What Can The Cross Do For Me?
July 17 2005
Jesus tells us in Matthew 16: 24-26 24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what shall a man be profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? or what shall a man give in exchange for his life? How many times have we read that verse and never thought about what Jesus really meant. Did He mean that we are to literally take up a physical cross drape across our shoulders and follow Him? We sure would stand out in the crowd if we did that. People would with out a doubt be aware of us and know that something is going on with us. But Jesus was not talking about us taking up a physical cross and carrying it around wherever we go. The cross He is talking about here is spiritual in nature.
I once had a young man come to me and we were talking about God. And as we were discussing the crucifixion he made the comment that he did not understand what all the hoop la was about the cross it had never done anything for him. That people is what the world thinks about the cross and if they saw Christians hauling a cross around on their shoulders they would think that we had gone off the deep end and that we all needed to be committed. We would not be able to function in society and we could not be effective witnesses for Christ. People could not take us seriously if we walked around dragging a cross behind us. When this young man stated this to me is sat down next to Him and said the Cross has done a lot for you. And he replied show me what it has done it has done nothing for me.
Brother and sisters there are Christians today that don’t take seriously what happened on the cross. To them those events are not important but I want you to know that the cross is important and it can teach us many things about being a true disciple of God. As I said last Sunday Jesus does not call anyone to be pew sitters, bench warmers, nay sayers, Jesus has called everyone of us to a ministry. And He expects each of us to be faithful to that ministry and to bear fruit. I want you remember what happened to the fruit tree. Jesus walked under it to pick some fruit and it had none and Our Lord said “ never bear fruit again and the tree withered and died at that moment” Understand that Jesus reserved His harshest judgment for that which was not fruitful. But this morning I want to take a look at what the cross and teach us about being the best disciples we can be.
C first the letter c teaches us that before we can become disciples of Christ we first must be convicted by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit must convict us of our sins. We must come to realize that we are sinners in God’s eyes and that if were to die today we would bust Hell wide open with Jesus Christ. Only then can we come to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us that we are sinners and that the only way to salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ and nothing else. Once we have done that then we must have conviction to let the Holy Spirit lead every aspect of our life. We can not keep any part of our life separate from Jesus. Every waking moment must be filled with Jesus. The Holy Spirit must indwell every nook and cranny of our being. We must not hold anything back. John 8:9 says 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
If we are truly being lead by the Holy Spirit we will be convicted when we do something wrong. And we will listen to that still small voice and follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. Today it is not acceptable to us that we turn over the control of our lives to anyone or anything else. We want to be able to do things the way we want to do them, when we want to do them and where we want to do them. But to be a disciple we must give up our freedom and submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Brother David is not saying this but God is saying this. So once we are convicted than what happens what can the cross teach me now.
R Romans 2:4 says 4Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, 6who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: 7eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; 8but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, 9tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; God is serious. Once we are convicted of our sins then we must repent of our sins. Now the word repent has THREE GREEK WORDS USED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT TO DENOTE REPENTANCE.
(1.) The verb metamelomai is used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily a change of heart. This word is used with reference to the repentance of Judas (Matt. 27:3).
Metanoeo, meaning to change one’s mind and purpose, as the result of after knowledge.
This verb, with the cognate noun metanoia, is used of true repentance, a change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission of sin is promised.
Evangelical repentance consists of (1) a true sense of one’s own guilt and sinfulness; (2) an apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ; (3) an actual hatred of sin. As you can see the six letter word repent has a big meaning. We must have remorse for our sin and then we are to change our way of life once we have been convicted of our sin. But so many of us will be convicted of our sin ask God to forgive us and then go right back and continue with the very same thing. We don’t change our life after we are convicted we keep doing the same thing. The reason why we struggle with the same sins over and over again is because we don’t allow the Holy Spirit to have full control over our lives. We want to hold back that one little part for ourselves and that one little part often lead us right back to our favorite sin. Remember in the original language the word repent meant for us to first feel remorse and then to give it up, throw it away, turn from, change our lives so that we are no longer tempted by that sin and the only way for that to happen is for us to surrender completely to Jesus Christ.
O And the only way we can truly repent is to be obedient to the word of God. The O in the word cross teaches us that only through obedience can we allow the Holy Spirit to lead us. Obedience actually means to hear God’s Word and act accordingly. The word translated “obey” in the Old Testament means “to hear” and is often so translated. In the New Testament, several words describe obedience. One word means “to hear or to listen in a state of submission.” Another New Testament word often translated “obey” means “to trust.”
The person’s obedient response to God’s Word is a response of trust or faith. Thus, to really hear God’s Word is to obey God’s Word. God’s word says in 1 Peter 1:14 14as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance. We are no longer to do that which in ignorance we had done before. We now know better and because of this knowledge we are to obey God’s word. No longer can we say well it is just a small sin it want hurt anything. Wrong it will at least hurt you and maybe more. If we are true disciples of God we will trust in His Word and have faith in Him and let the Holy Spirit lead us.
S But I want you to understand just because we have been convicted and we have repented of our sins, and we are obeying God that does not mean that everything will be fine and we will live life happily ever after, wrong. There will be times that we will suffer and stumbling blocks will be set in our path. 2 Tim. 3:12 says 12Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Yes we will suffer but Jesus says that we are to continue to live our Christian lives with the assurance of our salvation. That no matter what happens to us our salvation can never ever be taken away from us. But you know it is hard to continue living our lives for Christ when Satan and his demons begin to attack us, when life’s stumbling block falls into our paths and that is why the word cross has a second s in it.
S You see God realizes that our strength is not enough. That we must have his strength to continue on in our Christian life to face this world. Philippians 4:13 gives us the keys to the kingdom when it says 13I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. How marvelous is it that our God so loved us that He provided a way for us to get His strength to draw on Him. We never ever have to do anything alone again. Everything that we do we do with the strength of God. Nothing on this world need ever to cause us fear again because through Jesus Christ everything is possible. Is everything possible for you today. If not then you need to listen to that convicting voice that is whispering in your ear today. God is working here this morning somebody is hearing that voice. Someone is being convicted today the only question is are you going to repent and obey God’s call. I don’t know what the Holy Spirit is convicting you of today but I know that someone is being pulled, that someone has been suffering. Jesus wants you know that there is a never ending pool of strength that is yours to draw upon just for the asking but first you must surrender all to Him. Don’t leave here today without surrendering today.
