The Power Of The Cross by Apostle Michael Orokpo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Understanding Divine Sovereignty

The sovereignty of God is made up of three things. Divinity refers to communicable attributes God shares with his creation, such as righteousness, faithfulness, and love; wherever these qualities exist, they trace back to him. Deity refers to incommunicable attributes he does not share, including omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability, eternality, and self-existence; these alone qualify a being to be worshiped, which is why no false god actually qualifies as one. Supremacy is his authority as the only creator, the only source of life, and the one with power over times, seasons, and final judgment. Genesis 1:1-2 shows that the two raw materials needed for creation are the word of God and the move of his Spirit; when they collide, creation happens.

Created in God's Image and Likeness

Genesis 1:26 records God saying, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." The Hebrew word for image carries the sense of a vessel that hosts and reflects the one it represents, which is exactly why idolatry is such a serious offense: an idol is a vessel built to host and reflect a demonic entity. Man was created to be God's own vessel, hosting and reflecting him, which is why the clearest way to see God was to look at the man he made in his image. The word likeness carries the sense of a model, the finest representation a designer produces to display the excellence of the design itself; man was that model of divinity.

Because sickness, failure, and sin do not exist in God, none of them were ever meant to be accommodated in the man made to model him. 2 Peter 1:3-4 confirms that believers have been made partakers of the divine nature. The fall was not a discovery that man could become like God; man already was like God and did not know it, and rebellion, self-destruction, was the one thing that could touch a being otherwise untouchable by sickness or failure. Romans 3:23 describes the result as falling short of the glory of God, and it was to reverse that fall that God introduced the cross, the resurrection, and the outpouring of the Spirit.

Three Dimensions of the Message of the Cross

The message of the cross carries a historical dimension, proven by both biblical and independent historical record that Christ actually lived and died, affirmed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. It carries a theological dimension, explaining the legal basis for what the death of Christ accomplished. It also carries an essential dimension, the message itself, which is what gives the cross its power to transform a life rather than remain a religious idea.

Theological Typologies of the Cross

1. The Passover

   Exodus 12:5-7, 13. When the angel of death passed through Egypt, the blood on the doorposts caused it to assume the household had already been dealt with. Israel was not spared out of pity; a substitute stood in their place, exempting them entirely from a judgment already carried out elsewhere. 1 Corinthians 5:7 identifies Christ as our Passover.

2. The Brazen Serpent

   Numbers 21:8-9 and John 3:14-15. Whoever looked at the serpent Moses lifted up was healed of the very affliction that struck the camp. In the same way, whatever should have taken a believer's life was transferred onto Christ when he was lifted up, so that death loses its power over anyone who looks to him, referencing Isaiah 53:5.

3. The Scapegoat

   Leviticus 16:21-22 and John 1:29. One goat was killed and its blood applied at the altar; a second goat carried the sins of the people away into the wilderness. Christ fulfills both pictures: he is the goat whose blood was shed, and he is also the one who carries sin completely away, which is why a believer can approach God without guilt rather than merely with pity.

4. The Smitten Rock

   Exodus 17:6 and 1 Corinthians 10:4. When the rock was struck, water flowed out for the whole camp. When Christ was struck on the cross, life flowed out of him and became available to anyone who comes, without a price attached.

The Fivefold Essential Message of the Cross

1. Mercy

   The wages of sin is death, but mercy could not simply overlook sin without violating divine justice, so God provided a substitute to bear the judgment instead. James 2:13 and Titus 3:5 both root salvation in mercy rather than in anyone's own righteousness. The cross is the picture of a judgment a believer has already escaped, not a judgment still hanging over them.

2. Love

   John 3:16 and Romans 5:8 present the cross as love demonstrated toward people who were still sinners. Philippians 2:5-9 shows the extent of it: the one with equal status with God did not cling to the privileges of that status but set them aside entirely, taking the position of a servant and accepting a criminal's death. Even earthly rulers guard the privileges of power fiercely; Christ, who held infinitely more, laid all of it down willingly, out of love.

3. Power

   The cross was not Christ's defeat but Satan's. Genesis 3:15 and Colossians 2:15 describe principalities and powers being publicly disarmed and put to open shame. Christ did not fight Satan as God, which would have been an unequal contest weighted entirely in his favor; he fought and defeated him as a man, in Satan's own domain, and then transferred that authority to every believer, referenced in Colossians 1:12-14.

4. Wisdom

   1 Corinthians 2:6-8 and 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 describe a wisdom hidden from the rulers of this age, who would not have crucified Christ had they understood what it would accomplish. What looked like Satan's greatest victory became his greatest defeat, since the cross multiplied Christ's authority into every believer rather than ending it with him alone.

5. Grace

   Ephesians 1:7 and Ephesians 2:8-9 describe grace as the empowerment secured by the cross to live above sin, sickness, and satanic pressure. John 14:12 extends that empowerment into the works believers are now equipped to do. This is not theology alone; it is meant to be lived out practically, the same way the apostles carried it into action.

Mercy exonerates a person from judgment. Love motivated God to die in their place. Power defeated the one who held them captive. Wisdom turned the enemy's own scheme against him. Grace empowers a believer to live it all out. Understanding what God accomplished at the cross is what turns it from a religious idea into a life lived permanently in the glory it secured.