The document discusses the power and significance of Jesus' death on the cross. It explains that the cross is central to Christianity and that through His suffering and death, Jesus overcame the six woes or sorrows that have afflicted mankind since the Fall - guilt, Satan's dominion, pain/suffering, anxiety, death, and separation from God. It emphasizes that we must receive the power of the cross in our own lives by taking up our cross daily and following Jesus.

1. Understanding the Cross: (Part 1)
The Power of the Cross
Lesson #13

9. Memory Verses
1 Corinthians 1:17–18
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to
preach the gospel—not with wisdom and
eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of
its power.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being
saved it is the power of God.

10. Galatians 6:14
14 May I never boast except in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ, through which[a] the world has
been crucified to me, and I to the world.

11. b) Introduction
The cross of Christ stands at the heart of
our Christian faith. Without it we have no
faith, and apart from the truth of it
Christianity becomes only another
philosophy of life.

12. Jesus did not come to give us a set of ideas about God,
rather, He came to die for us (Mark 8:31).
The idea of the cross was central for Jesus to train His
disciples, showing the need for absolute commitment to
the life of the Kingdom.
Later the disciples had to take up their own cross and
follow Him (Luke 9:23).

13. c) The Agony [Pain] of Death
We need to understand the reality of Christ’s
suffering in order to appreciate:
• what it meant for God to save us through the cross
• what God has accomplished for every one of us in
the death of Jesus.
The cross is horrible and yet powerful.
The Holy Spirit wants us to know the importance of
Christ’s sacrifice, because this work of the cross
should be central to our lives and ministry.

14. The Scriptures do not hide the
shame and agony that was
involved for Jesus. It is not
simply the fact that He died that
is important; how He died has
the greatest significance for
every one of us.
The Old Testament prophecies
concerning the death of Christ
put the same emphasis on the
details of His sufferings, Isaiah
50:6; Psalm 22:12–18.

15. As disciples we need to feel the deep horror of the
cross, to know the full extent of our sin. Yet, deep
within our hearts and minds we recoil from this
horror.
What happened that day at Calvary was not pretty.
• There was no pity in a Roman scourging,
• Roman crucifixion has been universally
recognised as being the most cruel form of public
execution ever devised.
• It was a horrific, slow, painful and humiliating
death.

16. • Disciples need to see the
depth of Calvary, to see that
everything we can have or
be flows out from this act of
love.
• Disciples need to
recognise that if we are to
live for God then we need
to walk the same way
ourselves.

17. d) The Power of the Cross
Jesus did not undergo a normal,
routine crucifixion. Consider this:
He was subjected to the public
humiliation of a mock trial before
Pontius Pilate during which He was
abused, beaten and disfigured; His
beard was torn out and a crown
of thorns was placed on His
head as a gesture of mockery at His
claim to be a king.

18. In the garden of Gethsemane He had faced the awful
truth that this cup could be drunk by no one else, the
pressure within Himself was so intense that He bled
from His brow.
When the soldiers came to Jesus on the cross they saw
that He was dead already, so they did not break His
legs. Instead, they pierced His side and blood and water
gushed out. This means that Jesus had died literally
of a broken heart. His heart had burst and the blood
had congealed: the blood and plasma had become
separated and when He was pierced, they flowed out
from His side.

19. In the garden of Gethsemane He had faced the awful
truth that this cup could be drunk by no one else, the
pressure within Himself was so intense that He bled
from His brow.
When the soldiers came to Jesus on the cross they saw
that He was dead already, so they did not break His
legs. Instead, they pierced His side and blood and water
gushed out. This means that Jesus had died literally
of a broken heart. His heart had burst and the blood
had congealed: the blood and plasma had become
separated and when He was pierced, they flowed out
from His side.

20. We cannot begin to fully understand
His spiritual sufferings. These things
are hidden from us because there is no
way that we could ever comprehend
what it meant for God’s Son to be
forsaken by His Father.
The cry of Psalm 22:1, ‘‘My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?’’
contains depths of suffering that we
will never be able to understand.

21. But none of these things were by
chance. Men took Him but were
not in charge of the proceedings
that day — God the Father
was in control! The Father was
offering up His Son for every soul
of man! This fact only serves to
underline even more clearly the
extent of our guilt (Acts 2:23).
God, in some mysterious way,
laid our guilt upon Jesus and
through His sufferings we were
set free (Isaiah 53:4–5).

22. Every detail of the experience of Jesus in suffering
has power for us at every point of our need.
Ever since the fall, Satan has kept men and women
bound in chains of sin and sickness, depression and
despair, along with every kind of suffering and
affliction as a result of his disobedience to God. On
the cross every spiritual and emotional
bondage, every affliction brought through man’s
disobedience, has been reversed in the power
of Calvary.

23. e) The Six Woes [sorrows or
distress] of Man
In Genesis 3 we see the effects of sin and
disobedience. Man had lived free in fellowship with
God and had authority to rule over everything else
on earth, and was now in bondage. Satan now had
mastery and man became subject to six terrible
woes which since have been the source of every
pain and affliction of body, soul and spirit that the
human race has ever experienced.

24. (i) Guilt and condemnation
Adam & Eve when challenged by God, tried to avoid their
guilt, passing it from one to the other. Only the serpent
was willing to accept the blame! This has been mankind’s
failure ever since and has divided man from man and man
from God. Not until we accept our guilt can there be any
reconciliation.
Our guilt before God is of such a nature that we could
never atone for it ourselves. Jesus became our guilt-
bearer. He bore our sins in His body on the tree (the
cross).

27. (ii) Oppression of the
devil
Once man fell he was
subject to the dominion of
Satan.
The cross has brought to
an end the unchallenged
power of Satan.

28. Colossians 2:13–15
13 When you were dead in your sins
and in the uncircumcision of your
flesh, God made you[a] alive with
Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14
having canceled the charge of our
legal indebtedness, which stood
against us and condemned us; he has
taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
15 And having disarmed the powers
and authorities, he made a public
spectacle of them, triumphing over
them by the cross.

29. (iii) Pain and suffering
Sickness and suffering are not the will
of God for mankind. They are the
result of sin and disobedience.
God can use pain and suffering for
His own gracious ends in our lives —
but it is not his best for His children.
In the perfect Kingdom of God this
will not happen.
“By His wounds you have been
healed.’’ 1 Peter 2:24.

30. (iv) Anxiety and care
Man was sentenced to a life of hard labour (Genesis
3:17–19).
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your
wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I
commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful
toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you
will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food
until you return to the ground, since from it you were
taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

32. In Eden man had everything he
needed for life and health, now he
was condemned to difficulty and
effort.
Jesus wore a crown of thorns,
taking upon Himself all the agony
of spirit and the anxiety of heart
that belong to man as he tries to
make his own way in the world
without God.
Because He carried anxiety and
care, we, in faith, walk the way of
the Kingdom (Matthew 6:33–34).

33. 33 But seek first his kingdom
and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to
you as well. 34 Therefore do
not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own.

34. Garden Of Eden by Roelandt Jacobsz Savery

35. Micha Brusilovsky, Anatoly
Kalashnikov. Garden of Eden.

36. (v) Death
Man was cut off from the source of his life because of
sin. Death is the result of our sin and is the common
lot of all men (Romans 5:12). However, physical death
isn’t the end, as man is destined to die once and after
that to face God’s judgement, Hebrews 9:27–28,
27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after
that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed
once to take away the sins of many; and he will
appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring
salvation to those who are waiting for him.

37. But through the death of Jesus the
judgement of death has been
removed — He has borne the
judgement for us Hebrews 2:14–
15,
14 Since the children have flesh
and blood, he too shared in their
humanity so that by his death he
might break the power of him who
holds the power of death—that is,
the devil— 15 and free those who
all their lives were held in slavery by
their fear of death.

38. (vi) Rejection and separation from God
Man was cast out from the garden and has been
fighting rejection ever since: his sin caused a separation
between himself and God.
The most deeply powerful cry on the cross was a cry of
dereliction, ‘‘My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?’’
In taking our sin into Himself, Jesus put Himself outside
the boundaries of the Father’s presence.

39. (vi) Rejection and separation from God
Man was cast out from the garden and has been
fighting rejection ever since: his sin caused a separation
between himself and God.
The most deeply powerful cry on the cross was a cry of
dereliction, ‘‘My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?’’
In taking our sin into Himself, Jesus put Himself outside
the boundaries of the Father’s presence.

40. Marc CHAGALL : Adam et Eve chassés du
Paradis, 1961 Marc Chagall

41. Heartbreak in the Garden of Eden

42. United With Him
The power of the cross lies in the fact that Jesus
took all these negative powers into Himself on the
cross and broke their power.
He overcame every negative factor that has ever
threatened man and He broke the power of Satan
who uses all these forces to bring man to
destruction.

43. We need to receive the power of the
cross into our own lives.
It was in the power of the Holy Spirit
that Jesus offered Himself for us
(Hebrews 9:14) — and as we allow
the Holy Spirit to do the same work
of overcoming sin, affliction and the
power of death in us, that we will
enter into the true victory of Calvary.

44. Questions and Discussion
Points
1. What makes Christianity different from other
religions, ideas and philosophies? Discuss.
2. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross for us?
3. Why did Jesus have to go through such a painful,
humiliating, drawn out death?

45. 4. How could God the Father have let His Son do
what He did? If He is in control, why was it
necessary?
5. Was the cross the pivotal point in history?
6. Why has the work of Jesus on and around the
cross overcome the power of Satan, and what does
this mean for people in general?

46. 7. Does what we read about the cross in the New
Testament fulfil what was spoken of in the Old
Testament. For example, read Isaiah 52:13–53:12.
8. How can we take up our cross and follow Jesus
as He asks when we realise just how much Jesus
actually did when He took up His cross? (Luke
9:23).

47. Summary and Application
1. The cross of Christ stands at the heart of
Christian discipleship.
2. Our salvation cost Jesus everything.
3. For the cross of Calvary to be effective we need
to receive the power of it into our lives.

48. 4. To be true disciples of Jesus we need to take
up our own cross and follow Him!
5. Man has caused his own downfall and yet God
was still willing to send His own Son Jesus to
suffer and die for us and give us another chance.