“Jesus died on the cross for you...”
([gospel]) Scripture Passage First, we are introducing the need that this sermon series addresses. Then we are answering the question: Why is it important that Jesus died on the cross for you? Hickory Lane Christian Church Washington Courthouse OH Rob Hoos
Series Introduction: Are we being understood? A few days ago, I was talking to my brother Kevin who works at Wright Patterson AFB as an engineer. Well, while we were talking, my brother made a very peculiar statement to me. He said: “If you exceed the tensile strength of the polyester-nylon braided composite a critical failure will occur.” When he said this to me, the only way I knew how to react was to sit there and ponder the statement in the midst of total confusion. “If you exceed the tensile strength of the polyester-nylon braided composite a critical failure will occur?” Why would tensile become the standard measurement of strength? As I am putting it up on the Christmas tree it seems like it might be one of the weakest things up there. What in the world is polyester-nylon braided composite? What does he mean critical failure!? There were a number of different reasons why I was having trouble understanding what he was trying to say. 1.) He is an engineer and I am not one. 2.) He was using technical language that is associated with engineering, and I am totally oblivious to the actual meaning of any of these things. 3.) I was actually distracted by the words he used themselves. I was actually thinking that tensile strength might be referring to a Christmas decoration. The sentence totally failed to communicate any real meaning to me, it just confused me, and made me want to move on. So, I finally asked... “Kevin, what in the world did you just say to me?”
He said, “I was saying, if you pull too hard on that rope it will break.” A simple truth that is lost in translation because of the different frames of reference, technical jargon, and distracting vocabulary. When you really sit and think about it, the gospel can be the same way to. Many of us are part of the Church, and we have been so for a decent amount of time. We are the insiders. We have similar experiences, similar understandings, and similar ways of viewing the universe. In other words, we have the same frame of reference (as my brother would with other engineers). We also have our own technical jargon which we understand (to a degree) and use. Some have called it Christianese, or Churchese. Finally, we also have our own form of distracting vocabulary, the cliche statements that are often associated with christianity. The dictionary defines the term cliche as follows: “a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought : the old cliché ʻone man's meat is another man's poison.ʼ” Christian sub-culture has a number of cliches that it continually uses, and though they may not be evil, using them turns off the listener (iʼve heard this whole song and dance before), and cripples the one speaking the cliche from deeply thinking through the subject matter being discussed. Thus, there are two problems with the way that the church has been treating the gospel for the last 50 years. The first problem is that we are attempting to communicate with a culture that does not share our perspective, and does not understand our technical jargon (Christianese) and we are confused as to why few are grasping the gospel, or accepting the things we say. They donʼt know what we are talking about, and the tired old cliches we use to talk about the gospel turn them off because they think: “Well, Iʼve heard this old song and dance before.”
The second problem is that we have been affected by the Christianese and cliches too. Cliches reveal a lack of original thought, thus we say them, and donʼt consider deeply what we are talking about. And when I began examining my own life, I realized that it had been way to long since I had sat and really thought about what the gospel meant to me. I want to ask you a question, donʼt answer out loud, but consider it. “How would you tell someone the gospel, or why you became a Christian without using any church words (Christianese) or cliche statements?” What I found for myself, is that I may not have understood the good news as completely as I thought I did. For the next little while, we will be looking at re-understanding the most important and foundational element of Christianity, the gospel of Jesus.
The meaning of the [gospel] Gospel put simply is this: good news, news that brings joy and happiness. Originally used to speak of the good actions of Caesar (or other ruling authorities), messengers would run throughout the empire with the gospel telling everyone the good thing that Caesar had done which would benefit the person, or the empire. When he would conquer one of their enemies, the messengers would go through shouting the gospel of Caesar, etc... To us, it speaks of the story of God acting for the good of humanity through the death of his Son, and through raising Him from the dead. What then for today? We firmly believe that the good news, or the news that brings us joy about Jesus is still the same today as it was then. It is still relevant and meaningful. It still changes who we are. However, the problem is, because of the cliches and Christianese, we have in some ways lost the ability to appropriately understand the gospel and communicate it to
others. Cliches and Christianese might have worked really well 50 years ago when our culture was more “Christian”, but today, especially with younger generations these statements mean little to nothing.
The Process for this Series So, as we are working together, examining scriptures, and seeking to better understand what the good news of Jesus is for today, here in our own culture, we will be taking a few different steps. First we will be looking at some of the cliche and Christianese statements typically used to talk about Jesus, and about gospel. We will look at them and ask the question, “Okay, what does that even mean?” Secondly we will take these ideas, and we will deconstruct them. We will pull them apart piece by piece, and we will look at what it is that they are really trying to communicate to us. Basically we will be asking, “What good news are they really trying to say?” Thirdly we will be taking these ideas, and thinking about how we can think of them in a way our minds will actually understand, and in a way which will help us tell someone about the good news of Jesus who does not have our frame of reference, speak Christianese, or care about our fun little cliches.
[gospel] Jesus died on the cross for you Today we will be examining the phrase on the card in front of you. The phrase “Jesus died for you.” This is one good way of talking about what Jesus did...right? Part of the good news of Jesus is that he died on the cross. And it is not just that he died on the cross, its that he did it for you, and for me. Right? But the question then becomes, “okay...he died on the cross...so what? What does that even really mean to someone who lives in Washington Court House today?” This phrase “Jesus died for you, or Jesus
died on the cross for you” has become one of those Christian cliches we were talking about. You hear it repeated over and over again, you go to Family Christian bookstores and you see it on: t-shirts, neck-ties, pens, book covers, paper weights, and almost anything you can think of. But when is the last time you really sat and thought to yourself... “What DOES it really mean that Jesus died for me? Why did he do that for me? Did he really have to die?” When we begin to ask questions like this, we begin to dive a little deeper into the meaning behind the statement.
Sin...right? (Why did Jesus die on the cross?) One of the first questions we have, is well, Why did Jesus die on the cross. The traditional answer is that he died because of our sinfulness. Jesus died to save us from our sins. But, who really sees themselves like that today? We as Christians see ourselves as sinners as a reflex, it is how we have been trained to think. But let me rephrase it, how many people really think of themselves as being on the same level as murderers, rapists, thieves, and addicts. But, if all sin is sin in Godʼs eyes, then this is how we ought to understand ourselves if we are sinners. Okay, so is it any wonder that the answer, “because weʼre all sinners” doesnʼt carry much weight today? But lets explore this idea of sin. Letʼs take this apart. Sin is rebellion, it is imperfection, it is missing the mark, it is the opposite of love, it is murdering, it is stealing, it is anger, it is hatred, it is gossip, it is inappropriate sexuality, it is lust, it is hurting others, it is the opposite of who God is. Sin is the word we use to represent the sum total of those things and more. When boiled down, it is essentially selfishness.
We are all selfish. We want what we want, we want to be right, we want to be heard, we want to be served, we want life to be easy, we want money and possessions, we want to get mad, we want to hate, and when our selfishness acts out, it is sin. We donʼt want to give, we donʼt want to serve, we donʼt want to be wrong, we donʼt want someone else to get their way, we donʼt want to go without, we donʼt want to have to listen to any authority. SELFISHNESS. In the beginning things were not like this. God, when he originally made man, he made him perfect. He was living in harmony with God, he was acting out of love, he was not focused on himself, instead he was selfless as God is. But when the opportunity presented itself, and man doubted the goodness of God (assuming that God was holding out on him), he fell. In that moment, he rebelled against Godʼs command, he became imperfect, he stole, and he exercised his own selfish desires above all else. Today, not too much has changed, God who created us to be perfect watches as our selfishness grows and destroys us. There is hatred, jealousy, rage, and all manner of wicked things happening all over the world as the result of the selfishness of humanity. No one is exempt. One of the greatest issues with sin/selfishness is that there is no group of people or single individual who has ever lived that have seen the option of rebelling and being selfish and chosen otherwise. We are all part of this imperfection, this selfishness called sin.
God: Love and Wrath God on the other hand is the opposite of sin. He is selfless, loving, gracious, and good. God is pure, and he is totally different than we are. God is also holy, which means he is totally unique and distinct and different than everything else. He is also holy in the sense that he is perfect and intolerant of the selfishness that has encompassed what we have become. He cannot endure it, and is revolted by it. God cannot be in the presence of sin, or rather sin cannot exist in the presence of God. God is also righteous, which means he is true to his word, and is true to himself. In order to be true to himself (he cannot be around our selfishness) he distanced himself from us and kicked us out of his presence in the garden. We have lost our friendship and relationship with the God that created and cares for us because of our own selfishness. Additionally, God swore that he would punish those who rebelled against him, and who actively chose to live differently than the way he created them (those who choose to live selfishly). Those who rebel against him by acting in this way are to be punished. In order to stay true to his word, he had to punish sin/selfishness/wickedness like he said he would, and because he is righteous, he did. God is also one who loves us and desires a relationship with us. The reason that God gave us the free will to choose right and wrong is because he didn始t want to have a relationship with robots, but with individuals who could really choose to love him. This is an aspect of who God is, and in order for him to stay true to himself, he had to find a way to bring us back into a proper relationship with him.
The Conflict of God God is then in conflict with himself. One aspect of his nature, his holiness demands that he lash out and punish the sin/selfishness/wickedness and rebellion of his creatures who have fallen so far from how he originally made them. The other aspect of his nature, his love demands that he makes a way to fix the our relationship so we can be his people once again. In order to remain true, and thus, in order to remain God he must punish the sin, and restore his relationship with the sinner.
Jesus (The Answer to the conflict) The person of Jesus helps to resolve this conflict. Jesus is God, and yet he comes down for the purpose of dying on a cross. One would wonder why God would come down, with the only end goal in mind being death. Jesus purpose was this, to bear the wrath of God, which was directed toward the selfishness and rebellion of humanity, alone. In his death, as he suffered, it was not only the physical pain and torment of being beaten and crucified, but also knowing that he was undergoing the full punishment for all of humanity始s evil. Jesus, in one moment, satisfied the entire wrath of God against sin. Thus he saved those who put their trust in him from wrath.
I始ve been reading scripture, and you didn始t know it. This whole time I have been following the outline and argument of Romans 3:21-26 and you didn始t even know it. Romans says this:
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. The long and short of everything Paul says is this: God has proven that he is true to himself. He has given those who trust in Jesus a pardon, and all of the bad things they have ever done are canceled out. After all, everyone has rebelled/sinned/acted-selfishly and failed to live up to the life they were expected to live. But God has made us pure through the actions of Jesus. Jesus was the one who bore the punishment we deserved, and the wrath of God so we might be reunited with him forever. Thus God has exercised his wrath against our selfishness, and provided a way for man to return to him.
The Result This means, that those who place their trust in Jesusʼ actions on the cross, and become his disciples no longer have a penalty for their mistakes, their selfish actions, their rebellion and sin. God has not just wiped the slate clean (so to speak), but he has thrown the slate away. Romans 8:1 says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and this is the result of “Jesus dying on the cross for us.”
Good News To only say: Jesus died for you, does a disservice to what God actually did. The reason that this is gospel, or good news, or news that brings joy is so much deeper than saying: Jesus died for you. The good news about Jesus is that God loved us too much to stay apart from us. Jesus is God in the flesh. He came down from heaven to live with us, to eat with us, to work along side us, to teach us, to care deeply about us. Ultimately Christ came to pay the penalty that we owed him. We see Jesus now, as God coming down to pay the penalty for sin that he himself required so that we could be reunited with him. It is good news because God has taken every step imaginable to pay for your mistakes and wrong actions, he has stepped in front of his own wrath all for the sake of love. Ultimately God has made all of the steps to open up the possibility of having a relationship with you. You owed a debt to him because of your selfishness and rebellion, and God paid it to himself so you could go free.
I want you to take out that card you found near your seat. On the front it says [gospel] Jesus died for you. I want you to flip it over and write
Jesus took my punishment.
this is [gospel]