John Chapter 19:26-29

Understand in this moment, God the Father did something He had never done before. He turned His back on His Son.

See, because as the sins of the world, now get that, sins of the world, we say that, that's a pretty sanitized nice little phrase. Let's put it in perspective, your sins, my sins, everything you've ever committed, everything everybody in this room has ever done wrong was dumped on Jesus. And in that moment, the Father turned. And in that moment is when Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's interesting that He almost always called Him Father.

But in that moment, He didn't call Him Father, He called Him God. See, God the Father knows the pain of loss. One of the comforting truths of Scripture is that no matter what we're going through, God is there with us, and He too has experienced loss. Today, Pastor David explains this more as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 19. Now, here's David McGee with part three of his teaching, The Cross. Turn with me to John chapter 19.

We are taking a kind of a slow pace, if you will, through this chapter because there's so many things going on. So we won't get through a whole lot of verses today, but I really want to, let's look and examine what's going on with the verses that we do go over. So we're going to pick it up with John 19, verse 27. And what's going on is the scene of the crucifixion, Jesus hanging and dying on the cross.

Let's pick it up in verse 26. When Jesus therefore saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, woman, behold your son. Now the disciple whom Jesus loved, we know to be who? We know to be John. How do we know that? John tells us that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved, which is, he's the only disciple that uses that phrase for himself, but that's a good thing. He knew that God loved him.

That's an important thing for us to know. Verse 27, then He said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home.

Now this is interesting. And understand what's going on here. Jesus is saying goodbye to His mother. And I think sometimes we forget the humanity of Jesus. We forget what's going on.

Because we're so familiar with these events, we just gloss over them. You see, this was her son. This was the baby that she cradled. This was the young man who grew up to be such a fine, godly man, loving the Lord, spending time in His Word, spending time in the temple, and how as a mother, she must've just looked at Him and beamed. And now to see what a lost and fallen world was doing to her son.

And this is their goodbyes. Obviously at this point, Jesus is dying and Mary's watching it. And I think it helps us to kind of see afresh through Mary's eyes what's going on. The little hands that she held as a baby and helped Him walk are now held down in a nail-driven throat. The hair she probably brushed back from His eyes and had a crown of thorns on it now, and blood. And I think far too often we gloss over these events.

We don't think of the significance or the impact. On this day, Mary found out what it was like to lose a son. And God the Father did too. Understand in this moment, God the Father did something He had never done before. He turned His back on His son. See, because as the sins of the world, get that, sins of the world, we say that. That's a pretty sanitized, nice little phrase.

Let's put it in perspective. Your sins, my sins, everything you've ever committed, everything everybody in this room has ever done wrong, was dumped on Jesus. And in that moment, the Father turned. And in that moment is when Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's interesting that He almost always called Him Father.

But in that moment, He didn't call Him Father, He called Him God. See, God the Father knows the pain of loss. If you've ever known the loss of a child, God understands that pain.

I don't. I have a brother who had two daughters and one passed away when she was 18 months, and then he had another one. His remaining daughter died when she was 23. I tried to find the words, but it was hard. It was hard.

Why? Because I really didn't understand. I'd never been through that. But if you've been through that, understand, God understands. See, in this passage, we read that the sky grew black and the earthquake as the Father mourned for His Son. The first life lesson here is God knows the pain of loss. God knows the pain of loss.

Don't see the Lord as some far off entity when you suffer loss, when you have the loss of a loved one. God knows. God understands that pain. And you can turn to Him.

He can be your shelter and your strong tower in those times. God knows. God understands.

Turn to the Lord. Now, as you look at this passage, and if you're familiar with the Bible, you have to ask yourself, why John? Why did Jesus choose John? Because, understand, Jesus had brothers.

Now, for some of you, that might be a news flash. Jesus had brothers. Mark chapter six, verse three, says, is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Hosea, Judas, and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?

So they were offended at him. And John chapter seven, verse five says, for even his brothers did not believe in him. That's a literal word in the Greek for brothers. Acts chapter one, verse 14 says, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. You see, the concept of perpetual virginity in that Mary only gave birth to Jesus is a doctrine that the church came up with.

More specifically, the Catholic church that still teaches that today, but it flies in the face of scripture. There's three instances, and there's actually more, that talk about the brothers of Jesus. So he had brothers. Mary was not a perpetual virgin. So why not the brothers? Well, I'm going into the realm of conjecture, so I want to label it as such.

I don't know. The conjecture, number one, we're told, and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, John's family was, well, they were well off. They had resources. His father had boats and servants.

Now, that wasn't normal for back then. So he had the resources, but I don't think that's really it. See, church history tells us James and Jude, the literal brothers of Jesus died martyrs' deaths. We're not sure about the other two. Maybe Jesus knew that his literal brothers were going to die soon a martyr's death as they believed in him. What changed their minds? I think it was the resurrection, but he chose John. Not only did the brothers of Jesus die a martyr's death, but I understand the disciples died a martyr's death. And you understand that not one of them, under incredible pressure, torture, pain beyond what most of us could even understand, not one of them recanted and said, look, we just came up with this whole thing.

And not just them, but through the ages, thousands of believers have done that without recanting. It speaks of the truth and the validity of scripture. Now, I understand something else about Mary. Mary was a young girl. We think of Mary as this like 40, 45-year-old woman when she had Jesus. Number one, she had a bunch of brothers and a bunch of sisters. She was probably between 15 and 20 years old when she had Jesus. And understand, she got pregnant before she was married. She was betrothed, which is a little more serious than engagement, but in a small town like Nazareth, people knew.

People loved to talk. That's Mary. We all know about Mary, don't we? Got pregnant before she got married and said, get this, that it was the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine what this young woman went through? Can you imagine being Joseph as your betrothed comes to you and says, hey, I'm pregnant, but it's cool.

Everything's good. I mean, that was, what do you mean? Well, it was God. I mean, God, that's a lot for a God to go, okay, well, I love you. But the Lord spoke to Joseph. Joseph listened, but still people spoke. There's a passage in John, and I think, again, we kind of gloss over it, understand what the Pharisees were saying. John 8, 19, they were talking with Jesus and the Pharisees. Then they said to him, where's your father?

That was a slam. They were saying, you don't know who your daddy is, do you? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also. They come on in the passage, and if you miss that, John 8, verse 41 says, you do the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, God. They were saying Jesus had been born of fornication. What's amazing, what's kind of ironic is they're saying you were born of fornication, our father is God, when you could suggest that the opposite was true.

Jesus, obviously his father was God, and perhaps these leaders were born of fornication in a sense of not having an intimate relationship with the Lord. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, we thank you for listening today. We want to pray specifically for a few cities in our listening audience.

Elko, Fernley, Las Vegas, Lovelock, Reno, Eli, and Round Mountain, Nevada. God, we thank you for these cities and the people listening. Lord, we thank you for the people who live in these cities. We pray that you would convince and convict them of their need for you and how much you love them and everything that you've done for them to have a relationship with you. God, I pray that you would fill people with faith to say yes, that they would put their hope in you, Jesus. Lord, we pray for the town governments, the town council, the mayor, the police chief, those in the fire department, all those working to lead in these cities. We pray that you would give them wisdom and discernment, that they would be people of your word who would look to your Bible for answers. And God, we pray that you would pour out your Holy Spirit on these cities for your glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. It's interesting what Jesus did in that chapter. He didn't start a long dissertation about his family tree. He didn't start talking about assuring them that Mary was his mother, but God was his father. He spoke very plainly.

And you know what? He didn't defend himself. And that's something that I appreciate about Jesus, that he doesn't defend himself.

I don't know if you understand the significance of that. If you've stepped out in ministry, you probably do because you've probably had the chance to defend yourself. And you know what I found in life and in ministry that if you step out to defend yourself, God will let you. But if you're faithful just to be quiet and to serve the Lord and not engage in all that, God will defend you.

Now, let me ask you a question. Who would you rather have defend you? You or God? I've learned to trust God. Life lesson here is let God defend you. Let God defend you. Don't run around trying to defend yourself to others. You know what I've found in ministry? And for some of you, as I watch you being raised up in ministry, this is so important. If you run around trying to put every fire out and defend yourself to every person that has an issue with you, you'll spend all your energy and all your time doing just that. And therefore, you'll be a lot less productive for the kingdom because there's always going to be another fire to put out. So again, looking at this exchange here, which I think a lot of times we just kind of gloss over these couple of verses, but this is, I think this is deep and this is significant because Jesus right here forms a new union, a new relationship, if you will. I don't know what Mary's relationship with John had been before this, but it said from that time on, the disciple took her to his home. I think at least it's safe to say that the relationship went deeper.

Why is that? Oh, this is so important, guys. The next life lesson, families are formed at the cross. Families are formed at the cross.

That's what it has to be based upon. It's tragic. I meet parents sometimes that hold back from God so that they can raise their kids, but what happens is the children watch these things and they see that somehow God is second or third or fourth in the priorities of life. And then they come to us and they say, can you fix this? Say, yeah, we can fix it.

You're upside down. God has to come first. If you focus on your family first and foremost, there's a tragedy awaiting you. See, because it takes God to really make a family. It takes the cross to form a family. And believe me as a pastor, you know what I've seen over and over? I've seen guys, I've seen men who God was really doing a work in and they're really pouring their lives out and all of a sudden they, well, you know what? I need to spend more time with my family. Now, the sad thing is a lot of times I know what that means.

That means they want to spend more time watching football. Families have to be built on the cross. Marriages built on the cross. Well, Pastor David, I want some practical information on how to raise my family and how to have a good marriage.

You know what? You're going to think this is deceptively simple, but let me encourage you in three things. Number one, read your Bible. Read your Bible. Well, I'm looking for a book. Tell me how to stay married. Here it is. There's a lot of good books out there, but you know what?

None of them compete with this one. Second thing is go to church. Go to church.

It's amazing. People come to say, I want you to fix my marriage. Well, how often do you come to church? Well, once, twice, months, something. Well, man, you know what? You got the world hammering at you.

Endlessly, ceaselessly. You need to have that standard of God's word speak to you. Have that standard of God's word speak to your heart, speak to your life, that fellowship, that worship that raises up a standard against that. Number three, serve God. Serve God. The last is important.

You know what? Because, men, your wives and your kids are watching. And if you're trying to communicate to them that God is important to you, but you're not serving and you're not fellowshiping and you're not reading your Bible, they're watching what you're doing, not what you're saying.

Make sure God's first in your life. Verse 28, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things are now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now, a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there and they filled a sponge with sour wine and put it on hyssop and put it to his mouth. Put it to his mouth. Now, this is not the wine that contained the narcotic.

This is a different wine. There was a painkiller wine that he was offered that he refused. He didn't want it. He wanted to suffer for us. And he didn't want the pain deadened. Now, some have suggested, and I'll just throw this out here, that Jesus didn't die on the cross, that he passed out.

That's ridiculous. And for a lot of reasons, not just, and you can get offended and go, well, I didn't. Well, wait a minute, I want to help you to think through this because at some point in your life, you'll probably have a conversation about this. If you're sharing your faith, somebody will go, wow, he didn't really die, he just passed out.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute. So the gospel writers, the centurion, the Roman soldiers, the Jewish people were all fooled by this unconsciousness? Guys, the Romans were very effective at crucifixion.

They were very effective at killing people. Are you telling me that they made a mistake and actually didn't make sure that Jesus was dead and then the Jewish people buried somebody alive? Boy, that's much harder to believe than that Jesus died on the cross.

Understand why people come up with that? It's not that they have a problem with the fact that Jesus died. They may have a bigger problem with the resurrection, but you know what? That's not even it. That's not it.

Understand when you're having these discussions, the heart of that discussion, see, if they go, well, you know what? I do believe he died. And you know what? I do believe he was resurrected. Then they have to come to that next place.

If that's true, what is the requirement of me? If Jesus died for me, Jesus was resurrected, what does that mean to me? And that's the part that scares them. They don't want to come to that part. So they talk about Jesus not dying on the cross. They talk about Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene.

Why? Because they don't want to ask the hard questions in the still of the night when they're all alone with God. And I understand that because I was there once. I view them with great compassion. I had those late nights in the silence, wondering, running, scared.

And when I finally gave it all over, I wondered why I'd ran for so long. Jesus died for the people that are scared. Jesus died for the people that don't know him.

Do you understand that? See, because you know what happens is we come to know Jesus and it's amazing. I can see it in my life. Maybe, I don't know if you'll admit to it, but I can see it in my life that I get saved and all of a sudden, hey, I'm saved.

How about you? You don't look saved. We begin to get this pride thing about being saved. I've been saved. You're obviously with your tattooed person if you're not saved.

Okay, wait a minute. Okay, how'd you get saved? Well, it's by grace. What do you mean grace? Well, grace was given to me. It was a gift. Okay, it was a gift.

What in the world are we doing running around being prideful about it? Because the only difference between us and the person that doesn't believe is we've received the gift. We've accepted it.

We've opened the gift. That's the only difference is that short, simple prayer saying, Jesus, forgive me. I believe you died for me.

And that's the thing you have to come to. When you say, okay, Jesus died for my sins, now what do I do? See, because most of us recognize when we came to that revelation, when we recognized that Jesus was crucified, not just for the sins of the world, but for my sins, I was heartbroken. I was grieved.

I was like, okay, what do I do now? And there was somebody there, God always has somebody there to say, well, this is what you do now. You pray and you ask him to forgive you of your sins. And there's so many prophecies about Jesus dying and everything that went on. John says in verse 28 that the scripture might be fulfilled. All these scriptures in Psalm 22 and Genesis 22 and Isaiah 53 and Leviticus 16 and all these prophecies foretold the crucifixion of Jesus.

You understand the significance of that? It means God stands outside time and space as we know it. There's no other way that he could know what was going to happen hundreds of years from now. There's no way that he could know what's going to happen to you tomorrow unless he was standing outside time as we know it.

I don't mean to get deep and cosmic, but we need to understand that God sees the whole picture, not just today, not just tomorrow. Another misconception that we have is that Jesus was like 15 feet off the ground. No, that would not have been the case. He would have been a couple feet off the ground at most. He was right there at ground level.

These people that were seeing him were seeing him. Again, I think that's significant. I think when we see in the other gospels that Soldier had compassion on him, I think that's probably what caused it. Compassion is important to a believer. Don't lose that compassion. If you start to lose your compassion for other people, for non-believers, for other brothers and sisters, ask God to give it back to you because nothing is more dangerous than somebody that says they know the love of God and they're not walking in it.

A lot of damage has been done. I do have a problem with churches that think that social work is their main calling. I got a problem with that. But I also have a problem with churches that say, yes, we love God. Then somebody comes to them hungry and they say, God bless you. Be warm and be filled.

They don't do anything. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven? You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him.

And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12-515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood, through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.