Sermon Cloud

Intro: Gentle boast over BU’s win over UNH to Stephen.

Big Idea: To delight in Jesus is to delight in the cross by which He saved us.

Context:  Paul is ending his letter, contrasting matters of importance w/false teachers.

I. The cross is to be an object of our delight.

-         The false teachers wanted to boast about the Galatians’ flesh- being circumcised.

-         They wanted to boast in numbers.  Churches/ministers can boast in the wrong things.

-         Paul boasted in an unlikely thing: the cross.  Ill. Marion, ER, gang bangers

-         The cross is the scandalous sign of a criminal’s death.  It is an offense to Jews.  Ill. blog

-         What is it to boast?  Boasting = Delight (2 Cor. 12).  We boast of unlikely things.

-         Theology of Cross (Luther)- “already” experience suffering; “not yet”- glory (Rom. 8).

-         Paul boasted of suffering & weakness, not success, strength & prosperity.

-         In the suffering we know God, and His grace, better, more profoundly.  Ill. David Wayne

-         Hating to suffer, we sinfully seek a theology of glory & avoid the cross (Carson).

-         We gravitate to boasting about what makes us look good- success, status, numbers…

-         Let us delight in the cross, extolling Christ, lest other things take over.

-         Let us delight in the cross, to find comfort in our suffering (Mahaney).  Will you run?

³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”  1 Corinthians 1 (NIV)

⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12 (NIV)

… if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.  Romans 8:16 (NIV)

“We need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling Jesus Christ.”  Sinclair Ferguson

 “I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight.  Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry.”  D.A. Carson

“Comfort in suffering can never be found by focusing endlessly on the suffering itself, for suffering always contains an element of impenetrable mystery.  Hope and comfort and perseverance in the Christian life come from meditating on the cross and the God of the cross.”  C.J. Mahaney

II. Why?  We delight in the cross because of what Jesus accomplished on it.  Tour de Galatians.

-         Jesus rescued us from our sin thru the cross (1:4).  Jesus gave Himself as a sin offering.

-         Jesus was both priest & sacrifice, willingly.  He removed our guilt & condemnation.

-         Jesus rescued us from this present evil age thru the cross (1:4).  This PEA encourages sin.

-         This evil age will end in judgment for all who remain in its grasp.

-         By faith, we died with Jesus on the cross (2:20).  He died as if a sinner, for sinners.

-         In union with Christ, the Father sees us hanging there with/in our Representative.

-         Jesus proved His love for us on the cross (2:20).  There is no greater love ….

-         Our love for God is to be kindled by this blazing proof of God’s love.  Ill. AA Hodge

-         Jesus died to make us righteous in God’s eyes (2:21).  No cross = no justification.

-         It was necessary for us to be justified.  Delight in being declared righteous by God!

-         Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law on the cross (3:13).  Sin brings a curse.

-         The curse stands for the condemnation of the Law on our sin.  Jesus bore that curse.

-         Though condemned criminals, Jesus bought us back for God, paying with His blood.

“God the Father views the entire redeemed church as if it were hanging on the cross with him.”  Bridges & Bevington

“The cross is a blazing fire at which the flame of our live is kindled, but we have to get near enough to it for its sparks to fall on us.”  John Stott

“… nothing besides Christ crucified can stand as the foundation of a sinner’s acceptance.”  George Smeaton

Let’s return to our text for the last thing.

III. Jesus reorients our life through the cross (6:14).

-         Prior to conversion the world squeezed us into its mold, rebelling against God.

-         We ran from authority, accountability, responsibility & restraint (Gen. 3 & Romans 1).

-         “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”- that ends thru the Cross.

-         Sanctification is the process by which we are disentangled from the world’s influence.

-         As we become more like Jesus we’re less like the world & grow weary of sin & misery.

-         As we become more like Jesus, the world likes us less, taking offense at us like Him.

-         We don’t move beyond the Cross, but find we move deeper into understanding the cross.

-         We move deeper into applying the cross to our passions/desires.  We delight in it more!

“previously we were desperately anxious to be favor with the world.”  John Stott

“… it became to him unwelcome, distasteful, undesirable, like a crucified person. … the world has cast me out, as no object of its favor, and as an alien to it.”  George Smeaton

“He no more sought that world, nor lived for it, than a dead man is attracted by its honors, pleasures or emoluments; and it was the cross that made the great revolution.”  George Smeaton

“We never move on from the cross, only into a more profound understanding of the cross.”  David Prior

“The Spirit does not take his pupils beyond the cross, but ever more deeply into it.”  J. Knox Chamberlin