Introduction:
Life's Two Biggest Questions, Answered on the Cross (John 19:17-27):
- Is there Purpose in Wickedness ? (John 19:17-24)
- Does Jesus Really Care ? (John 19:25-27)
Romans 8:32 - He (God) who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
1 Peter 5:7 - cast all your anxieties on him, because He cares for you.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:06-01:09
Open up to John 19.
01:12-01:14
Same title for the next three weeks.
01:15-01:18
As we walk through John, knowing his sacrifice.
01:21-01:35
If you've been with us on this journey, you recall that we've seen Jesus delivered over to Pilate, the Roman governor, who was coerced by the Jewish leaders to hand Jesus over to be crucified.
01:38-01:45
Leading us to this portion of John which is the most significant event in human history.
01:47-01:53
Because Jesus' death and resurrection purchase our salvation.
01:54-01:57
But gloriously, it doesn't stop there.
02:01-02:06
There's so much more to the cross of Jesus Christ than a ticket to heaven.
02:10-02:15
But for some people, that is where it stops.
02:17-02:22
In their minds, in their hearts, they come to church and they say, "Jesus died for me.
02:23-02:33
I'm going to heaven thanks to Jesus." But there's this strange disconnect with how His death speaks to the here and now.
02:34-02:36
We think of it only in terms of the future.
02:37-02:40
Someday I'm going to get to heaven because of Jesus.
02:40-02:42
And while that is true, what about today?
02:42-02:48
What does His death and resurrection have to do with me alive today?
02:51-03:02
You know, we live in a day of just unprecedented levels and forms of corruption.
03:05-03:08
And you know, I typed a lot of this stuff out.
03:09-03:10
I have it right here.
03:14-03:16
And as I'm standing here, I'm thinking, "I don't need to read this to you.
03:17-03:19
Is there anybody here that doesn't recognize?
03:19-03:23
Do I need to take like five or 10 minutes of the sermon and tell you all the stuff that's going on?
03:24-03:25
Do I really need to do that?
03:26-03:27
Probably not.
03:28-03:29
Probably not.
03:30-03:36
Corruption in the government and media, all this woke movement, all this cancel culture stuff.
03:36-03:39
Do I really need to outline that for anybody in here?
03:39-03:39
Really?
03:40-03:48
Is there somebody streaming right now that's like, "Oh, I didn't know there was bad stuff happening." I'm not gonna do it.
03:50-03:54
If you're unfamiliar with the wickedness, just turn on CNN for a half hour.
03:55-03:58
Try not to gag and you'll be caught up to speed.
04:01-04:01
All right?
04:02-04:04
I just saved you like 10 minutes of your life.
04:06-04:06
You're welcome.
04:07-04:07
You're welcome.
04:09-04:14
You're like, "There's a Steeler game." Okay.
04:14-04:18
So with all of that as a backdrop, again, there's the disconnect.
04:19-04:23
Like what does the death of Jesus have to do with what we're facing now?
04:25-04:29
Like what does the death of Jesus have to do with all that stuff I see on CNN?
04:30-04:38
And I would say, first of all, you shouldn't be watching CNN, but second of all, I would say everything.
04:40-04:43
Jesus' death has everything to do with that.
04:45-04:52
Now we can point our fingers at our favorite corrupt person on TV.
04:53-04:54
Don't shout out any names.
04:58-05:07
Whoever your favorite corrupt person is, a former president, a current president, a director of health, a governor, whatever.
05:10-05:11
"I didn't say any name.
05:12-05:18
"Y'all need to settle down." I'm trying to be objective here.
05:18-05:20
Don't we all have like favorite corrupt people that we look at?
05:20-05:25
But whether you're Democrat, Republican, whatever you are, you have somebody on the other side, you're like, "That guy's so evil.
05:26-05:31
"That guy is so evil." And the reality is we all are.
05:33-05:35
We are all corrupt people.
05:36-05:44
And if I'm going to be really honest, Probably my favorite corrupt person on the planet is the one I see in the mirror every day.
05:48-05:50
And if you're going to be honest, you would say the same thing.
05:52-05:53
We're all corrupt.
05:55-06:01
And Jesus Christ went to the cross, this is a section that we're dealing with in God's Word.
06:01-06:05
He went to the cross to bear our sin on Himself.
06:06-06:17
to take God's wrath that I deserve and you deserve, Jesus said, "I will take that on me." Father, pour out your wrath on me so that they can be forgiven.
06:18-06:34
And if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you receive Him as your Lord and as your Savior, the Bible says you will be saved because you are no longer guilty of sin because the death of Jesus takes your sin away.
06:34-06:41
and in taking your sin away, He takes your guilt, and your shame, and the judgment of God, and the wrath of God.
06:41-06:42
It's over!
06:46-06:48
You don't have to worry about your sin.
06:51-07:09
And no matter how corrupt other people are to you, no matter how much that affects you, no matter the loss, and the hurt, and the sickness in this life, the Gospel does indeed promise that your best days are ahead of you.
07:12-07:14
And Jesus promised His presence and power in the meantime.
07:18-07:35
But as we talk about the wickedness of man, and as we get to the scene of the cross here, I need to remind you, as I do often, that God took the worst thing that's ever happened in history, and he turned it into the best thing that's ever happened in history.
07:35-07:49
And if you'll take just a minute to try to wrap your brain around that, the worst thing that ever happened in history was the fact that God came to earth, God came to be with the people that he created, and we rejected him.
07:50-07:54
We spit on him, we beat him, we humiliated him, we publicly executed him.
07:55-07:56
Our God.
07:57-07:58
That's horrific.
07:59-08:00
That is absolutely horrific.
08:02-08:04
But God turned that into the best thing that's ever happened.
08:05-08:14
Because through His sovereign plan, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God came to pay the sacrifice, to pay the penalty for our sin.
08:15-08:18
So the cross shows us God's sovereignty over evil.
08:23-08:37
And you have to keep that in your mind, church, because if God can accomplish that with the cross, the worst evil becoming the greatest good, whatever thing you're dealing with in your life, God can do the same thing.
08:38-08:40
He can do the exact same thing.
08:41-08:42
Like yes, this is hard.
08:42-08:43
This looks evil.
08:43-08:44
This looks bad.
08:44-08:52
But if you just wait 15 minutes, you're going to see I'm going to use this for glorious purposes in your life.
08:54-08:59
The cross forever stands as a testimony God turns bad into good.
09:02-09:03
And it's a testimony of His love.
09:05-09:27
And so often I hear even people that call themselves Christians say things like this, "I think God hates me." I hear people that call themselves Christians say things like, "I think God's mad at me." And I say, "Well, the cross says otherwise." The cross says that God loves you.
09:28-09:33
And the cross says that God would spare no expense to forgive you and bring you into a relationship with Himself.
09:36-09:40
You're like, are we getting to the Bible today?
09:41-09:42
Yes.
09:43-10:03
Because you see, this passage that we're looking at, all of this stuff that I've been saying to this point, This passage graphically illustrates God's sovereignty over evil and God's incomparable love.
10:05-10:09
And this passage shows us those things in very specific and surprising ways.
10:09-10:20
So on your outline, knowing His sacrifice, life's two biggest questions answered on the cross.
10:22-10:33
The first question, one that we've all struggled with, every single one of us, answered right here in this scene.
10:33-10:35
Number one, is there purpose in wickedness?
10:37-10:39
Is there purpose in wickedness?
10:42-10:43
Look at verse 17.
10:46-11:17
and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. Stop there. It says he went out. That is hugely significant. You're like went out of what? He went out of the city. Like what's the significance of that? Well if you study your Old Testament, sacrifices were taken outside of the city.
11:17-11:20
Exodus 29, Leviticus 4, Leviticus 16.
11:21-11:23
The sacrifices were taken outside.
11:23-11:33
So if Jesus Christ was going to be the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, he was a sacrifice that was going to have to be taken outside of the city.
11:35-11:40
And your Bible says it was the place of a skull, or the skull.
11:42-12:03
Translated in Latin, that's where we get the word "Calvary." Now it's interesting that it's called "The Place of the Skull," because when you study across time and across cultures, the skull has always been a symbol of what?
12:05-12:05
Death, right?
12:06-12:09
I mean, trick-or-treaters this year, right?
12:10-12:14
Driving by, seeing houses decorated for Halloween, do you see all the skulls?
12:15-12:19
It's a universal symbol for death.
12:21-12:23
And there's a bit of irony here.
12:23-12:31
It's almost as if God was saying, I'm going to deal with death at the place of the skull.
12:33-12:33
Look at verse 18.
12:34-12:51
It says, "There they crucified Him, and with Him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them." And again, I have to point out, they describe Jesus' execution with one word.
12:52-12:53
Crucified.
12:55-13:02
Do you remember, I think it was two weeks ago, we talked about the beating that Jesus received, again, described with one word.
13:02-13:06
It says, "flogged." He was flogged.
13:08-13:19
Now I want you to hear very closely to what I'm saying, because I am in no means minimizing the impact of what's happening here.
13:21-13:29
Because every single thing that Jesus said and did was to bring Him to this point.
13:30-13:32
That's been our entire study in John.
13:33-13:34
This is His hour.
13:37-13:41
This is why Jesus came, to get to this point of crucifixion.
13:44-13:56
But I need you to understand church, that so often, every Easter, you're going to hear sermons on podcasts and in different churches and on TV.
13:58-14:11
There's so much made about the method and the tools and the pain and all of the biological things going on, taking place during a crucifixion.
14:11-14:16
But I just want you to see that John doesn't get into any of that, and truthfully, none of the gospel writers do.
14:19-14:37
And I find it so fascinating that Jesus Christ is being crucified, and I would think, I would I would think that in this moment John's going to say, "Let me tell you how horrible the pain was, "and how horrific the scene was, "and how bloody he looked, and how gory it was." I would think that.
14:39-14:42
But you're going to see very clearly in your Bible that's not where he goes.
14:43-14:44
John's like, "He was being crucified.
14:45-14:54
"Now let me tell you the stuff that was happening "around the cross while he was being crucified." Look at verse 19.
14:56-15:01
It says, "Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.
15:02-15:14
It read, 'Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.' Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city.
15:16-15:28
And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek." So this was a very common thing actually, when somebody was being crucified, they would actually make a sign that would state the crime committed.
15:29-15:45
So while they were being crucified, when people walked by, they would see the person and see the sign and say, "I don't want to do what he did, or I'm going to end up like he ended up." It was a deterrent to cross the Romans.
15:49-15:52
Well, in Jesus' case, there was no crime committed.
15:54-15:56
So what do you write on the sign, Pilate?
15:56-15:58
Well, we know exactly what he wrote.
15:59-16:10
He decided to go with "King of the Jews." And I guess that was technically the accusation, right?
16:13-16:14
It's not really a crime.
16:16-16:19
Notice your Bible is clear that he wrote it in three languages.
16:20-16:20
Like why?
16:21-16:24
Well, Aramaic, that was the common language of the Jews.
16:25-16:27
And Latin was the legal language.
16:28-16:32
And Greek was for those that were passing by who didn't know Aramaic.
16:36-16:37
But look at verse 21.
16:38-16:54
It says, "So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, 'Do not write the king of the Jews, But rather, this man said, "I am the king of the Jews." You see their beef?
16:55-16:57
Like, Pilate, you've given weight to this guy's claim.
16:57-16:58
Don't write that.
16:58-16:59
No, no, no, no, no, don't write that.
17:00-17:13
Write down, "He said he was." Pilate answered, verse 22, "What I have written, I have written." It's amazing.
17:14-17:18
Because we've seen in the past couple of weeks, all Pilate did was react to the Jews, right?
17:19-17:23
Just constantly responding to what they were demanding he do.
17:24-17:28
And now, we get here and Pilate stops listening to them.
17:30-17:33
You're like, "Well, what's up with this sign?" What's up with this sign?
17:33-17:34
Pilate was being passive aggressive.
17:35-17:36
And triplicate.
17:38-17:41
Like, "Ok, you wanted him executed? Fine.
17:42-17:44
Do you see the sign I put above His head?
17:46-17:47
I think He was out of spite.
17:50-17:53
But I think this was exactly what God the Father wanted.
17:55-17:59
To make sure that this was the truth above the head of His Son.
17:59-18:06
That even while Jesus Christ was being crucified, God wanted the sign on the cross to be advertising space.
18:07-18:10
To say, "Hey everybody, this is king of the Jews.
18:13-18:19
And in case you're unclear on that, we're going to write it three times so you don't miss it.
18:22-18:24
So is there a purpose in wickedness?
18:27-18:39
Well, already we're seeing that Pilate wrote and kept certain phrasing out of disdain for for the Jews that God used to advertise the majesty of Jesus.
18:41-18:42
But it doesn't stop there.
18:42-18:43
Look at verse 23.
18:46-18:53
It says, "When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His garments and divided them into four parts.
18:53-18:57
One part for each soldier, also his tunic.
18:59-19:04
But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
19:05-19:26
So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be." So four soldiers, they divided up and gambled for the only earthly possessions of Jesus.
19:29-19:38
And I think we just need to stop for a second, and try to take in how horrifying and wicked this scene is.
19:42-19:44
I mean, think about it in your mind's eye.
19:45-19:53
Here you have the Son of God, who's been beaten, who's been humiliated, you know, with the robe and the crown of thorns.
19:56-20:00
And at this moment, he's being executed in front of his own mother.
20:04-20:07
And these men are callously playing dice for his shirt.
20:09-20:11
I mean, that's horrible.
20:14-20:23
And you look at something like that, and say, "Is there purpose in wickedness?" Like how could God use something so heartless and so cruel?
20:25-20:25
Could you imagine?
20:28-20:35
There's weeping mothers standing there and some other friends standing there and these soldiers are like, "Hey, his shirt's pretty nice.
20:35-20:36
Let's not tear it.
20:36-20:38
Hey, let's gamble for it." What?
20:39-20:42
How could God use something like that?
20:45-20:51
Actually, the Bible says He very specifically used this event.
20:54-21:08
Look at verse 24, it says, "This was to fulfill the Scripture, which says, 'They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.'" That's Psalm 22.18.
21:08-21:11
It says, "So the soldiers did these things.
21:14-21:32
Is there purpose in wickedness?" And John says, "Oh yeah, huge purpose, because the soldiers gambling for his clothes fulfills Scripture." And you're like, "Okay, so what?
21:34-21:36
What great purpose is there in that?
21:39-21:40
Here's the purpose.
21:42-22:00
See somebody who's skeptical and quite foolish might try to explain away Jesus Christ and say, "I don't really believe that He was God." And I believe that He was a really creative man.
22:00-22:01
And some people have tried this.
22:02-22:06
He was this really creative man was able to self-fulfill these Old Testament prophecies.
22:06-22:18
He read the Old Testament and he was sort of able to convince people that he was able to fulfill them and that's how he really fooled people into thinking he was the Messiah.
22:21-22:23
Well right here we have proof as to why that's impossible.
22:25-22:36
Because if Jesus was just a con artist, here we have a very, very, very specific prophecy being fulfilled by people other than the Messiah.
22:38-22:39
You see what I'm saying?
22:40-22:43
If Jesus was just a con man, there's no way he could have made this happen.
22:44-22:50
Oh yeah, by the way guys, while I'm dying, gamble for my shirt because the Bible says that.
22:51-23:00
They unwittingly fulfilled Scripture to prove that Jesus wasn't this self-fulfilled prophecy con artist.
23:03-23:12
So this is testimony right here that God's going to bring about His purposes even in and through wicked people who don't know God.
23:13-23:14
Do you see that?
23:15-23:16
Do you see that?
23:16-23:46
so I can start over but here's where the disconnect comes don't tune out now because this is this is this is where the disconnect comes we're sitting here we're watching the stream and we got our Bibles on our laps We're among some of the greatest Christians in the Pittsburgh community.
23:48-25:02
That's not funny. That is deadly serious. I meant every word of that. But we can sit here and we can say, "Yeah, God sure accomplished His will through the wicked." I see it right here. Yep, yep. God sure accomplished His will through the wicked that's what we say today and then tomorrow you turn on the news you deal with some really nasty wicked person at work somebody in your family wrongly accuses you of something and we throw our arms up we say why would God let this happen to me and church we are so guilty of this, we think that God is only accomplishing his purpose in our life when everything is good. When things are smooth, when there's money in the bank, when everybody's getting along and you're like God is good and God's at work and he is. But then when things don't look so rosy, it's easy for us to say, "Where is God? He's not doing anything." Right?
25:06-25:08
And that's why we have scenes like this in God's Word.
25:11-25:21
Because again, if you put yourself in this scene, if you're standing beside Jesus' mother, if you're standing beside John, in that moment things look pretty discouraging, wouldn't you say?
25:24-25:25
Things look depressing.
25:26-25:29
No possible good is going to come from this.
25:33-25:44
But God was actually fulfilling Scripture to prove that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world, and He used the wicked to accomplish that purpose of verifying the identity of His Son.
25:48-25:54
So even when we face what looks like horrible evil, we need to look at this scene.
25:55-26:13
And we need to trust God's sovereignty that like these soldiers, maybe the thing that you're dealing with in your life, though it looks bad, and though it's wicked people seeming to have the upper hand, maybe God is fulfilling some glorious purpose in that, that you just can't see right now.
26:16-26:17
But you will.
26:20-26:25
Just like these people saw God's glorious purpose about three days from this event.
26:25-26:27
Oh, spoiler alert, sorry.
26:28-26:39
For those of you that don't know, life's two biggest questions answered on the cross, number two, does Jesus really care?
26:42-26:49
two biggest questions. Can God bring purpose in wickedness? And does Jesus really care?
26:49-27:05
And somebody might say, "Jeff, I disagree with you. I don't think those are life's two biggest questions." And I would say, "What I've written, I've written." Does Jesus really care?
27:09-27:43
1 John 5 verse 25 It says, "But standing by the cross of Jesus, for His mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene, when Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold your son!' Then He said to the disciple, "Hold your mother!" And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
27:46-27:47
Does Jesus really care?
27:48-27:54
The scene shifts from four soldiers to four women and John.
27:56-27:58
And you're like, where was Joseph?
27:58-28:01
You know, Jesus' earthly dad.
28:01-28:02
Like, where was He?
28:03-28:05
At this point, He was dead.
28:06-28:11
And you're like, "Does the Bible say that?" No, the Bible doesn't explicitly say that.
28:11-28:13
And you're like, "Well, how are you so sure that he's dead?
28:14-28:18
That Joseph was dead at this point?" And I'm sure because I'm a father.
28:19-28:24
And if that was my son, I guarantee you I'd be there.
28:26-28:30
And Joseph isn't mentioned at all after the whole birth account story.
28:30-28:31
Joseph's not mentioned at all.
28:32-28:34
So he's gone.
28:35-28:40
But, we do know for sure that Joseph and Mary had other children.
28:41-28:49
Okay? And if you were raised in a different kind of church that taught something different than that, that's just not true.
28:50-28:55
Read Matthew 13.55-56. It names them.
28:55-28:58
Joseph and Mary had other kids after Jesus was born.
29:01-29:06
You're like, "Well, why are you bringing this up?" Well, apparently Jesus' own siblings weren't there.
29:06-29:09
And at this point, they didn't believe in who he was.
29:09-29:11
We saw that back in chapter seven of verse five.
29:12-29:13
But we have four women present.
29:15-29:26
We have, first of all, Mary, Jesus' mom, which she's not named here, but we definitely know it's Jesus' mom, Mary.
29:27-29:31
Her sister, that's Salome, she would be the mother of James and John.
29:32-29:37
And then Mary, wife of Clopas, who is the mother of another disciple named James.
29:38-29:42
James the Less, which I'm sure he loved being called that.
29:44-29:48
Like, "Can't go with Jimmy here? Jimbo? Anything?
29:48-29:58
Like, you're James the Less." It's like, "I'll show you." And then the fourth woman was Mary Magdalene.
29:58-30:01
Jesus delivered seven demons from her.
30:03-30:05
Luke 8 talks about that.
30:05-30:08
Nothing in the Bible says she was a prostitute or anything like that.
30:08-30:11
I don't know where that whole thing came from, but that's not biblical.
30:12-30:33
So Jesus looks down and zeroes in on His mother, standing with John, and says, "Woman, behold your son." Now some might think at this point that Jesus was talking about Himself.
30:34-30:46
Like, "Mom, do you see what's happening to Me?" And we know that that's not what He was saying, because His very next statement is, "Behold your mother." He's spoken to John.
30:47-30:57
And we know that the message was understood, because the very next sentence in your Bible says from that hour, His disciple John took Mary into his own home.
30:58-31:21
So, Jesus' statement here, "Woman, behold your son." And to John, "Behold your mother." This whole statement was about Jesus making sure that his mother was taken care of after his earthly ministry was over.
31:24-31:31
And you can look at that statement and you can just say, "That was pretty nice of Jesus.
31:32-31:34
Jesus was a good son." I'd expect that.
31:34-31:36
He was perfect in every other way.
31:36-31:39
So, I'm not shocked that Jesus was a good son.
31:39-31:40
That was nice of Him.
31:43-31:45
But I want you to look a little closer here.
31:46-31:52
Because the impact of this statement really isn't in what Jesus said.
31:54-31:57
It was when He said it.
31:58-32:03
You're like, "What do you mean?" Did Jesus know that He was going to be crucified?
32:05-32:06
Did He know that?
32:08-32:08
Yeah.
32:10-32:13
He was extremely clear on that.
32:13-32:15
He knew he was going to be crucified.
32:18-32:21
Did he know that his mother was going to need care for after he was gone?
32:22-32:22
Yeah?
32:24-32:27
The impact isn't on what Jesus said, it's when He said it.
32:27-32:33
He could have had this stuff lined up any time in the previous 33 years.
32:34-32:36
Think of any time in his three years of ministry.
32:37-32:39
He could have had this conversation with Mary.
32:39-32:41
He could have had this conversation with John.
32:42-32:44
He could have had this all set up before.
32:44-32:48
In fact, he didn't even have to do it before the crucifixion.
32:49-32:58
He could have had this set up after his resurrection to say, "Mom, I'm heading back to my father in heaven, but from now on, John's gonna take care of you." John, you're good with that, right?
32:58-32:58
Yeah, okay.
32:59-33:02
So John's gonna take care of you, and he could have done it after the resurrection.
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So the impact here is the truth that Jesus was making these arrangements while he was dying.
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It's not just what he said, it's when he said it.
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You're like, "Well, what do you mean?" I mean this.
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In this moment, Jesus is bearing the wrath of God for our sin.
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And in that very moment of the worst suffering physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, it was a 10 across the board on everything.
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And at that moment, Jesus cares about the needs of his mother.
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Jesus wants to make sure his mom's taken care of.
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I mean, let's be honest.
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Most people would have justifiably been caught up in their own problems.
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Jesus was focused on his moms. And this is one of the most beautiful scenes in God's Word because it forever answers the question, "Does he really care?" Does he really care? Does Jesus really care? You're like, "What do you mean?" When we think of Jesus' love, a lot of times we just sort of think about it in terms of salvation. Right? The sin issues. Like does Jesus love me? Yeah, I know He loves me because He notices when I sin. I know He loves me because He died for my sin. But as Mary saw while He was dying for her sin and ours, He cared about her other needs too. Did you catch that? Jesus could have just said, "I'm dying for your sin.
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I'm getting you entrance to heaven.
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What do you want from me?
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You want more?
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He's like, I care about all of her needs being met.
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And I want you to see that my love is so much deeper than just this.
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Even though that is infinitely great on its own, Jesus' love goes all the way to every single detail of my life.
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Every single detail he cares about.
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He cares.
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Romans 8 32 one of my favorite verses in Scripture says, "He, God, who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all." That's the cross right? It says, "How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" Do you get that? If God's love meet your greatest need, He'll meet your lesser needs. If God's willing to give you His Son, then obviously He'd be willing to give you anything and everything else, right? And this speaks to His personal love. We say, "For God so loved the world," and we try to insert some other concepts in that. Yeah, God in general, generically, loves the world at large. Which is true, but it's so much deeper than that. It's not only does God love, but God cares for. See that? It's not just, "God so loved this church." It's like, God cares about every detail of Jane in our life.
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God is so interested and He so cares for what's happening in Kaylee's life right now.
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Every detail, He cares.
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God is so concerned about what's going on in Corrine's life right now.
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He cares about every single little detail.
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And that's why Peter tells us to cast our anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
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So church, if God cares about the big issue, which is sin, and we know he cares about that because he sent his son to die for you, let me ask you this, do you think God cares about the thing that keeps you up at night?
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Do you think God cares about the thing that's caused you to shed countless tears that nobody What else knows about it?
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Do you think God cares?
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The thing that's been gnawing at your soul, you can't let it go, you just carry it with you all day, in the car, into work, and you just can't get it off of you.
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Do you think God cares about that?
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That hurt that's been keeping you in a state of pain, maybe it's mental pain, maybe it's emotional pain, maybe it's physical pain.
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Do you think God cares about that?
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Yes, Jesus loves me, but does He care about me?
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The question's answered very clearly here, that while Jesus was suffering on the cross, He's making perfect provision for His mother's needs.
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that even though He was providing salvation, which is the big thing we all need, He showed her that her lesser needs mattered to Him too.
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So you believe that He died for your sins.
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Do you believe that He cares about the concerns that you brought in here today?
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Or for those of you who are streaming, and believe that He cares about the thing that's just caused you so much anxiety.
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I'd like you to bow your heads as the worship team comes forward.
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I'd just like you to bow your heads.
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I want you to close your eyes, and I want you as best as you can to imagine this scene where you have a sign above the head the beaten and crucified Jesus.
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This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
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We have soldiers playing dice for Jesus' shirt, while His mother watches on, her son being crucified.
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But not really her son, the Son of God, who loves her so much that He was providing her salvation, but cares about her so much that He was making arrangements for her life after He goes back to heaven.
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And our questions are answered, "Is there purpose in wickedness?" Yes.
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Even when the worst of people do the most horrible of things, God has a purpose in that.
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And He'll use that to accomplish something glorious.
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If you're willing to have eyes, and you're willing to wait to see it.
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Does Jesus really care about me?
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He does.
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And I just want to ask you as we're bowed before Him now, I just want to ask you, what is it that you need to cast before Him today?
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That is the thing that you brought in here, that you need to lay before Him and say, "God, I can't handle this." And your Word tells me to literally throw this at you, to slam this thing before you and say, "God, I need you to do this." And Father, your Word tells us that we can do this because you care about us.
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Father, we live in a world where we hear phrases like, "That's not my problem," or "Good luck with that," or "I hope you get that figured out." And sometimes, God, I think that we regard you as having that same attitude, but your Word is so clear that you want us to bring our anxieties before you.
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So Father, I pray for everyone who is tuned in right now, that we would experience your care and your love and your presence in a way perhaps like we never have before.
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And Father, you would teach us what it means to wait on you.
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What you would have is trust your sovereignty and your love.
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In a way that affects not only how we regard you and your word on Sunday morning, but Father, the rest of the week, remove that horrible disconnect.
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Show us how the life and death and resurrection of Christ, The presence of your Holy Spirit literally changes everything.
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To your glory, Father, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 19:17-27
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Why do you think Pilate wrote what he wrote (John 19:19, 22)? Why did he stop giving into the Jews’ demands? What was God's purpose in making this happen?
Tell of a time in your life when you witnessed God use man's wickedness to accomplish Gospel purposes.
Why didn't Jesus make arrangements for Mary before (or even after) the cross? Why did He do this while on the cross? What does this tell you about Jesus?
Breakout
Pray for one another.