(Matthew 27:32-56)
(Crucifixion, Good Friday, Salvation )
(Deductive)
The Cross.
It rests on the time line of history like a compelling diamond.
It’s tragedy summons all suffers.
It’s Absurdity attracts all critics.
It’s hope lures all searchers.
My what a piece of wood! History has idolized it. And despised it, gold plated it and burned it, worn it and trashed it.
History has done everything to it but ignore it.
That’s the one option that the cross does not offer.
No one can ignore it! You can’t ignore a piece of lumber that suspends the greatest claim in history.
A crucified carpenter claiming that he is God on earth!
The cross.
It’ bottom line is sobering: if the account is true, it I histories hinge. Period.
If not it’s histories hoax.
( Max Lucado Six Hour One Friday)
On that 1st Easter morning the Kingdom of death was repossessed and hope took up the payments.
But even Easter has to start with the cross.
The Cross.
I am curious how many of you enjoy having your picture taken?
Must of us run from a camera’s flash like a cat fleeing a bath.
Pictures. They remind us what we have not accomplished. The few pounds we resoluted to lose in January are still there in the picture
They remind us how our bellies going down and hairlines going up. Most of us don’t like pics.
But tonight Matthew is taking some pictures of people at the cross. And all of you are in one of these three pictures.
No one escapes His snapshots. As we look through this photo album of the cross
WE will look for your face in one of the crowds at the cross.
The first Polaroid or picture we see Is located in the pages of Matthew 27:32
The First picture is those who…
1.) Forced to the Cross. ( 32-37 )
I WANT to hone in on verse 32 “ and they forced to carry the cross.
Simon was a common Jewish name. He was a local believer.. he was not a pagan tricked into church by a potluck dinner
He was a common believer a religious guy. He was a church goer that knew that God would send a messiah a savior.. a cross.
This picture only has one man in it. Simon a man forced to the cross.
Only one sentence announces his presence. Only 20 English words describe is encounter with the cross. In face only 14 Greek words denote his presence.
But I he the only in that picture .. I doubt it.
Some in this room tonight feel just like Simon. Forced to the Cross.
Before you turn the page in this photo album. Look for your face.
Are you here in this picture.
I always said that even the few times I went to church I became a drug addict. Because my mom and grandmother drugged me all the way there.
Some of you are forced to the cross. because of family. A Husband that feels obligated.
A mother who only comes for her children.
A preacher who has to come to get paid. Even some of us to always want o be near the cross. Some of you come out of tradition.
Others feel it makes their role in the community a little more polished!.
But everyone has one common thread that is laced thru this photo and that there are forced.
Here is one lesson we need to learn:
Out of everyone in these three photos. Simon ( the religious guy) is the closet to the cross. But is never changed by it.
That horizontal beam of God’s love was on his very back, but never in the rest of the New Testament to we hear of his conversion.
Never do we see him run home and tell his wife that he carried a cross for God.
I guess this is what we learn from this picture.
· You can be Close to the Cross, but Far from Christ.
Simon is not the only religious huckster in the photo album.
The Second picture. Is also a picture of the church goers --the religious hypocrites.
The surface believers, that touch the cross but never let the cross touch them.
The second picture is of those who were…
2.) Foolish At the Cross
This picture is found in verses 38-44
There are at least 3 different people in this picture.
- SOLDIERS
- THE CROWD
- RELIGIOUS LEADERS
And possibly you could be painted in this scene.. This are the people that make a mockery of the cross.
Some people are silent and some people are loud at their opposition to the cross
The soldiers make me think of us.
The religious. Those who claim heritage to the cross. I’m thinking of all of us. Every believer in this room.
The stuffy. The loose. The strict. The simple. The upper church. Lower church. Robes, Collars. Ties. 3 piece suits. I’m think of us.
We too like the soldiers play games at the cross.
We compete for members.
We scramble for status
So close to the timber of the cross but so far from the blood.
We huddle around the world event. And we gripe, gossip, and bicker over opinions
So close to the cross but so far from Christ
What is interesting both of the thieves on the cross next to him insulted him
We usually paint one thief green with innocence and the other black with guilt.
But Matthew’s paint brush paints both of them as Foolish at the cross.
They to were very close other cross but only one of them were changed by the cross!
From the other Gospel writer’s albums, we see that people or the crowd spit on Jesus.
To the Jews the spit of a non- Jew was considered unclean.
And would send the Jewish prisoner to his execution with out a chance to have a ceremonial cleaning.
Even the religious leaders hurled insults and quoted his own words at him. Their education and pride would not allow God to die on the cross for them
They think deep inside the cross is foolishness
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthian 1:18
“The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God”
And if you are in this photograph tonight let me remind you that Paul also said in Corinthians the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom.
A few weeks ago I told my congregation of two tombstones
Outside of Prairies Grove Arkansas.
There are two prominent tombstones -in a cemetery next to the Highway
What is odd about these tombstones.. neither one of these people have died yet..
Their names are Strickland…..
There was a picture of the lady and the man.. She was in born in 1948. He was born in 1927
Underneath there names in big letters.
Each stone…… ATHEIST
Underneath atheist, for MRS. Strickland was this statement..
"I have cared for and loved many animals”
woopy doo………………..
If that’s all you can say…..
And underneath Mr. Strickland’. It says “I am a very busy man. and I don’t have time for this.”
Could I suggest that is a foolish way to look at the cross?
In Psalm 14 and 54, It says The Fool has a said in his heart that there is no God!
The scary thing about this photo album is that all of us have probably been in the first two photos at some time in our lives!
Out of the three photos there really are only two categories of people.
Two types of people that were touched by the cross: those touched by choice and those touched by chance.
The first two photos was by chance but the last photo you can only get in by choice.
The third Photo Matthew took
Is those that were..
3.) FORGIVEN THROUGH THE CROSS
This color Polaroid is found in 45 –54
Honestly this is the only picture you want to be found in when the Risen Jesus Christ returns to the earth.
No one in the first two photos really was changed through the cross.
But in this third photo all understand the meaning of the cross.
The faces in this picture are the least likely candidates.
These faces will not be found on America’s most successful people. They will not be promoted on Cosmopolitan or Time magazines famous faces.
No people in this photo were a criminal that repented
Back in verse 44 we see he use to be in photo number 2.
But that is the grace of God. You can hope out of the two other pictures.
God only cares about the proofs look, he only cares with your gloss finishes
The criminal was the least likely candidate.
A flat nosed ex-con is asking God for eternal life.
He deserves Hell but he gets Heaven!
Only Luke’s photo album has the snapshot of the criminal asking Jesus to remember in his father’s Kingdom. And Jesus granted his request.
Why do we place less value on this picture?
Because in our world value is measured by appearance and performance.
But in God’s photo album. A person is worth something just because he is a person.
Maybe this criminal had heard the Messiah speak.
May be he had seen him love the lowly. Maybe he had watched him hang-out with punks, pickpockets and prostitutes.
Or maybe he just saw what he sees now. And what the centurion saw when he said, “Surley this was the Son of God?”
What did they see. They saw a beaten, slashed, nail-suspended preacher. His face crimson with blood.
His bones peeking through the torn flesh, his body heaving for air.
“ Any chance you could put a good word in or me? Asked the criminal
“Consider it done”
Why are we uncomfortable with that picture. A pagan ex-con and a pagan centurion saved!
Why re we unconformable with an ex-con walking the golden streets who knows more about grace than a 1,000 theologians?
Why? Don’t we like it?
I think I may know why?…………………………
One of the hardest things to do is to be saved by grace.
There’s is something in us that reacts to God’s free gift. We have some weird compulsion to create laws, and regulations. That will make us worthy of our gift?
It is pride. That keeps us out of this photo. To accept grace mean to realize we are helpless to save our selves.
If a picture paints a thousand words then the centurion and the thief got a dictionary full.
We are uncomfortable with the doctrines of substitution and imputation.
When Jesus dies on the cross did he become a sinner?
No. He became a sin offering for us. He took our place. That is the doctrine of substitution
In John Macarthur’s sermon on the ministry of reconciliation h talk about how this happens.
How people find forgiveness through the cross
Jesus lives a perfect life, so that his life would be accredited to your account.
That is the doctrine of substitution.
And all of your sins and all my sins and all the sins of every that ever lives or will ever live was imputed or charged against Jesus account.
That is the doctrine of imputation.
Let me put it this way
On the cross God treated Jesus as if he lived your life.
So that he could treat you as if you lived his.
Great doctrine of imputation. Your sins are put to his account his perfect life is accredited to your account.
(Pause.)
Max Lucado writes a lot of these words in his book “No Wonder They Call Him a Savior)
Like a master painter God reserved his masterpiece until the end.
All the earlier acts of love had been leading to this one.
God unveils the canvas and the ultimate act of creative compassion is revealed.
God on a cross.
The creator being sacrificed for the creation.
God convincing man once and for all that forgiven still follows failure.
What were the myriad of faces memories that want the his mind on the cross.
All I know is that he died to
To make room for you in the final family portrait
What photograph are you in tonight?
Those with whom were forced to the cross
Or are you in the snapshot of the foolish at the cross
If you are then you need to know God has a camera in hand. And He wants to take picture of you finding forgiveness through the cross
Conclusion: The story is of a father and his son. The two were hooked in each other pockets’ close-knit. Since mother dies of cancer a few years earlier the two grew intimate with one another.
The boy grew up to be a young man. And suddenly he was drafted into the Vietnam war.
The father’s heart was broken and lonely.
A few years had passed. The father got a report that the son had been killed in combat.
Within a few months a trance knock came to the door. It was a young man with his arm blew off. Beneath his god arm was a photo wrapped in brown paper.
The young spoke and said, Sir, you do not know me but I wanted you to know that your son, saved my life. He took the bullet so I would not have to.
And your son meant so much to me I painted this picture of your son.
The soldier handed the picture to the proud father.
The father unwrapped it to find a badly painted picture of his Son.
The father was a wealthy man that collected fine art. And he took all his Picasso and Vango painting down and placed the picture of his son in the middle.
Years went by and the father grew old and weak. And died.
There was to be an auction of his house and people from all over the world came to his estate auction to bid on all of this Picasso paintings.
The auctioneer started the auction with the painting of the young son
And growns swept across the crowd. Saying, get on with the good stuff, take nasty worthless piece down.
And the auctioneer ignored and said, “Who will make the first bid a dollar a dollar two.”
Up from the back came the old gardner and asked if he could buy it.
For he had seen the boy grow up his whole life.
The gardner bought the picture and began to walk down the aisle with the picture tucked beneath his arms.
And the auctioneer slammed down the mallet and said sorry folks the auction is over.
In the Will it reads, “ whoever has the Son, gets it all.”
God the father said that, whoever gets the picture of his one and only son that was killed for you gets it All! And He desires to take your picture of finding forgivness at the cross
READY? Say Cheese!...........
TO THE READER: SO I CAN BETTER HELP YOU, IF THIS SERMON WAS NOT HELPFUL AND YOU CLICK "NO" BELOW, LET ME KNOW WHAT IT LACKED OR WHY IT DID NOT HELP. CONTACT ME AT NEWLIFE@NCKCN.COM ( I CAN TAKE CRITICISM :0) )
OR YOU CAN SEARCH BY CONTRIBUTOR "JOHNSON" AND CONTACT ME THERE. THANK-YOU!
Ps. Most people have liked this message. Could you tell me what it is.. so I can post more like this one.
