Lent 2019 - At the Cross - Verse 1
Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
1 John 1:5-7
“This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”
And our memory refresher verse(s) for today is(are) …
1 Timothy 6:6
“Godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Please open your Bibles to John 19:16-37
As we spend these weeks looking forward to the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead on Resurrection Sunday, I think it is appropriate to spend more time than usual in looking at the cross.
I cannot think of a Sunday that goes by without the cross being referenced either in song or in the message.
The cross is cruel. The cross is gruesome. But, we need to remember the cross because the cross is where pure Holiness took on pure evil and destroyed its power.
With that in mind let’s look at: John 19:16-37
May God bless the reading of His Word … (Prayer for help …)
We all have had a father.
Some people have never met their father for one reason or another.
Some people have or had a step-father or an adopted father.
Others have a great father
Some have absentee fathers
Some have abusive fathers
Some have fathers in prison
Let me tell you a little about my father. (Short overview of your father. May even include some negative aspects if he has any and is not in the congregation …)
My Dad was far from perfect and so I often wondered and still wonder what it would have been like to have a good Dad.
(Illustration – this is an attempt at a parable that will lead into the first verse of the Isaac Watts hymn “At the Cross” or “Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed” … This is quite graphic and you may wish to “tame” it a little depending on your congregation.)
Imagine this … you have a great Dad; a Dad that is always right! Sometimes you don’t think he’s right but when you do what he says to do things just seem to work out.
So you get older and head off to school, maybe to college or maybe not but eventually you end up in the workforce.
During this time of school and work you end up spending time with some people who have ideas that are very different than your Dad’s ideas. These people seem to be happy, they seem to be successful. They don’t really answer to anyone it all sounds great!
One day you find out that they are involved in some type of illegal activity but they still seem to be OK. Eventually they come to you and ask you to do something that you know is not right but they will make it worth your while and it’s not that big of a deal but one thing leads to another and you get deeper and deeper into the illegal activities until you just KNOW that you have to get out!
But, there is no getting out. You are in and you are in for the rest of your life.
One day you decide to make a break for it and you try to escape but they catch you. At that point you know that you are a dead man walking. You may be alive but your doom is sealed; you WILL be dead soon.
They are about to kill you when the door comes bursting open and it’s your Dad. Even though he was always right at this moment he somehow seems to be weak compared to the rest of the gang members.
He offers to take your place if they will set you free. They don’t want to set you free, they want to keep their grip on you for all of the rest of your life but they decide to take your Dad and torture him. There’s blood everywhere. They are walking around him. They are punching and kicking him and saying, “OK. Tough guy. You’re here to save your kid? Well, let’s see you do it!?
Finally, they get an old carpenter’s saw and literally saw his head off from his body!
And, all the time you are yelling, “NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! ……”
And, then, in some way that you cannot comprehend, you were set free.
(End of Illustration)
This pitiful excuse for a parable is intended to show how the actions of a rebellious son caused the death of a selfless father.
Do you remember the last song we sang right before the message?
It was an old hymn of the church called, “At The Cross”.
Listen to first verse …
“Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”
Now listen to a paraphrase of that verse might sound like …
“NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! They beat my Savior until He bled!
They killed my Sovereign, my Lord and King, the one who was always right but I wouldn’t listen!”
He gave His head to a crown of thorns. He gave His head to punching and to slapping and to spitting and to being hit with a rod over and over and over.
And, he did it for me! Me! An undeserving, rebellious, wicked child!”
“Alas!” Alas has taken on a lesser meaning in these days but when Isaac Watts wrote the song alas had this meaning …
“…an exclamation to express sorrow, grief, pity, concern, or apprehension of evil”
In this case inexpressible sorrow and grief along with despair and hopelessness!
All, hope is gone …
We don’t use the word “alas” very often any more so when we encounter something tragic most likely would not say “Alas” but we might respond with something as simple as, “NO! NO! NO! THAT CAN’T BE!” followed by weeping …
It carries with it a feeling like being punched in the gut along with a feeling of denial, a feeling that it can’t possibly be true and a feeling that things will never be the same again.
Maybe even a feeling of dread!
I believe that was the intention of Isaac Watts penned the song. How do I know that?
The intention can be drawn from not only the next phrase but from the rest of the song! And the next phrase asks the question, “… did my Savior bleed?”
Yes, He did. He bled a lot!
When Jesus was flogged, or whipped, by the Roman soldiers He bled.
The whipping ripped His flesh wide open.
When the crown of thorns was pressed on His head He bled.
When He was punched in the face over and over and when He was hit over the head with a wooden rod over and over He bled.
When the nails were driven though His hands and feet He bled.
When the spear was shoved into His side He bled.
I think that pretty much all of us here know that Jesus came to save us and an important part of that sacrifice was the shedding of His blood for us …
John 3:17
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
And, Romans 5:9 says,
“Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!”
So, when Isaac Watts asked the question, “… did my Savior bleed?” The answer is, “Yes, He did.”
And, that’s not the worst of it …
The next question in the song asks, “… and did my Sovereign die?”
Is Jesus a Sovereign?
Is Jesus the undisputed Sovereign ruler of all?
- Jesus is the Creator who spoke the world into existence.
- John 1:3, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”
- Jesus will return to judge the world.
- Matthew 25:31-32, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him …” and He will pronounce judgment.
So, the answer is that Jesus is the Sovereign King of Glory!
But did He die?
Mark 15:44-45
“Pilate was surprised to hear that [Jesus] was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.”
So, the answer to the question, “… and did my Sovereign die?” is, “Yes, He did, in a horrible, gruesome manner!”
And the final question of that first verse of “At The Cross” is, “Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”
Now, I know that that last phrase has been changed from “such a worm as I” to “sinners such as I.”
Why the change? We certainly don’t like to think of ourselves as being as lowly as a worm. And, we know that Jesus did not come to save worms but to save lost men and women.
But the truth is that the more we see the magnificence of the Lord the smaller we see ourselves.
The original title of the song was, “Godly Sorrow Arising From the Sufferings of Christ.”
And the song did not have any refrain or chorus; just the verses.
Personally, I prefer the song without the chorus that was added later because the chorus seems to interrupt the series of questions that are being put forth.
Here’s a question that we all have to answer, “Do you have ANY godly sorrow arising from the sufferings of Christ?”
When you read the line, “Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my Sovereign die?”
Does it bring any sorrow to your heart?
If not perhaps you need to ask, “Is Jesus my Savior … REALLY my Savior?”
And, “Is Jesus the Sovereign over my life, REALLY the supreme ruler of my life?
If Jesus is NOT your Sovereign Savior then you either will most likely feel no emotion at all when you read those questions or you might feel conviction for living in rebellion to God.
But if you ARE a child of God and you still have NO instinctive godly sorrow arising from the suffering of Christ you need to ask yourself, “Why doesn’t it impact me in some way?”
Listen again to these words!
Alas and did my Savior bleed - And did my Sovereign die
Would He devote that sacred head - For such a worm as I
Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree
Amazing pity grace unknown - And love beyond degree
Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut His glories in
When Christ the mighty Maker died for man the creature's sin
Thus might I hide my blushing face while Calvary’s cross appears
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness and melt my eyes to tears
But drops of grief can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe
Here LORD I give myself away - 'Tis all that I can do
Fanny J. Crosby wrote hymns, many, many, many hymns.
In the Fall of 1850 at the age of thirty, Fanny J. Crosby went to the altar at a church in New York City. She had been to the altar twice before by had not received the peace she sought.
According to her own testimony and in her own words she says:
“...it seemed to me that the light must indeed come then or never; and so I arose and went to the altar alone. After a prayer was offered, they began to sing the grand old consecration hymn, 'Alas, and did my Savior bleed, And did my Sovereign die?' And when they reached the third line of the last stanza, ‘Here Lord, I give myself away,’ my very soul was flooded with a celestial light. I sprang to my feet, shouting ‘hallelujah,’ and then for the first time I realized that I had been trying to hold the world in one hand and the Lord in the other.”
Miss Crosby had been searching for spiritual peace while holding on to the world and to the Lord. That is a place where no peace can be found.
Are you like Miss Crosby was before she let go of the world?
Are you desperate to find the great gain of godliness with contentment that was in our Scripture memory refresher verse for today?
Listen to these lyrics from an old Gospel song called, “I Am To Blame”.
When I see the nail prints in the hands of Jesus
The nail prints that were made because of me
I’m reminded of a life of sin and sorrow
And of how Jesus took my place on Calvary
Now I kneel before Thy throne of grace for mercy
At Your feet, O Lord, I bow, I’m so ashamed
I repent of all my sin and ask forgiveness
And for the nail prints in His hands I am to blame
The stripes upon His back were for my healing
And the thorns upon His head were for my shame
In mockery the purple robe was placed upon Him
And for the nail prints in His hands, I am to blame
Am I to blame? Yes.
Are you to blame? Yes.
What if you have just realized that your sins drove Jesus to the cross as well as the sins of others?
What if you are now feeling godly sorrow arising from the sufferings of Christ?
There is relief. Jesus didn’t suffer and die just to make you feel guilty.
He suffered and died so that you could be transformed into a new creation, free from the load of sin and shame you have been carrying.
How?
(Plan of salvation and invitation if the Lord leads.)
Benediction and dismissal.
