Is your Cross Too Small?
1 Corinthians 1:18-21
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written” I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
The cross itself has a message and that message is to be embodied by our lives as a church.
1 Corinthians 2:2
I resolve to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Would your daily life look different if you had the attitude of I Corinthians 2:2? How?
Genesis 1:27
So God created mankind in his own image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
What aspects of God's character are easily reflected in your character?
Do you see how these characteristics add to the body collectively reflecting God to the world?
We are each an image bearer of God and the bible emphasizes the collective aspect rather than the individual
There are 3 aspects of this image bearing
1. Community, God designed humans to live in community.
2. The community should be a particular shape known by things like equality, wholeness and justice.
3. Because of the shape of the community, it tells the truth about who God is by its collective life. One should be able to look at this community and learn who God is by what that community values and how they live.
This community embodies the new creation.
We are in the context of old creation constantly being bombarded by its message.
If we rely on the world's message then we cease to be the image-bearing community.
In what areas of your life do you have to constantly battle the world’s message?
The bridge from the old creation to the new creation is the Cross of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 5:1-6
Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with the seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or even look inside.Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. Then I saw the Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders…
Revelation 13:4
People worshiped the Dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked “Who is like the beast/ Who can wage war against it?’
The beast is symbolic of worldly power
The response from the people is reverence and dependence.
In what area of your life do you fall in the same trap?
The slain lamb is the message of the cross.
It is the solutions and the shape that our lives are to take.
Revelation 12:11
They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death
God calls us corporately to be a “lamb” people not “power” people.
In 2024 there will be temptation to join certain powers and we are called to be an alternate witness.
If you are a “lamb” person would your life in 2024 look different then it did in 2020? How so?
Jesus mentioned this several times in the book of Mark that he was going to the cross and what his “cross shaped “ life would look like.
Mark 10:32-34
Jesus called them together and said”You know that those who are regarded as reuters of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many”
What part of this passage sticks out to you the most?
