You Nailed Jesus To The Cross

Prior to the sermon we looked at the following bible passages as part of the service of nails...(for more details contact me), to highlight some sins:

ISAIAH 52:13-15

MARK 12:38-40

MATTHEW 26:47-56

MATTHEW 27:20-24

MATTHEW 20:20-28

MATTHEW 27:27-31, 39-42

LUKE 6:22,32-36

Act of confession

Isaiah 53:4-6

God’s forgiveness

Isaiah 53:7-13

Today we have looked at scripture to highlight some of the things that nailed Jesus to the cross;

• Pride

• Betrayal

• Envy

• Indecision

• Cruelty

• Hatred

Think about it for a moment, which ones have you committed recently (a few moments to reflect)

There are some things to remember about this list of sins…..

The first is that these sins are not just something that happened way back then

they are not just limited to the time Jesus lived and died

they continue to be committed today

and we probably commit each of these sins in one way or another!

Secondly the list of our sins is a lot larger than this list….

All sins nail Jesus to the cross

So as we were putting this worship order together…I thought briefly of including as many sins as I could possibly think of

but the thought was only brief….

as I could see us still here on

Easter Monday and still going strong

So what are some of the sins we are committing today?

There are many

A good approach is to look at your life, not someone else’s

Your life

Then compare them to the ten commandments…

Many people think that they sin only when they do the wrong thing

like stealing… killing… committing adultery and this is how most of our laws work….

if you do something wrong you deserve to be punished

This leads to a narrow view of sin.

The view that sinning only occurs when you do something wrong…..

So some people opt to sit back and do nothing, believing that if they do nothing they have no hope of sinning

Well God’s got news for you

Do you know anyone like this?

I had a boss who once told me that the most dangerous thing for me to do in a particular job was to say Yes…because if I said Yes it meant I had to do something and there is a chance I would get it right but there is also a chance that something would go wrong…on the other hand if I was to say no….I wouldn’t have to do anything and nothing could go wrong…, and then he said with a smirk….but of course nothing would ever happen.

And when we look at Martin Luther’s explanations to the Ten Commandments, which are simply summaries of scripture

we discover that of course we sin when we do the wrong thing…

but this is only partly the story…..

We also sin when we avoid doing the right thing….

In short we sin when we avoid showing love to God and love to our neighbour

To see how this works lets have a quick look at the seventh commandment in Martin Luther’s Small Catechism…

not only does it say you shall not steal…that we should not take our neighbour’s money or possessions, or get them in any dishonest way

it also says we are to help our neighbours improve and protect his possessions and income.

Many of us would probably say that we have never stolen a thing from anybody….but how many of us could say that we have always helped our neighbours improve and protect what is theirs…have we always followed Paul’s command in Philippians 2:4, to not only look out for our own interests but also the interests of others.

When was the last time you stopped to help someone?

Frequently we are totally concerned about ourselves….

about protecting and improving our possessions and income…..

justifying that we have worked hard for what we have

this becomes wrong when we do it to such an extent that we use it to justify why we don’t have to help others

when we place I in the centre of our world

By the way you know what else I is the centre of….SIN

When we do this we forget about our neighbours and forget about helping them survive and improve their situation in life. This is not a new problem…it also existed back in the times of the early church…listen to Paul writing to the Galatians:

13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.

Just think for a moment about the people around you….

how could you help them protect their income and possessions?

What could you do to help someone improve their quality of life?

Silence for a few seconds

and when you do this….