DISCLAIMER:  THE NOTES ARE BASED ON PASTOR GEYSER’S VIDEO MESSAGE PRIOR TO HIS PREACHING IT LIVE – PLEASE FOLLOW ALONG AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, YOU CAN VIEW THE ORIGINAL VIDEO FROM THIS POST.

Key Verse: Luke 23 (NKJV)

Paul wrote most of the books in the New Testament.  He had a dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus. His whole experience with Christ was miraculous.  He was a Church persecutor and a Church hater.  

He saw many people were  put into prison because they put their trust in Christ.  When he met Jesus his whole life was transformed.  He became a new creature.

1 Corinthians 2:2

Paul was saying everything is important, but the most important thing is the work of Christ on the cross.  He was not just speaking about the actual act of crucifixion, what Christ did on the cross is more than Him just dying on the cross.  He was buried and on the third day He rose again and is He alive forevermore.   His life and everything that leads up to the cross and everything that comes from the cross is all part of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Isaiah 53:5-8

He was also numbered among the transgressors (Luke 22:37).

Three Things About the Cross:

1. Everything Points to the Cross and Flows from the Cross

The prophets spoke about things that would take place at sometime in the future.  Everything that happens in the Old Testament points forward to the cross.  In the New Testament, everything flows from the cross.  All of our blessings, the fact we are new creatures and that we have a destiny and we are headed for a city that has foundations whose Builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11:10).

Q. What is an example of something you can clearly see now that has gone through the cross in your life (ie maybe before you followed the law to a ’T,’ maybe you now understand marriage, better perspective on relationships , etc.)?

2. Jesus Never Sinned

Another miraculous thing we need to realize is that Jesus never sinned.  We speak about the wonderful things that Jesus has done but one of the greatest things is that He never sinned.  He became a man just like us and yet without sin. He came to show us that in Him we can live a victorious life and overcome sin and live a life free from sin.  Jesus was God’s spotless Lamb. 

Everything in the Bible that is good, excellent, and necessary many times is taken to an extreme by individuals. That is called heresy.  Taking the truth of something in the scriptures but going overboard with it becomes heresy.  We need to be careful, we need to be balanced, we need to have the whole council of God and be collectors of Truth until Jesus comes again.

Q. What are some examples of heresy you may have fallen into and why? 

3. There is an Important Place in the Church for the Cross.

Luke 23:32-34 (NKJV)

This is fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah.  

Luke 23:35-38 (NKJV)

“If you are the Christ.’  This is where the Devil brings doubt.  This is how he operates today, getting us to doubt God’s word.

Luke 23:39-43 (NKJV)

Jesus is on the cross and here are people blaspheming Him and mocking Him and here are these two thieves.  The one their blasphemes him the other says we deserve what we got and says to the Lord Jesus, ‘remember me.’    Two men, both with the same opportunity to make right with God and one rejects, one accepts.   There are three crosses: One died IN sin.  The second cross is Jesus, He died FOR sin and the third person died OF sin.  He took a thief on the cross, someone who was sentenced to death to see through all the mocking and blaming and blaspheming of Jesus and see that this is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

Q. At what point did you truly come to recognize Jesus is King of Kings? (In other words, How long after you received salvation had the head knowledge really become a heart knowledge.)

None of us will escape death.  We will stand before Him either to be rewarded or judged.  We will all stand before Jesus one day and give an account of ourselves.  

Hebrews 9:27

A. The thief on the cross had not been baptized but was saved.

Luke 23:43 

Today you will be with me in Paradise.  He went to heaven with Jesus.  He repented and Jesus forgave him.  People say unless you have been baptized you are not saved.  This is not the salvation act, it is symbolic.  This man was not baptized. Baptism is an act of obedience to Christ.  Only the blood of Jesus can wipe away our sin.

B. The thief on the cross had not done any good works.

He was wicked.  We cannot work our way to heaven. The more we do does not count toward going to heaven.  We cannot be saved by our good works.  We cannot work our way into heaven.  Grace is unmerited favor.  

Ephesians 2:8-9

Q. When have you fallen into the trap of trying to please God by doing good things?

C. We are not all going to heaven.

Universalism says that we are all going to heaven.  

John 3:16-18

There is hope for everyone who will come to Christ.

Continue to pray for your “One’.