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. Hey, good morning everybody. He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Awesome. Isn't that awesome? Isn't it great to be together? We're gonna share in some resurrection songs. Y'all look great by the way.

You look you look like it's Easter right now, but let's see if we sound like it's Easter this morning. Shall we? Why don't you stand up? We're gonna sing Christ Rose.

Alright, low end. Savior, awaiting the coming day. Jesus, my lord, and up from up from the grave, he rose with a mighty triumph for his foe. He rose a victor from the dark domain and he lives forever with the saints to reign. He rose, he rose.

Rose. He rose. Hallelujah. Christ rose. And death Lord.

Love from my grave, he rose with a mighty triumph for his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, rose. He rose. Hallelujah. Christ arose.

Again, he rose. He rose. He rose hallelujah Christ rose

Amen. Alright. Y'all do sound good. Y'all can have a seat. We got a couple announcements.

I probably won't linger on em. There is. If you feel like you need to go downstairs, there's another's a nursing mother's room downstairs. If you feel like the baby maybe making too much noise and is hungry and wants to go downstairs, that's fine. It's down there.

If you want it, no pressure. It never bothers me. I promise. Okay? I'm gonna keep on going.

Nursing mother's room is downstairs if you have need of it. And Monday nights at first b is happening tomorrow night.

Yep. We're on tomorrow. We're in Colossians two. It's the continue to live in him. A great post Easter message of today's the resurrection, but tomorrow let's be living for him message.

So pull pork tomorrow 06:00, meal music message, know you're invited. Pulled pork to celebrate Easter.

Very good. Alright. That's wonderful. We've got a happening at the same time right after right at 05:45 to six right in there. A one will be happening in this room tomorrow night.

That's a kids club. It's great. So, it's from kids from around two or three years old, cubbies age up until fifth grade. If you want to get your kids involved in something like that, it's here on Monday nights. Every Monday night during the school year.

Precept study is still going on in Acts nine to 11:30 sharp on Thursday mornings. They're studying through the Acts of the Apostles. This is coming up soon. My sister's closet. How many of know what this is?

Alright, explain it to everybody else. Oh, I'm just kidding there. Saturday, May 18 for a $10 donation at the door. You kind of swap clothes with other people. So, before that, we'll be putting out a call to bring in nice, gently used items and then swap on May 18, that's Saturday.

And it's a lot of fun. It's open to the community too. Tanya's gonna be out of town that day and she says I have to do her shopping for her. So anyway, Saturday, May 18 is when that's happening. If you want more information, you could talk to KC McCooey.

Immigrant Hope is looking for board members. So, if you all know Ken and Lori McCune, I see some grandchildren looking up and going, hey, that's grandma and granddad right there. They're looking for Christian board members to help with immigrant hope that's trying to help people who find themselves in difficult and get into a better situation here. Alright. If you miss a message ever, if you ever miss a message, we always do a first first beat as a like a simulcast on Facebook, Facebook Live.

So if you wanna go to First Baptist of Jackson, Wyoming, not Mississippi, you'll get our service that way. And we also have audio stuff, all of the audio is recorded for about the last five and a half or six years on line. If you ever feel like, oh, there was a message one time I remember he said something and you wanna go back, you could find it that way. Hey, look at there. We have the connect hours happening between services this morning and they have, if you haven't already been down and experienced it, the men got up early this morning, prepared breakfast for everybody.

So, all of you are invited to come down the hall between services and have some pancakes and sausage and bacon to celebrate Easter. Again, anything I forgot? Probably so but I think I'm gonna skip it anyway. Yeah, Blake. If any group will have a live feed in the service that's following.

Fantastic. That's good. We have actually in the nurse and mother's room downstairs and in the nursery now downstairs, they have a live feed of the services going on. That's good. Thank you for pointing that out, Blake.

Alright. If there's nothing else, and I don't think that there is except, hey, it's Easter. Welcome. And we're glad that you're here. Would you stand up and greet one another?

We'll bring you back to bet gather with a peppy little song. We're gonna keep it moving. We're gonna keep it.

Upon the cross and run to wail to show great love. And then for us, freely fair. For us. Christ is risen with us. Christ is risen from the dead.

Tramping over death by death. Come awake. Come awake. Come and rise up from the grave. Christ crown, no burden gray.

Hold you down and stray. You reign forever. Let your church hell, where is your victory? Oh, church, come stand in the light. The glory of God has defeated the night.

And, oh, dear, where is your sting? Oh, hell, where is your victory? Oh, church, come stand in the light. Our God is not dead. He's alive.

He's alive. No. God is not dead. He's alive. He's alive.

Christ is risen.

Amen. Let's pray on that. God, how true. Words could not be truer. We truly, as we trust in you, now we are in that we can go from darkness and into light.

Thank you, God, for what you did on that cross. Thank you for rising in victory. That is why we're here today. I pray, God, that you would become more and more alive in us the more and more we trust in you. In Jesus' name, amen.

In Christ alone, my hope is found. He's my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solemn ground burned through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights are low first cry till final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. And no power of hell, no scheme of man can ever blow

From first Peter, listen to this. It says, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. Church, let's be a church of gentleness and respect, but filled with the love of God, driven by the power of God, always being ready. When people say, well, why would you go to church on Sunday?

Why would you celebrate celebrate Easter? Because we live we we serve a risen savior. He's in the world today. Where does he live? He lives in the hearts of believers.

It's not about this building. It's about each individual person who comes here has put their faith and trust in Christ. He lives in us. Amen?

There's a reason why the curse of sin is broken. There's a reason why the darkness runs from light. There's a reason not overtaken. There's a reason why we're sailing through the night. There's a reason why hope can be courageous.

There's a reason why the dead remain alive. There's a reason why we share scenes are roaring, hell where is all this. Death wearies your stink, the grave could not ignore. When all

God, thank you for this morning. I thank you for this glorious resurrection morning. Thank you for what you've done for us, lord and as we come to this time in the service where we give back lord a portion of what you've given us so that others may know. We are seeking lord to spread the gospel in this community but lord to the ends of the earth, would you just lead us as you would have us go? May we do your will lord in your way.

May we take that seriously? God, I pray that you would use the obedience of your servants as you have promised to do to spread your message of hope and forgiveness and love and lord that this country and this world would be impacted by the name of Christ, by the person of Christ, by the resurrection of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, would you do your will? In Jesus name, amen. Y'all can be seated.

The gospel is in every song that we sing and this one is no different. Be listen for the gospel of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, but also be listening for the power of the spirit that is alive in the hearts of believers here.

Is crowned with glory now. The savior knelt to wash our feet. Now at his feet, we want All praise will rise to Christ our king. Your name your name is victory. All praise will rise to Christ our king.

The fear that held us now gives away to him who lives on me. His five home breath upon that cross is now alive. Name your name is victory. All praise will rise to Christ our king. Your name your name is victory.

All praise will rise to Christ our king by spirit. And by your spirit, I will rise from the ashes of undefeat. A resurrected king is resurrecting will rise from the ashes of defeat. The resurrected king is resurrecting me, and then your name I come alive to declare your The tumor soldiers watched in vain, was borrowed for three days. His body there would not remain.

Our God has robbed the Let's sing this out together. Your name, your name is victory. Our praise will rise to Christ our king. Your name your name is victorious. All praise will rise to Christ our king.

Alright. Well, Children's Church is starting downstairs Peak Children's Church. Y'all can stay or y'all can go as you as you please. Go right ahead. How are you this morning?

Great.

Alright? Wide awake, alive? It's good. Would you stand up? Would you all stand up?

We don't do this every Sunday but we're going do it this Sunday, alright? Would you all just recite this with me? Give you a chance to say something. 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. Thank you. So, I, this week, Easter, to be a preacher on Easter, there's one thing about it. You go, yeah, it's Easter.

Other than that, you say, everybody in the room knows this story. I haven't snuck up on anybody with what I'm going to be preaching. They've, if they've thought about it or prepared themselves or read their verse of the day, then they've already gotten ahead of me and they probably heard something just as profound as anything I could possibly say today. And for the last three days, I've been talking to people and they've said, are you ready? Are you ready?

Are you ready? And that's that's building expectation. I'm not so sure I can live up to but I can tell the story. So, and I can tell my story too. This is a painting that is in the Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, South Carolina.

I went to seminary in Columbia, South Carolina at CIU and this is my favorite painting in that whole building and it's cool. It is the resurrection surrounded by angels by Sebastiano Ricci, Italian, you know, from the 1712, 1716 and I think that's cool in itself because that's a long time ago, right? They were thinking this back then. They were looking at it. Now, you can see that it's not exactly the same type of tomb that they woulda had because everybody views things through their lens from their time but I just love it.

Jesus, out of the grave. It's just beautiful to me and I I've always liked that one. That's the one I'd stand in front of and so, resurrection Sunday twenty nineteen. I I did this and I thought, it took me a while to find that picture of that painting when I was looking on the internet, researching around. It took a little while and as I was looking for it, I thought, Now, I'm satisfied with my design work here and I look back and as I was studying for the sermon, was thinking, maybe I'll look at what I did in 2015 or 2016 or 2017 or 2012, 2013, whatever.

And when I look back to 2015, I had exactly the same picture with exactly the same font and exactly the same way. It just said 2015. I recreated exactly the same thing and that is the story. The story is the story. I'm not gonna add any characters to the story that you've never heard of before.

I'm not gonna do anything novel, I hope, and if I do, please get on to me, okay? I don't want to add anything to it because the story is a story and it's amazing. So, last week, we talked about this. In John's account, we did the raising of Lazarus and there's a picture that was painted by Giotto, Giotto the Bondoni. Giotto the Bondoni is master.

He was the earliest of the early Italian Renaissance guys. I'm an art major. If it if it doesn't show, the word nerd part of me shows all the time but I was an art guy too and as I was trying to nail down what the sermon would be about, I thought, I'm going to use the paintings of Jato and the Scrovenia Chapel. I've been there. I've seen it, walked around, and the raising of Lazarus right there, I like.

We went through that. When he said these things, he cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth. I preached last week but during the sermon, I wasn't even about this. I was overcome with this.

Lazarus come forth and the man had died, came forth. This is one week before the Passover. This is two miles from the center of all Judaism, Jerusalem. And he just resurrected a guy. Oh my goodness.

And he said, the man who had died came forth, he was bound hand and foot with wrappings and his face was wrapped around with a cloth and if you can't see that, this is Lazarus right here looking like a mummy. He's been dead four days. He was wrapped up with around with a cloth and Jesus said, to them, that's the other people there. He said, unbind him and let him go. Now, Jesus is the only one that can raise somebody from the dead and he did that but then he asked those people, his followers that were there with him.

He said, y'all, help him get loose. Does that make sense? Help him get loose. That hit me and it spun in my head all week. I'll come back to that at the end.

Triumph entry into Jerusalem was next. There's Jatoba, Divandoni's portrayal of that. The people are up in the palms, breaking off branches to lay down. Somebody's down in front of him, laying out their cloak, and we covered that in scripture last week. Triumphal entry by Giotto, 1305, Scrivenia Chapel.

There it is. And that was a fulfillment of prophecy. I've also been concentrating on this week about not changing the message, keeping the message the message, and the resurrection is the message that it all hinges upon. Zechariah nine nine says, rejoice greatly, oh daughter of Zion, shout in triumph, oh daughter of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you. He is just and he's endowed with salvation.

He has salvation. It's the only place that's available, right? Humble and mounted on a donkey, even a colt, the foal of a donkey. So, we get Jotto's painting right there of him riding that foal of a donkey. I'm not sure why I've been so flooded scripture this week.

I mean, it is Easter and the whole Bible is about Easter The Old Testament points to it and the New Testament points to it. The gospels are all about Jesus life but more than that, they're about his passion. I had a professor that was fond of saying, the gospels are all just passion narratives with long introductions. And I agree because it comes down to that point of Jesus sacrificially giving himself. The just for the unjust.

So, recently, took a trip to Jerusalem. I'm in there somewhere. There were 22 of us from First B and we had a tour guide with us and we're looking down from the Mount Of Olives up at the top of the Palm Sunday pathway and looking down at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Dome Of The Rock stands out now but that's where the temple would have been at this time that we're going to be talking about today. It's kind of an amazing thing and a lot of people have a mystical experience when they're standing there.

Mine was not as mystical like, oh and it finally felt real. Always felt real for me. I was brought up in a home where Christ was portrayed as real and people lived it out and I understood it from an early age and I got that but man, when I got there, I was flooded with the words of scripture. Everywhere we're standing, I'm thinking the Olivet discourse, the Mount Of Olives teaching time that he had with his disciples and I couldn't get away from it. Couldn't get away from it last night.

So, I'm planning to use Giotto's images to go forward just to keep me on track, okay? Normally, if you don't come here very often, normally, what I do up here is I take either one or two paragraphs at a time and I go in order through scripture and I take it rather painstakingly apart and that's what I feel comfortable doing but today, we're going to use Gotto's paintings just to keep me on track, alright? In order. Here they are. This one is the first thing after the triumphal entry and if you're here and you think, that looks like Jesus is about to beat somebody up.

He is cleansing the temple. He is running people out of the temple who have taken over the court of the Gentiles, the court that was available for all of the nations to come into. Any seeker, anybody who wanted to come in could come into that area. Now, they couldn't go further than that but they could come into that area and that's where these money changers had set up their booths and they were making money off of the money exchange and they were selling animals for sacrifice. They were offering a service in their opinion and in their mind but Jesus when he came in said, my house is going to be a house of prayer and so, in this, that's the cleansing the temple by Giada and Jesus entered the temple.

This is on the triumphal entry day and he drove all of those out who are buying and selling in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling the doves and to them it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer but y'all are, it's plural by the way. Y'all are making it a robber's den. This is right inside the Jaffa Gate right now in Old City Jerusalem, money changer. I don't know. Some things never change.

I want to point this out. Jesus was declaring himself by that riding in on a donkey. He was declaring himself to be the king. It might have been subtle but the religious leaders all knew it. By cleansing the temple and proclaiming it, he does this, even those I will bring to my capital M, Holy Mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer, he was saying that that temple was his.

Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar. Not just king but he's hinting at deity now. For my house will be called the house of prayer for who? All the peoples, all the peoples, not just me my four no more, not just this little nation of the Jews, not just these. This is for all the peoples.

This is James to Jock to so actually. This is 1886 to 1896. He paints several paintings and Jotto missed this one. So, and the blind and the lame, they came to him in the temple. So, you see what he's doing there.

He healed them. The blind and the lame came in. This is right after he cleansed the temple, ran off the money changers, and then the blind and the lame came in and he healed them and he fulfilled this prophecy, Isaiah 35 and then, in that day, 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 the shout for joy for the waters will break forth in the wilderness and the streams in Arabah by the desert. It's pretty awesome. And he was doing it.

He's just on that day now fulfilled three of the messianic prophecies. Next one right here, Matthew 2,115, but when the chief priest and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and they could not deny that because he was healing the lame and the blind and the deaf. When they saw the wonderful things he did, that he had done and they also saw the children who were shouting in the temple and they were shouting, Hosanna, salvation to the son of David, they, the chief priest and scribes, they became indignant and said to him, do you hear what these children are saying? Jesus did. Actually, it goes on and Jesus said to them, yes.

Yes, I hear what they're saying. Have you never read this? Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise for yourself. Have you not heard that folks? Now, he's gone to claiming it when they're challenging him.

He's pushing towards the end. Last week, I went into great links of detail to say there was an extreme right wing, an extreme left wing. There was economic turmoil Rome was oppressing the Jews whether they were right wing or left wing Jews and there's all kind of infighting going on. This is a hot bed of activity and now, the chief priest and scribes which are typically left leaning complicit with the Roman government are saying, you're hearing this. They know that the Pharisees are going, oh, that's deity.

That's deity and they're saying, you're antagonizing the whole situation. You're making things even worse and if there's a riot, we lose power. And the Pharisees don't know what to think of and they've already conspired to go against him. Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies, you have prepared praise for yourself. That's Psalm eight.

Oh Lord, our lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth? You who have displayed your splendor above the heavens from the mouth of infants and from nursing babies, you have established your strength or you have prepared praise as a reasonable, reasonable translation of that. I'm using the New American Standard throughout today, everything you see. Oh Lord, our lord, how majestic is your name, capital Y in all the earth. You who have displayed your splendor among the heavens, there wasn't a thing that was made that was made outside of Christ making it.

Does this make sense? Are you with me? He's saying who he is and he's saying it openly. He's now declared he was the king of the Jews four times by walking in. From the mouths of nurses, babe, you have established strength for yourself.

I'm going to. Dot. Some stuff because I can't tell the whole Bible in one sermon, okay? I'm going to try today though. I really am.

Here we go. Jotto's painting. Get me back on order. So, this, it looks like a man with a halo washing the feet of 12 other guys with halos. It was a convention of the time in the thirteen hundreds to put halos over the saints, those apostles and Jesus and so this is Jesus washing the feet of his disciples in an upper room.

We had a chance to go into what may have been upper room when we were in Israel. It was pretty awesome. Listen to this though and then, there arose 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, the rest of the nations lorded over them and those who have authority over them are called their benefactors and they put it down to them. But it's not this way with you, the one who is 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, I'm among you as the one who serves, and he showed that by washing their feet. Before the feast of Passover, I'm taking a harm of the gospel's approach if you won't know what that is. John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, all of em mention all of these events coming up to this. Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that it's hour had come, therefore, being more bold with his words than ever. That he would depart out of this world to be with the father.

He having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil already having 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 was going back to God, Jesus gets up from supper and he lays aside his garments and he takes a towel and he girds himself and he pours water into a basin and he begins to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. That's the beginning. Judas was still there at that point, right?

He was still there when he was washing his feet. This Jotto's portrait of the upper room discourse. If you pay attention to the Bible, there are four chapters in the gospel of John. In four chapters, he talks about what Jesus said on that night that he was betrayed right before he was arrested and taken in to custody. John thirteen twenty one, when Jesus had said this, he became troubled in his spirit.

He testified, truly, truly I say to you that one of you will betray me. Notice that there are 12 guys sitting there right then. One of you will betray me. The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know which one of he was speaking about and there they were. There was one reclining on the bosom of there was one reclining on Jesus' bosom, one of the disciples whom Jesus loved.

John always refers to himself in the book of John as the one Jesus loved. That may seem self centered but you know what? I think Jesus loves me and for him to be as honest and straightforward as that, that's that's pretty cool and that is John. Jotto nestles John's face right into Christ's bosom right here. There he is.

He loves him. Probably the youngest one of the disciples. Definitely the one that lived the longest. So, Simon Peter gestured to him, that's John and said to John, tell us who it is of whom he's speaking and he, leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom, said to him, lord, who is it? John's right there next to him and Jesus answered, that's the one for whom I shall dip the morsel into probably olive oil and give it to him and so when he had dipped the morsel, he took and he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon, Escariot, and after the morsel, Satan entered in.

Into him and therefore, Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now, what? No one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him for some were supposing because Judas Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying to him, by the things we have need of for the feast or else that he should go give something to the poor. Go do what you do quickly. They didn't know what he was talking about.

So, after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately and it was night. Now, at the point where Judas leaves, that really begins the upper room discourse. He's talking to his disciples about how they're going to be dealing with the world. They've been with their savior with the Christ for three straight years walking around learning from him every day and he's about to go away and they don't understand that. He starts talking to them.

There's Judas. See the Satan or a demon behind him holding on. He's got the money bag in his hand. He's making the deal with the. A little of that too.

Yada yada yada. The upper room discourse, if you want to read it, it's in the gospel of John. It's chapters thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen and also, if you don't have a gospel of John or you don't have a Bible, I actually printed up a bunch of gospels of John. I've got about 15 of em and I can print as many of em as we need if everyone of you wanted one. Take it, please.

Mark it up. Read it. It's amazing. Fall in love with Jesus. If you do this, I I don't I don't know how you'll come apart from it any other way quite honestly.

Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen are the upper room discourse. It's amazing. Jesus's prayer in the Garden Of Gethsemane chapter 17. It's amazing. It's good.

Let you know what he wants for the church today. He's praying it on the night that he was betrayed. It's good. I'll skip that right now. John eighteen eighteen says, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his with his disciples over the Ravine Of The Kidron.

I walked across that ravine. Pretty cool. It's really there where there was a garden, Garden Of Gethsemane in which he entered with his disciples and now Judas also was betraying him, knew this place for Jesus had often met there with his disciples. This right in the shadow of the Temple Mount, you can see everything that's going on from there but it's quiet. And Judas then, having received the Roman cohort, not just the chief prescribes, Pharisees, all of the religious leaders but also Roman cohort, gathers them together.

Judah then having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priest and the Pharisees. He came there with lanterns and torches and weapons and you can see famously from the other gospels we see that he kissed him and that was to be the sign and there they are. They're going to take Jesus away. Now, if you come to Monday night, Carl covered all this on Monday night. Every single bit of the the events leading up to this but I'm just going to quickly let Giado show us.

So, the Roman cohort and the commander of the officers, the Jews, they arrested Jesus. They bound him. They led him to Anna's Spur. For he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas who was high priest that year. Now, Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was expedient for one man to die on behalf of the people.

Remember that from last week, they said, it's expedient for, don't you know that it's expedient for one man to die rather than all of us? He didn't even know that he was speaking prophetically right there but it, he was. This is him before the high priest. They're tearing their robes because they believed him to to be blasphemous. Next, Jotto shows where they're making fun of him.

They've given him a scepter right here and they've placed a crown of thorns on his head and they're bending down and mocking him as the king of the Jews and just playing with him. We'll talk about Pontius Pilate a different year, okay? Jesus basically said to Pontius Pilate, you would have no authority except that God gave it to you and he gave it to you so that he could be glorified. John 19, if you want to read it, it's good. The way of the cross Jotto's painting Jesus under the weight of his cross which he did not deserve.

He had no sin. It's hard for us to even imagine a life without sin. It stated and stated and stated again that Jesus who had no sin, he was numbered with the transgressors though he was not a transgressor. He gave his life for sin. Says it many, many, many times.

No matter the learning channel, the history channel, or anything on TV says, okay? And then we get to the crucifixion. Monday night, Carl said, I'm just going to we're going to go through the crucifixion and then the death and the burial. We're going get him into the grave. We're going to leave him there Until Sunday when we can celebrate resurrection together.

The crucifixion was gruesome. I'm not going to go into it. If you want to see the most accurate portrayal of that, the passion of the Christ is pretty good. It's pretty good. The movie is pretty good.

It follows Matthew's gospel all the way through and it's a gruesome, gruesome thing. I'm going to rather than doing a modern interpretation on it like that movie. Imma do an older interpretation on it, okay? This is Isaiah 53. I'm just going to read it in its entirety.

Let it spill over you and consider that this was written seven hundred years before the cross in a time when crucifixion was not a form of punishment. It was a prophetic word and who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a tender shoot. Funny, this is a pun, kind of. It's a play on words. A tender shoot Nazareth.

Nazareth is where he's from. He grew up as a tender shoot. From the root of Jesse. So, like a root out of parched ground, he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him. There was nothing especially attractive about him.

No appearance that we should otherwise be attracted to him. He was despised and he was forsaken of men. He was a man of sorrows and he was acquainted with grief. We saw last week, two different episodes where he cried. One, he wept bitterly over Jerusalem because they had denied their king and he knew they were going to.

Another one where someone had died and he saw the pain of the people around him having had a brother that died. And he cried with them. Jesus wept. He's a man of sorrows. He's a crane with grief and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him.

Surely, our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows, he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him as skin, smitten of God, and afflicted. You remember all of the taunts and the mockery that they were throwing at him when he was on the cross? But he was pierced through for our transgressions. That's substitutionary. He was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities, that sin. The chastening of our well-being, it fell upon him. The beatings fell upon him and he and by his scourging, we are healed. He took the punishment that we deserve. He's given us healing.

All of us like sheep have gone astray. There's not anyone that hasn't each of us has turned to his own way but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet, he did not open his mouth when he was before the trial. He was declared innocent eight times without representing himself.

Does that make sense? He he was declared over and over and over. To be innocent. Yet, they crucified him anyway. He did not open his mouth like a a lamb that is led to slaughter, 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 living. He was crucified outside of the city wall. For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned with wicked men.

Normally, he would have been just thrown into Potter's Field to kind of place where they were to throw the bodies of those bad guys hanging next to him. Yet, he was with a rich man in his death and we know that Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, loaned him his grave. Love that. Because he had done no violence nor was there ever any deceit in his mouth. The Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.

If he would render himself as a guilt offering and he did. Are you with me? Jesus died as a substitutionary atonement for whosoever would believe. He will be his offspring and he will prolong his days. Wait a second.

He's going to die and he's going to have his days prolonged. How can that be? That doesn't make sense. Outside of the resurrection, it doesn't make sense. He will prolong his days and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

As a result of the anguish of his soul, he, God, will see it and he will be satisfied. God is satisfied with the finished work of Christ. To access it, you put your trust in Christ. That's the that's satisfaction for your sin is the death of Christ. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many.

It does not say that he'll justify everyone. Universalism is an insidious heresy. It's not new. It is the many. It's whoever puts their trust in him as he will bear their iniquities.

Lord, will you take this sin? His answer is going to be yes. 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 number with the transgressors yet he himself bore the sin of many and he interceded even for the transgressors. What was Jesus saying when they were nailing him to the cross? He was interceding.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Amen. Seven hundred BC. Does that seem to you like that was pretty well forecast what was going to happen? Yeah, it's amazing.

Psalm 22, let's go back three hundred and forty four more years. This is David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. Oh my God, I cry by day but you do not answer and by night, I have no rest. Jesus in the garden night before, he was arrested, sweating, sweat drops of blood.

Oh my God, I cry out by day but you do not answer and by night, I have no rest yet you are holy. I know that to be true. Oh, you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel in you are others trusted. They trusted in you, delivered them. To you, they cried out and they were delivered and you, they trusted and they were not disappointed but I I am a worm and I am not a man.

A reproach of men and despise by the people. All who see me sneer at me and they separate with the lip. They shoot out their lip like this. This is a normal I can hardly do it without a smile. Like that.

That's what they did. They shoot out the lip. Like that and it was the thing you could do to somebody Seems weird to me All who see me snare at me, they shoot out the lip. They wag their heads saying, commit yourself to the Lord. Let him deliver him.

Let him rescue him because he delights in him. Do you remember on the cross where they were crying out and saying, let him save himself and us. Come on down if you are the Messiah. Thousand forty four BC right here. Yet, you are he who brought me forth from the womb and you made me trust you when 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 is none to help.

Many bulls have surrounded me strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They open wide their mouth at me as a ravening and roaring. I'm poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint and my heart is like wax. It's melted within me. There are a lot of accurate descriptions of what crucifixion does to you but that's one of em.

It pulls everything apart. Not breaking them but pull em apart. Heart being like wax. You just can't get enough oxygen. My heart's welted, melted within me.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaves to my jaws and you lay me in the dust of death. For dogs and that was a common word for Gentiles or everybody else when David wrote this. Even in the day of Jesus, the Pharisees still used it regularly. For dogs have surrounded me. He was outside of the city wall on a main highway walking by.

Everybody just doing their commerce, shooting out their lip at him. For dogs have surrounded me in a band of evildoers has encompassed me. He was crucified with bad guys on both sides. They pierced my hands and my feet. Thousand forty four BC.

I can count on my bones. The gospel is going to a record of if they would they would crucify someone like this and if when they came by hours later, the person was not dead yet, they would their lower leg bones so that all of their weight would be on their lungs and it would kill em instantly. But Jesus was already dead. When they got there, they didn't break his bones. I can count on my bones.

They look and they stare at me. They divide my garments. Remember that? At the foot of the cross, they're casting lots for his tunic. They divide my garments among for my clothing.

They cast lots. Thousand years ahead of time. Now, Jesus's last word. I got him. I've already mentioned his death several times but want to say the last thing he said from the cross is to tell us that.

To tell us that is this, in '28 through 30, it's it's used twice. It's never used anywhere else in the Bible but at this point, right here, it's used two different times. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished. That the scripture might be fulfilled. He said, I thirst.

My tongue is like a potsherd. Psalm 22. He actually had said earlier on the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me which would have started the Psalm in your head. If I start off a song, you'll finish it, right? That's the way it goes.

He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? From Psalm 22 and then, he says, I thirst and now, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. He said, I thirst. Now, a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. They filled a sponge with sour wine.

They put it on hyssop and they put it to his mouth. So, when Jesus Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished and bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Amen. All things accomplished, it is finished. Both of those are good translations.

I want you to think about something though. To end or to finish or to complete or to accomplish or to pay. If you're a nerd, it's a third person singular indicative move, perfect tense, middle, or passive voice, okay? I love that and I see some head nods from people who also love it. There are yeah, that's in the room.

Anyway, to test that means it is finished and if you just put a period there, then, okay, it might not enough to you if you just put a period right there. You might be caught right where these folks are. They have taken Christ down from the cross. This is called the lamentation of Christ by Jotto thirteen oh five and all of these people are surrounding. Some of them are, you know, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and his mother, Mary, John, Peter, they're all around the lamentation of Christ, probably not Peter, probably Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and they are lamenting a dead guy.

That they believed to be the Christ but he's dead. And if you put a period at the end of it's finished, it's finished. That's a horrible situation to find oneself in. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus but a secret one for fear of the Jews. He asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate granted him permission.

So, he came. He took away his body but Nicodemus, you remember Nicodemus? Nicodemus in chapter three of John? Nicodemus who had first come to him by night. If you don't remember Nicodemus, you might remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus.

He said, this, for God so loved the world. This is what he's explaining to a Pharisee for God's the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Catch this. Jesus is first coming into this world. God did not send the son into the world to judge the world but so that the world might be saved through him.

That Nicodemus. So, Nicodemus came with a mixture of myrrh and aloes about one hundred pounds weight so they took the body of Jesus. They bounded in linen wrappings with the spices as the burial custom of the Jews like Lazarus was, right? So, Lazarus still wrapped up there. Now, in the place where he's crucified, there was a garden and then the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

It was Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. He loaned it to him. Therefore, because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. Alright. If that was the end of the story, that'd be a horrible story, right?

We wouldn't be telling that story two thousand years later. To tell us die, it's good translation. It is finished. That's that's what that's probably the way that we would say it. Did you do that?

Yep, it's finished. Same thing as the same, it has been done but if you consider yes, everything has been accomplished. Then, that's at some point in history, something happened. Boom. Right here at the point but it has continuing effects all

the

way into eternity future. Are you with me? Everything has been accomplished. Everything from Genesis all the way forward up to the gospels have been talking about was going to happen had now happened. It has been finished.

It is accomplished. It's happened and it has continuing effects from now on. Everything's been accomplished. It has been finished and this is passive voice right here. I want you to consider the middle voice in just a minute.

Everything has been accomplished. It has been finished or middle voice is this, I, myself, and it's ambiguous. It could be either one. Good translation both ways. I, myself, Jesus says, I, myself, have finished everything.

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

I, myself, have just now made an end to everything. I, myself, have just brought it all to the end. That's sin. It was nailed to the cross of Jesus. It's buried in that tomb.

And if that's all it was, it still be a sad, bad story, right? But we came because it's resurrection Sunday. Everything hinges on the resurrection. If you knew someone personally that told you that he was going to die and that he was going to rise again on the third day, today and this day, you've even heard of it before. You probably wouldn't believe him, right?

But put yourself back there two thousand years ago with those disciples, even the ones who loved him. You might think, oh, I wouldn't have run away or I wouldn't have denied him or I wouldn't have done this but would you have thought he was going to rise again even if he told you that? Some of us have lost people in the past year or two and we were praying and wishing and hoping that they would be resurrected here to be with us. I know that there is a resurrection. I believe that.

Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life, right? I know that there will be and I want him to come back. You might not believe that guy. You probably worry about him. Why he's becoming so wrapped up at his death?

He's three years old. These folks were overwhelmed and they were caught up in lamentation and then, Christ arose. He did just what he said he was going to do. He did that. I love that bursting forth because it was at the darkest hour when he burst forth.

Are you with me? Have I darkened the time enough? I mean, for crying out loud, when you got here, you're wearing bright clothes and happy. I put the death of Jesus on you and just let it sit for a minute and it's just so overwhelming but he didn't stay down. He couldn't be held.

He was not. God raised him back up and there he is. That is a big high five from Jesus. Alright? I am so overwhelmed with God's goodness.

He he looked upon Jesus's humility and his obedience and he took that and he said, you're coming back. You're coming back and you're going to take everyone with you who will go with you. Whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. That's it. I'm going to make a couple of quick apologies Everyone of us has been hurt.

Everyone of us have been hurt by church, I would guess. This painting right here is the next one in Giotto's series and it is called Noli Me Tangere. Noli Me Tangere means don't touch me. First image I showed you is Jesus about to beat someone up. Last one is Jesus saying, don't touch me.

That seems odd for me for the Padua apple in 1305. It was a bad translation and from time to time, we are human vessels and we translate God's love and his forgiveness and his word badly. Are you with me? Do you think that happens? No limitangere is the Latin translation of Greek which has continuous forces.

It says, don't, you don't have to be clinging to me. I'm real and I am alive but you don't have to be clinging to me. You don't have to be clinging to me bodily. I'm going to be with you. I promise the comforter will come.

I promise the Holy Spirit will come and that's the way it's going to be from here on out. Are you with me now? Still. Okay. So, at times, the church has gotten things wrong and I mean, this church and every church, I'm not just talking about one particular slant of a church, okay?

Next, yeah, no limit time. Looks like Jesus has given her the heisman. Sorry. Sorry. I'll hear about that but Still worth it.

From this picture of Judas' kiss right here, they're coming after him with torches and lamps and everything. I want you to look at this and this is a story from the gospels, not something made up. This is a story. You see Peter right here? That's Peter right there and this guy's name is Malcus.

You see what Peter has in his hand? He has a knife in his hand, a little short sword, and he has cut off the ear of Malcus. Trying to protect Jesus, trying to protect the word, trying to protect, and he was doing best he could. He's an impetuous guy. He he'd already told Jesus he wouldn't deny him and then he gets this chance and he pulls out his knife.

And he cuts off Malchus' ear. Jesus very calmly picks up the ear, puts it back on, heals Malcus right there, says, Peter, put the sword away. Live by the sword, you die by the sword. You missed it but I fixed it. It's okay.

Like I said, all of us have been hurt by somebody in church, everyone of us. Jesus can fix that. Malcus, by tradition, is a believer. We'll see him in heaven. Maybe with a scar.

Yeah. And then this one. So, this is Lazarus and he's wrapped up and Jesus gives his followers the command to help him, unbind him and let him go free unbind him from the things that tangle him up and let him go free. Praise God. We have been tasked with that.

If you believe in Jesus, you've been tasked with helping your brothers and sisters in Christ get unbound from whatever it is that entangles. That's good but I have another little Easter thought that to me is really good. When Jesus, it says, when Jesus was resurrected and the disciples made their way to the grave when they get to the grave and they look in, they find his grave clothes neatly folded and just sitting there. He didn't need any help. God raised him and he put everything in order.

He didn't have anything that was binding him up. He didn't have sin. He's free from sin because he made an end to sin. Alright. Message of the cross.

If you come often, you see this a lot. The message of the cross might sound like, why is he still telling the story two thousand years later? What does the death of a first century Jew have to do with me? First Corinthians says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, who've resisted the way that God has made but to us who are being saved, it's the very power of God. Paul says, Timothy, this is a trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners and you know what?

There aren't any other kind of people. We're all sinners. That's what he came for. This is the reason for that whole Bible sermon today is this. First Corinthians 15, Paul says, to them and I'm saying to you, for I deliver to you as of first importance.

It's it's it's primary. It's not just first thing but as of primary importance, I'm delivering to you that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Do you know it goes all the way back to Genesis? Genesis three fifteen about, you know, Satan snipping at your heel and you're going to crush his head and he did that on the cross. Genesis all the way to the gospels and then all the way to Revelation, we look back from chapter twenty and twenty one.

I delivered you as a first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to scriptures and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, that's Peter, and then to the 12, all of. After that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. Most of whom remain until now, Paul said, when he wrote this, less than 20, about twenty years later. You can ask them but some of them have died. They've fallen asleep.

Then, appeared to James, then, to all of the apostles, apostles are ones he sent out and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also, Paul says. It is of first importance. The resurrection is where everything hinges. If there is no resurrection, he goes on to say that we are of all people to be the most pitied because we have put our faith in something that is a lie. But it's not a lie.

It's the truth. It's verified. Taste and see. Test and see. Lean into God.

He's leaning forward towards you. Restoration, renovation He's leaning towards you like the father and the prodigal son story. You know, the prodigal son that went away to do his own way. Give me my inheritance. Now, I want to go and spin it on.

Himself and then he got to thinking and said, oh, even the slaves at my dad's house are better than this. And he went back and what he found was a father who was running out to meet him. That's the way God is. Christ died according to the scriptures and he died for sin and he was resurrected to authenticate his message. Which we carry forward.

Jesus came and he told his disciples this is the last of Giotto's paintings right here. It's about the Ascension and this is the last thing he said. To tell us that was the last thing he said from the cross. Last thing he said before his ascension is this, and Jesus came and told his disciples, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth. So, therefore, you, go and make disciples of all the nations, all peoples is what his house was to be, house of prayer.

Baptizing in the name of the father and the son, the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all commands that I've given to you. And be sure of this, I'm with you always. Why? Because he's alive.

Even to the end of age. In Jesus name, amen. Carl, you want to come on up? Band, will you come on up and stand and we'll sing one more. Y'all got extra innings today.

And I've got lots of gospels of John up here if you want em. Come get em. If you wanna talk, I'll turn the microphone off. I promise.

Again, another song that tells the message of the gospel that cuts the chorus here. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me.

You've broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope.

I'll greet the calzone and spoke your name into the night. And through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is made. The end is written. Jesus Christ, my living.

Stepped out from glory to wear my sand and bear my share. The cross is spoken. I am forgiven. The king of kings calls me the same. Beautiful savior, I'm most gorilla.

Jesus Christ, my living hope. Let's sing hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me.

You have broken air and chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Let's sing that again. Hallelujah. Raise the Lord and set me free.

Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living Lord.

Then came the mold Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ.

By living hope, let's sing that again. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord and set me free. Hallelujah. Death Jesus Christ

and 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 the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.