WEBVTT 00:00:00.220 --> 00:00:02.660 I'm going to invite you to Matthew chapter 27. 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:03.480 That's where we're going to be today. 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:08.360 We're going to look at the section of scripture, the end of Matthew starting in verse 45. 00:00:08.360 --> 00:00:11.920 And then we're going to jump to one verse in John chapter 19, okay? 00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:17.980 And I want you to know, today we're going to conclude our message related to the statements that Jesus makes on the cross. 00:00:17.980 --> 00:00:20.560 Jesus makes seven statements at the cross. 00:00:20.860 --> 00:00:25.860 Some of them, the first few statements, three statements, he makes happens towards the beginning of his crucifixion. 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:29.900 What we're going to see today is there's this moment of silence in Jesus's crucifixion. 00:00:29.940 --> 00:00:34.750 And then towards the end when he finally gives his spirit in the hands, He says He gives His spirit to the Father. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:39.230 When he makes that statement, He makes these final four statements towards the end of His crucifixion. 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:41.540 So there's this silence that transpires. 00:00:41.860 --> 00:00:48.940 We're going to focus on just two of these final four statements and I'll share a little bit why just two of them rather than all four here as we go through 00:00:48.940 --> 00:00:50.080 this text of scripture. 00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:57.320 But I want you to next week, we're going to start a series together on marriage and the family and what God desires in marriage and the family. 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:04.480 How all of us, wherever we are in life, whatever position we find ourselves in life, can be an encouragement to people around us based on what they're going 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:04.920 through. 00:01:05.099 --> 00:01:12.100 I think when we talk about marriage and the family, it doesn't alienate people in depending on you could be in a different place as it relates to marriage and the family 00:01:12.100 --> 00:01:16.460 because God's people are described as a family. 00:01:17.020 --> 00:01:24.100 Really when you look at the New Testament model, the way that Paul appoints leadership within the church, he expresses 00:01:24.100 --> 00:01:31.120 the need to see how someone manages a family because that becomes an expression of how they're going to work in the greater family of God. 00:01:31.780 --> 00:01:36.900 We're all still a family before the Lord, and knowing how to honor one another as brothers and sisters in Christ is important. 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:43.240 We'll start that series next week together throughout the month of May, but we're going to be here in Matthew Chapter 27. 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:50.620 So far together, we've seen Jesus make a few statements on the cross, the first time that he makes is directed straight to the father. 00:01:50.740 --> 00:01:52.820 It says, father, forgive them for the know not what they do. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:02:00.320 If you think about the seven statements, Jesus makes in the across, interesting thought is three of those statements are directed to the Father, I think still for us 00:02:00.360 --> 00:02:01.850 to learn from and to experience. 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:08.310 and the four of them are directed towards the people around Christ as he goes to the cross. 00:02:09.380 --> 00:02:16.170 Today, the statements that we're going to look at, one of them is directed to the Father again, and one of them is for us and relationship to the father. 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:21.920 But these statements of Jesus, first one, he makes Father forgive them, and then he tells the thief, you will be with me in paradise. 00:02:22.140 --> 00:02:24.530 He tells his mother while he's hanging on the cross. 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:25.910 Behold you will be with... 00:02:26.900 --> 00:02:29.680 this is your son talking to John the Baptist and Mary his mother. 00:02:29.940 --> 00:02:30.890 Behold your son. 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:33.500 He wants his mother to be taken care of. 00:02:33.540 --> 00:02:34.920 In Jesus's Day. 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:42.340 It was the responsibility oldest son of the father passed away to care for the family and many believe that Joseph had passed 00:02:42.340 --> 00:02:43.100 in scripture. 00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:47.940 He's really, after Jesus's birth, you really don't see much about Joseph except for one other time in scripture. 00:02:47.940 --> 00:02:49.240 Then he sort of disappears from the pages. 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:53.000 Most people believe Joseph, his life ended early. 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:56.540 Jesus has taken responsibility in caring for his mother. 00:02:57.740 --> 00:03:04.920 In Matthew Chapter 27 starting in verse 45, Jesus begins to give another statement from the cross. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:06.860 There's been the silence that is a lapsed here. 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:10.640 Jesus is near the end and he gives this final statement. 00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:15.260 I want to put it in this historical context for us to be able to understand this passage. 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:21.540 I think when we first answer the question, what happened there and then it helps us to make the proper application to here and now. 00:03:21.600 --> 00:03:28.320 So if you ever study scripture when you read the Bible, which you should do that, God wrote his word for you to transform your life in him. 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:30.380 His word is vital to us. 00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:37.980 But when you read the pages of scripture in order to glean from it, what God intends, it's always important to answer the question, what did 00:03:37.980 --> 00:03:39.220 God mean there? 00:03:39.220 --> 00:03:44.440 And then because a book of the Bible was always written to a particular people at a particular place on a particular time. 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:48.370 What does it mean there and then, but truth is also timeless. 00:03:49.200 --> 00:03:51.260 So how does it relate to us in the here and now? 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:55.240 When I put this section of scripture in it's historical context. 00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.100 Let me just read these first couple of verses and I want to explain what's going on here. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:06.840 It says, now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour, six hour in Jewish time 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:07.950 means noon. 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:09.800 The day started at 6:00 AM. 00:04:10.140 --> 00:04:12.490 And so when Jesus went to the cross, it tells us in scripture. 00:04:12.540 --> 00:04:18.620 He went to third hour and now we're up to the six hour and darkness and to land in the ninth hour, which is 3:00 PM. 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:26.400 I'll tell you why this is important in just a minute, but about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani. 00:04:27.220 --> 00:04:28.480 That is my God, my God. 00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:29.460 Why have you forsaken me? 00:04:31.420 --> 00:04:38.680 When you read the Gospel accounts, you'll see it in Jesus's life the gospels recorded some things that are similar and some things that are different. 00:04:38.700 --> 00:04:43.100 Sometimes a couple of gospels record a similar event and another Gospel won't. 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:50.480 When you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and as it relates to the death of Jesus, all three of those gospels record the hours of which Jesus 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:55.560 is crucified and the times in which these events take place on the cross. 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:56.940 Why? 00:04:58.740 --> 00:05:00.900 How do they even know the time of day? 00:05:00.900 --> 00:05:03.700 It just seems like an inconsequential point, right? 00:05:03.700 --> 00:05:07.210 I mean you're going to the crucifixion of Jesus, the one that you think is the messiah. 00:05:07.640 --> 00:05:12.560 He's been tortured, he's been beaten, and it's all of a sudden these gospel writers like, hold on a second time I got to... 00:05:12.840 --> 00:05:15.180 I'm going to check my smartphone here and see what time this is. 00:05:15.220 --> 00:05:16.140 I want this to be accurate. 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:20.760 Is that really important to this passage of scripture I mean? 00:05:20.760 --> 00:05:24.280 Why, all three gospels identifying this as significant? 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:33.260 Well, I think when you see in scripture what God is painting a picture of for us, it tremendously amplifies 00:05:34.140 --> 00:05:36.940 this event relating to Jesus going to the cross. 00:05:37.020 --> 00:05:44.080 If you remember the night Jesus was betrayed, He was talking to his disciples about his 00:05:44.080 --> 00:05:44.530 betrayal. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:46.300 Peter, so confident about this. 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:48.100 Lord, I'm never going to turn my back on you. 00:05:48.340 --> 00:05:54.380 And Jesus says to Peter this very night before the rooster crows, you have a denied me three times. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:03.940 Interesting thing about recognizing that is a if you study Jewish history, Jews are a little... 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:08.220 there's a little debate we'll say in Jewish history, they're torn over an issue. 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:09.840 As it relates to the rooster. 00:06:11.040 --> 00:06:18.500 In Jewish history, there was certain animals that were clean and unclean and introduced into Jewish 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:21.740 history was the chicken. 00:06:23.640 --> 00:06:28.560 The Jews began to debate as to whether or not the chicken was seen as a clean or unclean animal. 00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:31.900 That debate was never really settled. 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:39.680 But during the time of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, in order to satisfy some, they wrote a law that said chickens 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:41.080 weren't allowed in Jerusalem. 00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:49.900 In fact, especially during the time of Passover, there was ritualistic cleansing that had to happen in the 00:06:49.900 --> 00:06:50.200 homes. 00:06:50.620 --> 00:06:58.120 I mean, these people had these laws that they had to observe and if there's any point in their lives or observing these cleansing walls, it is in Jerusalem, especially 00:06:58.140 --> 00:07:00.580 it is during Passover celebration. 00:07:01.940 --> 00:07:09.220 But when you hear the statement made from Jesus that the rooster would crow and Peter had denied Jesus, how 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:16.340 does that work with Jewish customs relates to laws written in Dead Sea Scrolls for the Jewish people's in 00:07:16.340 --> 00:07:18.780 the city of Jerusalem, especially during the time of Passover? 00:07:20.300 --> 00:07:26.660 Well during Jesus's Day, there was also another, another person I should say that was referred to as the rooster. 00:07:28.220 --> 00:07:35.360 He was the temple cryer and he had a particular job at the temple that when events were transpiring during 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:42.380 the temple, he would let Jerusalem know, and he would let drizzle know by blowing this horn in the wee hours of 00:07:42.380 --> 00:07:42.540 the morning. 00:07:45.020 --> 00:07:51.460 When the priest would arrive to the temple to begin to carry out the functions of the day, the rooster would crow. 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:59.060 The priest was in the building when they would make sacrifices on the cross. 00:08:01.540 --> 00:08:08.400 The reason they knew the hour of which Jesus was on the cross was because the crier would cry. 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:12.620 The activities were taking place in the temple. 00:08:13.760 --> 00:08:15.940 No one had to stop in those moments and look at their watch. 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:17.700 They were familiar with these times of day. 00:08:17.720 --> 00:08:23.780 It happened every day, 9:00 AM every day in the temple. 00:08:24.640 --> 00:08:27.460 The priest was there making a sacrifice. 00:08:29.320 --> 00:08:37.020 When Jesus was nailed to the cross, the third hour, the cry went out and 00:08:37.020 --> 00:08:37.580 the nail went down. 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:46.540 Well, what's interesting about when Jesus gives up his life, which is the ninth hour at the end of his life, when he gives the spirit to the 00:08:46.540 --> 00:08:50.320 father, on this particular day it was Passover. 00:08:52.420 --> 00:08:53.220 And a 3:00 PM. 00:08:53.260 --> 00:08:58.400 It wasn't only the time that they made the sacrifice, it was also when they initiated the sacrifice for Passover lamb. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:07.800 Could you imagine that moment as John gives the pronouncement, the beginning of John, that when Jesus shows up at the rivers 00:09:07.800 --> 00:09:11.180 of the Jordan to be baptized, he says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:19.880 And now when Jesus goes to the cross at the 9:00 AM in the morning, they hear the cry from the temple and all of a sudden it's Jesus being pierced. 00:09:22.760 --> 00:09:27.460 And then at 3:00 PM when the Passover celebration commences at the sacrifice in the temple. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.980 They hear the cry and Jesus gives up the ghost and the temple shakes and the veil is torn. 00:09:34.560 --> 00:09:36.200 Could you imagine being there in those moments? 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:40.460 What in the world did we just do? 00:09:42.540 --> 00:09:47.380 The lamb of God taking the sins of the world. 00:09:49.380 --> 00:09:51.140 To me, it's an incredible thought to consider. 00:09:51.140 --> 00:09:58.300 I think it's why these gospels record the hours very, particularly for 00:09:58.300 --> 00:10:01.680 us to see that when Jesus dies on the cross, it is no accident. 00:10:03.540 --> 00:10:10.720 That God had declared this from the beginning, and that God was in control even in the darkest of moments, to 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:16.460 the very moment the Passover lamb was to be slain and Jesus giving up his life for us. 00:10:18.380 --> 00:10:18.790 This is incredible. 00:10:21.980 --> 00:10:29.420 This moment described for us a about the noon hour is written as darkness in history. 00:10:29.500 --> 00:10:31.960 This ominous, quiet, dark moment. 00:10:31.960 --> 00:10:33.680 You think Jesus goes to the cross. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:41.080 He pronounces these statements that we've looked at together and then there's really just silence as darkness, creeps in and people are just 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:48.900 in this cloud of darkness says as Jesus takes on the sins of the world and 00:10:48.900 --> 00:10:50.730 then he gives these final crying words. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:11:01.100 Historically, if you study these moments on the cross, and I've often wondered how dark was it just 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:08.140 over Jerusalem or how far do this darkness, was it the whole world that experienced this darkness, historians have actually 00:11:08.140 --> 00:11:15.380 uncovered a first century document, second century document, third century document of individuals that have written about this 00:11:15.380 --> 00:11:16.580 day. 00:11:16.740 --> 00:11:24.020 Journaling historians that have written about this day a man and the first century named Falice was a Greek historian, 52 AD and 00:11:24.020 --> 00:11:26.540 a Greek historian, 137 AD. 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:33.820 Afrikanas, a Christian in the third century 212 AD all writing about this 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:39.160 moment in the history and how people have reflected on this moment and as a far away as Africa. 00:11:43.420 --> 00:11:50.500 Jesus in silence as darkness hangs over, and then he gives the 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:54.340 statement verse 46. 00:11:55.380 --> 00:11:58.740 The ninth hour, Jesus cries out with a loud voice. 00:12:01.380 --> 00:12:08.480 This word here literally means that Jesus shouts or he screams this toward 00:12:08.540 --> 00:12:10.240 heaven. 00:12:11.460 --> 00:12:15.580 Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani. 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:20.610 My God my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:25.720 This word forsaken means abandoned. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.740 Certainly, maybe as a downplay of what abandonment means. 00:12:32.800 --> 00:12:33.520 It's lonely. 00:12:35.060 --> 00:12:42.060 There are times in life you can probably relate to the thought of what it means to be lonely or abandoned, and there's times in life where you're lonely 00:12:42.060 --> 00:12:43.080 because you choose to be. 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:46.920 Those are great moments, like as a parent, sometimes I put my kids in time out. 00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:48.570 You know, you're like, go sit in the chair. 00:12:49.060 --> 00:12:49.740 Timeout. 00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:49.880 Right? 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:56.330 I'm thinking, man, if someone would just do that to me, I'll have to be quiet and I'll talk to anyone and no one could talk to me. 00:12:56.640 --> 00:12:58.820 Yeah, that would be the greatest. 00:12:59.080 --> 00:12:59.360 You know this. 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:01.780 There's times where you're lonely, where you choose to, right? 00:13:03.300 --> 00:13:05.350 Then there are times where you're learning who you don't want to be. 00:13:07.980 --> 00:13:09.800 Jesus in this moments are abandoned. 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:14.100 You think in relationship to the father. 00:13:14.100 --> 00:13:21.140 From the beginning of Genesis, you see Father, son, and spirit and perfect community, and then there's separation. 00:13:22.820 --> 00:13:24.820 There's also wrath. 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:30.640 The reason God turns his back on Jesus is because Jesus takes sin upon him and the father can look upon this sin. 00:13:30.860 --> 00:13:37.860 Theologians can't completely conceive of how this looks, but somehow at this point in history, perfect harmony in the trinity 00:13:37.860 --> 00:13:40.380 of God from the beginning and now separation. 00:13:42.060 --> 00:13:43.280 And Jesus is under the wrath. 00:13:45.180 --> 00:13:49.560 Tells us in Isaiah 53 verse 5, the chastisement of our peace was upon him. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:55.020 When you think about the consequences of sin in the Bible, it tells us the wages of sin is death. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.240 And in our minds, we often think about death. 00:13:57.260 --> 00:13:58.980 They're like, you're not living on earth anymore. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:03.280 And we see this earth as this great place where like you know, it's such a horrific thing and death is a bad thing. 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:06.620 But when the Bible talks about death, it's so much more than just leaving earth. 00:14:08.580 --> 00:14:11.980 The ultimate consequence of death isn't just leaving this earth. 00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:13.940 It's complete separation from God. 00:14:15.340 --> 00:14:18.720 The reason that's so significant is because God doesn't just give life. 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:19.600 God is life. 00:14:20.660 --> 00:14:26.820 In his life there is grace in love for all of eternity into think you, created for that purpose. 00:14:27.020 --> 00:14:28.480 Now separated from that. 00:14:28.920 --> 00:14:29.480 That is hell. 00:14:32.800 --> 00:14:35.060 What makes hell, hell isn't location. 00:14:35.060 --> 00:14:35.980 It's separation. 00:14:39.040 --> 00:14:43.820 What I'm saying about Jesus and his moments and saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:14:44.020 --> 00:14:48.600 Is that in this punishment for sin, Jesus is literally experiencing hell on earth. 00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:57.940 And so you see within the expression of this statement why after this quietness and this darkness, Jesus isn't just saying this, 00:14:57.940 --> 00:15:00.820 he's screaming this from the depths of his soul. 00:15:02.860 --> 00:15:08.000 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 24 it says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:13.260 Listen to this so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. 00:15:14.760 --> 00:15:16.640 There's a flip and death here, right? 00:15:17.740 --> 00:15:20.380 Before the wages of sin for us was death before God. 00:15:21.640 --> 00:15:25.000 Now in Jesus who bears our sins on the cross, it says that we might die to sin. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:32.160 So our separation is from sin so that we can live to righteousness, that when God looks up on us, he sees the goodness of Jesus and 00:15:32.160 --> 00:15:38.500 then it gives this phrase first Peter two 24 the last statement here, by his wounds, you have been healed. 00:15:40.520 --> 00:15:47.420 Jesus become sin so that we could become Christ and be welcomed to God's presence. 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:55.840 Absolute relational unity with the father and now Jesus experiences separation and 00:15:55.840 --> 00:15:56.820 here's what it's saying to us. 00:15:58.820 --> 00:16:04.540 Jesus was abandoned so that you would never be alone. 00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:12.980 In fact, when Paul or whoever wrote Hebrews says this in Hebrews 13. 00:16:12.980 --> 00:16:15.660 He says, make sure that your character is free from the love of money. 00:16:15.660 --> 00:16:16.610 I'll talk about that in a minute. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:23.840 Being content with what you have for he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:27.060 so that we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. 00:16:27.640 --> 00:16:28.320 I will not be afraid. 00:16:29.060 --> 00:16:30.280 What will men do to me? 00:16:30.280 --> 00:16:32.880 Why did Jesus go through such anguish? 00:16:32.880 --> 00:16:36.570 Why this forsakenness on the cross would he endured? 00:16:36.880 --> 00:16:40.400 It's so that you could live in this promise of Hebrews 13:5. 00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:42.890 I will never leave you nor forsake you. 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:50.460 The beauty of the cross for us becomes the living in this truth. 00:16:50.460 --> 00:16:53.100 Now, I know as people we struggle with loneliness. 00:16:53.180 --> 00:16:55.180 We struggle with loneliness for different reasons. 00:16:55.220 --> 00:17:01.940 I can't pretend to give you every solution to come through the feelings of loneliness that we go through. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:09.020 But I can say this, there are feelings of loneliness and there is the truth of loneliness and sometimes 00:17:09.020 --> 00:17:14.339 we may feel lonely, but God gives us the truth of his statement, of his presence. 00:17:14.780 --> 00:17:18.420 So in the midst of those feelings, we can speak the promises of God in our lives. 00:17:20.060 --> 00:17:24.200 Sometimes we feel lonely because we may be the only one around. 00:17:25.280 --> 00:17:29.860 But the truth in Hebrews 13 is saying is in Jesus, you are never left alone. 00:17:31.120 --> 00:17:34.020 Sometimes we can feel lonely in life because we want to belong. 00:17:35.420 --> 00:17:40.700 Hebrews 13:5 it's telling us in Jesus because of what Jesus has done, you always belong. 00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:47.240 Sometimes we feel lonely because we want to be loved, because of what Jesus has done. 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:48.470 In Jesus, we are unconditionally. 00:17:49.420 --> 00:17:51.860 Sometimes we feel lonely because we don't feel worthy. 00:17:53.720 --> 00:17:57.760 But in Jesus you have tremendous worth because God has given it all for you. 00:17:57.800 --> 00:18:04.980 He's demonstrated the worth of who you are because the value of Christ is placed on your life, and sometimes in life we feel unimportant. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:13.200 Because of Jesus you have significant and tremendous important because the life of God has been given for you. 00:18:17.420 --> 00:18:21.140 When God sees you, he sees Christ. 00:18:23.120 --> 00:18:25.820 Dead to sin, alive to righteousness. 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:33.290 The statement that Jesus speaks of this forsakenness is for you. 00:18:34.320 --> 00:18:36.860 These thoughts are the truth of God's presence. 00:18:36.860 --> 00:18:43.830 Don't necessarily make the feeling of loneliness go away, but it gives you the truth to speak towards it. 00:18:45.620 --> 00:18:51.820 Hebrews 13:5 says something interesting before he gives us this promise, though I will never leave you nor forsake you. 00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:59.460 He says in the beginning, make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have for 00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:02.820 God has said, I will never leave you for or forsake you. 00:19:03.940 --> 00:19:04.500 Interesting thought. 00:19:04.500 --> 00:19:11.770 Usually when you get to the end of a book of the Bible, a lot of times what the writers will do is they'll start peppering thoughts of how to live out Christ. 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:14.700 And sometimes the thoughts seem disconnected like right here. 00:19:14.740 --> 00:19:18.350 All of a sudden he's connecting this thought of money with forsaking. 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:20.700 How does that work, right? 00:19:22.220 --> 00:19:30.260 But you know when you feel lonely or empty in life, our tendency as people is 00:19:30.260 --> 00:19:37.320 to try to fill our lives with things that may only temporarily satisfy like 00:19:37.320 --> 00:19:39.540 money, right? 00:19:39.600 --> 00:19:43.850 It doesn't just have to end there, but this is the illustration that the author uses. 00:19:44.580 --> 00:19:51.580 We could use money, popularity, looks, jobs, performance, whatever, and the tendency in 00:19:51.580 --> 00:20:00.480 our lives when we feel lonely as rather than fill our soul with the truth of God is to look for things in this world, and 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:01.640 what ends up happening in our lives. 00:20:01.760 --> 00:20:08.860 Unfortunately, is we end up loving things more than Jesus, but these things never love you in return. 00:20:10.840 --> 00:20:11.640 So here's the reality is. 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:15.490 Money will let you die for it. 00:20:16.180 --> 00:20:20.690 I mean, you will sacrifice everything but money will never die for you. 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:23.500 Popularity. 00:20:24.700 --> 00:20:27.160 You can sacrifice everything for popularity. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:29.730 You can die for it to be the top. 00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:32.490 It won't die for you. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:37.670 Your job give everything for your job. 00:20:39.100 --> 00:20:40.360 You can give your complete self. 00:20:40.360 --> 00:20:40.920 You can die. 00:20:41.180 --> 00:20:43.180 Live a life of sacrifice for. 00:20:43.980 --> 00:20:45.260 Your job won't die for you. 00:20:47.620 --> 00:20:49.240 Jesus dies for you. 00:20:51.020 --> 00:20:51.600 Jesus loves you. 00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:56.740 This thought of he will never leave you nor forsake you. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.660 That word forsaken should just take us back to the thought of the cross. 00:21:02.560 --> 00:21:05.380 He's forsaken so that we can belong. 00:21:07.100 --> 00:21:07.920 He never leaves you. 00:21:10.700 --> 00:21:13.530 If look for the rest of this passage of Matthew. 00:21:13.540 --> 00:21:18.100 I think the thought we could ask ourselves, Dennis, how do I know that Jesus will be there for me? 00:21:18.810 --> 00:21:22.220 When you look at God making this promise, he'll never forsake me up. 00:21:22.280 --> 00:21:24.300 You know I believe that's true for other people. 00:21:24.300 --> 00:21:26.250 Say a lot of good people, but what about me? 00:21:26.460 --> 00:21:28.620 And then Matthew continues to share this story. 00:21:28.680 --> 00:21:28.920 Look at this. 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:34.960 He goes on and says, "And some of those were standing there when they heard it begins saying, this man is calling up before Elijah. 00:21:35.280 --> 00:21:37.580 Immediately one of them ran and taking a sponge. 00:21:37.580 --> 00:21:40.680 He filled it with sour wine and put it up on a reading, gave him a drink. 00:21:40.680 --> 00:21:47.330 But the rest of them said, let us see whether Elijah will come and save him, and Jesus cried out with a loud voice and he yielded up his spirit. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:54.520 Look what happens verse 51 and behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook 00:21:54.520 --> 00:21:55.880 and the rocks were split. 00:21:56.540 --> 00:22:03.940 The significance of top to bottom are important here, but what Matthew is doing is Matthew has written to a Jewish audience. 00:22:06.020 --> 00:22:13.080 Now, you see a lot of quotes in Matthew throughout the Old Testament so that we could immediately tie what's happening in the life of Jesus and the 00:22:13.080 --> 00:22:15.660 gospel of Matthew to the promises of the Old Testament. 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:24.220 When you read the rest of the gospels, when it comes to the end of Jesus's life, that Gospel authors choose to highlight something different in really each of the Gospels. 00:22:25.760 --> 00:22:33.220 The gospel of John does something a little unique here because John is not so much projecting his story to the Jewish audience, 00:22:34.240 --> 00:22:41.720 but he's projecting his story to the broader audience of the world, and this veil being torn in 00:22:41.720 --> 00:22:48.880 Matthew Chapter 27 this is significant, and the Jewish mind, the temple 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:50.530 is where God's presence was. 00:22:52.260 --> 00:22:55.960 It's the only place really God's presence was permanently to be. 00:22:57.660 --> 00:22:59.430 Now the veil is torn. 00:23:00.840 --> 00:23:05.870 If you were to go back in a Jewish old testament, read the Tanakh, you would get to read. 00:23:06.420 --> 00:23:09.870 If you read the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, something significant happens in Ezra and Nehemiah. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:13.730 In Jewish history, they went on this thing called the Babylonian captivity. 00:23:13.860 --> 00:23:15.230 They were conquered by the Babylonians. 00:23:15.560 --> 00:23:22.000 They were carried away, and then they were allowed to come back to Jerusalem after a few decades and they were able to rebuild the temple. 00:23:23.280 --> 00:23:30.610 But one of the things that's interesting happens in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah is that some of the people remembered what it was like to live in Jerusalem during the days that temple. 00:23:31.660 --> 00:23:33.210 And some people did, and they were born in captivity. 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:40.880 Well, the ones that didn't, went back with joy and they rebuilt the temple, but the ones that remembered interesting than Ezra, Nehemiah, as 00:23:40.880 --> 00:23:41.260 they wept. 00:23:42.800 --> 00:23:49.340 They wept because they remembered the glory that was, and they knew God's glory wasn't there the way that it was when they went into captivity. 00:23:50.900 --> 00:23:56.240 When you read Ezra and Nehemiah, the crazy part about that book here are these, this group of people going back to Jerusalem to restore it. 00:23:56.260 --> 00:23:57.390 But the book ends a law. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:04.120 And the reason that does that is because it wants to build within us in anticipation that something better still to come. 00:24:06.220 --> 00:24:08.720 But the presence of God was never in that simple again. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:11.700 After the Babylonian captivity, it was gone. 00:24:13.340 --> 00:24:21.540 Then when you get to the New Testament, John the Baptist parents at the temple, his father gets him in the temple and 00:24:21.560 --> 00:24:23.170 all of a sudden he comes out and he can't speak. 00:24:24.560 --> 00:24:27.250 We find out in the Gospels God's presence met him there. 00:24:28.700 --> 00:24:30.380 For the first time, God speaks again. 00:24:32.840 --> 00:24:37.020 Then when you get to the book of John, John pins the story of the temple and a very different way. 00:24:38.120 --> 00:24:42.380 Because the Jews know the presence of what God's Temple was no more after the Babylonian captivity. 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:49.980 So when you get to John Chapter one when John Introduces Jesus in John Chapter One verse 14 it tells us this, that Jesus tabernacled, 00:24:50.020 --> 00:24:54.620 which is another word for the temple expression on the temple, God's presence now with his people. 00:24:54.620 --> 00:24:56.380 Jesus is that tabernacle. 00:24:56.380 --> 00:24:59.360 And when you get to John Chapter two what happens in Jesus's life? 00:24:59.360 --> 00:25:03.280 He comes before people and he says, destroy the temple and in three days I will rebuild it. 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:11.280 Now rather than identifying a building, Jesus is now identifying himself as the presence of God, the temple, the place that you go to meet 00:25:11.280 --> 00:25:11.880 with God. 00:25:11.880 --> 00:25:16.820 Jesus even says, he who'd seen me has seen the father because the presence of the father is in him. 00:25:16.820 --> 00:25:18.540 He is the expression of God. 00:25:18.560 --> 00:25:20.020 He is God in the flesh. 00:25:20.720 --> 00:25:27.780 In fact, Jesus got so bold as to say in John Chapter Seven there was a celebration that the Jews would partake of and 00:25:27.780 --> 00:25:34.960 a ceremony where at the very end of the ceremony they would pour out water as an offering before God in the middle of the ceremony in the temple. 00:25:35.060 --> 00:25:36.620 Jesus stands before all of the people. 00:25:36.620 --> 00:25:43.820 He says, "I am the living water." And the very next chapter in John Chapter eight there was a part of the temple ritual, which 00:25:43.820 --> 00:25:48.680 they would take torches and they would go outside of the temple walls and they would light up the outside of these walls. 00:25:48.700 --> 00:25:53.060 And Jesus goes in the middle of this ritual and he says, I am the light of the world. 00:25:56.240 --> 00:25:57.280 Jesus identifies himself. 00:25:59.860 --> 00:26:04.000 So when the Jewish mind in these moments, it's crystal clear what's happening here. 00:26:04.020 --> 00:26:09.770 That Jesus throughout his ministry has identified himself as the presence of the temple because God's glory hasn't been dwelling there. 00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:16.960 When Jesus is finally giving up his spirit in these moments, when it is finished, the veil is torn symbolizing to 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:18.840 the people, that the presence of God, isn't there? 00:26:20.220 --> 00:26:25.520 Oh Man, we've killed God's presence. 00:26:26.940 --> 00:26:33.800 John 19:30 John reflects in this moment just a little different than just talking about the tearing of the temple veil. 00:26:35.280 --> 00:26:36.760 He's Penn throughout his gospel. 00:26:37.480 --> 00:26:39.640 Jesus's identity, right. 00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:44.900 Tabernacled, destroy the temple, living light of the world. 00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:50.300 Jesus in John Chapter 19 verse 13 is on the Cross. 00:26:50.300 --> 00:26:53.480 He says this, "I've received the sour wine. 00:26:53.480 --> 00:27:00.640 He said, it is finished." And he bowed his head and 00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:04.460 gave up his spirit and can you imagine this moments? 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:11.200 The temple crier, the rooster crowing for the Passover celebration before that can be completed. 00:27:11.520 --> 00:27:15.020 The ground shake and the veil is torn, not from bottom to top. 00:27:15.040 --> 00:27:22.200 Man could potentially do that, but this veil was so thick it was mere almost impossible to even consider inches thick, but it's torn from 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:25.080 top to bottom, from heavens, from the heavens to the earth. 00:27:27.340 --> 00:27:30.780 God's presence isn't there. 00:27:31.100 --> 00:27:32.720 This would be a wake up call, right? 00:27:32.760 --> 00:27:34.960 Where you're sitting around thinking, what did we just,. 00:27:35.060 --> 00:27:39.760 God's presence is gone. 00:27:39.760 --> 00:27:41.950 A Pentecost is about to happen right? 00:27:42.100 --> 00:27:49.300 Now, God's presence will dwell on his people, but I kept thinking these ambiguous moments between the crucifixion of Jesus and pedagogues, you're thinking, well, 00:27:49.300 --> 00:27:50.560 what are we going to do? 00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:53.940 God's presence was with us and we got rid of the Lord. 00:27:53.940 --> 00:27:58.520 How are we live our lives on when it makes this statement, Jesus says, interesting phrase here. 00:27:58.600 --> 00:28:01.840 This phrase, it is finished, knows when Jesus makes this statement, it is finished. 00:28:02.420 --> 00:28:08.880 What he isn't saying is I am finished rather it, what is it? 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:15.740 This word is to tell us that in Jesus's original languages to tell us that. 00:28:16.040 --> 00:28:17.940 This phrase to tell us that it's an interesting word. 00:28:18.400 --> 00:28:21.060 It's a phrase that was really spoken in two common areas. 00:28:21.060 --> 00:28:28.160 When a general would go to battle and he would return from battle, he would walk through the city if he was victorious and what would he would pronounce 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:30.720 in that Victor was to tell us that it is finished. 00:28:30.800 --> 00:28:31.560 Battle is won. 00:28:31.560 --> 00:28:33.300 We are victorious to tell us, stop. 00:28:35.280 --> 00:28:36.720 And then this phrase was also used in the market. 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:45.400 If you go to the marketplace and you'd buy something, you'd receive a receipt stamped on that receipt to 00:28:45.420 --> 00:28:47.550 tell a that paid in full. 00:28:49.520 --> 00:28:54.250 Well, Jesus is declaring of our lives, isn't that he has finished but it is finished. 00:28:54.360 --> 00:28:56.060 And what is finished as a payment for your life? 00:28:57.800 --> 00:29:02.340 He has won the victory overseeing Satan and death and he has paid in full. 00:29:04.660 --> 00:29:08.040 This phrase it is finished as a fulfillment of the picture throughout the Bible. 00:29:08.140 --> 00:29:15.240 The Old Testament tells us and proclaims the coming of Jesus that he will bless all nations and even establishes a system of worship 00:29:15.240 --> 00:29:22.160 and then that system will point to him and we just looked at one of those expressions and being the temple where he says, "I'm the living water, the light of the world. 00:29:22.220 --> 00:29:28.450 The lamb of God destroyed the temple." In three days I'll rebuild it and Hebrews it goes back and illustrates these examples. 00:29:28.620 --> 00:29:35.700 Jesus talks about the sacrifices in the temple in Hebrews 10 as a shadow, Jesus says at the end of Hebrews chapter eight the very last 00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:42.720 verse, it tells us that he obliterates the Old Testament law in order to introduce to us a new because he pays it in full and now 00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:44.080 we belong to him. 00:29:45.350 --> 00:29:47.580 We think about the phrase it is finished then. 00:29:49.740 --> 00:29:56.460 We often think about God rescuing us from something which he did, paid in full. 00:29:58.040 --> 00:30:02.840 However, he did more than that when he said it is finished. 00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:06.680 He also rescued you for something. 00:30:09.520 --> 00:30:11.510 When you think about this phrase it is finished. 00:30:11.720 --> 00:30:18.790 It's not simply about you get to go to heaven, but it's now a place of belonging and you seen this some both phrases. 00:30:19.120 --> 00:30:21.540 Now you're not ever forsaken. 00:30:22.980 --> 00:30:25.070 God's presence is always with you. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.460 God didn't just save you then for something. 00:30:28.460 --> 00:30:31.770 He also made this payment from something else that made this payment for something. 00:30:31.880 --> 00:30:37.970 But if the Gospel is just about saving you from something, the moment you trusted in Jesus, God would have taken you out of this world. 00:30:40.460 --> 00:30:47.580 God's got a purpose and in fact, in 1st Corinthians chapter six verse 20 he says it like this for you have 00:30:47.580 --> 00:30:48.690 been bought with a price. 00:30:48.840 --> 00:30:51.220 Therefore, glorify God in your body. 00:30:51.280 --> 00:30:58.300 In fact, if you were to backup one verse before this, it says this, you are the temple of God and then being the temple of God, he 00:30:58.320 --> 00:31:03.020 then explains that it's not just from something before something it says you have been bought with a price. 00:31:03.020 --> 00:31:06.540 Therefore, glorify God in your body, meaning God owns you. 00:31:07.960 --> 00:31:09.260 Now, for some people, that's scary. 00:31:10.860 --> 00:31:12.640 We don't want to be owned by anything, right? 00:31:12.940 --> 00:31:17.220 I am my man and I will make my choices and nothing's going to control me. 00:31:18.820 --> 00:31:22.500 But the reality is all of us are driven by something. 00:31:24.360 --> 00:31:26.020 'Cause all of us worship something with our lives. 00:31:28.820 --> 00:31:35.840 It's impossible not to, but true freedom isn't freedom until you live for the 00:31:35.840 --> 00:31:37.040 purpose of what you're created. 00:31:38.840 --> 00:31:43.780 I think I've used this illustration before guys, but listen, a fish placed on land is never free. 00:31:45.520 --> 00:31:48.480 He's not free until he's in the water, right? 00:31:48.560 --> 00:31:49.860 A monkey in the ocean isn't free. 00:31:51.620 --> 00:31:52.720 He's not free to leaves in the trees. 00:31:55.020 --> 00:32:00.370 A train can run it to just all day long, but until it's on the tracks, it's not experiencing the reason for which it was created. 00:32:02.100 --> 00:32:06.770 The same is true for you and the loneliness of our soul. 00:32:06.780 --> 00:32:14.180 We can sell our souls to things it does not belong to, but your soul was created to belong and 00:32:14.180 --> 00:32:16.680 the purpose for which it was called to belongs to God. 00:32:18.420 --> 00:32:24.520 And it's not until Jesus made this payment for your life and allowing you to belong to him that you could ever be free. 00:32:26.440 --> 00:32:29.960 When Jesus makes this statement, it is finished. 00:32:32.020 --> 00:32:39.220 God has finally given you the freedom for which to live and the question for our lives and isn't just see 00:32:39.220 --> 00:32:41.880 what we've been saved from, but what we've been rescued for. 00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:50.200 You think about the purpose of the church as it starts from the beginning, that God from the beginning has been on a rescue mission for souls because souls 00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:51.780 are in sin and then sin is death. 00:32:52.180 --> 00:32:52.940 God has been pursuing us. 00:32:54.280 --> 00:33:01.500 In the midst of the story the rescuer rescues and then he calls those that have been rescued to join him on the rescue mission and that is 00:33:01.500 --> 00:33:02.360 the church. 00:33:03.680 --> 00:33:06.120 What did God rescue me for? 00:33:08.040 --> 00:33:11.770 They were asking, God what am I rescued four. 00:33:12.340 --> 00:33:17.340 and we think about that, we give them the idea of God's will when we talk about God's will, what does God rescue me for? 00:33:17.640 --> 00:33:22.940 I don't think you have to be specific with your answer and somebody we think about God's will, what he rescues for. 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:29.420 We try to think of specific places, specific time specific people and I think God can lead us in those directions. 00:33:29.580 --> 00:33:36.660 However, when we think in terms of what does Jesus save me for, I think the Bible speaks in terms of what kind of person does he call me 00:33:36.660 --> 00:33:40.140 to be and what kind of abilities and gifts does he call me to share. 00:33:41.940 --> 00:33:47.430 People in places can be worked out later, but the Bible always starts with the content of your heart. 00:33:48.420 --> 00:33:52.560 What kind of person does God call me to be character, right? 00:33:52.560 --> 00:33:56.880 I want to be careful in saying this because what I'm not saying this morning is patting on the head and just say, go be good. 00:33:59.020 --> 00:34:00.980 God's not interested in just you being good. 00:34:01.040 --> 00:34:07.760 God's interested in you being godly, belonging to him and the type of character God desires in your life doesn't happen by you being good. 00:34:08.040 --> 00:34:11.250 It happens by you surrendering your life to the king who bought you with a surprise. 00:34:12.659 --> 00:34:14.159 Then glorifying him with your life. 00:34:15.639 --> 00:34:18.840 Well, when we asked the question, what does God rescue me for? 00:34:19.120 --> 00:34:20.199 The answer... 00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:22.120 question we need to answer this. 00:34:22.139 --> 00:34:24.940 What kind of person has god called me to be in character? 00:34:25.600 --> 00:34:31.699 You know, you think in our culture today, we're primarily attracted to leaders with charisma and some competency, right? 00:34:31.699 --> 00:34:32.290 Like their talents. 00:34:32.600 --> 00:34:36.400 Like we look to leaders that got, have some charisma and some competency like their talents. 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:36.400 We looked to leaders that has some charisma and some competency. 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:42.330 If you have competency and charisma, without character there is an implosion waiting. 00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:52.449 Charisma makes a great first impression, but character makes a lasting impression. 00:34:54.460 --> 00:34:56.510 What did God rescue me for? 00:34:59.460 --> 00:35:01.940 What kind of person does God call you to be? 00:35:03.080 --> 00:35:10.100 Who are you and the depth of your heart and the easy times and the hard times 00:35:10.880 --> 00:35:11.340 block comes out. 00:35:12.820 --> 00:35:14.150 God bought you with a price. 00:35:14.340 --> 00:35:16.260 Glorify God in your body. 00:35:18.100 --> 00:35:24.800 Not only do we ask what kind of person has God called me to be, but then we answered the question, what has God called me to share? 00:35:27.240 --> 00:35:33.080 I think we discovered this as people as we simply spend time with the one who called us, we spend time with Jesus. 00:35:34.240 --> 00:35:40.780 Acts 4:13 it says, they were astonished about the disciples because they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 00:35:42.040 --> 00:35:48.680 They had something to impart to the world around them because they possess Christ in their lives and they had spent time with Jesus. 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:52.120 We've been bought with a price. 00:35:54.320 --> 00:36:01.440 When the content of your character is rooted in Jesus and your life is filled up by Christ, 00:36:02.780 --> 00:36:06.180 it doesn't matter where you are or where you go. 00:36:07.520 --> 00:36:12.040 You're always imparting the life of Christ through Christ. 00:36:13.080 --> 00:36:16.140 We think about the significance of the cross for us today. 00:36:18.480 --> 00:36:25.820 For us as individuals, the thought of Jesus being forsaking allows us to walk in the promise, the presence of God wherever 00:36:25.820 --> 00:36:30.280 we go, because we understand in the midst of that promise that we're never forsaken. 00:36:30.660 --> 00:36:37.740 At the same time God declared it is finished and that moment there's not just a rescuing of our soul from condemnation, but a transferring 00:36:37.740 --> 00:36:40.600 of our life to live for something even greater. 00:36:42.640 --> 00:36:44.560 Not just from something before something. 00:36:46.510 --> 00:36:48.910 The Cross isn't just an event that happened. 00:36:49.940 --> 00:36:53.020 The cross is a moment that calls us to live on mission. 00:36:55.160 --> 00:36:57.920 God desires to do something through your life. 00:36:58.860 --> 00:37:04.380 The resurrection of Jesus, because of this continues to happen every day of our life. 00:37:04.820 --> 00:37:06.640 That we could live in that declaration. 00:37:07.320 --> 00:37:14.440 By the way we surrender ourselves to what God has called us for, that Jesus has given his life for us, that you have been 00:37:14.440 --> 00:37:19.260 bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your body.