The Necessity of the Cross

Mark 8:27-33:

27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" 28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

Matthew 16:13-17:

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

We now come to the significant occasion when Peter for the first time made an explicit confession of Jesus as Messiah and then came to grasp – after protest – the necessity of the cross. This was the turning point in Jesus’ ministry. Prior to this point, Jesus always had a fierce command to people to keep them silent about the miracles they had seen. It is what is called the “messianic secret.” Jesus did not want people to know the fact of his messiahship until they were ready to grasp its nature. I am not even sure we are ready to grasp the true nature of the messiahship.

Before we come to the confrontation between Jesus and Peter, it may be helpful to fill in some of the hisotrical background. For more than 700 years Israel had been oprressed by the sucessive empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome – except for a brief intoxication period under the Maccabees. At the turn of the first century, a number of apocalyptic movements arose, whose leaders made wild promises. Yahweh was about to intervene through the Messiah, they said; Israel’s enemies would be destoyed in a violent and bloody conflict, and the messianic age of peace and freedom would dawn.

Galilee itself was a hotbed of such expectations, and some were focusing their hope on Jesus of Nazareth. Thus John records that “Jesus, kowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself” (John 6:15). But Jesus had not come to be some kind of military Messiah. Hence the command to silence.

But now, once Peter had confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the disciples should be ready to learn about the sufferings of the Messiah. So Jesus “began to teach them [it was a new instruction] that the Son of Man must suffer many things and…..be killed” (Mark 8:31). Moreover, he spoke this plainly and openly; there was no need for silence. Peter listened and the exploded. “Never, Lord!...This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22). Peter would have been familiar with the figure of the Son of Man in Daniel chapter 7, who was given “authority, glory and sovereign power” (Daniel 7:14) so that all nations would worship him. How then could the Son of Man suffer? It was a contradiction in terms. So Peter was brash enough to rebuke Jesus, and Jesus now rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said (Matthew 16:23). The same Peter who had received a divine revelation had now become an object of Satanic deception.

Still today the voice of Peter sometimes drowns the voice of Christ. For like Peter many people deny the necessity of the cross. The cross is still a stumbling block to human pride. It is the most offensive thing to an arrogant humanity. (adapted from John Stott)

Happy Thanksgiving!

pcraig

A Triumphant Conqueror

Just before Jesus yielded up His spirit, and interesting statement is made. Go back to Luke 23 and read it; just before, after He had said, “I’m thirsty,” after He had triumphantly said, “It is finished (tetelestai)", just before He gave up His spirit, verse 46 of Luke 23 says, “And Jesus crying out with a loud voice." This is very important! Matthew 27:50 says the same thing as well as Mark 15:37. It would be impossible for a crucified victim to do that if he were dying a natural death because you die of asphyxiation, no oxygen, no strength, barely able to whisper and incoherent in the trauma; this is the death by crucifixion. But He is strong, and He is triumphant. He said in John 10, “The Great Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” He said, “No one takes My life from Me, I lay it down on My own initiative. I have power to lay it down, or authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. Nobody takes My life.” This is the proof, “He cries out with a loud voice, He shouts at the top of His lungs in full strength.” What does He say? “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.”

Well, all the Jews around there would have understood that phrase. That was Psalm 31:5, a very familiar verse. In fact, it was so familiar, it was their evening prayer. It was their night prayer before they went to bed. It was their “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer. “Into Your hands I commit My spirit,” very familiar to all of them. They prayed it regularly.

But there were two changes Jesus made in it. First, He added something, “Father,” sweet communion has been established. Hell was there for three hours on Calvary, and then it was gone. The punishment is over. The suffering is over. Sweet communion with the Father is reestablished.

And then He left something out. Psalm 31:5 ends like this, “You have ransomed Me, O God, God of truth,” or, “You have redeemed Me.” Well it was not He who was redeemed at the cross, He was the Redeemer. The precision of Scripture is something, isn’t it? He added Father to let us know that that relationship was all that we would expect it to be. He took out the part about being redeemed because He wasn’t redeemed, He was the Redeemer. Jesus borrows that Psalm because Psalm 31 is about the prayer of a righteous sufferer who is in the midst of His suffering saying, “All I can do is commit My heart to You, commit My spirit to You, commit My life to You.” And Jesus is the perfect, sinless, righteous sufferer who in death expresses perfect trust in His Father’s love and promise to receive Him.

That’s what Peter said, didn’t he? He didn’t revile, he committed himself to a faithful Creator. By the way, Stephen borrowed that. Remember when Stephen died he said, “Jesus, receive my spirit,” just as Jesus said, “Father, receive Mine.”

This is our triumphant, majestic, sovereign, death conqueror...

I love Him today. Do you?

pcraig

The Sixth and Seventh Statements: Jesus Christ the Death Conqueror

As promised, here are my message slides from this past Thursday night in GA and Friday night in the OC. I will actually blog more of my message itself in the near future, but in the mean time here are all of the Scriptures that I shared. You can see the progression of the fulfillment of the OT prophecies in Christ's death.

Sixth Statement:

Seventh Statement:

Much love,

pcraig

Christ's Resurrection - the Assurance of Forgiveness

’If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile: you are still in your sins.” – 1 Corinthians 15:7

The second significance of the resurrection is that it assures us of God’s forgiveness. I need to note that forgiveness is both one of our basic human needs and one of God’s best gifts through the gospel. I have read the statement of the head of a large English mental hospital: “I could dismiss half my patients tomorrow if they could be assured of forgiveness.” For all of us have a skeleton or two in some dark cupboard – memories of things we have thought, said, or done, of which in our better moments we are thoroughly ashamed. Our conscience nags, condemns, even torments us.

Several times during his public ministry Jesus spoke words of forgiveness and peace, and in the upper room her referred to the communion cup as his “blood of the covenant….…poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). Thus he linked our forgiveness with his death.

That is what Jesus said. But how can we know that he was correct, that he achieved by his death what he said he would achieve, and that God has accepted his death in our place as a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for our sins? The answer is that, if he had remained dead, we would never have known. Rather, without the resurrection we would have to conclude that his death was a failure. The apostle Paul saw this logic clearly. The terrible consequences of no resurrection, he wrote, would be that the apostles are false witnesses, believers are unforgiven, and the Christian dead have perished. But in fact, Paul continued, Christ was raised from the dead, and by raising him, God has assured us that he approved of his sin-bearing death, that he did not die in vain, and that those who trust in him receive a full and free forgiveness. The resurrection validates the cross. (adapted from John Stott)

Just a few questions to keep you thinking:

a. Have you been forgiven? Have you forgiven yourself for things that you have done?

b. Why do we often hold on to things in our lives that even God Himself has already forgiven? We can be assured we are forgiven since Christ was raised from the dead.

c. Is this a new devotion to you? What have you learned from it?

Secret Service Tomorrow at 11:00!

Tomorrow morning - we invite you to join us here at the north campus as we take part in Operation Christmas Child for our November Secret Service here at theTURN!

As we told you last night in service, we will be

gathering together this Saturday for 2 hours to participate in world missions through Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child....

We are asking that if you are interested in being a part of this outreach, you do the following:

1.) Purchase your gifts and bring them with you Saturday, dependent upon which category of child you are wanting to buy for.

Categories: 2-4 yrs old - boy, 2-4 yrs old gi

rl, 5-9 yrs old boy, 5-9 yrs old girl, 10-14 yrs old boy, 10-14 yrs old girl

Gift ideas:

Toys - small cars, dolls, stuffed animals, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, small Etch a Sketch, light up toys, slinky

School Supplies - pens, pencils, sharpen

er, crayons, or marker, stamps, ink pads, writing pads, paper, calculators

Hygiene Items - toothbrush, toothpaste, mild bar soap, comb, washcloth

Other - hard candy and lollipops, mints, gu

m, t-shirts, socks, caps, sunglasses, toy jewelry, watches

2.) Bring a shoe box to pack all of your items in.

We will wrap the boxes here at the church on Saturday in our time together - we will provide the wrapping paper and wrapping supplies.

3.) Bring an extra seven dollars cash with you to help cover shipping and other project costs. This is an Operation Christmas Child co

st. Each shoe box you are desiring to give requires $7.

Come be a part of what theTURN is doing to reach out to kids around the world during this Christmas season!

Thanksgiving Blowout Tonight!

Looking forward to a great night together! I sense in my heart a strong faith to believe for an unusual move of the Spirit; so just wanted to let you know to get ready.

Be in prayer today as much as possible for what God wants to accomplish tonight in our lives - we need to come in having already stirred ourselves up for His move. I believe that each of you that are here tonight will sense the move of His Spirit - the question remains: will you be in a position before Him capable of receiving His life, direction, supervision, grace, wisdom, and love?

I pray so.

Can't wait!

pcraig

Christ's Resurrection - the Symbol of Power

“That you may know….his incomparably great power…which he exerted in Chirst when he raised him from the dead.” – Ephesians 1:18-20

The resurrection of Jesus Christ also assures us of God’s power. For we need God’s power in the present as well as his forgiveness of the past. Is God really able to change human nature, to make cruel people kind and sour people sweet? Is he able to take people who are dead to spiritual reality and make them alive in Christ? Yes, he really is! He is able to give life to the spiritually dead and transform us into the likeness of Christ.

But how can these claims be substantiated? Only because of the resurrection. Paul prays that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened, so that we may know “his incomparably great power for us who believe” (v.19). How may we know this? In addition to the inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, God has given us an outward, public, objective demonstration of it in the resurrection. For the power available to us today is the very same power “which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (v.20). The resurrection is thus portrayed as the supreme evidence in history of the creative power of God.

We are always in danger of trivializing the gospel, of minimizing what God is able to do for us and in us. We speak of becoming a Christian as if it were no more than turning over a new leaf and making a few superficial adjustments to an otherwise secular life. But no, becoming and being a Christian, according to the New Testament, is an event so radical that no language can do it justice except death and resurrection – death to the old life of self-centeredness and resurrection to a new life of love. In brief, the same God of supernatural power who raised Jesus from physical death can raise us from spiritual death. We know he can raise us because we know that he raised him. Now our prayer is that in every aspect of our lives we may “know Christ and the power of his resurrection” (Phil. 3:10).

a. For God to move a person from death to life, it takes the same power that raised Christ from the dead. What does this tell us about salvation?

b. Can you now see why salvation is the greatest miracle of all? When you were saved, God used the same power as He did when He resurrected Jesus from the dead.

c. Do you see why we can believe for God to take even our most difficult friends and bring them to Himself? He can take our most lost friends and family members and raise them to spiritual life because of this great power.

d. Take some time in your own life to pray for the lost friends and family members around you.

See you tom night!

pcraig