Sunday Message: What the Death of Jesus Means to You

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org. So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Let me start with a question. What is the moment of your life where you experience the most pain? The most pain. Maybe it was physical. Maybe you fell.

Maybe you broke an arm or a leg or something else. We've all had those moments of pain. But then there's different kinds of pain, right? There's emotional pain that we can go through.

When we've been hurt. For instance, pain of rejection. Or the pain of betrayal.

Or the pain of abandonment. When the husband says to the wife, I've been unfaithful to you. When the wife says to the husband, I want a divorce. When the child says to the parent, I don't want to live the Christian life. When the parent says to the child, we don't love you or want you.

Or when the pastor who has just preached for two hours says, one more thing. That's a joke, right? But we all know what it's like to feel pain. And maybe one of the worst kinds of pain you can experience is when you've been betrayed by someone you care about. Someone that you thought was a true friend. Someone you thought you could trust.

Well, it cuts like a knife, doesn't it? Well, we're gonna look at now the story of Jesus Christ, who was betrayed by his friend. Don't forget, Judas was his friend. In the Bible, the question is asked of Messiah in the Old Testament, where did you receive these wounds?

The wounds in his hands, he says, in the house of my friends. And you remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas was leading the temple guard to arrest Jesus, Christ says to Judas Iscariot, friend, why have you come? So, Jesus loved Judas. He was a friend of Judas.

He thought Judas was a friend of his, but of course Judas was the great betrayer. But I wanna talk about the most painful moment that Jesus Christ experienced, and I'm also gonna talk about the most painful moment in my own life at the end of the message. So, when do you think Jesus experienced the most pain? Do you think it's when they put the crown of thorns on his head? Do you think it's when he was beaten with a Roman whip, most likely a Roman cat of nine tails? Do you think it's when they drove those nails through his hands and his feet?

As horrible and horrific as all of that was, I don't think that was his most painful moment. I'll tell you what I think his most painful moment was in just a moment, but we are coming to the end of our series in the Gospel of Mark. We've called this series the Gospel for Busy People. We have one more message, and it will be on the resurrection. In this message, I'm gonna talk about the crucifixion, the death of Jesus. You know, someone came to me and said, you can preach two more messages before you go to heaven. This is the theme I would choose, because it's the heartbeat of the Gospel of Mark. It's the heartbeat of the whole Bible, the death and resurrection of Christ, and it should be the heartbeat of our lives as well. Let's not forget that the book of Mark was written to bring encouragement to people, and Mark has this interesting style where everything's in movement in the Gospel of Mark, almost like you're there, sort of a breathlessness, if you will, about the way that he writes. He uses the word immediately, immediately, over and over again. But he was writing to believers who were being persecuted.

He was writing this to believers who were suffering, and he wanted to bring them some encouragement. Don't you think we all could use some encouragement right now? Our nation, the United States of America, is in a state of crisis right now. I can't remember a time, at least in my lifetime, and I was around in the 60s, when we have been more divided, and many are freaking out.

Some are living in fear. So what should we do? Shall we just go into our homes and lock our doors and shut our windows? No, we should open our windows like Daniel did, and we should pray, and we should go out that door, out into a needy and hurting world and preach the Gospel.

Listen, this is not the time to isolate. This is the time to permeate. This is the time to infiltrate. As a matter of fact, as Mark brings his Gospel to an end, to these suffering Christians he's writing to, a church that was being persecuted, he closes by quoting Jesus who says, Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to everyone. And then we read, And the disciples went out and preached everywhere.

That's what we need to do, folks. We need to go out and preach the Gospel everywhere, on social media platforms, in our neighborhoods, everywhere and in any way that we can. Because the answer is Christ. The answer is the Gospel. The Gospel is America's only hope.

We're not gonna change our culture through politics. We're gonna change our culture through prayer for our nation and the preaching and proclamation of the Gospel. That's how the early church turned their world upside down, and that is how we will turn our world upside down. So we're in Mark 15, and our story begins with Judas being identified by Christ as the betrayer in the upper room. Jesus says to Judas, whatever you do, go and do it quickly.

Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane praying with his friends Peter, James, and John who have fallen asleep. Now the temple guard approaches, and they take him to the house of the high priest Caiaphas to be tried in what could best be described as a kangaroo court of injustice. Jesus is then shuffled over to Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate is the Roman governor over the region. Pilate has never seen anyone like Jesus before.

I think it unnerved him. Pilate was used to people cowering before him. Jesus stood not, I would say, in defiance, but in confidence, knowing that this was all part of the plan of God. I think it's possible that Pilate felt as though he was standing before Jesus more than Jesus was standing before him. And Pilate knew that this man Jesus was innocent. And Pilate's own wife had said to him, have nothing to do with this just man, speaking of Christ, for I've suffered many things about him because of a dream that I had.

Pilate doesn't want to make this decision. Pilate does not want to try Jesus and convict him, and he definitely doesn't want to execute and crucify him, but the very reason that he was sent to Pilate was because the religious leaders wanted that very thing. But the fact of the matter is, even God the Father wanted this to happen.

I know that sounds crazy. But as we'll see in a few moments, the Bible says it pleased the Father to bruise Christ. God was the master of ceremonies at the cross. And the fact is that scripture was clear in the Old Testament in pointing out the Messiah would die, and he would die by crucifixion. Psalm 22 opens up with the words, they pierced my hands and my feet. Crucifixion hadn't even been invented when those words were spoken in Psalm 22. Isaiah 53 vividly describes the suffering of Christ, but yet Pilate, he's trying to find a way out.

And we picked this story up in Mark chapter 15, starting in verse six. Now it was a custom at that time to release a prisoner when the people requested it. A man named Barabbas was in prison with the insurrectionists who had committed murder in the uprising. The crowd came up and asked Pilate to do for them what he usually did. Pilate says, do you want me to release to you Jesus, the King of the Jews, knowing it was out of self-interest that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him.

But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. Pilate then says, what shall I do with the one you call the King of the Jews? They shouted in response, crucify him. Why, Pilate asked, what crime has he committed? And they shouted the louder, crucify him. So the custom of the time during Passover was to release a guilty person and the people could choose.

So Pilate thought, okay, this is a slam dunk. I'm gonna put Jesus out there, the very model of virtue, the miracle worker, the healer. And then Barabbas, an insurrectionist, a murderer, the Romans would have called him a terrorist. Who do you want, Jesus of Nazareth or do you want this terrorist murder? But the religious leaders are stirring up the crowd and much to the shock of Pilate, they cry out, we want you to release Barabbas and we want you to crucify Jesus.

So Pilate's trying to find a way to appease this bloodthirsty crowd so he gives the order that Jesus should be scourged, scourged. Now we could read the word whipped and scourged and we don't know what that means but basically the whip that would have been used would, well, here I have a reproduction of it here in this table. This is what is called a Roman cat of nine tails. You can see it's a short wooden handle, strips of leather and here at the end of this are pieces of sharpened metal. Sometimes there would also be bone and glass embedded in the leather strands of the whip. So when this whip comes down on the back of a person, as you can understand, it digs deeply into the body. This whip would have lacerated veins and arteries and even the kidneys and vital organs could be exposed and slashed, a horrible, horrible process to be whipped by the Romans. And Jesus was whipped 40 times minus one. They held back one out of mercy so 39 times this whip came on the back of Jesus Christ. Listen, some people died from the scourging alone. It was described in that day as the halfway crucifixion.

That's how bad it was. And we wonder why did Jesus have to suffer like that? I understand maybe that Jesus had to be nailed to a cross because that was prophesied but why did he have to suffer? Well, he did suffer. We follow a suffering savior.

Isaiah 53 gives us description of what Christ went through. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows, yet we have seen him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But listen, the answer is now given. Why did he suffer? He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed. You see, Jesus voluntarily suffered in our place. It's hard for us to think of a perfect creator going through something as human as pain and suffering.

But I want you to know something. God has suffered more deeply than anyone could imagine. Jesus is called a man of sorrows. But why did he suffer? Why did he die?

Simple answer, because he loved and he loves. He loved the people he was dying for and he loves you. And this also means that he can enter into your suffering as well. Am I speaking to someone right now who is suffering? Maybe you're in a hospital bed. Maybe you're in a wheelchair. Maybe you're in a state of personal anguish. Maybe you're mourning the death of a loved one.

Maybe there's just something that's causing you so much pain. God can enter into your suffering with you and he cares and he understands you're not alone in your suffering today. Jesus has been there. He's walked in your shoes and he's here for you. Hebrews 2 17 tells us he himself has gone through suffering and because of that he is able to help us when we're being tempted. So don't think that God's up in heaven disconnected from what you're facing. Jesus has faced it. He's experienced it. He suffered. Now after Christ has been whipped with the Roman cat of nine tails, Pilate brings Christ out before the bloodthirsty people and he says, eke homo, which means behold the man.

In other words, look at this guy. Has he suffered enough? Is there enough blood for you?

Can I let him go now? Oh no, they're not satisfied. They still want more. They want his death by crucifixion. They say crucify him and let his blood be on us and on our children. We read that Pilate then washes his hands in a basin, sort of in a symbolic way, saying I'm done.

I've done everything I could to free this man. I washed my hands of the matter. But listen, you can't wash your hands of Jesus Christ. One historical account tells us that within seven years of this event Pontius Pilate was removed from office. He was left broken, destitute, unwanted by Caesar and all alone. And we also hear from history that he went out in the darkness of night and like Judas Iscariot, hung himself. See, here was Pilate's problem. He knew Jesus was innocent. He may have even known Jesus was God. But he cared more about what people thought than what Jesus thought. And his craving for popularity and power cost him everything. Listen, don't let a fickle crowd show you how to think.

It could cost you everything as well. Now Jesus is let off to be crucified. Matthew's gospel tells us that he was surrounded by a whole garrison of Roman soldiers.

This was a lot, upwards of 600 of them. And by the way, they were the elite legionnaires. The legionnaires were sort of the cream of the crop of the Roman army. A modern equivalent would be the Green Berets or Delta Force or Navy Seals. And as they saw how much Jesus had suffered, how his back had been ripped open and a tremendous loss of blood, you would have thought that they would have had sympathy.

Sadly, it's the very opposite. Mark 15, verse 17 says, they put a purple robe on him. By the way, purple was the color of royalty. So they're mocking the fact that he is supposed to be a king. They put a purple robe on him and twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him and began to call out, Hail, the King of the Jews. And again and again, they struck him on the head with a staff and they spit on him. And falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. It was all done in mockery.

These people literally spit in the face of God. And then they take this crown of thorns and they place it on his head. Here's a reproduction of what the crown would have looked like.

Imagine having this placed on your heads instead of a crown of gold. They put this crown of thorns on Jesus and it would have cut deeply into a scalp, causing more pain, lacerations and bleeding. But it's interesting because the thorn is actually a symbol of the curse that came upon humanity. But Jesus is about to take the curse upon himself. He was cursed in effect so you don't have to be. The Bible tells us that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us because the Bible says, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. Maybe you've thought, Oh man, my life is cursed. No, no, it doesn't have to be. Jesus was cursed so you don't have to be cursed.

There's no curse on you if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. We read in verse 19, they struck Jesus on the head. And we wonder, they cry out, Where's your army to deliver you? Where was his army? I can tell you right now, his army was nearby.

This is a Roman sword, a reproduction of one. And I can tell you right now that the army of Jesus were on standby and ready to strike at a moment's notice. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter pulled out the sword and sliced off the ear of the high priest servant whose name happened to be Malchus. I think he was probably aiming for his head, but Peter was a fisherman, not a swordsman.

Right? And Jesus said to Peter, Put that thing away, Peter, put that sword away. Don't you know that I could call and 12 legions of angels would come and deliver me right now. To show you the power Jesus had.

He didn't even need the angels to deliver him. Because we read that when they came to arrest him, he says, Who do you seek? They replied, Jesus of Nazareth. And then he says, I am.

And they all fell backwards. Why? Because he was making a claim of deity. Remember what God said to Moses at the burning bush. Moses says, Who shall I say has sent me? God says, I am that I am.

Jesus was effectively saying the same thing. I am. I wonder if it reverberated.

I am. Boom. They fell over.

All these soldiers with their swords and their spears and their shields and their gleaming armor like dominoes falling on each other. He could have said, I am. And you were. Bye. Poof.

Game over. But he went through all of this for us because he had to sacrifice his life for us in our place. Now Jesus takes up the cross and begins his journey to Golgotha.

And the word Golgotha means the place of the skull. Jesus was carrying his own cross. Here we have a cross. A basic reproduction of the general size of what the cross would look like. This would weigh approximately 300 pounds.

Now imagine how hard it would be to carry this. Understand Jesus was a strong guy. Don't forget Pilate said of him, Behold the man. You know he knew how to put his back to a task. He was after all a carpenter.

He would chop trees down and build tables and frame homes so he could pick up heavy things. So much for the anemic Jesus of so much religious art. Jesus was strong. Jesus was a man's man. But also don't forget Jesus had his back ripped open and he had been punched in the face and his beard was ripped out of his face and a crown of thorns was placed on his head.

And he has to carry a 300 pound cross. And so as he's carrying this very heavy cross he collapses beneath the weight of it as he is making his way to Golgotha. Mark 15 says in verse 22, They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha.

That is the place of the skull. They offered him wine drugged with myrrh but he refused it and the soldiers crucified him. It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him and a sign announced the charge that was against him. The king of the Jews and the revolutionaries were crucified with them. One on his right and one on his left. Look back at the cross for a moment.

Imagine a sign at the top. Pontius Pilate wrote it down. The king of the Jews.

He wrote it in three different languages. It was sort of like Pilate's gospel track that he put up on the cross for everyone to read. The religious leaders push back and say don't write down he's the king of the Jews.

Right? He said he was the king of the Jews. Pilate responded what I have written I have written.

And a better translation of that would be what I have written has been written and will always be written. Pilate said I said what I meant and I meant what I said. So there's Jesus now hanging on the cross. The center cross of the three was reserved for Barabbas who had been set free. So Jesus was effectively dying on someone else's cross.

He had committed no crimes. The men hanging on the cross as they had committed many crimes. He was dying for Barabbas and all sinners everywhere. He was dying for you and he was dying for me.

As Paul said he loved me and he gave himself for me. Now imagine for a moment here's Christ hanging on the cross. The crown of thorns is on his head.

His back is torn open by the Roman whip. Understand this death by crucifixion was not dying by having the nails put through your hands and feet as horrible as it was. In effect death by crucifixion was death by suffocation. The Carthaginians invented crucifixion.

Let's just say the Romans perfected it in a horrific way. It was designed to humiliate a prisoner. Prisoners would often be nailed to the cross naked. It was designed as a warning to anyone that would rise up against Rome. These were serious criminals that were hung there on the crosses.

And the reason you died was because you could not breathe. So you see that little step at the foot of the cross. The crucified person would have to push themselves up to get a gulp of air into their lungs. Obviously that would cause great pain on your hands which were nailed to the cross. I have a nail here. That's a reproduction of a nail of that time. So imagine this being nailed through the hand or perhaps through the wrist whatever it was horrific. And through the feet one crossed over the other. The nail pounded through the feet as well. And so there is Jesus hanging. So it's hard to breathe. Now you want to talk about saying things from the cross?

Extremely difficult. Yet Christ gave seven significant statements from the cross. We have to kind of piece them together from all the gospel to get them in their proper order. So as Jesus is hanging on the cross between two thieves or two other criminals, his first words were, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. One of the criminals crucified next to him turns to him and says, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus gives a second statement from the cross when he says to this man, Truly, truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. Standing at the foot of the cross there stands Mary, the mother of Jesus. Imagine her anguish to look up there and see her beloved son. She once guided those little tiny hands that are now nailed to a cross.

Isaiah tells us he was so bloodied and beaten and traumatized you cannot even tell he was a man. And Jesus looks down from the cross and he says his third statement from the cross which is, Woman behold your son. John the apostle was standing nearby and then he says to John, Son behold your mother.

In effect saying to John, take care of my mother for me. Then presumably he takes on the sin of the world and gives the fourth statement from Calvary which is, Eli, Eli lama sabachthani, which is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Statement number five is, I thirst.

Statement number six, it is finished. And the final statement, statement number seven, he says to the father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Let's contemplate for a moment that riveting first statement of Jesus when he says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

That's in Luke 23, 34. Jesus is basically saying, Father forgive them. They need forgiveness so desperately. They've committed a sin that is wicked beyond all comprehension. Father forgive them. They don't know what they've done.

And by the way, it's implied in the original language, he said that more than once. So it wasn't just one statement, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, but rather, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Father forgive them. They don't know what they've done. Father forgive them.

He was saying it over and over again. Now initially we know that both thieves joined in the chorus of mockery with the people standing at the foot of the cross who were saying, If he is the Christ, if he is the son of God, let him come down from that cross. He should save himself. So at the beginning, first, Christ is crucified. Everyone's mocking him, including the criminals on each side. Jesus gives statement number one from Calvary. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And one of those thieves comes to his senses and he believes and he rebukes the other guy. In fact, he actually says to the other guy, Don't you fear God knowing we're under the same condemnation?

What woke this man up? Why did he believe so quickly? And by the way, to become a Christian, it doesn't take years. It doesn't take months.

It doesn't even take hours. It can happen just like that. It can happen for you at this moment while you're listening to me speak where you suddenly realize all of this is true. Jesus is the son of God. I can come into a relationship with him.

I can know God in a personal way. That's what happened to that guy. What won him over? What softened his hardened heart? It's when he saw Jesus forgive the men who had done this horrific thing to him. By the way, we don't know that those thieves had been scourged.

We don't believe those thieves had crowns of thorns on their heads. But Jesus had all that in addition to the horrors of the crucifixion. And that man believed because he saw this forgiveness in action.

Amazing. And then he says to Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. This is what we call a deathbed conversion. Am I talking to someone on a deathbed right now? Am I talking to someone whose life is coming to an end?

Let me say to you, no matter how you've lived, no matter what sins you've committed, God could and will forgive you if you will call out to him. I've told you before, my mother was married and divorced seven times. So I had a full-time ministry sharing the gospel to my mom's former husbands. And I tried to reach as many of them as I could.

The one she was married to when her life finally came to an end, he was a man who was not open to God throughout his life. And actually kind of made fun of me and what I believed. But then he got very ill, my mother died, and then some time passed and someone called me up and told me that he was very sick and at death's door. I was on my way to a speaking engagement on the other side of the country.

I had a fight to catch. And I said, you know what, I'll go visit him tomorrow when I get back. And they said, well, do whatever you want to do, but he's really ill.

I don't think he'll make it through the night. And so I'm driving to the airport and I'm telling you the Lord spoke to me and said, go to him right now. So I did a U-turn, drove over to his house, walked in, and there he was in a hospital bed in his den.

Clearly not long for this world. And I shared with him the gospel. And I told him Jesus died on the cross for him and rose again from the dead.

And he could believe in Jesus. I said, would you like to do this right now? And he said yes and we prayed. It was a deathbed conversion. And then I bid him God bless and said I'll see him when I got back. And I caught my flight and when I landed, I got a text on my phone that said he just died. Wow. Got on under the wire.

Got in under the wire. And I'll tell you what. You can call on the Lord no matter what you've done and he'll forgive you. Jesus forgave this hardened criminal. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Now an ominous moment takes place. This has been described as the crucifixion in the crucifixion. It's nine o'clock in the morning. Suddenly the sun goes dark.

It's like an eclipse. And some extra biblical sources suggest there was a universal darkness. This darkness falls on the land. And that darkness is pierced by the voice of Jesus, giving his fourth statement from the cross in Mark 15, 33.

As darkness fell across the whole land until three o'clock. At three o'clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? If you were a fiction writer, and some people suggest the Bible is fiction, you would never have your hero make a statement like this, but the Bible is not fiction. Now this is a true story and this is showing what Christ was experiencing. Now we know at some moment Jesus bore the sin of the world. The Bible clearly tells us this.

When it happened we can't be exactly sure, but it would seem to me this is the moment when all of the sin of humanity, past, present, and future, is poured upon Christ. Thus he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Look, Jesus had been forsaken by his disciples.

By and large they had fled. But he always had the Father. The Father was always there with him. Jesus said in John 8 29, the one who sent me is with me and the Father has not left me alone. Then in John 16 32 Jesus says, indeed the hour is coming and now has come and you'll be scattered each to his own and you will leave me alone, but I'm not alone because the Father is with me. But now at the cross as the sin of the world is poured upon Jesus, God the Father turns his face away from the Son.

Why? Because God in his holiness cannot look at sin. The scripture says of God he's of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity. So in effect the Father turns his face away as he pours his wrath on his Son. The wrath and anger of God that should have been poured on you and should have been poured on me was poured instead on Jesus. And this was his most painful moment.

I raised the question earlier, what was the most painful moment? Was it when they put the crown of thorns on his head? I don't think so. Was it when they used the Roman whip on his back, as horrible as that was? I don't think that was it.

Was it when they pounded the spike through his hands and his feet? Again, no. It was when all the sin of the world was placed upon him.

Why? Because Jesus had never sinned ever. Not even one thought out of harmony with the Father. Jesus said, I always do the things that please him. Who could say that? But Jesus.

And it was true. But here is Jesus now separated in effect from the Father. But listen to this. Jesus was forsaken so I don't have to be.

Let me say that again. Jesus was forsaken so I don't have to be. Jesus was forsaken of God so I could be forgiven. Jesus entered the darkness that I might walk in the light.

Jesus was forsaken of God for a time that I might enjoy his presence forever. Jesus then gives his fifth statement from Calvary, I thirst. I thirst. This wasn't any normal thirst. He was just dying up there, dehydrated. And he cries out, I thirst. Bringing us, and by the way that shows the humanity of Christ.

Yes, he was God walking among us but he was also a man. He felt that pain when they struck him in the face. He felt that pain of the crown of thorns. He felt that pain as they tore his back open and when they nailed him to the cross.

And he felt the pain of separation from the Father. Now statement number six. It is finished. Jesus was 33 when he died.

At the age of 33 most people are saying it is beginning. But Jesus was saying it is finished. But he did not say, I am finished. This is not the shout of the victim.

This is a shout of a victor overcoming his enemies. In the Greek it's one word. It is finished as one word in the Greek, tetelestai. Tetelestai.

It was a word that was commonly used in the language of that day in many situations. If you built a table and it was finally completed you would say, tetelestai. It's done. Or even after a great meal was prepared you'd say, tetelestai.

The meal is completed. So he says, tetelestai. They knew what that word meant. It's a word that meant it's finished. It stands finished and it will always be finished. And by the way he cried out with a loud voice. He didn't just say, tetelestai.

He said, tetelestai. It is finished. It's completed.

It's done. The war is over. A new covenant now has been established with God and man. And I think what I call the battle cry of the cross reverberated through the hallways of heaven as well as the hallways of hell. The mission had been accomplished.

The job had been completed. The death of Jesus satisfied the righteous demands of the Father. Now the final statement of Christ from the cross.

He says to the Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. The Roman soldier was shocked to see that he had died. And normally they would take the mallet, the hammer, and smash the legs. And so the crucified person would collapse and could no longer breathe. And that's how they would kill him. But Jesus did not need that done. The Bible says they haven't broken a bone in his body.

That's prophesied of Christ. He gave his life up. See, no one took the life of Jesus. He gave his life. He laid his life down. Jesus said, greater love is no man than this.

And he laid down his life for his friends. Notice, three times on the cross Jesus addressed the Father. His first words, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. His fourth word, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And his last words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

Jesus addressed the Father at the beginning, in the middle, and the end. And we should do the same in life, shouldn't we? Address God in the beginning when you're a young man or a young woman. Commit your life to the Lord. Don't throw your life away. Do it in the middle of your life. And obviously you want to do it at the end of your life.

So, the question is raised earlier. Why did Jesus die for us on the cross? What does the death of Jesus mean to you? Answer, it means everything.

He did this for you because he loves you and he wants you to come into a relationship with the Father. In the beginning of the message I said I was going to tell you what I believe God's most painful moment was. And I also mentioned I wanted to tell you what my most painful moment was.

And if you know me, you already know what I'll say. But if you don't, the most painful moment of my life happened in 2008 when my son Christopher died in a tragic automobile accident at the age of 33. It was the darkest moment of my life.

And I called out to God. And, you know, God knows what it's like to lose a son, doesn't he? But I don't think it's really accurate to say I've lost my son because I know where he is. I know he's in heaven. I know that I will see him again. And why will I see him again? Because of what Jesus did for me on the cross and Jesus did for me rising again from the dead.

This is the hope that I have. Now some might think the cross was an aberration, it was a mistake, it was a tragic turn of events. But actually it was all part of the plan of God. As I already said, God was the master of ceremonies at the cross. Isaiah 53 10 says, it was the will of the Lord to crush him and to put him to grief. And Romans 8 32, God did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. And then Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the father to bruise him. How could it possibly please the father to bruise his son? How could it possibly be something that had any merit or good in it?

Here's the simple answer. Because of what it accomplished. God the father was not pleased by the suffering of his son and the anguish of his son. He was pleased that his son was able to purchase eternal life for all of humanity.

This is the most evil act ever perpetrated by sinful hearts. The sinless son of God tortured, slaughtered and heartlessly murdered in cold blood. Yet from this horrible event came the greatest good of all time. The salvation of countless souls, your salvation and mine. Jesus died for you. Jesus died for me. And because of his death we can live. Jesus was born to die that we might live.

What an amazing event it was. And now this same Jesus who hung on that cross and died for your sins rose from the dead and now he stands at the door of your life and he knocks. Let's pray. Father I pray for everybody watching this right now. If they don't have a relationship with you.

If they don't know you in a personal way. Let this be the moment that they believe. We commit them to you now. Bring them to yourself we pray. In Jesus name we ask this. Amen.

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to Harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God go to KnowGod.org. That's K-N-O-W-G-O-D dot org.