Pastor Tim Patoka
Joy For Our Journeys #6 August 11, 2019 The Journey To The Cross John 19:16-24, 28-30 1) Jesus’ Journey To The Cross Is Christianity’s Focus 2) Jesus’ Journey To The Cross Is A Christian’s Joy
One of the things I’ve discovered when teaching or learning something, is that it’s helpful to break it down into smaller pieces of information. Often I do that by asking the question, “what it’s all about?” If you can answer that question, it becomes a lot easier to teach or learn something. For example, take our campus ministry’s Bible studies for the fall semester. It’s all about seeing how living the 10 Commandments lets us shine our Christian light. While each Sunday evening we’ll go into detail about this Christian light and what exactly each commandment is talking about in view of a young adult’s life, it’s ultimately about letting our Christian light shine in the way that God guides us to. When I’m looking at historical periods, I often get lost in a sea of names, places, and dates. Yet if you can answer, “what’s it all about?” you’ll be much more likely to remember those names, places, and dates. For example, take the American Revolution. We declared independence from the British Empire because there was a significant percentage of Americans who were willing to risk their lives to be free. As such we are more likely to remember the importance of names like George Washington and Benedict Arnold, places like Philadelphia and Valley Forge, and dates like July 4, 1776. When it comes to the Christian faith, there’s likewise a lot of information to take in. Yet if we can answer, “what’s it all about?” then we’ll be on our way to remembering what’s truly important. Thankfully, we don’t have to search far to answer that question because we find it in our verses for this morning from John chapter 19. It is Jesus’ journey to the cross that the Christian faith is all about. Because if we can understand how and why Jesus journeyed to the cross, then we’ll be well on our way to keeping the Christian faith focused on what it should be. However, Jesus’ journey to the cross not only tells us where to focus our faith. It also teaches us that we have joy in every circumstance and place. 1) Jesus’ Journey To The Cross Is Christianity’s Focus If you worshiped at Grace last week, you had the privilege of celebrating Christmas half a year early as we looked at when Jesus journeyed from heaven to earth by coming to a little town called Bethlehem. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us what happened after that blessed event. Jesus’ family moved and eventually made Nazareth their home. We don’t know much about Jesus’ childhood. We only get one glimpse when he was 12 years old and stayed behind the Temple without his parent’s knowledge to wow the religious teachers with his understanding of Scripture. 1