The Cross - Our Way of Life (2)

 

 

“Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:45 – 46).

 

“The cup that I drink you shall drink; and you shall be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized” (Mark 10:10:39).

 

To be called into the fellowship of His sufferings is to be called into depths of Divine mystery. Whether with the psalmist of Psalm 22, with Jesus on Calvary, or with Paul and his friends in their affliction in Asia (2 Cor. 1:2 – 11), we are called to places we will not always understand, places not always visible to the natural eye.

 

Paul writes, “We were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8 – 9).

 

Paul knew that the sufferings he and his companions experienced were for the blessing of others. “We are comforted by God so that we may comfort you” (2 Cor. 1:4). “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation” (2 Cor. 1:6).

 

“So death works in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12).

 

Do we not see our Lord Jesus in Paul?

 

“We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

There is, my friends, a shame associated with the Cross of Christ. We are told that we are to “go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach” (Heb. 13:13).

 

Jesus was not ashamed of His shame; He despised it in the light of the joy set before Him. Likewise, we ought not to be ashamed of the shame that the world, the flesh, and even the religious world associates with following the Christ of the Cross, of being associated with the Cross of Christ, of hanging on the Cross with Jesus for the world to see.

 

Paul writes, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 1:16).

 

The Gospel is foolishness in many ways to the world, it appears weak to the world (and to many professing Christians, which I suppose is why we employ the ways of the world), but we are to “know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2; see also 1:17 – 31).

 

This foolishness of the Gospel extends from Jesus dying on the Cross to reconcile us to God, into the Way we live our lives for Him and others. Jesus says that if we are to follow Him that we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. He asks the quite reasonable question, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and lose his soul?” (Mark 8:34 – 38). Jesus tells us that we must lose our lives for His sake and the Gospel.

 

Paul writes, “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15).

 

Whether we are seeing Jesus in the Gospels, in Psalm 22, Psalm 116, Psalm 118, Isaiah 53, or elsewhere throughout the Bible, we can be assured that the darkness will lift and the light of the glory of God will shine on His servant, on His Son, in glorification and joy and pleasure. This is true of the Body of Christ, and it is true of you and of me, it is true of us.

 

We are indeed called to be broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus for others. We are the fish and bread with which He feeds the multitudes. We are the lambs the Good Shepherd chooses to give their lives on behalf of others. O what glory to be chosen by our Shepherd, to know that we are in His arms and hands as He offers us up, just as the Father so loved the world that He gave His Son Jesus Christ. Can there be any more glorious fellowship?

 

Some Christians think that Jesus died so that they would not have to suffer, this is a lie. One of the reasons Jesus died on the Cross was that He might bear the wrath of the judgment of God for sin and sins; that our sins might be atoned for and that our sinful selves might be put to death on the Cross, buried with Him, and that we might be raised to newness of life in Christ Jesus – a New Man (Romans chapters 1 – 8).

 

Because we are now raised to newness of life in Jesus Christ, we are called to the life of the Cross, called indeed to suffer; not to suffer for our sins, not to suffer the wrath of God, but to suffer for the glory of God and the blessing of others. We are called to suffer as our Father transforms us into the image of the Firstborn Son.

 

One way to put this is that because of Jesus’ death on the Cross we do not suffer the wrath of God but are now called to suffer for the sake of Christ and others. Jesus did not die so that we might live life on earth in some kind of Christian Disneyland, but so that He could send us into a world of pain and suffering and chaos and hunger and death – so that we might bring the light and love and grace and mercy of Jesus Christ to others…so that the Cross of Christ and the Christ of the Cross might be seen in us and through us.

 

During this season of Lent, will we enter into the sufferings of Jesus Christ? Will we seek to know the fellowship of His sufferings (Phil. 3:10)?

 

Will we and our congregations become broken bread and poured out wine for others?

 

The Cross - Our Way of Life (1)

 

“But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household” (John 19:25 – 27).

 

This was a horrid and cruel scene; a violent and bloody and drawn-out torture of three men filled with taunts directed to the One in the center. “If you are the Son of God, save Yourself, come down from the cross!” When the veil is drawn back, we often see the world’s leadership for what it is, including its religious leadership – here we see the “heirs” of Moses and Abraham not as they purport to be, but as their hearts truly are. What about our hearts?

 

Whether we trace our inheritance to the Fathers, to a branch of the Reformation, to the Ancient East, to more recent traditions and distinctives, or even to the Apostles; what about our own hearts?

 

The mother of Jesus stands by her Son in His agonizing death. Thank God she is not alone, other women are with her, and the disciple whom Jesus loves is there. Amid the shouts, the jeers, the gambling away of His clothing (is anyone selling popcorn?), the life of Jesus is ebbing away, His blood is dripping from the cross; it is on the wood, on the ground…is the blood of Jesus on those gathered around Him? Are Mary’s tears intermingled with Jesus’ blood?

 

Where are the multitudes whom Jesus has fed?

 

Where are the lepers He cleansed?

 

Where are the many who followed Him?

 

Where are the few who were with Him in the Upper Room?

 

These are not questions that matter so much, the question that matters is, “Where am I?”

 

Where are you?

 

Today, it is not enough to ask, “Am I standing by the cross?”

 

I must ask, “If I am standing by a cross, which cross am I standing by?”

 

Am I standing by a cross that has a dollar sign affixed to it? Is it a cross with a national flag wrapped around it? Is it a cross used to budgeon, imprison, and trample on others? Is it a cross employed to gather votes? Has the cross I am standing by been wrapped in cotton candy and entertainment? Has it had a “do over” to make it attractive and tasteful and profitable?

 

There are typically only two types of crowds around a cross, one crowd is crucifying the Son of God, the other crowd is around a cross they have made to order – a Christless cross. Perhaps the only place we shall see a faithful crowd around the true Cross is in heaven…at least until heaven is manifested fully on earth.

 

If there is no reproach, no shame…there is likely no true Cross with Christ crucified.

 

We are taught that we are to “Go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come” (Hebrews 13:13 – 14). How tragic when professing Christians are made the servants and slaves of the powers, leaders, and agendas of this world.

 

The Cross is offensive, it is foolishness, it is a stumbling block – it always has been, in this present age it always will be (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:2).

 

On Easter morning the message of His resurrection first came to those women who had stood by the Cross of Jesus. As we know Him in the koinonia of His sufferings, we will know Him in the koinonia of His Resurrection!

 

 

 

Confrontation in Nazareth (14)

 

“Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, Your Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; behold, I will not retrain my lips, O LORD, You know’” (Psalm 40:6 – 9; see also Hebrews 10:5 – 10).

 

When Jesus says in Nazareth, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing (Luke 4:21), He is also fulfilling Psalm 40:6 – 9. We may hear five voices in Psalm 40: the voice of David, the Voice of Jesus Christ, the voice of the man or woman in Jesus Christ, the Voice of the Body of Christ, and the Voice of the whole Christ. In Christ, these voices are One, they are the Voice of many waters.

 

In Hebrews 10, Psalm 40 is quoted from the LXX, and here we have the notable, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for me.” As with the “voice” of Psalm 40, so with the “body” of Psalm 40. We see the body of King Daivd, the body of Jesus Christ in the Incarnation, the body of the individual man or woman in Christ, the corporate Body which the Father prepared for the Son – that is the Body of Christ, and we may also see the Body of the whole Christ – Head and Body.

 

I expect it may take us time to meditate on these things and to begin to “see” them in Christ, but that is as it should be, they cannot be understood or “seen” in the natural (1 Corinthians Chapter 2).

 

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

 

We all have a purpose and destiny in this life, and it has many dimensions and unfolds in many ways...none of which we can fully understand, such is the mystery of it all in Christ. We all are called to say, “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

 

We are called to say this as individuals, as marriages and families, as local congregations, as the Body of Christ. As an individual I am called to not only say this for myself, but if I am married I have a calling within my marriage, if I have a family I have a calling as a member of my family, and I have a calling as a member of Christ’s Body, both locally and transcendently. I must not think solely in terms of myself, my calling and purpose and destiny is so much more than “Jesus and me,” it is about others, both those who know Jesus and those who have yet to meet Jesus.

 

Are we encouraging one another to discover and fulfill our callings in Christ Jesus?

 

Are we as husbands and wives seeking to discover and fulfill what has been written the book for us to fulfill?

 

Are our congregations viewing themselves as a people with a calling and destiny for their particular time and place that manifests itself in worship, the building up of the Body of Christ, and sacrificial mission to the world?

 

When our brothers and sisters venture out to discover their calling, do we, as the people of Nazareth say, “Who does she think she is?”

 

When someone in our midst speaks of the widow of Sidon or of Namaan the Syrian, do we respond with anger or with thanksgiving and compassion?

 

Should someone bring into our presence a Sidonian or Syrian will we embrace them, love them, care for them, and protect them?

 

Dear friends, in one sense until the Book becomes our book it is just a book. When Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in the synagogue in Nazareth He makes Isaiah His book. Yes, yes, for sure it has always been His Book, but in an incarnational sense He is consummating (or beginning the consummation) it when He reads it and then says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

Now we know and believe that the words of the Bible are the words of God, the Word of God. We also acknowledge that this Word was delivered through human beings, and as such carries the flavor of the person just as wine carries the flavor of the cask in which it was aged. With this in mind, until the Word of God becomes your Word in Christ, until it ages within your heart and soul and mind and spirit, until it resides within you…you cannot call it yours, you can only call it something “out there.”

 

O dear, dear friends! The New Covenant is not “out there”! It is “in here.” “I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them” (Hebrews 10:16). Do we see that the Old Covenant is external, while the New Covenant is internal? Can we see that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit come to live within us in the New Covenant?

 

We are called to say, “This Word is mine in Christ. I will read this Word and live in this Word among my brothers and sisters. Together we will read this Word and live in this Word and manifest this Word to one another and to the world.”

 

I recall one morning in a small group about eight years ago. We were in John Chapter 14, the first few verses, about the Father’s House. There was much talk, much speculation, and the guys tended to talk over each other at times. As I listened I heard one of the men quietly say, “If it isn’t happening within you, if it isn’t real inside of you, then it doesn’t matter.”

 

I think I may have been the only one who heard what this brother said, and I have often wondered if I should have called a “timeout” and asked him to repeat himself. I wish I had done so.

 

Jesus invites us to know Him in the koinonia of His Word, to share His Life in His Word, to read Isaiah aloud, to read Psalms aloud, and to confess, “This day this Scripture is being fulfilled in my life, in our lives, in the Body of Christ; this day we are becoming one with the Word and the Word is becoming one with us.”

 

In the scroll of the book it is written of Christ Jesus, of you in Christ, of me in Christ, of us in Christ.