Sermon Tone Analysis

Magnify the Cross of Jesus Christ!

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared November 28, 2022)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 20:17.

In this verse of Scripture, Jesus has started His trip to Jerusalem to die on the cross for our sins.

And by the beginning of the next chapter, the Lord will be on the outskirts of the city less than a week before the cross.

*Of course, the cross was on our Savior's mind, and in vs. 17-19 God's Word says:

17.

Then Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them,

18. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death,

19. and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

And the third day He will rise again.''

*There is a sad contrast in this section of Matthew.

In our last study we covered the Lord's parable of the laborers in the vineyard and how those who were hired early in the day grumbled at the landowners grace, because he paid the same amount to those who were hired much later.

That parable was prompted by Peter's question in Matthew 19:27.

"Then Peter answered and said to Him, 'See, we have left all and followed You.

Therefore what shall we have?'''

*In our next study we will see the disciples furious again about which of them would get to be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The disciples were all focused on what they wanted to get.

Jesus was focused on what He was about to give: His life on the cross for our sins!

It was a sad contrast between selfishness and sacrifice.

*We all have a natural tendency to think more about what we can get, than what we can give.

But in today's Scripture we will magnify the cross of Jesus Christ.

And through the cross we will find the greatest things anyone can ever get.

Please think about the cross, as again I read Matthew 20:17-19.

MESSAGE:

*Timothy Peck once said, "My wife committed her life to Jesus Christ while she was a junior in high school.

Shortly after she became a Christian, she had a discussion with a friend who was a Jehovah's Witness.

They talked about whether or not a Christian should wear a cross.

*Her friend reasoned that since the cross was the way Jesus was executed, it was totally inappropriate for someone who claimed to be a follower of Jesus to wear one.

She said, 'If your brother was killed in a drive-by shooting, you wouldn't wear a silver assault rifle.

If one of your ancestors had been lynched you wouldn't wear a gold noose.'"

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*It may seem odd to some people, but Christians, we glorify the cross of Jesus Christ!

As Paul said in Galatians 6:14, "God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. .

."

*Here in Matthew 20, the suffering and death of our Lord were drawing near.

In these moments, the Lord magnified His cross, and so should we.

1. MAGNIFY THE CROSS FIRST, BECAUSE IT WAS GOD'S PERFECT PLAN.

*Again in vs. 17-19, "Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify.

And the third day He will rise again.'''

*Jesus knew what was coming.

Nothing takes Him by surprise.

He didn't stumble into the cross.

From the beginning, the cross was God's plan to save the lost.

Psalm 33:11 in the NKJV says, "The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations."

*And the crucial key in God's plan was the cross of Jesus Christ.

In Acts 4:24-28, the church was under the pressure of growing persecution, and they cried out to God in prayer, saying:

24.

"Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them,

25. who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: 'Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things?

26. the kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.'

27.

For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together

28. to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done."

*In 2 Timothy 1:8-10, Paul confirmed that God had planned the cross from before the beginning of time.

Here the Apostle said, "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

*Before time began, God planned to give us the grace we have in Jesus Christ, and He planned to give it through the cross.

God always had a plan for Jesus to die on the cross.

And Jesus is the Lamb of God who planned to sacrifice His life, so that we could be saved and protected by His blood.

2. MAGNIFY THE CROSS, BECAUSE IT WAS GOD'S PERFECT PLAN.

AND MAGNIFY THE CROSS, BECAUSE IT CONFIRMS GOD'S PROPHECIES.

*The cross of Jesus Christ confirms to us that the Bible is a one-of-a-kind, miraculous book that told us things to come hundreds of years before they happened.

*Mark and Luke's Gospels shed more light on today's Scripture.

Luke 18:31 says, "Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.'"

*The suffering and death of Christ on the cross were not only planned, they were prophesied.

God doesn't just know the future.

He has revealed it to us through His Word.

What a miracle for us to see!

*Some people pretend to see into the future.

James Merritt told about a fortune teller in England who stopped a preacher one day.

Not knowing he was a preacher, the fortune teller said she would tell his future for $500.

The preacher replied, "You mean you can tell me what I will be doing a year from now if I give you $500?"

*The fortune teller said, "I can tell you exactly what you will be doing a year from now."

The pastor then said, "If you will tell me what I was doing this time yesterday, I will give you a thousand."

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*That ended the meeting.

Some people pretend to see into the future, but God has surely revealed the future in His Word.

Josh McDowell tells us that the Old Testament contains over 300 references to the Messiah that have already been fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

The odds of that happening were impossible, but all of those prophecies were fulfilled.

And one day, the rest of them will be fulfilled too!

*No wonder then that in John 5:39, Jesus said this to the unbelieving Jews, "Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."

*Luke 24 tells us about the day Jesus rose again from the dead.

That evening, Jesus appeared to the disciples.

And at first they were terrified.

They thought Jesus was a ghost.

But He calmed them down, and invited them to touch Him.

The Lord even ate with them.

*Then in Luke 24:44-47 Jesus said,

44. . .

"These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.''

45.

And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

46.

Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,

47. and that repentance and remission (or forgiveness) of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

*Jesus had already told them "that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning" Him.

But that night, Jesus "opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."

That must have taken a while, because we could spend many weeks studying about Jesus in the Old Testament.

*Here are just a few of the ways Jesus is seen in the Old Testament:

*In Psalm 22, a thousand years before Jesus was born, God gave us a preview of His death on the cross.

In vs. 1 we hear Jesus on the cross as He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

And in Psalm 22:16-18 we hear the Lord say, "The assembly of the wicked has enclosed Me.

They pierced My hands and My feet.

I can count all My bones.

They look and stare at Me.