Good Friday 2019 - Enlarging our Love for the Cross

Enlarging our Love for the Cross J. P. Hession For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:2) Introduction If you are at all like me, after a long work week, your brain starts to slow down on a Friday evening and just wants to take a nap. So, we need the help of the Holy Spirit now, both for the speaker and the hearers, to enliven our minds and quicken our hearts for just a little while. My central aim for this short time that we have together, and my prayer for you this week has been that you would leave this place tonight with your knowledge and love for the Cross enlarged. I don't know how many of you are Tolkien fans and have read the Hobbit, but when it comes to the Cross, I think we are a little bit like Bilbo Baggins. While on his quest he was given a precious gift-no, not the one ring to rule them all-it was a chain mail shirt made from the rare and priceless Mithril Silver found deep within dwarven mines. He could see that it was very beautiful and precious and powerful, and yet, as we learn later in the story, its true value was far beyond what Bilbo ever realized or imagined-worth more than the entirety of lands that he grew up in, the Shire, in fact. In the same way I think that many of us see that the Cross is beautiful and precious and powerful, yet even still, its value is far more than we have imagined. So, wherever you are tonight in your journey of treasuring of the Cross of Christ, I don't think I am offending anyone by suggesting that it can be enlarged still more. So by God's grace and power, he will accomplish that in some way for each of us tonight. A Paradox The Cross, it seems, is full of paradoxes. It is both the most horrible and yet the most wonderful event in history. It is the greatest display of wrath and justice while at the same time being the greatest display of love and mercy. It was Christ's greatest moment of weakness and surrender while somehow also being the moment of his most glorious victory and triumph over his enemies. The Cross is full of paradoxes...and so you will forgive me if I introduce another paradox of sorts tonight. Turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians 1. And I'm going to read just a few verses from the first two chapters. First, beginning in chapter 1 verse 18: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor 1:18) But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:23f) And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (1 Cor 2:1f) Now, just notice with me the different phrases Paul uses to describe what he taught to the Corinthians while he was with them. The word of the cross (1:18). Christ crucified (1:23). Jesus Christ, and him crucified (2:2). And here he emphasized, nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. In other words, Paul's preaching to the Corinthians was laser focused on the Cross. But it was also simple in its presentation, as he says in 2:1 that he did not come using big words and lofty arguments. So, his message was both focused and simple. And the message of the Cross is simple. It's beautifully simple. The essence of its message can even be said in a single sentence, as Paul aptly demonstrates throughout his letters. Here is one example: But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8) That's pretty good! And Jesus had a few nice one-liners himself. Here's one: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) When you think about it, this is amazing-that the message of the cross is simple enough that it can be said so succinctly and be understood by even a child. But I did say there was something of a paradox here. You see, Paul was preaching in Corinth for about a year and a half (according to Acts 18:11). That is quite a long time to stay in one place when your message is so short and sweet. Remember, he was singly focused on preaching Christ crucified. Now, I guess don't know with certainty, but somehow, I do not think that Paul just went around Corinth from place to place each day and repeated the same 2-minute sermon over and over again. No, instead, I picture Paul expounding and enlarging his hearers' vision of the beauty of the cross and all its staggering implications. Listen to how one commentary explains these verses in 1 Corinthians 2: The message of Christ's crucifixion appears to be straightforward and simple, but both Jews and Gentiles rejected Paul's appeal to believe in a crucified Christ as an offense or as foolishness. Therefore, Paul went beyond the historical details of the crucifixion and taught his audience the theological implications of this redemptive event in human history. He taught not only the reason for Christ's death on the cross but also the eternal benefits for every believer: forgiveness of sin, eternal life, and the resurrection of the body.1 I think there is something to what this commentator is saying. In 1:23 when Paul talks about preaching "Christ crucified", he uses the perfect tense, not the past tense. Meaning that Paul is not preaching about the cross only in terms of a historical event, but as something that has present and ongoing implications for believers. So, when Paul was preaching in Corinth with this laser focus on the cross, I think he actually had no shortage of material, and he was actually spending that year and a half enlarging and deepening the Corinthians' knowledge and love for the cross. So, there is this little paradox. Its message is beautifully simple and comprehensible, and we should absolutely love and treasure it at this level. But at the same time, there is a richness and a depth to all its many contours. And I believe that we are meant to treasure the cross at a deeper level too. And what better night for us to do that ourselves than on Good Friday? Enlarging our Love for the Cross Some of you have heard of author and preacher John Piper. He wrote a great little book called Fifty Reasons why Jesus Came to Die. And I would say that was a very important book in my own journey to treasuring the Cross more deeply, primarily because it enlarged my own understanding of just how much was accomplished at the cross. I had been a Christian my whole life and I just thought that I had pretty much figured it all out already. But this book showed me that the meaning and the beauty of the cross was inexhaustible, and I was stopping far too short. I mean...Fifty reasons! Really? And do you know what? If Piper wanted to do it, I bet he could easily write a sequel to that book. Fifty More Reasons why Jesus Came to Die. The cross of Christ is that inexhaustibly rich. Now, I felt like 50 reasons might be a little too much for us to cover tonight, so I'd just like to briefly look at two things about the cross that have stirred my heart to treasure it more. Some or many of you may be familiar with these points already, but by God's grace, a fresh look at these will stir your hearts as well. 1. At the Cross, Jesus gave us his righteousness Now, I think it's fair to say that most children who grow up in a Christian household learn early on that "Jesus died for our sins." It means that when Christ was on the cross, the cost of those sins-your sins and my sins-was paid for in full. But there is something more that happened. Something that I think we easily forget. You see, this was not just a one-way transaction. This was a two-way transaction. Christ did not just take something of ours upon himself. He also gave us something of his to take upon ourselves. Theologians call this double imputation. That word "impute" just means to attribute something to another. So, the idea of "double imputation" is that something of ours is attributed to Christ, and something of Christ's is attributed to us. Now, I love big theological terms, but remember, Paul deliberately avoided using lofty words when he preached to the Corinthians, because he felt like it would take the attention off the beauty of the Cross and focus it on the cleverness of his words or arguments instead. So, just listen to how the Apostle Paul himself describes what happened at the cross: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21) You see, we give him our sin, and he gives us his righteousness. We give him our black and tattered rags, and he gives us his majestic kingly robes. Let me try to illustrate this. [BOOGIE BOARDS] You've heard of the term "clean slate." [DRAW NASTY DEMON FACE] So here is my nasty, dirty slate. Here is my sin. Here is my rebellion, and pride, and anger, and impatience. This is what the Father saw when He looked at me and rightly declared: GUILTY! But when Jesus took my sin upon himself and paid the penalty, I think this is what a lot of us imagine... [SWIPE]... clean slate. Amazing really! And now God sees... NOTHING! Hmm... [DRAW NASTY AGAIN] ...uh oh, I did it again. No worries. [SWIPE] Christ paid for our future sins too. The slate keeps getting cleaned, so God sees... NOTHING! But you see, this is not actually quite the right picture. Jesus took our sin...and gave us his righteousness. He did not just clear (and keep clearing) our slates. No, he took our slate as if it was his own, and at the cross, when the Father looked down on Jesus, he saw our slates. Our slates filled with these nasty things. This is just one slate, but imagine millions of slates covering the head of Jesus as he hung there on the cross... And then, Jesus did something unimaginable. [TAKE SECOND HAPPY FACE SLATE] He gave us his slate-his slate filled only with happy righteous things. There are no monster faces on this slate. And now when the Father looks at us, He doesn't see our nasty dirty slates. He doesn't just see empty slates that have been wiped free. No, when He looks at us, he sees Christ's slate-Christ's righteousness. Friends, the Cross was not only a divine sin-removal operation. It was a divine exchange operation. The Great Exchange as some theologians call it. Listen to the LORD's words to his people through the prophet Ezekiel and tell me if you don't hear an echo of this: I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. [There is the taking away of sin] And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. [And there is the exchange] [And then he repeats it again] And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezek 36:25f) So, that is the first point I want to make. The Cross was not only a removal, but it was an exchange. Our sin for Christ's righteousness. Just let that sink in. It's amazing! 2. At the Cross, Jesus freed us to live righteously Because Jesus exchanged our sin for his righteousness, we are righteous before God, or as Romans 5:9 says, "we have been justified by his blood." We've been freed from the penalty of sin. But sin causes all sorts of terrible problems, and Christ dealt a blow to every one of them on the cross. So now we are not talking about the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. And to appreciate the freedom the cross brings, we need to look at our former condition and see the shackles we were in. And it is not a pretty picture. As it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Rom 3:10-17) That was you and me. Enemies of God. And helplessly and utterly enslaved. We were serving sin willingly, but we were also serving sin in the way that a slave is compelled to serve their master. Even if you had wanted to leave that harsh taskmaster, you would not have been able to by your own will and power. You were stuck in shackles. Chained down. Now, some people may question whether our condition was really that bad. Joe, this isn't the Hotel California. I could have left on my own if I had wanted to. I just loved sin too much. But listen to the Apostle Paul here: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:7f) Paul not only speaks of our unwillingness to flee sin ("we do not submit to God's law"). He also speaks about our inability to flee sin ("Indeed, we cannot"). Now, some of you parents are going to start questioning whether you should have trusted me with your children in youth group for all those years, but let me illustrate with a story from those days. Actually, I was still in youth group myself at the time, just one of the older teens. So, one night we were having a youth group event at Pastor Haqq's house, and it seemed good to everyone to have a nice little hike in the dark through the M&M trails behind their property. So, the teens set off into the woods with a few flashlights. And it came to pass that a good way into the woods, some of the younger youth propositioned me to tell them a scary story. I was reluctant at first, but they were insistent, and so I figured, if they wanted a scare, they would get one. Having quickly concocted a wretched and devious plan, I said to them, "OK, I will tell you a scary story, but you must give me your flashlights first. The story will be scary and I'm afraid one of you will turn on your flashlight out of fear and break the mood." And so, innocent and trusting doves that they were, they handed all the flashlights over to me. Immediately I got up and bolted into the woods, leaving the troupe in the complete and utter dark. The group, truly afraid and hopelessly lost, huddled together and tried their best to navigate home. Meanwhile, I (and a couple of other hooligans who shall remain nameless) joined in the sport of making scary noises and tossing pinecones and the like near the group. I eventually returned with the lights and endured the ire of the group. Now, in my boyish immaturity, I really upset and frightened them beyond intention. But that is a picture, isn't it, of being enslaved to sin. We start out wanting it-reveling in it-enjoying it ("Tell us a scary story. Tell us, please!"). But the truth is that it leaves us enslaved. Stumbling in the dark, helpless, and unable to find our way out unless someone comes with a light to rescue us. Here is what I am saying: In our pitiful state, we needed a divine exchange operation to rescue us from the penalty of sin, but we also needed a divine rescue operation to free us from the power of sin. We needed a prison rescue. And that is exactly what Christ did for us on the cross. He didn't just take our sin upon himself. He freed us from our enslavement to it. And he didn't just give us his righteousness in a legal sense. He gave us the ability to act righteously. This is what Scripture teaches. Turn with me to Romans 6. I encourage you to read and study the whole chapter at home later, but let me just read a few verses to give you a flavor. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. (Rom. 6:6f) Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Rom. 6:14) Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted [that's the Gospel]. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Rom. 6:17f) You see, Christ's death was about freeing us from sin's enslaving power. And having been set free, sin no longer has dominion over us. But now something else does. As verse 18 says, we have now become slaves to righteousness. In other words, our new master, Righteousness, has a new agenda for us-to live righteously-to obey God's Word-something we didn't have the desire or ability to do in our former condition. But at the cross, we were made both free and able to live righteously. Let me close this second point by returning to the Ezekiel prophesy we read before, because I had left a verse out at the end. He says, And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [and now 27] And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Ezek 36:26f) Do you see it? The whole point of God's divine rescue, there in the Old Testament and now at the cross, was to free us from our enslavement to sin so that we are enabled to act righteously. Summary So here we are at the end. We've just spent a few minutes together enlarging our view of the cross and plumbing the depths of its meaning. And the truth is, this is a little heavy for a Friday night. But I am reminded of the Apostle Paul's example as he preached to the Corinthians for a year and a half, exploring the depths of the cross with them. Somehow, he found a way to teach these grand truths in a way that was simple for his hearers. To that end, let me try to do that for you now by summarizing this message in a single, simple statement, and then we will close. At the cross, Jesus took away the penalty of sin so that it no longer condemns us, and he took away the power of sin so that it no longer controls us. Friends, when we say "Jesus died for our sins" we are saying so much! May the cross become exceedingly more to you than it has ever been this Good Friday and Easter. Amen. Prayer Lord, many of us here tonight understand, believe, and embrace the message of the cross. And yet, perhaps for many of us, we have become satisfied with our understanding of it and have not continued to grow in our love and knowledge of it. Perhaps we have not spent time meditating on the numerous and staggering implications of what Christ accomplished by his death. If this is true of any here tonight, Lord, I pray that you would rekindle a desire to grow in our knowledge and treasure the cross more deeply. And maybe there are some here for which the cross has always been foolishness to them, and now, for the first time, they are beginning to understand and see the beauty of the cross for the first time. Lord, if there are any here tonight like this, I pray that you would reveal yourself to them. Give them eyes to see the terrible effects of sin and how at the cross, you provided the one and only solution, and that you offer them peace and reconciliation by your blood, if only they would believe. Amen. 1 Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953-2001). Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians (Vol. 18, p. 73). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House. --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------