human Video: "Feel The Nails"
E-valuation: Has potential to move people to a place of repentance of known and unknown sins.
INTRODUCTION: THE CROSS (Max Lucado)
Finally the hour came. The son went for one last visit with his Father. He met him in a garden of gnarled trees and stony soil. " Does it have to be this way?" asked the Son.
"It does," whispered the Father. "Is there no one else who can do it?"
The Father swallowed. "None but you." He looked at his Son, the Prince of Light.
"The darkness will be great." He passed his hand over the spotless face of his Son.
"The pain will be awful." Then he paused and looked at his darkened dominion. When he looked up, his eyes were moist. "But there is no other way." The Son looked into the stars as he heard the answer. "Then let it be done." Slowly the words that would kill the Son began to come from the lips of the Father.
"Hour of death, moment of sacrifice, it is your moment. Rehearsed a million times on false altars with false lambs; the moment of truth has come. Soldiers, you think you lead him? Ropes, you think you bind him? Men, you think you sentence him? He heeds not your commands. He winces no at your lashes. It is my voice he obeys. It is my condemnation He dreads. And it is your souls he saves.
"Oh, my Son, my Child. Look up into the heavens and see my face before I turn it. Hear my voice before I silence it. Would that I could save you and them. But they don’t see and they don’t hear. The living must die so that the dying can live. The time has come to kill the lamb."
"Here is the cup, my Son the cup of sorrows, the cup of sin. SLAM, HAMMER (MALLET)! Be true to your task. Let your ring be heard throughout the heavens. Lift him soldiers. Lift him high to his throne of mercy. Lift him up to his perch of death. Lift him above the people that curse his name. Now plunge the tree into the earth. Plunge it deep into the heart of humanity, deep into the strata of time past. Deep into the seeds of time future."
APPLICATION: Yes, Jesus gave his life willingly. Yes, Jesus would have given his life for just one. Because of our wrongdoing, offense, iniquity, transgressions, and sins, Jesus had to go to the cross. It was those sins that nailed him to the cross.
As Believers, Christians, Lovers of Jesus, how often do we re-crucify Jesus to the cross by saying that we love and adore him? Our actions deny him and with each sin that we voluntarily & willingly commit we drive the nails deeper through his wrist and feet and into the cross.
This morning I’d like to talk about One Hammer, and 3 Nails.
Scripture Text:
(Mat 10:32-33 NIV) "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. {33} But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
(Heb 6:6 KJV ) "they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
(Heb 6:6 NIV) "if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."
I. THE HAMMER OF SELFISHNESS
A. THE SIN OF THE AGES
1. Selfishness is the root of all sin. It is the driving force behind every sin committed. It was the Hammer of selfishness that drove the nails into Jesus hands and feet. It is the Hammer that drives the nails into Jesus flesh every time we willingly commit sin.
2. It was the sin of selfishness is what started all this in the first place. Satan, at one time was called Lucifer, when he was the "head" angel in heaven, long before time as we know it began. It was because of selfishness that he fell.
(Isa 14:13-14 KJV) For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: {14} I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
3. The Pharisees in Jesus’ time were consumed with selfishness. Jesus was a threat to their dreams, wishes, wants, and desires. And out of selfish and egotistical motives theyfalsely accused Jesus and held a mock trial to convict Jesus of something he did not do. His only crime was that he loved people too much.
4. Selfishness is what motives and drives us to commit the sins that we commit. I may call someone a curse name because they hurt my feelings, or said something that affected me in some way or another directly or indirectly. It rarely bothers us if everybody in school makes fun of the "school nerd". Why? Because they are not directly nor indirectly associated with us. But if it was our brother or sister that was the school nerd then that would be a different story.
B. THE HAMMER IN HAND.
1. Every time we willingly commit sin we take up the hammer of selfishness in our hand and wield it’s force down on the nails that reverberates through the body of Jesus and inflicts more pain on his heart rather than on his hands and his feet.
2. Many times we are so busy with "our" life that we don’t even realize what we are doing. We don’t even know that we have picked up the hammer and used it.
3. We have become so used to being selfish that when we are being selfish, we don’t realize that we are. Since everyone else is being as selfish as we are we can’t see the wrong in it. We have become oblivious to the fact that we are selfish people without God.
4. The Hammer of selfishness is in our hand and we must make a choice to lay it down and allow God free reign and control over our lives so that our lives will please and glorify him. Or we can continue and let the hammer fall on the nails and once more put Jesus to public shame. Here’s the hammer! What are you going to do with it?
II. THE NAIL OF ARROGANCE
A. THE PHARISEES
1. Of the three nails that put and kept Jesus on the cross one was that of spiritual arrogance or spiritual pride. The Pharisees were men of arrogance. Men who "thought" they had all their "I’s" dotted and their "T’s" crossed but could not see pass their spiritual pride to see their need for a Savior.
2. The Pharisees looked good on the outside but on the inside they were dead and full of corruption, filth, decay, and death. They took great pride in their own accomplishments and what they could do and all their religious works.
(Mat 23:27 NIV) "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
3. The Pharisees took great comfort and security in the fact that they did everything just right and thought that those things would get them to heaven. Yet all the while Jesus was saying those things were useless and futile in the presence of the Almighty God.
4. The Pharisees never came to a point of desperation. A place of realizing that they could not save themselves. Because of their arrogance or spiritual pride they could not see that they were drowning in a sea of selfishness and gross sin.
B. ME, MYSELF, AND I
1. Arrogance or spiritual pride is thinking that you have everything together and that you are just
fine the way you are and you don’t need to change.
2. It is this nail that helped nail Jesus to the Cross. It is this way of thinking and acting that re-crucifies Jesus each time we do not listen to his Holy Spirits pleading and we refuse to change.
3. We must stay in a constant state of desperation. Realizing daily our complete and absolute dependency on Jesus for our life. We must make Jesus our best and closest friend that no one else could ever come before.
4. Each time we act, think, or say that we are fine just the way we are and are not willing to change and be made more like Jesus we take the hammer of selfishness and drive the nail of Arrogance or spiritual pride deep into Jesus hands and feet.
III. THE NAIL OF APATHY
A. THE SEED OF INDIFFERENCE
1. The nail of apathy means to be indifferent to the suffering and pain that Jesus endured on the Cross. It is to say that what Jesus did really doesn’t affect us or have any relevancy to our life.
2. We have heard it, seen it, and read about it, so much that we have become unresponsive to it. The cross doesn’t change the way we live like it should. We agree with the Bible and it’s account of the cross mentally but because we have heard about it so much we don’t let it infect, affect or effect us spiritually.
3. "Whatever" has become the general consensus and attitude of most American and Christian peoples concerning the cross. Seeds of indifference have been planted by the enemy to keep the power of the Cross from setting us free from the sins that keep us in bondage.
4. When you see or hear about the cross and what Jesus went through you don’t feel anything anymore and don’t think it even matters, because of the seed of indifference.
B. UNCONCERNED ABOUT THE CROSS
1. The nail of Apathy produces in us an unconcern about the cross. We see the Cross as a religious figure or icon instead of a symbol of freedom, hope, and peace.
2. People in Jesus’ day were well aware and concerned about crosses. They knew what they represented. A cross represented death, pain, and suffering. People that were crucified on crosses were typically "slaves" or "criminals" which usually meant they were the dregs of society. They were considered the scum of the earth. And because people knew what a cross represented they concerned themselves with it. Yet many times "familiarity breeds contempt."
3. The nail of Apathy is a hard nail to identify. It is usually cloaked within the nail of Arrogance or spiritual pride. We must ask God to show us if we are apathetic and unconcerned about the Cross and if we are then we must humble ourselves and allow him to change us.
4. Each time we walk by someone in need, each time we take we take the cross for granted. Or each time we have an opportunity to change and don’t care enough to allow God the chance to change us we take the hammer and drive the nail of apathy into Jesus wrist and feet once again.
IV. THE NAIL OF AGGRESSION
A. EATEN FROM THE INSIDE OUT
1. The Pharisees though they were not the ones that actually picked up the hammer and nails and crucified Jesus, were as guilt as the Romans soldiers were. Their arrogance and apathy lead to their aggression. They were unwilling to forgive, unwilling to admit their need, unwilling to let go of the past and because they held on they were eaten up spiritually from the inside out.
2. When we hold on to un-forgiveness whether it be of others or ourselves, or hold on to the past, or unwilling to admit that we are in need, we are allowing the enemy to plant within us a seed of aggression that will ultimately eat us from the inside out and be used to nail Jesus back to the cross.
3. Murder, strife, anger, bitterness, rape, gangs, and unforgiveness are all issue of the heart. It’s not guns that kill the majority of young people but the heart of man. When the heart of man is changed then the killing will cease.
4. Murder, rape, etc... are simply a manifestation of the condition of the heart. If you allow unforgiveness and those things to stay in your heart you will die spiritually long before you die physically.
B. THE VIOLENCE OF THE CROSS
1. The Cross of Jesus was not a Sunday matinee that you’d take you kids or family to see. It was a blood bath of hatred, envy, and jealously. Because of the heart of men being full of arrogance and apathy the Cross became and bloody and violent place.
2. We must allow the violence of the Cross to replace and overshadow the violence or aggression that we have on the inside.
3. God on a Cross (Max Lucado)
"God on a cross. The creator of the universe is being executed. Spit and blood are caked to his cheeks, and his lips are cracked and swollen. Thorns rip his scalp. His lungs scream with pain. His legs knot with cramps. Taut nerves threaten to snap as pain twanges here morbid melody. Yet death is not ready. And there is no one to save him, for he is sacrificing himself. Far worse than the breaking of his body is the shredding of his heart. His own countrymen clamored for his death. His own disciple planted the kiss of beytrayal. His own friends ran for cover. And now his own father is beginning to turn his back on him, leaving him alone."
(pg 27 The Cross by Max Lucado c1998 Multnomah Publishers, Inc.)
4. Jesus suffered the violence or aggression of the Cross so that we could be freed from the nail of aggression and violence. He suffered so that we would not have to.
CONCLUSION: WHY THE CROSS
There was a cross so that, regardless of our behavior, despite our sins, no matter how bad we are, we could have the shinning hope of an eternal residence with the lamb who took it all away.
That’s why there was a cross. Have you stood near the cross? Have you made a choice for the Savior?
There’s something about the cross...it seems to demand a choice. You either step toward it or away from it. It’s the watershed. It’s the Continental Divide. Yo are either on one side or the other. A choice is demanded. We can do what we want with the cross. We can examine its history. We can study its theology. We can reflect upon its prophecies. yet the one thing we can’t do is walk away, neutral. No fence sitting is permitted. The cross, in its absurd splendor, doesn’t allow that.
And so we conclude our journey to the cross. We’ve reflected on the heavenly plan that set the cross in place. We’ve angushed at the pain. And now we marvel at the promise. For that’s the essence of the cross. Through all the pain, the cross is still our promise, the eternal lifeline for our spirits.
(pg 59 The Cross by Max Lucado c1998 Multnomah Publishers, Inc.)
Altar Call: Human Video "Feel The Nails"
The question is what will you do with the cross? What will you do with the hammer and nails? Will you run to the cross and allow God to cleanse you and make you whole? Or will you by your refusal to change once again take up the hammer of selfishness and drive deep into the wood the nails of Arrogance, Apathy and Aggression? The choice is yours!
