John Chapter 19:26-30

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.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. 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 four 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. Then He said to the disciple, behold your mother.

And from that hour, that disciple took her to His own home. 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. Understand, Mary and Jesus, 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 have 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. That the little hands that she held as a baby and helped Him walk were 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 in it.

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.

In this passage, we read that the sky grew black and the earth quaked as the Father mourned for His son. 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. 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, whew, 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 a finna go, oh 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 might go, wow, He didn't really die, He just passed out. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 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.

You 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.

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. Another misconception that we have and it's kind of played out in movies is that, you know, 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. And I think when we see in the other gospels that a 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. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, it is finished. And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. There is so much in this verse. He gave up His spirit.

What does that mean? I believe that Jesus, as all-powerful creator God, could not die. He had to give up His spirit.

He had, if you will, to allow Himself to die. Now, Jesus says it is finished. That's an interesting word. In the Greek, tetelestai, it's an accounting term, actually, paid in full. You would have used this term when a debt had been paid. You would stamp it, tetelestai, paid in full. It's finished.

You don't owe anything else. We'll go back to that. Again, we have so many misconceptions about the crucifixion and they've been propagated and reinforced through movies and sometimes Sunday school and these sorts of things. What's your picture of Jesus on the cross? What do you see? You know, in the movies, you see the crown of thorns and you see, you know, a couple little ringlets of His hair that have blood on them and perhaps you see a stream or two of blood coming down His face. Is that an accurate picture?

No, it's not. He had been beaten severely. Why did Jesus die?

For you and I? To make the offer to this covenant. Why was He beaten so severely? Well, I think because our sins have beaten us so severely.

That's a picture. Isaiah 52, 14 says, just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. That's the new King James. The King James is even a little more obscure. But when you go into the original Hebrew and look what it says in the original Hebrew, well, the new living translation comes much closer to it and this is what it says. See, my servant will prosper.

He will be highly exalted. Many were amazed when they saw Him beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know He was a person. It's mishaf in the Hebrew. It means disfigured. He no longer looked like a man.

He had been beaten so severely. That's my Jesus. That's my hero. Oh, there's lots of heroes out in the world that you could choose. Some of us choose sports heroes. I'm sorry, the guys are not my heroes. I mean, I can appreciate the athletic ability, okay? I'm not slamming them.

And some of them are actually very godly men. But should that be your hero, guys? No.

No. Now, I guess in being fair, ladies, who's your hero? Some of you, I know what some of you are thinking. Some of you are thinking, my husband.

That's a great answer. But who's your hero? Who's your hero? Jesus is my hero.

As I look through the landscape of humanity, He's the one that should be my hero and He's the one that should be your hero. Not all these historical figures, not George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. Great men, powerful men.

I've recently spent time in Washington, D.C. and I can appreciate the sacrifice. When those guys signed that document, their lives were on the line. And one of them said, you know what? We all stand together. We're all going down together.

We're gonna hang together. But as I walked around the Library of Congress and I saw this sign that said, the true Shekinah is man. Uh-oh. Danger!

Danger! Well, these guys aren't my hero. To be honest, I love Thomas Jefferson. Brilliant man. And I've read all these, man, tomes about Thomas Jefferson. He intrigues me.

Incredible house up in Charlottesville. He's not my hero. Jesus is my hero. Why is it so important to know who your hero is?

Because who your hero is, is who you want to be like. I want to be like Jesus. I don't want to be like Michael Jordan.

That's why that ad campaign didn't work for me, I guess. Be like Mike. I don't want to be like Mike. I want to be like Jesus. I want to be like Jesus. Who do you want to be like?

You should want to be like Jesus. Here's another important thing. Ask your kid who his hero is or her hero is and listen carefully to their answer. If their hero is Tony Hawk or some rap star or even Batman and Robin or something, there's a problem there. Their hero as well should be Jesus.

You know, we got this whole American Idol thing. What an interesting name. Jesus is my hero. Why? In part because of what he endured for me.

Nobody else has ever done anything like that for me. He's earned hero status to me. He's worthy to be followed. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor DA 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 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. Jesus is my hero.

Why? In part because of what he endured for me. Nobody else has ever done anything like that for me. He's earned hero status to me.

He's worthy to be followed. Why did he do this? You know, I was thinking about this and most of us use computers. There's one key that I just so appreciate on a computer, the delete key. I'm so glad that key is there because you know at times I've written things and you just hit the delete key.

Isn't that convenient? You know, and if you've written, you know, and if you've written a lot of stuff you want to do, you just highlight everything and you hit the delete key. That's so cool. Computers are awesome, that delete key. We have been given to the delete key, not just on the keyboard, not just on the computer, in our lives.

That's so awesome. See, the moment you were born, you were born into sin. You were born into a sinful, fallen world.

What if there was no delete key? As soon as you were old enough to be spoken to on a theological or spiritual level, somebody just said to you, look, listen, you were born into sin so that's pretty much it. You're out. You're history. Nothing can be done.

It's over. Much less the first time you made a mistake or took something that wasn't yours or told a mistruth, somebody came to you and said, that's it. You know, you could have had a relationship with God, could have had heaven, could have had eternal life, all gone.

Look at the garden. Adam and Eve blew it as we appointed, but God didn't stop. Jeremiah 31, 34 says, No more shall every man teach his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all shall know me. From the least of them to the greatest of them says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. I love that passage.

You know why? I've done things I'm not proud of. I've messed up. I've made mistakes and God has forgiven me. I remember there was one thing I was really struggling with early on in my walk with the Lord and I kept going to the Lord saying, Lord, please forgive me of this. Please forgive me of that. Every day this certain set of events, Lord, please forgive me for that. Please forgive me for that. This went on day by day by day and I thought my tears and and all those things were really impressing God.

He was impressed. You know, I cried, Oh Lord, please forgive me of this. And I remember one day doing that again and the Lord said, Was it not enough? I said, What do you mean, Lord? In that still small voice he spoke to my heart and he said, Was it not enough that I was nailed to a cross, beaten beyond recognition and I bled and I died for you? Was that not enough for you to be forgiven of those sins? I said, Lord, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

And I know that some of you may struggle with that same thing. You may ask him over and over and over to forgive you of something he's already forgiven you of. He's let go of it. You're the one that keeps holding on to it. Let it go. He doesn't remember it anymore. As a matter of fact, after that first time you say, Lord, please forgive me of that particular thing, that particular event, that particular sin, the next time you go to him and say, Lord, forgive me that, he's like, Forgive you of what?

It's gone. It's in the sea of forgetfulness and God has put up a sign that says, No fishing. Don't be digging around in there. Sometimes believers actually go back into their history and trying to figure out, Well, maybe I did this and that's where it went wrong. You know what? We're fallen humans.

That's what went wrong. Be careful about digging too much in your past to find the answers. Jesus is the answer. And Paul said, Forgetting those things which are behind me. I understand you can learn things from your past, but be careful what you learn.

Be careful what you learn. Jesus said paid in full. What did he pay in full? Did you owe some money? No, your debt was more than that. You owed a debt for your sin. It was a debt, as it's been said, Jesus paid a debt he did not owe because we owed a debt. We couldn't pay.

We couldn't pay. That's why he did this. See, it's interesting looking at other religions. Other religions talk about you earning your way into heaven. You got to do this.

You got to do that. And if you blow up people, you get all these virgins and all this weirdness about what you have to do to get in the heaven. God could not have made it easier on us, easier for us and harder on himself than what he did with the death of Jesus.

You call on his name. The work's done. The pain is God. The price is God's.

The plan was God's. The choice is ours. You do have to decide. You do have to decide either to reject or accept the offer that Jesus makes from the cross. And understand, if you don't accept it, you are rejecting it. Jesus put it very plain.

There's no gray area. He said, you're either for me or you're against me. Romans 10, 9, and 10 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And Romans 10, 13 says, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Whoever. And you know what that means? That means we can rest in him. It's been said that in the garden we ceased to be human beings and we became human doings. They asked Jesus, what must we do to do the works of the Father? And Jesus said, believe on him who he has sent.

It's that simple. That brings the delete key into our lives. And then the amazing thing is just like when you write something or you're doing something you go, I'm gonna save that. The things you do for God, he saves those. At the end of this life you'll be rewarded for those things that you do for the Lord.

The Bible's very clear that we are rewarded according to the things that we do for the Lord. But let me ask you a question. No show of hands. How many of us need that delete key in our lives this morning? When I was talking about those things that I didn't think I had forgiveness for, what went through your head? What went through your heart? I bet for some here this morning they thought of something they need to let go. See because often we remember what we should forget and we forget what we should remember. The Lord is here this morning. You don't have to be some big fancy religious ceremony in order to hit that delete key to have those things done away with.

See this is the amazing thing. God did all these things so that we could do something we had dared not dreamed before the crucifixion and that is to stand righteous and sinless before a holy God. Well certainly a price has to be paid yeah but it was paid by him. Again paid in full.

It is finished. We see the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep. Our past can be pardoned. Our future can be secured.

This changes everything. See you can be free of yesterday's guilt. Some of you might even think that you're being spiritual and carrying this baggage around for you. I'm carrying it for God. Those are the bags of sins he died for you to sit down. 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.