The Cross as Dividing Line

Mark 15:21-41 February 13, 2022 Pastor Ricky Alcantar

Thesis The cross of Jesus Christ is the eternal dividing line where those who see only foolishness and shame are separated from those who, by God's grace, see the King who saves by refusing to save himself—and this reality must remain the defining center of both personal discipleship and the church's life across all generations.

Series

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Type

Expository

Tone

pastoraldidacticprophetic

Method

grammatical-historicalredemptive-historicalcanonical

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

29 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #24

"A prophetic warning drawn from D.A. Carson about generational gospel drift: first generation believes, second assumes, third loses—with the pastor identifying his church as second generation and calling them to return to first-generation passion for the cross rather than assuming it."

Doctrinal loci· 5 surfaced

Christology · 16 Pastoral Theology · 3 Ethics / Moral Theology · 2 Sanctification · 2 Doxology / Worship · 1

Bible citations· 46

Illustrations· 3

analogy · unit #4 — The continental divide illustration establishes the sermon's controlling metaphor: the cross functions as an invisible but absolute dividing line where seemingly small differences result in radically different eternal destinations, just as water falling on either side of Loveland Pass ends up in completely different oceans.
personal story · unit #13 — A personal story of watching his newborn son struggle to breathe under a medical bubble illustrates the painful separation between Father and Son on the cross, with a crucial theological qualification that this is not cosmic child abuse since Jesus chose the cross willingly.
hypothetical · unit #21 — An extended illustration using the three crosses to explain substitutionary atonement—sin is either 'on you' or 'on him'—with a direct evangelistic appeal for the listener to confess Christ and have their sin transferred to Jesus.

Theological claims· 1

The crucifixion is penal substitutionary atonement: Jesus bore the penalty for our sin as our substitute to restore us to God, and this reality redefines everything in Scripture, reality, and eternity. unit #14

Quotations· 12

"For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross" — Hebrews (unit #12)

"He was given the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God" — the Apostle Peter (unit #13)

"He was given the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God" — the Apostle Peter (unit #14)

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" — Jesus (unit #17)

"all of God's people are being built together like living stones into a new temple that is Jesus" — Peter (unit #18)

"you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead" — Romans 10 (unit #20)

"Today you will be with me in paradise" — Jesus (unit #21)

"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" — Ephesians 5 (unit #23)

"your body is not your own. You were bought with a price, meaning Christ. So glorify God with your body" — 1 Corinthians 6:11 (unit #23)

"be kind to one another, forgiving one another as God forgave you" — Ephesians 4:32 (unit #23)

"For I decided to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified" — 1 Corinthians 2 (unit #25)

"For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God" — 1 Corinthians 2:2 (unit #27)

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0 · The pastor opens with practical announcements about fellowship events and honoring departing members, establishing relational context before moving into the sermon proper

love, one of our distinctives, is gathering around the table and having food and enjoying fellowship. And for the last couple of years, we've been hindered in being able to do that. And so, uh, we've had some people join in the last 2 years that think like, oh, we just kind of meet and then leave. No, we have a party, like every excuse that we can possibly come up with. So, uh, we are excited to be able to fellowship together next week. Uh, and I want to encourage you, If Tom and Lisa have ministered to you in a specific way over the last many years, please write that down, get that to them in a note so they can take it with them as they head off to Tucson. We would love to bless them in that way. So I know sometimes, like me, like, oh, I wish I should do that. No, you should do it today. Do it today. I think it'll encourage them.

1 · The pastor establishes the authority and reliability of the biblical text by noting Peter's testimony that Scripture is more trustworthy than eyewitness memory, framing the crucifixion account as sacred ground that provides truer sight than physical presence would have

All right, let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15. Now, as we've discussed, it's very likely that the text of the Gospel of Mark was— many of the accounts were provided by the Apostle Peter working with Mark. But the Apostle Peter, who heard the voice of Jesus and saw Jesus with his own eyes, says that in the Word of God, the phrase he uses is, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed. Meaning that the Apostle Peter, who saw Jesus with his eyes and heard Jesus with his own ears, believed that this, the inspired, inerrant, living Word of God, was more true than even his own memory. Meaning that as we watch the events of the crucifixion today, in some sense, we see more truly than even the people on the Hill of Golgotha. Church, this is hallowed ground.

2 · The full reading of Mark 15:21-41 presents the crucifixion narrative from Simon carrying the cross through Jesus' death and the responses of the centurion and the women, establishing the textual foundation for the sermon's exposition

Would you stand for the reading of God's word? Mark 15:21, "And they compelled a passerby, Simon, of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry His cross. And they brought Him to the place called Golgotha, which means 'place of a skull.' And they offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, but He did not take it. And they crucified Him. And divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, 'The King of the Jews.' And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, 'Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days, save yourself and come down from the cross.' So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, 'He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.' And those who were crucified with him also reviled him. And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' My God, which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he's calling Elijah. And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 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!' And there were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses and Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him. And there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. This is God's Word.

3 · A brief pastoral prayer asking God for spiritual sight and hearing as the congregation prepares to engage with the crucifixion account

Father, we pray for sight. We pray to hear your voice. Amen. You may be seated.

4 · The continental divide illustration establishes the sermon's controlling metaphor: the cross functions as an invisible but absolute dividing line where seemingly small differences result in radically different eternal destinations, just as water falling on either side of Loveland Pass ends up in completely different oceans

At 11,990 feet in the mountains of Colorado, there stands an unassuming sign denoting Loveland Pass. It's an unassuming sign that you might miss in the midst of a snowy landscape, but that place bears a unique distinction. If one drop of water falls or one snowdrift melts to the right of the sign, that drop of water will eventually make its way through the water cycle to the Atlantic Ocean. To the left of the sign, if a drop of water or snowdrift falls, it will find its way to the Pacific Ocean because Loveland Pass is on the continental divide of the United States. The continental divide means that there is an invisible line stretching from the top of the United States all the way south through mountain ranges and mountain passes. And scientists have found that on the Continental Divide, if a drop of water falls on this side, goes to the Atlantic, this side goes to the Pacific. And yet it is invisible. You might pass over this divide and not really tell the difference. It might seem like people standing on either side of the sign are standing close together, but a drop of water falling on either side will have a vastly different destiny. Our passage today, in our passage today, the cross is a continental divide, an eternal divide. At the center of the text is Jesus Christ on the cross, and that text is then divided between cruel mockers leading up to the cross and reverence on the other side of the cross from the centurion and the women. And the angels. Everything on one side leads to one place, everything on the other side leads to a radically different place.

5 · This unit traces how Mark has been building toward the crucifixion since chapter 8, establishes the cross as the gospel's climactic moment and central interpretive key, explains the physical and cultural horror of crucifixion, and introduces the sermon's three-part structure organized around different responses to the cross

If the Gospel of Mark were a mountain range, this crucifixion of Jesus is the highest point in the Gospel of Mark, the peak of the mountain. Now, everything has been leading up to this. As soon as Jesus' identity is revealed, as soon as he's seen as the Messiah in Mark chapter 8, Jesus immediately says, He immediately begins to teach clearly that he will be rejected and suffer and die and rise again. And it says, "He said this plainly." And again, he says it in Mark chapter 9. And again, he says it in Mark chapter 10. He repeatedly teaches this, meaning that the cross of Jesus Christ casts a shadow across the entirety of the Gospel of Mark, and it casts its shadow forward into the the rest of the New Testament. The cross is this continental divide in life and in Scripture and in our passage and in the Gospel of Mark. So the question is, how do people looking at the same event believe radically different things? How do they end up in radically different places? And where are we on this continental divide? Now, the phrasing of 1 Corinthians 2, which talks about the cross being foolishness to some, but glory and power to others. Our first section is the foolishness of the cross. The foolishness of the cross. In Jesus' day, the cross was a brutal, shameful, horrific thing. It involved driving iron spikes through someone's wrists and feet, forcing them, leaving them hanging and forcing them to push themselves up their heel, which caused intense excruciating pain, to draw a breath. And they did this repeatedly until they suffocated and died. It was public, it was demeaning, it was shameful, it was reserved for the most vile criminals. And additionally, the Jews considered someone hung on a cross to be cursed according to the teaching of the Old Testament that anyone hanged on a tree is cursed. So as the onlookers saw Jesus hanging on the cross, they saw foolishness, they saw shame. And their mockery reveals so much about what they believed.

6 · The first element of the mockers' response is examined: they deny Jesus' kingship because he appears powerless and stripped of all dignity, contradicting every worldly understanding of royal power measured by domination and glory rather than self-giving

First, they believed Jesus is no king. The inscription against him read, "The King of the Jews." Remember that the soldiers in our previous passage beat him and hailed him mockingly as the King of the Jews. Meaning this is meant to be a brutal irony. Here hangs the king, powerless, naked, exposed. Ha! This was the feeling of the day. And in our world today, great men, kings, rulers, politicians, and all of them, power is measured in how much they can take and how glorious their position, how many they force to bow or worship at their feet. Jesus appears to do the very opposite, giving away his power until there is nothing left. How can this be a king?

7 · The second element of mockery is exposed: the crowd misunderstands Jesus' teaching about destroying and rebuilding the temple (his body), seeing only a powerless man who can accomplish nothing, reflecting the modern materialistic view that dismisses Jesus as a dead historical figure with no present power

Second, they say Jesus cannot destroy or rebuild anything. They wag their heads and say, "Ah, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days, save yourself." Now, they misunderstood and misremembered what Jesus had taught. That they— Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body, but they thought he was speaking of the physical temple. And what they're seeing is this powerless man on the cross, and they think he can't do anything. He can't accomplish anything. He can't destroy anything. He can't hurt anyone. He's no threat. He can't rebuild anything. He can't even move. And in our world today, many see Jesus as impotent. He can't do anything. What can a dead man 2,000 years ago do? Seems strange from— in a world that is so materialistic, so obsessed with what's right in front of us, the world sees Jesus as impotent as these people did.

8 · The third mockery—that Jesus cannot save himself—is examined alongside three modern responses to Jesus (utilitarian use, disdainful mockery, and apathy), concluding with a direct pastoral challenge asking listeners to examine whether they exhibit any of these responses themselves

Third, they believe Jesus cannot save anyone. Verse 31, they mocked him saying, he saved others, He can't save himself. Now, they couldn't deny that Jesus had helped people and healed people, which were verifiable facts, but they could undercut that, right? The chief priests seeing all this healing and demon casting and exorcism and even raising of the dead, they said, "Well, well, well, he can't be that great. He can't even save himself." And as they mock, we see various responses to Jesus. We see some like the Roman soldiers just take the meager possessions of Jesus. And some today in a similar way just take what they can from Jesus, use Jesus as they can, maybe borrow a bit of Jesus' teaching, may try to mold Jesus into their own image as a culture warrior or social justice advocate, using Him for their own purposes. We see mockery of Jesus and who He claims to be, and many today look on Jesus and, especially look on followers of Jesus and His church as a punchline, as disdainful. And then we see apathy to Jesus. People just pass by. They laugh and pass by. And many today treat Jesus with apathy, see the cross with apathy. Do you see any of this in yourself? Maybe even growing up in church or sitting in church, you're apathetic to Jesus or privately disdainful of Jesus. Or you think, "Well, maybe this is true, but he seems so impotent. He seems a hollow king. What can he do?" That's what everything looks like on this side of the cross.

9 · A structural pivot from examining the mockers' response to focusing on what actually happened at the cross from God's perspective, introducing a two-part exposition of what Jesus experienced (wrath) and what he did not experience (the Father's love)

Now, section 2, the heart of the cross. We're going to focus in, almost if we were to stand, as it were, on the peak of the mountain and look at the heart of the cross and see what the Lord sees. Now, the whole New Testament will unpack what this moment means for the people of God. But Mark gives us two glimpses at the heart of the cross here, two glimpses. One is what Jesus experienced positively, and one is what he experienced negatively, meaning what he felt and what he did not feel, what he experienced and what he did not experience.

10 · This unit exposes the darkness at the crucifixion as the wrath of God, first dismantling cultural resistance to divine wrath by showing how Americans passionately believe in justice and wrath for others (illustrated through action movies), then connecting the darkness to the Passover in Exodus where only the blood of the lamb saves, establishing Jesus as the true Passover Lamb who endures God's wrath in our place

The first is the darkness of wrath. Verse 33. 'When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.' And repeatedly in the Old Testament, darkness is a picture of wrath. Now, Americans have a complicated relationship with the idea of wrath. If I talk to people, one of the most common things that they struggle with is like, 'Well, I like the God of love thing, but I don't believe in a God of wrath. I don't want to believe in a God of wrath.' wrath, you know, a mean God who punishes people. And yet, all Americans believe in wrath because everybody has seen the movie Taken, probably, right? Meaning that almost all action movies are built off of this premise that somebody does something unspeakable and horrible, and therefore we get to watch 2 hours of an angry, dude gun people down and kill like 100 guys in wrath, right? And so Liam Neeson's daughter gets taken and you're just like, "Oh man, here it comes." You don't even know. And you're like, you're losing count of how many dudes. Was that 12, 13, 50? I don't know. He just keeps punching and shooting until he gets to the end. And the whole time, what are we doing? Like, "Yeah, get him." Like, right? "These guys are the worst." We don't care about their backstory. It's just like, he was there, he had a gun, he's out, right? This is every action movie in America. So Americans are like, "Oh, I don't believe in wrath. I don't like a God of wrath." But then we're watching like, "Yeah, get 'em," right? Because everyone believes in justice and wrath. Americans are very much more so with each passing year, more publicly advocating about justice, whatever justice means to them. These people are wrong. They deserve our wrath. This person did this. They should be canceled. This person did this. They should never leave jail. You know, the anger that we feel, we feel because we see often a true injustice and want wrath to come down on it. The problem is this: every human heart believes in justice and wrath except for when it comes to themselves. But everybody's like, "Oh man, this person, this person, this person." And the Scripture holds up, as we saw last week, a mirror. And the crosshairs are on us. And we all want to believe we're Liam Neeson when we are not. In the Old Testament, one of the most profound moments where darkness descends on the land is in the Exodus and the plagues, right? Darkness covers the land and the last plague is marked by a particular darkness. And the angel of death comes and the firstborn child of every Egyptian family dies. But here's the important note, that the only way those in Israel are saved are not because they're better than the Egyptians, not because they don't have sin, not because they have no reason for the justice of God to come again. No, no, no, we see plenty of reasons for the justice of God to come against his people. The only distinction is that they sacrifice a perfect lamb and place its blood over their door, and the justice of God, the wrath of God, seeing that blood has been shed, in a sense metaphorically, passes over them. There is no distinction. When justice comes down, it comes for every single human that is guilty of injustice. And that is all of us. And so what we see here is a second Passover, whereas the note is that when the sixth hour had come— and if you read the commentaries, this and the ninth hour, between sixth and ninth hour, that is when the Passover lamb was sacrificed. And so as the darkness covers the land, Jesus endures the justice and wrath of God as the Lamb of God for his people.

11 · This unit connects Jesus' Gethsemane prayer about the cup to the crucifixion, emphasizing that the cup represents the full measure of God's wrath that Jesus willingly drained on the cross as the Passover lamb

In Gethsemane, he speaks of a cup that must be drained and must be drunk. And the idea of the cup, even for Jesus in his humanity, is staggering. The text reveals that it nearly makes him faint as he considers it. And between these hours, Jesus endures the cup. He drinks the cup. He drains the cup. He falls as the Passover lamb, and the justice of God falls on him.

12 · This unit expounds Jesus' cry of dereliction, emphasizing the radical shift from his intimate Father-language to the bare 'My God,' and explaining that Jesus experienced the Father only as wrath-bringer rather than sustainer, enduring both the positive falling of wrath and the negative withdrawal of the Father's love that had sustained him eternally and throughout his ministry

The darkness of wrath. And second, the pain of abandonment. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Jesus, who almost exclusively spoke of God as His Father, now speaks of Him simply as God and describes that He has been abandoned. On the cross, Jesus encounters God the Father only as a wrath-bringer, as justice-bringer, not the Father's warm relationship, not God the Father's comforting and sustaining and helping presence that was with him every moment of his incarnation. Since before creation, the Father, Son, and Spirit existed in love and harmony and joy, and every step of his ministry that was with Jesus, and now on the cross, that is ripped away. And it's not just distance. Jesus describes his experience as forsakenness, meaning that, that at the same time he's enduring the positive justice of God, he is not experiencing the love of of his Father.

13 · A personal story of watching his newborn son struggle to breathe under a medical bubble illustrates the painful separation between Father and Son on the cross, with a crucial theological qualification that this is not cosmic child abuse since Jesus chose the cross willingly

Look, when my son Ford was born, he was born late preterm. And so, we were so excited to have our first child in the world, but as soon as he was born, we could tell something was wrong. You and I don't think about breathing, but— because we just breathe, but as we looked They take this little guy, I'm like, I'm not a medical expert, but I know the way he's breathing is not right. It was like he was struggling to get air in his lungs. And so he would like do that. And you could tell he is struggling. And so the doctor said, okay, he's okay for now, but this really, this could be a problem. So they took him and they placed him And what was really almost comical, they placed this little tiny baby, he's late preterm, so he's a little guy, little tiny guy, and they placed a bubble over him, which I thought, is this really medical treatment? It's like a little helmet, looks like a little space helmet that they placed, you know, around his neck and he just has this little bubble, right? And so first you're thinking, oh, that's kind of adorable, but But for— I don't even know how many hours it was. It was 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours. As a dad, all I wanted was to hold my son. But what I had to do was look through a window while he laid by himself, new in the world, under a bubble and struggled to breathe. And I do not know if I have endured any physical pain worse than that. Now, please be careful here. It is not as though this is some sort of cosmic child abuse that God the Son is this helpless baby who God the Father is punishing. No, Jesus chose the cross. "For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross," Hebrews says. But I say that to illustrate the pain of the distance between Father and Son in this moment as wrath falls again and again on Jesus. And then He breathes His last.

14 · This unit defines and explains the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement—that Jesus bore our penalty as our substitute to bring us back to God—and asserts that this moment redefines all of Scripture, reality, and eternity for God's people

What we find here, I want to introduce a term to you that I think can be helpful in struggling to understand what is going on on the cross, theologians have often spoken of, used the phrase penal substitutionary atonement. What that means is penal, meaning a penalty is paid by Jesus, not his penalty, but our penalty. Substitutionary, meaning in our place as a substitute. And atonement, the word atonement meaning at-one-ment, meaning rest, restorative. So the penalty fell on Jesus as our substitute, to bring us back to God. As the Apostle Peter would later write, "He was given the righteous for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God." This moment, the pinnacle of the Gospel of Mark, redefines everything, redefines the Bible, redefines reality, redefines eternity for all of God's people.

15 · A structural pivot from the heart of the cross to the responses on the other side of the continental divide, introducing the centurion's confession and the women's faithfulness as evidence that those who see rightly after the cross see three things (king, destroyer/rebuilder, savior)

So now then, we come to the other side of the cross, the power of the cross. On this side, we see this in verse 37, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was righteous." was the Son of God. And after this, we see the account of the woman who continued to follow Jesus. We see the angel, we see everyone speaking of Jesus after this moment of His death sees Jesus very differently than anyone on the other side of the cross. They see 3 things.

16 · This unit expounds the centurion's confession as the first true seeing of Jesus as King on the other side of the cross, redefining kingship not as coercive power but as chosen self-sacrifice, with vivid imagery of Jesus holding himself on the cross that he himself created, and concluding that recognizing Jesus as King redefines every area of life

First, they see Jesus is the, King. A centurion is not Jewish. He does not know all the Scriptures. He maybe knows Jesus as a healer, as a teacher, as an exorcist, as a popular figure. But in this moment, as he watches Jesus breathe his last, he sees truly, he sees the Son of God. He may not even understand fully what that means in his heart, but he knows something. He knows that the God who created him is hanging there. He knows that he is truly what the sign above him says, the King of the Jews. And that sign, the truest sign ever made, maybe could only be modified to say the King of creation, the King of all, right? To understand Jesus, you must understand him as God. The King, as the Son of God. You must understand that what takes place on the cross is not forced onto Jesus, that it is chosen by Jesus. You must see his kingly power not in preventing the cross, but in pursuing the cross. You behold his power in that the one who spoke and raised the trees across the face of the earth hung and died on one tree. Holding himself there. That the one who raised the mountains with deposits of ore that would be mined and turned into iron, that would be turned into nails that would be driven through his hands, he held himself there on the cross. Those nails did not. The tree did not. Therefore, to see Jesus means to see him as king and to hail him as king. In all of life. It means your work is redefined, your marriage is redefined, your parenting is redefined, your sexuality is redefined, your money management is redefined by the reality of Jesus as triumphant King.

17 · This unit explains the tearing of the temple curtain as Jesus destroying the barrier between God and humanity, connecting it to the mockers' claim that he couldn't destroy or rebuild the temple, and establishing that Jesus himself is the new temple whose death tears down the separation and brings all his people into God's presence

Second, you see something. You see Jesus destroys. On the cross, He absolutely destroys something. You see, the picture in the Gospel of Mark is we're focused in, in a tight shot on Jesus expiring on the cross. And then all of a sudden, there's a verse that you're in the temple. And in the temple, you watch this thick, you know, foot-thick curtain be torn down the middle, and then it jumps back to the cross. Why does Mark include this? Remember the connection between— they were mocking him saying, "Well, you can't rebuild the temple in 3 days. You can't destroy and rebuild the temple." the temple, Jesus was speaking of the temple of his own body, right? Because the temple is the place where God dwells with his people. And so when Jesus is born, there is a new temple on the face of the earth, and it is him. He is God dwelling with his people. And when his body is destroyed, something happens. The curtain is torn in two. In two, right? The curtain is what separated sinful humanity from a holy God. You can't access a holy God without justice and wrath. But in Christ, when he paid the penalty for our sin, it means that he brings us to God. What that means is that where once Only one man after days of purification rites could enter into the holiest of holies, the presence of God, and everyone else on the outside. Jesus, in a moment, by what he does, tears the curtain down so that all his people come in. Jesus destroys the barrier between God and his people through his death. He proclaims in John 14:6, I am the way and the truth I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. But oh, do his people come to the Father through him.

18 · This unit develops the rebuilding theme: Jesus not only destroys the barrier but builds a new temple by gathering his people as living stones, connecting the cross to the church as God's new dwelling place and tracing the arc from Eden (no barrier) through the cross (barrier destroyed) to the church (temple rebuilt) and finally to heaven (temple completed)

It means this, that to come to Jesus, to understand Jesus means that you come to the Father. You come to be reconciled to God. Your future with him is secure, is bound up and God himself. Third, Jesus rebuilds. Not only does Jesus destroy this barrier, he builds something new. Peter will say in 1 Peter 2 that all of God's people are being built together like living stones into a new temple that is Jesus. I mean, Jesus as the cornerstone begins a new building project, which then, because remember our reconciliation includes the people of God. So Jesus will, next week, well, two weeks from now, we will see him rise from the dead and all his people rise to new life with him. And when he rises, he gets to work, to the work of building his people together into a place where God will dwell with his people forever again. What Jesus is doing is He's taking us back to the garden where humanity walked with God, no barrier, no separation. This beautiful temple begun now through the church will one day find its completion in heaven. Therefore, to see Jesus means to join with Him in this rebuilding of humanity as the temple of God, to join with Him in the church, meaning you cannot separate Jesus' work here from the church. You cannot love Jesus and not His body. You cannot come to Jesus and not be part of what He is doing in rebuilding the temple with living stones.

19 · This unit inverts the mockers' claim that Jesus couldn't save himself, revealing the theological irony that he refused to save himself precisely in order to save others, and uses the centurion as proof that salvation is extended to all regardless of ethnicity or religious pedigree—only faith and confession are required

Fourth and last, Jesus saves. Oh, they said that he saved others because he couldn't save himself. Almost right. So close. Maybe a D. Because the truth is that he couldn't save himself so that he could save others. He refused to save himself so that he would save others. And here is the beautiful truth held out in this passage. The salvation is held out to all. The centurion, as the first person on the other side of the cross to see and acknowledge Jesus as King, is a foretaste of things to come. This centurion, this pagan, this guy who grew up worshiping false gods, not raised in a Jewish home, may well be the first believer believer on the other side of the cross. Meaning that the way you come to Jesus, the way you come to God is not by being born in a select family, not by keeping a select group of rules, but rather by hailing him as King and becoming one of his people. And that offer then is extended to anyone. All of those, the chief priests, the scribes, wagging their heads and saying, "They had everything." They had the ethnic superiority, if you could say it that way, the religious superiority, all of that stuff. Nope, they missed it. This guy who has none of that sees and believes. This is what Jesus has done. Jesus extends his salvation to all who will follow and believe.

20 · The first application challenges individuals to examine whether they are truly saved or merely culturally Christian, using the continental divide metaphor to warn that proximity to believers does not equal salvation—only personal confession and belief secures one's position on the correct side of the divide

All right, very quickly, 3 points of application then. As we see this mountaintop, you see the cross, you see the dividing line, what does that mean for us? The first question is this: Is the cross at the center of your life? Look, in a church of our size, there will be— I'm just saying this is reality— there will be people sitting in church that think, "Okay, well, I'm close. I feel close to other people." but in reality, you're on the other side of the continental divide. And it seems like, well, but I'm sitting in the same seats and I'm doing the same stuff. But the reality is who Jesus is and what he's done has not reshaped your life. Romans 10 says you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. And you haven't done that. You've been around people that have done that. You've not done that.

21 · An extended illustration using the three crosses to explain substitutionary atonement—sin is either 'on you' or 'on him'—with a direct evangelistic appeal for the listener to confess Christ and have their sin transferred to Jesus

Let me give an illustration, if I can try to do this briefly, that I heard of a pastor who explained it this way. He had a seeker come to him and the guy was struggling to understand, is he saved or not? What do I need to do? And so the guy drew 3 crosses, okay? And over the— The two crosses on the side, he wrote the word "in," and the middle cross, Jesus' cross, he wrote "not in." He's speaking of sin. He said, "Which of these guys has sin in them?" And he says, "Well, that one, not the one in the middle, and that one." Not Jesus, but the two, you know, robbers. Okay. And that's true. No sin in Jesus inherently, sin in these two guys inherently. And then he wrote an arrow from the third cross to Jesus and wrote above it the words "on." The first cross, he wrote the word "on." And he says, "Which of them have their sin on them?" Speaking of the third thief, the third cross is the thief who believed later. He was mocking Jesus and later believed. And Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in paradise." And he says, okay, which of these 'Which of these men has their sin still on them?' And he says, 'The first one, but not the third.' And the pastor leaned in and said, 'Which are you? Have you believed in Christ?' You cannot deny that you have sin in you, but in a legal sense, you have two choices. The sin can remain on you, or it can be placed on him. No sin in him, but it is on him. Today, friend, right now, you can confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that Christ, that God raised him from the dead and say, "My Lord, may my sin be on him. I see that I'm a sinner. I see that he's the only way." You can do it today.

22 · The second application extends the continental divide metaphor to sanctification: the Christian life should be a progressive movement down one side of the divide, with the cross reshaping every area of life until arrival in heaven

And if you are a Christian, let me just say that this should— Christian life should feel like progressively running down one side of the Continental Divide until you arrive at the shores of heaven. Every year, every week, every month, the cross of Jesus Christ means that you, in a sense, fall in a particular direction. It means that I wish we had time to do this. It means that every area of life has been reshaped by the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the cross of Jesus Christ.

23 · Three concrete examples of how the cross redefines life: sexuality (your body belongs to Christ), marriage (husbands must love sacrificially regardless of reciprocity), and reconciliation (forgive as God forgave you)—establishing the cross as the controlling principle for all ethical decisions

For example, your sexuality, which is such a big deal in our culture. 1 Corinthians 6:11 talks about how your body is not your own. You were bought with a price, meaning Christ. So glorify God with your body. What does that mean? You don't get to tell your body what to do. Jesus does. Right? And marriage. People have all kinds of ideas of marriage. We gotta do this, we gotta do that. Okay, Ephesians 5 redefines marriage this way. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Meaning the way you treat your wife is no longer the way she treats you. Oh, well, she treats me like this. Doesn't matter. The cross redefines your marriage. Reconciliation. I don't like that person. They haven't said they're sorry, blah, blah, blah. Ephesians 4:32. It says to be kind to one another, forgiving one another as God forgave you. Meaning every area of life, you just keep going, every single area of life gets redefined by the cross of Jesus Christ.

24 · A prophetic warning drawn from D

Second, is the cross at the center of our church's life and faith? This is something on my heart here. D.A. Carson, a scholar, points out a particular phenomenon about Christian movements, okay? The particular phenomenon is this, that there will be a movement of people who love and celebrate and cling to the gospel of Jesus, the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen. First generation believes it, receives it. The second generation assumes it. Like, well, we know, we know the cross, blah, blah, blah. Let's move on to other things. Let's start talking about other stuff. You know, Ephesians 5, that can be good for marriage, but we got to get into this tip and this— personality thing and we got to get— that's where we're going to spend all of our time. And then the result is that the third generation loses it. And he can point to movements throughout history. First generation loves and receives it, second generation assumes it, third generation loses it. That is where our church is at. The first generation that founded this church in the '70s and '80s loved the gospel of Jesus Christ by God's grace. I grew up in this church and There was not a— it didn't seem a Sunday went by without somebody singing and preaching about the cross of Jesus Christ. Love it. The danger is this: second generation, we can assume it. We can move on to other stuff. For the sake of our kids and our grandkids, may we not. May we jump back to the first generation and love and receive it all the more.

25 · The pastor personalizes the generational warning by recounting Tom Wilkins assigning him 1 Corinthians 2 for his first sermon as a deliberate refusal to assume the gospel, then issues specific concrete instructions for parents, community groups, and worship leaders to keep the cross central in all their ministry

First message I ever preached in this pulpit, Tom Wilkins assigned me. He probably should not have. I was too young to preach, which is a retroactive critique I have for Tom, but— Tom was like, "Yeah, in retrospect, that's probably true." He assigned me the text. You know the text he assigned me? 1 Corinthians 2. 'For I decided to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified.' And at the time, I thought, 'Okay, this is kind of whatever. I'll just preach whatever Tom gives me.' And in retrospect, I now know what Tom was doing. He was not assuming it. Parents, we cannot assume our kids get this. We cannot. For the sake of their souls, we cannot assume they understand that they're sinners and understand that Christ is a great Savior. Lots of good parenting stuff floating around, lots of good parenting stuff to take in and benefit from. Let's not lose this: Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If that's not the thing that we keep telling our kids until they are dead tired of it, I think we failed. In our community groups, as we gather, we must not assume that reality when we gather around the Bible. There shouldn't be a community group meeting that goes by where we just talk about other stuff without understanding some connection to the cross of Jesus Christ and to that topic. Our worship leaders, if you're leading worship in a small group, if you come to lead worship on this stage, may a Sunday not go by where we do not sing about the cross of Jesus Christ. I went to a church service once where they sang so many good songs about God's goodness and love and blah, blah, blah, faithfulness, nothing about the cross, nothing about how to come to Christ.

26 · The pastor narrates the church's name change to 'Cross of Grace,' acknowledging that the elders chose a simple, unmemorable name over flashier alternatives, deliberately prioritizing theological substance over marketing appeal as a concrete embodiment of refusing to assume or move beyond the cross

And if you come to preach the gospel of Jesus, and I believe some in this room will, may you never assume your readers or your hearers get it. All right, let me say this. We changed our name 13 or 14 years ago. We chose a name that better reflected our message to the world around us. We wanted to choose a name, rather, that would better reflect our name to the world around us. We were called, before this name, we were called Vista New Life, which is great. New life is good. I'm not sure what the Vista was. It was a vista, I don't know. Yeah, it just sounds, you gotta have something to make it pop, I guess. I don't know. We asked for suggestions on our names. So people submitted lots of different suggestions, which was dangerous. We got some very passionate people who really liked their name. And we finally got down to the final names. And I remember being— I was like an intern, I think, at this time. And we were in the discussion of like, okay, what about this name, that name? And there was a name that the elders really liked, but there was almost a concern like, well, it just seems— too simple, seems too ordinary. Is it too ordinary? Do we need a name that pops? Name that's like got some pizzazz, like a Greek word that's obscure or like a Hebrew thing, you know? I don't know. Didn't seem exciting, didn't have a wow factor. But our elders, your elders, led us to choose it, and it is our name Now, Cross of Grace. Church, this— I've talked to people and they're like, what's the name of your church again? It's not memorable. It's a Cross of Hope, or what? What's the name? Grace Christian Cross? People are, you know, they struggle with it. It's not— it doesn't pop. It doesn't, doesn't pop. We don't care if it pops.

27 · The conclusion grounds the church name decision in 1 Corinthians 2, contrasting worldly demands for signs and wisdom with the church's commitment to preach the foolish cross, and issues a final charge to 'live our name' before moving into worship

Because 1 Corinthians 22 says this, "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. May we live our name, church. Amen. Will you stand? Let's sing.

28 · A closing pastoral prayer thanking God for the cross's offer of grace to all and asking that the church never move beyond the cross as its central reality

Father, we're grateful for the cross of Jesus Christ. Grateful that it holds out grace to centurions and Gentiles and lawbreakers and thieves and the worst among us. Lord, may we as a church never move on from the reality, from the mountaintop of the cross of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Jan 9, 2022

Written On His Hands

We can trust Jesus fully because He never forgets His people (our names are written on His hands), He cares deeply for us (the scars of His love are permanent), and He has the power to fix everything broken in this world and in our lives (He is the King of Kings bringing history to its consummation).

Isaiah 49:14-16

Jan 30, 2022

On Christ the Solid Rock

In the floods of cultural opposition and personal failure, Christians must abandon all unstable ground—cultural consensus, hope in earthly fairness, self-confidence—and cling solely to Christ the solid rock, whose character is unchanging, whose substitutionary work covers our unfaithfulness, and whose identity as divine judge makes Him the only opinion that ultimately matters.

Mark 14:50-72

Feb 6, 2022

This Can't Be the Right Road, Can It?

The road to the cross is the Christian's road—hard, dark, and seemingly wrong—but it is the right road because Jesus walked it for us, and it ends not in death but in resurrection glory.

Mark 15:1-20

February 13 · This sermon

The Cross as Dividing Line

The cross of Jesus Christ is the eternal dividing line where those who see only foolishness and shame are separated from those who, by God's grace, see the King who saves by refusing to save himself—and this reality must remain the defining center of both personal discipleship and the church's life across all generations.

Mark 15:21-41

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

When you read Mark 15:29-32, what specific things do the mockers say about Jesus, and what do their words reveal about what they think the c…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we meditate on the cross as the eternal dividing line—the place where Jesus bore our penalty as our substitute, and where every area of life is reshaped by his sacrifice.

Prayer

The Cross Reshapes All Things

Father, we come before you in awe of the cross of your Son. In that place of shame and seeming defeat, you accomplished what nothing else in…

Family table

Two Sides of the Cross

This sermon divides the world into two responses to Jesus's death—those who see foolishness and those who see the King who saves. Ask your f…

Couples

The Cross Reshapes Us Together

What part of the cross's meaning—that Jesus bore the penalty we deserved so we could be restored to God—stirred something in your heart this…

Memorize

Mark 15:39

This verse captures the sermon's central claim: the cross is the eternal dividing line where one man sees foolishness and shame, but another—by God's grace—sees the true King and Son of God who saves by refusing to save himself. It is the moment when penal substitutionary atonement becomes visible, and faith is born.

Memory verse this week

Mark 15:39

And when the centurion, who stood opposite him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'

Why this verse: This verse captures the sermon's central claim: the cross is the eternal dividing line where one man sees foolishness and shame, but another—by God's grace—sees the true King and Son of God who saves by refusing to save himself. It is the moment when penal substitutionary atonement becomes visible, and faith is born.

Draft · pending review

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

When you read Mark 15:29-32, what specific things do the mockers say about Jesus, and what do their words reveal about what they think the cross means?

Mark 15:29-32

→ How does their understanding of power and kingship differ from what Mark is actually showing us about Jesus in this moment?
Mark tells us that when Jesus died, the centurion who was standing there watching declared, 'Surely this man was the Son of God.' What changed between the mockers' verdict and the centurion's verdict—what did the centurion see that the others missed?

Mark 15:37-39
Ricky emphasized that the cross is penal substitutionary atonement—Jesus bore the penalty for our sin as our substitute to restore us to God. When you think about your own life, what does it mean practically that Jesus bore a penalty you could not bear yourself?

1 Corinthians 2:2

→ How should that reality reshape the way you think about your relationship with God?
According to the sermon, being present in church or being close to Christians does not save you—personal faith in Christ does. What's the difference between proximity to the gospel and actual trust in Jesus, and where do you see that distinction playing out in the lives of people around you?

Romans 10
Ricky said the Christian life is a progressive movement of allowing the cross to reshape every area of life. Pick one area—sexuality, marriage, reconciliation, work, how you spend money—and describe what it would look like for the cross's pattern of sacrifice and Christ's ownership to actually reshape that one area for you in the next month.

Ephesians 5

→ What resistance or difficulty do you anticipate facing as you try to let the cross reshape that area?
The mockers saw the cross as the end of Jesus' claim to be King. But Mark shows us the cross is actually the place where Jesus is revealed as King—just not the kind of king the world was expecting. How does this redefine what it means for you to follow Jesus as King in a culture that still mocks the cross?

Mark 15:26

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

This week we meditate on the cross as the eternal dividing line—the place where Jesus bore our penalty as our substitute, and where every area of life is reshaped by his sacrifice.

Monday 1 Corinthians 2:2

Paul anchors everything—his preaching, his theology, his very identity—on the cross of Christ. When we grasp that Jesus bore the penalty we deserved as our substitute, we stop trying to earn God's favor and start living from the certainty that we are restored to him. The cross is not one doctrine among many; it is the hinge on which all of Christian reality turns.

Tuesday 1 Peter 2

Peter writes to a persecuted church and calls them to see Christ as the Lamb—the once-and-for-all sacrifice whose death breaks every barrier between us and God. When we understand ourselves as those redeemed by the Passover Lamb's blood, we gain courage to endure suffering, knowing we belong wholly to God. The cross does not promise us comfort; it promises us restoration to God himself.

Wednesday Romans 10

There is no neutral ground at the foot of the cross. Either we confess Jesus as Lord and believe he rose, or we stand among the mockers who see only foolishness and shame. Proximity to the gospel—sitting in services, having Christian friends—saves no one. We must each personally turn from our sin and embrace Christ as the one who alone can restore us to God.

Thursday Ephesians 4:32

Because Christ forgave us at the cross—absorbing the penalty we deserved—we are now called to forgive one another in the same way. The cross is not a past event we remember; it is the pattern that rewires how we treat our families, our enemies, our brothers and sisters. Forgiveness flows from the cross, and the cross continually reshapes our entire way of relating.

Friday Ephesians 5

Paul tells husbands to love their wives the way Christ loved the church—by giving himself up for her, just as he did at the cross. This is not sentimental language; it means the cross becomes the template for how we spend our bodies, our money, our time, our sexuality. Every sphere of life—marriage, work, conflict, desire—is brought under the lordship of the crucified King who gave everything.

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

The Cross Reshapes All Things

Father, we come before you in awe of the cross of your Son. In that place of shame and seeming defeat, you accomplished what nothing else in heaven or on earth could accomplish—you bore the penalty for our sin, you satisfied your holy wrath, you tore the veil between us and you, and you made a way home for all who believe. We confess that we, like those who stood at the foot of the cross, are often divided in our seeing. We live as if the cross is a historical fact we assent to, yet we order our lives as though it changes nothing. We treat our sexuality, our marriages, our conflicts, our work as if they exist in a separate kingdom from the cross—as if Christ's substitutionary sacrifice reshapes doctrine but not our daily choices. We are slow to let the scandal of the cross—the power of God hidden in weakness, the King who saves by refusing to save himself—redefine everything we touch.

But here is the good news we receive today: the cross is not past. It is the eternal dividing line, the place where you have already answered every accusation against us, where you have already clothed us in Christ's righteousness, where you have already declared us your beloved children (Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 2:2). By your grace, we believe. And now we ask: remake us from the inside out. Give us eyes to see what the centurion saw—that Jesus is your Son, your King. Teach us to let the cross reshape how we give ourselves in love, how we forgive one another, how we steward our bodies, how we speak to our children, how we work, how we worship. Make the cross the controlling principle of our whole lives, not just our confession.

Father, guard this church from drifting into a Christianity that preserves the cross in memory but abandons it in practice. Make us a people who return again and again to the foot of Golgotha, not as tourists but as those who have been utterly changed by what happened there. We commit ourselves to you: we are yours, bought with a price, shaped by the One who drank the cup we deserved to drink. To you be the glory, now and forever.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

Two Sides of the Cross

For the parent

This sermon divides the world into two responses to Jesus's death—those who see foolishness and those who see the King who saves. Ask your family which group they're in, and listen for what they think it means to truly see Jesus. The goal is to help them understand that being near Christians isn't the same as believing in Christ yourself.

At the cross, some people saw Jesus as weak and foolish—unable to save himself. But others saw him as the true King who saves by dying for us. When you think about Jesus on the cross, which group are you in? What do you see?

works for ages 7+; younger children can answer with help ('What does Jesus dying on the cross tell us about him?')

Draft · pending review

Couples · three questions over coffee

The Cross Reshapes Us Together

What part of the cross's meaning—that Jesus bore the penalty we deserved so we could be restored to God—stirred something in your heart this week?
Where in our marriage do we need to let the cross reshape us? Is there a place where we're living as if the cross hasn't changed everything?
What is one area of our life together—sexuality, forgiveness, how we treat each other—where you want to see Christ's sacrificial love more clearly? How can we pray for that together?

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

About us · What we believe

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [Written On His Hands (Isaiah 49:14-16, 2022-01-09)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/01/written-on-his-hands)
- [On Christ the Solid Rock (Mark 14:50-72, 2022-01-30)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/01/on-christ-the-solid-rock)
- [This Can't Be the Right Road, Can It? (Mark 15:1-20, 2022-02-06)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/02/this-can-t-be-the-right-road-can-it)
- [The Cross as Dividing Line (Mark 15:21-41, 2022-02-13)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/02/the-cross-as-dividing-line)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

The page itself ships with Schema.org Article + Church markup, Open Graph + Twitter cards for share previews, and a canonical URL. Transcripts are server-rendered HTML — no JS dependency for the readable body.