The cross is the central symbol of the Christian faith, representing not a mere object of worship but the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. While historically Christians have faced persecution for their faith symbolized by the cross, some have fallen into superstitious veneration of the physical object rather than focusing on Christ's sacrifice. The sermon emphasizes that the true significance of the cross lies in Christ's death as a tragedy of human rejection, yet a glorious triumph where Christ fulfilled God's will, paid the debt for sin, and redeemed humanity. This triumph is a finished work that demands acceptance and faith, offering freedom from sin and the promise of sharing in Christ's resurrection.
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He doesn't know how to play that game as well. So we're glad that he's come tonight. Now let's just bow our heads in a prayer. Father, we do thank thee for all thy grace to us. We thank thee that thou hast saved us from our sin. And we do praise thee that there is a wonderful future for every one of us who knows Christ. We thank thee that becoming a Christian... is only just the first step and there's so much more that we can enjoy if only we will devote our lives to thee and so God show us the great thrill and the blessing and the adventure there is in this new life in Christ we pray that if we are Christians we may be out and out for thee may we not be half-hearted in this business that may we give our entire life to thee.
We remember the word of the apostle that we should present our bodies as living sacrifices wholly acceptable unto thee which is our reasonable service. So bless every fellow and girl here tonight who is a Christian and may we go forward places with thee. Bless each one of us who as yet has not made this decision. Help us to make it, we pray, and so glorify thy holy name. We pray for thy name's sake. Amen.
I suppose wherever the Christian gospel has been preached, the symbol of a cross has always been used. And even from the first century AD, Christians have been using the cross as the sign of their faith. Indeed, in the first century, lots of Christians were tied to crosses and burned to death in Nero's palace garden in Rome. Others were tied to crosses in the arena before a blood-thirsty crowd, and the lions were let loose, and they were eaten to death. The cross is the symbol of our faith.
Unfortunately, however, the cross that was merely a symbol became the object of worship. And people began to adopt a kind of superstitious regard to the cross. And in the time of Constantine, the great Christian emperor, as he's called, there were so many pieces of wood in Rome, supposed to have been taken from the actual cross of Christ, that there was enough to build a ship. People had come to venerate the actual cross on which Jesus had died, rather than worship the Christ who had died on the cross.
There's a hymn that puts it this way. The Christ of the cross is the theme of my song. Let others who will praise the cross of the Christ. The Christ of the cross is my theme. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people about in the world today who would call themselves Christians who still have this strange, superstitious regard for the cross. They wear a cross, they bow down before a cross, they kiss a cross, and they use it as a sort of charm, and it's supposed to keep evil away from it.
Well, I love the words of the Apostle Paul. In Galatians six, fourteen, he says, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me. and I unto the world, God forbid that I should glory except in the death of Christ. Paul hadn't merely a superstitious regard for a piece of wood. The thing that impressed Paul, the thing that gripped his heart, the thing that changed his life was not a piece of wood.
but the death of the Son of God and in the same epistle Galatians two twenty he says the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me I want you to think about that death of Christ tonight I want you to ask the question with me why did he die Why did he give himself his life upon the cross? I want to say something first of all about the tragedy of the death of Christ. Viewed from one point of view, the death of Jesus Christ was the greatest tragedy in this world's history.
There's never been a more tragic event than that death of Christ upon a cross with Calvary outside Jerusalem. We've come to accept tragedies as a part of our everyday life. Some fresh event takes place in the world. People are killed, lives are lost, homes are broken, families are wrecked. And we've become used to living in this atmosphere of tragedy. There have been some tragic things. The tragedy of war. The tragedy of man's hatred and inhumanity to man.
Only this week another tragedy has taken place in London, England. And almost one hundred people have died. How sad. I remember standing in nineteen fifty-two beside another similar wreckage where three trains have crashed into each other and one hundred and eight people lay dead. We were having a campaign just two times away from where it happened and it was only a matter of a few miles down the track and people who'd been attending our meetings were in that train and some of them lost their lives. To see that pile of wreckage and to realize that there were the mangled bodies of men and women and boys and girls was just a sickening thing, tragedy.
It's something to stand beside a street that's just been blown sky high by some bomb. And I can remember not many years ago standing beside lots of scenes like that and seeing just a hole in the ground where they used to be the homes of some of my friends those are tragedies and they make such an impression on your mind that you don't easily forget them but you know the greatest tragedy this world has ever seen was the death of Jesus Christ upon a cross a tragedy Because it was, in effect, man's answer to the love of God.
It was what man had to say about Christ. Your son, we don't want him. Away with him. Crucify him. And the cross was the symbol of man's hatred. The symbol of man's rejection of the son of God. We won't have him. bad enough to think about the tragedy taking place. But it's worse to realize that even tonight that same tragedy is perpetuated in the hearts of some of us here. If Jesus Christ came back into the world again today, men would do with him just as they did in those days.
They would still hate him. They would still abuse and put him to death. His life would still show them their imperfections and their sin. And men never like to be shown their sin. Men hate anybody who tells them that they're wrong before God. And if Christ came back again today, there are some of you here tonight who would be joining in that crowd and shouting away with him and crucify him. You say that's a bit extreme, isn't it? Well, I don't think so, because the very fact that you have rejected him and refused to have him as your Savior is evidence of the thought that's in your heart, away with him and crucify him.
Is it possible that tonight your feelings in relation to Jesus Christ are as bitter and hateful and opposed? Were the feelings in the hearts of those people who stood there in Pilate's judgment hall, who stood outside and looked at Christ as Pilate brought him out with those words, behold the man, and they screamed, we will not have this man to reign over us. We want forever, it's not Jesus. It was an awful tragedy. And yet at the same time it was a glorious trial.
You may remember that one of Winston Churchill's volumes on the war is entitled Triumph and Tragedy. It seems on the surface impossible that one event should be a tragedy and a triumph. But here again the death of Christ is just this. and awful tragedy because it shows man's attitude, but a glorious triumph because it shows how God made even the wrath of man to praise him. And the triumph of Calvary is crystallized in just a word that came from the lips of Christ, a glorious word that seems to characterize our whole Christian faith.
The last word appeared from his lips as he was dying. It is finished. It was not the despairing cry of a man who was finished. It was not that he meant, I cannot hold out any longer. I am thrilled. Oh no. We read that he cried with a loud voice, it is finished. It's the same word used to describe a prophetic utterance. when a prophet came forward to speak to the people when some messenger from God had a word from the Lord for the people he would cry with a loud voice it's the same word Jesus uttered this prophetic saying from the cross it is finished it was a wonderful trial in the days of the Roman Empire when the Caesars came back to Rome having defeated some of their enemies, maybe they traveled miles to defeat some foe, they would come back into the city of Rome and the whole city would turn out to the street to see their conquering Caesar go by.
In front of his chariot would be driven the slaves, the men that he captured. Behind the slaves would come the piles of treasure that they had confiscated from that downtrodden ring. And behind the booty would come the soldier. And behind the soldiers in his chariot wearing his flashing uniform would come Caesar. Julius Caesar was able to celebrate several such triumphs through the streets of Rome. And the whole populace would turn out and acclaim Caesar. It was called a triumph.
When Jesus Christ ascended and went back to heaven, he celebrated a triumph. A triumph greater than any Caesar ever knew. A triumph far more wonderful than any emperor in all the world has ever known. For he had defeated not some physical power, not some military force, But he had defeated the very powers of hell and darkness and sin. He led captivity captive. He conquered death itself. As the hymn writer puts it, he death by dying slowly. Trottle are foes beneath his feet by being trodden down.
When the devil saw Jesus Christ hanging upon the cross, He thought that this was his master's stroke. He thought that he had dashed God's plan of salvation to pieces. He fondly supposed that he had thwarted all the divine plan. But even as that stroke of judgment that should have fallen upon me fell upon Christ, and as the Lord Jesus died, Satan received his death blessed. And the one who thought he'd conquered was in fact deceitless. The death of Christ was a glory of triumph.
It is finished, he says. He meant that he had perfectly fulfilled the will of God. There was not one detail of God's law and plan that was left unaccomplished and unfulfilled. There was no word of God the Father that the Lord Jesus had not obeyed. He had gone even to the limit of death. As Paul puts it in his Philippian letter, he was obedient as far as to death, even the death of the cross. He meant also, when he said it is finished, the debt is paid.
there is nothing now for man to do but to receive the grace of God freely offered to him because it has been purchased by the payment of the precious blood of Christ. Peter in his epistle puts it this way, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but by the precious blood of Christ. When Jesus said it is finished It was the very word they used to use to write across a bill when it was paid. The debt is paid. And now if you receive him as your Savior, you are free from sin.
But then he also meant that there is absolutely nothing that anybody in this world can do to add to his work of salvation. You may try by means of long prayers and devotion. You may try by means of going into a monastery and torturing yourself and fasting and almost killing yourself. You may try by superhuman effort to make your own way to heaven. And you'll completely fail. Because in so many words you're trying to add to the work of Christ and you can't do there because it's finished.
And when something is finished, complete, you can't add anything to it. This glorious triumph of Jesus Christ upon the cross merely demands your acceptance and your faith and your committal and your belief. And if you do not... will hand over yourself to the Lord Jesus who died upon the cross. You can share in his trial. You can be delivered from the power of sin. Instead of being the dupe of the devil, blinded and ignorant because of him, you can be released. You can have a life that's worth living.
You can have a purpose in living. You can have the very peace of God in your heart. Life is meaningless. purposeless without Christ and one day those who trust in Jesus Christ are even going to share in his triumph over death because as the Bible plainly teaches those who trust in him are going to share in his resurrection even physical death will not have a hold upon you you will be raised together with Christ.
The triumph of the cross, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, all these men have known great triumphs. Their names have all been placarded across the pages of history. We all know their names. We've heard of them. We know that they were men who conquered countries and almost conquered the world. But their victories and their triumphs and their successes are just insignificant compared with the triumph of Jesus Christ. And you can share in his triumph, if you will.
But then think of the challenge of the cross. we read and Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews this writing then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh unto the city and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin so that the whole world could see this accusation Pilot, the Roman governor of Judea, had it written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.
The three great forces in the world of his day, the three great languages of that era, there they were, written upon the cross. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. Pilate was rather puzzled by Jesus. When Jesus stood in front of him, He couldn't really make him up. He asked him, he said, Are thou the Son of God? Jesus said, Thou sayest. He asked him, If he were a king, Jesus said to this end was I born.
And Pilate became more and more confused, more and more involved. And more and more puzzled, he just couldn't make out Jesus. He seemed to be different from any other prisoner that had stood before him. He said, I find no fault in him. There's nothing wrong with him. And yet you remember a weak-willed man that he was, at last he handed him over to the crowd and said, Take ye him and crucify him. and then as if, as if to say what he thought of Jesus, he put that writing on the cross, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.
At least Pilate was prepared to declare his verdict. At least he was prepared to say something about Jesus. At least he faced the challenge of the cross. That more than some of you have done. You've just shrugged your shoulders and been indifferent, calloused and hardened, unmoved. And you've tried to escape the implications and the meaning of the cross. And you have supposed that by an attitude of bravado and an air of I know that you've escaped your responsibility, but you haven't.
You haven't the courage that the weak-willed pilot had. He wrote a title and put it on the cross. He declared his verdict. And you'd be wise if you did that tonight. If you don't believe on Jesus Christ, if you don't want him to be your Savior, if you refuse to give him the control and charge of your life, Why not face up to it and tell God? Why not be courageous enough? Why not have backbone enough to declare to God that you won't have his son as your Savior?
Instead of just playing with the whole thing, if you're wise of course, you'll face the challenge of the cross and you'll accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. In earlier days, when men used to fight in conflicts hand to hand, if two knights met, it was customary for one of them to throw down the glove. And if the other wanted to fight, he would take up the glove. He would accept the challenge. And once the glove was thrown down, there it was, a challenge. To leave it on the ground was to prove that you were a coward.
To take it up was to accept the challenge. And I believe that God, so to speak, has thrown down the challenge to you. Why did Jesus die? He died as a sacrifice for sin. He died as a substitute for the sinner. He died to redeem us from the power of sin. In order to understand the death of Christ, you need to remember the Old Testament. And you need to remember the Jewish religion. You need to remember the system of sacrifice.
You need to remember that twice daily in that very temple in Jerusalem, the Lamb was offered in sacrifice to God. But the Lamb was only a symbol, only a picture, only a sign of that great sacrifice that should one day be offered for sin. And the Lord Jesus is described in the epistles of the Hebrews as this man who offered one sacrifice for sin forever. He died to save you. You see, the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
And either that man must die or a substitute must be found. In the Old Testament, the man had to offer a lamb or an animal in sacrifice. Its blood was shed, its life was offered up, and that life was offered up instead of the life of the offerer. But it had no virtue. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. It had no virtue in itself. It was only as it pointed forward to the great sacrifice of Christ. And that great sacrifice had virtue. It had eternal profit and blessing in it.
And Jesus died of a sacrifice for your sin. But then he died as your substitute. He died in my play. Barabbas, the thief who was arrested and released. The man whose two friends were crucified beside Jesus was an example of a man who found a substitute. The rabbi himself should have been nailed on the cross where Jesus was hanging. This man who created rebellion, sedition and violence in the city of Jerusalem.
This man who was the enemy of Rome. This man who was hunted by the police and by the troops. This man should have died the felon's death upon that central cross. But Jesus died in his place. I don't know, but possibly Barabbas came by that scene that day. And maybe he stood there and he saw those three crosses on either side, his friend. And Jesus in the midst Borabbas knew that he should have been on that cross. He knew that Jesus had died in his place. You know that Jesus died in your place.
In my place condemned he stood. He healed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah. What a savior. Does it mean anything to you that Jesus should actually take your place? That you, the sinner who should have died, can be released and freed because Jesus has died instead of you. But then he died to redeem you. He paid in his light blood as the ransom price to liberate you from the power of sin.
That's why he died. It was Abraham Lincoln who when he was visiting the city of New Orleans said that he would never rest. He would never rest until every slave was redeemed. You know what he meant. he wanted to see the slave released from the bondage of slavery he wanted to guarantee that a price should be paid to set every slave free it cost a lot of money to free one slave but it cost more than money could buy to release me from the power of sin Jesus said it in Mark ten forty five we read the words the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many just imagine twelve slaves in a slave market and a rich man comes along and he says I'll pay a
sufficient price to release all those twelve men from slavery There could be no doubting the fact that he'd paid a sufficient price. The slave owner would accept the payment and the men would be free. But if six of those men refused to step out into freedom, if six of them refused to believe that they were actually free, they wouldn't enjoy their freedom. They would be redeemed technically, but they would not be redeemed experimentally. They wouldn't be enjoying it. And that's true of the death of Christ.
The price he paid is sufficient to release every slave of sin in this whole world. But only those slaves are free who have accepted the payment for themselves. I wonder if you are among that number. among the number of those who have accepted the payment of the blood of Christ as the ransom price to liberate you from sin. It was Bunyan who in that immortal story, Pilgrim's Progress, pictured the scene of Christian coming to the cross.
Pilgrim he was. And as he stood beside the cross, there was the huge burden on his back, the picture of sin. He traveled all the way from the city of destruction. He'd come to those two ways. And now he'd come to the cross. And Bunyan puts in Pilgrim's mouth these wonderful words. He says, if I came to the cross, I looked, and I looked, and I looked. Blessed cross.
Must here be the beginning of my bliss? Must hear the burden roll from off my back? Must hear the cords that bound it to me crack? Blessed cross. Blessed sepulchre, blessed rather be the man who there was put to shame for me. It was when Isaac Watts read this lovely verse, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he wrote the words of that wonderful hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the King of Glory died, my richest gain I count but lost, and poor contempt on all my pride.
See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did ere such love and sorrow me, or thorns composed, so rich a cry were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all