The Beauty of the Cross
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
These are powerful words uttered by the apostle Paul. Think about being so devoted that you are only focused on knowing one thing. Paul understood the significance of the cross of Christ. He understood that everything else is meaningless without the cross. The cross shapes our lives as Christians. It is a lens in which we see the world. It is the means of our salvation. This is why we say the cross is central to the Christian faith. Without the cross there would be no Christianity.
Last week we talked about the ugliness of the cross. We came to the realization that too often when we think of the cross we fly past all the ugliness to get get to the beauty and blessings of the cross. We looked at Isa. 53:3-5
He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
despised & forsaken
man of sorrows
stricken, afflicted
pierced, crushed, scourged
He was innocent & we were guilty
You see it is only through all that ugliness, pain, suffering, guilt that we can see how beautiful the cross really is.
You see at the cross is where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away.
The cross is beautiful because through it we see the the love of God.
The cross is beautiful because through it we see the the love of God.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
I hope you here the words of Paul we were not his friends, we were helpless, ungodly, sinners, and enemies of God but loved us, he loved us so much he gave his one and only son to die on the cruel cross of Calvary for you and me.
A the song states If that isn’t love the ocean is dry, there’s no stars in the sky.
By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
The Cross of Christ is Beautiful Because through it Forgiveness of Sins Is Made Available
The Cross of Christ is Beautiful Because through it Forgiveness of Sins Is Made Available
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
It’s through Jesus and his shed blood on the cross that we are forgiven. That’s good news folks
“And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers,
that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, ‘You are My Son; today i have begotten You.’
“As for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’
“Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.’
“For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay;
but He whom God raised did not undergo decay.
“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,
Do realize that without the death burial and resurrection of Christ there is no forgiveness.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
We must come to the conclusion we are faced with the cross that
it was for OUR transgressions that he was pierced for, OUR iniquities that he was crushed.
We are sinners, no one is good enough, no one can do enough good, there are none righteous no not even one. We deserved death. We were ungodly sinners and enemies. We were lost and without hope.
We were dead in our sins and there was nothing we could do about it. We needed a savior. We need the precious gift of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross so that we could have forgiveness in Jesus Christ.
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
It is through baptism that we can obtain that forgiveness through the blood of Jesus.
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
and we can continue to have forgiveness through Jesus
1 Jn. 1:7,9
but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The cross is beautiful because through it we see the the love of God.
The Cross of Christ is Beautiful Because through it Forgiveness of Sins Is Made Available
The Cross Of Christ Is Beautiful Because through it we have life.
The Cross Of Christ Is Beautiful Because through it we have life.
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
Jesus made the claim
“I am the bread of life.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Life is in Jesus and only in Jesus. We all sin and come short of the glory of God Rm. 3:23 and
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
eternal life is in Jesus, well how to we obtain this life?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Because Jesus died and was resurrected we to can and will be resurrected. We have life in Him. that s is why jesus himself claimed
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
Friends we don’t have to fear death anymore because that is not the end for those who are in Christ. For those in Christ there is a resurrection
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because jesus is no longer in the grave, He is alive we too can have life through Him, we can have eternal life through Him. There is victory over sin and death. There is new life in Jesus.
So will you come to Jesus this morning to receive love, forgiveness and life. Will we truly appreciate the ugliness of the cross that brought us the beauty of the cross.
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.