It Is Finished
First B Jackson
2019-04-21

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

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Alright. Y'all are awake. That's good. There are a lot of folks that are have joined in for breakfast down the hall, and so they may be trickling in here at any time heavy laden with bacon and sausage and pancakes but if y'all would stand up, we're going to sing em in, alright? Stand up.

We're going to sing in some Easter, some resurrection Sunday songs. Scott, would you help me out? First of all, let's sing Christ Heroes and Florine's going to play with Flourish. If y'all will sing with heart, okay? Sing it like you mean it.

The grave he lay Jesus my savior waiting the coming day Jesus my lord brought from the grave he

Amen. What a song that is. Whoo. Good. How about because he lives?

I'm number 358. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow. Amen. Life is worth the living because he lives. Amen.

That's fun. Y'all can have a seat. Get your breath. Catch your breath. I'm going to have a few announcements, not a ton of em.

There is for those who need it. There's nursing mother's room that's downstairs. It's been all kind of decorated and primed and ready and there's a television down there. So, if somebody had a child that was crying or whatever, they go down and go into that room or nursing mother's room, go down and watch what's happening on with the service right now. We'll be broadcast down there at the same exact time which is kind of cool.

If you need it, there it's down there. Monday nights at First B are happening tomorrow night which is Monday, obviously. Monday nights at First B happens at 06:00. We do meal, music, and a message every Monday night in the fellowship hall. So, come by for a meal.

The music and the message is free. You know, meal is free too. Anyway, if you come on down, Carl is going to be speaking out of Colossians two and he said it's a good follow-up to resurrection Sunday. It's keeping on keeping on in the Christian life. So, that's a good one.

Tomorrow night, Monday nights at first be at six happens at the same time as Awana is going on in this room. So, Awana's happening right here at six also about 05:45 to 07:30. Gather, play games, trying to pour scripture into the minds of the kids to reach their hearts and so they're learning and memorizing scripture. It's fun. Precept study is happening on Thursday mornings.

That's that's Acts. They're studying Acts and Jane will be back before then. She's not here this morning. She's traveled to her family but Thursdays nine to 11:30 in the fellowship hall. Jane Cranenberg is facilitating but it's a study on the book of Acts.

It's really good. Do you know what my sister's closet is? Y'all know what that means? There are a few of you who know what that means. Would y'all explain it to everyone else?

No, I'm just kidding. My sister's closet is a it's kinda like a yard sale, kinda, but it's nice things that you feel like these things are nice but they're not my size quite or something I'd like to give to somebody if they were the right size for it. So it's a clothing swap. You come in, you make a $10 donation at the door, and then you just swap with people. Stuff that you brought in, stuff they brought in, it'll be all sized and hung up.

And Tanya's gonna be out of town. She told me I have to shop for her that week. So May 18, I'm planning on being here at my sister's closet. Alright. Immigrant hope.

This is Ken and Lori McCune. These pictures up here of Ken and Lori McCune. They have been serving immigrants in this area for many years now. They were missionaries in South America before that, South And Central America and they are looking for Christian board members who would like to help out on immigration issues. So, if you want to do that, talk to me and I'll get you in touch with them.

Miss a message. If you miss a message, ever any message, we have started doing, how long ago has it been? Couple years, year and a half? We started doing Facebook Live so that we have a video message on the website the on the Facebook website, I guess. For first B, First Baptist Church of Jackson.

If it's first, don't put First Baptist Church of Jackson, Mississippi. You won't get us. First Baptist Church of Jackson, Wyoming will get us and it'll be a Facebook video message with the slides and that works pretty well. There's also audio messages that go back for the last almost six years. So if you want to, you can access those things.

When people call sometimes and say, remember when you said such and such? I'll look it up, find out when it was, and then you can listen to it again if you'd like to. Connect hour happens between the services, not just on Easter. It happens every week. So if you wanna get here a little early, you can have a snack, a cup of coffee before you come in.

And if I've forgotten anything else, it should be in your bulletin. Also, if you look at your bulletin this morning, the paper bulletin that you have brought in, that is a picture of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem just outside of the city, O'Wall, of Jerusalem. There's a place where it's one of the proposed sites for the crucifixion place of the skull, and then this is the Garden Tomb and it's empty and this is resurrection Sunday. I just thought that's a pretty good picture and we went just recently. We got back from a trip.

Nick was on that trip. He took that picture which is kind of neat too. So, would you stand up and greet one another? We'll bring you back together with a peppy peppy song but wish somebody a happy Easter right now.

I heard an old old story how a savior came from glory how he gave his life on Calvary to save her rats like me

Whoo. Yeah. Amen. Nice band played over

there. Isn't that nice?

He said he would play with heart if y'all sing with heart.

That's right.

To God be the glory. Hymn number 56. To God be the glory. May we be instruments for his praise.

Son give him the great things he has done frontline team come forward. Amen. Amen. There we go.

Y'all can have a seat. Frontline team come forward. You're going to sing that one for him, will you, Scott? Would y'all pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this glorious morning.

I thank you for this Easter morning for seeing. Lord, your face and creation for seeing you. Amen. I thank you lord that we can know you. When I hear praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice.

If we are praising the Lord, the earth can hear your voice. Lord, day after day, your creation utters forth speech and night after night. It speaks and there is no language where it cannot be understood. Lord, let us never suppress the truth. Let us never push it down but let us exclaim and proclaim that you are a creator, that you are redeemer, that you are lord, king of kings, resurrected.

In Jesus name, lord, we ask you that you would spread this glorious message from this place to the uttermost parts, the ends of the earth. I pray lord that you'd use the tithes and offerings that we are putting in these plates at this time to do your kingdom's work. Do it in your way that you would advance your good gospel, that the proclamation would bring new people into the kingdom. Lord, that we would have compassion and empathy on people in their suffering. Whether that suffering be eternal suffering that may not even realize or temporal suffering which they can't get away from.

Lord, would you help us plead for justice? Earthbound justice and plead for heaven bound mercy. In Jesus name, lord, would you do your will and your way this morning? I ask that you'd bless this offering, that you would bless the giver, and that you'd bless the actual offering that you'd multiply to do your kingdom's work. Amen.

That is an illustration of the sermon this morning. This week, I've been preparing because it's Easter, you know, and this is a big, this is a big part of what we do here, right? If if it's not about Easter, every single day, then why don't we celebrate it once a year but we do celebrate it big time once a year. It's resurrection Sunday and I typically go about a paragraph at a time through scripture. Y'all know that chronologically, methodically with maps and pictures and Greek words and all that sort of stuff and I've been doing that for a long time.

So, when we get to this big Super Bowl type event where it's the biggest show and it's it's Easter. For the last three days, I've had people walking up to me going, are you ready? Are you ready? Do you have what you're going to say ready? And so, I was ready.

I thought I was ready and then I added a little more and it got more complex as it went. I've got a lot to say today but I want y'all to stand up first and we're going to do the Lord's prayer together. We don't do this every Sunday all the time. We do mean it every Sunday all the time. But would y'all just say this with me?

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Y'all can have a seat.

Thank you. So, this is a picture of a painting. You know, this image is of a painting that is in Columbia, South Carolina in the Columbia Museum of Art. It is my favorite painting in that museum. It's from the early seventeen hundreds, Sebastiano Ricci, Italian artist.

It's called Christ resurrected surrounded by angels and I love it. I just think that this is the most powerful piece in that whole museum and I they've got a lot of stuff I really like But when I saw that, I just think, man, I love that. I gotta remember, where can I find that image? I start looking up online because you can find most things online, you know? And it took me a while and I couldn't find it under any names.

I I remember the artist couldn't find it anywhere and finally, I found it and I thought, this is gonna make the perfect little slide for resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen. So, as I'm preparing, I try to get the images where they help. They're not distracting and I'm going forward. This is the big Sunday, you know, and I looked at it and then as I was preparing the sermon two at the same time, I thought, let me look back and see what I've done on other. You know, the story is a story.

I'm not going to add any new characters to the story. The story is a story, right? And where it's the story of Jesus and I'm going to tell you that story but when I was looking back, I thought, man, that's a cool image to start off with and then, I looked at Resurrection Sunday twenty fifteen. I had used the same image with the same font and I put it in a different corner. That's the only difference.

I was looking back and going, wow. All things are new again, aren't they? Anyway, that that image is really good for me. Last week, we were talking about, we went through all of this from John's account. We went through the raising of Lazarus and I have a little image for that too this week.

I didn't use this one last week, but this is the raising of Lazarus. It's a painting from Italy, again, also, the Raising Bladders by Giotto. Giotto, 1305, Scrabinha Chapel, Padua, Italy, and this is Lazarus. You can see him in his grave clothes right here and Jesus has called him forth and it hit me during the sermon last week which I had not really planned on but I want to go back and catch one point and I'll come back to it at the very end again. When he had said these things, he cried out.

This is right after Jesus wept. You know, he, Mary, Martha, Lazarus is dead, been dead four days and when he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth and the man who had died came forth. Amen. He has the power over the grave. The man who had died came forth.

Only God has that kind of power. He was bound hand and foot with wrappings which was a normal custom of that day, right? They bind him up with myrrhs and aloes and all these gauzes. And his face was wrapped around with a cloth and Jesus says to them, unbind him and let him go. Now, only Jesus can raise a man from the dead and only Jesus can save but he gives a command to his followers that are there.

Y'all help him get loose from what's tangling him up. I love that. That'll preach. That's a whole sermon right there. I'm not going preach it today but ain't that good?

Y'all unbind him and let him go. You know why? Little groups of people who are trying to get free from their addictions work. They're putting their trust in the higher power. He's doing what he can do and they're helping each other get loose and get let go.

It's really good. I like that. Raising the ladders. That's Jotto. That's his painting of that.

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, it was Palm Sunday. So, that's what we're going to talk about. Obviously, I kind of ended with Palm Sunday part and this is Giotto's representation of that. These are all along. If you walk into this chapel, they're all along up in the very top is a different row and it's about Mary's parents.

That's a different thing. Then, there are a bunch of em, 30 something images from the life of Jesus. Almost all of em are over half of em are from the last couple weeks of his life and that's the part that we're we're studying last week and this week. So, this is the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and you can see Jesus is riding on the foal of a donkey. The crowds going ahead of him and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna to the son of David.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. This is from Matthew 21. When he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred saying, who is this? And the crowds were saying, this is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.

I'm going to go through a lot of scripture today but I'm just going to tell you the story, alright? It is amazing. This is the prophet Jesus from from Nazareth and Galilee. It was a fulfillment of Zechariah nine nine. I mentioned it last week but I'm going to mention it with three other declarations of his kingship.

And his deity, if you will. Right? Rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion, shouting, triumph, oh daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king, your king is coming to you and he is just and he is endowed with salvation. It is his to give and he's the king. He's humble and he's mounted on a donkey.

He comes in peace. He's not on a war horse. He's even on the colt, the foal of a donkey. So we did a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago, whatever. We had a trip that left from first B and 22 of us went to Israel and there we are standing on the Mount Of Olives.

We are at the very top of the Palm Sunday pathway right there. The Temple Mount is behind us. You could see it's overshadowed right now by that gold dome. That's the Dome Of The Rock. It's a shrine, a Muslim shrine over the place where Solomon's Temple and then after that, Herod's Temple stood.

It's the place of the Holy of Holies where the veil was rent into from the top to the bottom. It's the place where Abraham was going to offer Isaac but the all of those things happen in that place. It is less than one square mile, the old city of Jerusalem and it's the most fought over piece of land in the world. Anyway, I I described painstakingly last week about the right and the left and how the political divide was so great and the economic situation that the divide was great between the haves and the have nots. I decided this week that if I try to preach the whole Bible in one sermon, it's gonna take forever.

So, I'm going to use Giotto's images of the life of Christ chronologically. We've already seen the first two. So, let's go forward from that. You see this picture right here? What does that look like?

It looks like Jesus is about to beat somebody up. He is raring back. He's actually got a cat of nine tails in his hand. He is cleansing the temple. He is running the money changers out of the temple.

Actually, let me let me just read it to you and Jesus entered the temple. This is on Palm Sunday. It is the immediate thing he did when he came through the gates on the foal of that donkey. Immediately after he had cried over Jerusalem because they were rejecting him. He comes in and he entered into the temple.

The first thing you do when you get into the temple is you hit the court of the Gentiles, the nation that's for everyone. Everyone can go there. Men and women, any country, any background, any race, anybody is welcome in the court of the Gentiles or so that was the way it was supposed to be but these folks had set up shop and they had set up shop there and they were, let me just read it. Jesus entered the temple and he 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 were selling doves and he said to them, it is written, my house, capital M there, my house shall be a called a house of prayer but you are making it a robber's den. This actually, this was I thought this was funny.

I'm sorry. It's a money changer right inside the door of the Gate Of Jerusalem. So sorry. Gotta have a little humorous kinda it's a tough story. But this is a fulfillment again.

So, we just had he he says, I'm your king and it's it's not as subtle to them as it was as it is to us. It was not as subtle to them as it is to us. When he comes in and he drives them out, the gospels all mention this as a fulfillment of Isaiah's fifty six seven. Even those I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful 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 and what does it say?

For all the peoples. Rejoice, Gentiles. Rejoice other than little Jewish. It is for all the peoples. It's for all the peoples.

Amen. Giado didn't have a painting on this but it's another declaration of his kingship and his deity. So, I wanted to mention it. This is from Matthew also. Verse 14 continues and says, and the blind and the lame.

So, he cleanses the temple in fulfillment of prophecy and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. Now, to us, we might just say, yeah, that's what he does. He's Jesus. He does it everywhere he goes but this is in the temple, Passover week, tough political situation, religious background, economic, and the great divides. They have already conspired against him.

He just resurrected a man outside of the city. Two miles away in Bethany and the Pharisees are finally proven that resurrection exist but they can't stand the guy who did it. And the sadducees are defending themselves because they don't believe in resurrection. They certainly can't be right and if everybody goes after him, it's going to be problems. So, they band together against him and then, in the temple, whether you're complicit with the Roman government, you go to the temple or your people of the book, you go to the temple, the blind and the lame come to him in the temple and he healed them.

He fulfilled this prophecy right here then the eyes of the blind will be open and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped and then 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 and streams in the Arba Arba Desert by the way. Yeah. He's fulfilling these things. Just knocking them down left and right.

Some of the things he had control over and people say, if if is it really okay if you fulfill a prophecy, if you know the prophecy, and then you shoot for it? Yeah, still okay. Because there are a lot of em that he could not have known about and done something about like, for example, today, we'll hit hanging on the cross. They didn't break his bones. That's one.

It's a prophecy. Being born where he was born. He didn't control that situation but we go on. Very very next verse but when the chief priest and the scribes, typically, they're the left leaning, sadducee, party, ones complicit with Rome. When the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he had done and they were wonderful things.

The blind saw, the deaf heard, the lame left for joy. When they saw the wonderful things he had done and when they saw the children who were shouting in the temple. Hosanna to the son of David, salvation, son of David. They became what? Indignant.

They were upset with him and they said to him, do you hear what these children are saying? Why aren't you stopping them, Jesus? And Jesus said to them, yes. Have you never read this? Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise for yourself.

Psalm eight. Oh Lord, our lord, how many times y'all heard the song? Oh Lord, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You have displayed splendor above the heavens and from the mouths of infants and nursing babes, you have established strength. Actually, that's a good translation that also a good translation as you prepared praise.

Have you not heard this? Jesus says to the chief priest and to the scribes from the mouths of infants and nursing babes, you've established strength. It's oh Lord, our lord, your splendor, your name. He's not just taking on kingship there. He's taking on deity there.

He's taking the place of being lord and he is lord. I'm going to. Dot. Some. I can't preach the whole Bible.

Jotto next goes to this. What does it look like? It's a guy with a halo washing feet of a bunch of guys with halos. This is the upper room setting and it is Jesus beginning to wash the feet of all 12 of the disciples. When Judas was still present, I love the way Luke tells the story.

Here it is and then, there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest and he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles lorded over them and those who have authority over them are called their benefactors because they bestow on them the goodness. But it's not that 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, take note, he says, I am among you as the one who serves and he washes their feet.

He was the rabbi. He was the one that they were following and he served them. I didn't come to be served but to serve, he says. Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come, Well, he knew his hour had come and he was being more and more vocal and more bold about the situation and it seems like he didn't care what the right thought of it and he didn't care what the left thought of it. He was just saying it from the center how it is.

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 and having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil haven't already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and he was going back to God. Jesus gets up from supper.

He lays aside his garments and he takes a towel and he girds himself and then he pours water into the basin and he began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He took the position of humility there. Oh Lord, that we would take a position of humility and not pride. All 12 still sitting with him. He begins the upper room discourse.

He just barely begins it. This is why all 12 are still sitting there as Jotto portrays it. John thirteen twenty one says, when Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and he testified and said, truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved.

If you look at this painting, look closer at this painting, you see, John leaning his head. John always called himself the beloved John the beloved the one he loved. I think that's great. Actually, it sounds kind of self centered at the beginning but when you get past that and you go, but he knew Jesus loved him and he and that was his identity. I praise God.

I know Jesus loves me. If I can think of myself as beloved, that's really really helpful. You know, Simon Peter gestured to him, the guy who was reclining on Jesus. So, Simon Peter gestured to him, to John, and said to him, to John, tell us who it is of whom he is speaking and he leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom says to him, lord, who is it? And Jesus answered and said, that it's the one for whom I shall dip this morsel and give it to him and when he had dipped the morsel, he took it and he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Escariot and after that morsel, Satan then entered in.

We already hear from Matthew that he had already started dabbling with this idea of turning Jesus in. That the devil had already started on it. When we prayed the Lord's prayer this morning, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil. There's such a thing as evil. Therefore, Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly.

So, he sent him out. Now, no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him. For some were supposing that because Jesus had, Judas had the money box, he is the guy who carried money. That Jesus was saying to him, buy the things we need for the feast or else maybe give something to the poor because he said, just go do it and do it quickly. So, after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately and it was night.

You see, this is a nighttime painting of Giotto. He paints Judas with the high priest right there. You see the dark surly figure behind him. That's Satan or a demon that's pushing him to make this transaction to take the 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. Dot dot a little bit here too.

Yada yada. It's pretty important though what I'm yada yadaing out. The upper room discourse, the whole of the upper room discourse. It's actually four chapters long in the book of John and actually, I went yesterday as I reread this week. I reread the gospel of John and I printed a bunch of em up.

These are gospels of John. They're just printed and they're really good. If you hadn't read one, read it. It's it's amazing. They're up here.

If you want em, you can come get em. The four chapters there, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. It's the upper room discourse and without Judas present, it is the rest of those 11 in there and he's talking to him about how things are going to be while he's no longer physically here. He talks to them about the Holy Spirit and the role the Holy Spirit will play in their life. He talks to him about how things will go.

He talks to him about all kinds of stuff. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen is that. The next chapter 17 in John is Jesus's prayer in the garden. If you read that, you know what he wants for the church. He wants unity in the body of Christ.

He wants for people to be sanctified by the word of God, by the truth of God. It's really good. So, he prays that in the garden. He's got his disciples that were supposed to be keeping watch with him according to Matthew and they kept falling asleep but then the next thing we see is this, John 18 puts it this way and by the way, I'm doing a harmony of the gospel's approach. So, I'm going chronologically in order but I'm choosing which one of the gospels I'm going from.

You hadn't noticed. It's mostly Matthew and John so far. John, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the Ravine Of Kidron. Actually, when we took that picture where it was the whole group and then you saw the Temple Mount in the background, the Kidron Valley is what was between us and that city behind us. Where there was a garden, it's the Garden Of Gethsemane.

The olive trees that were there then are still there now. It's amazing. Where there was a garden in which he entered with his disciples and now Judas also who was betraying him. He knew the place for Jesus had often met there with his disciples and Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priest and the Pharisees, he comes there with lanterns and torches and weapons and you can see, if you see the close-up there, it is Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss. There's a lot going on in that picture.

Actually, I'll come back to that one too. Next thing, he's carried away by the Roman cohorts, the Roman cohort and the commander and officers of Jews, they arrested They bound him and they led him to Anas first for he was father-in-law of Caiaphas who was a high priest that year. Now, Caiaphas was the one. We mentioned this last week who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people. He didn't even realize he was prophesying that when he said it.

There are a lot of things I'm mentioning in the scriptures. So far, I've made about seven Old Testament references and some of Jesus's own prophecies about his life. I'm doing that for a reason. We get to the end, you'll see. The next thing we see right here, I don't have the scriptures John 19 but I don't have the scripture up here.

You see the scepter that they give him. They have put a crown of thorns on his head. They're smacking him and pulling his beard. You've got people mocking him down, calm hail, king of the Jews. It's a tough, tough scene for a guy who's sought to do good, who just recently has resurrected a guy, who just recently has made the lame walk and the blind see and the deaf hear and now he's just the butt of their joke.

John 19 is pretty amazing too. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the way of the cross. Actually, if you want to see a pretty accurate representation in modern day, the Matthew's story is told again by the passion of the Christ that came out in two thousand three or four. Pretty amazingly accurate to Matthew's gospel. But Jotto has this painting.

It is in the daytime. He's being taunted and prodded and he is carrying his cross. And then we get to the crucifixion. Like I said, I'm not going to do a representation, a modern day representation on it or try to express the agony of the scourging or the agony of the passion because I don't have time to do it all. Crucifixion is obviously the center point of Christianity.

This is Giotto's representation. They are right down here at the bottom there. They are gambling for his clothing right here. All of these folks looking on. James Tussaud has an actual really really good painting of just a street, a busy street walking by and it said, what Jesus saw from the cross because we don't think about that.

We see the crucifixion as we would see it but he was saying, it's right on an active roadway outside the city wall. People of all nations are walking by and as he's numbered with the transgressors. This is a form of capital punishment. He's in between two bad bad guys nailed up there. You see John there.

You see Mary there. I don't want to do a modern representation of it. I'd I'm not going to read the crucifixion passage from the New Testament. I want to read the crucifixion passage from the Old Testament. This is from seven hundred years BC.

Isaiah 53. I'm just going to read it. I'm not going preach the whole thing but listen, listen to this. Seven hundred years before, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, the strength of the Lord been revealed for he, capital H, It's referring to Jesus seven hundred years before for he grew up before him, God like a tender shoot. It's even got a little play on words right there.

Netzer means a root, a tender little root, a branch root and he's from Nazareth which is a root. It's pretty cool. Where he grew up before him like a tender shoot, he and like a root out of parched ground, he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him. There was nothing really all that special about his appearance nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was a man like other men.

He was despised and he was forsaken of men and he was a man of sorrows and he was acquainted with grief. Last week, we mentioned two different times where Jesus cried. One of em was over Jerusalem because they would not repent. They would not accept their king. And the other one was just very personal.

Mary and Martha's brother had died and he knew that he had the power to raise him from the dead but he still cried. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He he knew what it felt like to hurt and like one from whom men had their face. He was despised and we did not esteem him and surely, our griefs, he himself bore and our sorrows, he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him as stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was pierced through for our transgressions seven hundred years before he says, he was crushed for our iniquities, that's sin.

The chastening that we deserve, the chastening for our well-being, it fell upon him and by his scourging, we are healed. Christ suffered redemptively, transformatively for us. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. There are no exceptions to that but the Lord has caused the iniquity sin of us all to fall on him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted and yet he did not open his mouth. You know, he didn't open his mouth in his defense during his trials. Even when Pilate said, you know, I have the authority to condemn you to death even though he had called him innocent over and over and over again. He still had the authority to call. Cause him death.

Jesus said, you would not have any authority over me that were not already given to you by God. He did not defend himself. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet. He did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers so he did not open his mouth 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? He's buried.

He was crucified and pulled off of the cross and buried outside of the city wall, cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men but yet, he was with a rich man in his death. He was actually laid in a borrowed tomb from a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea. His grave was signed with a wicked man because normally, a guy that was killed on a cross would just be buried in a big hole with the rest of em but yet, he was with a rich man in his death because he had done no violence nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

Peter calls that up in first Peter but the Lord was pleased to crush him and putting him to grief if he would render himself as a guilt offering and he did. Are you with me? There is such a thing as substitutionary atonement and Jesus took the punishment of whosoever would believe on him, on himself. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt offering and he did.

And then it goes on to say something odd because he took upon us all of those beatings and everything else and even death and then it says, and he will see his offspring and he will prolong his days. How can a dead man days be prolonged? Resurrection. Amen. And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

God will do his will through the people that Jesus saves. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. So, God, the father, is satisfied with the finished work of Jesus on the cross. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will justify the many and it does not say all. Don't believe the popular heresy of universalism that says that all will eventually get to heaven.

The righteous one, God's servant will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities and you can believe that if you trust in Christ, he will bear your iniquities and you will see God but if you reject him, you won't. 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 yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. What? Was Jesus praying on the cross as they're nailing him up? Father, forgive him for they know not what they do.

That was seven hundred years before. That's amazingly accurate. Let's go three forty four years earlier. Psalm 22, what did Jesus say from the cross? Actually, when he was nailed to the cross and he was up there, one of the seven words, you know, is my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Actually, I showed you the the picture of the garden tomb. I got to do communion, lead communion at the garden tomb. It's pretty amazing and what hit me right there at that time was we're within a stone's throw of the cross, the side of the cross on this side, the grave on this side, and right there, what was overwhelming is when God, when Jesus said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me from the cross? If I start a song, most of y'all would finish the song. If I started one, you knew it's like, I heard an old old story.

Thank you. Yeah, you do that, right? So, Jesus said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's Psalm 22. It's page number 22 in the Jewish hymn book, right?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus is calling to their memory this Psalm. Thousand forty four BC, Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And they would start saying it in their minds, far from my deliverance.

So, the words of my groaning, oh my God, I cry by day but you do not answer. On the cross, he says this and by night but I have no rest yet. You are holy. I know that you're holy God. Still trust.

Oh, you, you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In you, our fathers, trusted and they trusted and you delivered them and to you, they cried out and were delivered and in you, they trusted and they were not disappointed but I I'm a worm and I'm not a man, reproach of man and I'm despised by the people. All who see me, sneer at me, they separate with the lip. It's actually they shoot out the lip. It it was an old kind of an ugly sign of disapproval to someone.

It's something like this. Silly now. But it's it's bad. They shoot out the lip. They wag their head and they say, commit yourself to the Lord and let him deliver him.

Let him rescue him because he delights in him. Do you remember the taunts from the crowd at the cross? What he said, save yourself and us, right? If you are indeed the Messiah, save yourself and us. Yet, you are he who brought me forth from the womb.

You made me to trust you and 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 for trouble is near, for there's none to help me. Many bulls have surrounded me.

Many strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring lion. I'm poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. What crucifixion does to the body is just awful. They have em up with their arms up and their feet so that they can stand up just every once in a while to get some breath and then back down and it collapses your lungs.

It's an awful, awful, excruciating death. All my bones are out of joint. It will pull you apart without breaking anything. My heart is like wax. It's melted within me trying to get oxygen in that state.

It's just awful. My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaves to my jaws. I'm thirsty. And you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs, that was a word that was used of Gentiles in David's day and even in Jesus's day.

The dogs have surrounded me. A band of evildoers has encompassed me. He's nailed up between two bad guys. They pierced my hands and my feet. That wasn't even a form of capital punishment when this was written.

I can count on my bones. One of the gospel says and they, it was so that we would know that he was dead. The soldiers came by and the other two were still struggling for life and they broke their bones to kill them because they just would collapse their lungs, the weight of their bodies on. They didn't have to break Jesus's bones. He had already committed his spirit to the Lord.

He can count all his bones. They're intact or another prophecy about that too. They look, they stare at me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots.

All of those things. Jesus from the cross, you think he could control all of that stuff? God almighty. To tell us that. This is Jesus last word from the cross.

Last word from the cross before his death was to tell us that. To tell us that is used twice in three verses. It's a great word. I love it. After this, Jesus knowing that and this is the first translation, all things were now accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Jesus said, I thirst. Well, his tongue was cleaving to his mouth and feeling like a potsherd. I thirst so that the scripture might be fulfilled. He said, I thirst and now, a vessel of sour wine was sitting there and they filled a sponge with sour wine vinegar, put it on hyssop, and put it into his mouth. So, when Jesus had received this sour wine, he said, it is finished.

That's the second translation of to tell us that. Both of those are good translations and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. To tell us that means either things were now accomplished or it is finished in context in verse 28 verse 30. If you're a nerd like me, this third person singular indicative mood, perfect tense, middle, passive voice from the verb teleo. We actually get our word television from it.

Television and telephone. It is the end. Like television, you are able to see something on the other end of a transmitter. There's a transmitter, there's a receiver, you're able to see it on that end. Telephone, you're able to make a sound, phonos, and you're able to hear it on the other end, telos.

Okay? So it's an end. It's an end. It's a finishing. It's an accomplishing.

It's a paying, canceling, if you will. When we were in Costa Rica and I'd call to get like a pizza order to the house, they'd say, do you wanna cancel your order? And I would say, why would I wanna cancel my order? I just made my order. Do you wanna cancel your order?

How do you wanna cancel your order? Well, I don't wanna cancel my order. Is my Spanish bad? How do you wanna end this? I'm like, wait.

Don't hang up. No. I said, oh, you mean payment? And like, yes. You make an end of it by paying it, right?

You make payment for it. How do you want to pay for this pizza? Oh, tell us. I get that. I can I I'm I'm there with you now?

It is finished. If you just look at it like that, you might look at it and just see a period and go, it's finished. Okay, it's finished and you might get to this point that these people, this is Giotto's next painting, the Lamentation of Christ or over Christ would probably be better. They have pulled him off of the cross and he's laying there. He's got his wounds and Joseph of Arimathea is there and Nicodemus is there and Mary is there and the other Mary is there and Mary's mother and John and they're all there and they are lamenting this dead man that they believed to be the Christ but he's dead.

Even though he's told him recently, he was going to die and be resurrected. They still just couldn't wrap their minds around that. If someone told you that they were going to die and be resurrected three days later, would you be looking for him? Probably not. You think he's a little bit crazy.

Even if you loved him, you think he's a little crazy. So, they are lamenting over him. And if you take that as a period, the to tell us die as a period, it's pretty rough. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the Jews asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted permission and so he came and he took away his body. Nicodemus, y'all remember Nicodemus?

Then John three? Nicodemus who had first come by night, he also was kind of fearful. This is where we get this. Jesus speaking to Nicodemus gives this succinct statement of the gospel God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus came in his first coming. God did not send the son into the world to judge the world but that the world might be saved through him. So, salvation is his just like he broadcast from Zechariah nine nine on that triumphal entry. Nicodemus who had first come by night also came bringing a mixture of myrrhs and aloes about 100 pounds weight so they took the body of Jesus and they bounded in linen wrappings. Remember?

Lazarus a few minutes ago? Lazarus was bound in these linen wrappings. That's what they did. With the spices as is the burial custom of the Jews and now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden and in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation since the tomb was nearby, right near the cross, they laid Jesus there.

If the story were to end there, just be a terrible story and honestly, probably wouldn't still be around two thousand years later, right? To tell a style with a period, it's finished. Oh, well, we followed them for three years but it's over. I'm going fishing, right? But it doesn't end with a period.

Actually, a good translation, better translation I think, we would probably say it's finished. Like if somebody says, do you do the dishes? You say, yeah, they're finished, right? Did you do that? It's finished.

Did you remember to get the tickets for the trip that were going on, the plane tickets? It has been done. Yes, it has been paid for. It has been ended. I've made an end of that work, right?

Everything has been accomplished. It has been finished. Now, I said that it was a passive voice. For the nerds in the room and I know there are at least two of you in here. Tetelesti in the middle voice and the passive voice are different.

But it's an ambiguous form. It's exactly the same verb. It's exactly the same word. It can be translated either way with accuracy. So this is it.

Everything has been accomplished. It has been finished. That's good. But middle is this, I, myself, Jesus can say with no pride, with absolute humility, he can say, I have done everything that had to be done. I, myself, have just now accomplished everything.

I, myself, have now finished it. I, myself, have just now completed everything. All the work you've given me to do, father. I've done it. I, myself, have now fulfilled it.

I, myself, have just now made an end to everything. I, myself, have just brought it all to them. I, myself, have just made the final payment. Amen. That's why we're telling the story today.

Grammatically, this form has to do with something that happens at one specific point in history that has ongoing ramifications into eternity future. Has been done. It never has to be done again. That's why we're still telling the story. That's why boom.

Christ breaks forth victoriously from the grave. That's why that's my favorite painting in that museum because he is breaking forth. I know historically, he wouldn't have had a sarcophagus like this probably and you know, the I got a few extra characters there around that I don't know were necessarily there but what gets me is this, boom. Jesus is resurrected. He's come out of that.

God almighty has prolonged his days. He's given him over everything. He's given him his portion and it is to be the Christ before whom every knee will bow. That to me this week just look like a high five from Jesus. Boom.

Right there. Amen. That's why we're still telling the story. So, I have a couple other things. These are these might be qualifiers because on Easter, we tend to get folks back in church that have been in church for a while and don't let that hurt your feelings.

When you hear your it's like Olive Garden. When you hear your family, you know, I love you. This and the next slide, I'm gonna point out some things. This painting is the next one in the series. This is the resurrection.

This one that I showed you the boom, all the energy of that one. And then this one where Jesus is doing this to a person. It's in Latin, Italian. Which means don't touch me. Ain't that awful?

The first picture I showed you was Jesus about to hit somebody and the last one I'm showing you right here is him saying, don't touch me. Actually, sometimes, did you know this? The church gets things wrong. Sometimes, church folk get things wrong. Sometimes, translation issues hurt us and in this case, the Latin translation of the Greek rendered something that is, there's no need to be clinging to me continuously.

To don't touch me. And it it leads to a standoffishness with Jesus that is not good. And there are tons of paintings of Noli Me Tongere. There are tons of them. But that's not the point.

The point of Jesus saying, you you have no need to cling to me. He said, I'm going to be with you forever in spirit. I know that you want to hold on to me right now but as Thomas found out when he said, go ahead and touch my side, go ahead and touch the wounds in my hand. Blessed are you because you have seen but even more blessed are those who haven't seen. It's a spiritual thing.

Jesus is right there. So, I would say to you, sometimes we get things wrong and it looks like Jesus has given her the Heisman right there but that's not true, alright? He's not. This painting right here is another one. That kiss, what a, what a, what a painting.

Right in the center is Judas betraying Jesus and we all have done that. But if we look closer at this, the guy with the halo is Peter, the guy without the halo is Malcus and what is Peter doing to Malcus? Cut his ear off. He was probably aiming for his head. He's protecting Christ when they came to get him in the garden.

How many of y'all have been hurt by church or by somebody in the church? Peter, for crying out loud, the leader of the whole church. He cut a guy's ear off. Had he not been listening to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you? He cut a man's ear off and Jesus very gently picks up the ear, reapplies it to the man's head, and heals him.

Malchus, by the way, becomes a believer. In the process, Peter, he says, Peter, put the sword away. Man who lives by the sword is going to die by the sword. Put the sword away. And after Peter has told Jesus, I'm not going to deny you.

I'm not going to deny you. I'm not going to deny you and then, people come after him and he's not going to deny him. He pulls out his sword, does what he can do. I'm afraid as the church, we have pulled out our sword and swung it at people's heads. But Jesus can heal.

Jesus can heal that wound. He can bring you through it and he can make the gentle, he can make the furious guy that Peter was gentle. Next week, we'll be back in second Peter and you can see the gentleness of the guy after the fact. And then last one I'm going to show you is this. This is back to Lazarus and again, if you're looking at Lazarus and you see that Jesus saved him only, God can save and then he said, y'all help him get unbound, then, yeah, we help him with his sin.

That's that's good. We want to help him get out of that. That's wonderful. I think it's so cool. The narrative of the scripture says that at the resurrection, when the disciples arrive at the tomb, Peter and John run and get to the tomb and when they get there, it says, they find the grave clothes neatly folded and lying there because Jesus didn't need any help.

He didn't have any sin. He got loose and he neatly folds things away. Let's let Jesus do what he can do. And let's follow after with the things he gives us to do. I can't think of anything else.

And that's good. The message across is this. Those who are perishing, it's foolishness to those who are being saved. It's the very power of God. We know that from first Corinthians one eighteen and the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners and tell you what, there are no other kind of people but he's saving those who will believe.

All of the scripture I've shared with you today is because of this. This is where I wanted to start but I'm going to end here. For I deliver to you, Paul says this to the Corinthians, I'm saying it to y'all. For I deliver to you as a matter of first importance, the resurrection is a matter of first importance. As a matter of first importance, that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

Everything before him have been pointing towards it and everything in the New Testament and since is pointing back to him. It's the dividing point of all human history that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared. He appeared to Peter. We'll be studying from second Peter next week. That's Cephas.

Then, to the 12 after that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. 500 and something people saw him after the resurrection. When Paul wrote this, he said, most of em are still alive. They remain until now. Go ask em.

But some of em have fallen asleep but they will be resurrected one day. He also appeared to James. We have lovely Bible book from James. Then, to all of the apostles, everyone he sent out and then, last of all, as to one untimely born, untimely born, he appeared to me also Paul imitating Christ's humility. Down plays his role.

What a beautiful thing. Last painting of Giotto is based on this. Jesus came and told his disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. He's been resurrected. It authenticates his message and therefore, go.

You go and you make disciples of all the nations. Baptize him into the name of the father and the son, the Holy Spirit, and teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you and be sure of this. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you.

I'm with you always even to the end of the age and then, he ascended into heaven. And the Holy Spirit descended and we have been about the work of the Christ since. Amen. Florian, would you come on up and would y'all stand? We're going to sing one closing hymn and then y'all can get to your dinner reservations.

I made mine late.

He lives. 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

Amen. Amen. The benediction for this morning is this, from Hebrews thirteen twenty and twenty one. Now, may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. May he make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you, what is well pleasing in his sight.

Through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.