Untitled Sermon (2)

A businessman wanted to send a floral arrangement to a friend who was opening a new branch office. His friend called later in the day to thank him for the considerate gesture, but he was a little bit confused about the card which read: "Rest in peace."

The businessman apologized for the mix-up and quickly called to chastise the florist. The florist tried to brush it off, and said: "Look, it could be worse. Somewhere in the cemetery there is a bouquet with a note reading, ‘Good luck in your new location.'"

◆ After you die, if there is such a thing as luck, your luck has run out. After you die, your opportunity to love in this life is gone forever.

John 19:25-27 (NKJV) 25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.

John 19:25–27 KJV 1900

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

As you study the seven sayings of Jesus as He was dying on the cross, it is interesting to note that his first three statements concerned others.

· First, he spoke to the mob on forgiveness: He said to them: "Father, forgive them."

· Then he spoke to a thief on salvation: He said, "Today you shall be with Me in paradise."

· Now he speaks to his mother on relationships: He says to her: "Woman, behold your Son."

· No mother ever had a son like Mary.

· No mother ever had a son that loved her like Jesus.

Jesus, bearing the weight of the world of sin on his own shoulders; was about to become the first and only member of the family of God to walk through the valley of the shadow of death … without even one angel to go with him. He is entering into a spiritual "no man's land." Yet, even in this hour of agony he took his last opportunity to care for his mother.

H. Jackson Brown wrote a book entitled: Live and Learn and Pass It On.

On his 51st birthday he took a sheet of paper and wrote: "I'VE LEARNED THAT..." twenty times down the left side of a page. He then spent the rest of the day completing those sentences.

That experience so stimulated him that he came up with the idea of collecting "I've learned that" statements from others. His book is a collection of these statements.

These are some of the statements that he got from children:

· One 7-year-old boy wrote: "I've learned that you can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk."

· Another said, "I've learned that if you spread the peas out on your plate, it looks like you ate more."

· Another one said, "I've learned that the tooth fairy doesn't always come, some-times he's broke."

· Still another child said, "I've learned that if you want to get even with someone at camp you rub their underwear in poison ivy."

· Finally, another child said, "I've learned that my best friend is my teddy bear; he never tells my secrets."

I'm sure there are a lot of things that Jesus learned as a child, but one of the things He obviously learned was to honor / obey / cherish / and love His family.

There is a great lesson we can learn from this one saying from Jesus on the cross, and that is, we should take every opportunity to love those who are dearest to us & make sure that WE LOVE THEM BEFORE WE LEAVE them or before they leave us.

G. K. Chesterson said: "We spend the first half of our lives fighting with our parents, and the second half of our lives fighting with our children."

Well, I believe we need to spend all of our lives loving one another and doing it before it is too late. The Lord Jesus gives us a great example of how, right to the very end, we do need to love our families.

ONE: THE DEVOTION TO HIS FAMILY – vv.25, 26

◆ The first face Jesus saw in the cradle was the face of His mother; and the first face He saw at the cross was the face of His mother.

Just as an athlete who has just won a world championship can remember even in the thrill of victory and the roar of success, to say, "Hi Mom,"the Lord Jesus could look into a teeming throng filled with jeers, and pick out his own mother.

We see Mary twice in John's gospel.

At the beginning, in chapter 2, she is enjoying the happiness of a wedding.

Now at the end, in chapter 19, she is enduring the grief of a funeral. Let's focus in on this mother the same way the Lord Jesus did.

► See Mary's Sweetness - The model woman in the Bible was:

· NOT some wonder woman with supernatural powers; not some radical feminist who saw men as just a necessary nuisance to propagate the race;

· NOT some vixen who flaunted her beauty without shame or class;

· BUT a woman with a spirit of meekness who simply wanted to be used of God.

The last thing this meek woman would have ever wanted would be to have been worshipped, or prayed to like some would do today.

Mary was willing to be in the background, understanding that only her dear Son deserved the glory and honor and praise and worship that God Himself deserved.

► See Mary's Sorrow

Right after the Lord Jesus had been born, a man named Simeon came up to Mary and said something very strange. Luke 2:34, 35 (NJKV) – Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against 35 – (Yes, a sword will pierce through you own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

Without a doubt, as sweet little Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, stood near the cross, looking at her Son, she could feel that sword literally piercing her own soul.

· She was sorrowing because Jesus died.

· She was sorrowing because of the way He died. He died the shameful death reserved for common criminals and the dregs of the earth.

· She sorrowed because of where He died; in open public, to the jeers of a sinful world.

· She sorrowed because of why He died; for something He did not even do.

Can you mothers imagine what it would be like to see your darling son:

· With the blood dripping down his face / With spit dropping from his beard

· With tears drying on his cheek / With the life draining from his body.

Simeon was more of a prophet than he even realized, because surely that mother felt that sword piercing her very soul.

► See Mary's Savior

It may surprise you to see the Lord Jesus address Mary, not by the name Mother, but by the word "woman."

Don't let that throw you because back in those days that was a term of respect and honor. In the Greek in meant: “A highly respectful and affectionate term.”

◆ As a matter of fact, not one time in the gospels is Jesus ever recorded as calling Mary "mother." Here he makes sure not to call her mother. Why? Because He was breaking his earthly relationship to Mary – establishing the FAMILY of God.

What he was saying to her in effect was: "I am no longer your Son, I am now your Savior. You are no longer my earthly mother, you are now my heavenly sister."*

· If Mary is going to heaven, Jesus must be her Savior, not her son.

· If Mary is going to be a part of not only the earthly family of Jesus, but the heavenly family of God, she must see Jesus in a totally different light.

In other words, the faith relationship

is more important than the family relationship.

◆ Did you know that you can have the same relationship to Jesus that Mary did?

One time Jesus was standing with a crowd of people, and someone came to him and said, "Your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you." He said this them: "Who is my mother or my brother?"

Then he looked around at a circle of his disciples, and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God is my brother and my sister and mother." (Mk. 3:32-35)

But even though Jesus was dying as her Savior, Jesus did not forget that while living He was her son.

· Having just provided a heavenly home for a wicked thief,

· He now provides an earthly home for a wonderful mother.

· Even in dying, He was letting his mother know "I love you, I care for you, I'm going to see to it your needs are met."

If the song would have been written then … Mary might have sung to herself many times, "WHEN HE WAS ON THE CROSS, I WAS ON HIS MIND."

TWO: DUTY OF HIS FRIEND

We are told in v.25 there were four women present at that cross. But in v.26 we find there was only one man: "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

· Jesus and Peter had an intense relationship.

· Jesus and the other disciples had an intact relationship.

· But Jesus and John had an intimate / close relationship.

The fact that John is even at the cross, and that he adopts Mary as his own mother, tells us a couple of things about this beloved disciple.

C See John's Affection - All of the other disciples had forsaken Jesus, including John. Every one of them had turned tail and run when He was confronted with that mob.

But one disciple did come back, and only one, John, the beloved disciple.

As far as I can tell, there is only one thing that brought John back to that cross, knowing he would risk his own life by doing it, and that was love.

C. Kay Allen, in his book The Journey From Fear to Love, says that there are three major emotions that motivate us to do what we do: fear, duty, and love. These rank from the lowest to the greatest.

· The lowest level of motivation is fear. Fear says: "I have to do this."

· The second level of motivation is duty. Duty says: "I ought to do this."

· The highest motivating factor is love. Because love says: "I want to do this."

Without question, John came back, first of all, because of his love for Jesus, but also because he knew of Jesus' love for him.

► John's Assignment

"Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold your mother!'" (v.27)

Jesus said, "John, I am going to a throne, she is going to your home."

Jesus didn't really ask John, He really commanded John.

· You are to take my mother and make her your mother.

· Here at the peak of his agony, torment, and pain, Jesus is taking care of his mother. That says a lot!

Even when you are doing God's work, you can and should still make sure, above all things, that your family is taken care of. But all of this raises questions:

· Why was this particular statement recorded by John?

· Why did the Holy Spirit want to make sure this conversation was inscribed in Holy Scripture?

· What does this statement of Jesus to His mother, and to his disciple, say to us today?

THREE: THE DEMAND TO THE FAITHFUL

v.27b continues: "And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home."

Not only did a mother adopt a son, but a son adopted a mother.

· The Lord Jesus arranged the whole thing.

· Jesus made two statements: one to his family, one to his friend; statements that teach us two great lessons:

Lesson #1: About Family Relationships

What you see here is Jesus fulfilling the fifth commandment, which is "Honor your father and your mother."

I see here the lesson that you are never too old to honor your parents, and your parents are never too old to be honored. In fact, there is an even greater lesson.

If Jesus can honor His mother while He is dying, surely, we can honor our parents while we are living.

There is a thinking today that old parents are like old shoes, and they ought to just be discarded when they are too much trouble to bother with.

I heard about a mother who was becoming quite old, and it became necessary for her to move in with her son's family. Things were not working out too well because the older woman did not always put items away, and she had a tendency to drop things.

◆ One night at dinner, while passing her plate, the older woman dropped it and broke it. Her daughter-in-law was outraged because this was a plate from her set of fine china.

◆ After dinner the younger woman told her little boy to walk down to the store down the street and buy a tin plate. When he asked what it was for she told him it was going to be used by his grandmother from now on so she would not break any more of her fine china.

◆ When the little boy got back from the market, his mother discovered that he had bought two tin plates. She asked him why he bought two. He said: "The other plate is for you Mom when you get old."

Lesson #2: About Future Responsibilities

You notice that John took Mary to his own home. Jesus was asking John to take his place. What he was saying was "I'm taking your place on the cross. After I'm gone you take my place on earth."

Over in chapter 20:21b Jesus said: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." Just as the Father sent the Son to do His work, now the Son sends us to do His work.

The Bible is bound together with good-bye trails and stained with farewell tears.

But in the midst of this good-bye, John is instructed to take the place of Jesus.

I tell you, that just as John was to take his place then, we are to take his place now. We are ambassadors for Christ.

An ambassador is someone who resides in a country literally in the place of his leader.

When you share the gospel you are not only bearing a witness to Jesus, bearing a witness with Jesus, you are bearing witness for the Lord Jesus. You do it in His stead.

· Christ has no hands but our hands to do His work today;

· He has no feet but our feet to lead men in His way.

· He has no tongue but our tongue to tell them how He died;

· He has no help but our help to bring men to His side.

You recall how Jesus told the rich man to sell all he had and follow him. The man turned away, and Jesus said, "How hard it will be for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

And Peter said, "Behold we have left everything and followed you."

And Jesus said, Mark 10:29 (NKJV) – 29 So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, 30 who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

Now where in this life are we going to receive 100 children and 100 mothers? ANSWER: IN THE CHURCH, THE FAMILY OF GOD.

When Jesus says to Mary: "Look on John as your son"; and to John: "Look on Mary as your mother"; He is showing us how our needs are to be met when we have left everything to follow him.

Paul said in Acts 20:28 that Christ "purchased the church of God with his own blood."

Therefore, one of the gifts Jesus gave to us from the cross was the church: a loving, caring, sustaining, encouraging family beyond family.

And it is a great encouragement to our faith that he illustrates the meaning of the church the way he did in the relationship between John and Mary.

So let us all take courage in the care and power and provision of our Lord.

◆ IF JESUS was eager to care for his mother, how much more eager will he be today to care for those who hear and do the Word of God!

◆ IF JESUS could provide for the needs of His own in the moment of his greatest weakness and humiliation, how much more can He provide for your need in His present wealth of power and exaltation.

◆ AND IF JESUS purchased the church with His own blood and ordained that in it bereft mothers find sons and sons find mothers, then no one should be without a caring family today in the body of Christ.

This illustrates the care that is to take place in the body / the family of God.

· Be devoted to one another - - Honor one another above yourselves

· Live in harmony with one another

· Accept one another just as Christ accepted you

· Instruct one another - - Greet one another

· Serve one another in love - - Forgive one another

· Submit to one another - - Spur one another toward love and good deeds.

· Encourage one another - - Fellowship with one another...

· Love one another - - Be at peace with one another

· Carry each other’s burdens - - Don’t slander one another

· Don’t grumble against each other - - Pray for each other