The Cross of Christ

Titus chapter 2 verse 11 to 14. For the grace of God has appeared their offer salvation to all people. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope. The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself are people that are his very own eager to do what is good. Okay.

Well, if you could keep that Titus 2 passage open in front of you, we won't get to it immediately, but we will we will get to it as we go through the evening. This is a series that we've just started. We started it last week, and we're exploring all the different ways or some of the different ways that the bible explains Jesus' work on the cross for us. And that I think is a magnificent subject for us to be considering in these Sunday evening sessions. Because from from 1 angle, the message of the cross can be summarized and explained in just 1 sentence.

So here's 1 Peter 3 18, and it says this for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. And in many ways, it's as simple as that. Christ suffered for you, the righteous, for the unrighteous to bring you to God. And yet, the whole bible in some ways is wanting to not just leave it there, but to expand and enriching our understanding of Christ and what he did on the cross. In fact, when we get to heaven, That is gonna be the anthem and the theme.

We're gonna spend our forever going deeper into what Christ achieved for his people and for the world. Through his bloodshed on the cross. So this series is is some attempt to do just that, to explore what Jesus has done for us from many different angles and with many different words, the words that the bible gives us. So as we begin, let's let's pray together and ask for ask for God's help, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the cross of the lord Jesus Christ.

And we thank you that it was there that our loving savior was willing to lay down his life for We thank you that he came exchanging all the riches of heaven, the glory of heaven for the agony and the shame of the cross. And he did it to bring unrighteous, wicked people like us, to himself, to cleanse us. To purify us, to turn us into a new different sort of people. We thank you that the church is your special possession. That you have redeemed us by the blood of your son.

And Holy Spirit, we pray that you would open up these words to us, which thank you for inspiring them. We thank you for preserving them across the generations. We thank you for the opportunity and the freedom we have just to read them together. And we pray that you would apply them to our hearts that you would cut away sin, that you would show us Christ all over again. And we ask it in his name.

Oh, men. Oh, men. Well, I I don't think it will have passed you by that yesterday was the the twentieth anniversary of the the 9 11 attacks, and Pete mentioned it in this morning's sermon as well. And 1 of the most iconic images in the days and the weeks following the attacks on the twin towers in New York was the image of the falling man, and it might be that you've seen that image at at some stage. It certainly was resurfaced again in in the last few days, and it was an image that was taken at 9 41 in the morning, which was just about an hour after the first plane had hit the north tower, and it was an image of a man falling from the hundred and sixth floor of the north tower to to the ground.

And it's hard to know who that man actually was. There are there are 2 people that they think it could have been. 1 was a chap called Norberto Hernandez, who was a pastry chef at 1 of the restaurants on the hundred and sixth floor called a window onto the world. And people think from his clothes that it may well have been him or it may have been someone else. And I was humming and awing about whether to show the image or not.

But if you have seen it, it is It is very startling and very striking. And in in some ways, it is a very peaceful image Because when you look at the footage from 9 11, it is chaotic. There is dust everywhere, buildings, collapsing, people screaming, And yet, this image is quite serene and quite peaceful. It's just a man and a tower as he falls to the ground. And yet, it is it is an image of of utter helplessness and utter despair, and an image that came to summarize much of what happened on that day.

And you you do think when you look at it, what what must have what must have he been thinking? What what how how hopeless and helpless must he have felt to think that that was his only option. You know, how terrible must things have been? In that building to believe that that was your only way out. He must have thought that he was so completely beyond help that there was nobody coming, that there was no way that anybody could have reached him and people like him.

And it's just a scene, a picture of helplessness and hopelessness and and lostness, and is very is very moving. And of course, the reality is that none of us can really Even with all the power of descriptive language, none of us can really understand what that must have been like and what he must have been feeling and what must been going through his mind, and it's very, very unlikely that any of us will experience anything like that. And therefore, I was wondering whether to mention it or not because it's so far from from our experience. And yet, it might be that as you think about your life on situations that you've been in or situations that you are in now, that you you can think of a time when you have felt completely helpless. When you have felt helpless, when there has been someone or something in your life, which you have felt that you cannot escape from when there is no 1 that can rescue you, where there is no power greater than the 1 that you are under.

It may be an illness of some kind or an addiction of some kind. And even if even if not something like that, I guess all of us to some extent can sympathize with that that feeling of of being helpless. Being in a situation where you are under the power of something that you just cannot escape helpless, hopeless, and lost. Tonight, we're gonna be thinking about the words redemption. The word redemption and what that what that means, what the bible means by that word.

And I don't know what comes to mind when you think of it, what images it brings to your mind, but it is 1 of the big bible words to describe what God has done for his people. And what Jesus achieved on the cross. And in fact, there are some people, some Christian thinkers who describe the whole of history as redemptive history. In other words, the word redemption has come to be the word that describes God's relationship to this world and what he has done for this world, and on behalf of his people. But in order to really understand what the word redemption means, We have to see that it begins with helplessness.

It begins with a with a people who completely under the power of something. They are helpless. They are hopeless. They are lost. And unless somebody breaks in from outside, there is there is no hope for them.

And so that is the first point this evening. There are only 3 points, redemption, the backdrop, redemption, the act, and redemption applied, and this first 1 is redemption, the backdrop. And the word redemption and and related words like redeemer and redeemed show up hundreds of times in the bible, but it only crops up about 20 times in the new testament. And that tells us that in the old redemption is a really big deal. And lots of the times when that word is used in the Old Testament, it's describing what happened in Egypt.

Is describing the exodus story. Redemption finds its roots and its origins in in the exodus story. And if you're familiar with with the story of the bible, you'll know that way back in the days of the old test Old Testament, God's people when they were Under under Moses, Moses was their leader at that time. They were they were slaves. They had become slaves in Egypt.

And God had promised a man called Abraham, that the Israelites would become a great nation, and they had become a great nation. They were becoming a great nation but they weren't enjoying the freedom that God really intended for them to to worship the Lord. They found themselves in slavery and in bondage and they were in chains in Egypt under the lordship of this tyrant, this cruel tyrant called pharaoh. They were helpless. They were helpless.

In Exodus 2 23, it says the Israelites groaned in their slavery. And cried out. They groaned in their slavery and cried out. That's how God's people felt. They were helpless They were hopeless, they were lost.

That's 1 image to help us to understand the backdrop of redemption. Here's another 1. This is thousands of years later, And this is not a nation anymore. This is just 1 man, 1 man alone in the hills. A man alone in the hills Palestine, a man who was completely overtaken by evil, completely dominated by darkness.

This is a man we're told in Mark's Gospel that lived in the tombs, and no 1 could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet no 1 was strong enough to seduce him. Night and day, among the tombs and in the hills, he would cry out and cut himself. With stones. That is a helpless man.

People had tried to assist him. It says they had tried to chain him tried to subdue him, but they couldn't. He too was a slave, and he was under the rule of a tyrant under the rule of a wicked tyrant, Satan. He was helpless. He was hopeless.

He was a slave. So there are 2 very different pictures. 1 on a national scale a long time ago, 1 on a very small scale a long time ago. But the point of it is that redemption and this is what we need to understand about the word. Redemption comes against the backdrop of helpless Unless someone can break in from outside, unless a third party can come into the situation crush the tyrant, free the people, change their fortunes, unless someone can make something happen, then they are helpless.

And they are hopeless. And here's the thing, if you're new to the bible story, which may come as a bit of surprise to you, that man in the hills, and those people in slavery and Egypt are not just stories to inform us, They are metaphors of what we are like by nature of our condition apart from God. And so if you're here and you're new to the Christian faith, then then that may come as a surprise to you. Because the reality is is we walk around Kingston People look pretty free, don't they? They don't look like slaves.

They're free to do this thing or that. They're free to choose this way or that, this job or that, this car or that. You know, there there seems to be quite a lot of freedom. People are free. So we think.

And yet, actually, the bible would tell us a very, very different story. That we are by nature, not by choice, not by habit, we are by nature in chains, not in Egypt, but slaves to our own sin and to evil. We are helpless apart from God lost in our in. Jesus puts it this way in John 8. Truly, truly, I tell you.

Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Everybody who sins is a slave to sin. Now, there are lots and lots of different ways that we can describe the word sin. But at its core, it just is an opposition. To the living God who made you.

It is trying to do life without him. It is pushing him out of our mind It is living as if he didn't matter, living without reference to his word, exchanging his explanations of things for different ones, worshiping created things instead of him, hurting other people that he has made. Jesus says anyone who sins, and that is sin, that is us, is a slave to sin. You see, if we were truly free by nature, if we were really free, we would be free to stop doing stuff like that. But we're not.

And so we don't. We live in these God ignoring chains. Helpless, hopeless slaves. And therefore, just like those other stories, that first 1 in Egypt, and that second 1 in the hills, Unless somebody comes from outside, there is no hope of change. We really have no power at all to free ourselves.

In 2018, the chemical brothers who were a kind of electronic trans, housey, band released a song called free yourself. And I don't know if you've heard it, but it just repeats those words over and over again. Free yourself. Free yourself. Free yourself.

Free yourself. Free me, free them and dance. Free yourself. Free yourself. Free yourself.

Free yourself. Free yourself. And it goes on and on like that free yourself, free yourself, free yourself, but the reality is that we can't, we can't. We can't free ourselves. This is not like the great escape where you can tunnel out by being a good person or where you can jump over the fence by being a religious sort of person we need powerful help from outside of ourselves if we are going to be saved.

We need that same God who we've offended to show up in power and to make the difference in our lives. And thankfully, that is what he does, and it's what he loves to do, and it's what he offers. Redemption comes against the backdrop of helplessness, hopelessness, slavery. Secondly, redemption the act. This is the act of redemption.

Now, I only gave you half of that exodus 2 verse earlier. Here's here's how it ends. It says the Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. I'm sure you know the story of the plagues that came upon Egypt towards the end of that story, the different judgments that fell upon pharaoh and upon that nation. And then you right remember that the last 1, the final judgment was death.

And at midnight, on that night, the destroying angel was going to come through Egypt and wipe out all of the first born sons of Egypt and the first born of the livestock, and it is a harrowing thing to read about. Before COVID, me and Laura went to see the musical, the Prince of Egypt, which had very mixed reviews, and there was lots that wasn't great about that. Kerry hated it. She's shaking ahead of me, wondering why I would even use it in an illustration, I think, because it's so bad. But I'm just going to defend it in 1 part.

And I I thought the way that they did the last this last plague, this final judgment was actually very was very moving. Because what you had was, it was the middle of the night, and the different actors came out onto the stage, and they were holding in their hands, infants. In the that had been wrapped into the shape of infants in towels, and they were holding them in their arms. And at midnight, the sound of a breath expiring came through the theater and they emptied they pulled up their towels and they were emptied as if to say that the first born had been taken in that moment. And it was quite I found it at least quite a moving and sobering description of what that of what that must have been like.

That final judgment when death itself came to the land of Egypt. And in that moment, if you know the story, the only way to escape was to have the blood of a lamb around the door, so that when the angel came, it would see the blood of a sacrifice. And it would pass over that house, and go on to the next 1. And so with redemption, with this exodus story, the big visual impressed into the minds of the people of God was this. For your redemption, a lamb must die.

For your redemption, A lamb must die. For your freedom, a lamb must die. For you, a sacrifice has to be made. In order for you to come out from under this tyrant and to enjoy a new life service and worship. A sacrifice must be made for you.

And in that act of redemption, the old master would be destroyed. That is what happened to Faro, wasn't it? He was not bribed He was not paid off. He was crushed by the hand of Almighty God in that act of redemption, in that sacrifice. Same thing with the man who was possessed by evil in the hills.

It needed the Lord Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, to come to him. And to set him free, not to bribe or pay off the demons, but to destroy them and send them down to the hill to a watery grave. And that's what he did. That's what redemption is all about. And so as we bring these 2 points together, we can see that redemption begins with this helpless situation, but that God graciously in power comes and he crushes the enemies, and he sets the people free for a new life of worship and service, and only can it be done because of the blood of the lamb.

Because of a sacrifice. That's what redemption is all about. And again, this is all a greater picture of of Christ. And what he came to achieve for his people, the great redeemer. Here's how the new testament picks up the story.

This is titus 2, the reading that we had This is a letter to a young minister and the heart of his ministry is to be redemption. Paul says to him, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself for people that are his very own eager to do what is good. In 1 Peter 1, 18, it says this, for you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty or futile way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb, without blemish or defect. So you see, when it comes to redemption through the old testament and into the new, the big visual is the same. For your freedom, a lamb must die.

For us to be redeemed, a lamb must die. And that is the wonderful news of the cross. That by nature, you and I are are slaves to sin. We are slaves to old evil master. Satan, only free to choose which way we're going to sin, enslaved in bondage to our sin.

But that at the cross, God himself, the lord Jesus Christ, gave himself for us, that that was the place where the perfect lamb laid down his life and shed his blood for you. That was the place where the son of God exchanged the glory of heaven for cross and laid down his life for you. That was the place where the sacrifice, heaven's sacrifice swapped places with you and took the punishment for you and the slavery of your sin for you so that you could be free. It was the place where Satan was not bribed or paid off, but crushed under the self giving love of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many old testament pictures of redemption.

Many we could have chosen, but with 1 voice, they point to the greatest act of all. The redeemer, the lord Jesus Christ, saving his people and crushing his enemies, through the sacrifice of his cross, through his bloodshed to purchase us for a new life. There's the backdrop, helpless, There's the act, Christ the redeemer. Now let's think about redemption applied. Thirdly, lastly, redemption applied.

It's interesting, isn't it, that in our world, generally speaking, there is very little hope of a new beginning. There is very little hope of a new start in this world. There there are all kinds of things that people try to reinvent themselves or to be something or someone other than what they are. You know, we try diets maybe and fads. We look at videos, and we read books, and we've got a kind of imagined life.

And if only we can consume enough of what we would like to be, then we might become that thing. We we want to so often break free from what we are to be something other than what we are. But it never it never works. Because the truth is that being being your own master is the worst form of slavery. You can hardly really talk like this, but in some ways, better to live under pharaoh, isn't it?

At least there's a structure and a clarity to your life, to be under yourself, to be your own master, which is to be under the great tyrant is the most lonely and confusing form of slavery that just does not work. There is a lot door everywhere we turn. We can't escape. Or it might be that we feel trapped by something in particular. By anger or by drink or by an addiction of some kind, by bitterness that we just can't let go of and we try things.

We try things to set ourselves free, but we can't. Because only Jesus can free us. From sin slavery and set us free for a new life, and that is what he does at the cross. He doesn't just set free to then go a different way. He sets us free to belong to a new kingdom.

He sets us free to live with him as our master to serve this lord of love. He doesn't just bring them out of Egypt. He brings them out of Egypt into the promised land. So that they can live under him. 1 author says that Christ redeems us from being 1 kind of person to being an entirely new person.

The same grace that redeems us reforms us. The same grace that redeems us reforms us, and that is what Titus is saying in that reading, isn't it? That it is the redeeming grace of Christ which teaches us to say no to ungodliness, and yes to him. And yes to his word, grace, is a powerful teacher. It is a powerful counselor.

It saves and teaches and produces. A new sort of person. And so in some ways, this is this is a strange paradox because Jesus Jesus sets us free from slavery, but freedom makes us slaves. Freedom, the freedom of the gospel, makes us a new type of slave. We are slaves to righteousness, slaves to the holy and living God to the Lord who loves us.

It's not to say that we become perfect, but we no longer love the old master sin. We have new desires and a new king and a holy freedom. And in that we have a real future. A follower of Jesus has been redeemed, but is still great waiting for a great day of redemption when God is going to come again to redeem this world and to redeem us and to give us new bodies to live with him forever. Redemption is a cosmically big word.

Cosmically big. It pulls us out of our sin through the blood of a sacrifice brings us under a new master the lord of love and guarantees the redemption of our bodies when we will live forever with that lord. And so to any here who haven't really yet, honestly, trusted Christ. Who still feel themselves to be ruled by the old master or who are bored of trying to rule themselves. Wouldn't now be the time to come to him.

The reality is that unless we trust in Jesus, we will continue in sin until the judgment when we will meet God with no helper and no redeemer. But that if we turn to him and simply ask Jesus to redeem us, to take away our sins and put his blood around the doorposts of our lives, he will hear us. Charles Virgin, the great Victorian preacher, said if we open the window on our side, We won't find it bolted on the other. If we open the window on our side, we won't find it bolted on the other. We will find a redeemer who is ready to listen and ready to come and ready to save and to free and to transform and to make us a new type of people.

So come to Christ If you haven't already, that's the application of redemption. But to those who already have opened the window, as it were, Did you notice that group language in Titus, the group language? Yes. This is something for individuals. But look how he talks about it.

Jesus Christ did this redeeming work to purify for himself a people that are his very own. Eager to do what is good. This work of redemption is for the church. That we together are a redeemed people. And just by the way, this is an amazing verse for proving the deity of Christ.

Because in the old testament, you've got Yairway redeeming his people that become their special possession In the new testament, you've got Christ redeeming a people who become his special possession. He is the living God, who comes to redeem his people. And this is what defines us as a church. You know, it was a joy for me this afternoon. I was preaching at a different church at 4 o'clock up in New Molden with a different group of people.

Some of whom I've never met before, but they are they were the Lord's people. And when you talk about redemption and the cross, you can see they're into it. They love it. They like it. And that's what unite it's what finds the church that we are a redeemed people no matter what background that we come from, different reasons for being here, different past experiences, We are a people special to the lord.

A people loved by the lord. A redeemed people. And that should be the thing. That whatever else happens defines us defines us, that shapes us, that reflects how we relate to 1 another, and is our message to this hurting enslaved world. Redemption redemption, the backdrop, helpless, the act Christ coming.

Through a sacrifice to save, applied, we need to trust the redeemer and be defined by his work of redemption. Let's pray together. Father the God, we thank you for the gift of your son. We thank you that you sent him into this world to be our redeemer. And lord, we confess that we acknowledge that that that apart from you and apart from your intervening grace, we would still be helpless and hopeless and lost in our sin, that we would still be ignoring you and rejecting you and thinking that we could live without you, lord, if you hadn't come and made difference in our lives, we would all still be there, pursuing a sinful path and on the road to hell itself.

But we thank you lord that you have come and you have intervened, that you have opened our eyes to the work of the cross. Where the perfect lamb of God without blemish or without fault surrendered his life to those nails, shed his blood to pay our price, to kill our in, to bring us out into a new form of lovely slavery, living under the the king of righteousness himself. And Lord, we pray for any here who may not yet know that reality, who may have been coming to church perhaps for years and have thought that they have known it. But maybe tonight for the first time, I've realized that they haven't, that you would help them to come to the redeemer, knowing that if we open the window on our we won't find it bolted on the other, that you will take us and redeem us and save us. And for those who know this truth very well, We pray that it would warm our hearts again and that we would live as those who have been redeemed by the great Lord Jesus Christ.

And we would go into this world and proclaim that message which is so needed. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.