Words from the Cross // Woman, behold thy son-Son, behold thy mother // John 19:23-27 // Pastor Josh Evans

Amen. If you serve a God who is holy, can you say amen this morning? Would you join me in praying today? Father, God, I love the message of that song. God, it's awesome to be able to just dream just for a moment about what's going on in heaven right now. While we gather here in this place as your church, God, we're excited to be able to lift high, but right now, Father, in your presence, angels and saints that have gone on before are gathered around your throne right here where we stand today.

And God, they are lifting high the name of Jesus. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And God, it's our intent, it's our prayer to be able to do a little bit of that to get a taste of what is happening in heaven right here on this earth, right here in this service. Father, would you meet with us in a powerful way? God, we are here to exalt you. God, we are here to remind ourselves that all dominions, all powers, every one of us bow before you today. God, you are above all things and by all things, God, you consist and you are over it all.

And God, we rejoice with that. And Father, we submit ourselves under that today. God, I pray that through the preaching of your word you would speak to us. God, I pray, Lord, that you would open up our hearts. God, I know we got tons of things going on in our lives.

We're busy. God, we got needs, we got trials, we got temptations, we got struggles, we got a busy to-do list. But Father, for the few moments that we have, God, I pray that we would open up our hearts, not just for me. God, I need to open up my heart and I need to be filled with your spirit to deliver your word today. But Father, God, for us to receive, we have to also be filled with your spirit. God, for us to receive the word, God, we need to have our hearts open to what you would have for us today. God, meet with us, fill this place with your presence here this morning. We love you, for it's in your name we pray and all God's children said amen and amen.

You guys can have a seat here in the presence of God. Well listen, it is good to see if you're excited to be at church today, can you say amen? And it is so good to see you. We could be in a lot of different places and you've chosen to be here today and I want you to know as a preacher, as a pastor, anytime you look at a weather forecast and you see a lot of rain and you see a lot of thunderstorms, you immediately start to think, man, nobody's going to church today.

That online church looks really, really tempting and things like that. But listen, you are here and I'm glad that you made it. In fact, look to the person around you and just say, hey, I'm glad you're here.

And you can do that right now so you're like, I ain't talking, I'm an introvert, I ain't telling anybody anything today. But no, it is good to see you. Let me just say this, if we've never met before, I'm reminded that each and every week we have people visit the church for the first time and we just rejoice with that and we are glad that you are here. But if you are a guest with us here today, my name is Josh and I'm the pastor here at Union Grove and it's my delight to have you in our service here today. And like Pastor David said earlier, I would love to invite you to take one of those new here cards, it's a green and white card.

It'll be in the seat back in front of you, take one of those and pop out our welcome center with that card after the service. And we'd love to get a gift in your hands just as our way of saying thank you for being here because we know you could have been in a lot of places and you have chosen to be with us here today. Well, if you have your Bible, which I hope that you do, I want to invite you to join me in John chapter number 19. John chapter number 19 this morning and we are continuing a series that we've started. In fact, this is week number three of a series that we've entitled Words from the Cross. Words from the Cross and this series will take us all the way up to Easter Sunday.

Can you believe it? We're already there to Resurrection Sunday, which is going to be happening on April the 20th. And I did want to make one announcement about that. We have added an additional service time on that day. We are still doing on Easter Sunday, we're going to have our 7am traditional outdoor sunrise service that morning right out here in our parking lot. So if you're interested in that and if you're an early riser, join us at 7am on April the 20th. And then also we have two services that are identical right here, 830 and then at 1030.

And there'll be an egg hunt after both of those. And here's why we added an additional service for that day is so that you can invite people. Now I want you to know as a pastor, I love when this place is filled to the brim, those days where you have to add chairs up front and things like that, and you struggle to find seats and stuff.

I love that on my side of things. But here's what I've learned is that first time guests in our community, they don't really care for that so much, okay. And they don't want to look for a seat.

They definitely don't want to have to sit way down here up front. And so what we've done because we know Easter is always a very full Sunday, we have added an additional service so that you can invite people. So there's some invite cards on your way out today in the Welcome Center.

Grab some of those and definitely take some with you. Invite your friends, invite your co-workers, invite your family members, people that you go to school with, invite them to be with you on Easter Sunday here today. But our series, Words from the Cross, it'll take us all the way through April the 20th when we get to talk about the Resurrection. But on the cross, Jesus, He gave us really seven statements. We know in Scripture, the number seven is so important.

It's the number of completion. And so we believe that these seven statements that Jesus had on the cross really tells the entire story of what He wants to know. Anytime somebody is nearing the end of their life, when they begin to speak, what do you do? You kind of lean in. You want to be a part. You want to listen.

You want to hear what that person is going to be sharing. And so these seven statements, we are going to slowly dissect one per week about what Jesus had to say in His last moments on the cross. And week number one, we looked at when Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Last week, we looked at the second saying of Jesus and He said to the thief on the cross, He said, Today thou art with Me in paradise. And then today we will be looking at the third saying on the cross. It's only recorded in one of the Gospels and the Gospel of John chapter number 19.

And let's dive right into it. Verse number 23. If you don't have your Bible, it will be up on the screen here today. But verse number 23 says this. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and they made four parts to every soldier apart and also His coat.

Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout. They said, Therefore, among themselves, let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment among them, for My vesture they did cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did. Verse 25. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw His mother and the disciples standing by whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold Thy son. Then saith He to the disciple, Behold Thy mother.

And from that hour that disciple took her unto His own home. Jesus is being crucified between two criminals that deserved to be where they were. There were three crosses, and I've said this every week, if you ever wonder, around this time of the year, we always see these three crosses. Many churches might put three crosses in their yard around this time of the year just to remember what Christ has done for us. But if you ever want to know why there are three crosses, it's because the three crosses really tell the story of all humanity. On the center cross, you have Jesus hanging there as our Redeemer. That's called the redemption cross. And then on both sides, we find where we are through one of those two crosses. On one cross, you have the thief that rejected Jesus even till his last breath. That's the cross of rejection. And then on the other cross, you have the thief, what we looked at last week, that called out to God for salvation. That's the cross of repentance. So you have the cross of rejection, you have the cross of redemption, and you have the cross of repentance on that side. And we all are on one of those two sides. And what we do with the center cross, the cross of redemption, will tell the story of where you will spend eternity one day.

So Jesus hangs on the cross right there in the middle between two criminals who deserve to be there. We know that Jesus, we've seen this, Jesus was without sin. He was completely perfect. He had never done anything wrong.

That means he's never had a bad thought. He's never had an immoral thought. He has never one time sinned. He was 100% God and 100% man all at the same time. He didn't forfeit any of his deity when he came down from heaven. He was 100% God and without sin.

And now he hangs there in the midst of two criminals who deserve to be where they were because of their behavior. Here in our text here today, we find that there were three Marys there beside the cross, one of which was Mary the mother of Jesus. So you have three Marys, one of which was Mary the mother of Jesus.

Then you had Mary's sister. And then you had John, the disciple that all stood there at the cross watching this moment. John was the only one to record this in his gospel, probably because he was the only disciple that wandered himself back to the cross because all of the other disciples had abandoned Jesus and ran the other way for the fear of their life. So here John, who has wandered back to the cross, he's there with Mary, the mother of Jesus. He's there with Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene, and Mary's sister. And there he stands in Jesus on the cross in his dying breath. Jesus looked down from the cross and he said to Mary his mother, woman, behold thy son.

And he looks to John and says, son, behold thy mother. I want to dissect these words from the cross for just a few moments here today. I recognize up front, and as your pastor, I think I can have the liberty just to let you know that when you talk about Father, forgive them, the application is so clear. It doesn't get much more clear than Father, forgive them, because all of us want forgiveness. When you talk about today, you will be with me in paradise.

That's a pretty easy application. And as you came to this one, it's a little bit harder when you see woman, behold thy son, son, behold thy mother. What's the application for us here today when you see these words spoken by our Savior from the cross?

This week I spent more time having to dig into that to share with you here today than any other week probably in this series because I wanted to find out exactly what God wants us to know. So we're going to dissect this here together and we're going to look at it and by looking at the people that were present and the people that were involved in these words from the cross. And so we're going to see first Mary, the mother at the cross. Then we're going to look at John, the disciple at the cross.

And then we are going to conclude this by looking at Jesus, the Savior on the cross. So first, let's look at Mary, the mother at the cross. Mary needed a couple of things and one of those things no doubt, Mary needed comfort. Mary needed comfort. You know, can you just put yourself for just a moment in what Mary was experiencing here in this moment?

Just think about it. Mary was a mother and she had years before, some 33 years before this moment, she had given birth to the Savior. Now we know that Mary was a virgin which is amazing and so the angel came and he had revealed himself to Mary and said that you are going to give birth to the Messiah. Could you imagine the emotions that she experienced through that process and the shame that she had to go through just to bring Jesus into the world because she is a virgin. And if you think about it, if somebody said, hey I'm having a baby and they say but I've never been with with a man or whatever, you would obviously say well that can't be and that's what everybody had told her.

But Mary, she went forward with this baby, the Messiah and she gave birth to Jesus there in that stable, the thing that we celebrate around Christmas time and now that was 33 years ago and now she stands there looking at the baby boy that she gave birth to some 33 years before this and watched him grow up and now she stands there watching him bear the sins of herself and the sins of the entire world. Can you imagine the pain that she was experiencing? You know it's been said that as a mom there's no pain like kid pain is there? When your kid's going through pain, let's just be real, that's like the worst type of pain. You would almost rather take that for yourself as a mom take that for yourself as a mom or even as a dad because watching your kid go through some type of pain is the worst kind of pain possible. Mothers are special, are there any mama's boys here in this place that are not scared to admit that? All right, I'm right there with you, that's me and my wife used to give me a hard time about that when we got married because I would just call my mom every single day you know I had to talk to my mom and we still talk all the time but a boy and a mom share a special special bond and here in this text we have Jesus in his final words from the cross and as he's speaking he takes the time in the midst of his pain to care for his mother's pain. Isn't that interesting that here Jesus who is going through the worst pain imaginable takes the time to notice his mom who is in pain and he comes to her aid here in this moment. As Mary reflects perhaps I mean no doubt she's thinking about Jesus and how he grew up I'm sure she's probably thinking back to that moment if you remember in Luke chapter number two in Luke chapter number two Mary and Joseph they take Jesus to the temple and they're taking him to be circumcised at the temple which was Jewish ritual and Jewish tradition and as they took him there God sent in the spirit a man to come and to deliver a message specifically to Mary and and it's something we don't talk about a whole lot but in Luke chapter number two a man by the name of Simeon was sent by God to deliver a message from Mary and perhaps right here at the cross she thinks back to that moment when Jesus was a little little boy there at the temple and here's what she probably remembered in Luke chapter number two verse 34 and 35 here's what it says this what Simeon told Mary he said behold this child is set for the fall and rising again again of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be spoken against and here's what Simeon said yea a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also so Mary as she's standing here at the at the foot of the cross no doubt going through so much pain she's remembering the the memories of of giving birth to the Messiah and watching him grow up and she probably remembers this moment that Simeon had prophesied that at the time she didn't understand even what that meant but what Simeon was telling her in that moment when Jesus was a baby that one day not only is he going to be pierced but it's going to pierce you in other words Simeon saying it's going to kill you Mary to watch Jesus go through what he's going through Mary needed comfort and Jesus came to her aid but more importantly than that this is what Mary also needed Mary needed a savior Mary not only did she need comfort in that moment Mary needed a savior in verse number 26 Jesus when he gave these words to the cross it's very important that every word in the scripture is there for a specific reason there it's there for a specific reason and right here it's really interesting to me that that Jesus said to Mary his mother woman behold thy son isn't it interesting that he used the word woman like why wouldn't Jesus have used the word mother in the very next verse when he's talking to John he calls her mother why in the world in verse 26 would he not use the word mother but rather use the word woman if you think about it in our English translation we would we would think just calling somebody woman would be somewhat disrespectful right like I'll go ahead and tell you if I go home today and one of my kids call my wife and just say woman it will not end well for either one of my kids okay it's not something that we would say and in a lot of ways we would think it's somewhat disrespectful so why in the world would Jesus respond this way well I think it's important for you to understand the word woman of what he's using here it's actually a Greek word and it is actually it's pronounced goonay and it's this word where we get the word gynecologist and it is actually a word of endearment it's a word of affection it is a word that is that is actually tender it's not the way that we would describe the word and so as Jesus says goonay he says woman he's actually showing her affection so much to the point that this is the same word that that Jesus himself used in the gospels when all of the religious crowd they found a woman that was in the middle of adultery and they brought that woman that was called in the middle of adultery and they brought her before Jesus and as they brought her before Jesus here's what Jesus said to her he said this woman where are thine accusers so he uses the same word in both of these situations no doubt implying affection and tender care here in this moment to his mother but there's something at play here that is so much important that I do not want you to miss instead of calling her mother he decides to call her woman perhaps I think what's happening is is this and don't miss this Jesus right here in this moment was intentionally transferring the priority of her position of her position she was moving from the position as his mother to the position of a soul that is in need of a savior and so if you put yourself here in these shoes as Jesus calls out to her and says woman no doubt tender no doubt affection but why wouldn't he call her mother I think what Jesus was trying to remind her is that today Mary is losing a son but today Mary is gaining a savior you see what is happening here is Mary although she needs comfort and no doubt it breaks her heart and just like Simeon predicted and foretold it definitely pierced her right to the heart because you never want to see your kid going through pain and let alone the pain of crucifixion and as she stood there needing comfort Jesus was comforting her by recognizing to her right here in this moment that Mary yes you need comfort and yes you need help and yes today you are losing an earthly son but you are gaining something so much greater you are gaining a savior here in this moment you see here's what's interesting and this is good application for every single one of us here being the mother of Jesus was not enough to save Mary you see in in religious circles sometimes Mary is exalted sometimes she's even worship and things and things like that in different religious circles and here's the thing Mary in scripture is never meant to be exalted she is never meant to be worshiped Mary was as in need of a savior as you are in need of a savior today being the mother of Jesus didn't make her extra special yes it was pretty incredible and yes Mary was faithful no doubt about it and yes Mary had courage and Mary had faith and all of those things but here's the point Mary was as in need of a savior as you and I you see here here's the point is that it doesn't matter how many church services you go to it doesn't matter the family that you grew up in it doesn't matter the traditions of your family it doesn't matter any of those things what matters is what you do with the middle cross the cross of redemption that is the only difference in your life Mary realized that today she was losing a son but gaining a savior she was recognizing and understanding here in this moment that her little boy is dying for the very reason that she gave birth to him he was dying to take away the sins of the world she realized here in this moment no doubt that it is better and don't miss this it is better for her to have Jesus as savior than for her to have him as son that's the point that's what Mary was realizing and here in this moment I believe that Mary moved from Mary the mother to Mary the believer right here she gained a savior there on the cross but let's look number two at John the disciple at the cross not only do we see Mary the mother at the cross and and you see her story and what Jesus is telling her but number two I want you to see John the disciple at the cross now no doubt John number one John was loved by Jesus what's funny to me it's kind of humorous to me is that John in his gospel regularly says that he was the he was the disciple that Jesus loved right I'll tell you if if that was you know what characterized me and I had an opportunity to write a book I'd mention it as well and he mentions it throughout his gospel that he was the disciple in which Jesus loved but no doubt John was extremely close to Jesus he was one of Jesus's closest friends Jesus we know had the 12 apostles and and we know that three of them that is Peter, James, and John actually got an inner closeness within that circle more than anybody else they were considered Jesus's three most intimate friends here on this side or followers here on this side of heaven if you remember when the disciples went into the garden with Jesus he invited Peter, James, and John to come to come closer with him no doubt they they were loved by Jesus and you were loved by Jesus I mean just just before this story in John 19 when they were in the upper room and Jesus is repurposing the the wine and the bread they're telling them that this is going to be my body and this is going to be my blood we learned that even in that upper room experience John the one writing this the one that's now at the foot of the cross John laid his head on the bosom of Jesus right there around his heart no doubt here in the heartbeat that Jesus had for the entire world and what is about to happen you see John was loved by Jesus but more importantly than that I want you to see this John I believe here in this moment was restored by Jesus he was restored by Jesus now you say why well like what do you what do you mean by that and here's the thing that you have to understand in Matthew chapter number 26 we don't have time to turn there but in Matthew chapter 26 verse number 56 here's what we learn Matthew gives us the account of this these moments and and he actually said that when Jesus was going through the beating and going through the scourging and going through the shame that he experienced before the cross remember crucifixion was a drawn out process the point of crucifixion that the Romans had perfected is for them they wanted to bring somebody through the worst pain imaginable without killing them quickly and so as they were going through with Jesus with all this pain that he was enduring it says in Matthew 26 56 that all the disciples had fled isn't that interesting like the disciples were the ones that watched him they were there when Jesus turned the water into wine they were there when when Jesus took these this little boys lunch and began to feed the multitudes of people and they were a part of that and they'd seen all these things they'd been a part of knowing Jewish tradition and knowing that they foretold and prophesied about this very moment and yet even then when Jesus was going through this terrible terrible part of crucifixion it says in Matthew 26 that all the disciples fled no doubt they fled because they would have possibly lost their own life and I want you to know before we hate on them many of us would have probably ran with them we'd have probably been right there with them and ran the other way because they would have ran the other way because we we don't want to lose our lives we love following Jesus when things are good but when things get hard or we start to experience some persecution and things we kind of get nervous or we get silent and things like that well no doubt they were afraid of that and so they left but what's interesting is at some point between the moment that they fled and the moment that we have recorded here in John chapter number 19 John wandered back isn't that interesting John wandered back you say you say what made him wander back we don't know maybe that's a question we could ask him when he gets there because what does that mean you apparently came back to the cross because you're here in this moment well I think he was fearful just like the rest of the apostles and the scripture does tell us that perfect love cast out fear and perhaps he came back because he recognized Jesus he knew he was the messiah and out of that love for him it really overtook all the fear that he had in his life and so in the midst of that he comes back to the cross and here's what's interesting Jesus while he's hanging on the cross struggling to even breathe we even see that he's going to beg for for something to drink because he thirsted here in the weeks to come of our series but as he's hanging there on the cross John is down there and you know what Jesus could have done John where you been John and he could have rebuked him because he he fled but you know what Jesus doesn't rebuke him at all in fact he doesn't rebuke him at all what Jesus does is he talks to him and he gave him words of restoration and words of responsibility he gave him words of restoration and words of responsibility and by the way pretty big responsibility take care of my mother and from that day forward John took Mary Jesus's mother into his home until she passed away you see I think what was happening here because there's so much at play here that I have questions about but I think what's so important here is why wouldn't Jesus I mean he's talking to John and he says hey uh John behold thy mother in other words he's saying hey take care of my mom right all the way up to his dying breath Jesus was actually living the Levitical law which said that the oldest must take care of of the mother and because Jesus was the oldest he had brothers and sisters but because he was the oldest he wanted to make sure that Mary had proper proper care and so he gives her into the care of John why on earth would Jesus not give her into the care of his brothers and sisters have you ever thought about that because why Jesus had brothers and sisters but we know that in scripture some of them had rejected him so what was Jesus trying to teach us by giving his mother into the hands of John the disciple in which he loved I think what Jesus was trying to tell us is this is that the bond in the Christian family is sometimes stronger than even our physical bonds with our immediate family you see what he was trying to show us is that there is a bond within the church within the family of God that is so strong sometimes stronger even than the bond of your own physical family so he was creating this new family called really you could say he was calling this the the church the family of God was being formed right here in front of us and so we see John the disciple on the cross being restored and given responsibility by Jesus even after he had fled but number three is I want you to see Jesus the savior on the cross so we see Mary the mother at the cross and no doubt Mary needed comfort but Mary needed a savior and then we see John the disciple at the cross and he needed restoration he had to be come back to the cross and perhaps that might be where some of you are today you're a Christian you're in the family of God but you've kind of drifted you've kind of wandered away you've kind of ran away from the cross perhaps maybe where you're at here today is you need to run back to the cross kind of like what John had to do here in this moment John wandered himself back to the cross but third and finally I want you to see this Jesus the savior on the cross there's two things about Jesus they're hanging on the cross that I want you to see from this text here today is number one no doubt Jesus cares for us listen he cares for us I mean this is a a quick application but I think it'll encourage all of us here in this place Jesus cares about your needs right here as he is dying for the sins of the world he's looking directly at Mary who is losing her son and the pain that she is experiencing and Jesus comes to her aid in the midst of her pain the application is so simple is that Jesus cares for the details of your life Jesus cares for the details of your life so often we think man I can't bring these things to God he's worried about everything else he doesn't need what I have and different things like that but let me tell you this Jesus he cares about you he cares about your needs if you're going through grief he wants you to run to him he wants to care for you he wants to meet your your needs if you have problems at your job or problems at your place of employment or problems in your personal life or problems in your relationships whatever it is let me tell you this cast your care upon him why because he cares for you no doubt you see that here in this moment how deeply filled with care and compassion that Jesus has for us you see that even on the cross as Jesus is dying for the sins of the world and remember this he's dying for the sin of Mary too and as he's dying for her sin he's also coming to her aid and coming to provide comfort and words of life for her Jesus cares for us but not only that you see that Jesus was forsaken for us Jesus was forsaken for for us you know not to get too ahead of ourselves there in this series but as we move through this you're gonna see that Jesus is going to say this my God my God why hast thou forsaken me and the reason why I want to point that out without going into too much detail because we're going to study that together here in our series but here's what I'll tell you so in this moment you have Jesus hanging up on the cross you have Mary who now Mary he's entrusting Mary to another man to take care of to John so in some ways you could say this that Jesus was losing his earthly family here in this moment right all of his followers except for John had had fled they were nowhere around and then shortly after all of this Jesus is going to cry out to his heavenly father and say my God my God why hast thou forsaken me well what's what's Jesus trying to teach us what's happening here in this moment one word I think characterizes this as much as anything it's the word alone it's the word alone you see what was happening here in this moment is Jesus was being forsaken by his heavenly or by his earthly family they're you know having to figure this thing out he's he's dying and now he's forsaken by by God he's been forsaken for us he's going to feel this act of being alone for us you say why in the world would he do that like it doesn't make sense well the only way that something like this makes sense for us is understanding the gospel that is happening there on the cross of what Jesus is actually becoming and what Jesus is experiencing for us we know this because here's what I'll tell you is that you and I were created for one reason that's to have a relationship with him that's the reason why every single one of us were created you want to know your purpose in life is to know God to know God that's why he created us way back so take it Genesis chapter 1 and 2 God creates man and you know what was awesome about God's creation it was a perfect design it was a perfect design so that Adam and Eve they could walk with God so that they could talk with God they had perfect relationship with the father they had perfect fellowship with the father they had a perfect communion with the father but in Genesis chapter number three all of that relationship that communion that fellowship it was completely broken because they did what God said not to do they sinned they missed the mark and now here's what's interesting right there in that moment when they sinned it says that they were cast out of the garden in other words you could say that they were kind of cast away from the presence of almighty God the relationship that they had had been messed up and destroyed not because of anything God had done but because of what man had done and because of their sin you know what happened sin now passed upon all of us so now that every single one of us are sinners if you're a sinner can you say I'm a sinner right now okay you're a sinner some of you didn't say that you're a sinner let me just tell you and the ones that didn't say it the person next to you say you're a sinner point out just say it call it out we're all sinners and so because of Adam sin now sin passed upon all that's you and that's me you say what's significant about that is this that perfect design that God created us to have with a relationship with him sin broke that and the problem is is everything good that you do fall short every good thing that you do fall short every bit of money that you give fall short every church service that you attend still fall short all the good activities that you're involved in still fall short how hard you try still fall short there's nothing that we can do to fix that relationship that he created us to have so God like the song says didn't want heaven without us right so what did God do God sent his only son Jesus perfect deity so that he could come and he could be through his living a perfect life and through his dying on the cross that he could be the mediator between you and him isn't it interesting here that right here in this moment Mary as she's looking up to the cross he's like in between her and the father it's significant and so as he says behold thy son it's as if he's saying behold thy son the son of God stands in the gap doing what all of us deserve you say what's the significance about him being alone it's this is that Jesus was forsaken so that you wouldn't have to be the scripture says that one day those who don't know Jesus those who reject Jesus will be eternally cast into the lake of fire it's the judgment that's judgment day what Jesus was doing on the cross is this was like judgment day before judgment day he was taking the judgment he was being forsaken he was feeling alone he was being forsaken by the heavenly father so that one day when you and I stand before God and by the way you're going to we could stand there and be accepted by our heavenly father not because of anything you have done but because of everything Jesus was doing on the cross for you he was taking your pain your shame for you so that you wouldn't have to you see that's the that's the message of what is happening here that we see Jesus the savior on the cross taking the pain taking the shame on himself so that we could live free you see Jesus our suffering savior was forsaken so that we could be forgiven so the so the application is this is that have you beheld the son have you beheld the son in other words think about like this way do you see him as your savior i'm not asking do you know a lot about him listen mary she knew as much about him as anybody she'd watched him grow up in her house but guess what that was not enough she had to see and behold her son on the cross as not only just her earthly son but her savior and that's the point it doesn't matter what you know about god do you know god do you know him as as savior and have you beheld him and if you already have listen christian i get it i read these stories all the time i've grown up in church my whole life i've been around it i became a follower of christ when i was five years old and so i've heard these stories a thousand times sometimes when i come to this i just kind of skim through it whatever you know what we need to do as christians some of us need to stop worrying about everything in our life and we need to behold him today you remember the moment that you trusted christ in your say as your savior remember how excited you were you want to tell everybody couldn't stop you were just so pumped you know you're getting on the phone you're texting people if it's been within the texting world right when you got saved for me that was in the thing so you got on one of the lines and you kind of did your finger around a thing you young people won't understand that and so but the point is is like you remember how excited you were when you got saved some of us need to go back to that moment when we beheld him for the first time and just daily live with this idea of beholding him for who he is behold the son of god which stands as our mediator the only bridge for us to have a relationship with the father jesus our suffering savior forsaken so that you and i could be for