Good Friday: The Magnetic Force of the Cross - Archie Callahan

Bridge Church Virginia Beach

March 29, 2024
Sermon: The Magnetic Force of the Cross

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-21; TPT

“To preach the message of the cross seems like sheer nonsense to those who are on their way to destruction, but to us who are being saved, it is the mighty power of God released within us. For it is written: I will dismantle the wisdom of the wise and I will invalidate the intelligence of the scholars. For in his wisdom, God designed that all the world’s wisdom would be insufficient to lead people to the discovery of himself. He took great delight in baffling the wisdom of the world by using the simplicity of preaching the story of the cross in order to save those who believe it.”

INTRODUCTION: When you think of the Cross, what do you think of?

The Cross:

1. Pulls me into freedom…

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Galatians 5:1 NIV

2. Pulls me into a desire for righteousness…

““He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.””

1 Peter 2:24 NIV

3. Pulls me into the love of God…

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 5:6-8 NIV

CONCLUSION: The story of the cross is the story of salvation.

He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all--our sins, our stained soul--he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation. -Colossians 2:14 TPT