Sermon Snippet – One Person at the One Cross
INTRODUCTION – For the last three weeks, we have been studying the work of One God in Three Persons at the Cross. This labor of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is finished, making salvation available to all (Luke 23:44-46). Today, let us briefly consider the one person who must see the Cross clearly – each one of us.
1. AT THE CROSS, EACH ONE OF US SEES DANGER
We see the danger of a mob mentality (Luke 23:13-23). By nature, I am not a joiner, not in the carpentry sense nor in the group sense. I have always been comfortable alone, including alone with my own thoughts. Yet, I fully understand the strong pull of the crowd. Usually that tug is in the direction away from God. Sadly, the mob continued its verbal violence at the Cross itself (Luke 23:35-37). Let us be thoroughly warned.
We also see the danger of deception. Deception, by its very nature, is veiled and hard to see. Jesus was betrayed by Judas but the other disciples never suspected that he was a traitor (John 13:26-29). The conniving chief priests still retained their positions of authority, but “the vail” was literally ripped away (Luke 23:45), revealing the emptiness of their religiosity. Jesus’ commentary on such duplicity is scathing (Luke 12:1-3). His remedy for us is found in Matthew 10:16: “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.”
Furthermore, we see the danger of self-deception. The unrepentant thief is a profound example (Luke 23:39-41). Perhaps this man heeded the words of rebuke; perhaps he did not. Each one of us needs to strip away self-deception and acknowledge personal sin: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us” (I John 1:10). Calling God “a liar” is to persist in self-deception and ironically, in sin. No good can come of such a sinful attitude and action.
2. AT THE CROSS, EACH ONE OF US SEES DELIVERANCE
We have previously studied the repentant thief, the centurion, and others who responded appropriately to Jesus’ death on the Cross (Luke 23:40-43, 47-49). We recall the kind words of Jesus – the divinely kind words of Jesus – in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” More than anything else, we need God’s forgiveness. In the completed work of Christ at the Cross, we see deliverance from our sins and into the eternal family of our Savior God. Each one of us can separate from the mob and join with Jesus; each one of us must.
CONCLUSION – I admire the painter Rembrandt, who in The Raising of the Cross (1633) painted himself into the crowd surrounding the Cross. In fact, he is helping to lift the Cross and place it into the ground. He was acknowledging his personal culpability in the death of Jesus; he was rejecting the malice of the mob and ripping away the cloak of deception and self-deception by admitting his sin. Really, that one painting preaches this entire sermon with far more eloquence than I could ever muster. Yes, even a man actually crucifying our Lord could be delivered from the shackles of sin, saved to be with Him forever. One person at the one Cross – each one of us needs to be that person. Each one of us is that person by trusting in Jesus for His everlasting salvation.