The last in a series of 4 sermons
Series Theme
At Lent we prepare for remembering the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross and our focus easily falls on the agony He suffered there for us to pay the eternal debt of our sin that we would be reconciled to God.
This sermon views the cross from God’s perspective and here we focus on the depth of God’s love. so vast it is beyond all measure, as He GAVE His only Son.
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
Luke 23:26–49 (NIV84)
26As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.
27A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.
28Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children.
29For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’
30Then “ ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” ’
31For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed.
33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left.
34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
35The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
36The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar
37and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”
38There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.
39One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
40But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
41We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
44It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour,
45for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
46Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
47The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.”
48When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.
49But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Text
Philippians 3:1–11 (NIV84)
1Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.
2Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.
3For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
4though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee;
6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ
9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.