7 Words from the Cross

1 Word from the Tomb

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"

Review: Matthew 28:6

 

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  • 00:48-00:52

    Open up your Bibles to Matthew 28.

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    If you need a Bible, they are available in the back of your seats.

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    And you can keep that as our gift to you.

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    If you need a copy of God's Word.

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    Matthew 28.

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    Verse 6.

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    He is not here.

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    For He has risen as He said.

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    Come, see the place where He lay." From the cross, we studied seven words, seven statements from our Lord.

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    He was arrested.

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    He was accused.

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    He was beaten.

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    He was mocked.

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    He was crucified.

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    He was dead and he was buried.

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    The Lamb of God sacrificed for us all.

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    But after three days in the grave, today we're going to look at just one word from the tomb.

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    One statement.

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    He is not here, for He has risen.

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    As he said, "Come, see the place where he lay." More was said.

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    But for this morning, you're going to see that this statement tells you everything that you need to know.

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    I want you to actually back up to verse 1 here.

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    We're going to sort of set the seed here.

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    We're going to be looking over the shoulder of some faithful women.

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    Verse 1 says, "Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb." Now when you compare the four gospels, you realize that there are more women involved.

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    There was Mary Magdalene, there was Mary the mother of James and Joseph, there was Salome who was the mother of James and John, and there was Joanna.

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    The Bible says that they were at the tomb on Friday when the rock was placed, and they went back to see the grave.

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    Mark actually tells us that they were going to anoint Jesus, a process that had already started but they were going to finish anointing the dead body of Jesus Christ, so they thought.

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    Look at verse 2. It says, "And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it." It says there was an earthquake. And you know, if you study your Bibles, a lot of times when God is doing something really big, He accompanies that with an earthquake. It's almost like God reaches down from heaven and grabs the earth and He says, "I'm up to something here!" We saw it when God gave the law. Earthquake. We saw it when Jesus was on the cross. Earthquake.

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    And spoiler alert, read the book of Revelation. The events bringing the close of this age.

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    here at the empty tomb, earthquake.

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    Well, what caused the earthquake?

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    You know, the Bible actually tells us what caused the earthquake.

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    It says right here, look again.

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    It says, "Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended." It sounds like he was one heavy angel.

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    That when he descended from heaven and hit the ground, it shook the earth.

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    What do you think that looked like?

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    Then he rolled back the stone.

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    Now, I think sometimes it's depicted as very wrongly, but sometimes we think, because of these depictions, we think that the angel rolled the stone back to let Jesus out, almost as if he had resurrected and was just kind of in the tomb waiting, and the angel shows up and says, "Okay, I'm here to let you out." And that is not how that went down at all.

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    Because by the time the angel got there, Jesus was alive and gone.

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    So why did he roll back the stone?

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    He didn't roll back the stone to let Jesus out.

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    He rolled back that stone to let the women see in.

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    Look at verses 3 through 6.

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    It says, "His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.

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    And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like dead men." Do you think?

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    Do you think?

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    An angel descends from heaven, hits the ground, shakes it, rolls a stone back and plops down?

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    Yeah.

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    Totally get that, right?

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    But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

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    He is not here.

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    For He has risen as He said.

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    Come, see the place where He lay." Can you imagine?

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    Can you imagine what was going through those ladies' minds As they're walking to the tomb, they'd seen Jesus die.

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    They saw Him placed in the tomb.

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    They're literally carrying the spices to anoint Him.

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    Can you imagine what went through their minds when that angel said, "He's not here.

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    He has risen as He said He would.

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    Come.

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    Look at the place where He was.

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    The resurrection of Jesus Christ, church, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith.

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    It is the chief doctrine.

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    It is the pinnacle.

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    It is the most important event in history.

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    Because if Jesus was still in that tomb, if there was no resurrection, there would be no church.

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    There would be no Christianity.

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    there would be no hope.

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    You're still in your sins, your faith is worthless, and you've got nothing to look forward to.

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    But, but!

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    He is not here.

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    For He has risen.

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    As He said.

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    Come.

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    See the place where He lay.

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    And you might say, "Okay, well, okay, the Bible says Jesus resurrected, but what does that have to do with me?

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    That was 2,000 years ago and a whole other part of the world.

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    What does that have to do with me?" And the Bible says, "That has everything to do with you." Jot this reference down, but it's Romans 4.25.

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    I want to talk about that for just a minute.

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    Romans 4.25 says, "Jesus was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." In other words, Jesus was crucified for our sin, and He rose from the dead for our, the Bible says, our justification.

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    I want you to think of it in terms of almost like your bank account.

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    How much debt did you owe to God?

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    The answer is infinite.

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    You had an infinite, perfect, total debt.

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    Imagine going to the bank and saying, "How much money do I have in my account?" And they just show you one of those sideways eight infinity symbols.

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    Negative infinity, that's what you owe.

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    You had an infinite, perfect, and total debt.

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    But you see, the Bible says that Jesus didn't just take us to a zero balance.

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    The Bible doesn't say that Jesus said, "Okay, I'm going to die for your sins.

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    Now you're at zero.

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    You don't owe God anything.

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    We're good." The Bible says that Jesus did something even greater, according to 2 Corinthians 5.21.

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    He gave us, He put on our account an infinite, perfect, total righteousness to all who would believe.

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    So just as your debt was infinite, negative infinity.

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    See Jesus' death on the cross took you to zero, and His resurrection from the dead puts you in the positive, giving you the righteousness of God.

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    And again, this is for all who would believe.

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    Saying, "Believe in Jesus," doesn't just mean that you acknowledge Him.

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    Believing in Jesus doesn't just mean that you walk out of here today and say, "Okay, yeah, I went to church, okay, didn't disagree with too much that the preacher said." That's not what it means to believe in Jesus.

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    Believing is personalizing.

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    Believing means, "Jesus did this for me." Believing means, "I deserve God's wrath, and Jesus took it for me." Believing means, "Jesus rose from the dead to give me His righteousness." Have you personalized it? Do you believe it?

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    Have you taken this message from historical facts, historical events, to a personal act from Jesus on your behalf?

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    There's a difference.

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    Did a man named Jesus of Nazareth die on a cross 2,000 years ago?

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    History tells you that.

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    Just like history tells you about Abraham Lincoln or George Washington or whatever.

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    Everybody readily acknowledges that.

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    That's not the issue.

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    The issue is, did you personalize that?

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    Does that mean something to you personally?

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    Have you received Jesus Christ?

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    He is not here, for He has risen.

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    As He said, "Come, see the place where He lay." So what do we make from the word from the tomb?

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    For those who were there, and for us, I want to leave you with two things this morning that you have to take with you.

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    First of all, it's a declaration.

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    And secondly, it's an invitation.

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    First of all, it's a declaration of who Jesus is.

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    It's a declaration of who Jesus is.

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    Very simply, the angel said, "He is not here, for He has risen as He said." Let's be honest, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, He was just a martyr.

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    He was just a martyr.

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    He was a guy that had strong beliefs about something, and He made the wrong people angry and they killed Him.

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    If He didn't rise from the dead.

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    If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead, He was either a liar, or He was delusional.

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    Because, notice the angel says, "He is not here, for He is risen." Did you see those last three words?

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    "As He said." Did Jesus say that was going to happen?

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    Matthew 12.40, Matthew 16.21, Matthew 17.23, Matthew 20.19, Matthew 27.64, it was restated, then you go to the Gospel of Mark 9.31, Mark 10.34, Luke 9.22, Luke 18.33, Luke 24.7, verse 21, verse 26.

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    Jesus said over and over and over, this is how it's going down.

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    I'm going to be arrested, I'm going to be put in the hands of sinful men, I'm going to be crucified, and on the third day I'm going to be raised from the dead.

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    And every single time He said it, it went right over their heads.

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    Why? They just were spiritually blind, they didn't see it.

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    Even the women were showing up to anoint the corpse.

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    Even though Jesus over and over and over said, I'm going to raise from the dead." They just couldn't wrap their brains around it.

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    Oh, but He did.

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    It completed His mission.

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    It proved His deity.

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    Therefore, listen to this, "Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God ordained that to be the focal point of your faith." that the resurrection of Jesus is the God-ordained focal point of faith.

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    Romans 10.9 says, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." 1 Thessalonians 4.14 says, "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep." 1 Peter 1.3 says, "God the Father caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." So again, the focal point of our faith is not, "Do you believe that Jesus lived?" Or even, "Do you believe that Jesus died?" The focal point of faith is this, "Do you believe Jesus is who He said He is?" rose from the dead as He said He would for the reasons that God says He did.

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    What reasons?

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    For your salvation, for your assurance of heaven, for your adoption as a child of God, for your being a co-heir with Christ, for your eternal life.

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    Jesus rose from the dead to accomplish all of those things.

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    So understand from the tomb, this is a declaration.

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    He is not here.

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    He has risen as He said.

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    It's a declaration.

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    He proved who He was.

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    He proved who He is.

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    So it's a declaration.

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    Secondly, it's an invitation.

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    It's an invitation for us to discover who Jesus is.

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    Look at the rest of verse 6.

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    This is what I want to give to you today.

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    The angel said to the women, "And I say to you, come, see the place where He lay." "Come," the angel says, "Look, come.

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    I want to show you where He was laying." Do you know what I thought about a lot this week?

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    It's really interesting to me.

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    For everything the Bible says about the resurrection of Jesus, you know, I just shared with you and showed you how it's the focal point of our faith, right?

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    And it's the most significant event in history, and churches all over the Pittsburgh area and all over the world are celebrating this event.

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    It's the biggest thing to ever happen, right?

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    Do you know what's interesting about that?

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    For this to be as important as God says it is, as His Word declares it is, and as every Bible preacher gets up and is declaring today, for as important as it is, do you know that nobody actually saw Jesus raised from the dead?

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    Nobody saw it.

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    Nobody was there in the tomb when bloody, lifeless Jesus sat up.

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    Nobody was there to witness.

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    And I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait." This has gone through my mind like crazy this week.

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    I'm like, "If this is that important, why wasn't it witnessed by anybody?" Oh, well, many people experienced it, and many went out and preached it, and many people have given their lives for it, so please don't mishear me.

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    I'm saying the thing that I've been really thinking a lot about this week is just the fact that nobody saw it.

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    Eventually, literally, hundreds of people saw the risen Jesus.

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    That's not what I'm saying at all.

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    The Bible says hundreds of people saw Him after He rose from the dead.

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    But all that was seen at first was the empty tomb.

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    At first, all that was seen was the empty tomb.

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    And here's the thing that I've been just kind of wrestling through this week is, why did God do it that way?

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    You're waiting for an answer, aren't you?

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    If I were Jesus, did you ever play that game?

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    Oh, I have.

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    If I were Jesus, do you know what I would have done?

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    I'll tell you exactly what I would have done.

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    if I were Jesus.

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    Do you know what I would have done?

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    I would have risen from the dead immediately and it would have been the loudest, brightest explosion in history.

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    And I would have come flying out of that tomb.

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    And do you know what I would have done?

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    I thought a lot about this this week.

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    Do you know what I would have done?

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    With lightning shooting from every pore of my body.

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    I would have stood in the exact place that Pilate condemned me, in the exact place that the crowds were screaming crucify him.

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    I would have stood in that exact place in front of all of those people and I would have said, do you believe now who I am?

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    That's what I would have done.

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    Do you believe now?

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    You who mocked me and insulted me, and laughed at me, and beat me, and crucified me, do you believe I'm the son of God now?

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    Look at me!

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    That's what I would've done.

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    I would've made sure that every single person saw me.

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    And I would say, especially the people who mocked me.

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    but that's not how he did it.

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    He rose from the dead.

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    Nobody saw that event.

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    And then, he showed himself.

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    Mind-blowing.

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    He showed himself, but only to the people who believed in him.

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    He only showed himself to the people who loved him.

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    Did you know that?

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    No, I so wouldn't have done it that way.

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    I would have blown a hole in the side of Herod's palace.

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    I would have made sure that every single person saw me.

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    He only showed himself to those who believed in him.

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    And eventually the Apostle Paul, and if you've been at our church for any amount of time, you know that we've been sort of studying that story, haven't we?

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    This gets us back to the original question of why.

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    Why was this the way that He chose to do it?

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    Why was the empty tomb the evidence that He left for the world?

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    "Come, see the place where He lay." That's the evidence the world gets.

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    Here's why.

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    God doesn't force Himself on anyone.

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    He could.

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    He could reach down from heaven and He could grab you and say, "You're going to have a relationship with Me because I created you, pal." He could do that.

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    But He doesn't.

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    Here's what God has done instead.

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    Gloriously. So much more gloriously.

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    He has - listen to this please - He has ordained faith as the means by which people who want to know Him can enter into a loving and fulfilling relationship with Him.

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    Or people who don't want to know Him can refuse to believe and live their entire lives apart from God.

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    That's a terrible plan by the way, if you choose the second one.

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    The empty tomb.

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    That's the evidence that's given to the world at large.

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    That's the evidence given.

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    Because the empty tomb, the empty tomb allows us to investigate, or the empty tomb allows us to be ignorant.

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    We can investigate it.

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    Jesus rose from the dead, really? I gotta check that out. Is there truth to that?

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    And what does that mean?

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    You can investigate that, or you can choose to be ignorant.

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    You can leave here today and say, some people there seem pretty fired up about that, but honestly, I don't really care.

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    The empty tomb allows you to do that.

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    The empty tomb allows you to be honest or dishonest.

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    The empty tomb allows you to be honest to say, Look, Jesus has to be God.

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    He has to be.

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    He has to be.

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    Look at everything that happened.

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    Look at everything that took place.

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    He has to be God.

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    But you know, the empty tomb also allows you to be dishonest.

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    It allows people to say, "Well, there must be some other explanation "as to why we didn't see Jesus' body in the tomb." Have you heard these things?

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    Idiotic.

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    There's no other word for it.

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    You heard these, here's a theory, it's actually, the Bible talks about how people were trying to promote this theory from day one, and people still hold to this theory.

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    But one theory about why the tomb was empty was that the disciples stole his body.

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    Okay, so here's how that theory goes.

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    When Jesus was arrested, you remember how the disciples sort of scattered like cockroaches when the lights come on, and only John was there.

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    Remember that?

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    Remember the big, bad, brave disciples all hiding?

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    So this theory goes that these disciples somehow either overpowered or snuck past or whatever the guards and rolled the tomb, and then they stole Jesus' body out of the tomb, and then to really sweeten their plan, they're like, "Here's what we're going to do.

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    We're going to go tell people that He rose from the dead.

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    And even when people say, "Hey, stop saying that or we'll kill you," we'll keep saying it anyways.

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    Like, who signed on for that plan?

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    That plan makes no sense on about eight levels.

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    This idea that the disciples stole Jesus' body.

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    That's not even the dumbest one that I've heard though.

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    Do you want to hear the dumbest one?

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    The dumbest one is, Jesus didn't really die.

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    Oh, he was beaten half to death, and he was hanging on the cross, and these soldiers, who basically their whole job was to know how to kill people, and they took him down, and they said he was dead, and they put him in the tomb.

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    Here's how this theory goes.

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    I seriously can't say this without laughing, but this theory goes, they put him in the tomb, and they say the cool air from the tomb revived him.

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    Jesus was dead, and it's like this, Mostly dead. Mostly dead. Mostly dead.

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    And the cool air came on, and Jesus was like, "Ah!" And Jesus was in the tomb, and keep in mind, He was just crucified and beaten.

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    So the cool air revived Him, as cool air does, you know.

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    And then Jesus rolled the stone out of the way.

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    Keep in mind, you know, the beating and all that.

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    Jesus, eye of the tiger, He was like, "Roll the stone out of the way." And then crucified Jesus walked on His nail-pierced feet to His disciples, tattered and bloody and beaten, looking like something too graphic to show in a zombie movie.

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    But Jesus showed up to His disciples like that and said, I rose from the dead." And they were like, "Yes, you did, obviously." And they went out and told people about the glorious risen Lord that was revived by the magic waft of air in the tomb or whatever.

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    Oh, there's more. I'm not going to waste your time. There's more.

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    You can look them up. There's so many stupid theories out there.

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    Look, the empty tomb lets you be honest and it lets you be dishonest.

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    you can be honest and say, "Look, there's really only one explanation for what happened to Jesus.

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    He's God, and He rose from the dead, and He is awesome!" Or, "He wasn't really dead, magic tomb, air, disciples as commandos or whatever." You have the choice.

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    And finally, the empty tomb allows you to see with eyes of faith, or it allows you to remain hard-hearted.

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    The empty tomb allows you to see with eyes of faith.

    27:55-27:58

    You can look at that empty tomb and you can say, "He loves me.

    27:59-28:15

    He died for me. He rose from the dead for me. I will worship Him." Or, you can remain hard-hearted and say, "I don't want Him to be my Lord.

    28:17-28:25

    Nobody tells me what to do. I live life on my own terms." I guess the empty tomb lets you have that option, doesn't it?

    28:28-28:36

    He is not here, for He has risen, as He said.

    28:37-28:43

    "Come, see the place where He lay." Would you bow your heads with me please?

    28:46-28:47

    I'm going to lead us in a prayer in a moment.

    28:49-29:05

    But if you are sitting here today, and you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you've never embraced this gift that He accomplished on the cross and with the resurrection.

    29:07-29:09

    Listen, it's time to step up.

    29:10-29:14

    It's time to stop shrinking back. It's time to stop making excuses.

    29:14-29:17

    It's time to stop trying to justify in your own mind.

    29:17-29:24

    Today is the day that you need to pray, "God, I'm crying out to You.

    29:25-29:31

    I've lived life my own way for too long, and I've been wrong, and I see what You've done for me.

    29:31-29:33

    God, I see that you love me.

    29:33-29:36

    God, I see that you sent your son to die for me.

    29:36-29:47

    God, I see that you rose your son from the dead so that all of my sins can be forgiven and I can have a relationship with you and I can have the promise of heaven.

    29:48-29:49

    God, you did that for me.

    29:50-29:54

    I'm giving my life to you today." Somebody here needs to pray a prayer like that.

    29:56-30:00

    Somebody here needs to pray, "God, I've known about this message.

    30:01-30:03

    But I've never really taken it that seriously.

    30:03-30:10

    It's just been sort of an event in my mind, but I've never embraced it that this has everything to do with me.

    30:12-30:23

    And God, today, today, April 1st, 2018, today, God, I'm done playing games.

    30:26-30:37

    I want to receive the gift of eternal life that you purchased for me at the blood of your own Son, secured for me with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    30:40-31:02

    And I'm going to ask you, as you're praying, if there's somebody here that wants to make that decision today, I want you to go to that sign that says "Pray" in the corner and meet up with one of the members of our prayer team or come to guest reception back in the other corner where I'll be after service.

    31:03-31:06

    I would be more than happy to pray with you. We can step aside.

    31:08-31:10

    But this is way too important to put off.

    31:13-31:15

    The Bible says that today is the day of salvation.

    31:18-31:20

    This week we've had two deaths in our family.

    31:22-31:32

    And as horrific and tragic as that is, it's a reminder of the urgency of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    31:34-31:36

    None of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

    31:37-31:38

    Do you need to pray that prayer?

    31:40-31:41

    Do you need to cry out?

    31:42-31:47

    Do you need to turn from your sin, say, "I'm tired of living for myself and living for my sin.

    31:47-31:50

    I'm turning from my sin, I'm turning to Jesus Christ today.

    31:53-31:55

    Don't leave here until you've done business with God.

    31:58-32:03

    Join us at the prayer sign in one corner, join me in guest reception in the other after we close our service.

    32:05-32:07

    Don't leave until you've done business with God.

    32:08-32:15

    Father in heaven, we can't even fathom these events.

    32:17-32:21

    the impact that it must have had on those people who originally saw the empty tomb.

    32:21-32:24

    And today, Father, with eyes of faith, we again look at that empty tomb.

    32:27-32:31

    And oh yes, Father, You could have put Jesus on brilliant display for the world to see.

    32:33-32:35

    But that's not how You chose to work.

    32:36-32:43

    You have given all of us an empty tomb to look at.

    32:45-32:49

    You see that Jesus Christ reveals Himself to the people who are seeking Him.

    32:50-32:53

    Just like He did after His resurrection, we know that's still happening.

    32:54-32:55

    He's going to reveal Himself.

    32:57-33:05

    Your Holy Spirit is going to reveal Your majesty and Your glory, Father, to those who have a heart, who are seeking Him.

    33:08-33:39

    And I pray, God, I pray for the same wonder, The same awe, the same worship to continue to be repeated today as it was that day that that angel said to those women, "He is not here, for He has risen as He said." Come, see the place where He lay.

    33:40-33:41

    Thank you, Father.

    33:42-33:43

    Thank you.

    33:45-33:45

    Thank You, Father.

    33:47-33:50

    We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 28:6

  1. Why do you think nobody saw Jesus actually resurrect, they just saw the empty tomb at first?

  2. Why is the resurrection the focal point of faith? Why is believing Jesus resurrected the most important thing (See Romans 10:9)?

  3. How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ impact your daily living today?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

7 Words from the Cross - Part 7

"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!"

Review: Luke 23:46

 

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 00:48-00:51

    And open up your Bibles to Luke 23.

    00:52-00:53

    Verse 46.

    00:55-01:01

    We've revisited the words that Jesus said while He was suffering on the cross.

    01:03-01:06

    We've seen 6 so far in the 7th and final.

    01:07-01:09

    As in Luke 23.

    01:10-01:30

    It says, "Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this, he breathed his last.

    01:33-01:36

    Jesus spent six hours on the cross.

    01:38-01:42

    Six hours of horrible pain.

    01:44-01:46

    Six hours of mocking!

    01:48-01:52

    They gambled for His clothes and they insulted Him.

    01:54-01:58

    It was six hours of bearing the sin of the world.

    02:00-02:05

    And literally, it was six hours of experiencing the reality of hell.

    02:07-02:10

    Six hours. Three of them.

    02:11-02:15

    From noon to 3 p.m. were in total darkness.

    02:17-02:23

    Six hours. Six statements in that time.

    02:23-02:26

    "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

    02:28-02:31

    Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

    02:32-02:37

    Woman, behold your Son!" My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    02:39-02:40

    I thirst.

    02:43-02:44

    And it is finished.

    02:46-02:58

    The last statement that Jesus made before He died, before His last breath, the Bible says that He said it with a loud voice.

    02:58-03:04

    And that's how you need to read it, and that's how you need to hear it in your head, that this wasn't a whisper.

    03:05-03:21

    This was, "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit!" Now, Jesus' last words are actually, to the Jews, very familiar words.

    03:22-03:24

    Because this is actually another quote from the Old Testament.

    03:25-03:28

    It comes from Psalm 31 and verse 5.

    03:28-03:42

    And this would have been very familiar to the Jews For this reason, you know how many of us grew up saying that little prayer before bed, and maybe many of us taught it to our children.

    03:42-03:54

    You know that little prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep, "I pray the Lord my soul to keep, "if I should die before I wake, "I pray the Lord," what?

    03:55-04:06

    "My soul to take." And understand that Psalm 31 to the Jews It was a prayer that they prayed before bed a lot like that "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" prayer.

    04:07-04:08

    It was very familiar.

    04:09-04:15

    This psalm was originally the prayer of a righteous sufferer.

    04:16-04:23

    Like that prayer we teach the children, the prayer that we learned, the prayer basically says this, "God, I trust You.

    04:25-04:43

    God, I trust You with everything." Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Now the way Jesus said it, there were a couple of slight differences in the way He quoted it.

    04:43-04:46

    The first one is this, Jesus actually didn't say the whole verse.

    04:47-04:48

    Why?

    04:48-04:57

    Because the rest of Psalm 31 5 goes on to say, "You have redeemed me." The truth is, Jesus wasn't redeemed.

    04:58-05:01

    Jesus was the Redeemer, right?

    05:03-05:06

    The second difference is Jesus has the word Father.

    05:06-05:28

    If you look at Psalm 31.5, it says, "Simply into your hands I commit my spirit." Jesus said, "Father!" It's interesting, earlier, we saw that when Jesus cried out from the cross, He screamed, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now, He says, "Father," again, as He prayed every other time.

    05:30-05:35

    Was the wrath of God over at this point?

    05:35-05:41

    Was the punishment of Jesus Christ over in this moment, right before He breathed His last?

    05:41-05:42

    I don't know.

    05:44-05:45

    But here's what I do know.

    05:47-05:51

    That this cry was a cry of, "God, I know You're there.

    05:52-06:02

    "Father, I know You hear me, and Father, I trust You." Jesus entered death the way He lived His life.

    06:04-06:07

    A sacrifice at God's hands.

    06:07-06:13

    "Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit." He was entrusting Himself to God.

    06:15-06:21

    The Bible tells us also He was serving as an example for us, because you know, the Bible says that we too are sacrifices.

    06:21-06:25

    But we are, according to Romans 12, we are living sacrifices.

    06:27-06:45

    But we too must follow the example of Jesus that even when things are at their darkest, even when things are at their worst, even when things are at their most painful, we say, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

    06:45-07:00

    Father, I trust you no matter how hard life gets, even up to the moment of death." Now there's a certain event that took place the moment Jesus said these words.

    07:02-07:05

    It was a world-changing event.

    07:07-08:05

    And according to the Bible, this event is directly connected with the statement, Matthew Luke chapter 27 verse 50 says that when Jesus yielded His Spirit, immediately after He did that, the Bible says that the curtain of the temple was torn. Mark chapter 15 verse 37 says that Jesus breathed His last, and immediately after He breathed His last, the Bible says the curtain of the temple was torn. And in Luke chapter 23, interestingly, it says that the curtain of the temple was torn, it says that right before, it says, "Jesus breathed His last." So that obviously tells us that the curtain of the temple was torn at the exact time as Jesus breathed His last breath. And someone here might say, "Well, wait, wait, Wait a second.

    08:06-08:10

    You just said a minute ago that this was, what was the word you used?

    08:10-08:11

    A world changing event.

    08:11-08:14

    You're saying it's a world changing event that a curtain tore.

    08:16-08:24

    You might say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I have kids in my house and we've torn a lot of curtains over the years.

    08:27-08:28

    Didn't change our world.

    08:30-08:35

    I need to explain to you that this curtain being torn changed everything.

    08:37-08:53

    In spite of the earthquakes, the dead being raised, the darkness, all of these events that happened while Jesus was suffering and dying, this seems like a minor thing, but this is the most significant thing that happened.

    08:53-08:56

    So what's the deal with this curtain?

    08:58-09:03

    The tabernacle or the temple was an Old Testament building.

    09:05-09:07

    We could basically say that was where God dwelt.

    09:08-09:24

    It was this building, the tabernacle was sort of the portable version of it, and then when Israel settled into the land, the temple was built under Solomon, and the temple was this building where God's presence dwelt, and it was the building where sacrifices were offered.

    09:24-09:28

    Now the inner room in the temple was called the Holy Place.

    09:29-09:35

    And there was a small room that was attached to the Holy Place that was called the Holy of Holies.

    09:37-09:45

    And inside the Holy of Holies, inside this small room, was the Ark of the Covenant that God had commanded Moses to build.

    09:45-09:47

    The Ark of the Covenant was this box.

    09:48-09:53

    The top of this box was called the Mercy Seat.

    09:53-10:04

    And that is the spot where the glory of God, the manifestation of God's presence dwelt right there on top of the mercy seat, the top of the Ark of the Covenant.

    10:07-10:16

    That's where the glory of God rested, and it's where blood had to be offered for the sins of Israel on the Day of Atonement.

    10:18-10:25

    So here's the point, between the holy place and the holy of holies, there was a curtain dividing the two rooms.

    10:26-10:33

    And according to Leviticus chapter 16 in your Bibles, only the high priest went into the holy of holies.

    10:34-10:40

    Only the high priest, and he could only go in to the holy of holies one day a year.

    10:41-10:46

    And that one day a year that he was allowed to enter was called the day of atonement.

    10:48-10:55

    But on that day, He entered the Holy of Holies to offer the sacrifice for the sins of Israel.

    10:57-11:01

    Now fast forward back to the events that we're talking about tonight.

    11:03-11:08

    When Jesus died, that curtain was torn.

    11:10-11:15

    But the glorious thing is that curtain was torn by God Himself.

    11:17-11:27

    Because you see, if man was going to tear this giant curtain, it would be from the bottom up, right?

    11:28-11:41

    But the Bible says this giant curtain was torn from the top down, telling us that it was God himself who reached down from heaven and ripped this curtain.

    11:43-11:57

    And that shows us that now total access to God was available to everyone through the blood of Jesus Christ.

    11:58-12:01

    Can you wrap your brains around the significance of this event?

    12:02-12:14

    One man one day a year went in to appear before the glory of the God of Israel, and now that the curtains down, every one of us can go before the throne of God Himself.

    12:17-12:24

    Hebrews 9 and 10 give the divine commentary on the significance of this event, and I would encourage you to read that.

    12:25-12:31

    But the point is this, Jesus' death put into place the new covenant.

    12:34-12:37

    Now access to God is through the blood of Jesus alone.

    12:37-12:51

    The temple, the priests, the sacrifice, all of those things are now obsolete because they served as pictures of the reality that Jesus Christ brought.

    12:54-13:01

    Because you see on the cross, Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God.

    13:02-13:08

    He was the sacrifice, but at the same time, He was also the high priest who was offering the sacrifice.

    13:11-13:23

    And now God's temple, or the place where God dwells, the Bible tells us, is in the heart of every believer of Jesus Christ.

    13:26-13:33

    So, how do we respond to the moment of Christ's death?

    13:33-13:37

    Can we put ourselves there for just a second?

    13:39-13:53

    Because sometimes in the church, you know, when we talk about Christmas and Easter, the birth of Christ and the death of Christ, they become so familiar that sometimes we just don't slow down.

    13:54-13:56

    I want us to do that for a second.

    13:56-14:02

    Can you, in your minds, can you put yourself there at the cross?

    14:04-14:16

    Can you hear Jesus say, "Father, into your hands "I commit my spirit, breathing his last." How do you respond to something like that?

    14:16-14:23

    Well, the most appropriate responses are found in those who were actually there when it happened.

    14:24-14:30

    I want you to look at your Bible because these responses, this is where we need to find ourselves.

    14:32-14:40

    The first one is this tonight, I encourage you to respond like the soldier, like the centurion.

    14:40-14:41

    Look at verse 47.

    14:42-14:53

    It says, "Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, 'Certainly This man was innocent.

    14:55-14:58

    Now this centurion, he had previously mocked Jesus.

    15:00-15:02

    He would have seen the arrest of Jesus.

    15:02-15:03

    He might have been part of that.

    15:04-15:05

    But he would have seen it.

    15:05-15:07

    He would have seen the trial of Jesus.

    15:07-15:10

    And he would have seen a condemned man who acted like no other.

    15:12-15:29

    Because understand, on the cross, when people were crucified, They suffered, they bled, they lost all of their strength, and ultimately they died in a whimper.

    15:31-15:33

    Very slowly and quietly died.

    15:33-15:43

    And see, that's what's so remarkable about this word from Jesus Christ, because the Bible very clearly says that Jesus cried with a loud voice.

    15:43-15:48

    This wasn't something that, under his breath, we couldn't quite hear him.

    15:48-15:58

    This soldier stood amazed that Jesus, at this point of his suffering, screamed this out.

    15:58-16:04

    And then, if that wasn't amazing enough, he died by his own will.

    16:06-17:16

    Jesus said, "Now I choose to give up my spirit." And the guard's response, you know, Luke says that he said, "Certainly this man was innocent, but understand that the response of the soldier is way more than, 'This guy probably shouldn't have been killed.'" Because the Bible says right here, Luke says, "He praised God." Mark 15:39 says, "The centurion," listen to this, "saw that in this way he breathed his last in this way he breathed his last he said truly this man was the Son of God so it wasn't just that Jesus died and it wasn't just what he said it was the way he said it and the way he gave up his spirit truly this man was innocent or as Mark quotes the guards, "Truly this man was the Son of God." So like the soldier, there might be somebody that walked in here tonight that, quite frankly, you've spent your life dismissing Jesus.

    17:18-17:22

    But now, you see that He's like no one else.

    17:24-17:26

    And you praise God.

    17:27-17:40

    Like the soldier, you take this whole scene in, And you say, "Truly this man was the Son of God." So I would encourage you tonight to respond like the soldier, and also on top of that, respond like the crowd.

    17:41-17:42

    Look at verse 48.

    17:43-17:56

    It says, "And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home, beating their breasts." Oh, this crowd, right?

    17:57-18:25

    of the week. They were waving palm branches. They were saying, "This is our king." Just a few days later, the same crowd, these same people were screaming, "Crucify him! We'd rather have Barabbas, the terrorist, than have this guy." The same crowd we saw while Jesus was on the cross. They stood mocking Him and making fun of Him while He was dying.

    18:28-18:36

    But, look again, verse 48 says that, "When the crowd saw what had taken place, they returned home." Do you see that?

    18:36-18:39

    It says they were beating their breasts.

    18:40-18:41

    What does that mean?

    18:41-18:43

    What does that mean they were beating their breasts?

    18:43-18:44

    What is that a symbol of?

    18:44-18:54

    Well, we know exactly what it meant, because if you turn to your Bibles just a few pages earlier, in Luke chapter 18 and verse 13, Jesus tells a story.

    18:56-19:07

    And in this story, Jesus tells of this tax collector who was grieving his sin, and he felt so guilty before God that Jesus said that he was beating on his chest.

    19:08-19:10

    It was a Jewish sign of guilt.

    19:11-19:18

    It was a Jewish sign of saying, "God, I have dishonored you." That's what beating on the breast meant.

    19:19-19:27

    Okay, so on this scene, when Jesus breathed his last, this crowd just got done making fun of him and mocking him and insulting him.

    19:27-19:30

    Maybe Elijah's going to come for him, let's wait and see.

    19:30-19:33

    And all the insults they hurled at him when they saw how he died.

    19:35-19:39

    The Bible says they walked home saying, "I am so guilty.

    19:40-19:51

    I am so guilty that I mocked him." Like the crowd, there is a sense in which you should feel guilty.

    19:54-19:59

    Because it was your sin and it was my sin that nailed Jesus to that cross.

    20:01-20:02

    Your sin and my sin.

    20:02-20:07

    Our sin was so wicked that Jesus died a horrible death to pay for it.

    20:08-20:12

    The innocent one bearing the wrath of God that I deserve.

    20:14-20:18

    So there is a real sense in which we should look at Jesus on the cross.

    20:18-20:21

    We should see Jesus breathing His last.

    20:21-20:25

    There's a sense in which we should feel guilt for that.

    20:26-20:27

    To say, "Look what we did!

    20:29-20:35

    Look what he went through because of me." So you need to respond like the crowd.

    20:36-20:39

    And lastly, you need to respond like the acquaintances.

    20:40-20:41

    Like the women.

    20:41-20:52

    Look at verse 49, it says, "And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee He stood at a distance watching these things.

    20:54-20:57

    They stood far off watching.

    20:59-20:59

    Stunned.

    21:00-21:01

    Stunned.

    21:03-21:09

    Because this event is one that we can barely wrap our brains around.

    21:10-21:15

    God, God himself came to earth.

    21:17-21:25

    He loved us, He healed us, He taught us, and we rejected Him.

    21:27-21:28

    We made fun of Him.

    21:30-21:32

    We insulted Him.

    21:35-21:43

    We beat Him half to death, and then we publicly killed Him, slowly.

    21:45-21:53

    So we're going to close our time today remembering Jesus' death the way that He told us to.

    21:55-21:57

    And that is by receiving the Lord's Supper.

    22:00-22:06

    And when everybody receives, I'm going to get back up and I'm going to lead us in taking the Lord's Supper together.

    22:08-22:23

    But simply tonight, I want you to feel, now and when you leave, what was felt the moment that Jesus died.

    22:24-22:35

    In reverse order, I would say like the women and the acquaintances, I want you to feel the horror of the death of Jesus Christ.

    22:38-22:45

    Like the crowds, I want you to feel the guilt of your sin that nailed Him to the cross.

    22:47-22:59

    And like the soldier, I want you to feel the majesty which leads to the praise to the One who died like no other.

    23:02-23:07

    This is how Jesus said and remember his death.

    23:09-23:12

    That on the night that he was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it.

    23:13-23:14

    He gave thanks.

    23:15-23:19

    And he said, "This is my body, which is given for you.

    23:21-23:29

    Eat this in remembrance of me." After the meal, Jesus took the cup.

    23:30-23:36

    And He said, "This is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.

    23:37-23:44

    Drink this in remembrance of Me." Rebow your heads and pray with me, please.

    23:46-24:05

    Our Father in Heaven, tonight we reflect on the cross so dismissed by the world at large, so often dismissed even in your church.

    24:06-24:24

    Father, I pray tonight, those of us in this room, those who are listening to this message online, I pray, Father, that you would capture our hearts again with the magnitude of this event.

    24:26-24:32

    The sinless Son of God died in our place.

    24:35-24:40

    Your Word tells us that you spared not your own Son, but you delivered Him up for us all.

    24:40-24:46

    Your Word tells us that it was your will to crush Him.

    24:48-24:55

    Your Word tells us that you demonstrated your love, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

    24:55-24:57

    Father, we can't dismiss this.

    24:59-25:13

    Father, we thank You and I pray that as we meditate on it and we let this really sink in, that we thank You again.

    25:15-25:22

    To Your name, Father, for all that You've done, We give you praise.

    25:24-25:26

    Through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

    25:28-25:28

    Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Luke 23:46

  1. What was especially peculiar about the way Jesus died? See Mark 15:39

  2. Read Luke 23:47-49 and discuss each reaction to Jesus' death. Why did each act this way?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

7 Words from the Cross - Part 6

"It is finished."

Review: John 19:30  |  Heb 10:4  |  Rom 5:8

 

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:04-01:06

    Open up your Bibles with me please.

    01:08-01:15

    The Gospel according to John will be in chapter 19, verse 30.

    01:16-01:18

    John 19, verse 30.

    01:18-01:22

    We are looking at seven words from the cross.

    01:23-01:30

    There are seven statements that the Holy Spirit recorded for us in God's Word that Jesus stated from the cross.

    01:31-01:39

    God of the flesh, suffering on our behalf, said seven things while He suffered during those six hours.

    01:39-01:47

    Last week we looked at the fifth, which is, "I thirst." And that goes right into this next statement.

    01:47-02:05

    John 19:30 says, "When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished." And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

    02:06-02:12

    And I know looking at that verse, it might look like this is the last statement that Jesus made, but it's not.

    02:13-02:59

    Notice that John 19:30 says that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit, and we're going to see on Friday that when he gave up his spirit, actually said one more thing. Today, it is finished. You know, that's one word in the Greek. The word is "tetelestai." And that's an interesting word because, you know, the archaeologists, they go and they do their digging and they found literally thousands of these scraps of paper in the Middle East that were written in Greek.

    03:01-03:15

    And upon investigating what are these pieces of paper, what are all these scraps, they discovered that they were actually what we would call mundane commercial documents.

    03:16-03:23

    In other words, what they found were a whole lot of receipts, business receipts.

    03:24-04:01

    But the interesting thing about these business receipts was over and over and over and over and over, they kept finding one word stamped on these business receipts, and the word was "Tetelestai." "It is finished" and stamped on these receipts, literally, "Tetelestai" is translated "paid in full." Tetelestai, it is finished.

    04:02-04:06

    It's a word of completeness.

    04:09-04:20

    It's the word when that mechanic tightens that last screw on the project to tell us it is finished.

    04:21-04:26

    It's a word when that writer puts that last period at the end of the manuscript.

    04:27-04:30

    Says it is finished.

    04:31-04:41

    It's a word for a marathon runner who breaks the tape and crosses that line and says, "It is finished.

    04:43-04:44

    Paid in full.

    04:44-04:53

    The work is done." Now interestingly, I was thinking about this week, Jesus could have said this statement in different ways, right?

    04:54-05:10

    He could have said, "I am finished." He could have said, "I finished it." And I'll be honest with you, I would have had zero problem with that.

    05:12-05:30

    He would have been completely in his right to say, "I am finished." But instead, in his awesome humility, he focused not on a personal achievement, though he would have had every right to.

    05:30-05:38

    He focused not on his personal achievement, but you see the way he made this statement and instead focused on the work of his Father.

    05:39-05:48

    It focused instead on the promise of Scripture and instead focused on the plan of God.

    05:48-05:51

    It is finished.

    05:52-05:58

    And understand when we talk about the plan of God, God had this plan all mapped out.

    06:00-06:05

    But the plan of God did not start on the cross.

    06:05-06:07

    The plan of God was fulfilled on the cross.

    06:10-06:19

    The plan of God actually started in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve sinned, and God promised that Eve's offspring would someday crush Satan.

    06:20-06:31

    And then the plan continued to a man named Abraham, who God used to start a new family of people, the Israelites, through whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come.

    06:33-06:39

    The plan continued to a specific Israelite named Moses, who God used to institute the Passover.

    06:40-06:47

    As we discussed last week, it's a graphic picture of being spared from death by being under the blood of a spotless lamb.

    06:49-06:51

    The plan continued to the Old Testament law.

    06:54-07:02

    The Old Testament law was given to define sin and to provide atonement for sin.

    07:04-07:06

    So why didn't the plan end there?

    07:06-07:14

    Okay, so if man has this sin problem and God institutes this law with this plan that will atone for sin, why didn't the plan stop there?

    07:14-07:24

    In other words, why did we have to see our Lord suffer the horrible agony of the cross?

    07:26-07:30

    Why didn't the plan just end with atonement?

    07:31-07:35

    Killing an animal, sacrifice to atone for your sin.

    07:37-07:38

    Why didn't God just stop there?

    07:39-07:40

    Isn't that good enough?

    07:42-08:08

    The answer is in Hebrews 10.4 that says, "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Yes, the Old Testament law provided atonement for sin, but atonement is not taking away sin.

    08:09-08:12

    only giving a temporary covering for sin.

    08:12-08:21

    You see, the Old Testament times, when Israel offered a sacrifice, they had to keep going back and offering more sacrifices because it didn't finish the job.

    08:22-08:27

    You look at the furnishings of the Old Testament temple, you know, one furnishing you didn't find, there was a chair.

    08:27-08:42

    The priests never sat down because there was constantly sacrifices being made because people kept sinning, people kept becoming guilty, and you had to keep offering sacrifices over and over and over and over and over and over.

    08:44-08:47

    Atonement did not take away sin, it temporarily covered sin.

    08:48-08:49

    You're like, well, what's that like?

    08:50-08:52

    Well, it's like a concept that every one of us are familiar with.

    08:54-08:55

    I want us to talk about money for a second.

    08:56-08:56

    Let's talk about money.

    08:58-09:04

    Putting these concepts in terms of money, atonement is like a credit card.

    09:06-09:14

    If you want to purchase something, but you don't have the money, you can't afford it, you can't make the payment, the credit card covers you.

    09:15-09:16

    It covers the payments.

    09:18-09:32

    But if you've ever used a credit card, and probably most of us in here have, if you've ever used a credit card, you know when that card statement comes in the mail that the payment wasn't really made for your purchase because you still have to pay, right?

    09:35-09:36

    God provided the law.

    09:37-09:42

    God provided the Old Testament sacrifices to cover sin.

    09:44-09:51

    You see, it was almost like Israel when they were offering their animal sacrifice, it was in a sense like swiping the credit card.

    09:51-09:53

    I need covered, I need covered.

    09:53-09:54

    I sinned, I need covered.

    09:54-09:59

    That's what the Old Testament sacrifice was like, but payment was never fully made.

    09:59-10:01

    It was just always being temporarily covered.

    10:02-10:05

    Ok, so Jesus Christ comes on the cross.

    10:05-10:09

    The perfect, spotless Lamb of God lays His life down on the cross.

    10:09-10:13

    And you see, using our money analogy, He is cash.

    10:15-10:18

    He paid off the debt completely.

    10:19-10:45

    He settled the payment that we had to make towards God when He said, "It is finished." owed God an infinite debt. Jesus paid the price with His blood, with His very life.

    10:47-10:56

    So let me ask you, what does that tell us? What does that tell you about your efforts to try to earn your way to heaven.

    11:00-11:01

    It's more than just foolish.

    11:02-11:15

    If you're sitting here today, listen to me closely, if you're sitting here today and you're thinking, "I have to try to earn my way into heaven." It's foolish, but it's not just foolish.

    11:17-11:24

    Because you are rejecting and insulting God And you think that you can earn your way to heaven.

    11:26-11:29

    Because you've denied the price that was paid.

    11:31-11:54

    You've denied the very clear statement of Jesus when He said, "It is finished." You see, when you think, "If I want to get right with God, if I want to go to heaven, If I'm going to earn my spot, I have to be good, and God will see me being good.

    11:55-11:56

    I have to do good.

    11:56-11:57

    I have to do good things.

    11:58-12:00

    I have to keep the rules.

    12:00-12:03

    I have to try to be a very religious person.

    12:04-12:05

    Do you know what you're saying?

    12:07-12:11

    When you think that way, you're saying it isn't finished.

    12:12-12:32

    You're saying, "I have to earn my way." Because when Jesus said, "It is finished," you're saying, "I don't agree with." When you still think that you have to do something to earn your way to God, you're calling Jesus a liar, essentially.

    12:34-12:42

    Because He said, "It is finished." Jesus isn't offering you an installment plan.

    12:43-12:47

    Okay, Jesus isn't saying, "Okay, I did my part by dying.

    12:47-12:51

    "Okay, now I want you to do your part." He didn't say that.

    12:51-12:52

    Do you know what he did say?

    12:53-13:13

    He said, "It is finished." And I have to tell you, for as clear as he said it, and for as understandable as the concept is, We have a really hard time believing that.

    13:14-13:26

    You know, some churches teach that when you have the Lord's Supper, the communion is actually representing the sacrifice of Christ.

    13:26-13:30

    It's like Christ is being sacrificed all over again.

    13:33-13:34

    That's blasphemous.

    13:36-13:43

    It was finished when Jesus said, "It is finished." There's no sacrifice to represent.

    13:45-13:50

    Some churches teach a concept called purgatory.

    13:52-14:00

    Some churches teach that when you die, you go to this place of fire that burns off the remainder of your sin.

    14:01-14:17

    You still have some sins sort of attached to your soul, and when you die, you go to this place, and these fires burn off the remainder of your sin and you spend who knows how many years there getting your sin burned off.

    14:18-14:28

    Meanwhile, people on earth can pay for church services and light candles and say prayers and stuff to shorten your time being burned.

    14:30-14:33

    And I'm gonna tell you, church, that is blasphemous.

    14:33-14:36

    That is completely blasphemous.

    14:38-14:40

    The entire concept of purgatory.

    14:41-14:45

    Because what you're saying is you didn't do enough, Jesus.

    14:45-14:47

    My sin remains.

    14:47-14:52

    Oh, you may have said on the cross, "It is finished." But you were wrong.

    14:54-14:57

    Because apparently there's some things I have to do for my sin too.

    14:59-15:02

    It is finished.

    15:03-15:09

    There is nothing you can do to add to the work of Jesus Christ.

    15:09-15:11

    He completed it.

    15:13-15:13

    100%.

    15:15-15:17

    It is finished.

    15:19-15:24

    By the way, that's what makes Christianity different than every single other religion in the world.

    15:25-15:26

    And I've studied them.

    15:26-15:28

    Do you know what every other religion in the world teaches?

    15:29-15:37

    Here's some things you have to do to get right with God, the gods, whoever the higher power thing, people, whatever, are, here's what you have to do to ge right with them.

    15:37-15:41

    You gotta do this, and you gotta say these prayers, you gotta go to this place, and you gotta do these works, and you gotta do this, and you gotta do this.

    15:41-15:48

    And every other religion in the world says, you gotta do, you gotta do, you gotta try to make God happy, gotta try to make God happy, gotta try to make God happy.

    15:48-15:49

    Do you know what the Bible teaches?

    15:50-15:56

    The Bible teaches that God did the work to bring you to this place.

    15:56-15:56

    to Him.

    15:58-16:05

    The Bible says that God loved you so much that your life isn't about trying to pursue Him.

    16:05-16:08

    The Bible says that God loves you so much that He pursued you.

    16:10-16:24

    The Bible says that God loves you so much that He is not saying, "Okay, work your way to Me." He's saying, "I sent my Son to die in your place on the cross." And he finished the work of salvation.

    16:26-16:36

    And he put that stamp on it when he said, "It is finished." Tetelestai paid in full.

    16:38-16:48

    Since Jesus paid it all, since Jesus paid it all, at least he said he did, you really only have two choices.

    16:50-16:54

    You can accept it or you can reject it.

    16:55-16:57

    Those are the only choices that we have with Jesus.

    16:58-17:02

    By the way, paying and earning your way isn't one of the options.

    17:02-17:03

    I think we covered that.

    17:04-17:10

    The only choices you really have is looking at the words of Jesus saying it is finished, then you can believe that or you can reject that.

    17:12-17:14

    First of all, you can accept it.

    17:15-17:16

    What does it mean to accept it?

    17:16-17:21

    It means you need to get before the Lord, Get on your face and say, "God, I am a sinner.

    17:23-17:24

    "I've done bad things in my life.

    17:24-17:26

    "I've done things in my life that I regret.

    17:26-17:31

    "I've done things in my life that I'm ashamed of, "and I realize that I'm not the person that I need to be.

    17:31-17:41

    "God, I'm a sinful person, "but God, I believe that on the cross, "Jesus Christ, He died for my sins.

    17:43-18:19

    "And God, I believe that when you said, it is finished, all of my sin is paid for. And if you need to take that step today, there's going to be people during the last song, there's going to be people back at that sign. I'll be in guest reception. You stick around after service. Grab one of our prayer team, grab me, grab one of our elders. We would love to talk with you and pray with you about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. But step one of being a follower means you You have to accept His Word when He said, "It is finished." He did the work for you because He loves you.

    18:20-18:24

    You can accept it or you can reject it.

    18:25-18:26

    You can reject it.

    18:28-18:37

    But if you don't receive Jesus Christ's gift that He purchased for you on the cross, it will never be finished for you.

    18:39-18:40

    And really that's what hell is.

    18:41-18:43

    Hell is eternally paying an unpayable debt.

    18:45-18:48

    Because you rejected the only payment that was made for you.

    18:51-18:54

    It is finished.

    18:55-18:57

    The redemption of man.

    18:58-18:59

    It is finished.

    19:01-19:02

    All of the prophecies fulfilled.

    19:04-19:05

    It is finished.

    19:07-19:08

    The sacrifice for sin.

    19:10-19:11

    It is finished.

    19:12-19:17

    Bearing God's wrath, it is finished.

    19:17-19:20

    Sin and death and Satan defeated.

    19:20-19:21

    Say it with me, church.

    19:22-19:24

    It is finished.

    19:26-19:27

    So what do we say?

    19:29-19:37

    What do we say to the one here today who is still striving to make God happy?

    19:37-19:53

    You know, I wanna talk, there's somebody here today that you're a sincere believer in Christ, you've been born again, but there's, I'm sure there's somebody listening to this right now that struggles with feeling like you need to make God happy.

    19:54-19:59

    Feeling like, you know what, I know I'm a Christian, but I am a big fat disappointment to God.

    20:01-20:07

    Or I know I received Christ, but God must be pretty mad because I made some dumb choices.

    20:09-20:16

    To that person I say this, "Christian, God is not mad at you.

    20:18-20:28

    And God is not going to punish you." If you're a born-again believer in Christ, you have no judgment, no wrath, no punishment of God to fear.

    20:29-20:34

    But as a pastor, I talk to Christians all the time, who say, "I just feel like God's going to punish me.

    20:34-20:36

    I did some wrong things.

    20:36-20:39

    I just feel like God's going to punish me." Do you realize what you're saying?

    20:41-20:50

    What you're saying is Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God for your sin, and God poured out His wrath on Jesus, and then God looks at you and says, "You know what?

    20:50-20:55

    I punished my son, but I'm going to punish you too." What does that say about what Jesus did?

    20:57-21:01

    It says that Jesus obviously didn't finish the job because God's still mad.

    21:02-21:04

    But that's not what Jesus said.

    21:05-21:14

    Jesus said, "It is finished." So what do we say to the one who is relying on themselves for salvation?

    21:17-21:34

    We say, "You can stop striving and you can start believing." Look, I don't know where your heart is, only God does, but there might be somebody here who isn't born again that thinks, "I'm just going to keep working, I'm going to do harder, I'm gonna try harder, I'm gonna do more, and you're not gonna get there.

    21:36-21:38

    Because you can't complete something that's already been completed.

    21:41-21:52

    Or to that believer that, "Yeah, I gave my life to Christ, and a pastor's out, I'm trying really hard to work to be a Christian." Well, you can't complete what God finished either.

    21:54-21:55

    Stop striving.

    21:55-21:56

    Start believing.

    21:58-21:59

    It is finished.

    22:02-22:04

    What do we say to the person here that doubts God's love?

    22:05-22:13

    Maybe you've been going through some trials or struggles or circumstances that you're like, "You know sometimes I feel like… sometimes I feel like God doesn't love me.

    22:13-22:15

    Sometimes I feel like God's out to get me.

    22:16-22:24

    Sometimes I feel like God hates me." To that person I say Romans 5:8 is the ultimate demonstration of God's love.

    22:26-22:28

    God's love didn't just take him part way.

    22:30-22:32

    God's love took him the whole way.

    22:33-22:54

    Jesus didn't say, "I'll take a beating for you." Jesus didn't even say, "I'll take a severe beating for you." Jesus said, "Not only am I willing to die for you, Jesus said, 'I will die for you.'" And He saw it through all the way to the end.

    22:56-22:59

    Is there an issue in your mind as to whether or not God loves you?

    23:00-23:02

    I've got a word for you today.

    23:04-23:05

    And the word is to tell us to hide.

    23:06-23:07

    It is finished.

    23:10-23:12

    The final sacrifice was made.

    23:13-23:14

    Sin was paid for.

    23:15-23:18

    The mission was completed.

    23:19-23:32

    All of it declared and settled forever when Jesus said, "It is finished." Pray with me.

    23:34-23:39

    Father in heaven, I pray today that every one of us, whether...

    23:39-23:43

    I know there's people that have been walking with Christ in this room and listening to this.

    23:43-23:45

    They've been walking with Christ for decades.

    23:45-23:51

    And there are people that have been walking with Christ for maybe weeks or a couple of months.

    23:54-24:08

    Sometimes God, we struggle in feeling like there's still some gap that we need to fill, there's still some work that we need to do, there's still something that we need to accomplish to do right by you.

    24:09-24:12

    I pray, Father, we would look again at these words of Jesus.

    24:13-24:25

    When he cried out, "Tetelestai," when he cried out, "Paid in full," when he cried out, "It is finished." God, we know he wasn't declaring that his life was over.

    24:27-24:30

    He was declaring that his mission was over.

    24:32-24:35

    He accomplished what you sent him to accomplish.

    24:36-24:44

    Father, I pray also for anybody here today who doesn't know you, who has not been born again, who hasn't received the gift.

    24:44-24:56

    I pray today, Father, that they would take a long, hard look at the words, "It is finished," and examine whatever they are trusting to get them to heaven.

    25:00-25:14

    Father, enlarge in us a heart of gratitude that we are made righteous, We are made wholly acceptable to you. We are pardoned. We are forgiven. We are free.

    25:14-25:16

    We are adopted.

    25:18-25:28

    Not by one act that we can perform, but by the ultimate sacrifice that you made on our behalf.

    25:30-25:33

    God, today we thank you that it is finished.

    25:34-25:36

    In Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 19:30

  1. What was "finished", exactly? Be specific, and list as many things as you can!

  2. Why didn't Jesus say "I am finished"? What's the difference between that and "It is finished"?

  3. What are ways people try to "earn" their way to God? Why is it blasphemous to try to add to the completed work of Jesus on the cross?

  4. What is the difference between Old Testament atonement vs Jesus "taking away" our sin? See Hebrews 10:4.

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another!

7 Words from the Cross - Part 5

"I thirst."

Review: John 19:28-29  |  Matt 27:47  |  Exodus 12:22  |  John 7:4  |  Psalm 23  |  Psalm 69:21

 

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:04-01:07

    Open up your Bibles with me please to John 19.

    01:10-01:12

    Verses 28 and 29.

    01:14-01:14

    Are you there?

    01:14-01:15

    John 19.

    01:15-01:36

    Verse 28 says, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the Scripture, "I thirst." A jar full of sour wine stood there.

    01:37-01:44

    So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

    01:47-01:52

    God's Word records seven statements that Jesus Christ made from the cross.

    01:55-02:00

    And today, we're going to examine the shortest statement of the seven.

    02:01-02:03

    Actually in the Greek, it's one word.

    02:05-02:20

    So the equivalency would be basically here Jesus saying, "Thirsty." Now on the surface, it seems pretty unremarkable, doesn't it?

    02:21-02:23

    I mean, show of hands, who here has ever been thirsty?

    02:26-02:26

    Yeah.

    02:29-02:33

    So what's so remarkable about this?

    02:35-02:36

    Jesus was thirsty.

    02:37-02:40

    I mean, it's a common human experience, right?

    02:41-02:50

    And we've already talked about the horrible beating that Jesus endured, and the blood loss, so it makes sense, I guess, that He's dehydrated.

    02:51-02:53

    And so it would make sense that he is thirsty.

    02:57-03:07

    But if "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." If that was the most gracious thing that Jesus had ever said.

    03:11-03:17

    If "Today you will be with me in paradise." Is the most comforting thing that Jesus ever said.

    03:19-03:25

    "Women, behold your son," is the most caring thing that Jesus ever said.

    03:27-03:44

    And if "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" is the most heart-wrenching thing Jesus ever said, I can tell you that "I thirst" could be the most profound thing Jesus ever said.

    03:47-03:49

    We never do this, but we have to today.

    03:49-03:51

    I want you to hold your place there in John.

    03:52-03:55

    And I want you to turn back to Matthew 27.

    03:56-03:58

    Verse 47, because you have to see this.

    03:59-04:00

    Matthew 27.

    04:00-04:01

    47.

    04:01-04:02

    Just go back a few books.

    04:04-04:05

    Because you have to see this.

    04:09-04:23

    As a response to Jesus screaming, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" You see, specifically, the Bible tells us the original language in which He said it, because we're supposed to catch something here.

    04:23-04:47

    Remember we saw that, "Eli, Eli, lemah sebachthani." As a response to that, look at verse 47, "And some of the bystanders hearing it said, 'This man is calling Elijah.'" My best understanding of that is more mocking, right?

    04:47-04:51

    That's all we've seen throughout the whole ordeal is mocking Jesus.

    04:52-04:55

    And they would have known exactly what He was saying.

    04:57-04:59

    I believe what they were doing here again is more mocking.

    04:59-05:00

    "Oh, listen to him.

    05:00-05:01

    He's calling for Elijah.

    05:01-05:03

    Oh, listen to him." Why would they say that?

    05:03-05:11

    Well, according to Malachi 4, the Bible says Elijah is going to accompany the Messiah.

    05:13-05:25

    So sometime after verse 46 is when Jesus said, "I thirst," because though Matthew doesn't record that, Matthew records the response to that statement.

    05:25-05:26

    Because look at verse 48.

    05:27-05:43

    It says, "And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink." So you see that's obviously the response.

    05:43-05:46

    We saw the parallel account to that in John.

    05:47-05:57

    Verse 49 says, "But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." Again, that's more mocking.

    05:58-06:07

    There wasn't anyone there, none of the bystanders that we've seen at any point in this account that had a sincere seeking of Christ being the Messiah.

    06:07-06:10

    We've seen nothing but ridicule and mock.

    06:12-06:19

    Now, Jesus was, if you recall, offered a drink earlier while He was on the cross.

    06:19-06:31

    Matthew 27.34, Mark 15.23, we're not going to turn to there, but earlier while He was on the cross, Jesus was offered a drink and the Bible says He refused that drink.

    06:31-06:46

    And the question that I had was, "Why did Jesus refuse the earlier drink, but at this point he actually asked for a drink. Well, there's a very specific reason for that.

    06:46-07:06

    The first drink, the Bible says, the first drink that he was offered was actually called gall, and it was a sedative. You see, it was a bit of mercy for somebody being crucified. Basically, like, "Here's an aspirin." But don't miss this.

    07:06-07:11

    Jesus refused the gall because He didn't want the sedative.

    07:12-07:22

    Because He chose to feel the full impact of God's wrath on Himself.

    07:23-07:32

    He wanted to feel that! He wanted to bear God's wrath for my sin.

    07:34-07:40

    And he just refused to be drugged for that to any degree.

    07:40-07:41

    And I'm just going to be honest with you.

    07:41-07:42

    I can be honest, right?

    07:42-07:43

    Can I be honest with you?

    07:43-07:44

    I would have taken it.

    07:45-07:57

    When you consider the horrible pain, the ridicule, the shame, this is a scene more horrific than we can fathom.

    07:58-08:01

    I would have taken it in a second.

    08:01-08:06

    Anything you can do to get my mind off of this.

    08:06-08:08

    Jesus refused that.

    08:10-08:17

    But here, the drink that he drank at this point, the Bible specifically says, was sour wine.

    08:18-08:19

    What was that?

    08:19-08:22

    Well, some people have said, well, the soldiers drank that.

    08:22-08:24

    That was basically their Gatorade.

    08:24-08:27

    They kept it out and drank that.

    08:28-08:37

    Some people have suggested it was to sort of rehydrate people that were suffering, not to really alleviate their suffering, but to extend it.

    08:37-08:42

    Say this will help them live longer, help them suffer longer.

    08:43-08:49

    It was a cheap wine, it was actually almost vinegar, and it would have had almost zero alcohol content in it.

    08:52-09:10

    Okay, so we get to this passage, we have this scene on the cross, And we've seen the drama, we've heard the cries, and at this point Jesus says, "I thirst." If you're taking notes, I want you to jot down a couple of things here.

    09:10-09:22

    This statement, "I thirst," it is going to stagger you in three ways and on three levels.

    09:24-09:34

    The first way, the first level, The first thing that's so staggering about this statement is simply this, it shows us that the physical suffering of Jesus was real.

    09:36-09:37

    This wasn't play acting.

    09:39-09:52

    You see, in our day, people that doubt Jesus, in our day, the people that doubt Jesus doubt that Jesus the man was actually God, right?

    09:52-10:02

    He was just a man, he was just a rabbi, he was just a good teacher, but we don't think he was God, but did you know, closer to the time of these events, there was a completely different heresy.

    10:03-10:11

    Because Jesus was so awesome, there was a whole heresy, the other end of the spectrum saying, "We don't think he was human.

    10:13-10:30

    We don't believe Jesus the Spirit was actually flesh and blood because he couldn't have been human." Because he wasn't really human, he didn't really suffer.

    10:32-10:38

    Because he wasn't actually flesh and blood, the spirit Jesus wasn't actually a man.

    10:38-10:44

    Well, the first thing this statement shows us is that Jesus was fully God and man at the same time.

    10:45-10:47

    It was a genuine cry of agony.

    10:48-10:55

    And when you think in your mind or you see a depiction of the crucifixion, you can't think to yourself, "Well, he was God.

    10:55-10:58

    He probably didn't feel that the way I would have felt that.

    10:59-10:59

    Right?

    10:59-11:04

    I mean, he healed the lame and he healed the blind and he healed leprosy.

    11:06-11:09

    I mean, let's be honest, he probably could have just healed himself, right?

    11:11-11:11

    Absolutely.

    11:12-11:13

    He could have.

    11:15-11:19

    Just like he refused the gall, he refused to heal himself.

    11:20-11:39

    Don't think for a second at any moment he could have just walked off the cross and said, enough of this. He just walked right to heaven and said, "They're not worth it!" But He chose in His humanity to feel it. All of it.

    11:42-12:18

    The second staggering thing, when Jesus said, "I thirst." The second staggering thing is this, it recreates the Passover drama. I want you to look at verse 29 again because God's word is so specific. Look at verse 29. It says, "A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth." I want you to notice the type of branch that is specifically identified.

    12:18-12:20

    It is a hyssop branch.

    12:23-12:25

    Why is that so significant?

    12:26-12:28

    Jot this down, you can turn here later, but not now.

    12:28-12:30

    Exodus 12, verse 22.

    12:31-12:33

    I want to take you back to the Old Testament.

    12:33-12:38

    Remember at this point in history, Israel, they were slaves in Egypt.

    12:39-12:41

    And they were delivered by God.

    12:41-12:43

    Do you remember Israel living in Egypt?

    12:44-12:58

    God said, "I'm going to send these plagues on Egypt, and that's going to force Pharaoh to let you go free from your slavery." Well, do you remember what the 10th plague was?

    13:00-13:05

    The 10th plague was the death of the firstborn, or the Passover.

    13:07-13:19

    God promised with the 10th plague that he was going to come through Egypt And he was going to kill the firstborn in every home.

    13:22-13:41

    But Israel was told, remember they were slaves living in Egypt, Israel was told every household was to take a spotless lamb and they were to kill it and they were to put the blood of that spotless lamb on the doorpost and the cross piece.

    13:43-14:01

    And what would happen is, God says, "When I come through Egypt, if I see the blood of a spotless lamb, I'm going to pass over that house and not kill the firstborn." That's where that word "passover" comes from.

    14:03-14:15

    And interestingly, at this very moment that Jesus was being crucified, Passover was being celebrated and remembered in Jerusalem.

    14:16-14:21

    So Jesus is outside the city, inside the city, the Jews are celebrating the Passover.

    14:24-14:26

    Well back to the Exodus account.

    14:26-14:35

    Interestingly, when God told Israel to apply the blood of the spotless Lamb to their doorposts and the doorframe.

    14:36-14:38

    Do you know how God told them to apply it?

    14:40-15:04

    He said, "Use a hyssop branch to apply the blood of the lamb." So, when the hyssop branch was extended to give Jesus a drink, I want you to put yourself in the sandals of a Jew in Jerusalem during this time.

    15:05-15:06

    What would that have looked like to them?

    15:07-15:12

    Hyssop branch extended, hyssop branch extended, reaching with the hyssop branch.

    15:12-15:33

    They would have thought immediately, "This is like the Passover." You see, God was proclaiming, God was graphically portraying This is the true Passover lamb.

    15:35-15:39

    This is the true lamb that saves from death.

    15:41-15:59

    So the second staggering thing that we see is God providentially using what looked like a simple act of giving Jesus a drink to actually be the playing out of events of the original Passover.

    15:59-16:08

    Which, by the way, the events of the original Passover were to serve as a foreshadowing and a prophecy for the events of the coming Christ, the perfect spotless Lamb of God.

    16:10-16:14

    But there's more to what's happening here.

    16:15-16:29

    The third mind-blowing, staggering thing from Jesus saying, "I'm thirsty." The third thing takes us to why Jesus said this.

    16:31-16:36

    And it goes much deeper than, "He said it because he was thirsty." Yes, that is true.

    16:37-16:39

    But there's a much deeper reason that He said it.

    16:39-16:41

    And I want you to look at verse 28 again.

    16:41-16:47

    And I want you to look very closely at the specific wording in verse 28.

    16:49-17:13

    It says, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, 'To fulfill the Scripture, I thirst.'" First of all, look at that phrase, knowing that all was now finished.

    17:13-17:20

    "All" obviously refers to, specifically, His earthly ministry and suffering.

    17:21-17:23

    I think that goes without saying, right?

    17:24-17:30

    Jesus wasn't like, "I'm done with everything," because we still had - spoiler alert - resurrection coming in a couple of days.

    17:30-17:35

    We still had commissioning of the disciples.

    17:35-17:39

    We still had, I don't know, all the second advent stuff that is yet to come.

    17:39-17:42

    So it's not like Jesus is completely done with everything.

    17:43-17:49

    When Jesus says "all" here, it's obvious that He's referring specifically to His suffering.

    17:51-17:54

    And it takes us back to what Jesus said in John 17 forward.

    17:54-18:03

    You remember when He prayed, "I glorify you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do." So here it is.

    18:04-18:05

    Listen closely.

    18:05-18:22

    Jesus, in order for Jesus to actually be the Messiah, He had to fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies surrounding the suffering of the Messiah.

    18:23-18:25

    He had to fulfill all of them.

    18:28-18:30

    And when you go through the Old Testament, there's a lot.

    18:32-18:34

    The Old Testament says the Messiah would be despised and rejected.

    18:35-18:39

    The Old Testament says that the Messiah would have His hands and feet pierced.

    18:39-18:41

    The Old Testament says the Messiah would be mocked.

    18:41-18:45

    The Old Testament says people would be gambling for His clothes.

    18:45-18:48

    The Old Testament says the Messiah's bones would not be broken.

    18:48-18:50

    All through the Old Testament.

    18:51-18:55

    Exodus 12, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 10.

    18:55-18:57

    I can go on and on and on and on.

    18:57-18:58

    All through the Old Testament.

    18:59-19:04

    There's so many prophecies concerning the suffering of the Messiah.

    19:04-19:10

    And at this moment, Jesus knew He had exactly one left.

    19:12-19:27

    That's why verse 28 says, "Knowing that all was now finished," Jesus knew, despite everything that had happened to Him, in His mind and in His heart, He knew, there's exactly one more thing that needs done.

    19:29-19:48

    Jesus remembered Psalm 69 verse 21 that says, For my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." And John 19.28 says, "He said he was thirsty to receive that drink in order to fulfill this prophecy." Understand on the cross what was happening in Jesus' mind.

    19:48-19:49

    He knew, "Everything's done.

    19:51-19:53

    I fulfilled everything that I came to do.

    19:53-20:00

    Oh, there's one left." The Scripture says, "This has to happen." So it's going to happen.

    20:00-20:12

    This is the last one to fulfill, so I'm not going to fulfill it." And before somebody says, "Well, that just sounds like He manipulated the prophecy." Really? That's what you think?

    20:14-20:16

    You think He manipulated the prophecy?

    20:16-20:18

    He somehow convinced them to crucify Him?

    20:20-20:22

    He chose the drink that they offered Him?

    20:24-20:25

    He just said He was thirsty.

    20:25-20:27

    They gave Him sour wine.

    20:28-20:32

    And that's exactly what the Old Testament said the Messiah was going to have.

    20:34-20:52

    Oh, the sovereignty of Jesus, in control of every single detail, even while He's nailed to the cross, even while He's moments away from His death.

    20:52-20:54

    Oh, it looks otherwise in this moment, right?

    20:56-21:09

    To everyone, whether it was the bystanders, the religious leaders who were mocking Him, or the Roman guards, to everybody, it looked completely otherwise in this moment, but Jesus was in total control the whole time.

    21:11-21:15

    And my question to you, church, is what does that tell you about God?

    21:17-21:18

    What does that tell you about God?

    21:21-21:22

    Here's what it tells me.

    21:23-21:25

    It tells me that God always keeps His promises.

    21:27-21:31

    This testifies to the absolute trustworthiness of God's Word.

    21:32-21:40

    Every promise comes true, no matter how minor a detail, like taking a drink.

    21:41-21:45

    No matter how major the obstacle, like being nailed to a cross.

    21:45-21:48

    God always delivers what He says.

    21:51-21:53

    And there's somebody sitting here today that needs to know this.

    21:56-21:58

    God always does everything He promises.

    22:01-22:08

    God always does everything that He promises.

    22:10-22:12

    Can you take the Bible too literally?

    22:14-22:15

    Jesus didn't.

    22:17-22:19

    He took it all the way.

    22:20-22:24

    There is no such thing in Jesus' mind as too literal.

    22:25-22:31

    He's like, "Every word of God is true." So no, we can't take God's Word too literally.

    22:34-22:44

    Jesus demonstrated that here in these last moments by fulfilling exactly the one more prophecy of the suffering of the Messiah.

    22:45-22:50

    What you need to know today, God always does everything that He promises. Everything.

    22:52-22:59

    For example, God has promised in His Word that He's going to use your trials to ultimately bless you.

    23:02-23:05

    God has promised in His Word that He's going to provide all your needs.

    23:06-23:10

    God has promised to never leave you or forsake you.

    23:12-23:24

    God has promised that everyone who receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will be saved and become a child of God.

    23:26-23:33

    And God has promised to one day eradicate all pain and suffering.

    23:34-23:43

    So Jesus' final act, not His final word, But Jesus' final act of His earthly ministry is right here.

    23:45-23:49

    His final act was to prove that He is the Messiah.

    23:51-24:09

    And it demonstrates to us, graphically and forever, that no matter how things may look, no matter how hard things get in your life, No matter how hopeless, everything appears before you.

    24:11-24:13

    God always keeps His Word.

    24:14-24:15

    Pray with me.

    24:17-24:21

    Father in heaven, we stand in awe of You.

    24:23-24:26

    Father, what a testimony to Your Word this statement is.

    24:28-24:34

    That Jesus would fulfill every last little tiny detail from the Old Testament.

    24:35-24:37

    And He knew exactly what He was doing.

    24:40-24:43

    A sovereign God, even while on the cross!

    24:45-24:46

    A sovereign God!

    24:48-24:50

    Who has made so many promises to us.

    24:52-24:54

    Father, help our unbelief.

    24:55-25:04

    There's times, Father, that we sinfully and wrongfully wonder, "Can God really keep His Word?

    25:04-25:06

    Is God really going to do what he says?

    25:06-25:09

    Can I really trust God's word?

    25:10-25:13

    And what a testimony to the glorious truth.

    25:16-25:20

    Jeremiah says that you are watching over your word to perform it.

    25:20-25:34

    That not only did you give us your word, that your word tells us right now you are seated in heaven, watching every little detail take place, making sure everything is fulfilled exactly as you promised.

    25:35-25:44

    So God, I pray today that we would find a renewed, or maybe there's somebody in here, they would find a new confidence in your word.

    25:46-25:48

    We thank you God for your faithfulness.

    25:49-25:51

    We thank you for your trustworthiness.

    25:52-25:54

    We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read John 19:28-29

  1. Why did Jesus drink this sour wine when He earlier refused to drink (Matthew 27:34)?

  2. What is the significance of the statement "I thirst"? Why is this more than just a declaration of a physical need?

  3. What does Jesus' fulfilling this last prophecy teach us about God's Word as a whole?

  4. What is significant about the hyssop branch being used to take wine to Jesus? What was God communicating with this?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

7 Words from the Cross - Part 4

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Review: Matt 27:46 or Mark 15:34  |  Psalm 22  |  Gal 3  |  2 Cor 5:21  |  1 Pet 3:19  |  2 Thes 1:9  |  Matt 22:19

 

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint:
Highlight blanks above for answers!

  • 01:04-01:08

    Open up your Bibles with me please to Matthew.

    01:09-01:10

    Actually, you have a choice today.

    01:10-01:15

    You can open up to Matthew 27.46 or Mark 15.34.

    01:15-01:16

    Alright? You have a choice today.

    01:17-01:22

    Because it's the same verse in two gospel accounts.

    01:24-01:25

    Matthew 27.46.

    01:27-01:29

    If you're visiting with us, we're going through a series.

    01:30-01:40

    The Bible tells us that while Jesus was on the cross, there were seven statements that were made over the course of that six-hour period.

    01:40-01:55

    And we're taking one of these statements every week and digging deep to see why the Holy Spirit has made sure that these words are preserved in God's Word.

    01:56-02:20

    Matthew 27.46 says, "At about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi! Eloi! Lema sebachthanai!'" That is, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" This is it.

    02:22-02:29

    This is the most soul-stirring, heart-wrenching quote from our Lord.

    02:29-02:30

    This is it.

    02:32-03:01

    This Jesus who, while on the cross, prayed for those who were mocking and killing Him; who promised the repentant criminal a place in paradise that very day, who provided for his mom, now himself cries out, feeling abandoned.

    03:03-03:08

    Now, your Bible tells you that Jesus cried out with a loud voice.

    03:08-03:09

    Don't miss that.

    03:10-03:20

    Because this statement wasn't whispered under hushed tones as if almost he was speaking to himself or making a quiet prayer.

    03:20-03:46

    This wasn't, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Literally, according to the Greek, the word is "He screamed." He screamed, "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?" I don't know if you've ever felt forsaken.

    03:48-03:49

    What does that word mean?

    03:49-03:53

    Literally, the word "forsaken" means left helpless.

    03:56-04:01

    You're defenseless and helpless and abandoned.

    04:01-04:03

    That's what the word means.

    04:06-04:18

    I don't know if you've ever felt forsaken, but I do know that no one in this room has ever felt anything like this.

    04:20-04:21

    Can anything compare?

    04:23-04:24

    Can anything compare to this?

    04:26-04:46

    You see, it's my job as a pastor to study this, and then I get up in front of you and And I say, "This is what this passage is like, and there's nothing that compares to this." And I thought, "What about like a parent being separated from a child?" And I thought about, Aaron, do you remember, it was a couple of years ago at Ingimar, Owen took off after service.

    04:46-04:50

    And many of you probably remember this because there was like a search party of people from our church.

    04:51-04:56

    Our son took off when we were in the school, and he somehow locked himself in a stairwell.

    04:58-04:59

    You remember that?

    04:59-05:05

    I don't know how long it was that we were looking for Owen, but it felt like hours.

    05:07-05:20

    And I just had this horrific, sickening feeling in my stomach, "Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?" And it was horrible.

    05:22-05:23

    The minutes felt like hours.

    05:26-05:40

    Comparing that incident with my son to Jesus on the cross is sort of like comparing a mouthful of water to all of the oceans in the world.

    05:42-05:46

    How do you think the six hours on the cross felt?

    05:46-05:47

    How do you think that felt?

    05:50-05:53

    Jesus had perfect fellowship with the Father from eternity past.

    05:54-06:00

    A relationship, again a relationship that we have nothing to compare to.

    06:01-06:03

    This was a very tough message to put together.

    06:04-06:11

    This is a very tough message for me to say, "That's what this is like." What was the relationship like in the Godhead?

    06:11-06:17

    The Bible says that God the Father is God, and God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God.

    06:20-06:29

    How do we compare anything on this human experience to the relationship that God has in the Godhead?

    06:29-06:41

    And I thought, "Well, what if I had some illustration of this married couple that's just been married for a long time?" And that doesn't really compare.

    06:43-06:47

    And I thought, "Well, what about somebody who had this lifetime friend, and we went to school together and we always stayed close.

    06:47-06:51

    And this friend of mine, now that doesn't really do it either.

    06:53-07:02

    I thought, well, what about like this single parent that has this child and they have this bond with this child and this child is all this parent has.

    07:02-07:05

    That doesn't compare either.

    07:05-07:07

    And then I thought, what about like people that are twins?

    07:08-07:14

    Maybe you've heard stories about how twins have like some unexplainable, almost psychic connection to each other.

    07:14-07:19

    And I think of these twins that sort of grow up and stay together and always live close together.

    07:21-07:23

    I've got to tell you, I got nothing.

    07:24-07:35

    There is nothing that I could think of to compare to a relationship that is perfect in every way, but was perfect in every way for all of eternity past.

    07:37-07:38

    Nothing compares.

    07:38-07:47

    A perfect loving relationship in the Godhead who exists as three in one, or one as three.

    07:47-07:54

    His nature cannot be fully understood or explained, and His relationship within the Godhead cannot be fully understood or explained.

    07:54-08:04

    But now, this perfect relationship, this perfect fellowship that has always been perfect is broken.

    08:07-08:07

    How can this happen?

    08:09-08:10

    How can God be divided?

    08:12-08:14

    I don't have an answer for that.

    08:14-08:15

    I don't know.

    08:16-08:35

    I do know that Jesus did not cease being God, but somehow, during His suffering on the cross, God the Father had forsaken God the Son for the first time in eternity.

    08:37-08:42

    And interestingly, when you study your Bibles, every time Jesus prays, do you notice this?

    08:42-08:47

    Every time Jesus prays, He refers to the Father, right?

    08:49-08:53

    When He teaches to pray, when He models prayer, it's always the Father, the Father, He's my Father.

    08:53-08:54

    He's like Dad.

    08:55-09:17

    This is the only time that Jesus doesn't call him "Dad." He doesn't call him "Father." Notice this is the only time that Jesus refers to the Almighty as "God." Because he didn't feel the relational connection.

    09:18-09:21

    He didn't say, "Dad, where are you?" Now he's feeling detached.

    09:22-09:23

    He's like, "God, where are you?

    09:24-09:29

    Why have you forsaken me?" Why did he say this?

    09:29-09:33

    Well, this is a direct quote and fulfillment of Psalm 22.

    09:34-09:35

    I just want you to jot that down.

    09:35-09:46

    I want to encourage you tonight, by yourself or if you want to do it as a couple, as a family, however that looks, do it with a friend, whatever.

    09:46-09:50

    I want to encourage you tonight to just read Psalm 22.

    09:52-09:58

    Because this is a messianic psalm that speaks about the events of the cross that we are discussing.

    09:59-10:10

    And it predicted, generations prior to the events that we are talking about here, it predicted exact events that happened while Jesus was crucified.

    10:10-10:15

    For example, Psalm 22.7 talks about Jesus being mocked.

    10:16-10:25

    As specific a detail as people wagging their heads at Him, just like walking by like, "I but who he thought he was, that was predicted perfectly.

    10:28-10:38

    Psalm 22.16 says that they pierced his hands and feet, which is incredible because at the time the psalmist wrote this, crucifixion wasn't invented.

    10:39-10:41

    But it talks about piercing hands and feet?

    10:43-10:48

    It gets so specific, Psalm 22.18 talks about how they gambled for his clothes.

    10:49-10:52

    which is exactly, remember, exactly what they were doing.

    10:53-10:59

    While Jesus was praying that they would be forgiven, they were throwing dice for His shirt.

    11:02-11:15

    So this statement of Jesus, I don't think it's just Jesus saying, "I'm going to quote a Scripture passage now." And I don't think even that this is a theological question.

    11:15-11:22

    I don't think Jesus is crying out, I'm having a hard time understanding this little piece of theology.

    11:22-11:23

    Could you explain it?

    11:23-11:25

    I don't think that's what's going on here at all.

    11:25-11:32

    I think what's happening here is Jesus is expressing the horror of abandonment.

    11:33-11:35

    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    11:37-11:39

    Do you know what this tells us?

    11:41-11:51

    You see, this tells us that everything was happening according to God's plan.

    11:53-11:57

    That God was fulfilling His Word down to the letter.

    11:57-12:00

    And that should be a great comfort and encouragement.

    12:01-12:23

    That Jesus isn't just victim of violent circumstance, but in quoting this, We look back and we read this account and we say, "Oh, we see that this is all happening exactly as God predicted back in Psalm 22." So why would Jesus have been forsaken by God?

    12:24-12:26

    Why don't you look back at verse 45.

    12:28-12:40

    It says, "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour." Okay, so just to give you some context here, this is important.

    12:40-12:41

    This is gonna be really important here in a second.

    12:42-12:44

    Jesus was crucified at the third hour.

    12:45-12:49

    Now, the Jews started their day at 6 a.m.

    12:50-12:51

    So the third hour would be what?

    12:53-12:54

    Nine, right?

    12:55-12:58

    I honestly didn't know I had to ask because I'm not good at math.

    12:59-13:01

    Okay, so it starts at 6 a.m.

    13:02-13:03

    and the third hour is nine.

    13:05-13:06

    And the ninth hour would be what?

    13:08-13:08

    According to our clock.

    13:10-13:11

    Yeah, right, 3 p.m.

    13:13-13:24

    So verse 45 says the sixth hour, noon, that verse 45 says from noon to 3 p.m., get this, from noon to 3 p.m. there was darkness.

    13:26-13:28

    Do you see that there was darkness over all the land?

    13:30-13:35

    There weren't streetlights and electric lamps outside.

    13:36-13:41

    There was darkness over the entire land.

    13:41-13:49

    In fact, I read this week of at least two Roman historians, secular Roman historians, talk about this darkness.

    13:50-14:04

    Paraphrasing, they're like, "It was just this weird darkness "that came over our area that was inexplicable." Well, of course, some scholars, and I use that word loosely, have come along and said, "Well, this was an eclipse.

    14:04-14:05

    "That's what was happening here.

    14:05-14:06

    "This was an eclipse.

    14:06-14:09

    That's why there was darkness and that was actually impossible.

    14:10-14:13

    I know for a fact that it was not an eclipse.

    14:13-14:15

    You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Well, here's how I know that.

    14:16-14:18

    Because the month always started with a new moon.

    14:19-14:22

    And Passover was always in the middle of the month.

    14:23-14:24

    So Passover was always during a full moon.

    14:25-14:28

    So it would be impossible for it to actually be an eclipse.

    14:30-14:34

    So I do have an explanation for this darkness.

    14:35-14:45

    The explanation is this, God literally turned off the sun the way you would turn off the lamp on your nightstand.

    14:46-14:49

    Why would God turn off the sun?

    14:51-15:07

    Some people have said that God was protesting, that God was so angry that they were doing this to his son, and it was God's way of saying, "I'm just going to turn the lights out." That's not what's happening.

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    Some people have said that it was God's way of hiding the shame.

    15:15-15:28

    Here's his son beaten within an inch of his life and naked and nailed to a cross, and it was God's way of sort of putting a veil over that to cover the shame.

    15:28-15:30

    That's not what's happening either.

    15:32-15:33

    This is what was happening.

    15:35-15:37

    Darkness in the Bible.

    15:38-15:41

    You can trace this Old Testament to New Testament.

    15:41-15:48

    You can trace this, go to Isaiah, go to Joel, go to Amos, go to Zephaniah, go all the way to the end of your Bible in Revelation.

    15:48-15:54

    When God turns out the lights, that always means judgment.

    15:56-16:20

    God turning out the lights is His way of saying, "I am bringing judgment down now." God here in this passage as Jesus was crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God's commentary by turning the sun off is saying the cross is a judgment on sin.

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    What's going on here?

    16:23-16:25

    How is the cross a judgment on sin?

    16:27-16:28

    Get this.

    16:30-16:31

    On the cross.

    16:33-16:33

    On the cross.

    16:33-16:42

    While Jesus was nailed to the cross, while Jesus was on the cross, He literally became sin.

    16:44-16:45

    What do you mean by that?

    16:45-16:59

    Well listen, Galatians 3.13 says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming cursed for us, for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree," and that's from Deuteronomy 21.

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    So when Jesus was on the cross, he literally became a curse.

    17:06-17:23

    Also 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, "For our sake, he made him to be sin." What made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God?

    17:23-17:34

    So on the cross, Jesus took our sin on Himself and He actually became sin.

    17:34-17:44

    He became the embodiment of sin and God was pouring out His judgment on my sin on Jesus.

    17:47-17:50

    I want you to think of the sin that you've struggled with.

    17:52-17:54

    Maybe there's a sin you're still struggling with right now.

    17:56-17:57

    I want you to think about your sin.

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    And I want you to think about your sin in light of this.

    18:02-18:06

    Jesus represented your sin on the cross so that God could judge it.

    18:08-18:11

    On the cross, Jesus became pride.

    18:13-18:20

    Your self-centered, everything has to be my way attitude, that sin, Jesus became that on the cross.

    18:22-18:28

    Your pornography addiction, Jesus became that sin on the cross.

    18:31-18:37

    That greed that you have, that never get enough, I never get enough, I always want more, I'm always looking for new, different, and better.

    18:37-18:40

    That greed, Jesus became greed.

    18:40-18:43

    He became your greed on the cross.

    18:45-18:56

    That lust, that I have a hard time looking at a woman without my mind going places, Jesus became that lust while he was on the cross.

    18:57-18:59

    Your lust, Jesus took it on himself.

    18:59-19:12

    He became that so that God could judge your wickedness by taking it out on Jesus, by pouring it upon Jesus.

    19:13-19:14

    Jesus represented your sin.

    19:14-19:18

    He became your sin so that God could judge your sin.

    19:20-19:21

    By the way, Jesus...

    19:23-19:24

    You know, we talk about Jesus being the only way to heaven.

    19:24-19:25

    Do you know why that is?

    19:26-19:39

    He's the only one that qualifies to be able to do this because He's the only one that's ever walked the earth that was sinless, you see.

    19:39-19:41

    That's why Jesus was qualified.

    19:41-19:43

    He was able to take your sin.

    19:43-19:46

    He was able to become sin because He didn't have sin of His own.

    19:46-19:57

    If Jesus sinned, if Jesus sinned and He was crucified, well, we'd be like, "Well, He just He got what was coming to Him, because He was a wicked man just like me, if He sinned.

    19:58-20:03

    The crucifixion was just Him getting what He should have got, but because He didn't sin.

    20:05-20:15

    Because He is God in the flesh who never sinned, He was uniquely qualified to be able to become sin, to take my sin.

    20:17-20:24

    that God puts our sin on Jesus in a way that Jesus became sin and God was judging Jesus for my sin.

    20:25-20:31

    And that broke the fellowship.

    20:32-20:40

    Because the holiness of God cannot be in the presence of sin.

    20:40-20:43

    Do you understand what's happening here?

    20:45-20:46

    Jesus becomes sin.

    20:47-20:49

    Holy God can't be in the presence of sin.

    20:49-20:56

    Jesus in this state, feeling abandoned by His Father, cries out, "My God!

    20:57-20:57

    My God!

    20:58-21:06

    Why have You forsaken Me?" Right now our minds naturally wonder, "Well, how did that feel?

    21:07-21:08

    How did that feel?

    21:09-21:10

    What was that like?

    21:10-23:12

    How did that feel?" I'm going to tell you authority of God's Word exactly how that felt. You know how that felt? How did that feel? Literally? Like hell. People have asked me, "Did Jesus go to hell when he died?" He didn't. The Bible doesn't say he went to hell. He went to paradise or heaven according to what he said to the criminal who repented, "Today you'll be with me in paradise. And sometime in those three days, he wants to proclaim his victory to the demons in prison. Jot that down, 1 Peter 3.19. This is a whole other sermon, but the Bible says many, many, many places, Luke chapter 8, it's in a Jude, 1 Peter, 2 Peter revelation, that there is a prison for demons, like the worst of the worst. There's says again 1st Peter 3 19 that Jesus went there not to hell he went to this prison to proclaim to these demons I won I won Satan thought I was defeated but I'm here to tell you I won so you need to write this down Jesus didn't descend to hell. On the cross, hell ascended to Jesus. I'm going to say that again, I'm going to explain that. Jesus didn't descend to hell. While he was on the cross, hell ascended to Jesus. What do you mean by that? 2 Thessalonians 1.9, 2 Thessalonians 1.9 says hell is the where one is eternally cast away from the presence of the Lord.

    23:15-23:29

    See there's a lot of terrifying pictures that go with hell where the worm dieth not, right? Described as eternal flame. The pain of hell is the fact that you are cast out of God's presence. That is the pain of hell.

    23:30-23:35

    That God says, "Okay, you'd rather have your sin than have me.

    23:35-23:36

    You don't want anything to do with me.

    23:37-23:41

    It's a grace." God says, "I will put you in a place where you don't have to deal with me for all of eternity.

    23:41-23:42

    Here you go.

    23:42-23:46

    You've chosen this." That's the suffering of hell.

    23:47-23:48

    You're out of God's presence.

    23:49-23:57

    But I want you to also note that hell is described as outer darkness, Matthew 22.13.

    23:58-23:58

    Okay?

    23:59-23:59

    Are you with me?

    23:59-24:09

    Check this, Jesus in darkness, forsaken and alienated from God.

    24:11-24:19

    Though He was not in hell, He was experiencing all of the reality of hell on the cross.

    24:21-24:26

    And that's why I say Jesus didn't descend to hell.

    24:27-24:31

    While Jesus was on the cross, hell ascended to Jesus.

    24:34-24:57

    And in that moment of experiencing the full weight, the full reality, that full experience of everything that hell is, Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The horror of hell is God isn't there.

    24:57-25:02

    The anguish and torment of pain being cast out of God's presence.

    25:03-25:11

    Jesus on the cross was forsaken by God in the darkness, literally experiencing the full measure of God's wrath.

    25:12-25:14

    Literally experiencing the full horror of hell.

    25:15-25:19

    Literally being judged for my sin.

    25:21-25:22

    For your sin.

    25:24-25:34

    He took our sin upon Himself, He became sin, and God treated Him as sin.

    25:36-25:42

    God treated Jesus the way you deserve to be treated.

    25:43-25:47

    And it was the suffering that was due us.

    25:49-25:56

    All the hell that you deserve was put upon Jesus and He took it.

    25:58-25:59

    How do you respond to that?

    26:01-26:02

    What do you say?

    26:02-26:03

    What do you say?

    26:03-26:04

    What do you say about that?

    26:06-26:08

    Do you know how I agonized over that this week?

    26:10-26:16

    Like the theology and the doctrine and what the Bible says, yeah, yeah, that's black and white, I get that.

    26:18-26:19

    How do you respond to that?

    26:20-26:21

    What do you say?

    26:22-26:24

    What do you say, "Thank you"?

    26:25-26:27

    You say "thank you" when somebody gives you a ride to the airport.

    26:29-26:34

    Just saying "thank you" seems a little shallow when somebody says, "I'll go to hell for you.

    26:36-26:39

    I'll experience all of the hell that you deserve.

    26:39-26:39

    I'll experience it.

    26:39-26:40

    I'll take it.

    26:41-26:48

    Even though I've done nothing wrong and you've done everything wrong." Everything seems so shallow.

    26:50-27:06

    Seems to me that the only response is to receive this gift and to live a life marked by love and gratitude for your Savior.

    27:09-27:38

    And you can sit here and listen to this message or you can, maybe somebody's downloading this message online on our podcast. You can hear this message and you can choose to walk away unaffected. But I want you to know something. If you go to hell, it will be in spite of what Jesus did for you. Because there was literally hell to pay.

    27:39-28:01

    "And Jesus, He paid it for you." Evidenced by the most sorrowful statement ever said by our Lord when He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

    28:03-28:24

    Would you bow your heads with Me please?" Maybe there's somebody here today that you're like, "I didn't know this." And maybe you sort of looked at the cross of Jesus Christ as if almost like we're all children, and Jesus took a spanking that we should have taken, and you didn't realize.

    28:24-28:26

    No, what Jesus did was He took the hell.

    28:27-28:30

    The full experience of hell.

    28:30-28:31

    They're not going to hell.

    28:31-28:33

    Jesus took the full experience of hell.

    28:34-29:08

    cast in darkness and forsaken by God. He did that so that you would never have to taste hell. He did that so that you wouldn't have to experience a half a second of hell. He did that for you. And I want to challenge you to wrestle with the thing that I had to wrestle with this week. How do I respond to that? What pay God for it, because the Bible says this was a gift that He gave.

    29:11-29:17

    But to honor my God and my Savior, what I can do is I can humbly receive that gift.

    29:18-29:29

    And I can let my life, the things that I do, the way that I serve Him, I can let that be done in a spirit of gratitude.

    29:31-29:32

    He died for me.

    29:33-29:34

    I'll live for Him.

    29:36-29:41

    Maybe there's somebody here that needs to make that decision today.

    29:43-29:44

    I'm going to lead us in a prayer.

    29:46-29:47

    And I'll be back at guest reception.

    29:48-29:56

    There will be people back in the other corner by the prayer sign that would love to pray with you if you want to talk more about what it means to receive Jesus Christ.

    29:57-30:16

    Because there is hell to pay, and the options are you can pay it someday when you leave this earth, or you can accept the gift, the grace of God that He allowed His Son to be forsaken so that we would never be forsaken.

    30:17-30:29

    Father in heaven, I lift up whoever is hearing this, whether it's somebody in this room now, God, I know there are people that download this off the internet and listen to it, all over the world, God.

    30:31-30:39

    And whoever is hearing this, that maybe hasn't wrestled with the horrible reality that Jesus didn't just get executed.

    30:39-30:43

    There've been how many countless thousands of people were crucified in history.

    30:44-30:45

    This wasn't a normal crucifixion.

    30:45-30:47

    This was a judgment on sin.

    30:49-30:55

    That Jesus wasn't just experiencing blood loss and slow asphyxiation.

    30:55-31:02

    What Jesus was experiencing was the wrath of God because of my own stupid, selfish sinfulness.

    31:04-31:06

    God, Your Spirit has a way.

    31:06-31:12

    Your Spirit is the only one that can turn the lights on, that can make the scales fall off, that can illuminate in the heart.

    31:13-31:15

    Your Spirit is the only one who can do that.

    31:15-31:27

    So Father, we cry out that Your Holy Spirit would not give rest to the person who needs to embrace Jesus Christ.

    31:28-31:44

    I pray that Your Holy Spirit would not let that person sleep for a second until they fall down on their knees and cry out and receive the gift of eternal life that You have provided because You let Your Son pay our penalty.

    31:46-31:53

    For those of us, God, who have received that gift, I pray that this is a reminder to serve You in thanksgiving.

    31:54-32:05

    not out of obligation, not out of we're paying you back, but just out of the sense of, I love this God who created me.

    32:05-32:15

    I love this God who stopped short at nothing to make sure that I could be forgiven.

    32:17-32:19

    Let that transform all of us.

    32:21-32:22

    Thank you for the cross.

    32:23-32:29

    We thank You that Your Word explains to us exactly what that means.

    32:31-32:33

    We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 27:46

  1. Why did Jesus say this? What does this say about what was happening on the cross

  2. Jesus didn't "descend to hell" - on the cross, hell ascended to Jesus. Explain what this means.

  3. In light of these glorious truths, how does this prove that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved?

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.