The Church of Eleven22 - Why Have You Forsaken Me?: Tetelestai - Wk 3

Episode Date: March 3, 2024

The execution of God's son was the execution of God's plan for the salvation of God's children. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to coe22.com

We're in week three of this series called to tell us out where we're walking through Jesus' last seven sayings on the cross and in our time together today, we're gonna look at this saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So the question is, does God forsake? I had the opportunity this week to talk to Catherine's family,

and she's had a rough go of it lately. She's been into the hospital and it was very, very dire lately. And you know it to be true. There's no pain like kid pain, amen. And, but God is on the move. God has heard prayers. She was in really rough shape on a ventilator.

And then all of a sudden this week, she took a turn for the better, and she's regaining a lot of strength that she may be coming home soon. And this is my favorite part. She's watching right now. So could all of us at 1122 say, we love you, Catherine. We look forward to you getting back to church ASAP.

Amen, amen, amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles, we're gonna end up in song, I know that you might not think that has to do with the crucifixion, but it does a lot. Psalm 22 is where I'll be in a few minutes. And the question we're looking at is this, does God forsake? I mean, what does Jesus mean on the cross

when he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The way I've always heard it taught is that Jesus was turning his back on God, which is rough if you think, well, is he gonna turn his back on me in my time of need? Is that what that means? I've heard people say, you know, God can't look on sin. I think, well, I'm in trouble. So what does this mean? It actually goes way deeper than you could ever imagine. We're going to dig into it. In order to really understand

what's happening here on the cross, you've actually got to go start in Matthew chapter 26 when Jesus, on the night that he's betrayed after he goes through the Lord's Supper with the disciples, he goes to his favorite place to pray, which is this place called the Garden of Githemone. Githemone literally means the place of crushing. It said, the base of the Mount of Olives. If you ever go to Jerusalem with me, to Israel with me, we'll go to this very place. And there's a real picture of what's happening to Jesus

that is analogous to what happens to an olive when it gets crushed. There's three different crushings. And Jesus asked his disciples, Peter, James and John, to come along with him, a little closer, to other disciples, stay right here and pray, you three boys, will you come with me and pray? The Bible says that he fills the weight

of the world to the point, where Jesus says, my soul is very sorrowful even to death, remain here and watch with me. Because he knows what's about to happen. And it can't be just the brutality of the cross because church history tells us of men and women who were killed or martyred for their fate, and they did it like a boss.

I mean, there was one church father that as they were taking him through the cross, they were burning him alive, and he said, may flesh be really? from me that my life may be glorified in Christ. And yet Jesus says he feels sorrowful to death because he's not just going through the physical pain of the cross, but he says this in Matthew chapter 26. Verse 39, it says, going a little farther,

he fell on his face and here's what he prayed. My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. The way the NIV translate this is, if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. You know, the number one criticism today of Christianity is the exclusive claims of Jesus. I mean, everybody's fine if you like Jesus. In fact, everybody wants Jesus on their team. You ever notice that?

But this idea that Jesus is the only way is very offensive to the modern sensibility. Well, first of all, I just need you to know. I didn't make it up. Jesus made it up. I'm just like the mailman. I don't write it. I just deliver it. Jesus says, like in John 146,

I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. And that's not just like one-off verse. It's like the point of every chapter of every book of the Holy New Testament. Just over and over and over and over.

That's just what he does. Over and over and over. And yet Jesus, in the Garden of Gathemone, is basically asking the same question that people will ask you today. What do you mean he's the only way? How could he be the only way?

And Jesus essentially is going to the Father, and he is saying, all right, Dad, if there's any other way, like if people can just be good enough, let's go with that way. Or if Oprah's right and all roads lead to heaven, you can leave out one of the roads and everybody's still going to be fine, right? Like if you could align your chakra, or if you can just get enough chances of it and start out of grasshopper and end up in Nirvana, let's try that.

If you could just visit Mecca, if you could be good enough, if you could obey the law, Father, if there be any other way, it seems like an awful waste of my blood on Galgotha tomorrow. He says, let this cup pass from me. Later, he's going to pray the exact same thing. My father, if this cannot pass,

then this is the cup, the cup of the wrath of God, stored up against all sin and sinners. If there be any other way, let this cup pass from me, not my will, but your will be done. A third time, he prays. You ever pray to God not get the answer you want? you know what you do you keep praying and you just keep surrendering to his will because we don't understand but because of the cross we know that he loves us we

know that he's for us we know that he's smarter than us and he is at work in all things for the good of those that love him are caught according to his purpose so three times Jesus is like all right father if people can be reconnected reconciled with you apart from me shedding my blood on the cross that somehow it slipped me, even though I am omniscient and I was there in the beginning too. Let's go with that plan.

But since they can't, that will be done. He's betrayed by a friend, he's tried multiple times. There's a huge crowd in Jerusalem at this time because it is the time of the Passover. He's beaten, he's mocked. He's taken to Caiaphas, the high priest at first. He's got a pit under his house.

I'll take you there if you ever go with us. They pluck out his beard there, they put a sack on his head, they punch him in the face and say, you're a prophet who punched you? He never fights back. Caius doesn't have the authority to crucify Jesus. Because though he's a Jewish leader, he has no governmental authority

because this is Roman occupied territory, so they send him to Herod. Harry doesn't want to have anything to do with it. Harry just says like, hey, can you do some miracles for me? He's like, I ain't playing that game, so he's like, all right, so he sends him to Pilot. Pilate is a pawn. He doesn't really want to crucify him, and his wife is like, I'm having some freaky dreams

about this guy. I say, we let him go. He tries through Barabbas, doesn't work. In fact, Pilate says, I see no wrong in this man, and then he says, I wash my hands of this. You don't get to wash your own hands. You just don't get to declare yourself righteous. By definition, that is called self-righteous.

Nobody likes anybody's self-righteous. Later, it's put to a vote. He's betrayed by the very people that, this is a Friday, that earlier that week on Sunday, the same people that yelled, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now those same group of people yell crucify him, kill him. And so Pilate lets Barabbas go free. Jesus goes to the cross. Before that, he flogs him with a cat of nine tails.

Now, 25 years ago, when we heard the word whipped or flogged, we thought like Indiana Jones. Post Passion of the Christ movie, which is a pretty real depiction. of what happened, we realize what that is. It's a leather whip with a handle that would have glass and bone and nails on the end of it, and it was to remove flesh. First century historians tell us that oftentimes people didn't survive the flogging.

They dress them in purple, they take a crown of thorns with like three, four-inch thorns made out of an acacia tree, by the way, which if you're like an Old Testament Bible nerd, which I know you are, Vinky. So the acacia tree was the wood that they used to make the ark of the covenant.

So the thing that held the law of God now crowns the son of God. Same tree. And they press it down on his head to mock him. He carries his cross. He would carry the cross beam. It would be about a hundred pound, just big block of wood.

After the beating, he can't get it all the way there. He falls on his face, and he carries his cross to Galgotha. Matthew 27 records, the crucifixion this way, beginning of verse 33. And when they came to a place called Galgothal, which means place of the skull, they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall.

But when he tasted it, he would not drink it. Verse 35. And when they had crucified him, and then it just keeps going. I used to always wonder, why saw little ink on the crucifixion? Maybe it's because everybody in the first century knew exactly what was happening.

I mean, I know the first time the crucifixion became a reality to me, I was at youth camp. By the way, if you have a student, if you own a student, if you know a student, sign them up for student camp this summer. Okay? I got saved at student camp, and I have the honor of preaching our student camp this year. And it is an opportunity for your students to turn down the noise of this world, and it's the noisiest generation there has ever been. I know we have been their age once, but we have never been their age in this age. and we need to fight for this upcoming generation.

And I'm going to war on behalf of your students to share the gospel with them. Brib them, do whatever it takes. You understand? Make them go to camp. I'll handle them when they get there. You get them there. Deal?

All right. And they crucified him. Crucifixion is the most brutal form of human torture that has ever been invented. It was invented by the Persians about seven or eight hundred years before Jesus was. was crucified. It was perfected by the Romans.

The Romans added the crossbar. The Persians would just crucify people on a big pole. In fact, it was a part of the way Rome ruled the Roman Empire. It was through brutality and torture. In fact, one time when Spartacus fell, you can watch the movie, they crucified 6,000 men for 180 miles down the road. Imagine all the way from here to Orlando, every few feet seeing another crucified man.

And they didn't go scoop them up, man. They just left them there and let the wild animals eat them, and the vultures plucked their eyes out. When the Bible says he was crucified, we've actually come up with an English word excruciating, which literally means from the cross. Nine-inch nails were driven through your hands and feet. By the way, in the first century,

the hand was anything from the elbow to the wrist. So it was probably through, or from the elbow to the wrist. the finger, so it was probably through the wrist so that you didn't fall off. Some historians tell us that maybe the feet weren't crossed over this way, but they were nailed through the heels on the side because that's where the most nerves are, and that's where, but they don't bleed as much, so it would last longer. It was excruciating the way most people died. Some people bled out. Some people died of a heart attack. Some people didn't make it through the flogging. Some people just died of exposure, but most people died of what is called asphyxiation. This is where you drown on your

own fluids, the way they would put you on the cross and you would slump down, in order to take a breath, you would have to push with your nail-pitched feet, pull with your nail-piss hands, inhale, and then say something. And seven times Jesus goes through this on the cross. It didn't look like the Bible book store pictures that we see on a hill far away. That's not what it was, man. It was usually on the ground, so you would be face-to-face. face with it. We know this because in a couple of weeks you're going to hear Jesus say, I thirst, and they took a hissip stick and put it in his face to be about 20 inches long. So that's how close he would be, so that you could be face to face with him for two reasons. One, so you could

spit on the criminal, you could jeer at the criminal, and you could come eyeball to eyeball with somebody that didn't do what Rome wanted them to do so that you would know you get out of line, that's you. And they crucified him. I hope you're enjoying. in Charles' book. And by enjoying it, I mean, it's like a spiritual beatdown every morning. Good gracious, Charles. Give me a break, man. Day 17, page 133 says this.

Why does he look so mangled, so unrecognizable as a man, so tormented and disfigured? Why do all his bones look out of joint? Because he who had never sinned is now cursed, bearing the curse of all mankind for all time so that you and I are not and don't have to be. on this cross Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us

for it is written cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree and for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become

the righteousness of God here on this tree Jesus took on himself every curse due to us and in exchange he gave us every blessing due to him as he pushes up

on his nail pierce feet and gravity tears the flesh at the whole in his wrist, he is the curse-breaking Messiah pouring out blessing. And Matthew simply writes, and when they had crucified him. He goes on to describe what's happening there, and they divided his garments among them, casting lots. And when they sat down and kept watch over him there, and over his head, they put the charge

against him, which read, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. That was last week. and those who passed by to ride at him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,

save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. So also the chief priest and the scribes and the elders mocked him, saying, he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel.

Let him come down from the cross and we will believe in him. He trusts in God, let God deliver him now. If he desires him, for he said, I am the son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. Verse 45.

Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. For three hours, Jerusalem goes dark. What's going on here? And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying,

Elo, Elo, Elo, La Mahsharhtani, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So what's going on here? Is God turning his back on his son, Jesus, in his greatest time of need? It's one way to say it, I just don't think it's complete. Is Jesus being forsaken? Well, what's actually going on here is God the Father is pouring out his wrath on God the Son. How do we know this?

The best way to do Bible study is always use the Bible to interpret the Bible. Okay? This is like the first hyperlinked thing on the planet. Before Google had those little blue things and you could click it and take it to somewhere else. That's what this does, thousands of times throughout it. And so what we can do is we can back all the way up to Isaiah, chapter 52. Isaiah was a prophet that's going to come 700 years before Jesus is even born. 700 years before Jesus begins his ministry.

And Isaiah the prophet says this. I'm going to read you a lot of Bible, so it's going to be a great sermon because it's just Bible verses. Isaiah 52, 13, listen to this. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up. Jesus uses that same terminology

high and lifted up to mean be crucified. And he shall be exalted. And many were astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and has formed beyond that of the children of mankind. In other words, if you were hanging him out with Jesus and then you saw him after the beating and crucifixion, you would not be able to recognize his face

according to what Isaiah says. So shall he sprinkle many nations. King shall shut their mouths because of him. For that which has been told them they see and that which they have not heard, they understand, who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? for he grew up before him like a young plant

and like a root out of dry ground. He had no former majesty that we should look at him. If you've seen posters of Jesus, I got bad news for you. He was not a Danish model. He was just a regular-looking Middle Eastern Jew guy. That's what he was. And no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows, we just sang that, and acquainted with grief. and as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. And then Isaiah shifts gears. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted. Verse 5, but he was pierced for our transgressions.

By the way, when Isaiah is writing this, I don't know that he knows Persia, is inventing crucifixion as a form of punishment. And he was pierced for our transgressions. So just for a tattoo update, because we've been doing that a lot lately. I got this one in Jerusalem, so it's extra, it's better than yours, that's what that means.

It's holy. That's called a Jerusalem cross. Somebody snorted on the front row, that was cool. It's a Jerusalem cross. It represents the five wounds of Christ on the cross, hands, feet, side, and that though the message of that good news of the gospel would go to the four corners of the earth.

And then I had this verse, Isaiah 53, four, or five, I'm sorry, put, it says he was pierced for our transgressions. That's what this is. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed.

Jesus didn't merely die for us. He died instead of us. And all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is before its shears is silent,

so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave among the wicked, the rich man in his death. This is why he was buried in Joseph of Arimathea's tomb.

Although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth, verse 10, yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. When Jesus in the garden says, not my will, but your will be done. It was the will of God the Father to crush God the Son. The execution of God's son is the execution of God's plan for the salvation of God's children.

That is what's happening here. It says when his soul makes an offering for guilt, the reason that Jesus is crucified on this cross is to take our place and pay our debt. So what does he mean when he pushes open his nail pierce feet? And he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Well, here's what you've got to know.

You've got to know your Bible. You've got to know your Old Testament. What Jesus is doing here is he's not just crying out to God. God, why did you turn your back on me? That's not what he's saying. For sure, he is enduring the full wrath of God because God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of Christ.

But what he's doing is he's quoting Psalm 22. If you've been around 1122, you know this. There were four levels of exegesis that rabbis used, and the second level of exegesis or Bible study is called a Rames. Ramez, say Ramez. Good job. Rames in Hebrew means hint.

And what people would do when they would study the Bible, together if you remember when Jesus is 12 years old and he's hanging out with the old guys up in the temple and they and they were astonished by his learning but what he's doing is asking all the questions so it wasn't western learning like I asked a question and you give me the answer what they would do is they would answer questions with questions and one person would quote a verse and the other person would quote the next verse that kind of thing it was biblical jiu jiu jitsu and these people knew their bibles every little kid every little jewish kid would go to hebrew school and learn the first five books of the Bible and the songs that they would sing would be from the Psalms.

And so what a remez is is oftentimes Jesus didn't have, didn't quote at all. He would just quote the first line knowing that your mind will repeat all the rest of the lines. It was a hint. And he knows everyone there knows Psalm 22. So the moment he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Every Jewish person in the crowd, their mind begins to quote or say. the rest of Psalm 22.

It can happen with you too. You know this to be. I could divide our church by age by simply doing this. If I just go, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Ding, ding, ding, ding. If you're older than me right now, you feel pressure. If you're my age, you stop, collaborate, and listen.

That's what you do. And all of you, Gen Z, they're like, why don't use our songs? Because they are terrible. That's why. They are not good. So anyway. So here's what he's doing.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now imagine just for a second. Give me a little hermeneutical license. Just imagine that you know all the words of Psalm 22, because you've been to temple a whole bunch of times and you've sung it a million times. And it was a messianic prophecy talking about the serpent crusher that was going to show up one day.

And in your mind, as you're standing in this event that we have been studying for the last three weeks and we're going to study it all the way to Easter Sunday, in that event, you begin to look around as the words of Psalm 22 begin to play in your mind. Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer

and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them. To you, they cried and were rescued. And in you, they trusted, and we're not put to shame. And you begin to think, well, oh, I think Jesus is saying

he is from the line of David. He is from the root of Jesse. He is the one Abraham and Moses and Elijah and Isaiah have been talking about. That the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is this is who Jesus is talking about here. He says, and I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people. And you begin to look around at the crowd who is scorning and despising him. just like Isaiah said it would happen and now in Psalm 22.

And now these aren't verses anymore. You're standing in it. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me and they wagged their heads. And then here's what it says in Psalm 22. It's a quote. He trusts in the Lord.

Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him for he delights in him. And Luke 2335 lets us know that word for word the Roman soldiers are saying this. And you're going, hold on, I didn't know they memorized our scripture. They're quoting our scripture. And the crowd is saying, you saved others, save yourself. You get to the next line.

It says, yet, you are he who took me from the womb. You made me trust at my mother's breasts. on you was I cast from my birth and from my mother's womb, you have been my God. Who could this be true of? David wrote it. Is King David talking about David?

You all know the shady stuff David did? He was not good. Not good at all. In fact, in Psalm 51, when David writes about David, he says, I was brought forth in iniquity. So who's David talking about? He can't be talking about himself. because he's already confessed that he was born into sin.

The only one who has been in a right relationship with God from birth is the only one that was born without sin. Because your little precious babies and my little precious babies were born little wretched, crooked, and depraved blackhearted sinners. Have you met a baby? I mean, they're selfish. Seriously. Real bad. Do they let you sleep? They don't care about you, man.

They're like the seagulls out of Nemo. It's just mine, mine, mine, that's all they do. You see, Jesus is the only one who from his mother's womb, God has been as God. Every other human being on the planet from the womb, you have been your own God. Sometimes, you know, when people share their testimonies, they say, well, I've been a Christian my whole life. No, you haven't. Unless your last name is Christian, and that's still not. not what we're talking about. That's not what that means, man. At some point in your life, you went from

death to life, even if by God's grace you got saved real young and you can't ever remember the time or the place or whatever. But still, at some point, Jesus' death on the cross counted for you and you were transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The only one who was never transferred, David is talking about must and can only be Jesus the Christ. He's not talking about himself here. Verse 11, he keeps going. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help. Many bulls encompass me. Well, this is interesting. This was written about a thousand years before Jesus ever hangs on this cross. And bulls were one of the signs of the Roman army. The Roman army will not come into existence for another 300 years. This just

sounds like random poetry a thousand years before the birth of Christ. Many bulls encompassed me, and sure enough, what is it? There's a bunch of Roman army standing around him. Strong bulls of Bashan surround me, they open wide their mouths at me. Like a ravening and roaring lion, the lion was the Roman side for the emperor. Verse 14, I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax and it is melted within my breasts.

We find out in John 1934 that in order to get the job done before the Sabbath, the Roman soldiers come to speed up the execution process. And often what they would do is they'd break the legs of those who have been crucified so that they would drown in their own lung fluid faster. But when they get to Jesus, he's already dead because nobody takes his life.

He gives it up. And so they decide just to make sure because they're experts at this, they take a spear. And the Bible says in the New Testament that they take a spear and they shove it up into his chest cavity and blood and water flows. And doctors will tell you that they peer. the heart sack and that's why blood and water would come out,

that Jesus literally physically died of a broken heart. And your mind goes to this, I poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax and is melted within my breasts. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws. In two weeks we're gonna be in John 1928 where Jesus pushes up on his nail pierced feet

and what if at just the moment you get to this place in the Psalm, because I don't think this is the kind of thing that you're rushing through as you see Jesus being crucified. And what if just in that moment, when in your mind the words of the Psalm, my tongue sticks to my jaws, you hear Jesus push up and say, I thirst.

And then you begin to think, I think I am standing in this fulfillment of prophecy that David has rolled out a thousand years before it ever happened. You lay me in the dust of death. That means I die and you bear. and you bury me. For dogs encompass me.

Dog was a pejorative term for Gentiles, a company of evildoers encircle me, and they have pierced my hands and feet. This is written a thousand years before Jesus is crucified. This is written 300 years before the Persian Empire invents crucifixion. Up until this point in human history, nobody's hands and feet are pierced as a punishment.

You see, about 700 BC or so, Persia invents crucifixion and then Rome comes along and perfects it. And now of all the symbols that define what a Christian is, the early church fathers decided that it would be a cross. It's supposed to be the symbol of shame, the symbol of humiliation. Can you imagine walking into the Colosseum in the first century AD, where they would crucify Christians, where they would feed Christians to lions?

And do you know what you see today if you walk in the Coliseum? There's a big old cross there. That what they used as a symbol of torture and shame now is the most recognized symbol all over the world. And when people see it, even if it's just a little piece of jewelry, what people see is they see a symbol of love and of peace. Why? Because it is the grace of God poured out through the punishment of his son for you and me. For God demonstrated his love for us in this that while we were yet still sinners Christ died for us. Verse 17, I can count all my bones.

Remember, they didn't break Jesus' legs. They stare and they gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. Luke 2334, it says that the guards cast a lot for the clothes of Jesus. If you ever come with me to Jerusalem, I could take you to Pilots Pretorium where they actually etched out this little tick-tac-toe thing on the Herodian stones, and they would cast lots for the garments of the people that were crucified. But you, O Lord, do not be.

be far off. Oh, you my help come quickly to my aid. Deliver my soul from the sword and my precious life from the power of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion. You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen. And then something shifts here. I mean, earlier, he said that I'd be laid down in the dust of death. But then when you get the verse 22, it says, I will tell of your name to my brothers. How are you going to do that? Nobody gets out of crucifixion alive. So how are you going to be buried among the rich? How are you going to be laid down in the dust of death? And then after that, how are you going to tell of your name to my brothers?

I can tell you how. There's this thing that we're going to celebrate in a few weeks called the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What begins to happen in Psalm 22, David carried along by the Spirit of God, is able to see the cross and then see through the cross to the empty tomb and to the resurrection. because if it's just a cross without a resurrection, we're all wasting our time. But because of the power of the resurrection, because Jesus walked out of the grave, guess what?

Me and you can do a little walking too, you know? He says, I will tell of your name to my brothers, and sure enough, the first people that Jesus talked about resurrected was with his brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise you. You know what Jesus did when he came back out of the grave? he appeared for about six weeks to over 500 people in the city where he was crucified. Get your head around that for a second.

If the Roman emperor wants to shut this thing down, it ain't real hard. Just go get dead Jesus's body, hang him up at the mall, and guess what? We ain't here today. We got a whole other set of hobbies doing. You know what I'm saying? But they couldn't do it because Jesus Christ was alive. A thousand years before it ever happened, he says that I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will praise you.

And you who fear the Lord praise him. All you offspring of Jacob glorify him and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel. For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him. So God is pouring out his wrath upon his son, Jesus, so that he could redeem you and me. The Bible says this is love. Not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son as the propitiation for our sin. That's what's happening right now. Jesus is the propitiation for our sin.

That Jesus was forsaken so you and I never have to be. So Jesus paid the full price for our sin so that you and I could receive the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. Again, the execution of God's son was the execution of God's plan. This is exactly what God prophesied when he's talking to Adam and Eve just after they've sinned, and he says to Eve, I will put enmity between your offspring and this serpent, this Satan, this evil one, and there will come a day when one of your offspring is going to show up on the scene, and he is going to strike at his heel, bruise his heel, and in so doing, he's going to get his head crushed. This is what's happening on the cross.

He says he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard. when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation. My vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied. Those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever. How are you going to live forever?

Here's what the Bible is saying. This event that is happening in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago is the reason that you and I can live forever. That eternal life begins the moment that you realize that when this Christ died, on the cross for you and you submit and surrender your life to him, then your eternity begins in that very moment. He says, may your hearts live forever.

What Jesus is doing from the cross is sharing the good news of his very own gospel. And these words are really for us. Verse 27, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. Like that word all? You know why we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ, because when he died on the cross, it was so that all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. And all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

What Jesus is doing from the cross is not only sharing the good news of the gospel, but he's also sharing the mission of the church, which is the Great Commission. That this isn't just for you and me here right now. It's for all nations and all peoples and all places everywhere. did that's why he came. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. This is about his return.

All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship before him shall bow and all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. You know who can't keep himself alive? You. You and me. Listen, man, I don't kill how much kale you eat. I think we're finally figuring out that kale was a waste of time.

You know what the first clue was that 10 years ago, the number one purchase of kale, was Pizza Hut. They used it to make the salads pretty, not the part you ate, but that little green TPC grass around it, that was all kale, you idiots, y'all bought into it, okay? I don't care if you're on carnivore or you're vegan, or you're probably not here if you're a vegan, but you know what I'm saying? You take your antioxidants and drink your AG ones and do all your stretching and work out and got all the things, man, guess what?

You can't keep you alive. You might look better in the box than your Uncle Ted. I'm not, I don't know. I don't know how much that's worth of you, but you can't keep you alive. The only one that keeps us alive eternally is the proto-toko from the dead, the firstborn from among the dead. And as Christ has been resurrected from the grave, everyone who believes will be resurrected with him. This is who this message is for. Now check this out, man.

I don't know how much you like the Bible. I like it a lot. I wish you liked it as much as I do. This next, look at verse 30 right here. Posterity shall serve him. You know who he's talking about? Us. It ain't only us.

It's every tribe, tongue, and nation from the moment he resurrected until he returns, but we're included. Do you realize this? Now listen, the reason that Jesus died on the cross ultimately is for the glory of God, but God is glorified when lost people get found when dead people are brought to life when blind people see, okay?

So when it ain't all about you, it's all about him. However, from the cross, Jesus wanted you to know that he knows who you are and he knows what he's buying and he is laying down his life to purchase you. This is why Paul and Corinthians is going to say, you were not your own, you were bought with a price. Posterity shall serve him. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generations.

That's us. He had us in mind. He knew we would be here today. He knew it. And he died for you. He died for me. He paid the full price, knowing what he was getting. This is why we know that we are saved by grace through faith.

When Jesus is on the cross, quoting Psalm 22, what good work had you done at that point? And then you were born and it got worse. There's a great way to think about it. God ran a car fax on you. You know a car fax? Like if you're going to buy a used car. and you're like, uh-oh, this one's all busted up. Out of alignment, leaks oil, been crashed.

That's you. You run the car fax on me and you, and it's like lemon. That's what it says. And Jesus is like, cool, I'll pay full price. I'll pay with my own blood. And then what he does is he gets into the driver's seat, and then he begins to fix that thing up from the inside out after he pays full price for us.

It's not the other way around, man. It shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation. By the way, get your kid to camp. It is up to us to share this good news with the coming generation. And they shall come and proclaim His righteousness. Do you know how you get to stand before the Lord? It's not because of your good deeds.

It's not because of your righteousness. That we get to stand before the Lord because of his righteousness. Then it keeps going to a people yet unborn. this is me and this is you that he has done it. Do you know what that means, man? That it is finished. Sound familiar?

So now imagine, man, imagine. I can't step on my next three weeks of sermons or whatever, four weeks of sermons. But you're there. And Jesus, everything goes dark for three hours. You're like, what's happening? And then he pushes up and says, Elo, Elo, Elo, Elo, El Mashabaktani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then your mind rolls through Psalm 22 and literally play by play.

All of the events are happening exactly as they have been described in this song that was written a thousand years before this event. He says, I thirst. His heart is pierced. All the things are happening. People are quoting your own scriptures back at the one hand. hanging on the tree. You begin to think, I wasn't born when David wrote this down. Maybe this is for a people yet unborn like me.

And then when you get to the end of the Psalm and he says that he has done it, you get in your mind to the place where it says, it is finished and Jesus pushes up on his nail pierce feet and says it in Greek, to tell us I, it is finished. And in that moment, in that moment, the Bible says in Matthew, that there was a Roman soldier there, a centurion. He was a part of the crew that crucified Jesus. And somehow all the evidence he has is what he saw on that day.

And he bends his knee and he says, surely this was the son of God. Surely this was the son of God. Have you ever bent your knee to the crucified and resurrected Christ and said, that's my Lord. You see, I probably, I don't know, I don't know how much Bible you know, maybe I shared some new information with you,

but you probably have heard that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you before. But have you ever accepted it personally? Do you believe that because Jesus was forsaken on the cross that you will never be forsaken by your Heavenly Father? Do you believe that Jesus is the propitiation for your sin, the payment that satisfies, and the moment you put your faith in him,

you are a part of this people yet unborn that would be adopted into his very own family. Do you know that just the fact that Jesus paid for your sin won't do you any good if you don't accept it for yourself? I read about this crazy event. In 1829, there's a guy named George Willis and two other dudes. They robbed the mail. Somewhere in Pennsylvania. They robbed the mail, and George Wilson put a gun to the mail carrier's head.

and threatened to kill him, kill the driver. And so they go to court and everybody's put in jail. They each get 10 years to the robbery, but they also get sentenced to death for threatening the driver. So it was different in 1829, apparently. And then word gets out that Wilson was really coerced by the other people, and he didn't want to be a part of it,

but he was just taking his sentence like a man because he did what he did. And so he was a word. repentant to this guy and he asked for a Bible. And so Word made it up the chain. And eventually, the President of the United States offers this George Wilson a pardon. And when Word got to George Wilson, guess what? He rejected the pardon. Nobody knew what to do because nobody had ever done this before. So the judge, it made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States of America, is a pardon a pardon when it's given by the president or is a pardon a pardon

when it's received by the criminal? And the Supreme Court of the United States of America decided that a pardon does not pardon unless you accept the pardon. That a pardon is not effective unless it's accepted, even if it is offered. church people a pardon is not effective unless it is accepted you could be in church all day every day

you could grow up in VBS you could be born in the choir that doesn't get you in have you ever accepted the pardon offered to you by Jesus Christ you see if you accept a pardon one of the things that you were accepting is that you were guilty and you did it

and you were taking the free gift of grace to not pay the penalty due to you. So he didn't accept it. Good news is, I don't know how this happened, but President Van Buren, a few years later, hears about it, and issues a second pardon. And on the second go around, Mr. Wilson received it and was set free. You see, some of you have rejected the pardon of Jesus Christ offered to you. And maybe today for the very first time, you would accept it. Not because of anything that you have done,

but because Jesus took the full penalty on the cross that was due to you and to me. And for anyone who would believe that when Jesus died on the cross, that it is finished, somehow, even if you don't have all the theological terminology to explain what happened, but somehow, like the Roman centurion,

you were ready to bend your knee to him as your Lord, and you realized that when he, He died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, then you can receive the pardon offered to you by the blood of Jesus Christ. But it's only effective in your own life if it's accepted. So I want to give you the opportunity to accept

what Christ has done on our behalf. That he died so that we don't have to. That he paid the price so that we don't have to. That it is finished because he drank the full cup of the wrath of God. God down to the very last drop, slammed it down, and declared it is finished, that we may have eternal life. Would you bow your heads? Would you close your eyes? And if through the preaching of the Word of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit doing something in you right now, if today for the very

first time you realize that God has offered you a pardon, that your sin debt is paid in full because of what Christ did on the cross, if you're ready to admit it, yeah, I'm a sin. I'm a sin. that needs a Savior. And you believe that when Christ died on the cross, somehow it counted for you, then in this moment, I want you to confess him as your Lord. The Bible says, for all who call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. And if you're ready to call on the name of the Lord, I would ask you to just lift your hand as high as you can, and you say, Jesus, here I am, save me. Our good and gracious, and gracious, Heavenly Father, God, you're so good. You're so gracious, Lord, I thank you, and I praise you for the men, for the women, for the students. And this very, very

moment that are having a same kind of experience that the Roman centurion had because they have heard your word, they have heard about your cross and your empty tomb that in this very moment they recognize that you are the son of God and they are surrendering their life to you. God may we never take our eyes off of the cross. God, I thank you Jesus that you were forsaken so that we never will be. God, I thank you for your promise that you would never leave us or forsake us. God, I thank you for your promise that nothing could separate us from your love. God, I thank you for the promise that you did for us what we could never do for ourselves. And so, Lord, because you walked out of an empty tomb, I pray that we would walk in your footsteps,

that we would follow in the footsteps of our risen Savior who would demonstrate his love for us at the cross. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond to the good news of the gospel? I want to invite you to continue and worship by bringing your first and your best.

We don't, if you're new here, we don't take up an offering. But as an act of worship, we bring to God our first and our best because God first loved us by everything we just talked about. That he gave us, his first and best, through life, death, and resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ.

And one of the things we're going to talk about in the upcoming weeks is right after this text, when Jesus dies on the cross, there's a curtain that's torn between the Holy of Holies, the presence of God and the people of God. So now you and I, to pray, we don't have to kill a goat or go see a priest, that we have direct access to the king of the universe, because he's our heavenly father,

and we've been adopted into his family, so we would invite you to come and pray. And we're going to sing. We're going to sing, and this song's got a lot of words, man. So many words, and it's so good. Does it change, right? this one? You don't know. Did it change right this one? I don't know. They sing it the best, so we'll give them credit. So if it takes you a minute to sing it, that's okay. Keep your eyes open, get your

eyes on what we're singing, because basically what we are doing is one church and a whole bunch of locations, including prisons and people around the country and all of this, like one big family spread out all over the place. We're singing to the one true God, this one song, this just the truth about the gospel. So let's sing, let's bring, let's bring, let's pray let's respond