Preparing Our Hearts

In the church that I am a member of, our youth group has been going through John, week by week, month by month, slowly looking at each passage and slowly making progress through the book. Now, with only four chapters to go, we are nearing the cross. In his message, "The Suffering Servant," CJ Mahaney states: "Spurgeon said that this topic is worthy of an angel's tongue, that it needs Christ Himself to expound it… and this morning we are left with my tongue." When I realized that this is what we were going to be going through for a number of weeks, I felt the same way. How can I communicate to the junior high girls in my cell group, and to the rest of the world, how weighty, how important, how holy this topic is? Jesus Christ, fully man, fully God, DIED on a cross, crucified by His own creation, in order to pay the debt for MY sins? So in order to prepare my heart, I have been listening to "The Suffering Servant" over and over and over again, and I invite you to do the same. [Side note— see instructions at bottom of post on how to download sermons from the Resolved website]

Whenever I read through the gospels, especially when I get to the end and I read them all together in chronological order, I find it increasingly difficult to get through from the Lord's Supper to His resurrection without having to take an emotional break. The more I read the gospels, the more it brings a tumultuous mix of both sorrow and joy. I am sorrowful because every blow, every painful breath, every derision that Jesus endured was because of my sin. I am sorrowful that because of my sin, the Son of God had the wrath of God the Father poured out on Him, the wrath that I deserved to endure for all of eternity! And yet, those very same points bring me everlasting JOY! I pray that I would never be able to get through the gospels without being amazed at the love of Christ and the grace of God; I never want to read this account half-heartedly; I never want to read through this account, or even think about it, without shedding tears. If you have never read through the crucifixion of Christ, including all the events leading up to it, and all the events that occurred after it, I would encourage you to do so! This webpage gives a list of all the passages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (as well as some from Acts and other New Testament books when pertinent) in chronological order. You can print it out, or just write down the passages that you want to look at this week, and come back for the rest next week.

Here are some passages (besides those in the gospels) and other resources to help us all set our minds and hearts on the cross. I am praying for these next few weeks, that God would break my heart and your hearts, that the Holy Spirit would show us what we need to understand and apply in these passages, and that through these next couple weeks we would fall more in love with our precious Savior Jesus Christ.

Just a handful of passages about the cross:

• Isaiah 53:1-12
  
• Psalm 22:1-31
  
• Romans 8:1-39
  
• Ephesians 2:1-10
  
• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4
  
• Romans 5:6-8
  
• Romans 9:25-26
  
• Galatians 2:20-21
  
• 2 Corinthians 5:21
  

Some more sermons about the cross:

• Resolved 2007. Yes, all of the messages! Come on now, there's only ten! Hahaha. In all reality though, you absolutely should download each of these sermons. The theme of Resolved 2007 was the cross! Each of these sermons discusses the cross, and/or what the cross means for us once we have been saved; in other words, how does the cross change our lives and shape our thinking?
  
• Resolved 2008. Again, all of the messages were fantastic. The theme for 2008 was heaven and hell; it is only because of the cross that we are saved from hell and brought into God's own kingdom. Sessions 1, 4, 8, 11, and 12 deal with the cross heavily. The rest of the messages will be beneficial to your soul as well, as it is essential to remember who we were before Christ, what Christ has saved us from in order to glorify Him and praise and thank Him in the way that He deserves. And as Colossians 3:1-4 states, thinking about heaven, where Christ is, is the very thing we should be doing since we have been raised with Christ!
  
• The Cry From the Cross, by CJ Mahaney. This is another link to message 11 of Resolved 2008, in case you want just a small sample before you commit to downloading them all!
  
• The Present Power of Christ Crucified, by John Piper
  
• Christ Died for Our Sins that We Might Die to Sin, John Piper
  
• Christ Crucified, Our Boast, John Piper
  
• The Pleasure of God in Bruising the Son, John Piper
  
• Condemned and Crucified, sermon series by John MacArthur (I suggest downloading the high-quality version of all the sermons on the Grace to You website)
  
• The Crucifixion and Resurrection, sermon series by John MacArthur
  
• The Precious Blood, John MacArthur
  
• Jesus on Trial, sermon series by John MacArthur
  
• The Murder of Jesus, sermon series by John MacArthur
  
• Mystery of the Resurrection, sermon series by John MacArthur
  
• Our Great Salvation, sermon series by John MacArthur
  
• The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, sermon series by John MacArthur
  

Other links:

• The Sufficiency of Christ's Obedience in His Life and Death, article by John Piper
  
• Did Christ Die for Us or For God?, article by John Piper
  
• The Cross of Christ—all of the blog posts that come up for the topic "The Cross of Christ" on SovereignGraceMinistries.org
  

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How to download sermons ("The Suffering Servant" in particular) from Resolved.org:

1. In order to download old sermons off the Resolved website, you have to create a free login. The login page is the pate that I have hyperlinked you to. It's fast, easy, and free!
   
2. Once you get into the Media Vault, click on "Resolved" in the leftmost column.
   
3. Click "Resolved 2007" in the second column.
   
4. Finally, find "The Suffering Servant" in the list below.
   
5. Click "Add to Cart" (don't worry, as you can see in the "Cost" column, it's completely free!)
   
6. Click here to download your media, or find the link at the top of the page in red that will direct you to your media you have chosen to download.
   
7. The sermon should show up on that page, just click "Download", and you're good to go!
   

I know this might look like a lot of work, but it's really very simple. I was just trying to be as precise and helpful as possible in the directions, so they are very detailed. Let me know if you have any further questions… As I said, it looks like a lot of work, but I believe that it's well worth it! By the way, since all the messages from Resolved 2007 and Resolved 2008 are free, why not download ALL the messages and just listen to them a little at a time? Just a thought!