The Final Words of Jesus
Notes
Transcript
1 Then the entire council took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor. 2 They began to state their case: “This man has been leading our people astray by telling them not to pay their taxes to the Roman government and by claiming he is the Messiah, a king.”
3 So Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus replied, “You have said it.”
4 Pilate turned to the leading priests and to the crowd and said, “I find nothing wrong with this man!”
5 Then they became insistent. “But he is causing riots by his teaching wherever he goes—all over Judea, from Galilee to Jerusalem!”
6 “Oh, is he a Galilean?” Pilate asked. 7 When they said that he was, Pilate sent him to Herod Antipas, because Galilee was under Herod’s jurisdiction, and Herod happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.
8 Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. 9 He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. 10 Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. 11 Then Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Finally, they put a royal robe on him and sent him back to Pilate. 12 (Herod and Pilate, who had been enemies before, became friends that day.)
13 Then Pilate called together the leading priests and other religious leaders, along with the people, 14 and he announced his verdict. “You brought this man to me, accusing him of leading a revolt. I have examined him thoroughly on this point in your presence and find him innocent. 15 Herod came to the same conclusion and sent him back to us. Nothing this man has done calls for the death penalty. 16 So I will have him flogged, and then I will release him.”
18 Then a mighty roar rose from the crowd, and with one voice they shouted, “Kill him, and release Barabbas to us!” 19 (Barabbas was in prison for taking part in an insurrection in Jerusalem against the government, and for murder.) 20 Pilate argued with them, because he wanted to release Jesus. 21 But they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
22 For the third time he demanded, “Why? What crime has he committed? I have found no reason to sentence him to death. So I will have him flogged, and then I will release him.”
23 But the mob shouted louder and louder, demanding that Jesus be crucified, and their voices prevailed. 24 So Pilate sentenced Jesus to die as they demanded. 25 As they had requested, he released Barabbas, the man in prison for insurrection and murder. But he turned Jesus over to them to do as they wished.
26 As they led Jesus away, a man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, happened to be coming in from the countryside. The soldiers seized him and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large crowd trailed behind, including many grief-stricken women. 28 But Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the days are coming when they will say, ‘Fortunate indeed are the women who are childless, the wombs that have not borne a child and the breasts that have never nursed.’ 30 People will beg the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and plead with the hills, ‘Bury us.’ 31 For if these things are done when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
32 Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. 33 When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross. And the criminals were also crucified—one on his right and one on his left.
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.
INTRODUCTION:
For many people, last words are important. We study them and their meaning. For some, they bring great comfort. For others, they bring pity.
For instance when Steve Jobs was dying he was referenced as saying “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow...” What did this mean?
Frank Sinatra - “I am losing it” - How sad!
Harriet Tubman - “Swing low, sweet chariot”
Leonardo DiVinci - “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have”
Sir Winston Churchill - “I am bored with it all” - How very sad!
Do you ever wonder what your last words will be? Some of us will know the time of our departure is at hand and many of us will not. We don’t know what those last words will be.
But Jesus, dying on the cross, knew that these would be the last words He would utter before He died on the cross. He knew His time was short.
There are 7 sayings of Jesus on the cross. Unfortunately, we will not get to each of these, but we will study 3 of them. 3 of them are preserved by our historian, Luke.
The one we study this morning is the first recorded saying of Jesus while He is dying on the cross - “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Now, Jesus was fulfilling prophecy when He said these words.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
What does this prophecy specifcially tell us? The Messiah will be counted among the rebels (crucified with criminals) and “interceded for the rebels” (He would intercede/ pray for those who were rebellious to Him)
Here, Jesus is fulfilling this prophecy.
But I think there are 3 main things we can learn from Jesus’ first prayer.
Jesus taught us that praying is important especially in trying circumstances.
These first of the last words are a prayer. You can see Jesus focusing His attention to heaven.
Jesus prays for the most important thing - He is not praying the prayer of TV evangelists - “Be healed in Jesus name!”
He is praying for man’s greatest need - not physical problems, not the physical pain He is experiencing, not that they would have “their best life” - He is praying for what they TRULY need - Forgiveness of sin.
Jesus exemplifies a principle he taught over and over again - “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus was practicing what He was preaching.
Jesus taught us that we can forgive others regardless of what they have done to us.
The first natural question is “Who is Jesus praying forgiveness for?”
My answer is this: Jesus was not just asking for forgiveness for the soldiers who nailed Him to the cross. It was not just for the 4 who condemned Him to die. It was not for the Jewish people. But it was for each and every sinful person who has ever lived and nailed Him to that tree.
You see, we killed Him. My sin nailed Him on that cross. Until you gain a full aspect of that you can never understand the forgiveness of Christ.
Say this with me “I crucified Jesus.” We are the guilty party. Our sins nailed Him to the cross.
And what is Jesus response to what we did? “Father, forgive them....”
Would you have prayed a prayer like that? I sure wouldn’t. I would have prayed “God CONSUME them.” I would have prayed for God’s judgment to fall on them. That they would get boils, ulcers or kidney stones. That’s how we like to do it, right? Get even.
One guy got bitten by a rabid dog and he could have
been treated by his doctor and been completely healed, but he didn’t. And he waited too long, and he went in before his doctor and his doctor said, “Man, I’m sorry. If you’d been here earlier, you’d been fine, but you’re not going to be fine. It’s way too late. You’re going to die.” The guy freaked out, and after a while, he kind of worked through the emotion and kind of sobered up, and he started to make a list of people, writing names down on a piece of paper and the doctor said, “What are you doing?” Are these people to contact, or people to give your possessions to? He said, “No, no, no. These are people I hate. I’ve got rabies. This a list of the people I am going to bite.
Now, were they forgiven when Jesus offered this prayer? Would they spend eternity in heaven because Jesus prayed to forgive them? Jesus was simply offering forgiveness to them. It was something that they (as well as everyone else) would have to do something about. Jesus has offered the forgiveness, but we need to repent to accept the forgiveness.
Luke & John Chapter 23
Men of the world seek for revenge; the Christian bears reproaches and persecutions with patience, and prays that God would pardon those who injure them, and save them from their sins.
But Jesus gave us the grand example: Forgive. No matter what others have done to you. Forgive.
You may say “But you don’t know what they have done to me.” Well, I promise they haven’t done to you what they did to Jesus.
Jesus taught us that forgiveness can be offered even if the person has no idea they have wronged us.
This brings up a great point - “Ignorance does not equal innocence.” Just because these people didn’t know what they were doing they still needed forgiveness. Just because they were ignorant does not mean they are getting away with it.
Don’t miss this - the crowd thought they were doing the right thing! They thought they were ridding the world of another false prophet. They were obeying the Old Testament.
But they were wrong. Their ignorance did not equal their innocence. They were guilty for what they had done. God was holding them accountable.
THEY HAD NO IDEA THE ENORMITY OF THEIR SIN - THEY HAD KILLED THE SON OF GOD.
You know what this teaches me also - The greatest of sinners may obtain forgiveness.
Who do you need to extend forgiveness to today?
VIDEO