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Text: Mark 15:22-39; John 19:16-19
Theme: Jesus died for you and me.
To find grace and peace you must go to the cross.
Date: 10/27/14 File name: GospelOfMark43.wpd
ID Number:
We’re looking at the gospel according to Mark, and we’re almost at the end.
Here we have, of course, come to the actual moment of Jesus’ death.
All four of the gospel writers are at pains to show us all the events of Jesus’ death happen in the dark.
The betrayal, the denial, and the mistrial all happened at night.
And even during his time on the cross darkness descend upon the earth, and from noon until 3:00pm it is absolutely dark.
Darkness surrounds the death of Jesus.
During his crucifixion, many people were gathered around the cross that morning.
It was the Jewish Passover and Jerusalem was swelled with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
Jesus had been betrayed, tried and sentenced to death.
He was forced to carry the horizontal crossbeam called the patibulum until he could go no further.
Finally he was thrown down on top of the cross and spikes were driven through his hands and feet.
As Jesus drug that cross through the streets of Jerusalem word spread quickly that the miracle-working rabbi from Nazareth was being led to Golgotha.
By the time the execution party and it's victim had arrived at Golgotha many thousands were following or had run ahead in order to get a ring-side seat.
The Pharisees were there; satisfied that they had finally achieved the conviction of the one who had so many times embarrassed them by exposing their hypocrisy.
Caiaphas, the High Priest was there.
He smugly smiled as they nailed this blasphemous, would-be Messiah to the cross.
Pilate's soldiers were there; cold and indifferent, simply carrying out another routine execution.
Christ's mother, Mary, was there; her heart breaking and her grief pouring out as only a mother losing a son can experience.
Mary Magdalene was there; watching her beloved Lord die a cruel and humiliating death.
The disciple John was there; looking on as his world crumbled before him as the life ebbed out of the one he thought would restore Israel as an independent kingdom.
To these many different people, the cross meant many different things.
The cross still means different things to different people today.
I. FOR MANY THE CROSS IS A STUMBLING BLOCK OR FOOLISHNESS
“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;” (1 Corinthians 1:23, KJV)
ILLUS.
D.L. Moody, the great Methodist preacher, once told a story about a blind man who was found sitting at the corner of a street in Chicago with a lantern beside him.
Someone went up to him and asked what he had the lantern there for, seeing that he was blind, and the light was the same to him as the darkness.
The blind man replied: "I have it so that no one may stumble over me."
1. what's the point?
a. stumbling blocks come in all shapes and sizes
A. SOME WILL NOT BE SAVED BECAUSE THEY STUMBLE OVER THE HYPOCRISY OF SOME CHRISTIANS
1. let's face it, not all professing Christians live as righteously as they should
a. they are backslidden and out of the will of God
b. they are saved, but they are not very sanctified
c. it is hard to tell the difference between their lifestyle, and that of the typical lost person
2. the unrighteous life of a Christian may serve as a stumbling stone and keep another person from accepting Christ
a.
I think this is what Jesus may have been referring to when he said, "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin!
Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!"
(Matthew 18:7, NIV)
ILLUS.
In his autobiography Billy Graham tells the story of an interesting flight he had one time.
He was headed to a large city for a crusade.
One of the flight attendants was making a big fuss over him.
"Do you want some more coffee Dr. Graham?" "Oh, my mother prays for you everyday Dr. Graham." "I must write to her and tell her about seeing you Dr. Graham."
At the same time there was a wealthy Texas rancher up in first class, who had had a little too much to drink, and began making a scene.
He started cursing and making passes at another flight attendant and was simply being rude and crude.
Finally the attendant had had enough and walked up to the inebriated Texan and said, "Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to be quite, and behave yourself.
You see Dr. Billy Graham the evangelist is flying with us."
The man responded, "Billy Graham?
Billy Graham is flying with us?"
The man got up from his seat and stumbled back to where Dr. Graham was sitting and said, "Billy Graham, I'm so glad to meet you.
I just want you to know how much your sermons help me to live the Christian life!"
b. well, no ... obviously they didn’t
c. if this man really was a Christian, you have to wonder how many friends and neighbors were stumbling over his hypocrisy?
B. SOME WILL NOT BE SAVED BECAUSE THEY STUMBLE OVER THEIR OWN SIN
““Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces.
Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?” (Ezekiel 14:3, ESV)
1. it's so easy for lost men to set up idols in their hearts which keep them from faith in Christ
a. some will set up the "idol of church"
1) they put their faith in baptism or church membership rather than in a personal relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ
b. some will set up the "idol of work"
1) their whole life revolves around their vocation
2) their "god" is productivity, their "temple" is the office
c.
some will set up the “idol of family”
1) family become all-consuming
2) they turn a good thing into the wrong thing
d.
some will set up the "idol of pleasure"
1) they work hard and play equally hard
2) "the good life" is their chief pursuit and euphoria is their deity
2. the prophet Ezekiel reminds us that some people are so preoccupied with their idolatrous pleasures, evil desires and hedonistic lifestyle that they never give God a moments thought
a. their own sin is a stumblingblock to salvation
b. they set the stumbling block ... before their faces
1) it means that they can’t see any further than the thing that has become most important to them
C. SOME WILL NOT BE SAVED BECAUSE THEY STUMBLE OVER THE CROSS OF CHRIST
1. the orthodox Jew of Jesus' day placed his or her hope of salvation in a personal lifestyle of right living and participation in rituals of animal sacrifice
a. they longed for the promised Messiah, but did not recognize him when he came
2. they simply could not accept the fact that God would send them a Messiah who lived the life of a humble servant rather than a conquering hero
“but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.
32 Why?
Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.
They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.””
(Romans 9:31–33, ESV)
a. the cross became an offence to them
b.
what kind of Messiah dies a criminal's death, executed upon a Roman cross on top of what was then the city's garbage dumb?
D. SOME WILL NOT BE SAVED BECAUSE THE CROSS OF CHRIST SEEMS FOOLISH
1. the cross of Christ was equally a stumbling block to the educated Gentile of the day
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,” (1 Corinthians 1:22–23, ESV)
a. the gods worshiped by the gentiles of that day cared nothing of the plight of men
b. they were lofty and detached from the problems of men on Earth
ILLUS.
Besides, if you know anything about the Greek or Roman gods, they had too many problems of their own to worry about.
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