"Woman, behold, your son! ...Behold, your mother!"
Review: John 19:26-27
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:04-01:12
We are going to be in the Gospel of John 19:26-27.
01:13-01:18
We are looking at the seven statements that Jesus made from the cross while He suffered.
01:19-01:24
This is the third statement that the Holy Spirit records for us in His Word.
01:26-01:33
And Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby.
01:35-01:54
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.
01:55-01:57
Okay, so let's get to the scene.
01:59-02:09
Jesus, beaten and mocked, is being executed on the cross, suffering for our sin, and who was present at the cross?
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Well, just one of his so-called fearless disciples, remember the rest of them fled, the only one that we know of that was actually there at the cross the disciple whom he loved. That's John himself, 1323.
02:31-02:34
In other places in John, he refers to himself as that.
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One question is, what about Jesus' dad?
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Where was Joseph at this point?
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Well, Joseph was probably deceased.
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There's actually no mention of Joseph after Jesus' birth accounts.
02:51-02:54
But we do know that he and Mary had other children.
02:55-03:00
Jot down Matthew 13.55. Matthew 13.55. Look that up later.
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We see that Joseph and Mary had other children.
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But apparently, these other children, Jesus' own brothers, weren't there.
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We don't see his sisters there. They're not mentioned.
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We do know, according to John 7:5, at this point his brothers did not believe who Jesus is.
03:23-03:39
So who was there? Well, John was there, but if you compare John 19.25 with Matthew 27.56 and Mark 15.40, take all these verses together, there were four women at the cross.
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The first one is Mary, Jesus' mother.
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The second one is Mary's sister. Her name was Salome. She was the mother of James and John.
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The third woman that was there is Mary, the wife of Cleopas.
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She is the mother of James the Less and Joseph.
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And the fourth woman is Mary Magdalene, whom according to Luke 8.2 was delivered from seven demons by Jesus Christ.
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Okay, so you have the scene at the cross as Jesus is suffering.
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We have these four women and John the disciple, and Jesus from the cross, He looks down and He zeroes in on His mother standing with John and says to her, "Woman, behold your son." Now Jesus was speaking about John, not Himself.
04:41-05:04
It wasn't as if Jesus was saying, "Look at Me!" He was saying, "John is now your son." And He clarified this by His next statement to John, when He turned to John and said, "Behold your mother." He was saying, "John, you need to treat Mary like your mom.
05:04-05:12
Mary, you need to think of John as your son." And that message was understood because of the next statement.
05:13-05:31
It says, "From that hour, the disciple John took her (Mary) to his own home." So Jesus' third statement, which is only recorded in John, by the way, His third statement was about making sure His mother was taken care of after His earthly ministry was over.
05:32-05:57
And I'll be honest with you, at first glance, especially compared to the other things that Jesus said from the cross, at first glance, you could say, "Well, where's the impact of such a statement?" I mean, this sort of just stirs up a, "Well, that was nice of him." I mean, Jesus took care of Mom. That was nice. That was really nice of Him.
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But if we take a closer examination, this is one of the most impactful things Jesus ever said.
06:05-06:15
Because the impact here, get this, the impact here isn't just in what Jesus said.
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The impact here is when Jesus said this.
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Of all the seven statements of the cross, this one is unique because this is the only one of the seven statements that didn't need to be said from the cross.
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Why? Here's the question we need to ask.
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Why did Jesus make these arrangements?
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John, here's your mom. Mary, here's your son.
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Why did Jesus make these arrangements at this time?
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Provision for Mary did not need done, did not need made, while Jesus was on the cross.
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I want you to think about that.
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Did Jesus know that He was going to be crucified?
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Did He know?
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Did He know?
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Yeah. It was not a surprise.
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He said this was His purpose for coming.
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He knew exactly what His purpose was, and He knew exactly when this was supposed to happen.
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Jesus knew He was going to be crucified.
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He could have made these arrangements between Mary and John.
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He could have made these arrangements any time during his three-year ministry.
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He could have done this any time that he was traveling, and teaching, and healing.
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He could have done this in the upper room.
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He could have even done this after his resurrection.
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So understand church, the impact here isn't just in what Jesus said, but when Jesus said in this moment while he is bearing the wrath of God for our sin, Jesus cares about the needs of his mother and makes provision for her.
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Still don't feel the impact of that statement? I want you to close your eyes.
08:19-08:30
Go ahead, close your eyes. Close your eyes. I want you to just close your eyes and I I want you to think about this scene from Mary's perspective.
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OK, can you put yourself right now-- can you put yourself in Mary's perspective?
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All right, keep your eyes closed.
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I want you to think about this.
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Your husband is gone.
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Now, obviously, your oldest son isn't going to be able to take care of you in your old age.
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I mean, you knew he was going to die.
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You were told when he was a baby that he was going to die.
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Luke 2.35 talks about that.
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And do you think perhaps in this moment you get this horrible passing thought, "Jesus is really dying. It's really happening.
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Who's going to take care of me now?
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Who's going to care for me when I am old?
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And then you feel so ashamed, so guilty that you would dare have such a thought about yourself while your son is dying and thinking about it makes you feel bad enough.
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You certainly couldn't ask Jesus about it.
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And suddenly, suddenly, he not only initiates the conversation, He takes care of everything in two short sentences when He says, "Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother." You can open your eyes now.
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But the point of this statement, the impact of this statement is this, this forever answers the question, "Does Jesus care?" Does Jesus care?
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When we think about Jesus' love, let's be honest, when we think about Jesus' love, we typically think it's just about salvation.
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That Jesus' love is limited to sin issues.
10:35-10:40
As if, "Yes, He died for me." Does Jesus love you?
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"Yes, of course He does, He died for me." Do you have Jesus' care and attention?
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Yeah, He notices when I sin.
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But as Mary saw while He was dying for her sin, He cared about her other needs too.
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You see, that's the point.
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As the love of Jesus goes down to every detail of your life.
11:11-11:44
This is exactly what Paul was talking about in Romans 8.32 when it says, "He, God, who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" In other words, Paul's saying, as Jesus demonstrated, If God's love meets your greatest need, which is sin, His love will meet your lesser needs.
11:46-11:54
Or to put it another way, if God will give you His Son, He will give you everything else.
11:56-11:58
It's a personal love.
12:00-12:11
You see, church, sometimes when we say and think of the love of God, We think of John 3:16, "For God so loved the world..." And in our minds it gets very generic.
12:12-12:18
"Yes, God loves the world." It's so general and it's so generic!
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But this is showing that God's love and care goes down to the individual level.
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You see, we can say, "For God so loved the world," but we need to understand it gets individual and person.
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To say, "For God so loved Stephen." To say, "For God so loved Andy." To say, "For God so loved Evan." It's a personal love.
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1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you." And in case that word "all" trips us up, jot down this reference.
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Matthew 10.30 If you've ever wondered the depth of the personal, individual love and attention and care that the Lord has for you as He demonstrated to Mary from the cross, Matthew 10.30, Jesus, in the context of talking about God's care, made this statement.
13:43-14:19
He said, "But even the hairs of your head are all numbered." that statement the hairs on your head are numbered even if you knew the exact number of hairs on your head and I know for some of you that's a lot less counting than for others you know how many hairs you have in your head if you have brown or black hair you have about a hundred thousand or a hundred 110,000 hair follicles.
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If you're blonde, it's about 150,000.
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And if you're a redhead, it's about 90,000.
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Even if you knew the exact number, so what?
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Is that useful information?
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Do you impress your co-workers with that?
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Like, yeah, that's how I met my wife, by the way.
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Like, hey, you know how many hairs I have on my head?
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Like, who cares?
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It's pointless information.
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And you see, that is the point.
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Because God knows and He cares about the most insignificant detail of your life.
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So if He cares about that, Do you think He cares about the thing that keeps you up at night?
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Do you think He cares about the thing that has caused you to shed countless tears?
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Do you think He cares about that thing that has been just gnawing at your soul?
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Do you think He cares about that hurt that has been keeping you in a state of pain, physically, or mentally, or emotionally?
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Do you think He cares about that?
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See, the cross of Jesus tells us that He loves us as a Savior.
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But the statement to Mary goes deeper.
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Because now it's personal, and now it's individual, and now it's specific.
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Does Jesus love as a Savior? Yes, absolutely. That is the number one love that Jesus has.
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This statement, "Woman, behold your son," "Behold your mother," shows it's not the end of it.
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You know, the Bible says that the Lord loves us like a father loves his children.
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Luke 15:20. Are you a parent?
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If you are a parent, I want you to think about something.
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What would you do for your child?
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What would you do? How far would you go?
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Jesus loves you like that.
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The Bible says that God, the Lord Jesus, loves us Like a husband loves his wife, according to Ephesians 5.25.
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Are you a spouse?
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If you are married, I want you to consider, what does your love for your spouse make you do?
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You probably have done/are doing some crazy things, because you are crazy in love with that person.
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Jesus loves you like that.
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The Bible says, "The Lord loves us like a friend loves a friend." According to John 15:15.
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Are you a friend?
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Well, let me ask you, how loyal of a friend are you?
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What would you do for your friends?
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Jesus loves you like that.
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The Bible says the Lord loves us like a brother loves his brother or sister, according to Hebrews 2.11.
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Are you a sibling? Do you have a brother or a sister?
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Tell me, what would you do for your brother or sister?
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The Bible says Jesus loves you like that.
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So we come to church, we go to Sunday school, and we... remember that old song we used to sing?
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"Yes, Jesus loves me." Sing with me, come on.
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"Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so." Yeah, we're on board with that, but yes, He loves me, but does He care about me?
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Well, that question was answered while suffering on the cross.
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Jesus makes perfect provision for His mother's needs.
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Though He was providing salvation, at that very moment, He showed that lesser needs mattered to Him too.
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And He demonstrated that when He said, "Woman, behold your son." "Son, behold your mother." Bow your heads with me.
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Father in heaven, we have all been where we see so many people in Your Word.
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I think of the Israelites leaving Egypt. I think of the psalmist.
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So many times we see in Your Word the question of whether or not You truly do care.
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Father, even in the church sometimes we look at the cross and say, "Yes, Jesus loves me because He died for me." And that is so true.
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There is no way we can diminish that truth.
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But God, You have demonstrated through these two short little statements that Your love isn't just about for our greatest need, Your love is about our lesser needs too.
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God, there's somebody here today that needs to hear that.
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There's somebody here today that God has been questioning whether you truly do love, whether you truly do care.
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or if you just sort of died on the cross and came out of the tomb and just plan on checking up with us when we get to heaven.
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That is so not true.
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Your love goes down to every detail of our lives.
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Even to the number of hairs that we have on our heads.
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Father, I pray today that for the person who is struggling with the question, "Does God care about me?" They would look to the cross at this battered and bloody and humiliated Savior, who wasn't too distracted to take care of the personal needs of his mother.
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He who spared not his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not with him also graciously give us all things?
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In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 19:26-27
Why did Jesus say this from the cross (as opposed to sometime before or after)? What does this tell you of God’s care for you?
Why did Jesus make John responsible for His mother? Why not one of His brothers? What does this say about the role of "spiritual family relationships" in the church?
What concern do you have right now that you need Jesus to care for and provide for?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for your answers to question #3.