Ü     THE CROSS

Ü     Mat 27:32 And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.

Another was compelled to carry His cross. Simon, a Cyreneian, from a city in N. Africa. The word Cyrene means “Wall” How amazing that a man from the “Wall” would be in Jerusalem carrying the cross of Jesus outside the wall! Simon was the father of Rufus and Alexander. The name Simon means “hearing” And Simon must have truly heard Jesus. It is believed that Alexander was the person used in Acts 19: 33, 34 at Ephesus to defend Paul. Rufus it is believed was the person that Paul mentions in Romans 16:13 to be saluted. Simon must have heard because he taught his sons the importance of the cross.

Ü     Mat 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Jesus said if you are not willing to carry your own cross your not worthy of following Him. That’s a powerful statement. Are we to carry our cross around with our sins exposed to all mankind? No. Are we to walk down the street dragging a huge cross to prove we are true followers of Christ? No. We are to realize that we are all sinners and that only by confessing that we sin, and that we are desperately in need of a savior. A savor that is willing to pay the price for our sins, once and for all. One that is willing to face the shame and embarrassment by hanging on a tree for you and me. That’s the kind of savor we need. In verse 37 He mentions that we will have to choose who we are to love, Jesus; or your family. It’s not a sin to love your family. But when our love for our family is greater than our love for Him, then we have chosen the wrong path. We are to love Him as He loves us. And He gave His life for you on the cross.

Ü     Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

 You can’t talk your way into heaven; words will never fulfill the sacrifice. Baptism was a very popular Church activity at Corinth. It was the in thing to do, it was very trendy. It was more of a status thing instead of a cleansing thing. Paul was sent to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But the church at Corinth was interested in wisdom and wisdom only; they were a very tolerant church one that would tolerate sin because they would be able to say “just look at how tolerant we are”. They were interested more in wisdom than that of the Cross of Christ. They considered the wisdom of words more important to their life style than the actual working of the cross. They considered the teaching of the cross to be foolishness.

Ü     1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

The preaching of a man that would readily take your place on the cross is foolishness. Why would anyone want to die for me? Who am I that the God of the universe would willingly sacrifice His son for me? What on earth could be accomplished by saving me? It sounds foolish and to those who have no knowledge of Christ it is foolish. But to those who have willingly chosen to follow Him the Cross is our only salvation. People want to bring the Church into a kinder gentler more docile form of religion. They say don’t preach about the cross preacher it might offend someone or pastor we don’t want to hear about what He did back there on the cross, we want to know what He will do for us today, or how can He bless me today if He’s already gone? Certainly His cross is to no avail to me, not here, not now! I mean He’s been gone 2000 years, and He still wants me to carry my cross? Can’t I just hire someone else to do that? After all He has blessed me with money. Without the cross you would have never known Him, without the cross you would never be able to take part in the resurrection power that Christ offers to each of us. Without the blood the sacrifice would be of no effect to any of us. No healing, no living, no salvation, no life. Only death and the fires of Hell! Now preacher don’t be going there. We don’t want you to preach a sinners hell only heaven please. The truth is those who die outside the cross of Christ go to hell. A young lady asked me the other night why preachers lie. I asked what she was talking about and she said that not everyone that dies goes to heaven. I replied it’s better to say their in a better place or there body is no longer in pain instead of your loved one is burning in hell. Is it lying? Yes but maybe you can open an opportunity to witness to them about there own salvation instead of aliening them and the rest of the family. The cross is our only help an implement of destruction and death that brings glory to us. The cross has to be preached, it has to be lived, it has to be understood that the cross was a great embarrassment to a Jew. For a Jew to hang on a tree was the worst most embarrassing way for a Him to die.  But Christ; but Christ: went willingly to the cross, the tree to be hung until dead, so that by this He would reconcile us to God.

Ü     Eph 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

That He would reconcile the body (His body) to God once and for all, that mankind would never have to suffer the pain of the law of sin and death. That He Jesus would defeat death and conquer Satan forever.

Ü     Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

That from that day we would no longer be slaves of sin but laborers of righteouness. We must be willing to walk in His calling instead of our flesh. We all know this. All Christians are supposed to know this. This is a new illustration drawn from the fact that by his crucifixion our corrupt nature has been crucified also, or put to death; and that thus we should be free from the servitude of sin. Only the cross, only the cross of Christ can reconcile His death with our flesh to a loving God.

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