Take up his cross daily...
Notes
Transcript
Luke 9:23
Luke 9:23
The cross represents 4 things to Jesus :
Opposition- execution tool for the worst of criminals.
Shame- Carry up to 7 miles, strip you down, people would ridicule.
Suffering- prolonged excrutiating pain, that ended with suffocation.
Death- to kill some one, no way out.
*That’s what Jesus was thinking when he said take up your cross.
Opposition for your beliefs. Error hates truth.
When we choose to follow Jesus the world will try to shame you.
All the disciples suffered for their belief.
Death for us is death to self! Forfeit our own way.
Hidden Hope in verse-
1. We can go through the opposition, because our Savior has gone through it.
Identification and Substitution
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
2. Because the Cross is not the end of the story. Opposition to Acceptance Shame to Honor Suffering to Peace Death to Life
Take up your Cross is a testimony to you and I that the story does not end in opposition, suffering, shame, and death.
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Before Jesus these four things had the final word, but not now through Christ.
These four things are a result from sin, therefore you experienced them regardless of your Christian faith.
We don’t look at crosses and think of death, but we see it as a symbol of life.
He invites us into life.
This is the Truth:
We don’t take up the cross to have opposition, but because we are opposed.
We don’t take up the cross so we can suffer, but because we are suffering.
We don’t take up the cross to experience shame, but because we are shamed.
We don’t take up the cross to die, but because we are dead and dying.
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,