Hello, this is Ashley Chase welcoming you to the Mark Driscoll podcast.

For more content from my dad, Pastor Mark, senior pastor here at the Trinity Church in Scottsdale, Arizona,

visit real faith.com, where you'll find study guides to go along with each sermon series as he

preaches verse by verse through books of the Bible, daily devotions, free ebooks

and more. Now grab your Bibles and get ready for today's sermon.

An emblem of suffering and shame. Those are the words that an old Christian hymn uses to depict and describe the execution, the crucifixion of our

God and Savior Jesus Christ.

When Jesus was a little boy, there was a Jewish uprising against the Roman government and

they responded with a mass crucifixion of God's people.

Makes you wonder if as a little boy if he looked up and looked into the future and saw his fate and the foreboding of the

crucifixion that was coming.

In the days of the early church, beginning with the Church Father Tertullian, Christians had to determine what our symbol or sign

for our faith would be.

Ultimately, the cross was chosen, that emblem of suffering and shame.

It was at that time that God's people began making the sign of the cross,

wearing the cross, placing the cross on the door of our home

and on the top of our church.

Nonetheless, throughout history,

crucifixion has always been state-sponsored terror.

This explains why throughout history Hitler had Jews crucified in Dachau.

When the Nazis would take Allied forces they would crucify them on the sides of Barnes and

homes through the throat and the testicles with bayonets.

...