Why Jesus Matters - 05

You're an old guy. Well, uh, Chuck Swindoll, the great pastor and former president of Dallas Theological, uh, seminary, he tells a story that when he was in the Marines, he and his division were stationed on Okinawa. And while they were there, they were sent to a leper colony on the north end of the island. and he was there with his group of men. And so he decided he was going to greet the people who had sequestered themselves for the good of themselves and for their own families. These were men and women who had been horribly disfigured by what doctors now now call Hansen's disease. And as Swindoll tells the story, he says he desperately wanted to look away because the pain and the suffering was more than he could handle. But he couldn't look away because to look away would be to dismiss these people and to treat them as inferior. And so instead of looking away, he resolved he was going to look all the more. He was going to take in all of the horror, all of the pain, and all of the suffering. And he reflects in one of his books, he says this. He says, "I'm glad I didn't look away. As difficult as those images were to look upon, the people living in seclusion and obscurity in the north end of a tiny South Pacific island changed my life." Sometimes the most horrific images can become the catalyst for our most significant life change. but only if we resist the urge to look away. Isn't that good? And that's actually what we're going to do this morning. We're going to look upon one of the most horrific scenes imaginable and by far the most excruciating, painful, and famous death in human history. And we're going to see if by looking into it, it will be for us a catalyst for life change. So with that in mind, open up your Bibles to the Gospel of John. John's Gospel is in the New Testament. It is the New Testament begins with the Gospel of Matthew and then Mark and then Luke and then John. If you're using one of the Pew Bibles or one of the Bibles in the back, it's on page uh 10 1 150 1050 um if you're using one of the Pew Bibles. Uh now let me give you a little bit of that the backstory to what we're going to look at this morning because um what's taken place up to the point of Jesus's crucifixion on the in the very early hours of Friday morning of pass of uh Passover week the Jewish leadership the Jewish relig religious leadership uh conspires with the Roman civil authorities and they arrest Jesus and this sets off a series of six trials, six sham trials really. They weren't really concerned about getting to the truth. They wanted to render a verdict um which went the way they wanted it to go. And so there was six uh six trials, three religious and three civic. And after the very last trial, Pilate tells the Sanhedrin, the religious Supreme Court of Israel at that time, tells the Sanhedrin and everybody there that Jesus was innocent and he didn't deserve death. But the crowds who just 5 days earlier on Palm Sunday today, they were celebrating Jesus as he wrote in Jerus Jerusalem are now shouting crucify. And they're demanding his death again. Shouting crucify him, crucify him. And they ask for the release of Barabus, this notorious criminal. And so the innocent one takes the place and he bears the burden of the guilty one. And the guilty one, Barabbus, is pardoned and set free. It's actually a picture. It's a living picture of the gospel. Well, after Pilate condemns Christ, he has him flogged, which was brutal. It would turn your back into hamburger meat. After he has him flogged, [sighs and gasps] the Roman soldiers start mocking him. They start mocking his kingship by coming around him, putting a crown of thorns on his head and jabbing it on and then putting a purple robe on him, which signified it was the color of a kingship. And they they started saying, "Hail, King of the Jews." And then Pilate brings Jesus back out, back out before the religious leadership. And the crowds and all of these people and Pilate says, "Behold your king." And the crowds shout back, "Crucify him." And Pilate who is on really shaky political grounds. Um the Jews hated him. So he's on shaky political grounds and so he gives in to their demands and he delivers up Jesus to be crucified. And that brings us to John chapter 19 beginning in verse 16 is where we're going to be this morning. And this morning what we're going to do is we're going to work from verse 16 all the way through the end of the chapter. And I'll point out a couple of things as we go and then we'll come back after we read it and I want to ask what's Jesus accomplishing through the cross because we'll read about the agony but at the end of it you very clearly see that Jesus says I'm accomplishing something here. So what's he accomplishing and why is it actually good news for you and for me? So John chapter 19, beginning in verse 16, let's get into the text. Here's how John records it. He says, "So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called uh to the place called the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgtha." Uh remember Jesus, he's already been flogged and a lot of people died from the just the brutality of flogging itself. So he he's been flogged, he's been mocked, he's been beaten, he's been forced to carry his own cross, which if it was the whole cross, it was a couple hundred pounds. If it's just a cross beam, um it would have weighed at least 100 pounds. And so he makes his way to Golgtha, which we're told is the place of the skull. probably it's named that because of uh the appearance of the hillside. Our more common way of referring to it is Calvary uh which is the Latin translation of uh Golgtha. And so there verse 18 there they crucified him and with him two others one on either side and Jesus between them. Now, none of the none of the gospel writers give us all that much details about what crucifixion looks like. And that's probably because for many of them, for for John's original audience, for the gospel writers original audiences, they've probably seen one. Uh crucifixion was not all that uncommon. It was a pretty common practice in that day. The Persians invented it. Um [sighs] but the Romans perfected it. Um they completely perfected it and they reserved it for the most despised people. The ancient Jewish historian Josephus called crucifixion the most wretched of deaths. And Cicero, the the ancient Roman philosopher, he asked that that Roman citizens not even speak of it because it was too disgraceful of a uh too disgraceful of a thing for the ears of decent people. And once you've seen an actual crucifixion, you know how you will see some things in your life and it will be seared into your brain forever. Once you've seen a crucifixion, by the way, they still practice it in Latin America uh for some crazy reason. But once you've actually seen one, you'll have that image seared into your brain forever. So what they would have done is they would have stripped him naked. They would have fastened him to a cross that was laying down. They would have tied his wrists and his feet around the cross. And then they would have taken five to seven inch rough metal spikes and they would have nailed him into his hands and into his feet. And then they would have lifted the cross up and there would have been a prepared hole and they would have placed the cross into just a jarring motion and every all every nerve would just go like firing off at one time. And on the cross, there was a little piece of wood that served as a little bit of a seat and it supported the body's weight just enough. And it wasn't to alleviate pain. It was to enhance the pain and the suffering because it would prolong death. And so there Jesus is crucified between two others, one on his right and one on his left. He's numbered with the transgressors just as Isaiah 53 says that he would be. Look at verse 19. 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, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write the king of the Jews, but rather, this man said, I'm the king of the Jews." And Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written." So every crucified criminal, they had their crime published above their head as a deterrent for the rest of the population. And so Pilate had it written above Jesus that he was the king of the Jews. And he had it written in Aramaic, which was the language in of Judea. He had it written in Latin, which was the official language of the army. And then he uh had it written in Greek, which was the uh just the common language throughout the Roman Empire. So you got this triilingual notice above Jesus declaring him to be the king of the Jews. And Pilate does this kind of to stick it to the Sanhedrin. They've kind of stuck it to him already. And so he's kind of sticking it back to him saying, "No, this is this is what you wanted me to do. Here he is." So he's squabbbling with the religious leadership over the wording. And then the soldiers who are crucifying Jesus, they're dividing the spoils. Look at verse n uh verse 23. 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 scriptures, which said, "They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." Um, so again, they divided these his garments amongst themselves, his his outer garments, his sandals, his belt, his head covering, and then they cast lots for his one piece tunic. And like all of this fulfills Psalm 22 verse 18. And so they the soldiers did these things. Verse 25. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother,"Woman, behold your son." And then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her to his home. Um, does that strike you as odd? that little scene. We know that Jesus had other biological brothers. You look at Mark chapter 3. But notice he doesn't entrust his mother into their their care at this point. Why not?

Well, because they're not believers. Notice how seriously Jesus takes the faith, the family of faith. Let me ask you, do you take your faith family, the church, as seriously as Jesus does? He would not entrust his own mother into his biological siblings. He says, "No, no, no. The care of my mother is going to be handled by the people who I know have faith." Um, and again, it begs the question, do you take your faith family as seriously as Jesus does? Do you take the church as seriously as Jesus does? You should. His blood purchases it. His life creates it. His spirit sustains it. And he calls you to participate in it. And so Jesus, what he does is he entrust entrusts Mary to John. And then knowing that he has one final declaration to make and he needs fluid in his parched mouth. He says, "I thirst." Which fulfills Psalm 69. And then he says in verse he goes on verse 29 after this Jesus knowing that all was that all was now finished said to fulfill scripture I thirst and then a jar full of sour wine stood there. So they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hissup 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." And again, this is no cry of defeat. This is a shout of victory. He has through his life and death completed the father's plan of redemption. particularly uh the work of bearing the penalty for all of our sins. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But no, it says he gave up his spirit, which means nobody took it from him. He was not a victim. He was not a martyr. He voluntarily laid down his life as a self-sacrifice. And he says right here, he's accomplishing something through the cross. Well, again, ask yourself, what is he achieving? Hold on to that thought. We're going to come back to it. So, he gives up his life. Verse 31. Since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. And at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he's telling the truth, that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled. Not one of his bones will be broken. Um this is this is a reference by the way to Exodus 12 verse 46 which specifies that no bones of the Passover lamb shall be broken. And here comes these Roman soldiers and they've already taken their iron mallets and they've broken the legs of the two of the two who are being crucified with Jesus. But upon seeing Jesus and knowing that he was dead and by the way the soldiers they were very very much familiar with what death looked like there death was much more common to them than it is to us. And since they knew that he was already dead they had no need to break his legs. And again the father is guiding this whole thing fulfilling scripture after scripture after scripture. So the soldiers work is done and then two unlikely people step to the forefront. Look at verse 38.

After these things, Joseph of Arya, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fe for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Now that is super interesting. John doesn't tell us here, but Mark does. Joseph of Arya, as you may or may not know, he was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a member of the religious ruling class who had just voted to condemn Jesus. But all along, it appears he was a secret disciple. He was a secret believer of Jesus and he takes at this moment he takes this tremendous social risk by going against the Sanhedrin. And also think about it, Jesus had just been executed under the charge of sedition and Joseph steps forward to claim his body and to bury him in Joseph's tomb. Again, fulfilling Isaiah 53, that he was going to be buried in the tomb of a rich man. But then somebody else steps forward. Look at verse 39. Nicodemus. Nicodemus also who earlier had come to Jesus by night. He came bringing a mixture of myrr and allows

about 75 pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with spices as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now look at how John tells us this. Look at his words. John's telling us that Nicodemus is stepping out of the darkness and emerging into the light. All along these two were kind of these secret disciples. But now the cross has changed everything for these guys and they go public with their faith in Jesus and their actions show who they had given their allegiance to because you see where it says the 75 pounds of myrr and spices. You ever wonder why does he give us that detail? You know what that was? That was the amount of myrs and spices that you would bury a king with. And all of a sudden, Nicodemus steps forward and he says, "This charge of king of the Jews, that's absolutely true." And we're treating him as such. And he buries him with 75 pounds. These two step forward. And by the way, all of our lives at some point, you will have to go public with your faith regarding Jesus. In the day in which we live, you will have to go public with your faith in Jesus. You will have to make your allegiance known at a certain point. And that's exactly what these two men uh these two men did. There comes to be a point with everybody regarding Jesus where your allegiance must be demonstrated. So they Joseph and and Nicodemus they step out of the shadows and into the light. And then in verse 41 now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden

and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had been had had let yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of preparation since the tomb was close at hand they laid Jesus there. And the section ends right there. Okay. The agony of the cross, it's undeniable. It's such agony that we want to avert our eyes from it. But when you look at a fullfaced, we see and we hear that Jesus says he's accomplishing something. His last words are, "It's finished." Which means he sees it not as a defeat, but as a victory where he completes his mission. So the question then becomes, well, what's he accomplishing? what's going on through the cross. Well, let me give them to you. Uh there's four things. You should see it in your in your notes there. Uh I'm going to give you four things that Jesus is accomplishing through the through the cross and then at no extra charge. I'm going to give you the theological jargon that goes with them so you can impress your friends at your next little Christian gathering. So, let's go. What's he accomplishing? Here's what he's doing. He's bearing the wrath of God. What's he what's he doing through the cross? He's bearing the wrath of God. And that that's the doctrine of propitiation. That's the doctrine of propitiation. To propitiate means um to propitiate means to appease or pacify another's anger. And in relation to God, it means to turn away God's wrath by means of a sacrifice. To turn away God's wrath by means of a sacrifice. Which then begs the question, well, what's God angry about?

All the sin that's ever been committed, yours included, mine included. And we can't be we can't uh be naive and pretend that there's no such thing as sin in the world. You're too old. if you're older than the age of 10 to know that sin is real. There's so much sin in the world. In fact, and this is what Jesus bears upon himself at the cross. At the cross, Jesus absorbs the complete wrath of God for all of our sin. Sin, now think about it because sin has to be dealt with. God is a holy God and he must deal with sin. He can't just overlook it. He can't just overlook it. You can't just wink at it. And so what he does in love is he steps forward in the person of Christ and he absorbs it completely. The Apostle Paul puts it like this in Romans chapter 3. Paul says, "For all have sinned." And that word all there, that's an that's a unique word. It means all of us. Means your sin, my sin, all of our sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. So what he's saying is Christ by the shedding of his blood, the laying down of his life, he absorbed the wrath of God in ourstead. That's amazing. And then John in uh first John, he puts it like this. He says, John affirms that at the cross, Jesus is a willing sacrifice to atone for our sins. He says, "My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins. And not only for ours, but for the sins of the whole world." And later in 1 John chapter 4, John writes this, he says, "In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we've loved God, but that he has loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins." Now listen, [sighs and gasps] our sin creates a huge problem. A huge problem because again, God is a holy God. He can't simply overlook it. If he overlooks it, he's not holy. But he's if he doesn't forgive it, then he's not merciful. So what will he do? How will this be remedied? Don't you see the cross? The cross is the only way. At the cross, God satisfies his justice. And then in his mercy, he bestows forgiveness to anyone who comes to him in repentant faith. At the cross, God's justice and his mercy, they meet. And he will bestow forgiveness to anybody who comes to him. John Sto,

I hope you knew you were going to get a John Sto quote today. We're talking about the cross. John Sto in his great book, The Cross of Christ, he says this. He says, "It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated." God himself in holy love undertook to do the propitiating. And God himself who who in the person of his son died for the propitiation of our sins. Th listen. Thus, God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it in his by bearing it in his own self in his own son when he took our place and died for us. That's amazing. Amazing that God would do this for you, for me. What What should you do in response? Well, there's only one thing you need to see and savor the work of Christ until your heart is melted by God's love. That he willingly dieth the death that you deserve to die. [clears throat] So, what's he accomplishing through the cross? First, he's bearing all of our sins. But that's that's just one. Second thing he's doing is he's rescuing us from our bondage. He's rescuing us or liberating. You can put it that way too. He's rescuing us from our bondage. Uh this is the doctrine of redemption. And the way to redeem something is to pay the price to free it.

If something's in bondage, the way to get it out is to pay for it, to free them. And this is exactly what Jesus came to do. Um because Jesus knows that ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has been in bondage to sin, Satan, and death. And Jesus comes specifically to free us from that. In uh Mark chapter 10, I think I put it up here. Yeah. Mark chapter 10, Jesus says, "The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom, as a ransom for many." Well, what's the cost? What does it cost him? his life. That's what it cost him. His life for yours paid for with his blood. Peter in 1 Peter chapter 1, he says, "You were ransomed, Christian." He says, "You were ransomed not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." He says, he's laying down his life. It's life for life and he's shedding his blood. This is why Paul says Galatians chapter 3, look at what he says. He says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who's hung on a tree." He says, do you see what he's doing? The curse has fallen on humanity. But Christ is freeing us from the curse by taking it upon himself. Through the cross, Jesus pays the penalty to liberate you from bondage. And what that means is if you've accepted Christ, you know what you need to do? You need to acknowledge lock, stock, and barrel that your whole life belongs to him. Your whole life belongs to him. Paul says in uh 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he says, "You're not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." Now the immediate context that Paul's speaking to there is the issue of um sexual morality or sexual immorality as the case may be with the Corinthians but the idea carries over to every aspect of our lives. So through the cross Jesus bears the complete wrath of God. He rescues us from our bondage. Third third thing he's doing he's declaring innocent those who trust him. He is declaring innocent those who trust him. And this is the doctrine of justification. You guys tracking with me still? Okay. This is the doctrine of justification. When we see and we savor and we put our faith in the person in the work of Jesus Christ, we're declared righteous by God apart from our works. Declared. This is a forensic uh this is a a courtroom legal matter. It's a legal standing before God. Paul in Romans chapter 3 again he says, "For we hold that one is justified by faith." By faith apart from works. By the way, this is one of the verses that would have got Paul killed um because it says you don't need works. It's the only thing that's going to save you. The the way to bring you into right standing with God isn't through your works. It's through faith in Jesus Christ. In Galatians chapter 2, he puts it like this. He says, "We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ." So, we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. Justified. You're You want to be declared right before God. You want to be declared forgiven and declared innocent before God. It won't come by the law. It will come through Christ and you putting your faith in him. Paul in Titus chapter 3, he writes this. He says some of the best lines in the Bible. He says, "When the goodness and the loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he has poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become hes according to the hope of eternal life." Now listen, when God justifies sinners, he's not declaring bad people to be good, he's not saying they're not sinners. What he's doing is he's pronouncing them legally righteous, innocent of any accusation from Satan because God in Christ has paid the penalty. Now, you know what that means? What that means is if you're not a Christian, you can be made right with God right this moment by repenting of your sins and trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And you can know that you're not condemned but accepted. You're no longer on death row but given a new life. And if you're in Christ, if you're a Christian this morning, what you need to do is you need to remind yourself that God has really declared you forgiven of all of your sin. You're completely forgiven and you're righteous in his sight, which means that God's not against you, but he's for you. And you can live into that reality. Because I I'll just tell you, I know a lot of Christians who walk around with a lot of guilt and they think they they're not really forgiven. And that's absolutely not true. Christ has really forgiven you. You are declared innocent in his sight. So through the cross, he bears the wrath of God. That's propitiation. He rescues us from bondage. That's redemption. He declares us innocent. That's justification. But here's the last one. Here's the last thing he's doing. He's restoring us to the father. So, it's no longer a legal situation. It's a relationship. Now, he's restoring us to the father. This is the doctrine of reconciliation. You're being reconciled to God the Father. By the way, did you notice in the in the passage in verse 41, it says a garden twice. Well, why would it say that? Well, once one sense, yes, of course, he was buried. His tomb was in the garden. But it but what happened in another garden? You became alienated from God because of the sin of Adam and Eve. But it's here in another garden where Jesus is buried through his death. He's reconciling you to God. He's this fullon reconciliation because of what Christ has done. You're being restored to God the Father when you trust him. Peter says it like this. He says, "Oh, no, I didn't give you this passage." Back up. Peter says it like this in uh 1 Peter chapter 3. He says, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous." Why? So that he might bring us to God. Justification. Justification is our legal standing before God. Reconciliation. It restores you to relationship before God. And then Paul says, Paul says this. He says all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him who knew no sin to be sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Now look at that passage. Look at what Paul says. He says God's God is the author of our reconciliation. He's the author of it. All this is from God. Our relationship with God is 100% the result of God's gracious initiative. So God's the author of our reconciliation. Christ is the agent of our reconciliation. Paul says all of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself. And then later he says in Christ God was recon reconciling the world to himself. So both statements there tell us that it was God who took the initiative to reconcile us and that he did it through Christ who's the agent of reconciliation. But here's the third thing to notice about our reconciliation with God. You and I are now called to be ambassadors of it. Did you see that in the passage? We're called to be ambassadors of this reconciliation. You and I right now are called to proclaim the person and the work of Jesus Christ and at the same time to implore people to repent of their sins and to trust Christ so that they can be reconciled to God. So God who worked through Christ to achieve the reconciliation now works through you to announce it. Now think about that. Because of the cross, because of what Jesus did at the cross, your past can be forgiven, your present can be filled with tremendous meaning because you're now called to be an ambassador for God. And your destiny is secured because you've been reconciled to God himself. So, what's what's happening through the cross? Why is on Friday is it called Good Friday? Well, look at what's happening. God in Christ bears the wrath. He rescues us from our bondage to Satan and sin. He declares us innocent of the any charges brought against us be- because he's already paid the penalty. And he restores us to God the Father. He does all of this through the cross. The cross is where it is at. And you know what it does? It reveals three truths. The cross reveals three truths about ourselves, about the Lord, and about his grace. Well, what does it reveal about us? Here's what it reveals. Our sin is far worse than we thought. It's so far worse than we thought. Nothing reveals the gravity of our sin like the cross. For ultimately, what sent Christ to the cross? It wasn't the greed of Judas.

Nor was it the envy of the religious leadership. nor was it the cowardice of Pilate. What ultimately sent him to the cross was our many and varied sins, which again says before we begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us. And he's absolutely right. The cross reveals the depth of our sin. Because think about it. If you had the capacity to change your heart,

if you had the capacity to change your heart and thus your sin, Jesus would not have needed to come and live and die and rise again. What the cross tells us is that our sin dilemma was so powerful and so pervasive that ideas and techniques and religion and philosophy couldn't save us. could not save us. The only way we could be saved, only way we could be saved is if God himself enters into humanity, dies in our place, thereby rescuing us. And this is exactly what Jesus does. So the cross reveals that our sin is far worse than we ever thought. But here's the second thing. It reveals that God's love is greater than we've ever imagined. God's love is so much bigger than we ever imagined, which should make us truly joyful and truly free. On the cross, Jesus reveals fully the love of God. Romans chapter 5 says this, "But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

God could have abandoned us. He The Lord could have abandoned us to our fate. He could have he could have just allowed us he could have uh left us alone and allow us to perish in our sins. It is after all what we deserved. But in his holy love, he came to us in Christ. He pursued us even through the agony of the cross where he bore our sin, our guilt, our judgment, and ultimately our death. So the cross, what it does is it reveals that our our sin is far worse than we thought. At the same time, it reveals that the Lord's love is greater than we ever imagined. And here's the third thing it re it reveals. The Lord's grace is a gift. The Lord's grace is a gift. He purchased it with at the high price of his own blood. So what is there left for us to pay? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. And since he claimed it's finished, there's nothing left for us to contribute. You simply receive his grace as a gift. You need to come to him. You need to humble yourself at the foot of the cross, confessing that you're a sinner and that you deserve nothing from his hand other than judgment. But then thank him that he loved you and died for you and receive from him a full and free forgiveness. And then there's one more thing to do. And then you like Joseph of Arya and Nicodemus, you need to go public with your faith. And you do that in the waters of baptism. And we have a baptism coming up in May. And there's no better time, there's no better place to go public with your faith than in the waters of baptism. And you pledge your allegiance to the Lord for all that he's done for you. Amen. Why don't you stand? I'll pray and then we'll worship the Lord in song.

Father, the cross reveals immense realities.

And as we enter into this week, this holy week, what some groups call passion week,

we want to be reminded of how our sin has alienated us from you.

But then we need to be lifted to the skies that your love drove Christ to the cross in willing obedience to the father's plan of redemption pays the penalty. Frees us from our uh our bondage to Satan sin and death. And all of this is when we come to you in repentant faith. And so we would pray, Father, this week of all weeks that we would be about your business. We would be ambassadors to Christ, imploring people not just to come to church, but to be reconciled to Christ, reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Help us to proclaim that message uh winsomely and wisely in the days ahead so that people can come to know your grace and your love in Christ Jesus. We trust you for this in Jesus name. Amen.