The Cross

Matthew 16:24 NKJV

24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Jesus gives us a certain picture here in this second command. He says that we are to take up our cross. Now, you may know the story of Jesus well enough to know that soon after this moment, it would be Jesus taking up His cross and carrying it to the place of His own death. The cross was a common and horrific Roman death instrument, one that Jesus willingly died on for the penalty of our sins. If you are looking for Good News today, that’s it! But, does Jesus mean that we are to go find some wood, make it into a cross, and carry it around? No. Jesus is using this statement metaphorically to illustrate some powerful truths. Let’s unpack them together today. Taking up our own cross means…

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down! Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross ~ Isaac Watts 1707

As we gather to sing, to praise, to worship. For prayer and reflection I observe the Cross…. Not the beautiful cross we have on display but the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross as the most severe form of execution known to man…. The cross upon which my savior willingly suffered for me. The cross upon which the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords hung, suffered and died. The cross upon which Jesus the sacrificial lamb of God…. The lion of Judah and the Root of David became my sins…. He bore those sins and suffered judgment in my place. The cross and the blood of Jesus as the sin sacrifice demanded by God and freely given by God…. Sins bore by a perfect savior as He hang slowly dying becoming our sins. This cross ….. this sacrifice it DEMANDS from each of us surrender, obedience and submission!

1 Peter 3:18 (NKJV)

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive (quickened) by the Spirit,

I. The Purpose of the Cross

Simply put the purpose of the cross is death!!!

Reason number one: There’s the substitutionary purpose of the cross. Look in this verse again: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins,”

Now God forgives sin, but how does God forgive sin? He must do it with a substitute. There must be somebody who pays the penalty for sin. God cannot just overlook sin. If God were to overlook sin, God would no longer be a holy God any more than a judge would be a righteous judge if he were to overlook a crime. If God were to simply overlook sin without sin being punished, God would topple from His throne of holiness.

God is holy. “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” (Revelation 4:8) And that word holy means that God is the opposite, God is the antithesis, of sin. God is a righteous and a holy God. And sin must be punished. God cannot overlook sin, so God must punish sin. But not only is God holy; God is love. So God must have a way that He can have sin punished and yet have us forgiven.

Now we are sinful by birth. We are sinful by nature. We are sinful by practice. The world rejects the idea of sin. You don’t hear much about sin anymore. You read the newspapers, and you read about rape, you read about pornography, you read about drunkenness, you read about drug addiction, you read about all kinds of mayhem; but the word sin is hardly mentioned. God, who is infinite love, has a holy hatred for sin. So God had in His heart and His mind a plan by which sin could be punished and yet man could be forgiven—and that method is substitution.

Now God had prophesied the cross many, many years before Jesus died on the cross. There was a man named Abraham. God has now taught His people about the Passover lamb, and thousands and thousands of lambs were sacrificed by the Jews.

There came that week of the crucifixion, the week of Passover. Jesus is coming into the city of Jerusalem over the brow of the Mount of Olives, up through the Eastern Gate, and they’re shouting, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! Glory to God! Hallelujah! Hosanna!” Jesus, the Lamb of God, riding a donkey, is going through the Eastern Gate.

And then, at three o’clock in the afternoon, they took those Passover lambs that pictured substitution, and the priest would lift up the chin and draw that knife under the chin, and that blood would spurt out of those Passover lambs. At three o’clock in the afternoon, they are nailing the Lamb of God to the cross—at the same time, on the same mountain where God had said to Abraham, “God will provide himself a sacrifice.” (Genesis 22:8) Do you think all of this is happenstance—that all of this just happened like that? It’s clockwork. It’s an amazing thing. And Jesus, the Lamb of God, bows His head in agony and blood, and says, “Tetelestai. It is finished. It is paid in full.” (John 19:30) “Levitical priests, you can go home now.” “Passover shepherds, we don’t need you now.” “It is done. It is finished. The plan is done.” God is teaching substitution: the just for the unjust.

Now I want you to imagine the scene. They take Jesus and they nail Him to the central cross. That’s why in our monument the central cross is the highest: because there’s no greater love. There were two thieves on either side. But those crosses were really put up for three thieves—the two thieves who were crucified and Barabbas. It was Barabbas’ cross. I want you to imagine the scene. A soldier with a torch goes down a narrow corridor in a dingy Roman jail. He comes to a certain cell. He puts in his big key. Back there in the back of that cell, on the ground, on a mat of straw, is a man whose face is the very mirror of evil. He cringes back. The guard comes and puts the torch in his face and says, “You! Barabbas, get up! It’s time!” Barabbas says, “No! No! Please! I don’t want to go!” And he cringes back, and the guard says, “Barabbas, would you be quiet? You are the luckiest, the most fortunate individual I’ve ever known. Barabbas, you’re not going to die. You’re not going to be crucified, Barabbas. I don’t understand it. Come out here, you rascal. I want to show you something. Look over there on that hill. Barabbas, look! You see those three crosses? See the man on the middle cross? Look at Him, Barabbas. That cross was made for you. We could hardly wait to nail you up there. But Pilate says you are going to go free. That man up there, whoever He is, is dying in your place.”

Now I don’t know whether Barabbas ever got saved or not. I don’t know. But isn’t it wonderful how God arranges the whole thing so we can learn and see the lesson of substitution? Now you say, “Christ died for me.” And that is true. Say it, and keep saying it. But may I ask you to tweak it just a little bit, and change it just a little bit, and say this to yourself today: “Christ died instead of me.” That’s what it is. The purpose of the cross is one of substitution. If we could only learn that it is! You see, Barabbas was a thief. We are thieves. We’re meant to be God’s stewards, and we have failed. Barabbas was a rebel. We’re meant to be God’s servants, and we have failed. Barabbas was a murderer. And we ourselves have put the Son of God to ignominious death. He was a prisoner. We ourselves are bound with sin. He represents all of us.

Look at it again in verse 18: “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust” (1 Peter 3:18)—the substitutionary purpose of the cross. Now liberals don’t like the idea of the substitution of the cross. They think that Jesus died as an example or as a martyr. He did not. He died as a substitute.

Now for the christian what does it mean to take up your cross: remember it is an instrument of death: something has to die, what is that:

our will

our plans

our agenda

our traditions

our desires

our fleshly nature

our pursuits

and they must be replaced or substituted with God’s Will, God’s plan, God’s agenda, the Doctrine of God, the Desires of God, the nature of God, the pursuits of God!!!

And we must choose to carry that instrument of death and choose, in submission, to allow the Holy Spirit to put to death those things in us that need to be replaced with the things of God!

II. The Suffering of the Cross

Here’s the second thing: I want you to see in this verse not only the substitutionary purpose of the cross, but I want you to see the suffering passion of the cross. Look at the verse again: “For Christ also hath once suffered.” (1 Peter 3:18) Jesus suffered on that cross. Don’t miss this: He “hath once suffered.” God suffered! Tongue cannot tell, and throat cannot sing, and pen cannot write, heart cannot understand the suffering of our Lord Jesus upon that cross. Sin brings suffering—and unless you have a substitute, you will suffer for your sin. He was becoming sin as God was pouring out his wrath upon that substitutional sacrifice that Jesus Christ offered!

For us also we must suffer but not count it as loss but gain! To boast in the sufferings so that Jesus may be exalted! To allow God, through the Word and Holy Spirit to bring us comfort, to be our Provision- Jehovah Jirah, to be Our Healer Jehovah Rapha! To rest in the sufficiency of His Grace as it is sufficient in all things! Praise HIs holy name, in the midst of carrying the cross and dying to self, in the midst of the emotional sufferings and surrendering to God Praise His name He is sufficient and He giveth Joy even in the deepest darkest times and situations!

A. The Emotional Suffering of Christ

Think of the emotional sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Luke 22, verse 41, and look at it. It speaks of dark Gethsemane. Jesus is facing the cross. And it says this: “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast …”—so how far could you throw a stone? Maybe as far as from here to the back of the auditorium, if you could throw that far. Some of us couldn’t—“he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” Now, watch this: “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:41–44)—not just oozing out, actually dripping great drops of blood. The very blood of the Son of God is profusely falling on the ground. I’ve read about this in medical books. In a time of great duress, the minute capillaries will rupture. And in a time of great stress, this is possible—very rare, but it is possible.

He said, “My soul is … sorrowful unto death.” (Mark 14:34) The Bible says He was in agony. (Luke 22:44) Jesus was in a battle here. He is battling. He’s not battling with God the Father. No, He wants the will of God the Father. He is not battling with Satan; He can decimate Satan. What’s He battling with? He’s battling with His own humanity. He knows what He is about to face, and He says, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” (Matthew 26:39)

Now the cup is a metaphor for suffering. There was a cup that Jesus must drink from. What was in that cup? If we were to pass that cup through this congregation today, and you were to put all of your sin in that cup—every dirty thought, every foul word, every selfish deed, every lie, everything that you’ve ever done would be in that cup—but then pass that cup to all six billion people who are alive on the face of the earth, and let them put their sin in that cup; and then go back through time, from Adam and Eve up until the time when the trumpet shall sound and time shall be no more, and let them put that in that cup—put rape in that cup, put sodomy in that cup, put arson in that cup, put lasciviousness in that cup, put drug addiction in that cup, put demon worship in that cup, put violence and filth in that cup—and Jesus knows that because He is going to be a substitute—“Him who knew no sin God hath made to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21)—He must take our sin. He must put those pure and holy lips upon that filthy cup, and He must drink it down! He will not become a sinner, but He will become sin. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, will suffer that emotional suffering.

Jesus knew that when He took that cup upon Him, when He took that sin upon Him, that God would have to treat Him as God treats sin—because He’s the substitute. There can be no mercy. The Bible says God “spared not his own Son.” (Romans 8:32) The Bible says, “It pleased the Lord to bruise him.” (Isaiah 53:10) And Jesus knew that He who had been in the bosom of the Father from all eternity would now become the object of the Father’s wrath—that He would be separated from God the Father. Jesus knew that the fires of God’s wrath would burn themselves out in Him. There was the emotional suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ.

AS we bear our crosses, as we crucify self, we too will suffer emotionally, we too must give all of our emotions, our thoughts, our very center/seat of these things- our hearts- fully to Jesus Christ! This is being ALL IN FOR JESUS.

B. The Physical Suffering of Christ

Not only was there the emotional suffering of the Lord Jesus; there was the physical suffering of the Lord Jesus. Pilate, hoping to get Jesus off his hands, thought maybe if they saw Jesus brutalized, the people would be satisfied—if they could just see a little suffering. So Pilate said, “Let Him be scourged.” (John 19:1)

Do you know what scourging was? There was a pillar or post. The Romans would take the person to be scourged and tie his hands above his head so that he’s standing on the balls of his feet. His back would be smooth as silk. They would strip from him his clothing. And scourging was done not by one, but by two. They took a whip called a flagrum—with a sturdy handle, thongs of leather. Embedded in those thongs of leather would be bone and glass and lead and iron, and it was an instrument of torture. One would start at the front and start at the throat and whip downward. The other would start at the back, at the heels, and whip upward. And those thongs would reach around the body, and the little bit of bone and lead would pick little pieces of flesh off. The tormentors were experts: They knew how to whip a man so as to take away the flesh, expose the nerves, yet not disembowel him. It was not a pretty sight. Historians tell us, no man ever walked away from that. If anything, he crawled—if he could move at all—when they cut him down.

Then they took Jesus. He went through these mock trials—six of them, a travesty of justice. And, finally, He’s there, just before the Crucifixion, in Pilate’s Judgment Hall. The soldiers mocked Him,

Then they took their big fists. The Bible says, “They smote him.” (Mark 15:19; John 19:3)

Then they took clubs, and they beat Him with clubs. And they slapped Him. They spat in His face, the Son of God. Formed a crown of thorns and pressed them down upon His head.

Then they put on His back that cross, and they led Him “The Way of Sorrows.”

He stumbled beneath the load. He was a strong man, but He stumbled—the loss of blood, the shock, the pain, the agony.

Finally, when He comes to Calvary they stretch Him out. They were experienced. They knew how to put the nails right where they’d find the median nerve so every nerve would be a river of pain. They put those searing nails in His hands and in His feet. They nailed Him at a ninety-degree angle. But when He is lifted up to the cross, the arms go up to a sixty-five-degree angle, putting the weight down upon the nails in the feet. When He tries to pull Himself up, then the pain is upon the hands. He can’t breathe. He has nausea, convulsions, pain, agony, dizziness, sweat, tears. He is suffering—He is suffering.

The Romans did this on purpose. Do you know why the Romans crucified? It was the worst form of death that man can devise. They wanted their victim to squirm on the cross, and they wanted everybody to see it. Do you know what the word excruciating means? It means “out of the cross”—excruciating. It was out of the cross that this word comes—excruciating.

Jesus is there in excruciating pain upon the cross, raging fever through His body! He who made the oceans and the rivers and the rain clouds said, “I thirst.” (John 19:28) He’s there upon that cross. Do you know who He did that for? For you.

As we bear our crosses, as we crucify self, we too will often suffer physically, death is a process that is often painful, it is full of suffering. This is being ALL IN for Jesus.

C. The Spiritual Suffering Christ

There’s the emotional suffering. There’s the physical suffering. But, friend, that pales compared to the spiritual suffering. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 53 that “it pleased the Lord to bruise him; [God] hath put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10)—to death. Habakkuk says of God Almighty that He is “of purer eyes than to behold … iniquity.” (Habakkuk 1:13) And when Jesus had my sin and your sin upon the cross, Jesus was treated upon that cross as you and I would be treated if we were punished for our sin. God did not tone down the punishment. To the contrary, Jesus didn’t die for one sinner’s sin; He died for all sinners’ sin. He died for the sin of the whole world.

He was taking your place! He was taking my place! And He took it all—the spiritual suffering.

We have assurance that the spiritual suffering of Jesus is sufficient for us. Although He became our sin and endured this suffering praise God that we do not have too if we surrender and go all in for Him! He has already completed it fully for us!

III. Salvation through the Cross!

There is the substitution of the cross. There is the suffering of the cross. Look in 1 Peter 3, verse 18 again: “Christ also hath once suffered”—“Christ also hath once suffered.” (1 Peter 3:18) Just underscore that. He “hath once suffered.” Look up here and let me tell you something, friend: It’s over. It is finished, and the righteousness of God is completely satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will never ever, ever, ever, ever face that cross again. He “hath once suffered.” This does not mean once upon a time; it means once for all.

Now, understand this: It is done. It is finished. When He bowed His head, He cried on that cross, It is finished; it is paid in full.” And He bore our sins.

His blood forever hath paid the penalty for sin! It is done! “It is finished.” (John 19:30)

DEATH THE WAGES OF SIN WAS DEFEATED AND ALL THE DEMONS AND DEVIL WAS DEFEATED! COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY!!!

Brother, believe it, and thank God for it. You come to Him through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I promise you, on the authority of the Word of God, He will save you radically, dramatically, instantaneously, and eternally. That’s the only thing that can take away your sin.

Now, let me come to the very last point, and notice this—look again in verse 18: “For Christ also hath once suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18) And that speaks of the saving power of the cross: “that he might bring us to God.” The reason for the cross is that you and I might come to God. Did you know that the Bible says, “We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son”? (Romans 5:10)

God is not reconciled to you. We’re the sinners. We’re reconciled to God. The word bring has the idea of taking a person. A person would have no way to come, except through the cross.

The CROSS IS HORRIBLE, IT IS HENIOUS, THE LAMB OF GOD BECOMING SIN- IT DEMANDS REPENTANCE AND OBEDIENCE AND A CHANGE FOR THOSE THAT COME TO HIM FOR SALVATION…… WE CANNOT REMAIN THE SAME. WE MUST BE ALL IN FOR JESUS IF WE ARE TRULY IN AT ALL!

Conclusion

Look up here at this preacher now. I want to tell you something. Jesus died for you. And He brought you here today that you might be saved. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18) That’s why the cross—that’s why the cross.