Summary: The cross of Christ is a sign to His then followers and us today to take the message of the Gospel out to the world. Jesus' ministry was mainly to the Hebrew people who the LORD sent Him to first. Through the power of the cross and the Pentecost the world of the Gospel must be taken to the world

The Cross of the World

John 12:31-36

Rev. Dr. Michel H. Koplitz

Today we need to start or chat at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. We can read in the Gospels that Jesus was first sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus Himself tells us this in several different places in the Gospels. When we examine the journey that He took, we find with very few exceptions, He stayed within Judea and the Galilee's boundaries. One time Jesus ventured over to the Decapolis, cured a man who was infected by several demons. Still, the people of the town told Him to leave immediately. There are a couple stories of His interaction with Samarians. These events took place on the border of Samaria and Galilee.

Let us be honest about Jesus' Earthly ministry. He had twelve disciples who were Hebrews. His friends were people who came from Jewish homes. Oddly enough, His enemies were not Romans but rather from His own people. A vast number of His miracles and signs were done for the benefit of the Hebrew people. The people looked for miracles and signs because they believed that the Messiah would do this. That was not a Scriptural belief but rather a traditional idea. It was a longing for an oppressed people who desperately wanted their freedom from tyranny.

Jesus anticipated a ministry that would become encompassing of all people. If Jesus had more time on Earth, I am confident that His ministry would have touched many more people. He wanted to accomplish this not because there were enemies of His among His people but rather because He knew that His mission was to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is open to every person regardless of religion, nationality, or race. He did not have the time to fully accomplish this in His lifetime. John 10:16 supports Jesus' desire.

16 "I have another sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become bone flock with cone shepherd. (John 10:16 NAU)

An event was recorded in Matthew's Gospel about a woman who came up to Jesus and poured alabaster on Him. Jesus' disciples objected to what they thought was a waste of money. They were rebuked by Jesus. He told them that this event was a sign that the Gospel message must be taken out into the world. Since Jesus referred to His death in this event, we can easily deduce that it was going to be Jesus' disciples who were to take the message out into the world. Jesus said in Matthew 26:13

13 "Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her."

Even though Jesus' ministry was confined to the House of Israel, He told His twelve disciples that the Gospel needed to be brought to the world. The Gospel is an instructional guide to life under God's laws. When Israel received God's word through Moses at Mount Sinai, they also accepted the responsibility to take it out into the world. Something like that happened over the centuries but more by luck. Sharing the word of God with the world was not a priority to them. Jesus' mission could be viewed as His teaching Israel what it really means to follow the word of God. Once they understood how God wanted things to happen, He reminded them of their responsibility to take the word of God out into the world. Since that latter part was not occurring, and frankly still does not happen today, Jesus told His disciples what they needed to do.

As the time of the cross approached, Jesus became more intentional about getting His disciples to understand that they had to take the word of God with His instructions out into the world. But how did Jesus' death on the cross cause the disciples to come to an understanding of what they were supposed to be doing? Our first step is to understand that when we say Christ's death, we are talking about something completely different than our death. Our death is the cessation of activities. Our direct influence in the world will come to an end. There will be remnants that remain at least for one to two generations. Sadly I must tell you the truth that eventually, each of us will become unknown. There are people whose memory remains long after death, but their influence in society weakens over time.

This cannot be said of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. He did not look upon His death as a final episode. He saw His death as the next logical step to bring His message of love and grace to a desperate world. He knew that when He preached love for your enemies, the people who disagreed with that statement would become His enemies. Actually, Jesus loved everyone. He did not envision anyone as His enemy. That is the key to loving all people. He believed that no one was His enemy. Some people disagreed with Him. However, He never saw them in that negative way. If you have no enemies, then you can love all people. Right?

Jesus' death took away several restrictions to the spreading of the Gospel. He was able to concentrate on spreading it. His eleven disciples were given the courage and power through the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to tell the world about the Gospel. He took a man named Saul who persecuted His followers and transformed Him into Paul, who became the number one spokesperson for spreading the Gospel in the first century CE.

Jesus' death was the ultimate expression of God's love and grace for us. Through Jesus' sacrifice of His life, we can obtain forgiveness from sin and eternal life. A great sign of love is to sacrifice oneself for others. Jesus was on the cross because He knew that the Kingdom of Heaven, the understanding of love and grace for everyone, was simply that important. It was a historical way to show God's love to the world.

Sadly through history, there have been times where the death of Christ was practically hidden. The cross's message was rarely preached, which resulted in the cross's meaning was not grasped by people. That is happening today. Good Friday is only five days away. Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, which we recognize today, then five days later, He is crucified. Good Friday worship is extremely poorly attended. When the attendance is low, then the message of the cross's meaning does not get out to the people who call themselves loyal followers. The message of the cross today is becoming hidden. Many churches do not have a Good Friday worship nor a Good Friday message. People don't want to think about Christ's death. They say it is too depressing. Instead, they want to jump from Palm Sunday to Easter morning and skip the events of Passion week. But not here in this church. We need to remember the acts of salvation that Jesus did for us.

Divine love is what placed Christ on the cross. God's need to reconnect and stay connected to His creation is vital that God sent His Son to die for the forgiveness of sin. Through the cross, we are instructed to take this message of divine love out into the world. Our world today needs us more than ever. The truth in this country is that we need to return to loving one another and stop killing and hurting each other. Working together with the love of God as our glue will bring this country back together. Disagreements between people will always exist, but the hatred that has arisen in the past decade needs to go. I believe this division is because the divine message of the cross is not being preached in churches.

The world needs the universal message of divine grace through the cross of Christ. We can bring the country back together, working for a single cause. That cause is the betterment of our society and culture. It is the exchange of hate for love. What is saddest about today is the hatred that exists inside of Christ's church. Church members of different points of view, primarily political, have lost understanding of the cross when they fight with each other. The social and cultural problems need to be segregated from the church. A message from Christ's cross is that we are one family. We are connected to each other through Christ's cross. Jesus sacrificed His life for all of us.

Jesus' wants us to live by a common heart, a common life in which we share love and grace with each other. There is only ONE COMMON ENEMY, and its name is Satan. As followers of Jesus, we are expected to come together as a family and fight evil. We need to take the message of the cross out into the world. Every person on this planet needs to have the right relationship with God. I believe that deep down, every person wants to have a good relationship with God. It is a longing that is a part of our soul. Scientists believe that they have found the "God gene" in our DNA. That tells us that God is a part of each of us. It is a message from the cross that God wants to be involved with everyone's life.

Jesus' influence on the world became stronger after His death. The cross became the cross of the world. Jesus spent three years showing people that He was indeed the Messiah. But more importantly, Jesus was training His twelve disciples how to become missionaries for the Gospel. Wow, this is a fantastic idea. Each and every one of us who follow Jesus Christ are missionaries. Today's missionary definition is someone who leaves their home to go to some foreign land to preach Christ crucified. But that is not the definition Jesus created. Jesus declared us all missionaries at the cross.

Jesus says this to us.

32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." John 12:32

When Jesus was lifted up on the cross, the Christ in Him, his divinity took over. Christ was set free from the flesh's limitations. He created an unlimited spiritual ministry that coexists in the material world. Jesus was lifted up on the cross for you and me. We can know with certainty that our Lord and Savior is alive not only in Heaven but active in each of us. If you are trying to live a holy life through Christ's instructions found in the Gospels, He lives in you.

When you show Christ's love to people you come into contact with, whether they be family, friends, or even enemies, you are a missionary for Christ. People outside of the faith look at those who call themselves Christians to learn what Christianity is really about. Well, I say let them look because we are Christ's missionaries. We live a life that genuinely exemplifies our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I pray every day you remember that you and I are ambassadors for Jesus Christ. We are the missionaries. The professional missionaries are usually sent abroad. That leaves our society and culture in our hands. We need to be missionaries to our communities. Go out and share the love and grace of Jesus Christ with your family, friends, and communities. We are the missionaries for Jesus Christ. He set the mission in motion over two thousand years ago. Generations of Christians came before us and were missionaries of the message of the cross. They ensured that today we know about the sacrifice of the cross. The message of the cross must continue in each of us. Go out and share Christ's message from the cross with everyone you come in contact with.