What does the cross mean to you? In this powerful sermon, Daniel King explains the importance of the cross for your salvation. You will be challenged to take up your cross to follow Jesus. Discover: * Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? * Who did Jesus die for? * What does the cross mean today? * How can the power of the cross change your life?
About Daniel King
Evangelist Daniel King, D.Min is on a mission to lead people to Jesus. He has visited over seventy nations preaching good news and he has led over two million people in a salvation prayer. To support King Ministries in our quest for souls, click here!
Transcript of Video:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:01):
The secret of your salvation lies in the power of the cross. Join me today as I talk about a concept that is central to what it means to be a Christian.
My name is Daniel King. I’m a missionary evangelist. I go all over the world, preaching the gospel. But my favorite place to be is Sacramento. I like being here and I’ve been asked to speak about the cross. I flew in on Tuesday night. And as our plane was landing, the pilot got on the Intercom and he said this, “Please prepare for arrival by doing a cross-check.” I wasn’t sure what that meant. So I asked the stewardess, “What does that mean?” And she said, “Oh, we look across the plane to make sure the doors are ready to open.” But I was thinking about that question. And I think that on our way to heaven, we need to prepare for arrival by doing a cross check. Do you have the cross in your life or is it just hanging around your neck? I know what it means to hang on the cross.
When I was a ten-year-old child, my parents became missionaries to the nation of Mexico. And since they were my legal guardians, I had to go with them. And so my dad had an idea. He said, “We’re going to do a drama about the life of Jesus.” He says, “Daniel, I want you to play the part of Jesus.” And I thought that was a good idea because Jesus was perfect and I was almost perfect. And so my sister, Esther, she would come up and she would pretend to be crippled like this. And Jesus would touch her on the forehead and suddenly she could dance. And then my sister Melody should come up and she’d pretend to be blind. And Jesus would spit on the ground, make some mud, but before I could touch her, she was already healed. And then my father said, “Now we’re going to crucify Jesus.” And suddenly I didn’t want to be Jesus any longer. But my younger brother, Stephen, he loved this drama is four years younger than me. And as the older brother, I felt it was my job to beat up on Stephen. But in this drama, he was the Roman soldier and he got to beat up on Jesus. As we bring this big, long leather whip. And he began to whip me with it, dragged me right up the center aisle. I gotta be honest with you, pastor, I think he overreacted a little bit. One day he went to my dad. He says, “Dad, I don’t think this drama is realistic enough. We need some blood.” And my dad thought that was a good idea. So Stephen brought a big bottle of ketchup and put ketchup all over this whip. He began to whip me. It was just like the movie of the passion of the Christ. There was blood all over my back. Then he crucified me to a cross and I remember hanging there on the cross with all the sticky ketchup on my back. And every fly in Mexico was attracted to the ketchup on my back. And I’d always tell my dad, dad, could you please preach quickly? It’s very difficult to hang on the cross. But my father was just like Philip junior here. He didn’t know how to preach quickly. It started in Genesis and go all the way through to the last book of the Bible appendix, he preached the entire thing and I’d been hanging there on the cross, sticky ketchup on my back flies crawling up and down. I’d begin to pray. I’d say, “God, forgive my father. He knows not what he does.” And then I would die. And one time there was this little kid he wanted to see whether Jesus was really dead or not. He came up, he started tickling the bottom of my feet. I’m telling you, I suffered for the sake of the cross.
In Matthew chapter 16, verse 24. Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” That’s what I did literally. Are you willing to deny your own desires for the sake of the cross? The cross only has one purpose to put someone to death. The cross for the believer means the death of the old man so that we can be resurrected anew. We only have two choices. We can either run away from the cross or we can die on the cross. The man who’s nailed to the cross cannot look back. When you take up your cross to follow Jesus. There’s no end goal. No going back to your past. Do you glory only in the cross pastors, Galatians six verse 14, God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Pastors, do you preach the message of the cross first Corinthians one verse 18? The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God is the cross, the power of God in your life.
Today, I want to look at a verse. Luke chapter 23, verse 33 said when they came to the place called Calvary there, they crucified him and the criminals one on the right hand. And one on the left. I want to focus in on these four words there. They crucified him. Everyone say “there.” They crucified him “there” in that place on Golgotha, Calvary in Jerusalem. It’s not a legend. It’s not a fairy tale. 2000 years ago in a specific time and a specific place. There they crucified him. “They.” Who crucified him? The Roman soldiers who drove the nails into his hands. Was it the Pharisees who yelled say crucify him? No, the person who crucified him was you and me. First Corinthians 15 verse 3 says Christ died for our sins. According to the scriptures, He died for you. And He died for me there. They crucified him. They crucified him, horrible torture, a crown of thorns. They whipped his back. They slapped him. They spit on him. The picture of Jesus on the cross shows us how serious God is about sin. First Corinthians one verse 23, we preach Christ crucified to the Jews, a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishness there. They crucified him. Who is this? Him? It was the man who was born of a Virgin. The man who healed the leper. It was the man who opened the eyes of the blind. The man who made the paralyzed to walk. The man who raised Lazarus from the dead. The man who taught the disciples, the man who walked on the water, the man who stilled the storm, the man who fed the 5,000 with nothing but two loaves and two fishes. The man who taught us how to get to God, the father, the man who was the son of God, the man who was sinless, who committed no sin. The man who did not deserve to die the most perfect man who ever lived. It was that man there, they crucified him. The cross was the most horrible torture device imagined by mankind, but God turned it into the greatest symbol of hope. The cross is the bridge between heaven and earth. Jesus is standing in the gap of sin. Sin separates us from God and the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The price for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus died on the cross. He became the bridge so that you can have a relationship with God, the Father.
The cross is the dividing line of history. It is the dividing line between BC and AD the dividing line between salvation and destruction between the old Testament and the new Testament. The cross stands at the center point of history before it man was separated from God after it, man can be reconciled with God. The cross stands at the center of history. But my question for you today is this, does the cross stand at the center of your life? Someone asked Jesus, how much do you love me? Jesus stretched out his hands. He said this much. Then he died on The cross. The cross is the proof that Jesus loves you. The cross is a simple joining of two pieces of wood together. One vertical, the other horizontal, the vertical pieces. Remind us to love God. The horizontal piece reminds us to love one another, just as Jesus stretched out his arms and an act of love for all of humanity, we should stretch out our arms to embrace one another.
What do you see when you see the cross? Jesus was at the center. In this verse. I read just a moment ago, said that on his left, there was a thief. And on his right, there was a thief. Both men turn their heads and looked at Jesus and they both saw Jesus differently. The one on the left started to mock Jesus. He said, if you think you’re the Christ, why don’t you just save all of us? The other one, the thief on the right. He said, Lord, remember me? When you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to this man, as surely I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. How do you see Jesus today? One man saw criminal. The other side King one saw simple, man. The other saw God’s perfect son. One thought about the past. The other thought about the future. One focused on what he was the other focus on what he could become. One got the punishment. He deserved the other, got the forgiveness. He didn’t deserve one experienced judgment. The other received grace for one, the cross was an instrument of torture for the other. It became an instrument of mercy. One was looking for a way down of escape. The other one was looking for a way up to paradise.
What do you see when you come to the cross? What do you get when you come to the cross? When you come to the cross, you come as a sinner, but you leave as a Saint. You come to the cross under condemnation, but you leave with righteousness. You come to the cross sick, but you leave healed. You come to the cross with worry, but you leave with hope. You come to the cross with fear and you leave with faith. You’ll come to the cross with sadness, but you leave with joy. You’ll come to the cross poor, but you leave rich. You’ll come to the cross under a curse, but you leave blessed. What do you see when you see the cross? What you receive when you come to the cross? What is the cross to me at the cross? At the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith that I received my sight. And now I am happy all the day. I hope this message impacted your life today. The Bible says everyone calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If you want Jesus to forgive your sins, call on His name right now.
