SPEAKER_00: Well, church, good morning.
SPEAKER_00: I was away for a week.
SPEAKER_00: I was able to tune in.
SPEAKER_00: Our flight was actually delayed.
SPEAKER_00: We were stuck in North Carolina.
SPEAKER_00: And uh Pastor Mike did a great job preaching Jesus, pointing us to Jesus in Obadiah.
SPEAKER_00: And today I'm excited to be back in Luke chapter 23.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, open it to Luke chapter 23, and we're going to cover the darkest day in history, such that heaven grieved by putting darkness over the whole land in a supernatural way.
SPEAKER_00: This is a miraculous affirmation that the Father is looking at the Son with the weight of what's happening at the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to focus here on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: As we do that, we've prayed for Pastor Zach Crook from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Innes a few months back.
SPEAKER_00: I let you know he's walking through some very serious cancer, very aggressive treatments, but God has shown his goodness even through it all.
SPEAKER_00: He's back to a place where he's preaching about once or twice a month.
SPEAKER_00: He is loving his church, leading his church, even in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He's showing that God's power is perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He continues to give updates to a handful of pastors.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to say thank you for praying for Pastor Zach, because God is sustaining him even through this aggressive, ugly cancer.
SPEAKER_00: Would you continue to pray for him?
SPEAKER_00: You can look up his church, Tabernacle Baptist Church in Innes, Texas.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure there's all kinds of ways that you can get to know how to pray for him and his family there.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for him now, and then we'll continue this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we do thank you for the blood.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And we are a people celebrating what you have given us as a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we do that, and even now, as we sit under the scripture, Lord, help us to really incline our ear and ask what we would need to learn as we meditate and consider the weight of the cross and the cost of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: We do pray for Pastor Zach, and I'm so grateful, God, that you continue to sustain him, that he's able to be with family, he's able to preach, he's able to shepher the people.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, God, that there's a whole team around him that are helping to lead the church as well.
SPEAKER_00: We just continue to ask your grace in that situation.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name that you would just touch him and heal him.
SPEAKER_00: That the doctors would be shocked and say, no more chemo treatments.
SPEAKER_00: No, you didn't have to have that transfusion.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do a miracle in his life?
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as we wait for you to prove your faithfulness in that situation, would you just give him the grace that's required each day to go the next day?
SPEAKER_00: God, as we want to be the people here, a lighthouse to this community, magnifying Christ all the way through the Wimberley Valley, we just ask your grace in that assignment as well.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may or may not agree with me in this statement, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to just think of this.
SPEAKER_00: What determines value for you in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes I think we value things besides material money or possessions or mammon as Jesus calls it.
SPEAKER_00: But but my mind just immediately goes to, well, if it costs a lot, then I should value it.
SPEAKER_00: My kids, maybe maybe you would tell us that we're weird parents, but uh, we really wanted to teach our kids something as they're transitioning into adulthood and thinking about their first vehicle, that they would have a little bit of ownership, they'd have a little bit of skin in the game.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're looking and researching, used cars.
SPEAKER_00: What's our price range?
SPEAKER_00: How much can I afford?
SPEAKER_00: And then we dropped the bomb on them and said, You have to earn one-third of what we purchase as your first car.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm wow, we live in Wimberley, people have all kinds of opinions, all right?
SPEAKER_00: No judgment.
SPEAKER_00: I just want our kids to value this car that they're taking to school and taking to activities and taking here and taking there, and not realize it was just, you know, something that didn't cost anything, so you don't have to value it.
SPEAKER_00: I think when we understand the cost of things, we value them more.
SPEAKER_00: Well, can I tell you that even though salvation is a free gift that costs you nothing, it costs Jesus everything.
SPEAKER_00: And as we consider what does it mean that we can be forgiven, the thief on the cross looks at Jesus and says, Would you remember me?
SPEAKER_00: And he's immediately forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: What did that cost?
SPEAKER_00: It cost the precious blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what forgiveness costs.
SPEAKER_00: And in our text, I wonder as I read it here in a moment, if you can see what the Bible would call inclusio.
SPEAKER_00: You have something off the front and the same thing off the back, and in the middle is the good stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Like an Oreo, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you like the icing the most.
SPEAKER_00: I do.
SPEAKER_00: In the middle is the good stuff.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: And what what this what sandwiches this Jesus purchasing our forgiveness on the cross is a mourning and a grief, a lament and a sorrow that's so heavy that these women are yelling out, screaming, beating their chests.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why did Jesus have to die?
SPEAKER_00: That should clue us into the weight of what's happening in this climax of history at the cross, and what we'll see in a couple weeks, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're in Luke 23, verse 26 through 49.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: And as I led him away, they seized one, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they followed him, and a great multitude of people and of women were mourning and lamenting for him.
SPEAKER_00: But turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
SPEAKER_00: For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore, and the breast that never nursed.
SPEAKER_00: Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us.
SPEAKER_00: For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?
SPEAKER_00: Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him.
SPEAKER_00: And when they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on his left.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
SPEAKER_00: And they cast lots to divide his garments, and the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself.
SPEAKER_00: If he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
SPEAKER_00: The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: There was also an inscription over him, This is the king of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Save yourself and us.
SPEAKER_00: But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God?
SPEAKER_00: Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.
SPEAKER_00: But this man has done nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Having said this, he breathed his last.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly this man was innocent, and all the crowds that had assembled for the spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home, beating their breast.
SPEAKER_00: And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him into Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.
SPEAKER_00: I think the good stuff in the middle is this conversation about forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus shows us on this day at the cross and crucifixion that he has purchased the cost of the forgiveness that we can have when we have the same attitude as this criminal.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you just briefly seven ways to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the cost of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Seven ways to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, because of the cost of forgiveness, respond to Jesus' gracious lament.
SPEAKER_00: Now, at first sight, verse 28 through 31 sounds like another fire and brimstone sermon.
SPEAKER_00: No, you should be weeping.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a time that you say, mountains fall on us, cover us.
SPEAKER_00: It seems extremely judgmental.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Jesus does preach on judgment, especially when addressing the religious leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, Pharisee! Judgment's coming.
SPEAKER_00: As he was prepping for the Passion Week, get ready, because there's going to be a judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man's gonna go away, but when he returns, he's gonna separate the sheep and the goats.
SPEAKER_00: Be ready.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has preached on judgment, and it's very real, and we very much so should be ready.
SPEAKER_00: But I would I would take the side of the context setting this up to be less of a fire and brimstone, one last gotcha moment, and more of a gracious lament.
SPEAKER_00: Think with me how Jesus steps into Jerusalem in Luke chapter 19 when he weeps over the city.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 41, he drew near to the city, he wept over it, saying, Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace?
SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say, but they've been hidden, and they did not know that the Savior was coming to visit them.
SPEAKER_00: Or even the way that Jesus interacts with Judas when he's instituting the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_00: He already knows Judas has betrayed him, but he speaks to him graciously.
SPEAKER_00: But what about the way Jesus speaks to Peter?
SPEAKER_00: Peter, you're gonna deny me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm praying for you, Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you turn, you're gonna have a lot of responsibility to help your other brothers understand what's happened.
SPEAKER_00: See, I would say the context sets this up as a gracious lament.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus one last time saying, Oh, oh, daughters of Jerusalem, if you would have only known.
SPEAKER_00: And if we have that kind of message, less about a vengeful judgment and more about Jesus saying, I grieve that there's so many that did not choose the path of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Would we see that and not make the same mistake?
SPEAKER_00: Would we actually respond with repentance and not say, oh yeah, Jesus, he's just he's some guy, right?
SPEAKER_00: Let's respond to that gracious lament.
SPEAKER_00: I I would never say that hell is not real, that judgment is not real.
SPEAKER_00: There are times to preach hell is real.
SPEAKER_00: But I think what I'm preaching in this moment is Jesus again grieving at the fact that people did not have a change of heart.
SPEAKER_00: When we take Jesus at his word, we repent and we make sure that we're changed by the cross and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Respond to Jesus' gracious lament.
SPEAKER_00: Next, direct your attention to verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: I love what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: If you write in your Bible, put a whole box around this verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's what I have right here in my preaching Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We should relish in Christ's request for the Father to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the kind of compassion it takes as you're being literally nailed to the cross?
SPEAKER_00: You've been beaten and whipped, mocked, shamefully treated.
SPEAKER_00: These soldiers again will mock him in just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And he's right here at the brink of suffering, at the brink of being choked to death by the weight of his body and the arms and the crucifix.
SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: They're blind, their eyes have been blinded to the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: What a request from the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can identify with the soldier, if you feel like you've mocked Jesus or rebelled against Christ, wouldn't you hear this plea?
SPEAKER_00: And almost imagine that Jesus stands ready to forgive as your intercessor, looking to the Father, saying, Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: They're blind.
SPEAKER_00: Relish in that.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian and you understand the cost of forgiveness, the blood of Jesus, the precious blood of Christ and the cross, relish in this gracious compassion that Jesus shows in his suffering.
SPEAKER_00: I also want to address Galgotha here in verse 33, the skull or the place of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have seen this.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a picture here.
SPEAKER_00: This is an older picture.
SPEAKER_00: There's been some erosion.
SPEAKER_00: It's always debated when you visit the Holy Lands.
SPEAKER_00: You know, is this really the place?
SPEAKER_00: Some people think this is it, some people think another place is it.
SPEAKER_00: But can you kind of see in that rock formation a skull?
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And this is right outside the garden tomb.
SPEAKER_00: And many people believe that Jesus was crucified near the roadside.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Romans would do, right?
SPEAKER_00: This torture, punishment.
SPEAKER_00: To make an example out of these criminals and Jesus, this revolutionary.
SPEAKER_00: It's so interesting that this place is known as the place of the dead, the place of the skull.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, in a heavenly irony, Jesus is taking care of sin and death on the cross so that we don't have to walk in death anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Man, what a gracious thing.
SPEAKER_00: Relish in this kind of request.
SPEAKER_00: It just proves the heart of God from the Old Testament and the New Testament's always been true, always been steady, always been constant.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 34, this is what God says to Moses.
SPEAKER_00: We're preparing for Easter here in a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: How can we find these truths of the gospel sweet, sweet to our ears, our minds, our hearts?
SPEAKER_00: Relish that Jesus would request forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Thank Jesus for paying the cross, the at the cross, paying the cost of our forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: As we walk through verse 35 through 39, recognize your part in the threefold mocking.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting if you see it here in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And all of them know something true about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: These are the words they use.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you the Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you his chosen one?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you the king of the Jews?
SPEAKER_00: There's an inscription in the king of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: That other criminal says, Aren't you the Christ?
SPEAKER_00: You can save us.
SPEAKER_00: They actually were saying true things.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is they did not believe them to be true.
SPEAKER_00: They were saying true things, but they didn't actually believe them.
SPEAKER_00: They used those things to mock Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I would assume that these religious leaders they've shown their cards earlier in the text when they continue to question Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're operating from a spiritual pride.
SPEAKER_00: So they mock Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And then these soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know this until I studied this text.
SPEAKER_00: So it says sour wine was not meant to relieve Jesus' pain.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It was known to be a weak kind of drink.
SPEAKER_00: Sour wine, wine, and vinegar mixed together makes it a little bit weaker.
SPEAKER_00: But they offered it to Jesus, thinking he might sip it and it would just give him a little boost, and then he could suffer longer.
SPEAKER_00: How mean.
SPEAKER_00: Mocking.
SPEAKER_00: Mocking Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then this criminal selfishly doesn't say, Aren't you the Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you the Savior?
SPEAKER_00: Save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, no, save, save us.
SPEAKER_00: We're in trouble too.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, if you really have that power, save us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a selfish request, not a humble plea.
SPEAKER_00: And so remember what Jesus said earlier in Luke chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God.
SPEAKER_00: The one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
SPEAKER_00: Which one of those three groups do you identify with more?
SPEAKER_00: The prideful religious leader, the soldiers who think they have some power, but it's all about to be stripped away, the criminal who actually knows that he's in trouble, but selfishly wants to get off scot-free.
SPEAKER_00: Can you ask the Holy Spirit to show you right now?
SPEAKER_00: Am I one of those mocking Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: If you were there at that scene, would you be mocking Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And then just to remember that's the very reason Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: The scoffers and mockers like me and you could experience forgiveness at the cost of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, and I love this, the other criminal makes a humble plea.
SPEAKER_00: So because of the cost of forgiveness, remember the criminal's humble plea.
SPEAKER_00: He sticks up for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You should fear God, you should fear this is the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And then he looks at Jesus and says, Would you remember me when you come into your kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: He defends Jesus from the mocking and then he makes his humble plea.
SPEAKER_00: I don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: We deserve to be punished.
SPEAKER_00: You're innocent.
SPEAKER_00: I think you're innocent.
SPEAKER_00: I actually think you have power to forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Would you please remember me?
SPEAKER_00: Now again, something I've never seen in the scriptures before.
SPEAKER_00: I've read this passage many, many times.
SPEAKER_00: How in the world does this criminal know that Jesus has the power to forgive?
SPEAKER_00: It is possible that he would have heard rumors.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible that before he committed his crime and was thrown in jail, he might have seen Jesus' public ministry, but it's also probable none of that happened.
SPEAKER_00: He's a criminal.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't chasing after Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He might have been in jail the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that we do know for sure is he heard what Jesus said about the soldiers as they're nailing him to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that this is a man while he's in pain and agony, looks up to heaven and says, Father, forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: And that may be the only thing that he knew about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The only interaction he had ever had with Christ is in this moment, he's a witness to the compassion of Christ saying, Forgive them.
SPEAKER_00: And so he looks at Jesus and says, Would you remember me?
SPEAKER_00: Please.
SPEAKER_00: One preacher has said it like this.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Aleister Beg.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've seen this clip.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about how often we get so distracted, and you have to know the right things and believe the right things.
SPEAKER_00: He says, This criminal had no theology.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know about justification by grace alone.
SPEAKER_00: He he didn't ever go to Sunday school or ever go to worship.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't a part of a small group.
SPEAKER_00: And so he makes this scene in the narrative where the criminal today, that day, goes in to heaven among angels.
SPEAKER_00: And they say, How'd you get up here?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I have no idea how I got here.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you know about the blood of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: What do you know about the promise in the Old Testament that Savior was coming?
SPEAKER_00: Do you really think Jesus was who he said?
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just here.
SPEAKER_00: And confused.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, Well, how did he get here?
SPEAKER_00: And he says in humility, All I can tell you is that the man on the middle cross told me that I could come.
SPEAKER_00: But today I could be in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: And I love that word paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it makes you think of the Garden of Eden, which is paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Great poets have talked about paradise lost and written great works.
SPEAKER_00: We know if we read Genesis chapter 3 that Adam and Eve fell to their pride.
SPEAKER_00: They ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and they were kicked out.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: It says this therefore the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground which he had taken, and he drove out man east of the Garden of Eden and place a cherubim and a flaming sword that turn in every way to guard the way of the tree of life.
SPEAKER_00: So what is happening at the cross and crucifixion of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: This criminal has a humble plea of repentance, says, Remember me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Today, today, you'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is reversing the curse of Adam.
SPEAKER_00: See, Adam's kicked out of the garden.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have access to the garden.
SPEAKER_00: There is someone that's going to make a way back, and that name, his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's who makes a way back.
SPEAKER_00: He is the door, he is the curtain torn in two.
SPEAKER_00: We have an access into paradise.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus is doing on this great day in history is he is reversing the curse.
SPEAKER_00: And praise God, Jesus has the power to reverse that curse.
SPEAKER_00: Have you made a humble plea to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Have you asked for forgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you have.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope just dwelling on this message at the cross just gives us such a sense of gratitude welling up in us.
SPEAKER_00: But if you've never asked Jesus for forgiveness, take the example of this criminal.
SPEAKER_00: Respond to him today.
SPEAKER_00: Because of the cost of forgiveness, number five, recognize the two signs from heaven as miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: Now I could probably preach a whole sermon here, but I'm gonna try not to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna breeze over this and you can ask me later.
SPEAKER_00: We learn in Ephesians God can do more than all we ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_00: Here are two miracles that prove the significance of the cross and crucifixion.
SPEAKER_00: Right here.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, heaven weeps, darkness covers the whole land.
SPEAKER_00: You can read in the Old Testament where God supernaturally kept things light longer.
SPEAKER_00: Well, here Jesus on the cross and God supernaturally covers the land with darkness.
SPEAKER_00: That's an affirmation from heaven of what is happening.
SPEAKER_00: The next one is that the curtain rips from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: You can read that in Matthew 27.
SPEAKER_00: It's from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: This is a long curtain you can read about the temple and the regulations.
SPEAKER_00: A man cannot just go up there and rip it from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: No, this was a divine interaction.
SPEAKER_00: The curtain is torn from top to bottom.
SPEAKER_00: Many make a huge deal about how the holy of holies was separated, and only one man once a year could experience the power and presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: And lament, excuse me, Leviticus chapter 16.
SPEAKER_00: We have that description, verse 30 through 33.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to read verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brother not to come in at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die.
SPEAKER_00: You can't go into the presence of God in the temple like that.
SPEAKER_00: You'll die.
SPEAKER_00: You can't handle it.
SPEAKER_00: And so God institutes in the law one man once a year is chosen.
SPEAKER_00: A high priest should go in on the day of atonement and make atonement for the sins of the nation.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews, it talks about it like this.
SPEAKER_00: Preparations having thus been made, a priest go regularly into the first section, performing ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and only once a year, but not without first taking blood, he offers it for himself and then the unintentional sins of the people.
SPEAKER_00: That passage goes on to talk about how that old law is never going to clean our conscience.
SPEAKER_00: But then it talks about Jesus in Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of the creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.
SPEAKER_00: What is happening when this curtain is torn in two is Jesus provides access for us into the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: The cross has made a way.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, has the cross made a way for you?
SPEAKER_00: Number six, because of the cost of forgiveness, we respond with a change of heart.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 47, this centurion, he was a Roman soldier, the one that was casting lots.
SPEAKER_00: How ironic that right as Jesus says, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they do, that they're casting lots for his garments.
SPEAKER_00: Whether he was actually rolling the die or whether he was just overseeing because he's a centurion, he is there, part of the mocking, part of saying, Jesus, if you really are who you say you are, and something happens after Jesus surrenders his spirit to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Says, I into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Something happened to this man, he has a change of heart.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 47, it says this.
SPEAKER_00: The centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, Certainly this man was innocent.
SPEAKER_00: What a change.
SPEAKER_00: From mocking to praising.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if you've had that same change of heart.
SPEAKER_00: From mocking to praising.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really Jesus, because if it's one act of righteousness that can flip the whole script, it says this in Romans 5, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
SPEAKER_00: For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, many will be made righteous.
SPEAKER_00: You would come to Christ with repentance and humility and say, Jesus, forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: If you have that kind of change of heart, you can be made righteous by the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What would it take for you to see Jesus today?
SPEAKER_00: Number seven, because of the cost of forgiveness, let's realize the weight of this mourning crowd.
SPEAKER_00: The grief and the sorrow and the loss.
SPEAKER_00: You can just imagine the screams of these women looking at a distance.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even want to be up close.
SPEAKER_00: They're crucifying my Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I heard one preacher say it like this, beating their chest, ripping out their hair, screams of wailing and mourning.
SPEAKER_00: No, not Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You feel the weight of that?
SPEAKER_00: And as we feel the weight of that, does that increase in us a gratitude?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you for your blood.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a Maundi Thursday service.
SPEAKER_00: This is a time to take the Lord's Supper again, to read through the Lord's Supper account, the crucifixion account.
SPEAKER_00: Feel the weight, to consider the weight.
SPEAKER_00: My Jesus, my Savior, he died for me, and then I'm gonna challenge everyone.
SPEAKER_00: You're ready for this.
SPEAKER_00: If you come on Thursday, and I hope you do in a week and a half, as you go home, turn off your cell phone, don't turn on the tablet, don't turn on the TV.
SPEAKER_00: If you've got little kids, of course, you're gonna have to talk.
SPEAKER_00: Go brush your teeth, I'll pray for you, I'll tuck you in.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have little kids, do do your best to take a vow of silence between Thursday night and Friday morning.
SPEAKER_00: So when you wake up on good Friday morning, you can say with an expression of gratefulness, Jesus, thank you for dying for me.
SPEAKER_00: That would be the first words you spoke over that 12-hour span.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a great time to remember and feel the weight of the grief and sorrow, but then as we feel the weight of that, it pushes us on to celebration and gratitude.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you for your blood.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you paid my cost at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize the weight of that?
SPEAKER_00: Look, we've walked through Calvary's narrative.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you better understand the cost of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: The question you have to ask yourself as we come to a moment of response is what changes today, or what changes this week, or what changes over the next two weeks as we prepare for Easter?
SPEAKER_00: What changes as we consider the cost of forgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: And I want to invite you, we're gonna we're gonna watch a short clip here in a moment, and right when that's done, our our music ministry is gonna play a song of response.
SPEAKER_00: And if you want to come, these steps are open just for you to bow your knee and say, Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: You want to talk to a pastor or minister, we're here.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to pray with one of us, if you want to ask someone from from church that came to church with you today, your friends or family, come pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm challenging you.
SPEAKER_00: Find a response that this text would change you.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you noticed I skipped something.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 46.
SPEAKER_00: I never really talked much about it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is quoting Psalm 31 when he says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to close with that thought before we watch this, and we're gonna watch this.
SPEAKER_00: A very passionate preacher named John Piper.
SPEAKER_00: He's just more passionate than me.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of trying to recreate that, I think we should watch it for about four minutes.
SPEAKER_00: But just consider what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And would you follow the example of our Savior?
SPEAKER_00: That you could say the same thing, whether you've been a Christian for years and years, or you or you're right now today getting new eyes to see and new ears to hear.
SPEAKER_00: I need to give my life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What you would do is just say the same thing that Jesus says to the Father here.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, I know I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: I know I've screwed up, I know I've rebelled, I've mocked, I've scoffed.
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: I know I've not loved you with my whole heart.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to be down on the dumps because of all this sin and rebellion and frustration and bro.
SPEAKER_00: Just the fact that I've not loved God with my whole heart and He deserves my whole love, my whole life.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I haven't done that.
SPEAKER_00: Would you forgive me?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are in the depths of brokenness and say, I can't do it on my own anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help me.
SPEAKER_00: Would you say the same thing that Jesus said to the Father on the cross?
SPEAKER_00: I trust you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm surrendering to you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you for dying for me.
SPEAKER_00: Please forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: Into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Watch this and let's respond.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm about to say and what I'm saying about the cross and its value and the intensity of its preciousness won't go home to you if you feel pretty good about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve to breathe.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve to go to school.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve to have clothes.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve to have a car.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve to have a computer.
SPEAKER_01: I deserve, I deserve, I deserve, I deserve.
SPEAKER_01: You don't deserve anything but hell.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe that, the rest of my message would just not make sense.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm praying my heart.
SPEAKER_01: The sin will land on us this morning so that we will sweetly cherish the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Because the cross is foolish and stumbling block for people who don't feel who feel pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: Who feel like they deserve the job they have?
SPEAKER_01: Deserve the help they have.
SPEAKER_01: Deserve, deserve, deserve.
SPEAKER_01: If you're there, would you just open your eyes?
SPEAKER_01: Would you just open your eyes?
SPEAKER_01: To feel this.
SPEAKER_01: To see how high God is in his worth, in his holiness, in his beauty, and his purity, and his deserving infinite praise, infinite obedience, infinite allegiance, infinitely intense love.
SPEAKER_01: And we give him what little bit.
SPEAKER_01: We don't see how magnificent he is and what he deserves.
SPEAKER_01: And so the gap, this infinite gap between God and me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't see that, I don't feel that.
SPEAKER_01: And so all this talk now that you're about to talk about the cross being that which you exult in for every blessing.
unknown: So that you're exulting and boasting, and everything is the boasting in the cross that bought it for you.
unknown: You deserve nothing from God but hell.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's so brave, and you have sinned against him by ignoring him, or neglecting him, or defying him, so consistently in your life, you've come nowhere near the bottom of the line that he deserves you.
SPEAKER_01: All hosting and all exalting in anything, should be a boasting in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And the cross is because if Christ had not died for me, to cover my sin, and to be a righteousness on my behalf, all I would get from God is judgment.
SPEAKER_01: And now because he's covering my sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's not hard to understand, and it's the essence of the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: He died to purchase for me everything good and everything painful that will be turned for my good.
SPEAKER_01: All I once held dear and built my life upon.
SPEAKER_01: All this world reveres and wars to own.
SPEAKER_01: All I once thought gained, I have guilted loss, spent, and worthless now, compared to this.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Knowing you.
SPEAKER_01: There is no greater thing.
SPEAKER_01: You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I love you, Christ crucified for me.