The Cross

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes with Jesus. Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, Jesus said, there am I in the midst of them. To those of you who love Him in truth: mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied. (Jude 1:2)

 

Today we’re going to talk about The Cross. The cross is an instrument of punishment, of shame and condemnation, and of death. The Romans used the cross as that instrument of death; that instrument of punishment and shame. Let’s turn to 1 Cor 1:18-31, For the preaching of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Chapter 2, verses 1&2,  And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Let’s turn to Luke 23:24-49, So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. 

And he released to them the one they requested, who for rebellion and murder had been thrown into prison; but he delivered Jesus to their will. Now as they led Him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed! Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry? There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.  

Jesus had been beaten and tormented before this; He’d been scourged with a Roman lash. Only God can reveal to us the extent of His suffering that He went through for us. Jesus was not weak. He was a strong man. He was a carpenter. And He was so weak from how they had been beating Him and whipping Him, and mistreating Him, that He could not carry the Cross. So they had Simon, a Cyrenian, carry it for Him. And when they came to the place, they laid Him on that Cross, and they nailed Him to it. They nailed through His hands and nailed through both of His feet; they nailed Him to the Cross, with the crown of thorns on His head.  

Verse 34, And then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God. The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself. And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise. 

Do you see what this man said? They were on the Cross, all three of them, the two thieves and Jesus, and those two men were receiving the due reward for their deeds; it was an instrument for punishment of transgressions; for doing evil; he said, This Man has done nothing wrong. 

Verse 44, Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the Earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father,  into your hands I commit my Spirit. Having said this, He breathed His last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous Man! And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. 

Let’s turn to John 3:14-21, Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, and He said, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. 

Verses 14&15,  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Let’s turn to Numbers 21: 4-9, This is talking about the journeying of the Children of Israel with Moses, Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. 

The serpent on the pole represented the judgment of God on the people for their sins. So, just as those that looked upon the bronze serpent on the pole were saved from death, so those that look upon the Son of God on the Cross, taking their judgment for their sin upon Himself, and believe on Him, so they too shall be delivered from death. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Those that did not look upon the serpent on the pole died. So those that will not look upon Jesus and believe on Him, even they will die in their sins. Jesus said, If you do not believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he that does not believe on the Son of God shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. The wrath of God came upon Jesus as He suffered for our sins. If we believe on Him, and what He endured on the Cross for us, we will be delivered from God’s wrath that is to come upon all the wicked. Those who will not repent and believe on Him, and what He suffered for their sins, will experience the full wrath of Almighty God coming upon them, and they will be cast into the Lake of Fire in the final judgment, to be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Jesus will say to them, Depart from Me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. 

We must understand that Jesus, on that Cross, suffered the full wrath of God upon His body and His soul, the full punishment for all our sins, and He died for our sins. Only those that look upon Him on that Cross and believe in His shed Blood; only those that repent and believe that He paid the full ransom for our lives through His own death, will escape the wrath to come, and it is coming upon all the wicked. If you have not repented and believed in Him, and received His righteousness: (God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on that Cross, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him); if you do not continue in His righteousness, you are wicked, and if you will not repent, the wrath of God will come upon you. There is salvation in no other. You say you have your own religion; you have your own personal relationship with God; if it is not a true relationship with Jesus; if He is not your Lord; if you are not trusting Him and following Him, it will not work. You are deceived, and you will be destroyed. Jesus is the Son of God! There is no other! The Son of God loved you, and gave Himself for you on that Cross! Receive His love! Receive His sacrifice for you!

Let’s turn to Col 1:19-23, Praise God! Thank you Lord!, For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven, having made peace through the Blood of His Cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. 

We must always be looking to the Cross, to the sacrifice of our Savior for us there, where He loved us and gave Himself for us, and washed us from our sins in His own Blood, and always be thankful to the Father for Him.

Thank you for reading this message from 15 Minutes With Jesus at roberthaymes.com . May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you who love Him in truth, Amen. (2 Cor 13:14)