A sermon preached at St Augustine’s Anglican Church on 1 September 2019.
By the end of this sermon I want to convince you that your cross is too small. The reason I think your cross is probably too small is that I’ve been convicted that my cross is too small–and I suspect it’s probably true for you too. I don’t mean literally. I’m not saying you’ve got the wrong size jewellery on. No, what I mean is this: Our view of the power and significance of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is generally too small.
Maybe you think the cross of Jesus Christ is only relevant to one part of your life. Maybe for you the death of Christ is just a religious thing, not particularly relevant to any other non-religious part of life. Maybe for you the cross is just a Sunday thing, and doesn’t have much to do with Monday. Or maybe for you Jesus’ death on the cross is just an insurance policy, a ticket to heaven, to pull out at the pearly gates for entrance at the end of time. Maybe for you Jesus’ death on the cross is just something to kickstart your Christian life, but it doesn’t have much to do with the way you live. Maybe for you Jesus’ death on the cross is just a doctrine you can tick off, an intellectual truth that fits neatly into all the other well-arranged doctrines in your mind.
If that’s the case, then your cross is too small.
Let me ask you some questions to help you see what I mean. What are you afraid of? What threatens you? Deep down? What will you be afraid of tomorrow morning? What are you afraid of at night, when you can’t sleep for worry? What are you afraid of at home? What are you afraid of in your future? Now consider those threats, those powers, that you are afraid of. In your fear, where do you turn for help to overcome them? Does your answer have anything to do with Jesus’ death on the cross? Is your overcoming, your conquest, your triumph, your victory, caught up in the cross of Jesus Christ? If that is not the case then your cross is too small.
In the Bible, Jesus’ death on the cross is God’s victory. The cross is God’s overcoming, God’s conquest, God’s triumph—a triumph Christ shares with all who trust in him.
Listen to the full sermon here: