[0:00] Be seated. Let us come to God in prayer together and ask his help this morning.
[0:10] Let us pray. We thank you, our God and our Father, for the love that you have poured out into our lives. Thank you that you are the God who is indeed full of kindness and mercy and grace and goodness and love.
[0:28] We are, each one of us, those who have received of your kindness and love. Each one of us, O Lord, day by day, receives from you life itself.
[0:40] Each one of us, day by day, is given the breath, the air to breathe, food to eat, clothes to wear. You are our provider. You are our creator, the one who made us and created us.
[0:51] You are the one for whom, O Lord, you are the one, O Lord, for whom we were made, that we might know you and enjoy you and know indeed you in that very special way as our heavenly Father.
[1:06] But, Lord, we know that for many of us, Lord, that isn't the case. We don't know you as our Father. We know about you. We hear about you. Lord, perhaps we may not even believe that you exist, even though you give to us again and again.
[1:22] And so we thank you that you sent your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that your loving kindness may appear, may be seen, may be materialized in that sense in the very person of Jesus Christ.
[1:34] We thank you that in him, O Lord, we have the evidence, the reality, that you are the God who exists and the God who we need more than anything else.
[1:46] You're the God who came to us because, Lord, we can never come to you. We aren't righteous. We aren't good. We are sinful, Lord. We are selfish, proud, arrogant, self-serving.
[1:56] We are those, Lord, who live our lives with little regard to you. And yet we thank you that you have not given up on us. You have not washed your hands of us, but rather you sent your Son to save us from our sins.
[2:10] Those sins that separate us from you now, those sins that call for judgment and justice, Lord, from you on that day when you come again. But we thank you that, Lord Jesus, you came to deal with our sin once and for all and forever by giving yourself to suffer on the cross.
[2:27] We thank you there you took our guilt, our shame. There you paid the punishment, took the sentence that was hanging over our heads. We thank you that now through faith in you, Lord Jesus, we are forgiven.
[2:40] Our sins are removed. We're pardoned. We're set free. And because not only did you die but rise again, and because you are alive, having conquered death, triumphed over it, so, Lord, you give to us eternal life.
[2:54] You give to us life in the full, life complete, life, Lord, which has no limitations or boundaries, but life, O Lord, which goes beyond the grave into heaven itself.
[3:06] We thank you, O Lord, that that life begins even now, when we turn from our sin and put our faith in you, when we receive you as the Savior that we need. O Lord, we thank you that you gladly come.
[3:18] You gladly make your home in our lives. You gladly take charge of the chaos, Lord, that we've created and the disaster that often our lives are. And you make us, O Lord, to be your children.
[3:30] You make us, O Lord, to be those who know your peace. And so, Lord, we thank you that we can come and praise you, praise you and worship and adore you for what you've done, what you've promised to do, what you are doing.
[3:42] For we know, O Lord, that you never fail and that you always deal with us in mercy and grace. Come upon us and be with us now in this time. Open our blind eyes if we haven't seen you for who you are, our hard hearts.
[3:56] Lord, minister to us by your Holy Spirit, we pray. Work in us and show yourself to us that we may know that we might know that you are the God who loves us.
[4:07] We ask these things again as we bring our prayers to you. In the name of Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen. We're going to read together from our Bibles now and that reading is going to come from Psalm 22.
[4:26] Psalm 22. If you have one of the red church Bibles, that's page 554. Page 554, one of the red church Bibles.
[4:37] We're going to read the whole of Psalm 22. Psalm 22. We're told it's a Psalm of David.
[4:53] David who latterly became the king, but before that was a man of many difficulties. Here is what God says to us.
[5:04] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?
[5:15] So far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out to you by day, but you do not answer. By night, but I find no rest.
[5:28] Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One. You are the one Israel praises. In you our ancestors put their trust. They trusted and you delivered them.
[5:41] To you they cried and were saved. In you they trusted and were put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
[5:59] All who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. He trusts in the Lord, they say. Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him since he delights in him.
[6:12] Yet you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust in you, even at my mother's breast. From birth I was cast on you. From my mother's womb you have been my God.
[6:26] Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help. Many bulls surround me. Strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
[6:36] Roaring lions that tear their prey, open their mouths wide against me. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax, it has melted within me.
[6:51] My mouth is dried up like a potsherd. And my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me.
[7:03] A pack of villains encircles me. They pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display. People stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
[7:18] But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength. Come quickly to help me. Deliver me from the sword. My precious life from the power of the dogs.
[7:29] Rescue me from the mouth of the lions. Save me from the horns of the wild oxen. I will declare your name to my people. In the assembly I will praise you.
[7:41] You who fear the Lord, praise him. All you descendants of Jacob, honor him. Revere him, all you descendants of Israel. For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one.
[7:54] He has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help. From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly. Before those who fear you, I will fulfill my vows.
[8:08] The poor will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the Lord will praise him. May your hearts live forever. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.
[8:20] And all the families of the nations will bow down before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord. And he rules over the nations. All the rich of the earth will feast and worship.
[8:32] All who go down to the dust will kneel before him. Those who cannot keep themselves alive. Posterity will serve him. Future generations will be told about the Lord.
[8:44] They will proclaim his righteousness. Declaring to a people yet unborn. He has done it. And we thank God for his word.
[8:57] We're not a professional choir. Because we never will do. Please will you turn with me to Luke's Gospel and to chapter 23. Luke's Gospel and chapter 23.
[9:12] And we're going to read from verse 32. We're going to read of the crucifixion of Christ. And that will become plain as to why we're going to do that in a little while.
[9:26] Because the death of our Lord Jesus is not just Good Friday. His death has repercussions and effect upon us all the days of our lives. So we aren't finished with that.
[9:37] But we're going to read from verse 32 down to verse 46 together. So Luke 23. That's page 1060. Page 1060 from verse 32.
[9:50] Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him. That's Jesus, of course. To be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there along with the criminals.
[10:02] One on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
[10:15] The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others. Let him save himself if he is God's Messiah, the chosen one. The soldiers also came up and mocked him.
[10:28] They offered him wine vinegar and said, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was a written notice above him which read, This is the king of the Jews.
[10:40] One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us. But the other criminal rebuked him. Don't you fear God, he said, Since you are under the same sentence.
[10:56] We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
[11:08] Jesus answered him, Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise. It was now about noon and darkness came up over the whole land until three in the afternoon.
[11:19] For the sun stopped shining. And the curtain in the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
[11:31] When he had said this, he breathed his last. Now over the past weeks in the church here, We've been considering each of the seven sayings of Jesus from the cross.
[11:43] Seven words that he spoke while he was nailed, And while he was suffering and dying. And most of the time we've been studying those during Wednesdays, During the Bible study.
[11:55] Apart from the penultimate, the last but one of those sayings, It is finished, which Jesus spoke. And we thought about that on Good Friday at our service then.
[12:06] Now whenever the Lord Jesus Christ spoke, He always spoke with much thought, with consideration, With a careful awareness of his circumstances. And from the cross, that's no different.
[12:19] Those seven recorded sayings, we have three of them here, But the others are in the other records, the other gospels. So we have a complete picture. We have those four eyewitness accounts of Jesus on the cross, To give to us every angle of what went on.
[12:33] So we know that the record of Jesus' death, As well as his life, his resurrection, are all trustworthy. But Jesus on the cross spoke just these seven occasions.
[12:47] He knew what was going on around about him. He knew the people who were around about him. He knew what was happening to him. He was aware of those criminals, each side of him. He was fully, if you might say, Compus mentis in every way, In spite of the suffering he was going through.
[13:03] And what I want us to do this morning, Is to have a recap of those seven words that Jesus spoke. Particularly in the light of the fact that we're going to be sharing in the Lord's table, At the end of the sermon this morning, With the bread and the wine.
[13:18] And remembering that last supper that Jesus commanded us to commemorate, And to remind us of his death. Now what I'm not going to do is go through each one of them in order, And repeat everything that we've said about each one of them.
[13:32] Rather what I want to do, Is to draw some insights from them collectively, To show us something of the attitude of the Lord Jesus on the cross, And to teach us as well, I hope, How we are to approach the Lord's table.
[13:48] To help us to have a right way of thinking about What we're going to be partating in, And sharing in, This morning. Now whenever we do come to The Lord's table, Or to the Lord's supper, Or communion, Whatever you want to call it, Whenever we do come to that, We are to come with a great sense of Preparedness.
[14:08] We only do this on a Sunday morning four times a year, And then other times in the evenings. It's something that we shouldn't do rashly, It's something that we shouldn't do unthinkingly, It's something that we need to be prepared for.
[14:21] Otherwise if we do that, If we come and do that without thinking, Without being prepared, Then we make the whole thing meaningless. We make the bread and the wine meaningless. We fail to receive the blessing That God wants us to have.
[14:34] That's why the Lord Jesus gave us This meal, To remember it's a blessing for us. He wants to do us good through it. He wants to help us through it. Not that the bread and the wine do anything, It's the remembering, It's the thinking, It's the concentrating of our thoughts, Which bring the blessing.
[14:51] So I want us to look at Three things particularly, That are reflected in the sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ, But are helpful and important and necessary, For each of us to possess, If I can put it that way, As we come to communion table.
[15:07] So let's look at the very first of those sayings, We have it here in Luke, That's where we read from Luke, Verse 34, Almost as soon as Jesus had been crucified, Or perhaps even in the very act of being crucified, We hear him say in verse 34, Father, forgive them, For they do not know what they are doing.
[15:27] It's clearly a prayer, isn't it? That Jesus taught us, When we are to pray, We're to pray our Father, We're to pray to God, Who is our Heavenly Father, And so Jesus himself, Whenever he prayed, Referred to God as Father, And so he's praying here, Lifting up his voice to prayer, But we know that this isn't the only prayer, That Jesus brings from the cross, Because in fact, The very last thing that we're told Jesus said, Was also a prayer, And again, Luke records that too, Here in verse 46, Jesus called out with a loud voice, Father, Into your hands I commit my spirit, When he had said this, He breathed his last, So these are the very final words, Of the Lord Jesus, Spoken from the cross, The very final words of his life, So at the beginning of the crucifixion, At the end of the crucifixion, Jesus prays, That's important, For us to mention that, To mark that, He's praying to God, These two prayers are like bookends,
[16:28] Of what is happening, What has gone on, On the cross, And so immediately we see, That the Lord Jesus Christ, Even on the cross, Is a man who is displaying great faith, It's faith, Our Lord Jesus Christ, Had faith in God his Father, Right at the start, And at the very end, Now of course faith is a very difficult thing, To pin down, It's a very difficult thing, To sort of describe in one sense, And it's something that, Can easily be dissipated, Easily be lost, It's hard to hold on to, Faith, Especially if it is not, God given faith, Spiritual faith, Real faith, That is imparted into the heart, Now every single person in the world, Lives with faith, And by faith, Every person, Even those who are atheists, Those who do not believe in, God creating the world, Those who, Who would call themselves, Having no religion,
[17:29] Their people are faith, But that faith is more often than not, A subconscious faith, It's a faith in, What I like to call, Faith in the status quo, Faith believing, That life will just continue, As it has done the day before, So every person, Whoever they are, Goes to bed, Most of them anyway, At night, Believing with faith, They shall wake up in the morning, Many of us do that, Most people will flick a switch, On believing, That the lights will come on, When they do that, It's faith in the fact, That things just continue, Through life, And go on, And will continue to go on, As we go through, Our lives, Faith is in one sense, Under, Faith that things are under control, Things will continue, But it's only of course, When a spanner is thrown, In the works of life, That then that sort of faith, Just crumbles, And is shown to be, That it is unhelpful, Worthless, Powerless, But the Lord Jesus Christ,
[18:30] Doesn't have that sort of, Hopeful faith, That is built on nothing, Apart from, That things should go on, But here on the cross, Nailed to the cross, Suffering untold agony and pain, He has faith, So it's clear, That this sort of faith, Is a very different sort of faith, From the everyday, Ordinary, Faith, That things will be okay, That I'll wake up in the morning, He has faith, Which is shown by the fact, That even there on the cross, He prays, He has an absolute faith, An absolute faith, A consistent faith, A faith that cannot be removed, Or changed, Or altered, By circumstances of life, That's a very different faith, To the general faith, Of most people, And that's why it's essential, It's vital, That when we come to this communion table, When we come to the Lord's table, That we must come with real faith, We must come with a genuine faith,
[19:31] Not a faith in ourselves, Not a faith in our goodness, Not a faith in our worthiness, If I can put it that way, Or faith in our strength, Or anything like that, Not a faith in our religion, But a faith that is grounded in, The Lord Jesus Christ alone, A faith in Him, The very person of Jesus, Of who He is as the Son of God, Of what He has done, And accomplished, By His death, And resurrection, Now that's, This faith doesn't have to be, A strong faith, By that I mean, It can be a faith, Which struggles, It doesn't have to be a faith, Which is absolutely certain, And rock solid, And definite, Because ultimately, Dear friends, Every single one of us, Are people, Who are still, Works in progress, None of us has a perfect faith, In fact, The reality that we have faith, Means that we have to deal with doubts, If you are a Christian this morning, Then you should not be surprised, If you have times of doubt,
[20:33] Times when your faith, Is not as strong as it, Would like it to be, In fact, I would say to you, If you have a faith, Or think you have a faith, Which is so certain and solid, And definite, And have absolutely no doubts, I question whether that is a real and living faith, Or whether that actually is a self-confidence, That's built upon something else, Other than the Lord Jesus Christ, Faith in Christ, Faith in His person, Faith in the fact that He has done, What we could never do ourselves, See, We are saved by faith, But it's not faith that saves us, It's faith in the person of Jesus, Who saves us, Because it's He who is our Savior, So it's not faith in what we do, It's not faith in what we believe even, It's faith in Him, Because when we come to this table, We are reminded, And Jesus gave us the reminders, That the bread is a symbol, A picture to us of His body, He said Himself,
[21:33] I am the bread of life, He's the one who supplies, And meets the needs, The deepest down needs we have, The hungers, And hungering of our soul, That only can be met with Him, And He said that this cup, The wine that we drink, Which is grape juice here on this occasion, Is a picture of His blood, That blood which He shed, That blood which was poured out from Him on the cross, Which cleanses and washes us, From the deepest stains of our sins, Washes us not just from the consequences of our sins, In other words, God's judgment, But from the very power of that sin, To have hold over our lives, To set us free, To live for Him, And to follow Him, So faith, Do you have faith in Jesus, That He died for you, Do you have faith in Him, That He has accomplished for you, Forgiveness for sin, And a right relationship with God, That's essential, If you don't have that faith, If you aren't trusting in Jesus as your saviour,
[22:34] Then really, Please don't take of the bread and the wine later on, It's no good to you, It won't make you a better person, Won't change you in any way, It has to be, With faith, So Jesus expresses real faith, In God, In the midst of the most awful, Terrible circumstances, And for the Christian, There is faith that goes through, And keeps us, Even in times of great difficulty, Challenge, And upset, Even in the face of death, Itself as well, But that's not the only thing, That's displayed, By Jesus' words, In those seven sayings, We have of course as well, Jesus displaying great love, From the cross, Without doubt, That's what we see, That the cross is a demonstration, Of the love of God for us, But actually in the cross, In the words of Jesus from the cross, We find that He shows great love, To others as well, First of all, There's the love He shows to His mother, And to the disciple that He loved,
[23:35] The Apostle John, It's not here in Luke, But here what it says in the Gospel of John, When Jesus saw His mother there, And the disciple whom He loved, Standing nearby, He said to His mother, Woman, Here is your son, And to the disciple, Here is your mother, From that time on, This disciple took her, Into his own home, Here's Jesus suffering, Death on the cross, He sees His mother, There at the foot of the cross, With His disciple John, And what has He got?
[24:05] He's got a great love and concern, For his mum, She has to watch her son die, This most horrific and awful death, And in the midst of her grief, He gives to her, Someone to comfort her, Someone to care for her, Someone to take hold of her, As their mother, And love her, And even for the disciple John as well, That he might be supported, And loved, And cared for in his grief, So Jesus' words of love, For those, Who are dear to him, Then of course, There's the love that he shows, To this thief, Who's crucified next to him, There in verse 43, When he assures him, Truly I tell you, Today you'll be with me, In paradise, Here's a man, Who by his own admission, Is dying, The punishment he deserves, He was a criminal, He was a robber, He was not just somebody, Who shoplifted, If I can put it that way, But rather he was someone, Who was a vicious, Violent, Criminal, Who would mug, Rob,
[25:05] Possibly even kill people, For gain, He and his partner in crime, Are dying, And yet this man, Who admits that he is, Being punished justly, Turns to Jesus, And Jesus speaks to him, Words of love, Words of comfort, Tells him that, Even though he's going to die, That that death is not the end, But that he shall have, Life in paradise, Life in heaven, Life which is beyond, This world, In the midst of this man's death, And crushing guilt, Jesus has time for him, To speak to him, People would have no time for this man, He was despised, But Jesus had time, And love for him, Then of course, There's the love that he showed, At the very outset, Of his crucifixion, When he prays for his enemies, Jesus said, Father forgive them, For they do not know, What they're doing, These are the ones, Who are crucifying him, We don't know exactly, Who he's praying for, It may well have been,
[26:05] The Roman soldiers, May well have even been, The people, Who had called for his crucifixion, And the religious leaders, May even been Judas, Who betrayed him, And got in there, But all those, Who were his enemies, Those who had brought him, To this place of death, And suffering, From his heart, There comes this love, Which forgives them, And asks for their forgiveness, Now we can understand, Can't we, We can appreciate, How Jesus would have love, For his mum, And for one of his best friends, We can understand, How he would speak to them, And show them love, And care for their future, And their concerns, We may even understand, Why he should have spoken, With love to the dying thief, Having pity upon him, As he's dying, And suffering, In spite of the fact, That it was for his own crimes, But how on earth, Can we understand, How Jesus, Can have felt love, For those who had driven him, And put him on the cross, How on earth, Could he love them, Who had treated him, So badly, So cruelly, And who, Who were, It brought upon him, Such awful pain,
[27:07] Yet that's the case, That's the very case, Of the cross, That's the very reality, Of the cross, It is a demonstration, Of the love of God, For his enemies, And who are his enemies, Well that's clearly us, You see, It's you and I, Who put Christ upon the cross, It's our sin, It's our rebellion, Against God, Our rejection of him, That brought Christ, To die on the cross, We are enemies, In the way that we live our lives, Completely in opposition to God, We say in our hearts, I do not want you to be, The God of my life, I do not want you to, Have laws set over my life, I don't want to do the things, That please you, I want to be, And I will be the God of my life, And I will do the things, That please me, And in doing so, We push God away, And we alienate ourselves from him, And we bring ourselves, Under his wrath, And anger, Justly, Because God is just, He can't leave the wicked unpunished, Just as we couldn't do that, But here's the love of Christ,
[28:08] Demonstrated in the cross, And when we come to the communion table, We're reminded of the price that was paid, In love for us, The reason that Jesus Christ died, Was because, That we might know the love of God, And the forgiveness of God, Just as those enemies of God, On that day were given forgiveness, Just as that thief, And that criminal, Who deserved to be punished, And died, Was forgiven, Was forgiven, Was forgiven, So when we come, Acknowledging that Jesus died for us, We cannot help but come with love for him, Who first loved us, We cannot but reciprocate that love, That took him to the cross, If we have true faith in Jesus, As the one who saved us, Then we'll have love for him as well, In fact, One of the great, The great, Revelations as it were, One of the great realities, Of faith in Christ is this, Is not just that we believe in him, But that we love him, We love him, We say, Lord you love me, And you died for me, And you did that for me,
[29:08] I can't help but love you, And we do, The spirit of God in our hearts, Has been poured out, So that we have the love of God within, So let me urge you, Let me encourage you, Are you coming with love, For Jesus, Are you coming with that sense of gratitude, And thankfulness, Oh Lord that you love me, How I love you, How I want to love you, And live for you, Because love is that isn't it, Love is not just saying, I have a feeling, Or an emotion, Love is an act of the will, Love is saying, I want to do the best by you, That's what two people do in marriage, When they commit to one another, When they say they love each other, They don't really mean, I have a nice warm feeling, And fuzzy feeling about you, And that's it, But they're committing themselves, To live for each other, That the two are one, That the husband will look after his wife, And care for her, And do certain things, To care for her, And the wife likewise, And so when the Christian, Comes to communion table, There's a renewing of that commitment,
[30:09] To Jesus in love, Saying Lord it's my life is yours now, And to live for you, Because you lived, And died for me, There's one more thing here as well, That we can see, In the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, From the cross, That we need, As we come to communion table, And that is hope, The words of the Lord Jesus Christ, On the cross, Are words of hope, Now we've already noticed that, Haven't we in one sense, Because the way Jesus spoke to the thief, Concerning the future, Today you'll be within paradise, He's giving him hope, In the face of death, Even in one sense with Mary, And John he's speaking words of hope to her, You don't need to be afraid, About who's going to care for you, Or look after you, John will do that, I'm giving you hope, For the coming days and future, But it is certainly, The hope of the Lord Jesus, About his own future, That I want us to see here, Revealed even on the cross, Just as faith is there, In the midst of suffering,
[31:10] And death, And everything awful, So hope also, Exists, From the cross, Now those of you, Who are Christians here this morning, Almost immediately, In your minds, Are thinking, What about that cry of Jesus, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me, That sounds like a hopeless cry, A cry without hope, Have you forgotten about that Peter, Are you sort of, Brushing that one under the carpet, To fill in your three points, No I'm not going to do that, You're right to say, What about that cry, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me, But that cry, Does not prove, Or show that Jesus lost hope, On the cross, There's many ways, We could describe that cry, From the cross, We could call it a cry of abandonment, A cry of agony, A cry of heartbreak, But I do not believe, That we can call it, A cry of hopelessness, And the reason I say that, Is because of the way, First of all,
[32:10] That Jesus speaks, And also what he's talking about, First of all, Jesus says, My God, Not in the way, That people use God's name, Frivolously today, Blasphemously today, When they say, OMG, And these sort of things, They have no faith in God, When Jesus says, My God, It's an expression of his faith, Just as much as his prayer was, Father, But also, Particularly because, I hope, In your minds, There's a little bell ringing, That those words of Jesus, Are the words we read, From Psalm 22, And if you'd like to turn back there, For a moment, That would be helpful as well, Because in Psalm 22, We have a Psalm of David, A time when he was in great distress, Clearly great trouble, Great difficulty, So much so, That he felt as if, God had abandoned him, And he prayed those words, My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?
[33:03] This is what Jesus is repeating, In fact, If you read through, The gospel records, If you read through, The story of Jesus, In any of them, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, You'll find again and again, References, To things that were said, In the Old Testament, Being fulfilled, In the life of Jesus, The Old Testament, Was pointing to, Signposting, The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, And if you read, With eyes of faith, If you read, With reading the New Testament as well, You'll see that again and again, The life of the Lord Jesus, Fulfils, The promises of God, That were spoken in the Old Testament, It's all looking forward to him, And so, David speaks of his own sufferings, With the sort of words, Which look forward, To the crucifixion of Jesus, And so, Over and over again, Through this Psalm 22, We can see signposts, To what happened to Jesus, On the cross, First of all,
[34:03] That cry that he spoke, A cry of real anguish, A cry of desperation, If we can put it that way as well, But look there, Verse 7, All those who see me, Mock me, They hurl insults, Shaking their heads, He trusts in the Lord, They say, Let the Lord rescue him, Exactly what the others were saying, Those who were mocking him, Those who were ridiculing him, Those who were saying, Come on then, Get him down from the cross, Where's your God?
[34:33] We can see as well, In verses 14, I am poured out like water, All my bones are out of joint, That's one of the things that happened, In crucifixion, That the shoulders particularly, Were disjointed in others as well, My heart has turned to wax, And melted within me, What happened when the spear went into his side, From his heart poured out water, And blood, My mouth is dried like a pot shirt, My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, One of the things that Jesus said at the cross, Knowing that he needed to fulfill scripture, Was, I thirst, Crucifixion did that for you, Dogs surround me, These people who hated him, Were surrounding him, Around and about him, Verse 18, They divide my clothes, Among them cast lots, My garments, We read about exactly what the soldiers did, They were, They did what they usually did, But it was spoken about, These hundreds of years before, Notice that, Verse 16, They pierced my hands and my feet, Crucifixion had not been invented,
[35:35] Or used in the time when David was writing, Not for several hundred years, That he was expressing a feeling, But Christ was experiencing the reality, Why do I say all these things?
[35:48] Because, When you read the first half of that psalm, It's all about the anguish, The sorrow, The suffering, Of David, Which represents and pictures the suffering, And agony of Jesus, But the second half, From verse 22, Is all about hope, It's all about God's coming to rescue, It's all about the fact that David says, I will declare your name amongst the people, I will praise you, He talks about this one, Who was scorned and afflicted, Verse 24, Picture of the Lord Jesus, But he's not hidden his face from him, He's listened to his cry for help, Jesus knew this psalm, Well, That's what he's saying, As he cries, Yes, Expressing his sense of abandonment, But not expressing hopelessness, Because he has hope, Hope that through his sufferings, Many people will come to faith in him, If you read from verses 25 and following, From you comes the theme of my praise, In the great assembly, The poor will eat and be satisfied,
[36:50] Those who seek the Lord will praise him, All the ends of the earth, Verse 27, Will remember and turn to the Lord, That's what Jesus was looking forward to, The writer to the Hebrews speaks about that, In chapter 12, For the joy set before him, Endured the cross, Scorning the shame, The very purpose of his life and death, Was that men and women should be saved, And brought to know the Lord, So those words of, My God, My God, Words which we can never fully comprehend, Words we can never fully understand, Because we cannot know the very heart, Of the Son of God, Those three hours of darkness, On the cross, What we do know is, That they were not, Time in which Jesus lost hope, His hope in God remained, Hope that he himself, Would be in paradise, With the thief, Today you will be with me in paradise, Hope that even at the moment of his death, His soul would be one with the Father,
[37:50] Father into your hands I commit my spirit, This is not the words of hopelessness, But of hope, Hope. So when we come to the communion table, We come to the Lord's table, We come again with hope, Real hope, Hope that's centered again upon Jesus, Upon what he's accomplished, And who he is, About what he's done for us in the cross, The Lord Jesus spoke those words of hope, To his disciples just before his death, In John 14, He said to them, In my Father's house are many rooms, If it were not so, I would have told you, I'm going there to prepare a place for you, If I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come back, Take you to be with me, That you also may be where I am, Jesus was confident, Of hope, And gave hope to his disciples, Even as they shared in the Lord's supper, Saying to them, I'm going, But I'm coming back for you, I'm going to prepare a place for you, And when I've done that, I'll come and take you to be with me,
[38:52] When we eat the bread and the wine, We're lifting up our eyes, Heavenward, We're seeing that our Lord Jesus Christ, Is now seated in glory, That he's conquered death for us, And sin and hell, We're seeing that he has risen, And ascended, And glorified, We're seeing that he is there, From where he will come again, To take us to be with him one day, So that we with every believer, We with everyone for whom he died, We with everyone, Who has put their faith and trust in him, Will celebrate, The marriage supper of the Lamb, It's called, A great banquet in heaven, Here's how John hears it spoken of, Revelation chapter 19, The angel said to me, Write this, Blessed are those who are invited, To the wedding supper of the Lamb, It's a meal that's looking forward, To a better and greater meal, So as you come to this table, Dear friends, We come with hope, Hope that what Jesus has done, Means that now, Yes we have life,
[39:52] But no hope in the face of death, Hope for the future, Hope in the assurance, That this is not all that there is to life, But there is life worth living now, And in eternity, Our saviour from the cross, Spoke these things, That we might have faith, Love and hope, And he calls us to receive the bread and wine, In the same way, A few moments we're going to sing, And then we're going to do just that, And I need to ask you, I need to ask each one of you this morning, Can you take this bread and wine, With faith, Hope and love, Do these things fill your heart, Do the words of Jesus, Give you that faith, Hope and love, And can you come with that, And receive with thanksgiving, And with joy, And with delight, Knowing that Jesus has done everything for you, And if you can't, If you can't, Let me urge you,
[40:53] Urge you, To seriously ask yourself, Why not? Why can't I trust this Jesus who died for me? Why can't I love him, Who loved me with everlasting love, And has proven his love without doubt, In dying for me?
[41:10] What hope have I got in this world? Just that I'll get up tomorrow, That I'll win the lottery, That I'll die in my bed, What hope have you got?
[41:25] It's all to be had in Jesus Christ, Let me urge you to come to him, With faith, And love, And hope.
[41:35] Now may the God of hope, Fill you with joy and peace, As you trust in him, So that you may overflow, With hope, By the power of the Holy Spirit, To the only wise God, Be glory, Forever and ever, Amen.