What does First B Jackson teach about cradle to cross?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on this topic traces a single thread from the night Jesus was born in Bethlehem all the way to a conversation on a cross outside Jerusalem, using five scenes from the Gospel of Luke as the structure. Each scene carries the same word, "today," and the consistent point is that what God was doing in those moments was not distant or eventual but immediate and decisive. The birth announcement to the shepherds, the synagogue in Nazareth, the healing of a paralyzed man, the encounter with Zacchaeus in Jericho, and the dying criminal on the cross beside Jesus are treated as five chapters in one story, each one showing that grace arrives in real time and real places.
Pastor Mark and Pastor Josh have both preached through this structure, and both land on the same observation: the grace Jesus announced was genuinely wide, wide enough to include shepherds, a hated tax collector, a paralyzed man whose friends would not give up, and a man dying for crimes he admitted he had committed. In Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah 61 and stopped before the line about the vengeance of God, declaring instead a favorable year of the Lord. That choice cost him the goodwill of the crowd in minutes, because the offer was broader than they wanted. The pattern holds across all five scenes: the people you would least expect are the ones who respond, and the response is always immediate.
The cross scene is where the thread completes itself. One of the criminals crucified beside Jesus recognized his own guilt and asked to be remembered. That request, made on a day of execution, was met with the same word that opened the story at the manger: today. The teaching at First B Jackson presses the question of what Jesus is doing right now, in the same way he was at work on each of those five days, and the answer given from these passages is that the age we are living in is the age of grace, still open, still today.
Taught from Luke 2:8-20 · Luke 4:16-30 · Luke 5:17-26 · Luke 19:1-10 · Luke 23:32-43
The passage taught · Isaiah 61:1-2
1 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- December 15, 2024 From the Cradle to the Cross in Five Days Pastor Tim traces Luke's five emphatic uses of "today" from the manger to the cross, showing that Jesus is still actively saving people right now.
- December 15, 2024 From the Cradle to the Cross in Five Days Luke's five "today" moments trace Jesus from cradle to cross, showing that the age of grace is still open and Jesus is still seeking and saving the lost.
- December 23, 2018 From the Cradle to the Cross in Five Days A Wyoming pastor traces five days in Luke, from the manger to the cross, showing how Jesus stepped into time and space to seek and save the lost.
- December 23, 2018 Cradle to the Cross in Five Days Five days in Luke trace Jesus from the manger to the cross, showing a Savior born for all people who still calls, heals, forgives and saves today.