The Message of the Crucifixion - Final
Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 NIV
Jesus died for our sins; He’s the only one who could have done it. Only the Son of God could pay for our sins on the cross. Only God Himself in His Son could have taken our sins in His own body on that tree and borne the suffering of a dying sinner and taken our punishment for us and suffered for us. Only God could have done that in the person of His Son Jesus.
God’s message was: “Only I can save you; you cannot save yourself!” Christ’s message was clear, His death was plain. The message of God was very clear throughout the Old and New Testaments—especially the New Testament, but very clear even in the Old Testament. Abraham was the father of the faithful because he was a man of faith, demonstrating faith that he couldn’t do it himself, he just had to have faith in God.
Tonight hundreds of millions of Christians around the world are commemorating the death of Jesus. And millions of others know it as well and are hearing about it, knowing that this is a very special holy week for Christians. Virtually the whole world is hearing the message, and even if they’re not Christians, even if they’re of other religions, they know that this is the Christians’ holy week and this is its holiest night of all.
Considering the extent of communications and the dissemination of information today, probably the whole world, in all countries, of all faiths, nationalities, and religions are hearing about this week and know that the Christians are celebrating their holiest days of the year, and they are at least getting a little tiny glimpse of the message of Christ or hearing about Jesus, even if they don’t understand it.
Millions of Christians who understand the message of Christ and His death are choosing this week and this night to commemorate this event, and of all the nights in the year, it seemed that we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the night in which He and His disciples celebrated that First Supper.
So we thank You for Your sacrifice, Lord, Your blood shed for the remission of our sins, the New Testament in Your blood which was shed for us on that tree that we are commemorating this night—Your suffering, Your love, that You died for us in our place. You took our punishment for us. Instead of us dying for our sins, You died for them, Lord. And we now attest and testify and witness our faith in You and Your death for us and Your sacrifice of Your blood for our salvation to wash away our sins.
What we’re commemorating should not be a sad event, but a happy one, because if it hadn’t been for tonight, we wouldn’t be saved. Praise the Lord for the night that Jesus died for us! He not only died for us, but He went down into the bowels of the earth, three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and He preached to the souls in prison down there to give them a chance to be saved too. Think of it! Isn’t that wonderful? A lot of people don’t believe that, but I do. The Bible says so. So why not believe it?11
And then, praise God, come Sunday, we’ll be able to sing all those wonderful hymns about “Up from the grave He arose!” Let’s not just remember the death of the cross; let’s not always be seeing just a Christ on the cross and a crucifix, the suffering and the death. We don’t have a Jesus on the cross; He has left the cross! We have a bare cross. Jesus is no longer there! We don’t have a Christ in the grave. “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”12 We don’t have a dead Christ hanging there on a crucifix; we have a live Jesus living in our hearts!
11 Matthew 12:40; 1 Peter 3:19, 4:6; Ephesians 4:9.
12 1 Corinthians 15:55.
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