The Christ, the Cross, and the New Creature

Introduction

The Bible often comes at us in triads:

1. God the Father; God the Son; God the Holy Spirit.

2. Faith, hope, and love.

If you were to try and list the three most important themes of the New Testament Church which three would you mention? Eldership? Missionary commitment? Facilities? As important as these might be they might not be the most vital.

Several years ago Earnest Beam was asked to address the most important themes of the New Testament. He chose three that I would like to superimpose on this text:

I. The Christ ().

A. The setting—a rocky and pagan area. A foundational truth would be spoken in an exclusive way.

B. The popular answers—John, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. It is never enough to just say what others say. Crowds have significant ways of being wrong at worst and being incomplete at best.

C. The issue—Christ is His office, not His last name. With six months from the cross the Lord needs to be sure that the disciples understand who He is.

II. The Cross ().

A. Jesus announces the divine necessity of His suffering. “From that time on” marks a turn in the Gospel of Matthew (cf. ). Now the references to the cross will not be veiled.

B. Peter objects to the “way of suffering.” His temptation to Christ parallels that of the devil in chapter .

C. Jesus announces that suffering and the mind of God are in concert.

III. The New Creature ().

A. The road to becoming a new creature is the road of self-denial. Jesus calls for nothing short of daily denial, cross-bearing, and radical following.

B. The reasons for becoming a new creature are numerous:

1. It is the only way to save your life (v. ).

2. It is the only sane perspective on what is important in life (v. ).

3. It is the only way to be ready for the judgment (v. ).

C. The reality of becoming a new creature is possible by the power of God. Regardless of what v. refers to, God is able to keep us alive by the power of His indestructible life.

Conclusion

Paul said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” ().

As Jesus invites people to follow Him, He wants folks to be persuaded of who He is, understand what He did for them on the cross, and share in the excitement of this adventure of priorities called discipleship.

Illustrations

The identity of Jesus. My father often remarked that what Jesus said and did really didn’t amount to much. But who He was made what He said and what He did the most important words and deeds ever recorded in the history of the universe. All things really come down to this: Who is Jesus? When people respond to Jesus Christ we don’t ask them if they like our church. We ask them what they have to say about Jesus of Nazareth. How they answer that question, and how they live by their answer will be the way God will regard them in the final day.

The need for daily denial. Only Jesus can deliver us from the deadly cancer of self. Several years ago I became concerned for a wayward church member. I threw caution to the wind and decided I would confront this brother. His conversion only two years before had been most impressive. All in the community noticed the change. In the course of our conversation he said, “I don’t know. I can’t explain it. I guess the old man died.” I quickly corrected him, “No, that is not the problem. My fear is that the old man got resurrected. Let’s kill him again.”

Scott, M. (1995). Sermon Outlines on the Gospels. (S. E. Stone, Ed.) (pp. 29–30). Cincinnati, OH: Standard.