Pastor Jack Peters
February 5, 2023 at 10:30 AM
Matthew 27:39-50
Together we Believe #4
TOGETHER WE BELIEVE IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST
“TOGETHER WE BELIEVE” #4 AM, 2/5/23
SUTTON, W.Va.—"One night in 1984, the Reverend Bernard Coffindaffer had an epiphany. God called him, he explained afterward, to erect sets of three crosses across the land to recall Christ's crucifixion at Calvary. He would raise them wherever he could and start nearby—in the foothills west of the Allegheny Mountains in central West Virginia.
“In less than a decade, thousands of such crosses had sprung up across the eastern U.S., capping knolls and other landmarks along highways from Florida and Texas north into Pennsylvania and beyond.” Lesser-known facts about Coffindaffer's roadside crosses - West Virginia Explorer (wvexplorer.com)
As you know, the most popular symbol for Christianity is the cross. You can find them everywhere it seems, especially in churches, each one of our hymns except the last one that we are singing today talks about the cross in some way.
If we are not careful, we can begin to romanticize or even idolize the cross. Crucifixion was the most horrible way for a person to die under Roman rule. It was a slow, agonizing, death.
Together we believe in the cross, but it’s more than the cross we believe in. We believe in the Christ who hung on that cross as the very Son of God. Let’s talk about what we believe about the Christ on the cross at Calvary.
Together we believe in:
- THE SURRENDER OR SUBMISSION OF CHIRST – Philippians 2:5-11 Together, we must have the same attitude. Philippians 2:1-4
- THE SUFFERING OF CHIRST – Matthew 27:33-50
- THE SUBSTITUTION OF CHRIST – 2 Corinthians 5:21,
1 Peter 2:22-25
- THE SATISFACTION OF CHIRST – Isaiah 53:10-12
- THE SALVATION FROM CHRIST – Romans 5:1, 9, Romans 10:9-10 – If you haven’t believed it in your heart, don’t try to confess with your mouth.
- SANCTIFICATION THROUGH CHRIST – Galatians 2:20
