THE POWER OF THE CROSS

We’re close to celebrating a huge day on the Christian calendar called Good Friday.  Many churches today are celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem called Palm Sunday but I wanted to focus on wants coming.  For those who have only heard a little religious information about this event it really has a sense of being not-so-good Friday.  So today I want to tell you a little about the day and describe why the church of Jesus Christ is so honored to recognize this day.

Jesus was born in a small town into a family where the dad, Joseph, earned his living doing carpentry like furniture making and light construction.  Jesus learned to work with His hands and create things from wood.  He was not famous for woodcarving but was rather just know as the son of a carpenter.  As He grew up He understood early in life that God was His true Father and Jesus longed to please His spiritual dad.  He learned all about God through Jewish schooling and rigorous home training.  When He was old enough to be recognized as a man who could lead others He invited some of His countrymen to join Him with the single purpose in mind of learning how to follow His heavenly father.

Throughout his ministry years Jesus did everything His father God told Him to do after He had spent time with Him in prayer and meditation.  God told Him to love humanity, heal humanity and rescue humanity and Jesus obeyed without hesitation.  It looked to Jesus’ followers like He was going to be the new head guy of something amazing, something highly influential.  He would likely become the leader of a new, powerful organization that would straighten out the misalignment of the Jewish community and their twisted view of God.  God however had a higher purpose.

The one area of great resistance was the very people that God wanted to reach with His saving grace, the Jewish people.  More accurately it was the leaders of the Jewish community or the heads of what we would call today, the church.   They so despised the fact that Jesus said He knew His father, God, better than they did.  They did everything possible to discredit Jesus ministry to common people.  They said he broke the rules by doing good things on the day that was legally set-aside for honoring God.

These well meaning, but confused folks, determined to sabotage every meeting Jesus was at but always failed in their attempts because Jesus was not trying to advance religion but rather paint a picture of who God really was.  Then one day they found a loophole to use against Jesus and determined to have Him tortured and crucified for saying He was equal to God.  So here begins the story of the tree that was fashioned, not into furniture, but into an implement of murder.  Listen closely as God once again took a plan of sinful man and turned it into His glorious achievement.

Matthew 20:28   …just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”     

God made it very clear throughout history that the price for sin, separation from Him, was death.  As I spoke last week the people of Israel had to spill the blood of an ox, goat, sheep or dove as a symbol of this truth but none of these sacrifices were pure enough to truly pay for your and my sin.  It would take a sinless offering and Jesus willfully gave His life in place of ours as the sacrifice for sin.  He knew that in order for God to reestablish relationship with all of mankind He would have to willfully pay this price, there was no one else.

Peter 2:23-24   …When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Jesus was beaten, bruised beyond recognition because everything that should have been done to the guilty was instead done to this innocent one on their behalf.  He was nailed to the tree instead of you and me.  He was condemned instead of us and was rejected so we could become accepted.  He was damaged beyond recognition so that God would not see my sins and my flaws but instead see His way to heal me and deliver me.

Let me read a somewhat lengthy portion of scripture that packages this so plainly.  I’m reading from the Message Bible so it speaks in common street language.

Isaiah 53:1-12   …Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?  Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?  The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
 a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One looks at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.  We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!  He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.  They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.

Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,” as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly the best of everything, the highest honors because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest.  He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.    

The cross points to a terrible reality for our innocent Jesus.  It is at the same time the point of great celebration for you and I.  It’s pain, suffering and brutality was public and horrific.  Jesus chose to follow His father’s plan because you are so important to Him.  Don’t overlook this enormous gesture of affection.  Don’t just skip on to the Easter Dinner and neglect so great a sacrifice.

The price has been paid through innocent blood, which you could not provide.  You need not pay for your sins if you accept Christ’s atonement (substitution) for your sin.  The cross is powerful in that it tells of our freedom from guilt.   The cross can’t heal but what took place on the cross gives us the provision of healing.  The cross can’t deliver but what took place on the cross sets us free.

Draw on the power of the cross

Notes from Pastor Pasch’s April 5, 2009 message - to get a free CD of the complete message, contact Christ’s Family Church @ 651.437.2340.