the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us take this opportunity to remember to silence our electronics, find our seats, and to prepare our hearts for worship. She's lost. So, you. Well, we welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to Dayspring Fellowship. We are delighted for your presence among us on this glorious Lord's Day, and I want to welcome visitors and encourage you if you're visiting for the first time to grab one of these booklets, Ultimate Questions. which you'll find out on the hall table, and we'd love to have a record of your visit if you'd sign our guest register, we would appreciate that. I want to direct your attention to the bulletin where you'll notice that at 945 we are in a Sunday School series through 1st and 2nd Samuel. So we're nearing the end of 1st Samuel. This morning we were in chapter 24, David does good to his enemy, a remarkable passage that I encourage you to download and listen to the lesson on that if you're providentially hindered from joining us this morning. Down the page you'll see that our sermon passage for next week will be the last part of John chapter 19, and so I encourage you to be meditating on that this week in preparation for next week as we finish up John 19 and then take a break from our John series for for quite a while. And then across the page there you will see that the monthly free online resource I'm recommending to you this month is this book by D.A. Carson titled Love in Hard Places. This is a book about our love, the love that we are called to display in the world in difficult places like we saw David do this morning as he displayed love towards his enemy who was seeking to kill him. You also see that on the second Wednesdays of 2025, we're going to be gathering in the Fellowship Hall at 545 for a Brown Bag Supper. And then at 630, we're going to come in here and hear testimonies from Dayspringers. And so I am eagerly awaiting you to let me know that, yes, you want to share your testimony on one of these Wednesday evenings, and so that I can plug you in to our schedule in the upcoming New Year This past Wednesday night, we had a lecture on theological liberalism and fundamentalism and evangelicalism. So we did a little bit of recent church history and talked about how that church history continues to reverberate here in America and affect us and inform our place on the mission here in our day and age. So I encourage you, if you missed that on Wednesday night, You can grab that online. It was recorded, and listen to it. Next month, on the second Wednesday, we'll have a lecture that'll be our final lecture. It'll be a theological lecture on heaven and hell, many, many questions about heaven and hell that have been brought to my attention. And so we will cover those as our final lecture in the lecture series. Then I want to encourage you again to consider inviting a Dayspringer with no nearby family to a seat at your Thanksgiving table this Thanksgiving. And then we have a lot of announcements regarding December activities. We have so many traditions here as we celebrate the incarnation of and birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ during the holiday season. And so you'll see that this December, the Austin Symphony is going to once again be performing one performance of Handel's Messiah. This is one of the most majestic pieces of art, and so if you've never sat and experienced live this amazing art piece, I encourage you to go this year and be blessed. It is some of the most incredible music, and it's music that brings out the meaning of scripture. So every word that is sung is from the word of God, and then the music that it is set to is intended to expound upon and bring out the meaning of those words. So really a great, marvelous experience. It'll take place Tuesday, December the 3rd. 8 p.m. at the Riverbend Center here in Austin, and you can get tickets at austinsymphony.org. Then we have on Sunday, December the 1st, so the 1st of December is a Lord's Day. After worship on that first Sunday, we are going to decorate and beautify this chapel for our Advent season. And so I want to encourage all Day Springers to stay after the service on that day, and help us to decorate. You can bring decorations of your own. We have a whole bunch of decorations and storage that we'll be bringing out. And this is kind of a free for all. You get to decorate this place the way you want it decorated. And so come with your own decorating ideas. We look forward to that every year. And so we're going to do that after the service on that Sunday. And then our annual Christmas party is going to be held in the Fellowship Hall at 6 p.m. on that Saturday, the following Saturday, December the 7th at 6 p.m. There is a sign-up sheet now on the hall table to sign up for food to bring to this party. And so I encourage you to visit that sign-up sheet today and put your name down for something. And then you will see that I have listed other important December dates so that you can already get these on your calendar. December 11th will be that Heaven and Hell lecture at 630. That's a Wednesday, December 11th. And then on Saturday, December the 14th, ladies are gonna have their under $25 gift exchange beginning at 11 a.m. on that Saturday. And then on Wednesday, December the 18th, that is our Wednesday evening of neighborhood caroling where we go by candlelight and sing Advent hymns to our lost neighbors and invite them to come to Dayspring for our Christmas Eve candlelight service. And so that will begin at 6.30 on Wednesday, December the 18th. And then on Sunday, December the 22nd, we will have our scripture and songs service at 6.30 p.m. For those of you who are new to Dayspring and haven't gone through these traditions with us, We take this one Sunday evening and we put on musical displays of hymns and songs bringing glory to the Lord Jesus with an Advent theme. And so we look for talented Dayspringers of all ages who want to play an instrument, sing a song, to please let Jonathan and Alyssa Cantrell know. so that they can get you on the schedule and arrange that. We will intersperse that with congregational singing. This is always a wonderful night of worship. And then, finally, on December the 24th, which is Christmas Eve, a Tuesday evening, we will gather in here for our shortest service of the year. It's just a short 30-minute candlelight Christmas Eve service that begins promptly at 6 o'clock p.m., ends right at 6.30 so that you can spend Christmas Eve with your family. But a beautiful time as we gather in here by candlelight and hear some scripture and sing some Advent hymns. And then two marvelous announcements to end things off here. We are praising the Lord that the Estradas are expecting another child. And so our prayers are with Candice and her baby. And we are rejoicing with those who rejoice. The baby is due in late July or early August. Baby shower and registry information will be forthcoming. And finally, we welcome Leslie Mercado as our newest Day Springer. She is uniting with our church family today. So please do greet Leslie and her children, Hope and Perfecto. They'll be standing with me after the service out here near the red door in the hallway. stop by and give a warm day spring welcome to the Mercados. Well, as we begin worship, please take your red hymnal. We're going to be a little bit in the red and a little bit in the blue today. So take your red hymnal. We'll begin there with hymn 101. This is 101 in the red hymnal. And please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning comes from the 47th Psalm. Clap your hands, all peoples. Shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our King. Sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. Let us sing together. Come Thou Almighty King, help us Thy Name to sing, help us to praise. Father all-glorious, Lord all-victorious, come and reign over us, ancient of days. Come Thou Incarnate Word, Mighty sword, our prayer attend. Come and thy people bless and give thy word success. Spirit of holiness on us descend. Come, holy comforter. Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour. Come who Almighty art, now rule and every heart, and from us depart spirit of power. ♪ To the great one and three ♪ Eternal praises be ♪ Hence evermore ♪ His sovereign majesty ♪ May we in glory sing ♪ And to eternity love and adore Let us pray together. Our gracious God and merciful Father in heaven, you are the King who reigns over us, and so we bow ourselves before you. We thank you that you have loved us before the foundation of your creation, that you supply our every need from your riches in glory in Christ Jesus. And we ask, Lord God, that you would hear the grateful praises of your people this morning and songs of praise to you And in our prayers, Lord, enliven our worship of you by your spirit. Make your very presence known to us as we celebrate communion. And let it be your voice that we hear as your word is read and proclaimed. Above all, Lord God, please ensure that all that we do here in this place would be for your honor and glory and praise. For Jesus' sake and in his name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Good morning, everyone. Please turn to 574 in the blue. Revive us again. We praise Thee, O God, O the Son of Thy love, Lord Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Alleluia, Thine the glory! Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Thine the glory, revive us again. We praise Thee, O God, for the Spirit of light, Who has shown us our Savior and banished our night. Alleluia, Thine the glory, Alleluia, Amen. Alleluia, Thine the glory revive us again, All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, Who has taken our sins and cleansed every stain. Alleluia, Thine the glory, Alleluia, Amen. Alleluia, Thine the glory, revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb who was slain. You know, one of the beauties of singing congregationally is not only am I helpful to y'all, I don't know what help that would be, but y'all help me when I get on the wrong line. But we come together and we worship God together and we help each other. So our next hymn is 66 in the blue. My shepherd will supply my need. Supply my need Jehovah is His name In pastures fresh He makes me feed Beside the living stream He brings my wandering spirit back when I forsake His ways and leads me for His mercy's sake. grace. His hand in sight of all my foes doth still my table spread. My cup with blessings overflows His oil. ♪ Assure provisions of my God ♪ ♪ Attend me all my days ♪ ♪ O may thy house be my abode ♪ ♪ And all men be praised ♪ Where would I find a settled rest while others go and come? No more a stranger, nor a guest, but like a child Amen, now we have the reading of God's word. Good morning. Okay, make sure I get the right one. Today's reading is John 10, 17 through 18. For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. It's amazing to me even in short passages like that how the cross is talked about in such a simple manner, as Jesus is talking about having the authority to lay down his own life, he's talking about the authority to give his body over to torture of the most excruciating kind, just an unimaginable thing that our Savior has done for us. And we celebrate that sacrifice every Lord's Day here at Dayspring. And as always, we ask three things of you to partake of this supper. We ask first and most importantly that you're trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. So you're looking not to yourself, to any goodness or merit on your part. You haven't sort of cleaned yourself up and made yourself presentable to God, that's impossible. You have come to him in all of your filth and all of your shame and all of your sin, and you've cast yourself upon his grace and mercy alone in Christ. And so you're one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, to his glory alone. And then secondly, we ask that you be a baptized believer, but we leave the details concerning your Christian baptism up to your own individual conscience. And then finally, we ask that you not be under church discipline from your local congregation so that we might respect the work of our Lord as he continues to sovereignly build his church here in this world. As we come to a time to prepare our hearts to partake of this corporate meal of communion, let's take our red hymnals and look to the reality of the cross of Jesus Christ, the crucifixion. By turning in the red hymnal to hymn number 257, 257 in the red, stricken, smitten, and afflicted, let us sing together. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree. Tis the Christ, by man rejected, yes, my soul, tis he, tis he. Tis the long-expected prophet, David's son, yet David's lord. By his son God now has spoken, tis the true and faithful word. Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his? Frenz'd through fear, his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress? Many hands were raised to wound him, none would enter, posed to save. But the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. You think of sin but blithely, nor suppose the evil great. its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate. Offer sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load. Tis the word the Lord's anointed, Son of God and Son of God. Here we have a firm foundation, here the refuge of the lost. Christ, the rock of our salvation, is the name of which we boast. O God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt, none shall ever be confounded. who on him their hope have built. You ever been excited to be part of a team? Not just a member of an organization like a student at a school or, you know, employed at a company or anything like that, but part of a special team with a specially designated task or a mission. I've been privileged to be part of special teams and at times I've commanded and selected the members of those teams. The goal in selecting team members is finding those with the skills that you need to be successful and having one other very essential quality, commitment to the mission no matter what. You don't want people who are enthusiastic when times are good, but when things get tough, they abandon you in some fashion. Depending on the situation, That can put your very survival into question. At a minimum, it's demoralizing to the remainder of the team. It's a real test of commitment when things get difficult. When you hear the hard words, when you get a hard diagnosis, you get a disappointing reply, or you just have the continued anxieties that you deal with. And really, that's what all of these things are, a test. I could point you to Job as I have in the past, but I won't. Instead, I'll give you another example from a passage we heard preached not long ago. In John chapter six, just after Jesus taught about being the bread of life in the synagogue at Capernaum, several of his disciples grumbled and then left him for good. Then in verse 66, we see this exchange. After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. And so Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." Have you believed and come to know? Jesus told us that He would never leave us nor forsake us. He will be there in our times of trouble and He will sustain us through them. The troubles are to remind us that we need Him and to prove our faith, not to Him. He knows us. Judas was part of the twelve when Peter said these words, and yet Jesus knew he would betray Him. No, beloved, it isn't that we prove our faith to Him. It is rather Him who is proving our faith to us. and showing us that He is faithful. He sustains us by His grace and grants us the faith to endure to the end. This is why even during the testing, we count it joy because He is refining us. And remember what I said about picking a team. He didn't pick us because we had any skill. He picked us because it would glorify Him to do so. To take useless, broken, wretched, dead in sin creatures and transform them as only He could do. And what of those who depart and never to return? Well, we have a passage for them too. From 1 John 2, verse 19, they went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are all not of us." Before us now is a display that reminds us just how committed the Lord is for us. So I'll ask you, What will be the display of your commitment to Him? So I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread of the Lord or drinks the cup in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. It is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take a moment to examine ourselves. Our Father in heaven, we bring you praise and thanksgiving for your display of mercy on us, wretched sinners, dead in sin, yet you sent your Son, your only Son, to make the sacrifice on our behalf that we could not make. And it is through this that you exalted him to the highest throne of all, that at his name every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. Lord, we still face trials and troubles by design as we go through life. Grant us the faith to endure. Grant us the strength to persevere. And give us a witness to those who are lost, knowing that it is only through your work in us and through us that sustains us. And may they see this work and come to you in repentance. that you may receive all the honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you. The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. The same way also he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the body of the Lord which was given for you. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sin. As we sing our final hymn this morning, please turn to 441 on Jesus Shall Reign. Jesus shall reign. Does His successive journeys run? His kingdoms stretch from shore to shore, Till moon shall rise and wane no more. To Him shall endless prayer be made, And praises throng to crown His head. His name, like sweet perfume, shall rise With every morning's sacrifice. People and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song, and infant voices shall proclaim, Their early blessings on His name, Blessing about where'er He reigns, The prisoner leaves to lose his chains, The weary find eternal rest, And all the sons of hunt are blessed. Let every creature arise to bring Peculiar honors to our King. Angels descend with songs again, And earth repeat the loud homage. Keep your red hymnals nearby, but before we go on to our psalm that we will do responsibly in a moment, I just want to honor and bless and potentially embarrass the Cantrells by saying how grateful we are as a congregation. They lead us in worship Sunday after Sunday. giving their gifts and their talents to this church, and not just leading us in corporate worship of our Savior, but serving us in many, many ways behind the scenes as well. And they're going to be gone for the next two Sundays for a much-needed rest. We just sang about how the Lord grants the weary rest, and the Cantrells, they have been through it in these past couple of years with many trials and tribulations. and griefs, and so we pray, it is our hope and prayer, that their time will be a time of great rest in the Lord and refreshment. And so let's just give a round of applause to the Cantorettes. We love and cherish y'all so much. Please take your red hymnals and turn in the back with me to Psalm 69, verses 19 through 36. You'll find that on page 810. 810 in the back of your red. We're going to read this psalm responsibly together. Please stand together. You know how I am scorned, disgraced, and shamed. All my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless. I looked for sympathy, but there was none. For comforters, but I found none. They put a gall in my food, and gave me vinegar for my thirst. May the table set before them become a snare. May it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them. Let your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted. Let there be no one to dwell in their tents. For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime. Do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous. I am in pain and distress. May your salvation, O God, protect me. I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. The poor will see and be glad. You who seek God, may your hearts live. The Lord hears the needy and does not despise his captive people. Let heaven and earth praise him, the sea and all that moves in them, for God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah. The people will settle there and possess it. The children of his servants will inherit it. and those who love his name will dwell there. Let us pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we come before you this day recognizing that you are our eternal creator to whom we owe worship, to whom we owe everything, and you have substituted your own son in our place and purchased your church with his blood. We pray, Lord God, that you would be with your redeemed church this day. We lift up this congregation to you. We thank you for calling us together, for building us into a unified family, and for sustaining us in our faith, and for giving us spiritual gifts, and for giving us extraordinary opportunities to share in the privilege of working to spread the gospel and make disciples. We pray, Lord God, for all who are in need today that you would Provide healing for the sick and comfort to the afflicted. We pray that you would draw very near to the Cantrells over these next two weeks. Give them refreshment and spiritual rest in your sovereign love and care for them. We thank you for adding to this body and outpost of your kingdom by bringing Leslie to be a part of our family today. We pray, Lord, that you would strengthen Candice throughout her pregnancy, provide health to both her and her baby. We pray for your church throughout the world today and ask that you would continue to bless it, to add to it daily, as many as are being saved. We lift up to you Pastor Ben Wright at Cedar Point Baptist Church this morning, that you would fill him with your Holy Spirit as he preaches your word to our brothers and sisters there. Lord, we pray that you would build them up, add to their numbers and to their influence in the kingdom there in Cedar Park. We lift up to you President Biden and President-elect Trump and all of our earthly leaders, that you would bless them and strengthen them and lead them in wisdom. We pray for all our missionaries and thank you for sustaining them day by day. We thank you for the many answered prayers for our missionaries, for your empowerment of them as they take the gospel into unreached and dark places and push your kingdom further into this world. We pray, Lord, that all Israel might be saved. And finally, we pray that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. For Jesus' sake and in his name we pray, amen. You may be seated. And our children may go out to Children's Church at this time. And as they go, please turn with me in your copy of God's Living and Active Word back to chapter 19 of the Gospel of John. We saw in John 19 last week the trial of Jesus before Pilate come to an end with Jesus being handed over by Pilate to be crucified. And so this morning, we're picking up the story at the very moment that this entire book has been driving towards from the very beginning, when John the Baptist cried out, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I mean, from the very first chapter, this is where it's all been headed. Jesus knew it. The disciples kind of picked up on it along the way from the very beginning. He told them over and over again that he had to be handed over to sinful men who were going to crucify him, put him to death, and yet he knew. that he was going to do this. And even though he knew this was coming, he didn't do anything to try to avoid it. He didn't try to evade the cross and the suffering. And in fact, the Bible says this. The Bible says he set his face like flint to go to Jerusalem and to face the cross. Why did he do that? Well, because as he said many times throughout this Gospel of John, and even more times throughout the other Gospels, he did it because he was the Messiah. He was the King of the Jews. And to be the King of the Jews, the King of Israel, was to be his people's representative, their champion, the one who would stand in their place and die for them in their place, who would take the punishment that they deserve. for their sins. That's why he did it. And we come today in our passage to the very moment when Jesus actually does that, when he is crucified. It starts kind of in the middle of verse 16 there. So if you look down in chapter 19, you'll probably have a subheading there, the crucifixion. That's in the middle of verse 16. That's where we're going to pick it up. Here's what John writes. So they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, Many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic and Latin and in Greek. So the chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather, this man said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and 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 see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture, which said, they divided my garments among them. and for my clothing they cast lots." So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. You know, in some ways, this is a surprising passage because for all of the agonies that attended crucifixion, none of the gospel writers really dwell on the physical torture of it. Probably that's because they knew that all of their readers would already be very familiar with what happens to the physical body during a crucifixion. So instead, all of the gospel writers, they tend to focus on other aspects of what's going on around the cross. John, the apostle John, for his part, dispenses with the physical tortures of the cross in just one sentence. You can see it there in verse 18. There they crucified him. That's it. And then, like all the other Gospels, he turns his focus to other things that are going on around this physical torture. So what is it that John does focus on? Well, if you think about what we just read, if you just kind of let your eyes roll over it, he seems to focus here on three main things. The first thing is that there's this sign, this inscription above Jesus' head that Pilate wrote with his own hand. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. That's one thing that he focuses in on. Second thing he focuses on is the soldiers gambling for his clothes and then this exchange between himself and John and his mother. And for some reason, John ties the soldiers gambling for his clothes and this exchange between Jesus and John and his mother. He ties these two things together contrast. So you see that as verse 24 gives way to verse 25 there. On the one hand, the soldiers, they did these things, but on the other hand, standing by the cross of Jesus were these women. And then he describes this exchange, and then the last thing that John seems to focus on is the death of Jesus himself, with these details about Jesus's thirst and the sour wine on the sponge lifted up with a branch, a hyssop branch, and then what he says there at the end. So is John here, the Apostle John, is he just describing random details that he remembered from this Friday outside Jerusalem? Or does he have something coherent to say? In other words, what ties all of this together? Well, I think what ties it all together actually is a theme that John's been pushing to the forefront ever since Jesus allowed himself to be arrested. And that theme is that none of this is happening, that's happening, is merely happening to Jesus. None of it is sweeping him away. None of it is, it's not that he's just caught on the wheel of history in an unfortunate time, and an unfortunate place. He is in control of every detail of it. And even more, his Father in heaven is in control of all of it. This is what scripture foretold. This is what must happen, John says. And this is the cup that Jesus had said that he must drink if he's actually going to be what John the Baptist said he was, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. If that's going to be the case, then Jesus has to die this excruciating, tortuous death on the cross. So that's the main idea. The main idea is this, nobody took Jesus's life from him. He laid his life down so that his people would be saved. That's the message that John wants to get across to you in this passage. This is not some historical accident. This is not just a you know, a concatenation of events that come together and fortunately gets Jesus killed. No, he does this on purpose. His father does this on purpose. His father had foretold it for centuries before in the prophets. It was the will of God to crush him, and now it's all come to a head. Nobody, nobody took Jesus's life from him. He laid it down of his own accord so that his people would be saved. So I want to look at this passage in three parts, just kind of breaking it down like we just talked about. So there's three main paragraphs of the passage. So number one, you've got an executed king. You've got an executed king in that first paragraph. And then number two in that second paragraph, you've got an unexpected family. That runs from verse 23 all the way down through 27, an unexpected family. And then finally, number three, the last little bit from verse 28 to 30, a mission accomplished. So those three points, an executed king, an unexpected family, and a mission accomplished. So let's start looking at it. Number one, an executed king. In verse 16, right before our passage, after declaring Jesus innocent several times, trying every which way to release him, Pilate ultimately caves in and hands him over to be crucified. And then somewhere between verse 16 and 17, the soldiers, they would have administered the highest level of flogging. Remember, there are three different levels of flogging. And before a crucifixion, they would scourge the condemned with whips that had this bone and metal embedded in the leather straps, so that when the straps would strike the person's back, they would just lacerate the flesh. And we know from the records of history that a lot of times, People were reduced to near death, even death itself, by this scourging alone. Somewhere between verses 16 and 17 is where the soldiers would have done that to Jesus. And then they made Jesus carry his own cross, probably just a cross beam, to a place just outside the city known as the Place of the Skull. Golgotha is the Aramaic word for skull, the word that shows up in our hymns here and there. Calvary, that comes from the Latin word calvarium, which also means skull in Latin, so it's not a different place. Calvary is Golgotha, which is the place of the skull. That's where they crucified Jesus. It would have been It would have been an utterly visceral, bloody affair. They would have stripped Jesus completely naked to expose his genitals. They would have laid him down on the ground with his lacerated back scraping against the dirt. They would have stretched out his arms on the cross beam that he had carried and then fixed his wrists to it. Sometimes the Romans just used ropes to fix a man's arms, the cross beam, but John later refers to the nail marks in Jesus' wrist, so we know that the more excruciating method of affixing Jesus to the cross was used for maximum torture. Sometimes in the movies or in art you'll see the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus, depicting as being right here in his palms, But the Romans had learned if you hang a man by a nail that's put through his palms, it won't hold the weight of a man. So they'd learned that where you have to put those nails were in the wrist, right through the bone and through the nerves so that he could hang. Once both of his wrists were nailed down, the soldiers would use ropes to hoist the crossbeam and victim up to fasten that crossbeam. to the vertical beam, and then Jesus' ankles would have been nailed to the vertical beam, and then he was left to hang there in crucifixion. It wasn't the nails through the wrists and the ankles that killed you. It wasn't the crown of thorns that killed Jesus. It wasn't the scourging that killed Jesus. You didn't die in crucifixion through blood loss. You died because you suffocated. You died of asphyxiation because ultimately you couldn't breathe. Since your body, it hung up there with your arms outstretched and the whole weight of your body sagging down, you simply couldn't breathe. It made it impossible to take a breath as you were sagging down. And so the only way to get a breath into your sagging lungs was either to pull up by the nails in your wrists or to push up by the nails in your ankles in order to just get enough height on your body to expand your chest cavity so that you could take a little breath. And then when the exertion of that was over, you would sag back down on the nails. Some of the condemned who were crucified in this way, they hung there for days. Sometimes the Romans would even attach a kind of little seat to the cross, just enough of a little seat to support the weight of the body just a little bit to make sure that the torture went on even longer. John doesn't dwell on any of that, though. He just says there, they crucified him. He expects you and me to know what that means, and he expects you and me to recoil from the horror of that. They crucified him. And then in verse 19, he turns his attention to a detail that all the gospel writers, they also mention, but about which John tells us much more. John writes, their pilot also wrote an inscription, and he put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic and Latin and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, don't write the king of the Jews, but rather, this man said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. Okay, so that's a lot of space that the Apostle John gives to just this sign that identifies Jesus, mockingly and insultingly, Pilate thought, as King of the Jews. Why does John give so much attention to this little sign that would have been affixed to the top of the cross where Jesus was crucified? Why does he spend so much time thinking about it? Well, probably there are a few things going on here. I mean, just historically speaking, it tells us finally what Jesus was ultimately officially condemned for. It was the first charge that the Jews had made right from the beginning. He was charged with sedition and convicted of sedition, which is treason against the Roman Empire. That's finally what Pilate sentenced him here for, for claiming to be a king. It wasn't unusual, really, for a crucified person's crime to be hung on his cross or even around his neck. What was unusual, though, was for that sign to be written by the governor's own hand. And that leads to another thing that's going on here. It shows us that this is Pilate's last revenge on the Jews for forcing his hand and manipulating him into condemning this innocent man, Jesus, when he didn't really want to. He wanted to let him go. So it's revenge on the Jews. I mean, look at the specific wording of the sign there in verse 19. Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. It was a nameplate on the cross that says, this is Jesus from Nazareth. He is the King of the Jews. And this is what we Romans do to kings. That's what he was saying. So it wasn't just he's a rebel, he's convicted of treason against Rome, it was this is the king of this subjugated people, and this is what we have done to him. Which of course was a huge insult to the Jewish leaders and to the entire Jewish nation. You've got this bloody, beaten, broken man being presented as their king. And to make matters worse, if you look in verse 20, he put it there in three languages, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Aramaic, because that was the common tongue in Judea. No longer Hebrew is spoken, but this very closely related sister language of Aramaic. Latin, because that's the language of the Romans. So he wanted everyone in the empire to be able to read this. He wanted the Hebrews to see what the sign said. He wanted the Romans to see what the sign said. And then he put it in Greek, because that covers everything, because basically every citizen and foreigner across the entire empire spoke Greek at this time. So he's trying not to miss anybody. And even worse, this crucifixion is happening just outside the city of Jerusalem. So John says there that many people saw this as they passed by. Remember, this is the time of the Passover. It was humiliating for the Jews. And of course, the Jews and their leaders, they felt the sting of all of this. So they asked him to change it. Pilate says, what I have written, I have written. It was petty. But it put the Jews in their place. But I mean, still the question is there, why does John dwell on this petty insult? Was John, as a Jew, just so offended by the insult that it stuck in his mind and he's going to record it for history that Pilate did this horrible, insulting thing? That's not it at all. The reason the Apostle John dwells on this sign is because he sees in it not just an insult, but a deep and glorious irony. Pilate meant that declaration to be mockery, to be slander, to be a screaming insult against the Jews. But John knows that what he wrote upon that sign was true. that this was, in fact, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And the very means by which Jesus would take the throne of the universe was through the cross and that crown of thorns. It's interesting, isn't it, that basically two people in this story for the last eight chapters or so are said to have kind of prophesied in a way that they themselves didn't even understand. You remember the first one was the high priest Caiaphas. Remember how John says that when he told the Sanhedrin that it's better for one man to die for the nation rather than the nation as a whole to perish, and John said that he wasn't just saying that of his own accord. He was prophesying about what the death of Jesus would do. By dying, Jesus would save the nation. It's better for one man to die for the people than the people perish. The other person who speaks better than he knew is Pontius Pilate right here. This is Jesus, the king of It's fascinating, isn't it? The highest of the Jews and the highest of the Gentiles speak truth about Jesus without knowing it. They didn't even know it. But again, why? What's the irony? Why does John put his eyes on it for so long? You ever wonder why all of the stories of Jesus's crucifixion are just shot through with kingship imagery? You ever notice that? I mean, it's everywhere. King imagery. It's all over the passion narratives. Now stop and think for a second. Jesus, you know, he's taught in the Bible to hold three Old Testament offices, right? Three offices. Prophet, priest, and king. Now which one, if you were just asked about it, apart from this sermon right here, which one of those three offices do we as Christians most commonly associate with Jesus's death as a sacrifice for sins on the cross? The answer would be priest. We think of him mostly as priest, and we're right to do that because the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the great high priest who gave himself as a sin offering. Like priests offered sacrifices for sin, Jesus offered himself as that sin offering so that his people might be forgiven and saved. We are right to think about Jesus's crucifixion right in line with his office as priest. But it's fascinating that the gospel writers, they don't focus on priesthood here. In God's providence, Jesus, he was not mocked as a high priest. He didn't have a priestly hat and a robe. put on him, all of the imagery of the crucifixion in all four of the Gospels, the crown of thorns, the royal purple robe, the charge against him itself that he was guilty of, of calling himself king, and making himself treasonous against Caesar, and this sign, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews. All of that points our minds and our hearts to his office of king, not priest. Why is that? Well, it's because from the very beginning, the very point of the Messiah, the anointed one, the very mission of the king, the Davidic king, was that he would suffer in the place of his people. If you go back and read the prophets, if you read the Psalms, you see that to be the king of Israel was to suffer in the place of your people, to suffer for your people. You stood in their place, you stood in their stead. You were their representative, their champion. You fought the battles they could not fight, right? And David fighting Goliath. He fought as king. His killing of Goliath showed that he was worthy to be the anointed king because he was fighting and suffering in the place of his people who could never win that battle. That's what you did as king. You suffered for your people in their place and in their stead as their substitute and representative and champion. And you think about the Psalms, like Psalm 22, Psalm 69, the point of those Psalms is that King David is standing as king in the place of his people and suffering on their behalf, suffering for them instead of them, as their champion and as their Lord. Why is that important? Well, theologically, it's important because you need to understand and get it deep down into your heart that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not simply, Jesus is king, period. Full stop. That is not the good news. If Jesus is king and you are still a sinner and rebel against his kingship, then it is in fact very, very bad news for you that Jesus is king. The good news is that Jesus is the king who dies to save his sinful people, wretches like me and like you. That's the good news. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not just that we worship Jesus Christ the great. No, it's that we worship Jesus Christ the crucified and resurrected Lord, the one who laid down his own life so that we might be saved. I mean, listen, we're sitting right here at the very heart of the Gospel. This is where it happens. This is the white-hot center of how the Gospel operates. If you are a human being, then you are a rebel against God the King. You are a sinner. And the penalty for sin is for you to die, not just physically, but eternally, spiritually, to be cut off and separated from God's love and be under his wrath for all eternity. That's the penalty for rebelling against the King. The only way for you to save yourself. It's not just to pile up a bunch of good works on your behalf. It's not just to pile up a bunch of apologies. It's not just to do a whole bunch of good things with the hopes that those good things will balance out the scales and God will declare you to be a little bit more good than you are bad. No, you need somebody, just like the Jews did, you need somebody to stand in your place and to take the wrath, the punishment that you deserve for your sins, all of them. We need a champion. You need a king. You need a king to exhaust the wrath of God in his own body. And you've got a penalty so big that you're never going to be able to pay it. There is wrath stored up for you that you are never going to be able to exhaust on your own. You know why the Bible teaches that hell is infinite? It's because the wrath of God against rebels is infinite, because to rebel against the infinite king is an infinite offense. You'll never be able to exhaust that. But what if there were an infinite king? What if there were an infinite king who was so excellent and so worthy of all honor and glory that the infinite wrath of God could pour into him and be completely exhausted, so that the cannons of God's wrath fall silent and smoking in heaven? There is only one Savior like that, and he's right here. Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews, the one who was prophesied to stand in the place of his people, in their stead, as their champion, as their king. And if you're here this morning and you are not yet a Christian, you need a champion to stand in your place, and Jesus is that champion. So you need to go to him. You need to go to Him. His hand is out offering mercy. It won't be forever, but for now it is. You need to go to Him and rely on Him to be your champion, to stand in your place. That's how you become a Christian. There's not something else that you have to do, right? There's not anything else that you have to do. There's nothing else you have to feel. You don't have to cry. You just have to go to Jesus in faith to find mercy in his hand, in the hand of the executed king. Here's the second thing, an unexpected family, an unexpected family. So after verse 22, that's pretty much it for Pilate and the Jews. All of them fade from view now, and John puts the camera, so to speak, firmly on Jesus and the kind of immediate vicinity of the cross. This paragraph that runs from verse 23 to 27 can, at first glance, it can be a little confusing because it seems like it's just describing two kinds of unrelated events. We've got this gambling for Jesus's clothes and then this little exchange between Jesus on the cross and his mother down at the foot of the cross and the disciple whom Jesus loved. That's almost certainly the Apostle John himself. But the confusing thing, and the reason those two things are stuck together in one paragraph, is because of the way that John transitions from one to the other. Because it's not just, you know, this happened, and then that happened. No, these two things are related connected as you move from verse 24 to verse 25. You see it most especially in the grammatical discourse markers of the original Greek, but most good English translations bring this out as well pretty clearly. So first you've got the casting of lots for the tunic, This was to fulfill the scripture. And then he could have skipped right to 25 and said, oh, and another thing, standing by the cross of Jesus where his mother and et cetera, et cetera. But he doesn't. He backs up. Notice how he backs up and he says, basically, as for the soldiers, they did these things, but, but somebody else did something different. So he connects them and he puts them in contrast. Why does he do that? Well, we'll see that in a minute, but let's look at some of the details. Normally, a crucifixion was carried out by a detachment of four Roman soldiers, and they were overseen by their commander. And part of the payment that those four soldiers received was the right, basically, to requisition the condemned man's possessions for their own. So that's what they're doing here now. Typical Jewish clothing for a man was made up of only five things. You would wear a head covering, sandals, a belt, an outer garment called a simlah, and then this inner garment that was called a katonit, which we call a tunic. So probably what happened is that these four soldiers, they laid out those first four things, sandals, belt, head covering, the outer garment, right? And because those are of different values, they probably, we don't know, they probably threw dice for those. That's what casting lots means. You just cast the dice. First, the guy who gets the highest roll gets the simla, the outer garment, because that's the most expensive. And then the other guy gets the belt, because it's made of leather or whatever. So four soldiers, four pieces. But then they've got this fifth piece left over, the katonit, this tunic, the inner garment. It would be a much softer fabric. Typically, katonits were sewn together in four different pieces, the two sleeves, and then the front, and then the back. And so the thing that the soldiers would do is just tear the katonit along the seams and give each other the pieces of this more expensive, softer fabric. But as they looked at Jesus' katonit, what they found is that it wasn't in four pieces. It didn't have any seams. It was seamless. It was just woven in one piece of thread, which we know is extremely rare and expensive. And we have no idea where Jesus got this expensive tunic. Maybe from his friends in Bethany. We don't exactly know. But he had one. And so the soldiers decide, OK, we're not going to tear this thing into pieces, because it'll destroy it. Instead, we'll just take this fifth piece, and we will cast lots for it one more time. We'll see who gets it. Okay, super interesting, but why does John tell us that story? Well, for one thing, you can see in verse 24 that he sees it as a fulfillment of part of Psalm 22 about the king's suffering in the place of his own people. It all lines up. You know, all the details that were prophesied about the Messiah's suffering for his people, they line up with what actually happened to Jesus. And the New Testament writers are often pointing that out. Somebody counted them up and there were over 20 specific Old Testament prophecies that are fulfilled in just like 60 minutes of Jesus's life here when he's being hung on the cross. That's incredible. But is that all? Is there something other than that, other than just a fulfillment of prophecy, just one little detail is fulfilled? John's going to mention several of those little details as we go along. But is there some other significance to this? Well, people have certainly thought so throughout history. One of the most common thoughts, you see this in Roman Catholicism, but you also see it in the old writings of the Puritans, too. that this katonit, this seamless garment of Christ, is symbolic of the indivisible Church of Christ, which would match up with, say, John 17, where Jesus prays that his people would be one. You can do that, but there's really no particular connection between this passage and John 17. And besides, it doesn't really quite work, does it, as a symbol, right? I mean, if you think about it here, you've got, if this seamless katonah of Christ, this seamless garment, is the church here, you have Jesus' church being stolen from Him, taken away from Him while He dies, and He can't really do anything to save his church. That doesn't really make sense. I mean, really, the only sort of callback that even remotely works is the last time in this book, in the Gospel of John, that we would have seen this tunic. You remember where it was? You probably didn't notice it because it's not explicitly mentioned, but you have seen this tunic before. Remember where it was? It was the night before the crucifixion, when Jesus stripped off his simla, his outer garment, in the upper room in order to wash his disciples' feet. And when he did that, all he would have been wearing then, in his humility, was this katonit, his tunic. And here, the message may even be that that dignity, that last dignity is stripped away from him. He's brought low, and yet he's exalted as king. But there's more to it. than just that. That thought, that maybe, just maybe there's a resonance here with Jesus' washing of his disciples' feet, I think helps us to understand the real significance of this exchange that then happens between Jesus, his mother, and John. So look at verse 25. standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother and his mother's sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene." So four people. 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. And he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his home. Now, what's going on there? Why does Jesus do that and why does John record it? Why has it become such a famous story in the life of Jesus? Well, at first glance, you can think that it's just Jesus sort of taking care of his mom, right? He's just doing some kind of last will and testament stuff as he's dying on the cross to make sure that his mother is taken care of. He's just having some compassion his mom, which would not be out of character for Jesus, right? Even while he's on the cross, Jesus is showing compassion and love to lots of people. He forgives the Roman soldiers. He tells the the insurrectionists dying next to him that he's going to be with them in paradise, and here he takes care of his mom. But is there more to it than just a little vignette of Jesus's love for somebody else? The Roman Catholic Church has put huge theological weight on this passage. What Rome argues here is that this shows that the church, represented here by John, the disciple, that the church has been placed in Mary's care, the mother of God. So that Mary is the one who most specifically cares for the church throughout its history. But that doesn't work, does it? It doesn't even begin to work because it's precisely the opposite of that here. You can see in verse 27 that it's John who takes Mary into his home. It's Mary being put into John's care, not John into Mary's. So Rome is just flat wrong about that. But even so, I do think there's a deeper meaning here than just Jesus takes care of his mom. And I think it has to do with that katonit, with that tunic, and its call, you know, back to Jesus' washing his disciples' feet. Okay, so how does the washing of the feet connect to Jesus taking care of his mom and John? How does that fit? Well, think about it. What was Jesus's whole point in washing his disciples' feet? Wasn't his point to show them that in his kingdom, your stance and your status was not to be had by rising to the top, by just relating yourself to King Jesus and him alone? It wasn't just get as close to the king as you can, and that's the end of it. No, he washed their feet to show them that in his kingdom you rise to the top by caring for other people who are also servants of the king. He had said explicitly, as I washed your feet, so you should wash one another's feet. As I have loved you, so you should love one another. And then he went on to say in the speech that follows right after that, he goes on to show them that the defining characteristic of his people, the people of his kingdom, would be that they would love one another. Not just vertically, disciple to Jesus, but horizontally, disciple to disciple to disciple. In fact, he said they would become family to one another. Remember what he says. He said it over and over again in many ways, but here's just one from Matthew 12. While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brother stood outside asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? And stretching out his hand towards his disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my mother and brother and sister. So go back to the cross. Do you see? You see what's happening here? When he points John and Mary to one another, he defines them as family. He points their eyes, not just to him, vertically on the cross, but to each other, horizontally. Behold each other as you both behold me. You see what he's doing? He's knitting together the very core. He's knitting together the very beginning of the people of his kingdom. No longer should they define themselves in relation to him alone, John as Jesus's close friend, Mary as Jesus's mother. They should define themselves in relationship to each other as well. She is mother to him. He is son to her. And that is in stark contrast, stark contrast to what these soldiers are doing. They are dividing. Jesus is pulling together. It's a profound way to think about your relationship to other disciples of Jesus, isn't it? And the rest of the New Testament is going to talk about this again and again. And again, as believers, as Christians, we are not just defined in relation to Jesus alone, but we are defined in relation to all other believers and especially, especially those right here in our local church. That's why here at Dayspring, we never want to be a place where this place is just a preaching spot, where a whole lot of individuals who don't really know each other... come into this room and stare at the preacher and sing some songs to the ceiling and then go out and keep their eyes up. No, we want your eyes to be all around as they are up. We want you to see one another. We want you to know one another. We don't want you to even be able to be anonymous when you come into this place. We want you to be known and involved as family. in the disciple-making mission that we are on together. And brothers and sisters, you've got to work hard to make sure that you see and know your fellow believers. It's not just something that happens by osmosis, right? It doesn't happen passively. You've got to actively do it. You've got to pursue it. You've got to know older women and older men. You've got to know younger women and younger men. You've got to visit the shut-ins. You've got to call on those who have fallen inactive and who may be in need. That's what Jesus calls us to do, to wash each other's feet, to look at each other like John and Mary would have looked at each other and realized that Jesus has given us responsibility for one another. Brother, behold your sister, behold your mother, mother, behold your son, behold your daughter, all in this room. Here's the last thing, briefly. A mission accomplished. A mission accomplished. I think when you understand what we just talked about, that Jesus is not just doing some last will and testament kind of legal stuff with his mom, but he's actually knitting the core of the people of the kingdom together right there. He's turning them toward one another as family in love, when you understand that that's happening there, I think it makes more sense of verse 28. Because if you think it's just about Jesus taking care of his mom, it's kind of a weird thing to say there in verse 28 after this thing that he just did, Jesus knowing that all was now finished. And what does that mean? Is it that his mom is now taken care of? Is that it? Is that what it means? No, if you understand that he's defining the core of his church, that through his suffering and dying on the cross that he has established his church, it makes more sense. The two people who are closest of all to him, the people he loved most in all the world are now, in his coming absence, being given responsibility to come together as family and to love one another. And now that that is done, everything's ready, it's all finished. And so seeing that Jesus said, I thirst, they give him some sour wine, and he cries out, it's finished, and he dies. Now, if you read that little paragraph too quickly, it's going to seem extremely straightforward. And because it seems extremely straightforward, it's going to seem really unremarkable, and you're going to miss its point. But there are some details in it that once you see them, they don't let you gloss over it quite so fast. There's more going on here than you realize at first. I mean, for one thing, why interrupt things? Why interrupt things with this little detail about Jesus being thirsty? I mean, it's historically true if you're being crucified out there in the hot Middle Eastern sun in the spring, you're gonna get thirsty. That shows us that Jesus is human in his suffering. That's important and true, but it's more than that. And again, John points it out. The reason that this happened was to fulfill another detail from scripture, from Psalm 69, which we read together earlier. David there, King David in Psalm 69, again suffering as king of Israel, king of his people, says, for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. And again, he's pointing out that none of this, in any of its detail, even small details like that, None of it is just happening to Jesus, right? It's happening because God foreordained that it must happen. I mean, even the detail of the hyssop branch points us back to the hyssop branch was smeared with blood, and that's what they used to put on their doorposts, pointing us back to Jesus here being the Passover Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The hyssop branch, again, was covered in blood and sprinkled in the cutting of the first covenant, the Old Covenant. Well, here in the New Covenant, it appears Again, tying these things together. Same thing happens with the end of verse 30 there, with that phrase, he gave up his spirit. That's a really sort of strange, sort of weirdly active way to talk about dying, right? I mean, death is usually a passive thing. It kind of happens to you. And if your spirit goes anywhere, your spirit just leaves, departs, right? left him, or something like that. But here, this is so active. It's Jesus gave up his spirit. And if you know the other Gospels, you know that Jesus, he actually sovereignly decides the time that it's going to happen. Father, into your hands, I commend, commit my spirit. And then he gives up, gives up his spirit. It's all very active. Why? Because nobody takes Jesus's life from him. He lays it down for his sheep of his own accord. And three days later, he is going to take it back up again. He said he had the authority to lay it down. He has the authority to take it up again, and he does. And then there's that cry. It is finished. It is finished. It's just one word in the Greek, tetelestai. That's it. Sometimes people read that as if it's a kind of sigh of defeat. Tetelestai, my life is over. It's ended. It's all come to an end now. My project is over. It's failed even. Some have taken it like that. But you know, the other Gospels say about this very moment right here, the other Gospels tell us that at this moment, at this point in the crucifixion, Jesus cried out with a loud voice. This wasn't some sigh of defeat, right? After he wet his lips with the sour wine, this was a cry of victory to Telestai. Not it's over, not it has ended, certainly not it has failed, but rather it is fully accomplished. Here from the cross, from the cross, after bearing God's wrath against all of our sins, Jesus declares the most wonderful truth, that all of the promises of God have been fulfilled. Tetelestai. It's one of the most significant words in all the Bible, this Greek verb. It's one of those words that it's really impossible to capture it in one single corresponding English word. So in Matthew 17, 24, it's translated as pay in the context of paying your taxes. Paul uses it in the exact same sense in Romans 13.6. In Luke 2.29, it's translated perform, in the context of performing what the law requires. In Luke 18.31, it's translated as accomplished, in the context of everything that had been written about Jesus being accomplished. And then in Luke 22-37, it's translated fulfilled in the context of scripture being fulfilled in Jesus. In Romans 2-27, it's translated there as keep in the context of keeping the law. In 2 Corinthians 12-9, it is translated as made perfect. When Paul says there, my power is made perfect in weakness. Galatians 5.16, it's translated as gratify or satisfy in the context of not satisfying the desires of the flesh. 2 Timothy 4.7 gets translated there as finished in the context of Paul having finished the race. Revelation 20, it's translated there as ended in the context of when the thousand years, three times, has ended. Those are just a few examples of what a robust word this really is. It's difficult to convey it with just one single English word, which is what makes it so profound and so full of meaning when Jesus, here in our passage, utters this single word from the cross, just before committing his spirit into the Father's hands. When he says, Tetelestai, he is saying, it is My suffering has ended. The law has been kept. The scriptures have been fulfilled. The work of redemption has been made perfect. My mission has been accomplished. God's wrath has been completely satisfied. The debt of all of my people's sin has been completely paid in full. Everything. that I set out to do has been done. Everything that my father promised from Genesis 3.15 onward has been fulfilled. It is finished. And that is a wonderful, world-shaking, heart-resolving declaration. It ought to just reverberate in your soul with hope. It is finished. Do you rest in that? Do you rest in that as a Christian ought to rest in that? Or are you just anxiously, restlessly worrying about the next thing that's got to be done? Rest, Christian. It is finished. Jesus sits upon his throne. Sits, not stands. He is not working towards redemption anymore because it is finished and your eternity is secure. If you're not a Christian, If you're not a Christian, hear these words, it is finished. What else do you think that needs to be done that hasn't been done? Do you think that you have got to get some things cleaned up in your life before you come to Jesus? No, friend, it is finished. Jesus has done everything. It's done. Just come to Him with all of your sin and all of your shame and poverty and receive His merciful salvation. It is finished. You think you have to stop this particular sin first and start doing more of these good things? Like I gotta present myself worthy before Him? No, it is finished. It's already done. He did it for you, just take it from His open hand. Do you think you gotta feel some kind of emotion in your heart or in your head? Do you think you have to cry before you can become a Christian? No, it is done, it is finished. Go to Jesus and be saved. Salvation has been completed. In the book of Acts, there's a particular man who asks the apostle Paul, what must I do to be saved? What must I do? It's a perennial human question. I want to be safe. I want to be right with God. I want to be forgiven. I want to be right with King Jesus. What do I have to do? You know what Paul tells him? Believe. Trust. Rely on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. You don't have to do anything. You just got to throw yourself at the feet of the one who has already done everything. Tetelestai. It is finished. Finished. Praise God that it is finished. Let us pray. Our Lord Jesus, we thank you today and we praise you because you are the one who has satisfied fully and accomplished fully and fulfilled and finished everything. in the zeal of the Lord, you have accomplished all that was necessary for our salvation. You lived for us, you died for us, you rose again for us, and now you sit ascended and enthroned at your Father's right hand for us as our King, with the title of our salvation and our eternity in your strong fist. O Lord, we honor you today because of what you have accomplished for us, and we do it by your merit, in your name. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Well, please stand together. Be sure to greet one another, greet our visitors, and welcome our newest Dayspringer, Leslie Mercado, over here with her children at the red door. And remember that on the hall table is a sign-up sheet for our upcoming Christmas party here at Dayspring on December the 6th. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Oh you're welcome. I have a question. Yes. So in the