Session 3 - First Assembly of God

“The Power of the Cross”

TEXT: I Corinthians 1:18

Introduction: Genesis 3:15 From the very beginning of time we see that God revealed that Conquest was predicted. The Cross is the most important event in al time an eternity. Without the cross, we would be forever guilty, ashamed, and condemned.

What was so special about the cross?

*Today, many wear it as a decoration on their ear, on their chains around their neck, tattoo it on their bodies in many different places.

*We’ve seen it on church steeples, pictures, tombstones, mountain tops and even in the desert.

*In fact, the persecuted Christians avoided using the cross as a symbol of Christianity, because of its shameful association with the execution of the common criminal.

*They tried other emblems such as a manger, dove, carpenters bench, apron, boat, stone. etc.

*They tried, but always came back to the cross – because they wanted to commemorate his death and crucifixion.

*It was nothing that was very special, but rather common – to see while traveling –seeing people crucified all along the hillside; criminals, soldiers – all enemies of Rome. It was to instill fear in those who would attempt to betray or even attempt to think of revolting against the Roman empire.

What is the cross?

It is simply two pieces of lumber placed together (one vertically and the other horizontally.)
1. Origin: crucifixion was a practice that originated with the Persians.
2. Romans perfected it, it was a method of execution which caused maximal pain and suffering over time.
3. It was the most painful and cruel form of execution ever devised.
It was designed to kill the victims slowly, prolonging suffering, both mentally and physically.
1. Many criminals who were crucified hung on the cross for days without food or drink to the point that they lost their minds.
2. So cruel was this death that the Romans had a law – that no Roman citizen could be crucified.
3. To the world, it was the most horrible, shameful, end possible, but to us it is the Power of God unto Salvation.
The Foreshadow of the Cross in the O.T.
1. The Issue of Sin Genesis 3:15 Man ate the forbidden fruit and died
2. Today, there are men (people) all over the world and here today who are shackles, in chains, in bondages, and in spirituals jails which they have been kidnapped by the devil with no one to say, “Give them Back” (some even don’t know that they are in shackles or free because of Christ)
3. God wants us to grasp the reality of what He Won for Us at the Cross
4. In order for us to begin to experience God’s Transformation and Freedom, we have to recognize that we need a Savior.

What is sin?

N.T. Uses Five Main Greek words for sin, which portrays it various aspects, both passive and active.
1. Hamartia- which depicts sin as a missing of the target, the failure to attain a goal
2. Adika – is unrighteousness or iniquity
3. Poneria is evil of a vicious or degenerate kind.
  1. Both Adika and Poneria speak of an inward corruption or perversion of character.
4. Parabasis – a trespass or transgression, the stepping over a known boundary.
5. Anomia- lawlessness, the disregard or violation of a known law.
  1. Sin doesn’t just cause us to break God’s Law, but it also keeps us from being able to have a relationship with Him. God is holy and cannot tolerate sin in His presence.
  2. Who has sinned?
  3. Romans 3:10 There is none righteous, not even one.
  4. Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
ILLUSTRATION: We need new videos
1. It was half way during a Friday Night performance at one of the most famous and must see shows in Las Vegas, at the Mirage Hotel Casino’s “Siegfried & Roy” Tiger Performance. Roy appeared alone on stage with a 7 year-old 600 pound white tiger named Montecore. Roy told the tiger to lie down. When it refused, Roy tapped the cat on the nose with a microphone to gets its attention. The animal grabbed at Horn’s arm, causing the entertainer to stumble. The tiger lunged at Roy, who tried to beat the animal away with the microphone, and took a hold of Horn’s neck and dragged him off stage. Barely missing the artery. (Point: Play with Sin, it will lead to Death)
2. In JR Tolkien’s book the “Lord of the Rings” The Dark Lord Sauron a ring that was a very powerful ring. If anyone uses the ring, it will eventually turn them evil. The ring had such powers that the more you use the less you can do without it. It had to be destroyed. (Frodo the hobbit had to destroy it. Type of Christ) On the ring was the words
  1. One ring to rule them all, One Rings to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness to bind them.
  2. Point: Sin will take you captive, and destroy you.
Justice of God
1. Sin is a crime against God and justice demands a penalty of death and separation.
2. He is righteous in himself and in all he does
3. God imposes righteous laws and executes them righteously. (The Cross is the display of God’s Justice.)

What gave the cross its power?

THE PERFECT SACRIFICE
1. When they made atonement of the sins of the people (On the day of atonement, the High Priest laid the sins of the nation son the head of the Goat and sent it away into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary place Lev.16:20,21)
  1. Solitary place: Type of Calvary
  2. Foreshadow of what to come.
Transition: Jesus had to be the perfect sacrifice, because if he was imperfect he could not become our substitute because it would be no effect.
Sinless
1. The Soul that sins must die.
2. This is why a sacrifice had to be perfect and without defect.
3. The lamb was to represent a sinless, perfect victim who deserved no death.
4. Jesus had to be sinless in order to function as our substitutionary sacrifice.
Substitute/Sin bearer Isaiah 53:4
1. The bible says that he bore our V. 4 GRIEFS – used of sickness and weakness > result of sin
  1. 1. To “bear” something for someone means to lift it off of that person and to place it on another V.4 SORROWS – used to convey mental anguish >
  2. consequences of sin
  3. On the day of atonement the High Priest laid the sins of the nation on the head of the goat and sent it away into the wilderness, and the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary place Lev. 16:20,21
2. V.5 TRANGRESSIONS – willful violations of God’s Law
3. V. 5 INIQUITIES – reflects the pervertedness of human nature
  1. They spat on him, the filth and internal wickedness was placed upon him.

Suffering of Christ

Crucifixion was the type of Death God had chosen for Him. From the very beginning it was all in God’s plan.
1. It was at Calvary, the eternal destinies of Jesus, heaven, man, and Satan were at stake. Sin, death, and hell were about to be conquered and totally destroyed by our Lord Jesus Christ.
What Jesus experienced physically on the Cross from a medical perspective.
1. His breathing was difficult because of the abnormal position on the body hanging on the Cross.
2. Pain was so unbearable
3. The victim alternated between lifting his body off the bottom in order to breathe and slumping down on the bottom to relieve pain on the feet.
PROCESSS OF CRUCIFIXION:
1. Scourging: (Latin-to flay, a prelude to crucifixion, to flay skin)
  1. Object of scourging was to weaken the victim to a state of collapse and bring the as near death as possible without killing. (given the name “half-death”)
  2. Roman officers called lictors received special training
2. Instrument was short whip with several braided leather thongs of different lengths.
  1. Knots tied at the end and sheep bones or iron balls into knots called flagrum.
  2. The person being scourged was stripped of his clothing and hands tied to a post.
  3. Strokes was limited to thirty-nine by Hebrew law.
  4. Isaiah 52:14 says

The power of the blood

Why so much blood?
1. In the OT there was a lot of blood, why? Because the core of man is deceitfully wicked above all things. It had to die. It can’t recycled, rehabilitated, trained, or subdued, it had to die; there is no other remedy. Lev. 17:11
  1. Blood is a symbol of life: Blood is life
  2. Blood makes atonement for our sins (covers our sin) One life is forfeit; another life is sacrificed instead.
  3. On the Altar: is the substitutionary blood. CHRIST BLOOD STANDS NOT FOR HIS DEATH, BUT FOR HIS LIFE, WHICH IS RELEASED THROUGH DEATH AND SO MADE AVAILABLE TO US.
2. CHRIST BLOOD WAS HIS LIFE FIRST GIVEN FOR US, AND THEN GIVEN TO US.
  1. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin Hebrews 9:22
  2. No forgiveness without blood meant no atonement without substitution There had to be life for life or blood for blood
  3. In the OT blood sacrifices was only a shadow; the substance was Christ
  4. For a substitute to be effective, it must be appropriate equivalent.
NAILS
1. As soldiers drove nails into His Flesh the crowds roared its approval of its brutal acts.
  1. Col. 2:14 says, The Bible tells us that Christ was nailed to the Cross
  2. Having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Certificate of debt)
  3. Literally a handwritten document of debt
  4. When paid off (tetelestai) Paid in full (It is finished: same words Jesus uttered)
  5. When a criminal was crucified
  6. Charges against him were written down and nailed to the cross. (Men we are indebted go God)
  7. Because Christ was nailed to the cross, our debt has been completely forgiven.
Cor. 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1. Ancient Method: Bond of Obligation was canceled by driving a nail through it and fixing it to a post.
POUNDING HAMMER AND NAIL: (When Jesus was placed on the Cross)
1. As the soldiers placed the nail on his
2. RIGHT HAND: THEY POUNDED(SOUNDS OF POUNDING)
3. LEFT HAND: THEY POUNDED(SOUNDS OF POUNDING)
4. WHEN THEY PLACED IT ON HIS FEET(SOUNDS OF POUNDING)
5. (Show DVD of the CROSS)

Appropriation of the cross

We need to Appropriate His Death Personally
1. Illustration: (Bitten by a snake)
  1. You have the antidote but don’t take it.
2. There is a Divine exchange that takes place at the Cross Forgiveness, Victory, deliverance, Healing, Restoration, joy, Power, Resurrection
Two Crosses between Jesus cross
1. Gift of choice
  1. Abel chose God, Cain chose Murder
  2. Abraham chose God, Lot chose Sodom
  3. David chose God, Saul chose power
  4. Peter seeks mercy, Judas chose death
2. Power of the Cross
  1. God can take something ugly, horrific, shameful, painful, etc.
    1. Transform it to something Good Is your body’s cell adhesion: it is the “glue” that holds all the cells in your body together.
    2. That glue is in the shape of the cross.

Conclusion: Invite the Pastors and Leaders to the front. The Leader will hand each man a nail and bring them people up to the cross.

(M.C. will Pray over those who are at the Cross)

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