Living Life On Purpose - Part VII - The Purpose of the Cross

Days that I don't have this on an overhead, so you're going to have to read from your own Bibles this morning or listen as I declare God's word this morning. Matthew 16, beginning in verse 21. From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed in the third day and be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Never, Lord, he said. This shall never happen to you. Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. For those of you who may have come this morning because you were driving by and saw the sign a message on burnout, how to avoid burnout, I want to apologize. I was too burned out to prepare it, so we're not going to have that message today. Well, not really. In fact, I do have that message and I do want to share it at another time. But this morning I want to follow a prompting of God's Spirit to my heart to talk with you about a familiar but widely misunderstood central truth of our faith, and that is the cross of Jesus Christ. This message began to take shape in my life about ten days ago. I was waiting in a line of traffic, a line of cars at an intersection up in Cranberry. I was going to turn left on Route 19, come south toward the church, and cars were coming north on Route 19. And I noticed as one turned to come on the road that I was waiting. If you can understand, it was like a perpendicular deal. I noticed this car was slowing down, and as I looked, the windshield of the car, this car was just covered with grit and grime and road salt and all the rest. And it was obvious that the driver had tried to clean off the windshield because it had the big smears all over it. But what do you think had happened? Obviously, he'd run out of washer fluid. Anyone ever have that happen to you? That is really difficult to do. And this guy is peering down through the smudge, and he can barely see, and he turns off. And I'm the last car in the line of cars before the brake to turn into the service station. And he's coming right at me. Because he can't, I mean, he's like this. And I'm saying, oh, Lord, no, no. And at the last minute, he sees that he's cutting in too close, and he veers a little to the right, and then to the left, and made it into the gas station. Kind of Mr. Magoo, you know, with one of these things. And I'm like, thank you, Lord. And I thought that was it. And the Lord, right then, and those of you who have been around here a while know what I mean when I say this. The Lord prompted me in my heart that there was something he wanted me to gain from this. And I was listening. I said, well, okay. He said, a lot of your people are walking through their spiritual journey with blurred vision. They are seeing me like that driver is seeing the road, very imperfectly. Now, I thought about that for a second, and I felt that was a strong word. But what followed was something I wasn't prepared for. And he said, and it's because you haven't taught them on some of these things. I said, wait, now that's getting real personal now, Lord. I can understand, but he really began to bring some conviction in my spirit. And I literally, when I got back to church, I went and I prayed. I said, Lord, are you talking about everything? I mean, I thought we'd been doing a fairly decent job. And the Lord spoke to my heart, and he said, no, it's in reference to the power of the cross. I was very convicted by that. It was not an idle rebuke from the Lord, but an exhortation to reexamine what we've been taught. And although I frequently will weave, and I know Pastor David does as well, into our messages, the essential nature of the cross, and it's in all the music that I carefully select every Sunday morning. There is something about it that needs to be reinforced. I want you to look at the yellow insert that I have, some quotes that I want you to take. Some of you have small groups tonight. You may want to just talk about a couple of these. Look at the first one. The importance of the cross is reflected in part by the attention Scripture gives to the death of Jesus Christ. The biographer of Martin Luther King devoted only 9% of his work to the last week of King's life. On the other hand, Matthew devoted 33% of his gospel to the final week of Jesus' life. Mark 37%, Luke 25, and John an astounding 42% of his gospel is about the last week of Jesus' life. It's very, very important in the minds of the writers of Scripture. And there really is no topic I'd rather teach about. When it gets right down to it, there's nothing more glorious. There's nothing more unique. There's no greater mystery that has confounded prophets and kings and even, the Bible says, the powers and principalities of the earth than the cross. There's nothing more liberating than the cross. And yet sometimes we hesitate to talk about it because it's not really chic. When you really get down to what I'm going to tell you today, it's not a go get them message. It's not like the American way kind of message. And when I mention the word cross, ultimately there's got to be a number of you thinking, you know, I was hoping you'd mention it because I wonder why there isn't a cross in this place. That number up there, for those of you who knew, that's the number of minutes left in the sermon. Why isn't there a cross up here? I get asked that periodically, not all the time, not hundreds of times. What kind of church doesn't have a cross? And my answer is this, and listen, and this might help you when someone asks you the question, even if you think you know, but just listen once again. For many people, the cross is just another meaningless religious symbol that represents the framework of their upbringing, that makes them think that they understand what it's all about when in fact they're operating in their walk with God through blurred vision. It's sort of a religious baggage thing to me. It's for many, many people, it's an icon, a statue, a piece of jewelry that they wear, and it reminds them of the little box in their life called religion, where they have God neatly tucked away. Now I know that's not what it means to some of you, but that's what it means to many people who come here for the first time. Well, Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and I know this and that and this and that, and their heads have it, but their hearts don't have it. And it's a big obstacle, friends. I've said many times, what we have to learn to undo up here many times is to dismantle the misconceptions that many people come in here with about what it means to know God, as I think Karen said so powerfully in her part of the testimony today. The cross is a symbol of what Jesus did, but it's much more than that. It's the power of what he is doing. Look at the first verse on top of the outline. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It's talking about what he's doing in my life. So, to break the shackles of religiosity, I have requested, and the elders agreed, no permanent cross is in the sanctuary. Oh, by the way, in case you're wondering, there is one on top of the building. And that symbolizes the fact that everything that's done underneath here is under the lordship of the one who gave his life on the cross, and that if he be lifted up, he will draw all men to himself. I want to talk about the cross today. Number one, the cross is pivotal. All that preceded the cross in Jesus' life was to demonstrate life as it was meant to be lived. I mean, when you read the first part of the Gospels, what kind of person do you see there? I mean, you see a loving person. You see a compassionate person. A person living in obedience to his father. A person healing the sick. How many of you would love to be able to heal the sick the way that Jesus did? To walk into a situation where there was pain and bring the balm of healing. To deliver those who were oppressed by demonic powers. Reconciling relationships. Teaching truth. Resisting evil. Listen, being single but not lonely. Jesus lived a perfect life. And all that was revealed in the first two-thirds of each Gospel in order to create in us a hunger for that kind of life. Something that we could not achieve on our own. And that's why Jesus Christ, by the way, is respected in nearly every religious circle that you travel in. As a teacher of truth. Because he demonstrated and modeled and lived and taught a perfect life. But in verse 21 in our text for today, it says, from that time on... Say those words with me. From that time on... Once again. From that time on... What time? After the time that he declared some essential truth that I'll get to in a moment. Jesus said, I've got to go to the cross. And he told his disciples, I'm going to Calvary and I'm going to die there. Look what it says. And on the third day be raised to life. Unfortunately, the disciples didn't hear that. They missed the whole part about him dying and coming back to life. So that when it happened, they weren't prepared. And what did they all do when Easter came? Well, they fled prior to Easter. And when Easter came, they were astounded at what he had said had come to pass. What we need to see is that with 2,000 years of hindsight, the cross became pivotal in Jesus' life to fulfill his mission. All the healing, the teaching, the miracles, the love, the forgiveness, all the things that he did, all the goodness that he lived was not enough. It is not enough. Listen, it is not enough to be a good person. It wasn't enough for Jesus. And it's not enough for you and for me. John 12, 27 on your outline. Now my heart is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. All of history past, all of the present moment, and all of mankind's future will look to the cross as the hinge point of human history. Listen, we can say, you know, World War II was big, and the Civil War was big, and this was big, and that was big. But there was no bigger moment in all of history than when Jesus went to the cross. Without it, we are dead in our sins because it was there that Jesus, that good man, that perfect man, willingly gave his life as a penalty for our deserved punishment. He was the only one that didn't deserve to go there. I do. You do. He didn't. May I say that there are probably some of us that are here today who've done some lousy things. If we're really honest, we've done some evil things, some sinful things. But we've done some good things. And on balance, we look at our lives, and we think, you know, I'm a pretty good person, and God, if he's at all fair, I'm going to make it into heaven. And the people that I care about will probably be there too because, in general, they're good people. Please see this very clearly today, friends. Clean the windshield of your heart just a little bit. Your effort, no matter how valiant, will not work to get you through the judgment day of God. All have sinned, Romans 3.10 says, and fallen short of the glory of God. That means you, that means me, that means the people that we think are even nice people. The cross is our pivotal decision point in life as well. There's no salvation without it. You must come to the cross and receive what Jesus paid in penalty for your sin there. Romans 2, the cross is effectual. What did he do there? Well, having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. You see, what men could not do on his own, Jesus did there on the cross. He accomplished it. He broke the power of sin and of death. He was no longer just a wonderful teacher. He was no longer just a miracle worker. He now became the sacrificial lamb. The one person who didn't deserve to die took on the sins of mankind and died in our place. And I want to say again, I know there are some people struggling with this. It just doesn't seem fair. Sometimes God doesn't seem fair in my life. Sometimes I seem to try really hard and God doesn't seem to give me what I deserve. And you need to understand one thing, friend. No one knows more perfectly what it means to bear something that they didn't deserve than Jesus Christ did. He lived a perfect life. He did not deserve to go to the cross. He took my sin and your sin when he went to the cross. He bore the wrath of God on sin. We have a quote here from, I believe it's R.C. Sproul. There's such a cloudiness in vision when it comes to understanding the wrath of God. Look at this quote. This isn't on your handout, but just look at it. The most destructive myth of the 20th century religion is that there's no wrath in God. Nothing promotes godlessness more than that myth. Isn't that true? When people think that God's just going to kind of wink at what's going on in their life, as some of us even do here today, they have no reason to pursue God or to get right with him. As John Stott then says in another quote that I have here for you, not on your outline. This is from his book, The Power of the Cross. He says, The wrath of God is his steady, underlining, unremitting, uncompromising antagonism to evil and all its forms and manifestations. And that means sin. The wrath of God is real, friends. And it took the cross to propitiate or to assuage, if you will, that wrath that was deservedly directed toward us in our sin. You see, in that act, not only did he solve the problems of sin and its consequences, though, not only did we get set free from sin, but he introduced a new order of life. It's called the kingdom of God. And here's the great news. It would be one thing if God just said, Well, now your sins are forgiven. Get ready to go to heaven. But he says, No, now your sins are forgiven. I want to give you life in all its fullness, life in all of its abundance that you've never had before. And there's three things that preceded this particular passage that I didn't take the time to read. But just above it in Matthew 16, 13 through 20, here's three things that Jesus said. Fill in the blanks. Number one, he said, I am the Christ. I am the Christ. He affirmed there that he was the Son of the living God. And number two, he said, I will build my church. His church isn't this building. His church is his people. A bride, a companion that will be able to live with him eternally. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And number three, I will give you the keys to the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth, he says, I will bind in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth, I will loose in heaven. I am the Christ. I will build my church. I will give you the keys. Jesus said, This is what I'm going to do for you in this life. This is what this life is going to become for you. It's going to become for you this glorious unfolding of my kingdom, of my rule. But it takes the cross. What about your life would be different? Let's just take the last one for a second. If you could loose and you could bind certain things in your life, how many of you would like to bind some things that come out of your mouth? Ever say something and it gets about four inches out of your mouth and you wish you could bind it back? Oh man, just ruined the whole night with my wife. Can't get it back. How many would like to bind your thoughts? How many would like to bind up your addictions? To bind up your judgmental spirit? A friend of mine, a friend I've known for 25 years, I called him last week. I haven't talked to him in a number of years about another issue. And our conversation quickly led to the fact that he is still knotted up inside with a spirit of pride about his certain theological persuasion. I wanted to bind that spirit of pride. On the other hand, I wanted to loose some things too. How many of you would love to loose some joy in a home where there's sadness? Or you'd love to loose the power of a blessing in a place where there's nothing but antagonism? Or loose grace into a legalistic college campus or spiritual situation? Or loose favor on an overburdened father and mother who don't seem to have enough time to give their children? Jesus said, I'm going to give you these keys of binding and loosing. I'm going to give them to you. You're going to have them. And whatever you bind and whatever you loose, I'm going to do it. Turn to someone right now and tell them, you have the keys. Turn to them. You have the keys. You have the keys in your home. You have the keys in your relationships. But Jesus said, the only way that you can have those keys is if I go to the cross. And that's why what follows is so stern. You see, from that time on, Jesus said, right after he said, I'm going to give you the keys, from that time on, he began to explain that he must go to Jerusalem. See, without the cross, none of those would be possible. He wouldn't be the Messiah. He wouldn't be building his church. He wouldn't be giving us the keys. It takes the blood of the cross, which never looses its power. Number three, the cross is transformational. Not only does the cross effect change, not only is it the pivot point of life, it is also the foundational power that we're searching for to change our day-to-day life. Now, based on last week and this week, you're going to think I watch a lot of TV, because I'm going to make another TV reference here. I don't really watch much TV. But when I do, I keep the old remote going. I mean, I'm one of these real limited attention span guys. This infomercial thing out there is really nuts. Especially like today. Today is the big infomercial day on TV. Some people right now, instead of being in church, are watching Don LaPree tell you how to make a million dollars by using 900 phone numbers. You know, the 1-900 numbers. Or you can watch how many guys are going to come on, and women, and talk about making millions in real estate with no money down. And they're going to send you this package for $299. And a lot of people buy it. And then there's that guy with the funny looking suit that has the question marks all on it. And he's giving money away from the government, repossessing things. Then there's this, on the infomercial, this huge fitness segment that comes on all the time. I mean, there's Christie Brinkley and Chuck Norris going up and down in that thing. Now, if you could look like those people, you'd probably want to buy one of those. But it doesn't work that way. How many of you have bought one and you don't look like them? It doesn't change that. Then there's the fitness segment thing, but there's that twister thing. Have you seen that one? And it guarantees that you can get fit in four minutes a day. You can transform how you look in four minutes a day. And you go like this on it. And you just look at it and you say, this is no way that that thing is going to, in four minutes a day, it's like this turbo workout that doesn't work. There's a new one out there with blades. Have you seen that one? These little things. I told you, you're going to think I'm weird. I saw these kind of things. And you hold these blades and they do this and you get into some harmonic balance. And that's supposed to make you fit. And then there's another one. It seems a little more credible. It's called Tybo. How many of you have seen the Tybo one? A few of you are confessing now. And that one's intriguing because at least it looks real. At least you have to work and you sweat and you go through some kicks and punches and all that stuff. And I watch this and I think the guy's name is Billy Blanks comes on and he says, why does Tybo work? And he says, it's the truth. That's what he said. That's a quote. It's the truth. Now we're not just talking fitness, friends. Now we're talking philosophy. Now we're talking transformational power. I'll tell you what. No matter how fit you are, if in your heart you're greedy, you're going to be a fit, greedy person. No matter how fit you are, if your heart's not changed, you'll be a fit, lustful person if you have lust in your heart. If you're a critical person, you'll be a fit, critical, fit-to-be-tied kind of person. It doesn't matter, does it? It doesn't change you. If you're looking for somebody, I have one that I'll sell you right here. It's called Jaybo. I have this little video that goes with certain movements. If you do this, this will transform you. I'm getting better on TV, too. I bet I could sell that thing. I bet I could make people convinced it'll suction off their fat. The only real power to transform the inner motivations, the issues of the heart, friends, the struggles of personality, the only way is the cross. Earlier, Jesus called Peter to himself. His name was Simon, and he said, You're not going to be called Peter because I see a change coming. Peter means rock. This is a highly volatile, highly unstable person, and Jesus said, You're going to become a rock. And here's a guy who's about to call down fire on the people he doesn't like and say, Come on, God, let's get him. And Jesus says, You're going to be a rock. You're going to become an apostle to the Jews. Now, how would Jesus bring about this transformation? By calling Peter to work hard and serve him more? No, that didn't work. By keeping the laws very strictly and making sure that everything's done just right? No. By doing miracles, would that be how Peter would become more godlike? No. In fact, when Peter stepped out of the boat, what did he do? He sank. I mean, he just didn't have it. It was the cross that changed Peter. It was the process of Peter's own failure and denying the Lord three times on the way to the cross that brought him to the end of his own efforts and released the grace of God through the cross. And that's what transformed Peter from this reckless disciple to the rock that Jesus promised he'd be. Jesus says in John 12, 24, let's put that up. Here's Jesus speaking. He said, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. We so want to please God, many of us, but we fail. Look at the last quote on the front page of the yellow outline. And look at the bottom sentence. It is because we do not fully grasp the fact that Jesus paid the penalty for all our sins that we despair of God's blessing when we fail to live up to even our own desires to live a life that's pleasing to God. How many of you wanted to please God and kept failing and kept failing and kept failing? We all do. But it's because we don't understand what God wants to release to us through the cross. Jesus turned to Peter and said, You know, you're Peter, and on this rock, and if you know the Greek, and some of you have studied this before, he says, you're Petros, and on this Petra, and there's all kinds of theological theories out there about it. And this is the verse, by the way, that sort of establishes papal authority, that Peter became the first pope, if you will, because Jesus conferred on him the power upon him building his church. It's a very critical verse in Scripture. But when you really think about it, here's what he's saying, when you really study it, there's a lot of theories. No one's got this thing really locked down, but here's my particular translation. He said, you're Peter, and on this transformed, made new in Christ, revealed to by my Father, understanding of who I am, on that kind of life-changing transformation, I'm going to build my church. In other words, on every one of you who have had your life changed, I'm going to build my church. I'm going to use you to build my church. You're going to be part of the building blocks of my church, my glorious bride that's going to rise to rule with me forever. And that's why, friends, a little later, when Peter turns and says, oh no, Lord, you can't go to the cross, Jesus turns, and some of the harshest words in all of Scripture, he says what? Get behind me, Satan. We say, wow, that's heavy. I mean, Peter was sort of a nutty guy, but Satan, why was he saying that? Because Jesus knew that if he listened to Peter, Peter was saying, don't go to the cross, Jesus, if he listened to that, he would cut short the only way that all that he had promised previously, of his messianic rule, of his church that he would raise up, of the keys of his heart, all of it would be cut short, and he would not fulfill his mission. It was Satan speaking through Peter. Don't go to the cross. The Lord looks, and with stern, I mean, I can't imagine his eyes. Get behind me, Satan. Don't do it. Embrace the cross. Embrace the cross. It's the power of God for salvation. How many times have we sought to be changed ourselves, to transform our old ways, our temperament, our character weaknesses, you know, our moodiness, our gossiping tongue, our lustful thoughts, our temper, and we can't change, and we try, and we try, and we try. Well, friends, it's because we haven't learned how to lay hold of the grace of God through the cross. We need to admit our deep need and stop living in denial, stop believing we can just clean up our act, and come to the cross. That's why he says, take up your cross, in Luke 9, he says, take up your cross daily. What is your cross? We know what Jesus' cross was. What is your cross? You know, what you're going to see in the week of Easter coming up, you're going to hear about people around the world who literally carry a cross through the streets of different cities, and they're going to carry this cross, and in some cases, they're even going to flagellate themselves, and it's going to be on the national news. CNN will have it. Oh, here's a guy in the Philippines hanging on a cross. Is that what he means? Throw a cross over your back? No, that was Jesus' cross. And I hope this isn't too simple to offend anybody, but I've come to believe that the cross that he's talking about is really nothing more than God's will, go ahead and tell it, God's will for your life, which may sometimes be different from what your will for your life is. That's your cross. It's saying, God, whatever you bring into my life, I embrace it, because it's going to bring change. So the cross becomes more than something we come to once for salvation, and this is the crux of the message. It's more than something we just come to once for salvation, and we're going to use a little PowerPoint here to show you this, because here's where many people misunderstand the cross. If we could just turn off the overhead for a second. Look up here. You see, we understand the part of our spiritual journey. Let's just drop the house lights. It might help a little bit. We see ourselves as a seeker on our way, and we're looking for God, and then we realize at some moment that God has come to us through the cross. And that moment, as Karen and Donna shared, those are powerful, life-changing moments, but many of us leave the cross there, and then we decide, well, we're going to start improving our lives and working our way up to being a great person, being one who rules. If you will. Not perfectly, but being a good person that God really... And we try to do it. We try really hard. And here's what I want us to see. It happens not by just coming to the cross and then trying to work your way up. It happens by moving through the cross up to the place God transforms you to being the man or woman of God He wants you to be. You don't go through the cross one time. You live in the cross in your journey to spiritual maturity. I hope that's clear to you. You never leave the threshold of the cross because it's there that God pours out His grace. Finally, let me just touch on this. The cross is supernatural. The really good news here, friends, is that I don't have to work my way into maturity. I don't have to earn the blessing of God to prove my worthiness. The cross does the work. Look at Galatians 6.14. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. All of spiritual growth becomes an adventure of discovering God's will, embracing the grace that He pours into your life. Turn your little yellow sheet over. Look at the quote by Jerry Bridges in the Discipline of Grace that I underlined. You can read these later a little more carefully. Every day of our Christian experience should be a day of relating to God on the basis of His grace alone. Because what? Because through His grace, the supernatural power of God to change you is what comes to work. It's what begins to happen in your life. It's what opens you up to the fullness of the power of God. Friends, I'm convinced that if we open to this, things that were once impossible become possible to us. Things that wouldn't work begin to work. Let me give you an illustration of a big thing and then you can think of one in your own life. Some years ago now, three years ago, when Kevin Lehman came to me and said, do you think you'd be interested in working on a television program with me to help families in America? And I said, wow, sounds great, let's go. And he said, good idea, go do it now, Jay. Make it work. And I tried, as I think I've told many of you, I tried for nearly two years to make it work. I called people, local people to try to pull it together. People who had done it before and I just couldn't find anyone to help. I even called a person of a national caliber to do it and I couldn't come up with the resources, I couldn't come up with the content or the contacts. And I finally came to a point after two years of trying, I said, you know what, God, I can't do this. And I walked away from it. And I said, well, and I was embarrassed to tell Kevin, you know, Kevin, I can't pull it together. And I can't say it was some great moment of encounter with God. All I know is that about two weeks later, I just, I got a letter in the mail from a friend talking about another conference somewhere and a name was on that letter of a person I'd worked with. And you've met Paul Cole, he's been here. And I made one more phone call to Paul Cole. That was about a year and a half ago. And that started everything that's led to real families. And God's in it. You say, I know God's in it. And he's blessing it. Why? Because I came to the end of Jay doing it and I let God do it. And you know what, why is that? Why do we say, darn stubborn, we got to do it ourselves until we finally say, I can't do it. Why? Because God wants us to know that it's him who's doing it. He's working. You know something, friends, there's not a marriage represented here today that can't work if you both come to the cross. You can say amen to that. That's painful. But every marriage in this place can work if you come to the cross. There's not one household that couldn't be reconciled if you come to the cross. There's not one business where the presence of God wouldn't be tangible and blessing if you come to the cross. I appeal to you, see God's purpose in the cross. It's his means of grace to release blessing in your life. To open your eyes to see his purposes. And here's what I want to close in suggesting, and I'm going to invite the worship team to come up right now as I close, three things. As we come into Easter week, number one, I want you to read John, the book of John, chapter 12 through 21, over the next two weeks. If you read a chapter a day, prayerfully, ask God to show you what the cross means to you. Number two, make yourself available to all the services and gatherings that we're going to have. Participate in the Easter week things. Palm Sunday next week, and then, he whispers my name, the presentation, and we're having a prayer exper