The Seven Words
Introduction
We have been making our way through Matthew’s Gospel, following the life of Jesus from his birth, baptism, ministry, and parables. Last week we studied the last of his teachings before the events began to quickly lead him to Calvary. In a flurry of activity we read about the Passover meal, the prayer in Gethsemane, the betrayal of Judas, and the trials. Today our service is meant to focus attention on the moment planned before the creation of the world. The crucifixion of Jesus. Let us see it, hear the sounds, remember the sayings of Jesus as presented by the Gospel writers. Seven words Jesus said from the cross. We will begin by tracing the final steps to Calvary.
Reading: Matthew 27:27-35
Song: O Sacred Head
Prayer
The First Three Words: Others Around The Cross
1. A Word For His Enemies
Luke 23:34 LSB “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.”
In this most painful hour, Jesus does not pray for himself. He did not pray for his loved ones, nor for his friends. He prayed for his enemies.
Who was he praying for? The soldiers who were crucifying him? The teachers who hated him, the priests who bought him with silver, the traitor who sold him to them, the crowd who had cried "crucify him" at the farce of his trial, and in the distance was Pilate in his palace trying to salve his conscience by blaming somebody else for what was happening. (Bourgaize)
Lutzer says, “The Greek text implies that He kept repeating the words ‘Father, forgiven them…’”
"They know not what they do." He was not affirming their ignorance. Each one of them knew they were doing wrong. “Pilate, washing his soiled hands … Judas, who hurried away to empty his soiled hands of the thirty pieces of silver … Annas, who had spun his web in the dark, knew that out of greed and envy he had helped to hound a good man to his death.” (Chappell)
They did not and could not realize just how great was their guilt.
F. B. Meyer says that "in uttering this first cry from the Cross, our Lord entered that work of intercession which he ever lives to continue on our behalf. He thinks, not of himself, but of others; he is occupied, not with his own pain, but with their sins. He makes no threat but instead offers a tender prayer of pleading intercession." (via Bourgaize)
Clarence Cranford (via Lutzer): “By this prayer from the cross Jesus was building a bridge of forgiveness over which his tormenters could come in penitence to the Father.”
2. An Answer to Prayer
Luke 23:43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
The thief had made a request of the King: Luke 23:42 “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”
This was a prayer of faith. Clovis Chappell wrote, "I think a more daring faith is hardly to be found in the Bible or out of it….he was convinced that to have a place in his heart, to be remembered by him, was the very best that could be his, either in time or in eternity. Thus he asked for no throne, no seat among the mighty, only to be remembered.”
Jesus gave assurance here…
-Asurance that life goes on.
-Assurance of an abiding fellowship with himself.
-Assurance of a heavenly home. he called the place of meeting paradise.
-Assurance of the immediacy of our heavenly home.
-Assurance that those who turn to him are saved instantly.
There were two thieves there that day - but only one turned to Jesus.
It is thought that Jesus died before the two thieves. Spurgeon (via Lutzer) observed, “This man who was our Lord’s last companion on earth was His first companion at the gates of paradise.”
3. A Word for the Two He Loved Most
John 19:25-27 …Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his home.
William Barclay (via Lutzer): There is something infinitely moving in the fact that Jesus in the agony of the cross, in the moment when the salvation of the world hung in the balance, though of the loneliness of his mother in the days when he was taken away.”
“...In providing for Mary, Jesus was simply doing the duty that was closest to him. Even the burden of a world’s redemption could not obscure for him his loving obligation to his bereaved and widowed mother.” (Chappell)
I wonder what tortured thoughts were passing through Mary’s mind as she saw her son in such pain. Would she would recall the prophecy over the infant Jesus: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too." This was that moment - the sword was being cruelly thrust into her. (Bourgaize)
Lutzer: Mary suffers in unbroken silence. She sees the crown of thorns but cannot remove it; she sees the nails but is not allowed to pull them out; she sees the lacerations but is not able to soothe her Son’s pain with salve; she hears the mockery but is not able to quiet the crowd. … She would have gladly traded places with HIm, but she could not help Him bring redemption.
Song: Faithful Love
Prayer
The Next Two Words: The Humanity of Jesus
4. A Word to His Father
??Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Lutzer: The first three cries from the cross were uttered in daylight. But now nature shrouded the suffering of its Creator with darkness.
Why did Jesus utter this bitter cry?
Chappell thought it was because he felf himself forsaken. He was speaking out of a sense of
desolation. He felt his forsakenness was utter and complete.
Jesus cries out from ...
The physical torture he was enduring. “Let us not forget that Jesus was a man. let us not forget that he was just as human as we are…. He had been tried before Annas, Caiaphas, Herod, and Pilate. He had been crowned with thorns. He had been scourged. He had been now upon the cross for almost six hours.” (Chappell)
The spiritual torture. Here on the cross Jesus was made “to be sin for us, who knew no sin.”
Lutzer: Forsaken. It’s a powerful word. … This Son had been the object of the Father’s love from all eternity; the Father’s presence was HIs only delight. The hiding of His Father’s face was the most bitter sip of the cup of sorrow He chose to drink.
A. W. Pink (via Lutzer): This was a cry of distress but not of distrust. God had withdrawn from Him, but mark how His soul still cleaves to God.”
5. A Word of Suffering
John 19:28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, in order to finish the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.”
Jesus spent hours thinking of others, and now he makes a request for himself. The prophetic 22nd Psalm which anticipated our Lord’s passion speaks graphically of his condition:
Psalm 22:14,15 NLT My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me. My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have laid me in the dust and left me for dead."
Lutzer “He did miracles for others but would not perform one for HImself. He refused to turn stones into bread while hungering in the desert, and now He refused to create water while thirsting on the cross.”
Who is the soldier who served Jesus so beautifully in his last moments? We do not know his name. Perhaps one day he will hear Jesus say, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.”
Song: Jesus Paid it All
Reading: Isaiah 53 Nick White
Prayer
The Last Two Words: The Divinity of Jesus
6. A Word of Mission
John 19:30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
“This word spoken by our Lord as he hung on the nails might have been the saddest that ever fell from human lips.” (Chappell)
What had Jesus finished?
-He had come to seek and to save that which was lost.
-He had come that we may have life, and have it more abundantly.
-He came in quest of a kingdom.
-He came to reveal God to humanity.
-He had finished his suffering, finished the defeat of Satan.
7. A Word of Faith
Luke 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Here Jesus quotes from the 31st Psalm. “In his final hour he turned to the hymnbook of his people. … In fact our Lord had so saturated his mind and heart with the Bible that both its through and its language became his own.” Here Jesus offers a prayer to his father. “Having thus practiced prayer day by day, Jesus found it perfectly natural to pray as he reached the end of his journey.” (Chappell)
This prayer was an act of dedication. Moffatt gives this translation: “I trust my spirit to thy hands.”
Lutzer: There is a tribe in Africa in which, when a believer dies, they do not say, “he departed,” but rather, “He arrived.” And so it is; believers arrive in the home prepared by Jesus.
Reading: Matthew 27:50-60
Song Before Communion - When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
Communion: We were at the cross, did you see yourself?
-Father Forgive Them - our greatest need, no less than those who mocked and called
his name. Our sin sent Jesus to the cross. There’s forgiveness for you at the cross.
-Today you will be with me in paradise - the greatest promise that could be made to
undeserving people, but assurance offered in spite of ourselves.
- “Behold, your mother!” - John was near and ready to serve the one he loved the most
from that very hour. Are we ready to serve and love Jesus at this very hour?
- Why have you forsaken me? - in our times of greatest suffering, we may feel that God
is no longer near, no longer cares. Jesus reminds us to look beyond our feelings.
- It is finished - everything that Christ came to do for us was done … now what will we
do in response?
- Into thy hands I commend my spirit - As these words sum up what both life and death meant
to Jesus, they sum up what they ought to mean to us.
Communion Prayers
Ending song: And Can It Be
Resources
Bourgaize, Owen. Sermon - The Seven Words from the Cross. https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-seven-words-from-the-cross-owen-bourgaize-sermon-on-jesus-christ-66826
Chappell, Clovis. G. The Seven Words. Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1952.
Lutzer, Erwin. Cries From The Cross. Moody Press, 2002.
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