The Power of the Cross Series – Part 4
“In Thanksgiving”
November 24, 2002
10:30 AM
Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they wouldn’t make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Put up a prayer, John. We’re in for it!" John answered, "I can’t. I’ve never made a public prayer in my life." "But you must!" implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us." "All right," panted John, "I’ll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: ’O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.’"
The Bible tells us “in everything give thanks!”
For believers who live with identification of the Cross of Jesus Christ a life of thanksgiving is a natural attitude of life because of the power of God at work in them.
Let’s look at the text again:
1 Cor 1:17-18
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel-- not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (NIV)
Thanksgiving flows from those who identify with the Cross because of …
I. The Power of the Cross in Redemption
1 Pet 1:18-19
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (NIV)
3084 lutroo (loo-tro’-o) means to ransom
it speaks of a redemptive price for the purpose of setting the object of redemption free – loosen.
· This redemption is real not symbolic:
The ransom/price was paid thru the shame and cruelty of a Roman cross of crucifixion.
Remember not only did he bear our sin but also our shame!
In her classic autobiography The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells of a time when she and her sister were forced to take off all their clothes during Nazi inspections at a death camp.
Corrie stood in line feeling forsaken and defiled.
Suddenly, she remembered that Jesus had hung naked on the cross.
Struck with wonder and worship during that seemingly forsaken moment, Corrie leaned forward and whispered to her sister: “Betsie, they took His clothes too.”
Betsie gasped and said, “Oh, Corrie, and I never thanked Him.”
· This Redemption is from an empty way of life
KJV – Vain
NIV – Empty
Greek profitless – unsuccessful
Jesus – “what does it profit a man if he gains the whole
world and lose his soul”
Life is filled with vain (empty) chasing after the wind – Without Christ we will pursue happiness and never find it!
Passage speaks pointed at the vainness/emptiness of religion.
“Handed down to you from your forefathers” –
Second hand religion is useless!
Second Hand religion is empty!
Second hand religion is powerless!
It is only by personal experience that the power of cross is released in your life! YOU must be born again. YOU must knee at cross personally, individual and accept that that cross was yours.
When you personally identify with the cross the impact of redemption will overwhelm you and it’s power will over flow in Thanksgiving from your lips and life.
Thanksgiving flows from those who identify with the Cross because of …
II. The Power of the Cross in Renovation
Look with me at 2 Cor. 5 that speaks of the power of the cross that renovates or transforms us.
2 Cor 5:14-17
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (NIV)
The power of the cross is displayed in the transformation of our lives!
· We no longer live for ourselves but him
World what’s in it for me
Believer what’s in it for him
· We no longer regard men from a world point of view
World - Fascination with the temporal
Believer - Fixated on the eternal
· We are a new creation
Same shell (body) transformed on the inside
The story is told that when Augustine was still without God and without hope, the Holy Spirit convicted him on the basis of Paul’s words in Rom 13:14 … clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (NIV) Augustine acknowledged his sinfulness, accepted Jesus as his Savior, and became a different person. His entire outlook on life began to change because of his new nature. One day he had to attend to some business in his old haunts in Rome. As he walked along, a former companion saw him and began calling, “Augustine, Augustine, it is I!” He took one look at the poor, disreputable woman whose company he had formerly enjoyed, and he shuddered. Reminding himself of his new position in Christ, he quickly turned and ran from her, shouting, “It’s not I! It’s not I!” Augustine had found the secret of Paul’s words: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”(Gal 2:20) Our Daily Bread, Thursday, April 29
When you personally identify with the cross it’s transforming power will change you and from your lips and life will flow thanksgiving and praise.
Finally, Thanksgiving flows from those who identify with the Cross because of …
III. The Power of the Cross in providing the Resurrection.
Go back with to a text we examined earlier in this series:
Rom 6:1-5
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. (NIV)
The longing for everlasting life is ancient.
The pyramids & Egyptian culture testify of it
God has placed eternity in the heart of every man
Belief in the bodily resurrection woven throughout the OT
Job said: “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And…in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25,26).
Daniel declared, “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
But in is only through the cross of Jesus Christ that this promise has become reality.
And some day the power of the cross with be displayed in you as:
· The perishable becomes imperishable
Perishable is that that is subject to decay
Our bodies are subject to decay
Outward we are wasting away
But the resurrected body will be bullet proof not only to decay but also to every source of pain. (Rev. 21:4)
· The mortal becomes immortal
To be mortal is to be subject to death
Immortal athanasia (ath-an-as-ee’-ah) is deathlessness
Not only will the resurrected body be bullet proof to decay but also death will never again have power over it! (Rev. 20:14)
When you personally identify with the cross and realize the promise of the resurrection your heart will be bursting with thanksgiving and praise.
Close with the following:
There was a man who served as a medical missionary for many years in India.
He served in an area where there was progressive blindness.
People were born with healthy vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their sight as they matured.
Well, this medical missionary developed a process that would stop progressive blindness.
So people came to him and he performed his operation, and they would leave realizing that they would have become blind…
…but now they were going to be able to see for the rest of their lives.
The people never said: “Thank you,” to this missionary because that phrase was not in their dialect. They don’t have a word for it.
Instead, they spoke a word that meant: “I will tell your name.”
Wherever they went, they would tell the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness.
If your life has been touched by the Power of the Cross – the greatest act of thanksgiving is to tell of his name and to tell of his work of the Cross.
ALTAR CALL
Do you have second handed religion?
Faith of your fathers or your faith?
Have you personally knelt at the cross?
End giving Thanksgiving & Praise “Lord I Lift your Name on High” (from the cross to the grave from the grave to the sky …)
