The Rally Around the Cross
Notes
Transcript
About 2000 years ago there was a rally around the cross.
Jesus had been arrested.
Jesus had been beaten.
Jesus had been tried.
Jesus had been crucified.
A great crowd of people followed Jesus up to Golgotha. For the most part the crowd was there to watch.
Rome loved to crucify people.
They crucified slaves, thieves, prisoners of war, murderers. It was a cruel death, but the Romans had a reason for the method:
Punishment- they wanted the victim to suffer.
Entertainment- It brought the country together. Few roman citizens were crucified. They even invented different ways to crucify: Upside, in an X shape, tied, nailed, etc.
A Warning- They did crucifixions in the most public of places so both citizens and travelers could see it.
Jesus speaking 1000 years earlier in Psalm 22:16-17 said of this day:
For dogs encompass Me; a company of evildoers encircles Me; they have pierced My hands and feet-I count all my bones-they stare and gloat over Me.
There were far more people at that first rally than there are here tonight.
There was no congregational singing at the first rally at the cross.
There were no Christians rejoicing at the first rally at the cross.
There was no one sitting on a padded pew.
Tonight, I am going to pick out four people who were at the rally at the cross. Each of these people was deeply affected by what they saw. I pray we will be as well.
1. A broken-hearted mother.
A. Mary stood by the cross.
Luke 23:27 says a great multitude of women were mourning for Jesus. John 19:25 says Jesus’ mother was standing by the cross.
What memories she must have had:
It’d been over 30 years since she was visited by an angel:
You will have a child (virgin)
This child will be great. Rule the world!
This child will be the Savior of the world!
40 days after he was born Mary took Jesus to the Temple. She met an old man named Simeon:
Waiting for the Messiah
Told he would not die until he saw the Savior
When Mary came in the Lord showed him the child she was holding was the Savior:
Took Him in his arms and praised God:
This is salvation for the Gentiles!
This is salvation for the Jews
He spoke directly to Mary:
“A sword will pierce through your own soul”
This was fulfilled when Mary saw Jesus nailed to that tree.
Illust.
Rizpah a concubine of Saul. Two of her sons killed and hanged on a tree. In humiliation they were left outside. Rizpah strayed out there day and night beating back the birds and wild animals from eating the bodies.
No doubt Mary would have done the same thing.
Wouldn’t you?
Our Savior but her Son!
As a baby her child was held up by two hands of an old man.
Now her child is held up by two nails on an old cross.
It’s hard to watch your child suffer. It’s even harder when there is nothing you can do to stop the suffering.
B. Jesus comforted Mary from the cross.
As He was dying on the cross Jesus said to Mary concerning John “Woman, behold your son.”
Relationship changing
Left in the hands of John.
John would live the longest. Mary at least in her fifties When Jesus died. John would be with her the rest of her life.
Question? Is there any worse than that of a mother losing a child?
Even a child we have not met- miscarriage.
Even a child who lives a long time- With people living to 100 it’s becoming more common to lose a child.
Mary watched her child die in the prime of life.
Let me speak to the women who have lost a child. There is comfort in the cross!
If you lost a baby and you know Jesus, you will see that baby again. That baby will be a mature fully developed child of God (1 Cor. 13:12). Baby funerals are the hardest. They ought not to have to make those little coffins!
Jesus gives hope to every mother that has buried a child. It doesn’t feel right to lose a child because it isn’t. Thank God for the cross. Because of the cross we have the resurrection! Because of the resurrection every promise of God is true!
David said, “He cannot come to me but I can go to him!”
In the rally at the cross we have a broken-hearted mother showing us that the cross comforts the worst of pains.
2. A hard -hearted sinner.
In Luke 23:47 we see a centurion. A Roman officer in charge of 100 soldiers. He was probably among the soldiers who:
Beat Jesus
Stripped Jesus
Crucified Jesus
Stationed at the cross it was his job to make sure the victim died. He saw death often. You had to have a hard heart to do what he did.
After suffering for six hours on the cross Jesus died saying “Father into Thy hands I commit My spirit.” By the grace of God that man’s heart broke.
He praised God.
He recognized Jesus as innocent (He was who He claimed to be).
I believe that man was saved that day!
The cross softens the hardest of hearts.
Illust. Hard man I knew in Florida. I was a young preacher (youth minister). This man was:
Older
Successful
Strong
Country boy
He gave his testimony of salvation. I’d never heard a man like him testify.
He talked about how he was saved. He heard a preacher talking about the cross.
How Christ was beaten with that whip
How Christ was bludgeoned with that stick
How Christ was crowned with those thorns
How Christ was nailed to that cross
How Christ struggled for six hours
He said when he thought about all that Jesus suffered for him his heart broke and he gave his life to Jesus. I don’t remember the man’s name, but I remember:
His testimony
His sincerity
His sorrow
How can you look at the cross and not have a broken heart? God loves you that much!
The cross softens the hardest of hearts!
3. A proud-hearted disciple.
I mentioned John earlier. He was at the cross standing near Mary.
John was raised well. His father had a successful fishing business.
His family had connections with the High Priest (John 18:15).
His mother was a close follower of Jesus.
She actually tried to get Jesus to make her two sons the number two guys in the kingdom next to Jesus.
John was ready to call down fire on a Samaritan village.
He and his brother were called the Sons of Thunder. Not necessarily as a compliment.
They were loud.
They were ready to call down judgment.
They wanted to be first.
At the cross Jesus said to John “Behold your mother.”
In other words, take care of this old lady. This was his ministry. John becomes known as the Apostle of love. He writes some of the most wonderful things about love:
John 3:16
1 John 4:7 “Beloved let us love one another. For love is from God.”
The cross compels us to humble service.
One of the most difficult things in ministry is to hear Christians say things they won’t do for the Lord.
They’ll serve on a committee but they won’t serve a plate to a hungry person.
They’ll preach in a pulpit but they won’t talk to the person on the street about Christ.
They’ll speak to the nicely dressed visitor but ignore the one in raggedy clothes.
Before you tell the Lord what you won’t do take a look at the cross.
See that Man stripped naked?
See that dying Man?
See that bleeding Man?
He washed feet.
He touched lepers.
He ate with sinners.
Tell HIM what you won’t do!
We’re always waiting on God to tell us something big to do. Usually, He is telling us to do something like He told John. Go take care of that old lady.
How many shut-ins do we have that we can minister to?
How many fatherless children do we have in our neighborhoods we can minister to?
How many of us could clean a yard. Fix something at church. Keep the nursery.
If there is any ministry beneath you, you need to look at the cross. The cross will humble the proudest of hearts.
4. A cowardly- hearted rich man.
In Luke 23:50-56 we see a man named Joseph of Arimathea at the cross.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin.
He believed Jesus was the Messiah.
He did not vote with the Sanhedrin to put Jesus to death. But he did not vote against it either. This suggests he didn’t show up for the vote (Mark 14:64).
John 19:28 says he was a secret disciple because he was afraid of what would happen to him if people knew.
We also know he was a rich man. Money can’t buy you courage! Some of the richest people in the world are cowards. Washington is filled with them.
When he saw Jesus die on that cross something happened to him.
Mark 15:43 says he “took courage”.
Went to Pilate and he asked for the body of Jesus. He could have been killed for that. By God’s grace let him take the body.
It would have been thrown on a trash heap outside of town.
Joseph climbed up that cross and took the body down.
He draped it over his shoulder.
He carried it to his own tomb.
This man who was too afraid to publicly identify with the living Jesus publicly carries the dead of Jesus in his own arms to his own tomb.
Isa. 53:9 says the Messiah would die like a wicked man but be buried like a rich man.
He would have risen either way. But God didn’t want the Savior rising from a trash heap. He wanted Him to rise like royalty from a rich man’s tomb.
God first had to turn a coward into a courageous man.
The cross emboldens the most cowardly heart.
Can you say, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ?”
When you see the cross you are emboldened. You are not ashamed of God or His Word.
I believe in:
Eden’s Garden
Noah’s Ark
Babel’s Tower
Moses’ Staff
Balaam’s Donkey
Jericho’s Wall
David’s Slingshot
Jonah’s Whale
I believe the Table of Contents and the Maps too!
I am not ashamed of the Bible because if I were I would have to be ashamed of Jesus.
Friend if you are ashamed of what the Bible teaches look at the cross.
Look at the shame Jesus went through.
Look at the courage it took for Jesus to go to the cross.
2 Timothy 1:7 says:
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power
If Jesus can go to the cross for me, I can go to bat for Him.
Folks, there are plenty of things we should be ashamed of. Jesus isn’t one of them.
God took that coward and made him courageous that day.
What do we learn from the rally at the cross?
God can comfort the most broken of hearts.
God can soften the hardest of hearts.
God can humble the proudest of hearts.
God can embolden the most cowardly of hearts.
He does all of those things through the cross.