The Cross of Salvation

Intro

Our entire message today revolves around us looking at the 1/2 truth that is uttered by those that hate Jesus

This verse is found in Luke 23:35 “35 The people stood watching, and even the leaders were scoffing: “He saved others; let him save himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!””

The reason this is a half-truth leads to the fact that Jesus was the Messiah, and by his very actions in these verses he proves their statement both correct and incorrect

The correct way to reword that half-truth would be this

He saves others by not saving himself; for he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One

So how do we see Jesus saving others by being lead out to the cross and dying?

Ministering to the Crowds (v.28-31)

As Jesus is lead out after being beaten, the crowds follow behind him weeping

These crowds were not really for the death of Jesus, but the religious leadership was and were the ones that killed Jesus

So while Jesus was heading to his death, the people were mourning his loss

Yet, as Jesus knows he is heading to his death, he sees these people and has compassion on them

He says, weeping daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but for yourselves!

There will be terrible days coming, where even the blessing of a child will be considered as a curse!

It will be so bad that you will wish that death would take you

And he ends with a bit of a riddle on if they do these things to the green wood, what will happen with the wood is dry?

In essence, Jesus is pointing to the fact that he is innocent and is the green wood

Green wood does not really smoke, it is hard to burn, to destroy

Yet, if the fire is hot enough that even green wood is being burned, what about dry wood?

This goes back to the earlier warnings in Luke about the consequences of rejecting the Messiah

This also points to the fact that Jesus is not preoccupied with his death, for he understands there is great meaning within his death

Jesus’ death is bound in the redemptive plan of God, and so there will be an Easter Sunday

Yet, Jerusalem will face judgement for reject the Messiah as he entered Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey, and this grieved Jesus

Yet, this was also not a set in stone thing, there was an appeal to repent, as Jesus’ death was not the end, people could escape to Jesus the horror that would befall Jerusalem in 70AD seige by Rome

The Romans attempted to starve the Jews into submission, and the hungry men defending their city took food fro their wives and children, and even resorted to cannibalism

It reminds us that there can be no forgiveness without humility, the religious leaders refused to accept Jesus, and so they brought judgement on themselves, while bringing about salvation for everyone!

Enduring the Cross and its Shame (v.35-38)

The second point we see is that Jesus is shown to be the Messiah by enduring the cross and its shame!

The religious leaders mocked him for dying, as well as the Romans, for being the ‘King of the Jews” that was dying of capital punishment

On top of this, another of the criminals had the same thought, if you are the Messiah save us by removing us from this predicament! He just wants God on his own terms too!

Hebrews 12:2 “2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

What did Jesus do to earn this scorn?

He preached the same gospel from the Old Testament, that the humble would be exalted and the mighty would be humbled

He earned the scorn of the religious leaders for calling them hypocrites for adding to God’s word, and adding to the people’s burden in following God

He stood opposed to the systems that kept the Religious leaders in well to do places and seats of honor, rather than serving the people on behalf of God

Finally, it was part of God’s plan, to use the wicked hearts of the religious leaders to bring about a great redemption for us

Even at Jesus’ temple coronation, Mary was told that a sword would pierce her heart, that is fulfilled here

In fact, the cross has been central to Luke’s narrative, he has repeatedly told his disciples he must die, and he must go to Jerusalem, and here he finds himself abandoned, alone, and soon to be murdered in perhaps the most cruel way to ever be devised

We are told this about Jesus and the cross in that verse in Hebrews 12 we just mentioned, that for the joy that lay before him he took the shame and ridicule

What possible joy could outweigh the shame of the cross and it’s excruciating pain?

The joy of many sons and daughters coming to be part of Jesus’ kingdom, of us being restored to God as we should we should also rejoice!

You see the scorn that Jesus took upon himself, was all due to us!

We deserved those ridicules, and we deserve what innocent Jesus received

This is one of the reasons that self-loathing is so easy for us, it’s a way the devil wants to get us self-loathing ourselves, thinking we are terrible people for doing xyz

Yet, in light of what Jesus did for us, and the shame he bore for us, we have nothing to be ashamed

As we sang in the song today: “It was my sin that held him there, until it was accomplished!”

The accomplishment we sing was our salvation, in which our sin, our shame, our unrighteousness was thrown upon Christ, and made us right with God

Not only did Jesus take the scorn that was not deserved, he also showed the results of his death before he even died

Forgiving the Contemptible (v. 32-34, 40-43)

If we go back a bit to verse 32 we find out that Jesus will not be killed alone, but there are going to be two criminals killed with Jesus

Amid the executions we see Jesus pray this incredible prayer

Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing!

They don’t know they are killing the Messiah, God’s son, they are oblivious to the level of their crime

Yet it also shows that Jesus really modeled what he talked, he taught us to love and pray for those who persecute us, and we see both in action as the Romans and Religious Leaders seek to destroy Jesus in the most inhumane way possible

Peter would later write this about Jesus’ death: 1 Peter 2:22-23 “22 He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth; 23 when he was insulted, he did not insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.”

While one of criminals was casting shame and scorn upon him, the other realized his need for a savior

It took quite the crime to be crucified as it does for someone to get the death penalty today

So this criminal knew that Jesus was innocent, he could see Jesus had done nothing wrong

So he said, I can’t do anything on my own, so I will trust Jesus, if he is the Messiah, remember me in your kingdom

Jesus responds with today you will be with me in Paradise!

This criminal that wants to be saved, is saved because Jesus does not save himself!

In fact this criminal shows more faith than any of Jesus’ disciples, they didn’t believe in Christ having a kingdom, they saw him broken, beaten, and dying

In Luke 24 we see his disciples say “We had hoped that he was the one that would redeem Israel”, the criminal looked and said remember me!

By all human reasoning the kingdom was finished as Jesus died on the cross, yet the faith of this criminal is great!

Application

The application of this is quite straightforward, and I think shown by the very first person in this story, Simon the Cyrene

Cyrene is in modern day Libya, and he would of been traveling for the passover feast

He was brought into forced following of Jesus by Rome, but walked away changed man

By all accounts he and his family become part of the church and show us the very real statement of Jesus

Mt. 16:24 “24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

Simon is the first person to do this

Mark tells us in his account that Simon is the father of Alexander and Rufus, and Paul greets Rufus in Romans 16.

Simon is becomes the example for us

He was simply coming in from the field, and some Roman guard grabs him and conscripts him into something he doesn’t want to do

So the Simon Peter that declared he would follow Jesus to death was nowhere to be found, but even here at his death, Jesus was drawing people to himself

We don’t know when Simon became a Christian, it might of been at Pentecost when there were people from Cyrene that heard Peter’s sermon

The divine appointment was something he would not of chose for himself, but it was something that God did for him

We all have an equal divine appointment with Jesus, when we come face to face with him

Simon might of been coming in for the regular 9am prayer time, but God redirected his path to meet his son, and see his death, at the hand of a pagan Roman soldier

When was that moment that you came face to face with Jesus?

What brought you to that point?

Story of my conversion

Story of my Brother’s conversion

Story of Tabitha’s conversion

Her brother Joshua was baptized and asked Tabitha if she wanted to be saved

Dad’s Conversion

CYC Joliet had a Jewish gymnast come and share his testimony

He was the same age as my dad, and my dad showed up to play sports and was not interested in hearing from God

Then this guy walks in and has almost the exact same experiences, family life, likes and dislikes, loved sports, etc

My dad heard the gospel many times, after all CYC stands for Christian Youth Center

He even sat in the back by the door, planning on not staying, but he said, he couldn’t get up, it was like he was glued to the chair

So that day my Dad came to Christ

For the criminal on the cross it was his looming death

For the most angry atheist and ardent blasphemer!

God can oft use unexpected and difficult situations, or even humiliating situations to bring people to him!

So it comes back to what we said earlier, that the gospel action is hidden in plan sight: It is because Jesus did not come off that cross that our salvation was won

He saves others by not saving himself; for he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One

So I plead with you today, if you are humble enough to come and confess your sins and turn from them, calling on the name of the Lord, God will forgive you of your sin and robe you in his righteousness and heaven will be your home

This is what we call the Gospel. It is good news for criminals on the cross, and people trying to skate by with morality, it is never too late to turn to the good news of Jesus

So if you are not a Christian, or unsure, put your faith in him today! Call on the name of the Lord for the forgiveness of your sins and you will be delivered from your sins!

Now Christian,

You who has already accepted the good news, have already humbled yourself and desire to carry your cross each day, do not act like you are superior because of your humility

Do not be haughty in your self-righteousness towards those outside the faith!

We must remember where we came from, but by God’s grace we would still be lost!

Yet, God has claimed us and changed us, and allowed us to see the truth of the Gospel

So we live a new life, in humble obedience to Jesus, and his guidance in our lives!