Sermon Tone Analysis
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What does the cross mean to you?
What change has the cross of Christ brought to your life?
in our world, Crosses have taken on an identity that would stun a believer from the 1st century church,
People wear them for jewlery,
We put them on our cars
We have nice clean ones in our churches
But a first-century believer, or anyone living during that time, would probably not have displayed the cross like we do
The cross was an instrument of a death that was almost unthinkable in its horror
Let’s be reminded of what Jesus was facing and about to face
At the beginning of the chapter, Pilate, finding himself in deep, hot political water is searching for a way to appease the Jewish authorities.
He doesn’t want to kill Jesus, really, but on the other hand, the situation is getting out of control.
And so he has Jesus flogged.
Maybe this will appease the Jews.
Because flogging was in itself a punishment almost to horrible to speak about
One which many men did not survive
Because the way in which it was done nearly flayed people alive
Parents can talk to their children about it when the time is right
And after Jesus is flogged, they throw a purple robe on him, and they weave together a crown made out of thorny branches and they smash it down on his head.
These probably aren’t just any kind of thorns.
We have a rose bush with thorns, but they are just little short thorns
We had these kind of thorns in Africa.
The Acacia tree has thorns which can be close to two inches long, and are razor sharp at the end.
Believe me, you don’t want to get tangled in those thorns, much less have them driven down on your head.
But this is what they did to Jesus.
They flogged him to a bloody pulp, drove this mock crown down onto his head,
They mock him, beat him with their hands,
And then Pilate marches him back out to the crowd and says, “Behold the man”.
I think hoping that this will appease the crowd.
But they cry out all the more for his death, and so Pilate sends him out to be crucified.
Again, a means of death mean to horrify, humiliate, and cause absolute suffering to the condemned.
It was meant as a warning to all who would dare defy the Roman empire
Because a man didn’t die from having spikes driven into his hands and feet.
He died slowly from asphyxiation.
From not being able to breathe properly.
And this could take days.
The cross, for a first century Christian was not be taken lightly.
There is a reason that Paul says, 1 Cor.
1:18-24
The cross is foolishness for those who are perishing.
They don’t understand the power of the cross or the message of the cross.
They don’t understand why such an instrument of horror, torture, and shame should be so precious to the Believer
The cross is a stumbling block and folly to both Jews and Gentiles who don’t believe
But for those of us who DO believe, it represents the power and the wisdom of God
The question in front of us is, what difference has the cross made in your life?
If we preach and proclaim the cross of Christ, is it make a difference to you?
The cross represents the ugliness of man’s sin, and the depth of God’s love
We see in these chapters, and we talked last Sunday about the betrayal of Judas, Peter, and the crowd
We see the depravity of the mob calling for his death, setting up a mock trial, leaning on the corrupt Roman empire to do their dirty work
The brutality of the soldiers toward Jesus
But in all of that, we see how far God was willing to go in order to save us.
To make a way for fallen mankind to be reconciled to Him
In the cross, we see the depth of God’s love for us
You know many people have speculated about “who killed Jesus?”
Was it the Jews?
Romans?
Did Jesus just not calculate the political risk in preaching like He preached and doing what He did?
You want to know the answer to that question?
It was God.
Romans 8:31-32 “31 What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
Isaiah 53:10 says that it was the LORD’s will to crush Jesus.
Why?
Because God delights in punishment?
No, because of what the death of Jesus was going to bring about.
It was going to bring about a way for you and I, and millions of others to be reconciled back to our Father.
The cross shows us the ugliness of man’s sin, and the depth of God’s love
And By the way, Jesus came to earth, knowing what He would endure.
Jesus said, in John 10:17-18 “17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.
This charge I have received from my Father.””
And in John 18, as Judas is arriving with his lynch mob, it says, that “Jesus, knowing all that was about to happen to him, stepped forward and asked them who they were looking for”
Have you, have I, see the ugliness of our sin, and experienced the depth of God’s love for us?
The Cross represents sacrifice and discipleship
Again, Jesus knew all that would happen to him
He said, “I’ve come that they may have life and have it more abundantly
No one is taking my life from me.
I’m laying it down because my Father has given me authority to do so
Yet in all this, Jesus did not flinch from what he was called to do.
And He used the cross as an illustration of the high cost of discipleship
Luke 9:23 “23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”
This speaks to a daily renewing of our commitment to follow Jesus, giving up all that is precious and dear to us.
Jesus laid aside His glory and came to earth, to live like one of us, with the cross in front of Him
And He asks us, His disciples, to live the same way
1 Peter 2:20-24 “20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure?
But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.”
This is written specifically to servants
But I believe that it applies to all who would be Jesus’s disciples because of His call to take up our cross daily
Taking up your cross means
Not retaliating when we are reviled
Not threatening those who cause us to suffer
Entrusting ourselves to Him (that’s God) who judges justly
Dying to sin, living to righteousness
The cross is a daily call for us to lay aside all that is important to the flesh, entrust ourselves to God,
The Cross breaks the power of Satan
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