At the Cross Where I First Saw the Light!

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Today, the cross of Jesus is front and center in our journey through Luke.

I'm Stu Epperson. This is Experience Truth, the last little segment of our national radio program called Truth Talk. Experience Truth, we go through books of the Bible. It's really an outgrowth of a weekly Bible study. A bunch of guys lead it. I'm a part of this ministry at a restaurant called Dario across North Carolina.

It's a wonderful ministry, it's a wonderful outreach. We are in Luke, we're in Luke 23, verses 26-24. Robby, read the Scriptures, and you can even pick up maybe in verse 29.

It'll take us all the way through the end, and we'll wrap up this. So, at this point in time, Simon the Cyrene is carrying the cross, and the women are weeping, and Jesus is instructing them, so he sees that they're mourning for him. And then Jesus said, And they divided his garments and cast lots. Okay, so going back to these weeping women, these daughters of Jerusalem, some interesting things there. Ultimately, the bottom line on that is Christ deflects all their pity, and he puts it right back on them.

He didn't want to receive their pity. And it's really interesting, Robby, in our culture, from Renaissance art all the way up to modern-day depictions, even broadcast television, art, media, there are these depictions of the Passion of Christ, and these depictions of the bloody Jesus cause all kinds of people to be sad. It's sad. To watch the movie by Mel Gibson, The Passion, it's just heartbreaking, right?

It's just devastating. People weep. Sadly, people that wept those tears that walked out that theater never repented of their sin and followed that Jesus that they wept. And Jesus Christ, bottom line, he doesn't want your pity. He wants you to weep over your sin. He wants you to weep over the sin of your children.

He wants you to weep over the sin that caused his pain. What killed Jesus? Who killed Jesus? Was it the Romans? The Jews? Was it Pilate? No. It was you.

It was me. And until you can come to... That's something that he wants us to weep over. That's something that you're blessed if you mourn over that, and you will be comforted because his salvation will comfort you. So he came because of our sin. Our sin caused his pain, our sin caused his suffering, and so he doesn't want to be sentimentally pitied. Oh, poor Jesus, meek and lowly.

No. He wants to be worshipped, and he is Lord, whether you make him Lord or not. But he is calling you to follow him. He died so that we could live. This is the first time he came, his first coming, and we see how he came as a suffering servant.

Of course, he'd come out of the grave. We'll cover that in a few weeks on Experienced Truth as we get into Luke further. But when he comes again the second time, he's going to come as a conquering king. And he gives these devastating prophecies, Robbie, about you're going to be barren. The barrenness is considered a curse in that culture especially, really in any culture, but it was really...look down there. But in judgment, barrenness will be a blessing, because the judgment will be so bad you'll be glad that you're progeny.

You'll be glad you don't have kids, because it's going to be so bad. Being buried alive would be better than the coming apocalypse. He's talking about this judgment, and there's going to be a bloody judgment. He's speaking about AD 70 possibly too, which is where one million Jews would be slaughtered and thousands would be crucified, all outside of the city of Jerusalem. So there's going to be mass crucifixions just decades after this moment. So Christ has given them a lot of pause here for concern. And it's not over his dying.

He's dying to redeem the world. But there's a day coming, and you read the book of Revelation, it's a very, very dark, morose time. Now, verse 31, the green tree versus the dry tree. This is a common apocalyptic reference to an ancient proverb, contrasting how there's going to be a season of dry, death, suffering, drought, unfruitfulness, which had been the case of Israel, but there's going to be a time of green, and that's Jesus Christ. He's the vine that produces fruit, and we're his fruit.

And it's a beautiful thing. One commentary said about this green versus dry, Robbie, it says, a fire is more likely to consume a dry forest than a green, wet one. And even John the Baptist, when he talked about the fire that's coming. I baptize the water, he's coming to baptize the fire of the Holy Spirit. But there's also a fire coming that's going to burn up all the chaff, all the waste, all the tears, and separate them from the weak. So here you have this beautiful apocalyptic language, but this very foreboding prophecy of Jesus Christ. And so then we get into these final questions here, Robbie. Start with that one right there.

This is really rich here. Why were his first words from the cross words of forgiveness? So the very first words, now this is a fulfillment of Isaiah 53. He'd be in the company of thieves. In his death, he would be with corrupt people, thieves. Here he is, dying between two thieves, the middle cross. You have all three people in history, and I talk about this a lot in my first book, Last Words of Jesus, represented at Calvary's cross. You have the unredeemed in one of the thieves.

You have the redeemed and the other thief on the other side, who we'll hear from in a little bit. And then you have the Redeemer, the man in the middle, on the middle cross, Jesus. So this is a fulfillment of what prophecy said, and really how he would die. And he says these profound words, that you can break down each of these words, and we could spend a lot more than just one broadcast on Experience Truth with this, but this idea of Father, his first words out of his mouth, after all the beating and the absolute torture, catanine tales, he's physically exhausted, spiritually exhausted.

He's all night praying, bleeding, drops of blood, just going through all kinds of trauma, attacked by Satan directly, disciples are sleeping, and then he's been through these trials through the night, which we've covered on this program, he's been through all this. The first words out of his mouth were not, Father, destroy them. Father, send a bunch of angels, a battalion of angels to destroy them. He says, Father, forgive them. And then you ask, who are they?

So Jesus Christ, who taught about forgiveness, is forgiving his haters. And to them could be a whole lot of people. It could be those thieves right there, it could be the soldiers there who are just making it hell for him, who are brutal, brutal, brutal. The ones that just tortured him could be the mob crying out for his blood, could be all the leaders there, the religious leaders who have led Israel to such a hellish point.

It could be the people there that are passive, doing nothing, just standing by. Father, forgive them. Could be you, could be me. Well, that's right, and that's where you ultimately get to. Horatio Bonar wrote a poem talking about, was it I? It was I, right, that swung the hammer, that drove the nails. And so he was really praying for us going 2,000 years down the corridor of history. He was praying for those 3,000 who would be converted in Acts chapter 2 at the preaching of Peter, powerful, the Holy Ghost would come down, praying for their forgiveness. Peter said in that sermon, you killed him, you crucified the Lord of life. And they repented, they were cut to the heart.

They said, what do we do? He says, repent, believe in Christ, trust in God. They got radically saved in Acts 5, thousands more get saved. So that prayer was unbelievable. But we also know that it was a direct hit right next to him, because the next words out of his mouth were words of redemption or forgiveness or pardon for that lowly thief that he was crucified with.

I don't want to miss this, because if you read Stu's book, one of the most brilliant things that he points out in that book is the correlation between the last words of Jesus and the seven words and the seven days of creation. And so the first day was light, right? Let there be light. And so here had been all this darkness, all this hate, all these hammering nails, you name it. And all of a sudden, in the middle of all that, God says, let there be light. Let there be something. And everything changes after those first words.

Yep, that's right. So here he is dying, but here he is giving words of life. The subtitle of my book was Seven Words of Life from the Tree of Death. And he says, forgive them, they know not what they do. What a profound statement that we have really no idea the implications of our sin.

We have no idea that our sin caused his suffering. Simon the Cyrene, who carried his cross, has a front row seat to all this. These guys are recklessly gambling over us. This is a trite, trivial moment. They're goofing around, gambling over his clothes.

It's just a big joke for them. And so there's so much to discuss on the theme of forgiveness. The cradle and the cross connected. The carols of Christmas, by the way, connect the cradle and the cross like none other. What's the one good Christian man rejoices that says, he has opened heaven's door. Man is blessed forevermore. Christ, in these words, opens heaven's door.

There's a chance for forgiveness. He came to take away our sin. Christ was born for this. Christ was born for this.

Robbie Riedel, very last question, and we're out of time. So what does a cross have to do with Christmas? Have you been forgiven? And why do I need to forgive? And who am I sharing the good news with? So this message of forgiveness, he called you, he saved you, he forgave you, so that you could share that message and call out to others and offer them forgiveness. So who am I taking this message with? I wrote this poem that I'm going to share with you for the first time ever.

I don't think I've ever shared it on my radio program, podcast, broadcast, wherever you're listening. Good to have you here on Experience Truth. I've been with Robbie Dilmore along with me for a ride today, going through the book of Luke, and we're in a critical part of Luke, verse 34 of chapter 23, looking at the very first of seven sayings from Jesus from the cross that's found in Luke 23-34. But here's a poem I wrote that connects the Christmas with the cross and the Christmas trees and the Christmas lights.

Here it goes, ready? Christmas trees full of Christmas lights, but on Calvary's tree on the darkest night was the greatest light in history, the Lamb of God on the middle tree. God's gift of life defeated death. He is Jesus, the Christmas Christ, the greatest ornament. So there he was hanging on that tree for you and for me, lighting us up. The one that said, Let there be light is the light of the world shining in the darkness to bring us to him. What a blessing. Hey, thanks for being with us, Robbie.

Thank you for hanging in with me. My friend Richard, a quote I use in the book, Richard Hardy says this, The only reason we have Christmas is because we needed Easter, right? So he went from that cradle all the way to the cross so that he could wear a crown and come back and bring us home one day. But to save us, he came on a rescue mission to save me.

Do you know him? Have you been rescued by Jesus? Do you know you need rescuing? You're in a very dangerous spot if you don't realize you need the Savior. It will be very bad for you. It will be very barren for you, just like that very strong, plaintively spoken prophecy of apocalypse upon the women of Israel, the daughters of Jerusalem. It will be bad for you if you don't know Christ. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And if you don't know him, he will throw you into hell. You will burn forever apart from Christ. So trust in him.

Call out to him. He's the reason for not just the season, he's the reason for life. He's the reason we're here, and he came to give us life. He came to fill our empty souls with him. He has opened heaven's door, and man is blessed forevermore. Christ was born for this. He came, he was born to die, so we could live. I'm Stu Epperson. Please share the truth of God's Word with someone. Read the Bible, study the Bible, memorize the Bible, meditate on the Scriptures, and live it in the power of the Holy Spirit as you share the good news of Christ with someone today. This is the Truth Network.