The Meaning of the Cross

The Meaning of the Cross

Introduction

In December of 2016, a ride at Knott's Berry Farm in California became stuck 148 feet in the air. There were 20 people on board, including seven children. Firefighters tried to reach the stranded passengers by using a massive ladder, but it was too short. Fire crews had no choice. They would have to lower each passenger from 148 feet in the air, harnessed to a single rope. That’s not good news. So to combat against that bad news, the rescuers gave them good news.

Fire Captain Larry Kurtz said, "It sounds scary, but … we have very, very strong ropes that have 9,000 pounds of breaking strength on them." What was he doing by telling them that? He was building the faith of those who were trapped. He was giving them information that if believed would dissipate their fears. It was up to each person to believe what he said and place their trust in the firefighter.

TS – When you get troubling news, there is only one remedy…good news. That is the situation we find in the New Testament letter of Colossians. This Church, planted by a man named Epaphras, a ministry partner of the Apostle Paul, had a good start. But then some troubling news came to them in the form of false teaching. This Church became infected with a false doctrine known as Gnosticism, from the Greek word gnosis, meaning Knowledge. Maybe you know someone who is an Agnostic. What that means is that they do not know if God is real, or say that God cannot be known.

A – without, gnosis – knowledge.

Gnosticism had a couple key beliefs to it that are particularly damaging. While it affirmed some of the basic tenets of the Christian faith, it also taught: 1) there is special knowledge about God, given by God to only an elite, select few. And if you don’t have this super-secret knowledge, you are not saved. 2) All physical matter is inherently evil, but spiritual things are inherently good. This meant a few things. First, your body is bad and corrupt, and impossible to redeem. Therefore, you can sin as much as you’d like as long as you don’t corrupt your soul. Second, God could not be the Creator. No god worth anything would ever lower themselves to create and handle evil things like physical matter. Third, Jesus could not have been divine. Again, no god worth anything would ever sully themselves by coming in a physical body.

TS – as we walk through today and on Easter, we will see the Bible attack these false beliefs. In our text for next week, the second half of chapter 1, we will primarily see the counter-attack on God as Creator and Jesus’ divinity. But for our text today, we see the counter-attack on the super-secret knowledge part of this false belief. Here is the main problem with believing God gives super-secret knowledge to only an elite few…it causes everyone else to doubt their salvation. Do I know enough? Is the knowledge I have the super-secret stuff or not? To counteract that troubling news, we need some good news.

– 3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, 5 which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

7 You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. 8 He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.

9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, 12 always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

TS – The only right response to bad news is truly Good News, the Gospel. And the Gospel is exactly what Paul gives to them here. He focuses on the meaning of the cross of Jesus, and what the cross means for people who have placed their trust in the Jesus who died on that cross. 3 Elements of the Cross that firmly establish our salvation:

1. THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS

Paul begins in an incredible way by highlighting the famous triad of Christian doctrine: faith, hope, and love. This is a common way for Paul to describe the foundational elements of biblical Christianity.

- 13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

– 3 As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why would Paul choose to use this foundational trinity of words here for the Colossians? Dick Lucas writes, “We might almost call them an example of apostolic ‘shorthand’. When Paul combines these three elements of Christian spirituality, as in this context, it is usually to provide a basic, and sufficient, description of the genuine Christian. These three qualities are the hallmarks, and proper evidences, of a work of God in the soul of man.”[1] From the outset, Paul is assuring them that they are exhibiting the core, foundational elements of the Christian faith. That will come as a comfort to those who are doubting their salvation.

Notice again how he phrased them here in , because it is unique from the others. V. 4-5a - 4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, 5 which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. These are some of the core verses we use around here at Broadway. We have set as our identity to Be Hope and Give Hope. Why? Because hope drives the Christian faith. Faith in Christ, and love for people (which we could say sums up the faith of Christianity) come from hope. Hope inspires the Christian. Hope drives the Christian life.

The reality of eternity, the hope of Heaven, is what pushes us forward. We want to be a people who are defined by that hope. We want to be a people who are driven by that hope. We are to be a people who are postured forward. So if life is hard, we look to the future. And even if life is amazing, we realize that what God has waiting for us in Heaven is infinitely better. Lucas continues, “The Christian’s present taste of reality in fellowship with God and his people is but an anticipation of the substantial realities which are reserved for the future, ‘laid up’ in heaven for us. Therefore, we are not to think of ourselves as largely enjoying the fruits of Christ’s victory now, with heaven as some glorious consummation, a kind of finishing touch. Rather we are to recognize that heaven holds most of the great things won for us by Christ, and that our present experience is no more than a precious foretaste of what is to come.”[2]

How do we become people who are defined by and driven by hope? While hope drives the Christian life, look at what drives hope. End of v. 5b - You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. It is the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, that drives hope. The Gospel creates hope. Because without the Gospel, there is no hope! Paul summarized the content of the Good News of the Gospel in - Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.

It is the message of the cross, the Good News, that drives who we are and what we believe. It is on the Gospel that we stand. It is in the Gospel we find our identity. It is by the Gospel that we are saved. It is through the Gospel that we become people of hope, which fuels our faith in Christ and our love for people.

And how did the Gospel come to these Colossian Christians? Again, end of v. 5b – since you first heard the truth of the Good News. They heard it. Meaning, someone told it to them. V. 7 - 7 You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. These people are Christians because Epaphras loved them enough to tell them the truth of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done at the cross. The Gospel, as Good News, is verbally shared. The Greek word for “Gospel or Good News” is evangel. So when we “evangelize” the lost, share our faith, we are literally to gospel them.

- 13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

2. THE POWER OF THE CROSS

After establishing the message of the cross, he emphasizes its power. V. 6 - 6 This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace. Just as the Gospel came to them and changed their lives, it has the power to do that all around the world. There is no cultural barrier that can stop God’s power to save. There is no language barrier that can stop God’s power to save. There is no socio-economic barrier that can stop God’s power to save. There is no ethnic barrier that can stop God’s power to save. This is the power of the Good News of Jesus.

– 16 For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes…

Not only can the Gospel cross any barrier, it can change any life. “It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives…” This is an echo of the creation account in . When God was finished creating the world, he placed Adam and Eve, our first parents, in the Garden of Eden. His instructions to them were to multiply and fill the Earth. God desired for his image and his dominion to be spread over all the Earth. Paul now picks that up and says that is exactly what is happening with the Gospel. Through it, God is spreading his image and his dominion over all the Earth as he makes his people into new creations in Christ.

There is no sin that is too powerful for God to forgive. There is no addiction that is too powerful for God to break. There is no heart that is too hard for God to soften. There is no life that is too far gone for God to reach.

He focuses this life change on two primary channels: knowledge and power. Again, he’s combatting this Gnostic heresy who claim to have special knowledge. He will use forms of the word gnosis 5 times in just a few verses:

v. 6 – “…from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”

v. 7 – “You learned about the Good News from Epaphras…”

v. 9 - 9 So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

v. 10 – “…you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”

So it’s not that there is some super-secret knowledge out there that God only grants to some elite category of people…no, he has already given you the knowledge of who He is (in the Gospel), and is now transforming you so that you can know him more and more. There is always more of God to know, and He has lovingly, graciously revealed Himself to us in the Bible. We can swim in the never-ending, forever deep, knowledge of God. Because God is more than willing to be known by all, not some elite group.

With that knowledge, he then focuses on the power of God to change people into the kind of people He wants them to be. V. 11 - 11 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. The Christian life is not about sitting around and reading thick theological books (though many more people should be doing that!), but also about having the power to live out the life that honors the Lord who has saved us. And he shows us what that looks like…endurance and patience.

While that may seem kind of anti-climax (as one scholar put it) it most certainly is not. It is these twin characteristics that ensure faithfulness to Christ no matter the scenario we find ourselves in. Endurance is not meant to communicate a sitting idly by, passively allowing wave after wave of the pain of life wash over you. This is an active kind of endurance that one commentator translated as “conquering endurance.” It is a fortitude that no situation in life can defeat. Because of the power of the cross, there is no pain you cannot bear, no sin you cannot defeat, no disappointment you cannot handle, no loss you cannot endure.

And while endurance has to do with situations, patience has to do with people. It is a word that speaks regularly in the Bible of God’s response to us, and what our response should be to those around us. As God is patient with you, you must be patient with them. So endurance is a fortitude that no situation can defeat, and patience is a fortitude that no person can defeat. British scholar N.T. Wright put it this way, “Endurance is what faith, love, and hope bring to an apparently impossible situation, patience is what faith, love, and hope bring to an apparently impossible person.” It is only the power of the cross of Jesus Christ that can bring that kind of change in your life.

3. THE WORK OF THE CROSS

After laying out all these great truths, he ends on a rock solid foundation of what it is that Jesus actually accomplished for us on the cross. V. 12b-14 - He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. He highlights for us here 4 transitions that Jesus provides at the cross:

1) From Orphan to Adopted

v. 12 - “He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people…” Have you ever been told you didn’t have what it takes to do something? Maybe you got cut after tryouts. Maybe you didn’t have the resume or credentials. Maybe they picked the other person over you. That’s hard stuff to hear that you aren’t qualified. Nowhere is that more true than in our relationship with God. Who could ever declare they were qualified to receive God’s love? Who could ever arrogantly say they deserve all the good God has provided?

Though none of us are qualified on our own, the work of the cross “enables” us to join in God’s family (inheritance…that’s a family word). The word he uses for “enable” can translate as “qualify.” When the work of Jesus is applied to our lives, his work qualifies us to be with God, a place we could never stand on our own. On our own, we’re just a bunch of wretched sinners, deserving of God’s wrath. Instead, because of Jesus, we get his love.

- 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

2) From Darkness to Light

v. 12-13 - “the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness…”

When people come to understand the Gospel, it is like someone flips a switch inside them (because that is pretty much what the Holy Spirit is doing…it’s called illumination). Though they wouldn’t have articulated it this way before, they now see the light. They realize that all that was before was nothing but spiritual darkness. The OT prophet Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Jesus was born that when he arrived, “those walking in darkness will see a great light” (9:2). John, the Gospel writer, said of Jesus that “the Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it” (1:4-5). This light enables us to see things as they really are.

C. S. Lewis – “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”[3]

3) From Slavery to Freedom

v. 13-14 - “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom…” Not only were we in spiritual darkness, we were apparently held captive there. In slavery to sin and its power. But Jesus rescued us, and then moved us to his own Kingdom. We are now primarily defined by our citizenship in his Kingdom. Above all other allegiances is ours to him as King, who at the cost of his very life, set us free and brought us home. While earlier verses had echoes of Genesis, this has an echo of Exodus. God’s people were in slavery in Egypt, and God obliterated Israel with the series of plagues, setting his people free. Not only did he provide freedom, he led them to their new home, the Promised Land. And the language God continually used to describe to the Israelites what he did for them…he redeemed them. That is what Jesus has done for us…he redeemed us, defeated the enemy and purchased our freedom, and brings us home.

4) From Condemnation to Forgiveness

v. 14 – “and forgave our sins.” This is the simplest, yet maybe the most profound of images he uses here. Our sin brought eternal condemnation from a holy God. We owed to him an unfathomable debt. But Jesus forgave the debt. He removed the penalty.

To counteract against their bad news, Paul gives Good News. Same goes for us. There is no Good News unless it is set against bad news. And here is the bad news: without Jesus, you have condemnation, slavery, darkness, on your own. But in Jesus, you are adopted into his family, shown the light of salvation, set free from sin’s power, and forgiven of its consequences. Christian, this is your hope. Non-Christian, this is your chance.

[1] R. C. Lucas, Fullness & Freedom: The Message of Colossians & Philemon, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 27.

[2] R. C. Lucas, Fullness & Freedom: The Message of Colossians & Philemon, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), 29.

[3] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/c_s_lewis_162523, accessed 4/9/19, 2:52pm.