[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints, there are seven words, seven sermons,
that Jesus preaches from the pulpit of the cross.
The Gospel of John gave us three of them. In a minute we’ll hear
all of them in a row, and I want to meditate briefly
on these seven words that Jesus preaches.
To put it in context, we’ll remember that Jesus’ trials go through the night on Thursday
night and into Friday morning, where He is at last condemned and handed over to the soldiers
who beat Him, mock Him, strip Him, worship Him, taunt Him, and then lead Him out to Golgotha
to be crucified.
The crucifixion of Jesus began at nine in the morning, the third hour of the day, and
extended for six hours until three in the afternoon, at which point they come and find
that Jesus had died. They wanted to speed up the deaths by crucifixion. Normally, death
by crucifixion would take days, if not maybe a week or so. And so, they were going to break
the legs of those who were being crucified so that they could no longer lift themselves
up to get air and they would die quicker. But they found around three o’clock that Jesus
Jesus was already dead, and so they stabbed him with a spear, and as John testifies to
us, out from his side came blood and water.
Of the seven sermons that Jesus preaches on the cross, they are probably in three groups.
One group of three at the very beginning, one group of three at the very end, and one
cry that comes right in the middle of the three hours of darkness that extended from
noon until Jesus’ death. It’s interesting to note that three of these seven sermons
of Jesus are prayers. The first, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.
The last, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And the middle word that Jesus
speaks, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? We’ll note that Luke, the Gospel of Luke,
gives us three of the sayings of Jesus.
The Gospel of John, as we just heard,
gives us three of the sayings of Jesus,
but Matthew and Mark only report one.
According to Matthew,
he gives us the Hebrew,
Psalm 22, the cry of dereliction,
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani,
and Mark gives us the Aramaic version,
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.
When Jesus is first nailed to the cross,
He’s lifted up and the cross would have fallen into its socket and Jesus would have
been hanging there for all the world to see.
I think we normally think of the cross as being lifted high up, but it wouldn’t have
been that high.
They could have reached his mouth with a hyssop branch, 18 inches or so, so that the crucified
were not that high off the ground, close enough certainly to have things thrown at them,
close enough so the people walking by could see the accusations hanging above them, and
in this case, king of the Jews. The soldiers would have treated Jesus cruelly. In fact,
they’re gambling for His clothes. Jesus, of all the suffering of the cross, the nakedness,
the shame of it was probably some of the worst, and here they are in fact taunting Jesus
in this way, gambling for His clothes right there in front of them. But Jesus looks down
at the soldiers, gambling for His clothes, can you believe it? And He says this prayer,
Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. And with this, Jesus announces
why He’s on the cross. He is not there for Himself. He, of all the people ever to be
born of Adam and Eve. He alone, in fact, doesn’t deserve death. He is there for you, and for
me, and for our forgiveness. Father, forgive them. To the soldiers, with the blood of Jesus
still on their bloody hands and robes, probably with the hammers still in their hands and
the scowls still on their faces. Maybe one of them had a splinter from the crown of thorns
that he twisted to put on Jesus’ face. Maybe another twisted his ankle as he was bowing
down in mockery to Jesus. Hail, King of the Jews. To these, Jesus says, Father, forgive
them. And this is for you, because if you think, if you think for one minute that you
have done something worse, if you have somehow out-sinned the Lord’s mercy, if somehow the
Lord’s forgiveness and His death on the cross is not for you, listen to what Jesus says.
Father, forgive them. And if that’s not enough, there’s criminals on either side.
Like the soldiers, the Gospel of Mark tells us that both of the criminals begin by mocking
Jesus. Hey, I thought you were the Christ. Why don’t you save yourself? And while you’re
at it, why don’t you save us as well? But one of the criminals, something happens. He’s
watching as Jesus is suffering on the cross. Maybe he even sees this prayer that Jesus
offered at the beginning, and the absolution, and the sturdy, quiet suffering that Jesus
is enduring, and the Holy Spirit works in this man on the right of Jesus, works faith
in his heart. One of the criminals said, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.
But the other one, who now is a Christian, and who you and I will meet in the resurrection,
says, don’t you fear God since you’re under the same sentence? We, rightly, receiving
what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong. And then he says, and this is a mystery,
he turns to Jesus and he offers this prayer, Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom. It’s an amazing thing to think of. And the last thing that you would think watching
Jesus nailed to the cross was that he had a kingdom in his future, but this man sees
past his suffering and knows who Jesus is.
He even confesses the resurrection.
He asked Jesus to remember him and then
Jesus preaches this second sermon to him.
Truly, I say to you today,
you will be with me in paradise.
How many countless Christians
have been comforted by these words,
and I hope that when we are dying,
we will remember them,
that today we will be with
the Lord in paradise for to be
apart from the body is to be
present with the Lord. And Jesus already by the second sermon, first Father forgive them
and now you will be with me in paradise, Jesus has already taken the soldiers and the
criminals next to him and gathered them into his kingdom. Can you imagine it? I mean if
you could, if you just walk up on the scene of the crucifixion and say, boy, oh boy, look
there’s some soldiers. I bet Jesus is mad at those guys. And look, there’s some criminals.
They probably deserve it. That’s not what Jesus thinks. He looks with grace on these
soldiers. He looks at grace on this man crucified next to him, this thief and this robber, and
he looks at grace on you as well. I think the two most beautiful words in this second
sermon of Jesus are the words, with me. Today you will be with me in paradise. And that’s
the promise that Jesus has for us. I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am
you will be also.” All of Jesus’ disciples had forsaken Him, but John eventually drew
nearer. Maybe some of the others were watching at a distance, but John, the beloved disciple,
comes at last to the foot of the cross. There’s Mary, the mother of Jesus, standing there
as the sword of sorrow is piercing her own heart, and her sister and Mary Magdalene,
the women were always close by, and John timidly maybe sneaks up, and he’s standing there next
to Mary, and he’s watching all of this stuff go on, no doubt with tears streaming down
his face. And Jesus now looks down, and He sees John standing next to Mary, and He’s
going to preach his third sermon.
Now we won’t know that one of the things
that Jesus offered to God
is a perfect human life.
We talk about the perfection of Jesus in two ways.
He was perfect in his suffering,
but that’s his passive righteousness.
But he was also perfect in everything that he did.
Jesus kept the commandments completely.
He filled up every one of God’s demands,
including the fourth commandment,
honor your father and your mother.
And the way I read this is this,
Jesus had one more thing to do
so that he could live the perfect life.
One more thing that he had to
accomplish to keep all of the commandments.
And so he turns to his mother,
Mary, and says to her,
woman, behold, your son, to John.
And then to John,
Son, behold your mother.”
And so Jesus gives Mary to John so that John would take care of her, and he did.
From that hour on, the disciple took her into his own home.
Jesus has now accomplished his final good work of loving his neighbor, and all that
is left to be kept is a perfect life to offer to God.
And so the sun goes dark from noon to three.
Now we should understand this spiritually.
There is a hidden suffering that Jesus is enduring on the cross that is the suffering
of our atonement and it happens now.
We know that Jesus suffered physically, the nails, the whips, the purple cloth torn off
His back, all the agony of the cross. We know that Jesus suffered the shame of the cross,
the mockery. He saved others, let Him save Himself. We thought He trusted in God. Where’s
God now? The spit on the face and tearing out His beard and the blindfolding, slapping
Him around saying, prophesy who struck you, King of the Jews, all this stuff. The shame
of the cross, so the physical suffering and the shame of the cross. This is true suffering.
suffering, but there’s a third kind of suffering, a hidden spiritual suffering that is indicated
by the darkness, and this is the suffering that Jesus receives from God Himself.
Isaiah 53, and this is just one of these great mysteries of the faith that we can, we just
simply can awe at, kind of marvel at. Isaiah 53 says this. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten
by God and afflicted. In verse 6, we, every one of us, have turned to their own ways.
says, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And then in verse 10, yet it was
the will of the Lord to crush him. The old version said the Lord was pleased to crush
him. Can you imagine it? It was the good pleasure of God to crush Jesus. Why? Not because he’d
sinned, not because he deserved God’s wrath, not because he had broken a commandment. He
hadn’t. He had kept them all. Why? For our transgressions, our iniquities are laid on
him. Your sin and mine. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
world, the sin of the world, which he did not add anything to. He takes it all upon
himself so that God himself can turn away from Jesus, can forsake the Christ.
My God, my God, Jesus says, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from my groaning? Our
fathers trusted in you.” This is Psalm 22, right? Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted
and you delivered them. They called upon you and you heard them, but I am a worm and not
a man. My bones are, everyone looks at my bones. My mouth is dried up like a potsherd.
The bulls of Bashan surround me. They mock me. They taunt me. The agony that he goes
through and it is as if, no not as if, the Lord has in this moment for these three hours
of darkness, has turned His head away from Christ, has forsaken Him because He is bearing
your sin. That wretchedness that you and I have brought about in our lives, Jesus has
taken it upon Himself, and now all of the punishment that you and I deserve, Jesus is
suffering. We’re about to sing this song, many hands were raised to wound Him, none
would intervene to save, but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice
gave. The holiness of God, looking at the sin of the world, makes God raise His hand
to strike down Jesus, smitten by God and afflicted. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
We know the answer because He bears our sins, because He carries our sorrows, because our
Our transgressions are accounted to Him because the Lord has imputed to Him the iniquity of
us all.
That’s why He’s forsaken, so that you never will be.
Now when you think, when you are tempted by your circumstance, by the troubles of this
life, by the devil himself to think that God has forsaken you, remember this.
He can’t.
He forsook Christ so that He would never leave you or forsake you.
you. Jesus was there on the cross. We’ll say it like this. Jesus was there on the cross
praying the 22nd Psalm so that you can pray the 23rd. Even though you walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is with you. He cannot abandon you. That’s
why He abandoned Christ. And then, as His suffering is coming to an end, Jesus says
says to fulfill the Scripture, I thirst. I had a professor who preached on this text
a wonderful sort of thing. He said this. He said, this word, I thirst, is a beautiful
text because it tells us that the physical suffering of the cross â sorry, that the
spiritual suffering of the cross is finished. When you are writhing under the wrath of God,
you are not thirsty. But when that wrath is finished, when the price is paid, when the
agony of hell and separation from God is over, then the physical struggle comes back.”
So Jesus would say it like this, hey, wait a minute, I’m thirsty. And so they put myrrh
and gall up to his lips to drink, to wet his mouth, to preach the two last sermons.”
Reading together the gospel of John, the gospel of Mark, and the gospel of Luke, we should
understand that these last two sermons that Jesus preaches from the cross were not preached
in weakness or in timidity, but with a loud voice. He cried out for all the world to hear.
here. First, these words, when he received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. Tetelestai
in the Greek, which beautifully was the word that they would put on a debt, on a receipt
of a debt that had been paid. It’s finished. It’s over. It’s accomplished. And Jesus is
not only thinking of his suffering. In fact, he’s not chiefly thinking of his suffering.
He’s chiefly thinking of the work that he is there to accomplish, and that is your salvation,
your redemption.
The price that is owed to the wrath of God, that price is paid.
The debt that you owe to the holiness of God is gone.
What’s finished is what was started in the gospel, what was started when the Lord first
promised in the garden,
the seed of the woman will
crush the head of the serpent.
Now the serpent is crushed.
Sin is forgiven.
Death is abolished.
The doors of heaven are flung open.
What’s finished on
the cross is your salvation.
Then when the last minutes have come,
Jesus cries out with a loud voice and prays Psalm 31.
Just as He began with a prayer, now He ends,
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
And having said this, He breathed His last.
I’d like to see this last sermon of Jesus as the undoing of the fall. Do you remember
how it was in the Garden of Eden? Do you remember how it was when Adam and Eve had eaten the
fruit and they realized that they were naked and they were ashamed and they made fig leaf
clothes for themselves and then something happened. They heard the sound of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and do you remember what Adam and Eve did?
they ran from God, and they hid from God. Instead of running to the Lord, they ran away
from Him. And this is what we’ve inherited from Adam and Eve. A fear of God, maybe rightly,
to fear His wrath, to fear His holiness, but not anymore. Not now that Jesus has suffered
and died. Now there is no longer room for fear of God. Now there is peace in His blood
God, and in the forgiveness of sins, and now we no longer run away from the Lord, but rather
we run to Him. We commend ourselves to Him. Into Your hands I commit my spirit. We pray
the same thing when we die, because there is, listen, nothing to fear. Nothing to fear
in death. On the other side of death, the Lord Jesus and God the Father and the Holy
Spirit wait to receive us? It’s gain for us, not something fearful. God is not mad
at you. Not now. Not because it’s finished. Not because of this death and His resurrection.
And so Jesus dies as a Christian. And we one day, God be praised, will die that way too.
Father, into your hands,
into your merciful and gracious hands,
into your creating and redeeming
and sanctifying hands,
into your gentle and compassionate hands,
I commit my spirit.
And having said this,
he breathed his last.
for three days. Amen. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your
hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
