A Symbol of Heroism

1 Pet 2:20-24

In a field in Pennsylvania there is a monument to a group of people who gave their lives to save many more by causing their plane to crash into the field rather than one of the buildings in Washington DC on September 11. Close to Washington DC lies Arlington Military cemetery. Many of the markers there are for men and women who gave their lives for their country. In every country there are monuments or symbols of heroes of the past.

With a world of 24 hour news and video cameras running all the time, we often capture images of heroes in the making. Most heroes are accidental heroes however. They never woke up one morning and thought; “I am going to save the world.” It just sort of happened. As we hear about soldiers in Iraq, more and more stories of heroes emerge of men who like soldiers of past wars have become real heroes. What I mean by this is summed up by a soldier from WWII. He said “Most people can become heroes on the spur of the moment. They don’t think about what might happen, they just react. The real heroes are the guys who have been fighting a while and know what will happen when they act, and do it anyway. That is a true hero.” The monuments to that type of people take on an even more special meaning because we understand that.

The cross is that kind of symbol. As I talked about it last week, Jesus knew what he would have to face and did it anyway. That is why the cross has an even greater significance to us as Christians.

PRAYER

I. The Cross as Ransom

A. The picture of the hostage and ransom

1. We’ve become sadly too accustomed to the picture of a man or woman pleading for their life and the only way to save it is to pay a sum of money or do whatever the hostage takers demand.

2. It’s a heart-wrenching scene that has been played out for thousands of years.

3. During the crusades, both the Christians and the Muslims would take whole cities hostage and demand ransom for the people. When the ransomed was denied, they killed every person in the city.

4. During Jesus time, the whole concept of hostage taking and ransom was almost a way doing business.

B. Ransom and the cross in the New Testament

1. Several passages talk about ransom and redemption as they relate to the cross.

2. Ransom

a) "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”" (Matthew 20:28, NIV)

b) "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men." (1 Timothy 2:5-6, NIV)

3. Redeemed

a) 1 Cor 6:20 tells us that we have been bought with a price.

b) Tit 2:14 says Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness.

4. On the cross, Jesus became the ransom and the redeemer.

a) He not only agreed to pay the price, he BECAME the price for our ransom.

II. The Cross as Sacrifice

A. The Jews had a long history of sacrificial offering

1. From Cain and Able to Abraham to the Temple, sacrificial offering was an integral part of Jewish worship and culture.

2. Under the Mosaic law, God through Moses told the people what would be an acceptable sacrifice.

a) Every morning and evening a lamb was killed in the temple for the sins of the people.

b) Passover and atonement required a sacrificial lamb.

3. the lamb

a) That lamb has to be without blemish

b) The person would confess their sins and then sacrifice the blood of the lamb to God.

B. Jesus the lamb

1. Jn 1:29 tells us that when John the Baptist saw Jesus he said to the people, “Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the people.”

2. Peter called Jesus the lamb without blemish in 1 Pet1:19

3. Many other scriptures refer to Jesus as our sacrifice.

C. The Cross as a sacrifice

1. The lamb of God wasn’t an animal culled from the flock but the very son of God.

2. With our sins before us, we, in a very real sense, sacrificed Christ to cover those sins.

3. Under the Old Testament, the High Priest offered the blood to God for the sins of the person standing before him.

4. ON the cross the True High Priest offered his own blood for the people standing before him.

5. He offered his blood for the people who stood wrapped in sin before he came to this earth.

6. He offered his blood for all the people who were yet to stand before him with our sins. All of us needed spiritual cleansing that could only be done by the sacrifice of THE lamb.

III. The Cross as Substitution

A. Understanding substitution

1. The death of a lamb couldn’t really take away a person’s sins.

2. The Jews understood that in reality the lamb that died should have been them.

3. God, in his mercy let the death of the lamb be a substitution for their own spiritual death.

B. Substitution is different than sacrifice.

a) The secret service are trained to sacrifice their life for the life of the President if need be. It is a most noble deed, but for the assassin, they don’t matter. He only cares about taking the life of the president. They may sacrifice their life, but they are not a substitute for the president’s life.

b) In the movie “The last of the Mohicans,” a couple of young ladies were taken hostage by some Indians. One was to become a slave and the other was to be burned to death to appease the spirits of Indians that had been killed in battle. A young British officer and a hunter went to try to bargain to free them. When they saw that they couldn’t get both of the girls and one had to die, the British officer asked to be killed in her place. His wish was granted.

c) That is substitution.

d) That is what Jesus did for you and I. We should die for our sins, but Jesus took our place.

e) He not only became our sacrifice, but he also took our place when we should have died spiritually.

C. The cross is a monument, a symbol of that sacrifice and substitution.

1. Every time we look at the cross, every time we read about the cross in the Bible, the image of Jesus CHOOSING to be there instead of us, needs to bring us to our knees.

2. That cross is a reminder of true heroism, deliberate heroism.