|
|
|
|
I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
Where did the church of the Lord Jesus Christ ever get the idea that it costs nothing to follow and be a disciple?
Partly because of the great payment it took to redeem me. This took the sacrifice of the Christ. We have rightly concentrated on the short-sidedness of thinking that any of my works could pay for my sin. This is a good road; it is the right road.
When we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, we have received the full free gift of salvation.
Do you remember when you received this gift?
Do you know whether or not you have received this gift?
You can know. This is the message of salvation by grace through faith.
Once I receive the great payment that redeems me; a great journey has begun.
John Bunyan called it Pilgrim’s Progress.
There are errors that creep into the church as she continues to unfold the plan of God for this Church Age. One of them is what I would like to consider today.
If I asked you, “Does it cost anything to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?” What would your answer be?
My salvation came at greatest cost – but not to me. All I had to do is humble myself, confess my sin, and receive.
My “progress as a pilgrim” has cost me everything.
Luke 14:27 - "Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."
Matthew 10:37-38 - "Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
In our desire to preach the gospel we need to recognize an important message of Scripture: The message of the crucifixion goes on after the resurrection Sunday.
There are 3 needs that show us this.
I. I need to remember the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ everyday.
Have communion everyday with your Lord. Have a Good Friday service every day of the week.
1JN 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1JN 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
II. I need to share the message of the cross everyday.
AC 2:22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.
1CO 1:13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14 I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
1CO 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness 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; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
III. I need to practice a co-crucifixion with Christ everyday.
Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (setting is being justified by law or by grace).
Galatians 5:24 – “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (setting is being filled with the Spirit or being filled with the flesh).
Galatians 6:14 – “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation” (this world system [religious and economic] has died to me and I to them).
Romans 6:1-14 , “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should not longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (I am dead to sin but alive to God).
Notice Romans 7:4-6 (dying to what once bound us, frees us to serve in the Spirit).
Colossians 3:5 – “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature”.
Ephesians 4:20-32 – Put off old self, put on new.
In our desire to preach the gospel we need to recognize an important message of Scripture: The message of the crucifixion goes on after the resurrection Sunday.
There are 3 needs that show us this.
Salvation is a free gift that is received by faith.
Discipleship is a journey with great cost.
How would you say the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is doing?
Be careful about any message other than this.
Do not try to out wit God.
If all the messages we are hearing today were formed into lines like at a grocery store. What line would you be in?
I know myself and my flesh; thus I know much about you.
Is there a voice that is telling you that this preacher has got this all wrong? I’m standing in the pilgrim’s progress express line and it isn’t costing me a thing! What a fool to talk about giving everything! I have all I want and God.
Take a long look my friends and see what comes at the end of that line.
Is there a voice that is telling you I’ve had enough of this preaching about repentance and forgiveness in Christ’s name? I don’t believe it here at home, let alone all this foolishness about preaching it to all nations. I can live how I want and have God.
Take a long look my friends and see what comes at the end of that line.
Is there a voice that is saying, “Come and I will make you a fisher of men”? “Come follow me.” “Deny yourself take up your cross and follow me.”
What’s it going to cost? There is not a certain set of numbers – there is too much diversity for that. What is great sacrifice for one is chicken feed for another. But the Lord knows and He cares.
He is not fooled or mocked (Proverbs tells us He hate haughty eyes). May the Lord send strong conviction on each of us every time we shrink back and walk in our flesh.
He knows, blesses, and provides everything necessary for His disciples to live and to do His good will. May the Lord give us the wisdom and power to walk in the Spirit.
What will this cost? In my understanding and experience, and by the very Word of God, I simply say: It costs everything.
Take a long look my friends and see what comes at the end of that line.
“Well done thou good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a few things I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in the joy of your Lord!”
GAL 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 "A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough." 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. 11 Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
GAL 6:12 Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.
EPH 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
PHP 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
PHP 3:17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
COL 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
COL 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
PR 15:8 The LORD detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him.
PR 21:3 To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
PR 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable-- how much more so when brought with evil intent!
ECC 5:1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
Human sacrifice of our children
ISA 57:5 You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.
Jeremiah 32:35 They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.
HOS 13:2 Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, "They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols."
Living Sacrifice
Fragrant Sacrifice
EPH 5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
PHP 4:14 Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles. 15 Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only; 16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God. 19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Sacrifice of Praise
HEB 13:15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Sacrifice of Faith
PHP 2:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16 as you hold out the word of life--in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. 18 So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
|
