You can turn in your Bibles back to the book of Acts. The book of Acts, we're going to continue with this morning's message on the cross of Christ in the book of Acts. Remember, we noted this morning that we have the book of Acts by virtue of the crosswork of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is part of the covenant canon, the covenant document that we have that comes to us by virtue of Christ ratifying the new covenant in his most precious blood.
We also noted before we got into those elements, those specific aspects of the cross in the book of Acts, we noted that the central proclaiming focus of the book of Acts is Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of sinners. The cross is central to apostolic proclamation. We're going to read from Acts 13 tonight as we look at the last two things of the cross of Christ in the book of Acts. And we'll get to those two things after we read the text and pray.
Acts 13, beginning at verse 26. Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death.
Now, when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. And we declare to you glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers.
God has fulfilled this for us, their children, and that he has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you. And that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore, he also says in another psalm, you will not allow your holy one to see corruption.
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you.
Behold, you despisers marvel and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you." So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. Now on the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and contradicting and blaspheming, They opposed the things spoken by Paul then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life behold We turn to the Gentiles for so the Lord has commanded us I have set you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth Now when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed, and the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.
Amen. Well, let us open again in prayer. Our righteous God, we thank you for the reading of your holy word. We thank you that we can hold your full Bible in our hands.
We pray that you would bless now this time of preaching, that you would come, the Holy Spirit, that you would send the Holy Spirit, Lord God, to work upon us, that saints would be edified, that sinners would be saved, as we focus on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray yet again that the exercise of your saints here this evening would be unto the praise of your glorious grace and unto the exaltation of Jesus Christ, our blessed Redeemer. We pray in His most precious name. Amen.
Introduction and Review
Well, this morning we started to look at the cross of Christ in the book of Acts. won't be an expositional sermon, though hopefully some exposition will take place as we look at certain texts. But continuing the topical sermon from this morning, the cross of Christ in the book of Acts, by way of review, we looked first off at the divine purpose of the cross. The cross was planned by God in eternity before the foundation of the world, Acts 2.23, Acts 4.27 and 28. We noted, secondly, divine promise, that that purposed cross was announced by God throughout the history that led up to it, Acts 3, 18 to 26.
Remember, all the prophets from Moses to the last prophet, we could say John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, all the prophets of God in the Old Testament spoke concerning Jesus. That's what Peter says in Acts 3. Thirdly, we notice divine providence. The purposed and promised cross was carried out through human means.
The purposed and promised cross was carried out through human means. Again, Acts 2, 23. Acts 4, 27 and 28. Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were all gathered together with wicked intent to crucify the Lord of glory.
The providential and human means by which God brought about the salvation of His people. And the last point that we looked at before we stopped was divine performance. Divine performance. The purposed, promised, and providentially accomplished cross was completed by God.
We noted Acts 20, 28. We do not have a human Redeemer strictly and solely speaking, but we have the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Jesus, our Lord, fully God and fully man. who bore God's curse upon Calvary's tree. Well,
Divine Proclamation
this evening we'll look at, first off, divine proclamation. The cross of purpose, promise, providence, and performance was heralded by God sent messengers. And secondly, divine proficiency. The cross of purpose, promise, providence, performance, and proclamation was efficiently applied.
First off, Divine proclamation. Divine proclamation. Why do we say divine proclamation? Well, first off, because
God Sends His Heralds
God sends his heralds to proclaim the message of the cross. Human messengers aren't sent by human dignitaries. The men who proclaimed the truth of the cross were not sent by themselves, but rather it is the Lord God who sent them. And we have that in the text. that we read tonight.
The proclaimers of Jesus and the cross are sent by God. Notice at Acts 13, verse 47. Acts 13, verse 47. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.
The Lord God has commanded the apostolic proclaimers of the cross of Christ to go therefore into all the world and preach the crucified and resurrected Messiah. God sends his cross-proclaiming messengers. And Christ, we note at the beginning of Acts, if you turn there with me, Acts chapter 1, Christ himself is seen here prior to his ascension as the crucified and now resurrected and soon to be ascended sender of his apostolic messengers. Verse 7 of Acts chapter 1, and he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority.
Verse 8, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. You see, Jesus Christ, and this is another proof of his deity, it is the Lord Jesus Christ who sends apostles and prophets to proclaim the message of himself. We use the term when we define divine proclamation as this, the cross of purpose, promise, providence, and performance was heralded by God-sent messengers. The messengers of Jesus Christ, those who proclaim the riches and the excellencies of our crucified and resurrected Jesus, are heralds.
That doesn't mean, kids, the name Harold, H-A-R-O-L-D, but Harold, H-E-R-A-L-D. They're heralds. If anybody has ever watched cartoons, I just remember this from my childhood. I don't know if they still do this in cartoons, and I think I may have used this illustration before, but in the old Looney Tunes cartoons, you would have a king, or rather, you would have a herald sent by a king who would come to a village and roll out a scroll, and he would say, hear ye, hear ye the words of the king, or something like that.
Well, you see, that might be funny, but that's what we have in the Bible. We have the king, the king of kings and the Lord of lords sending forth heralds, that is, divinely sent messengers to figuratively speaking, roll out the scroll, not figuratively speaking because we had the parchments and the scrolls, but to roll out the scroll and to say, hear ye, hear ye. Listen to the words of the king. He came in the fullness of the times, born of a woman, born under the law that he might redeem guilty sinners from the curse of the law.
We have in the Bible the risen and glorified King, dispatching heralds to go out into the world to proclaim His saving work. Turn with me to Matthew 23 for a moment. Matthew 23. I know this is the cross of Christ in the book of Acts, but we have 66 books to avail of.
And this portion of Matthew 23, we see the fulfillment of this in the book of Acts. In Matthew 23, near the end, after Christ is, or while Christ is proclaiming these maledictory words, these curses upon unbelieving Jews, he says this at verse 31. Therefore, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your father's guilt.
Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Now notice here, verse 34, Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute. from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation." So you see, when we get to the book of Acts, we see exactly what Christ promised here.
Therefore, I send you prophets. wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of you will you'll scourge in the synagogues and persecute from city to city. The outset of the book of Acts and the text we already read, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of that prophecy and that sure and certain promise.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria. even unto the ends of the earth. The gospel or the, why do we say divine proclamation? It is because God sends his heralds to proclaim the cross. Why also do we say divine proclamation?
Because
The Message Is of Divine Origin
the proclaimed message of the cross is of divine origin. The proclaimed message of the cross is of divine origin. It is not of human contrivance. It is not of human creation.
Man did not make up the message of the cross. The message of the cross is of divine origin. Peter says, well, let's read from the book of Acts first, and then we can branch out. Acts 13, back to it, if you can navigate your way back there.
Acts 13 and verse 49, the message that was proclaimed by the first apostles, the message that is now proclaimed by true gospel ministers is of divine origin and authority. Acts 13 verse 49, after Paul preached this gospel message, we read, and the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. That might not come as a shock to you, but hopefully your Christian minds glory in this truth, that the message proclaimed is not the word of man, it is the word of the living and true God. You see, Peter writes in his second epistle something that ought to warm our hearts and cause us to exalt in the Lord.
He writes, we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. You see, the message of the cross is not a cunningly devised fable. It's not the creation of man. It is, and we have to think about this for a moment as we understand and if we can for a moment meditate upon our Bibles.
Would men ever come up with the Bible and the message that's in it? A triune God who is holy and perfect, wholly removed from his creation in the sense of his holiness and his perfections and all his glorious attributes. who would punctuate time and history to come into our lower world, which is marked by depravity and sin and wickedness. Would man ever picture himself as a worm, as a sinner, as one who is wholly unable to affect anything unto spiritual change and salvation? Man would never depict himself like that.
Would man depict his hero as one who is not even worthy to look upon? Isaiah 53, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and rejected by men.
If we were, and the history of mankind clearly tells us this, just look at the Greco-Roman history and Homer's Iliad and the tales of heroes. You won't find one who's despised and rejected by men. who is the God-man who comes into time and history to bear the shame of a cross in order to bring sinners to everlasting life. Men do not contrive a story like this because this story puts man in his proper place low, puts God in his proper place high, and speaks of this Jesus Christ, the divine and human one, the theanthropic one, the God-man who comes into the world sinners to save. The proclaimed message of the cross is of divine origin.
How else can we say that this is divine proclamation? Because
Proclamation Purposed to Save Sinners
God has purpose to use the proclamation of the cross to save sinners. We see that in Acts 13 here, beginning at verse 38. Well, near the end of verse 38. Through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
We move down to verse 48. Now, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. So this message is divine proclamation because God has purpose to use proclamation of His Word and the cross to save sinners. You see, God promises, or God first off, remember, purposes the cross.
He purposes to send Jesus Christ in the fullness of the times to be born of a woman, born under the law to save. He promises that throughout all of Old Covenant revelation. He providentially brings it to bear in perfection in time and in history. The cross is completed.
It is perfected. It is performed. He then proclaims it. He then proclaims it.
The accomplished cross is proclaimed unto those who are its intended recipients, so that by that proclamation, God would send the Holy Spirit, causing them to be made alive in Christ Jesus. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians in chapter 1, because here we see that principle set before us clearly, that God has purpose to use the proclamation of the cross to save sinners. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. We could read the entire context because the entire context is glorious and speaks concerning the wisdom of the cross and the foolishness of humanistic wisdom, but at verse 21 we get our point. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe." A simple and glorious statement.
How does God save sinners? By the message preached. You know, the simplicity of preaching the message. We don't need to cart in puppets.
We don't need to cart in artwork. We don't need to bring people up here to perform a mime act in order to communicate the gospel. We don't need drama. We don't need, you know, elaborate anything.
We need the preaching of the word of the living Christ. The true and faithful proclamation of that perfect Jesus who came into this world, sinners to save, who lived a perfect life, who died a glorious and perfect death, though it was shameful according to his own attestation. The resurrection. which was that perfect testification of the validity of His dying and saving work and the glorious victory from death and hell. And we preach those glorious truths to the sinner.
And by God's grace, working with that message, sinners are saved to the praise of His grace. When God deems a particular way of saving sinners, we don't change it. We don't adjust it to please the audience. We don't adjust it according to market strategies.
We are faithful to the living Christ, to the powerful God of heaven and earth, who saw it, who deemed it well, not to bring to bear his perfect salvation by the wisdom of the world. Why? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, but rather it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. It worked 2,000 years ago, it still works today.
And that is the method whereby God brings his elect into his kingdom. Fourthly, why can we say divine proclamation? Because
God Preaches Through His Ministers
when preachers preach the truth of the cross, it is God pleading or preaching through them. Why is it divine proclamation when Paul preaches? Because it is Paul preaching, or it is God preaching and pleading through Paul. That's what Paul says himself in his second letter to the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, the message of the gospel being proclaimed faithfully, it is as though God is preaching. Verse 20 of 2 Corinthians 5, Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. You see, it is God who preaches.
It is divine proclamation, human vessels, human cracked pots, which though nevertheless proclaim the riches and the excellencies of gospel treasures to needful ears. It is God as it is as though, as if, God is pleading through His apostolic witnesses and through His true gospel preachers, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. In Ephesians chapter 2, and you can read that later, I believe it's verses 16 and 17, there, Paul says that Christ came and preached peace to the Ephesians. Which is amazing, because the Lord Jesus Christ never went beyond the borders of Jerusalem.
He had a very small geographic scope of his earthly ministry. And that was by design. It was by divine design because he, on his ascension, would send his spirit so that his witnesses would go to Jerusalem, yes, but also to Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. But Jesus never went beyond the borders of a small geographical area.
He never went to Ephesus. Yet, Paul can say that Christ came to you, Ephesian Christians, and preach peace to you. How can he say that? Well, because in Acts 19, he himself, Paul, went to Ephesus, and in the mire and the muck and the madness of people worshiping a three-breasted goddess, he can say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.
And it is, as he is doing that, as though God is preaching through him. When preachers preach the truth of the cross, it is God preaching and pleading through them. Before we close up this divine proclamation, we must make this observation, the simple observation that
The Cross Is Central to Acts
the central message of proclamation in the book of Acts is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 2.23, remember what we have there. We'll work through a few texts here, but from the outset of apostolic proclamation, We have Jesus Christ crucified. We have Jesus Christ as that one, sacrificially and substitutionarily, bearing the sins of His people upon that Roman implement.
Acts 2.23, again, Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death. We also have Acts 2.44. If you scan a little bit further down, 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Acts chapter 3 at verse 13. Acts 3 and verse 13. We read, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you denied the Holy One and the just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know." And one other text, though there are more, Acts 5 at verse 29. Acts 5 at verse 29. Notice here, but Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.
Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior. to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him." And he repeats it at verse 40. And they agreed with him. And when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let him go.
So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And now notice, in daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. You see, when we read that general statement, we really should be thinking cross. When we read, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ, we should be thinking that servant, that anointed one, that the old covenant promise would come to be pierced for our transgressions, to bear our iniquities, to have put upon him the chastisement for our peace.
The centrality of the cross. Now, you might be saying, you see, we read the book of Acts, and when a preacher says the centrality of the cross, he's not discounting when the preachers in the book of Acts often bring up, very often bring up, and God raised him from the dead. You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when we say the cross is central, that doesn't mean we don't glory in and rejoice in the resurrection. But you see, it is the resurrection that serves the cross.
It is the incarnation of Christ that serves the cross. There are multitudinous glories of Jesus Christ and events in his life that the preacher is to have an eye upon and is to, with his mouth, proclaim to the people. However, it is the cross of Christ that is central. How do we know this?
The Apostle Paul, for I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What is the apostolic confession of their proclamation? We preach Christ crucified. I like what Spurgeon said of the Apostle Paul.
He said, Christ upon the cross, working out the salvation of men, was more to him, Paul, than all the sayings of the sages. Sages, the wise men, the pagan wise men out there in the Greco-Roman world of his contemporaneous time. You see, the sages had many philosophies, much wisdom spewing from beard stroking and mouth opening. They had a lot to say.
They had a lot to say. But you see, to Paul, this bloody Christ upon the cross, working out the salvation of sinners, was more to him, not just in a few sayings of the sages, but all of the sayings of the sages. You bring to Paul 78 libraries full of the sayings of the sages, and he'll say, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That is the wisdom and the power of God.
And Spurgeon would go on to say in that sermon on Galatians 6.14, remember what that verse says, it says, What does it say? Galatians 6.14, help me out here. Oh, for we glory in the cross. Why did I lose it?
Galatians 6.14. God forbid, thank you, that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does Spurgeon say regarding Paul on that?
He gloried in the cross of Christ. Not that he didn't glory in the resurrection. Not that he didn't glory in the Incarnation. The Incarnation, a miraculous and glorious truth.
The God of heaven and earth, the second of the blessed triune, coming in time and in history to be enfleshed as a bondservant, coming in the likeness of men, to be obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. It's a glorious reality, the Incarnation, the resurrection. Divine power and glory displayed. But you see, it is the cross that Paul says we preach.
We preach Christ crucified. Because there he saw the wisdom and the power of God displayed. Because the attributes of God are perfectly and harmoniously exercised and exhausted at the cross. The wrath of God, exhausted at the cross.
The love of God, fully displayed at the cross. You list the attributes of God, and at the cross, there we have them declared to Jew and Gentile, to the praise of our glorious God. This is a, just before we move on and close with divine proficiency, a quote from Calvin. This is Calvin actually dealing with icons and images.
You see, at his time, the Roman Catholic Church was large, they were prominent, they were powerful. And in their churches, they would display implements and images, and they'd have a big cross behind them and many other crosses elsewhere. Wood crosses, silver crosses, gold crosses, bejeweled crosses all over the place. Calvin is speaking with regards to crosses being displayed in churches.
And he is saying that there are two things besides the violation of one of the Ten Commandments, specifically the second. There are two things that Calvin says are reasons against the Protestant use of crosses. And he says this, Paul declares that by the true preaching of the gospel, Christ is portrayed and in a manner crucified before our eyes. Of what use then were the erection in churches of so many crosses of wood and stone, silver and gold, if this doctrine were faithfully and honestly preached?
That is to say, Christ died that he might bear our curse upon the tree, that he might expiate our sins by the sacrifice of his body, wash them in his blood, and in short, reconcile us to God the Father. From this one doctrine, the people would learn more than from a thousand crosses of wood and stone. As for crosses of gold and silver, it may be true that the avaricious give their eyes and minds to them more eagerly than to any heavenly instructor. In other words, to paraphrase Calvin, we don't need a physical cross, the symbol of a vertical and horizontal beam, however plain or however bedecked with jewels, because if the gospel of Jesus Christ is faithfully proclaimed, it is as if, with eyes of faith, we're looking upon the crucified Messiah, and seeing his glory, and seeing the efficacy and the power of his saving work.
We need not crosses. A bejeweled cross, bedecked with diamonds and jewels, speaks meaningless nothingness. But the accurate proclamation of Jesus Christ crucified thereon, a faithful word, fitly spoken, speaks biblical volumes of the efficacy and the power of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord. Divine proclamation The cross of purpose, promise, providence, and performance was heralded by God-sent messengers.
If you want to know what the second thing Calvin said was a reason against the Protestant use of crosses, he said the two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper. When we administer the Lord's Supper and when we baptize, we have living symbols of the cross of Jesus Christ. Preaching and the sacraments, the ordinances, two reasons why we need not physical symbols.
Divine Proficiency
Lastly, and as we close here, divine proficiency. Divine proficiency. The cross of purpose, promise, providence, performance, and proclamation was efficiently applied. The cross, the efficacy of the cross, the power of the cross, all of the glory of the cross is efficiently applied by our triune God.
In other words, All those whom the cross was to be beneficial for receive the benefits of that cross. Christ died upon the cross of Calvary's tree, not to render an atonement of maybe, not to render a sacrifice and a substitutionary work of perhaps, but to perfectly secure the salvation of a multitude that no man can number. The intended effects of the cross are brought to perfection and completion by God. Where can we see this in the book of Acts?
Well, let's have a look at Acts 13, verse 48 again. Acts 13, verse 48. Notice this is at the end of Paul's preaching at Pisidian Antioch. This is at the end of Paul's preaching where he has preached to Jew and to Gentile.
He has proclaimed the gospel to Jew and to Gentile. The Jews at large reject. but the Gentiles at large were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And notice at verse 48 at the end, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believe. It's a simple statement, but it is a statement packed with theology.
The Efficacy of the Cross
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is efficacious for all those who believe. By that proclamation, we have divine proficiency when we see when we read this narrative, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. You see, the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the preaching of proclaimers of Him, proclaiming His life, death, and resurrection, the message of the Gospel, that preaching has as its foundation divine election. God before the foundation of the world did what, according to Paul in Ephesians 1-4?
He chose us. in Him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and without blame before Him. In love, having predestined us unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself according to the counsel of His own will. We have the message or the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ promised. And we have in time and in history that promise coming to bear. coming to fruition, coming to fulfillment, when the message is preached and as many as have been appointed to eternal life believed.
You see, the proclamation of the gospel, as we're talking about divine proficiency,
The Gospel Never Misses Its Mark
the proclamation of the gospel never misses its divine mark. You need to get that as Christians. You need to get that. The proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ never misses its mark because as many as are appointed to eternal life will believe.
There is no failure in divine proclamation. Well, why do so many not believe? Well, isn't the unbelief of those who will end up being the recipients of God's divine justice a sweet-smelling aroma in the nostrils of our God? When a proclaimer of the gospel faithfully preaches to an audience of, let's say, 100, and one believes, and 99 reject and take off, there is much rejoicing in heaven.
And it's not just, though it is, it's not just rejoicing in the one that's saved, but it's rejoicing that the proclamation of the cross of Christ has been faithfully proclaimed. And it is a glorious rejoicing that those 99, humanly speaking, there is a tragedy of immense proportions in rejecting the one who is altogether lovely, chief among 10,000, my beloved and my friend. But on that great day, when the verdict is declared, go into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels, there will be much rejoicing in heaven. Why?
Because divine justice was rendered. The book of Revelation, we read that. The smoke of ungodly, the whore of Babylon goes up. And what do the people gathered around the throne of God do when that apostate nation is judged?
They rejoice in the Lord. Because true and holy are your judgments, Lord God. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ never misses its mark. It lands always upon the heart with divine proficiency.
Sometimes the heart is stirred unto belief, other times the heart is stirred unto railing against the message, gnashing with teeth, and putting a Christian to death. But it always finds its divine and providential mark to the praise of God's glorious grace.
Summary and Application
So brethren, we have those six Ps of the cross of Christ in the book of Acts. Purpose, promise, providence, performance, proclamation, and proficiency. And I hope we get it as we now look after we pray to observe the Lord's Supper. The cross is glorious, isn't it?
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, you know, the cross, it's not just one among many truths. There's a lot of truths in, you know, we can talk about Noah's Ark. We can talk about how tall Goliath was.
Nine cubits, I think. Maybe I have that wrong. Nine cubits? Three cubits?
Anyway, we'll look at that later. We can talk about Moses and the Ten Commandments and many truths that the Bible reveals, but if we miss this point, that the Bible is Christocentric and that Noah's Ark, the account of David and Goliath, JL ramming a peg through Sisera's head, Moses, the Ten Commandments, Israel, all of those things, if we miss the point that all of these things are signposts pointing unto the Lord Jesus Christ, then we've missed a lot of the Bible. Jesus said to his disciples, the law, the prophets, and the Psalms, all these things spoke concerning me. At the point of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see the point of revelation. the point of time and in history, the point of so much apostolic and prophetic, apologetic rigor from the time of Adam to the time of Chilliwack tonight at 6 p.m.
We have the cross as the reason for history. So as we engage in this ordinance tonight, joyfully and seriously, let us remember this cross, the one that was purposed, the one that was promised, the one that was providentially accomplished, the one that was divinely performed, proclaimed, and proficiently carried out. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for what it means with regards to the salvation of sinners, that he died not a death of perhaps and maybe, but a death of perfection, so as to secure the salvation of a multitude that no man can number. We pray as we now engage in this Lord's Supper, we would ask, Lord God, that you would help us Help us to have our minds reflecting upon the truths of Holy Scripture, that you would help us, Lord God, to specifically be meditating upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that His body was broken for us, that His blood was shed for us, and that we would joyfully obey His command to do this in remembrance of Him. We just ask, Lord God, that you would be with us, and for those who are outside of Christ as they observe, We do pray that this would be a living symbol of the gospel, having already preached concerning the cross, that this exercise of your saints in undergoing or observing this particular ordinance of the Lord's Supper, that unbelievers, young and old, would watch and see and ask, how might I eat?
And we just pray that in time, they would bend an knee to Jesus Christ by your grace and by your word, so that they might join with us as your saints Observing this this act of remembrance remembering our Savior unto the praise of your glory We just pray that you'd be with us now help us as we further engage in worship Be with us and help us to bring about your glory by this worship act and we pray in Christ's name