Situation \/ Interpretation<\/b><\/p>\n
Situation<\/b><\/p>\n
Interpretation<\/b><\/p>\n
Reference<\/b><\/p>\n
Slave Market<\/p>\n
World System<\/p>\n
1 John 5:19<\/p>\n
Slave Master<\/p>\n
Satan<\/p>\n
John 12:31<\/p>\n
Slaves<\/p>\n
Humanity<\/p>\n
Ephesians 2:2\u20133<\/p>\n
The Problem<\/p>\n
Sin<\/p>\n
Colossians 2:14<\/p>\n
Highest Bidder<\/p>\n
Jesus Christ<\/p>\n
Hebrews 2:14\u201315<\/p>\n
Ransom Price<\/p>\n
Blood of Christ<\/p>\n
1 Peter 1:18\u201319<\/p>\n
One animal sacrifice per man<\/p>\n
Genesis 3<\/p>\n
One sacrifice per family<\/p>\n
Exodus 12:3\u201314<\/p>\n
One sacrifice per nation<\/p>\n
Tabernacle in wilderness, Day of atonement<\/p>\n
One sacrifice per world<\/p>\n
John 1:29, Heb 10:1\u201314<\/p>\n
Source Unknown<\/p>\n
Le Corcodile<\/b><\/p>\n
Rene Lacoste, the world\u2019s top tennis player in the late 1920s, won seven major singles titles during his career, including multiple victories at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the French Open. His friends called him \u201cLe Crocodile,\u201d an apt term for his tenacious play on the court.<\/p>\n
Lacoste accepted the nickname and had a tiny crocodile embroidered on his tennis blazers. When he added it to a line of shirts he designed, the symbol caught on. While thousands of people around the world wore \u201calligator shirts,\u201d the emblem always had a deeper significance for Lacoste\u2019s friends who knew its origin and meaning.<\/p>\n
The cross, an emblem of Christianity, holds special meaning for every friend of Christ. Whenever we see a cross, it speaks to us of Christ\u2019s tenacious determination to do His Father\u2019s will by dying for us on Calvary. What a privilege to know Him and be included in His words to His disciples: \u201cNo longer do I call you servants,…but I have called you friends\u201d (Jn. 15:15).<\/p>\n
I can picture a friend of Lacoste seeing the little alligator on someone\u2019s shirt, and saying, \u201cI know the story behind that emblem. Lacoste is my friend.\u201d And I can picture a friend of Jesus seeing a cross and doing the same. – DCM<\/p>\n
Our Daily Bread, Sept.-Nov. 1997, page for October 5<\/p>\n
Where Is God?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is God?\u201d inquired the mind: \u201cTo His presence I am blind. . . . I have scanned each star and sun, Traced the certain course they run;<\/p>\n
I have weighed them in my scale, And can tell when each will fail; From the caverns of the night I have brought new worlds to light;<\/p>\n
I have measured earth and sky Read each zone with steady eye; But no sight of God appears In the glory of the spheres.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the heart spoke wistfully, \u201cHave you looked at Calvary?\u201d<\/p>\n
– Thomas C. Clark<\/p>\n
Quoted by John Gilmore in Probing Heaven, Key Questions on the Hereafter, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989, p. 97<\/p>\n
The Cross Jesus Had in Mind<\/b><\/p>\n
When Jesus said, \u201cIf you are going to follow me, you have to take up a cross,\u201d it was the same as saying, \u201cCome and bring your electric chair with you. Take up the gas chamber and follow me.\u201d He did not have a beautiful gold cross in mind\u2014the cross on a church steeple or on the front of your Bible. Jesus had in mind a place of execution. <\/p>\n
Billy Graham in \u201cThe Offense of the Cross\u201d (from Great Sermons on Christ, Wilbur M. Smith, ed.)<\/p>\n
Crucifixes Banned in Poland<\/b><\/p>\n
The government of Polish Prime Minister Jaruzelski had ordered crucifixes removed from classroom walls, just as they had been banned in factories, hospitals, and other public institutions. Catholic bishops attacked the ban that had stirred waves of anger and resentment all across Poland. Ultimately the government relented, insisting that the law remain on the books, but agreeing not to press for removal of the crucifixes, particularly in the schoolrooms.<\/p>\n
But one zealous Communist school administrator in Garwolin decided that the law was the law. So one evening he had seven large crucifixes removed from lecture halls where they had hung since the school\u2019s founding in the twenties.<\/p>\n
Days later, a group of parents entered the school and hung more crosses. The administrator promptly had these taken down as well. <\/p>\n
The next day two-thirds of the school\u2019s six hundred students staged a sit-in. When heavily armed riot police arrived, the students were forced into the streets. Then they marched, crucifixes held high, to a nearby church where they were joined by twenty-five hundred other students from nearby schools for a morning of prayer in support of the protest. Soldiers surrounded the church. But the pictures from inside of students holding crosses high above their heads flashed around the world. So did the words of the priest who delivered the message to the weeping congregation that morning. \u201cThere is no Poland without a cross.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chuck Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict, pp. 202-3<\/p>\n
Good Quotes<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 Jesus was crucified, not in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves. – George F. MacLeod<\/p>\n
\u2022 The cross cannot be defeated, for it is defeat. – Gilbert K. Chesterton<\/p>\n
\u2022 There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross-bearers here below. – Charles Haddon Spurgeon<\/p>\n
\u2022 We need men of the cross, with the message of the cross, bearing the marks of the cross. – Vance Havner<\/p>\n
\u2022 Christ\u2019s cross is such a burden as sails are to a ship or wings to a bird. – Samuel Rutherford<\/p>\n
\u2022 He came to pay a debt He didn\u2019t owe because we owed a debt we couldn\u2019t pay. – Anonymous<\/p>\n
\u2022 The old cross slew men; the new cross entertains them. The old cross condemned; the new cross amuses. The old cross destroyed confidence in the flesh; the new cross encourages it. A.W. Tozer<\/p>\n
\u2022 All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning. – Oswald Chambers<\/p>\n
\u2022 The cross: God\u2019s way of uniting suffering with love. – Georgia Harkness<\/p>\n
\u2022 The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer<\/p>\n
\u2022 The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God\u2019s wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers.<\/p>\n
A. W. Tozer in \u201cThe Old Cross and the New.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Cross<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cFrom this new cross has sprung a new philosophy of the Christian life; and from that new philosophy has come a new evangelical technique\u2014a new type of meeting and new type of preaching. This new evangelism employs the same language as of the old, but its content is not the same, and the emphasis not as before. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe new cross encourages a new and entirely different evangelistic approach. The evangelist does not demand abnegation of the old life before a new life can be received. He preaches not contrasts but similarities. He seeks to key into the public view the same thing the world does, only a higher level. Whatever the sin-mad world happens to be clamoring after at the moment is cleverly shown to be the very thing the gospel offers, only the religious product is better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new cross does not slay the sinner; it re-directs him. It gears him to a cleaner and jollier way of living, and saves his self-respect…The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe philosophy back of this kind of thing may be sincere, but its sincerity does not save it from being false. It is false because it is blind. It misses completely the whole meaning of the cross.<\/p>\n
The old cross is a symbol of DEATH. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took the cross and started down the road has already said goodbye to his friends. He was not coming back. He was not going out to have his life re-directed; he was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise; modified nothing; spared nothing. It slew all of the man completely, and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with the victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe race of Adam is under the death sentence. There is no commutation and no escape. God cannot approve any fruits of sin, however innocent they may appear, or beautiful to the eyes of men. God salvages the individual by liquidating him, and then raising him again to newness of life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat evangelism which draws friendly parallels between the ways of God and the ways of men is false to the Bible and cruel to the souls of its hearers. The faith of Christ does not parallel the world; it intersects it. In coming to Christ we do not bring our old life to a higher plane; we leave it at the cross….<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, who preach the gospel, must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We must not imagine ourselves commissioned to make Christ acceptable to big business, the press, or the world of sports, or modern entertainment. We are not diplomats, but prophets; and our message is not a compromise, but an ultimatum.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Biblical Evangelist, November 1, 1991, p. 11<\/p>\n
Poem<\/b><\/p>\n
In evil long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear, Till a new object struck my sight, And stopp\u2019d my wild career:<\/p>\n
I saw One hanging on a Tree In agonies and blood, Who fix\u2019d His languid eyes on me. As near His Cross I stood.<\/p>\n
Sure never till my latest breath, Can I forget that look: It seem\u2019d to charge me with His death, Though not a word He spoke:<\/p>\n
My conscience felt and own\u2019d the guilt, And plunged me in despair: I saw my sins His Blood had spilt, And help\u2019d to nail Him there.<\/p>\n
Alas! I knew not what I did! But now my tears are vain: Where shall my trembling soul be hid? For I the Lord have slain!<\/p>\n
\u2014A second look He gave, which said, \u201cI freely all forgive; This blood is for thy ransom paid; I die that thou may\u2019st live.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thus, while His death my sin displays In all its blackest hue, Such is the mystery of grace, It seals my pardon too.<\/p>\n
With pleasing grief, and mournful joy, My spirit now if fill\u2019d, That I should such a life destroy, Yet live by Him I kill\u2019d!<\/p>\n
– John Newton, 1725\u20131807<\/p>\n
Source Unknown<\/p>\n
Atomic Experiment<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cIt was May 21, 1946. The place – Los Alamos. A young and daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific atoll at Bikini. \u201cHe had successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction\u2014scientists call it the critical mass\u2014he would push two hemispheres of uranium together. Then, just as the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screwdriver, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction. But that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. Young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and thereby possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands and thus interrupted the chain reaction. By this instant, self-forgetful daring, he saved the lives of the seven other persons in the room. . . (A)s he waited. . for the car that was to take him to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, \u2018You\u2019ll come through all right. But I haven\u2019t the faintest chance myself\u2019 It was only too true. Nine days later he died in agony. Nineteen centuries ago the Son of the living God walked directly into sin\u2019s most concentrated radiation, allowed Himself to be touched by its curse, and let it take His life . . . But by that act He broke the chain reaction. He broke the power of sin. <\/p>\n
Planet In Rebellion, George Vandeman. <\/p>\n
Rembrandt\u2019s Painting<\/b><\/p>\n
If you were to look at Rembrandt\u2019s painting of The Three Crosses, your attention would be drawn first to the center cross on which Jesus died. Then as you would look at the crowd gathered around the foot of that cross, you\u2019d be impressed by the various facial expressions and actions of the people involved in the awful crime of crucifying the Son of God. Finally, your eyes would drift to the edge of the painting and catch sight of another figure, almost hidden in the shadows. Art critics say this is a representation of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that by his sins he helped nail Jesus to the cross.<\/p>\n
Source Unknown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Situation \/ Interpretation Situation Interpretation Reference Slave Market World System 1 John 5:19 Slave Master Satan John 12:31 Slaves Humanity Ephesians 2:2\u20133 The Problem Sin Colossians 2:14 Highest Bidder Jesus Christ Hebrews 2:14\u201315 Ransom Price Blood of Christ 1 Peter 1:18\u201319 One animal sacrifice per man Genesis 3 One sacrifice per family Exodus 12:3\u201314 One … Continue reading “Cross of Christ”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}