Well, good morning. My name is David Hollett and I'm
thankful to be able to be here today to speak for you, Terry
Osborne. We've back in Oklahoma City.
We were visiting with him while he was out there and, and tell
him we were coming to the Labor Day meeting and he said, well,
you need to speak for us. It's like, OK, let's do it.
So we're we're thankful to be here to worship with you today.
This morning's song service was, was focused a lot on Jesus and
it focused on glorifying him and it focused on laying down and
bowing down to him. And it, it focused on Jesus and
what he has done for us. And if, if, if, if he's by our
side, then nothing can stop us, right?
And, and it's, it's so true. The prayer because of Jesus,
we're able to shine his light in this World of Darkness.
And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
You know, Chris and I were married 25 years ago and
whenever we whenever we first got married, we were coming out
to California quite a bit and staying up in Northern Northern
California area. And on on one of those trips
about 20 years ago, we were with Fred and Donna Gamble and she
took us up to these, these biblical gardens.
I believe it's what they're called.
It's, it's between Auburn and Grass Valley and, and as you
walk through these gardens, you, you see the seven sayings that
Jesus said while he was on the cross.
And it's, it's powerful to, to just go to this next stop in
this garden and just think about what he said.
And, and this morning we are going to be looking at those
seven things that Jesus said while he was up on the cross.
Jesus death, burial and resurrection is the key to the
New Testament. It's because of his death and
the shedding of his blood that made it possible for us to have
forgiveness of sins. And we can see this from Hebrews
Chapter 9 verse 15 where it says, and for this reason he is
the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the
redemption of transgressions under the first covenant, that
those who were called may receive the promise of eternal
inheritance. Where there is a testament,
there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
For a testament is enforced after men are dead since it has
no power at all while the testator lives.
So if Jesus had decided not to give his life up on the cross
and, and he had not been raised from the dead, then all of us
today would have no hope. Paul said in first Corinthians
15 verse 12. Now if Christ is preached that
he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say
that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not
risen. And if Christ is not risen, then
our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have
testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he did not raise
up. If in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still
in your sins. Then also those who have fallen
asleep asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope, in Christ we are all men,
the most pitiable. When Jesus was on the earth, He
was human and He was also deity. He experienced the same
sufferings, He had the same emotions.
He had to go through temptations just like we do.
That's why when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, his
emotions were overwhelming him and causing him to sweat like
great drops of blood. Jesus knew that he was going to
have to experience this agonizing pain so that we could
live. This was a great burden for one
person to bear, but Jesus loves us enough that he was willing to
die for us. Paul said in Romans 5 verse 7.
For scarcely for a righteous man one will die, Yet perhaps for a
good man someone would even dare die.
But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us, much more than
having now been justified by his blood.
We shall be saved from the wrath through Him.
For if we were enemies, for when?
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through
the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we
now have received the reconciliation.
So when we think about the suffering that Jesus endured for
us, it makes it makes it worse. Knowing that He didn't deserve
any of it. He lived a perfect life.
He had no sin, but this was God's plan all along.
He did it for us even though we didn't deserve it.
After Jesus was arrested, he was falsely accused and he went
through an unlawful trial by the Jews.
And then they dragged him to Pilot and then he was sent Herod
and the back to Pilot and Pilot couldn't find anything wrong
with him and anything worthy of death.
So he, he, he pilot washes his hands of the matter and he
allows the Jews to make the decision.
Jesus was scourged, which has a brutal practice and itself in
scourging, sometimes the victim ends up dying.
That's how, that's how difficult those are.
Jesus was beaten. He was mocked, he had a thorny
crown shoved onto his head, beaten onto his head, and and
not only was he bleeding from the scourging and and a head
wound, you think about how much a head wound bleeds and all the
thorns that are going into his head and how much blood was just
coming down from him. He was in pain when all this was
happening. He was He was then taken to
Golgotha where his hands and his feet were nailed to the cross,
and he was raised up just like He said he would be in John
chapter 3, verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. So Jesus was there on the cross
for six painful hours from 9:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the
afternoon and he was put there between two thieves and they
were mocking him along with what the others that were there
watching this crucifixion. And this brings us to Jesus
first saying in Luke 23 verse 33 it says and when they had come
to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the
criminals, one on the right and the other one on the other, the
other on the left. Then Jesus said, Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they do, and they divided his
garments and cast lots. When you think about this first
saying of Jesus, you, you see that Jesus is praying for these
people that they might be forgiven for what they are doing
to him right now. Even though Jesus had gone
through more suffering and more pain, most people couldn't
endure the kind of things that he was dealing with.
Yet these Jews were were shouting crucify him, crucify
him and he stopped to pray for them.
Matthew 543 says, You have heard that it was said, You shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse
you, it do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who
spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of
your Father in heaven. For he makes his sunrise on the
evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the
unjust. Jesus practiced what he
preached. Isaiah prophesied that he would
pray for these people. And Isaiah 53 verse 12 it says,
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he
shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out
his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors,
and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors. This prayer that Jesus prays
here teaches us how much He wants us to be forgiven of our
sins. When Jesus prayed for these
people's forgiveness, do you think that their sins were
forgiven right then or was repentance necessary?
You know well in whenever we read about the birth of the
church in Acts chapter 2, the apostles were filled with the
Holy Spirit and they began to speak to the people in their own
languages and they began to teach them about Jesus death,
burial and resurrection. And they taught how how many of
them had a hand in crucifying their own Messiah.
And in Acts chapter 2 verse 36, it says, therefore let all the
House of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus
whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.
When they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles.
Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Peter said to them, Repent and let everyone of you be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the permission of your sins, and
you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So notice they were still on their sins because they had not
been forgiven, but they found out what they must do to take
care of their sins. They were told to repent and be
baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
Peter tells us in Second Peter chapter 3, verse 9.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count
slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
God wants everyone in the whole world for all time to be saved,
but in order to have our sins forgiven, we must obey the
gospel plan of salvation. God provided that salvation
through Jesus. This is God's part.
By providing the way, our part is obeying the gospel and living
faithful lives according to God's word.
We can also learn from from the saying, this first saying about
how Jesus had a forgiving spirit.
These people were putting him to death and he shows us how we
should have a forgiving spirit toward those who sin against us.
If they repent, we must be strong enough to forgive them
and we must try to forget that sin so we can be reconciled with
them and with God. Hebrews 8 verse 12 says, For I
will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more.
We can see that this is exactly what God does when we repent and
confess our sins to him and we must do that for others as well.
The second thing Jesus said while he was on the cross is
found in Luke chapter 23 verse 39 where it says that that one
of the criminals who were hanged blaspheming him saying if you
are the Christ, save yourself and us.
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, do you not even
fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?
And we indeed justify justly, for we receive the due reward of
our deeds. But this man, this man has done
nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord,
Remember Me when you come into your Kingdom.
And Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you today you will be
with me in paradise again. This, this, this is a
fulfillment of prophecy from the same passage that we looked at
earlier, Isaiah 53 verse 12. And, and at first both of these
thieves were mocking Jesus, but this thief had a change of heart
and now he's defending Jesus because of his change of heart.
Jesus assured him that he would be with him in paradise that
day. Jesus had the authority to do
this. This saying teaches us that when
we die, we do not just cease to exist.
That's it, That's it. They're finished, They're over.
There's no more. Our life on earth is finished,
but we begin a new life waiting for the judgement.
Those who obey God will go to paradise, and those who do not
obey God will go to a terrible place of torment.
And this is exactly what the parable of the rich man and
Lazarus teach us. And this this area is called
Hades, the Hadean realm, and this is the the realm of the
dead. This is where All Souls who have
died wait until the day of judgment.
We learned this story with the rich man and Lazarus and other
scriptures that our souls do not, do not cease to exist.
They are sleeping because we will be aware of our
surroundings. We we we might be in comfort or
we might be in torment and that's up to each of us because
we get to decide if we're going to serve God or if we're not
going to serve him. This saying that Jesus says here
should bring us great comfort. In Philippians chapter one verse
21 Paul said for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit from my
labor. Yet what I shall choose I cannot
tell for I am hard pressed between the two having a desire
to depart be with Christ, which is far better.
Well, the next thing Jesus said comes from John chapter 19 verse
26, where it says, when Jesus therefore saw his mother and his
disciple whom he loves standing by, he said to his mother,
woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple,
behold your mother. And from that hour that disciple
took her to be his own to his own home.
You know, most of the time mothers stand by their
children's side. And Mary had been given one of
the greatest honors of, of, of being the mother to the Son of
God. She knew who Jesus was and, and
she loved him dearly. She was not there at the cross
to mock him. She was, she was not ashamed of
him. She was there to be by his side.
And I can't even imagine how difficult it was for her to see
her Son up on that cross. When Jesus was a baby.
Mary was told that that that her child was different.
And Luke chapter 2 verse 34, it says, then Simeon blessed them
and said to Mary his mother, behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign which will
be spoken against. Yes, a sword will Pierce through
your own soul. Also that the thoughts of many
hearts may be revealed. Mary's soul had definitely been
pierced as she tried to take in all that was going on with Jesus
on that day. Even though Jesus was in severe
pain, he wanted his mom to be taken care of.
He asked John to do that for him.
And again, this just shows just how Jesus is always thinking of
others and and he's the one in this pain and agony on the cross
and he's not thinking about that.
He's thinking about his mom at this point.
This is how we should live too. We are to love one another and
care for one another because we are all brothers and sisters
inside the family of God. The next thing comes from
Matthew chapter 27 verse 45 where it says now from the 6th
hour until the 9th hour there was darkness over all the land
and about the 9th hour and about the 9th hour Jesus cried out
with a loud voice saying Eli, Eli llama Sabachthani, that is
my God. My God, why have you forsaken
me? So from about noon to about
3:00, there was darkness over all the land.
You know, we had a lunar eclipse or solar eclipse not too long
ago. And, and there's darkness in
the, in the, in the line of, of the eclipse and it gets pretty
dark. Crickets start chirping and
everything else. It's kind of crazy.
That's not what this is. 3 hours, darkness is over the all
the land. This is something different, but
we can see that it's about the 9th hour, about about 3:00 that
Jesus makes this fourth statement from the cross and
it's directed to God the Father. And even in this saying, Jesus
is quoting Scripture from Psalm 22 verse 1.
He says my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my
groaning? Out of everything that Jesus was
enduring on this day, this might have been the hardest.
This is the first time that Jesus had been separated from
His Father. We know that the nails hurt and
caused him pain, but being separated from the Father is so
much worse. God hadn't forsaken his Son, but
he did turn away because of our sin that Jesus was being
crucified for. I don't know when this
separation began, What hour, what minute.
It may have been began whenever the darkness fell across the
land. This started at noon, or it
could have happened at the very last hour.
Doesn't really matter when it happened or how long it
happened. The fact is it happened.
Even if it was just one minute separation, that would have been
difficult for Jesus. This shows us just how ugly sin
really is and how Jesus had to endure this separation from God
because of us. It also teaches us how important
it is to keep sin out of our life because sin separates us
from God as well when we choose to sin willfully after we are
already Christians. Hebrews 6 verses 4 through 6
describes this as crucifying the Lord all over again.
Hebrews 6 verse 4 says For it is impossible for those who were
once enlightened and having and have tasted the heavenly gift,
and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the
good word of God and the powers of the age to come.
If they fall away to renew them again to repentance since they
crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an
open shame. Since Jesus was willing to go
through this separation for us, it should encourage us to stay
away from shit sin. It should should motivate us to
respect and honor what he did for us on the cross and remove
ourselves from taking part of sin.
The 5th saying comes from John chapter 19 verse 28.
It says after this Jesus knowing that all things were now
accomplished that the scripture might be fulfilled, said I
thirst now a vessel full of sour sour wine was sitting there and
they filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on his sip and
put it to his mouth. This isn't also a fulfillment of
Scripture. Psalm 69 verse 21 says they also
gave me gall for my food and for my thirst.
They gave me vinegar to drink. At this point, Jesus has been
through a lot. Now he's thirsty.
Jesus is way up on the cross. They can't just hand him a cup
of water. They can't just pour it in his
mouth. They filled this sponge with a
mixture of vinegar and and they put it on a stick and send it up
to Jesus on the stick. This little bit of moisture that
he received was able to help him say the next two sayings.
This sixth statement comes from John chapter 19 verse 30 says so
when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said it is finished and
bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
So from the time that Jesus was born until this very moment,
Jesus had been fulfilling hundreds of prophecies
throughout his life. And now he has done everything
he can do to bring salvation. Jesus has finished his work upon
this earth. Later, after he died and rose
again, he told his disciples in Luke chapter 24, verse 44.
These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still
with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written
in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms
concerning me. And he opened their
understanding that they might, might comprehend the Scriptures.
Then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was
necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead
the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these
things. The fact that Jesus finished His
work shows us how obedient He was to the Father.
He accomplished everything He was supposed to do and because
of that you and I get to benefit.
We should use this again to motivate us to do the best we
can to follow in His footsteps each and every day.
In Luke chapter 23 verse 46 we find the last words that Jesus
said while He was on the cross. It says and when Jesus had cried
out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit
my spirit. Having said this, he breathed
his last. After this last breath that he
took, Matthew chapter 27 verse 51 through 54 goes on to say,
Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn, and two from
top to bottom, and the earthquake and the rocks were
split, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the
Saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of
the graves. After his resurrection, they
went to the holy city and appeared to the many.
So when the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus
saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they
feared greatly, saying truly this was the Son of God.
In this final statement that Jesus makes, we can see that He
was in control of His life. Jesus told us in John chapter 10
verse 17. Therefore my Father loves me
because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down, lay it, lay it down
my lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down
and I have the power to take it again.
This command I have received from my Father.
You know Jesus didn't want to die.
He didn't want to go through all of that agony and pain.
He could have called angels from heaven to come and save Him from
the cross, but he didn't do that.
As soon as he made this last statement, his spirit left his
body and he put his faith in the Father to take care of the
Spirit again. This teaches us that whenever we
die, our spirit leaves our body and we become physically dead
and our spirit returns back to God.
As Jesus is giving up his spirit to God.
Matthew tells us that this this veil on the temple, it's torn
from top to bottom, this great earthquake.
The rocks are split, the dead are raised, the earth is crying
out in response to the death of Jesus.
It caused those soldiers who were there guarding Jesus to
believe they understood that now after seeing all of this, he
really is the Son of God. Well, if our story just stopped
there, then Jesus would have just died on the cross and his
death would just be another death of many that were
crucified on the cross. But we know on the third day
after his death, on a Sunday, he rose from the dead.
Not only did he die for us, but he also showed us he has power
over death. And because of this, we have
confidence that there is coming today of a more general
resurrection, a broader resurrection where we will all
be raised and transformed into a different body, a glorious body.
If we follow God's word and live faithfully, then at the judgment
day we will be taken to heaven itself and spend eternity.
Jesus said in John 14 verse one, let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions or many dwelling
places. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. You know, as we think about the
love that Jesus has for us and his sacrifice that he went
through for us, we should let the cross serve as a reminder of
his love for us. We should see from these seven
sayings of the cross that they reveal not only his suffering,
but they also reveal his compassion, his forgiveness, his
unwavering commitment to God's plan of salvation.
We must understand and recognize and see the need for the
salvation. You know that all begins with
faith and, and this faith that we that we have in, in, in God.
This faith causes us to repent. It causes us to make a change in
our lives. Jesus warned us in Luke 13.
Three, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all
likewise perish. These words show us how
important it is for us to respond to to what God has done
for us. We must turn away from our sins.
We must turn toward God and live for Him.
This is a fundamental change of our heart and a fundamental
change of our mind that aligns our life with what God wants us
to do. We must also confess our faith
in Christ, Jesus said in Matthew 1032.
Whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess before my
Father in heaven, confessing Christ, the Son of the living
God. It's an important step in this
spiritual journey of becoming a child of his.
We must also be baptized as we noticed in Acts chapter 2 verse
38. Peter told them after he
informed them that they were the ones that crucified Jesus.
He told them, repent, be baptized everyone of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is that point where we are united and his death and his
burial and in his resurrection, and that's whenever we receive
the forgiveness of sins. You know, if you've already
taken these steps and maybe you have fallen away from living a
faithful life toward God today, today you can return to him.
You can put Him first in your life again, as as we think about
His sacrifice and about the cross, let it motivate you to
renew your commitment to living a life that pleases Him.
We're not promised tomorrow. We don't know what will happen.
We don't know if we're going to live another moment.
The time to act is now. So whether you need to begin
your walk with Christ, become a child of his, become a child of
God, or maybe you need to return to him or maybe you have another
spiritual need that that the brother and can pray with you
and for you. We invite you to come while we
stand and sing the song selected.