The Sermon of the Cross

I heard a great sermon about Good Friday on Sunday. In it Pastor Adam Hamilton said that Jesus' crucifixion can be seen as a sermon having three points. Following is what I heard and how I am processing these thoughts:

  1. Our Need: We need to see ourselves in the crowd of people demanding that Jesus be crucified. The cross presents a troubling picture of humanity.. we can either run from this picture and hide or acknowledge it and repent.
     
  2. God's Love: The cross is the place that we see the sacrificial love of God displayed in full view. The cross is so much more than a transaction to redeem humanity. The cross is a demonstration of the lengths that God will go to be in relationship to us.
     
  3. Discipleship: Jesus surrendered His life so that we might understand what real love looks like. He presents us with a picture of what it looks like to deny ourselves, pick up our own cross and follow Jesus.
Please join with me this week before Easter in repenting of our sins, embracing the message of the cross and living a life that embodies sacrificial love.

3 comments:

  1. Therese ZTuesday, April 07, 2009 8:58:00 AM

    Our sins put Him on the Cross - we forget that. The sin we just committed and the one we are about to commit. I like knowing that Mel Gibson's own hand holds the hammer and nail in his movie The Passion Of The Christ - he took seriously the price Jesus paid to open the way to salvation.

    Deep in Holy Week, hope you are being blessed by these revelations you post and the ones yet to hear.

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  2. NoVA DadTuesday, April 07, 2009 11:18:00 AM

    I have a comment about the first point, relating to being a part of the crowd demanding that Jesus be crucified. Couldn't there also among us be those few who were a part of the crowd begging for him to be taken down - the followers of Jesus who, because they weren't aware of how his death would so completely change the world and their lives, wanted him safe and secure to continue his ministry?

    I see a bit of that in myself - someone who spends so much time looking at the everyday aspects of my life and wishing that things wouldn't change so much that I miss the wonderful things that are about to happen. Great post.

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  3. kc bobTuesday, April 07, 2009 3:22:00 PM

    I hear what you are saying Matt but I think that apart from grace we all find ourselves in that ugly crowd.

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