Luke, The Orderly Account of Truth - Jesus The Willing Sacrifice - Luke 23:26-43

So please grab your bible, start turning to Luke chapter

twenty three. If you need a Bible, we have a

bunch of them at the resource desk and their awesome bibles.

We want you to have one. But we're in a

series called Luke the Orderly Account of Truth. Luke the

Orderly Account of Truth, and we're marching through every single

verse in the entire Gospel of Luke. It's been a

long two years that we've been in the Book of Luke,

but it's also been incredible. I think we've been learning

a lot through this entire gospel journey, and we're getting

close to the end, close to the end of Luke's

carefully investigated or a careful investigation of the life and

ministry of Jesus, where he compiled an orderly account of

everything that had been accomplished among them, so that Theophilus

and also us that we can have certainty, or we

can know with certainty the truth about who Jesus is

and what he taught. And that's an awesome blessing for us.

Last week we saw the crowds demand for Jesus to

be crucified. It was a big uproar, a mob demanding

that Jesus be crucified, the innocent Jesus, who had done

nothing deserving of death. That was made crystal clear, not

just through what we read in the story, but also

the conclusion that Pilot came to is that Jesus was innocent,

he had done nothing deserving of death. And we see

him be delivered over to be crucified. And then we

saw Barrabis, this known criminal and insurrectionists and a murderer,

be released as a free man. So we saw the

innocent one be condemned as a lawbreaker, and we saw

the law breaker be set free as an innocent one.

And then I spent the rest of the time calling

you all barabas. It was great if you guys remember that.

But today we're going to be seeing the crowd actually

get their way. They're getting what they want. Their demands

to crucify Jesus are going to be met. So their

hatred of him has reached his peak, their disdain for

him has reached the peak, and they are crying out

for blood. But before we actually jump into any of it,

or before I even read the text, I want to pray,

So would you please pray with me? God? We thank

you for this moment. We thank you for your word. God.

We stand here giving you full permission to do your

work on our hearts. Through your word. We open our

hearts and minds to you today to receive what you

have for us. We're ready to be challenged where we

need to be challenged, and encouraged where your word encourages us.

But God, let us hear your word today and put

it into practice, understanding what you want us to understand today,

and put into practice what you want us to put

into practice. We thank you for all this in Jesus name.

Everybody said, amen. Who's seen the movie Fury? Yeah, a

few of us. It's a movie about a tank crew

in World War Two. Movie came out in twenty fourteen,

So don't be mad at me if I spoil any

part of it. I'm kind of going to talk about

it's pretty old. I'm also not like fully saying everyone

should just run out and watch it, but I'm using

this as an example for today. But towards the end

of the movie, they're in this small village and they're

actually behind enemy lines. The tank is disabled, it doesn't

work anymore. The German army is coming and there's no

reinforcements on the way to help them. They're sitting ducks

in a coffin made of steel, and what can a

few men in a broken down tank to against so

many enemy soldiers. And it's at this point they have

a decision to make, and they all have this conversation.

They can either run and they can save themselves, or

they can stay and fight, sacrificing themselves for the sake

of saving others. And each one of them, as they

go around the tank and their little circle, all make

the choice to stay and fight. Every single one of

them decides to stay and fight, knowing that it will

mean their end. They could have chosen to run and

save themselves, but instead they chose to stay. So now

they're all sitting in this tank after making this decision,

they're just waiting for the enemy to arrive. And while

they're waiting, there's a character whose nickname is Bible's Bible

because he's quoting Bible verses basically the whole movie. But

he speaks up and he says there's a verse that

he thinks about often, and it goes like this, And

I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall

I send, and who will go for us? And as

he says that, he pauses, and he starts fighting back tears,

but he clears his throat and collects himself and finishes.

And I said, here, am I send me? These men

knew that staying in this tank, in this situation meant

their death, and they still chose to stay, that they

would be a willing sacrifice for the sake of saving others.

But as much as that story I mean, I don't

know about you, but it resonates with me when I'm

inspired by stories like this, or as pumped as we

get when we hear the words that he quoted from

the prophet Isaiah, him stepping up to be sent by God,

as pumped as we get for that these things are

only pointing to a much greater willing sacrifice, aren't they

They're only shadows or echoes of someone else, someone who

has had every ability to choose not to sacrifice themself,

the one who had all power to change the outcome

and even the circumstances, but chose not to. Instead chose

willingly lay down his life for others. And so the

title of today's message is Jesus the Willing sacrifice. Jesus

the willing sacrifice. Today, we're going to see Jesus go

through the most brutal and torturous way of death known

to man at the time. In every step of the way,

no matter what was said to him or even said

about him, he never showed concern for himself. No, he

only showed concern for others. When people would mourn for him,

he told them not to mourn for him. He said,

mourn for yourself. Three times he was told to save himself,

yet he chose not to. And even in the midst

of him being crucified, he prayed to God the Father

and said, forgive them. Jesus shows over and over again

that he willingly. That's an important word in today's text.

He willingly chose to die to save others. He was

the willing sacrifice. So we're in Luke chapter twenty three,

verses twenty six through forty, supposed to read that together,

starting in verse twenty six. What you guys there, I

gave you plenty of time to get to twenty three. Yeah, okay,

it's on the screen if you haven't opened your Bible yet.

And as they led him away, they seized one Simon

of Syreene, who was coming in from the country, and

laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus,

and there followed him a great multitude of the people

and of women who are mourning and lamenting for him.

But turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do

not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for

your children. For behold, the days are coming when they

will say, blessed are the baron, and the the wombs

that never bore, and the breast that never nursed. Then

they will begin to say, to the mountains fall on us,

and to the hills cover us. For if they do

these things when the wood is green, what will happen

when it is dry. Two others who were criminals were

led away to be put to death with him. And

when they came to the place that is called the Skull,

where there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on

his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father,

forgive them, for they know not what they do. And

they cast lots to divide his garments, and the people

stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying

he saved others. Let him save himself if he is

the Christ of God, his chosen one. The soldiers also

mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying,

if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.

There was also an inscription over him, this is the

king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were

railed at him, saying, are you not the Christ? Save

yours and us? But the other rebuked him, saying, do

you not fear God? Since you were under the same

sentence of condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we are

receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man

has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me

when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly,

I say to you today, you will be with me

in paradise. Jesus had just been delivered over to be crucified.

But if you actually read in the other gospel accounts,

which I think you should, they mentioned that before they

put the cross on Jesus back to carry it. For

him to carry it, they had him scourged. He was beaten,

and he was beaten with a multi lashed whip with

embedded pieces of bone and metal. Most of you might

have heard of a cat of nine tails. That's what this.

They would commonly use to scourge people. And the purpose

of this bone and this metal it woven into this

whip was to do as much damage to the body

as possible. It was to beat and bruise the skin

and the muscles, and often it would get lodged into

the skin and then torn out. And this is what

Jesus went through before they put the cross on his back.

They did that. He went through this before they put

it on his back and told him to carry it

to where they were going to put him to death.

So it makes sense why our text says they had

to grab someone to carry the cross the rest of

the way. That makes sense why Jesus wasn't able to

carry it all the way. And they enlist Simon or

the other translations will say seize or compel him, which

also usually means do this or you're gonna die. We're

going to kill you. But they make Simon the Syreene

carry jesus cross for him. But Jesus had been beaten

so much that he couldn't carry this wooden crossbeam that

he would be nailed to he couldn't carry it on

his own. And verse twenty seven, if we continue reading,

says and there followed him a great multitude of the

people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him.

So if you stop and just like picture this for

a second, we have Jesus walking followed by Simon carrying

his cross, followed by a huge crowd of people and

women who are mourning for him. That's who's following and

walking with Jesus. But you look at what Jesus says

to the morning women in verse twenty eight. But but

turning to them, Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not

weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

For behold, the days are coming when they will say,

blessed the baron, and the wombs that never bore, and

the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say,

to the mountains fall on us, and to the hills

cover us. For if they do these things when the

wood is green, what will happen when it is dry.

These women are weeping for Jesus, but he tells them

not to weep for him. That's just crazy. If you

think about it. I'm like, I probably would be crying,

and he's saying, don't weep for me, weep for yourself,

weep for your children. Even in the midst of Jesus suffering,

he's still showing concern for the people. It's because he

knows what's coming in their future. And we've actually already

talked about this. If you remember back when we preached

through Luke chapter twenty one, the signs of the ends

of the Age that Jesus talks about. There's these terrifying

things that will happen leading up to the destruction of

the temple. And one of the things he said was

he said, a lass for women who are pregnant and

for those who are nursing infants in those days because

of the rejection of God, because of the rejection of

their true king. Judgment is coming. And I want to

say that God is patient, but their time is up.

God is incredibly patient. You go through and start reading

your Old Testament and you're like, oh, he read from

one page to the next, like God said, don't do this.

The people didn't do it, and then God judged him.

But you don't realize, like three hundred years was in

between that one page like continual rebellious. God is patient,

but their time is up. And just in case people

weren't sure what Jesus was talking about in our text,

he quotes what the prophet said. So let's look at

Hoseiah chapter ten in your bible. Stand, luke, but I'll

put the We'll put the Joseah verse on the screens,

Verses eight through ten. The high places of avon the

sin of Israel shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall

grow up on their altars, and they shall say to

the mountains, what, and the hills what From the days

of Gibbea you have sindo Israel? There they have continued.

Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibbea?

When I please, I will discipline them, And nations shall

be gathered against them when they are bound up for

their double iniquity. Why is God saying all these things?

Like why would God say that? It's because of Israel

being incontinuous rebellion against him like long term rebellion and

forsaken him. They've gone after false gods. And Jesus is

quoting the prophet Hoseah here, then they shall say to

the mountains and hills fall on us, cover us and us. Essentially,

it would be better if we were dead, then have

to deal with what's coming. And then if you look

at Ezekiel, chapter twenty, verse forty five through forty nine.

So and this is the other part of what Jesus

was quoting. And the word of the Lord came to me,

son of Man. Set your face towards the southland. Preach

against the south, and prophesy against the forest land in

the Nogeb. Say to the forest of Nogeb. Hear the

word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord. Behold, I

will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour

every green tree in you, and every dry tree. The

blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from

south to north shall be scorched by it. All flesh

shall see that I, the Lord have kindled. It shall

not be quenched. Then I said, ah, Lord God, they

are saying of me. Is he not a maker of parables? Again,

this is God in response to rebellious Israel who had

turned from him, and Jesus, when responding to these weeping

women who are mourning and lamenting for him, He references

verse forty seven. Behold, I will kindle a fire in you,

and it shall devour every green tree in you and

every dry tree. That God is kindling a fire that

will consume the green trees. What burns easy, not green trees,

not green, healthy trees. And this fire is going to

be hot enough to consume the green trees. Imagine what

it will do to the dry trees. And I was

actually reading some commentaries this past week. I don't know

if I fully agree with them, but they were saying

that Jesus is the green tree, and if this is

what they're doing to him, imagine what they're going to

do to you dry trees. But what's Jesus pointing all this?

Don't weep for me, weep for yourselves. Weep for your children,

the judgment that God is going to bring on this

generation for their continued rebellion. If you remember back, think

about some of the stuff Luke has been saying for them,

not recognizing the time of their visitation and rejecting their king,

who is standing before you, says the kingdom has come near.

Jesus is here, the King is here. Their rejection of

him because of all that their judgment is going to

be severe. And Jesus, even though he's literally on a

death march, he's walking to his own death, don't weep

for me. He's concerned for them. His willingness to sacrifice

himself went as far as to look past his own

circumstances to show concern and compassion for the people that

he was dying for. That's some pretty deep willingness. And

next in our text, we get introduced to two other

characters in the story, the two criminals. So look at

verse thirty two. Two others who were criminals were led

away to be put to death with him, and when

they came to the place that is called the Skull.

There they crucified him and the criminals, one on his

right and one on his left. So Jesus is not

being crucified alone. Who's he being crucified among criminals? Jesus

is being crucified among criminals, an innocent man dying the

death of criminals. But they finally get to this place

called the Skull, which is golgotha place outside of the

city where they would crucify. The Romans would crucify people

they wouldn' crucify inside Jerusalem. They would go outside of

the city, not far out of the city if you

look at a map. But this place called the Skull

or Golgatha is where our sinless savior Jesus was crucified.

And this verse kind of just says they're crucified and

just moves on. And then I, as I read that

and stopped and thought about it, the Bible doesn't actually

explain what crucifixion is. And I was like, well, how

do I have any of my understanding of what a

crucifixion is. It's because of history. So there are some

cultural contexts, some historical contexts that we would need to understand.

Because the original readers of Luke would read this, or

Matthew Luke or John would see the word crucifixion and

know exactly what it meant because they'd seen it so

often every time they came into the city. They would

walk by and they'd see the Skull, they'd see Golgotha,

they'd see people on display. So these original readers would understand.

But we I'm not going to assume we know, so

we're just going to talk about it. The process of crucifixion,

which I believe is where you get the word excruciating

from was beyond terrible. It wasn't an invention of the Romans,

but they had worked to perfect it, to make this

as extreme as possible, and this was a punishment that

was reserved for the worst of criminals. You guys heard

like putting heads on spikes or bodies on spikes, that

people would do that throughout history. It's terrible. So it

was in that same vein. The crucifixion was meant to

be a public spectacle, and in two kinds of ways,

to bring public shame to the person being crucified, but

also to strike fear in the hearts of anyone who

dare think of crossing Rome. But this process of crucifixion

would often start with a beating or a scourging, just

like the one that Jesus already endured. But after being beaten,

they would be forced to carry a heavy cross beam

to their own execution, and they would carry the horizontal beam,

the horizontal piece of it, because we always see, you know,

of a cross around my neck. It's two pieces of

would a vertical piece and a horizontal piece. The horizontal

piece would be placed on their back and they would

carry that and they would carry it to where the

vertical piece would already be waiting for them. And once

they arrived, they'd be stripped naked, adding to this public shame.

Then their arms would be stretched out across that wooden

beam that they'd carried, and these long, large nails would

be driven through the wrists of them, fixing them to

this horizontal beam. And then once that process had been over,

they would lift the person up with the cross beam.

And if people historians argue whether the cross looks like

this or it look like a tee. Either way, that

horizontal beam was affixed to the vertical beam with the

person hanging on it. And it's at that point that

one foot we placed over the other, and then third

nail will be driven through the arches of the feet

into that vertical beam. And so at this point the

entire weight of the person's body will be held by

three points of contact, both wrists and the feet. And

as you hung there, because they would have your knees

bent so you kind of be slouched down. As you

hung there, all of your weight would be crushed your

lungs and you couldn't breathe. It's impossible to breathe. So

the only way for you to take a breath is

one of two ways. You either push up on the

nail that is through your feet to lift your chest

up to take a breath, or you pull up on

the nails that are through your wrists to take a breath.

It's constant, intense pain moving back and forth from your

feet to your wrists. And that's not even to mention

that your back has been ripped open from the beatings

and is constantly rubbing against the wood grain. It's an

extremely slow and excruciating death. There's people who would live,

would hang there alive for four days before they died.

And the main cause of death in these individuals is

not blood loss. It's not anything else. Actually, you would

think it's exphyxiation. That your legs wouldn't have the strength,

or if you took too long, sometimes they would break

your legs. You wouldn't have the strength of the ability

to push up off the nail, so you remained slumped

down and you couldn't breathe, so you would suffocate to death.

And this, all of that is what Jesus willingly chose

to go through, as he willingly laid down his life,

and he did it all to save his people. And

once they nailed him to the cross, how did he

responds Verse thirty four, And Jesus said, Father, forgive them,

for they know not what they do. And they cast

lots to divide his garments with nails through his hands

and feet. Jesus praised to God to forgive them. That's

a whole other level of compassion that I can't even comprehend.

When us believers are told to pray for and bless

our enemies, look at our example. I cannot claim my

enemies have done any like anything near to the devastation

that they did to Jesus. And that's my example that

I follow, not mine. All of us, that's our example

that we are supposed to follow. Forgive them, for they

know not what they do. And the truth really was

that they didn't know what they were doing. I mean,

they knew the actions they were taking in the moment,

but in the grander scheme, in the big picture sense,

they didn't know what they were doing. And I think

Luke emphasizes this by talking about them casting lots for

jesus garments, because this was also prophesied in Psalm twenty

two and I'm sure that next week, as we continue

going through Luke, we're going to spend more time in

Psalm twenty two. But I just want to read a

short part of it, and its Psalm twenty two, verse sixteen.

For dogs encompass me. A company of evil doers encircles me.

They have pierced my hands and my feet. Does that

sound familiar? They'd just driven nails through Jesus' hands and feet.

And if you're thinking about when I kept saying risks,

they consider the wrists in the hands the hands historically,

verse seventeen. I can count all my bones. I think

that means he's starving. He's just wasted away. They stare

and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them

and form my clothing. They cast lots. David may have

written this Psalm. This is Psalm twenty two. David may

have written it. But prophetically, who's this about? This is

clearly about Jesus, and Luke is making it it painfully

obvious that this is about Jesus. That people don't really

know what they're doing. They are literally fulfilling prophecy about

Jesus with their very actions. Right here, everything that's happening.

It's happening exactly the way God said it would, all

according to his will, his plan for his purposes. And

even what happens next to Jesus, it's still fulfilling the

words of Psalm twenty two. Look at verses six through eight.

But I'm sorry in Psalm not in artexts. In Psalm

twenty two. But I am a worm and not a man,

scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who

see me, what mock me? They make mouths at me.

What do they do with their heads? They wag their heads.

It's a terrible example that I just gave verse eight.

He trusts in the Lord. Oh, listen to what they

say to him. He trusts in the Lord. Let him

deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him.

Psalt twenty two shows the people mocking. Well, now look

back at our texts, right, let's look with the people

say to Jesus in our texts verse thirty five. And

the people stood by watching, But the rulers scoff to him,

saying he saved others. Let him save himself. If he

is the Christ of God, his chosen one, the soldiers

also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine.

It's kind of a spit in the face, because you

give nice, good wine to kings, and to give him

sour wine like expired wine, verse thirty seven. They give

him this, offer him the sour wine, verse thirty seven,

and saying, if you are the King of the Jews,

save yourself. There was also an inscription over him, a

sign this is the King of the Jews. One of

the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, are

you not the Christ? Save yourself? And us so three

times by three different people or groups of people. Jesus

was mocked, and they all said the same thing. What

do they say, save yourself? Save yourself? If you really

are who you say you are, save yourself. The religious leaders,

who are the chief priests and the scribes were well

acquainted with those guys. Right, if he's the chosen one

and he saved others, let him save himself, or the soldiers,

if you're the King of the Jews, save yourself. Even

the criminal hanging next to him railed at him, and

that word railed means hurled abuse at him. Aren't you

the Christ? And what's the Christ? The Christ is the Messiah.

What's the Messiah, the one who's supposed to save us?

Then save us. There were even people who were just

passing by who wagged their heads at Jesus, and they said, Aha,

you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in

three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.

That's Matthew twenty seven. Jesus is being mocked from all sides, reviled, ridiculed.

But they were all saying the same thing, save yourself.

But what was Jesus answer? No? Through his actions, Jesus

answer was no, he willingly laying down his own life.

He is the good shepherd who lays down his life

for his sheep. And Jesus says it so beautifully and

so powerfully in John chapter ten, Look at verse seven.

So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say

to you, I am the door of the sheep. All

who come before me, or came before me, are thieves

and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he

will be saved and will go in and out and

find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill

and destroy. I came that they may have life and

have it abundantly. Verse eleven. I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd.

He does not, who does not own the sheep, sees

the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and

the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because

he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

But who's gi Jesus Verse fourteen. I am the good shepherd.

I know my own, and my own know me, just

as the Father knows me. And I know the Father,

and I what say loud. I lay down my life

for the sheep. And I have other sheep who are

out of this fold. I must bring them in also,

and they will listen to my voice, so there will

be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Father

loves me, because I laid down my life that I

may take it up again. No one takes it from me,

but I lay it down of my own accord. I

have authority to lay it down, and I have authority

to take it up again. This charge I receive from

my father. I mean that doesn't get you pumped. I

don't know what will. Jesus is the good shepherd who

lays his life down for the sheep. No one takes

his life, no one takes his life, he willingly lays

it down for his sheep. In Matthew Chapter twenty, Jesus

himself reminds us what he came for in verse twenty eight,

even as the son of Man came not to be served,

but two served, and to give his life as a

ransom for many. Jesus knew his job, he knew what

the Father sent him to do, and he was Resolute's

why he came to earth to serve, to give his

life as ransom for many. But who are the many

who are his sheep? Because it's only those who recognize

who he is. And it's just like the other criminal

who was hanging next to him. Look at how he responded,

look at verse forty in our text. But the other,

the other criminal, rebuked him, rebuked him, being the first criminal,

saying do you not fear God? Since you were under

the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for

we are receiving the due reward for our deeds. But

this man has done nothing wrong. He's the innocent Jesus.

And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into

your kingdom. That's key. And he said to him, truly,

I say to you today, you will be with me

in paradise. The criminal recognize Jesus for who he truly is.

He's the king of all kings, and he's bringing his

kingdom about. He's the savior of the world. He is

the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

And Jesus tells him that he will be in paradise

with him. And this is how it works for everybody

who puts faith in Jesus. He is good for his word.

We can stand firm confidently knowing that if we put

faith in Jesus, we will be with him in paradise.

I mean, he say he's gonna raise from the dead,

and he did. You got to kind of believe that guy.

The most ironic thing I think about all this mocking

and reviling these people are doing to Jesus is everything

they said is actually true. They're trying to make fun

of him, but everything they said is actually true. They said,

if he is the Christ of God, he is the

Christ of God. They said, if he is the chosen One,

he is the chosen one. They said, if he is

the King of the Jews, he is the King of

the Jews. They said, are you not the Christ? He

is the Christ. He's the Messiah sent to save his people.

Everything that they said about him when they were trying

to mock him was true. They didn't even know how true.

What they were saying is don't even said that right.

They didn't know how true it was. What they were saying.

The good Shepherd was hanging on the cross right before

their eyes, dying. He was in the process of willingly

dying for his sheep. So if you want to know

if you were one of his sheep, if you are

one of the many hear his voice today, listen and obey.

Hear his voice, Listen to him and obey. And I

want you to in your Bible turn to John chapter ten.

I for some reason didn't put this in my notes,

so it's not on the screen. But we're gonna read

it real old school style in our real bibles. John

chapter ten. We're gonna be in verse twenty four. Give

me some eyeballs. When you're there, most of you are,

sweet John Chapter ten, verses twenty, starting in verse twenty four.

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,

how long will you keep us in suspense? If you

are the Christ? Tell us plainly, Jesus answered them. I

told you, and you do not believe the works that

I do in my father's name. Bear witness about me.

But you do not believe me because you are not

among my sheep. Verse twenty seven. My sheep hear my voice,

and I know them, and they what they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,

and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My father, who has given them to me, is greater

than all, and no one is able to snatch them

out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.

If anyone tells you Jesus never said he was God,

Yes he did, and they picked up stones to stone

him right after that because of his claim. But the

point of me reading that was verse twenty seven. My

sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they

follow me. That's how you know you're his sheep. That's

how you know if you ever had any doubt. If

you hear the words of God and you don't listen

to them, you are not his sheep. That doesn't mean

you're not struggling with sin. It's very different. I would

say it's more. If you hear what God says and

you say I don't care, you are not his sheep.

If you hear his words and say I care, and

that's what I'm going to do. I listen to that voice,

then you are his sheep. Because his sheep hear his

voice and they follow. So do what he said. To

repent of your sins, first being the sin of unbelief.

To repent and put faith in Jesus. To believe that

he is the perfect, sinless son of God, that he

died on the cross for your sins, that he rose

from the grave and is sitting on his throne in heaven,

and that one day he will return to judge the

living and the dead, and he will make all things new.

So believe in all of that. That's the first part.

To hear his voice, listen, and obey Jesus Christ willingly

died a brutal death for the purpose of saving sinners.

Just listening to that, I can't remember which some pastors

preaching it or read in a book or something in revelation, like,

the reason we're praising Jesus in revelation is because of salvation.

That's the culmination of why we're praising him, because he

saved us something that we are fully incapable of doing ourselves.

There's nothing you could ever do, even the good things

we try to do. Bible says, God says, they're filthy rags.

We cannot do anything to make God owe us. Salvation

is purely a gift of His grace through faith. Jesus

willingly died this brutal death to save sinners. So repent

and believe in him for forgiveness, for salvation, and for

eternal life. Because Jesus his sheep hear his voice, they

listen and obey. So keep hearing, keep listening, and keep obeying.

Kind have the worship team come up. Please keep hearing,

keep listening, and keep obeying. And I have three verses

that I want to read as we close today. And

I think that the reason I want to read these

verses because I think it makes it very clear what

we as believers, as Christians, should be doing in response

to Jesus being our willing sacrifice. And the first verses

I want to look at as in Ephesians chapter five, this

is verses one and two. Therefore, be imitators of God

as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved

us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering

and sacrifice to God. So what's that saying? As children

of God, we imitate God much like a child who

wants to do everything their dad wants to do in

the same way, as children of God, we imitate him.

And he tells us to walk in the same love

that Jesus showed us. And what does that love look like?

He gave himself up for us. That's what we're to imitate.

And also in John chapter fifteen, starting in verse twelve,

this is my commandment that you love one another as

I have loved you. Greater love has no one than

this than someone laid down his life for his friends.

Remember his sheep, hear his voice and obey. We hear

his voice and obey. And he commands us to love

one another as he has loved us, to lay it

down our lives for our friends. That's how we know

what love is. And the last verse I want to

reference just in case there is any doubt in what

we're kind of getting at, is in fir John chapter three,

and it's verse sixteen. By this, we know love that

he laid down his life for us, and we ought

to lay down our lives for the brothers. By this,

we know love that he laid down his life for us,

and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Jesus showed us what love looked like by laying down

his life. He showed us and we ought to do

what someone say it, yeah, imitate, we lay down our

life for the brothers. That's what the verses is it

not up there? Oh? It is up there? Yeah, and

we ought to what say it, lay down our lives

for the brothers. As interactive church today, that's what we

should do. That's what we are supposed to do. We

ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And

that word brothers means fellow believers. It's not just the dudes, sorry, ladies, No,

it's also the sisters. It's the believer. We look at

the example of Jesus, the willing sacrifice and everything he

was willing to go through and we imitate him. We

should sacrifice ourselves for others, to put others before ourselves,

to consider others more significant than ourselves. So my question is,

what can you do to deny yourself and put others first?

What can you do? What can you do to follow

the example of Jesus? Do you put yourselves in harm's

way to protect others? Cannis here, she's a firefighter. She

runs into the burning buildings for kittens and stuff. Just kidding,

I just made that up. Do you put yourself in

harm's way to protect others? Do you deny your own

comforts for the sake of someone else's comforts? Would you

go without food so that someone else could go with food?

And it's not just the big things, it's also the

little things. It's everything. It's literally everything. Do you get

what you want? All the time? I ask myself that

question often because I get what I want a lot?

You is it all? Do we always eat what you

want for dinner? It's a simple little thing. I'm too

tired to do a Bible study with a brother or sister.

I'd rather stay home than go deliver holiday meals to

people in need. It's Saturday, it's my day off. I'm

not just calling you and I'm calling me out. These

are just examples, though I'm not gonna give you. I'm

not gonna be able to list everything. But what is

the whole like overarching theme? Am I sacrificing myself for

the sake of others? Am I following Jesus example, He

laid down his life for others. Am I imitating that

same example because we are called to imitate his love

and that's what his love did. He was a willing

sacrifice to save others. So I think we should do

the same thing. Let's go forward and willingly lay it

on our lives for others. Amen. Can you guys stand

to your feet please,