Sermon 4.7.24
Notes
Transcript
**GRAB A SEAT**
**GRAB A SEAT**
One of the difficult realities of living in this world is watching something beautiful, breathtaking, and impressive, then seeing it obliterated.
The Titanic.
Twin towers
2.5 mil acres of land in America Burned in 2023
However, the most beautiful thing the world has ever seen or witnessed was a person. He was obliterated on a cross 2000 years ago.
45 weeks ago we kicked this off with this verse:
John 1:14
and week after week we have seen:
Jesus was perfect in truth- but never hurt anyone with it.
Jesus was perfectly gracious- but never used it for sin.
Jesus was love- but not once was distorted by lust.
Jesus was winsome- but never manipulated one person.
Jesus was a king that demanded allegiance through means of suffering- but took on the ultimate suffering so that we could be with our King forever.
Jesus said in John Chapter 18 that His Kingdom is not of this world. Therefore, as His family, our Kingdom is not of this world either.
This is why our life’s purpose looks different. It’s why peace looks different.
Today, as we get back into John, we are picking up where Jesus is moving very close to his final mission on earth, which is the cross.
The cross will be the place where heaven and earth collide and it’s the place where His kingdom is established.
His Kingdom will stand forever, and those that submit to this sacrificial King will stand forever.
19:1-3
First, did you notice how Pilate kept showing up as John describes the suffering of Jesus?
God used a pagan leader to declare the profound truths and beauty of the gospel.
19:4
Jesus life was the perfect and holy sacrifice because His life was perfect and holy.
19:5
Jesus life demands full attention from the watching world because He is the one and only God, there is none other.
19:6
Jesus is declared innocent so that in His sacrificial death, we may be declared innocent.
19:7-10
Jesus allowed himself to be taken captive so that He could set the captives free.
19:11-14
Jesus is declared to the world that He is the King of Kings and that through His sacrifice the angel of death passes over those who submit to his kingship.
This is another example of irony. (John is the only Gospel writer who mentioned this incident.) Pilate did not believe Jesus was their King, but to spite the Jews he called Jesus the King of the Jews.
John saw this as significant, for Jesus would die for His people as the King of His people, as the Messiah. Pilate could not resist goading the Jews: Shall I crucify your King? As if Rome would not crucify a Jewish king! The Jewish response, We have no king but Caesar, was full of irony. The rebellious Jews claimed loyalty to Rome while disclaiming their Messiah
19:15-23
Jesus is the undeniable, unchanging sacrificial King and those that surrender to him will experience his undeniable and unchanging love forever.
The creator of creation fully submits himself to the curse of creation in order to restore all things back to Himself.
We see here that Jesus is a sacrificial King — The Father’s wrath had to be fully satisfied — The humiliation of human sin.
Jesus is Sovereign King - On the cross, Jesus was solving an ancient mystery.
John 19:24
What is the mystery? Jesus’ being stripped of all of his clothing fulfilled a Scripture.
This reference to the garments comes from Psalm 22:18
Most famously of all, Matthew and Mark tell us when Jesus was on the cross, at the climax or the apex of his agony, he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That is a quotation of Psalm 22:1
Here you have Matthew, Mark, John, and Jesus all telling us, “If you want to understand the meaning of the cross, you have to look at Psalm 22.” It’s one of the clearest assertions of these narratives about Jesus’ death. Even Jesus himself is saying, “If you want to understand my death and what I’m doing up here on the cross, you have to look at Psalm 22.”
Let’s do it. When we do look at Psalm 22, we’ll see, taken in its context, read as a text, remembering how the people received it when it was first written and in the centuries afterwards, we’ll see up until the cross, Psalm 22 was one of the great mysteries of the Hebrew Scriptures. Why?
We go to Psalm 22:6-8 , it’s describing a public spectacle.
and the person is dying. We’re told in verse 17 he’s so emaciated you can count his bones.
we see in Psalm 22:15, we’re told this is a man dying of thirst, not just a little thirsty. His tongue is swelling up to choke him. Maybe most amazing of all is Psalm 22:16, where the psalmist says, “
Here’s the mystery. This is a psalm of David. You can go to Psalm 22. You’ll see at the top it says, “A Psalm of David.”
There are many places where David was in straight, narrow places. There were many places where he was surrounded by enemies. There were many places where he was being hounded or assaulted or persecuted. Here’s what’s different about all the other psalms of David. This is a public execution being described. Psalm 22 describes a public execution.
You cast lots for somebody’s garments only when that person had been so utterly abandoned they’re dying or they’re dead, and the executioners’ spoils were part of their salary. Piercing the hands and the feet, people staring and gloating and laughing as you’re dying of thirst and dying of being run through with iron, where did that happen in the life of David? The answer is it didn’t. Of course, it didn’t. He was the king. He was never publicly executed.
That’s not the only part of the mystery. All the other places where David is in difficulties, he’s always defiant. He’s always calling God to rain down wrath on the perpetrators, but when you read Psalm 22, the speaker is bowing in submission and accepting this judicial punishment. These aren’t just enemies. This is an execution. This isn’t defiance. This isn’t like David at all. It’s bowing and accepting it.
The most amazing part of the mystery is the last part of Psalm 22 says, though he’s being executed, God was going to deliver him, and when people saw it, all the nations at the end of the earth would turn to the Lord. It’s not until we get to the cross that we see the solution to the ancient mystery. In fact, without the cross there is no solution to this mystery.
Peter, in his first sermon in Acts 2, says, “Being a prophet, David foresaw and spoke of the Christ.”
In other words, in the midst of his suffering, I’m sure, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, David discerned there was going to be a greater David, a greater sufferer, experiencing a greater abandonment, a greater deliverance to receive a greater kingdom.
If it’s true everybody including Jesus says, “Look at Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” if we want to understand the cross, what do we learn? Here’s what we learn.
The infinite suffering of the son.
First, Jesus’ sufferings are infinite. Here’s a man who has been flogged, who is dying of thirst, who has been run through his hands and his feet with iron spikes, who has had a crown of thorns on his head.
Yet when he cries out, he never cries out, “My hand, my hand. My feet, my feet. My head, my head.” He cries out, “My God, my God …” Do you know why? He’s being abandoned. That’s what stripping means. That’s what everything means. He’s being abandoned by God. He’s receiving the penalty for the sins of the world. Here’s why.
Infinite Faithfulness. Psalm 22 tells us infinite faithfulness. Why? When he says, “My God, my God …” do you know what that language is?
That’s covenant language. When you get into an intimate, covenant relationship with God, God says, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” To call him “My God” even when he’s being abandoned, which is intimate language, which is loving language, which is loyal language, do you know what you have here?
Because of the infinite suffering and the infinite faithfulness, that brings infinite redemption. It’s not just that Jesus is dying the death we should die and, therefore, our sins are being put on him and they’re gone, but he’s living the life we should’ve lived so when we receive him, it’s not just that our sins go to him, but his righteousness comes to us, not just his suffering pays for our sins, but his faithfulness becomes ours.
That’s what the Bible says. “God made him sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
That’s worth rejoicing about, and it’s only in Jesus that Psalm 22 is not a lie, because Psalm 22 says when people from all around the world, every tongue, tribe, people, and nation, from the farthest ends of the earth, see this Sufferer, it’s going to turn them to the God of Israel.
It has happened, and the only way that has happened is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s the solution to the mystery. That’s the meaning of the cross: infinite suffering, infinite faithfulness, and infinite redemption. We see this text pointing us to Psalm 22.
Jesus covers our shame:
Gen 3- Adam and Eve fall into temptation at a tree and bring in shame and humiliation
Jesus surrenders the Father’s will at a tree and through His shame and humiliation, we are rescued from ours.
David Atkinson says, “… there is shame—that sense of unease with yourself at the heart of your being.” What is shame? Shame is if there’s anything you want to hide. If there are any thoughts you have, if there are any lustful thoughts, any petty thoughts, any selfish thoughts, any begrudging thoughts, if there’s anything about yourself you wouldn’t want the whole world to see, there’s shame in you.
If you had a perfect relationship with God, there’d be nothing you need to hide, but shame is that deep unease we have with ourselves.
We know if we were known all the way to the bottom we’d be rejected. That’s what shame is.
The Bible says look at the cross. On the cross Jesus is being stripped naked. Hebrews 12 says he did not flinch from the shame. He came to take shame. The Bible says, “I did not despise the mocking and the spitting. I didn’t turn my face away from it.” He came to be stripped. He came to be humiliated. He came to lose all of his glory. He came to lose all of his honor.
He was stripped. Why? So you and I could be clothed. Salvation is about being clothed. Isaiah 61 says, “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
In Ezekiel 16, the Lord said to his people, “I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine. […] I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.” You say, “Well, what does all that mean?” Here’s what it means.
Objectively, when you receive Jesus as your Savior, then all that infinite suffering and redemption becomes yours. Your sins are taken away. God now accepts you, not because of what you have done. If he looks all the way into you like that, you’ll be rejected. You know that, not just by God, by anybody.
You don’t even live up to your own standards, but in Jesus you’re objectively clothed with Christ’s righteousness. You’re accepted. The sins are taken away. Not only that, when you look at Jesus dying on the cross, you’re subjectively clothed. Do you know what I mean by that? It’s not just you know objectively, “My sins are put away” but “I see him on the cross dying for me. I see him submitting. I see him saying, ‘From hell’s heart I love you. I’m here for you.’ ”
Do you know what that means? He has looked all the way into the deepest recesses of your soul. He has seen everything, and he still loves you. You say, “I don’t know if I believe in Christ. I don’t know if I believe in God.” I’m not trying to argue with you. I’m just trying to say to the degree you know that and believe that, to the degree that actually grabs your heart, to that degree you will begin to experience a new kind of identity.
You will realize you’re clothed in his righteousness. You will lose that need to control what everybody sees. You won’t be as upset when you put on five pounds. You won’t be as upset at the fact that you haven’t been as successful this year as you want. You won’t be devastated by criticism. You’ll be free.
Are you experiencing shame for something you have done in life? Christ has saved you from that. His life allows you not to stay there but to lay it down at his feet.
What happened beneath the cross?
Jesus is a Servant King.
He serves his mother.
He is breathing his last, and he is still putting others first. This is the King we serve, an “others first” commitment. Christ the King, loves others before Himself.
He launches a new family.
Application:
Jesus was present with his people even during on-going and upcoming suffering.
Jesus provides not only a road map to live this way, but the power to do so.
Jesus was stripped of his dignity so that our shame could be stripped away. We can be renewed and restored through the life and loving sacrifice of Jesus.
Jesus' pathway through suffering reveals his heart for all who suffer because of the fall.
Maybe you are still seeking today, come to the cross of Jesus today and surrender to his awe-inspiring love. He loves you, cares for you, and will restore you.
Maybe you are in the family of God but are experiencing real pain right now, real suffering. Remember what Christ walked through in order to be with you in your pain. Run to him today, rest in him, find your hope in him today.
Let’s pray.