Sermon Central
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Jesus’ Cross-Driven Concerns-4 Series
Contributed by Byron Sherman on Apr 12, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: 4 of 6. As Jesus hung on the cross, He voiced particularly important concerns. At the juncture of life & death, matters of greatest significance are prioritized. But What are these as evidenced from the Cross? A Cross-driven Concern of Jesus is Your...
JESUS’ CROSS-Driven CONCERNS-IV
Lk. 23:33-49; Jn. 19:17-30; Mat. 27:33-54; Mk. 15:21-39
OR--CONCERNS From The CROSS
Attention:
Oblivious to the obvious
The Church & Christians can be oblivious to the obvious... that while we bicker about ‘this that or the other thing,’ that there are literally millions of people who do not know Jesus!
We can be so focused on extraneous ‘pressing’ matters that we totally miss the BIG picture!
Likewise, we can be so caught up in the sorrow, & gruesome brutality of the Crucifixion of Christ, that we miss the Cross-work of Christ!
Jesus’ 7 Words From the Cross:
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”—Luke 23:34
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”—Luke 23:43
“Behold your son...”: “behold your mother.”—Jn. 19:26-27
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—Mat. 27:45; Mk. 15:33-34
“I thirst”—Jn. 19:28-29
“It is finished”—Jn. 19:30
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”— Lk. 23:44; Mat. 27:50; Mk. 15:36-38
Need:
To recognize those things which are of greatest significance to our lives & the lives of others.
We have found that A Cross-driven Concern of Jesus is...
1. Your FORGIVENESS(Lk. 23:34)
2. Your DESTINY/Future/Eternity(Lk. 23:43)
3. Your CARE & OBLIGATION(Jn. 19:26-27)
4—A Cross-driven Concern of Jesus is...
Your SEPARATION(Mat. 27:46; Mk. 15:34)
Explanation:(Mat. 27:46; Mk. 15:34)Separation
Mat. 27:45—“Now from the sixth hour-(12 noon)- until the ninth hour-(3pm)- there was darkness over all the land.”
Mat. 27:46—“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”—Is an Aramaic transliteration into Hebrew.
“This is the only sentence of any length in Aramaic preserved in Matthew, though he has Aramaic words like amen, corban, mammon, pascha, raca, Satan, Golgotha.”—RWP
Mk. 15:33—“Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”
Mk. 15:34—“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—is the Aramaic transliteration
This is the only one of the seven sayings of Christ on the Cross given by Mark & Matthew. The other six occur in Luke & John.—RWP
*Jesus quotes from & thereby calls us to examine Psalm 22:1-31 by quoting Psalm 22:1.
That Psalm is a call from David for deliverance from his enemies, yet it is also a Messianic prophecy declared roughly 1000yrs.(~1010-970 BC) before Messiah’s arrival!
*READ Ps. 22:1-31
“Nothing from Jesus so well illustrates the depth of his suffering of soul as he felt himself regarded as sin though sinless(2Co 5:21).”—RWP
In Ps. 22, David, by the Holy Spirit, depicts the priority of trust in God(:3-5).
It depicts the hatred & ridicule Messiah would receive on the Cross(:6-8, 12-13).
It depicts Messiah’s trust in God(:9-11).
It depicts Messiah’s exhaustion, His unnatural body position, & the physical stress upon his heart(:14).
It records the dissipation of Messiah’s natural strength(:15).
It depicts Messiah’s desert-like thirst, having all moisture absent from His mouth(:15).
It describes Messiah’s hands & feet being pierced by the nails as by lions(:16).
It pictures Messiah’s emaciated body(:17).-(MNTC)-
It pre-depicts the soldier’s gambling for Messiah’s clothing(:18).
It depicts that the poor will find satisfaction(:26).
It shows that thru Messiah, all the ends of the world, both dead & living, will worship & bow before God(:27-29).
It shows that Messiah will produce a posterity & generation who will be faithful to proclaim His Good News from their generation to the next(:29-31).
Jesus’ trust of & relationship with His Heavenly Father was so intense that He experienced the abandonment as He was being judged for the sin of mankind. He experienced a separation which He had never known/experienced before or after. A personal darkness from being alone & condemned.
Rom. 8:2-3—“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin & death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,”
Some of you live in darkness continually—that impersonal distance from God so that you cannot rightly call Him your Father or your friend or your Advocate. You do not know what it is to truly love Him nor what it is to be truly loved by Him!
*Jesus did what He did so that you would never experience that impersonal distance, & that you, by voluntarily receiving the relationship with God, would always be unnerved at the Separation which sinful flesh affords!
Amos 8:4-12—“Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, And make the poor of the land fail, Saying: “When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat? Making the ephah small & the shekel large, Falsifying the scales by deceit, That we may buy the poor for silver, And the needy for a pair of sandals-- Even sell the bad wheat?” The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this, And everyone mourn who dwells in it? All of it shall swell like the River, Heave & subside Like the River of Egypt. “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will make the sun go down at noon, And I will darken the earth in broad daylight; I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, And its end like a bitter day. “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD. They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to & fro, seeking the word of the LORD, But shall not find it.” Jesus’ cry was misunderstood by ‘some’ as a cry to Elijah.
