Approaching the Cross - The Entrance

There’s a phrase i’m sure a lot of kids have heard in a lot of households.

Just wait until your father gets home!

I don’t like this mentality. I want my wife to have authority too, and I don’t like the idea that dad is the guy to fear punishment from.

Maybe you’ve said that to your kids. Maybe you’ve been that to your kids, I won’t judge.

We talked last week about the plan of God in the Old Testament - how they SAW ‘God coming as King’, but they MISSED ‘The Suffering Servant’.

Now, there’s a flipside to this ‘Just wait until your dad comes home’. And it’s this.

Just wait until I tell my dad!

Now, I’m not gonna lie. I'm game to be this one. Be that dad that your kids call upon as this righteous force of anger and protection. Maybe they’re being bullied. Maybe they are angry at somebody. But just utter that phrase, and watch Dad handle it.

Now, sometimes, kids use this against EACH OTHER. They skip the my part.

Back in Israel, before Jesus was born, i’m sure

there was a lot of both

There were jews who felt like they had completely abandoned what God wanted for the nation, intentionally or otherwise. They were terrified of God’s judgment raining down on them.

There were jews who looked to the Romans and said in their hearts, ‘Well, Messiah is coming. And you just wait until he does!’. This warrior king that would defeat all his enemies.

Have you ever been there?

Maybe you’ve been in that place of fear with your walk with God. Now i’ve done it. Just wait until my father sees this mess.

Maybe you’ve been in that place of righteous anger. Indignation towards something wrong. Somebody offended you, or did something wrong to you. And God isn’t happy. They should be afraid, just wait until the father sees THEM.

Maybe they didn’t even do it to you, you just see somebody else doing something wrong and you’re like, man, wait until God deals with them about that.

But the thing is there, there’s an underlying thing here:

Fear of punishment

Justified or not - that’s not the point. That’s the driving point of the relationship - fear of punishment.

John 3:16–17 NIV

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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

There was a very large shift here. Both for them, and for us.

The Big Enemies are Sin and Death

Or, another way to put this. There’s two big problems.

First - our sin - the bad things we do.

Sin has corrupted everything, and everyone, and it’s hopeless. We can’t get out by ourselves.

Second - death.

That’s what the bible says. That Jesus came, so that we shall not perish.

But here’s a crazy thought -

Isn’t death the punishment for our sin?

See, we get this idea that sin is a problem. And the bbible says that sin, any amount of sin, corrupts absolutely, and that death is the consequence of that.

But isn’t it crazy that death is also a problem to God? Doesn’t that go AGAINST the idea of a judgmental and vengeful God?

See, God doesn’t want to see our sinfulness - but he also doesn’t want to see our death.

He KNOWS there’s nothing we can do to escape our sinfulness. We’re hopelessly lost.

That doesn’t mean it’s not our fault - it’s totally our fault.

Jesus came not to judge -

He came to rescue

and this changes EVERYTHING about how we understand God.

I said earlier that there’s two ‘Wait until Father’ statements.

The first is when we’ve really screwed up.

I heard this phrase once, that God doesn’t want ‘please don’t tell my dad.’ God wants, ‘Oh man, I need to talk to my dad.’

His goal here isnt’ condemnation - it’s rescue. And it’s not rescue if the person’s already safe - and rescue means getting into the dirty situation with the person.

Car accident - giving my shirt to my brother, helping to stabilize him.

The second is when somebody else screwed up.

Now, we think, when we’re standing in judgment and condemnation over somebody else, that we’re showing God’s righteousness more clearly. We’re holding up God’s standard.

And I have a problem with that. and I’ll tell you why in a minute.

Jesus told a parable once - about these two servants who owed a debt.

Now, see, here’s my problem. Sin brings condemnation and death. Sin cuts off relationships. It breaks friendships. It destroys lives.

so let’s not do sin’s job for it

See, because, Jesus came to rescue. He didn’t come to condemn. He saw all the ways we are broken, all the ways THEY are broken, and he said, ‘It’s ok, i forgive you, I’m here to save you’.

Don’t cut yourself off. That’s what sin wants. That’s not what God wants. God wants you. He was broken to save you from everything that wants break you. He died to save you from everything that wants to kill you. And when He rose from the dead, he showed us that we can do it too with His help.

But this goes beyond just ourselves, and it extends to how we treat everyone else.

Fight for life instead of death. Fight for rescue instead of abandonment. Fight to fix instead of get rid of.

That’s why the bible says so much about this.

1 Peter 4:8

1 Peter 4:8 NIV

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Romans 12:18

Romans 12:18 NIV

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Ephesians 4:3

Ephesians 4:3 NIV

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

John 13:34

John 13:34 NIV

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

I could go on, and on, and on, and on.

And I know what you’re thinking, you haven’t met this person. They’re extremely difficult. They don’t do things right. It would be a miracle to be able to keep tolerating this.

Funny thing, I know a guy who’s good at those.

And can I take an aside on this one? We’re so afraid of letting imperfection in our midst. Why? Because imperfection, corruption brings judgment. But see

God’s in the life business.

You think you’ve got someone that God needs to get rid of? Let me one up you there.

Rahab - was a prostitute. She put her life on the line to save some spies. God even put her in Jesus’ family line.

Paul was a murderer. He ACTIVELY sought to destroy the church. So God straight up went, ‘ya, that’s the guy I want telling all the gentiles about me.’

Mary Magdelen was demon posessed. Jesus drove out the demons, she financially supported his ministry, and she was one of the absolute very first people to see Jesus risen from the dead.

Imagine what Jesus could do with a church full of prostitutes, murderers, and demon-possessed people.

That sounds like a CRAZY idea, but to me, that’s an exciting one. Because that’s what God’s power does. It brings life from death. It turns murderers into missionaries. It takes prostitutes and places them into families. It takes demon posssesed, unwanted people and makes them so very wanted.

When we put up with suffering and inconvenience for the sake of desperately wanting to see other people feel welcome and wanted - when we’re willing to give up anything and everything for the sake of somebody else not having to - when we’re willing to die to ourselves for the sake of giving somebody else a chance to have life -

we’re doing what Jesus did.

And when you do what Jesus did, you see what Jesus saw. Lives changed. Miracles performed. People transformed. Life from the dead.

We can never, ever, ever lose sight of the fact that everything God did, everything God DOES, it’s primarily driven by this one, gigantic, world changing idea:

God loves you

Salvation call