Easter 2025 – Focus on the Cross
Speaker: Pastor Darin Browne
Christianity today is being increasingly ridiculed and mocked by the media, social media and government. At the Gay Mardi Gras recently there was an open mockery of the crucifixion of Jesus, because the cross you see on church buildings, and hanging around people’s necks, is the very core of the story of the redemption of mankind, and sinful man hates it. Paul wrote…
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
On this Good Friday, the day when we remember Jesus’ death upon a cross, I want to focus once again on the cross, what it means to us as believers, and what it means for all mankind. I want you to come with me, back in time 2000 years and walk the road to the cross.
THE NEED FOR THE CROSS
The Bible tells us that, if we sin, we are destined for a lost eternity, separated from God forever in hell. People get offended by what they see is an exclusive message, because they want to be saved but also live a life of sin, with no one confronting them about it. They proclaim, “If you love us you will agree with everything we do.” But true love, when it sees danger and destruction coming, refuses to keep silent.
You are free to choose a life of sin, but you are not free to choose the consequences. You are free to choose to be a drug addict, but loss of family, friends, finances, dignity and respect is the natural consequence. The Bible says every one of us has sinned, and we all face eternity separated from God in a place called hell.
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
JESUS PAID THE PRICE
Every one of us knows that they have sinned. We have all at some time lied, hated, been selfish, etc. All these things are sin, and all of them separate you and I from God. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were required for sin, to reconcile us back to God…
Hebrews 9:22 (ESV Strong’s)
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Rather than kill us and shed our blood for sin, Jesus came and paid the price for us. He left His home in glory and came to earth with the express intent of dying in our place on a cruel cross. The world hates it and thinks it foolish, but we know it is salvation for every single one of us!
I should have been hanging on that cross, you should have been. But He chose to give His life for ours. He experienced what we should have experienced, to give us what we never deserved…a chance to be right with God. Why? Because He loves us.
THE MOTIVE OF THE CROSS
A holy and just God cannot simply excuse sin. If a high court judge let everybody off, regardless of their crime, society would collapse. If God just let everyone into heaven, heaven would be hell! So instead of excusing us, or condemning us to a lost eternity, which is justice, God’s solution was to find us guilty and then pay the price for us, which is mercy. His motive, the motive of the cross, is His love for you.
This cross does not represent fairness, it does not represent tolerance, it represents justice. People tell me they want God to be fair, to be tolerant, but trust me, you don’t want this! You don’t want justice before God, you want grace and mercy, and Jesus hanging on the cross is mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting the punishment you deserve, and Grace is getting the life you never deserved. We live in a world of offence, and your sin offends God, but instead of giving you what your sin deserves, He provided a solution.
Philippians 2:5-8
Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU
The Bible tells us that Jesus is God, yet He gave up His rightful position to come to earth on a rescue mission. He chose to empty Himself and come as a servant, the perfect sacrifice, for you and I. God’s motive in sending His one and only Son was because He loves you.
A true story is told of a drawbridge keeper on the Mississippi in 1937, who brought his 8-year-old son to work one day. The draw bridge was raised as a train approached, and it was time to lower the bridge, but he saw his son had tripped and fallen into the gear assembly. He could see the child was hurt but trapped, but the Memphis express train was approaching, so the man faced a choice…save his son, and hundreds of people on the train plunge into the river or sacrifice his son and the trainload of people live. He pushed the lever; the bridge began to lower, and the train went over the bridge as he heard the screams of his dying little boy.
Make no mistake, nails did not hold Jesus to the cross, love did. He died in your place, because He loves you!
THE ROAD TO THE CROSS
On the way to the cross that fateful day Jesus endured unimaginable suffering.
Matthew 27:30-31
And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
Whatever situation you face today, Jesus understands. He was betrayed by a close friend. Some of you here have experienced that, where a supposed friend has let you down or betrayed you.
He was unjustly accused and unjustly convicted. Many of you have been unjustly accused of something you have not done, and He understands because that is what happened to Him.
Jesus was abused horribly. They whipped Him, they placed a crown of thorns on His head, with thorns longer than a man’s fingers, and mocking Him, drove those spikes into His head with blow after blow. Then they tore the beard from His face. They mocked and beat Him, ridiculed and despised Him.
UNBELIEVABLE PAIN
Jesus was beaten to within an inch of His life. The Bible says His back was like a ploughed field. The Romans had refined cruelty and pain to the point of science. They called such a whipping the halfway death, and for a whip they used a cat of nine tails, with stone, bone and bits of metal embedded into the leather. When they struck the sharp objects would embed into His back, tearing it to pieces as they were pulled away.
Unbelievable pain, that He could have stopped at any moment…but He chose not to.
Why? Because He loves you!
He was taken away for the death sentence to be carried out, made to carry the crossbeam of the cross, a terrible burden after being so abused. Some of you here have been abused, and many of you here are carrying burdens that seems too heavy to bear. But this same Jesus promised…
Matthew 11:28-30
Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus will bear the burdens of life with you, because He knows you and understands whatever you face right now, and because He loves you!
THE WORK OF THE CROSS
He was abused and driven to Golgotha, Skull Hill…and there they crucified Him. The cross wasn’t really on a hill faraway, it was the base of that hill, beside a well-used road which today is an Arab bus stop.
They laid the cross on the ground, then they held out His quivering hands and drove massive nails, much like what they secure railway sleepers with, through His wrists and ankles. If they went through His hands the flesh would tear, but through His wrists and ankles the body would be pinned in agony to the cross. They raised it up and dropped it into the socket in the ground. Imagine the jarring pain!
And there He hung in agony. He could have called down a legion of angels to remove Him from the cross, but Jesus chose not to. He hung there in agony.
Why would He go through such agony? Because He loves you!
The cross wasn’t high; it was more or less at eye level or just above. People could look straight into the eyes of Jesus as He hung there in agony, and so they mocked and insulted Him…
Matthew 27:42
“He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
HE CHOSE NOT TO!
The soldiers offered Him wine mixed with gall, a pain killing drug, but Jesus even in intense agony refused the drugs. He could have dulled the pain, but He bore it all for us.
The cross was an almost perfect instrument of torture. On the cross you die of suffocation. Jesus pushed His body up on the spikes, but the unbelievable pain drove Him into unconsciousness. He then slumped collapsing His lungs, but the need for oxygen revived Him and made Him push up again despite the unbearable pain to breathe.
The Latin or Roman word for crucifixion is CRUCIERE, from which we get the English word, excruciating, meaning intense, unbearable pain. Jesus suffered for three hours in this excruciating pain under the intense heat of a Palestinian sun before God said enough and covered the world in a supernatural darkness. He continued suffering for another three hours. He could have stopped the pain at any point, but He chose not to. Why? Because He loves you!
THE END OF THE CROSS
After six tortuous, agonising hours…
Matthew 27:46
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
My God the Father, my God the Holy Spirit, why have you forsaken me?
At that point God turned away from His beloved Son. In those moments a holy God, who will not look upon sin, saw your sin and my sin upon the shoulders of Jesus, and He rejected Him. At that moment Jesus took our sin upon Himself, and as the Father rejected Him, Jesus opened the way for us to stand sinless before Him. He paid the price for our sin, so we don’t ever have to.
Then it says this…
Matthew 27:50
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
He slumped, dead on that cross. Ultimately, they didn’t take His life, He yielded it. He could have stopped it at any time, but Jesus yielded His life in unbelievable pain for your sin and my sin. Remember, nails did not hold Him to that cross, love did!
They took His body down from the cross and buried it in a fresh tomb.
THE RESPONSE TO THE CROSS
There were three soldiers crucifying Jesus that day, and they had several responses to watching Jesus die.
One was a materialist. The Bible says they gambled for Jesus’ cloak. It was a rabbi’s coat, all one piece, the only seams being around the arms. It was valuable. This soldier just got what he wanted for himself…a good coat, nothing more. He just wanted what he could get for himself from life. Many people today only come to Jesus for what they can get from Him, not realising that He already given the greatest gift of all…eternal life!
The second was the soldier who thrust his sword into the heart of Jesus, and ripped it out, causing a flow of blood and water, showing Jesus was truly dead. His experience was one of hatred and anger towards Jesus. Some of you here might be angry that God hasn’t done what you wanted. This angry, bitter man trampled the blood, the precious blood of Jesus, underfoot.
Today across our nation, most Australians are more concentrated on having a day off, enjoying hot cross buns and Easter eggs, and they will tread with contempt the precious blood of Jesus into the red soil of our nation.
But the third man was a centurion. A leader, a man who had witnessed hundreds of executions, a man who knew of the depravity of sin…
Mark 15:39
And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
YOUR RESPONSE TO THE CROSS
So, my question to you today is, how will you respond to the cross of Jesus Christ? What are you going to say this morning to this One who died for you? Are you out to get as much as you can from Him? Are you angry or upset at Him, or even ignoring Him? Don’t tread His precious blood underfoot this morning.
Why not be like the centurion, why not accept the gift Jesus offers you this day…the Son of God, who died for you your sin, and who paid the price to win you eternal life. This day He offers you salvation, no matter what you’ve said or done. Your free gift is the opportunity to get right with God, the opportunity to turn your life around, the opportunity to be sure of your eternal destination.
When you look at the cross, my question is, how will you respond this Good Friday? Remember, love held Him to the cross, not nails. Love for you held Him there. Today is the day to get right with Him and make this Good Friday the best Friday ever.
If you’re not sure of where your life is going, today is the day to make sure. If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity, in heaven with God, or in hell, separated from God’s love forever. You don’t have to earn His love, you don’t have to meet minimum standards, you just must accept His free gift, the one He paid so high a price for.
NAILED TO THE CROSS
We live in an age of great offence. Never in history have so many been offended by so much! People re upset, people are attacking one another on social media, our society is so sinful, and so selfish, that we cannot abide someone else to have even a difference of opinion to us! Paul warns…
Galatians 5:14-15
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Like it or not, even Christians are so easily offended today. We feel wronged, we feel unjustly treated, and we carry offence around because we feel justified to do so. Jesus died on the cross for our sin and our offences, and I believe that today we must not carry those offences any longer.
I want you to think about someone who has offended you. It might be a spouse, a child, a friend. It could be your neighbour, someone who has rejected you, so one who has overlooked you. Maybe your child has offended you, or it might be your best mate or your pastor. Think about who or what has offended you and write it down. At Calvary, Jesus nailed your offences to the cross, and today I invite you to do the same. It’s time to forgive and nail whoever has offended you to the cross and start your relationship with them afresh.
Nail your offence to the cross, and when you nail that sin to the cross, let it remain forever covered by the blood shed at Calvary.