What He Left at the Cross
What I Leave at the Cross • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Jesus seems to demand a lot. What did he leave at the cross? Doesn’t he get plenty out of it for himself?
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus is at the height of his fame, even among Gentiles.
And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
After all the wonders and fame of Jesus, the pinnacle of his ministry lay just ahead.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
The glorification of Christ required a journey to the cross.
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Christ shows us the journey from death to life, but he does not require of us any road he will not walk himself.
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
The journey to the cross is so challenging that Jesus himself experiences uncertainty.
Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
Jesus asks for reassurance, and the Father responds.
The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine.
In the life of Jesus, even the voice of his Father comes for the benefit of others.
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
Both the death and the glorification of Christ are not for his benefit but for ours.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Everything Jesus “gained” was already his.
A Scene from “Paradise Lost”
“Behold Me then, Me for him, life for life / I offer. On Me let thine anger fall. / Account Me Man. I for his sake will leave / Thy bosom and this glory next to Thee / Freely put off and for him lastly die / Well pleased. On Me let Death wreck all his rage!”
What did Jesus leave at the cross? Everything.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
He has asked far less from you than he has paid.