11.02.25 Heard

PCC 2025: The Last Day of Jesus’ Life

Introduction: While Jesus was on the cross, Jesus spoke.

That He did so wouldn’t have been unusual. You can imagine all the sorts of things people would say as they are suspended above, slowly suffocating with each laborious breath. Cries for mercy. Curses. Promises. Confessions. Final words to their family members, if they were present.

What is remarkable is the absolute lack of records that exist about what these people said on their crosses.

That is, with one exception. Jesus spoke, and His words have been recorded for all time.

This morning we continue our study of the final day of Jesus’ life.

We discussed some aspects of the physical, emotional, and spiritual elements of Jesus’ death on the cross, and this morning I’d like to focus our attention on the “Seven Sayings of Jesus”, or the seven instances of Jesus speaking on the cross that are recorded in the Gospels.

Jesus was heard expressing trust in God.

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mt. 27.46)

First of all, we have no idea which of Jesus’ seven statements comes first, and only an idea as to which ones come last. Matthew and Mark include only this statement, while Luke and John each list three others each.

Matthew’s inclusion is a quotation from Psalm 22.1, where in v.1-21 David describes his experience as the sufferer who feels forsaken by God.

Psalm 22 parallels many of Jesus’ experiences on the Cross: The wagging of heads and mocking (v.7-8), being encircled by hostile forces (v.12-13), Jesus’ strength being exhausted (v.14-15), the piercing of His hands and feet and division of His clothes by casting lots (v.16-18).

However, Psalm 22 does not stop there. Read with me Psalm 22.19-24

Jesus’ quotation of Psalm 22.1 does highlight His feelings of abandonment and isolation, but it also is the precursor to a bold declaration of God’s faithfulness and constant attention to our sufferings!

For one to cry to God “Why have You forsaken Me?”, one must still believe and trust that God both hears and can deliver us from our sufferings!

Quick application to us: It is not the one who asks tough questions of God or cries out from the depths of their despair and pain who has abandoned their faithfulness!

If you are isolated or suffering or frustrated or experiencing the evils of this world, do not let your feelings of abandonment convince you that God has abandoned you!

Read Psalm 22.24 again!

This same thread of deep trust in God runs through two other statements on the Cross:

“Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” (Luke 23.46)

Once more, Jesus addresses God in prayer, which most of His statements on the Cross seem to do.

Here in Luke’s account of Jesus death, Jesus concludes His earthly life and suffering with another quotation, this time from Psalm 31.1-5.

Here the quote in question comes from Psalm 31:5 “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” , and here too there are other allusions to Jesus, like His distress (v.9), Jesus’ being slandered and plotted against (v.13), His sorrow (v.10), etc.

But the big theme of Psalm 31 is David’s trust in God, in spite of the difficulty of his circumstances. Psalm 31:6 “I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.” Psalm 31:14 “But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”” Psalm 31:22 “I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.”

On the Cross, not at the dinner table or on the road to the next town, but as He is suffering a cruel death at the hands of cruel Jews and Romans, Jesus re-affirms His trust in the God who gave Him this cup to drink!

Are we, brethren, as willing to express trust in God when the cup He gives us to drink is bitter?

Are we willing like Job to have everything stripped from us, and then in the ashes of our lives be willing to say “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1.21)

In so doing Jesus did what Peter calls us to do in 1 Peter 4:19 “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”

As Solomon once wrote that “the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Eccl. 12.7), Jesus with His dying breaths entrusted His spirit to the God who gave it, and brethren, there is no safer place in existence than the hands of YHWH!

John’s gospel includes one more statement of Jesus’ trust in God...

“It is finished.” (John 19.30)

Repeatedly John’s gospel highlights the idea of Jesus’ mission being completed on earth.

John 4:34 “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”

John 5:36b “For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.”

John 17:4 “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.”

John 19:30 “When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

“He had given his flesh for the life of the world (6:51); as the good shepherd, he had laid down his life for the sheep (10:11, 14); he had become the one man who died for the nation (11:50); he was the ‘seed’ that would fall into the ground and produce many seeds (12:24); and he showed the love that was greater than any other—laying down his life for his friends (15:13).” (Kruse, John, pg. 431-432)

This final breath is once more a statement of trust in God, for whose work had Jesus finished? “having accomplished all the work that You gave Me to do.” (John 17.4)

Jesus had given His life, in terms of His years AND His actual life on the Cross, to fulfill God’s mission, God’s assignments, God’s purpose on earth.

Sometimes we fixate the restrictive side of God’s will for us, to the neglect of the prescripted side.

What I mean by that is this: We think “As long as I don’t do the things God said not to do, I’m good.”

As Christians we must remember that Christianity isn’t only about what we can’t do, but also about what God has given us TO DO!

Brethren, if we never swear, gamble, fornicate, or steal ever again in our lives, but do not tell a single soul about Jesus Christ and His gospel message, we are condemned in our sins!

We’ve lost our way when we’ve forgotten that the Christian walk is one of work. One tragedy of the older songs working their way out of common usage is that SO MANY OF THEM emphasize DOING what God gave us to do.

“Each day I’ll do a golden deed, by helping those who are in need, My life on earth is but a span, and so I’ll do the best I can!” (A Beautiful Life)

“I want to be a worker for the Lord, I want to love and trust His holy word; I want to sing and pray, and be busy every day in the Kingdom of the Lord.” (I Want to Be a Worker)

“There are souls who linger on the brink of woe; Lord I must not, cannot bear to let them go. Let me go and tell them “Brother, turn and flee.” Master I would save them! Here am I: send me.” (Lord, Send Me)

Jesus was able to end His life with the phrase: “It is finished”, trusting that God would handle the rest.

Jesus was heard helping sinful people.

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” (Luke 23.34)

Of all the undeserved things Jesus said in His life, this one might be the greatest of them all.

“To the howling mob He yielded, He did not for mercy cry”. Jesus instead asks God to forgive them for something they did not fully understand.

Peter even makes this point later in Acts 3:14-15, 17.

Paul reiterates this also in 1 Cor. 2.6-9

How could they have known the magnitude of their evil? They have put the “Author of Life” to death!

It was realization of this very crime that cut the Jews listening to Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, drawing from them the question “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2.37)

This stunning example of forgiveness of one’s enemies is one that Jesus Himself commanded His followers to love their enemies in Luke 6:27-28 and one that Stephen actually imitated with his own dying breath in Acts 7.60.

Once more, Jesus proves the point that He is the Messiah, the Suffering Servant depicted in Isaiah 53, because in Isaiah 53.12 the Messiah would do this very thing: Isaiah 53:12 “Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

As He bled and gasped for air Jesus was heard forgiving His own executioners and those gleefully mocking His identity and purpose below. If you or I have trouble forgiving anyone, shame on us. If that be the case, we have forgotten the Cross.

You also know that while Jesus asked God to forgive those assembled around His cross, Jesus turned His attention also to those crucified with Him, one man in particular...

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” (Luke 23.43)

While Matthew and Mark both record that there were two others crucified alongside Jesus, Luke 23.39-43 records Jesus’ interaction with these two men.

One of the criminals railed against Jesus (just like those on the ground), and the other rebuked the first criminal and asked something of Jesus: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (v.42)

Many take the thief’s statement as proof that “obeying the Gospel” by means of repentance, confession, and baptism are unnecessary.

“Those who misuse the thief, to try to avoid obeying the gospel, reason something like this: "What about the thief on the cross? He was not baptized; yet the Lord saved him. Since this is true, then people today can be saved without being baptized." The thief on the cross would never have gotten so much attention if there were not so many people who would like to avoid being baptized.” (Cecil Willis, TRUTH MAGAZINE, XII: 10, pp. 11-15 July 1968)

Those who misuse the thief’s example and Jesus’ response fail to understand a few basics:

First, they were still under the Old Covenant. The commands to baptize believers in the Gospel of Christ hadn’t been issued yet, such as Mark 16.16; Acts 2.38, and so forth. The thief was saved under the same covenant as Abraham and Moses and David. Jesus, following His death and resurrection, is mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 9.15-17), a better covenant with new requirements for entrance into the kingdom of God.

Second, Jesus had authority on earth to forgive sins (cf. Mark 9.6; John 8.3-11; Luke 7.36-50; etc.) This man was forgiven by the same means as others mentioned in the gospels.

Third, in every example of conversion after the death of Jesus, the subject was baptized, whether it was the thousands in Jerusalem in Acts 2.41, 47; or the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8), or Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9.18-19), or the Philippian Jailer (Acts 16) and so forth.

But all of that aside, come back to the text of Luke 23.43 and just think about what Jesus told this man: “Today… you will be with me in paradise.”

Can you imagine any greater words of comfort? This is the worlds’ greatest version of “Don’t worry, It’ll be alright”!

With everything that was going on that day, amid the greatest spiritual battle ever fought, as He had done several times in His life, Jesus responded to the faith of a sinner.

But there was one more person Jesus could help even from His cross...

“Behold your son…Behold your mother!” (John 19.26-27)

Even while dying in agony, Jesus didn’t forget His responsibility toward His own mother.

“The traditional role of the oldest son in a Jewish family was to provide for the care of the mother when the husband or father of the house was no longer around to care for the mother. It seems clear that Jesus here fulfilled his family responsibility as a dutiful son.” (Gerald L. Borchert, John 12–21, vol. 25B, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2002), 269.)

Neither Mary nor John were perfect. They, like you and I, were sinners.

In spite of this, Jesus does as He always did: Provided for their needs 1. because He loved them, and 2. because it was His responsibility to do so.

Our parents aren’t perfect either. It is easy to fall into the trap of believing they have to merit our respect, our care, and our love.

All of us have people in our lives who love us and fulfill their responsibilities toward us not because of our merit, but in spite of its absence.

If Jesus, the sinless perfect Son of God, could in His moment of greatest stress consider the needs of Mary, then you and I must certainly do so for one another and those in our care.

Given the depth of Jesus’ suffering, it is stunning how often He spoke not of His needs, but of the needs of sinful people.

There is one instance of Jesus speaking, however, that doesn’t fit neatly into our first two categories. Jesus spoke three times expressing His trust in God, and three times helping His fellow man, in spite of their sins.

Jesus was heard suffering.

“I am thirsty.” (John 19.28)

In these two short words, Jesus does a couple of critically important things.

First, Jesus validates His humanity and the veracity of the Cross.

Let’s hear what Jesus said in the context. Jesus was dying. Nailed to a wooden frame through His hands and feet, slowly suffocating to death. All this in the heat of the day.

“The hours spent in the sun, coupled with the physical pain and the struggle of lifting His body weight repeatedly would have created mild, if not severe, dehydration.” ('I Thirst' - Meaning of Jesus' Words | Crosswalk.com)

This fact is important, because some deny that Jesus was a real human being.

One of the earlies heresies of the early church was “Docetism”, or the belief that Jesus only appeared to be human. This would mean that Jesus did not experience physical sensations such as hunger, thirst, pleasure, or pain.

Those two words prove that Jesus was fully human. Jesus was flesh and blood like all of us. He ate. He drank. He suffered. He died. Jesus did not escape the crucifixion through some divine loop-hole. The human being known as Jesus of Nazareth suffered and died on the Cross.

This does a number of things:

It legitimizes His spotlessness and His sinlessness. Since Jesus was fully human, His achievement of being completely free of sin now bears weight and meaning.

It qualifies Him to be our substitute. Jesus could die for humanity, because Jesus was a member of humanity.

It enables us to imitate His example. Since Jesus lived a 100% holy life as a 100% human being, God’s instructions to imitate His example are valid and able to be done.

Second, Jesus highlights once more His identity as the Messiah.

The only time scripture records Jesus expressing any portion of His agony is actually in fulfillment of two passages in Psalm 69.

First, the setting:

Psalm 69:3 “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”

Psalm 22:15 “my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.”

The fulfillment comes in Psalm 69:19–21 “You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

This passage, along with hundreds more, proves one point: Jesus WAS the long-awaited Messiah. HE was the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament, the singular figure to which all prophecies of the Chosen One pointed.

Finally, consider the warning behind those words.

Return to Psalm 69.21: If Jesus speaks in fulfillment of these words, look at what comes next against those who stood against David:

Psalm 69:22–28 “Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at peace, let it become a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be a desolation; let no one dwell in their tents. For they persecute him whom you have struck down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from you. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous.”

Friends and brethren, if this is the fate of David’ enemies, those who gave him sour wine to drink, what sort of end awaits those who ignore or reject the Son of David!

If David cried for his unrighteous enemies to be blotted out of the book of life, what do you suppose happens when you refuse to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Jesus writing to the Christians in Sardis said in Revelation 3:5 “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”

“I thirst” isn’t only a statement of humanity and of deity.

“I thirst” is a warning, and to those who ignore that warning, a promise.

Conclusion: On the cross, Jesus spoke. But that wasn’t the last time.

This same Jesus closed His eyes in death, and then opened them again three days later.

Jesus was heard again.

He spoke to Mary. To Thomas. To Peter. To Paul. To John.

The last thing Jesus ever spoke to any human being on this planet is found in this book: Revelation 22:20: “...Surely I am coming soon.”

"Surely”: Without doubt, question, or chance. Jesus WILL come back. Are you ready, right now, to meet Jesus?

“I am coming”: Jesus is coming back not to convince us to serve Him, but to repay all of us for what we’ve done in His absence (2 Cor. 5.10), to reward His servants with life eternal and to repay His enemies with Hell everlasting: Are you ready, right now, to meet Jesus?

“soon”: How soon is “soon”? Only God knows. (Matt. 24.36) Unless you live to be older than 100, all of you are within 100 years of meeting Christ. Most of us are within 50 years. Some of us much, much closer than that. Are you ready, right now, to meet Jesus?

If not, why? Do you need to obey the Gospel call? You can do that today! Do you need to repent and beg God’s forgiveness of your sins? You can do that today!