Good Friday – The Cross

What we're going to talk about today is the cross.

The cross at once reveals God's holiness.

It's, it's, it's, I'm not talking about the symbol, I'm talking about what the event

that happened.

It's a world-changing event.

It is the only world-changing event that had resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Those are the three world-changing events.

And so the cross reveals on one hand God's holiness, God's righteousness or justice,

God's power, God's glory, God's purpose and his love.

The cross reveals God's holiness, God's righteousness or justice.

Both come from the same word SEDEC.

God's power, God's purpose, God's love.

They're all revealed at the cross, eh?

They're all revealed at the cross and his glory.

So we're just going to look at the cross and just talk about that.

And as we do, you have to think and receive.

You have to think and desire.

And you have to think and proclaim.

You have to think and receive for yourself.

You have to think and desire for yourself, for others.

And you have to think and proclaim also for others.

So as we talk about the cross and the different aspects of the cross,

I must think and receive for myself what the cross means

so that I get to partake of the full benefits of the cross.

I need to think and desire it for others.

And after desiring it for others, I need to think and proclaim it to others.

And so I've got an acronym or whatever you call it

that we are going to use to talk about the cross

that it is the word back up.

So that's what we'll use as an acronym to go over

six different aspects of the cross.

Yeah?

So the first thing guys is that the cross necessitated a body.

The cross necessitated or as soon as God decided that there would be a cross,

there needed to be a body.

So if you read Hebrews 10 verse 5 to 9,

Hebrews 10:5–9

Hebrews 10, 5 to 9.

Hebrews 10, 5 to 9.

Reading from the Aniwi.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said,

Sacrifice an offering you did not desire,

but a body you prepared for Me.

With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

Then I said, Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll.

I have come to do your will, my God.

First He said, sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings,

you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them,

though they were offered in accordance to the law.

Then He said, Here I am, I have come to do your will.

He sets aside the first to establish the second.

And by that will we have been made holy

through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

So the first thing the cross necessitated was a finite body.

And why did you need a finite body?

Because you needed a back to be scourged or whipped.

Our healing required that Christ have a finite body.

There needed to be a back that could be whipped or striped or scourged.

There needed to be a brow and a skull on which a crown or thorns could be felt,

nerves that could feel.

It had to be a very human physical body.

It had to have nerve endings that could feel.

It needed to have blood vessels that could rupture and bleed.

It needed a face that could be spat on, a beard that could be plucked out.

And so the cross necessitated a finite body.

Because the sins of every offspring of Adam had to be borne by one solitary, innocent man.

This is why the whole idea of breaking bread takes on such potence.

We say his body was broken for us, but we don't realize that he needed a very finite body

to be able to partake, for us to be able to partake in what we partake in.

The second thing that was required, the second thing that the cross offers to us is atonement.

But before I go to atonement, I just want to return to this idea of a body.

Guys, we must believe that we are healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ.

He offers himself to God saying, sacrifices and burnt offerings you did not require,

but you prepared a body for me.

A body was prepared so that it could be whipped, so that I could be healed.

A body was prepared so that it could be whipped, so that I could be healed.

There's no question about this.

A brow and a skull was prepared with nerve endings so that thorns could pierce,

so that my mind could be healed and have peace.

A face was prepared that could be fisted, mocked, spat on, plucked, disfigured,

so that I may have my face put back together, my dignity put back together.

I can go bit by bit, the hands, the feet, the bruising that he took,

the bruising that he took.

These things are sure things is what I'm trying to say.

Healing is a sure thing.

Why?

Not because I say it.

Because Jesus had a body prepared for him to be whipped so that we may be healed.

So I will press in to experience it in every area of my life,

at every age in my life.

Despite what I may be going through, I'll press in to experience it because he is true.

The second one is atonement.

God atone, Christ is our atonement, not our appeasement.

I'm not sure everybody will agree with me on this, but I'm sure you will.

I'm sure you will.

I'm sure you will.

I'm sure you will.

I'm sure you will.

I'm sure you will.

I'm not sure everybody will agree with me on that.

I found it difficult to think that way initially, and I still sometimes struggle when I see

some scriptures.

But we have a tendency, I mean, if you go to Romans 325, Romans 325,

it says that God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement.

Through the shedding of blood to be received by faith.

He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the

sins committed before unpunished.

He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time so as to be just and to

be the one who justifies those that have faith in Jesus.

And to be the one who justifies those that have faith in Jesus.

So the cross is justice.

The cross is not appeasement.

Appeasement is when someone is so angry that you have to give them something to appease

them.

Christianity is not an appeasement religion.

Most other religions are.

You have fears, gods.

And so you have to appease these gods by offering them things.

You have to offer them sometimes offerings of fruit and vegetables, sometimes blood offerings,

penance, sufferings.

You have to offer them things so that they may be appeased.

Christianity is not a religion of appeasement.

But we often approach God thinking that he needs to be appeased, that he's angry.

And sometimes we even think of Jesus as an appeasement.

I would suggest to you that Jesus is someone who bore just punishment but it was not I

need someone to put my anger on so let's just get Jesus and just pour out and vent my anger on him.

So now that my anger is satisfied let's move on.

No, no, no, no.

That I don't think is the way we need to think though.

That is the way we may have learned Jesus.

I remember Eric talking about this some years ago.

There are two scenes in the Bible where you see

Jacob in Genesis 32 fearing Esau, he decides to appease Esau.

So what he does is he sends cattle and he sends gifts ahead of him because he's scared of how Esau is going to react.

And he knows what he's done to Esau in the past and now he's scared that when he meets Esau,

he's still going to finish him and his family.

And even though he sends all these gifts ahead of him, it's fascinating what happens.

Esau sees him, he runs to Jacob, embraces him, kisses him seven times.

Jacob bows before him seven times.

Esau embraces him and kisses him.

And you fast forward to the New Testament and again you have a very similar scene in the prodigal son

who is preparing his speech saying I just want to be a servant of Jesus.

And you see again the same thing that Esau and Jacob, the same scene with Esau and Jacob,

you see in Luke 15 verse 20 where now it's a father who comes running out and he embraces his son

Luke 15:20

and he begins to kiss him.

Both Jacob and the prodigal were heading back hoping to appease the one they had wronged.

They thought maybe the gifts and the offerings will calm the anger down.

This is how we often approach God and I want to say that the cross is atonement, not appeasement.

The cross is atonement, not appeasement.

Appeasement is human.

Appeasement is religious.

Appeasement is human.

Appeasement is religious.

Not divine.

The cross is justice, not appeasement.

You know in Leviticus 16 you see the story of two goats that would be brought on the day of

atonement before the high priest.

The high priest would pick lots and one goat would be dedicated to the Lord and the other goat would

be called the Azazel.

And the cross would be brought on the day of atonement before the high priest.

The other goat would be dedicated to the Lord and the other goat would be called the Azazel.

And the goat that was dedicated to the Lord would be slain because they knew that there was no

remission of sin without blood.

So it would be slain and the blood would then pay for the sin.

The other goat called the Azazel would have the high priest lay his hands on the goat and commit

the sin.

And the high priest would put on the goat all the wickedness and all the treason and all the

rebellion that Israel had committed with their God would be put on the goat and the goat would

be taken out into the wilderness and they would throw it over a cliff so that it would be killed.

It was a sending away of sin and Satan.

And so when it comes to atonement what we need to realize is that the cross deals with the sinner.

The blood deals with the sinner.

The blood deals with the sin.

One removes sin.

The other removes the sinner.

I would say to you, and I'm not very sure of this so hold it loosely, I would say to you that

Jesus' blood has paid the price for every sin in the world.

But it is when a sinner turns to Christ that the sinner is also taken care of.

The sin takes care.

Every sin in the world is paid for.

But the cross deals with the sinner.

The cross deals with the sinner.

The cross puts to death the sinner too.

Just like the goat would be taken and driven into the wilderness, sin and Satan would be dispelled

never to come back.

And the blood would pay for the sin.

The price for all sin has been paid.

But when a sinner turns to Christ, he himself is crucified only to rise to new life two days later, three days later.

The cross atones.

It does not appease.

In our approach to God, make sure that we are not afraid because of the anger he has.

Most other religions in the world are religions of appeasement.

God's wrath is against this horrible thing called sin because of the absolute abomination that it is to a brilliant, pure and holy God.

But the sons of Adam are precious to him, dear to him because he made them.

And I pray that as we hear these points, we also are able to think and receive it for ourselves, think and desire it for others, think and proclaim it to others.

Three things have to happen continuously as we talk about this.

Diana asked a question when I was talking about the body and healing.

Why aren't we seeing healing always?

I'll direct you to some healing teachings on the website because there are three or four really good teachings on healing on the website that you should listen to because

each of them is elaborate and I would not be able to do it justice with one or two sentences.

So just check that out and if you need, it just says healing so it's easy to find.

So I'm going to go ahead and start with the body.

So I'm going to start with the body.

So I'm going to start with the body.

So I'm going to start with the body.

So I'm going to start with the body.

The third thing that happens is on the cross cancellation happens.

On the cross cancellation happens.

On the cross cancellation happens.

The cross is payment or cancellation of a debt that you owed so you can walk away without paying the creditors or the tormentors.

On the cross cancellation happens.

The cross is payment or cancellation of a debt that you owed and it allows you to walk away without paying your creditors or your tormentors.

You see in 2 Kings 4.1 where the woman whose husband dies has a debt that is owing and she says to Elisha,

the creditors are coming to take my sons away and make them slaves.

You see in Matthew 18 verse 34, Jesus is talking about a parable and he says in the parable that a man owed a lot

Matthew 18:34

and so the king finally says he hasn't paid and he didn't forgive those who owed him so throw him into prison where the tormentors can take care of him.

Debt owed would require that I be tormented or that I be someone who has to pay my creditors.

But the cross is payment or cancellation of a debt, the debt of sin.

Every sin because Satan is a legalist requires a payment that he wants to exact.

The cool thing guys is the cross cancels every day.

The cross cancels valid, accusative, sentence carrying, charges.

Every day this is being cancelled.

Every day this is being cancelled.

Every day any outstanding debt that I owe, the cross cancels every valid, every accusative, every sentence carrying charge.

Every day is cancelled so that I don't fall into the hands of tormentors or into the hands of creditors.

Have a very short account when it comes to sin.

Not because you need to be afraid of God but because you have to keep your creditors and tormentors at bay because they operate by strictly legal standards.

When you keep a short account then Romans 8 goes into effect where God turns and says who can bring a charge against Jacob?

If I have indicated to them who are you to bring a charge against him?

How dare you when I have pronounced him innocent?

Keep a short account and also know then that you don't have to be afraid of this thing of oh I sinned therefore this is what is happening to me.

Because that is another way the devil takes advantage where he torments.

You did this now watch what I'm going to do to you.

Even the devil plays a peaceman.

He pushes us to think that God needs to be appeased.

You did this now see what I'm going to do.

You better go now and repent because your God is going to punish you.

He's the one who does evil but he puts it on God saying your God is punishing you.

I want to live free of appeasement.

I want to live to please God.

I don't want to live to appease God.

I want to live to please God.

I don't want to live to appease God.

Pleasing God comes out of delight and desire.

Appeasing God comes out of fear.

A perfect love is supposed to cast out fear.

I want to be absolutely rid of appeasement.

It doesn't matter whether you're charismatic or non charismatic.

This is something that is so settled in our heads.

Because most of our earthly relations have so much of appeasement in it.

Some cultures are so dominantly appeasing.

I come from India and I know that the Indian culture is a culture steeped in appeasement.

You appease your boss.

You appease your parents.

You appease your pastors.

You appease your elders.

It's always appeasement.

And the appeasement drives you to do things that you don't even mean but you're so scared.

What can happen if you don't?

Some cultures are steeped in appeasement.

And so for us to think of God any other way is very difficult.

But what if we move from appeasement to pleasing?

One is based in fear.

One is based in sheer delight.

It brings a degree of freedom that we will find refreshing.

The sin is taken care of by the blood.

The sinner is dealt with by the cross.

Is this suggesting that the death of sin is to Satan and not to God?

No.

Kevin's asking a question.

Am I suggesting that the death of sin is to Satan and not to God?

No.

I'm not suggesting that the death of sin is to Satan and not to God.

No.

The death of sin is taken advantage of by the tormentor to harm me.

The death of sin is taken advantage of by the tormentor to harm me.

And that's what happens in the Garden of Eden.

Adam sins and immediately the serpent now begins to go into action in terms of the sin.

The cross is taken away from the tormentor.

Everything begins to fall apart.

Sickness is a weapon that Satan uses because of sin.

Before there was sin, there was no sickness.

The next thing the cross does is it launches the kingdom.

The cross launches the kingdom.

The cross launches the kingdom.

How may we define the kingdom?

The kingdom may be defined as the

rule of God over his creation through his people.

The rule of God, God's reign through God's people over God's creation.

That's how we define kingdom.

God's reign over his people.

That's how we define kingdom.

God's reign through God's people over God's creation.

God's reign through God's people over God's creation.

So we've talked about the body.

We've talked about atonement, not appeasement.

We've talked about cancellation of debts.

And therefore freedom from tormentors and creditors.

Now we're talking about the kingdom.

The cross launches the kingdom.

As in the cross launches God's reign through God's people over God's creation.

And it finds its roots in Eden.

Because Eden was where a loving king ruled over his creation through his image.

Eden at its very foundation was a loving king ruling over his creation.

Ruling over his creation that he said was good.

A loving king ruling over the creation that he said was good.

Through his image bearing people.

Till Adam and Eve collapsed his reign by submitting to the serpent.

To another king.

Till Adam and Eve collapsed his reign by submitting to another king.

And so the cross is a just God.

The cross is a just God taking back his sovereign sovereignty over creation.

And the sons of Adam.

So the cross was a just God taking back his sovereign rule over creation and Adam's sons.

There was no moment in the gospels more kingly than Jesus on the cross.

Nothing else that was as majestic.

That's the scandalous beauty of the cross.

On one hand you have a beaten weak brutalized body on the cross.

And yet in its beaten brutalized condition it is the moment of majesty.

There is no other moment that is as kingly in the gospels as Jesus on the cross.

Because in one shot he forgives sins, he defeats evil, he establishes God's kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

In one shot. Only a king can do that.

Only a king can make three things happen immediately.

Sin forgiven.

Across the earth.

These are edicts that no king has ever attempted or been able to establish.

And in one shot over a period of three hours hanging on a cross.

This king.

Causes sin and curse to cease.

Causes the defeat and the absolute dismantling of the satanic system and evil.

And establishes God's ever advancing kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

And how? How did he do it?

This is a fascinating thing.

You have a humiliated God dying slowly on a tree.

And that is what makes this happen.

A humiliated God. You can't even put those words together in any other religion.

No other religion has a humiliated God.

You wouldn't put those words together because you can't have a God who is being humiliated.

But this is the beauty of Christianity.

That you have a humiliated God who is dying slowly on a tree.

And that is the one who now does three things in quick succession.

Ends sin. Ends evil. Establishes a kingdom.

I heard this line somewhere that the cross is the throne from which Christ rules.

The cross is the throne from which Christ rules.

And so if we want to rule with Christ, then we cannot circumvent the cross.

The cross is the throne from which Christ rules the world.

You know the odd thing is the thief recognized it.

In Luke 23, 42 he says, today when you come into your kingdom, can you have me there too?

The thief recognized that there was a king on a cross and that the king was going to be launching a kingdom.

I don't know whether he recognized it, but the way he said it said much more than every theologian present at the foot of the cross.

Which then brings us to the simple question.

How dare you and I avoid the centrality of the cross in all our dealings with the world?

In all our dealings with God, in all our dealings with each other.

Especially in all our dealings with God and in all our dealings with the world.

How dare we avoid the centrality of the cross?

Because it is the throne from which Christ rules.

It is where cancellation of debts happens.

It is where the sinner and the sinner are taken care of.

It is where a body is broken and bruised so that we may benefit from all the things that are written in Isaiah 53.

How dare we ever approach God or ever approach man with God without first establishing the centrality of Christ in our interactions?

Consciously establish it over the next little while and then it becomes habit.

It takes away your worth, your lack of worth, your sin, your lack of sin, your ministry, your lack of ministry, your dignity, your lack of dignity, your condition, your lack of condition.

It takes away everything because now you stand solely in the work and the benefits of Christ on the cross.

And then that is how you now approach someone else.

Because Paul used to say, I'm a stammerer, I don't have too many good words but one thing I know, Christ crucified and risen.

And so that becomes the simplicity of his message.

And it is this pathetic God hanging on a tree that is the power of God unto salvation.

There's just no way around it.

In our present world, because we want to impress the Greeks and the Jews, what I mean by that is intellectuals and sign seekers,

we circumvent the cross. I dare not do that.

The next thing that is amazing about the cross is that it is unconditional.

It is unconditional in its, it's unconditional inseparability.

Unconditional inseparability, as in you cannot be separated from God because of the cross and it's unconditional.

Unconditional inseparability.

The cross guarantees unconditional inseparability.

If you go to Romans 8, Romans 8 verse 31 to 35.

Romans 8:31–35

Romans 8.

31 to 35.

What then shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies.

Who then is the one who condemns? No one.

Christ Jesus who died, more than that who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword?

As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

We are convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we read that, it doesn't make much sense because we often feel sometimes abandoned or sometimes God isn't there.

But here's the point that Paul is trying to make.

Because Christ has conquered everything, because Christ has conquered death, life, angels, demons, present, future, height, depth, because he has conquered trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword, and he experienced it and conquered it.

Because he has conquered it, there is nothing that can now come in the way of separating his power-bound goodness and love from reaching me.

We talked about the power-bound goodness and love of God last week.

There's nothing that can prevent it. There's nothing. You can't prevent it.

Nothing on earth can prevent it because everything that could have prevented it was overcome by Christ who came down in flesh like me.

Therefore, regardless of my feelings, there is not going to be anything that can separate me from the love of Christ.

Not as in separate me from heaven. Not as in separate me from one day finding the love of God.

No. Presently, I must become conscious that there is not a moment that the love of Christ can be separated from me.

It is power-bound goodness and love that is constantly seeking me like a guided missile.

And it will always find me. It's got this technology that always finds me.

How do you know the depth of someone's love? How do you know the depth of someone's love?

I just want us to remember these simple equations so that it prevents us from doubting whether we are loved.

How do you know the depth of someone's love for you?

The first one is, I know the depth of someone's love for me by finding out what it cost him.

What it cost him.

You know the depth of someone's love for you when you realize what it cost him.

Second, how little you deserved it.

How little you deserved it.

Third, the benefits you continually receive.

The benefits you continually receive.

Four, the freedom that the love comes with.

The freedom love comes with.

As in there are no strings attached, there are no conditions, there are no, if you don't do this I won't love you.

And five, the freedom the person had to avoid giving it.

The freedom the person had.

The freedom the person had to avoid giving it.

As in was he forced to, was he obliged, was he pressured, did he have a choice or did he give it freely?

You ask these questions and you have an idea of how you are loved.

What did it cost him?

I can't fathom what it cost him.

I occasionally touch it and it just breaks my heart and makes me weep.

But really, I don't know if any of us, even in heaven, will actually know how much it cost him and how much it cost the Father and the Spirit.

How little you deserved it.

Amazing grace breaks my heart sometimes because I know my wretchedness.

How little I deserved it.

I actively used to pursue people who believed in Christ and would try with arguments and ways to make them either say that, yeah, you're right, Christ isn't real or yeah, my faith isn't real.

It was such an evil thing that I would do to people, young guys, 17, 18 year olds, targeting them to try and break their faith.

How little you deserved it.

The benefits you continually receive.

Every day of my life I benefit from the love that he expresses, primarily through the cross, but then in relationship today.

The freedom that the love comes with.

The freedom that the love comes with.

Allowing me to respond if I need to.

Not putting demands on me.

Possessive love that does not control.

The freedom that it comes with, it's rare.

And then the last one is the freedom that the person had to avoid giving it.

They were taunting him at the foot of the cross.

Hey, why don't you call for some angels?

You said you've come to save the world.

Why don't you save yourself?

Not my will, but yours be done.

The freedom he had to avoid it.

Chuck Colson talks about a story of a 19 year old who was a prisoner of war in one of the Nazi camps.

A 19 year old with a whole other group of older men and women and they would be taken out to dig the ground.

And they would be given a shovel and at the end of the day they had to make sure that all the shovels were returned.

And so there was this one day where they all went out and 20 of them went out and only 19 shovels were recovered.

And so they lined them up and said, true story, they lined them up and said there's a shovel missing,

produce it or we'll start killing people.

And there was, I mean they counted the shovels and there were only 19.

And so they decided okay, they're going to start shooting people.

And this 19 year old runs up and says, shoot me first.

And they shoot him, they kill him.

And then they find out later that the soldier who counted the shovels counted wrong and there were 20.

But he counted 19.

And so this 19 year old dies.

Chuck Olson goes on to say how he was a 19 year old with his whole future ahead of him.

Had it been an 83 year old that volunteered, it would be one thing.

Maybe he's lived most of his life, he's lived a good life.

This 19 year old had his whole future ahead of him, but he chooses to pay a cost,

regardless of the fact that others may not have deserved it and may have lived a longer, happier life.

In the process, everybody lives.

It was given freely, no one asked the kid to give it and he could have easily avoided it.

The point of the story that Chuck Olson makes is the same.

That there's an unconditionality to God's way of dealing with us through Christ

where it is now a place where I am inseparable from his love.

Always evaluate this when you think you're not loved, because our evaluation of his love is based on our experiences.

And sometimes those experiences change from year to year.

But at the end of the day, this is something that I have to visit.

So I understand how I'm inseparable from and unconditionally inseparable from his love.

The other thing that God did was at the cross, he stripped the powers.

He stripped the powers. He stripped the powers.

The cross strips principalities and powers. Colossians 2.15.

The cross strips principalities and powers.

The cross triumphs over them.

The cross exposes them as subordinate.

The cross drives them in a humiliating procession.

Beautifully, the things that were achieved in three hours on the cross are remarkable.

It was Jesus' most kingly moment.

The cross strips powers and principalities of their authority.

Hear me again. The cross strips principalities and powers of their authority.

The cross triumphs over them.

The cross exposes them forever as subordinate.

And the cross now drives them in a humiliating procession behind Jesus Christ's chariot.

As prisoners.

We must by faith experience and exhibit it.

We must by faith both experience it and exhibit it.

Again, it requires a pressing in till it shows.

Everything must be experienced before it can be exhibited.

Anything that is exhibited without being experienced will shrivel up under other people's opinions.

Like Eddie often used to say, a man who has experience will never be at the mercy of a man who has opinions.

And here's the thing guys, be it healing or be it the driving out of powers, persevere every day to exhibit it and experience it in your life.

And if it doesn't happen today, stand up again tomorrow.

And like Ephesians 6 says, stand.

Break every chain. I love that song I was listening to Tasha Cobb sing it this morning.

Break every chain. With perseverance.

Communion by the way is the public judgment of the Gods of Egypt and the diseases of Egypt.

At Passover that was what was happening.

Where people were emancipated by the outstretched arm of Yahweh.

By the breaking over a period of a few weeks.

By the breaking of the Gods of Egypt and the diseases of Egypt.

Every plague was a judgment on the God of Egypt.

Every disease was judged.

Every plague was a judgment of the God of Egypt.

Powers and principalities.

Exodus is such a cool parallel to the cross.

What is the greatest achievement of Yahweh in the Old Testament?

What has been, what is always repeated?

The Red Sea. Opened. Egypt. Israel freed.

Drawn out. Ransomed.

Gods defeated. Taken through. Promised land.

And now in the New Testament that Exodus is paralleled and then anteed up.

And now replaces that story with a far greater story.

Where once and for all for the entire world someone comes along

and there is a mass Exodus from the clutches of the devil into the kingdom of light.

From the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the sun.

Mass Exodus. Power is stripped.

Principality is destroyed.

Gods judged. Diseases judged.

A people drawn out.

Taken through perilous roads into a place of promise.

And in this case the promise is Christ.

It is in Christ that we are hidden.

That's why when we sing the line,

it was grace that through many dangerous toils and snares I have already come.

It was grace that brought me to safety thus far.

Grace will lead me home.

Back up.

Remember what the cross is for us.

I'm sure you can add more.

But these are some things that we need to remember.

Guys, the kingdom was established by the self-giving love of Christ.

And therefore the kingdom will only be advanced.

Love of Christ.

And therefore the kingdom will only be advanced through the self-giving love of his people.

Remember what we said the kingdom is.

The kingdom is God's reign through God's people over God's creation.

God's reign through God's people over God's creation.

And so the kingdom was established through the self-giving love of God.

And so we must become highly aware that the kingdom can only advance by the self-giving love of his people.

We are saved from sin and darkness for Jesus and his kingdom.

We are saved from sin and darkness for Jesus and his kingdom.

A self-giving...

A God who is self-giving and loving establishes the kingdom.

A people who are self-giving and loving advance the kingdom.

The kingdom of God is marked by justice.

And only a justified people can now bring justice to the poor and oppressed.

We talked about Isaiah 58 a few weeks ago.

And so at the end of the day what I want to say is go there for.

Go there for.

Go there for.

Go there for. Why?

Because I says Jesus took on a body and it was bruised so that you may enjoy its benefits on a daily basis.

Go there for and distribute it.

There's that beautiful song, right?

I then shall live.

Your kingdom come around and in and through me.

Let me just find that verse.

The last verse of that song.

Your kingdom come around and through and in me.

Your power and glory let them shine through me.

Your hallowed name, oh may I bear with honor.

And may your living kingdom come in me.

The next two lines are cool.

The bread of life, oh may I share with honor.

And may you feed a hungry world through me.

Go there for. My body was bruised.

My back was scourged.

Go there for.

Break this bread through your self-giving.

Go there for because my blood has already paid the price for everybody's sin.

And if you let them know that, that when a sinner turns to me, the cross deals with the sinner too.

Go there for.

Proclaim.

Don't skirt the centrality of the cross in your relationship with me and your relationship with others.

Go there for.

Show them that this is the only religion where God does not need to be appeased.

Where you delight in him and therefore you begin to please him.

You don't appease him because appeasement has its basis in fear.

Go there for and tell them that I'm like the father of the prodigal who comes running who embraces him and who begins to kiss him recklessly.

Go there for because I have canceled the debt.

You can actually free people.

You can actually free people from

tormentors and creditors.

Because I have canceled the debt.

They don't have to accept me before I cancel the debt.

Cancel their debts.

You're part of a kingdom that I have launched.

You're part of a kingdom that I have launched at the cross.

Go there for.

Advance the kingdom.

All authority has been given to me.

How do you know that?

Because I stripped all the powers.

I stripped all the powers and principalities.

I subdued them.

I triumphed over them.

They are now paraded as prisoners in my triumph and procession.

As a conquering victorious king.

And go always knowing that I am with you.

Behold I will be with you.

How do you know that?

Because I'm unconditionally loving and you are unconditionally inseparable.

Go there for.

Go there for.

Since all authority is mine, understand that everyone and everything belongs to me.

Everyone and everything belongs to me.

Through the cross, everyone and everything belongs to me.

They can choose to rebel, but everything and everyone belongs to me.

They can choose to turn away and blaspheme and say no.

They can reject me, but everything and everyone belongs to me.

I have reconciled everything to the Father.

Creation, creature, everything has been reconciled back to the Father.

I have paid for everything.

I have bought everything back.

This has always been my kingdom and this continues now to be my kingdom.

I am sovereign.

Everything and everyone belongs to me.

Therefore, bear witness to the truth of who I am and what I've done.

Bear witness to the truth of who I am and what I've done.

Bear witness to the truth of who I am and what I've done.

Cool?