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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/frank-sona/the-cross/
Gospel of John chapter 12, John chapter 12 and verse 30 just for connection. Now this is obviously the chapter and the section before the upper room ministry. Much is on the Lord Jesus's mind and heart and in verse 30, Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of me but for your sakes.
Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Notice, so the judgment of the world, the prince Satan of this world be cast out and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, he's not speaking about glorification here, he's speaking about crucifixion, will draw all unto me.
The word men is supplied, you'll notice that. So that kind of does away with the fact, is this all kinds of men? Is this all men at all times? I think it's far deeper, far greater than that and we'll look at that.
He says, I will draw all unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. The gospel of Mark chapter 8, Mark chapter 8 and we'll look at verse 34. And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples, also he said unto them, whosoever will come after me, whosoever desires, the will there is the aspect of the person's will, whosoever desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save it. First Corinthians chapter 1, you will not, you will see soon that this is not a random smattering of scriptures, but a compilation of scriptures that will, that is pointing us to one great truth that I believe is tremendously either misunderstood or at least failed to be grasped that in its depth.
First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 17, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. How could that happen?
If people emphasize philosophy, wisdom, worldly teaching, and they will miss the point of the cross and it says for the preaching of the cross, and there are various words for preaching in the Greek, but this word is different.
It's the word of the cross. It's the logos of the cross. It's the embodiment and meaning of the core of communication. He's saying it's the idea, the meaning behind the cross. It's not simply the preaching of it, but it's the idea and thrust behind the cross.
And he says that word, the word of the cross is to them that are perishing. It's foolishness, but unto us, which are saved or being saved, it is the power of God. Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20, almost shouldn't even have to turn to it.
We probably all know it. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
He says, I have been crucified with Christ. Not just died, but crucified. Chapter 6, verse 14 of Galatians. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
And one final reading in Colossians 1. Colossians 1 and verse 20. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in the heavens.
That Christ died is an incontrovertible fact. It's well known. It's documented. And even though there are some cults that deny, not only they deny that truth, they have what's called the swoon theory, but it's very, it's clearly proven, not only from scripture, but even what happened at the cross forthwith came there up blood and water.
Evidence of a clear death of the Lord Jesus. That he died is a fact. But why he died and how he died are key components of that death. The cross, it is, I'm sure it's likely really one of the most obvious emblems of Christianity.
You can't drive by a church building and not see, fail to see a cross on a steeple. Bible bags. I know there's some with doves on them and some with little swords and lighthouses and all, but by and large, on a lot of Bible bags, even there, we'll put a picture of a cross on it, right?
So the cross is that core emblem, that symbol of Christianity. And we're very familiar with it. It's amazing people will wear it as a piece of jewelry. It is such an overused, if I can say it that way, misunderstood emblem of truth, deep truth.
What I want to speak on is the depths, and I could never do it in this one message, but just to give a smattering of the depths of the truth of the cross as expressed in scripture. Because the cross gives us two opposing views.
It gives us the view from heaven. It gives us God's view, not only of his love for man, of his desire to save us. It gives us his view as well of the hatred of sin. It gives us his view of the righteousness of God, but it gives us the view of man as well, man that hates righteousness, that hates God.
And the God that was saying, I want you to be brought to myself, is that the same side diametrically opposed to that, this world that says, we don't want you. And so the cross stands in between these two worlds, two pieces of timber, two pieces of wood, and the tremendous truth of the mountain of scripture and depths of the heart of God and the truth of God is actually centered in what happened on that cross.
And my hope and my prayer is that we will get a greater appreciation and not simply speak about the cross, but an appreciation of what that cross embodies, what Paul meant a little in a little bit when he says in first Corinthians chapter one, that the word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness, but unto us which are being saved, it is the power of God.
And so as we look at that, I want you to think that in every case in historically, a cross was something ugly. There was a young Russian couple one time, I remember reading an account of this young couple and they were Russian, they were on a train, they were going through the subway in Paris, France.
And as they sat there, they were close companions, perhaps they had just been married or whatever. And at one of the train stations, there was, as it stopped, there was an old and ugly woman that was dressed in the uniform of Salvation Army.
She was bent over, she was stooped, her face had been etched, she had some deformity, and she sat down in a seat nearby this Russian couple on the train in Paris. The two people, the couple whispered to each other in Russian about how repulsive this woman looked as she sat there, and they looked at her.
One stop after another, and then the woman got up, and just as she got up and cleared that space by them, she looked at them and said to them in perfect Russian, I was not always ugly. There was a time she was beautiful, she wasn't always ugly, but when it comes to the cross, it was always ugly, except for one exception.
One time, one place, and on Calvary, that cross that was such an embodiment of criminal judgment, of authority of government to deal with, of reproach, of shame, of hatred. God turned it into something for his glory, and not just for the moment, and not just against one individual, but for all of us sitting in this room, and for eternity, the cross.
I want you to think about the teaching of the cross, because when we come to that teaching of the cross, it's not just the fact, and that's why I 12, it's not just a matter of death or dying. You see, because this was a death that was decreed.
This was a death that was defined, and in John chapter 12, we read that word, and it says this, this he spake signifying what death he should die, right? There's three times that expression occurs in John's gospel, and signifying the death of individuals, that their death would have significance, and not just the matter that they would die, but how they would die, and why they would die.
Twice of the Lord Jesus, once of Peter, in John chapter 21, when Peter would be old, and he would be taken, and he would be, he himself would be crucified. Signifying, the idea means a sign. It means the idea of something that has meaning behind it.
You see, when it comes to people dying, people die all the time. Even when it comes to the truth of the lamb, there were lambs that would die even in the wilderness. There were lambs that would die in their pens.
There would be, I'm not trying to minimize or be irreverent on that. All I'm saying is this, when it comes to the death of the cross, this was something that was always enacted upon by others upon the victim, and understanding that gives tremendous weight and meaning to the Lord Jesus statement that, if anyone wants to be my disciple, you have to deny yourself, because you could never take up your cross unless you did that first.
And then he's saying, and follow me. So that when it comes to the truth, really, of Christianity, for the most part, it's a truth of fellowship, right? It's a truth of companionship. It's a truth, here we are together in this room together, we're enjoying fellowship, the word of God is open, it's preached to a congregation in a congregational way, but when it comes to this truth, there's no companionship, there's no fellowship, apart from being with the Lord Jesus himself.
And it's not a truth that's suicidal, I want to be careful, but it is sanctifying. So that when a person would take upon themselves the cross, it meant certain death. It meant an execution. And the Lord Jesus now calls upon individuals in discipleship to take their cross, follow him, denying themselves by doing that.
So there was definitely, when it comes to the teaching of the cross, the cross is something that was decreed, it was something that was defined, it was something that was symbolic. You see, the law, when God gave the law, Romans chapter three makes it clear that the law slew the world, really.
We're all condemned under God's law. So when God gave the law, really, it was evident that the law slew the world as it were. But when the cross happened, basically, it was saying that the world slew him.
And when you bring the two things together, it shows our absolute condemnation. That's why so often with the truth of the cross, and I'll get into this in a moment, you have the truth of reconciliation, being reconciled, being enemies of God that need to be brought near.
And it's not that God needed to be reconciled to us, we needed to be reconciled to him. And that's what's seen in the cross. So that when it comes to the cross, it is also the display of the world's rejection.
It wasn't just Israel's rejection, right? Israel's rejection brought him to the threshold of the cross, but it was the Gentile world that crucified him. And it was the Gentile world that you remember, put that sign over his head, that brought all the world together, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, right, all of it, every aspect of the world, pooling together, saying one tremendous, blasphemous, twisted, perverted, amen, at the crucifixion of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Away with him. We will not have this man to reign over us. So that it was a death that, well, that was displayed. And my point in saying the teaching of the cross is this, there was nothing accidental about the death of the cross.
People can die in a hundred different ways, but crucifixion didn't just happen. It was done by others to its victim. The other thing about the teaching of the cross is this, it was prophetic, because God is actually showing he can shape history.
He can move within it, fulfilling prophecies of it. When it comes to that, Deuteronomy chapter 21, the book of Leviticus, curse it as everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Psalm 22, God is pointing ahead to a narrow window of time in which crucifixion must happen, because before that and after that, it's a very, well, a very unknown mode of death.
And so God is moving so that Galatians tells us that when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son. Not only his entrance into the world was linked with time and prophecy, Micah chapter five, but his exodus from the world was linked in prophecy and time.
Tremendous truth. And the Lord Jesus could not have died in any way. I know the Bible tells us very clearly that Christ died over and over again. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, right?
But there are aspects of that death, nuances of truth that are brought into clarification, into reality, theological truth that is brought about the blood of his cross, the reconciliation of the cross.
There are aspects. Young men, oh, everyone, study it. It will give you a tremendous appreciation for the depths of what your Lord did for you and all that's involved in it. And even then we're just scratching the surface.
When it comes to all of this, it's, there's a theological aspect of the cross. As you go through the new Testament, the theological aspect in the book of acts, for example, Peter is preaching. And he says to them right at the very beginning in chapter two, in chapter four, right?
He says, he says, by wicked hands, you have slain, you have crucified. Everything was fresh because the cross had just occurred not too long before that. Right? So in the book of acts, what Peter is doing, there's the theological impact of the guilt.
They were guilty of the death of Christ. Now, yes, God provided it, but what has to be brought home. And when we preach the gospel, men that preach the gospel, make sure that you preach the guiltiness of the center for the death of Christ.
That has to be preached. There has to be that personal recognition of why he died. And then when you come to that, not only the book of acts, but then you go to the book of Romans and Romans tells us this, knowing this, that our old man is crucified, right?
So Romans tells us that God judged what I was in Adam. And it goes right back to that. And then through the cross, God has judged so that the cross death of Christ was not only a death, it was a judgmental death.
It was an execution. Corinthian epistle chapters one and two, we read that God has condemned the world in its place, in its philosophies, in its pursuits. And then in second Corinthians, we're reminded it's interesting in a book that is so autobiographical of the apostle Paul's own experiences.
What do we read there about the cross? He was crucified in weakness. Paul has been talking about his own weakness, his own, but he says, no, there was someone who in the seeming weakness of that event brought about the greatest power ever known in the book of Galatians.
The cross is the end of the law, right? The law saw its own end. And so I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. If you go through the prison epistles, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, the two ideas linked with that cross are reconciliation and peace.
Very, very significant reconciliation and peace. And while Paul writes about the two Jew and Gentile, right? That middle wall of partition that was broken down, right? Between the two forming of one, right?
One new man, those two ideas, reconciliation and peace. What did the Jew long for? Shalom, peace. What does the Gentile need, right? We were out reconciliation, right? So those two things are brought about through the cross.
And it's very, very interesting that where were those epistles written from? They're written from a prison, prison epistles, right? They were written where men were kept that were enemies of the state, right?
There were those that were separated due to crimes that they had been committed, prison, right? So isn't it interesting that Paul writes about reconciliation through the cross while he himself is in a prison innocently?
But he says, I'm innocent maybe of this, but he says all the world is guilty and we need reconciliation. And that only comes about through the cross. But when you come to the book of Hebrews, the theological impact now is there's reproach associated, reproach.
And Hebrews chapter 13 tells us, let us go forth therefore outside the camp unto him bearing his reproach. But I think what is very interesting is this, the last book in our Bible, Revelation. Revelation brings before us, I think as our brother William was reading at first, a summation of the hatred of all the kingdoms of the world against God and his Christ.
That has been from the moment of the fall, the moment that these world systems and kingdoms were brought into being, Cain goes out, establishes, right? Establishes his own city and on and on it goes until we come to Revelation.
And it's very, very interesting. In Revelation chapter 11, it talks about the two witnesses that were slain. And as they were slain, it says, their bodies lay in the street and they became a spectacle to the world.
And the antichrist who rises up that no one was able to conquer these two witnesses. And this man now vaunts himself as a Superman and says, I did it. And the world wonders after the beast and their bodies of these two witnesses lay in the street.
But you know what it says? It says, and their dead bodies, Revelation 11 in verse eight, shall lie in the street of the great city called Sodom, Egypt, where our Lord was crucified. You know, they wouldn't even allow them to be buried.
They wouldn't even allow them to be buried. They even gave Judas a burial. They don't give these two men. What's the point of that statement? Because the Lord Jesus didn't, wasn't crucified. And it doesn't say he died.
It says where he was crucified, Sodom, Egypt. What is the point of that? The point of that is this, that it's saying, this is the very spirit of the world that cast him out. And the cross revealed that the cross exposed what this world is and what you and I were once part of and God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh on that cross.
And he was able to reconcile us who were enemies, but that's the spirit of the world, the spirit of the world in, in Sodom, in, in the wickedness of, of immorality and perversion, the spirit of Egypt in, in the Polishness and the poshness, the academic world, the world of the intelligent, the woke world that is absolutely asleep.
And even more than that, they're dead tired. That is why dear brother and sister, when it comes to the truth of the cross, when you and I get a hold of what is truly expressed in that cross, I'm going to link it and take it back to my dear brother, William's message.
How can we dabble and move and prop up and, and really even in any way, shape or form support that world that has crucified our Lord Jesus Christ. When it comes to this, that's the theological impact.
I, I'd like to say more on that, but I'm just going to, I'm just going to, I'm just going to say this, that when it comes to the cross as well, it's interesting Philippians chapter two, that well-known passage tells us that he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
It doesn't just leave us at his death, but as if to further emphasize, to further bring about the depths of that cross, that death, even the death of the cross. Now for that cross to occur, you have to have two things.
You have two things that come out of it. One is incarnation. And that's the section. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, took upon himself the form of a servant, the incarnation as he steps into time.
And what comes, that's what goes into the cross being able to happen. What comes out of it? Glorification. Wherefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.
Here is a world that has bowed to idols. Here is a world that has confessed blasphemous things, spoken words that shouldn't even be done in secret, but they do it. And in one moment of time in the future, God is going to force every knee, every mouth by the Savior, rather the Lord, that they said, we will not have this man.
God is going to take that cross and display his son with the very wounds that he received on that cross as a display to that world. You were wrong. And so you have all of this. Judicially, the truth of crucifixion is a wonderful thing too in Galatians 2, because it tells us that we who are dead now are actually alive.
That God judged what I was in Adam, that now as far as the condemnation of the law, as far as judicial judgment, can't touch us. Can't touch us. Dead. There's been stories of people that have had the same name.
I remember reading one account of two men, a Jeremy Bass and a Jeremy Lee Bass. And they had the same name in Idaho. And they went into the hospital and one man died and the other one didn't. And what happened was all the hospital bills for the one man went to the other man who had very little minor surgery and the other man had extensive surgery.
He had to do so much to prove he hadn't died, rather the other man died. Everything was taken care of. But once the law found out that, of course, they couldn't touch him. Can't bring bills, charges, legal charges against someone who's dead.
That's the point. You want to know about eternal security? There it is. There's one aspect of it. There's many other aspects of it. And it's interesting. And not only that, but for the Christian, we are now alive.
I was reading a story about two Vietnam veterans. And there are three of them actually. They went before, if anybody's ever been there, Washington, D .C. And there's the Vietnam Vets Memorial. And it's striking for its simplicity.
Etched in a large black granite wall are the names of 58 ,156 Americans who died in that war, the Vietnam War. It opened in 1982. And people who go by it, I've been there myself, the stark monument of it just elicits deep emotions.
I've seen people stand there and cry. Some visitors walk its length slowly, some reverently, some without pause. Others stop before certain names. They're looking down. They're remembering maybe their son, maybe a sweetheart, maybe a fellow soldier from a specific platoon.
And they're wiping away tears, tracing their names. But for three Vietnam veterans, it's very interesting, one day, Robert Bedecker, Willard Craig, and Darrell Losh, a visit for that memorial one day was especially poignant.
And if they go there now again and again, they can relive it because they can walk up to that long ebony wall. And as they look down the wall, they can actually find their own names on the wall. It's interesting.
There was carved in the stone there. And it was a data coding error by the government. And each of them was incorrectly listed as killed in action. And now, when they see that, they say, well, we're dead.
But we're very much alive. You know, you're a believer here today. You've died. But you are very much alive. And the life principle now is so far greater, so different. You have life now that equips you for eternity, for heaven, to be able to do what you could never do.
Why would we dabble in those things that are marked with the stench, and the smell, and the degradation, and the decay of death? They knew right well when it came to Lazarus. Four days, he stinks. You ever look at the world and say, it stinks?
It's marked by death. But you know the tomb of the Lord Jesus after he was crucified? There was a fragrance, wasn't there? Even a fragrance that that body anointed. I tell you what, when it comes to this, that Russian woman, she said, I wasn't always ugly.
And except for one exception, and one exception only, the cross has always been ugly. Thank God for the beauty of Calvary, the beauty of Christ. I want to tell you the totality of that cross very quickly.
I read John 12, 32, and I said, I'm going to get back to this. And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men, or all, just drop the men, I will draw all unto me. And then I read that in Colossians 1, 20, because it says, he will reconcile all things unto himself.
Colossians chapter 2, later on in the chapter, chapter 2, tells us that he has vanquished all foes. He makes a show of them openly in his resurrection, triumphing over the minute. And so we know that because of the cross, he ultimately will vanquish all his foes and that subsequent resurrection.
But reconciling all things in that passage tells us simply this, that there is a reconciliation between God and men. We needed to be reconciled. We needed to be brought back. We were enemies of God. But it also tells us that there is also reconciliation between men.
The Jew and the body, right? This middle wall of partition, that's broken down. It tells us he is our peace. Ephesians 2, who has made both one, hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances.
And it says, so making peace that he might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. But there's also another aspect between men and creation. You see, once the fall of man occurred, everything changed.
And the creation itself now is now pitted against men. There are irreconcilable differences, if we can say it that way, that what man was able to do prior to the fall in the control, that is lost. Now you go in the jungles of Africa, you fear for your life.
And it's no longer, you know, now creation itself, right? What is it? The lion and the lamb, the wolf and the lamb, and so on. You try putting them together now, it's not going to bode well for the lamb, okay?
But in the future, what is that the result of? The curse is removed, right? Follow me on this, please. What the curse is removed. How could that happen? You know how? Curse, it is everyone that hangeth upon a tree.
Christ was made a curse. Please, brethren, be careful on one thing. Be clear on one thing. When it comes to 2 Corinthians 5, and the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus, do not quote that and say, he became sin.
He never became sin. He was made sin in the sense that he was made accountable as a sinner, him himself being intrinsically holy. But when it comes to the curse, it is different. He became a curse. And that is why now the creation, listen, what I'm trying to say is this, everything that God is going to do and accomplish is on the basis of that cross.
Everything. And the subsequent resurrection. Get in your minds and your hearts from the word of God, the depths of truth that is contained and expressed in the cross. It is tremendous. It's marvelous.
The timelessness of this cross as well. We have it because the very wounds of the Lord Jesus, the marks upon his body, all of this, the words pointing to the cross, the wounds that he endured, even the walk of the believer today, and the warfare that is taking place in this world is all a continuation of the truth of that cross.
Let me just tell you lastly about the transformation of the cross. Because you see, a person who was on a cross was deemed worthless, unwanted, condemned, and even a danger to society, an enemy of the government, treasonous.
God turns all that around. And the believer who falls at the foot of the cross, the believer who recognizes the value and worth of the Christ of the cross, now is seen to have value. Value in your life.
Maybe there's somebody here today, I don't know, in this smaller audience, maybe you're struggling. Do I have value? Where am I? You do. There's value prior, but there's inestimable value following. The Lord Jesus says, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?
That is a personal value to you. But sadly, that is not value to God in a lost soul. But when a person trusts Christ, there is not only value to you, there's value to God. And He turns that life around.
What a tremendous thing. Only a life that is saved is really a life that's been to the cross. And so the tomorrow of the cross, finally. A man bearing a cross has no tomorrow, at least as that person.
But if you're saved here, you have been crucified with Christ. Three crosses. We sing three crosses standing side by side. I'm not talking about the three crosses with the two thieves and the Lord Jesus.
I'm talking about the three crosses where the cross, this world has been crucified. The Lord Jesus has been crucified and I've been crucified. And so for a man that was crucified as that person, they have no future.
But if you're saved, you're not living now as that person. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. So as I leave this subject, again, your life, the life you have now, eternal life now is not only on the basis of that cross work of Christ.
And now you're being put to death with him in execution style. If I can say that there is an execution, there is an exchange, and then there is a subsequent wonderful expression of the power of God at life in the believer.
And now the place that we occupy as believers in the world that has crucified our Lord and given him a cross, we are associated with him. Bearing his reproach, not part of that same world, lifted from the condemnation of it.
So dear child of God, whether you're a girl or a boy or a man or a woman, whatever, if you are saved, please get a good look at that cross. Get a good look at that world that crucified him. And most importantly, get a good look at that Christ that has died for you once again.