The Glory of the Cross

INTRODUCTION:

Interest:

For nearly 2,000 years this n date has been a high-point in the Western calendar. It is celebrated in every part of the world that recognizes a Christian influence. Young girls typically have new dresses…many older girls like to as well I have come to learn over my 30+ years of marriage. Families frequently gather for large meals. And churches are typically extra full here in America. Today has been quite different. Churches have been empty today. I am sure a few girls had new dresses already and a few may have even put them on today just because, but extended families were unable to gather for meals. This has been a most unusual Easter. But its strangeness is all in aspects that are on the edge of the real significance of this day. So I have decided tonight to continue focusing on the significance of the day we are celebrating even amid the viral attack upon our world.

Context:

This morning we focused specifically on the empty tomb as recorded in Luke’s gospel. Tonight, I am going to take us to another event which occurred on that same Sunday nearly 2,000 years ago, a few hours after the ladies encountered the angel at the tomb. This account is found also in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, verses 13–27…the very next verses after the ones we looked at this morning.

Preview:

The thing I want to draw your attention to as we turn to this passage is that even though the empty tomb is really the impetus behind the event, the tomb is not the focus…rather the cross is…our passage will take us back to the theme from our Friday noontime service—the cross. In our passage, as the resurrected Jesus encounters two of His disciples who were puzzling over the surprising news of the empty tomb; He turns their attention back to the cross.

I would suggest that we need to do the same. While we should indeed rejoice over the empty tomb; we cannot truly celebrate its full meaning unless we comprehend the cross which preceded it. You see, The cross was the necessary path for Jesus. The empty tomb would hold no hope and joy for us today were it not for the cross. Yet, because of the cross, the empty tomb can hold precious hope and joy for us today as we were reminded this morning!

Transition from introduction to body:

The cross was the necessary path for Jesus. Let’s read our passage together…<read Luke 24:13–27>.

BODY:

Allow me to take just a few minutes to make sure that we understand what is going on in these verses that I just read. If you joined us this morning, you know that the first 12 verses of Luke 24 are Luke’s account of the discovery of the empty tomb early Sunday morning. Beginning in verse 13, we come to another event of that same amazing day.

We find these two men, followers of Jesus but not part of the inner group that we know as the apostles, walking along a road on their way home from Jerusalem, on the road from Jerusalem to the town of Emmaus. As they were walking, they were talking about the events of the past week. Remember, it was exactly 1 week earlier that Jesus had arrived at Jerusalem to a triumphant welcome. People had laid palm branches and cloaks on the road before Him as He rode into the city on a donkey’s colt…He was welcomed as a coming King with shouts of “Hosanna!”

It was also during the past seven days that those same people’s praise turn to hatred when it became obvious that Jesus had not come now to reign as their King…He was not going to throw off the Roman rule and lead Israel to become the greatest nation on earth. The people had rapidly become disillusioned and the Jewish leaders, who had hated Jesus because of His popularity, used that shift in public opinion to bring about His crucifixion. What began as a week of unbridled expectation for these two followers of Jesus had ended in utter despair as they saw Jesus die a cruel, painful death on a Roman cross.

Now, as they were walking and talking about these things, a Man caught up with them from behind…we know from verse 15 that it was Jesus Himself…their risen Lord; but these men did not know it…they didn’t recognize Him. Apparently, through some divine means, they were prohibited from recognizing Him. They didn’t recognize Him, but, friendly men that they were, they allowed Him to walk along with them.

So, there they are, walking together, and Jesus asks them what they had been talking about when He joined them. Of course, Jesus didn’t need to know…He was the Son of God; He has all knowledge…but He asked them in order to lead them down the mental path that they needed to go so that He could explain what they really needed to know.

Now, put yourself in the sandals of these two men for a moment…this Man who they didn’t recognize had apparently just come from Jerusalem. Yet here He was asking them about the matter they were discussing as if He knew nothing about it. It seemed inconceivable to them; what rock had this guy been hiding under all week? Jesus—His arrival at the city, His teaching in the temple, His arrest and trial, and ultimately His crucifixion—had been the biggest news in the city over the past week. How could anyone be in the city during the past week and not know about what had happened?

Yet for these two men, the question that Jesus asked caused deeper emotion than simple surprise that someone could possibly have missed all the excitement. To them it meant that this Man didn’t even know about the One whom they had placed so much hope in. Remember, they had been two of Jesus’ disciples—His followers. They had quite likely arrived in Jerusalem with Jesus when He was greeted by the triumphal shouts. They had arrived expecting that they would see Jesus usher in a great kingdom by leading an amazing revolution using all the power of God—the power that Jesus had displayed through many miracles and, most significantly, when He had called Lazurus from the grave. They had placed great hope in Him…hope which had crashed to nothing on Friday when Jesus had been nailed to the cross and died. No…they weren’t simply stunned by Jesus’ question; they were deeply grieved because the question went to the heart of their personal pain.

After a moment of stunned silence, one of the men, Cleopas, broke the silence and they began to explain who Jesus had been…at least from their understanding. And in their explanation we see the heart of their problem—they saw Jesus as a great prophet, “mighty in deed and word” they say in v. 19. They recognized Jesus as a mighty man of God, but they did not understand anything beyond that.

Still, as they walked, these two men continued to tell Jesus all about what had happened, even including the events of that morning in which the ladies had discovered the empty tomb. It is clear, though, that they did not really know what to make of it. The fact that the disciples who went to check out the story, Peter and John from what we know elsewhere even though only Peter is mentioned by Luke…the fact that the disciples who went to investigate the ladies’ story didn’t see Jesus left these two men clearly doubting that He had really risen from the dead.

Now, it has taken a bit to review the story, but I want to make sure that we all understand what is going on when Jesus breaks in at verse 25…<read 24:25–27>. Jesus, the One who was crucified on Friday, the One who had walked out of the tomb that morning begins to explain that The cross was the necessary path for Him. There was no other path possible. He could not have let things go down the path that these disciples had been desiring because if He had His entire purpose for coming into the world—the Son of God becoming the Son of Man by taking on humanity as part of His Person, the incarnation itself—would have failed. The cross was the necessary path for Jesus.

My fear is that there might be someone listening tonight in much the same condition as these two disciples. You might be listening, having attended to many Easter services before. Maybe you have even sat in the very pews of this now empty auditorium through many church services… you might be just like these two disciples on this road. You might know a lot about Jesus, but you still might not understand the necessity of the cross.

Transition:

Clearly what Jesus began to do with these two men in verse 27 was to explain why the cross was necessary. Allow me to do the same. You see, at the cross two major biblical theme converge, both which made The cross was the necessary path for Jesus. First of all,…

I. The cross was necessary because of the weight of sin.

The first major biblical theme which converges at the cross is the weight of sin. Jesus took these men to back to the beginning…back to Moses who wrote the first five books of the Bible. From there He would have shown them that…

A. The entire OT shows the terrible weight of sin.

Almost from the very beginning, as early as the third chapter of Genesis, sin enters the picture. God created mankind and gave man a basic set of rules to live by…but it didn’t take man long to violate those rules. That is what sin is…it is man attempting to live by his or her own set of rules rather than submitting to the righteous set of rules that our Creator has given us. The OT time and again demonstrates the reality of that condition of the human race.

We find the flood where God punishes His entire creation because the extent of sin with the exception of Noah and his family who preserved mankind along with the birds and animals. In fact, Lord willing, next Sunday night we will pick up our series in Genesis right at the flood. Of course, the flood did not fix the problem…mankind quickly sinned again. Time and again, God brought various forms of punishment on people and even entire nations because of their sin, but mankind overall refused to turn from sin in obedience to God.

Generation after generation the cycle repeats throughout the entire OT…the terrible weight of sin is there along with the dreadful consequences. You see, a holy, just, and righteous God cannot overlook sin…God must punish our sinful rebellion. So that terrible weight of sin brings terrible consequences upon those who sin.

But you know what; we really don’t have to go to the OT to see the terrible weight of sin...

B. Our life shows the terrible weight of sin

We are broken people living in a broken world. Each and every one of us is broken because we have the terrible weight of sin upon us. We experience the consequences of sin as we encounter disease in our bodies.

Illustration

People have asked whether this coronavirus is a judgment from God upon us. Stating that it is goes beyond what God has revealed to us in His word…we don’t know why He has chosen to afflict us with this virus. What we can say, none-the-less, is that this virus is a consequence of sin in the sense that all disease is a consequence of sin—it is a reminder that this world is broken by sin and we live under its terrible weight.

We experience consequences of sin in many ways. The effects of aging are the consequence of sin. We face the consequence of sin whenever we see relationships damaged and homes destroyed. We can certainly see consequences of sin when we examine our own hearts…we know the anger, and greed, and envy that lies there. And because of the consequences of sin, we know the discouragement and misery that comes from living in this life…we live under the weight of sin.

Yet as bad as all that is, I must remind us that the weight of sin is even greater than that…the ultimate weight of sin is that it has separated each of us from our Creator. Our sin…and every one of us is a sinner…don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise, because the Bible is crystal clear on this matter…I don’t care how good you think you are, you and I have all violated the commands of our holy God…we have all sinned and our sin places us under an eternal punishment from God. The greatest weight of sin is the eternal condemnation that it brings upon each of us—an eternity in hell, separated forever from our Creator.

Friends, that is a weight greater than any of us can truly understand. And it is that weight…that infinite weight of sin which fell on Jesus at the cross. He carried that weight upon Him when He died that day.

Transition:

The cross was the necessary path for Jesus. The cross was necessary because of the weight of sin. The sinful weight of the entire human race…including your sin and my sin…converged at the cross on Jesus. But the weight of sin is only half of the reason that the cross was necessary. The other Biblical theme that we need to understand is that…

II. The cross was necessary because of the love of God.

As Jesus took the two men through the Moses and all the prophets, showing how all things pointed to Himself, He would have certainly demonstrated how…

A. The entire OT shows the incredible love of God

Throughout the OT, the love of God is always present whenever the weight of sin is seen. In the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned, the love of God moved Him to kill animals so that the nakedness of Adam and Eve could be covered. When God was going to punish mankind for its great sin, it was His love which moved Him to save Noah and his family. It was the love of God which moved Him to select Abraham from all the people of the earth and establish a permanent covenant with him promising to always bless his descendants. The love of God moved Him to rescue the nation of Israel from Egypt and again to return the nation from the Babylonian exile. Time and again, the love of God is displayed throughout the pages of the OT…the Creator loves His creation. His love causes God to be longsuffering with sin and moves Him to save people who are completely undeserving of His salvation.

At the same time we have to be careful that we understand that the love of God which causes Him to be longsuffering will never cause Him to be unjust. Sin must be punished…in fact, the love of God demands it. For God’s love to be pure love it must be based on righteousness.

Illustration

In The Exchange bible study that we learned about last fall, there is the hypothetical story of the judge of a man who comes before him for murder. There is no doubt that the man is guilty of murder. The case has been proven; guilt has been established. Then, we learn that it happens that the man happens to be the judge’s own brother, a brother who he loves very much. Yet, we all recognize that for justice to be served, the judge cannot overlook the fact that his brother committed the murder. Even love does not allow such an action. The judge’s love would no longer be pure if it was not based on righteousness.

Similarly, it would not be loving for God to overlook the destructiveness of sin…it would not be righteous. Ultimately, God’s love demands that all those who rebel against His perfections…against Him, must be separated from Him.

And that is where the cross comes in…God’s love moved Him to find a perfect solution to an insoluble problem…our sin. Our sin was the problem—we were the murderer loved by the righteous judge. And God found a solution: “For God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son”…John 3:16. God’s love was so great that He sent His own Son into the world to take upon Himself the punishment for our sin…God Himself lovingly became the ultimate Victim of sin. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”

As Jesus took these men back to the OT, He would have shown them that the prophets had clearly pointed to this necessity. The prophets had foretold that God’s Christ, the Promised Messiah, must suffer. For example, in Isaiah 53:6 it says, “the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” In verse 10 Isaiah continued, “the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering.” Isaiah even concluded this particular prophecy in verse 12 by saying, “Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”

It should have been no surprise to these disciples that Jesus had to go to the cross…the love of God as clearly displayed in Israel’s history and recorded throughout the OT demanded it…the cross was necessary. But again, we do not have to leave it to the OT to see the love of God;…

B. Our salvation shows the incredible love of God.

You see, the thing about the cross…the thing that these two men needed to comprehend…and the thing that you and I need to comprehend…is that the cross shows the incredible love of God for us. When Jesus died on the cross, He wasn’t dealing with the weight of the generic, abstract sins of humanity…He was paying the price of each of our individual sins. He was dying to pay the price that my little white lie last week required. He was dying to pay for that flash of anger that I had toward my family, that moment of envy that I toward my friend, and so on; He was dying every sin that I have ever committed. It was my sins that he died for…it was His love for me which drove Him to the cross…and it was the love for each one of you as well.

The thing is, though, we only experience this incredible love…it only becomes effective in our lives…when we accept His death as the personal payment for our sin.

Illustration

Say I had never married by wife. I could go through life knowing about married love, but if I had never actually married Grace, I would not experience love. Love is a transaction. It has to be given and received. When I married Grace a relationship was formed in which she could give me love and I can receive it…and visa versa. I can now experience her love.

Salvation is similar. A transaction must occur to experience the love of God; we must accept what He gives. At its most basic level salvation is simply agreeing that I am a sinner deserving of hell and then accepting that Jesus died on the cross in my place…that His death is sufficient for my sins and that I am going to trust in Him alone…and trust that God will accept His sacrifice on the cross as the complete payment for my sin. I can never add anything to it…and because it is complete, I can never take anything away from it. I cease trying to live my own life my way and I accept the incredible love of God…I accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. The moment I do that I experience the incredible love of God that saves me.

Now, the point that you must understand is that this is something that you must do yourself…your parents cannot do it for you…your spouses cannot do it for you…your church cannot do it for you…you must accept Jesus for yourself in order to experience the incredible love of God.

Transition from body to conclusion:.

The cross was the necessary path for Jesus. It was necessary because of the incredible love of God.

CONCLUSION

This morning I hope all of us understand why The cross was the necessary path for Jesus. The cross was necessary because of the weight of sin and the love of God. The terrible weight of sin demanded our death…the incredible love of God placed Jesus on that cross as our substitute.

For all of us who have experienced the results of the cross…we know Jesus as Savior…may we rejoice anew on this Easter Sunday because Jesus died for our sins…God accepted His payment and demonstrated His victory over death by raising Him from the tomb. And amid our joy, may we remember why the cross was necessary. We magnify Jesus by understanding the necessity of the cross and praising Him for meeting our need there through His incredible love.

For anyone listening who has never experienced the love of Jesus through salvation; let today be the day. What better way to celebrate that empty tomb than by accepting the necessity that drove Jesus to cross—your sin. He died for your sin. He died because He loved you. Accept Him as your Savior tonight. Turn from attempting to live your life by your rules and accept God’s…you have sinned against God; Jesus died for your sins. You can experience His love by placing faith in His finished work on the cross.