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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

The Cross & Its Access

Father in heaven, bless us as we study your word today.

And thank you for what you're doing around the world.

And we ask that you do things here in our hearts today.

In old Greenwich, Connecticut, stands a church with a cross in it.

Unlike most of the churches, whose cross is adorned the front wall behind the preacher, this 1 is bolted down into the concrete floor in front of the platform, not more than 3 feet from where the preacher stands.

His positioning defies reason, art, and convention.

No architect in his right mind would have designed such a placement.

The preacher's words have to pass through it.

The congregation's eyes always have it somewhere in their view, so that even when they look away, it's still there and pressed on the back wall of their retina.

It is a sturdy wooden cross, 10 feet tall.

The cross bar is set high on the vertical beam, so high that it seems out of proportion compared to the other more proportionate crosses that decorate the other more proportionate churches.

It's made of raw, untreated wood, and when you see it up close you think of splinters of something hard and immovable.

It's set deep in the concrete floor as well as bolted to it.

The cross at Greenwich has to be reckoned with.

Weddings, funerals, concerts, baptisms, dedications, prayer meetings, morning services.

Are the bride and groom going to stand on either side of it?

What if the bride's dress gets caught in a splinter?

Every event that takes place in the Church has to accommodate this cross in some way.

It can't be moved like the pulpit or the microphones or the platform chairs or the communion table or the planters of ivy, it's almost as if the church was actually built around the cross, as if it were the first thing put down before the walls went up or the roof went on.

And something tells me that's probably the way it should be.

So as we start our school year here, perhaps the first thing to look at would be the cross.

So we're going to look at the power of the cross.

We're told that a deadly spiritual malady is upon the church, its members are wounded by Satan, but they will not look to the cross of Christ as the Israelites look to the brazen serpent that they may live.

The world has so many claims upon them that they have no time to look at the cross of Calvary long enough to see its glory or to feel its power.

He who has had a vivid view of the cross will hate sin, will love righteousness, and his doubts will vanish away.

Perhaps looking at the cross is the right prescription for us.

So I want to consider several things, the position, the purpose, the power, and finally, the access to the cross today.

For the prophets and the cross, it was pivotal all the way through the Pentateuch and the prophets.

We see the cross alluded to in Genesis 3.

As soon as there was sin, there was a savior.

As soon as there was sin, there was a depiction of the cross embryonically.

Genesis 22, take your son, your only son, sacrifice him, again pointing towards the cross.

And The Exodus, the blood of the Lamb, is a foundation to the sanctuary system and the Exodus itself.

The serpent on a pole, look to the serpent and live.

And then of course that magisterial chapter in Isaiah 53, looking at the cross in advance and the substitutionary atonement in all of its glory.

And then Daniel 9, some of us studied this last week, Daniel 9, We saw how the cross was foretold 500 years in advance.

The baptism, the death, the resurrection, and the ministry of the early church all built around the cross.

And then in the book of Habakkuk, that glory that comes from the nail prints in the hands of Christ and will be there for eternity.

Christ also in the cross kept saying, I must suffer, I must be killed, and rise the third day.

I must suffer many things and be rejected.

Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things to enter into his glory?

So the cross was pivotal for the prophets and central for Christ in his preaching and even the disciples remembered when he had said unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said.

1 third of Matthew and Mark, 1 fourth of Luke, and a half of John, are all devoted to Christ's last hours.

Perhaps that's why we're told to spend time meditating on the cross.

Apostle Paul said, I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And that's because you really can't know anything else unless you know that.

It's the entrance of the entire sanctuary system.

God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world's interest in me is also long dead." How many of you want to die to the interest of the world?

How many would like to have the world die to their interest in you?

Sometimes you can tell how interested you are in the world by what shows up on your social media feed or your email because they know what you're interested in.

Even can hear what you're saying on your phone, which is pretty serious.

And pretty soon things show up in your feed And they know what you're interested in, what you're looking at.

For the early Advent movement, the cross also was pivotal.

All the blessings of this life and the life to come are stamped with the cross of Calvary.

This life and the life to come, the stamp of the cross.

And it is the great center of attraction for on it Christ gave up his life for the human race.

The cross of Christ will be the song of the redeemed through all eternity.

In Christ glorified, they will behold Christ crucified.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His own precious blood.

The redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song.

They'll still be singing, lift high the cross in heaven.

The angels ascribe honor and glory to Christ, for even they are not secure except by looking to the sufferings of the Son of God.

So the angels are secured by looking at the cross.

It is through the efficacy of the cross that the angels of heaven are guarded from apostasy.

One-third fell, the other two-thirds are kept safe by looking at the cross.

Without the cross, they would be no more secure against evil than were the angels before the fall of Satan.

Angelic perfection failed in heaven, human perfection failed in Eden, the paradise of bliss.

All who wish for security in earth and heaven must look to the Lamb of God.

The death of Christ on the cross of Calvary is our only hope in this world and it will be our theme in the world to come.

I think it's important for us to start this new journey together looking at the cross?

Purpose of the cross is to point out the uncompromising and infinite justice of God.

1 sin unrepentant of is enough to close heaven.

It was because man could not be saved with 1 stain of sin that Jesus came to die on Calvary's cross.

So it's to point out the uncompromising infinite justice of God.

God is not omnipotent in the sense that he can do anything.

God can only do those things which are consistent with his nature.

He cannot therefore readily pardon the sinner because He is a God of infinite justice, but neither can he readily punish the sinner because he's a God of infinite mercy.

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The Cross & Its Access

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