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Our lives, amen. It's not just he hung bled and died on a cross and said some things before he died that we should just remember what he said, but we have to also understand what it is doing for us as he is dying on the cross. And so we know that when Jesus died, it was really the beginning of something that we look forward to that we call the end of a life that never ends for us. It ends down here, but it is the actual beginning of a brand new life. Life eternal, life that cannot be taken away from us because of what Jesus has already done. And so today, as we begin to look at John chapter 19, let us draw in to what Jesus is actually doing in the midst of what he is saying. Because if we don't do that, we'll miss the whole point of why Jesus died. Now, I was sharing with the uh the worship team and Pastor Jarrett that, you know, often my messages, I preach them to myself as if I'm actually preaching. And the Holy Spirit often tells me uh what he wants me to do. And so, however the Holy Spirit leads, there was a point where as I was preaching it to myself, the Holy Spirit said that's a good time for an invitation. Now, I may not be done with the message, but if the Holy Spirit leads me to, there may be an invitation somewhere near the end of the message, and then I will continue afterwards. Is that all right with everybody? Amen. We're gonna let the Holy Spirit lead. Amen. I love the freedom to do that in this place. Amen. Amen. So let us look at John chapter 19. But before we do that, let us pray. Dear Father in heaven, I thank you for this awesome privilege and pleasure to stand here to proclaim your holy word. Lord God, I pray that you would use me for your glory. Father, speak to me and speak through me. God, let me not speak my own words, but let my words be the words that you give to me, Father. And Father, I pray that your people would not just be hearers of your holy word, but that they would also be doers of your holy word. May the word change all of us here today, Lord God, myself included. And Father, we thank you for what Jesus has already done on the cross that provided the way for mankind to be brought back to a holy God. So, Father, we thank you and we pray that you do great things in the midst of this, that hearts are changed, Lord God, and that there's no one here that the Holy Spirit speaks to and says that they need to do something, take action to change the state of the life where they are. That no one be ashamed, whether that's to come forward and ask for prayer, or whether to just connect with someone afterwards, Lord God, to share that they stand in the need of prayer and need direction and discipleship. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Now I have to tell you that there are not a whole lot of points as I preach through this, but there are a lot of scripture, okay? And they're on the screen if you want to write those down, uh, because the word of God speaks a lot about what Jesus has done, and we're gonna point to his word. Amen. John chapter 19, starting at verse 25 through 30, it says, But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene. 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. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. In the midst of Jesus hanging on a cross. This passage of scripture moves right into the fact that he looks at his mother and says, Woman, behold your son. In this, as he's hanging on a cross, we see the heart of Jesus to be in this position, but yet concerned about the well-being of his mother rather than concerned about himself. And as he hung on the cross, he knew that he was being concerned and poured out, and that he was dying for people who would not be concerned about him. Oh, how often we, God's people, those that are called by his name Christians, often wander so far away and we contemplate the sin that we do, and yet he knew it and died for us anyway. He knew that we would know the right way to live, and we still wouldn't live right, but he chose to die anyway. He cared enough for each and every one of us, knowing that we were going to need him, knowing that we we heard the word of God, I'm talking about myself, for many, many years growing up in church, knew what the word of God said, but would not do what the word of God says to do. But yet he died. He knew this all alone, and here he is hanging on a cross near the end of his life, concerned about his mother. Think about that for a moment. Think about how unselfish that is. Oh, it's so simple, but if we if we just read over it, we'll miss it. Because oftentimes we we we celebrate and we are thankful for the fact that Jesus died for the sins of the world and we inherited this wonderful gift of everlasting life for those who receive Him by faith. And we love that part, and we think about the everlasting life part. We think about what we are going to receive, but we don't always hone in on the actual sacrifice that Jesus made. And this sacrifice was made standing there, his mom standing there watching her son. And I love this when Pastor Jarrett spoke, and I don't want to steal any thunder from him if he's already said it, so I won't go too deep into it. But but in a conversation, he said to me that Mary would have been the only one who could have really known that he was truly the Son of God. If anybody could have testified to it, she was the one. She was the one who carried him, she was the one who knew that she had not been touched, and the Holy Spirit had impregnated her. She's the one that the angel spoke to. She would have known and well known who he was. And she's standing there watching her son die on a cross. For people who hated him. Lied on him. Even his own disciples who were not faithful followers of him. He died for them. But yet, woman, behold your son. And here's here's here's here's the thing about this heart of Jesus is that his covenant love in the midst of his suffering. His love is covenant. It is what he is called to do as God in the flesh, as the Savior of the world. It's a covenant. And he can't get out of it. And he doesn't want to get out of it. He decides to go through this. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he says, Father, not my will, but your will be done. But he was grievously vexed in that moment. But he died for us. And he's demonstrating this covenantal love and faithfulness in his suffering. While bearing the weight of the world's sin, Jesus fulfills the laws, command to honor your parents. Look at that. He's about to leave, but he's honoring the law. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. And he's honoring that all the way to his death. And it also reflects God's consistent concern for widows. We don't know where Joseph was. We assume that Joseph had died. Otherwise, he would have been there. Jesus' own brothers were not even there. But here he is. And listen to this in 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 3 through 8. This is God's consistent concern for widows. It says, Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents. For this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left alone, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. Watch this. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Jesus is living out what the word of God later tells us what we ought to do. And there's a responsibility there. And that's why when we when we we hear of the utterances on the cross, the sayings on the cross, there's a whole lot more in that for us to understand and for us to learn. It's not just a saying. Because the saying is saying something that had not been said at that time. And the one who doesn't care for his own family, doesn't take care of his own, is less than an unbeliever. It says that that person has denied the faith and is less than an unbeliever. But watch this. He says this to John Behold your mother. Now, this is not John's actual mother. This is not her biological son. But at this moment in time, John adopts Mary as his mother. The disciple whom Jesus loved. So Jesus entrusted his mother, Mary, to his friend John, not to his biological brothers who were Jude, Simon, James, and Joseph, who were not even there at the cross with him. So we see Jesus' concern for his mother. We see Jesus making sure that he tidies up that business because his mother's a widow. And his brothers are not there, but he wants his mother to be taken care of. And so he passes it on to John, somebody who he can entrust. You see, many people had been with Jesus, but not everybody was for Jesus. And oftentimes when you have a crowd of people around you, they may be with you, but not really for you. And here it is, our Savior who's done for everybody. But it seems like hardly anybody is with him in this moment. Oh my gosh. You see, the family of God is not formed by bloodline, but by relationship through faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to God. You see, this is the reason why some of us have church members or people in the body of Christ that are closer to us than our own blood relatives. Because understand something. When you don't have the blood of Jesus covering you, when you don't have the Spirit of God living in you, if you have not given your life to Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you are subject to the enemy, to Satan, which is the reason why so many families are torn apart and in distress. We find mothers doing treacherous things like hurting and harming their own children, even killing them. But when you're in the family of God, that's the blood that's much thicker than water. And Jesus set this up for us and he shows us that his family is found in those who obey the word of God. Now watch this. Proverbs 18 and 24 says, A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And in this moment, that friend is John. But watch this. Jesus is asked about his family in Luke chapter 8, verses 19 through 21. Now get this and get it well. It says, Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, Your mother and your brothers are standing outside desiring to see you. But he answered them, My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it. Let that soak in. But his true family are those who are in the family of God. And if we get this lesson and get it well here today, we'll understand that as a church family, we ought to be closer than most. As a church family, there ought to be a bond that cannot be broken. Because our love, our relationship is not built upon things that are not eternal, things that are superficial. Ours is built upon the blood of Jesus, it's built upon the sacrifice of Jesus, it's built upon the love of God, it is built upon obedience and faith in Jesus Christ. Come on, church. That's the reason why we are taught if you have an art with your brother, go to your brother in secret and settle it. It tells us that we ought not be dragging each other out in the streets into the courts to let them settle our affairs. Oh, that we would learn from Jesus even as he's dying in this moment. Y'all gotta excuse me because sometimes I get a little, you know, y'all been around me. I've I get kind of worked up, but listen, understand something. Me and my family have lived away from our biological family for over 20 years. The church has been our family when we were nowhere near family. And sometimes you find people in church that you seem to be closer to and trust more than your own blood relatives. That's the reason why Jesus could trust John to care for his mother. Because that was a family that was built upon a sure foundation. And Jesus provided that way for us, and he's speaking to us on the cross. He's speaking to us not just words, but he's speaking to us life application that we are to learn from. You see, the family of God is bound together by sacrificial love, trust, unity, grace, and accountability, and the list goes on. And then in verse 28, we find the humanity of Jesus. We see him as a human, where he says, I thirst. The incarnation is fully embraced in this. Because many times people will see just the deity, just the divine, and say, Well, that was Jesus. I mean, yeah, he was God in the flesh. Certainly he could handle that. But here we find that Jesus was fully man. He was fully God and fully man. His body was a body like yours and like mine. He endured everything that your body would endure as if you were being crucified. He was spared nothing. And even in the moment as he's hanging there caring for his mother, he says he's thirsty, but they give him sour wine and puts it up to his mouth and he refuses it. It was supposed to prolong the crucifixion. But understand something. We see him in this form of a man in his suffering. Asking for something simple like water. And they choose to give him sour wine. Think about how our Savior is being tortured. For us. All of us. If you can't do anything else, you can give a man a drink of water. But they didn't give Jesus water. And he suffered through it. And we see that. So when you think about communion, the body and the blood of our Lord and Savior that was sacrificed for us. It ought to be more than just juice and a cracker. It represents a sacrifice. It represents everything that he gave for us. You see, Jesus was subject to all of the sufferings that a human body would go through during this crucifixion. This is not him appearing to be human, he was human. Suffering as one of us would suffer as if we were subjected to it ourselves. And sometimes we have pains that come into our bodies and they ache so bad. And sometimes we, they're pains that make us cry. But it was nothing like the pain that our Jesus was enduring here on this cross. Nothing like it. And we feel it, and pain hurts, and we don't like it. But just imagine a little pain that we deal with and the pain that he's suffering through in this moment. All it's real today, church. He was fully human. He understands our sufferings and our struggles. And I love this old hymn. There is not a friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. And it says, Jesus knows all about our struggles, and he will guide us till the day is done. There's not a friend. Like the lowly Jesus. I love the fact that our Jesus still calls us his friend. I love the fact that our Jesus understands our struggles, understands our hardships. And then that old hymn that says, Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. Every one of our sins, he's hung, he hung on the cross for it. Every grief that you have, you can take it to the Lord in prayer because he sacrificed for us. He knows what it is like to be grieved, distraught, vexed, cursed, talked about, and mistreated. He felt loneliness among his friends in the Garden of Gethsemane, his own disciples that had walked with him, he had taught them. They saw him perform the miracles, they saw him do all of these awesome, wonderful things, but yet he just asked them to watch for one hour and pray. And he comes back and finds them sleeping. But we fail. And even though they failed him, he didn't cast them away. He still went to the cross and died for them. Even the ones that failed him, he went to the cross for them. He felt the loneliness. And he felt what it is like to be betrayed by one of his own, one of his own chosen disciples, Judas, on a night that he was already suffering loneliness and grief in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking the Lord if he would remove this bitter cup from him. But yet still, I love the fact that his desire to please the Father stood up and said, Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And every time he came back to find the disciple sleeping, he still prayed, Nevertheless, not my will, but the Father's will would be done. And understand, if that were us, when we talk about the human form of Jesus, if that were us, and we asked someone to just watch for us just for a moment that an enemy is coming to take us to be crucified, and we found our friends, if we found our relatives sleeping, how would you respond? Would you kick them to the curve? Would you decide to forego the crucifixion and say, God, they don't care about me? Why would I die for them? They are not even with me. They're here, but they won't even watch for me. So, God, why? How many times have people done wrong to you and you wanted to cut them off? How many times have we gone tit for tat? How many times has someone done something wrong and we just decided, okay, I'm gonna change the way I treat them? I'm not gonna do all that I normally would do for them because they wronged me or they didn't do what I wanted them to do. Oh, but not Jesus. When we look at what he is doing here on the cross, he says, I don't care who you are, I don't care what you have done, I am dying for you. It's to please the Father because God loves us so much that he wants us to be brought back into right fellowship with him. And then this, Jesus felt what it was like to be denied by Peter on the night of his betrayal. Yet Peter is the rock upon which the church is built, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. What kind of savior is this that we're talking about who's hanging on a cross and dying for us? Well, people keep failing him, but he keeps giving them a chance. People keep failing him, but he keeps giving them everything that they need. Draw in, church. Draw in to the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and what that means for each and every one of us, and what he has done. And so I want you to understand this, and this might be where we take a pause for an invitation, because here's what we need to understand is that Jesus knows our struggles, he knows our sins, he knows everything that we're hurting and we're dealing with. And watch this. Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 through 16 says this since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So here, let us then with confidence, with boldness, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I'm not done preaching, but I feel like the Holy Spirit is doing something right now. There may be somebody here that you need to know the goodness and the grace of God. You need to know that there's no failure that you could ever have that you can't come to God with and ask Him for help in your time of need. No matter what it is, maybe you're struggling to just live the way God wants you to live. Maybe you're struggling with forgiveness. Pastor Jared preached so well on that a few weeks ago. Maybe you're struggling with whether or not you're all the way in to this thing that we call salvation through Jesus Christ. Maybe you're still exploring, maybe you have questions, maybe there's something in your heart that you're dealing with, that God has already spoken to you about, and you know who you are. And maybe in this moment the Holy Spirit has spoken to you to draw near to him. We want you to know that Jesus understands, he knows, and he has compassion for you. Even as he died on the cross, he had compassion, he had concern, he cared about those he was leaving behind, and he cared about those of us who were coming after him. So if you're here today and the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and you desire prayer or just to talk to somebody, I'm gonna ask that you just slip your hand up. Amen. I see your hand. I see your hand. Praise God, praise God. I see your hand, praise God. I believe in being obedient to the Holy Spirit. I see your hand. I'm gonna ask the child if you don't mind, would you stand up and just pray decision partners? They meet you in the back. Let's celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit today. Amen. Finally, Jesus says this it is finished. That simply means that it's paid in full. And I'm gonna get happy on that. Lord have mercy. Paid in full. So I don't really understand why people won't accept that and just receive Jesus Christ. Because understand something. We want to know how in the world did we get ourselves in this position to begin with, that God Himself had to come out of heaven in the form of a man called Jesus Christ and die for the sins of this world because the sacrificial system had been messed up. And oftentimes in in Christianity, we we know what to believe, we're taught what to believe, but we don't understand why we believe it. So why did Jesus have to die? Yes, man had gotten so sinful, and man could not repay his own debt, but that's not the why. The why is found in a book of the Bible called Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament. And what most people know Malachi, Malachi 4, is Malachi 3:10. Bring ye all the tithe into the storehouse that there might be meat in my house. Right? And and and and and see if I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you won't have room enough to receive. Hey, I'll take all the blessings for sure. But that's not what it's about. In the book of Malachi, the people are arguing back and forth with God about the sacrificial system. And God is telling them, You have not loved me. They say, Well, what do you mean we haven't loved you? Where have we not loved you? Right? God says, You're not honoring me. They're arguing back and forth. What do you mean we haven't honored you? We did this, we did that. So let me read from Malachi chapter 1, starting at verse 6, and we're gonna go a little bit into chapter 2 so that we understand how we got ourselves in this position to begin with, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had to die for our sins, because before that, man was taking their own sacrifices to the altar and to the priest to cover their own sin. But man became disobedient, selfish, and greedy. And in Malachi chapter 1, verse 6, it says, A son honors his father and a servant his master. This is the Lord. If then I am a father, where is my honor? This is God speaking. And if I am a master, where is my fear? Fear meaning respect, says the Lord of hosts to you. Oh who priests? Wow, who despise my name. The priests despise his name? But you say, How have we despised your name? This is them arguing back with God. You gotta say to God, God, if God said you did it, don't you ask God what you mean? Well, that's pretty arrogant, right? And so, when you say, How have we polluted you? Well, well, I'm sorry, by offering polluted food upon my altar, but you say, How have we polluted you? By saying that the Lord's table may be despised. Verse 8, when you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? You see what they're doing to God? You see how they're disrespecting God, disobedient, dishonoring of God? Present that to your governor. That's what God says. Give it to your governor. Will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us with such a gift from your hand. Will he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. Verse 10. Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts. I will not accept an offering from your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering, for my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. But you profane it when you say that the Lord's table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food, may be despised. But you say, What a weariness this is, and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. So they got tired. It was too much work for them. Oh, this is too much. We got to go through this sacrificial system and prepare all of these things. So they got tired on the Lord. They got complacent. And he says, You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering. Shall I accept that from your hand, says the Lord? Cursed be the cheat who has a male in his flock and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great king, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations. And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart. Do we see how wicked and evil man had become and how they totally messed up the sacrificial system? But then in Malachi 3, verses 6 through 7, watch this. For I the Lord do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. He didn't consume them because he had already made them a promise. How faithful is our God with people who won't even be faithful to him, that won't do right to him. He is faithful to honor his own promises. Verse 7 says, From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statues and have not kept them. Now, here is the main point of the whole book of Malachi. He says, Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, How shall we return? And that's when God gets into, well, will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me of tithes and offerings. But the whole point of the book is, return to me, says the Lord, and I will return to you. But the people would not return to him. So God had to make a sacrifice for himself, which means he had to become the ultimate unblemished sacrifice, step out of heaven, take on the human form in the form of a man named Jesus to come here to be the savior of the world and be his own unblemished sacrifice. Church, let's ask ourselves, where are we making excuses for what God has told us to do, and yet we are not being obedient to do it? Are there sacrifices that you're willing to make for the kingdom of God? Are there sacrifices of your time, of your talent, of your treasure? What sacrifices are we willing to make for the kingdom of God? Because I promise you, whatever it is that we call a sacrifice is nothing compared to the sacrifice that Jesus made so that we would even be here to be able to say, I'm making a sacrifice to give unto the Lord. Whatever you sacrifice began with a more gruesome sacrifice that paved the way for you to be able to even have something to sacrifice. Does that make sense? He laid it all on the line for us. And I'm gonna end with this, John 17, verses 1 through 5. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come to glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence, in your own presence, with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. Jesus died in obedience to the Father to glorify the Father, but to bring a sinful man back into a right relationship and fellowship with the holy God. And I'll offer one more invitation. For those that might be contemplating that relationship with Jesus. He died for you to have that right relationship with him. And I'm gonna say this just because you show up at church on Sunday morning can mean that you live in a right relationship with Jesus. This is not about checking the box. This is about really surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ, the one who gave the ultimate. Sacrifice. And I'm not going to be in this very long. I've preached and we've had one invitation already. I'm just being obedient to the Holy Spirit, and I hope that you're obedient to the Holy Spirit as well. And that you will respond. I'll be right down here. Whether that's now or whether that's at the end of the service, don't leave here today. If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, tomorrow's not promised to any of us. It's 1138 by my watch, 1139 is not promised to us. The future is not your promise. But it is your promise when you have eternal life through Jesus Christ and make him Lord and Savior of your life. That's the only future that gets promised to us. And that is the life that He grants us through faith in Jesus. It is the gift of God. And that gift hung bled and died for us on the cross. Receive it today. Amen.