The Centrality of the Cross

In Luke 9:44, just as the crowd is marveling at Jesus' miraculous works, Christ speaks a jarring word to his disciples: "Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men." No matter how attractive some elements of Christianity might be made to appear to the unbelieving world, there has always been this stumbling block -- that Christianity unequivocally claims that God took upon himself a human nature in order to die a shameful death on a criminal's cross.  This morning Pastor Joshua reminds us of the centrality of the cross -- in Jesus' own teaching, in the whole testimony of Scripture, and in the lives of true Christians.