Embracing the Cross: A Call to Transformation

"message uh and he's like no my cross is for every time for all the time and i was like okay i'm sorry god uh and so uh this is what we're going to be talking about today and and as i was thinking about man what to title this i i kept researching the crucifixion what's amazing is you don't get the chance i implore you to do research on the crucifixion read about the crucifixion in the bible but also do uh some research because you cannot separate the historical from the theological especially when it comes to the cross and so i implore you to do that as i've done i've done it multiple times i've always been fascinated with it uh multiple times throughout my faith and still to this day this time that i've done it i've found more and more and more uh before we begin i'd like to ask a question and this may apply more to the husbands uh than anyone else but how many husbands in here has your wife asked you to go find something or go get something for her oh you were already raising your hand i'm not even there yet all right you're already go find something for her and you go to go look for it and and she says it's right there like don't find me the sugar that's right there in the cabinet and you go okay and you look in the cabinet and you're like there's no sugar here and you're like yes all right people are already getting transformed in the service this morning and you're like there is no sugar here and because i'll do it my wife goes yes there is i'm like honey i'm looking and you know there's no sugar and and she goes there is sam and she's like you're just being lazy i'm like i'm not being lazy i'm looking for the sugar and and then i go turn i go you're gonna have to you're gonna have to find it and then she comes and she goes really i said what and she goes right here and i look back in the sugar has appeared out of thin air and and i swear to you it happens i'm like there's no way that's there's witchcraft there's no way like there's that sugar was not there and now it is you know like why are you asking this question uh because i think it is so important that we look again so many times people glance over things in the bible we read a passage to say that we read it and then we're like right after all i did it but the amazing thing about the bible and amazing thing about the holy spirit is is that you can look at the same thing in two different times and god speaks to you in a whole new way so this morning i want to encourage you listen this message of your if you are not yet followed jesus this message is definitely for you but if you are still if you've been a believer your entire life please don't tune out the next 30 minutes or so okay because i i want to encourage you to look at the same thing in two different times i want to encourage you if you would look again the holy spirit may be saying something to you that you've never heard before so i want to as i said look again uh at the cross and and listen i'm going to say some things and really as i was reading into this as i was uh diving deep into this subject man there's different perspectives of who jesus was and is but his love for you is not what you are looking for because you're looking at the same thing you're us and his mission for us just came alive and I'd like to share a few of those with you today starting out with my first point that says our sins were paid they weren't wiped our sins were paid they weren't wiped and I'm going to start in John 18 39 through 40 and it says but it is your custom for me [00:32:20]

"to release you, one prisoner. Now this is Jesus is on trial. He's being presented by Pilate and he's presented by Pilate with him along with Barabbas to the crowd. He says, but is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover? Do you want me to release the king of the Jews? They shouted back, no, not him. And give us Barabbas. Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising. Listen, we're just gonna focus on that a little bit right here because what's so inspiring about the story of Barabbas is that if we read it at a face value, go, okay, it's just, you know, it was another prisoner and he was a bad man and the crowd still decided to take Jesus. And yes, that's true, but what we see here is that really Barabbas is us, right? We are the guilty party. What's amazing is that if I put myself, if we all, if you put yourself in your mind right now in Barabbas' shoes, he's standing there, the crowd says, you know what? No, we want Jesus killed more. Give us Barabbas. So Barabbas walks down thinking that he's escaped. He's God free. And in his mind, the punishment's gone. And what the deal was is that there was still a punishment to be given and it was given to Jesus. And Barabbas thinks he's, he's lucky that he may even thought, he may have been so bold to say, well, the people actually love me. The world loves me and that's why I've been set free. The Romans chose mercy and that's why I've been set free. But if we read all the way back from Genesis, even God the Father talks about, prophesies the coming of the Messiah later. And so this night, this day that Jesus is standing there has been in the making for a very long time. And if we really get down to the nitty -gritty, the fact of the matter is that Barabbas wasn't set free by the people. Barabbas was set free by the Holy Father. In the same way as us as Barabbas, listen, you were not, you were not set free because, just because you chose Jesus. You're not set free from your sins just because you sat in church today. You were set free by loving God. And when I read this story, when I read the crucifixion, I think the biggest thing that stands out to me is always just the passion, not just trying to steal the name of the movie, but the passion of the Christ. And I think what harms us too much is we see too many clean figures of Jesus on our cross. We sanitize the gospel. And I get it, you know, there's kids, there's movies, you can't exactly show that to a six -year -old. I understand that. But I think we watch it too much and we go, Jesus died for our sins. And in some way, we picture him just walking up to a cross, he gets nailed to the cross, he dies, and then raises again, and we're good. And we're like, yes, I've been forgiven of my sins, and we sing about it. But we forget that our sins cost something. And while we may have been saved from that, the price, the price was still paid. We walked free. There was an innocent God that paid that price. I think it's so important that we remember it. Because not only... [00:36:10]

does it not only does it give me got a reason to always worship but it it shows me that listen despite all of my shortcomings despite of my sin I can stand knowing that my God paid the price for my shortcomings and I can stand in worship and honestly I don't know about you but it keeps me in an ego check because I can do I can do all the great things any great thing I can imagine but listen it still doesn't mount up when it you look at it behind the cross when you look you know that despite everything I could do I could never achieve the holiness I could never mount up amount up to the salvation that I could never achieve that God paid the price for listen this needs me the number two that says listen we're we're tall to live as he died we're called to live as he died now again I encourage you when you're home to to read more into this the different accounts and Luke and John about the the story of the crucifixion but I understand that that as we as we read their point as we've drawn through point as we've drawn through point as we've drawn through point as we've drawn through point point one and listen that your your your sins weren't forgiven just forgiven they were paid for with a price they weren't just wiped away i said we've seen songs that says our our sins were you know our sins were wiped away it's an over simplification they were paid for they were nailed away they were whipped away they weren't just wiped and when we really accept that when we really dive deep into that we see a little glimpse of the full price that jesus paid for us now i did some historical digging so if maybe you've heard this before maybe you haven't if not guess what you get to learn some stuff today but it is uh jesus was brought after he was condemned to death he was brought to be whipped by the romans now jewish law said that uh a man who was a man who was a man who was sentenced to death could only be flawed uh or only be whipped 40 times in a day uh and the jews especially you know the pharisees and sadducees were very very strict on their rules and so they said you know what just to just to make sure we don't go over we'll just do 39 uh so we won't go over so he was whipped 39 times now understand that the the ones who did the whipping were the romans and they whipped him with a whip called the cat of nine tails now this whip was designed to be especially brutal it had balls of metal as well as bones get this sheep bones the spotless lamb was whipped by whip that had bones of sheep and so the main the main design of this whip was to be the balls of metal would hit the back would bruise the back the jagged pieces of not just bone but also metal as well would go into the skin and it was designed to then rip the flesh and the muscle from the bone it was very good at what it did uh jim cavas i can never say his last name but jim the guy that played jesus in the passion of christ even spoke of a time that he was whipped uh and they missed the little board [00:40:00]

that they were supposed to hit, not him. They missed, and he actually got hit with the whip itself. It said that just one whip took his whole breath away. Of course, they didn't rip out any flesh or any, but he was hit, and just the hitting of the metal took his breath away. And Jesus endured it 39 times. Historians say that as he was whipped, that many robin floggings, by the end of it, be from all the ripping, that their rib would be exposed. That's how deep these whips would cut. It said that the amount of blood Jesus would have had lost from this whipping, that by the time he even started carrying the cross, he'd be at about 20 % of his blood loss just in the whipping. Which would then put him into a form of shock. I would often say they would cause confusion, nausea, dizziness, a lot of things. And this is all the pain that our Savior willingly took, among other things. So why am I going over these details? Why am I going over all this? Because it's important that we were reminded of the determination of our Lord. Understand that this is a perfect man who's doing this to save the people that are whipping him. To save humanity. At any time, Jesus could have said, that's it, that's enough, I'm out, I'm ready to be gone. And he continues to endure this. This unimaginable torture. To have this whipping. To have a crown of thorns pushed into his head. To be punched and spit on, his beard ripped out. And he continues on. He continues on to the cross. Because that is the determination of our Lord. It's important. And I know y 'all are looking at me like, oh, this is gonna go really deep and really heavy real fast. But I think it is so important. Because I can recount times that I've walked into the church and I'm like, Like, I'm going through a valley, Lord. What do I have to praise? What I have to be praised is the fact that he would save me. So many times that I get caught up in other things and walk into the room and thinking about what do I got to do next instead of giving my heart and attention to the God that deserves it all. And how many times do we walk in here and go, well, the gospel's not enough. The gospel's not enough. He bled. He was beaten beyond anything. The Bible says that he was beaten beyond all recognition. You couldn't even recognize him by the time they were done. That is the passion of our Christ. That is the love of our God. And it's important that we reflect on that, that we reflect on the love of our God. If you are sitting here this morning and you don't think that there's a God out there that doesn't love you, he does. Go look again. Go look again. If you think there's not a God that's not passionate about your holiness, that's not passionate about your place with him in heaven for eternity, there is a God that is. Look again. And so you say, okay, well, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say. [00:45:32]

So how are we called to live? Listen, if we look at the brutality of what Jesus went through, understand that even after he lost 20%, even after he went through all of this, understand that the crossbar that Jesus had as part of the cross, the crossbar alone weighed 100 pounds. And this man, after losing 20 % of his blood and being mutilated with an exposed rib, carried a jagged cross with splinters uphill to be crucified. And when we look at that, when we look at that brutality, listen, then we read other passages of the Bible that come alive even more, that mean even more, which is, listen, it brings me to the passage where Jesus calls those who wish to follow him, that they must deny themselves and daily carry their cross. And follow him. And if we're following him and we're carrying our cross, that's the price he paid to carry his. When he carried his, then what does it mean for us in our lives? If we're daily supposed to carry our cross, then we're daily supposed to live in the same fashion that he died. Which means in the world, in the world of our faith, in the world of Christianity, there is so, there is no such thing as a casual faith. There's no such thing as benchwarmers in the kingdom of God. We cannot sit idly by. We cannot just say, Lord, you just give me a styrofoam cross. There's no styrofoam crosses. I'm not bashing anyone who carries them on the side of the road. But there's no styrofoam crosses in the kingdom of God. God will set upon you burdens and God will set upon you tasks. And we have to resist the urge of casualty. They resist the urge of saying, you know what? God, that cross is just not for me. Let me pick another one. Lord, what you've asked me to do, that doesn't really fit my time schedule. Can you pick a different cross? No, that's, that's the only cross available to us. So what is it to carry our cross? Listen, to carry your cross is to deny yourself. And say, God, your will be done. Wherever I ever look at anywhere else, Lord, I look at you. And what's amazing is God sets up a scene to literally portray exactly what he says during his crucifixion. Because we turn to the story of Simon. Simon is just a regular guy walking from the countryside during the time that Jesus is, Jesus is walking up the road. And suddenly Jesus couldn't carry his cross any further because of all the blood loss he had. And the guards pull Simon from the crowd to carry the cross. It says in Luke 23, 26, it says, then we see, and as Jesus was being led away, some soldiers grabbed a hold of a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene. He was coming in from the fields, but they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. In quite a literal way, Simon picked up a cross and followed him. Now, they grabbed Simon. So it's not like Simon said, oh, pick me. I'm going to carry the cross. They picked Simon up and said, carry the cross for Jesus. What's amazing is that, listen, that is our lives with Christ. There'll be times that you are asked to carry crosses you never volunteered for. Serving ways that maybe not were in your plan. But God says daily, daily, we pick up our cross and follow him. And as we looked at the brutality of what he went through, my question to you today is, what cross are you carrying? Are you trying to pick them out? Where are you serving the kingdom? Where are you serving the kingdom? Because you may stay here and be like, well, I, you know, I just, I would just rather come and, you know, just fill the seat and, and just come to church and just, I'll leave the serving to you guys. Now that's not the command of the gospel. And no, this is not a ploy. I'm not trying to fill up the host team. Although that would be great. I'm saying, where are you serving God? Maybe not just North side, but where are you serving God? Although if you would tell me this morning, well, I don't, I don't serve him anywhere. Well, this house of God be a good place to start. But understand that I see too many people go, okay, yeah, I'm ready to serve. And as soon as it's inconvenient, as soon as somebody says a wrong remark to them, they go, well, I'm ready to dip out. This wasn't, you know, I was okay to serve until it hurt me. There's, there's splinters, there's splinters in the cross. But I would think that the way that Jesus died for us would empower us to live the same way for him. If he could be brutally killed for me, then I can dedicate my life to him. What's inspiring though, is that with all this, with all this brutality, through all this suffering of Jesus, we still see the heart of Christ displayed to us while he's on the cross. Excuse me. Number three, Jesus knows your pain and wants to heal your hurts. But John 19, 26 through 27, Jesus hanging on the cross. And it says when Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved, John standing nearby, he said to her woman, here is your son. And the disciple here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home on picture. Here's Jesus hanging on the cross. Now, by the way, he's hanging on their crosses. His wrists have been nailed into the cross. His feet have been nailed. And this whole design of this cross is to make it hard for him to even breathe because of how he's hanging. Right. They say that people that are hung on a cross would have to pull themselves from their nailed in wrists. The pull, pull themselves up just to breathe. I understand this is Jesus hanging on this cross and the love that he has for his mother and for his disciples so much that he pulls himself not only just to breathe, but to speak. And here he sees his mother, Mary, that is losing. son right in front of her eyes and out of his compassion for her provides her another son he says mother this is your son and he says john this is your new mother provides her a caretaker provides for someone to stay with and keep her safe that is the compassion of our christ can i tell you that god has that same compassion for you i know that we're i know that we're where you can it's so easy to come in here and say lord you know you're so huge you're so big there's so many problems in our world surely you don't care about mine but that's not what we see in the gospel that's not what we see in the crucifixion we see that up to it all the way through to the? up to his death, Jesus is caring right there in the now for the people in front of him. Can I say the Bible says that, listen, just as God takes care of the birds of the air, listen, that he will also take care of you. So I can encourage you today if you're sitting in these seats and you're saying, Sam, I'm just dealing with things. There's just problems in my life. There's problems I got. There's things I'm going through, but it's okay. I'll deal with it on my own. God's probably too busy for all of that. Can I say that he loves you? Can I say that he cares about what you're going through? And can I tell you that he actively wants to be in your life? He actively wants to walk with you through these things. Whether it's healing, whether it's deliverance, listen, God wants to do a miracle in your life today. How do I know that? He showed it on the cross. He showed it on the cross. Number four this morning, know that it is finished. His last dying breath after Jesus takes a drink that they provided him from the sponge, he takes the drink and says, it is finished. Hangs his head, takes his final breath and gives up his spirit. Now, you've probably heard this several times. And I tell you, as I was diving deep into this, into this story, that they said that, I looked into it, and the word that he uses, the phrase that it is finished, comes from the Greek word, tetelestai, which means it is finished, but was used commonly in that time in business dealings, which meant paid, paid in full. Paid in full. Can I speak to those in this morning that might be dealing with guilt or shame? Listen, you may have walked in here, and you've got this secret sin in your life. You've got things weighing you down. You're thinking you're a hopeless cause. That there's no way God could forgive you. Can I encourage you this morning that Christ is sufficient? Can I encourage you this morning that when Jesus said, it is finished, he didn't lie. When he said, it is finished, he didn't mean until 2025. He said, well, you know, it's finished until Pastor Sam comes on the scene, and we need some extra blood for him. Like, no. The blood is sufficient. He is sufficient. There's no earning your way because we never could. There's no earning our salvation because, like Barabbas, we were [00:54:44]

or that you've fallen for the lie that your forgiveness came without a price, look again. If you're here and you think that God has enthralled you, enthralled you to carry your cross, if you don't think you're called to live for him as passionately as he died for you, look again. [01:00:02]