Title: The Cross we must bear
Contents
Worship on the 25th of Lent>> ----> Wednesday
Title: The cross we must bear
Bible: Mark 15:20-32
Quiet Prayer: Together
Hymn: 149
Representative prayer: Shin Kyung-sook's wife
Starting Point of the Word>>
Today, through the verse of this text, we will share the sermon with the title of “The cross we must bear.”
If you look at the words of today's text, it records the appearance and events of Jesus in the process of carrying the cross and going to Golgotha.
If you think about Jesus at the time, before He was crucified, He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane until late at night, and spent the whole night being dragged back and forth between the court of Caiaphas, Pilate's court, and King Herod's court where he was interrogated. He was very tired, tired, and full of energy.
And now, Jesus, who was carrying the cross toward Golgotha, wore a crown of thorns on his head and blood bled from the marks of being whipped.
Simon of Cyrene carried the cross of Jesus by the soldiers because he no longer had the strength to carry the cross.
However, when he climbed the hill of Golgotha, the Lord took up the cross again, and Jesus was crucified at 9 a.m. He bled for 6 hours until he died at 3 p.m. and then died.
Originally, the cross was the death penalty for the execution of heinous criminals in a country called Phoenicia.
So, when Jesus was nailed to the cross, two murderous robbers were crucified on the left and right sides because they were nailed to the cross as punishment for their sins.
But the question is why did Jesus, who had no sin, carry this cross worn by heinous sinners.
We must understand the meaning of the cross that Jesus carried.
One was the cross of Jesus, the proof of God's love for us as sinners.
Another meaning was a propitiation sacrifice for the reconciliation between God and us humans.
To show that God loves us, sinners, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to this earth to bear the cross.
In this way, we, who were sinners, received God's love and were reconciled because when Jesus was nailed to the cross and cried out that it was finished, the curtain placed between the Holy and Most Holy of the Temple in Jerusalem was torn from top to bottom. He has broken down the barriers between God and us.
This means that the way has been opened so that anyone who knows the meaning of the cross of Jesus and believes in Jesus Christ who bore the cross can meet God.
Human beings who were enemies with God were reconciled through the blood of Jesus on the cross.
Therefore, the cross that Jesus carried is the cross of atonement, the cross that takes away our sins, and the cross that restores our relationship with God.
That is why we have nothing but the cross to be proud of in our lifetime.
But Jesus, who carried the cross, says in Matthew 16:24:
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow Him if we want to follow Him.
To believe in Jesus means to follow Jesus, and the way to follow Jesus is to take up the cross and follow Him.
Go to Word>>
To take up our cross means to live a life for others, just like the life of Jesus.
It is also to benefit others, to suffer shame and suffering for them.
When we have such a determination, we can carry the cross that the Lord requires of us.
So, first of all, what kind of cross did Jesus carry today, and what kind of cross did he tell us to bear?
It is a cross that is carried without a name and without light.
Today, there are many people who come to the church to be treated or to make a name for themselves, but there are not many who come forward to bear hard and difficult burdens without a name and without light.
However, God is glorified through those who bear the cross that they carry through service without a name and without light, and through such a person, the Lord's will is accomplished.
Sacrifice for the glory of God is not just a sacrifice.
When a grain of wheat falls to the ground and rots, it bears much fruit and grows into a tree that is beneficial to birds and many people, but the uncorrupted grain of wheat always remains.
God allows us to gain as much as we have given up, exalts us as much as we are humbled, and allows us to gain as much as we sacrifice.
This is the secret of the cross.
The Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:5,
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God to be robbery, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and being made in human likeness. At birth, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
Says.
When we are humbled by the cross of the Lord, the Lord exalts us.
If you take up the cross of the Lord and make sacrifices without a name or light, the Lord will give you the blessing of exalting yourself above all names through all of them.
That is why we must become saints who can bear the cross that the Lord calls us to bear.
The next question is whether we can bear such a cross.
In order to bear the cross that the Lord carried, the cross we must bear, we must receive power from above.
Since we cannot bear the cross with human determination alone, we must receive power from above through prayer.
Jesus is the same person as God, and he has the same power as God.
Nevertheless, I see that when he took on a physical body and took up the cross for the sinners of the world, he shed tears and prayed for God's help with earnest heart and figure.
In the words of Luke 22:40 and below, it is recorded that he prayed until the drops of sweat became drops of blood as to how deep, mournful, and earnest prayers he prayed to bear the cross.
Through earnest prayer we receive power from above.
Jesus prayed so earnestly that an angel came down from above to help him.
When we receive power from above, we can bear the cross.
According to the words of 1 Chronicles 10:7 and below,
Saul, the first king of Israel, was defeated in a battle with the Philistines and died along with his son.
But the Bible says that Saul's death was God's judgment.
When Saul was killed, his armor was stripped off and his head was cut off as a spoil before the Philistine idol, the god Dagon.
Looking at the words of 1 Chronicles 10:13, Saul's death is explained as follows.
“Saul died because he had sinned against the LORD, and he did not keep the word of the LORD, and he sought instruction from a familiar
Says.
God's purpose in placing a king in Israel was to seek God's help in everything and to rule the people in obedience to God's word.
So King Saul also followed God's word and did well at first, but later a problem arose.
As the country grew stronger, richer, and peaceful, I started to lose the grace of God and the true faith I had toward God.
He lost the image he had as a man of God in the first place.
That is, they lost their first faith.
However, the image of David who succeeded Saul is the exact opposite.
David acknowledged God in all things and prayed asking Him for a way.
He acknowledged God in all things and entrusted all paths to God, and God opened the way for David.
From a human point of view, Saul was much better than David.
But Saul did not kneel, did not pray, and took the prophet's words lightly and went astray and was destroyed.
But on the other hand, David was weak when he saw everything, but every time he got down on his knees and prayed, God lifted him up and used him.
We are to be faithful to the Lord and receive power from above through prayer.
At the end of the speech>>
Today, through the words of this text, we realized that the cross that Jesus carried and the cross that Jesus commands us to bear is “a cross that is taken without a name and without light.”
And I realized that the cross could not be carried by anyone, but should be carried with “power from above.”
In today's text, Simon from Cyrene did not carry the cross voluntarily, but was forced to carry it by a Roman soldier.
As we live our church life, there are crosses that we take voluntarily, but there are also crosses that we take forcibly.
When we become sacrifices for the Lord and the Gospel, bear the cross for the church, and evangelize for unbelieving souls, the Lord promises to bless our generation and even our descendants when there is suffering and shame.
It is the season of Lent.
It's time for us to wake up, pray, and repent.
In the name of the Lord, I pray in the name of the Lord that through this Lent, we must know and realize the cross that we must bear, and that I and all of our saints will receive the power from above and be able to carry the cross that the Lord carries with us.
United Prayer>>
We pay tribute to God the Father who listens to our prayers and leads us with grace and love even in the smallest places of life.
He made us remember the sufferings of the Lord through Lent and prepared us for the glory of the resurrection, thank you for that grace as well.
Help us to restore the faith we had in the beginning, and grant us the grace so that we do not lack enough to live as children of righteousness, not as servants of the world.
Let me bear the cross you carried with faith, and let me be used as a precious worker to testify to the glory of the cross of Christ in the last days.
Let us experience the miracles of God through our daily lives, and let our lives and lips overflow with gratitude.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen
The Lord's Prayer: Together