What Jesus Saw

What Jesus Saw

Lk 23:26-46

INTRO: Christmas season is a time of remembering the baby Jesus & the Christmas story

1. Next Sunday is Christmas and of course we will concentrate

on the nativity story

2. But today I want us to see past the Birth to the purpose of

Jesus being born of a virgin in a little town called Bethlehem

3. Let’s look at the cross, more that that lets look at the person

on the cross

a. People wear crosses as jewelry, but looking at their life it

does not reflect the life for which the person on the cross died

b. Jesus came into this world at Bethlehem’s stable for a

reason

1. To hang on the old rugged cross

4. We see Jesus on the cross in our imaginations, in our

reasoning as we read the crucifixion story

a. We remember Jesus’ sacrifice in the Lord’s Supper

b. Crosses on walls, on steeples, on sides of roads remind of

Him who hung on the cross

5. But I want us to see something else.

a. Not just see Jesus, but see what Jesus saw while on that cross

I. Jesus Saw the People He Came For

1Ti 1:15 This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Lu 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

A. Important Question: Is there a person or people that you

would not go try to win to the Lord?

1. I submit to you, if there is any one that you refuse to try t

reach, for what ever reason

a. Your cross is not on your back, are not bearing your cross,

nor following Jesus

B. He came for & saw all people while bearing His Cross

1. When carrying it up the Via Dela Rosa, The way of Sorrows

a. Carrying that old wood after being beaten through the night

b. He saw the women & the people on the Street of Jersalem

1. He warned them of the coming Judgment

a. Particularly to the Jewish people and those who have rejected Him

as the Messiah Lu 23:28-29 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed [are] the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.

2. Once nailed to the Cross, Jesus saw His mother & Disciple John

a. What a heartache that had to be for her, to see her son

treated in such away

b. But equally heart winching was him to look down in all the

shame & humiliation of the crucifixion and see his poor

old mother having to go through this with him

c. He in these final moment made arrangements for her

Joh 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own [home].

3. But also there was a man who had been compelled, forced

into carrying the cross the rest of the way up Calvary when

Jesus fell under the load

a. Simon of Cyrene: Tradition says he was black man

b. Jesus saw across ALL racial, Ethnic, national & Social

Boundaries

4. Two thieves: Both Guilty, both lived lives apart from God’s

ways, His Word and were unrighteous people

a. Richard V. Devotion at nursing Home reminded us of

Jesus’ birth in a lowly, dirty barn, filth of animals, feed trough

1. To tell you and I, the poor, beggarly, those down & out

2. The God of this world the creator of the Universe has not forgotten

them

5. The Crucifiers Also: The Jewish Leaders, Mob & Roman Soldiers

a. Religious, Political, Powerful, Violent, Cruel, hateful

b. ALL, Good or Bad Jesus Saw

6. He saw the World, the people of the world Jn 3:16

a. Not just Jews or of Judaism, nor Christians

1. But Muslims, Buddhists, Shintoist, Cultists, Atheists

Joh 12:47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

b. Jesus doesn’t see people like we see people

1. We see people either like us or not like ourselves

a. Either they’re one of us or not

b. Jesus Saw people dying without hope, Hell bound

1. He understood He was the only remedy for the terminal disease of

Sin

C. Yes Jesus saw mankind’s predicament, situation