Sermons
Crucified With Christ
Series: The Way Of The CrossCRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
Sermon By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / October 07, 2018
We are exploring what it means to travel the way of the cross.
Thus far we have spoken about sincerity … single-mindedness … surrender … and self-denial.
We're halfway through our list of eight words. Yet to come are: submission … sacrifice … servitude … and suffering.
Actually we are going to use nine words. I want to give you a sneak preview of our finale sermon in this series:
JOY or SATISFACTION - - “for the joy set before Him (Jesus) endured the cross” / Heb.12:2).
Actually this “joy” of which we speak must not define just the end result of a difficult journey.
As in - - Well done, my good and faithful servant … enter into the joy of your Master (Mt.25:23).
This sense of satisfaction and contentment needs to bear us along all throughout our journey.
Joy is not only the reward of our journey (a crown of righteousness), it is over-arching identity of true discipleship.
So as we discuss various aspects of traveling the way of the cross, let us ask ourselves all along,
“AM I JOURNEYING WITH JOY?”. If walking the way of the cross is a drudgery (something we dread
and disdain), we have not yet captured the true spirit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And the likelihood of recruiting others to join our journey will be very improbable. How preposterous to proclaim:
“As disciples of Jesus , we are the miserable church of Christ - - would you like to come and join us?”.
On the other hand, although the way of the cross may often be difficult, we count it an honor
and we rejoice in the realization that we have been called to walk in the steps of Jesus.
Open your Bible to Lk.9:23-24 (NIV) - - Then (Jesus) was said to them all,
If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it.
SUBMISSION is our word of the day.
Luke's words here (Lk.9:23) are repetitive - - designed to be very explicit and clear.
Deny Self … Take Up His cross daily … Follow Me.
One thought not only leads to the others, each one of the three thoughts intertwine with the others.
The way we deny self is to die to self.
A death to self is another way of saying we are taking up our cross and following Jesus.
In the first-century the cross was not a piece of “art decor” - - there was nothing decorative about a cross - -
not as precious jewelry around one's neck or something etched into a beautiful piece of stained glass.
The cross was a means of execution - - a symbol of death.
“When Jesus was but a lad of about eleven years of age, Judas the Galilaean had led a rebellion against Rome.
He had raided the royal armoury at Sepphoris, which was only four miles from Nazareth. The Roman ven-
geance was swift and sudden. Sepphoris was burned to the ground; its inhabitants were sold into slavery;
and two thousand of the rebels were crucified on crosses which were set in lines along the roadside that
they might be a dreadful warning to others tempted to rebel.” (William Barclay, The Gospel Of Luke, pg.121).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German minister who ended up being hanged to death in a Nazi prison camp.
Prior to his death he wrote profound words: “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
THE CALL OF JESUS IS A CALL TO DIE. Not necessarily physically, but it is a call to die to self, daily.
Luke's addition of the word, “daily”, helps us understand that Jesus is speaking here of a “death to self and sin”.
This remains one of the great paradoxes of Christianity: the way to save our life is to lose our life.
The way of salvation in Christ comes by a decision to die with Christ.
Thus, we have entitled this morning's sermon, “Crucified With Christ”.
Many of the teachings of the Bible have become twisted.
Some see discipleship as a sure and easy path to health, wealth and prosperity.
Inexplicably, they seem to have somehow eradicated THE CROSS.
The call of “the cross” is far too difficult, so it has been edited out to make discipleship more appealing.
I cannot find where Jesus ever softened His call. He never once watered-down the requirements of discipleship.
Multiple times in the gospels we hear the same exhortation: TAKE UP YOUR CROSS AND FOLLOW ME.
Lk.14:27 / whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
In our flabby western world, this call to follow Jesus remains quite stark: TAKE UP YOUR CROSS.
Our world beckons us with ads everywhere that promote a life of self-indulgence.
But a life of self-advancement, self-absorption, self-satisfaction, self-importance, self-centeredness and
self-dependence runs contrary to the call of Christ Jesus. Indeed it is diametrically opposed to the demands of Jesus.
There are some things that are very unexpected about this call of Jesus to take up our cross and follow Him.
Taking up your cross is UNIVERSAL. It is not some esoteric invitation for only a select few.
It is for all of us; for each and every one of us who call ourselves a disciple of Jesus and wear the name Christian.
In fact, we cannot be His disciple if we choose to opt out of dying to self.
Hear again, Lk.14:27 - - whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.
Secondly, taking up your cross is an INTENTIONAL ACT.
The Lord does not force a cross on any of us against our will. He does not strap a cross to the back of any person.
But He does charge us to take it up ourselves.
Taking up one's cross is a VOLUNTARY SUBMISSION.
The same kind of subordination to the will of God the Father that moved Jesus inexorably to Calvary.
Jn.10:18 / No one can take My life from Me, but I lay it down on My own accord.
In the case of Jesus, armed soldiers could not seize Him, but God's son delivered Himself into their custody.
Philp.2:7-8 reminds us: (Jesus) emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
Lastly, taking up one's cross is MORTAL (an act of mortification). What I mean by this is that it is “deadly”.
As a horrid form of execution, crucifixion could sometimes be slow and agonizing, but the end result was always DEATH.
Seldom is death ever easy. Occasionally the process of physical death may smile upon us as we
transition peacefully from this world to the next, but a daily death to self never comes easy.
It is hard to daily take up our cross precisely because it it ever so difficult to die to self on a daily basis.
One cannot speak Biblically of discipleship and following Jesus without talking of a death to self.
Jn.12:24 / unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains only a single seed. But if it DIES it produces many seeds.
Rom.6:4 / we have been BURIED WITH HIM through baptism INTO DEATH...
Col.3:5 & 8f / Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as DEAD to immorality, impurity, passion, evil
desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry...put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive speech.
Gal.2:20 / I have been CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; and it is not longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...
Gal.6:14 / May I never boast except in the the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world has been CRUCIFIED to me, and I to the world.
“Salvation is free...but discipleship will cost you your life.” / Dietrich Bonhoeffer
So let us be quite clear as we fix in our minds the meaning of taking up our cross and following Jesus.
We need to eliminate this silly jargon of talking about having “a cross to bear”.
“We all have our crosses to bear”. We've all heard people say such and have maybe said it ourselves.
Yes, if you want to be genuine disciple of Jesus taking up our cross is absolutely true.
But this cross that Jesus calls us to bear is not just an undesirable difficulty.
Bearing our cross is not just tolerating someone we really don't like - - like a in-law who is more of an outlaw;
It is not just engaging in some burdensome or distasteful task - - working at a job that we've never really enjoyed;
Taking care of a sick family member for months upon months or perhaps even years upon years;
Helping to raise grand-kids when our days of parenting should be long behind us.
Bearing our cross is not just living in a state (wherever such state may be) until we can retire and move to Shangrila.
I hate that bumper sticker that says “stuck in Ohio”. I sometimes get the urge to ram the car (not really).
The cross that Jesus calls us to take up and bear is not just some inconvenience in life.
It is a call - - a daily call - - to deny self and to conform ourselves to the will of God.
It is not just a exhortation to grin and bear the hardships of life, it is a call to die - - to conscientiously, intentionally and voluntarily offer ourselves to be crucified with Christ.
To borrow from Paul in Rom.12:1, taking up our cross is another way of saying that we
present our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God...
