Crossing family, it is so good to be with you as we've been
going through this sermon series, Decisions in the Desert,
because the decisions you make in the desert will define you.
They will determine your destiny.
And I want to welcome those of you joining at all of our
different locations, those of you watching online, and those
of you who are part of our Crossing Inside family.
And to those of you who are here for the first time or the first
time in a long time, we are so incredibly glad that you are
here. I'm excited about this weekend
because we have one of the, in our movement, I believe one of
the most gifted thinkers and communicators come in to preach
to us. So crossing family, you've seen
it before. Would you put your hands
together, Tyler McKenzie? You're too kind.
Too kind. All right, all right.
Well, hey. Cross and fan welcome.
I would like to say. Welcome today to.
Those of you who are here. Welcome to all the campuses,
Welcome to those online, welcome to those watching in the future
on playback. I listen to my sermons.
I'm preaching on Sundays. I listen to my sermons on
podcast in the car on playback. So welcome to y'all in the
future. It's always weird to think about
how is the future. Are kids still wearing Crocs?
Who won the election? You know, like, I'm just
kidding. Why are you watching in the
future rather than here in person at a crossing campus on
the weekend? All right.
But we'll ask those questions and answer those questions
later. Welcome, everybody.
Welcome to all the places, the people.
Again, my name is Tyler. I'm at Northeast Christian
Church in Louisville, KY, and this is my third year last year.
It's my third year in a row coming back to the crossing.
I hope to not screw. That up.
Tonight I would like. For it to be a fourth year
because I love this church I have.
Not met all of you. But for the.
People that I have met 100% of the crossing people I've met are
awesome. Now about. 30% of y'all weird
but 100%? Of y'all are awesome and.
The person who? I love the most in your
congregation and I love everybody because.
Jesus says it has to, but I love your pastor.
Clayton, I mean. This guy can preach First off,
so he is a great. Preacher, and you know him as
Clayton the preacher. You, you may know him as Clayton
the leader. I get an opportunity to know him
as Clayton the friend though, and he is an incredible ministry
friend and in ministry. Especially.
It's good to have some friends you could lean on so.
As the kids do it. Heart hands love you, Clayton
and bromance aside, let's get to the sermon.
Right? Decisions in the desert I love.
This. I love that.
Y'all are tracking Moses story? It is an epic story.
You started in Egypt, you've worked through the wilderness.
You're eventually going to get to the edge of the promised land
in the. You know, leadership.
Transition and all that. But Moses's story is.
About as epic as it. Gets in the scriptures like he's
Egyptian royalty but also comes from scrappy roots he met so
closely. With God, his face glowed, but
also he killed the. Guy once.
CEO level leadership gift. But also had a speech.
Impediment loved his people. So much that he.
Told God I'm willing. To have my legacy removed from
the history books. But also got sowed annoyed with
his people once he ground up a gold idol into dust, put it in
their water and made them drink it.
You think your? Boss is hard on you.
This is Moses now when I looked at the grand.
Scope of your series. Right now you're actually in a
little mini series within the series.
Because the last two weeks, this will be the third week.
Y'all have been looking at the old covenant system of
atonement. That's what we'd call it in
theological terms. And the reason why y'all are
looking at that is because it's one of the most important things
that Moses received from God and 15. 100 years early, it
prefigures Jesus. Like perhaps nothing else in the
Old Covenant or the Old Old Testament.
Maybe the most important thing, Moses.
Received from God is this. System of atonement and the
Israelites people needed it. I don't.
Know if you. Ever thought about this?
But when they came out of Egypt, this was a baby nation.
They had lived in slavery for for many generations.
They didn't know how to run themselves as a people.
So when they get out into into the wilderness, you're a widow
baby and like if. You ever had babies here?
Had young kids? You got to guide them.
You got to give them some guidelines.
You got to give them some rules. If you don't give them rules,
they're eating ice cream every night for dinner.
You know what I'm saying? So they need some rules, and
that's what they get in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. They get the guidelines, the
covenant, the will and the way. Of God.
And a part of that. Law is this.
System of atonement, that. Instructed the people how to fix
their relationship. With God when they sinned and
that's important now it. Had three parts.
First, there was the person. Which is the priest you looked
at that last week? Second, there was the place
which was the temple you looked at.
That two weeks ago today. We're going to look.
At the last aspect. Of this system, that's the.
Sacrifice. All of which, as you know, were
fulfilled in Jesus. He's the highest of high
priests. His body was.
The temple torn down and. Raised back up.
And John the Baptist. Calls Jesus.
The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and
that'll all. Preach so today.
To complete this little mini series on atonement.
We need to talk about sacrifice and I believe.
This topic is monumental. You will not understand the
Bible if you don't understand the theme of sacrifice.
It's a central theme in Scripture.
It's the foundation of many of the key.
Stories. It's the.
Solution to the human problem. If you don't understand
sacrifice, you won't understand crucifixion, you won't
understand Christian love, you won't understand forgiveness,
you won't understand justice and so much more.
So today I want to help you understand.
So here's where we're going. OK, there's going to be 3
questions that I'm going to answer today.
All right, this is the outline for those of y'all who are note
takers. All right, one, we're going to
talk about the problem that requires the sacrifice
throughout the biblical Canon. 2 We're going to talk.
About the result. Of that sacrifice and then to
end, we're going to talk about the method, the method.
Of the sacrifice you ready, ready cross.
And fam, let's get down to it. First, the problem.
The problem that requires. Sacrifice Quick sidebar if you
read Leviticus. There are several different
kinds of sacrifices and so I want to be clear not.
All the types of sacrifices. Were an answer.
To the problems that they had, I would say that there are two
categories of sacrifices for the Israelites.
There were what I call thank you sacrifices.
And I'm sorry, sacrifices. The thank you sacrifices there
was no problem. These were the.
Peace offerings, the grain offerings and basically.
They were offered to God. Just out of Thanksgiving and.
Gratitude for who he is. And.
What they what He called. Them.
His people. Now, on the flip side though,
there were the, I'm sorry, sacrifices.
Which we're going. To focus on today and the I'm
sorry sacrifices. Dealt with a very specific.
Thing. What did it deal?
With church. There's sin, there's sin, and
that's the problem. That's.
The problem that requires sacrifice, the sin that breaks
the. People's relationship with God
it's interesting if you open your.
Bibles to Leviticus chapter one verse one it talks about Moses
meeting with God and in that verse.
It says that. God spoke to Moses from the
tent, but Moses did not go in the tent.
Now you know why Moses didn't go in the tent.
It's because if you read Exodus, the Israelite people were full
of. Sin.
Tragic. Sin.
And so throughout the book of Leviticus.
It lays out for Moses. This sacrificial.
System and he institute's it. And here's what's crazy.
Moved from Leviticus 11 to Numbers 11, and you know what
Numbers 11 says? It says that God spoke to Moses
in the tent. See, once he instituted the
system of sacrifice, and it took care of the sin of the people.
The. Relationship between he, the
people of God, and God was reconciled.
It's fascinating. Now, if you've done any reading
at all on the Old Testament sacrificial system, you know
it's crazy. Like, it's kind of crazy.
Now it wasn't crazy if you were an ancient person.
In fact, in the ancient world, it would have been crazy for you
and your people not to. Have a sacrificial.
System to manage your relationship.
With the gods, but for us. Today in the enlightened States
of America, anything that seems old we automatically call
regressive and outdated. So the whole sacrificial.
System just seems a bit much to us.
Let me try and explain it to you all right.
For the I'm sorry sacrifices, they followed a certain order
of. Operations first, the Sinner
would. Bring a sacrifice to the temple
next. They would lay a.
Hand on the sacrifice. Do you know what the laying of
hand on the sacrifice symbolized?
The transferral of sin onto the animal Third.
The Sinner, the worshipper would.
Be the one who? Slaughtered the sacrifice.
There, it wasn't a priest. Y'all.
Thought it was the priest, didn't you?
Could you imagine the? Experience of having to
slaughter. An animal for your sin, then
forth. The priest would then proceed.
To collect the blood. Of the animal, sprinkle it on
the altar and then butcher the animal and take pieces of the
meat and fat and burn it there. Now sorry for those of you.
With weak stomachs in the room, but.
Unless. You're a butcher, or maybe a
hunter. That's.
Kind of a lot slaughter. Little fluffy sprinkle his
blood. Then burn them like it feels
extreme. So I want to acknowledge today.
That if you think the sacrificial.
System was extreme it's because. You're right, it was.
Extreme. And it was dealing with an even
more extreme problem. Our sin now pet.
Peeve. Alert to hear Tyler's going to
go off on one of his. Pet peeves for a second.
OK, I just. Let this is one of my pet
peeves. Y'all the reason why this sermon
on the severity of sin and the sacrificial system.
Is so vital for us is because I believe.
That one of the generational. Schemes of the Devil look up
here. One of the generational schemes.
Of the devil is to. Trivialize and erase sin from
our conversations and he's quite successful.
At it. He has many.
Strategies, perhaps his most. Prominent strategy today is to
convince US1 that sin is just too emotionally harmful for us
to talk about anymore. Especially with our kids.
I believe it is the evil one who has convinced an entire
generation of parents it is. It's just too emotionally
harmful that we live in a cultural moment right now that
says that. Young people are so fragile.
It'll crush them to say, hey, there's such a thing as evil in
the world. It's what's destroying the
world. It's in you, it's in me, and
something needs to be done about it.
So let's just protect them. Let's tell them they're special
and that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to.
Now I'll tell you like this. This parenting approach is a
little. Bit of a different approach than
the way I was. Raised 30 years ago.
If I had to explain how my parents and my daddy.
Was a preacher. So I explained how my parents
approached the topic of my sinfulness.
I could do it in a picture. Can you throw it up there?
The spoon. And who is having a trauma
response right now? Are you OK?
You see? Kids, back in the 1900s, wooden
spoons weren't actually used for stirring chili.
That was just a way to disguise. Them from the cops.
They were actually used for beating the devil out your kids.
I. Grew up in a town where anybody
could whip you. Your Mama could whip you.
Your friend's Mama could. Whip you.
Your teacher could give you a whip and your coach could give
you a whip. The old man who you didn't know
and aisle 3 at the food line could say come here boy, I'm
about to teach you some respect. It's just.
It was a different time, and that was probably a bit much,
but young people today listen. Apparently any message at all
about your personal evil is just too offensive.
For your delicate egos. Don't tell the teenagers they're
sinners. It might hurt them and so no one
talks about it anymore. Which is tragic because.
Sin is the problem that Jesus came to to.
Defeat. So look, I respect.
Y'all too much emerging generation and I know y'all are
way tougher than people give you credit.
For so I drove 7 hours from. Kentucky to tell you today that
I'm a Sinner, you're a Sinner, and we need a.
Sacrifice and I got good. News.
We have one and I'll tell. You if you have pastors that
talk regularly with you about your.
Sin both gently yet honestly. Then you should be grateful for
that. Today there are many ministries.
That preach what I would. Call self esteemism, and that's
only half the gospel. God accepts you just the way you
are. Well, true, but he doesn't leave
you that way. You don't have.
To hate yourself. Well, true.
But you also have to deny yourself, take up your cross,
and follow Him. We're all children of God.
OK, that's totally not true. Did you know that we're not all
children of God? It's interesting.
Today we like to confuse the doctrine of the image of God
with the doctrine of adoption. And they're two different
things. The doctrine of the image.
Of God says everybody is. Inherently.
Valuable because God has. Stamped his image on every human
being but the doctrine of adoption and these are.
The words of Jesus. John 112 says to all who believe
and accept him, Jesus gives the right to become children of God,
so even. Jesus had a theology of.
Sin and he talked about it he didn't think he.
Of us were too soft. To hear about our sin.
And yet this is one of the strategies of the devil to
convince us that it's just too emotionally harmful.
He has other strategies he tries.
To get us to change the language around sin.
Oh, it's just a mistake. It was a little white lie.
No big. Deal.
What's the HR terminology? It's a growth opportunity, and
all that serves to do is trivialize what's.
Killing us. Another one of his strategies is
to convince us. Just deny it.
Deny the unpopular. Stuff.
There are some popular. Sins that everybody calls sins,
right? Racism is bad and.
Racism is terrible. I hate racism.
It is a sin, but it's not. Hard to say that today.
But then there are some sins that it is.
Hard to say you. Know you're not supposed to
bring that into. Popular discussion.
So what a lot of people do is they just don't talk about it,
or they're even convinced themselves that the Bible
doesn't actually. Say that like if.
You turn the Bible upside down and read it like this and watch
this one minute TikTok theology video.
Then what you'll see is that 2000 years of Christian history
got it wrong. Another strategy is to blame it
all. Away we are.
Living in the most victimized. Culture, everyone.
Wants to blame sin off on their childhood, or on their parents,
or on their government, or on the church.
It's anybody's fault but mine. But in the.
Words of the great prophet Doctor Phil.
You got. One finger pointed at them.
But three pointed. Right back at you.
All right, so. We can't just be blaming.
It away. And then, of course, another
strategy. If all else fails, just.
Threaten God I. Hear people say say this.
All the time they'll say, well, I couldn't believe in a God.
Who would say or who would require this or that?
So here's the thing. You know, when we accept these
depersonalized explanations of sin, guess what?
Sin never gets dealt with. Sin never gets healed.
It locks us into bad actions, and those bad actions turn into
bad habits, and those bad habits turn into bad.
Lives we got to deal. With our sin.
I once heard a theologian say this.
He said sin is an unwillingness to trust God's vision.
For what's best for us. He's the designer, after all.
Or or let me secularize. That for you, for those.
Of you who are not Christian, let me secularize this into a
universal law, because this is a universal.
Law, Christian or not? I think you would agree with me
when you. Violate the way.
Things are designed, chaos ensues is what Christians will
call sin. I'll give you an example.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what this is right here?
This is is what This is a toaster.
Very good. And do you know what?
Toasters. Are designed to do toast.
It's a toaster. I think I got this toaster from
the staff lounge backstage. The Black and Decker toaster.
It's not in good. Shape you should take better
care of your staff. Anyhow, all right, let me ask
you a question if I were to take.
A piece of of raw. Hamburger meat and put it
together in a Patty and put it in this toaster and turn it on.
How would that toaster? Do at cooking burgers, not.
Good. We'd pull it out.
It'd be baked a little bit half baked, but the.
Burger would still be moving and some of y'all.
Like your burgers like that? Which is disgusting, but that's
your your own choice. Let me ask you this question.
And this toaster is live, so. Let's just let's just see what
how would the toaster? Respond If we turned it into a
water filtration system, I'm just kidding.
It's not plugged in, but. How would how would it respond?
Not good. It would destroy me.
Probably catch a couple people in the front row complete,
create complete and total destruction around us.
Now listen to me preach here for a second.
Listen to me preach. You.
Are a cosmic toaster and. No wonder.
No wonder your. Life feels half baked.
You're a toaster. Trying to cook burgers?
That ain't what you're made to do.
No wonder your life is. Short.
Circuiting and it's destroying you and everyone.
Around you, you're a toaster. Trying to filter water?
That ain't what you. Were created to do.
Do you see? Do you see?
This is the concept of sin. So the the Christian obsession
with naming sin it it isn't about making.
People feel bad. Why you?
Got to talk about sin all the time.
Makes me feel it's. Not about that it's.
About making the most of your life, whatever your problems are
sins underneath it. And that's the problem that God
gave us the method of. Sacrifice to deal with.
And it's an extreme problem. Now that brings us to the second
point about sacrifice. We've established the problem.
It's sin. God gave us the method.
It's sacrifice. What's the result?
Second, what's the result of the sacrifice?
Well, it's what we would. Call forgiveness or
reconciliation in our relationship.
With God or? Atonement.
A restored relationship now for those of you.
Who are skeptics? Like me, you may be thinking to
yourself. OK, but how to sacrifice?
How does put my hand on an animal or whatever like forgive
me or maybe you might even say. Like why?
Why does God? Even need a.
Sacrifice. Why can't God just.
Sort of, I don't know, forgive. Snap his fingers and forgive us?
Why do we have to slaughter an animal?
Well, let me give you another law of the universe here and
again, Christian or not. You just have to agree with this
because this is the way things are.
Another law of the universe. I have I have observed that.
Every wrong done must be paid for by someone.
Have you observed this everyone? And the bigger the wrong done.
The costlier, the priced, It's just how life.
Works. There's no such thing as just
snapping your fingers and forgiving.
OK. I'll give you a couple examples.
Again, let's do. Let's do an economic one, let's
say. You know, next week.
You have some friends over for a football game and your buddy's
watching his team and your buddy's got a little bit of a
fiery temper and his team is getting their rear ends kicked.
All over the field so. So in a moment.
Of rage your buddy grabs. Your remote control.
I would never do this by the way, because I'm a Bengals fan
and they always win so. He grabs your remote control.
And he spikes it on the floor. And it just explodes everywhere.
In that moment, a wrong has been done and you have two choices. 1
You can make him pay. $20.00 please I'm going to need to get
a new remote bro. Then mow me or two.
Two. You can forgive him, but if you
forgive him, who has to pay? You pay you.
Either got to fork out the 20 bucks for a new remote.
Or you have to suffer. From living without a functional
remote on your television. But either way, someone has to
pay. Are you following me?
Let me give you another example. I'll give you a social example.
Let's say in your community there's a serial murderer.
Serious. And they get caught and.
Drug before the judge and the judge.
Looks at him and says we know. Yeah, I look sorry.
To me. Is that how it works?
You're forgiven. Forgiven, you can go free.
Now, if a judge did. That to a serial murderer.
There would be total communal. Outrage.
And the reason why is because the community understands that
if he doesn't pay, then we all pay.
The victims must pay because they receive no justice.
The community will pay because this psychopath.
Has been let loose on the streets and there's no
meaningful deterrence in your law or justice system to keep
others from doing the exact same thing.
So you see. At the end of the day.
Somebody's got to pay. You see how this works?
This is the law of the universe y'all Every.
Wrong done must be paid for by someone, and the bigger the
wrong. The costlier, the price.
You can't just snap your fingers and forgive.
Forgiveness is. Never without a price.
When you choose to forgive someone, you know what you're
choosing. You're choosing voluntary
suffering. You're choosing to.
Step in and substitute yourself and pay for their debt.
Which brings us to. The third aspect of sacrifice.
And scripture the method. You know what?
The method. Of the sacrifice is.
Substitution. Voluntary substitution.
Voluntary suffering. This method was established.
On Passover during the 10th plague, when we see the blood of
the lamb spread on the doorposts, the lamb was
substituted for the first born. Of Israel, we see this.
This method codified into the law in.
Leviticus through the sacrificial.
System and we see this method exemplified for us by.
Jesus. On the cross, John the Baptist
calls Jesus the Lamb of. God, why?
The Lamb of God who takes. Away the sins of the world.
Because he is our substitute. So the idea here is that we're
rebels. You and I are rebels.
We're guilty. We're.
Standing in the divine courtroom of God and we have no.
Way to justify our. Sin No.
Way to pay our debt. The debt is too big.
There's too many of us. We're in trouble and right.
About as we're about. To be sentenced.
Jesus stands and he says, you know what?
I'll. Pay.
I'll pay the debt. And only I can afford it
anyways. An eternal life for an eternal
debt. An innocent God for a sinful
humanity. All.
Pay for their sins. Is it starting to make sense?
For you. OK, so the theologian who I feel
like. Explained this best in history
was an 11th century Italian named Anselm.
Have you heard of Anselm? He argued.
That when you add up the sin debt of all of humankind.
The price to be paid is so. Large that no man or woman can
pay it, only God himself has the infinite resources to.
Pay a debt so big. But on the flip side.
He also argued that while God is.
The only one who can afford it, humanity is the only one who.
Ought to pay it. Because it's our sin.
So if only God can afford it, but if only we.
Ought to pay it. The logic is.
We need someone. A substitute who is.
God enough to have the infinite resources, but also human
enough. To.
Pay for our sin and stand in our stead.
And that is exactly. How the scriptures describe
Jesus the God man, Hebrews. Chapter 10 verse one says this.
The author of Hebrews writes. The old system under the Law of
Moses. That's the Leviticus sacrificial
system. It was only a shadow, a dim
preview of the good things to come.
But it was not the good things themselves, the sacrifices under
that system. Were repeated.
Again and again, year after year.
But they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for
those who came to worship. If they could have provided.
Perfect cleansing. The sacrifices would have
stopped for. The worshippers would have been
purified once for all time and their feelings of.
Guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices
actually reminded them of their sins year after year.
For it is not. Possible for the blood of.
Bulls and goats to take away sins, so you see.
The text here actually highlights.
The perpetual insufficiency of the Old Covenant sacrificial
system. For some reason there was
something. About those sacrifices.
That couldn't quite make the. Sinner Perfect.
There was something incomplete, temporary, about this
sacrificial system. Or basically the author of.
Hebrews is saying you needed a better lamb and Jesus the God
man is the better lamb, Hebrews 10 verse 10 goes on it says.
For God's will. Pay attention to this.
This is so important. For God's will for us.
To be made holy excuse. Me for God's will.
Was for us to be made holy. By the sacrifice of the body of
Jesus. Christ once for all time.
Once once for all time. Under the Old Covenant, the
priest stands and ministers. Before the altar, day after day.
Offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never
take away sins. But.
Our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for
sins good for all time, and then he sat down in the place of
honor at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies
are humbled and made a footstool under.
His feet for by that. One offering he forever made.
Perfect those. Who are being made holy?
Beautiful. Now I want you to notice in this
passage. That the scriptures go out their
way to. Explain that Jesus did not go to
the cross in weakness. Being sacrificed feels weak,
doesn't it? But the scriptures go out their
way to say that Jesus. Was not arrested against his own
goodwill. He was not cuffed and drugged to
the cross, kicking and screaming in fact.
If you watch the last 24 hours of his life.
As he's sacrificing himself. You see the life of Jesus spark
with. Tremors of supernatural fury and
glory and power in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He's praying and Judas brings. What could be?
Hundreds of Roman soldiers armed to the hilt to arrest him.
They ask the disciples. Where is Jesus?
And do you know what Jesus says back to them?
According to the Gospel of John, He says the name.
Of God, he says I. AM.
And when those words explode in the air, the Gospel of John says
that Judas and all the soldiers fall on their backs.
They just fall over. It's incredible.
And it's to show us that Jesus. Has the power.
He has the power. So what?
Does he do next with his enemies on their back?
He gives them his hands and they cuff him.
As they're about to drag. Him away.
Peter says it's it's go. Time and he pulls out his sword
and draws first blood. In that same scene in Matthew,
Jesus actually says. Did you know that just out of
your sight? Right now there are legions of
angels that I could call upon, and they would.
Wreck these fools. But what does Jesus do in this
moment where he could win the fight?
He picks Malchus. 'S ear up.
Off the ground, heals him and then continues.
To walk towards the. Voluntary sacrifice the.
Voluntary substitution later at his trial with Pilate a Pilate.
Looks at him, he's. Trying to get Jesus to.
Give him anything so that he can let him go.
It's interesting that Jesus has this moment with with.
Pilate where he says look. The only reason you have any
authority over me at all. Is because it was.
Given to you from above. What Pilate doesn't know is that
Jesus is the king of the above. This is like the worst.
Episode of Undercover Boss ever. Because what Jesus knows.
Is that Pilate is like. 100 rungs removed from him on the
org. Chart his under servant.
And yet. What does Jesus do?
He. Allows his under servant to
sentence him. He goes to the.
Cross in power. Even on the cross he adjudicates
a soul offers. Eternal salvation.
You remember the criminal next to him on the cross looks to him
and he says, I think you're the dude, man.
Will you forgive me and like? Jesus looks at me, he says.
You me paradise. Today.
Wow. Think about that.
He's the adjudicator. Of souls and in a.
Breath, he sets this soul. Free and then in his last.
Breath. He sets us all free.
Praise God in Matthew. 'S gospel, he tells.
That when Jesus died, at that moment the curtain in the temple
was torn from top to bottom, signifying that the temple
system was done, a better lamb had been sacrificed once, and.
For all. Now I want you to understand.
This whole idea of of God. Being crucified, sacrificed,
this was unthinkable. For the Israelites, God was holy
other the idea that he would. Come down and become our sin and
pay our debt. The crucifixion was was totally
unexpected. And I'll tell you what.
If you think that animal. Sacrifice was brutal.
Let me tell you about. Crucifixion.
It was brutal. It's fascinating how crosses has
they've become ornamentation for us.
Every time I see a cross anymore, it's pretty sunlit in
stained glass, backlit on a stage, candlelit at an altar.
We've turned them into tattoos and jewelry and wall hangings,
and I believe too much of this actually anesthetizes the cross.
It makes it. Difficult to be shocked by the
cruelty. Of the nails in the flesh, and
the blood, and the wood, and the death.
First they flogged Jesus. You know what flogging was?
Basically they would take a a. Whip with 9 leather strands on
it that had rock and animal bone and glass and pottery Shard
embedded into the leather. And then they would take the
criminal who was Jesus in this situation.
They would tie his arms to a post so that the skin on the
back was. Tight.
And then a soldier would stand on each side of the criminal and
from shoulder down to opposite calf.
They would. Take turns whipping, creating an
X on the back, filleting the skin so that often times the
criminal's. Body would just fall apart
after. They flogged him.
They mocked him. The Roman soldiers were only
asked to do 2 things to Jesus, flog him and crucify him.
Mocking was not what Pilot asked, but they went above and
beyond the calling in Matthew chapter 27.
It says that Pilate. Released Barabbas to them and
then he ordered Jesus. Flogged with a lead tipped.
Whip then turned over to the Roman.
Soldiers to be crucified and. Check this out.
It says some of the governor's soldiers took Jesus into their
headquarters. They.
Didn't have to do this. They called out the entire
regiment. They stripped him, put a scarlet
robe on him. Think of the cruelty of this.
Then they wove a a crown of thorn put it on his head.
Placed a Reed. Stick in his hand.
As a scepter. And then they knelt before him
in mockery and taunted Hail King of the Jews, and then they spit
on him, and they grabbed the stick and struck him on the head
with it. And then they were finally tired
of mocking him. They took.
Off the robe put. His own clothes on him again and
took him away. To be crucified.
And crucify him they did. After the flogging Jesus body
would have been in shock from a night without sleep, food and
water. All the pain and.
Blood he's already lost. No wonder he only.
Lasts 6 hours up there. Many people believe that
crucifixion was the most cruel method of execution, because it
was. Death by torture.
They would literally draw. Out the dying process as long as
they could, and as Jesus is up. There being tortured I want.
You to imagine what is Jesus thinking?
What is he seeing as he hangs there on the cross?
Well, one artist imagined it for us.
I want to show you a painting. It's a favorite painting of
mine. It was done by a 17th century
Dutch artist known as Rembrandt. The piece is called.
Raising the cross. And if you look at the whole
picture at. First glance, the painting looks
like many works done from the Renaissance period.
The cross is being lifted. The scene's.
Dark, the faces are lost. In the dimness of the shadows.
But what makes Rembrandt's painting stand out?
Is if you look. Closely, right there in the
middle, there's a man at the foot.
Of the cross. Clearly dressed in 17th century.
Clothing with his little little. Hat and what?
Light blue pinstripes and what's?
He doing? What's he doing?
He's pulling the cross. With the the the soldiers.
Into place. He's crucifying Jesus.
Or in other words, Rembrandt. Painted himself into the cross,
right? There at the feet of Jesus,
where there could be no. Doubt of his guilt and
complicity, Rembrandt painted himself into the cross.
Right there at the feet of Jesus, where there could be no
doubt that he received the grace.
And forgiveness of it. Rembrandt painted himself in To
the cross. And I might.
Ask you today, have you? You see, you know what I think
Jesus saw as he hung there? What he didn't see.
Were angels or the Father my God?
My God, why have you abandoned me?
What he didn't see was any rescue insight.
He saw his mother weeping. He saw the soldiers gambling.
He saw the religious leaders. Taunting him.
And perhaps, just perhaps. I believe he saw you.
And he saw me, Hebrews 12/1 tells us.
After all it. Says let us run with endurance
the race. That is set before us.
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of faith.
Who for the joy set before him for the what for the joy set?
Before him endured the cross, despising the shame for the.
Sake of the joy set before him. He endured the cross.
What was the Joy set? Before him, your forgiveness, my
forgiveness, it was you and me, our freedom.
The Apostle Paul. Writes this in Colossians 213.
He. Says you were dead.
Because of your sins, and because your sinful nature was
not yet cut away, then God made you alive.
With Christ, for he forgave. All our sins he cancelled the
record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it
to. The Cross.
Fascinating. Or in other words.
Through the eyes of. Scripture we see between Jesus's
hand and the wood of the. Cross a list?
A list. Longer than we'd like to admit.
A list that perhaps? We'd all like to hide, but it's
a record of. Our sins, and we see them
disappearing, fading away as they're covered.
By the blood, so look. You have a great problem.
It's your sin. You need a great solution.
Need forgiveness and I have good news today.
You have a great substitute. It's Jesus.
Behold the Lamb of God who takes away.
The sins of the world. So I don't know what.
The debt is. You've been unable to pay.
I don't know what the regret or the shame is that you've been
unable to shake. I don't know what the.
Guilt is. That you've been unable to
forget. I don't know what the addiction
is that you've been unable to kick.
I don't know what the emptiness is that you've been unable to
feel. I don't know what the wrong is
that you've been unable to make right.
I don't know your sin. I don't need to know your sin
because I know your Savior. Do you know Him?
I pray today that you would. I pray today.
That you would nail. That list to the cross as we
hand it over to our campus pastors for a time of decision.
And I just want to be very, very clear in this moment.
I want to lay it out as clear as, as as possible.
Every single one of us in this room, including myself,
including those who are watching online, we have a problem that
requires a sacrifice, we have a problem that requires a
cleansing, and we have a problem that requires a substitution.
Romans is very clear that all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God, and that includes me.
Listen, and that includes you. And if you are living your life
right now in this current moment without trusting Jesus as your
personal Lord and Savior, you have no coverage.
You have no sacrifice that covers you.
You have no substitution. When you come face to face with
God, which every single one of us, we're going to face it when
this life is up or when He comes and He encounters us before
that. You will come face to face and
you will be judged by your own merit.
I don't know about you, but that's scary for me.
Your imperfections, what you have accomplished and it's not
going to matter. I mean how good you are, how
good a dad you are, what family you came from, how much money
you have, how much time you you, you use to serve others and be
this great citizen. It won't be sufficient.
Your sacrifice will not cover the bill when you trust in the
name of Jesus and you believe in his work on the cross and His
power over the grave and in his resurrection, and you trust Him
as your personal Lord and Savior.
His sacrifice on the cross is what we will be judged upon.
No longer will the Father see your merit, your sin.
He will see his perfect Son, His perfection, his perfect
sacrifice. And so if you've never started
it, if you never heard before how loved you are and cared for
you are, that you are created in the image of God, but you want
to claim, hey, I want to be his son.
I want to be his daughter. You want to walk inside that
relationship with him in just a little bit.
We're going to stand, every single one of us in this room.
We're going to stand and we're going to worship our great high
priest. We're going to praise him for
all that he's done and all that he is and his love that endures
forever. And if that's you, you've never
started a relationship, but you want to today.
You can walk out of here in freedom as a new child of God.
I'm going to be right over there by the baptistry if you're like,
I have questions. I don't have this all figured
out. Some of this doesn't make sense
to me. All this sacrificial system was
was confusing and but now I'm starting to understand it and I
want to walk in the freedom of Jesus.
Tonight is a night you can walk out in freedom and if you're
online right now, there's a chat host that would love to do the
same thing with you. They would walk with you and and
help you take that next step in Jesus Christ.
I would encourage you. That is the very best thing you
can do before you leave this moment.
You're a follower of Jesus if you've been walking with him for
a while. One of the things I heard as a
Christian tonight through this message, through the passage in
Hebrews, is that we have been made holy once and for all time
through Christ, through Jesus. And you walked in this room
tonight and you're like, I don't feel holy.
I don't feel set apart. Maybe you're entangled in some
sin. Maybe you're walking, oh, like
he was talking about with some shame and some guilt and some
fear. And you're just like, I don't
feel it. I want you to be reminded that
because of Christ, you were made holy once and for all time
through His sacrifice and during this time of worship for us as
Christians. If you feel like you've just
walked away, come back to Him tonight.
Get on your knees and cry out and humble yourself before the
Lord. Thank Him for His sacrifice, for
His covering, for His blood shed on that cross.
I don't know about you, but when we were walked through what
Jesus endured for US1. I feel sadness, but on the other
hand, I feel, I feel victory. I feel, I feel excitement
because my Savior laid His life down for me.
And maybe tonight as we worship, maybe we just give Him all
praise, all glory. King Jesus, you, my friends,
have been redeemed. You, my friends, have been
forgiven, and you, my friends, are loved.
So let's encounter this Savior. Let's come to Him with an
attitude of just thankfulness for all that He has given us and
all that He offers us through His sacrifice.
Would you stand with me? Let's respond in this moment of
worship. Heavenly Father, thank you so
much for the opportunity to give you glory, to give you praise.
Thank you, Jesus, for being the perfect sacrifice.
We couldn't do it. We don't do it.
We don't measure up our merit could never pay the penalty,
could never cover what we have done, but it's only through the
power and the blood of Jesus that we are covered.
God, I pray right now if we feel far from you, we don't feel set
apart, that we would run right back to you in your arms and we
would humble ourself. And in your word, it says when
we come close to you, you come close to us.
So God, I pray that we draw near to you in this moment of
response, this moment of worship.
We pray all this in the name of Jesus, Amen.