Never get over the Cross

Forgetting is easy and it gets easier as we get older. I know as a child I could easily forget what my parents told me to do conveniently. And as I grow and have more responsibility, as more things come across my plate, as we hear more things in the news and on social media, it crowds our minds and forgetting gets easier.

And today, today we're reflecting on something that we should never get over. Just recently, the church finished studying Hebrews. And there's a warning in the second chapter of Hebrews that says, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? There's not one of us in this room here today that would stand up and defy the crucifixion or actively try to forget it. But there's many of us that would live day to day life and neglect it.

We come today and we hear music and we hear the scripture reading of the physical actions that took place those days leading up to the cross. For over a month now, Jesus had been predicting his death. He's walking towards Jerusalem, preparing for Passover. He stops and prepares the way in Bethany so that the triumphal entry takes place. And he's presented to Jerusalem as this great prophet coming in, presented there for this whole city.

We see him occupying the temple in this time at Bethany. He corrects Judas as we're coming into this last supper that we will remember in just a few moments. Here, Judas betrays him. He steps out after the Passover meal and before Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper. And he goes to sell Jesus to the Sanhedrin.

He's betrayed. Jesus, knowing what is coming, slips away from that upper room into the garden of Gethsemane and prays in agony, knowing what is coming.

He's arrested, he's abandoned by his followers. He's led away captive and endures six different trials through the night. Three with the Sanhedrin and the Jews, and three before the Romans. All of them laughable at best.

During those times. He's beaten, he's mocked, he's laughed at, he's abused. In the end, Pilate has him scourged. By 9am the day of the crucifixion, he's so weak that the means of his execution is too heavy for him to carry up the road.

He stumbles down the street and he has to have help to carry the cross. He's brought to Golgotha, nailed, stripped naked and hung in shame before all the people. The soldiers take in those first three hours and gamble away his clothing.

Then darkness falls.

Seven times Jesus speaks during this Time we remember those things. We could read of them.

Some miraculous things happen. That darkness at noon, the earthquake, the tearing of the temple veil from top to bottom, the graves opening. And we remember the physical things that happen.

But may I tell you this morning that something greater was going on than that physical suffering that Jesus was going through.

Peter, at the end of those trials, those six trials, stood and denied Jesus that he even knew the man.

And yet Peter is a man who never got over the death of Christ.

He writes to strangers scattered abroad, people spread, believers spread throughout the world. He's writing to these people, maybe kind of like us here, that maybe don't call Germany our home. We're strangers who have brought in here. And he writes to these strangers and he exhorts them in his first epistle is a man who never got over what Christ did for him on the cross. If you have your Bible this morning, would you take it and turn to the book of First Peter?

And this morning I would like to just simply walk through a couple of verses.

And I want you to see as Peter paints a kaleidoscope picture of the crucifixion, so that any way that you turn it and any way that you look at it, that you see beauty for the awful thing that happened today.

First Peter, chapter number one. Would you look. Let's look at verse number 18.

Peter says, for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the image empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Think about this. If I lived and worked every minute of my life and earned as much money as I could make doing the best things in the world, me as a finite creature could not do good enough to redeem myself. And if as a finite creature and in sin I suffered for all of eternity, I could never pay my sin debt. And yet Christ, because of his infinite value in just a moment, suffered for us so that we could be redeemed, we could be bought back from the empty life that we had been presented. And Peter was in awe of what Christ did there.

Would you skip down a couple verses? In verse 23, it says, for you have been born again not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through the living and enduring word of God. We hear the truth of the Gospel through the the preaching of God's word. We know of the sacrifice of Christ because of the Word of God. And in that we have been born again, not simply reformed, not simply just improved a little bit.

We are new creatures taken away from our old. Old things are passed away. We are renewed. We are regenerated, redeemed and regenerated. Would you flip over a page?

Chapter number two, verse number 21, it says to this you were called. Would you notice that in the previous verse he's talking about suffering for doing right. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. As Christ is on this cross, he's not only paying our sin debt, he's not only giving us new life, he is leaving us an example of the life we are now to live. He's putting forth a truth that even though right, perfect, never done anything wrong, no reason to die, yet he died and suffered for us.

And an example.

Would you look down at verse 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were like sheep gone astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Christ, in his work on the cross does the work to expiate our sins, to take them away, to wash us clean. We are renewed.

He has restored in us the ability to come into the presence of God and stand before Him. We can worship this morning. We can sing glory and praise to God, not because of something we've done, not because it's been provided, but simply because Jesus died on the cross and he made us right and new to stand in relationship with God.

Would you notice that as Christ did that he leads us and guides us. He is the shepherd and overseer. He sees a long way out. He guards our life. He is walking with us.

If you look down in chapter three, verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous, for the unrighteous to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the Spirit. Would you watch? When I could do nothing for myself, when I could do nothing, Christ took my sins and suffered in my place under the wrath of God, so that he could take that satisfying the wrath of God in my place, so that I never would have to, he was exchanged for me that I could be brought into fellowship with God. Would you again follow over into chapter number four, verse 13, but rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

Not only is he our substitute. But we have been brought into this death with him so that as we suffer and he is glorified, we will reign victorious in him over sin and that we can step into his presence and live a victorious life.

Peter here gives, and I would encourage you to read it this week. He gives a super practical book of the way we are supposed to live. But infused at the heart of it is the cross, is Jesus death for us. It is Calvary and, and his atonement that he made.

And how often does it take a day like Good Friday for us to remember?

You would notice if you walk through this book, Peter would say in those first two, he said, hey, the death of Christ allows you to live a reverent life before a holy God. It allows you to live a sanctified life of holiness in a wicked world. He says it allows you to love your neighbor as Christ loved. The cross is central to your life. He would say in the following chapter, it allows you to deal with difficult, hard, hard things, to suffer in a good way, and to trust God to carry you through, to hope in Him.

That's what the cross does. It comes across. And as we think about the coming days and the outreaches that are coming up in the next two phrases there, we have been redeemed, we have been substituted for, so we can speak boldly the truth of God's word.

Would you watch as Peter ends this passage?

In verse 10 of chapter 5, he says, and the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you, make you strong, firm and steadfast to Him, Be the power forever.

Today we remember. We remember. We reflect on what God has done. In a moment, we'll take communion and remember and declare Christ's death. But.

But I wonder, as we remember on this Good Friday, if we were to remember the cross in our everyday life, if every day we lived in light of the cross, in light of this beautiful picture of what Peter is giving here, this kaleidoscope. And as you turn and as you look, as you watch it, it changes and it sparkles before you. If we lived in the awe of what Christ did on Calvary, if every day would be a good day, if every day lived, remembering the work of Christ on Calvary would be good. Father, help us to remember. Father, we love you and we thank you for your goodness.

We're in awe of not only the physical torment that you dealt with on this day, but the spiritual work that you accomplished.

Help us to not be forgetful to not neglect so great salvation in Jesus name.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning. It was a blessing having you here. Thank you for encouraging us by being here. The day's not over for us. You're welcome to stay.

We have some food that we're going to fellowship with here. Just enjoy being with one another. And then at 12 o' clock, we are going to have part two of our evangelism workshops that we're doing over this week. And we encourage you to stay for that. If you want to know how you can go out to where as you bridge to the gospel with someone, how you can actually now share your faith.

That's what we're going to talk about today. So we encourage you to stick around for that. That'll be at 12 o'. Clock, but let me just pray for our time and I think we can go right into our fellowship time now. So Lord, we, we thank you.

We thank you, Jesus. We thank you for your death. What it means for us that we can now have life because you live. And Lord, we look forward to Sunday. It's Friday, but Sunday is coming.

So may we look forward to this day, even in the. In the coming hours, in the coming days, Lord, to be mindful of what you've done. We commit this time to you. We commit this, this week and this year to you, Lord. In your name we pray.

Jesus. Amen. We dismissed.