A SHOUT FROM THE CROSS
INTRO:
The last word’s of a dying person are normally never forgotten. I have witnessed some pour out their hearts to God while others linger off into eternity quietly. Usually the last words of a dying person conveys their innermost thoughts, values, priority and desires.
Right before P.T. Barnum died, he asked, “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden”
Humphrey Bogart’s last words were, “I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.”
President Grover Cleveland, “I have tried hard to do the right.”
Joan Crawford was filled with anger when her maid began to pray out loud and said, “Don’t you dare ask God to help me!”
Leonardo da Vinci, when surveying his life’s work, said, “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”
Pancho Villa, the Mexican revolutionary, cried, “Don’t let it end like this”
Karl Marx turned to his housekeeper, who had urged him to tell her his last words so she could write them down, and shouted, “Go on, and get out. Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.”
The shout from the cross comes from one whose every action was filled with meaning and purpose. Not only do we have the teaching of Jesus while he lived, we have his final thoughts while he hung on a cross suspended between two thieves.
The wrenching words of Jesus ushered forth from his lips while his sacrificial blood splashed on the ground. While his body is in excruciating pain and his tongue is tormented in thirst – Jesus cries out from those parched lips and says “FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING” (LUKE 23:34)
I. A BRIEF LOOK AT JESUS LAST HOURS.
Following the last supper, Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. He poured out his distress to the Father as He went through a deep spiritual struggle.
Luke 22:44: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” An angel appeared at this point and gave Jesus strength (verse 43).
Jesus was then arrested and faced a trial somtime after midnight. He was led away with His hands bound, the same hands that had healed the sick. Luke 22:63 tells us that Jesus was blindfolded and beaten while the soldiers mocked Him. He then faced a second trial with more illegal proceedings.
Jesus is now exhausted by lack of sleep, abuse, loss of fluids, and ridicule.
Pilate has Jesus scourged. Roman law allowed the prisoner to be beaten to the point of death. These whips had a small piece of metal attached to the end and would chip and gouge out pieces of bone and tissue. His skin would be stripped into long, ribbon-like segments, causing profound arterial bleeding.
A crown of six-inch long thorns was then pressed deeply into His scalp. This would cause additional blood loss, which would deepen His state of shock. A purple robe was thrown across Jesus’ shoulders and back. The mockery continues by the soldiers as they spit on Him and beat Him with reeds and hail Him as“King of the Jews.”
Pilate then presents Jesus to the crowd wearing his thorns and robe,and says, “Here is the man” Pilate now succumbs to the manipulation of the Jewish leaders, and Jesus is condemned to death by crucifixion. The purple robe is stripped away. Jesus is given the crossbeam to bear to the place of the skull, Golgotha. Luke 23:33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him, along with the criminals one on His right, the other on the left
Listen to how a pastor captures the intensity of the moment when he writes from the perspective of those in charge of the crucifixion: “Now walking, now crawling, each step an agony to behold…He’s been beaten to an inch of his life. His back is in shreds. His face is disfigured and puffy where they’ve ripped out the beard by the roots. On his head is a crown of thorns…the soldiers don’t mind getting a person who is almost dead because it means that their work would be easier…they drive the construction-grade spikes into both wrists and then another one through his legs. With the ropes in place they begin to pull the cross up. Jesus now spurts blood from His raw wounds” (Ray Pritchard, “In the Shadow of the Cross,” 2001, Pages 10-11).
He no doubt experienced severe muscular pain in his upper extremities that only got worse as his joints separated. He could draw air into his lungs but could not easily exhale. As carbon dioxide accumulated, progressive degrees of asphyxiation would occur and a build up of lactic acid would create violent muscle spasms throughout His body. In order to take a breath, Jesus would have to push up on the nail in his feet, forcing an up and down motion as the open lacerations on his back would scrape against the rough timber of the cross.
Listen to Peter’s perspective on how Jesus responded in 1 Peter 2:23: “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when He suffered, he made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly
Jesus could have rightly prayed, “Father, consume them. Wipe them out.”
They had crucified the Son of God. What could be worse than that?
II. JESUS FIRST WORDS ON THE CROSS BEGIN WITH PRAYER
Luke 23:34 and listen to the words of grace as Jesus gasped for air, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”
When the first red drops of blood spurted on his hands and splashed on the soldier’s hammer, the blessed mouth of Jesus formed the words to a prayer for pardon
His request was not for Himself but for “them” and us. His first thought is to plead in prayer for those who are in desperate need of forgiveness. When man had done his worst, Jesus prayed, not for justice, but for mercy.
This verse is in the imperfect tense. What that means is that Jesus prayed repeatedly for their forgiveness. It wasn’t just a one-time request. When the nails tore through His tendons, sending jolts of pain rushing through His body, He closed His eyes and prayed, “Father, forgive them.” When the cross dropped into place between two criminals, He cried out, “Father, forgive them.” When they divided up his only earthly possessions below the cross, he exclaimed, “Father, forgive them.” As the rulers sneered at Him He replied, “Father, forgive them.” When the soldiers mocked Him, he shouted, “Father, forgive them.” When the sign, “This is the King of the Jews” was hammered above His head, he sighed, “Father, forgive them”
Hebrews 7:25 says, He “always lives to make intercession for us
III. JESUS CRY FROM THE CROSS REVEAL FIVE IMPORTANT FACTS
1. The fulfillment of prophecy
Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 53 and follow along with me as I read. [Read 53:1-12]
Over 700 years before Jesus was even born, Isaiah prophesied at least 10 things about the
suffering of the Savior:
· He would be despised and rejected by men (3)
· He would be a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering (3)
· He would be afflicted by God because of our sins (4, 8)
· He would be pierced for our transgressions (5)
· He would be wounded and bruised by men (7)
· He would be led like a lamb to slaughter and be silent before His accusers (7)
· He would be buried in a rich man’s tomb (9)
· He would a guilt offering (10)
· He would be numbered with the transgressors (12 He would pray for those
transgressors (12)
2. The blindness of the human heart.
Jesus recognized that those who had crucified Him did not really know what they were doing.
While His enemies knew full well what they meant when they cried out, “Crucify Him. Crucify
Him,” they were ignorant of the enormity of their crime. They did not know that they were
killing the “Lord of Glory. While they didn’t know, they should have known.
The prophecies were numerous and very clear. His teachings were profound and filled with
wisdom and authority. His miracles should have convinced them. His perfect life and love
should have removed all doubt about His identity. There was no excuse for their ignorance.
3.The magnitude of our need.
Because our hearts are blind and hard, our need is great. We’re sinners in need of
forgiveness. It’s not just those who were involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. In a very real
sense, we were all there when He was executed.
Most of us have no problem castigating others for their sins while excusing our own behavior.
Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand
it?”
During the Second World War, an old cathedral was bombed in England. In the 1960s a new cathedral was built alongside the ruins of the old one. On the altar there is a cross that was constructed out of nails that were taken from the collapsed roof of the old church. On the cross are the words, “Father, forgive.” Many visitors were bothered by this because they wanted it to say, “Father, forgive them,” meaning, “Father, forgive the Germans for bombing this beautiful place of worship.” The reason it reads like it does is because even where the issues seemed so clear-cut, Britain had some sins to confess as well. Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We’re all guilty and need to repent in order for our sins to be wiped out.
4. The identification of Jesus.
Notice that Jesus shouted out this first cry to the Father. Up until this point, He was able to
forgive the sins of others without asking the Father to do so. Matthew 9:2: “Take heart, son;
your sins are forgiven.” Why now does He ask to have sins forgiven, instead of directly
pronouncing forgiveness Himself? It’s because Jesus has identified with His people and is a
bout to give His life as the sin substitute. His death is full payment for the penalty of sin. He
pleads with the Father to accept the sacrifice of His blood on our behalf. He is our
representative.
He who needed no forgiveness died for those of us who are condemned without it. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
5. The triumph of divine love.
When man had done his worst, when the vileness of the human heart was displayed in all its ugliness, when the creature executed the creator, divine love triumphed and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
This prayer was answered when the centurion put his faith in Christ at the foot of the cross and when one of the crucified criminals next to Him called out for salvation.
This prayer was answered in a profound way on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:41 where we read that 3,000 were saved in one day.
IV. IT’S YOUR MOVE
Have you been forgiven? If Jesus can forgive those responsible for killing Him, then He can forgive you! No is beyond the reach of His prayer of forgiveness. No one is good enough to save himself and no one is so bad that God cannot save him.
Each of us stands in need of forgiveness. Do you want it? Will you receive it? Some of you think you’ve done something so bad that you can never be forgiven, that you somehow don’t deserve it. The truth of the matter is that we’ve all done something to disqualify ourselves from a relationship with God. But Jesus has made a way.
Have you forgiven others? Someone has said that forgiveness is the virtue we profess to believe but fail to practice. Despite a hundred sermons on forgiveness, we do not forgive easily.
Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
If we had been at the cross, we would have been holding the nails. We would probably clap and cheer. We’re not that much different. We’re not that much better. The secret of forgiveness is to understand that in the ultimate sense, between you and the person who hurt you, there’s really no difference at all.
On a sheet of paper, write the words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they’re doing” on the top. On the left side, write down all the things, and the people, and the memories from the past that has hurt you so deeply. When you’re finished, add one word in large letters to the right of each offense: Forgiven…Forgiven…Forgiven. When you’re all done, take the paper and rip it up
INVITATION
