CrossCentered Discipleship

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Cross-Centered Discipleship
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OT Hist Theology
Salvation
Mercy
Grace
Judgment
NT Hist Theology
L O V E
E C A EP
KINGDOM
DevotionTo God
DevotionTo Man
Discipleship
1 Cor. 123 - We preach Christ and him
crucified
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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• We glory in the Cross
• For our Acceptance with God
• Our only Hope is in the Cross
• Galatians 310-12
• Galatians 313
• Over the depth of Gods love
• From Creator to Crucified
• Col. 115-16 Rom. 56-10
• For our Daily Discipleship
• World crucified to me (Phil. 33)
• I to the world (Gal. 220 524)

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DISCIPLESHIP
Evangelism
Worship
Family Relations
Assemblies
Use of
Church (unity relationships)
Character Holiness
Local Organization
Sins of Flesh
Leadership
Neighbor Love
1 Cor. 123 - We preach Christ and him
crucified
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The Cross

• Christ is to us just what His cross is you do
  not understand Christ unless you understand His
  cross. (P.T. Forsyth)
• Do we really understand His cross?

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Do We Understand the Cross?

• Following Jesus The Crucified Life
• Conservatives say, regarding Jesus, all I need
  to know is what is written in Matthew, Mark, Luke
  and John But, for so many people, Matthew,
  Mark, Luke and John have been muzzled to speak of
  the Jesus that that particular church tradition
  has wanted to speak of rather than the Jesus who
  is actually there within and through those
  texts (N.T. Wright).
• To listen to someone means to become open and
  vulnerable to him or her and to allow them to
  disturb us, to change our habits and our ways of
  thinking and seeing things (Jean Vanier)

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The Shameful Nature of the Cross

• The Shame of Death
• Eccl. 213-16 - 13 And I saw that wisdom excels
  folly as light excels darkness. 14 The wise
  mans eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in
  darkness. And yet I know that one fate befalls
  them both. 15 Then I said to myself, As is the
  fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why
  then have I been extremely wise? So I said to
  myself, This too is vanity. 16 For there is no
  lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the
  fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be
  forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool
  alike die!
• Eccl. 318-20 - 18 I said to myself concerning
  the sons of men, God has surely tested them in
  order for them to see that they are but beasts.
  19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate
  of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the
  other indeed, they all have the same breath and
  there is no advantage for man over beast, for all
  is vanity. 20 All go to the same place. All came
  from the dust and all return to the dust.

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The Shameful Nature of the Cross

• The Shame of the Cross
• 1 Cor. 118 For the word of the cross is
  foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us
  who are being saved it is the power of God.
• 1 Cor. 123 but we preach Christ crucified, to
  Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles
  foolishness,
• 1 Cor. 125 Because the foolishness of God is
  wiser than men, and the weakness of God is
  stronger than men.
• God has chosen the Foolish, weak, base,
  despised, non-existent (1 Cor. 127-28).

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The Shameful Nature of the Cross

• The Shame of the Cross
• Re the physical suffering depicted in Mel
  Gibsons Passion of the Christ It masks what
  for the ancient mind marked the true terror of
  death by crucifixion. For it was not merely the
  excruciating physical torture that made
  crucifixion so appalling, but the devastation of
  shame that this death, above all others,
  represented. (Mark Goodacre, Duke University)
• But the executioner, the veiling of the head and
  the very word cross should be far removed not
  only from the person of a Roman citizen but from
  his thoughts, his eyes and his ears. For it is
  not only the actual occurrence of these things or
  the endurance of them, but liability to them, the
  expectation, indeed the very mention of them,
  that is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free
  man. (Cicero, Pro Rabirio, 16).

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The Shameful Nature of the Cross
Alexamemnos worships his god
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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• Phil. 25-8 Disciples Attitude -
• 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also
  in Christ Jesus,
• 6 who, although He existed in the form of God,
  did not regard equality with God a thing to be
  grasped,
• 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a
  bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of
  men.
• 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled
  Himself by becoming obedient to the point of
  death, even death on a cross.

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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• Thomas a Kempis
• Jesus today has many lovers of His heavenly
  kingdom, but few of them carry His cross. He has
  many friends who ask for consolation, but few who
  pray for affliction. He has many companions to
  share His meals, but few to share his
  abstinence.
• We all want to rejoice with Him, but few of us
  are willing to suffer anything for His sake. Many
  follow Jesus up to the breaking of the bread, but
  few go on to the drinking of the chalice of His
  suffering. Many admire His miracles, but few
  follow in the ignominy of His cross.

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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• The Cross must become the defining story of our
  life. What is our defining story?

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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• The Cross must become the defining story of our
  life. What is our defining story?

church
morality
worship
steps
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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to
  myself (Jn. 1232)

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Cross-Centered Discipleship

• What does this mean?
• It means we forgive others who sin against us
• It means we give up our stuff
• It means all our teaching is cross-centered
• It means cross-centered, servant leadership (in
  family churches)
• It means we die to self (Gal. 220)

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The Cross is the Victorious Way

• Rev. 1210 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven,
  saying,
• Now the salvation, and the power, and the
  kingdom of our God and the authority of His
  Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren
  has been thrown down, he who accuses them before
  our God day and night. 11 And they overcame him
  because of the blood of the Lamb and because of
  the word of their testimony, and they did not
  love their life even when faced with death.

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