James turned to his younger brother and said, “Ryan, you be Jesus!”

It might cost us a pancake or two but let’s be like Jesus. That’s the theme of this week’s Forty Days of Purpose that we were formed to become like Christ. Ephesians 4:15 says, "God wants us to grow up -- like Christ in everything.”

You know, babies are cute, but if babies stay babies, it's tragic. God wants us to mature and develop into the image of His Son.

That’s a huge order. Is it mission impossible? Jesus says, “Yes it is impossible if you use your own strength.” But remember what Jesus said when He called His first disciples from their boats by the Sea of Galilee, “Follow me and I will make you to become fishers of men. You do the following. I’ll do the changing.” The question isn’t how we change but how we follow so we can be changed.

You will hopefully cover “How do I follow more effectively?” this week in your reading and your small groups. So this morning, rather than look at “how tos”, I want to focus on a passage of scripture that tells us what we will look like when God completes His good work in us.

Listen to what Paul writes in Philippians 2:5 11.

Philippians 2:5 11

Some of you may remember the recent WWJD trend in Christian marketing. You saw WWJD on metal bracelets, on bumper stickers and even on socks. “WWJD” — “What would Jesus do?”

Paul writes, “Christ Jesus was in the form of God. He had ultimate security. If Christ had a mind to he could have exploited His power, dominated others, dictated how things would be. But He did not. Instead, Jesus emptied Himself, took “the form of a slave and humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross.”

I sometimes got the feeling that when people wore “WWJD.” on their clothing they had in mind something more like the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” They wanted to be courteous, polite, well mannered, and generous. But emptying themselves to the point of enslavement? Humbling themselves to the point of death? I wondered how far sales would have dropped if those buying WWJD had Philippians 2 in mind when they arrived at the cash register. Philippians 2 is a very demanding image.

Pastor Bill Hybels of the Willow Creek Church in Illinois wrote a book titled Descending Into Greatness. Hybel’s says, “In the vocabulary of the world, ‘down’ is a word that’s reserved for losers, cowards, and the bear market. It’s a word to be avoided and ignored. It’s a word that negatively colors everything it touches. We say ‘down and out’, ‘downfall’, ‘downscale’, ‘downhearted’, ‘downsize’, and ‘downcast’. And the opposite of down is up, a word reserved for winners and heroes. The word ‘up’ positively colors everything it touches. We have words like ‘upscale’, ‘up and coming’, ‘upper class’, and ‘upwardly mobile’.”

Hybels says, “In our society, up is clearly the direction of greatness. It is the way we want to go”. But Jesus comes into the world and turns our perspective of things upside down. He comes and shows that life’s fulfillment and joy is found in descending into greatness.” In a world where most people think the only way to go is up, Jesus lived a life of magnificent downward mobility.

In Philippians 2, Paul helps us to see that Jesus had to give up a lot in order to join us on this fallen planet. He had to give up the glories and splendors of heaven for a world of indigestion, stubbed toes, dirty fingernails, and backaches. He gave up the perks and powers of divinity for a little while in order to be every bit as much a human being as you and I are. He had to restrain his power, restrict his location to just one place at a time (instead of being omnipresent), give in to his body by eating when He got hungry and laying down for a nap when He got tired.

C.S. Lewis once wrote, “If you want to get the hang of the incarnation, just imagine how you'd feel if you woke up one morning to discover you had turned into a garden slug.”

That’s a great image. Sometimes we forget what enormous sacrifice was required of Jesus — not only at on the cross when He died -- but every step along the way. Day after day Jesus had to look into the eyes of people he had created only to see not even the faintest glint of recognition that their own sovereign Creator was standing right in front of them. Day after day Jesus had to live on a planet He Himself had lovingly shaped at the dawn of time only to see all around Him signs of decay, death, pollution, and sorrow.

“Jesus made himself nothing”, Paul tells us. He not only was no longer living in exalted heights, He ended up dying the worst, most public of all deaths: crucifixion. And He did it all out of a love of astonishing proportions.

Now let’s talk about the low point of what Jesus experienced for us - the brutal execution on the cross. I want to focus on this because some of you have had the opportunity to see the powerful film, The Passion of the Christ. You may have been invited here this morning by someone you saw the movie with. The movie is a powerful, largely factual version of what it means that Jesus “became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.” During the church school hour, in place of my class on the Exodus, I will lead a question and answer time on the crucifixion and the historic events the film depicts. I hope you will stay and participate.

I can’t do “what happened at the cross” better than Mel Gibson has done it. So this morning I want to explore why the crucifixion happened. I don’t want to look at the political motives of the Roman governor, the crowd, or the religious establishment. I want to talk about the motive of God is allowing Jesus to die the way He died. I want to talk about the “why” that led to the physical events that were so powerfully depicted on the screen.

Some years ago, a young woman shared with me a conversation. She was wearing a gold cross around her neck when another young woman came over to her and asked, “Don't you know that it is the same as wearing a small model of a gas chamber around you neck?”

Though this is not a usual type of question for polite conversation, the point is well taken. While craftsmen and artists are capable of creating beautiful metal or wooden crosses to decorate our churches, and while we delight in wearing delicate metal crosses on small chains around our necks, the cross itself is not beautiful. It is a symbol of horror and death.

The cross was not especially invented for Jesus. It was the common method of execution for social and political criminals in the Roman Empire. After the Spartacus slave revolt was crushed by the Roman legions, the hills of Italy were covered like a forest with the crosses of those who had been crucified and left to rot as a warning to others. After Jerusalem was captured by the Roman army in 70 A.D., the hills which witnessed the death of Jesus were once again covered with crosses. The cross was the gas chamber of its day -- a killing place for criminals.

To the first century Jew, the cross held an even worse horror. This is an important part of the story behind the story. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy -- 21:23, declares: “If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, you shall hang him on a tree; his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”

“The one who hangs is accursed of God.” For Jesus, the cross not only meant separation from life and separation from friends. It meant separation from the Father. That is the point to which Jesus became obedient As Paul says in Philippians 2, Jesus was so obedient that He died an accursed death. The one who had always lived in perfect communion with the Father cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus died under the curse of the Father. That what the Bible clearly says. It doesn’t back off from this truth. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written, ‘cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree!’” 2 Corinthians 5:21, declares that “God made Jesus who was sinless to actually become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

A holy God cannot look upon sin and Jesus had become sin. When Jesus cried out from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” it was at that moment that the separation between Jesus and the Father became total. What 2 Corinthians 5:21 is saying is that Jesus didn't carry our sins to the cross like they were in a backpack or suitcase. He carried our sins to the cross in His own person. He became sin!

That was the true agony of the cross -- not just the blood and physical suffering so powerfully portrayed in the movie. Throughout history, many had died through crucifixion. The death of these persons did nothing for our salvation. But when Jesus died He bore the sins of the whole world. We can hardly stand to bear our own sins. Jesus bore them all. The message of Easter is that sin lost.

As we come to the cross, what do we find? We find a place of judgment, a place of mercy, and a place of victory.

First, the judgement. The Bible says that Christ died for all. Therefore, each and every one of us is justly under the sentence of death apart from Christ. The cross is both good news and bad news. The good news is that we have a Savior who took our place. The bad news is that we needed Him to take our place. The cross points up the awesome nature of our guilt and what it deserves. That is the judgement.

John Newton, the converted slave dealer who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace” also wrote a poem, which said in part:

“I saw one hanging on a tree

In agonies and blood;

Who fixed His languid eyes on me,

As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never till my latest breath,

Can I forget that look,

It seemed to charge me with His death,

Though not a word He spoke.”

Who put Jesus on the cross? It wasn’t the Romans. It wasn’t the Jews. It was me. He was there because of me. He was there because of us all. God doesn’t grade on the curve. He has an absolute standard. And by that absolute standard, we deserve death.

So as we approach the cross, we must approach prepared to admit our need. That’s the essential first step.

There is a story about a prison, which was being visited by the governor of the state. As the governor talked with each convict, each told him a sad story of how he had been convicted on false evidence, framed, or otherwise falsely imprisoned for crimes which he had never committed and had never even thought about committing. Each one hoped that the governor would take pity on him and grant a pardon. At last the governor came to a man who did not tell the governor a sad story of being an innocent man falsely imprisoned. Instead he said to the governor, “I committed the crime for which I was convicted. The judge was fair and the jury was fair. I’m in here because I am guilty.”

After he left the prison, the governor sent this man a pardon and an immediate release from prison with the note, “We don’t want an admitted criminal like you in there corrupting all of those good, honest men.” But actually the governor knew a very important fact. Because the man was capable of admitting his own responsibility and confronting his own guilt, he was already well along the road to rehabilitation.

People who work with alcoholics know the same thing. It is a very rare alcoholic who can be helped on the road to recovery before admitting that he is an alcoholic. As long as we insist that we are clean we cannot be made pure. If we confront the judgement of the cross still insisting on our own guiltlessness, we can go no further.

But for those who admit their need there is a paradox to the cross. The cross which condemns is also the cross which saves. In the crucifixion, Christ was a judge condemning our sin. Then he took off His judicial robes -- stepped down from the bench of law and onto the cross where He paid the penalty for us. The cross is a place of condemnation. But it is also a place of salvation.

1 Corinthians 15 puts it this way. “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

What Paul means is that we each individually merit death by participating in the sin first committed by Adam in the Garden of Eden -- rebellion against God and disobedience to His law. In the same way, we each can be saved by participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on our behalf. We participate in the sin by our own choice. And we can also participate in the saving obedience of Jesus by our own choice. It is a choice you can make today. It is a step God is calling you to take because He loves you so much.

1 John 4:10 tells us that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now propitiation is a fancy word. But what it means is something that takes away both guilt and anger. It is something that makes up for something that is lacking in our relationship to God. It is something that takes a debt that we owe and pays it in full.

By our sin, by our rebellion, by our disobedience, we had failed to give God the glory which is one of the chief reasons why we are here.

God could not just forgive our scorning of His glory, gloss over our sin...and still be a righteous God. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. And yet in Christ, God demonstrated the honor due His holy name. We were disobedient. But Christ was “obedient unto death. even execution on a cross.” Christ took the debt of glory that we owed and paid it. He made it possible for us to receive forgiveness.

For the cross is also a place of victory. When He was on the cross Jesus spoke the words, “It is finished” or “it is accomplished.” They are a foretaste of Jesus’ words of triumph in Revelation 21:6: “It is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”

Do you want to be like Jesus? Paul says, “Then follow the road He followed Do what He did.” Jesus gave Himself away. The result, Paul says, is that God raised Jesus from the dead and has given Him the Name which is above every name - that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow.”

You can bow right now. You don’t have to wait for the final judgement when you will bow whether you want to or not. You can stop trying to be your own Savior and let Jesus save you. You can say, “What Jesus did on the cross, He did for me.” That takes humility. It’s hard to stop trying to be your own savior, But the result of trusting what Jesus did for you is that God will also raise you with Jesus and also give you the greatest name there is Christian “little Christ.”

You wouldn’t be here this morning if Jesus wasn’t calling you. If there are those who don’t know Jesus, but who want to know Him, please come up here and talk to me after the service. I’ll be right here. Come and talk. It’s not far. But it’s the most important journey you will ever make.