A MAN FOR ALL TIME––THE INCOMPARABLE CHRIST

By Mark Finley of It Is Written Television (www.iiw.org)

Sermon 2 Outline

“The Meaning of the Cross”

INTRODUCTION
It was one of the last great ceremonies of the old Soviet Empire staged in Red
Square––the funeral of Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev. All the top brass were there.
Everything was staged to give the impression of the glory and splendor of the empire.
Everything was choreographed to the last detail. Then the unthinkable happened. When
Brezhnev’s widow approached the soviet leader’s coffin, she made the sign of the Cross.

The Cross still speaks to our deepest needs. It cannot be avoided. It speaks to us of a love
that will not let us go. There are three aspects of the Cross we will discover anew.

I. The Cross says something about failure.

“He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

The Cross appeared as a colossal failure to the Roman authorities, the Jewish priests, the
anxious disciples and Christ’s closest followers. Apparent failure turned into success at
the Cross shows God’s ability to overcome failures and mistakes. The Devil threw
everything at Jesus on the Cross, and still Christ came forth as the Mighty Conqueror.

II. The Cross says something about forgiveness.

“Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” (Romans 8:33)

At the Cross our guilt is cleansed. His forgiveness makes all the difference.

-At the Cross Jesus dies the second death in our behalf. (2 Corinthians 5:12)
-At the Cross Jesus bears our guilt. (Galatians 3:13)
-At the Cross we can forgive because we are forgiven. (Ephesians 4:32)

We can only forgive another if we ourselves have been forgiven by God. Forgiveness is
releasing another from our condemnation because Christ has released us from His
condemnation. I would rather forgive and forget than to resent and remember. God’s
love breaks down barriers.
III. The Cross says something about forever friendships.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35)

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
(Romans 8:37)

Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

Through the Cross there is life. We live because He died. Even people who do not believe
in Him live because of Him.

IV. At the Cross we find life and death.

What killed Jesus on the Cross? God didn’t kill Jesus. The Cross itself didn’t kill Jesus.
Sin killed Jesus. My sin. Your sin.

The Cross fills in the missing information Satan does not want us to see. It shows that, for
every dime’s worth of pleasure, sin exacts a dollar’s worth of pain. When we see what
our sin did to Jesus, we lose our appetite for it. When we see Jesus, the Sinless One,
nailed to the tree––waiting in agony, suffering in pain because of our sins––we are led to
mourning, a deep sorrow, for our own personal sins. Meditating on the Cross makes a
difference.

“We shall look upon Him whom we have pierced and we shall mourn for Him.”
(Zechariah 12:10, John 19:37)

The greatest motivation to surrender our sins to God is an understanding that our sins
bring pain to the One who loves us so much.

In the Cross we have something to celebrate!

-He redeems our failures.
-He cleanses our guilt.
-He links Himself to us forever.