Why The Cross Matters

Some messages make you feel inspired for a day. The cross is not one of those messages. It is weighty, confrontational, and strangely hopeful because it tells the truth about what is broken in us and what God is willing to do to restore us.

We start with a simple confession: even confident speakers can feel nervous when opening Scripture, because the goal is not to perform or motivate, it is to handle the Word of God faithfully. From there we name the real problem underneath our anxiety, comparison, and discontent: sin. Not just the obvious public sins, but the hidden ones that grow in the heart, the sins we excuse as “respectable,” and the sins of omission where we withhold love, prayer, mercy, and forgiveness.

Then we follow the Bible’s storyline from Eden to sacrifice, and ultimately to Jesus. Other belief systems often focus on what you must do to earn favor or enlightenment. Christianity claims something different: you cannot save yourself, so God acts. Walking through John 19, we sit with the crucifixion details and the moment Jesus says, “It’s finished.” That leads into substitutionary atonement, where God’s justice against sin and God’s mercy toward sinners meet at the cross. We also talk candidly about judgment, hell, grace, and why the church must not trade its center for fog machines, preferences, or programs.

If you want a clearer, steadier grasp on the gospel of Jesus Christ, listen now, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What part of the cross do you struggle to understand most?

Transcript

Handling Scripture With Reverence

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You know, I I do feel nervous every time I stand in a place like this. Every time I I have a a gospel conversation. And and I've been doing it for a while. And uh if you've ever spent any time with me, you know, I I would consider public speaking is probably a a strong suit of mine. But but there's something about but about handling the word of God that that it's it's weighty and it makes me nervous. It makes me nervous for a couple of reasons, but but but one of the biggest reasons is just I want to make sure that I handle the word correctly. You know I my goal is not to be a motivational speaker. I can do that. There's there's settings for that. I could I could fire people up, man. I've I've done it. I've stood in locker rooms and you know, I've stood in work sites, and and I've I've stood in the night before VBS and got people pumped. But the goal is not to be a motivational speaker, the the goal is to handle the word of God, which is life-changing, it's it's life-altering, it's it speaks to the truth of today, yesterday, and tomorrow. It there's something in scripture for all of us. Every time we handle the word of God, there's something in the text that God needs us to hear. And that's my prayer as I dive into these things, and I realize that we're talking about something that should really just be basic foundational knowledge of who Jesus is. But but I believe that every time I stand here, if you're willing and if you're open, and this is why I ask you to pray before we dive in, that God will give you something. And I can prove that, by the way, because I have preached messages and I have had people talk to me afterwards, and they tell me what they learned in that moment. And my thought was, where did you get that from? I have no idea how you got from point A to point B. Other than the spirit in you is using it to show you what you need in that moment. So not everyone's gonna get the same thing, but if we trust and if we pray and if we open our hearts, we believe that the scriptures can teach us every day. I'd uh been listening to a podcast lately, and and one of the gentlemen on the podcast says, and I think it's pretty fascinating, every time he preaches, he has a really short prayer. He says, Lord help. Lord help. You know, we we've been talking about sin as a problem. I talked about this a couple weeks ago, that the world has a problem, and it's not necessarily an identity problem. It's not a problem of crisis of faith, it's not religion, it's not churches, it's not war. Like all of these things fall under the category of sin. All these negative things that exist are because you and I live in a broken world. This world is not

Sin As The World’s Core Problem

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what God intended it to be. It's not. Adam and Eve had perfection, they walked among God butt naked because they had no shame. They felt no guilt. They lived a life where they had everything they needed and everything they wanted. Can you imagine that? Living in a way that you have everything you need is right before you. And it's funny to me, but I know it's funny to us, but imagine being so complete in who you are as you walked around naked in the presence of God. None of that mattered. All that mattered is that you were with the one who created you. And then Satan came in and convinced them that it wasn't quite enough, which drives me insane because that's what he does. They had everything. And he said, Hey, you don't really have everything. God, God's trying to keep this from you. So he does, right? He he comes into our lives and and and he convinces us that we don't have enough. We compare ourselves. Well, we're not like the church down the street. You know, this this family goes on vacation out of the country every year. Well, they just got the promotion that they wanted. Their marriage is perfect. Ours is falling apart. We sin has convinced us, and we live in a state where you and I are never satisfied. And sin shows its ugly head in so many different variations. Let's go with the big ones: murder, adultery, sexual morality, theft, drunkenness, lying, idolatry, gossip, slander, greed, coveting, outburst of anger, envy, pride, jealousy, violence. Those are what we call sins of action. Those are things that we do. You have sins of the heart, pride, lust, hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, envy, self-righteousness, covetedness, impure motives, lack of love, hypocrisy. These are things that are rooted inside of us. This is where a lot of our actions and thoughts come from. It comes from our heart, which is corrupt. What about sins of omission? These are things that we should do, but we don't do. Failing to love God wholeheartedly, failing to love our neighbor, neglecting prayer, ignoring the poor, withholding forgiveness, refusing to share the gospel, neglecting justice and mercy, knowing the right thing and still choosing not to do it. James uh writes in James 4, 17, so whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin. What about respectable sins? These are churches, often we tolerate these sins, but they're still offensive to God. Pride, gossip, worry rooted in unbelief, judgmental attitudes, selfishness, complaining, discontentment, lack of gratitude, partiality, and favoritism, envy, a critical spirit. And at the core of all of this, it all comes back to the garden. Everything we feel, every action, every sin goes back to a moment in time when Adam and Eve and all of their perfection decided that it wasn't enough. And the problem is, is we live in a culture that that categorizes sins by how bad they are. At least I'm not a murderer. I might gossip every day of my life, but at least I'm not a murderer. I don't I don't steal from people, but man, I've got a critical spirit. I complain about everything. I hate everything, everything that's done that I don't like. I I've got to criticize and and and critique. I'm committed to my marriage. But I flirt a little too much at work when I shouldn't be. Or I spend time not with my spouse, but with other people that I shouldn't be. I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be in my marriage. And again, all of this comes back to what happened in the garden. Adam and Eve had perfection. And they messed it up. But here's the beautiful thing.

Sins Of Action, Heart, Omission

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The moment that sin entered into the picture, and I talked about this last week, when Adam and Eve sinned, what did God do? Before he kicked them out, he sacrificed an animal, he covered their shame. And then because of their sin, they were removed from the garden. But he didn't leave them on their own. God didn't just kick them out the door and say, Well, I'm done with you. Good luck, you'll figure it out. He was grieved. He covered their sin. The sacrificial system was now in play because something had to be done, right? Sin was a problem. Something had to be solved. So God sacrificed the blood of the animals. And we talk about this again. All of the Old Testament talks about this. That up until the time of Jesus, there was a sacrificial system, and animals are sacrificed because God had to deal with sin. He is a holy and just God, which means he cannot be in the presence of sin. It is impossible for him. But he's also a merciful and a graceful God that instead of kicking us out and leaving us to die, he came alongside them. And we see this all throughout as the nation of Israel gets established that God is with them. And the sacrifice, the atoning sacrifice, that atonement, that's going to be an important word here shortly. But God was providing a way, albeit it wasn't sufficient, but the animals had to be sacrificed. And then we get to the question of last week of why Jesus. But there's a gentleman that I was reading about, I can't think of his name, but he's in India, and he's been standing on his feet for 12 years straight. As an act of dedication to one of his gods, because he's convinced that if he stands and sacrifices, he'll somehow reach spiritual enlightenment. Twelve years. The spirit will come down and will teach you. So many other religions are all about what you have to sacrifice to somehow earn the favor of these gods. Little Jesus. Christianity is bent on, carried on, burdened with, covered by the sacrifice of a perfect lamb. His name is Jesus.

From Eden To The Sacrificial System

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God looked at the garden, he looked at sin, and he realized that you and I could not save ourselves. So the burden became his to bear. For thousands of years they sacrificed, and every sacrifice would point to the moment that the perfect Son of God would give his life. John chapter 19 says, Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe, and they went unto him again and again, saying, Hail, King of the Jews, and they slapped him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews and gathered there, Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him. When Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, Here's the man. As soon as the chief priest and their officials saw him, they shouted, Crucify, crucify, but Pilate answered, You take him, you crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him. This Roman official found nothing but an innocent man before him. The Jewish leaders insisted, We have a law, and according to the law, he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God. When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid. Do you refuse to speak to me? Pilate said. Don't you realize that I have power to either free you or to crucify you? Jesus answered, You would have no power over me if it was not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. When Pilate heard this, he he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the stone pavement. It was the day of preparation or the Passover. It was about noon. Here's your king, Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, Take him away, take him away and crucify him. Shall I crucify your king? Pilate asked. We have no king but Caesar, the chief priest answered. Can you imagine the Caesar? The Romans were so oppressive to the Jews. They made their life miserable. They overtaxed them. They kept them confined. They gave them no freedom, no real ability to navigate their own life. And the chief priest says, We only serve Caesar. That's our king. And finally, Pilate handed over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Listen, I before I read this, we we have to understand. Yes, Jesus was a great teacher. Yes, he was a great prophet. Yes, he he taught us how to live a life that is dedicated and focused on God. But he came. He came for this moment. Jesus, in all of his knowledge, knew that sin had to be dealt with. He knew that a just and holy God had to sacrifice. A penalty had to be paid. Blood had to be shed as the Passover lamb in the Old Testament covered the doors. As the animal sacrifices daily, yearly, monthly protected the people from God's judgment. A final sacrifice had to be made. Starting in 17, as he's carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the skull, which is called Golgotha, where they crucified him. And with him two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened it to the cross. It read Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews they read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Pilate wanted the world to know that this man was the king of the Jews. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, Do not write the King of the Jews, but this man claimed to be the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, they divided them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Let's not tear it, they said to one another, let's decide by lot who will get it. This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, They divided my clothes and among them and cast lots for my garments. So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, Woman, here is your son, and to the disciple, here is your mother. From that time on the disciples took her into his home. Later, knowing that everything had been finished, and so the scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I'm thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, and they put the sponge on a stock of the hiss of plant and lifted it to his lips. And he had received the drink, Jesus said, It's finished. With that he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. Now it was the day of preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus and those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies, so that you may also believe. These things happen so that the scriptures will be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. As another scripture says, they will look on the one that pierced. The terminology, terminology they use is uh substitutionary atonement. This is the idea that that something had to be sacrificed in order to deal with the problem of sin, and that sacrifice was Jesus. God had to satisfy his justice while also remaining merciful and gracious to you and I. Simply put, you and I are guilty of sin. Sin deserves judgment because God is holy and just. You and I cannot pay for that

Why Jesus Over Self-Sacrifice

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sin. Jesus, who is sinless, stepped into our place, and on the cross, he took upon himself the penalty that we deserved. He stepped in and took the punishment that you and I rightfully deserve. Substitutionary atonement. There had to be a way to deal with God's justice. Isaiah 53, 5 says, But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. 2 Corinthians 5.21, Paul writes this, For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And Jesus says in Mark 10 45, For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. When John the Baptist sees him for the first time and says, Behold the one who comes to take away the sins of the world. Make no mistake. Jesus says, No, you can't. You don't know who you are. You think you rule, but you only have the power that's been given to you.

John 19 And The Crucifixion Scene

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I don't know what happened with with Pilate, but but there's something about them in that moment that Pilate realizes who Jesus is, even though the Pharisees don't. Pilate looks at this innocent man and goes, What are you doing? I love, says, you know, he writes the king of the Jews, and and the chief priest is like, no, no, don't write that. And Pilate's like, no, no. I wrote what I wrote. Because part of me things that he understood. So the the question of why Jesus, why not other religions? Why can't I just be good enough? The question of why Jesus is answered by the cross. The sacrifice that he made, the atonement that he offered us, the justice of God had to be dealt with. And instead of God punishing you and I for the sin that we rightfully deserve, the moment that Jesus died, he took the sin of the world upon himself. Your sin, my sin, your neighbor's sin. The person you hate took their sin to. Paul writes this in Romans 5, 6 through 11. He says, For while we were still weak, just the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have never been, uh we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more. Now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him we now receive reconciliation. Paul writes again in Second Corinthians 5 21, he says, God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Paul again, Romans 3 25 to 26, 26, God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to receive by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. The cross is the tension of justice and hope. Because the cross had to happen, the atonement had to happen, blood had to be shed, a perfect sacrifice had to take place, and it did. In Jesus. And because of that sacrifice, because of that atonement, because of what Jesus is willing to do, you and I get to live in the mercy and the grace of God. 30, 40 years ago, probably even more than that, you know, the you guys ever seen any of those hellfire brimstone preachers? I met a couple of those. I had a guy one time that was preaching so hard and sweating so much, I thought he was gonna have a heart attack. And he's screaming at the top of his lungs about how we're all going to hell unless we follow Jesus. And listen, I don't disagree with him. Now, if you've met me, I'm not gonna scream at you. I might get loud. But but I'm not trying to scare people into a relationship with God because I don't think that works. But but we have to talk about the fact that hell is a real place and without the substitutionary atonement, without the sacrifice of Jesus, you and I were destined for it. Romans 3.23, Paul says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And if we all sin and God is just outside of Christ, there's no way to deal with the just the justice of God and receive the mercy, which means you can't earn it, you can't win it, you can't buy yourself in. Sin had to be dealt with because hell is a very real place, and God needed to save us. He saved us from spending an eternity of being separated from him. I love what Francis Chan uh he has a book called Erasing Hell. If you've never never read it, it's pretty profound. He said, Hell is the backdrop that reveals the profound and unbelievable grace of the cross.

What Substitutionary Atonement Means

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Sin had to be dealt with. You and I could not deal with it on our own. Jesus stepped in to take our place. He died. In the moment of his death, he took the sin of the world upon himself. So that those who would accept his sacrifice and those who would give their lives to him can experience and have access to the grace and mercy and the restoration of a relationship with God. Adam and Eve broke the world. They broke the mold. They broke the plan. Jesus fixed it. Now the tension that you and I live in is we still live in a sinful world. Because it's still pretty ugly out there. But in here, in this place, and not just here, but my hope and my prayers that all across this nation, as people come into a church on Sunday morning, that they are realizing that their brokenness can be fixed. They're realizing that the hope of the cross is eternal, that the judgment has been cast, that you and I might have been found lacking, but Jesus stepped in and he took the punishment and the suffering that you and I deserved so that we could be reconciled to the God who created us. And so the question is, why are we talking about this? I know. I know about the cross. I know what Jesus has done for me. And I've been wondering that too, right? As I was kind of going through, you know, preparing the message and the sermon, and God, why am I coming into a church with people that have been here their whole life talking to them about the grace of the cross? They know. I mean, clearly they know. They they've heard the stories, they've read the scriptures. You guys have been through enough Easters. You've heard it all. I mean, I'm not telling you anything you don't know. And and and what I love about the way God works in my life is a lot of times he just kind of like, he listen, he's never verbally spoken to me. If he ever did, I think I would die. Like I'm pretty confident that I would die. But I felt a good peace. And and and the one thing that kept coming back to me was said, Jason, because that's all that matters. You know, we we get caught up in in the building and and programs and and events and outreach. And listen, I'm not saying those things are bad. We oftentimes find ourselves divided by things that don't have the weight that they deserve. Or maybe say another way, they they have too much weight, right? We we find ourselves divided by things that don't really matter at the end of the day. Because the only thing that matters is that Jesus went to the cross to save humanity. And there's more, there's another part of this story, I promise. But the one thing that unites you and I in everything that we do, set all preferences aside, all ideas, all conversation, all of our wants, all of our needs, the one thing that should unite us always, and I think we have to make sure we stay focused on that, is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's what unites us.

Hell, Judgment, And Costly Grace

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The hope of the crucifixion, the hope of the resurrection, the hope that that the world doesn't need fancy music. They don't need lights, they don't need fog machines, they don't need the newest technology, man. I I'm not saying any of that's bad. But if we have if we have all of that, if we have all of this and fail to preach Christ, we failed. Because this will never save you. The one who can save you did so. What the the world meant for evil and the crucifixion of the cross, God used it to give us hope. And if we put our faith in the one who died on it, that as he experienced the wrath of God in that moment, he gave us a way to come back home. God, may we never lose sight of who you are and what unites us. May our mission always be Jesus. God, I'm not I'm not just talking a cute little quote or a vision statement that we have. But God, may we continue to be a church that just helps people focus on Jesus. Because everything else will come. But our hope has to remain intact. It has to stand and die. God, we have to die to ourselves so much. God, you continue to allow us to stay focused on the message. Christ and Christ crucified. That's what the world needs. And God, I pray every single day that you give us an opportunity to point someone who Jesus is. It's life-changing, it's life-altering to feel so lost and to be so separated.

Staying Focused On Christ Crucified

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At the cross, they can find redemption. Even in my preaching, God. Whatever I say, whatever I teach, they always come back to what matters. While I was yet living in sin, Jesus gave up his life and offered me redemption. There's not enough praise in the world to truly express how grateful we are for that. But let us never stop trying. Love and passion. I know it's a loss, but the relationship. As we stand in your presence, we give back to you what we have. Because you gave us everything.