No Cross, No Power

No Cross, No Power Key Verse: Mark 8:35 I. Jesus could have avoided the cross but He did not. A. He had the power to avoid it. 1. He explicitly stated so in John 10:18: “No man taketh it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.…” 2. If you had this kind of power would you ever voluntarily die? B. If He had avoided it, He would not have realized the very purpose of His incarnation. 1. “The Word … was made flesh” (John 1:14). Why? Because blood is in the flesh and without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin (Heb. 9:22). 2. People do not come into the world merely to live, for that is no better than being an animal. We also have “spirit” in addition to a soul and body. To fail to accomplish the purpose for which God destined us, is to miss the real joy of life. 3. Can you imagine Christianity without the cross and the consequent resurrection? It would be only one of many religions. It would not be the transforming “power of God unto salvation” (Rom. 1:16). II. Jesus spoke about the necessity of the cross. A. The little word “must” in Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, and Luke 9:22 is arresting. In Greek it is the impersonal dei which means “it is necessary.” B. He did not die because the situation was unavoidable. C. It was necessary that He die because this was how He would redeem us and bring us into fellowship with God. It was the “must” of duty. III. He made His announcement only after Peter’s great confession about His being the Christ. A. He was recognized as the divinely anointed of God. B. As a mere man He would not have died while He had the power to live. C. As people indwelt by God and participants in the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), we choose duty before life, the cross before pleasure and enjoyment of this world. If we are not characterized by this divine nature, we are none of His. This is clearly stated in Mark 8:34, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” D. Those who believe that they can bypass the cross are not truly Christ’s. Jesus called Peter “Satan” because he rebuked Jesus for not escaping death although He possessed the power to do so (Matt. 16:22, 23). IV. There were no short-cuts to success. A. The first one to suggest success and achievement without the cross was Satan himself. B. Jesus objected to the miracles Satan wanted Him to perform. Satan suggested that Jesus should change useless stones into useful loaves of bread (Matt. 4:3). C. We should watch out for those who have followed Satan’s suggestion to perform “miracles” and have not “taken up their crosses” to follow Jesus. Beware of the preachers of the gospel of wealth and prosperity. D. Satan wanted Jesus to acquire instant fame and he quoted Scripture to persuade Him to do so. Satan suggested that God would perform a miracle if Jesus would only cast Himself from the pinnacle of the temple. E. Success from Christ’s point of view is living in voluntary obscurity and self-effacement like Christ when you could live otherwise. V. He who had the will to die on the cross had the power to rise from the dead. A. No other person on earth has ever said what Jesus said and accomplished it: “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). B. He knew that by God’s appointment He was to die but He was absolutely sure that on the third day He would rise from the dead. C. Would the world be better had He chosen to live on, escape death and not exercise His power to rise from the dead? D. As in His case, so in everyone He indwells: “… to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Spiros Zodhiates, Sermon Starters : Volumes 1-4 (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 1998).