Steps to the Cross

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the first Sunday in Lent, the 26th of February, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

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

Family, today is the first Sunday in Lent, the time for fasting and contemplation.  Back in 1896, Charles Monroe Sheldon wrote and published a work of religious fiction titled, "In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?".  In the story, an out-of-work and homeless man confronts a church congregation about their apathetic lack of compassion, for not being more Christ-like in their mercy, their attitude, their actions.

This poor man dies a few days later.  Moved by the man’s words and death, the pastor challenges the congregation to not do anything before asking themselves, "What would Jesus do?"  Mr. Trevor Autton took Mr. Sheldon's book theme and created a series of sermon outlines to fit into the Lenten season.  I am going to share these themes with you as we continue our walk with Jesus that we began Wednesday afternoon, following along in His steps.

As we read our Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus, we can see that not too far into His ministry, He began preparing His followers for what would happen in a few short years.  From our reading we get the sense that they didn’t quite grasp what He was telling them, that they couldn’t quite understand exactly who or what their Master was.

He was called Teacher, Rabbi, Prophet.  Yes, He could work miracles that they couldn’t, but still, wasn’t He just a man, like them?  They could see Him, touch Him, watch Him grow hungry and then eat and drink and do all the normal things we normal human beings do.  Trying to reconcile this man walking with them as God was, understandably, difficult for them.  So He used parables, word stories to try to get His point across in terms familiar to them.  He needed them to understand that their steps together were ultimately leading to the cross, where He would be sacrificed for us all, where He would give up His mortal life so that we might be forgiven of our sin against God.

Let me relate one instance where Jesus spoke with His disciples about going home.  Please listen and follow along to a brief conversation between our Lord and His followers, as recorded by the beloved Apostle John in the 14th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 1 through 6, and I’ll be reading this from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

--John 14:1-6 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for sending Your Son to make the way for us to be reconciled to You.  And thank You for having mercy upon us and giving us this chance at salvation.  By our belief in Jesus and obedience to His commands, we are justified in Your sight.  Father, please forgive us when we don’t always walk with Jesus in our daily life.  Forgive us when we don’t follow along in His steps, striving to follow His example.  Please help us love as Jesus loved, and live as He would have us live.  

And Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who are so willing to carry out his evil works.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Help us take up our own cross daily and walk as Jesus walked.  This we pray in the glorious name of Christ Jesus, Your beloved Son.   Amen.

Scottish clergyman George MacLeod once noted that, "Jesus was crucified, not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves."  We cannot simply sit in church, waiting for the lost to come find us, or even waiting for Jesus to return.  We must get out there among the sinners and thieves, bearing our cross, witnessing for Jesus.

This is what Jesus did.  He didn’t pull up a table and chair in the Temple and wait for the masses to come to Him.  He went out among the people, among the sick and the dying, the lame and the weak; He associated with sinners and tax collectors and thieves.  Jesus commanded us to go into the world making disciples.  This is what Jesus did, and this is what we must do if we are to follow in His steps.

It may be hard for us to understand and believe just how much Jesus accomplished in so short a time.  While there is some uncertainty about the timeline of Jesus’ life, His ministry did not begin until He was around 30 years old and then only lasted as much as three years.  Yet in those three short years, He amassed tens of thousands of followers, starting with four fishermen, and He did this without the benefit of mass media or the internet, no bus tours or jet airplanes.  And more astonishingly, He is remembered and revered today, 2000 years later.

Jesus walked everywhere throughout the area, He visited temples and synagogues, He taught in open fields and on mountainsides.  His twelve chosen disciples walked alongside Him, and the people walked from far and wide just to be near Him, to hear Him, to be healed by Him.  Why?  Maybe because God and His Holy Spirit put it on their hearts that Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life.

The Apostle Luke saved for us a moment when Jesus asked His disciples who the others said He was.  They responded that the people thought Him to be John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the other prophets, risen from the dead.  Then He asked who do they, His closest friends and followers think Him to be.  And Peter said, “The Messiah, the Christ sent from God”.

Hear the rest of what Luke saved of this moment, from the 9th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 22 through 24...

22 “The Son of Man must suffer many terrible things,” Jesus said. “He will be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He will be killed, but on the third day He will be raised from the dead.”

23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. 24 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.”

--Luke 9:22-24 (NLT)

Jesus suffered horribly, both physically and emotionally.  He was beaten and whipped and scourged and nailed to a cross, yes, but He was also rejected by the very people He came to rescue.  That had to have hurt the most.

But then He adds that if we want to be His follower, if we truly intend to walk in His steps, we must be prepared to suffer, too.  Hopefully not as much, nor as violently, as He, but it may happen and we should be prepared for it.  We may be persecuted, scorned by our peers, even physically harmed or put to death if we happen to be witnessing our faith in the wrong place.  But as long as our words and actions are for His sake, in Jesus’ name, then our everlasting life in heaven is assured.

So just as Jesus said, He was arrested by the Jewish leaders and turned over to the Romans where He suffered terrible things.  After a mockery of a trial, and with the Jews shouting for His death, Pilate handed Jesus over to his soldiers.  In chapter 19 of his Gospel account, the second part of verse 16 through the first part of verse 18, John tells us...

16b So they took Jesus away. 17 Carrying the cross by Himself, He went to the place called Place of the Skull (in Hebrew, Golgotha). 18a There they nailed Him to the cross.

--John 19:16b-18a (NLT)

Are we ready and willing to go that far?  We call ourselves Christians, followers of Christ Jesus, but are we truly ready to follow Him that far, to pick up and carry our own cross, with the full understanding that we may be nailed to it?  If we accept and believe in everything He told us, then the answer should be, “Yes, I am ready.”  If we need a reminder, the Apostle Paul gives us one, in the 6th chapter of his letter to the Romans, verses 3 through 5...

3 Have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined Him in His death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

5 Since we have been united with Him in His death, we will also be raised to life as He was.

--Romans 6:3-5 (NLT)

Jesus doesn’t require that we give up our mortal life for Him, even though He gave up His for us.  We don’t have to be nailed to a cross to follow Him.  He would rather we continue to live in this life, to make of ourselves a living sacrifice, carrying on His work here on earth, being His hands and feet and voice.  He wants us to walk alongside Him, learning from Him, living by His example.  He wants us to show Him, to share His love with other people as we walk through this life.  He wants us to be with Him, for all eternity, in our next life.

Jesus’ steps on this earth as a mortal, as a flesh and blood man, ended at the cross on Calvary.  But His life did not end there, for on the third day He rose again from the dead and, after a brief time walking among us again, He ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God Almighty.  Someday our time on this earth will be finished, too.  We don’t know where our steps will end, but we do know that by our faith and belief, we too will join Jesus in the next life.

So until that day, let us follow in our Lord’s footsteps in our daily walk, doing as He commands, living in love as He loves.  Let our steps be always at His side.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, Your Spirit led Jesus into a deserted area where He fasted and prayed, and resisted the temptations of Satan.  We commemorate the 40 days He spent there in our season of Lent, when we look deep within ourselves to see if we are walking in our Lord’s footsteps.  Thank You, Father, for ensuring that we have a record of how Jesus carried out His ministry so that we can try to model our lives after His.  Forgive us, please Father, when we veer off the path Your Son laid for us.  Forgive us when our steps falter, when we trip and stumble.  Please, loving Father, help us stand again and walk as Jesus walked.  Help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things.

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 knew everything that would happen to You, how much You would have to suffer, and yet You went through it all just for us.  You obeyed Your Father’s will to carry out His great plan for our salvation.  You walked as one of us, knowing that Your earthly steps led to the cross.  Lord, please help us remember how You lived Your mortal life.  Remind us of how You loved, how You walked into the world helping all You encountered.  Help us to live as You lived, to love as You love.  Help us walk in Your steps, even if they lead us to our own cross.  And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  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.