The Answer of the Cross part 2

The Answer for sin and death

We are in the middle of a new series on the Cross

The cross is Foolishness to the world, but for us who are being saved, the power of God.

1Co 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God's grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God.

Our Heavenly Father in His infinite wisdom, chose to use the cross to display His power, to a perishing world, the cross became God’s answer for the salvation of humanity. Jesus on the cross

Today I would like to talk about the cross as

“ the answer for Sin and death.”

Many years ago, my younger brother’s close friend, they grew up together, was kidnapped and murdered, it was a traumatic incident, especially for his new wife, parents and all his friends.

Sometime latter the police was able to catch one of the assassins and uncover what happened.

He was leaving school to go home when one of the classmates offered him a ride. The class mate was the son of a pharmacist who owned a drug store, a local gang had been trying to acquire items from the drug store to supply their illegal labs, to make drugs, the pharmacist refused to supply them with the items.

They found out the university where his boy attended, and they arrived as my brother’s friend was entering the car, so they kidnap both boys, killed them and disposed the bodies in a field somewhere.

When the police officer asked why did you need to kill the other boy, they answer, just burning archives.

What punishment do you think would satisfy the hearts of the parents who loved that boy so much?

God’s answer was the cross.

Let’s pray

1 Why the cross?

Crucifixion was invented and used by other people groups, but it was “perfected” by the Romans as the ultimate execution by torture. The earliest historical record of crucifixion dates to c. 519 BC, when King Darius I of Persia crucified 3,000 of his political enemies in Babylon.

It was a method of punishment or capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden beam and left to hang, perhaps for several days, until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation.

Crucifixion was a punishment that was only for slaves or malefactors of the worst kind and Roman citizens were exempt from it.

It was a brutal form of punishment that was common among the Romans. The Romans chose this mode of capital punishment to put fear in everyone who would stand against Rome and Roman laws.

Crucifixion sometimes began with a scourging or flogging of the victim’s back. The Romans used a whip called a flagrum, which consisted of small pieces of bone and metal attached to a number of leather strands. During the scourging, the skin was ripped from the back, exposing a bloody mass of tissue and bone. Extreme blood loss occurred, often causing death, or at least unconsciousness.

A gruesome method of punishment and death.

The punishment Had to fit the crime, we have heard of crimes, evil things done to people and children, we don’t want them to be dismiss or excused, we want a God that sees and punishes evil.

We only want to defund the police until a bigger guy comes into your house and claims to be theirs, and tell you that you should move out, than the police is OK, even if they have to use force to move the guy out of your house.

Sin is disobedience to God and his word, rejecting God, He gave us a conscience, every time we violate the law of our conscience we sin against God. Sin will lead us to death, eternal separation from God.

today we talk so much about what is sin, what is right and wrong, most of it is foolishness, the word of God is the only truth, the rest is the opinion of men, and many will enter hell with their great answers.

Yes we talked about sin coming into the world through Adam, but if wasn’t through Adam it would be through me and you, we all sin and fell short of the glory of God, Paul writes about this in his letter to the church in Rome.

2 The cross is the answer for our sin

Atonement is reparation, payment of wrongdoing.

Hebrews 2:14-18

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death-that is, the devil-

15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.

17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

The blood of Jesus atones for our sins, He paid the price we owed, the only way we could go free.

Seven hundred years before Christ The prophet Isaiah shared this prophecy.

Isaiah 53

Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief; And like One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.

Isa 53:4 But [in fact] He has borne our griefs, And He has carried our sorrows and pains; Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken, Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him]. [Mat_8:17]

Isa 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him, And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed.

He took upon himself our sins, our iniquities, our curses and infirmities so we could go free and live for righteousness. He satisfied God’s wrath towards sin.

Peter the Apostle put this way.

1Pe 2:24 He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross [willingly offering Himself on it, as on an altar of sacrifice], so that we might die to sin [becoming immune from the penalty and power of sin] and live for righteousness; for by His wounds you [who believe] have been healed.

3 The cross the answer for death.

Death where is your victory?

1Co 15:51 Listen very carefully, I tell you a mystery [a secret truth decreed by God and previously hidden, but now revealed]; we will not all sleep [in death], but we will all be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed],

1Co 15:52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at [the sound of] the last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead [who believed in Christ] will be raised imperishable, and we will be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed].

1Co 15:53 For this perishable [part of us] must put on the imperishable [nature], and this mortal [part of us that is capable of dying] must put on immortality [which is freedom from death].

1Co 15:54 And when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the Scripture will be fulfilled that says, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory (vanquished forever). [Isa_25:8]

1Co 15:55 O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" [Hos_13:14]

1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin [by which it brings death] is the law;

1Co 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [as conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1Co 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord [always doing your best and doing more than is needed], being continually aware that your labor [even to the point of exhaustion] in the Lord is not futile nor wasted [it is never without purpose].

Jesus Christ on the cross is the answer for sin and death.

In Luke 23 we read about Jesus crucifixion and about the two criminals under the same sentence beside Him, one was insulting Jesus, but the other one repented and asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus did.

we are all under the same sentence, receive Jesus sacrifice.

All Begins when we welcome Jesus the Lord of your life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Joh 3:16

To receive Jesus, we need to accept Him as God’s son, repent from our sins and a life of selfishness, asking Him to be our Lord and savior, not that you deserve it, but is a gift from God.

If this is your desire today, please repeat this prayer after me?

Heavenly Father I’m sinner, I’m sorry for my sins, I’m willing to turn away from my sins.

I receive Christ as my savior,

I confess him as Lord

from this moment on I want to follow and serve him,

in the fellowship of his church,

In Jesus name. Amen!