The Wondrous Cross

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 15th of September, 2024 - one day after Holy Cross Day.  A recording of our service should be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Yesterday, Saturday, September the 14th, was Holy Cross Day on our Christian calendar.  This may be an unfamiliar holy day for you.  It was set aside to honor our Lord's suffering on the cross, suffering that He willingly accepted for the forgiveness of our sin and for our salvation

Today, we see the cross in and on Christian churches the world over.  It’s worn as jewelry by believers and even some non-believers.  But the cross did not become an accepted and regularly used symbol of Christianity until the 4th century, when it replaced the fish and other commonly used signs of the faith.

Some who practice the faith use the crucifix as their symbol, which has an image of the battered, bleeding, thorn-crowned Jesus still hanging there.  Our cross is empty, just like the tomb where His body was laid.

The Apostle Paul wrote two letters to the church in Corinth, a city in ancient Greece mostly populated by Greeks, Romans, and Hellenists.  The Greek people were vey interested in knowledge and philosophy was widely practiced and respected.  One of the key themes of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians involved giving more emphasis to love rather than knowledge.

But very early in this letter, Paul mentions the cross, and what it means to us, to believers.  Please listen and follow along to the words of the Apostle Paul in the 1st chapter of his 1st letter to the church in Corinth, verses 17 through 24, and I’ll be reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

17 Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the good news without using words that sound wise and would make the cross of Christ lose its power.

18 The message about the cross doesn't make any sense to lost people. But for those of us who are being saved, it is God's power at work. 19  As God says in the Scriptures,

“I will destroy the wisdom

of all who claim

to be wise.

I will confuse those

who think they know

so much.”

20  What happened to those wise people? What happened to those experts in the Scriptures? What happened to the ones who think they have all the answers? Didn't God show that the wisdom of this world is foolish? 21  God was wise and decided not to let the people of this world use their wisdom to learn about Him.

Instead, God chose to save only those who believe the foolish message we preach. 22 Jews ask for miracles, and Greeks want something that sounds wise. 23 But we preach that Christ was nailed to a cross. Most Jews have problems with this, and most Gentiles think it is foolish. 24 Our message is God's power and wisdom for the Jews and the Greeks that He has chosen.

--1 Corinthians 1:17-24 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to follow Your Son Jesus.  This is truly an undeserved blessing.  Sadly though, Father, we sometimes forget the message of the cross.  We hesitate to do the work Jesus left for us to do.  We know that we need to reach out to the non-believers around us, but too often we hesitate to do so.  Forgive us these times, Father.  Please help us be more obedient to Your and Your Son’s commands.  Give us the courage and the will to worship You with our proper service.  Help us as we step out into the world, offering aid where we can and witnessing to the non-believers, sharing the Good News and showing Your love.  And please forgive us when we hesitate to speak and act on behalf of You and our Lord Jesus out of fear or anxiety.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Thank You for forgiving and forgetting our sin.  Help us share the Good News of forgiveness and everlasting life in our daily walk.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The name of the person who made this observation is unknown, but they noted that, “If you were to look at Rembrandt's painting of The Three Crosses, your attention would be drawn first to the center cross on which Jesus died.  Then as you would look at the crowd gathered around the foot of that cross, you'd be impressed by the various facial expressions and actions of the people involved in the awful crime of crucifying the Son of God.  Finally, your eyes would drift to the edge of the painting and catch sight of another figure, almost hidden in the shadows.  Art critics say this is a representation of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that by his sins he helped nail Jesus to the cross.”

Jews are often accused of executing our Lord, but we are the ones who did the dirty work.  We Gentiles, in the persons of the Romans, humiliated Jesus, tortured Him, and nailed Him to a cross to die.  And every time we sin, by our every disobedience, we drive a nail into His hand.

But in the act of dying, Jesus defeated death.  And He did it for us, that we might never die.  Isaiah said it best: “He was wounded and crushed because of our sins; by taking our punishment, He made us completely well.”

Maybe that’s each of us, standing there off to the side in Rembrandt's painting…

Paul says the message of the cross doesn’t make any sense to lost people – to the lost.  The New King James Versions phrases it that, “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”.  But what is the message of the cross?

Well, it depends on who you ask.  To the Romans, the cross was a warning to anyone who would even think about upsetting the peace enforced by Rome.  To the world, a cross is where a man named Jesus was executed for his crimes.  And a little earlier, I alluded to what the cross says to us, we who believe.  It is a sign of God’s power in raising His Son from the dead, promising eternal life to all who follow Jesus.  But family, there’s another message of the cross of Jesus, and it is one He gave voice, one that has to do with following Him.

After Jesus had hand-picked His twelve disciples, He told them they were also to be His apostles, and He sent them out two-by-two to heal the people and spread the word about the kingdom of heaven.  Upon their return, He spoke some hard truths.  Listen to what Jesus told His chosen twelve, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in the 10th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 37 through 39…

37  “If you love your father or mother or even your sons and daughters more than Me, you are not fit to be My disciples. 38  And unless you are willing to take up your cross and follow Me, you are not fit to be My disciples. 39  If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for Me, you will surely find it.”

--Matthew 10:37-39 (CEV)

If we want to follow Jesus, truly follow Him, we must be willing to take up our cross, bear the load, not worrying about this life but giving our all to Jesus, just as He gave His all for us.

Much later in His ministry, after the feeding of the 5000 and then later the 4000, after Peter proclaimed that Jesus is the Christ, the long awaited Messiah, our Lord told His disciples of His upcoming death and resurrection.  At this point, He didn’t mention how His death would be carried out, but when He addressed His disciples and the gathered crowd, He hinted at the method of His impending execution.  Hear what the Apostle Mark recorded for us in verses 34 and 35 of the 8th chapter of his Gospel account…

34  Jesus then told the crowd and the disciples to come closer, and He said:

If any of you want to be My followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow Me. 35  If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for Me and for the good news, you will save it.

--Mark 8:34-35 (CEV)

We must forget about ourselves.  To save our life we must destroy it.  This doesn’t mean we need to develop amnesia or commit suicide.  No, He means we must let go of our self, our sense of self - we must destroy our sense of self.  We must give up selfishness and become selfless.  This is also a message of the cross to us, for this is one way we take up our cross so that we may follow Jesus, by giving ourselves to Him.

Crucifixion may not have first been devised by the Romans, but they certainly put it to horrific use as a means of torture and execution, intended as a deterrent against breaking the peace imposed by Imperial Rome.  They would leave the bodies hanging there for days as a warning to everyone who passed by.  To them, the message of the cross was, “This will be your fate if you cross us.”

But to us - we who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God – to we who follow Him, the message the cross sends is much different.  It is a show of God’s power and wisdom.  It is a wondrous sign that our Lord defeated death and conquered the grave, winning a victory that we will share in.

And it is also a message of God’s love.  For like Jesus said, “God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.”

The message of the cross is not simply a saying or an ideal - it is a way of life.  Each and every day we may be challenged because of our faith.  We don’t know when we may once again have to lift our cross upon our shoulders and face the scorn of the non-believing world.  But if we find ourselves in that situation, let us willingly and gladly bear our load, giving of ourselves to Jesus.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who bore the cross for us.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your own Son into the world to offer us forgiveness of our sin and life everlasting.  You used the cross to send us a message, one that the world cannot understand and thinks is foolish.  But we get it, Father.  We understand that the cross, the empty cross, is a clear sign of Your love for us and Your creation.  Thank You for sending this message.  Sometimes, though, dear Father, we lose sight of what You did for us through Your Christ Jesus.  We hesitate or even downright refuse to go out into the world sharing the Good News and making disciples.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  And forgive us when we can’t seem to let go of our sense of self, giving of ourselves to Jesus.  Please help us reach out more into the world, serving You by serving others.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus, being more forgiving and merciful in our dealings with others.  Guide us around any pitfalls in this life and strengthen our spirits to do Your will.  And please help us do a better job of sharing Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You gave up Your mortal life there upon that cruel cross, and You did it for our sake, carrying out Your Father’s will.  Your cross is our sign of Your sacrifice, and of how You conquered death so that we too might have eternal life.  Lord, we really do want to please You and do the mission You gave us.  We try to live as You would have us live, Lord, but sometimes we just get too caught up in the world around us and we lose sight of the cross.  Please forgive us our weaknesses, dear Jesus.  Forgive us our hesitation.  Please help us be more considerate and caring of others.  Help us as we go about spreading the Gospel message.  Help us share Your love by being more understanding, more merciful, more giving and forgiving of others, offering aid when we can.  Not everyone believes in You, so it is our job to help them see the truth and believe.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.

Lord Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations and all the false teachings.  Help us fend off his attacks.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.