Eight Days That Changed the World
First B Jackson
2026-04-05

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Amen, Judy. Thank you very much. I was trying to keep up with you. It's been a while since I've heard the song. I'm sorry if I was confusing to any of you.

I've just seen Jesus. I tell you, he's alive. That's amazing. Here we are and before I get started, I have admitted this in the past and I'll admit it again now. I, Christmas and Easter are the hardest sermons for me to preach because we preach em every year and I I don't want to change the story.

Obviously, I'm not going to change the story. You're not going to add any new characters, make anything up but I go through it and I just say, where am I going to put the focus this year? And it's really, it's really kind of hard for me. So, to be honest, last year, I was in Shiloh, Georgia Easter and I preached there not here. It was even hard doing it for home folks back there.

So, I will just say this. In 2019, I'm gonna show you something in a minute. In 2019, can you remember 2019 before 2020? Can you remember that far back? I made up this slide for Easter resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen.

I made up the slide. I will call my wife sometimes when I'm struggling on a sermon. Now, y'all know normally, if I left off at Ephesians three twelve last week, where am I starting? Ephesians three thirteen next week. That's just the norm, right?

So, that's the normal way to do it but if I am struggling for a sermon topic, whatever I'll call Tanya and say, I'm struggling and she'll say, go back to art. It's a little bit bit like Peter going back to fishing, right? I was an art major from way back and she said, what inspired those painters long ago inspire you? You'll have something to write. Okay, cool.

So, I got this slide. I made this slide out of a painting that I saw that I think it's my favorite resurrection painting and there are lots of resurrection paintings because it's incredibly inspiring. There are lots of crucifixion paintings because it's incredibly inspiring. Well, this one was resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen, did the font, you know, widescreen. Here it is.

There's the picture and it is from this painting from Sebastiano Ricci. He's Italian. He was in 1650 to 1734. This was the first part of the seventeenth century. Christ resurrected surrounded by angels.

When I was in seminary, we lived in Columbia, South Carolina and this is in the permanent collection in Columbia, South Carolina and so when I went digging for it, I'd stood in front of it and been in awe of it. When I went looking for it, I couldn't find it anywhere on the internet. So, I kept looking and kept looking and kept looking. Finally, in the permanent collection, deep, dark recesses of the Columbia Museum on the internet and I found it. So, I blow it up and make the slide and then, okay.

First slide's out of the way. Now, what am I gonna preach about resurrection? And I start, well, what did I preach in the past? I pull it up on and here's resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen. I looked it up.

That's the slide I made for resurrection Sunday twenty fifteen. I made exactly the same slide with exactly the same font. Exactly. And I did not base it on this. I, it was completely like, that's the way it goes.

So, here we are. 2015, 2019. Here we are. Resurrection 2026 and I like high five Jesus. I think better than anything else.

He just kinda giving you a high five like it's done. It's done. So, last week, if you think back, I talked about for context, I I will have to say that the focus for me this week as I was going through day after day, I had the first class I had in seminary was called the gospels. It's a chronological, geographical study of Jesus' life. Taking all four gospels and putting them together.

So, last week, I mentioned the raising of Lazarus which happened eight days before resurrection Sunday. So, that is the time frame that changed the world. Eight days that absolutely changed the world. Center point of all human history is not just the cross but the resurrection, right? So, the raising of Lazarus, Jesus, raised a man from the dead, a friend of his, wept at his graveside, and then called him forth and I thought of this picture which I'll use for the rest of the sermon.

I'm gonna use these pictures are from the Scrovenia Chapel in Padua, Italy, and they are by Giotto. Giotto is the earliest of well, about the earliest. Cimabue is a little before, but Giotto is the earliest of the Italian Renaissance painters. And this is his raising of Lazarus. So, if you look at Jesus is over here kinda holding his hand in the form of a blessing.

People are adoring him but he has called Lazarus out of the tomb and he's there in the grave clothes still and Jesus is blessing him and this is the text that goes with this just for context. Eight days before resurrection Sunday. Now, when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth And the man who had died came forth. If you just sat on that, it'd be a sermon's worth of material.

The man who had died came forth from the grave, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth, and Jesus says to him, Jesus said to them, unbind him and let him go. Now, before I go on, this is a preacherly moment here. Jesus called him forth. That's something only Jesus can do. Call somebody forth from the grave but then, he didn't untie him.

He left him with the people and he said, unbind him and let him go. Jesus saved him, brought him back from the dead but he entrusted him to the believers there to help him get unbound. That says something right there. That's different different sermon for a different day. Triumph entry in the Jerusalem, we also discussed last week too.

So, this is Palm Sunday, seven days before resurrection Sunday and here we are. Jesus coming in on a donkey, Giotto's Palm Sunday, triumphal entry shows people laying down their cloaks, people waving palm branches, and climbing trees, and Jesus coming in on the foal of a donkey. That's 1305, Scrovenia Chapel. When you walk in, it's got all the scenes of Jesus and it goes all the way back to birth but the last week of his life is what carries most of the chapel. It's a little bit stations of the cross but it's before that.

It starts a week before that. The triumphal entry, the crowds going ahead of him. We covered it in John last week. We're going to read it from Matthew this week. The crowds going ahead of him and those who are following were shouting, Hosanna, save us.

To the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna, which means save us in the highest. When he had entered Jerusalem, all of the city was stirred and they were saying, who is this? Even the people who didn't know, right? Who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is Jesus, the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.

So, the next day, I'm gonna go day by day here. The next day doesn't look like gentle Jesus making mild. Do you recognize that? This one is, he's drawn back like this. It's not the Jesus that I usually see drawn but this is from what the church has called Holy Monday.

Holy Monday, the Monday of Holy Week and it is when Jesus cleansed the temple. So, this is the cleansing of the temple by Jotto. Again, at the Scrovenia Chapel and you could see lambs and you know, birds that are being sold and then these are the vendors and maybe some disciples with him but Jesus is running them out of there and this says, and Jesus entered into the temple. This was Monday, Holy Week. Drove out all of those who are buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who are selling doves and he said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer but y'all are making it a robber's den and so, we went to Israel one time.

I think it was 2019 and right across from the temple is this. The money changers. I just thought it was funny. Anyway, my house should be called a house of prayer but you're making it a robber's den. If you look back to Isaiah 56, Isaiah was written seven hundred years before Christ.

So, seven hundred years in incredibly astute and articulate at his inspired scripture, even those that's speaking of outsiders, even those I will bring up to my holy mountain and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Now, if y'all think about that at the temple, what we know is the temple is divided. There's the court of the women and the court of the Gentiles and then there's this divine line and all this but this is saying, even those outsiders, I'm going to make them at home in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house will be called a house of prayer for all of the peoples. All of the peoples.

That's everybody. Every tribe, tongue, and nation. It's not limited to just those who are of the blood lineage of Abraham. Holy Tuesday. There's a lot of stuff that happens on Holy Tuesday by the way.

It goes way late into the evening. There's prophecy about the future. There's all kind of eschatology stuff but this one caught my eye this week and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple. Now, he was in the temple every day. He was there teaching and answering questions and Herodians came to him and Sadducees and Pharisees and scribes but this says, the blind and the lame also came to see him in the temple and he healed them.

Isaiah 35. Again, seven hundred years before Christ's birth. Then, the eyes of the blind will be open. He's speaking of Messiah and ears of the deaf will be unstopped and the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy for waters will break forth in the wilderness, streams of living water, John would say, in John, and streams in the Arabah. Now, what was the immediate aftermath of him healing the sick, the blind, and the deaf.

You would think that they would have a hallelujah chorus and lifted him up on their shoulders and say, this is our Messiah but this is, when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done and nobody's saying that they weren't wonderful, they were wonderful. And that the children who were shouting in the temple, they were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David. They had heard that probably walking into Israel Walking into Jerusalem on that triumphal injury but there and they're still saying it. Hosanna to the son of David, they became indignant. The chief priest and scribes became indignant and they said to Jesus, do you hear what these children are saying?

And Jesus said to them, yes, I do. Have you never heard? Have you never read out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies? You have prepared praise for yourself. Now, he's quoting from Psalm eight.

Oh Lord, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth who have displayed your splendor above the heavens, the blind, see, the deaf, hear, the lame leap for joy. That's displaying your splendor. From the mouths of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength. Yeah. I've got the dot dot dot ellipses there because on Wednesday, there's very little that we hear about what happened.

If you know church history and you've been walking through, maybe you're from a liturgical background and you your church has services between, you might have heard some of this but in the Baptist Church, typically, we don't do Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services. Nobody does a silent Saturday service that I know of. Maybe if it's over full, it's a mass before Sunday morning but this dot dot dot is spy Wednesday. So, the spy in spy Wednesday is Judas. There's one little paragraph in three of the gospels, maybe two of the gospels that says, and Judas got up and he made a deal with the chief priest and scribes and that happens on Spy Wednesday and we don't know anymore than that what was said but we do know that Judas is the guy who carried the money bag.

Judas is the guy who had been with Jesus for nearly three years. He'd been there almost as long as anybody else and he had been with him for some time and nobody was suspicious of him. Spy Wednesday, he goes to make the deal. Now, I think that he probably went to make the deal and he wanted it to be political. He wanted for Jesus.

He was going to force Jesus' hand. Yeah, he came in triumphal entry. It looks like he's going to be the guy. I I'm giving him the benefit of doubt. The best we can hope for was that Judas was thinking, I'm going to put Jesus in the position of having to be the conquering king because I'm going to put him in basically lock up.

Spy Wednesday is just the time when Judas makes his deal. Thursday. Thursday is Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday for Mark and from Luke, I think Jesus knows what's going on. He knows, he's already predicted his death multiple times.

He knows that he must go and must die and he he knows about resurrection but he's he is fully God and fully man. As he's considering this, he tells us to be innocent as doves, right? But he also says to be wise and it this shows a little bit of wisdom on Thursday in the morning. It says, on the first day of the unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him, where do you want for us to go and for you prepare for you to eat the Passover because they're away from home, right? They're in Jerusalem.

They're away from home or Bethany and they are there. He sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, that's Jerusalem and a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you, follow him. Wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, the teacher says, where is the the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with my disciples and he himself, the owner, will show you a large upstairs room furnished and ready. Prepare for us there and the disciples left and they came to the city and they found everything just as he had told them and they prepared the Passover. Now, if you look up there and it says in two of his disciples in Mark and Luke who always wants to have an orderly account and usually has more information given.

He'd interviewed witnesses. He says, it was Peter and John. Okay. So, Peter and John were the ones that went ahead and they found things exactly like Jesus said. There was a guy carrying a pitch of water.

It's a little cloak and dagger. It feels like, what's going on here? Well, Judas didn't know where they were going to meet. He made the deal to to betray him but Jesus knew he needed some time and so on Maundy Thursday in the morning, he sends them to prepare the place because he knows that they're going to gather that evening. Maundy Thursday, here it is.

You see, this is from the Scrovenia Chapel, Giotto's painting of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. This is interesting too because it's just so human and there they were, this Passover meal was about to be served and there arose among them a dispute as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest and he said to them, now think about that. Does that sound like people? You get together and they start talking and eventually a bunch of men in a room. They're going to eventually talk about which one is the greatest, right?

They're going have to figure out who's the greatest at this and that but they were going through this and he said to him, the kings of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who have authority over them are called benefactors but it's not this way with you. The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest and the leader like the servant. For who is greater? The one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table but I'm showing you and I'm telling you, I'm among you as the one who serves.

He says, I came to serve and not be served, right? Now, this is Jesus washing the disciples' feet. As the as the painting is of the disciples washing the disciples' feet. Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come that he would depart out of the world to the father having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the very end.

During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon to betray him and he'd already made the deal. Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God. Jesus, the little asterisk in the New American Standard Version of the Bible. It's a historical present. The verbs are present tense verbs.

So, it reads like this. It says and knowing that he was going back to God, gets up from supper, lays aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girds himself and he pours water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. So, as they're arguing over which one is the greatest, he starts washing their feet like a slave. So, here they are after they got their feet washed. And they're all gathered around the table for the Passover supper which of course is a celebration of Passover when God saved Israel and delivered them and they're to remember it every year and they're doing that.

You see, John, if you get closer there, you can see John leaning on Jesus. When Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and he testified and he said, truly, truly I say to you that one of y'all will betray me and the disciples began looking around at each other at a loss to know of which one he was speaking and they were reclining on Jesus. There was one reclining on Jesus' bosom. One of his disciples whom Jesus loved. It's this is in John.

He calls himself the disciple Jesus love which is awesome. So, there he is leaning on him. Probably the youngest of the disciples sitting next to Jesus and Peter's right there, the oldest one. So, Simon Peter gestured to John and said to him, tell us who it is of whom we speak and please get him to tell you who it is and he leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom says to him, lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, the one for whom I shall dip the morsel of bread and give it to him.

That's an honored thing. So, when he had dipped the morsel, he took it and he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Escariot and after that morsel had been eaten. It says, Satan entered into him and Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now, he didn't tell him. He didn't tell all the rest of them that that was the betrayer.

He didn't go into it but Judas did not know until he was sitting at that supper where that supper was gonna be. So, he's gotta run down to the probably Antonia Fortress. He's gotta run to get the chief priest and scribes and the writs and everything else to make this happen. So, he is going out of there and Jesus says, what you do, do quickly. Now, no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this.

They just assumed they were supposing because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying, go buy this or that or to give something to the poor. That's a normal thing during Passover too. So, after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately and it was night. I'm going stop right here for a second. Is the evening meal dinner or is it supper?

I want y'all to answer out loud. Is it dinner or is it supper? Supper. It's supper. According to the Bible, y'all call this the last dinner?

No, it's the last supper. Alright. Alright. This is the next image on the chapel wall. A little square tableau of Judas.

The devil at his back, pushing him into the chief priest and scribes, 30 pieces of silver in the sack. And the dot dot dot here is for four chapters of John. Four chapters of the book of John while Judas goes to gather the people to come and betray Jesus, he has time where Judas is not in the room and he's with his other 11 disciples and he's sitting there and he's sharing with them what life is gonna be like without him physically present with him. At that point, he promises them the coming of the Holy Spirit. He promises to illumine scripture.

He promises that he will be with them. He promises all kinds of stuff. He says, hey, you're gonna have trouble. Trouble, tribulation, trials, you're going to have em but take heart. I've overcome the world.

You're going to be alright. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen is all the upper room discourse in that place where Jesus had established. Peter and John went and got ready and that's where they were. It also in the next chapter is Jesus's prayer in the garden and I know that there are folks here who are long time believers and I know there's some folks here who probably just came in because long time believer brought you and that's fine. Jesus's prayer in the garden is beautiful.

It is his high priestly prayer, we call it and John chapter 17, he goes into praying for not just his disciples who are there with him but for everyone who would ever come to believe because of their testimony and because of your testimony. To be established into the continuing body of Christ is to believe the gospel message and what he says is a component of that. It is the unity in the believers of Jesus and what he prays for in the garden is that all believers everywhere throughout the ages, geography, and everything that we would be one just like he is one. Y'all, I really believe he meant that. I really believe that it's time for denominations to go poof and go away because denominating is splitting us apart.

It's kind of interesting that here we are on Easter and I'm thinking about Jesus's prayer in the garden and the Easter prayer, may they be one just like we're one. You know what the one of the earliest controversies that led to a church split was? The Paschal controversies has nothing to do with our daughter. The Paschal controversies are over when should we celebrate Easter? Are you serious?

Yes. We split over this. That's crazy. We split the quarto decimanians were on one side. We ought to do it on the fourteenth of Nissan and then the others are not, it's gotta be on Sunday.

It's resurrection Sunday and they split over it. Oh, against Jesus's wishes by the way. If you didn't catch that. John 18, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the Ravine Of The Kidron after that high priestly prayer. When they all fell asleep.

He went across the Ravine Of Kidron where there was a garden and he entered in there with his disciples. Now, Judas also, who was betraying him, knew the place for Jesus had often met there with his disciples. It was somewhere that they normally hung out. So, Judas, I'm sure he went back to that upper room first and they're gone and so, okay. Well, I know where else they might be.

Takes him down the hill and this is Jotto's representation. Judas then having received the Roman cohort and the officers from the chief priest and the Pharisees comes there with lanterns and torches and weapons. And if you get a little closer on this image, you see, Peter, he saw the weapons. And he came with a knife, right? Actually, he came ready to fight and ready not to what?

Deny Jesus because what Jesus told him in the upper room was, hey, before the cock crows, you're going to deny me three times. No, I'm not. He was trying to prove it. No, I'm not. So, he cuts off this dude's ear.

Actually, you can get a little better picture over there. Ain't that terrible? You know, if I had to say, I don't think he was aiming for the ear. I think he was trying to chop that guy's head off. The guy ducked and he got his ear but Jesus just picks up the ear, puts it back on, heals him, and says, hey, Peter, put that away.

You live by the sword, you die by the sword. We don't need that. Do you think I couldn't call 10,000 angels right now? He left the glories of heaven. He could have.

So, the Roman cohort and the commander of the officers of the Jews arrested Jesus and they bound him and they led him first to Anas for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year. Now, Caiaphas, remember, he was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people. When they were trying to beg Pilate to persecute and capture and kill Jesus and they're trying to make the deal with the Romans to do that. He said out loud, as high priest, something that he did not understand what he even meant. He said, it's expedient for one man to die.

We're not going to all be crushed in this riot. We're going to just pick one guy and he's going to die instead but the truth is, he is the one guy who could die on behalf of the people. He had a perfect record that he could surrender voluntarily for anyone who would believe. So, that picture is him before Caiaphas and then the next picture is him with the mocking and the soldiers and the beatings and they were pulling on his beard and placing a crown of thorns. Mocking him.

John 19. We see the cross. Now, we've heard a lot and y'all have heard the the utter beating that he took, the scourging that he took. Now, I want to say something about that too. I mentioned last week that Pilate had a chance.

He was the guy who was the governor and he could say yes or no as whether he lives or dies and he declared him innocent over and over and over and over again. He was declared innocent eight different times in the gospels before Pilate said, well, take him and beat him anyway. Doesn't make any sense but it was politics. It was expedient that one man take the beating, they said. And then after he was scourged, he was so beaten and bloodied and unable to carry that cross that Simon of Cyrene actually helped him.

I think that's what this image is pointing to. Jesus is carrying the cross but he's about to need some help. And then, the crucifix, the crucifixion painting. Is there anything that has been painted more often than the crucifixion? Maybe a sunset at the beach, maybe.

But it's it's basically the crucifixion is it doesn't matter if it's 1305 or 1605 or 1900 or 2026. The crucifixion still matters. It's the center point like I said of all, not just human history but all history. It is where the creator God put himself on the line. Voluntarily and sacrificially to save anyone who would believe.

May I read this? This was written seven hundred years before Christ and crucifixion was not even a form of punishment at this time and if you're listening, you'll see it all over it and if you're listening, you'll see the scourging in there too. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he with the capital h, that's pointing to Messiah.

He grew up before him like a tender shoot. He grew up before God like a tender shoot. Not like godhead but like human. He grew up before him like a tender shoot. Actually, I think that's a pun too.

Oh, play on words. Netzer points to Nazareth and like a root out of the parched ground, he has no stately form nor majesty. If you think back to the triumphal entry, when he came in, he came in on a donkey. The cult of a donkey, not even, it wasn't a war horse and it wasn't a royal thing, a majestic thing. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him nor any appearance that we should be attracted to him.

He's just normal guy that appeared. He was despised and forsaken of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When you read that as someone who is sorrowful or grieving, I I think that that's really helpful. I think it's really helpful to know that Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

I think it's helpful to know that Jesus wept. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. John says that he came to his own and his own received him not. Isaiah fifty three four should continue. Surely, our griefs, he himself bore.

Surely, our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him as stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted but he was pierced through, pierced the nails in his hands and feet. That was not a way of doing things when this was written but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon him. Our well-being, our recovery, our well-being fell upon him and it is by his scourging that we ourselves are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of all of us to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like he said to Peter, he could have called 10,000 angels. Even on the cross, he could have.

He could have shut piled up pretty quick but he didn't. Like a sheep before his shearers was silent. He spoke not a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. By oppression and judgement, he was taken away and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, you know, they crucified him outside of the city.

In a place of death. For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due, it says that he stepped in as the intermediary between the one who deserved the punishment and the one who was righteously given it out. His grave was signed with wicked men. The norm for a prisoner would be to just be buried in Potter's Field A rich man was associated with him in death. Joseph of Arimathea will see him in a few minutes.

Yet, he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth but this says and it's hard for us to read this but it says, the Lord was pleased to crush him, Jesus, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering and he did. So, he put himself out there as a sacrificial offering and it says, he will see his offspring. He will see what becomes of his people. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see this and he will be satisfied. Jesus will be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will justify the many and he will bear their iniquities. If you ever hear anybody say, Bible doesn't say anything about substitutionary atonement. Here it is, Old Testament.

Lived out in the New Testament. No doubt about it. It's all over the place. Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great and he will divide the booty with the strong because he poured out himself to death and he was numbered with the transgressors. The gospels bring up that being crucified between those two thieves is him being numbered with the transgressors.

Yet, he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. I love the the the thief on the cross. Right? The thief on the cross story is a wonderful story. I won't go into the whole thing but think about this.

One of the gospel says, when they were being placed on the crosses, the other two guys are tied on, Jesus is nailed on and as he's being nailed to the tree, it says, they were reviling him. Two people, they were reviling him and when when they were stood up and when they were standing there, something about Jesus caught the eye of one of those guys. Not both of them. One of them continued to revile and mock and the other one says, can't you see this guy's no nothing wrong? He's praying to be for God to forgive the ones who are nailing him to the tree.

We deserve what we're getting but he doesn't deserve it. He turns to Jesus and says, hey, remember me when you come into your kingdom and he did. Jesus interceded for the transgressors. It's great. Seven hundred BC fulfilled at the crucifixion.

Mark says, on the cross and I've done sermons before about the seven things Jesus said on the cross and all these different kinds of ways of looking at this but the focus today right here, Eloy Eloy, Lemma Sabach tonight which is translated, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At the ninth hour, Jesus cries this out. I'm gonna mention one more word that he says but this is from Psalm 22. It's the beginning of a song. So, if I started, I don't know.

If I started pretty much any song, I can think of 500 of em but if I started any song and I just put one of those earworms in there for you that you know, you'd be singing it the rest of the day, wouldn't you? And you wouldn't just sing the line I gave you. You'd sing the rest of the Psalm. So, I'm gonna look at this. Psalm 22 starts off with that.

He does the opening line. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And that sounds like, have you been there? Yeah. We've all felt forsaken at some point.

Sometimes, we feel forsaken of God. He's saying how he feels. David wrote this. A thousand years before Christ. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day but it doesn't seem that you answer me. I cry by night but I have no rest. I can't sleep for my anxious thoughts. Yet, yet, I know the truth.

You are holy. You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers trusted and they trusted and you delivered them. To you, they cried out and they were delivered. To you, they trusted and they were not disappointed.

I know the truth is, even in the midst of the storm, I need to call out. My God, my God, I feel like you've forsaken me but I know who you are and I'm crying out. Psalm twenty two six says this, by the way, one time for a for a baby dedication, I was standing up here and I was doing a baby dedication. There's this little boy who's just wriggling in his mama's arms and was trying to do the, hey, train up a child in the way they should go and when they're older, not depart from. That's Proverbs twenty two six if you want to know.

It's not Psalm twenty two six. It's Proverbs twenty two six. I got up here and I opened my Bible. It was a paper Bible and I flipped to it and I said, well, Psalm twenty two six says, but I am a wriggling little baby that there was here. I thought, this is supposed to say train of a child the way they should go and I flipped and couldn't find anything different.

So, I kept reading. I'll tell you where I finally landed but this is Psalm 22 continued but I am a worm and not a man. A reproach of men and despised by all the people. Can you see this on the cross? All of those who see me are smearing at me.

They separate. They shoot out the lip and they wag their head and they say, commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him. Actually, that's something that in the gospel, people are crying out. Hey, he says God's he's God's son.

Let deliver him. Let him rescue him because he delights in him. 229, this is where I picked up for the baby dedication. Yet, you are he who brought me forth from the womb. You made me to trust you even upon my mother's breast.

Upon you, I was cast from birth. You have been my God from my mother's womb. Be not far from me, God, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan. They've encircled me.

They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening, a roaring lion, and I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. Can you, the excruciating pain. Excruciating is from crucifixion, right?

That's where we get the word. It's horrible. Bones pulled past their separation of their joints. My heart is like wax. It's welted within, melted within me.

My strength is dried up like a pot and my tongue cleaves to my jaws and you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers have surrounded me. They pierced my hands and my feet. So, if you didn't catch it from the piercings in Isaiah, it's more specific three hundred and forty years before. They pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all my bones. There was a prophecy that his bones would not be broken. The way to end the crucifixion quickly because people have just enough room to stand a bit to get a little more air in their lungs. The way to end the crucifixion when it's going on too long is to break the legs of the prisoner on the cross. But Jesus had given up his spirit before they broke any of his bones.

I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me, then they divide my garments among them. This literally happened and for my clothing, they cast lots. That's a thousand years before Christ and at the crucifixion, it was achieved. It was fulfilled.

To tell us die is the last word I wanna discuss this morning. To tell us die is a Greek word. I can go into third person singular blah blah blah but it's to tell us die. What it means, it's used twice in the New Testament. There are three verse, two verses apart.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished. He had done everything and fulfilled every prophecy. He had done everything necessary that the scripture might be fulfilled said, I thirst. Now, a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. They filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

So, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished to tell us die and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. That's John 19. So, it is finished. It's great. I think that's it's perfectly reasonable translation.

I prefer it has been finished. I know I'm a grammar nerd but it has been finished means it happened in the past. Everything necessary for salvation and for sanctification happened and everything has now been accomplished. You might even say everything now has been paid, paid in full. Everything has been done and that is what Tetelestai means.

That's a tattoo. I I know somebody, actually I know somebody in the first service that has a little tattoo of right here. To remember people who are being persecuted and feeling forsaken. Right? And to Telestai, we have a friend who came to church here for years and you all know him, most of you all know him, Eric Anderson.

Eric said he waited till 65 to get rebellious and get a tattoo and this is what he got. You see the three crosses there. He has ALS. So, ALS is a very hard disease. He's lost most of his strength and almost all of the strength in his left arm and his right arm is deteriorating fast and he knows that before long at some point, he's going to lose his voice and he said, it was so poetic.

He said, I got to be 65 and I and I went rebellish and got a tattoo and this is what it says. He says, I know that I will lose my voice because that's what ALS does. I know that I'm losing my voice. He said, the last thing Jesus said was this to Telestai. It's finished and he said, for him, it was the last thing he said in a lifelong conversation.

For me, it's the start of almost every conversation I have knowing I'm going to die soon to Telestai. It's finished. Isn't that cool? Thank you, Connor. I agree with you.

Love that guy. So, I would say, I know that I've gotten you just to the cross and that's only up to Good Friday. The deposition bringing Christ down from the cross, the standing figure there, this is Michelangelo's from the from fifteen forty seven, fifty five, something like that. Michelangelo made this sculpture. It's called the Bandini Deposition and he did not like it.

He did not quite finish it. It looks finished and it's been put back together but he didn't feel like he did it justice and he broke it all to pieces and other people put it back together for him. There's an even better one called the Rondanini but this one is the act of getting him down off of the cross. So Mary and Nicodemus are there. And there they are and they're about to put him into the grave.

So the lamentation, the lament over Christ painting from Giotto with the angels lamenting too. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the people in power asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted permission. So, came and he took away his body and Nicodemus, y'all remember Nicodemus? This says, Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him by night. You remember where we get this verse?

This is Jesus' private conversation with Nicodemus. It's great callback. You think Jesus, Nicodemus was a whosoever? He was one of those whosoever. Nicodemus, are you a teacher of Israel and you don't understand the things?

Listen to me, man. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He says this as the only begotten son of God that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God didn't send his son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him. So, they took the body of Jesus, abounded in linen wrappings just like eight days ago or not even seven days ago.

They had done for Lazarus getting out of him. They're putting him into him. Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. In the garden, there was a new tomb. Joseph of Arimathea's tomb.

It says in another gospel in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, they put him there. He was just borrowing the place anyway. They laid him in there and then we have silent Saturday. There are all kinds of theological debate about what happened on Silent Saturday but I think that all of us sitting with all that has happened through Holy Week whether it's just in the sermon or me, you know, anxiously pouring through everything all week long.

Sitting in Saturday and thinking about Christ, slain on my behalf. Resurrection Sunday is the best thing that ever happened and it's the power of God. It's the high five Jesus. There he is again. So, we've been working through Ephesians and we've been working through Paul's writings.

Paul mentions over and over and over and over again that Jesus was raised, that he was viewed by people. He says that in first Corinthians 15. In Romans, he says, he was declared to be the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. Romans four, he was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Believers are able to walk in newness of life because they have identified with Christ and his death and his resurrection.

Romans eight, the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies. Philippians three, Paul desires to know Christ and the power of his resurrection. The same spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is active today and living in the continuing body of Christ. It is what directs and empowers the church to do the will of God which is to be unified and look out for others sharing the agape and the has said that steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases. We are to be about his business and we can do that because of the power of the resurrection.

I'm going to close with this. Last week, we sang the first three verses of were you there? I'm going ask you to come forward and I appreciate it. Next year, we'll probably do resurrection all the different people in the order that he saw him and all that stuff. We'll get to that.

I promise. Remind me. Okay. But this Sunday, we're going to close with this. If you'd stand with me, we're going to sing, were you there?

And watch for the changes at the end. The the last chorus is a little different on were you there?