The Cross is the End

Matthew 16:24-25

(NKJV)

 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Luke 9:23 (NKJV)

3 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Luke 14:26-27 (NKJV)

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Jesus definition of a disciple is one who:

• Denies themselves

• Takes up cross

• Follows him

• Puts Jesus and following him above all other relationships

• Puts following Jesus above their own life and accomplishments and well-being

• Some one who takes no though for preserving their life and all that means… but puts Jesus 1st.

So if we want to move forward, get in motion with him into his will, we must embrace what he has said and go his way. We must deny self, take up cross, and follow him.

There are two components to this that we have to grasp…

First: If these words scare you, if you think no I am not doing any of that, am I really ok with the Lord, please here this: There is now no condemnation to those who are in christ Jesus.

Romans 10:13 — whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved…

SAVED FROM VERSES SAVED FOR… we will look into this in weeks to come.  Adam and Eve created morally perfect,  but relationally immature!

But..please you have to get this… you are saved by grace through faith. What Jesus is talking about in his terms and conditions for discipleship is not saying you are saved by how well you deny yourself in self discipline.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

We cannot save ourselves… we cannot ever become righteousness enough.

Isaiah 64:6 (NKJ V)

But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like [a]filthy rags;We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

Our righteousness is not enough.. we can never do enough good to save ourselves.

Romans 3:23 (NKJV)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Even if you have sinned in one small way you are a lawbreaker worthy of death.

James 2:10 (NKJV)

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

We can’t blame anyone else… you will die for your own sins, you are your own person.

Ezekiel 18:20 (NKJV)

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

And you think well I haven’t done anything that bad, that’s what the pharisees thought so Jesus upped the ante to the heart level…

It’s not just that we do wickedly, but we are wicked.

Ephesians 2:1-3 (NKJV)

2 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the [a]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

You can’t help it, this infection and brokenness was passed on to us. Its in our nature.

Roman 5:12

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

Its in our nature and there is only one remedy: DEATH!

So God the Son, became a human and bore the sins of you are of me. The soul that sins it shall die. The wages of sin is death…

Isaiah 53:5-6 (NKJV)

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

6  All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way;And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was what the bible calls the propitiation for our sin, the sacrifice that appeases the wrath of God whose justice demands sin be punished.

Some say God dint punish Jesus for our sins, that Jesus bore the natural consequence of sin, but the Bible says something different: God punished Jesus in our place. God the Father, Son, Spirit are One, and when God punished Jesus he was in Jesus as both punisher and punished.

Don’t be fooled..

Ecclesiastes 8:11 ESV

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.

Some today are saying, how can a good God punish us for sins? Well he provided a solution and his judgement is much more aimed at rejecting his solution…

Hebrews 2:1-3 (NKJV)

Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation…”

The punishment is deserving for those who hear yet reject…

But for those of us who hear and believe… here is what we have to get… Jesus paid the punishment we deserved. We have to believe that!

Hebrews 9:24-28 (NKJV)

 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are [k]copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Romans 4:25 (NKJV)

If you believe in Jesus Christ. That he was crucified for our sins, and raised from the dead for our justification.

What does that look like to believe this:

It means you come to God, you confess your sins to him, that not only that you have sinned, but that you are a sinner by nature. You ask him to forgive you and apply the sacrifice of Jesus as the one who took our punishment, to you. And you believe that as proof that God accepted Jesus sacrifice, he raised him from the dead. You will be saved…

If you are in doubt at all over salvation, don’t try to analyze your faith and figure out whats wrong with you… here is the simple way to begin relationship:

1 John 1:9 (NKJV)

 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We confess our sins, the ones we do know, and he forgives us for even the ones we don’t know & we repent…

Acts 3:19 (NKJV)

9 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,..

Repent and be converted, or repent and turn to God… more than just new thoughts… it a total re think that lead to turning.  Repentance is more than a new way of thinking or just accepting a new belief system…

no where in the Bible is repentance spoken about in a way the is not understood as a life turn from sin to GOD. A little Greek language training will make us stupid.. I know … I’ve been stupid.

You want times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, repent and turn to God.

Now no condemnation if you’re struggling with sin, but there is a difference between struggling, confessing and repenting and seeking the Lord, but you cannot allow the message of the cross to give you permission to stay in sin.

We must believe that a great exchange has taken place.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

So much religious activity is inspired by secret guilt and fear over our sins. Confess and repent, and receive his grace and free gift of righteousness.

Romans 5:17 (NKJV)

 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

Those who reign in life receive, they don’t achieve! Our service to the Lord going forward can not be motivated by condemnation or guilt, or trying to make ourselves acceptable. Only Jesus can do that! But that means he qualifies you too…

So deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him. Stop trying to get right with God based on your self, stop holding self in purgatory, Receive his forgiveness and grace!

Secondly: When we talk of a forward movement, deny self, take up cross, follow him.. this is not just about exchanging our sin for his righteousness in our standing before God, but in actuality.

Remember we said there is not just a death sentence on us because we have done sinful things… but because we are sinful in ourselves?

Well God’s solution to not just your bad acts, but your bad nature is also death. But here is the good news…

Jesus didn’t just take your sins in the great exchange, he took you! You died with him!

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)

 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Col. 3:3 (NKJV)

“You died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…”

Romans 6:6 (NKJV)

“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him…”

Just as by faith we accept him as the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins and the penalty that was due us for them… by faith I also see that he took me to death with him on the cross, mystically, spiritually, I died with him.

Why? You are not fixable… God’s solution is not to make you better but to kill you and raise you up with him and fill you with his life.

When we accept him, he comes into us, makes us a life, regenerates us (Titus 3) we are born again (John 3), we are made a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), and joined together with the Lord in Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

Here is the second component of what it means to follow Jesus:

Matthew 16:24-25 (NKJV)

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Its not just deny self for right standing with God, what is being said here is deny your own strength, deny your own ability, deny your own life force, let your soul life, your life led by your emotions, your mind, your strength be taken downing death bye the Holy Spirit applying the cross to you, and learn to live by faith in His Life and Spirit within being your very life.

We must learn to live by the life of Christ within… God wants us to deny our own strength, plans, power, and learn to be what we can only be by yielding to what the Spirit would do in us.

Notice the cross is the main issue if we are going to go forward, and its much more than just knowing the finished work as the things that gives me my ticket to the dance… the cross is a life we live, by the power of the Spirit, bringing our strength, wisdom and power, and natural life force and energies into DEATH, so that he might live in us.

Here’s a sneak peak, a spoiler to what is to come in terms of vision and what God wants to do, that new thing: it is Jesus. Bringing forth christ in life in us and through us, in power, in glory, and in holiness.

Amen!

Couple quick issues:

Hallowe’en and spiritual warfare: its the life light of Christ filling the people that release his authority.

Elections: here and the states: We have a wonderful country that God blessed and many died to preserve its values. REMEMBRANCE DAY:   We need to engage in our system, but remember this” There is and will be a coalescing of governing power, economics, and religion against Christ: not christianity, but against Christ’s life and anointing.

Whatever happens remember this:

Psalms 2:1-6 (NKJV) — Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed,[d] saying, “Let us break Their bonds in piecesAnd cast away Their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,And distress them in His deep displeasure: “Yet I have [e]set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”