His Hour Had Not Yet Come First B Jackson 2017-04-16 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Everybody, how are you? Good morning. He is risen. Yes. He is risen indeed. Alright. Fantastic. Happy Easter. We're glad that you're here. Why don't we sing and get everybody that's out in the vestibule to come on in and join us. Alright? We're We're going to sing to start off with victory in Jesus, Florine, and miss Jennifer are playing for us today. Would you join in and sing it like you mean it? If you know it and if you don't, wait through the first verse, alright? No, I'm just kidding. Go sing it like you mean it. Come on up here, Scott, if you would. Join us. They'll bring you a microphone in a minute. I heard an old, old story how savior came from glory earned and his life on Calvary to save a wretch like me I heard about his groaning of his precious bloods atoning then I repented of my sin and won the victory oh victory in Jesus my savior forever. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me air I knew him and all my love is to him he plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing blood I heard about his healing, of his cleansing power revealing, how he made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see. And then I cried, dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit. And somehow, Jesus came and brought to me the victory. Oh, victory in Jesus, my savior forever. He sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. He loved me air I knew him and all my love is to him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory. And I heard about the streets of gold and yonder crystal sea about the angels singing and the old redemption story and some sweet day I'll sing up there a song of victory amen oh victory in Jesus my savior forever he sought me and bought me with his redeeming blood. Amen. I love me heir. I knew him and all my love is to him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. Amen. Oh, I love that song. Y'all sound good this morning. Oh, yeah. And I've been gone a while. It sounds it's really, really good to be back. Amen. We're gonna sing the old rugged cross next, hymn number three twenty seven. If you wanna look for your parts. It's good to have you back, Randy. Yeah. Yeah. Vacations are nice. Get back to work. We had some great fill in though. Matt Lutzema did a great job last week. Fantastic. Yeah. Amen. And well, yeah, you did alright too, buddy. Amen. All week before that. It's great to get up to Number three twenty seven. It's one of those newer hymns you may not recognize. Love this song. Down I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown going to for me be for the dear lamb of God left his glory above to bear it to dark cavalry so I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophy's at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown for it was on that old cross Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me so I'll cherish the old rugged cross still my trope is at last I lay down I will rugged cross I will ever be true in shame and reproach gladly bear then he'll call me someday to my home far away where his glory forever I'll so I'll cherish the old rugged cross so till my trope is at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few, very few actually, announcements. Connect hour is still going to be happening between services. It happened this morning. We actually had brunch down there. There may be some leftovers after this, but there was brunch down at the end of the hall this morning. And we're going still do coffees and donuts and that sort of stuff down there, even though the kitchen remodel has started and it's under construction. There's a big plywood room sealing off the kitchen construction from the fellowship hall. So the connect hour will still be happening. Monday nights will still be happening. So Monday nights, why not? It's a good time. Meal music and a message on every Monday night. Carl is preaching. What's tomorrow's message, Carl? Luke Luke eight. Alright. Look forward to that one. Luke eight. Awana is happening in this room, in this big playing circle right here, 6PM tomorrow night. So if you're just visiting, you're just passing through, and you want to, you can come for meal music and a message down the hall, but the kids can stay in here and play at the Awana games and also have scriptures poured into their minds, hearts, and lives. So, we do that on Mondays and I think that's it. We skip the rest of the announcements this week. There's plenty going on. If you didn't grab a bulletin on your way in, you can grab one on your way out and everything that's going on is listed But I wanted to give you a chance to get up and see some folks and greet one another, and we'll bring you back together with another peppy Easter themed song. Welcome. Glad you're here. If you stand up and greet one another, we'll bring you back together in a minute. Hymn number three fifty seven is Christ arose. Three fifty seven, my favorite Easter hymn. Just saying. Happy Easter, everybody. Celebration time. From from the grave, he arose with a mighty triumph for his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lived forever with the saints to reign he arose he arose hallelujah Christ arose they watch his bear Jesus my savior they seal the dead Jesus my lord up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph for his foes he arose a victor from the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign he arose he arose hallelujah Christ arose. Did we get all that out of our there's a little more left in there. That's a good one. Let's try it on this one then. 368 is he lives. I serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. I know that he is with me no matter what. Alright. He lives. 368. Better get it out on this one folks. I serve a risen savior he's in the world today I know that he is living whatever men may say I see his hand of mercy I hear his voice of cheer and just the time I need him he's always near he lives He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me a long last narrow way. He lives. Within my heart and all the world around me I see his loving care and though my heart grows weary I never will despair I know that he is leading through all the stormy blast the day of his appearing will come at last he lives he lives Christ Jesus lives today he walks with me and talks with me a long night narrow way. He lives. He lives. Salvation to impart. Rejoice rejoice oh Christians lift up your voice and sing eternal hallelujah to Jesus Christ the king the hope of all who seek him the help of all who find none other is so loving so good and kind He lives. He lives. Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me a long life's narrow way he lives he lives salvation to impart you ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Wanna invite the frontline team to come forward. And would you pray with me? God, for such a glorious salvation, we give you thanks. I I am overcome with your redemptive power, with your resurrection power. Lord, I'm awed, and I stand awed before you. I pray, Lord, that you will use this church as an instrument of your peace, that we will continually be looking to you as you look to the father. Jesus, that we'd be looking to you and to your Holy Spirit to direct us as to what you would have us do in this community, in this world, wherever we may be from, or wherever we may be going. So, God, would you take the offerings and the tithes that are put into these plates, and would you use these resources, this acknowledgment that you have given it, and we're giving back a portion saying we trust you? Lord, would you use this, everything that goes into these plates? Would you use it to advance your good gospel so that more may know you and carry it further than it's ever been before? Would you bring into your kingdom those who are searching and seeking? Would you allow more to find? In Jesus name, use this for your kingdom's good work. Amen. It's great to be here in God's house. Amen? Go ahead. Drive the nails in my hands. Laugh at me where you stand. Go ahead and season me. The day will come when you will see because I'll rise again ain't no that can't keep me in the ground go ahead and say I'm dead to God but you will see that you are wrong go ahead bury me that can keep me in the ground. Go ahead and say I'm dead and gone, but you will see that you are on. Go ahead. Try to hide the Thank you, Florine. So around here, y'all know spring break happens the same time every year. Last week of March, first week of April, that's when it is. When does Easter happen? Without getting too technical, it's almost always between the last week of March, first week of April. So how often do pastors go out of town for spring break? Not very often. This time, Easter was after spring break, by a whole week. And so I thought, hey, this is an opportunity. The elders said, hey, this is an opportunity. So I asked a couple of the elders, Florine being one and Matt Litzelman being the other, hey, would you take my place on the second and the April 9? Tanya and Pascal and I want to get out of town and go. And they said, yeah, yeah, we'd love to do that. Sounds great. Both of them accepted immediately. And so I said, well, good. Thank you very much. That's cool. So I had it on my calendar. Second and the ninth, I'm going miss. It's going be a little tough coming back, haven't preached in two weeks, and come back for Easter. And then spring break happened, and it happened on March 24. That's when we started it. On the twenty fifth, I got a call. I'm gonna be the sermon. I'll get to it in a minute. Alright? Jesus time and our times is what I'm gonna be talking about it. This guy on March 25, that's the Saturday after spring break started on Friday. This guy just died. He is my best friend, one of my best friends ever. And a lot of y'all have been praying for me. I know I've been getting texts and calls and emails and everything. So I'm gonna share a little bit about this before I go on. Think it ties in. Chad, great guy. My earliest memories are in church and they're in Vacation Bible School and I was sitting next to this guy. And there are differing accounts as to what happened with the Elmer's glue. But but this guy and I were involved. I do know that much. Chad was great. I remember jumping in a swimming pool and landing on his head at his birthday party. I remember growing up together and playing on the Pine Mountain Valley Pirates for Little League Baseball, the Pine Mountain Valley Outlaws for Little League Football. Nobody ever scored on us. Was the best Little League Football team ever. I remember the town that we grew up in, Shiloh, didn't have enough people to field the team, we always played with other towns. He and I grew up together. We are double third cousins. I know before you get thinking this is a real Georgia thing, my my grandmother and his grandmother are double first cousins. That means that my great grandmother and his great grandmother were sisters, and they married a set of brothers. And so their kids were first cousins both directions. It's okay. Trust me. If you work it out, it's okay. But it's true. So we have the same gene pool and everybody said, oh, yeah, y'all do favor. He's about an inch shorter than me, maybe two. And we grew up together. We grew up singing together at church, but he wouldn't sing outside of church ever. Never. I had heard him, just kinda heard him in church, but never ever outside of that. So we continue on. We played basketball together in high school until grades came out. He's a smart guy, but he just didn't like school. So after grades came out, he had to drop the basketball. We played golf together in high school until grades came out, then he had to drop golf. Each year each year, we did the same thing. He actually really, really smart, inventive, creative, wonderful guy. Just didn't wasn't terribly interested in school. We started college together, and we played on a flag football team that was undefeated. The Seven Who Killed Elvis was the name of the team. We went to state. It was fun. We played music together. A friend of ours taught us both at the same time. Two chords. You need three chords to play a song, but he taught us two chords and, wait, it was God is so good. That's the way we played. I left town for a week. When I come back, Chad was playing the guitar like he'd been like Florine. He was just playing it like he'd been playing it forever. Chad started writing songs. He started writing music. We hung out at the Baptist Student Union at college. It was mainly because we both lived 35 miles from the school and didn't have anywhere to hang out between classes, so we just went there. It was a comfortable place, air conditioned, Georgia. And we hung out there together. I spent the night over at his house as often as I spent the night at my house. He spent the night at my house a lot too. We were great friends. Middle of college, we went on the home mission board is what it was, the North American mission board it's called now. Had teams called innovator teams where you worked a normal job in the daytime and then you did campground or other types of ministry at night. And so we went on a team to Panama City Beach, Florida. Tough gig. We lived there for the whole summer. And Chad and I worked at Alvin's Island. I worked at the Magic Mountain Mall. He worked at the newest one. And we'd do selling sportswear or whatever, bathing suits and whatnot, all day long. And then we'd go into the campgrounds and we'd present the gospel, and we'd do songs, and we'd do skits, and all kinds of stuff. Good guy. I loved him dearly. And then spring break starts. I'm planning on going to Salt Lake for shows in San Diego and hang out and go to the zoo and whatnot the next week. But the first week, didn't have anything planned. And I hear from my cousin, Emily, first cousin. She had practiced with Chad on Friday night to sing a duet on Sunday morning, and Chad just died on Saturday. I have never had anyone this close to me die. I've done funerals here, and I have walked through and wept with you through funerals for your parents, for some of you, for your kids. And I weep with, and I I find it fairly easy to sympathize and empathize, and I do tear up. And y'all y'all know, for crying out loud, I tear up almost every Sunday. But I don't spend a lot of time tearing up on my own. I have been since his passing. I have been quite a lot. And, I loved him dearly. But this is what I think of. I think of his wife, Amy, and I think of his daughter, Madeleine, who just got a full ride scholarship to West Georgia College to play volleyball. And Andrew, a soccer phenom, little mini me of Chad. That's what Chad looked like when he was little. And I think of them, and I my heart just breaks, I start to tear. And in fact, when I heard the news, had planned on coming out. I was just gonna I was gonna record the sermon. I was gonna stand next to the slides and I was gonna just record. This is the sermon for that following day, you know, because I was ready. Last part of Colossians, I was ready for it. And then I came in and Carl said, I think that's going to be hokey, and I'll be glad to preach for you. So Carl preached. So it's been three weeks since I've been up here, you know, months since I preached last. And I thought, wow, I'm coming back on Easter, and as weepy as I've ever been in my life, this won't be hard at all. My main when I was on the way there so I Carl says he'll preach. We drove to Salt Lake City. We got on the plane. And when we got on the plane, I finally started to kinda have that release, that cathartic release that tears so often bring. I was going, and a guy this size in a plane in the middle of the plane laugh I mean, crying like that, it's not a sight to see. Tanya actually kinda gave me the elbow and said, listen, no fly list. You can't do this. We got to go places. You've got to drive that up, jokingly. But I did. I was able to. And then just kind of going through it, praise God, thank you for all your prayers, were able to make it through. They asked me like insecurity in Salt Lake if I would preach his funeral. So now I'm preaching the funeral of my best friend. But God afforded us the the provision to be able to go and the time to be able to go and all of that and the pastor to take my place. And I was praising God for that but I started thinking of what am I going preach on Easter, you know, three weeks ago and all I could come up with is Jesus wept. Jesus wept. It's two words. My goodness, it's only two words in Greek. They're longer words but Jesus wept. So, I was looking at that this week and trying to figure, how do you do an Easter resurrection? He is risen indeed sermon on Jesus wept and so I I looked at it and I thought this is my one of my professors said this all this time all the time. I'm not sure that it's original to him, but he said that the gospels are passion narratives with long introductions. There is a story to be told in every one of the gospels, and it is the passion of the Christ, the Christ, the Messiah. And they're all differing lengths of introduction, but it's getting you to that place. And there's a definite sense of time. And John, to me, stands out more than any other. So I'm gonna go through and use the Gospel of John kind of as a framework. I will mention a passage from Luke. I'll mention a passage from Matthew. And I hopefully will tie this back together with a couple from Hebrews. But I don't do topical sermons very often. If you're visiting, what we normally do is go through in order, chronological order, I'll take a snippet. And we'll go on that snippet, and we will exhaustively turn it inside out. We'll try to get to all the juice out of that. And then the next week, we start right where we left off and keep on going. But this one's gonna be topical, so we'll bounce around a bit. Lord, would you help us to understand what it is you have for us in our time here today from looking at your time that you spoke of so often, your glorification. In Jesus name, amen. So in John two, Jesus, this is this is the context of that wedding in Cana where they ran out of wine and Mary, the mother of Jesus, said to one of the waiters, just go ask him and do whatever he says. And then Jesus looks over at his mama and says, woman, my hour has not yet come. He knew that when you share great and mighty power and work miracles, you draw a lot of attention and you draw a lot of naysayers. And so he did a sneaky little miracle. Only a couple of people knew about it. The waiters, the master of the banquet was asked Mary knew, Jesus knew, and his disciples and it said, and his disciples believed in him. That's very early. Chapter two, gospel of John. My hour has not yet come. John four, he's at the well with a Samaritan woman. He's walking back from Jerusalem, the city of peace. He's walking back from Jerusalem, walking in between Galilee and Jerusalem, and he says, I must needs go through Samaria, and he meets the woman at the well. The woman, he's a Jew. She's had five husbands. And Jesus said to her, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father, but you will worship you all, y'all worship what y'all don't know. That's talking about the Samaritans. He said, y'all are worshiping on Mount Gerazim, something you don't even really know. We worship what we do know for salvation comes from the Jews, from out of the Jews, salvation will come. We worship what we do know. So, he's directing and he says, but the hour is coming and it's now here, Jesus said, when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him. You get the sense of time. There's something there. He's saying the hour is coming and it's now come. He's right here. I'm right here. Your interaction with Jesus is your hour. The hour is coming when it's going to be in spirit and truth. John seven six, just a couple of chapters forward. He says it twice in chapter five. I'll come back to those. John seven says, my time is not yet here but your time is always opportune. So Jesus said to them, my time is not yet here, the time for my glorification. Not yet here, but your time is always opportune. In 07:30, he says, so they were seeking to arrest him. Now that's early. Seven chapters into the gospel of John, that's pretty early. It's 20 chapters long. Seven chapters in, people are already there's enough confrontation from seeing him gaining popularity, gaining a following. There's enough from the religious establishment that they were already seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come. Do you see how there's a leaning forward in the book of John towards some great magnificent event? Seven thirty, his hour had not yet come. And here's my verse. Jesus eleven thirty five. Jesus in Spanish. Jesus wept. And I look at that and go, man, that's out of all the all of the passages that I have preached here, the longest passage that I've preached here is four chapters. The last four chapters of Acts, did all in one day. That was crazy. The shortest passage that I've ever preached is this one, Jesus wept. There's incredible humanity there because how many of y'all know what it's like to weep? I know it in a new and more profound way. I have wept with y'all, but now the person that was the closest to this guy, except his mama and his wife. I'm one of the closest people to Chadwick's Road. I wept. Jesus wept. Why? So the context for this one is around the grave of Lazarus, a friend that had died four days before. If you take his sister's word for it, he stinketh by this point. He'd been in the grave for four days. Jews consider that first three days kinda iffy, but four days, he's dead. He could be mostly dead for three days, but four days, he's dead. So on the fourth day, he gets there, show me where they laid him. Why did he cry? You think it was just because his friend died? He was as close to Lazarus as I might have been to Chad, and so he's just dying because maybe that's possible. I think he was crying because of death. The eternal councils of God, Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, and the act of creation, they create mankind and they create him for relationship, create man and then woman, and it create him for relationship, and he rejects relationship. And sin comes into the world and thus, with sin, death. And so he's feeling firsthand personally for this sister and this other sister, Mary, Martha, the other mourners that were there, and for himself too. But I think he was just seeing that death, how final it is or it seems, and the aggravation there. Well, if you keep going, actually Pope Leo I, he said this, and I'll continue to quote later, to start with, In his humanity, Jesus wept for Lazarus. We'll talk about his divinity in a minute, but in his humanity, Jesus wept for Lazarus. If you look at when this happens, now it's in John 11, so that's about halfway through. You think, well, where is that in the time frame? That's one week before the crucifixion. It's just seven, eight days before the crucifixion. So as we're getting closer and closer to Jesus' hour, because it is progressive, history goes somewhere. It's going in a direction, and Jesus' hour has not yet come, has not yet come. And then when we see things start to turn, when he approached Jerusalem. Now this is immediately after he raised Lazarus from the dead. There have been a few days that passed in between, but he is coming into Jerusalem. He had stopped in Bethany here, and he stopped in Jerusalem. Now what does Jerusalem mean? Do y'all know what Jerusalem means? I mentioned it earlier in the sermon accidentally. Shalom, Shalem, Salem means peace. And then Jeru is a city of or foundation of or place of peace. Does that sound like the Jerusalem you all know about? It has not lived up to that name historically, has it? When he approached Jerusalem, and this is where he knew his hour was coming. From the other gospels, we see his hour was at hand. His time had come. And when he approached Jerusalem and this is in the triumphal entry. I was not here on Palm Sunday but the typical Palm Sunday passages talking about that triumphal entry. Hosanna, Hosanna, save us now. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. When he approached Jerusalem, he saw the city and he wept over it. This is the second time we see in scripture Jesus crying. Now, why did Jesus weep there, you think? The city of peace, the foundation of peace. Now the very foundation of peace is riding this donkey's colt into the city that's named for peace, and he knows that that's not true. If you had known for the things which made for you peace, you would have accepted me. That's the next line. So he is crying over the unrepentance and the inability to accept the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the one way to God. So he cries, and that is apparent. John 12 says, and Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. This is verse 23. 27 says, and now is my soul troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this very purpose, I have come to this hour. This is my time. He's actually answering in response to Peter. Why don't we fight? Why don't we do something, Messiah? Why don't we do something about this? He goes, I'm gonna resist this. This is the reason that I was born. This is the reason that I've come. This is everything that I've been building up to. My hour has not come. And now he says the hour has come. John 13, before the feast of the Passover. Now John, not like the rest of this of those Gospels with their long introductions, they don't mention that very intimate upper room dinner the night before. They don't mention it in great detail like John does. He spends from chapter thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen before walking into the garden with Peter, James, and John. So 13, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the very end. You see, it's approaching closer and closer. And as we approach his hour, his emotions are forefront. There's a crying. There's a wailing, weeping, sweat drops of blood, we'll see. John 16, while he's talking to his assembled disciples in verse two, twenty five and thirty two, I'll go quickly. They will put you out of the synagogues for believing in me. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think that he's offering service to God. Did those folks when they killed Stephen, the martyr, did they think they were offering service to God? They did. Are there still martyrs? I heard the stats this morning of how many died in 2016, and it was staggering. Christian martyrs. And the people think that they're offering service to God for doing that. Verse 25 says, I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech, but I'll tell you plainly about the father. Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered each to his own home and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the father is with me. Now just a couple of hours later, they would be scurrying and scattered once the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden Of Gethsemane, fulfilling what he just prophesied right before that, even when they resisted. No. No. I won't do that, Peter said. John 17, as he gets into the Garden Of Gethsemane, he starts in John, the high priestly prayer. All of chapter 17 is Jesus speaking to the father. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and he said, father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. That's a simple prayer right there, right? Glorify the son so that your son may glorify you. The hour has come. He knew his whole life that his hour had not yet arrived, but then when it arrived, he also knew that. And he lived with purpose in the direction of that hour the whole time. I'm gonna switch over to Matthew for just a minute. Matthew 2six 30 six-thirty eight says this, then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples, sit here while I go over there and pray. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, and began to be grieved and distressed. And then he said to them, my soul is deeply grieved. Can you feel the emotion? To the point of death, remain here and keep watch with me. And he went a little beyond them and he fell on his face and he prayed saying, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and he found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so you men could not keep watch with me for one hour. Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Can I get an amen? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Amen. He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, my father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done. And again, he came and he found them sleeping for their eyes were heavy. And he left them again, and he went and he prayed a third time saying the same thing once more. If it be possible that this cup passed from me or that I don't have to do this, if there's any other way, father, for you to save people, if there's any other way, let's do that. I mean, he's feeling the human agony of his approaching death. You know, people have a problem with greatest problem with about Christianity. They have a problem with the exclusivity of the gospel. How can you say it's the only way? I say it based on this. Jesus said, if there be any other way that we can do this, let's do that but not my will, lord, be done but yours. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, are you still sleeping and rest? And behold, the hour is at hand. He has said, Lord, your will be done. This is the way. Now he had earlier said, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. In the discussion with the sisters, Mary and Martha, about the resurrection of Lazarus, He said, do you believe in the resurrection? Yes, surely I believe. She had right theology about the resurrection. And he said, I am the resurrection. I am the life. Those who believe in me will not suffer an eternal death. They will live. Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand. The son of man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up and let us be going. Behold, the one who betrays me, we all know as Judas, is at hand. And so back to Hebrews. Hebrews five, I think, is pointing specifically to the garden. Pastor Rich actually also points to this and says, in the days of his flesh, because Jesus, as Philippians said, emptied himself. He emptied himself of his divine prerogative, and he went through all of the anguish that a human would endure approaching his death, knowing that that death was to be given as a ransom for many, those who would believe. But he didn't deserve it. He did not deserve that death. In the days of his flesh, he offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. Jesus, pray unto the father in the garden with loud crying and tears. And he was heard because of his power piety. Philippians says, he became obedient even unto death and even unto death on a cross so that his name would be above all names, the only name in heaven or earth whereby we must be saved. There's one mediator. There's one way. His time had come, and it was the time when he'd be arrested betrayed, arrested, kangaroo court, crucified, buried. I wanna hit Hebrews four two fifteen says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. Now he came back and asked, are you asleep? But he had to sleep. He knew what it was like to sleep. He said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Watch with me. I found this poem. Actually, I found it in English and then went back and found it was originally written in French. So I called Frenchie, Marion and Frenchie. They're on vacation, and I called him. I said, listen. Can you I'm gonna text you something. Can you translate it for me? And he did. The poem is called Written at the Foot of a Crucifix. It's by Victor Hugo, same guy that wrote Les Mis. Les Miserables. You who weep, come to this God, for he weeps. You who suffer, come to him, for he cures. You who tremble, come to him, for he smiles. You who pass, come to him for he remains. Now the pass right there, in my context, I think it means in death, but it could mean whoever is passing through any temporal suffering because, lo, I'm with you always, God remains. You who pass or are passing in temporal, ephemeral, come to him for he remains. I like that. It's four lines long, but it was obviously coming from a heart of a guy who had cried quite a bit. Actually, the poem was written in 1847 about an event that happened in 1843. His daughter fell off of a boat, and she with all the bustles that they were wearing in the eighteen forties, her dress kept her from being able to come back up to the top. This young lady's husband dove overboard to try to save her, and they both drowned. Victor Hugo found out reading the newspaper sitting in a cafe that they didn't have the spread of information nearly so fast as we did. And most people, biographers, say that he never got over that death of his daughter and son-in-law. But it drew him closer to God. Not necessarily the church, quite honestly. He didn't have a lot of respect for the church. You who weep, come to this guy for he weeps. He knows what it's like. We don't have a high priest who doesn't know how it is to be human. He does. But the suffering line doesn't say you who suffer come to him for he suffers. He doesn't suffer. He's a resurrected Christ living at the right hand of the father intervening and interceding for us. Yes. Weeps. He feels what we feel, but he does not suffer. He cures. For those who tremble and find themselves in fear of God, he smiles and draws as a merciful and gracious God. And for you who pass and are temporal, he remains and does not change, and he offers life eternal. I like that. So Pope Leo the first, back to him. In his humanity, Jesus wept for Lazarus, but in his divinity, he raised him from the dead. He has the power of resurrection. This is the God who spoke everything into existence by Christ. He made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. He spoke life. Every soul who has come out comes by this God and creator and do you think that he can bring you back? Yes. So, all week, when I was weeping, I was weeping because we were in between one resurrection, that of Jesus, and another resurrection, that of the saints. So forward from here. We've read 15 a couple of times partially. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted and tried in all of the things as we are. Yet he was without sin. And because he was without sin, he's the only one that has a spotless record. By his sacrificial death, he's made that available to anyone who believes. The Gospel of John is the Gospel of belief. Read it and see. He offers it over and over. Romans six:five, we went through not too long ago together. If we have been united together in the likeness of his death and this is the verse that gave me some comfort about taking an Easter crowd and putting them through Jesus wept. If we have been united together in the likeness of Christ's death, we have to associate his death on the cross with our own sin. If we have been united together in the likeness of his death, then certainly we shall be in the future when our time comes in the likeness of his resurrection. Now from the moment of belief, the moment of belief, that's true, but we are being saved. It's progressive. I think of Chad, and I think of his time. He's four months older than me. He was born in May, I was born in September. As I've been contemplating his mortality, I've been contemplating my own. And thinking about that that his heart just stopped. I'm looking forward to his and my resurrection and getting back together. But look at this. We can we do not have a high priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore, because of that, let us draw near, brothers and sisters, with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. I I don't usually preach the kinda message that's like, I'll figure out a story that I could kinda lean them over a hole and then try to say, hey, there's only one way out of this hole. That's true. But I don't usually preach that message. Chad has been just grabbing hold of me. He's four months older than me, known him my whole life. His heart was no more likely to stop than mine. Do we know when our time of need is? I go back to this. The hour is coming, and it's now here. The time is now here when true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth, and father is seeking such people. So God is looking forward to such people who will worship him in spirit and truth to worship him. John five, I told you I skipped it but I come back to it. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and it's now here. When the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live. When Jesus stood at Lazarus' tomb and said, Lazarus, come forth. I think he did it because if he just said come forth, every single one of them would have. Those who hear will live. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and they will come out. Those who have done good and believed, it's the gospel of belief. It's obvious from everything around it in context. Those who believe to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil and pushed him away, rejected him. To the resurrection of judgment. Jesus said to them in John seven, my time is not yet. He was getting there, but he was getting there with intent because he knew his time was coming. What I wanna turn you to, though, is what your time is always opportune. Billy Graham's famous quote for I don't know how many rallies is, you may never be any closer to God than you are right now. If you feel him tugging, you feel him drawing you, go for it. Accept him. Accept the peace that he's offered. When he's coming down into Jerusalem, the city of peace, and he is the foundation of peace. And when he looks and he knows these people are gonna reject me, they already have. He wails and weeps. Your time is always opportune. Philippians three ten. I think Matt preached on this last week, and this is kinda my prayer for me, but it's also what I hope is your prayer. That I may know him, that's Christ, and the power of his resurrection because he did arise. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. Jesus had amazing compassion and amazing sympathy to be able to see someone that's hurting and connect with them. Do you want to be able to do that? I do. I don't wanna just walk past somebody who's in need. I wanna be able to see it. Now that involves a certain amount of pain. It involves a certain amount of empathy and sometimes weeping. The fellowship of Christ's sufferings being conformed into his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. That's Philippians three ten. And it brings us back to this. I know that some of you are here, and you're here because it's Easter, and, this comes up all the time. This slide, we come back to it all the time. First Corinthians one eighteen. The message of the cross is that Christ lived a perfect life, did not deserve to die, yet he willingly laid down his life as a ransom for the souls of all who believe in him. So the message of the cross to those who are in this life perishing, heading towards their time, hurdling towards an eternity without God. It is mere foolishness. But to those of us who are being saved progressively, we're not perfect, but we're in the process towards glorification. Now Chad, at his death, he's glorified. To those who are being saved and walking in this, it's the power of God, the transformation of life, the hope of all who seek him, the help of all who find. If today you find yourself in that place where I don't know, haven't really paid much attention, what a first century Jew can do for me, I can't understand. You're admitting that it's just foolishness to you, I'd love to talk to you about it. Anytime, now or after now. The time is always opportune. But I think that's the end of the sermon. Would you all stand with me, and we will sing a closing song. God, would you impress upon us exactly what you would have us do? And I mean that not just for those who have never trusted in you, but for those, Lord, of us who have, would you impress upon us what you would have us to do? I think of the verse in James that says, to know to do good and to do it not, to that person it is sin. So God, would you have us join in the fellowship of your sufferings and sympathize, empathize with others, and help everywhere that we can. Would you allow us to live out a gracious and gospel centered life in Jesus name. Amen. Because he lives, hymn number three fifty eight. Scott up here somewhere? Yeah. Come on. Help me out. Heal and forgive he bled and died to buy my pardon an empty grave is there to prove my savior lives because he lives I can face tomorrow because he lives all fear is gone because I know he holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives how sweet to hold a new born baby and feel the pride and joy he is he lives because he lives I can face tomorrow holds the future and life is worth the living just because he lives. Last verse. And then one day, I'll cross that river. I'll fight life's final war with pain. And I'll know he reigns because he lives I can face tomorrow and is worth the living just because he lives. Amen. And now, may the God of peace, that foundation of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.