The Pain and The Glory of the Cross

By Pastor Dan Kennedy

©March 7, 2010

pastorkennedy@gmail.com

www.brinnonchurch.com

Today is Communion.  We take one Sunday each month to focus on the profound death of Christ.  It is profound, because it establishes a consistent reminder to us about God, which cannot be expressed only in words, but by participation in the fellowship and remembrance of this Church ordinance.

For many previous centuries, Holy men of God proclaimed the Messiah’s coming as the Holy Spirit moved them to proclaim the truth of His bringing salvation to mankind.  These men were called Prophets.

In the fullness of time Christ, the Messiah, came.

Jesus Christ’s coming as the Messiah revealed the Character of God Himself, because this Messiah was no ordinary man; He is God in flesh; God, the Son.

Here are some of the attributes that we see about God the Father, through Christ’s coming.

1. When we say that the God whom we worship is Loving – this is revealed in an amazing way through Christ’s Sacrifice for our sins, on the cross.
   

1. When we say that the God whom we worship is Humble – this is revealed in tremendous depth of humility that Christ exampled in His coming to earth from Heaven’s glories…
   

oChrist came from His place as “the Eternal Word of God” (John 1:1);

oChrist came from His being the Only Visible Representation of God the Father;

oChrist came from His being the pure Radiance of God the Father’s Glory;

oChrist came from His being the Exact Imprint of God the Father’s Nature;

oChrist came from His being the One who sustains the universe by the Word of His Power;

Hebrews 1

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high….

Christ’s humility is revealed through what He came from…to become, as God’s only Son, The spotless Lamb of God as the Redemptive Sacrifice for us all!

1. When we say that the God whom we worship is Compassionate – this is revealed without deceit or falsehood, through Christ’s Sacrificial Suffering.
   

1. When we say that the God whom we worship understands us completely – this is revealed in His coming to us; His living among us; and, His Redemptive Death for us (Heb. 4:15).
   

Everything about our understanding of the God whom we worship and serve, can some way be entwined together with the Cross of Christ through which Sacrifice He Redeemed us.

The Principles of the Harvest are outworked and exampled by Christ through His Redemptive Coming.

The principles of the harvest, in the simplest terms, could be as follows:

1.  A seed left by itself will not produce any harvest.  It simply stays a seed.

2.  A seed, to be part of a harvest, must be planted, and must die.

3.  A seed that dies and allows new life will produce a harvest – where many more seeds come from that one seed, allowing many more blessings of potential harvests to come.

4.  What you sow is what you reap.

a.If you sow to your flesh, you will reap destruction.

b.If you sow to the spirit, you will reap life everlasting.

5.  If you sow sparingly, you will also reap sparingly.

The Biblical Principles of the Harvest

John 12

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Galatians 6

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

2 Corinthians 9:6

6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Jesus Christ did not simply sustain His Heavenly Position as the Word of God (John 1:1), and the One who is the radiance of the glory of God, and One who is the exact imprint of God the Father’s nature, and He who upholds the universe by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3).  Jesus Christ is the “Firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18)…the “Seed” who came, exampled, revealed His Deity through miracles, gave Himself for our Redemption, died, was buried and who rose again – conquering death. 

There is no other “faith” in the world that more clearly represents a profound and humble God such as ours.

Jesus Christ most fully represented “the Harvest” principle.

What He sowed, He will reap – The Eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

What we sow, we will also reap.

Today we are looking at the Principle of the Harvest.

Today we are looking at the pain and the glory of the Cross.

1. ✦ The Pain of making One’s self nothing, when that Same Individual (Jesus Christ) is Everything.
   

1. ✦ The Pain of making One’s self a servant, when that Same Individual (Jesus Christ) is LORD of All.
   

1. ✦ The Pain of making One’s self a man, when that Same Individual (Jesus Christ) created man – forming man from the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life, then forming woman from man and breathing into her the breath of life.
   

1. ✦ The Pain of becoming obedient to the point of death, when one of Jesus Christ’s goals is to destroy that which will be the last of the world’s enemy – death, itself.
   

The Pain of Earthly Humiliation and Death; and, the Glory of the Resurrection Kingdom

Philippians 2

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

1. ✦ The Glory of being highly exalted by God!
   

1. ✦ The Glory of Him being given a Name that is above every other name!
   

1. ✦ The Glory that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow – in heaven, on earth and under the earth!
   

1. ✦ The Glory that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father!
   

In a parallel to His Children, those who are honorable to Christ receive dynamic blessings:

Daniel 12:2,3

2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

1 Peter 1

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

The Pain of Bearing No Reputation (from the world) because of the Foolishness of the Cross; but yet, Rejoicing in the Glory of the Power of the Cross!

1 Corinthians 1

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Communion and our remembrance of the death of Christ speak to us of a unique faith: a humble, self-denying, caring faith, that is willing to die to self.  Not a religion that gives assent and pats on the back to carnal worldly wisdom, prideful demeanor, devious means, and cutthroat business practices!

Jesus Christ came to teach and example through His Life and Death, a new way of living; a way of living that is pleasing to God.  Dying to self and living to God.

Conclusion

How we handle the Principle of the Harvest and the Pain and Glory of the Cross in our daily living, will affect our eternal destiny and, to some degree, the eternal being of those around us.

1. ✦ How we respond to these principles will affect how we treat our spouse.
   

2. ✦ How we respond to these principles will affect how we raise our children.
   

3. ✦ How we respond to these principles will affect how our children raise their children.
   

4. ✦ How we respond to these principles will affect how we interrelate to others around us in the world.
   

5. ✦ How we respond to these principles will affect how we relate to our Brothers and Sisters in the Body of Christ.
   

6. ✦ How we respond to these principles will affect how we relate to God.
   

1.   The Pain and the Glory of the Cross!