A Bridge A Break A Barrier
A Bridge, A Break, A Barrier
Show Pictures of A/G cardinal Doctrines
Women who touched the hem of his garment.
Mark 5:25 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.
Mark 5:26 She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
Mark 5:27 When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
Mark 5:28 because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."
Mark 5:29 Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
Mark 5:30 At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
Mark 5:31 "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?'"
Mark 5:32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
Mark 5:33 Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.
Mark 5:34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
The words healed and go and peace speak of something more than just physical healing.
The speak of complete healing. – Wholeness - The holes have been filled
Physically
Spiritually
Emotionally
Think of what this woman had been through.
Rejected by her family
Rejected by her church
Rejected by her religion
Rejected by her society
Taken advantage of by people in authority
Poor through no fault of her own
There was more than just physical healing needed.
And Jesus says, your faith has healed you, Go in peace, be freed from your suffering
If we are honest we often need more than just physical healing.
We need healing from emotional hurts
Rejection
Being taken advantage of
Let down my other people
Even hurts from religion and church -
How do we receive healing for our hearts and emotions?
The Cross of Christ is the answer.
This morning I want to look at how the cross brings wholeness to our lives.
The Cross is a Bridge – A Break – A Barrier
1. The Cross is a Bridge
Adam and Eve brought sin into the world
Causing a break in the relationship they had with God
They were forced to leave the Garden
We are separated from God because we are children of Adam
Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--
Rom 5:13 for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
Rom 5:15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
Rom 5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Jesus provided a bridge to crossover into new life
That bridge is the Cross - The Crimson Bridge
When we come to Christ and the Cross
We acknowledge our separation from God because of Sin
We say, God I need your forgiveness but I have nothing to give you.
I’m not good enough
I’ve done so much wrong
God says my Son has given all that is needed – His Life
Just come over to my side.
You see for the spiritually hurting - the Cross is the Bridge by which we come into a right relationship with God.
2. The Cross is a Break
Gal 5:24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.
The Cross is also a break from our past lives.
We used to live one way and now we live another.
Crucified the sinful nature.
We are dead to the old way of life
Gal 5:17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
Gal 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
Gal 5:20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
Gal 5:21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The power of the Cross has broken the power of the enemy in our lives.
The power of the Cross has broken the power of the sinful nature in our lives.
The power of the Cross has broken the power of the past in our lives.
I was hurt – now I see it through the cross – Jesus was broken for me
I was rejected – now I see it through the cross – Jesus was rejected for me – by God and men
I was let down – now I see it through the cross – His disciples fled at the first chance
I was taken advantage of – now I see it through the cross – He was crucified as an innocent man, illegally tried, so the religious leaders could be done with Him
Look, God didn’t cause the hurt you have experienced in your life.
He will take the hurt and transform it into something He can use for His Glory
How does he do it?
Through the cross
The Cross is a break with the past.
If you allow it to be
If you continue to live back in time – you will never receive the healing he has for you.
If at every opportunity you rehearse what has happened to you – you will not find healing
If you make decisions based on what happened before the Cross you will not find healing
Now you have to say, I was hurt, I was broken, But because of the Cross of Christ,
I am a new person,
I am healed,
I am whole,
I am set free,
I walk in peace and not pain!!
The Cross is a break from the past.
Past Sin
Past Pain
3. The Cross is a Barrier
It hinders us from Going Back
Heb 6:4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age,
Heb 6:6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
This verse teaches us that it possible to fall away from Christ.
How is it possible to fall away?
By forgetting what he has done for us on the Cross
By forging ahead on our own – following our own desires
But for those who love Jesus and Glory in the Cross
The Cross stands as a Barrier to ever going Back
Why would I want to go Back?
Would the woman want to go back to her old sickness, hurt and pain? NO!!
Because when she cross over the Bridge by Faith She made a Break with her old way of life and the blessings of salvation created a barrier from going back.
Do you relate the woman who touched the hem of Jesus garment?
You have hurt and pain from the past
The Cross is still the answer.