Northside Church - Sydney
24 Hours// That Changed the World – Week 4: Crucifixion
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well it's a shocking thought but it was a headline that was put around in different newspapers around the world about a decade ago. And it was on the basis of some research that had been done in a number of countries including Australia, also the UK, the USA, Japan, India, where they'd ask people a question. And the resultant headline was this, it's a question, Ronald McDonald, more popular than Jesus. You see what they've done, they've interviewed thousands of people and they've found that people recognise the McDonald's symbol more readily than they identified the cross which is the traditional symbol of the Christian faith. In fact 88% of people were more inclined to acknowledge that the golden arches were McDonald's than only 54% of people recognised the cross as the symbol for Christianity. Now we could say well what's the big deal, we all know that 68% of statistics are made up on the spot. And besides who worries about polls and who worries about surveys, individuals don't, a lot of companies don't, clearly a lot of political parties don't. So what's the big deal about a statistic like this? Well I mean the cross has been our symbol in the Christian church since the third century around the time of Constantine. And so we perhaps have reacted to the prominence given to the cross, the over emphasis given by say the Roman Catholic church and some of the Orthodox churches, that's been the pattern in more mainline Protestantism. In my growing up years, over in churches of Christ, I'm a third generation churches of Christ person and in my growing up years you never saw a cross inside a church in one of our churches. You didn't even see it outside the church because it was an overreaction to the emphasis given to the cross on the part of the Catholics in particular. And so even when the fashion of wearing crosses came in and in the 70s as a theological student I had a cross around my neck and I remember being confronted one night in a Melbourne church by a very indignant lady who grabbed my cross and said you shouldn't have a cross around your neck, you should have an empty tomb. And I kind of thought that would be pretty hard to kind of get that duplicated empty tomb around your neck but that was kind of a symptomatic of the thinking in those days. That was our hang up in churches of Christ, the fact that the cross tends to glorify the death of Jesus whereas we are people of the resurrection, that was the issue. Of course over the years within most mainline churches including ours we have come to recognise that the cross has tremendous significance. Of course it is a powerful symbol of what the faith is all about. It is clear we have got to do a bit of work among the non-Christian community if these survey results are any indication, it would be interesting to find out what the results would be today probably even less people my guess is would recognise the cross. Maybe there is a preoccupation with the morbidity of the cross. Maybe there is a preoccupation with the suffering, the violence, the death that it symbolises. As I mentioned last week movies like Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ don't do much to help in this area but you know it's possible to build a case based on scripture and I'm going to do this this morning, a case that portrays the cross of Jesus Christ as the world's greatest plus sign with incredible benefits, benefits for now and for eternity for us and for all human kind of all cultures and races. You see in every generation the cross is an unmistakable sign of what God has done through Christ and what we are meant to do for Christ. This is a powerful unmistakable reminder in every generation in that sense the ancient symbol expresses some of the fundamental elements of the Christian faith, indeed some of the fundamental elements of life itself. Let me expand on that for instance the cross is a sign of life's reality, think about that. By that I mean it's the ultimate expression of suffering and sadness and pain. It's the ultimate expression and as we all find out fairly early in life, some of us earlier than others, that's an inevitable part of life, suffering. I mean these things are part of life even for the people of God and as I've said from this platform many times the key to survival as a Christian I've found this over all my years of ministry, the key to survival in ministry or rather in discipleship. The key to survival is the development of a strong robust theology of suffering. You've got to really have a good look at your theology of suffering. Every disciple needs to be able to handle the seasons of pain, of grief, of disappointment, of setback, of illness, of struggle which inevitably come. That's not the time to abandon the faith. That's not the time to give up on God or to think that He's given up on us. We've got to have a strong robust theology of suffering, a study of our Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, brings the intense spiritual struggle that He experienced, it brings it to the fore, what did He pray? Is it be possible, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done, friends in His humanity. Of course Jesus wanted to avoid the pain of the cross. Of course, He was only human. He wanted to avoid that incredible burden if He could, but at the same time He understood its necessity. He understood its necessity as part of His mission, part of His calling. Isn't that where it is for us, so often in life, in our walk with God, only a very sick person revels in suffering. There are those kind of people around that have always got to have a crisis, some kind just to sort of survive, but that's not the way it's meant to be. None of us revel in suffering, but we acknowledge that it is an inevitable part of life. Suffering, for you and me, if we're to grow, if we're to strengthen our reliance on God, if we're to move our faith from simple proof texts that we can quote with these, to real cold face reality, real nitty gritty, deep soul stuff, if you want to do that, you have to recognize that that's part of the deal with suffering. There's another aspect to this first sign of the cross, and it has to do with our mission as a church. We need to get real when it comes to mission, to be touching real needs in touch with real situations of life. And this is beautifully expressed by a piece written by a British preacher, George McLeod. I've had this in my files for years, and I only came across it again this week in preparation for this message. Listen to what he says, he says this, I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as the steeple of the church. I'm recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on a town garbage heap, at a crossroad of politics so cosmopolitan, they had to write his title in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, the kind of place where cynics talk, smut and thieves, curse and soldiers gamble. That's where he died, that's what he died about. And that is where Christ's followers ought to be. That's where church people ought to be, that's what church people ought to be about, says McLeod. Well, there's a powerful reminder, a very stark reminder of the nature of Christian service and mission, and praise God in our own way in small ways and in some significant ways north side is embracing that vision and we found out some of the details from Sarah's incredible presentation last Sunday on our beyond north side ministry. Here's another unmistakable sign of the cross, the cross is a sign of sacrifice. And this is one aspect of its meaning which does resonate with the average person, especially when they think of war and conflict. I mean, for instance, Anzac Day is a day when there's a certain Bible verse that's quoted in Dawn's services, the length and breadth of this nation. It's John chapter 15 verse 13, "Greater love," it's the words of Jesus, "greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends." That's quoted, that's probably the most popular scripture verse in Australia, at least once a year. It's a verse on war memorials in virtually every town and every city across our nation. It speaks of heroism, it speaks of valor, it speaks of courage, it speaks of selflessness and it certainly speaks of sacrifice. But the cross of Jesus involves infinitely more than a friend dying for a few friends or a friend or a man dying for a cause or dying for his nation. Peter puts it in a stark and succinct way when he says in his first epistle, look at this, Christ carried our sins in his body to the cross. It is by his wounds we have been healed, a price had to be paid for our sin. But rather than choose the most extreme example of sinfulness, some mass murderer, let's just, nobody will miss him, let's just lay the sins of the world on this guy, he can pay the sacrifice for everybody, rather than choose someone else, as we know at the heart of the gospel, God himself chose that role in the person of Jesus and it's the most mind-blowing aspect of the gospel. This is the area of theology called the atonement, blended in with the incarnation, God with us. It represents the very epicenter of the Christian faith and the idea is not to fathom it or understand it, it's just to embrace it and accept it by faith. I can't argue anybody into the kingdom, ultimately you accept this by faith. That's not to say that our faith is without reason, not at all, but the very limits of reason make faith an essential. There are limits to reason itself and the final step is always the step of faith. He's yet another sign embodied in the cross and it's this. The cross is a sign of forgiveness, of course. The cross is a sign of forgiveness. That's a flow on from the sacrifice of Jesus. It's a truth declared so clearly by the right of the Ephesians, look at this, for by the sacrificial death of Christ, we are set free. That is, our sins are forgiven. I love this verse because it makes a direct link between freedom and forgiveness. We are set free. That is, our sins are forgiven. You see, friends, when we, by faith, accept the forgiveness that's available through Jesus, through his death on the cross, we experience freedom from guilt. That's number one. But we also, more than that, we experience freedom from the power and the control of sin in our lives. Something happens by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's miraculous. I'm speaking to some of you who've experienced this. Your life now compared to your old life. You just, you can't believe some of the changes in some of the extreme cases that we have in our church family. Something about the Holy Spirit changes our thinking, changes our attitudes, changes our behavior. I've seen incredible examples of this over the years of my ministry. I've seen the aggressive person become more temperate. I've seen the bitter person find peace within themselves. I've seen the vindictive person starting to help rather than hurt. I've seen the habitual liar start telling the truth. I've seen self-centered people start becoming, will be becoming more generous, more giving in their nature. It's amazing. Of course, nobody becomes perfect. This side of heaven, we're all works under construction, all buildings in progress. But the changes possible, once people are free to start aspiring to their full potential in Jesus, the changes possible are amazing. I've got a question this morning, are you experiencing this kind of freedom in your life? Are you experiencing this level of liberation, or are there the old ways, the old habits, the old ways of doing things that are holding you back? The Bible says by the sacrificial death of Christ, we are set free. That is, our sins are forgiven. Can I urge you this morning to claim the forgiveness of Jesus if you haven't done that, really done that? Claim the forgiveness of Jesus and the power to overcome those things that hold you back. It's all there in the cross of Christ. Here's the final unmistakable sign I want to focus on today. The cross is a sign of victory. Jesus' final words from the cross were not, "I am finished." His final words were, "It is finished." And by that, by that "it," he meant his mission. His mission to establish a pathway, a way for us and people of all nations to be reunited with our God, our heavenly Father, through Jesus, to have a personal relationship with Him, not just in this life, but in eternity. Yes, of course, the victory accomplished by Jesus on the cross was victory over death. Of course. As Paul writes in Corinthians, "Where death is your victory?" "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ, our Lord." Friends, you know, the cross, as I said at the outset, is the world's greatest plus sign, because it has incredible benefits for you and for me, both for now and for eternity. In a spiritual sense, it has everything we need, everything. An awareness of reality, the fact that suffering is an inevitable part of life. That's the cross. It reminds us, it gives us an awareness of God's love. He sacrificed His Son for us. It gives us an awareness of His forgiveness that it's available through Jesus, and that forgiveness is not just to be treated lightly, it's to usher us into freedom, freedom to have less things to be forgiven for. That's moving to put maturity in Christ. It's an awareness of our victory over death and the promise of eternal life. I was in Anaheim, California, many years ago, prior to GPS systems, and I was experiencing a conference at the Crystal Cathedral, Dr. Schiller's Crystal Cathedral. I was making my way back to the cathedral this night via taxi, having trouble communicating to the Spanish-speaking taxi driver where I wanted to go. Now, if you know Anaheim, you know it's very, very flat, I know Ruth knows what I'm talking about because she's from that region, Orange County. It's very, very flat, apart from mountains in the background. The only part that's a little bit raised are the freeways, and we came over this rise in the freeway, and I still wasn't getting through this guy, he just kind of, you know, didn't quite know where I was, and there it appeared, the 90-foot, what's that, 27 meters or whatever, 90-foot cross internally lit on top of the Tower of Hope at the Crystal Cathedral. And that in itself is about a 10 or 12-story building, and on top of that building is this massive cross, which many of you have seen on your visits to that part of the world. And I instinctively said to the guy, "That's it, that's where I need to go." It was about three, four kilometers away. I said, "That's where I need to go," and we got off the freeway, and somehow he wound his way through the streets, and the cross that night took me home. And friends, that's the power of the cross for you and me in a spiritual sense. The cross takes us home to the Father. Where are you this morning in relation to the cross? Yes, it's an empty cross. We don't glorify just in the death of Jesus, it's an empty cross. We are people of the resurrection, but somebody died. Somebody died. I remember when I was a kid, there was a Catholic Church out on that road, that major highway that goes through Yaguna, a Catholic Church, if he was old as me, might remember this, and they had a massive crucifix out the front, massive. It must have been, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 feet high, beautiful white marble. And we would drive past, of course, as a family, and away back to the mountains, plus I had an arty, lived in Yaguna. Of course, being good church across people, you know, ooh, couldn't look at the crucifix, cross, not good. Beautiful white marble, beautiful pristine glistening in the sunlight, and then one Easter, and this made the headlines all over Sydney, one Easter, a group of vandals, through red paint all over it. There was a shocking scene. But looking back on that, it was probably a stark message, unintended, I'm sure, that like, the cross is not meant to be displayed in marble, glistening in the sunlight. It's not a sight of beauty in that sense. Somebody died. Blood was spilled on that cross. Guys, that's what we're celebrating, this Easter. The fact that the cross of Jesus Christ is the greatest plus sign in the world. Its benefits for now and for eternity are immense. Have you embraced the cross? Have you embraced the Christ of the cross? He's alive. He's risen. I hope this is the best Easter week that you've ever experienced. I hope it's the one where you get in touch with the risen Christ more than ever.