April 7, 2025 • 37 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'll tell you, it's getting kind of full in here.
Be careful, we're gonna have toknock down these walls in the
back.
This is good.
Oh, all right, so real quick.
I just wanna start with acouple announcements, just
because there are things comingup.
April is here and we have got alot of really cool stuff going
on.
We're doing baptisms, if youdon't know, on Easter Right now
(00:20):
we got 51 people for sure doingit.
Easter Right now, we got 51people for sure doing it.
I'm excited about that.
If you want to get baptized,man, I would love the
opportunity to dunk you and holdyou under the water, help you
back up again.
If you want to do that, thatnext steps card that's right in
front of you there.
If you just let us know, we'llcall you this week.
Figure out which service youwant to do it at.
We're going to do threeservices seven, 9, and 11.
(00:42):
So you can do one of thoseservices.
You have time to invite yourfamily and your friends and
because family and friends arecoming and it's kind of like a
family reunion at Easter, we'redoing a 7 o'clock service.
It's like a sunrise service.
So if you could come at 7, thatwould be great If you're able
to make space, because thisplace is going to be packed.
It's going to be awesome.
(01:02):
It's so much fun.
I enjoy it.
Leading up to Easter, we'redoing a 24-hour-a-day for seven
days, starting on Friday, theFriday before Palm Sunday that
ends on Good Friday.
We're doing a prayer roomthat'll be up here on the campus
, so the campus is going to beopen the entire week.
The gate will be open everyhour.
(01:23):
We're going to have people inthat space.
It's, you know, a place thatyou can go with different kinds
of expression and prayer.
You can come with a group oryour family or your community
group, or even just by yourself.
There's a sign about there.
I don't want you to miss that.
And then I can't believe thiswe're almost done with Matthew
after like a thousand days.
I'm not kidding, some of youhave.
(01:45):
You know, your hair has gottenkind of gray.
You've had kids, people havegraduated, you've retired Like
life has lifed in the midst ofgoing through Matthew.
And it's unreal that our lastweek in Matthew is actually
April 27th, and so I want toinvite you.
Then we're going to have aparty, we're going to celebrate
and then, just to do it, we'regoing to be in community.
Like spring is going to bespringing and some of the best
(02:08):
weather around here is actuallythe end of April.
So on the 27th, after the lastservice at like one o'clock,
from like one to four, we'regoing to open up the parking lot
, kind of like a tailgate, butpicnic with a view.
We have a killer view up here.
Everything's beautiful.
You can bring food, you cancook food, you can make
something that I'm going to try,whatever you want, but in a
week or two we'll have sign-upsfor that, just so you can like
(02:29):
reserve your spot and get somepeople to come up here.
It's so much fun, it's good.
The last thing I was going totell you is usually we have.
Well, last week, what we starteddoing is we had seniors that
are starting to read up here,because seniors are getting
ready to graduate from highschool, not like senior seniors
but, like you know, youngerseniors, and so last week we had
Sam and it's we're going tohave a different senior, but
(02:51):
this week we don't have a seniorreading, and that's because
they're all at a differentchurch today, why?
Well, we really just want toinvest into our seniors, and so
what we've done is.
Sammy actually took a bunch ofthem over the bridge to a
different church, because a lotof them they're going to like
leave here or go away to collegeand they're like how do I find
(03:11):
a church and get into acommunity?
And so they went there andthey're separating and they're
going to go in, they're going toexperience a little church and
afterwards they're going to gettogether for lunch and they're
going to be like what did youlike, what didn't you like, what
do you want to experience?
So some of the seniors mightnot come back because they found
another church, but it's cool,we just want to invest into them
.
So next week we'll have anothersenior that we get to highlight
(03:36):
and I love that we're doingthat and helping these young
people to stay connected to afaith community.
It's so important.
Have you guys ever heard thatterm?
You know, if a tree falls inthe woods and nobody is around,
does it make a sound?
Yeah, so it was actually aphilosopher, bishop George
Berkeley, who proposed thisquestion.
It's related to him and reallythe premise behind it is like
(03:57):
does an event need a perceiverto exist?
Does someone else need to be apart of it?
That even took place andhappened as a witness, and I
don't know if you've ever beenin the forest.
The forest makes actually quitea bit of noise.
It's very noisy, it's beautifulsometimes and sometimes it can
be very scary, especially ifyou're at night or if there's a
(04:17):
bear involved that's chasing you.
That's a little PTSD.
If you guys have seen thatvideo, I'll tell you some of the
most alive I felt was actuallythis last year A couple nights
took my kids out and we went ona night hike with zero
flashlights.
Yeah, I'll tell you right nowyous alive.
You go out and you just have tolet your eyes adjust and you
(04:38):
literally can see bears walkingaround doing what bears do at
night.
And the forest is very noisy inthe middle of the night when
you don't have a flashlight oranything with you and you're
walking around.
So much fun.
But does an event need a paper?
Some of you guys are like zerofun, like they're not.
It's not even it's not fun.
So does event even exist ifthere's not a perceiver of it?
(05:02):
So this is where we've been.
We're in chapter 27 of Matthew.
We're wrapping up Jesus's likefinal moments, literally hours.
We've only been got hours left.
So what's happened so far is wefound ourselves, actually just
weeks ago in the garden ofGethsemane.
This is where Jesus was prayingthis, you know, very difficult,
sorrow-filled prayer of thiscup that he was getting ready to
(05:24):
bury.
He had three disciples with him, and this is after they enjoyed
a Passover meal together, andso it's just hours after this
Passover meal.
They've made their way up to theGarden of Gethsemane, which is
just outside of the gates inJerusalem, overlooking it, and
his betrayer showed up.
Judas showed up and gave himaway to this large crowd that
was sent by the chief elders,the chief priests, to arrest
(05:48):
Jesus, and they did this becausethere wouldn't be a crowd
around.
It's the middle of the night.
They brought this mob and Jesusis finding himself like why did
you guys bring weapons?
What's going on?
Why are you making this such ascene?
They take him then, and thenwe've seen two trials take place
and remember, this isn't hours,this is not days, this is the
midst of hours.
(06:08):
It's so fast, so chaotic.
So they take him to Caiaphas'house, which is the high priest
in the Sanhedrin, and they puton a trial, and essentially,
they accuse him then of being aspoken king, and so this gives
them an opportunity to actuallyhand him over to Rome to have
him executed, because he's notjust a threat to the religious
(06:31):
institution.
Making a claim that he's a kingis a threat to the Roman empire
, and so they use this as anopportunity to actually have him
crucified.
So, after Caiaphas, they sendhim off to see Pilate, and so
Pilate puts him on trial.
When Pilate's doing this trial,he actually sends him over to
Herod and then he goes fromHerod.
Herod doesn't want anything todo with him, goes back to Pilate
(06:53):
.
Pilate ends up making himguilty, an innocent man.
We saw that last week in aconversation.
Pilate even offered anothercriminal, a guilty man, as a
replacement for an innocent man,and yet the innocent man took
the guilty man's place in place.
And so this is again hours.
(07:14):
This is like early now in themorning, like this has been
happening all through the night,which is just so fast, so
chaotic.
And we pick up now in verse 27in chapter 27.
It says then the governor'ssoldiers took Jesus into the
praetorium and gathered thewhole company of soldiers around
him.
Now it's important tounderstand this in just this
(07:35):
scene that's taking place.
First of all, it's thepraetorium.
This is like where Pilate wouldlive.
This was his palace, and sothey've taken him back here, and
this isn't just like three orfour soldiers that have now
taken Jesus here.
It says that the whole companyof soldiers so what does that
look like?
This is literally like 120 to200 Roman soldiers that are
(07:57):
participating now in this moment, around him.
It says in verse 28, then theystripped him and put a scarlet
robe on him and then twistedtogether a crown of thorns and
set it on his head.
Then they put a staff in hisright hand and then they knelt
in front of him and mocked him.
Hail the king of Jews.
(08:18):
They said so I mean, this isjust a mockery.
They're like you know, you playdress up as a kid.
They're like we're going todress up the king guy.
He thinks he's the king.
Like look it, we're going tojust start thrashing you and
mocking you.
And like, oh, look, you're theking.
Then it says they even spit onhim.
After that, they took the stafffrom his hands and then struck
him on the head, and scriptureemphasizes this again and again.
(08:42):
This is brutal.
I think that this kind of goessoft on us.
Like we read this and we'relike, oh interesting.
They hit him and they put acrown on his head and they
mocked him A crucifixion theyliterally would try to beat you
within inches of your life.
I mean to start the process thatthen the cross was going to
finish.
That was the point of this.
(09:02):
After they had mocked him, theytook the robe off of him and
then they put his own clothesback on him and then they led
him away to be crucified.
And again we just kind of readpast that and we're like, oh
yeah, they led him to becrucified.
This was like the mosttorturous way you could
experience a death.
He had already been flogged.
We saw that last week.
(09:23):
He's now had this crown put onhim.
He's been beaten in the headagain and again and again, and
crucifixion took place inmultiple ways.
Sometimes you would carry partof a cross.
Sometimes you maybe would carryan entire cross to a place for
it to finish the job.
As an example, Sometimes ropewould be used to hang someone up
(09:46):
, but the Gospel of Johnactually tells us particularly
that what was used for Jesus wasnails that's where we get that
information from to crucify him.
And as they were going out, theymet a man from Cyrene named
Simon and they forced him tocarry the cross.
Now, they forced him because, Imean, jesus literally was so
(10:07):
weak he wasn't even able to getto there.
So I mean the soldiers had beenworried like we need to
actually get him and put him onthe cross so it can finish there
and not here along the way.
And they came to a place calledGagatha, which means place of
the skull.
A couple years ago a bunch offriends from Northgate here and
myself went to Israel.
We actually got to seepotentially what this space was.
(10:29):
You can see in this picture theplace of the skull.
You can see like in the side ofthe hills right there.
It kind of looks like the eyesof a skull and the nose, even
still to this day, is one of theplaces where this took place.
And there they offered Jesus, itsays, wine to drink mixed with
gall, but after tasting it herefused to drink it.
(10:49):
Now, what's the gall stuff?
So gall is like a numbing agent, like a narcotic that they
would give just to get rid ofsome of the pain that was
involved.
That you would survive longenough to actually be crucified
all the way and experience thisatrocity and refuse to drink it.
And what's interesting is like,why did he do that?
I mean, like in his weakness.
(11:11):
It's literally like he said no,no, no, I can't have anything
numbing me to this situation.
I have to suffer all the wayand experience this to the very
end.
And when they had crucified him,they divided up his clothes by
casting lots.
So this is literally liketossing dice.
That's what casting lots is,like they were gambling for
(11:32):
who's going to get a piece ofhis clothes.
But also this not only was hephysically abused to a degree,
he was dehumanized and likesexually abused.
We often think like he wasstill wearing clothes.
They took his clothes.
He was down naked on a cross.
(11:53):
You know we have this picture.
We've seen pictures of Jesus oryou've worn a necklace of him,
like a little like cute towel onthere.
No, there was no towel on there.
So this is like abuse to likethe deepest degree of a human,
completely exposed and sittingdown.
They kept watch over him thereand above his head.
(12:13):
Then they placed the writtencharge that was against him.
This is Jesus, the King of theJews.
Two rebels were crucified withhim, one on his right and one on
his left.
These were revolutionaries.
Jesus was a revolutionary guy,this upside down kingdom, and
(12:34):
most likely these two rebelswere friends of the man who was
released that was to be executedwith him and Jesus took his
place.
And then those it says inchapter verse 39, those who
passed by hurled insults at him,shaking their heads and saying
you are the one who is going todestroy the temple and build it
(12:55):
in three days.
Save yourself, come down fromthe cross if you're the son of
God.
So remember at this time again,like this is festival, this is
Passover day when this is takingplace.
So the city of Jerusalem hasliterally ballooned to probably
around 50,000 people, which is,that's, so many people in the
ancient times that have traveledfrom all over the countryside
(13:19):
and even other countries for thefestival of Passover.
And they was.
This was done outside of thegates and this was on purpose.
That crucifixion would takeplace on the outside because, as
you entered in, it was a verystern and clear warning Don't do
what that guy did.
See this person that we'redehumanizing, demoralizing,
(13:40):
crucifying in this way.
This was a clear threat Don'tplay, don't play around with us.
And so they would pass by andthey would hurl insults at him
In the same way.
Verse 41 says in the same way,the chief priests and the
teachers of the law and theelders.
They mocked him.
The religious people mocked him.
He saved others, they said, buthe can't save himself.
(14:03):
He's the king of Israel.
Let him come down now from thecross and we will believe in him
.
He trusts in God.
Let God rescue him now if hewants him, for he said, I am the
son of God.
In the same way, the rebels whowere crucified with him also
heaped insults at him.
Isn't it interesting thereflection that's taking place
(14:26):
right here.
If you recall, as Jesus startedhis ministry, he was baptized
and immediately was led off intothe wilderness for 40 days and
literally found himself in avery weak place.
He was hungry.
In that moment, he was temptedto not go through that pain, to
(14:47):
not be weak.
And Satan came around him andsaid hey, there's a rock over
there.
You're the son of man, justchange it into bread.
You don't have to suffer, don'tdo this suffering.
Hey, there's a temple wherethey can just jump off.
I'll give you everything thatyou see.
Just kneel down to me and theangels will save you.
(15:08):
And this was Satan, knowingthat this is God's son coming
for the atonement of man and wasoffering him an easy way out.
Now, in this same moment, wesee people hurling insults at
him, saying let God rescue himnow, for he said I'm the son of
God.
In the same way, let thishappen, just come down from the
cross.
If you do that, we'll believein you.
(15:29):
And in his weakest moment,again on the edge of death,
they're saying you don't have todo this, you can come down and
we'll believe in you.
I want to go back, actually, andfocus for a minute on this one
liner that I feel like often wepass by when we're reading this
(15:49):
story.
It says in verse 32, as theywere going out, they met a man
from Cyrene named Simon, andthey forced him to carry the
cross.
So, first of all, I've alwayswondered, and maybe you've
wondered, where's Cyrene namedSimon, and they forced him to
carry the cross?
So, first of all, I've alwayswondered, and maybe you've
wondered, where's Cyrene?
You just assume it's like onthe outskirts of Jerusalem, just
some small town in thecountryside there.
(16:11):
Well, actually it's about 900miles away.
It's in Northern Africa andLibya.
It would have taken him, if hewas gonna walk, about a month to
get there, and we can assumethat he's there actually for the
festival of Passover toexperience this.
We know from history that therewas small groups of Jewish
(16:32):
communities that lived in thatarea, and he had traveled all of
this way.
I would say most likelyprobably by boat, but we don't
really know.
You can take a boat there aswell.
And how did this happen?
How is Simon even involved inthis story?
Well, remember, jesus had justbeen flogged and brutally beaten
(16:52):
and struck over the head manytimes and you know the other
gospels expand on this a bitmore and what we can learn about
from history of crucifixion andso, literally, he is on the
verge of death, just at hisweakest point, and so the
soldiers were probably in apanic, as he wasn't able to go
much further.
They've got to get him outsideof the city and up on the cross
(17:13):
to finish the job there, notinside where they were.
And there was a rule that theRoman soldiers, they could grab
anybody they wanted to out ofthe crowd and actually force
them to carry and do certainthings.
In fact, jesus talks about thisearlier, and this was common
that a soldier could just plucksomeone and make them carry
their gear for up to a mile.
Jesus, earlier in one of histeachings, talked about the
(17:34):
sacrifice of if you were askedto go one mile, just go two.
Like really put it out there.
If you were asked to go onemile, just go two.
Like, really put it out there.
Show them how extreme that is.
And so Simon of Cyrene is inthis crowd and now he's been
plucked out of the crowd toparticipate and he has no choice
in the deal.
And here's the deal with thecross.
Carrying the cross is no fun.
(17:55):
Like it's tiring, it's painful.
This is awkward.
What I'm carrying right now,like this, means suffering.
It is by and large aninconvenience, like I don't want
this right now.
It makes me feel weird.
Standing up here holding thiscross right now in front of you.
(18:18):
It makes me feel like out ofplace, like there's no way to
make this right, like that'swhat it does in our lives.
Simon didn't want thisexperience.
He didn't want to do this.
This was hard, this was painful.
It was a huge inconvenience.
Being asked this disrupted hisday, maybe even his week.
(18:40):
It didn't fit in his life orhis timeline.
He probably had plans for theday.
Again, this is the day ofPassover.
He had things he wanted toaccomplish.
He had thoughts on how this daymaybe was supposed to go and to
be, and this didn't really meetwith any of that.
And with that in mind, we get toremember what Jesus said about
carrying a cross From the gospelof Luke, chapter 9, verse 23,.
(19:03):
Jesus said to them all whoeverwants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take uptheir cross and follow me.
In the gospel according toMatthew, in chapter 10, verse 38
, he says the same thing, but Ithink in a little bit of a
harsher way Whoever does nottake up their cross and follow
(19:25):
me is not worthy of me.
Now let's just pause for aminute because I don't want us
to misunderstand this.
This is about being a truedisciple of Jesus Christ.
This is about if our faithactually makes noise in the
(19:46):
woods, in the life that we have,and if our faith is actually
making noise that people see andfeel and are impacted by and we
know this, those of you whohave given your life to the Lord
, that when we are saved fromour sins, we're saved by our
(20:06):
faith in Jesus Christ and whathe has done for us that there's
actually nothing good enoughthat we could actually do to
save us from our sins In thesacrifice of Jesus, ultimately
on the cross, in the wonderfulgrace of God.
That's actually how we aresaved.
But that just makes us aChristian.
That does not make us adisciple.
(20:29):
And so many of us Christians welike stop right there.
Like that's a line.
It's probably because of one'sselfishness.
Like that's a line.
It's probably because of one'sselfishness, awkwardness in
carrying a cross, inconvenience.
(20:54):
We don't like to be disrupted.
My friend, john Ortberg, onceasked a psychologist of 40 plus
years what was the most commonregret that your clients felt.
Without hesitation his responsewas selfishness.
Like why was I not the spouseor the parent or friend or
contributor or giver or forgiverthat I could have been?
Then he asked him how many ofyour clients named selfishness
(21:19):
as the problem that came in tosee him to get help with.
He quickly responded zero.
And the problem that peoplemost regret is the problem
people least seek help for.
Why?
Because of one's selfishness,awkwardness, inconvenience, the
(21:43):
disruptive nature.
And we may have faith, butthere's no noise that is seen,
heard or felt in the woods.
And Jesus says that being hisdisciple means denying ourself
and carrying our cross.
(22:03):
This means his timeline, hisschedule, his plans, his wants,
his desires, not ours.
This means being available tosuffer and to hurt.
But really like nowadays, inour culture let's just be honest
in this community and where welive, many of us aren't really
(22:26):
like threatened because of ourfaith, like actually being
persecuted and beaten for it.
If anything, we're just, ifwe're really honest.
We're just if we're reallyhonest.
Our lives are just kind ofbeing inconvenienced Like kind
of like me right now carryingthis around.
(22:46):
It's kind of like aninconvenience and we must ask
ourselves are we truly availableto carry the cross?
And if I'm going to carry mycross in today's world, what
does that actually mean?
What does it look like to carryour cross today?
(23:09):
What do individuals who carrytheir cross do?
Well, carrying our cross todaymeans putting people before
opinions.
Carrying our cross today meansputting family before finances.
Carrying our cross today meanslove before lust.
As a church, carrying our crosstoday means church outreach
(23:31):
before personal churchpreferences.
It means that I'm going to putpeople outside of the church and
the chance for them to come andhear the good news of Jesus
Christ, the life change.
I'm gonna put that before myown personal worship song
preferences, how the churchlooks, how it feels, how it
sounds, how all the things thatthe church does, all the things
(23:54):
that we give to and invest inthat.
I'm gonna put the people, theoutreach to the people, before
my personal preferences.
Carrying the cross, our crosstoday, means sharing hope
instead of sharing hate anddivision.
It means sacrificing toactually stand together instead
of selfishness that stands apart, that separates us.
(24:19):
The cross is carried by theparent who chooses family over
their career and their 14,15-hour days, or their hobbies,
or their bank accounts, theirshiny cars.
The cross carried by the youngperson who chooses to care, to
have an open heart, to look atthe needs of others and to ask
themselves how this hurts orimpacts or loves and cares for
(24:43):
someone else, that what they dobefore they do this before their
own social status, lifestyleand comfort.
The cross carried by theChristian who chooses love,
encourage, disciple and toinvest truly, to look into the
(25:04):
life of someone else, no matterwho they are, before their own
personal gain, public opinion orpublic gripping.
The cross is carried by thefamily member who chooses to
forgive, to communicate, touplift, no matter what, the past
, letting go of anger, lettinggo of division, the deep grudges
(25:25):
, and choose family and chooselove, friends.
The cross exposes me.
The cross exposes us.
Think about how much we've beenconvoluted by the word follower.
(25:45):
Right, we say, like I'm afollower of Jesus.
Right, but like, what is theworld and culture done with the
word follower?
Now, isn't that what you do onsocial media?
You like, follow people orthings.
What does it mean that you'reactually doing?
I mean, have you ever thoughtabout that?
Like I'm following somethingand it's just like I'm scrolling
through and I'm checking on it.
(26:05):
I'm like, oh, they ate today.
That's great, right.
Oh wow, they're on vacation.
That looks really cool, right.
Or like, oh wow, they're likeranting about something.
Block, right, you've never beenlike, oh wow, they're ranting
about something.
I'm going to change my opinion.
This is great.
I am following them andlearning from them and wanting
(26:26):
to be like them.
No, that's not what we do.
Isn't it so casual followingyou know?
Like we'll say, just staying intouch.
We do that Like there's ways tostay in touch.
But what if we?
I mean, maybe we need toactually change the vernacular
in the church in a life offollowing Jesus, not a follower
(26:50):
in today's terms, maybe a crossbearer, like what has to die in
me to live in a new way, in anew kingdom bearing the marks of
a new king?
Like what conveniences must Ilose when carrying things like
(27:12):
lust, whatever that is I'mlusting for, or gluttony,
whatever it is that I'm justconsuming too much of.
Or greed I mean, how many of uswould honestly admit and raise
our hand like, yep, my struggleis greed, right.
(27:32):
We just kind of slough it offto the side, like, oh, that's
okay, it's just a desire, Ideserve it, right.
Or sloth Like, where are wejust bored in our life and just
lazy about what we're doing?
Or wrath this is one that a lotof us spend a lot of time on
(27:54):
but we won't tell nobody about.
If we're just going to behonest.
Envy, envy.
I'm going to tell you, some ofyou guys maybe envy one another.
Just in this room.
You've already had a side Aover there.
You envied what they weredriving up here or not driving
up here, what you think they are, what they looked like.
(28:17):
Or the last one, I think, isthe Christian cancer of pride.
It's sneaky, it'll get ahold ofyou.
It can take everything awayfrom you as you hold on to
things so tightly.
Now, here's the deal.
I get it right.
Like, why carry a cross?
(28:37):
Like, why carry this throughlife If I can just like oh, I
feel so much better If I canjust go through life and I can
go to heaven and have eternityand I can experience good things
here with just my faith and Idon't actually have to do this.
Like, not this awkwardness, notthis struggle, not bear this
burden.
Like, why do this?
Why not just live for me?
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Like this is good, right,because.
Bear this burden.
Like, why do this?
Why not just live for me?
Like this is good, right,because.
Why?
Let's be honest, becausecarrying a cross is so
disruptive.
We hate being disturbed andthat's why we run from it.
And we can only imagine in thismoment what Simon of Cyrene was
thinking as he carried thatcross today.
I mean, I imagine at the verybeginning he had to be asking
(29:20):
this question why me?
There are thousands of peoplearound, why me?
Like, when they said Simon Imean there's so many Simons in
the Bible he probably wentthere's got to be another one
around here.
Like, seriously, like me?
Him, no, like, why me?
(29:41):
Why was I the one chosen out ofthousands of people.
I just came here to thefestival.
I'm just what is going on?
Everything's bloomed up.
There's a scene.
There's a man I don't we don'tknow if he had already been a
follower of Jesus or he had seenhim teaching in the temple that
entire week beforehand.
He heard some of this and justwas kind of like following the
crowd what's really going on,what's happening and sees them.
We don't think that.
You know, it wasn't like hejust saw them and was like, oh
(30:01):
my gosh, we got to help him getthere so he can finish the job
there.
Let me help him.
Curious, no, it says that theygrabbed, they forced him to do
this.
Why me?
Don't we say that too?
Have you found yourself in asituation where you're sitting
there going, why me?
You're here and you'redesperate for purpose.
(30:29):
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're feelingempty.
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're bound byshame.
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're hungryfor more Friends.
(30:51):
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're feelingweary and anxious.
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're feeling like you're notenough.
Let me invite you, friends,pick up your cross.
You're here just like Simon,like you're just coming for a
Sunday service, you're justdoing a check-in.
(31:12):
You're like going through themotions, you're checking stuff
off of the church list.
You're sitting outside in thecrowd being a fan.
Let me invite you, pick up thecross.
And we can only imagine thatwhat he was witnessing, what he
(31:41):
was actually participating in,began to actually change him,
and I encourage you to hear this.
The greatest way for you tobring out transformation and
healing in your life and thelives of others around you that
you care about is to carry yourcross for Jesus Christ.
You want noise in your woods tobe heard.
You want your faith to be heard, to be seen, to be felt, to
have an impact.
Carry your cross.
(32:03):
Simon's life changed and, tothe best of our understanding,
is that the lives of othersaround him changed as well.
This story is found in three ofthe gospels Matthew, mark and
Luke about Simon and,interestingly enough, we get a
(32:25):
little bit more from the gospel.
According to Luke, it actuallyinvolves two other names that
aren't found anywhere else inscripture, and those names
Alexander and Rufus.
Now, who are Alexander andRufus.
They're Simon's sons.
Why are they involved here?
Why are they here in thismoment?
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Well, we know that the book ofMark was written for the
Christian Roman church it wasactually Peter's gospel and Mark
was the scribe and so werecognize that those names were
listed here.
Because those two individualsthat the Christian church in
Rome knew it says Simon ofCyrene and his two sons were
(33:12):
with him Alexander and Rufus.
And this wasn't done so that2,000 years ago we could read
just some random names.
This was done because it wasbeing written to a group of
people that would have knownexactly who they are,
recognizing that these nameswere listed here.
They said they could say thisis Alexander and Rufus's dad.
(33:33):
You want to know about thisscene?
Just go ask them.
They were there, theyparticipated in this, and not
only that, because of our earlychurch understanding that both
of these individuals, alexanderand Rufus, became missionaries
and cross-bearers, disciplesthemselves.
It changed them and we canrecognize this wonderful truth
(33:58):
Carrying our cross changes lives.
It makes sense that we allhonestly ask ourselves if we are
seeking to change the lives ofour loved ones and seeking to
change even our own lives.
What is it that you arecarrying?
Who are you carrying it for?
(34:20):
What does this world see uscarrying?
What do our children see uscarrying?
Our loved ones see us carryingwith us?
What are we carrying at home,at work, at school, right now,
in the church, and what are wereally carrying right now with
(34:42):
us?
Ask yourself that.
In my hands, in your arms, whatis it that we prioritize?
What are we carrying with us?
And as I stand here in struggleright now with a severe forearm
cramp, I want you to know thatcarrying the cross takes all of
(35:06):
you.
There is no room for anythingelse but the cross, and
sometimes it is uncomfortable,sometimes people don't
understand, sometimes it's odd,sometimes it feels weird, but I
want this to be what people see.
Sometimes people don'tunderstand, sometimes it's odd,
sometimes it feels weird, but Iwant this to be what people see
that I'm not always perfect atthat.
I need a regular remindersometimes to put down other
(35:30):
things, because I find them inmy arms, I find myself
prioritizing them, I find myselfcarrying them around, I find
myself just checking in,watching at a distance and
hoping I'm not called out fromthe crowd.
But I would encourage you,friend, pick up the cross, join
(35:53):
Simon of Cyrene.
I'm going to tell you there isno small print in the Bible.
It is very clear.
Jesus is very clear about whathe asks us to do.
There's no sneaky small thingor that quick radio, you know,
130 words per second giving youthe little small print he tells
(36:21):
us.
Pick up your cross, followJesus, be a cross bearer with
Jesus and see how your life willchange.
I'll tell you, it's getting kind of full in here.
Be careful, we're gonna have toknock down these walls in the
back.
This is good.
Oh, all right, so real quick.
I just wanna start with acouple announcements, just
because there are things comingup.
April is here and we have got alot of really cool stuff going
on.
We're doing baptisms, if youdon't know, on Easter Right now
(00:20):
we got 51 people for sure doingit.
Easter Right now, we got 51people for sure doing it.
I'm excited about that.
If you want to get baptized,man, I would love the
opportunity to dunk you and holdyou under the water, help you
back up again.
If you want to do that, thatnext steps card that's right in
front of you there.
If you just let us know, we'llcall you this week.
Figure out which service youwant to do it at.
We're going to do threeservices seven, 9, and 11.
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So you can do one of thoseservices.
You have time to invite yourfamily and your friends and
because family and friends arecoming and it's kind of like a
family reunion at Easter, we'redoing a 7 o'clock service.
It's like a sunrise service.
So if you could come at 7, thatwould be great If you're able
to make space, because thisplace is going to be packed.
It's going to be awesome.
(01:02):
It's so much fun.
I enjoy it.
Leading up to Easter, we'redoing a 24-hour-a-day for seven
days, starting on Friday, theFriday before Palm Sunday that
ends on Good Friday.
We're doing a prayer roomthat'll be up here on the campus
, so the campus is going to beopen the entire week.
The gate will be open everyhour.
(01:23):
We're going to have people inthat space.
It's, you know, a place thatyou can go with different kinds
of expression and prayer.
You can come with a group oryour family or your community
group, or even just by yourself.
There's a sign about there.
I don't want you to miss that.
And then I can't believe thiswe're almost done with Matthew
after like a thousand days.
I'm not kidding, some of youhave.
(01:45):
You know, your hair has gottenkind of gray.
You've had kids, people havegraduated, you've retired Like
life has lifed in the midst ofgoing through Matthew.
And it's unreal that our lastweek in Matthew is actually
April 27th, and so I want toinvite you.
Then we're going to have aparty, we're going to celebrate
and then, just to do it, we'regoing to be in community.
Like spring is going to bespringing and some of the best
(02:08):
weather around here is actuallythe end of April.
So on the 27th, after the lastservice at like one o'clock,
from like one to four, we'regoing to open up the parking lot
, kind of like a tailgate, butpicnic with a view.
We have a killer view up here.
Everything's beautiful.
You can bring food, you cancook food, you can make
something that I'm going to try,whatever you want, but in a
week or two we'll have sign-upsfor that, just so you can like
(02:29):
reserve your spot and get somepeople to come up here.
It's so much fun, it's good.
The last thing I was going totell you is usually we have.
Well, last week, what we starteddoing is we had seniors that
are starting to read up here,because seniors are getting
ready to graduate from highschool, not like senior seniors
but, like you know, youngerseniors, and so last week we had
Sam and it's we're going tohave a different senior, but
(02:51):
this week we don't have a seniorreading, and that's because
they're all at a differentchurch today, why?
Well, we really just want toinvest into our seniors, and so
what we've done is.
Sammy actually took a bunch ofthem over the bridge to a
different church, because a lotof them they're going to like
leave here or go away to collegeand they're like how do I find
(03:11):
a church and get into acommunity?
And so they went there andthey're separating and they're
going to go in, they're going toexperience a little church and
afterwards they're going to gettogether for lunch and they're
going to be like what did youlike, what didn't you like, what
do you want to experience?
So some of the seniors mightnot come back because they found
another church, but it's cool,we just want to invest into them
.
So next week we'll have anothersenior that we get to highlight
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and I love that we're doingthat and helping these young
people to stay connected to afaith community.
It's so important.
Have you guys ever heard thatterm?
You know, if a tree falls inthe woods and nobody is around,
does it make a sound?
Yeah, so it was actually aphilosopher, bishop George
Berkeley, who proposed thisquestion.
It's related to him and reallythe premise behind it is like
(03:57):
does an event need a perceiverto exist?
Does someone else need to be apart of it?
That even took place andhappened as a witness, and I
don't know if you've ever beenin the forest.
The forest makes actually quitea bit of noise.
It's very noisy, it's beautifulsometimes and sometimes it can
be very scary, especially ifyou're at night or if there's a
(04:17):
bear involved that's chasing you.
That's a little PTSD.
If you guys have seen thatvideo, I'll tell you some of the
most alive I felt was actuallythis last year A couple nights
took my kids out and we went ona night hike with zero
flashlights.
Yeah, I'll tell you right nowyous alive.
You go out and you just have tolet your eyes adjust and you
(04:38):
literally can see bears walkingaround doing what bears do at
night.
And the forest is very noisy inthe middle of the night when
you don't have a flashlight oranything with you and you're
walking around.
So much fun.
But does an event need a paper?
Some of you guys are like zerofun, like they're not.
It's not even it's not fun.
So does event even exist ifthere's not a perceiver of it?
(05:02):
So this is where we've been.
We're in chapter 27 of Matthew.
We're wrapping up Jesus's likefinal moments, literally hours.
We've only been got hours left.
So what's happened so far is wefound ourselves, actually just
weeks ago in the garden ofGethsemane.
This is where Jesus was prayingthis, you know, very difficult,
sorrow-filled prayer of thiscup that he was getting ready to
(05:24):
bury.
He had three disciples with him, and this is after they enjoyed
a Passover meal together, andso it's just hours after this
Passover meal.
They've made their way up to theGarden of Gethsemane, which is
just outside of the gates inJerusalem, overlooking it, and
his betrayer showed up.
Judas showed up and gave himaway to this large crowd that
was sent by the chief elders,the chief priests, to arrest
(05:48):
Jesus, and they did this becausethere wouldn't be a crowd
around.
It's the middle of the night.
They brought this mob and Jesusis finding himself like why did
you guys bring weapons?
What's going on?
Why are you making this such ascene?
They take him then, and thenwe've seen two trials take place
and remember, this isn't hours,this is not days, this is the
midst of hours.
(06:08):
It's so fast, so chaotic.
So they take him to Caiaphas'house, which is the high priest
in the Sanhedrin, and they puton a trial, and essentially,
they accuse him then of being aspoken king, and so this gives
them an opportunity to actuallyhand him over to Rome to have
him executed, because he's notjust a threat to the religious
(06:31):
institution.
Making a claim that he's a kingis a threat to the Roman empire
, and so they use this as anopportunity to actually have him
crucified.
So, after Caiaphas, they sendhim off to see Pilate, and so
Pilate puts him on trial.
When Pilate's doing this trial,he actually sends him over to
Herod and then he goes fromHerod.
Herod doesn't want anything todo with him, goes back to Pilate
(06:53):
.
Pilate ends up making himguilty, an innocent man.
We saw that last week in aconversation.
Pilate even offered anothercriminal, a guilty man, as a
replacement for an innocent man,and yet the innocent man took
the guilty man's place in place.
And so this is again hours.
(07:14):
This is like early now in themorning, like this has been
happening all through the night,which is just so fast, so
chaotic.
And we pick up now in verse 27in chapter 27.
It says then the governor'ssoldiers took Jesus into the
praetorium and gathered thewhole company of soldiers around
him.
Now it's important tounderstand this in just this
(07:35):
scene that's taking place.
First of all, it's thepraetorium.
This is like where Pilate wouldlive.
This was his palace, and sothey've taken him back here, and
this isn't just like three orfour soldiers that have now
taken Jesus here.
It says that the whole companyof soldiers so what does that
look like?
This is literally like 120 to200 Roman soldiers that are
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participating now in this moment, around him.
It says in verse 28, then theystripped him and put a scarlet
robe on him and then twistedtogether a crown of thorns and
set it on his head.
Then they put a staff in hisright hand and then they knelt
in front of him and mocked him.
Hail the king of Jews.
(08:18):
They said so I mean, this isjust a mockery.
They're like you know, you playdress up as a kid.
They're like we're going todress up the king guy.
He thinks he's the king.
Like look it, we're going tojust start thrashing you and
mocking you.
And like, oh, look, you're theking.
Then it says they even spit onhim.
After that, they took the stafffrom his hands and then struck
him on the head, and scriptureemphasizes this again and again.
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This is brutal.
I think that this kind of goessoft on us.
Like we read this and we'relike, oh interesting.
They hit him and they put acrown on his head and they
mocked him A crucifixion theyliterally would try to beat you
within inches of your life.
I mean to start the process thatthen the cross was going to
finish.
That was the point of this.
(09:02):
After they had mocked him, theytook the robe off of him and
then they put his own clothesback on him and then they led
him away to be crucified.
And again we just kind of readpast that and we're like, oh
yeah, they led him to becrucified.
This was like the mosttorturous way you could
experience a death.
He had already been flogged.
We saw that last week.
(09:23):
He's now had this crown put onhim.
He's been beaten in the headagain and again and again, and
crucifixion took place inmultiple ways.
Sometimes you would carry partof a cross.
Sometimes you maybe would carryan entire cross to a place for
it to finish the job.
As an example, Sometimes ropewould be used to hang someone up
(09:46):
, but the Gospel of Johnactually tells us particularly
that what was used for Jesus wasnails that's where we get that
information from to crucify him.
And as they were going out, theymet a man from Cyrene named
Simon and they forced him tocarry the cross.
Now, they forced him because, Imean, jesus literally was so
(10:07):
weak he wasn't even able to getto there.
So I mean the soldiers had beenworried like we need to
actually get him and put him onthe cross so it can finish there
and not here along the way.
And they came to a place calledGagatha, which means place of
the skull.
A couple years ago a bunch offriends from Northgate here and
myself went to Israel.
We actually got to seepotentially what this space was.
(10:29):
You can see in this picture theplace of the skull.
You can see like in the side ofthe hills right there.
It kind of looks like the eyesof a skull and the nose, even
still to this day, is one of theplaces where this took place.
And there they offered Jesus, itsays, wine to drink mixed with
gall, but after tasting it herefused to drink it.
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Now, what's the gall stuff?
So gall is like a numbing agent, like a narcotic that they
would give just to get rid ofsome of the pain that was
involved.
That you would survive longenough to actually be crucified
all the way and experience thisatrocity and refuse to drink it.
And what's interesting is like,why did he do that?
I mean, like in his weakness.
(11:11):
It's literally like he said no,no, no, I can't have anything
numbing me to this situation.
I have to suffer all the wayand experience this to the very
end.
And when they had crucified him,they divided up his clothes by
casting lots.
So this is literally liketossing dice.
That's what casting lots is,like they were gambling for
(11:32):
who's going to get a piece ofhis clothes.
But also this not only was hephysically abused to a degree,
he was dehumanized and likesexually abused.
We often think like he wasstill wearing clothes.
They took his clothes.
He was down naked on a cross.
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You know we have this picture.
We've seen pictures of Jesus oryou've worn a necklace of him,
like a little like cute towel onthere.
No, there was no towel on there.
So this is like abuse to likethe deepest degree of a human,
completely exposed and sittingdown.
They kept watch over him thereand above his head.
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Then they placed the writtencharge that was against him.
This is Jesus, the King of theJews.
Two rebels were crucified withhim, one on his right and one on
his left.
These were revolutionaries.
Jesus was a revolutionary guy,this upside down kingdom, and
(12:34):
most likely these two rebelswere friends of the man who was
released that was to be executedwith him and Jesus took his
place.
And then those it says inchapter verse 39, those who
passed by hurled insults at him,shaking their heads and saying
you are the one who is going todestroy the temple and build it
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in three days.
Save yourself, come down fromthe cross if you're the son of
God.
So remember at this time again,like this is festival, this is
Passover day when this is takingplace.
So the city of Jerusalem hasliterally ballooned to probably
around 50,000 people, which is,that's, so many people in the
ancient times that have traveledfrom all over the countryside
(13:19):
and even other countries for thefestival of Passover.
And they was.
This was done outside of thegates and this was on purpose.
That crucifixion would takeplace on the outside because, as
you entered in, it was a verystern and clear warning Don't do
what that guy did.
See this person that we'redehumanizing, demoralizing,
(13:40):
crucifying in this way.
This was a clear threat Don'tplay, don't play around with us.
And so they would pass by andthey would hurl insults at him
In the same way.
Verse 41 says in the same way,the chief priests and the
teachers of the law and theelders.
They mocked him.
The religious people mocked him.
He saved others, they said, buthe can't save himself.
(14:03):
He's the king of Israel.
Let him come down now from thecross and we will believe in him
.
He trusts in God.
Let God rescue him now if hewants him, for he said, I am the
son of God.
In the same way, the rebels whowere crucified with him also
heaped insults at him.
Isn't it interesting thereflection that's taking place
(14:26):
right here.
If you recall, as Jesus startedhis ministry, he was baptized
and immediately was led off intothe wilderness for 40 days and
literally found himself in avery weak place.
He was hungry.
In that moment, he was temptedto not go through that pain, to
(14:47):
not be weak.
And Satan came around him andsaid hey, there's a rock over
there.
You're the son of man, justchange it into bread.
You don't have to suffer, don'tdo this suffering.
Hey, there's a temple wherethey can just jump off.
I'll give you everything thatyou see.
Just kneel down to me and theangels will save you.
(15:08):
And this was Satan, knowingthat this is God's son coming
for the atonement of man and wasoffering him an easy way out.
Now, in this same moment, wesee people hurling insults at
him, saying let God rescue himnow, for he said I'm the son of
God.
In the same way, let thishappen, just come down from the
cross.
If you do that, we'll believein you.
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And in his weakest moment,again on the edge of death,
they're saying you don't have todo this, you can come down and
we'll believe in you.
I want to go back, actually, andfocus for a minute on this one
liner that I feel like often wepass by when we're reading this
(15:49):
story.
It says in verse 32, as theywere going out, they met a man
from Cyrene named Simon, andthey forced him to carry the
cross.
So, first of all, I've alwayswondered, and maybe you've
wondered, where's Cyrene namedSimon, and they forced him to
carry the cross?
So, first of all, I've alwayswondered, and maybe you've
wondered, where's Cyrene?
You just assume it's like onthe outskirts of Jerusalem, just
some small town in thecountryside there.
(16:11):
Well, actually it's about 900miles away.
It's in Northern Africa andLibya.
It would have taken him, if hewas gonna walk, about a month to
get there, and we can assumethat he's there actually for the
festival of Passover toexperience this.
We know from history that therewas small groups of Jewish
(16:32):
communities that lived in thatarea, and he had traveled all of
this way.
I would say most likelyprobably by boat, but we don't
really know.
You can take a boat there aswell.
And how did this happen?
How is Simon even involved inthis story?
Well, remember, jesus had justbeen flogged and brutally beaten
(16:52):
and struck over the head manytimes and you know the other
gospels expand on this a bitmore and what we can learn about
from history of crucifixion andso, literally, he is on the
verge of death, just at hisweakest point, and so the
soldiers were probably in apanic, as he wasn't able to go
much further.
They've got to get him outsideof the city and up on the cross
(17:13):
to finish the job there, notinside where they were.
And there was a rule that theRoman soldiers, they could grab
anybody they wanted to out ofthe crowd and actually force
them to carry and do certainthings.
In fact, jesus talks about thisearlier, and this was common
that a soldier could just plucksomeone and make them carry
their gear for up to a mile.
Jesus, earlier in one of histeachings, talked about the
(17:34):
sacrifice of if you were askedto go one mile, just go two.
Like really put it out there.
If you were asked to go onemile, just go two.
Like, really put it out there.
Show them how extreme that is.
And so Simon of Cyrene is inthis crowd and now he's been
plucked out of the crowd toparticipate and he has no choice
in the deal.
And here's the deal with thecross.
Carrying the cross is no fun.
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Like it's tiring, it's painful.
This is awkward.
What I'm carrying right now,like this, means suffering.
It is by and large aninconvenience, like I don't want
this right now.
It makes me feel weird.
Standing up here holding thiscross right now in front of you.
(18:18):
It makes me feel like out ofplace, like there's no way to
make this right, like that'swhat it does in our lives.
Simon didn't want thisexperience.
He didn't want to do this.
This was hard, this was painful.
It was a huge inconvenience.
Being asked this disrupted hisday, maybe even his week.
(18:40):
It didn't fit in his life orhis timeline.
He probably had plans for theday.
Again, this is the day ofPassover.
He had things he wanted toaccomplish.
He had thoughts on how this daymaybe was supposed to go and to
be, and this didn't really meetwith any of that.
And with that in mind, we get toremember what Jesus said about
carrying a cross From the gospelof Luke, chapter 9, verse 23,.
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Jesus said to them all whoeverwants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take uptheir cross and follow me.
In the gospel according toMatthew, in chapter 10, verse 38
, he says the same thing, but Ithink in a little bit of a
harsher way Whoever does nottake up their cross and follow
(19:25):
me is not worthy of me.
Now let's just pause for aminute because I don't want us
to misunderstand this.
This is about being a truedisciple of Jesus Christ.
This is about if our faithactually makes noise in the
(19:46):
woods, in the life that we have,and if our faith is actually
making noise that people see andfeel and are impacted by and we
know this, those of you whohave given your life to the Lord
, that when we are saved fromour sins, we're saved by our
(20:06):
faith in Jesus Christ and whathe has done for us that there's
actually nothing good enoughthat we could actually do to
save us from our sins In thesacrifice of Jesus, ultimately
on the cross, in the wonderfulgrace of God.
That's actually how we aresaved.
But that just makes us aChristian.
That does not make us adisciple.
(20:29):
And so many of us Christians welike stop right there.
Like that's a line.
It's probably because of one'sselfishness.
Like that's a line.
It's probably because of one'sselfishness, awkwardness in
carrying a cross, inconvenience.
(20:54):
We don't like to be disrupted.
My friend, john Ortberg, onceasked a psychologist of 40 plus
years what was the most commonregret that your clients felt.
Without hesitation his responsewas selfishness.
Like why was I not the spouseor the parent or friend or
contributor or giver or forgiverthat I could have been?
Then he asked him how many ofyour clients named selfishness
(21:19):
as the problem that came in tosee him to get help with.
He quickly responded zero.
And the problem that peoplemost regret is the problem
people least seek help for.
Why?
Because of one's selfishness,awkwardness, inconvenience, the
(21:43):
disruptive nature.
And we may have faith, butthere's no noise that is seen,
heard or felt in the woods.
And Jesus says that being hisdisciple means denying ourself
and carrying our cross.
(22:03):
This means his timeline, hisschedule, his plans, his wants,
his desires, not ours.
This means being available tosuffer and to hurt.
But really like nowadays, inour culture let's just be honest
in this community and where welive, many of us aren't really
(22:26):
like threatened because of ourfaith, like actually being
persecuted and beaten for it.
If anything, we're just, ifwe're really honest.
We're just if we're reallyhonest.
Our lives are just kind ofbeing inconvenienced Like kind
of like me right now carryingthis around.
(22:46):
It's kind of like aninconvenience and we must ask
ourselves are we truly availableto carry the cross?
And if I'm going to carry mycross in today's world, what
does that actually mean?
What does it look like to carryour cross today?
(23:09):
What do individuals who carrytheir cross do?
Well, carrying our cross todaymeans putting people before
opinions.
Carrying our cross today meansputting family before finances.
Carrying our cross today meanslove before lust.
As a church, carrying our crosstoday means church outreach
(23:31):
before personal churchpreferences.
It means that I'm going to putpeople outside of the church and
the chance for them to come andhear the good news of Jesus
Christ, the life change.
I'm gonna put that before myown personal worship song
preferences, how the churchlooks, how it feels, how it
sounds, how all the things thatthe church does, all the things
(23:54):
that we give to and invest inthat.
I'm gonna put the people, theoutreach to the people, before
my personal preferences.
Carrying the cross, our crosstoday, means sharing hope
instead of sharing hate anddivision.
It means sacrificing toactually stand together instead
of selfishness that stands apart, that separates us.
(24:19):
The cross is carried by theparent who chooses family over
their career and their 14,15-hour days, or their hobbies,
or their bank accounts, theirshiny cars.
The cross carried by the youngperson who chooses to care, to
have an open heart, to look atthe needs of others and to ask
themselves how this hurts orimpacts or loves and cares for
(24:43):
someone else, that what they dobefore they do this before their
own social status, lifestyleand comfort.
The cross carried by theChristian who chooses love,
encourage, disciple and toinvest truly, to look into the
(25:04):
life of someone else, no matterwho they are, before their own
personal gain, public opinion orpublic gripping.
The cross is carried by thefamily member who chooses to
forgive, to communicate, touplift, no matter what, the past
, letting go of anger, lettinggo of division, the deep grudges
(25:25):
, and choose family and chooselove, friends.
The cross exposes me.
The cross exposes us.
Think about how much we've beenconvoluted by the word follower.
(25:45):
Right, we say, like I'm afollower of Jesus.
Right, but like, what is theworld and culture done with the
word follower?
Now, isn't that what you do onsocial media?
You like, follow people orthings.
What does it mean that you'reactually doing?
I mean, have you ever thoughtabout that?
Like I'm following somethingand it's just like I'm scrolling
through and I'm checking on it.
(26:05):
I'm like, oh, they ate today.
That's great, right.
Oh wow, they're on vacation.
That looks really cool, right.
Or like, oh wow, they're likeranting about something.
Block, right, you've never beenlike, oh wow, they're ranting
about something.
I'm going to change my opinion.
This is great.
I am following them andlearning from them and wanting
(26:26):
to be like them.
No, that's not what we do.
Isn't it so casual followingyou know?
Like we'll say, just staying intouch.
We do that Like there's ways tostay in touch.
But what if we?
I mean, maybe we need toactually change the vernacular
in the church in a life offollowing Jesus, not a follower
(26:50):
in today's terms, maybe a crossbearer, like what has to die in
me to live in a new way, in anew kingdom bearing the marks of
a new king?
Like what conveniences must Ilose when carrying things like
(27:12):
lust, whatever that is I'mlusting for, or gluttony,
whatever it is that I'm justconsuming too much of.
Or greed I mean, how many of uswould honestly admit and raise
our hand like, yep, my struggleis greed, right.
(27:32):
We just kind of slough it offto the side, like, oh, that's
okay, it's just a desire, Ideserve it, right.
Or sloth Like, where are wejust bored in our life and just
lazy about what we're doing?
Or wrath this is one that a lotof us spend a lot of time on
(27:54):
but we won't tell nobody about.
If we're just going to behonest.
Envy, envy.
I'm going to tell you, some ofyou guys maybe envy one another.
Just in this room.
You've already had a side Aover there.
You envied what they weredriving up here or not driving
up here, what you think they are, what they looked like.
(28:17):
Or the last one, I think, isthe Christian cancer of pride.
It's sneaky, it'll get ahold ofyou.
It can take everything awayfrom you as you hold on to
things so tightly.
Now, here's the deal.
I get it right.
Like, why carry a cross?
(28:37):
Like, why carry this throughlife If I can just like oh, I
feel so much better If I canjust go through life and I can
go to heaven and have eternityand I can experience good things
here with just my faith and Idon't actually have to do this.
Like, not this awkwardness, notthis struggle, not bear this
burden.
Like, why do this?
Why not just live for me?
(28:57):
Like this is good, right,because.
Bear this burden.
Like, why do this?
Why not just live for me?
Like this is good, right,because.
Why?
Let's be honest, becausecarrying a cross is so
disruptive.
We hate being disturbed andthat's why we run from it.
And we can only imagine in thismoment what Simon of Cyrene was
thinking as he carried thatcross today.
I mean, I imagine at the verybeginning he had to be asking
(29:20):
this question why me?
There are thousands of peoplearound, why me?
Like, when they said Simon Imean there's so many Simons in
the Bible he probably wentthere's got to be another one
around here.
Like, seriously, like me?
Him, no, like, why me?
(29:41):
Why was I the one chosen out ofthousands of people.
I just came here to thefestival.
I'm just what is going on?
Everything's bloomed up.
There's a scene.
There's a man I don't we don'tknow if he had already been a
follower of Jesus or he had seenhim teaching in the temple that
entire week beforehand.
He heard some of this and justwas kind of like following the
crowd what's really going on,what's happening and sees them.
We don't think that.
You know, it wasn't like hejust saw them and was like, oh
(30:01):
my gosh, we got to help him getthere so he can finish the job
there.
Let me help him.
Curious, no, it says that theygrabbed, they forced him to do
this.
Why me?
Don't we say that too?
Have you found yourself in asituation where you're sitting
there going, why me?
You're here and you'redesperate for purpose.
(30:29):
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're feelingempty.
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're bound byshame.
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're hungryfor more Friends.
(30:51):
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're here and you're feelingweary and anxious.
Let me invite you Pick up yourcross.
You're feeling like you're notenough.
Let me invite you, friends,pick up your cross.
You're here just like Simon,like you're just coming for a
Sunday service, you're justdoing a check-in.
(31:12):
You're like going through themotions, you're checking stuff
off of the church list.
You're sitting outside in thecrowd being a fan.
Let me invite you, pick up thecross.
And we can only imagine thatwhat he was witnessing, what he
(31:41):
was actually participating in,began to actually change him,
and I encourage you to hear this.
The greatest way for you tobring out transformation and
healing in your life and thelives of others around you that
you care about is to carry yourcross for Jesus Christ.
You want noise in your woods tobe heard.
You want your faith to be heard, to be seen, to be felt, to
have an impact.
Carry your cross.
(32:03):
Simon's life changed and, tothe best of our understanding,
is that the lives of othersaround him changed as well.
This story is found in three ofthe gospels Matthew, mark and
Luke about Simon and,interestingly enough, we get a
(32:25):
little bit more from the gospel.
According to Luke, it actuallyinvolves two other names that
aren't found anywhere else inscripture, and those names
Alexander and Rufus.
Now, who are Alexander andRufus.
They're Simon's sons.
Why are they involved here?
Why are they here in thismoment?
(32:48):
Well, we know that the book ofMark was written for the
Christian Roman church it wasactually Peter's gospel and Mark
was the scribe and so werecognize that those names were
listed here.
Because those two individualsthat the Christian church in
Rome knew it says Simon ofCyrene and his two sons were
(33:12):
with him Alexander and Rufus.
And this wasn't done so that2,000 years ago we could read
just some random names.
This was done because it wasbeing written to a group of
people that would have knownexactly who they are,
recognizing that these nameswere listed here.
They said they could say thisis Alexander and Rufus's dad.
(33:33):
You want to know about thisscene?
Just go ask them.
They were there, theyparticipated in this, and not
only that, because of our earlychurch understanding that both
of these individuals, alexanderand Rufus, became missionaries
and cross-bearers, disciplesthemselves.
It changed them and we canrecognize this wonderful truth
(33:58):
Carrying our cross changes lives.
It makes sense that we allhonestly ask ourselves if we are
seeking to change the lives ofour loved ones and seeking to
change even our own lives.
What is it that you arecarrying?
Who are you carrying it for?
(34:20):
What does this world see uscarrying?
What do our children see uscarrying?
Our loved ones see us carryingwith us?
What are we carrying at home,at work, at school, right now,
in the church, and what are wereally carrying right now with
(34:42):
us?
Ask yourself that.
In my hands, in your arms, whatis it that we prioritize?
What are we carrying with us?
And as I stand here in struggleright now with a severe forearm
cramp, I want you to know thatcarrying the cross takes all of
(35:06):
you.
There is no room for anythingelse but the cross, and
sometimes it is uncomfortable,sometimes people don't
understand, sometimes it's odd,sometimes it feels weird, but I
want this to be what people see.
Sometimes people don'tunderstand, sometimes it's odd,
sometimes it feels weird, but Iwant this to be what people see
that I'm not always perfect atthat.
I need a regular remindersometimes to put down other
(35:30):
things, because I find them inmy arms, I find myself
prioritizing them, I find myselfcarrying them around, I find
myself just checking in,watching at a distance and
hoping I'm not called out fromthe crowd.
But I would encourage you,friend, pick up the cross, join
(35:53):
Simon of Cyrene.
I'm going to tell you there isno small print in the Bible.
It is very clear.
Jesus is very clear about whathe asks us to do.
There's no sneaky small thingor that quick radio, you know,
130 words per second giving youthe little small print he tells
(36:21):
us.
Pick up your cross, followJesus, be a cross bearer with
Jesus and see how your life willchange.
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