WEBVTT 00:00:00.719 --> 00:00:04.320 Teaching text for today comes from Mark 15. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:05.679 We are two weeks away. 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:09.359 We've been in this in the Gospel of Mark for two years. 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:14.560 Um two weeks away from completing this uh wonderful gospel. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:24.079 And so today we'll focus on the death and burial of Jesus, and then next week we'll obviously talk about the resurrection of Jesus. 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.120 And so yeah, I'm excited. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:30.000 This is what Mark writes, starting in verse 16. 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:38.560 It says the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace, that is the praetorium, and called together the whole company of soldiers. 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:47.359 They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him, and they began to call out to him, Hail, King of the Jews. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:51.200 Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. 00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:54.000 Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. 00:00:54.479 --> 00:01:02.960 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put on his own clothes, and then they led him out to crucify him. 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:14.079 And a certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way to the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:19.599 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:24.400 And then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:30.239 And they crucified him, dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:32.560 It was nine in the morning when they crucified him. 00:01:32.799 --> 00:01:36.239 And the written notice of the charge against him read, The King of the Jews. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:40.640 And they crucified two rebels with him, one on his right and one on his left. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:52.239 And those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, So, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself. 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:56.879 And in the same way, the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:01.040 He saved others, they said, but he cannot save himself. 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:07.120 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe. 00:02:07.359 --> 00:02:09.919 Those who crucified him heaped insults on him. 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:14.159 At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:21.599 And at three in the afternoon, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:27.599 When some of those standing near heard this, they said, Listen, he's calling Elijah. 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:33.840 Someone ran and filled a sponge with wine vinegar and put it on his staff and offered it to Jesus to drink. 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:35.120 Now leave him alone. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:38.400 Let's see if Elijah comes to take him down, he said. 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:45.039 And with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:53.439 And when the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, Surely this man was the son of God. 00:02:53.840 --> 00:03:00.960 Some women were watching from a distance, and among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James the younger, and of Joseph and Salome. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:10.159 In Galilee, these women had followed him and cared for his needs, and many other women who had come up with him from Jerusal to Jerusalem were also there. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.360 It was preparation day, that is the day before the Sabbath. 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:23.840 So as evening approached, Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:30.240 Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead, and summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. 00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:35.759 When he learned that the centurion, uh, that it was from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 00:03:35.919 --> 00:03:43.919 And so Joseph brought, bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of the rock. 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:46.960 Then he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:51.120 Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of Joseph, saw where he was laid. 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:52.879 This is the word of the Lord. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:00.800 The only person I've ever watched literally die in my presence. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:09.199 The only person I've actually seen that happen to was my granddaddy years ago, about 12 years ago. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:18.160 And the thing about watching someone die, if you've ever seen someone die and been in the presence of someone dying, for me at least, it marked me. 00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:24.240 Like it was a moment in time where I was seeing something literally I have never seen before. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:29.759 Never seen a person pass on from this life into the next, never seen that before. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.879 And I wasn't a spectator trying to like take it all in. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:37.199 I was just there and just being in the room where it was happening marked me. 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:46.959 I remember, I remember what he did in his last, he breathed this last long breath and kind of sat up, and he hadn't moved in days. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:49.040 He kind of sat up and started reaching. 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:50.800 I remembered what he looked like when he did that. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:54.800 I called my grandma, I was laying on the bed next to him, and I called my grandmother over. 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:56.480 I was like, grandmommy, can you make my? 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:05.040 And so I I didn't know what was happening, and um, and she went over and she I just said, It's okay, we're gonna be okay, you're good, you can go. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:10.079 But you like you remember all of it, right? 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:11.040 Like you remember everything. 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:36.160 And then um, so that was sweet, and then like my dad, like I'd seen him like get teary-eyed before and that kind of thing, but like this was a moment where like I remember like the like the shrill shriek, like something came out of him, like watching his dad pass away, and like knowing like that he can't uh, you know, he's not gonna be able to see his dad in this life anymore. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:46.560 And it was just this thing, this guttural thing that like I don't even think he knew was gonna escape his body or whatever, but it was it was just true sadness, like something that was expressed. 00:05:46.639 --> 00:05:53.680 And I so it was this this moment of watching someone die that just shaped, I can rem I can remember what he looked like in his face. 00:05:53.839 --> 00:06:08.800 I can remember just watching these things, and and we have so many memories of uh or so many times where you don't remember anything about the rooms that you're sitting in, but like for some reason, in the presence with someone dying, it just it just shapes you, it marks you. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:12.240 You remember every single, or for me at least, I remembered every single thing about it. 00:06:12.399 --> 00:06:20.879 And I say that because in this scene in the death of Jesus, I think the same thing happens to this centurion. 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:23.439 Like he just he watches this man die. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.360 And he's he's he's his murderer. 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:35.120 He's probably one of the guys that abused him and tortured him before, walked him all the way out to the cross, and then has just been with Jesus the entire time and just watching him die. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:40.000 And at the end of Jesus' life, he looks up and something happens. 00:06:40.079 --> 00:06:48.480 He says, When it when I saw, when it I think it says when it saw the way that he died, he says, Surely this man was a son of God. 00:06:48.639 --> 00:07:02.399 I was like, there's just something about being marked by this moment and just seeing this text that we read, but seeing the actual image, seeing the actual visual picture of this thing, it shaped him and it marked him, and it it changed him. 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:08.240 He went from uh centurions, Roman centurions are only supposed to call the Son of God Caesar. 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:09.839 Caesar is the son of the divine. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:12.000 That's the only time they're ever supposed to use that. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:20.000 And for some reason, this centurion sees Jesus die, and he changes his allegiance from a Roman Caesar to a Jewish Jesus, this rabbi. 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:26.079 And so he has this marked moment, this shift, this change that happens in his life just by watching Jesus die. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:40.319 And so, what I want to do today is I want to do my best to try and look at how Jesus dies, things that are happening in this moment as Jesus dies, so that something similar can just be reawakened in us. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:46.480 That some of us will actually have this change of heart and this change of thinking and this change of our mind. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:50.000 The centurion changes his thoughts on who Jesus actually is. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:53.839 He thinks he's a criminal, and all of a sudden, at the very end, is like, this is the Son of God. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:55.040 Surely it was. 00:07:55.279 --> 00:08:03.839 And so I want to look at this so that hopefully we we get to a space where it actually marks us, it actually shapes us, and something has changed or deepened in us as well. 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:05.040 And so that's what I want to do today. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.720 Three things that we see in the death of Jesus, and I want to draw out some application of what those things can mean for us. 00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:19.839 Okay, so the first in the death of Jesus, one of the things that we see is that God is demonstrating his love for us. 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:23.439 God is just demonstrating his love for us in the death of Jesus. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:28.560 In this passage, you see the type of people that Jesus is dying for. 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:30.480 And none of them are great, right? 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:31.439 They're all bad. 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:47.120 And so, verses 16 through 32, I'm not going to read them again, but basically, here's who he's dying for: people who abuse him, people who torture him, people who mock him, liars, slanderers, rebels, thieves, hypocrites, those who are envious and jealous of him. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:50.799 He dies for unbelievers, and he even dies for his murderers. 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:58.320 Jesus is dying for people, and he's really just, it's what it's revealing is he is dying for ungodly people. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:05.919 He is not dying for anybody that really is like cheering him on, going, go, Jesus, go! It's gonna, you know, that no one's doing that. 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:12.000 He's dying for these horrible, horrific people with evil intent inside their hearts. 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:13.519 That is who he's dying for. 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:24.799 And what Paul says about what Jesus does in this moment is he says that this thing that he's doing, in this way, God is demonstrating his love for us. 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:26.320 He says this in Romans 5. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:29.840 He says, Christ died for the ungodly. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:31.679 And we see them in this text. 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:33.360 Christ died for the ungodly. 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:38.320 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might dare to die. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:44.080 But God demonstrates his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:51.519 And so what we're seeing in this passage is God is demonstrating his love for people, even love for the murderers of his own son. 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:53.759 He is demonstrating his love for us. 00:09:53.919 --> 00:09:57.440 And Jesus says that no greater, there's no greater love than to lay down your life. 00:09:57.519 --> 00:09:59.120 He says this in John 15. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:04.159 There's no greater love, no greater love than this, than to lay one's life down for one's friend. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:08.399 And Jesus isn't even doing it necessarily for his friend, even though he's called the friend of sinners. 00:10:08.480 --> 00:10:10.960 He is doing this for the ungodly. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:15.120 He's doing this for people who do not call him friend, and he is laying down his life. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:27.360 And so, in this scene, what you see in this passage is God is demonstrating the greatest love ever shown, and he's demonstrating that to the ungodly, he's demonstrating that to people who don't deserve it. 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:44.240 And so, what this means for us, what it what it should mean for us, is that in God demonstrating his love for us, what this should mean for us is it should tell us that like you do not have to do anything, any work to get God to love you. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:51.519 There's not like something that he's waiting for in order to get you, get him to go, like, okay, now I will love you. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:54.399 We don't have to do any work to get God to love us. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.000 We don't have to do anything like that. 00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:56.960 He already loves you. 00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:58.639 He has demonstrated that he loves you. 00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:00.720 His love is not based on your behavior. 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:02.639 It can't be based on your behavior. 00:11:02.720 --> 00:11:08.879 Because if it was based on behavior, he never would have shown love to these people because they're not behaving, they're not doing great. 00:11:09.039 --> 00:11:13.120 They're making a lot of bad decisions, a lot of evil decisions, a lot of just torturous decisions. 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:15.759 It's just evil being displayed on a person. 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:19.039 But he already loves us. 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:21.840 He is demonstrating that he loves us and it's not based on our behavior. 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:24.720 You do not have to work to get him to like you. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.840 You don't have to do a bunch of good stuff to be like, God, do you see me now? 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:29.039 God, will you love me now? 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:30.480 God, will you be kind to me now? 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:32.559 Look at all the stuff that I've done. 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:37.039 He demonstrates his love for us that while we were ungodly, he died for us. 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:38.960 He already loves you. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:56.559 I think one of the greatest deceptions that Satan, that the enemy has poured into our minds as Christians and just as people, really, is this being deceived into thinking that God doesn't actually love us. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:02.080 Or that it's just hard to get him to love us, that he's like begrudgingly forgiving our sins. 00:12:02.159 --> 00:12:05.679 Like, I don't really want to, but I guess I have to because Jesus did that thing on the cross. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:08.799 Like, like you have to, like when we pray, you're like, God, please help. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:21.919 And we we we can kind of get this feeling of like that we have to get his attention to like aim at our situation and then try and explain, like, seriously, I need your help because this is really messed up, and let me give you 30 reasons why I need you to actually break in and do something. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:31.519 And I think there's just this thing in us that exists where we're like, we just struggle to believe that he actually feels affection for us, that he actually loves us. 00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:36.080 But we need to see, and actually, somebody asked this question in the Q ⁇ R. 00:12:36.159 --> 00:12:46.240 They were like, How do you, how do you, uh how do you deal with the differences between the angry God of the Old Testament and the Jesus that we see in the New Testament? 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:48.480 I'm like, man, it even shows up in that question. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.759 Like, certainly these two people are different. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:56.320 And it's like, but Jesus says, I'm revealing to you what the Father is actually like. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:02.240 And you have to see it, and what Paul is saying is like, it is God who is doing something in the midst of it. 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.720 Jesus is being used for this thing and he's obedient to the Father in this thing. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:10.559 But Paul says it is God who is demonstrating his love for you. 00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:19.600 The God of the Old Testament is demonstrating his love for you, not to crush and condemn sinners, but he's demonstrating his love for you that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:13:19.840 --> 00:13:23.919 He is the one that's actually doing something for you. 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:37.200 And it's so hard to convince people or even to talk about like God loves you because it can be so rote and so thing, like I love you, we say I love you a billion times, and so God loves you is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you see it on billboards and all this different stuff. 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:47.840 But like, there is something here that we really do need to fundamentally grasp in our hearts that like you are deeply loved by a God that does not base it on your behavior. 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:51.440 He has done something in history to display and to demonstrate. 00:13:51.519 --> 00:14:02.799 Like, I feel affection for you, I care for you, I love you with a real love, a sacrificial love, one that's willing to give my only son, I love you so much, to bring you back to me. 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:11.360 We have to figure out how that, how to make that not become something that we we know theoretically, but not in practice. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:14.720 We have to figure out how to live inside the reality that we are loved by God. 00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:27.840 If you've ever seen, uh if you've ever adopted an abused dog, um, I don't want the dog that I have, but um uh if you ever do that, normally what happens is uh the dog struggles to trust you, right? 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:29.039 Like it takes a minute. 00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:36.799 And even when you're trying to be so kind to it and so gracious to it, you're trying to love it, and you're trying to show it that it's safe with you, like it will not trust you. 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:46.399 And it just takes time and time and time and time to where the dog finally is able to fall into and rest into, okay, I think these people are safe. 00:14:46.559 --> 00:14:48.159 I think they actually love me. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:57.200 And something fundamentally changes inside their behavior, and I think there's something or inside their lives of like, okay, I believe I can live in the reality. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:14:59.840 I do not have to be scared anymore. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:08.159 We have to figure out how to actually bring this love that God has for us, bring it into our lives so that it has expression into our hearts so that it shapes the way that we live. 00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:10.399 We have to live inside the reality. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:15.840 In the scriptures, God wants to bless so many people. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:27.840 Um but one of the things that happens is that when people begin or question, I don't think he actually loves me. 00:15:28.159 --> 00:15:30.960 God doesn't punish them for that, God doesn't hurt them for that. 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:32.879 They actually end up hurting themselves. 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:44.080 Like that, like that's the when they begin questioning, I don't think he actually loves me as much as he says he does, I don't think he actually loves me and he's leading me in good spaces, they end up, everybody ends up hurting themselves. 00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:51.440 And so, case in point in Genesis, the serpent basically tells Adam and Eve, God doesn't love you, he's holding out on you, and they believe it. 00:15:51.679 --> 00:15:52.799 God's holding out on us. 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:54.480 He doesn't love us, he's holding out on us. 00:15:54.559 --> 00:16:04.559 And so they take the fruit and they eat, and it's like, you just harmed yourself because you fundamentally did not fully grasp and believe that he actually loved you, that he would not hold out on you. 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:08.399 He loves you enough to give, to create you, like he is not holding out on you. 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:12.799 But they began questioning God's love for them, and that led them to hurt themselves. 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:16.559 In Numbers, um, I'm reading this right now, and so it's fresh in my brain. 00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:19.840 But the people of Israel, God is trying to bless them. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:23.519 He's like, I've rescued you out of Egypt, and now I'm gonna take you into the promised land. 00:16:23.600 --> 00:16:31.360 It's gonna be this amazing thing, and you're gonna see incredible stuff, and I'm gonna bless you with all this land that you're gonna love, and I'm gonna fight for you and protect you, I'm gonna do all this stuff. 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:41.039 And it says that they send some spies in and come back out, and that basically what they say is like, no, God didn't bring us here to give us this land, he brought us here to kill us. 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:46.159 And they start telling the Israelite community, God has brought us out of Egypt to kill us here. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:54.639 He does not want to bless us, he does not love us, he's our murderer, he's come here, he's an assassin used by somebody to get us out here, and now he's gonna kill us. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:17:03.440 And it says that they decided because they did not believe that God loved them, that they believed actually he's gonna kill us, they decided not to go in the land. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:08.319 And they ended up hurting themselves, they hurt their families in the process, they hurt their kids in the process. 00:17:08.400 --> 00:17:11.279 I mean, they miss out on all this wonderful stuff that God wanted to do. 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:13.119 And it's like, well, what's the genesis of it? 00:17:13.200 --> 00:17:14.880 What what what led them to do that? 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:18.799 It's like they honestly didn't believe that God loved them, they believed that he wanted to kill them. 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:21.759 You see this in the New Testament with Jesus and the rich young ruler. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:27.119 Rich young ruler rolls up to Jesus and is like, I'm just lacking something in my soul, something's wrong. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:28.480 I'm missing something. 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:33.039 And Jesus is like, it says, actually, it says, Jesus looked at him and loved him. 00:17:33.200 --> 00:17:35.119 And so you have the love right there, right? 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:42.160 He loves this man, and now he's about to speak and tell him, out of love, here's what you should go and do to get the thing that you long for. 00:17:42.319 --> 00:17:46.720 And then Jesus tells him, Sell have your possessions and give it to the poor, and then come be with me. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.839 Like then you will find the life that you're longing for. 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:56.559 But the man loves his wealth, the man does not trust Jesus and his love for him, and so he chooses to walk away. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.119 And it says that he walks away harming himself. 00:17:59.279 --> 00:18:02.640 He walks away sad, staying in the state that he's in. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.079 And it's like, why? 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:10.240 Partly is because he loved his money and partly because he didn't trust that Jesus actually loved him and had what was best for him. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:17.039 When we do not believe that God loves us, we make decisions that are worse for us, not better for us. 00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:25.920 And so God demonstrating his love for us is supposed to constantly shape us into people who are actually believing in reality. 00:18:26.079 --> 00:18:30.400 Like when he asks me to do something, he's not asking me to do something to harm me. 00:18:30.480 --> 00:18:33.119 He is asking me to do something out of love for me. 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:36.960 He knows this is what's best for me, and so he's calling me into that thing. 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:41.519 When he tells us, stay away from these things, he's not doing that to steal from us. 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.480 Out of love, he's going seriously, they'll kill you. 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:45.519 Stay away from that stuff. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:47.200 Out of love, I'm telling you to do that. 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:53.599 In the same way that we would tell our little kids, like, don't touch live wires and put your fingers and lick like little outlets. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:54.720 Like, don't do that stuff. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:55.839 Like, you would why? 00:18:55.920 --> 00:19:00.640 It's like, because I love them and I'd like to see them live longer than just being a little baby. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:01.759 Like, that's why. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:06.160 You tell them to do those things because you're trying to protect them, and God is doing the exact same thing. 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:13.599 But if we don't believe that He loves us, then every time He calls us to walk in a direction and step out on faith, we'll go, there's no way. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:18.640 I cannot follow you out there because I think you're actually trying to hurt me, not help me. 00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:19.920 Stay away from this. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:20.559 Uh-uh. 00:19:20.799 --> 00:19:21.920 I don't trust that you love me. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:23.440 You're actually trying to keep something from me. 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:25.519 Your commands are a burden to me. 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.319 Like you're trying to, you're trying to just control my life. 00:19:28.559 --> 00:19:32.720 You're a you're you're a tyrant, not a not a king who loves me. 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:38.079 And the cross is supposed to demonstrate, it's supposed to serve as a marker forever. 00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.799 I have demonstrated that I love you. 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:44.160 I have demonstrated the greatest love that's possible to show you. 00:19:44.400 --> 00:19:46.799 I need you to trust and believe that I have that for you. 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:57.039 So that when I'm when I do tell you to, like, do these things inside your marriage, do these things with your money, do these things with your kids, do these things with your sexuality, do these things. 00:19:57.200 --> 00:19:59.839 Like, I need you to trust that I love you. 00:19:59.920 --> 00:20:03.200 And you can look at the cross and go, I promise, I promise, I love you. 00:20:03.359 --> 00:20:04.559 I have proven that I love you. 00:20:04.720 --> 00:20:09.839 Now follow me because you can trust me that I have chosen to display my love for you. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:15.200 And now you can trust that I'm not gonna do anything and call you into spaces that I'm trying to like steal and take from you. 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:18.079 I'm trying to lead you into life, greater and greater life. 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:25.039 And so this idea, the cross, Jesus' death here is supposed to serve as a marker of God demonstrating his love for us. 00:20:25.119 --> 00:20:26.319 I gotta go a little faster. 00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.039 Okay, number two, he loves you. 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.240 It needs to be not just that's not going faster. 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:32.640 Okay. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:39.279 Second thing that we see in Jesus' death is that God is being incredibly merciful to us. 00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:48.799 He's being incredibly just and uh vengeful on Jesus, but he is being incredibly merciful to us. 00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:55.759 And so in verse 33 through 37, we see that all the punishment and all the judgment of sin is falling on Jesus. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:59.920 And so I'm just gonna, I'm not gonna read it again, but I'm gonna pull out a handful of things. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:12.880 But there's a lot of things that are happening in Jesus' time on the cross that is displaying that God is actually taking the full force of his judgment and punishment for sin, and he's throwing those things on Jesus. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:17.039 And so the first is exile from God's presence. 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:23.680 Um, if you remember Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, I believe we have this here, yeah, exile from God's presence. 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:26.799 When Adam and Eve sin, they experience exile. 00:21:27.039 --> 00:21:29.359 God banishes them from his presence. 00:21:29.759 --> 00:21:34.640 And he places uh angels with swords to block the gates back into his presence. 00:21:34.799 --> 00:21:36.240 Like you're not coming back in. 00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:38.559 And so they experience this exile from God's presence. 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:43.359 And so when Jesus on the cross, he's experiencing the exile from God's presence. 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:46.720 This is why he cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:51.920 He is experiencing the exile that they experienced, and he's experiencing those things for all time. 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:59.440 He's actually taking the sin, not just the sins of our present and our future, but the sins even of the past, the ones that began back there. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.359 Is taking those things on himself. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:04.880 He is experiencing the exile that Adam and Eve experienced. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.440 And then there's darkness that falls on the land. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:13.759 Darkness over the land was the ninth plague in the plagues of Egypt. 00:22:14.319 --> 00:22:23.039 And so God used this darkness to judge Egypt for their sin against Israel and for their disobedience and their hard-heartedness towards God. 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:26.160 And then the tenth plague was the death of the firstborn. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:31.039 And so you have darkness that falls over the whole land, and then the death of the firstborn son of God. 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:36.000 And so what you're seeing is like this judgment that's falling on him, judgment of darkness comes over the land. 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.880 But it's not falling on Israel itself or even the Romans. 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:40.720 It is falling on Jesus. 00:22:41.839 --> 00:22:44.160 It is revealing like what is he taking on himself? 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:47.200 He is taking on the full judgment of sin. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:23:00.720 And then Jesus just being lifted up on the cross is a substantial marker and supposed to be the signpost pointing to what is actually happening in Jesus. 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:06.559 And so it's a short story back in Numbers, and some hopefully some of you are familiar with it. 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:08.319 If not, go read Numbers 21. 00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:17.359 But back in Numbers, the people of Israel were going through the wilderness on the way to the promised land, and they're just not doing great. 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:23.759 And it's not going great, and they're grumbling against God, and they're so angry with him, and they're basically blaspheming him in many ways. 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:32.960 And these snakes are biting the people, and these people are dying. 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:35.039 And this is a judgment. 00:23:35.200 --> 00:23:42.160 Like you guys have rebelled against me, you're complaining against me, and you're like, you're just not trusting me, you're not being obedient to me. 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.240 And so it's a judgment for their sin. 00:23:44.559 --> 00:23:48.480 And then this is what they eventually say. 00:23:49.119 --> 00:23:51.279 The people come to Moses and they said, We sinned. 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:52.960 And he's like, No joke. 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:55.920 Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. 00:23:56.079 --> 00:24:00.640 And so Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, make a snake and put it on a pole. 00:24:01.039 --> 00:24:03.680 Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:06.559 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. 00:24:06.799 --> 00:24:12.720 And then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked up at the bronze snake, they lived. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:16.240 And so God's response in this situation. 00:24:16.480 --> 00:24:18.319 They've sinned, they deserve judgment. 00:24:18.480 --> 00:24:27.519 God has sent judgment on the people of Israel, and his response to them was if you would like to be delivered from the judgment that you do deserve, you deserve judgment. 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:32.640 If you want to be delivered from the judgment you deserve, look upon the judgment you deserve. 00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:34.799 Look at the snake, that's the judgment you deserve. 00:24:34.960 --> 00:24:41.279 Look at the judgment you deserve, hanging on a pole, and you will experience the salvation and the life that you're looking for. 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:44.240 But you need to look at the judgment you deserve. 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:50.559 And so in Jesus, what you see is that Jesus is receiving the judgment we deserve. 00:24:51.119 --> 00:25:02.720 And in order to actually experience life from him, to experience eternal life from God the Father, he says, look to Jesus, look to the judgment you deserve, that I'm not pouring out on you, I'm actually pouring it out on my son. 00:25:03.200 --> 00:25:06.480 Look to him, and you will actually find life that you're looking for. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:10.240 Jesus uses that story of the snake to describe himself. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.160 He says this in John 3, when he's talking to Nicodemus. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:23.279 He says, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man himself must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:31.440 For God so loved the world, there's that love word again, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:36.160 For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:42.799 And so Jesus takes this story onto himself, and he's like, This is what's going to happen to me. 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:49.440 I will be lifted up in front of people, and then I will bear the judgment that people actually deserve. 00:25:49.599 --> 00:26:01.599 Now that anybody that comes to me and looks to me and believes in me will actually experience not the judgment they deserve, I'm taking the judgment they deserve, so that they can actually experience the life that they couldn't find without me. 00:26:01.759 --> 00:26:07.359 And so Jesus, in this passage, he is taking your judgment for sin. 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:09.519 He is taking your punishment for sin. 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:15.039 God is being incredibly merciful to you by making Jesus take on these things. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:18.799 He was punished and judged so that we wouldn't have to be punished and judged for our sins. 00:26:19.039 --> 00:26:21.279 He took the judgment that we deserved. 00:26:21.440 --> 00:26:24.400 Now, it's pretty basic. 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:28.400 Probably came to church and it's Palm Sunday and you're like, but he's gonna talk about the cross. 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:29.839 Heard a lot about that. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:31.440 Um, and so that it is. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:35.599 If you ask a number of Christians, like, uh, what does the cross mean? 00:26:35.839 --> 00:26:37.519 Like, ah, Jesus paid for my sin. 00:26:37.680 --> 00:26:39.200 Jesus died to pay for my sin. 00:26:39.359 --> 00:26:41.599 Ask a number of Christians, they'd probably be able to say that. 00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:43.279 So it's pretty basic. 00:26:43.519 --> 00:26:53.759 The issue, in my experience, even though it's pretty basic and people can say those things, most people don't live like this is true. 00:26:55.200 --> 00:26:59.680 They don't actually live like their sins have been punished and paid for by someone else. 00:26:59.920 --> 00:27:10.000 I still have these conversations with people and I love them, and I don't I don't mind having these conversations with them, but people still struggle, like they sin and they still think, oh no, something bad is gonna happen to me. 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:13.599 God is gonna give me a flat tire because I lied at work today. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:15.440 And it's like that's the correlation. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:17.680 You lie at work, you get a flat tire. 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:25.680 And like, people still like I I think I'm gonna get cancer because I cheated on my taxes or something. 00:27:25.759 --> 00:27:32.880 And like we still struggle with this idea that like there's a I did this, God must punish me this way. 00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:36.000 The reason I didn't get that job was because I did something. 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:43.920 The reason, the reason I didn't get that pay raise, the reason I didn't have that good thing happen to me, I there must be something I've done that God is paying me back for. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:47.759 There must be something I've done that God has punished me for. 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:54.240 But again, the truth is, and what is seen here, is that he has already paid someone back for your sin. 00:27:54.400 --> 00:27:56.000 He just didn't pay you for it. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:27:58.720 He's already punished someone for your sin. 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:00.880 He just didn't punish you for it. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:05.039 And so the punishment left to dole out on your sin, there's not one. 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:12.960 If you're in Jesus, like he's already taken that and you've already received that, he took a punishment so that you wouldn't actually have to experience it. 00:28:13.119 --> 00:28:17.039 He received what your sin deserves so that you won't have to receive what your sin deserves. 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:20.880 Now people still struggle with the question will God really forgive my sin? 00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:23.519 I've sinned so much, will God really forgive my sin? 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:24.640 Can he still do it? 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:25.839 Will he still do it? 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:31.279 But again, this testifies that he chose to do this so that he could forgive all of your sin. 00:28:31.759 --> 00:28:35.839 He chose to do this so that he can actually forgive you. 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:42.079 There's this wonderful quote by Dane Ortland in this book, Gentile and Lowly. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:45.200 Um read the book, it's a wonderful book. 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:53.680 Um but it talks about just the gift of like what Jesus actually wants to do with our sin when we bring it to him. 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:57.839 Because we just like, can he, will he, is he actually gonna forgive it? 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:01.119 I I know that he says he forgives it, but I struggle to believe that he forgives it. 00:29:01.359 --> 00:29:02.799 This is what he says. 00:29:03.920 --> 00:29:11.680 He says, God, Jesus, he does not get flustered and frustrated when we come to him for fresh forgiveness and renewed pardon. 00:29:11.920 --> 00:29:13.599 He says, that's the whole point. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:15.519 That's what he came to heal. 00:29:15.680 --> 00:29:20.880 He went down into the horror of death to provide a limitless supply of mercy and grace to his people. 00:29:21.119 --> 00:29:25.119 Christ gets more joy than we do when we come to him for help and mercy. 00:29:25.359 --> 00:29:33.119 When you come to Christ for mercy and love in your sinfulness, you are going with the flow of his own deepest wishes, not against them. 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:34.319 He lives for this. 00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:35.920 This is what he loves to do. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:43.759 It was the joyous anticipation of seeing people made invincibly clean that sent him through his arrest, death, and resurrection. 00:29:43.920 --> 00:29:52.559 When we partake of that atoning work, coming to Christ for forgiveness, we are laying hold of Jesus' own deepest longing and joy. 00:29:53.119 --> 00:29:53.839 I love that. 00:29:53.920 --> 00:29:57.839 Like, I think, again, I think sometimes we can come to him like, God, will you please forgive this? 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:00.079 And he's like, I've been waiting to do this. 00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:01.359 You don't have to convince me. 00:30:01.599 --> 00:30:04.000 I'm thrilled to do this, I'm thrilled to offer you forgiveness. 00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:05.119 But I need your mercy again. 00:30:05.200 --> 00:30:07.599 It's like, I'm thrilled to give you my mercy again. 00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:08.799 I bled for this. 00:30:08.960 --> 00:30:10.480 I'm glad somebody wants it. 00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:18.000 If my wife made a huge meal for me and Teddy and our family, and then we showed up and we weren't hungry, it wouldn't make her glad. 00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:19.119 Like, you that's right. 00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:20.240 You're not hungry. 00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:24.160 You don't need my meal that I bled for and sweat for and worked all day for. 00:30:24.319 --> 00:30:25.839 Like, no, she'd be super sad. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:28.240 She's like, I actually did this for you. 00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:30.480 I want you to have this thing. 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:38.000 But if I did show up, if Teddy and I showed up and we're starving and raving us, and we're like, God, we needed this food so much, she would be so thrilled. 00:30:38.160 --> 00:30:39.680 Like, good, I made it for you. 00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:42.720 I'm so glad I did all the work to give you this thing. 00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:44.720 I'm so thankful that you actually want this. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:46.400 I made it for I did this for you. 00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:47.519 Jesus is the same way. 00:30:47.599 --> 00:30:50.720 When we come to him for forgiveness, he's not like, what are you even doing here? 00:30:50.880 --> 00:30:52.240 You're here again? 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:56.640 Ah, you are just there are sinners, and then there's you. 00:30:56.799 --> 00:30:58.480 Like, he's not doing that. 00:30:58.799 --> 00:31:01.759 He's so, he's like, You need the thing that I died for? 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:03.279 You need the thing that I bled for? 00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:04.960 Thank God somebody wants it. 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:06.400 Like, I'm so thankful. 00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:08.319 I'm ready to pour this out on you. 00:31:08.480 --> 00:31:10.400 I bled to give this to you. 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:17.599 I made this happen so that people could come in and I could I could do something for them, and they're like, Really, you'll forgive that one too? 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:18.079 Absolutely. 00:31:18.160 --> 00:31:20.400 And it's like, that makes me feel so joyful. 00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:22.000 And he's like, Not more than me. 00:31:22.160 --> 00:31:24.160 I am so joyful to forgive your sin. 00:31:24.240 --> 00:31:27.920 We need to have this image in our mind of what it's like to repent and confess our sin. 00:31:28.079 --> 00:31:36.880 Not that we're coming before this guy that's staring at us like this, and it's like, oh, okay, I guess I'll are you gonna work on it? 00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:39.440 Are you gonna are you gonna do anything better? 00:31:39.599 --> 00:31:41.839 Are you gonna do this next next week again? 00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:46.160 I guess we have to have this image of him just going, like, come on, come on, come on, come on. 00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:48.559 Let's just say the thing, say the thing. 00:31:48.640 --> 00:31:48.799 Okay. 00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:49.519 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:50.480 We're good, we're good, we're good. 00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:54.400