The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 26: The Cross

Episode Date: October 3, 2021

The execution of God’s Son was the execution of God’s plan. Do you believe that when Jesus died on the cross that somehow it counted for you? Visit coe22.com/john to download the journal, find series resources and more.

Amen. If you got your Bibles, we're going to be in John chapter 18, and I'm just going to let you know today is going to be intense. And if it's your first time here, and somebody invited you, and they said, hey, dude, this dude's funny. Not going to be funny today. Because we are going to spend our time on the cross. Last week was pretty intense, too.

Jesus has betrayed. And we talked about the four chairs and which one are you in. Today's going to be really, really intense. Because when we talk about the cross, we are talking about the pen ultimate event. Now, next week is the ultimate event. The ultimate event in human history is the resurrection. So make sure you're back next week.

Because next week is happy, happy joy, joy. I mean, there is joy found in the resurrection. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And so what we are going to do as a church, I know this is crazy, because everybody's putting up their Halloween decorations, all right? Shame on you. But what we're going to do next week is we're going to do Easter and October. So next week, as we turn to the resurrection,

we're going to act like it's Resurrection Sunday here. So I'm going to wear a suit. And so you need to dress up too. We're going to have flowers here. We're going to allow you to take your Easter pictures in October. If we can do Christmas in July, surely we can do Easter in October. Amen? I'm going to be checking on every one of you, all right?

I want big hats. I want gloves. I want Jesus fans. I want this place to look and feel like Easter. That's next week. But we can't ultimately experience the joy of resurrection. if we don't understand the depths and the pain of the crucifixion. You see, we're going to talk about the cross.

In the first century, the cross was the symbol of shame. But today it means something completely different. You see, if I would have stood before Caesar or stood before pilot or stood before any Roman official in the first century, and I told them what the cross means to us today, they would have no category for this. If I were to tell them, this symbol that you used to intimidate people, we would one day see as an invitation into a right relationship with God.

This symbol that you used that represented shame and suffering one day would represent to us salvation for anyone who would believe. This symbol that for you represented hell on earth would one day represent for us, hope, and an eternity. face to face with God where there are no tears, amen? That is the cross. So we're going to pick it up where the video left off. At this point in our text, Jesus has been arrested, he's been betrayed by one of his disciples,

he's been denied by his number one leader, he's been puppeted by religious leaders, and you see the hypocrisy of what religiosity does in someone's life back in verse 28, the religious leaders decide they can't go into Pilate's headquarters so that they would not be defiled because they wanted to eat the Passover meal. Think about this. They thought that if they were going to be in contact with a Gentile, then that would defile them religiously, and then they wouldn't be able to celebrate Passover.

Even though they are about to break commandment one, you shall have no other gods before you. Commandment three, do not use the Lord's name in vain. Commandment six, do not murder. Commandment nine, do not lie. And commandment ten, thou shalt not covet. But somehow, in their twisted religious mind, breaking half of the commandments does not defile them,

but breaking one of their man-made rules does. This is where we are. Jesus has bounced around from trial to trial to trial. nobody wants to be the one that slams the gavel down. It says, this man is guilty. He's punched, he's mocked. And what John wants us to know is that even though his world seems to be falling apart, Jesus is still in control.

We're going to pick it up in 1833. It says, so Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus, and he said to him, are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered, do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it, to you about me. You see, what you're going to see from Jesus is this. When you were in total control, you don't have to defend yourself. That when you are committed to do the will of God, you don't have to defend yourself.

That when you are right and righteous, you don't have to defend yourself. And Jesus is never going to defend himself. And Pilate answered him, am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you over to me. What have you done? And what you will see here is that Christ's confidence, from the authority that he knows has been given to him by God. And if God has given it to him, no one can take it from him.

And Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. And let me just be careful here. When John says the Jews all through here, it does not mean all the Jewish people. He is referring to the Jewish leaders. And he says, but my kingdom is not of this world. So let me ask you, are you of this world? Are you of this world?

Let me just give you a little test real quick, all right? This might offend you, but get ready. If you were more concerned about who's in Congress and the White House and who's going to heaven, then you might be a citizen of this kingdom and not his. Now, I think that as a believer, for sure, you should read your Bible and you should vote and put your trust in none of it. Put your trust in Jesus alone. We talked about this months ago, back in the summer.

We said that there are some people, conservatives, they tend to put all their hope in the past. They look back to the past. Liberals tend to put all their hope in the future. They look forward to the future. And Jesus comes along as a king of a different kingdom and says, no, no, no, we're not looking back, we're not looking forward. We're looking up. We have a totally different ethic as kingdom followers. Because as Jesus people, our hope is not in the elephant and our hope is not in the donkey.

our hope is in the lion that is the lamb, amen? And then Pilate said to him, so you're a king? And Jesus answered, you say that I am a king for this purpose I was born. I think that this purpose he's talking about is the trial that he's in. The next three days of events that are happening, this is the purpose for which I was born.

And for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice and Pilate said to him, what is truth? It's a very famous question these days, right? What is truth? And the way to neuter,

the way to defang the power of truth is to put a personal possessive pronoun in front of it. There is no your truth, there is no my truth. There is just the truth. And we found out in John, chapter 14, when some people were asking the same question, Jesus answers this way. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life,

and no one comes to the Father except through me. In other words, all truth is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. The person that is Christ, he establishes everything that is ultimate reality. And after he said this, he went back outside to the Jews. This is Pilate, and he told them, I find no guilt in him. Now, if you study all four of the Gospels, the three synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke,

plus the gospel of John, what you're going to see here is that seven times Pilate is going to stand before people and proclaim that Jesus is innocent. He's going to say that I don't think he's done anything wrong. And seven in the Bible is the number of completion. I think what the Bible writers are trying to do inspired by the Spirit of God is to let us.

us know that Pilate actually thinks that Jesus is completely innocent. He's going to say it over and over and over, and yet he still condemns him out of fear of man and self-preservation. Like Peter earlier, like we heard read earlier. Of course Peter believes that Jesus is who he says he is, but out of fear of man and self-preservation, he does something he knows not to be right to cover his own sin. And you know why? This fear is a liar, man.

The Bible says that we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind or self-control. The fear is not just a feeling. The fear is a spirit that does not come from God. And this spirit of fear has overcome Pilate. And even though he thinks that Jesus is innocent, he doesn't have the backbone. He doesn't have the faith to surrender to him.

In fact, over in Matthew, chapter 27, the Bible says this, verse 22, and Pilots said to them to the crowd, then what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? It's the most important question you will ever answer in all of your life. He says, what shall I do with this Jesus who is called the Christ? And then the crowd screams out, crucify him, kill him, and he goes, I wash my hands of this. May this blood be on your head. And then the crowd, you know what the crowd says? The crowd says, fine.

May His blood be on our head and on our children's head. Now that can be a very positive thing because if you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, understanding that the blood of Jesus washes away our sin, then His blood on our head and our children's heads is actually salvation to whoever would believe. But if it is, may his blood be on our head because we reject him, it is damnation on you and your children.

Verse 39, Pilate is still looking for a way out. He's still trying to save face. He's still trying to not get in trouble with his bosses. He says, but you have a custom that I should release one man for you at Passover. So do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And they cried out again. Not this man, but Barabbas. And Barabbas was a robber, is how the ESV translates it.

Some translations say, and other gospels say that he was an insurrectionist. The Barabbas was a murderer. The Barabbas was a thief. The Barabbas had put together a group of people to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem so that they could take over, and he was arrested, and he was on trial, and he had been sentenced to death. And then Pilate, he says, well, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on. I've looked up your weird Jewish laws that you have, and because something about a lamb in Egypt. You guys let one person free every year. So why don't we just, we'll say this guy, King of the Jews is guilty, but we'll let him go free. And the crowd goes, no, no, no, no, give us Barabbas. And Jesus goes down and Barabbas goes free. Church, I need you to know this.

Every single one of us, we are Barabbas. Every single one of us, by nature and nurture are sinners before a holy God. Every single one of us are robbers trying to steal the glory of God. Every single one of us are insurrectionists saying, forget you in your kingdom. It's all about me and my kingdom because I am the one that deserves to sit on the throne of my own life. And yet for whoever would believe in Jesus Christ, on that day of judgment, we go free because Jesus went to the cross. The name Barabbas means son of a father. And so what God does here is your average ordinary sinner, who's just a son of a regular father,

his place is taken by the son of the Heavenly Father. And then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. Now, I think before the movie The Passion of the Christ, lots of Christians like me would just read over that and we would think, you know, we got a couple of little whips or whatever. And one of the things that that movie did is bring to life, in actuality, this historical event that would happen with the cat of nine tails. Then in Rome, what they would do is they would tie you to a whipping post right in the center of town, right where everybody could see it. And they would use this thing called a cat of nine tails.

It had nine straps of leather with a handle. And it would have stones and rocks to... to loosen up the meat, that would have it basically like bones and glass and metal, like fish hooks, so that every time that the soldier would hit the back of the person, that those things would insert themselves into the flesh, and then when he pulled the wit back, it would rip flesh off. The historian Josephus says, oftentimes when men were flogged, ribs would be seen flying away.

And Jesus was flogged. and the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and they put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe and they came up to him saying, hail, king of the Jews. This crown of thorns, listen, they're mocking him, they're making fun of him.

You see, they put the purple robe on his mutilated flesh so that it would stick to him so that oftentimes they could rip it off and it would just start bleeding again. The first time I was in Israel, we were in Getty and we're making our way up to look at one of the waterfalls and one of our gods points out

this is the kind of tree that they used to fashion the crown of thorns. Huge thorns, huge thorns like this. And he said it's an acacia tree. And listen, man, I just think Bible. It's what I do. I don't know. It's because this is what I do for a living. I don't know what you think about.

When you don't have anything about it anymore, I think about the Bible. And my mind went back, I was like, I think I've seen that word before. jump back to the book of Exodus and you see that honestly almost every element built in the tabernacle was made out of acacia wood and most importantly the ark of the covenant that carried the law of God on which was the hill esterium and on which was the mercy seat of God where God's presence dwelt among his people that art was made out of acacia wood and the thing

that held the law of God a couple thousand years ago later would crown the son of God. And they put a crown of thorns on his head and they mocked him, hail, king of the Jews, and they struck him with their hands. And Pilate went out again and he said to them, see, I'm bringing him out to you that

you may know that I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and Pilate said to him behold the man. In Latin it's Eke homo.

In the mid-1800s, a guy named Antonio Sessori painted this picture. I think we have a picture of it here. And there's something about this photo. First of all, that's not what he would look like. Not after a flogging. But what strikes me about this painting is the number of people in the streets. And not only that, the number of people on this side of the rail that are literally within yard. of the Son of God, and yet they are playing a role in the murder of God.

Behold the man. You see, I think there's something to it that Pilate uses that language. You see, I think Pilate thinks this is a legit, honest rabbi. But yet he never comes to the place where he surrenders himself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm going to just be real honest about evangelical church, particularly in the South. I think there's a whole lot of people that behold the man. That you're into the Jesus thing, sort of, culturally. I mean, you know, you go to church and you maybe listen to a little Christian music on the radio,

and you want to raise your kids to be good little citizens, and you say your prayers for your food and maybe at dinner, and you behold Jesus as the man. You behold him as an innocent rabbi. But have you ever surrendered your life? to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Because Pilate could smell the breath of God. He's that close to him, and yet he never surrenders his life to God,

and he's never filled with a ruah of the spirit in his life. Please, please, please, church, whatever you do, don't miss Jesus. Don't miss the son of God. And when the chief priest and the officer saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him, and Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him for I find no guilt in him. And the Jews answered him, we have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. Now here's the thing.

They're quoting Leviticus 2114. But in Leviticus 2114, the Bible says whoever blasphemes should be stoned to death. Now, first of all, what it means to blaspheme, one of the ways that you could blaspheme is to claim to be God. But the deal is Jesus is not giving, he's not blaspheming, he's just giving testimony because what he's saying is true. But what I want you to see here is the twistedness of religion because does it say that if you're a blasphemer you should be crucified? No. So they don't mind twisting whatever Bible verses they have to twist in order to hold on to whatever in power and control that they've got their hands on. And Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid.

Again, fear is the spirit. And I believe it was fear that kept Pilate from putting his faith in the one true God, Jesus Christ. It was fear that kept him from putting his faith in Jesus. How about you? How about you? Is it fear and control? Are you afraid of what God might do to you

if you surrender your life? Are you afraid of what you might have to relinquish in control in your life, if you surrender to Jesus, I think this is what kept Pilate out. And he entered his headquarters again, and he said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. And so Pilate said to him,

You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. Jesus is basically saying to Pilot, look, bro, that's cute the way you think of the cosmos. You see, you think you are a really big deal.

You think you're in charge. You think you were all powerful, and little do you know that you're like an extra in the cosmic drama that is about the glory of God and his son, Jesus Christ. And from then on, Pilots sought to release him. But the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So the Jewish leaders are saying,

we're going to tell Caesar on you, and then he'll take you out. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement in Aramaic, Gabatha. So now it's going to be an official decision. Verse 14, now it was the day of the preparation of the Passover. It's about the sixth hour. This means that Jesus has been up all night.

And he said to the Jews, Behold your king. And they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Now, many of the people that were in that crowd that Friday were also in the crowd the previous Sunday on what we call Palm Sunday. And they were crying out, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And that phrase, Hosanna means, Lord, save us. And apparently for this crowd, the most important word in that phrase was us. and when Jesus did not give them what they wanted,

which was political control, now the same ones that cried out, Hosanna blessed as he is, who comes in the name of the Lord, now cries out, crucify him. Crucify him. You see, there's so many folks. And on Sunday, we lift up his name.

And on Friday, we betray him because we don't get what we want. And so Pilots trying to really, release him. He brings them before the people, behold your kings. They cry out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king and the chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. Now I want you to pay attention to this. This is blasphemy. This is blasphemy. The original Christian confession was simply this. Jesus is Lord. The Roman confession is Caesar is Lord.

And these religious leaders, in order to not lose control, in order to not lose power, in order to do whatever they've got to do to manipulate their religious and political system, to get this rabble riles or out of here, they confess Caesar as their Lord. They are condemning this man of blasphemy and saying that he deserves death, and while doing so they blasphemed the Lord. one true God, and they claimed Caesar as their Lord. And so he delivered him over to them to be crucified. By the way, Jesus had two primary betrayers here at the end of the Gospels. Judas betrays him with a kiss, and Pilate, even though he believes this man to be innocent, betrays him to death. Both of them.

The Bible tells us about Judas and history outside of the Bible tells us about Pilate. They both took their own life. They both got to the point where I guess they were tormented, they couldn't deal with it. And the crazy thing is, is either one of them could have come to Christ for forgiveness. And though they had betrayed them,

though they had betrayed Jesus, Jesus would never betray us. For whosoever we call on the name of the Lord would be saved. One day Pilate takes his own life. And so they took Jesus. Jesus. And he went out bearing his own cross. He's probably just carrying the cross beam. It's about a hundred pound beam of wood. And he would carry it through the streets. If you go to Jerusalem

today, you can walk on what's called the Via Del Rosa, although it's not the exact path that Jesus took because the first century Jerusalem is 20 to 50 feet below where modern day Jerusalem is. But the idea of being is that this is not just something that happened in the middle of the night where nobody could see it. What Rome would do is Rome wanted everyone to know if you stand up against the Roman Empire, this will happen to you. So it would be like taking somebody that was convicted

of the death sentence and marching them through the town center while everybody's just shopping and hanging out. So Jesus carries his cross right through the middle of town to the place of the skull, which in Aramaic, is called Golgatha. In like, I think it was 1850, the guy named General Gordon is staying with Horatio Spaffer, the guy that wrote it as well. On the north end of the city of Jerusalem, he looks

out of his wall out of his window, and he sees a skull in the side of a mountain. And so they begin to excavate it and check it out and look there and think, this might be it. So then later, a group of Christians bought all of that area, and right next to it is a garden tomb where many believe is the empty tomb of Jesus. Here's a picture of it. You can see why they would call it the place of the skull. The thing that you can't see, right, from this picture,

is on top of this is a Muslim cemetery in which Christians are not allowed to come, and at the bottom of it is a bus transit station. It's kind of a weird thing when you walk up to this high holy place, right? This place where maybe Jesus shed his blood for us and it smells like carbon monoxide. It's kind of nasty. And the first time I ever went, I thought,

what a shame. But as I think about it, it's probably closer to what was happening in the first century. Because the place where they crucified Jesus, they wanted to make sure everybody saw. And so out of that gate, in that direction, was a very, very busy road. It was like a highway.

And even though I know if you go to like the Bible bookstore, where all the pictures of the three crosses are up on this real pretty, you know, mountain in Colorado somewhere. That's not how it went down, man. They would usually crucify people maybe just above eye level so that you could spit right in their face.

And so when you hurled insults, they could hear it. And also so that every single person that saw this, they knew I better never turn my back on the Roman Empire, or this too, could happen to me. And he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull in Aramaic called Galgotha, and there they crucified him. And with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. You know, I've always wondered why the crucifixion gets so little ink.

That's it. That's just one word. And they crucified him. I think part of the reason is because you did not have to explain crucifixion to anyone reading us in the first century. They had all seen it. They'd all seen it firsthand. It was invented by the Persians in about 700 BC. It was perfected by the Romans. A part of the reason that the Roman Empire to use crucifixion as a death penalty is because it was the most painful way to die. In fact, Rome had a law that a Roman citizen was not allowed to be crucified. It's where we get our English

word excruciating. The word excruciating means from the cross. It was public execution. It would be the equivalent of putting a beheading on YouTube for everybody to see to instill fear. When Jesus was a child, there was a Jewish revolt uprising and dozens, if not hundreds of people, were crucified. Maybe he saw it as a boy. When Spartacus went down, Rome, crucified 6,000 men on the street

for 120 miles. I mean, imagine. That's almost here to Orlando. And imagine, from here to Orlando, you see men hanging naked on a cross, bleeding to death, choking, and gasping for air. This is what the Roman Empire did. They would strip them down.

There are very few cases of women ever being crucified. It would strip them naked in order to be humiliated. The few cases where women were crucified, even in this barbarous state, people could not stand to see the face of a woman being crucified, so they would turn them around to face the cross. And they would take railroad spikes

and drive them through some of the most sensitive nerve centers, which are the hands and feet. And by the way, in the Bible, when the Bible uses the term hand, that's anything from the elbow to the pinky. And then the way that you would die on the cross, most people died of asphyxiation. You would drown on your own fluids. And so history tells us that sometimes, in order to make it last longer, some men hung on the cross for upwards of nine days,

and they would take what would look like a wooden bicycle seat and put it right there and then nail them their private straight to it so they could not slump down and choke themselves out. And they crucified but Jesus. In verse 19, Pilate also wrote an inscription and he put it on the cross and it read Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Once again,

I think Pilate believes that. He just never believed in Jesus. Do you see the difference? He had all the facts. Do you realize you could have all the facts about Jesus? You could be standing next to Jesus. You can understand today that he's a historical figure. You could believe all the words that he said about children, about lying, and about worship,

and about all those things. But if you don't bow your need to Jesus, if you don't surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus, then your future will be the same as that of Pilate and eternity apart from him. And he writes, the king of the Jews, and many of the Jews read the inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic. That was what the Jews would speak in the first century. It was written in Latin. That's what the soldiers, that's the language most of the soldiers would use.

And it was written in Greek. That was for the rest of the Gentiles. You see, Pilate is this unknowing player in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ being for the entire world. Remember, when Jesus says all the way back in John chapter 3, for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son. And even at the cross, all the languages that could and would have been used in that. time declare that Jesus is the king. And so the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, don't write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said I am the king of the Jews. They want to copy at it in this thing.

And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. He's basically saying deal with it. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and they divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to seize whose it shall be.

Pay attention to this. Underline this in your Bibles. This was to fulfill the scriptures, which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. That's Psalm 22. By the way, one of the other reasons I think that the Bible gives so little ink

to describe the crucifixion is because if you were to go to Psalm 22, it is a, play by play, blow by blow, description of the crucifixion. And by the way, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of messianic prophecies that deal with the most menisculed details all throughout the Old Testament,

pointing to the coming Messiah. I mean, let's just be honest. What does casting lots for some man's shirt have to do with salvation? If that doesn't happen, does it mean he's not the Messiah? No. But God was so specific, he was so precise, that there are literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of prophecies

in the Old Testament that point to the coming Messiah, who his parents would be, what he would be like growing up, a whole bunch on how he would die, how he would go to the cross, and that he would be resurrected. And, by the way, there is no other sacred text of any other religion that has prophetic messages about actual historical events in the future that their leaders would one day fulfill.

Our Bible has thousands. Every other text, zero. Why? Because this is the inspired word of God. They said they divided my garments among them and for my clothing. They cast lots and so the soldiers did these things. But standing by the cross of Jesus,

or his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene. And Jesus is going to say seven things on the cross. And his mom is there. You've heard me say this 10 million times. No pain like kid pain. Right? No pain like kid pain. And sometimes we forget that Mary was mom.

And look, mamas, what do you do when your baby was? born. What do you do? You're first born, right? Everybody's a little nervous, everybody's little scared, and then your baby's born, and it's awful, it's gross, and they wrap that little thing up, and that little burrito of love, and then they lay it on you, and what's the first thing you do? Man, you unwrapped that little burrito, and you get down in there, and I don't know why we do this, but all of us do this, dads and moms alike, man, we grab those little hands, don't we, you get those little chubby hands, a little baby, old man, looking fat hands, and you look at it, How is that even a hand?

It's so little. Look at that little thumbnail, fingernail. This is crazy. You know, he's going to smell. It smells like, baby, you know, you look at it, and you just think, this is a hand. This is crazy. And then what do you do?

You count, one, three, four, five. One, three, four, five. That's what we do. And then you go to those feet. Those little chubby feet, don't look like they don't work yet good, right? It looked like somebody took a hospital glove and blew it up. Got those toes poking out, and you're like, these little chubby feet.

And you count, mama's like, one, two, five. You count the toes, count the toes. That's what you do. and you've got hopes and dreams for your kid. And so you're overwhelmed with gratitude that God would allow your love for your spouse to create a whole new image bearer of him. You have this much worship, man. And 33 or so years later, there's Jesus' mom. And those same hands and those same feet that she counted the fingers and toes on maybe are now nailed to the cross.

The angels warned her, and there she is. I want you to see this, and when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved, that's John, standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold, your mother. From that hour the disciple took her to his own home. I want you to pay attention to this. it would be quite the understatement to say that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity,

the son of God, the Savior is a little busy in this moment, would it not? It would be quite the understatement to say he may have some other things on his mind while he is becoming sin and receiving the full wrath of God for the sin that wasn't even his fault, but he was laying down his life for the salvation of anyone who would believe and to make all things new. and yet even in that moment he looks out to the people he loves and their temporary but immediate needs are so important to him that he says John you see in the first century maybe she wouldn't have anybody to take care of her notice that his brothers and sisters aren't there why because they don't believe

that he is who he says he is yet that's not going to happen until after the resurrection and so he cares so much about the needs of the ones that love him, he says, John, I want you to take care of her. Here's why I tell you this. I know God's busy right now. I know he's got a whole lot going on, just, you know, being master of the universe and all. And yet, he looks at you, your needs, the things that he knows that you need, and he will take care of you.

And then after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the script, I thirst. That's from, also from Psalm 22. Now for a long time when I would read this, I thought, oh, look, man, even the, even the soldiers are feeling sorry for him because it says a jar full of sour wine or wine vinegar, some translation say, stood there. And so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on the hyssop branch and they held it to his mouth. So what's happening here? And, well, we found out when we went to Israel and some commentators that I read, let me know that in the first century, again, a lot of people think maybe the soldiers are feeling bad for him, so they're trying to give him some wine vinegar that maybe take the edge off of the crucifixion. But in reality, what's happening here is there's two things. In Rome, there would be these public bathrooms. There'd be marble bathrooms everywhere with an aqueduct system under them, and you would sit on the bathroom and go to the bathroom, and then the water would take it away. and then there would be these sponges there,

and they would take the sponge, and they would put it on a branch, and you would use it basically as first century toilet paper. But they don't have the germ theory yet. Like Pasteuror is not going to really complete that to the 1850s, but they realized that when people use these sponge that had been used, that people were getting sick. And so they would take this soured wine or wine vinegar,

and they would use it as an antiseptic. They would dip the sponge in there so that germs would not be traded. And in fact, in a Roman soldier's field kit, he had all kind of things. Had a little shovel. Obviously, he'd have a sword. He would have some rations. He'd have like a bed roll.

And he would also have a sponge and some wine vinegar so that when he went to the bathroom out in the field and he cleaned himself that it would not make him sick. And he would put it in the soured wine or wine vinegar. And Jesus on the cross, just like Psalm 22 says he would say, he says, I thirst. And to mock him. the soldiers take essentially used toilet paper and shove it into the mouth of the Savior, excruciating. Physically, spiritually, psychologically excruciating. And when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.

John wants to make sure that we know his spirit was not taken from him, but Jesus laid down his own life. He says these words, in English, it is finished. In Greek, Tettlestide. Tettelestide. It literally means paid in full. I want you to pay attention to this. In the Bible, I see three sets of the most important words you'll ever hear. In regards to your life, it is written.

In regards to your salvation, it is true. finished. In regards to eternity, he is risen. And on the cross, he says, it is finished. What is finished? Again, to tell us that means paid in full. Archaeologists have found bank records that when somebody would pay off a debt, they would take a stamp and they would stamp the note to Telestai, paid in full. And on the cross, Jesus pushes up on his nail pierced feet and he says, it is finished. Paid for. Tatelistai, paid in full. This means the sacrificial system is done. You trying to perform your way

to have a right relationship with God, done. This means sin and shame, done. This means that condemnation, done. All of these things are done. It is finished. Why? Because your sin has been ultimately and finally and fully paid for.

And when it's paid for, then the bill is over, man. And listen, when we talk about sin, sin is not some moral thing that you failed to do, nor is sin fundamentally some immoral thing that you did. It is much deeper than that. John Piper says this. He says, what is sin? It is the glory of God not honored. It is the holiness of God not revered. It is the power of God not praised. It is the truth of God not sought. The wisdom of God not esteem. The beauty of God not treasured. The goodness of God not savor, the faithfulness of God not trusted, the commandments of God not obeyed, the justice of God not respected, the wrath of God not feared, the grace of God not cherished, the presence of God not

prized, and the person of God not loved. That is sin. And when Jesus pushes up on his nail pierced feet, he says, all of that is finished. Why? Because he became sin on the cross and endured the full wrath of God that for anyone who would believe we would become right with God. and he gives up his spirit. And since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken

and that they might be taken away. And so the soldiers came and they broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Again, this fulfilled. Psalm 22 in Exodus 1246, that the Lamb of God, the Passover Lamb of God, should not have its bones broken. Verse 34, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. Also, Psalm 22 lets us know

that our Messiah's heart would melt like wax. And at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness. This is John saying, I was there. I saw this. His testimony is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth. This is an eyewitness account. And here's why he is telling us all this, that you also may believe. Let me just ask you very directly, do you believe? Have you ever put your trust in the reality that when Jesus says it is finished, that somehow that counted for me?

Verse 36, for these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of its bones will be broken. Psalm 22. And again, another scripture says, they will look on him whom they have pierced, Zachariah 1210. That over and over and over, what the Bible wants us to know is that Jesus did this to fulfill the scriptures. What happened that day at the cross was not an accident. It wasn't over God's head. It wasn't out of his hands. That this was God's plan from before the foundations of the very world. In John chapter 3, verse 15, after sin, has entered the world and God is cursing Adam and Eve and the serpent. He says this. He says,

I will put enmity between you talking to the serpent and this woman, between your offspring and her offspring, and you shall bruise his heel, but one day he will crush your head. That from even before they are kicked out of the garden, Jesus is being prophesied about here. First Peter 1, 19 to 21, says this, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. For the sake of you. One of the most important words in the whole Bible is that word for.

That God demonstrated his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He says, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. Revelation 138 says this, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who was slain. Jesus was not caught off our guard. From the very beginning, all the way up to the cross, everything has been pointing to this moment in the cross. The prophet Isaiah says this about Jesus, 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.

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. All of Psalm chapter 22 points to the coming Messiah. who would be pierced for our transgressions. It was written about a thousand years before Jesus was crucified. About 300 years before the Persians ever invented crucifixion, and yet God knew that his plan was to send his son for the salvation of anyone who would believe. Deuteronomy, chapter 21, says,

Cursed is the man who hangs on the tree, and then Paul takes that very verse into the church at Galatia. He says this, us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanging on a tree. When you see a cross, whether it's in a painting or it's a silver or gold cross around somebody's neck, what I don't want you to do, I don't want us to look at that and think, oh, that's cute, oh, that's pretty, oh, that's nice.

No, no, no, no, no. When we see the cross, I want us to understand and remember the execution of God's son was the execution of God's plan. that's what the cross is. And so my question to you is simply this. Do you believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, somehow that counted for you? That's what it means to believe. That's what it means to believe.

Not that you've got everything figured out and not that all of a sudden you're going to be perfect, but you believe that you are a sinner in need of a Savior and that somehow when Jesus said, to tell us die, it is finished, paid in full. that the payment that he was talking about was your sin debt. You see, because God's plan, from before the beginning, is that his son would lay down his life for us. But his plan did not end at the cross. His plan did not even end at the empty tomb.

And here's why I say this, because his plan included you hearing this today. That's part of his plan. And from before you ever drew your first breath, He knew that this would be the day that you, I'm not talking about the person sitting next to you, that you would put your faith in Jesus Christ. And somehow right now for the very first time, the scales have fallen off your eyes. Somehow right now for the very first time, you have this supernatural understanding that it counted for me.

It counted for me. That when Jesus says it is finished that somehow right now by faith, not by your own works, not by you trying to be a better version of you, but somehow right now you are, understand that counted for me. And for anyone who would believe that when Christ died on the cross, did it count it for you? Then you will have eternal life. That your sins will be wiped away. And the reason is because Jesus paid the full price at the cross. And there's no more full than full. There's no more debt left to be paid. And Jesus takes 100% of your sin and gives you 100% of his perfect and righteous life.

And then God, not only does he forgive you, he adopts you. He adopts you. And not only does he adopt you into the family and change your name, he also deposits in you the very spirit of God so that we no longer live, but the spirit of Christ lives in us. And from this day to that day, we will continuously walk with him and be made to be more and more and more like him. And then one day he's going to come and take us home,

and we will be with him forever and ever and ever. And that's what we were created for. But it starts with one step. It starts with, I believe. I believe it that when Christ died on the kraal, somehow that counted for me. When he pushed up on his nail-pierced feet and says, it is finished, that counted for me.

I want to give you that opportunity right now to say, all right, God, I'm in. I lay down the reins of my life. I turned them over to you. I surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. and I believe when Jesus died on the cross it counted for me. Would you bow your head? Would you close your eyes? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, we love you more than anything

and we thank you that Jesus saves. It's not our good works that save us. So God, I would lift up anyone here, whether it's in one of our campuses or online, that it's ready to put their faith in you, God, I pray right now, that they would admit it, I'm a sinner in need of a Savior, that they would believe that when you died on the cross it counted for them and they would confess you as Lord.

And if you're here within the sound of my voice and you were ready to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I ask that you would lift your hand high and say, Father, here I am. I believe that it counted for me. And God, I praise you, and I thank you that by the power of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, even today men and women are being set free from the chains of sin. They are being released from the debt of the slavery of the sin debt that they owe. and they are being renewed with you in Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen. Church, would you please stand as we respond? We believe that the gospel demands a response, and I know we do this every week.

Please don't let it get routine. Because the Son of God dying on the cross for the salvation of anyone who would believe is not a routine thing. May we never get used to the cross. May we never just find ourselves agreeing with theological presuppositions that we forget that it counted for me. So for anyone who was a sinner like me and who has been saved and made new, may we lift up our voice and may we cry out and counted for me. So we're going to sing, we're going to bring, we're going to pray.

Let's respond.