February 6 2011    Reading:  1 Corinthians 2.1-12

Theme: The Meaning of the Cross

Last week, we heard some extraordinary words of Paul about the Cross, its strangeness, its mystery. He writes:

18 ...the message of the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost, but for us who are being saved it is God’s power.

This week we heard that famous text from 1 Corinthians 2.2 speaking about what he taught, what he preached when he was in Corinth Paul says: ‘I preached only Jesus Christ and Him crucified.............’ or “I focused on Jesus and His Cross.”

This morning, we are able to do that too - to speak of Jesus Christ and His Cross, to focus on Jesus and His Cross. And in that way, perhaps, come to know the Cross more deeply, and so begin to know something of its power.

We may have heard bits about the Cross over the years, in the hymns at Good Friday and Easter Sunday, but is there a way to make what the Cross means clearer ? easier to understand ?

Well, there are several ways the Bible speaks about the Cross, but there is a simple, direct line which reaches all the way from near the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament, all the way from the book of Leviticus, through the great prophecies of Isaiah, through the gospels, on to Paul’s letters and finally into the book of Revelation, the last Book in the Bible.

It’s a line that points to the Cross of Jesus ........................ what is this line ?

Well, it’s found first in Leviticus:

When God called Israel out of Egypt, they were slaves living and labouring under severe oppression. Israelite families spent the whole of their short lives in forced labour. The Bible tells us that God heard their cries of sorrow and anguish and despair, answered their prayers, and called them out of Egypt and promised these landless, homeless people a land they could call home. God’s purpose in bringing them out of Egypt, in saving them from slavery, was to make them His own people. And that is what we see happening - through His servant Moses, God guides His people through the desert, at Mt. Sinai He provides a law for His people, His own law, an order for life, rules that will keep them close to Him, and He provides a place of worship. He provided a place, called the Tent of Meeting at the very centre of the camp in the desert, where the people of Israel could come, to Him, the living God.

The book of Leviticus sets out how family by family, tribe by tribe, at the harvest seasons there were great festivals when the people could come to worship God at the Tent, the Tent of Meeting. But all year round, there were other occasions when women and men came: at times of family thanksgiving, a family could bring flour cakes to the great altar, where they were offered to God. Or at other times, a burnt offering, could be brought in worship to God. And when a man or woman broke God’s law, sinned, - there was a special arrangement. God made a way for the sin and guilt of men and women to be taken away.

Here’s what we read in Leviticus 4.27-35 - not a book perhaps many might have read........ but listen. Here are the directions for the sin-offering as it is called - ‘If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, they are guilty. When they are made aware of the sin committed, this is what they are to do.........

They are to take a lamb, take it to the altar outside the Tent of Meeting, where they will meet with the priest. Leviticus 4 says, “when a man comes with a lamb he is to lay his hand on its head....... and offer it at the altar........ this will be atonement for him for the sin he has committed - he will be forgiven.” Just listen to that again - he is to lay his hand on the lamb’s head...... a sign that the sin and guilt is transferred to the lamb, so the lamb bears the penalty instead of the man..............

For the person who had sinned, who had done wrong, or said wrong, who was burdened in heart, weighed down in conscience, here was the remedy.......

Now, this might be, as Paul says, a hindrance for some, or nonsense to others. A hindrance to some because it all seems very primitive, taking a lamb, laying a hand on its head, offering it. Or nonsense to others - how can sin, or guilt be transferred to a lamb like this......... ? How can you transfer sin or guilt away ? But what if there really was a way long ago...... a way made by God Himself, for those burdened in heart, weighed down in conscience, a way to find peace, peace with God. What if, God in His power made a way long ago ...... for those burdened in heart, weighed down in conscience, to find peace, peace with Him. What if He put in place a remedy....... for sin and guilt. The fact is, if you are weighed down by the burden of sin, and the cold grip of guilt takes hold of your heart...... and God offers a remedy, you actually don’t think about hindrances or nonsense. No - you grasp with both hands what the living God offers. You eagerly take what He gives.

All of us know what guilt is like, the thought of wrong we have done, the things we have said, and the burden of that. And we may well envy the men and women of old Israel, who came slowly, solemnly, in sorrow, with a lamb......... to the altar. Those men and women knew that their sin had been laid on that lamb at the altar, so that their sin and guilt might be taken away. A deep mystery indeed, but a woman or man, would know, leaving that altar, that day, peace of mind, peace in soul, a conscience mercifully quiet, no longer accusing.

Lets keep that in mind - in laying a hand on that lamb, men and women understood that, their own sin had been transferred, and laid on that lamb, .......in a deep mystery. Offered at the altar, the pure, innocent lamb carried away the sin laid on it. So the man or woman, of deep faith, knew, leaving that altar, that sin had been dealt with, transferred away - bringing peace of mind, peace in soul, a quietened conscience.

Actually, the way is clear for us to understand the next wonderful passage in the Bible, its from Isaiah 53........

There in incomparable words, the prophet tells of One who is to come......... this One, this lowly Servant says Isaiah, will be despised and rejected. And then, says the prophet, in these most solemn, most holy words

He will take up, He will carry upon Himself the sins of many

and the punishment that brings us peace will be upon Him

This is the same thing we hear from the Book of Leviticus - of the taking away of sin and guilt, the transfer of sin, away from the heart, away from the conscience, laid on a lamb........ But in what the prophet says in Isaiah 53, he is speaking about sins laid not on a lamb, an innocent lamb - but on a man................. the One who was to come would be the Lamb Himself - sin laid on Him, and so taken away.

Now the way is clear for us to understand why John the Baptist points to Jesus and says There, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world......

There is the One promised, Jesus, the Lamb of God Himself, who takes away the sins of the world.

Speaking in those dark, deep but holy moments at the Last Supper, Jesus spoke of the Cross, the next day - spoke of His own death, shared the bread and wine with the disciples and said: This is my body, for you. This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, poured out for many, to take away sins.

Now the way is at last clear for us to understand more deeply what the Cross is and means......... As we read the New Testament, we see clearly that not only John the Baptist, but the Book of Leviticus, the prophecy of Isaiah point towards the Cross. At the Cross, Jesus Christ took our sin, our condemnation on Himself. He stood in our place, and stood there for us. The One who is sinless steps into the place of condemnation, into that searing place of judgment and takes it upon Himself.........

As Corinthians says: God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us...........

As the Lamb of God, He took all the sin of all the world, ours included, upon His own shoulders, the sin and guilt that burdens our hearts and consciences, as our mighty Redeemer. This is what He has done in great power for us. And so sin has been dealt once and for all for. In this way we come through Jesus Christ and His Cross into God’s presence, and find peace, rest, healing, new life for our souls. As Peter says “We are redeemed... through Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.....”

Now, for some, this will all still be just one great hindrance, and for others, maybe, mostly nonsense............ but when out of a deep sense of our own sin, we come to the Cross of Christ, we find this miracle, this reality..... that when we turn to the living God, when we turn to the Father,   despite the sinful men and women that we are, we find, love, and mercy, forgiveness waiting for us because Jesus, the Lamb of God has taken away our sins, and the sins of the world.......and so our peace with God, which means life for us, life itself, is given back to us, restored.  

There is now - no condemnation for us. Restored to God, we find a peace that the whole world is looking for, peace, forgiveness and healing.

Sin and guilt transferred, laid on Jesus Christ.

Here’s John Bunyan speaking about this, in the old book Pilgrim’s Progress

Christian, the hero, is journeying on the road, with great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He went on thus, till he came at a place somewhat ascending, and upon that place stood a cross........ So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed off from his shoulders and fell of from his back and began to tumble and so continued to do so...... it fell, and I saw it no more.............

And here’s Paul, the great preacher of the Cross speaking about himself.......... telling us a little of his own story........

He writes: This is a true saying, to be completely accepted and believed: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am the worst of them. In the past I spoke evil of him and persecuted and insulted him.But God was merciful to me, and poured out his abundant grace on me...........

Paul, a sinner, looking to the Cross of Jesus finds there, grace and mercy.

This is, in fact, what the Gospel offers........ mercy.........

If you look to the Cross of Jesus, you find there One who, as the Lamb of God, has taken your sin and guilt upon Himself ............. the sins, in fact, of all the world.....

and this, this is the power of God........... the power by which He is putting the world right !

AMEN.