Reflections on the Seven Statements from the Cross
Easter • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 18 viewsNotes
Transcript
He has Risen! He has Risen Indeed! That is what we celebrate today on Easter. However we do not celebrate this only on Easter. We celebrate it everyday. It is at the heart of the Gospel. We also do not celebrate his Resurrection in isolation from what Christ did on the Cross. Today for Easter, I want to give you a few pictures of what Jesus did for us in his death and resurrection. To do that I want to briefly look at the seven statements that we have recorded for us that Jesus made while on the Cross. As we look at these we will begin to see what he was accomplishing on the Cross. These are just snapshots, but I hope that they encourage you and lead you into reflection and worship this Easter Sunday.
The First statement that Jesus makes is: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.
In the middle of the torment that he is going through, Jesus prays. And in that prayer he is praying for sinners and he is showing that forgiveness is possible. This is why Jesus came. He came to offer forgiveness, to reconcile man to God. As Jesus hung there in agony his concern was for the souls of his tormentors. And in his crucifixion, he announces the very forgiveness he was dying to give.
With Jesus praying for those who were murdering Him, he shows us that we too have hope for forgiveness. We are seeing here God’s heart of mercy. Philip Graham Ryken once wrote:
If Jesus was willing for the Father to forgive the very men who murdered him, then what sinner is beyond the reach of his mercy? Surely anyone who repents will be saved. When his enemies said, “Crucify!” Jesus said, “Forgive,” and a man who says that is willing to forgive anyone—even people like us, no matter what we have done, as long as we come to him in faith.[1]
Jesus still prays this prayer today. We are told that he is our our intercessor, praying even now for us. And he is before the Father right now on our behalf praying, “Father, Forgive.” Jesus is advocating before the Father on our behalf.
2. The second Statement Jesus makes is: Today you will be with me in paradise.
And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Jesus is speaking to one of the two men who were crucified with Him. This man repents and believes that Jesus is who he says he is and Jesus promises this man ‘paradise.’ What is that? Revelation 2:7 says,
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Paradise is to live with God, it is to go back to how we were created, Adam and Eve were in Paradise and walked with God. In the Fall Paradise was lost, Man was alienated from God, in that we now were sinners in rebellion to Him. The Cross is part of God’s plan to reconcile us to Himself. The Cross is the way that Jesus died for us to make way for us to enter Paradise with Him.
3. The Third statement Jesus makes is: “…behold, your son…behold, your mother...”
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
And here, in Jesus third word from the cross, He gives us a preview into the nature of Church as family .He tells His dear mother that since He will soon be gone, she is to take the disciple John as her son.
This speaks of adoption, this speaks of family not through blood lines, but through relationship to Jesus.
Mary was Jesus’ mother. John was Jesus friend, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Jesus becomes the center of, the reason for and the glue that holds together the family of God. You and I, as followers of Jesus, are sister and brother in the Lord, united through faith in Jesus Christ. Adopted into the family of God because of the sacrifice of the Son of God. Here, Jesus inaugurated the web of relationships based on faith in Him that would become known as the body of Christ, the Church universal.
4. The fourth statement that Jesus makes is: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus is going through physical anguish as he was crucified, but he is also going through relational anguish and spiritual anguish. And so he calls out here, and what he is calling out is actually a quote from Psalms 22.
In the song that we sing, “How deep the Father’s Love For Us” we sing these words:
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
There is a relational anguish here that Jesus is going through.
Jesus reaches out to heaven, yet feels his Father’s distance so he says My God instead of My Father.
Jesus is not doubting God here. Nor is he confused at what is happening here to him. Instead he is bearing our separation from God. God is too holy to look at sin, and Jesus took all our sin upon himself.
In terms of Spiritual anguish, Jesus is bearing God’s wrath on our behalf. And not just momentarily, but for hours. AS God’s wrath against sinners is being poured out, Jesus, who didn’t deserve it, is shielding sinners by taking it upon himself.
Jesus is making substitutionary atonement for us. He is in our place, condemned.
5. The Fifth statement that Jesus makes is: “I Thirst”
After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”
Here Jesus is fulfilling Psalm 69. What is so important about this is that for Jesus to be our substitute he had to be human. During the early church a false teaching rose up called docetism that claimed that Jesus wasn’t really a man he only seemed to be a man. They wrongly reasoned that all physical matter is evil, therefore God’s son could not suffer and die in a human body.
However, Jesus upends any claim that he wasn’t fully man by calling out his thirst in agony.
Jesus is reminding us that "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Jesus paid it for us. He is physically paying the price for our sins. He is fully man enduring the wages of sin.
6. The sixth statement is: It is finished
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
We must ask the question... what exactly is Jesus finishing? I hope you realize that the Cross was not an accident or a fluke of history. Jesus on the Cross was not an afterthought of God, but the plan from the very beginning to reconcile us to Him. In the Garden of Eden, our relationship with God was broken and Jesus came to fix it. He did that on the Cross. God had prepared the way through Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and many others so that Jesus would come to this Cross and pay the penalty for us. Jesus was finishing the plan of salvation at the Cross.
So when Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” It was a shout of triumph. The work of redemption that the Father had given Him had been accomplished. Sin was atoned for, Satan had been defeated and had been made powerless. Every requirement of God’s natural law had been satisfied. God’s holy wrath against sin had been appeased. There is no longer a need for animal sacrifices. Jesus has finished the work of redemption and there is nothing that needs to be added to it. Jesus has paid it all. the deliverance of sinners is completely secured. And now salvation is appropriated by faith alone.
One author put it this way,
“When we understand the work of salvation is complete, then we’ll also understand we can do nothing—absolutely nothing—to earn it or keep it or maintain it. We can only trust in the grace of God to save us. We can only believe in his promise of salvation. We can only place our faith in his Son, sent to purchase our redemption.” [2]
7. The seventh and final statement that Jesus makes from the cross is: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
The Father has just put the Son through hell, he has just poured out his absolute righteous wrath upon him and turned his back on him. But now it is finished. And Jesus now calling to the Father again and saying “into your hands I commit my spirit, vindicates both God’s holiness and his own sinlessness.
And this statement, what a statement of faith and act of trust! Jesus is modeling for us what our confession should be. No matter what comes, no matter what may happen we should commit ourselves into the loving hands of the Father. God the Father, who Scripture says
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
This God is worthy of our commitment!
So, let us learn, by God’s grace, in every circumstance that we find ourselves in, to declare, “Father, I trust my spirit to your hands.” God’s hands will never lose us. No one will ever slip from his all-powerful fingers. No one can pluck us out of his grasp.
Through these words of Jesus, we get a picture of what he was accomplishing on the cross. We can go to all of scripture and flesh it all out even more. And I want to encourage you to do just that. I want you to read the words of Isaiah 53. As you read through it, meditate on what he has done, what he went through, and what he has accomplished. I would encourage you to pray through the passage. Give thanks and praise for what he endured on our behalf.
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground.
He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from;
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,
and he carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
and like a sheep silent before her shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
He was taken away because of oppression and judgment;
and who considered his fate?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
but he was with a rich man at his death,
because he had done no violence
and had not spoken deceitfully.
Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely.
When you make him a guilt offering,
he will see his seed, he will prolong his days,
and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.
After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied.
By his knowledge,
my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will carry their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him the many as a portion,
and he will receive the mighty as spoil,
because he willingly submitted to death,
and was counted among the rebels;
yet he bore the sin of many
and interceded for the rebels.
But it didn’t end at the cross! No God raised Jesus up from the dead. As the Angels said:
But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
or as Peter says in Acts:
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
And Paul tells us that our very faith stands or falls on Jesus’ Resurrection.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
And finally Jesus himself tells us:
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
He has risen! He was victorious! Death has lost its sting, Our sins have been paid for! For us who are in Christ, because of Christ’s death and Resurrection, we have been redeemed, reconciled to God and are adopted into a new family. We have a sure hope for the future. Because of this we can worship Him! We can trust him regardless!
In God’s providence, we are unable to meet this Easter Sunday. That does not mean that we cannot rejoice. The tomb is empty, our salvation is secure, We commit ourselves to God no matter what! We can worship! No one and no thing can stop a believer from worshipping the Risen Lord! We are the church and we can worship anywhere, everyday, and at anytime. Just because we cant gather doesn’t mean that we have been stopped from being the church. Nor has it stopped us from being a worshipper.
I want to encourage you today to find time to worship God in song . I will be posting a few songs on both Faithlife and Facebook, sing them, or whatever songs and hymns that God lays on your heart.
Read an account of Christ’s death and Resurrection from Scripture. Read it out loud as a family if you can.
Take time to reflect in prayer. Perhaps even take the time to journal your thoughts and prayers to God.
Prayer
Father God,
Thank you for Jesus! Thank you for you great love for us! Thank you for the Atoning Sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf! Thank you that the tomb is empty! Thank you for our Salvation!
Father I pray for each one that attends Shiloh Basin. I pray that we would daily be reminded of our salvation. I pray that we would not grow discouraged during this time apart. Father I pray that you would use this time for our sanctification. Father, we don’t know what your purpose is in this time of the Corona Virus, but Father, We know that you are in control, and that you are good. And you use all things, both good and bad for your glory and your purposes, so Father we trust you to be working this out. Father, when we doubt, help us in our doubts.
Father, we yearn for the church to gather again. May it be soon. Give our governing authorities wisdom. We know Lord from your Word that you set up kings and kingdoms, you have given us governing authorities for our good, so Father we ask that you would guide them in their decision making. Father, give the doctors wisdom as well. We pray for the safety of our families and friends and neighbors.
In Jesus name we pray,
Amen
Bibliography
[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, ed. Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani, vol. 2, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 589.
[2] Christ-Centered Exposition - Exalting Jesus in John.