The Bible repeatedly calls us to the focal point of our faith and our life. In other words, there's one thing above all else that we must keep our eyes on. Paul said it in 1 Corinthians 1.23 when he simply said, we preach Christ crucified. That was the focal point of his ministry. That is what he wanted the church to fix their gaze upon. He went on in 1 Corinthians 2, verses one and two, to say to that church, when I came to you brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That must be the center of our gaze as believers, the crucified and risen Christ. Now, I don't think any of you here would dispute that fact and say, no, our focus needs to be on something else. We would agree to that, we would add our amen to that, and yet it is a sad fact that no matter where we turn, whether it be in our own hearts or whether it be television or podcast or internet or social media, we find some self-proclaimed expert touting the latest cure to whatever problem we are facing. Whether it's anger, disobedient children, debt, lust, marital problems, whatever the issue is, there's always someone right around the corner telling us, we have the answer to your problems. And as we face this on a daily basis, and as we face the distractions in our own hearts, so often we find ourselves frantically searching through these potential solutions, and we find our eyes drawn in a thousand different directions. And while there's no end to these pseudo solutions, it's apparent from their mere proliferation that none of them can really bring real change. People may find some temporary successes, but after a while, how often we just find ourselves right back where we started. And that's because nothing that this world offers can change our hearts. And in the midst of all these pseudo solutions that we are faced with, in the midst of the distractions in our own heart and our mind, shines the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ. You see, like us, the Corinthian church, well, They were a mess. They were sinners just like us. They needed to change. And from the beginning of those letters, Paul sought to fix their gaze and ours on the only thing that can bring true change and genuine hope to sinners, the cross of Jesus Christ. And that's what the Apostle John does in his account of the crucifixion. With an Old Testament reference, as he notes the fulfillment of Zechariah 12.10, there's a call to every one of us today that we simply cannot ignore. We are told that Jesus' legs were not broken. fulfilling one prophecy. It would be Exodus 12, 46, regarding the Passover lamb. And then we are told that a soldier pierced the side of Jesus, thus fulfilling another prophecy. Again, another scripture says, they will look on him whom they have pierced. Friends, the they, In that passage, that's you and me. This is a call to every person. It's a call to you this morning to look upon the one whom you have pierced. This is to be our focus. This is an invitation to take a long, perceptive look at the crucified Christ. And when we go to that passage that John references in Zechariah 12, and we look at the broader context of what Zechariah was saying, we learn that this gaze upon the pierced Savior, we can think of it as a two-fold gaze. It's a look that has two steps. There is first a painful, yet necessary step of grief and mourning. In other words, it's a long attentive gaze that produces in us a mourning over our sin. And yet that first painful step then gives way to another necessary yet joyful step of faith and adoration and hope in the risen Christ. It's an invitation to all of us today. Today you must look upon the one whom you have pierced. And we must first take the painful step and we must look and mourn. Now we've pointed out again and again in our study of John's gospel that we're never bystanders in the gospel accounts. I pointed out to you how one commentator convincingly points out that very often the people in the gospel stories remain nameless and his argument is that we're intended to see something of ourselves in these people. And the same is true here. The Holy Spirit wants us to see ourselves in this narrative. John notes the fulfillment of Zechariah 12. They will look on him whom they have pierced. And that means every person who reads this testimony, including all of us here today, we are looking upon the one whom we have pierced. John says, I have borne witness. He has put Christ before you. The words of Zechariah 12, 10 are still meeting their fulfillment. We are still looking upon the one whom we have pierced. And as we do that, we learn some critical truths. As the crucified Christ is put before us and we fix our eyes upon Christ, we are first of all shown that we are far more sinful than we can ever imagine. We are far more sinful than we could ever imagine. You see, the cross puts before us the ugly truth of our sin. With brutal honesty, the cross shows us our guilt and how we are powerless to do anything about it. The cross, like a blunt object, hits us with the crushing reality of who we are and what we have done. It says to us that we are sinners and we are rebels who have sinned against a holy and a righteous God. And that devastating truth should produce in us a deep sorrow, like we would mourn if our own child died. Notice the graphic and disturbing language of Zechariah 12.10. When they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child and weeps bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. Friends, this is the first step in coming to Christ for salvation. It's the first step for you if you are to grow in grace and in righteousness and overcome sin in your life. It's to face the fact that all of us are far more sinful than we could ever imagine. But then related to that devastating truth is As we look upon the pierced Savior, we must acknowledge that it was our sin that pierced our Savior. You can say it in the first person, it was my sin that pierced my Savior. There is an interesting sort of nuance of this Hebrew word translated pierced in Zechariah. It's got this strange dual meaning. It can actually mean to pierce, but in other places it is translated blasphemed. Leviticus 24 11 says that the Israelite woman's son blasphemed or pierced the name and cursed. And so here, this strange dual meaning, we learn that to pierce God's name, to pierce God means to profane his name, to blaspheme, to treat him with contempt. And what we know from the scriptures is that the penalty for blasphemy is death. And the point here could be that every one of us, by our sin and our faithlessness, we have pierced the name of God. And what is the penalty for that sin? It is death. And it's no coincidence that the crime that Jesus was charged with was what? Blasphemy. And as we see Jesus before the Sanhedrin pronounced guilty of blasphemy, we should see our guilt and our shame and our sin being placed upon our Savior. We need to take a long look and let our hearts be broken into pieces. We should have this deep, heart-rending sorrow over our sin that caused the precious, sinless, holy Son of God to be pierced. And say, it was my sin that pierced my Savior. And as we contemplate those devastating facts, there can only be one response. You must mourn. You must mourn. When they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him. There can be no salvation. There can be no growth in grace. There can be no victory over sin without this painful step. We read how Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount. You think about sermon introductions. Jesus introduced his sermon by stripping everyone. of any sense that they had anything to offer God. He began by saying, blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who recognize they are poor before God. Blessed are those who mourn, mourn over sin. Friends, we must first view the cross through our tears. Godly mourning is a genuine sorrow over sin. And Zechariah foresaw a time when people would look upon the one whom they have pierced and mourn and weep bitterly. He foresaw a deep, heart-rending sorrow on the part of sinners who had dishonored God and violated His law and pierced His holy name. And what an indictment this is of the empty, happy, clappy, pseudo-Christianity that we see in our country today. James said, be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Friends, the Christian is not someone who has their life together. They're not someone who has arrived. They're not even someone who is happy all the time. We are taught in the Scriptures that the Christian is someone who is grieved over their sin. And Jesus says to us that this is the disposition that results in blessing and comfort. But we need to notice that this mourning, it's a grace from God. In other words, it's not something that comes naturally to us. It's not something that we can produce or conjured up. Listen to the careful wording. And when we hear God speak, very often the key phrase is God says, I will, I will. And that's what he says here. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him. God says, this is something that I will work in you. It is, it's something God works in us at salvation and it's something we need to continually cultivate in the power of the Spirit. It's a sorrowful sensitivity to sin that's prompted by a long, attentive gaze at the crucified Christ. To put it another way, this sorrow, this godly mourning, it is God-centered. And we are told in the Scriptures that this God-centered mourning, it produces repentance unto life. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7.10, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. Notice the promise there. For those who face their sin and mourn over it and experience that pain, you will never regret that. But worldly sorrow brings death. A true Christian mourns their sin. I think it's true to say the closer we grow to God and the more we walk with him and the more we see his love and his mercy and his holiness, then the more we mourn over our sin. I don't have time to go into it now, but this doesn't mean we walk around moping all the time, but rather it's a posture. It's being grieved by our sin. And as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, this is a point for us to examine ourselves. Do you mourn over your sin? Does your sin cause you real distress and sorrow? To probe a little bit deeper, do you mourn only the consequences of your sin? Or do you mourn because your sin has offended a holy God who gave everything for you? Is that sorrow leading to real, tangible repentance in your life? Listen to Thomas Watson. View sin in the red glass of Christ's sufferings. The least sin cost the price of blood. Would you take a true prospect of sin? Go to Golgotha. Jesus Christ willingly veiled His glory and gave up His joy and poured out His soul as an offering for the least sin. Read the greatness of your sin in the deepness of Christ's wounds. The Spirit of God is a spirit of mourning. Let us pray that God would pour out that spirit of grace upon us, whereby we may look upon Him whom we have pierced and mourn for Him. God must breathe in His Spirit before we can breathe out our sorrows. And as tears flow out, comfort flows in. God keeps the best wine till last. First he prescribes mourning for sin, and then he sets out the wine of consolation. He hits on something very important there, and that is, this mourning produces something. The mourning is not the end point. This godly grief, leads to salvation and comfort. And that means our looking and mourning will then cause us to look upon the one whom we have pierced in faith. We will then look with joy and believe. You see, the twin messages of the cross are, yes, we are more sinful than we can ever imagine. But at the very same time, there is the glorious assurance that we are welcomed by the Father in the beloved Son. We are far more sinful than we could ever imagine, but a long gaze at the cross assures us that you are more loved than you could ever imagine. This is the paradox of the gospel. The same gaze that breaks us into pieces and causes us to mourn will then assure us of the everlasting, unchangeable love of God for us in Christ. While the cross provides the greatest proof of our sin, it at the same time provides the greatest proof of God's love for us in Christ. This is why true godly morning, Paul says, leaves no regret, because it leads us to Christ and it brings us comfort and hope and forgiveness and assurance of His love. Listen again to Zechariah 13.1. Here is where the morning leads. On that day, in other words, the same day of this heart-wrenching morning, there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. That is where this morning leads, to a fountain of cleansing and forgiveness and joy and hope Back in chapter 12, verse 10, you'll notice the language of God saying, I will pour out a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy. And one commentator argues that this envisions the Holy Spirit bringing us the grace of Christ, interceding for us, making pleas for mercy on our behalf. And so while along, A tentative gaze at the cross assures us that we're more sinful than we can ever imagine. It also assures us that we are more loved than we could ever imagine. And this look of faith also then assures you that your Savior was willingly pierced for your willful sin. Your Savior was willingly pierced for your willful sin. And friends, I cannot drive that home to you enough. I think we tend to forget this truth. It was our willful sin that pierced our Savior, but Jesus was no victim. Central to the atonement, essential to the atonement was the willingness of the Savior to lay his life down. And in his willingness we see the greatness of his love. He was willingly pierced for our transgressions. He was willingly crushed for our iniquities. John underlines this for us in chapter 10, that Jesus said that no one would take his life from him. He would lay it down of his own accord. And John notes, Jesus' complete sovereign control over his life When he gave it up to his father, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. No one took his life from him, but he gave his life for you. With an intimate knowledge of all of your willful sin, with an intimate knowledge of all your failures, Jesus, with a focused determination and a heart of love, stood in your place and died for you and handed over his sinless, spotless life to his father. Back in the upper room, Jesus said in John 15, he said, greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends. And he went on to say to the disciples, you are my friends. You see, Jesus was giving them the lens through which to view his sacrifice. Saying, I want you to see my sacrifice and how great my love is for you. In his willing sacrifice lies an assurance of his love for us. And there can be only one response to this glorious gospel and the glorious sacrifice of our Savior, and that is you must believe. You must believe. Your gaze upon Christ must be a look of faith. As John lays these facts before us, he underlines how he's born witness. Why? that you also may believe. Jesus said back in John chapter six, this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. So maybe today you need to believe for salvation. Maybe you've never really looked upon the pierced Savior and mourned over your sin and seen the greatness of your sin and embraced the Savior. If that's you, know that there is a fountain of cleansing that is opened to you today. Jesus' blood is here to cleanse you from your sin. plunge yourself into that fountain of cleansing today. And if you're refusing to do that, how mistaken you are. You are missing out on the forgiveness and the cleansing and the hope that is offered in Jesus. Believe in Him. But maybe you have believed savingly upon the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to believe for your sanctification. In other words, you need to believe for your growth in grace. You need to believe for your victory over sin. And I think one of the greatest mistakes the church makes today is we tend to think of our sanctification, our walk with Christ, our growth in grace as a matter of works and not a matter of faith. Your sanctification, like your salvation, is a matter of faith. Yes, we work, but as Paul says, we are working because God is working in us. And that means that we need to let the pierced Savior take center stage in our life. And let that drown out all the other things that are grabbing our attention. The anger, the lust, the anxiety, the self-reliance. That's why we need to hear the gospel again and again. That's why we only get to go six days in between hearing the gospel. Because as one writer puts it, our souls are like a sieve, and the gospel leaks out, leaving only the husk of Christianity, my self-righteousness, and my obligations. We need to be captivated by something greater than our sin. Thomas Chalmers wrote a helpful book entitled, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. And I think that's a helpful way for us to think about our sanctification and our growth in grace. You know, if you had, we have a little bit of a donut addiction going in our house. And if you were addicted to donuts, you can't just say, I'm going to turn away from donuts, but I'm not going to eat any other food. You need to turn to something healthy, something to fill that desire and that hunger. And that expulsive power of a new affection is an affection for Christ as we see Him and how much He loves us. We replace those sinful affections and desires with the right affection of Jesus. I pulled my couch out yesterday, and I know this would never happen to any of you, but I found what I would term an unholy trail mix under the couch. food, band-aids, all kinds of things. When I've done that in the past, a little girl in our house who will remain nameless, she's quick and she'll maybe grab a stale pretzel and just eat it. When I saw her do that, I think what an apt illustration it is for our sin. How often we would rather have a a stale pretzel than a full course meal in Christ. We need that expulsive power of a new affection and it is nothing less than the Lord Jesus Christ. So friends, the bad news is that we are far more sinful than we can ever imagine, but the good news is we are far more loved than we could ever imagine. And we can't have that second comforting truth without the first painful one. That spirit of grace comes to us, that fountain of cleansing comes when we look upon the one whom we have pierced and we mourn for him with a deep godly sorrow. And as we prepare to come to the Lord's table, that is, well, it's really the significance of the table to which we now come. Thomas Watson termed the Lord's table a visible sermon wherein Christ crucified is set before us. We get to gaze upon Christ crucified and what are we to do? Well, we are to examine ourselves. In other words, we are to examine ourselves for sin and mourn over that sin. and let our hearts be broken, but then we are to look to Christ in faith and come to him knowing that we are his beloved, knowing that his blood has cleansed us from those same sins so that we can come to him and know his love and have our faith strengthened. And so as you come to the table today, look and mourn, but then look and believe and trust and the power of Jesus to cleanse you from all of your sins. Let's pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for sending your son to be pierced for our sins. Lord, we pray now that you might inform our understanding of this table to which we now come. May we get a clear vision of Christ. May we examine ourselves. May we mourn our sin, but may we come to you for comfort. And may it be for your glory and for our edification, we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.