Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Living Hope Church. We're glad that you chose to join us this morning. Children ages 3 to 5 are welcome to go to children's church. There's some adults heading back there with you. So if you have kids in that age range, you're welcome to let them go that way. If you want to keep them with you, you can do that as well if you are new here. First off, like I said, welcome. We're glad that you've chosen to join us. As was said earlier by Pastor Les in your bulletin, you could look inside all sorts of things happening, you could read there ways to connect in the church, you could find that there.
And then on the backside of that bulletin is the outline that we'll walk through this morning in God's Word. The last couple months we have been in a couple different books. Not in John, we were in Ruth for four weeks and then we were in Jonah for four weeks. Actually the other way around, Jonah and then Ruth. But before that we have been walking through verse by verse through the Book of John, the Gospel of John. And we started that in January of 2024.
And so it's been a little while and we're actually going to be concluding this book in the next couple months. So if you would open your Bibles to the Book of John, we're going to be in chapter 19 this morning and we'll be step kind of the middle portion of that chapter. A passage, a subject matter that is well known as many would consider, but one that I think we will learn from significantly.
Let me just give you a little bit of background about where we were before this in John. You can also just look back in your bibles in chapter 19, chapter 18, chapter 17.
The theme of the Gospel of John is, as you can see on the screen, and John says this throughout his entire book, is that people would believe in Jesus. Can you say believe, believe, believe. Alright, so people would believe that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Son of God, that he is the Lamb of God that was sent into the world as John the Baptist says, to take away the sins of the world, not just of some select people, but to take away the sin of the world for all those who trust in him as their Savior. And so from the beginning of John, in the beginning chapters of John, we see that Jesus is aiming, he's looking towards what we're actually talking about today. It's about a three year journey that Jesus takes from the beginning of his ministry to the cross. And today we're looking at the Cross of Christ, the cross of Jesus, and unpacking what John has to say about that. And through this three year journey, we find Jesus over and over again pointing people towards his real identity. He over and over says that I was sent from heaven, that I was sent from God, that I'm here for a purpose, that I'm here to, to save people from their sins. And his desire is that they would. What was the word that you said out loud earlier?
That they would believe that he was sent from God and that he has the power to take away the sins of all mankind.
As we go on a little bit further in the Book of John, we see that he does miracle after miracle after miracle. And all of those miracles are aimed in one particular direction. Again, as we saw Jesus ministry was aimed towards the cross. Those miracles were aimed at people, seeing that he is one who was sent from heaven by God to be the Savior of the world. The last few chapters, as we get to the tail end of those three years, the last few chapters, we find Jesus in what's called the upper room. It's when he takes the Last Supper with his disciples. And what he does there is he sits down around a table. We talked about this a while ago.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: He.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: He sits around the table with his 12 disciples and he begins to talk with them about the impending cross, the cross that's soon to come. And then in that time, there's someone who's gonna betray him. What was his name again?
Judas. Judas Iscariot, to be particular.
And Judas gets up and he leaves. He finds some of the religious leaders and he says, I'm gonna show you where Jesus is so that you can arrest him. And he does that. After Judas leaves, Jesus walks through chapters I think 14, 15, 16, and he walks through really some important lessons, important information for them. If you'd like, you can flip back in your Bible. He says things like, he's the true vine. He says that people are going to hate them as they follow Jesus. It says that in chapter 15, in chapter 16, he says that the Holy Spirit is going to come and fill you. Jesus has walked through this with his disciples. And then after that, Jesus leaves the upper room and he goes to the garden.
As you might know, he prays with his disciples.
And then the betrayer shows up with a band of soldiers coming to arrest him.
And as that occurs, Jesus is then arrested and he goes from one trial to the next trial. And this is overnight that this occurs, which by the way, is completely illegal in Jewish law. There should be no trial taking Place at this should happen in the daytime. And not just that. There should be some time between when the trial takes place and when the sentence occurs. And not just that. There should be witnesses claiming that one person, this individual, has done the wrong thing. There should be witnesses against Jesus. There was none of those laws that were followed in the trial that took place in Jesus life there at the end of his ministry. Jesus knew, though, that all of that would occur. He was looking forward to the looking towards this occurrence. And so here today, we start in the middle of chapter 19.
Before we stopped, Pastor Les walked us through the first portion of chapter 19 when he was handed over to be crucified. Can you say crucified?
It's a heavy word. So that's where we land today. It's been decided. The sentence is in that Jesus should be crucified. For what were the crimes of Jesus being the Messiah?
So let's read this passage together, and then we'll pray and we'll walk through this. This morning, in verse 19, chapter 19 in my Bible, that section there, it starts off saying, in the end of verse 18, it says, so they took Jesus. And then verse 17 goes on and says this, follow me. And he went out.
This is chapter 19 of John, verse 17. And he went out bearing his own. This is Jesus bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote, he was the last judge who was presiding over Jesus and the one who sentenced this before Jesus. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. We'll learn about this a little later. And it read, jesus of Nazareth, King of the what Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription. For the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. It was written in Aramaic, in Latin and in Greek.
So the chief priests, that is the ruling group of the religious leaders of the Jews, said to Pilate, do not write the King of the Jews. But rather this man said, I. I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts. One part for each soldier. Also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.
This was to fulfill what the scripture said. They divided My garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. So the soldiers did these things. Verse 25. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the other disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son.
Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother.
And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. Let's pray together.
Well, Lord, we come before you this morning knowing firstly that you hear us. That even as we read this passage about your death on the cross, we know what happens days later. And we rejoice in that this morning, knowing that your death was not in vain. But we are able to rejoice this morning knowing that your mercy covers us. And it is because of your mercy we approach you with confidence this morning, asking that you would help us to understand what we see in this text this morning. That you would also move our hearts and our minds closer to you because of what we see here. That you would help us to fall more in love with you this morning because of what you have done for us.
As we walk through this, Lord, I pray that you would teach us new things.
You would reveal to us your heart for us. In Jesus name, amen.
Have any of you ever worked on a really challenging project that you had to lift something really heavy? Any of you done that before?
Have any of you been asked by somebody else to come over to their house to lift something heavy?
Maybe more of us.
And then when you go and you do that, when you're lifting whatever that is, it's really challenging. You're lifting and you're moving it. And that process of lifting up from wherever it was to where it needs to go, you are waiting for that to be done, right? You are looking forward to getting whatever that object is from one place to the next place. And then once you do, you breathe a big sigh of relief. Cause you knew it was gonna be hard, but when it got there, like, that was why this happened, that's why this took place. But the journey from lifting whatever that object was from one place to the next place, it was grueling if it was a really heavy object. And maybe you were whining a little bit during that time. Maybe you were hoping the other person would do a little bit more lifting than you were during that time.
Lifting some heavy things can be hard for us. And so I just want to, right out of the gate here this morning, say, as we even read through this text, we're not lifting something heavy with our hands this morning, but we're carrying something heavy with our hearts and with our minds. This is not a light passage.
And so as we walk through this, I won't try to make it a light passage, because it's not and it shouldn't be. This is a heavy, heavy passage, and it's appropriate for us to know that. Just like when we look at some heavy object in one place and we see it needs to go somewhere else, and we know that on the other side, once it's there, it's going to be better. So it is with this text as well. We're going to see that it's heavy. We already see that. And we're going to move it a little bit, if you will. We're going to walk with Jesus as he carries us through this heavy passage, where we know that the other side of this is wonderful. It's good. We. We can all breathe a sigh of relief at the other end. Are you with me so far? Because we know what three days later holds for us. And so even though we're carrying something heavy, I don't want us to leave here with that same weight, if you will. I want us to leave here knowing the weight that Jesus carried, but also knowing that three days later we rejoiced. We took that sigh of relief together, saying, it was worth it. It was worth it.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: So.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: So let's dive right into this passage here. If you have a pen and your outline on the back of the bulletin, you can write some notes. If you'd like, you could write in some of the words that we'll be filling in on those blanks together. There's not a whole lot of those, but you could write some other notes. We'll just walk through the text together. In verses 17 and 18, we look particularly at this Jesus crucifixion. So if you like to write things down, you can write crucifixion in on that blank in your outline. Let's walk through this a little bit more slowly than I just read this. It says this, and he went out. That is Jesus bearing his own cross. And what I'd like to do as we walk through this text is just give a little bit of cultural understanding, historical understanding, and then also practical application for us today. So he went out bearing his own cross. And so right there, I underlined it on the screen. I want to just pause there because many of us have this picture in our mind of Jesus walking a long road. And it would have Been a long road.
The Romans often tried to find a way to, to make the path from where the sentencing occurred to the place that, in this place you're going to see here, Golgotha, this hill that they were crucified on the longest journey possible. They would find ways to weave them through the streets for a couple reasons. One, because it was humiliating.
Dying on the cross was supposed to be humiliating for whoever that criminal was because it would be much faster for them to kill them on the spot if death was just the. Their punishment for the crime that they committed. But they, the Romans, found ways to one, make this as humiliating as possible, that is the crucifixion. But also they wanted to make it as painful, as grueling as possible for whoever this criminal was. And so when we read he went out bearing his own cross, the picture that most of us have, that we see on pictures and art, is Jesus carrying a cross. You with me so far, you know what I'm talking about, carrying a full cross over his shoulder, and he's taking slow steps carrying it down the street. Now, this is going to change your perspective a little bit. What actually would have happened is the cross was built in two different pieces. As you see a cross behind me, which we often have in, you'll see in churches and such, the vertical beam, and there's a horizontal beam. When the criminal carries their own cross, what they're actually carrying is the horizontal beam. The vertical beam actually would most likely already be in the ground at the place of, of wherever the crucifixion was going to occur. And so when they're carrying his own cross, it actually would have just been one long beam, the horizontal beam that they would have been carrying. And on top of that, they're trying to figure out, how do I carry this? If they would have just been flogged, for example, Jesus was flogged carrying that beam on his back that is all torn apart there. And walking slowly from where the sentencing occurred and the flogging occurred, to the place that he was going to be killed, where he was going to be hung. So bearing his own cross, he's one beam that he's carrying to the place that is called the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called what Golgotha, which you may have heard before. Now, in Jesus case, as he's burying his cross, there comes a point in this journey. We don't know where in the journey, but there comes a point in the journey that as he's on his way out to golgotha to this place of the skull, which is maybe named that because it might have looked kind of like a skull. We don't know. It might have also been called that because that's the place that many people died. And so it's a name attributing that to the deaths of many that occur there. Jesus carrying this not full shaped cross that you and I would imagine, but he's carrying the singular beam. At some point in time, he no longer can carry it, mostly due to the significant flogging that he has just endured. And so another gospel tells us that there was another man coming into the city at that time. His name was Simon and he was from a place called Cyrene. And he was coming in and the Romans saw him and they actually took the beam that Jesus was carrying that he could no longer carry, and they put it on a man named, what was his name?
Simon of Cyrene. And so now we have this mob of people around, probably following behind and around Jesus. As we can see in other Gospels, Jesus is now step by step out of the city. And you have this other man somewhere in that process who then takes over carrying this crossbar of the cross and they go to this place called Golgotha. Now, Golgotha, this place of the skull, as it said in Aramaic. There's a couple other names that we know. In Latin, that word the skull or the place of the skull is a little bit different. It's not Golgotha in Latin, it's Calvaria. You say Calvarya, which, that sounds a similar word that we know, right? What does that sound like? Calvary. Right. The English transliteration is calvary. And so when you see the word calvary, that's what this is talking about. It's the Latin word for the place of the skull. And then we go on a little bit further here and it says this verse 18, there they crucified him.
There they crucified him. And what you might notice right here is in that one short little phrase, there's no descriptions given about that. You notice that it doesn't say there they pulled out a hammer and some nails and they drove nails into his wrists and into his feet. It doesn't say that they tied him up. It doesn't give us detail about that. And neither do the other gospels give us detail about that. We see pictures of how he was hung. But as we look at the Gospels, we, and we know from history some of the ways that they would crucify here. The gospel Writers don't give detail about that. Now why, why don't they tell us detail about it in other places? We might read about a miracle that occurs or something that happens. We might see detail. Here we don't see detail. Why? Most likely because all the readers know exactly what crucifixion is.
They don't need to write details about it. They know they would have seen this many of those readers also.
That would be hard to write, wouldn't it, as followers of Jesus.
And then it says something else.
They crucified him and him with two others, one on each side. And there we see these two other criminals. Other gospels say that one was a robber or robbers. These people would have most likely been. If you look at the context of everything that just occurred, most likely these would have been friends of Barabbas. These could have been partners with Barabbas. It says that Barabbas was an insurrectionist. He was the guy, if you know a little bit about this context, he was the guy that people were shouting, crucify Jesus and give us Barabbas. Barabbas was the guy who was supposed to be crucified that morning, most likely on that middle cross, but rather he was called for freedom. And they shouted, jesus should be crucified early that Friday morning.
And so now we see Jesus taking the place of someone who should have died. Didn't he do that for us?
Didn't he do that for us? Now, crucifixion was a horrible, horrible way to die. As I said earlier. It was a way that we see that the Persians actually invented this method of killing someone.
And it's said that the Romans perfected it. They found ways to make this as to terrible as possible, as torturous as possible. Because again, the outcome was the same if they were to just kill someone, but rather they found ways to make this one as painful as possible. But they wanted to make it a spectacle. They wanted people to see. This is what happens. If you try to stand against the power of Rome. This is what will happen to you. It was to drive fear into people's hearts and lives. You can read lots about the details of crucifixion. We won't get into all of that today, but we see here that it was a horrible, horrible thing. Now, a little bit of like bringing that to today. Today, people often wear little trinkets, crosses right around our necks, on our shirts, on hats. We put up signs with crosses on it.
And it's a sign, which is not inappropriate to today, a sign showing other people that maybe we believe in God, right? Maybe that we're Christians, maybe that we have respect for religion, something like that. There's all sorts of reasons that people might put crosses up today, now, in that day, in that time. Nobody's doing that, by the way.
That would never happen. You don't walk along down the streets of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and see somebody with a little cross on their neck. Not gonna happen. Why? Because it was a method of torture and killing. You don't do that thinking to today. That would be very strange, right?
Very strange. If somebody's wearing some little torture device on their neck, you wouldn't think, oh, you must believe in God.
You would be thinking something very different.
Jesus says that we should, in Matthew 16:24, take up your what cross and follow me. As we think about that picture, in the picture that I just described, of Jesus carrying the crossbar and walking out of the city, notice what Jesus doesn't say in Matthew 16. He doesn't say you should. In other places. He does, but he doesn't say, there you should die.
He says, you should carry your what cross? This is to say, Jesus speaking. This is to say, be willing to suffer for me.
Not just will you go the ultimate distance and die for me, but also will you live the grueling parts of life for me. Are you willing to go through hardship and live like me? Take up your cross and follow me. Isn't to say, will you go to church on Sunday? Or will you say that you're a Christian? Or even, will you carry a cross cause I'm bearing a cross like Jesus? No, it's to say, will you do the grueling work of following me? Because you and I know if you follow Jesus, that it's not easy every day, is it?
And more so as we consider what it means to follow Jesus. It's this. Yes, dying to self, but it's also being willing, being willing to go through hardship and say, jesus, I'm still walking with you.
And so maybe something to write down before we go to the next point is this, as we consider this, bearing our cross, when you have more than. Than you can bear, share.
Isn't that what happened with Jesus? And we often say things like. And I understand where it's coming from. We say things like, God will never give us more than we can bear, friends.
Yes, he will.
Yes, he will. And then he put us in community so that we can share that burden.
So he will give us more than we can bear. And then he says, and when you Feel that, go be with other people.
Don't isolate yourself, which is the tendency that we have. So when you have more, then you can bear share.
Point two, which by the way, can be very hard to share. So when someone's sharing their burden with you, receive it. Receive it. Walk with them as Simon walked with Jesus.
Walk with them in that suffering. Walk with them in that time, in that burden they're carrying. Point two, you can write this in. And we see this in verses 19 through 22, Jesus inscription. That is the inscription that was written above his head. Look with me. Verse 19. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. And it read, jesus of Nazareth, the king of the what? The Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription and they did not like this, as we all will see here. For the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. That is most likely on this hill someplace on a road that, that people could see. And then notice it was written in Aramaic, in Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, notice they didn't ask, they said, they told Pilate, this is what we'd like you to do. Don't write king of the Jews, but rather this man what said, this is his proclamation. This is the crime that he said he was the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Now a couple things that we need to understand here is this one. This inscription is not unique to those who are dying.
Based on what happens with the Romans when there is a crime that is committed that is worthy of death, particularly crucifixion. Here's what the Romans would do. They would often write on some sort of tablet, this is the crime of that individual. And then most. What historians will often agree on is what would happen is they would take that tablet and they would tie it around the criminal's neck and it would hang on their neck. And then what would happen is as that criminal is carrying their cross right out from the time of sentencing to the place where they're going to be crucified, people could look on at the tablet on the neck of that individual and see the crimes that they have committed. Now, we don't see that that happened with Jesus, but what we do see is, oh, the inscription wasn't written on the tablet to be hung on his neck during the journey. So what we're going to do is take that tablet and then nail it to the cross, which would have been done when they were going to crucify an Individual take the tablet off, nail it most likely either to the cross or maybe leave it on so that people could look on and see what was it that they did. That's why they were crucified. Are you with me here?
So Pilate takes this and writes an inscription, which is not unusual for criminals to have. And the inscription would usually say, here's what their crimes are. But what does this inscription say? And by the way, notice it's written in three different languages, appropriately so. It's Passover time. There are tens of thousands of people coming into this massive city to celebrate Passover. And as they're coming into the city on this road, they would have seen this sign above this crucified man. And no matter where they might be coming from, they're able to read it from all over the world. It's in Hebrew. For the Jews, they glorified this language. They celebrated this. So anybody who was a studier of the Old Testament, they would have been able to read this in Hebrew or Aramaic. Aramaic, it was written in Greek. That is, anybody who was educated, they'd be able to read this as well. And then the Latins in Latin as well. For the Romans, they would have often written in this language here. So anybody journeying, just a layperson to an educated person to a government individual, all of which would be able to look on and read this inscription that Pilate wrote. But how do the Jews feel about it?
Not happy about it. Why?
Because it's a statement of his identity. It's not written like, here's his crime.
But how does Pilate respond?
He says, what I have written, I have written. Now why does he say that? Why doesn't he just say, you know what? That's a good point. Let's add that little footnote in on the side. If you look back in your Bibles and you see the interaction that happens with Jesus and with Pilate, we see something interesting.
Pilate wasn't pumped about killing Jesus. He did not want that to occur. Jesus comes in for the first trial, first interaction. Pilate questions him. Pilate sends him back out. He says, this man isn't worthy of death. He finds out that the problem that the Jews have with Jesus is about some Jewish law stuff. So he sends him off to Herod, says, this is not me. I'm a Roman. That's a Herod problem. He can handle your Jewish quabbles and such. Herod says, well, Jesus doesn't say anything to Herod, sends him back to Pilate. He says, I don't Want to kill this guy, I don't see anything wrong.
And then what happens?
The Jews shout and begin to declare, you better crucify him, because if you don't, you're no friend of Caesar. By the way, that's his boss. And if he doesn't do what the people want and the people mob and go crazy and word gets back to Caesar, but Pilate could lose his job. And so Pilate says, well, I got to appease the people because I don't want to lose my job and maybe my head, but definitely my job. So I'm going to let this guy be crucified, though I don't see anything wrong with him. What I've heard about him in my conversations with him, he is not worthy of death.
So he writes, king of the what Jews? Because that most likely is what Pilate believes. And is it true?
Yes, he is the king of the Jews and not just of the Jews, but also the whole world. So this inscription is accurate. As we shift a little bit here before we go to point three, considering today for us, one well known pastor and author says this. As we consider the inscription written about Jesus even today on tombstones, on stones, on the ground, at a cemetery, you might see a little inscription about somebody's life, right?
If any of you have been in a cemetery before, you see maybe father or mother or son or friend, loved by many little inscriptions written about a particular individual. One pastor, author, well known individual, he says this people will remember you in one sentence.
Pick that sentence now, which is, we consider Jesus, he was the King of the Jews, was he not?
And he was clear about that even for us today. What are you living for? When you think, what's one sentence I want people to remember me by? Are you living in such a way that supports that now? Or would people read that sentence later, after you're gone and say, really, I had no idea.
What are you known for? What do people speak about?
What do people say when they speak about you? Do they, do they speak about your character? Hopefully, because character matters.
What do they say about you? And it's not just the gossip train and all of that, but are you living life in such a way that's aimed at what you actually care about?
Secondly, the cross is a symbol of crimes being paid for, right? Whenever someone would see a cross, they would say that someone is paying for their crimes. Paying for crimes is why Jesus hung on the cross.
But Jesus didn't hang there because of his crimes. He hung there because of whose crimes?
Ours. And so as they read that something as simple as Jesus from a little town of Nazareth, but also the king of the Jews and also our king today and our Savior. Many other things could have been written on that inscription. Hopefully the inscription that's written above your head and my head includes follower of Jesus or redeemed, saved by the blood.
Three on your outline.
Jesus garments a little bit different. We shift a little bit from the death, from this hanging on the cross to something a little bit different, something that's happening off of the cross. Verses 23 and 24. Walk with me here.
When the soldiers who had crucified Jesus, and we're gonna see here, most likely it was four soldiers per cross. So there could have been somewhere around 12 soldiers, since there's 53 crosses we're gonna see. We see in another section that there's a centurion there. So very likely a centurion is supervising these other 12 soldiers who are putting. Who are carrying out the sentence of these criminals. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, there again, not detail of the crucifixion, just one sentence, one phrase. They took his garments, which would have been another sign, which would have been another act to make the situation even more humiliating for the person who was going to die. If they had, they were wearing whatever they were wearing on their way out of the city, maybe torn to shreds. Depending if they were flogged or not, they would have taken them out. They would have stripped them of the clothes that they were wearing before laying them on the cross. They took his garments and divided them into how many parts?
Four parts. One part for each soldier.
Also his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but let's do what?
Cast lots, which is like rolling dice, as we might today. It's finding. Leaving it up to chance, if you will, to see who's going to get it for it, to see whose it shall be, for it was fulfilled. And now this is John's note in here. The soldiers did not know that the Old Testament said this. And that's why they were carrying this out. This was to fulfill what the scripture said. They divided my garments among them. For my clothing, they cast lots. And so the soldiers did the. Is how verse 24 concludes. Now, what's interesting, and some historians speak about this, that some of the soldiers might have even done this, depending on the quality of the clothes that this criminal was wearing. Some of them might have even taken those because they Got it for free. They weren't paying the criminal for it. Taken it and gone back into the city and sold some of these garments to other people. They may have taken the shoes, taken the cloak, taken some of those and sold them to somebody else for them to make some money on the side. And so it would have been prized for them to say, who's going to get this? Especially something as valuable as we see as one tunic without any seams. And so thus they cast lots. Who's going to get this? Because this is a prized piece of clothing here. Now, what does John tell us this is fulfilling? What scripture? This is fulfilling Old Testament scripture. Psalm 22. You maybe just write down that passage. But Psalm 22 did. David actually writes David's writing, and there's prophecy about Jesus. Verse 18 particularly is when David writes about his enemies.
His enemies casting lots for his clothing. Now, why is he talking about that? Some believe, Follow me here, some believe this, that when somebody would come along and kill somebody else, they would. That was a thing that occurred is they would take their clothes because unlike today, they couldn't go down to the local, I don't know, Goodwill or something or. Or Marshalls and pick up some extra clothes. Clothes was much more valuable in that culture than it is today. And so David, even writing, they're planning for my death. David is writing about in Psalm 22, when it says, they cast lots for me, it's basically as if he's saying, I'm already dead to them.
For me, they're thinking, that's it. David's gone. It's just a matter of finding him so that we can kill him. And David feels that weight, death upon his life.
The audience at the crucifixion would have quite something. You have the men on the cross hanging there in torturous pain. You have the random onlookers who are kind of walking by on the road, kind of picture this with me. Then you have the soldiers who are at the feet at least of Jesus and maybe other places who to them, in their seared consciences, in a job that they would normally do, have no tears.
This is just them carrying out their job.
And then you see the friends of Jesus, and as we'll see in a moment, the family of Jesus there at the cross, weeping.
Quite a different picture of emotions going on, somewhat apathetic, somewhat in awe of the people on the side.
Don't mess with Rome, other people, The Romans going, that's right, you better not mess with us. Look how strong we are. And then all the people crying at the suffering of their friends.
Jesus was treated here like a common criminal. It reminds you and I most likely of Philippians chapter two, when we see as far as how do we take the weight of the cross, right? This is this weight that we're still trying to carry right now. How do we take the weight of the cross and the weight of the suffering of Jesus? What does that mean for you And I? Philippians 2 tells us, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the very form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself, taking the very form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of what?
Death, even death on a cross.
Therefore, and this is like the other side, after the weight has been put down of the cross, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Amen. That's the sigh of relief of putting down the weight of the cross. And Jesus knew that was coming. And so this passage in Philippians 2 demands us to look at something. It asks this question and tells us we have to. As we consider the cross, where is our pride?
Because Jesus was willing to humble himself not just to the point of death, but death on a cross.
Write this down. Somewhere Satan wants you and I prideful. Because prideful people don't depend on the Lord.
And so as we consider the cross, we are demanded to ask a question. Where is pride showing up in my life? If I want to represent Jesus well and. And I consider the power of the cross, pride has to be slaughtered in my life.
Why did he go to the cross?
Because he wanted to carry this massive weight.
No. What was his motivation for the cross?
For God. So John 3:16 says, For God so loved. Love is his motivation, as many other passages do. Romans 5:8. For God demonstrates his love toward us in this while we were still sinners. Christ, he died for us.
Verse 25 through 27 concludes the passage we're looking at today. Jesus love is what you can write in on your outline. But standing by the cross, this is where we see the love of Christ demonstrated. Standing by the cross of Jesus was. We see five people, actually. His mother, his mother's sister.
It is Jesus Aunt Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is someone that we hear lots about as we read through the Gospels. She was from a little town near Galilee called Magdala, which is why she's called Mary Magdalene, because there's lots of Mary's. So we have to add Magdalene on the attach attached. This is where she's from, from Magdala. Mary Magdalene. It's not her last name, Mary. This is the Mary that has followed Jesus. She had demons inside of her that Jesus freed her from. And we see that, that she was freed from demons early on in Jesus ministry. And then she follows Jesus and even to the point of the cross. And then the fifth person that we see at the cross is who later on we see that the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Not John the Baptist. John his disciple. One disciple.
One.
There was lots more. Where were they right now?
Hiding.
I also think it's interesting. There's four ladies there and one guy.
The men were concerned. Afraid.
Yes, understandably so.
Maybe specifically thinking to the men here today, how often does fear dictate what we do?
How often does fear drive us to hide? When we should be standing next to Christ, when we should be standing next to our families, next to our spouses, how often does fear show up in our lives and let us do what God has not called us to do. Jesus told all the men earlier on, take up your cross and follow me. And there's one disciple next to him.
Men, let's step up.
As we look here, we see that there was an assignment that Jesus gave.
He gave this assignment to his mother and to John, the only man that's standing there, the disciple that Jesus loved.
What do we see here? He says this, mom, he's going to take care of you now.
And John, you're going to take care of her. Now there's an assignment given now for us as we move this to today.
Most of the time when we're going through times of hardship, we tend to look inward, don't we? We tend to look at me, look at the problems that I'm dealing with, look at my pain, look at my suffering. And understandably so. But we forget something that Jesus didn't forget here. His responsibility.
He was as the oldest son of Mary, seemingly Joseph is out of the picture.
Christmas, we saw Joseph and Mary. Joseph has presumably died. So Jesus is now responsible for his mom. What we see here is Jes.
Mom, I haven't forgotten about you. As he's hanging there on the cross in enormous amount of pain, moments from his death. He's not saying, just look at me. He's saying, I still have a responsibility and I'm going to make sure that I hand that responsibility off to someone that I can trust. He doesn't, by the way, hand it off to his other brothers. You notice that he hands it off to this disciple that is stuck by his side. Let's conclude as we bring kind of all of this full circle, three things that you can maybe write down in conclusion that I'll just elaborate on a little bit. The first is this some application to think through. If you are enduring suffering, struggles, temptation with sin, struggling with other things outside of you that you can't control, suffering because of health things or relational things, Jesus call to us and that we see here is press on. So if you're enduring suffering or struggling or temptation, press on. Hebrews chapter 12 speaks about this.
Consider him. It says in verses 3 and 4, Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. So that you have not grown weary or fainthearted in your struggle against sin.
Have you not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood? Here's a promise from Jesus is I know what it's like to go through something hard.
I know what it's like.
So press on. I have not abandoned you. Secondly, you could write this down somewhere. If you're striving, striving daily, moment by moment, perhaps, or weekly, to be good enough for God, stop.
Your efforts will never measure up.
If they could, Jesus wouldn't have had to die.
When you strive for your own salvation, you're saying that Jesus work on the cross wasn't enough.
Jesus paid it all, all to him we owe.
Sin has left a dark stain that you and I can never remove.
But Jesus washed us clean, white as snow.
And thirdly, write this in somewhere. If the cross doesn't make you repent or flee from sin, I'm afraid that almost nothing will.
If you are a professing Christian and you can look at the cross and hold to the cross and feel fine about sin that you're aware of, you probably don't understand the cross. If you don't understand what happened on the cross, the love motivated propitiation, that is sacrifice made for all mankind, including you and I, through the torturous work of Jesus there you're missing the work of salvation.
Looking to the cross should make your sin and my sin feel ugly, causing us to run repent from it rather than to hold to the cross and say, jesus, I'll take your grace while I hold Onto some sin over here too.
It should make our sin look ugly, gross.
So maybe if you're in the midst of saying, I'm struggling with sin, I don't know how to let it go. Look more to the cross.
Write this down somewhere lastly, and then I'll pray. Don't forget the cross of Christ, because it is the catalyst for our sanctification. It is the catalyst for our sanctification, which is why we come back to it over and over and over again. Which is why we do things like celebrate communion on a regular basis. Because the power of the cross, the work of Jesus on the cross is our catalyst for our continual growth in our relationship for him. And he gave us his spirit to help us continue in that pray together.
Lord Jesus, we need your help each day.
And you gave us your spirit so that we could have help each and every day. And so this morning as we look to the cross, we are in awe of your incredible love for us.
The distance you were willing to go because you knew what would happen at the other side of carrying this great weight, the sigh, the release that we could experience from the bondage of sin that we are in the release that you paid for.
And so today, as we consider the power of the cross, Lord, help us to stand in awe of you and fall more in love with you today as we go into the rest of the day and tomorrow, Lord, that we would never be far from considering the love that we see at the cross. In Jesus name, Amen.
We're gonna shift our attention. If you're one of the ushers helping with communion, you can get ready as they are doing that. And there's a worship team up here. Now, I want us to consider the cross in a slightly different light than just the love of Christ.
Jesus paid a price.
We said this earlier.
He paid a debt that was due.
Because the consequence, the wages of sin is death, not the wages of sin is I have to work really hard.
The wages of sin is not. I need to do 13 more good things to outweigh my sin. The wages of sin is death and separation. Eternal separation from God for the sinner, for the criminal. And so even as we consider the crimes of those two other individuals and even Barabbas, who was to hang in Jesus place, Jesus said, I am going to take your place. And so when we celebrate the cross, we're not saying sin doesn't matter. No, we are saying it matters significantly to Jesus. And he loved us to the point of saying, I'll pay that price so that you don't have to.
You're in bondage to sin unless this happens. And so I will offer freedom to you. And so in a moment, I'm going to distribute.
We call Communion.
It's remembering the Last Supper, when Jesus took bread and he took a cup and he passed it around. He says, celebrate the new covenant that you have in me. The new promise, the new relationship that we have. Not one built on laws and rules, but one that's built on freedom, that's built on relationship. That's what we celebrate here. So there's juice that we have and there's a wafer. And it reminds us of the blood and the body of Jesus as we take this, as though it's passed before you. If you are a follower of Jesus, if you've submitted to the lordship of Jesus, if you said, yes, Jesus, I'm a sinner and I need your help for my salvation. Cause I can't do it by myself. If that's you today, regardless of what background that you might have, whatever problems have happened in your past, you take part.
Communion is for all believers. If you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, let the tray pass in front of you, or right now, declare him as your Lord and take and celebrate with us all. If you have more questions about this, ask us questions. And lastly, communion is to be taken seriously as one who is right before the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:27 says this. Whoever therefore eats of the bread or drinks of the cup, that is this what we're talking about here. Of the Lord in an unworthy manner, will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let each person examine. Can you say examine?
Examine himself then. And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. So, three Rs, three words to remember as we pass this, as the music plays. And I'm gonna read a little bit later on, three things. One, we're remembering the sacrifice of Jesus.
Secondly, we're repenting of any sin that he brings to our attention. And thirdly, we're rejoicing knowing that we are redeemed. Say redeemed with me. Redeemed. That's the name that you and I have as followers of Jesus today.
As the ushers continue to pass out the elements and the worship team plays. Read from Isaiah 53. Listen in.
Who has believed what he has heard from us. To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or Majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we established.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
And with his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, he was afflicted.
Yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent. So he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
And as for this generation who considered he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgressions of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked, with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offering.
He shall prolong his days.
The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
The last verse says, therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Today we celebrate, we rejoice, knowing that Jesus fulfilled this passage, that he did the work.
It was the will of the Lord to crush him.
Jesus says that we are to take part in this together. Paul speaking to a church in Corinth. He says, turn your eyes back to the cross. You've missed the picture. They were doing all sorts of stuff that wasn't right, mixing in all sorts of other activities in the life of the church. And he says, get your eyes back on the cross. Here's what he said. For I received from the Lord that which I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way. He also took the cup after supper, saying, this is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death. Until he comes. Let's eat the bread together.
Old Testament says, New Testament echoes that the blood covers sin for a moment, the blood of animals. And so let's drink together the blood, the juice, remembering the blood of Christ which covers our sin forever.
Lord Jesus, we sit before you and stand before you. Today we are here before you at the foot of the cross, not abandoning the work that you have done, but celebrating the work that you have done, bringing us from people who were once far off to people that are near. And so we ask that as we continue to worship you, as we celebrate the work that you have done in our life, that we would do just what this passage says. We would proclaim your work in our life until you come. We would preach your work in our life until you come. So that all those in our life might know that we are your children. In Jesus name. Amen.
Let's sing a closing song. If you'd like to pray with myself or Pastor Les or somebody at the back, we would love to do that with you.
[00:53:56] Speaker B: I hear the Savior say My strength indeed is small time of weakness Watch and pray Finding me thine all in all Jesus paid it all all to him I owe Sin hath left a crimson stain Being washed in white and stone O now in deep I find I am power and thine alone and change a letter spots and now the heart is bo Jesus made it all all to him I own Sin had left a crimson stain he was in my soul and when before the throne I stand in incomplete Jesus died my soul to save My lips shall still re Jesus make it all all to him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain he washed in minus stone Sin had left a crimson stain he washed him white his own he washed it white his stone he washed it white his stone oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead oh, praise the one who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead oh praise the one who hate my head and raise his life up from the dead oh drink the water take my dance and raise this life up from the de Jesus paid it all all to him I owe Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white and stone Sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as stone he washed it white and stone.
He washed it white and stone.
Oh, praise the one who paid my debt and raised his life up from the dead. Oh, praise the one who paid my debt and raised his life up from the dead.
[00:58:07] Speaker A: Amen. Amen. Praise the one Sin washed white as snow. Let's pray together. Lord, we are your people here today.
Washed white as snow.
We're praising you this morning knowing that whatever burdens we might have walked in here this morning with that we can hand those to you, knowing that you are walking with us, no matter what regrets or what shame we might be carrying from our pasts, you have washed us white as snow. And you call us your sons and your daughters. You call us righteous, you call us redeemed.
And now we're stepping back into a world that needs to know about your saving grace and your wonderful love. And so help us to be bold, to be courageous as we share that, as we communicate that, as we live as redeemed people in this world that needs redemption. So you're sending us out this morning, and we're your people, and we praise you for that opportunity. In Jesus name, amen.
