Let's read from John 19, the most beautiful passage in the world. Amen. Stand together and read from John 19, verses 25 through 30. Now hear God's Word. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by he said to his mother woman behold your son. Then he said to the disciple behold your mother. And from that hour that disciple took her to his own house. After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there, and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on Hyssop, and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we stand on holy ground this morning as we approach these beautiful words of our Savior, who is now on the altar, on the sacrifice, and he is giving his life now for us. Father, help us this morning by your Spirit to understand these words. and to respond in rejoicing and praise this morning. May this have a significant impact on all of us today. In Jesus' name, Amen. You may be seated. I'd like to go over the seven sayings of our Lord's words from the cross this morning because we only have two here. or three here in John, and I'd like to go over all seven this morning because what is happening here is we have the greatest death in the history of the world, the most important death, the most significant death, and this is the greatest person in the world who is on the cross, and this is the real crux of His work for us, and He gives us these words. He gives us this insight, and they're short words. He doesn't have a long teaching here like He does on the Sermon on the Mount, but there is such depth and such important messages here in these passages. What is happening here is we have the insight into the significance of the event. Christ is giving us, as it were, a commentary as to what is going on. There were hundreds of thousands of crucifixions that happened at the hands of the Romans and others. Crucifixions were not unusual. The Romans were very cruel. And they always looked for the worst possible persecutions and tormentous deaths they could find. This was really something similar to the Assyrians. Alexander the Great, others, would focus in upon the painful, the torturous when it came to exercising their tyrannies. But here we have a very unique death. This is the death of death. This is the crucifixion of our Savior Jesus. And so we have two things that are conveyed in these sayings. The first of which is this situation is drawing out the character and the nature of the person. And then secondly, we have insight into the significance of the event itself. And crisis reveals something about us. When we are in the midst of crisis, we begin to see a little more about ourselves. We can fake it sometimes day to day, but if I were afflicted by a disease for a series of weeks or months, eventually the real me would betray itself. You would see something more of myself. If the secret police came in to arrest me, you know, you would see something of me. probably see how I'd react to the situation and you would see something more of the depth of the character of the person involved here. And that's what we have here on the cross. We see something very core concerning our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The neat thing about Jesus coming is that this is God with us. If we want to know what it is, to experience God, to know God, then we see God in these stories. We see how God reacts to us when He comes into our world and He sits down and He has dinner with us. And He ministers to Mary and Martha and to Lazarus and others. He heals diseases. He casts out demons. This is what God does when He comes to our world. And so we get this insight as to, you know, who God is. So here the Son of God has come. We have God with us here. He has come to visit us, and now He is on the cross. And He looks down upon us, and He has something to say to us this morning. So if you want to know God, you can learn about God by hearing the words that He has to say to us while He is on the cross. There are seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. I split it into two very distinct headings, the first of which is His concern for those who are all around Him. And then secondly, His concerns shift more towards His work and towards His Father, it becomes a commentary on the very essence of the work that's being done here on the cross. So initially His first three sayings on the cross have something to do with the people around Him, and the other four have to do with what is going on, the very essence of this work that is being accomplished. It gets right down to what we would call the metaphysic There's various aspects of a metaphysic. We can describe what is happening in the room. We can describe what's going on in a spiritual manner. We can describe what's going on in people's hearts. Sometimes we don't get the essence of what is going on in the world just by watching and by listening. Sometimes we get more of the essence of what is going on, and that's what we have. here in the last four sayings of Jesus on the cross. So let's go to the first three sayings of our Lord and Savior on the cross first. And these are His expressions of concern for the people around Him. What we get in these sayings is the love of Christ for those who are right there. those who are right in front of Him, those who He is encountering in His presence at the moment and in the moment. Now, what's important here is that, you know, man is good. We are all by nature very good at hypothetical love. We can sing with Elvis Presley, love me tender, love me true, make all my dreams come true. We can talk about love, we can sing about love, but it's all hypothetical. It tends to be a sentimentalized kind of love where sometimes we have a lot of good intentions as Brother Josh mentioned as he exhorted us on 1 Corinthians 13 this morning, we have these good intentions concerning Love. We think we're kind of loving people. We tend to hug people. We like a lot of people on Facebook. And we come across as very nice people, very lovable and likable people. But when it comes down to it, man is not very good at real love. And what you get with Jesus is real love. You get this vision of what it is for God to be here and to God to love us and to love individual people. This is important for us, brothers and sisters, because we want to be loved by God too. So we stand in the face of God and we look up to Jesus and we cry out for his salvation. And so we are in his presence as well. So we want to know how would Jesus react to somebody who would say something like, remember me. How would he react if I were to look up to him in a similar situation as to the thief on the cross and I was to say, oh Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. You know, how would Jesus respond to me? Well, He would respond to you in a similar way to how He responded to others. So that's why it's so important for us to pay attention to these sayings. Jesus is loving the people right there in front of Him. One of the first indications that there's not very much Christ or there's no Christ in the area is when people are constantly looking for other people to love rather than the people that are right in front of them. Sometimes the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. People are always more lovable over there than they are over here. So that's the way humans are by nature. You know, we're looking around for people we might be able to love, the people who might be a little bit more lovable, but Jesus didn't do that. He loved the people who are right there in front of Him. Now, this love is real. This is not hypothetical. There are real people in front of Jesus. These people are speaking to Him. These people are pounding nails into His hands and feet, and He looks these people in the eye, and He blesses them right there and then. So that's the message, I think, the overarching message of what we get in these first three sayings of our Lord on the cross. So let's go to number one. Number one comes in Luke 23, verse 34. So I'm going to be drawing in other passages this morning. You should have them on your notes in front of you. His first concern is for the men who put Him on the cross. Here Jesus demonstrates His love for His enemies. Listen to Luke 23, 34. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." So this is the first statement of Jesus on the cross. What Jesus is saying is these men have no idea the sheer magnitude of what they are doing as they are pounding these nails into my hands and my feet. They simply cannot understand what they are doing. They could not possibly put into thoughts and words the extent of their wickedness, their rebellion, and their violation of divine righteousness. Now, we can be horrified by the actions of others. I think from time to time we are horrified by the reports of what serial killers are doing or, you know, what child abusers are doing. We hear these stories. And we're just appalled and we're just horrified by what these wicked people are doing. But there are two things that we cannot possibly get our heads around. The first is this, the terrible magnitude of not just their sins, but our sins as well. Now, from time to time we catch a glimpse of it, we catch a little bit of a sniff of it, and it bowls us over like a 500 mile per hour tornado. So we have sometimes a bit of a sense for the evil of what is going on, but we don't quite get the sense of it. And that's why Jesus is saying of those who are putting Him on the cross, they do not know what they do. Well, ultimately they were killing God's Son. I gave an illustration yesterday at our study of how You know, a judge might react if somebody killed his own son. If a judge killed his son, there would be a justice issue and a relational issue. Both of those issues would be at stake. And that's the way God views sin. There's a personal issue about it. There's a relational issue about it. There is also a justice issue that needs to be taken care of as well, because God is both a judge and God is our Creator, and ultimately in the creation sense, He is the Father of all of us. So there are these two things that we have a hard time getting our hands around, the terrible magnitude of our sins and the magnitude of the grace of God in our lives. So Jesus says this, He says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Isn't that a powerful statement? This is the Spirit of Christ coming out. This is the mercy of Christ that is shown. See, on the one hand, Jesus does understand the magnitude. of this crime. He understands this is the arch crime in all of history. He is by far the most innocent person that has ever suffered this kind of cruelty at the hands of men. This is the most egregious and the most horrific act of mankind that has ever been accomplished, ever. You know we talk about our serial killers and the child abusers and others, but this is the arch crime of history. There isn't anything more evil than what is going on here as these men are pounding the nails into the hands and the feet of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, forgive them. You know, as they pound the nail into the hand. I want you to think about this for a moment. As each time they are pounding the nail, Jesus is saying, Father forgive them. Father forgive them. And they pound into his feet. The nails go into his feet saying, Father forgive them. Father forgive them for what they do. Jesus is expressing his mercy towards these men who are offending him in such a horrific way and causing him so much misery. Causing him so much pain and agony. You know, there is a direct cause here between the hands, the wicked hands of men and the pain that Jesus is feeling there as He's being placed on the cross. Yet He says, He continually says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He can see the depths of their sin. We can't. We can't see the sort of damnation that hangs over their heads. But He sees it and He says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Also realize that the reason for Him being on the cross is in order to gain that forgiveness for them. So, you know, His whole purpose for being nailed to this cross and becoming this sacrifice for sins is in order that He might be able to forgive the people that are causing Him this misery. So we see this gloriousness of the mercy of Christ in this forgiveness, in this statement that Jesus is bringing to us. I love that hymn that says, five bleeding wounds he bears, and they cry, each of the wound, cries out, forgive them, O forgive, they cry. Forgive them, O forgive, they cry. So the wounds of Jesus in the hands, in the feet, and the wounds that He took in the side, and the wounds on His head as the crown of thorns is placed over His head, all these wounds are crying out to God for forgiveness. It's not just His mouth, it's not just His interceding for us, but the sacrifice itself establishes our forgiveness. In other words, He went to all of the trouble to humble Himself and to be raised in Nazareth and then to be persecuted and tortured at the hands of men, then put on the cross. Why all of this? But that Jesus was bringing about our forgiveness and our justification. He wanted to show mercy upon us. And so He's not forgetting the purpose of His sacrifice as He brings this first word to these men who are doing this dastardly deed to Him. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Amen. Now the second word of Jesus on the cross comes in Luke 23 verses 39 to 43. So let me read this to you. This is the other thief on the cross. There are two thieves on the cross. They have this conversation and then the one thief, the humbled thief turns to Jesus and asks that he would be remembered. So now listen, Luke 23 39, then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, Jesus, saying, If you are of the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answering rebuked Him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we received the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. Let these words sink in this morning. If you are seeking the mercy of God for your own sins, if you're somewhat cast down by your sinful condition, you see yourself as something of the thief on the cross who is crying out for the mercy of God. Here the thief realizes the importance of the fear of God. He is humbled. He is receiving the due reward for what he has done. He recognizes that. He sees himself to be a sinner and deserving of the treatment that he is receiving as he is being crucified himself. So here you have a humble man. Humility is so basic, so important to salvation. But there's also the innocence and the righteousness and the perfection of Christ. He realizes that. He says this man has done nothing wrong. He sees the innocence of Jesus and then he acknowledges him to be a king who is about to inherit a kingdom. So he has immense respect for this one on the cross. And then he stands up for him against the other one that mocked him. And then he gives this simple prayer, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember me. Just a very, very simple prayer. And I think that's instructive for us. Let's try not to make this too complicated. We had a discussion a couple of weeks ago, Mark and a few others of us were back here in the foyer talking about our death. You know, one day we're going to die. And what is that going to be like? And we think about that from time to time. How are we going to respond to our death? Will I be afraid? Will I be full of hope and joy and confidence in the resurrection of Jesus? You know, how am I going to die? These are good questions to ask ourselves. And one of the things I appreciate about Martin Luther was his very last words, written on a piece of notepaper by his desk, and it said, we are all beggars. And I think that is the best position to be in. The position to be in is to be in the position of the thief on the cross, who realized he didn't deserve anything. He deserved nothing but what he was receiving. He was a humbled man. So what is it to be saved? What is salvation? Salvation for us is just a simple humbling ourselves before God, acknowledging ourselves to be beggars. Best case, brothers, we're beggars. Best case, sisters, we are reaching out to God for His salvation. And so if that's your position, if that's your thought today, that you are a beggar before God, All you're doing is reaching out your hands. Perhaps there's nothing more that you can say. One of the concerns I have as I would approach my dying day would be that I wouldn't be able to think very much. I wouldn't be able to say very much. Perhaps I'd have some bit of dementia or whatever it is, you know. So I keep thinking, so how in the world am I going to respond and where will my position be upon my deathbed? And I believe, brothers and sisters, it's just simply to reach out our hands to God. This is the position I want to die in. I want to be reaching out and just saying, God, I have nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. I want to receive of your salvation, oh God, I'm nothing but a beggar. I'm just asking you to remember me when you come into your kingdom. And then you see the response of Jesus. What a beautiful response. It's direct. It's unqualified. It's unhesitating. It's without any doubt. In fact, He uses the word assuredly. I say unto you, I believe the last assuredly or the truly-truly's you find in Scripture in which Jesus underscores His statement with this massive, you've got to believe this. If you don't believe this, you're not going to believe anything else I say. And so that's why the truly-truly's and the assuredly's that Christ brings to us. And here on the cross, He uses the last of His assuredly. He said, I swear to you, I promise to you, I am certain in what I'm saying to you right now. He assures the man. There's no hesitation. There's no qualifications. He just says, I guarantee to you today that you will be with me in paradise. Amen and amen. You see how simple that is? And again, I appreciate what happened to Manasseh, this Haramah king in Israel, do you remember? Or Judah, who was probably one of the very worst of all of the kings sacrificing his children to the false gods and all the rest. And Manasseh is taken into Babylon. He's tortured. He's in captivity. He's lost all of his power. He's lost all of his influence. There he is in his humbled state. He just reaches out. He cries out to God for mercy and God restores the monarchy to him. Takes him all the way back. What? Four, five hundred miles from Babylon up the Mesopotamian Valley back into Canaan and there He restores the throne to him in Jerusalem. And that's the mercy of God. He's just waiting. Brothers and sisters, I think this is the problem with Americans. We're just too proud. If there's anything that we need to be, it's to be humbled. It's to just simply say, I deserve hell, but God... I know I don't deserve anything better than this, but... Please save me, help me, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus says, you got it. Absolutely. That's what assuredly means. Assuredly means absolutely you got it, man. That's his response. Is that encouraging? This is the second. the word of Jesus on the cross. Now let's move on to the third word of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, as He hangs there on the cross in this torturous, agonizing condition. Again, it's in the crisis where we begin to see the real man, the real person. This is the Son of God on the cross before us this morning. And we're listening to Him. What is He saying? What's the thing that concerns Him the most? He's concerned for the people that are putting Him on the cross. He's calling out to the Father for their forgiveness. He's offering forgiveness. He's offering a kingdom. He's offering paradise to a thief who's humbled himself on the cross. And then His third word to those before Him on the cross is His concern for His mother. Woman, behold your son. Then he turns to John, the disciple he loved, and says, Behold your mother. I preached on this several weeks ago, so we won't go there right now. But again, what is this but a concern for others? A concern for where they are. A concern for what they need. Not thinking of his own needs. Not talking of his own pain. Not complaining, not focused in upon oneself. As you know, it's so difficult. If you've ever been in agony, if you've ever had the chickenpox. Kids, have you ever had the chickenpox? When our kids had the chickenpox, all they could do is just sit there and say, Daddy, it hurts. Daddy, it hurts, all day long. We're consumed about ourselves, but not so much our Lord. Our Lord is concerned about others around Him. His concern is for us. His concern is for the pain of others, the spiritual needs of others. By the way, there's one other word that Jesus brings as He heads out to the cross. Luke 23, 28, we see how women are weeping over Him as He's dragging His cross up the path to Calvary. And in Luke 23, 28, Jesus turns to them and says, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me. But weep for yourselves and for your children, for indeed the days are coming in which they will say, blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, breasts which never nursed. And then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?" Again, what is his concern? His concern, he can feel the pain of AD 70. He can see the agony of the million plus who will face the tortures and the judgments of the Roman Empire. You know, He's not so concerned about Himself. Now this is why He's going to the cross. You've got to remember this. The reason He's there is because He's concerned about us. He's concerned about our condemnation. He's concerned about the judgment of God that hangs over us. That's why He's going to take the judgment upon Himself at the cross. So Jesus has this concern, this overriding concern about others. Yes for His mother. Yes for the men who need to be forgiven. Yes for the thief on the cross who is asked to be remembered. But He is also concerned about us. And that is why He goes to the cross. There is such an availability of His mercy and such a readiness to forgive as we see in these statements of Christ on the cross. Now, Christians, what do we get out of this? I think there should be something of an application for us as well to piggyback on what Josh was giving us this morning. This example is what Jesus is conveying to us. He is living our example to His dying breath. Jesus comes back to us again in the Beatitudes blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Jesus is merciful. He's been merciful to us now. He says You be merciful to others to love one another as I have loved you Forgive one another as I have forgiven you serve one another as I have served you die for one another as I have died for you. I don't think we have resisted unto blood, striving against sin. I don't think we have resisted to blood, loving our brothers and sisters as Jesus has done. But have we come to the point at which we are hanging on the cross for another? Are we hanging on the cross, dying the most torturous death possible and still forgiving our enemies, loving unbelievers? Loving our mothers, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus loved us to the end. That was the example that he gave to us. He loved us through the suffering, loved us through the mockery. He loved us through the unloving character of others. And this is for us too. To love through the mockery. Love through the unloving character of others. That's hard, but that's the love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Now let's move on to the last four words of our Lord and Savior. Now he turns his attention to the more fundamental work being done, the essence of the work of redemption going on. So we want to ask the question again, what is going on here? What is really happening here? So Jesus is looking at others, but He's also concerned with what is happening to Him, with Him. He's looking at Himself. He's looking at His Father. He's looking at the work that's being done. So the last four words of Jesus have to do with this work of redemption, this work of atonement that's going on on the cross. So let's look at the fourth word from Christ on the cross. We get that from John 19, 28. That's our passage this morning. So just go back there into verse 28 of chapter 19, and there you read, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now there's two hints as to what this means. The first is, he knew that all things were about to be accomplished. And we need to ask ourselves, what is it that's about to be accomplished? And then we also have this hint that Scripture might be fulfilled. But what Scripture might this be? Well, there are several Scriptures referring to the thirst of the Messiah or those who prefigured the Messiah in the Old Testament. And I believe that the answer to this is found in the life of Samson. Now, remember in Isaiah 53, What we find in verse 12, as we come through all the passages concerning the suffering Savior, and all this suffering that He's about to go through, you come to verse 12 and you find that He's about to divide the spoil with the strong. So that's why we must go to the life of Samson. Because you see, all things are about to be accomplished. He's just there at the cusp of His work being done. And He's about ready to divide the spoil with the strong. And whenever we hear this idea of dividing the spoil, it calls back the Isaiah 63 passage and the Isaiah 35 passage and the Samson passage in Judges 15 where you have this example of Samson who grabs this jawbone of a donkey of whatever was handy and he went to work and he was piling up the dead bodies of the Philistines all around him. So hundreds upon hundreds of dead bodies. The Word says a thousand Philistines were killed that day by Samson who's taking this jawbone of the donkey and going around and whacking the bad guys and bringing them down by the hundreds. So he's stacking the dead bodies. He's accomplishing this amazing victory, and then we read in Judges 15, 17, it was that when he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand, he called the place Ramoth-Lehi, and then he became very thirsty, and cried out to the Lord and said, you have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. So this is the picture of Jesus, our Samson, who is our Deliverer, our great Savior, our Joshua, our great Jesus. Never forget that the word Jesus is Yeshua. It's the one who's saved by winning battles. And our Yeshua has ridden in the battle on the cross. He's waging war. He has taken the jawbone of the donkey and has overcome these gigantic enemies in the process of, and yet he's come to the point at which he is thirsty. Which, as I see it, means that this is not easy work. Jesus is in this strenuous mode, and anybody who gets the impression that this was an easy job for our Savior has it all wrong. It was not an easy job. Now it is true that He had an upper hand on the enemy, and there's no possibility that the enemy would be able to overcome Him. We know that, but that doesn't negate the strenuousness of the work that Jesus was doing on the cross. This strained Him to His very limits. He was treading the winepress alone, as we read in Isaiah 63. He says, there was no one to help me. So we see the sweat and the blood, and we see the agony, and we see the wrestling that's going on in the soul, the spirit of our Savior on the cross, and we see the straining of Himself in overcoming our enemies for us. And He says, I did it alone. There was nobody who could help me. The day of vengeance is here. The year of our redemption has come. That's Isaiah 63. So, He stoops to conquer. And He conquers by His death. He conquers the principles and powers at the cross. And therefore, He says, I thirst. Now, again, this is the backdrop. People say, well, He just needed some water. You're minimizing it. You're not seeing the spiritual import. You're not appreciating the brunt of the work that Jesus did. You're not celebrating the victory of your salvation enough. Open your spiritual eyes, brothers and sisters. Get the picture of what our Savior was doing at the cross. See it. He's engaging spiritual enemies. He's thirsty. Nobody to help him. And then the next statement follows up immediately. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Treading the winepress alone. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? See, even his father turned his face. And this comes down to the very core of who Christ was and what He was doing on the cross for us. He was made a curse for us. Now, just for a moment, I just want to encourage you all, we're on holy ground, so meditate on these things. Don't just pass over these things. Don't treat these things as an uncommon thing. When you're in the holiest of holies, you don't just bust in and break everything. We're there. This is it. We are at the sacrifice itself. He was made a curse for us. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. And the scriptures bear out the nature of the curse. The father turned his face from him. The son whom he loved. The communion was broken. His father couldn't look. He was a worm. He was no man. He was a serpent lifted up in the wilderness, appeared as what was evil, as the serpent represents that which is evil. Christ is lifted up and the father sees the serpent. A worm, no man. A serpent. A picture of that which is evil for us. Why? Because we're evil? Amen. Will we humble ourselves this morning and say, yeah, that's us, that's me. So evil. So evil. But Jesus made that for us. Jesus bearing the curse, bearing the sin upon himself on the cross. as a scapegoat driven outside the camp, the one who bears the sin, the one upon whom the curse of God fell. And what do we find in the Old Testament? It's so many of these references to the curses that God places upon those who are disobedient to Him throughout Deuteronomy, See these curses against those that are in covenantal rebellion against God, and these curses are coming thundering down upon the shoulders of our Savior on the cross. And He's aware of it. He receives it. He's conscious. Deuteronomy 7, He repays those who hate Him to their face. To destroy them, He will not be slack with them. Who hates Him, He will repay them to the face. That comes down on Jesus on the cross. As He cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? The judge responds, Condemned, damned to the curse of death for the sins of the world. The curse of Deuteronomy 29 comes down on him, the Lord would not spare him. For then the anger of the Lord with his jealousy would burn against that man and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him. Christ receiving the curse upon himself on that cross. Think about all the prophetic curses upon unfaithful Israel and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. If any of you read through those books, it's almost wearisome to make it through so much of this as we see God's curses upon an unfaithful Israel. This is what Jesus took upon himself. Isaiah 59, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear you. So God is hiding His face from the Savior, from His Son. And don't minimize this. This is the one who had experienced the presence of God, the communion of God, the blessedness of God, the love of God from all eternity, enters into the hell of separation, the interruption of communion. These things are utterly inexpressible for us. There's no words to express what is going on here. When he cries out these words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Meditate upon the words. Don't just take my words this morning. Think on those words themselves that came from the lips of the Savior. This was the core of the suffering. There's no external torture of man or oppression of the devil that could approximate the suffering received on the cross as being that curse for us, and then experiencing the Father turning his face from him. Let's move on to the sixth word of our Lord on the cross. John 19, it's back to our passage, verse 30. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. Now, that's a great word. Phenomenal word. It's tetelestai in the Greek. In the 19th century, a theologian or an archaeologist came upon something he felt was the meaning for this particular word. He found it on receipts from the ancient times. And the word indicates that the bill was paid in full. Now I thought this to be something of an urban legend. R.C. Sproul, many others have referred to this. There's no example of it anywhere until I did some research into the Sorbonne Institute of papyrus in Paris, France. I went to their website and I found two examples of these receipts, this one from 49 A.D. And sure enough, there it is. This is the only one I could find, still available to us. And I printed it out in color so that you could see it. There's the receipt, Tetelestai. Right there, Tetelestai. Paid in full. Hallelujah. Paid in full. He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, which means he paid the full price. What he's saying, it is finished. He stamps it. Paid in full. redemption has been bought and paid for and the work has been accomplished. The word can mean that the work is done. So on the one hand it could mean the same thing for the guy who finished the job So it can mean the same thing for the guy who finished the job. So a guy does a lawn mowing job for somebody, and he's done the whole thing, he's accomplished the whole thing, and then somebody gives him a receipt, or he gives, somebody gives him the money, he gives the receipt paid in full. So on both sides, it's paid in full and the work is done. So it could be both. But when he says it is finished, there are two things that play out here. One is, that the work is done. And the other is that our redemption is paid in full. And I think it's a both and. The fight is grinding to an end. The enemy has been conquered. The redemption price has been paid. Now let's go back to Psalm 22. We'll end here. Psalm 22 just plays all of this out. Remember the chapter begins with, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So this is the very sentiments of Jesus on the cross. These are his words, this is his heart, this is his mind. It was only that the Spirit of God knew what Christ would think when he would go to the cross and the Spirit of God communicated these words to David, the prophet, in Psalm chapter 22. And then as Psalm 22 plays out, we find that he's fighting the bull's obation, he's surrounded, he calls out, come save me. And then in verse 21, you have answered me, verse 22, I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of that assembly, I will praise you. Now, why is this? Because Hebrews 2 refers to that very same passage, but develops what is going on in Psalm 22, verse 22. Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14 is very important, because in Hebrews 2, we quote this exact Psalm. I will declare your name to my brethren. In the midst of the assembly, I will praise you. But why? Verse 14 of Hebrews 2 expands on that and says, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself, that is Jesus, likewise sharing the same, took upon himself our flesh and blood, became a person, became a human like us, and through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. So what he's saying is the work that was done in Psalm 22, we're going to praise the name of Jesus in the midst of the brethren because he has overcome the power of death, that is the devil at the cross, and released us through the fear of death. We're all our lifetime subject to bondage by that redemption price. That's Hebrews chapter 2. So we have been freed. The work He did, the paid in full, the work He accomplished on the cross was the fact that He had got our redemption for us. He saw us to be dead on our trespasses and sins. He saw us to be in bondage to the devil, in bondage to the law, in bondage to the condemnation of the law, in bondage to the fear of death and everything else. So all of this bondage, Jesus looked down and saw us in this miserable condition, said, I'm going to come, I'm going to do the work, I love these people, I'm going to set them free from all of this stuff, and He declares this amongst His brethren, and he has freed us from all of these things by the redemption price that was paid in full. And then, verses 25 to 31, my praise shall be of you in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him. Those who seek him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations shall worship before you, for the kingdom is the Lord's. He rules over the nations. This is the word that we're taking to the nations. It will be recounted of the Lord. to the next generation, they will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born that He has done this. Psalm 22 begins exactly where Jesus begins when He says, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? It ends with, He has done this. The work is accomplished. The price has been paid. He did it. He paid the price. The highest price ever to be paid. He did the hardest work ever done. He won the toughest fight ever waged. And He has released us from bondage. And destroyed him that had the power of death. And that is the devil. It's a huge relief. It's a big relief. And that's why we can rejoice as those who divide the spoil. Now, brothers and sisters, enter into this. In Hebrews chapter 4, we're instructed to enter into the rest. Believe that God is this good. Believe that He's redeemed us from Egypt. Believe that He's giving us the promised land. Believe this. I wonder why there isn't as much joy as there should be in my life, in our lives. We're coming out of the city. We're rejoicing as those who divide the spoil. This is where we are now. Don't harden your hearts against it. Don't try to pay the price again. Receive His work. Enter into His rest. and exalt in the work that he has done. Hebrews 4.9, there remains therefore a rest for the people of God, for he who has entered his rest has himself ceased from his works as God did from his. Well, let's close. The seventh word from our Lord Jesus on the cross comes in Luke 23.46. When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. See, he had already trampled the winepress alone. He'd already done the work himself. He'd gone through that sacrifice, and he'd bought our redemption price, and now he says, Dad, it's your turn. And the Father came and raised him from the dead. Amen. Father in heaven, We stand amazed. We're overwhelmed. What Christ has done, the greatest work ever accomplished, the greatest price ever paid, the greatest war ever waged. Hallelujah. Our Savior has done it. Amen. Let's come to the Lord's table now. And the cry that is finished is a victory cry. He did it. He won. And I encourage all of us to increasingly enter into this victory. I believe that Christians need a victorious attitude. And to the extent that there is no rejoicing in the victory and no shouts of praise, we're dealing with an apostate church there. So I think the best measure of apostasy is the lack of rejoicing in the victory of Christ or the unwillingness to praise Him for the victory that He got. So this is a victory meal. We're celebrating what Christ has accomplished and it's for us to increasingly enter into this victory that we ourselves have an upper hand in the battle because His victory enables our victory, and we enter into His victory by our faith, our believing in Him and His victory. Does that make sense? So it's our faith that overcomes the world, but we have to believe that He overcame the world for us. Does that make sense? that we have to believe in his victory. And as we believe in his victory, that's the point at which we have victory over our lust, over pornography, over anger, over our bitterness, or whatever it is. But you've got to believe in his victory, that he got the victory for us, and then we begin to enter into and participate in his victory. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15, 57. We just read this earlier. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So it comes through Christ. Also 2 Corinthians 2, 14. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. Do you live a victorious life? Are you sensing victory? Are you enjoying more and more the taste of victory? that maybe you were 64-14 down in the third quarter, but by God's grace in Christ, you just ran a 98-yard interception, and you've got seven more points on the game, and you're beginning to sense, you know what, I've been down for the count, but in Christ, I can do it. In Christ, we're gonna have the victory because He's already got the victory. You see, you gotta shout it a little bit. Is that all right? You know, you feel it. Shout it. A little bit, amen? Just a little bit. You don't do it all the time. Okay. So what does the supper mean? Well, the supper is the celebration meal. We're enjoying this victory in the presence of our enemies. He is laying out this table in the presence of our enemies. We have a sense of the upper hand. It's a supper of rejoicing. We've been redeemed by his blood, we've been freed from sin, the world and the devil have taken it in the gut, and we are redeemed from the condemnation and the curse of the law upon us. And so at this table, we receive his new life. We don't resist his love, we enter into his love, and when we begin to love our brothers and sisters, unlike we have ever done before. Let me read from 1 Corinthians 11. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Let me say this. This warning means first that we have a value placed upon the body of Jesus, the sacrifice of Jesus, that we appreciate it. that we can say, thank you, Jesus, that you died on the cross for my sins. Thank you for giving your body and your blood for me. So it's first and foremost that, and then it's also to appreciate the body of Christ and to come into union with our brothers and sisters. And I desire this so much. I know there are things sometimes that interrupt that. But we ask for forgiveness from each other. Thank you, brother. I just receive your love and your forgiveness, and you've received mine. And so we all do this because we've received the love of Christ for us. That's the first and foremost. That's the basis for the love that we have for each other. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we rejoice in the victory. We are overcome. by this great victory that Christ has got for us, that we have such hope now, that we have the victory in Him as well. We get the upper hand as we look to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Oh, Father, help us now to have that spirit of victory. Give each person in this room a sense of that upper hand, a sense of that victorious life. Though sometimes we are overcome, we are lambs to the slaughter, yet we are more than conquerors in all these things through Him who loved us. And help us, Lord, now to just have a sense of rejoicing in those that divide the spoil and sit down in the camp to have this meal that you've set before us. Father, I pray that you would bless this meal to us. We love you, Lord. We love your love for us and this sacrifice that you have given to us. We receive your love. We receive this bread and this cup as a reminder of the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for us on the cross by our Savior. Amen.