Easter at CCW

Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.

Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.

We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.

To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.

He said there's nobody in the grave now, church.

There's nobody.

Herrick couldn't find him.

And Satan couldn't stop him.

And no grave could hold him.

We're here on Easter today to celebrate that there is nobody in the grave now.

Let's give him one more clap, Church.

Amen.

You guys can be seated.

It's so good to have all of you today.

If you're visiting with us, then we are honored to have you, and we are delighted to have you as our guests.

I hope that you enjoyed that worship.

That was good, wasn't it?

Thank you, choir, Miss Niva.

So good.

If you got a Bible this morning, I want you to open it up to Luke.

And we're going to be looking at some excerpts from Luke, a little bit in John and Matthew.

And man, it's been a good weekend.

Somebody came in this morning and told me, man, Pastor, I feel like I just took a nap and came back.

Yesterday we had our extravaganza.

And we're going to have a little video later.

But about 200 of our folks came and served, and there were 1,500 people from the community on this campus, and it was an awesome, awesome thing.

And we are so glad that God allows that opportunity.

Well, I decided after seeing all of you come in this morning, I want to invite you.

Next week, we're going to celebrate Easter.

So I hope that you're here next week.

And then probably the next week also.

I'm not sure yet.

But, anyways, so glad that you're here with us as you turn in your Bibles.

Max Lucato, we're going to be talking this morning on a topic, the cross talks.

Lucato said this: the cross rests on the timeline of history like a compelling diamond.

Its tragedy summons all sufferers, its absurdity attracts all cynics.

Its hope lures all searchers.

History has both idolized it and despised it.

They've gold plated it and they've burned it.

It's been worn and it's been trashed.

History has done everything but ignore it.

There's one option there that the cross does not offer.

No one can ignore the cross.

Why?

You can't ignore a piece of lumber that suspends the greatest claim in history.

And the bottom line of it is sobering.

It's this if the account is true, it's history's hinge.

Period.

If not, it's history's hoax.

We're here today on Easter Sunday, and we would not be here at all if it had not been for the cross.

The cross has something today to say to you because the cross talks.

Pray with me.

Father, we love you.

We thank you.

God for the opportunity we have today to celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

God, whom which we believe everything that we have, we do, we breathe.

Lord, it's the hinge, it's the centrality of life and the life after this.

So God, I pray that you would speak to our hearts.

Lord, I thank you for every person here.

I pray that they would feel your presence.

Lord, I pray that they would feel loved, that they would feel wanted, Lord, and most of all from our people, but from you.

Lord, I pray that you would share your story to them.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Number one this morning is this a talk on feelings from the cross.

In John 19, 28, Jesus said two words from the cross that would become very deep words.

He said, I thirst early into the throes of matrimony, learning the ebbs and flows of new marital living.

One night, my wife woke up about three in the morning.

She rolled over and she struck me across the chest.

Have you ever woke up at three in the morning struck?

And I was what is going on?

She said, I'm burning up.

What does that mean?

Why would she strike me?

It happened again the very next night.

Boom! What is wrong?

I'm burning up.

So I did what I thought was the solution.

I went to the kitchen and I got her a glass of ice water.

And from that point, for several weeks after, 97 cubes of ice, four drops of water.

So when she woke up at three, she had a nice cold glass of water because she was burning up.

She had thirst.

Jesus says, from the cross, I have thirst, and it means something that we're going to dive into.

You need to know letter A on the feelings from the cross, feelings of the flesh.

I want you to turn to Matthew 27.

Jesus felt from the flesh on the cross.

Matthew 27, 26 through 31, we're going to look at.

It says, Then he released Barabbas to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus in the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him.

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.

When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

Then they spat on him, and they took the reed and they struck him.

And when they had mocked him, they took the robe off and put his own clothes, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified.

Feelings from the flesh at the cross and the things leading up to it first, you see, Jesus paid physically.

He was scourged in the Roman manner.

They would take a whip that had rocks and shards and glass, and they would whip him.

They said, uh forty times save one.

Thirty-nine times it'd come down across his back and rip apart his flesh.

Time after time they would do this.

And I got to thinking, many of you, how many, I just need to know my crowd.

How many of you have ever been in a fist fight?

Alright, we got some ghetto folks here.

Okay.

I knew I could tell when you walked in.

So if you've been in a fist fight, you understand that adrenaline kicks in, you can get hit in the face with a fist and not even feel it for a little while.

Right?

You cannot even feel a fight like that.

Adrenaline kind of tricks you.

Man, I've been black and blue on Tuesday, but Monday I didn't feel a whole lot.

And so that immediate pain.

But have you ever been paper cut?

How quickly did you feel pain?

So this Christmas, around Christmas time, I was taking the trash out and I'm just jumping on the thing.

Man, you understand this.

You don't want the trash company to come by and say, these people are so trashy.

They got trash pouring out the can into the street.

So I'm just throwing my weight down on this thing, and I throw my pinky hits cardboard.

And I'm telling you, it went about midway through my finger, and I get myself into the house and I pour cold water.

And look, Heather can't deal with blood.

So I'm there and half my pinky looks gone to me, and I'm like, what kind of cardboard was this?

But I'm trying over the sink.

If I pull my finger away from the water, then the blood starts flowing again.

And I'm like, I'm trying to self-bandage, and I'm like, and it's playing a game with me, and I'm trying to bandage, and finally, you know, I got it under, but let me tell you, that finger throbbed and throbbed and throbbed.

It took days, and I'm look, I'm medicated with everything.

Heather will tell you, I was putting everything on.

I know it's just a pinky, and praise the Lord.

Look, it works right now.

But listen, that cut, and the pain was instant.

When they talk about crucifixion and even the parts leading up to it, it's immediate.

He had thorns, he had nails, and when Jesus got on the cross, his feelings, his body, he would be losing all this blood, and he'd be literally suffocating, lifting himself for a breath of air and suffocating through this.

They said crucifixion was to die a thousand deaths.

The word excruciating is Latin from the cross.

So Jesus felt physically.

Well, let's dive deeper into these two words.

We're going to get somewhere with it.

Jesus, it said, I thirst.

I need you to know this.

We're taught in systematic theology that you have to go back.

And Jesus existed before he was born.

Now that's hard for the brain, but Jesus, John 1.1 says, In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

In the Old Testament, before he was born from the Virgin Mary, Jesus would come in the form of the angel of the Lord.

They call that a Christophany.

And so Jesus existed before he's born.

We're going to get somewhere with that thirst.

I know you want to know what that has to do.

Turn to Philippians for a moment, and I need you to see Philippians 2, 5 through 8.

Deep diving into I thirst.

We're going to get somewhere with it.

I need you to know before he was born, he existed.

He was with God before creation.

And in Philippians 2, 5 through 8, it says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Hear this, Omistus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

He was one and the same with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of bondservant and coming in the likeness of man.

And him being found in appearance as man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

He was the God man.

Jesus was both God and man.

They call this a real theological word, the hyppostatic union.

And in verse 7 and 8, Jesus humbles himself, and that word is a word called kenosis.

He empties himself of part of himself.

Explain that to me, Pastor.

He permitted a withdrawal of his divinity as a man on earth.

He permitted a loss of his godness, if you will, to acquiesce to human feelings.

What do I mean?

Does anyone here have any aches?

Any pains?

Anyone here after church, you're gonna take a nap?

I said after church.

Right?

I saw a t-shirt that said Jesus takes naps.

Let's be more like Jesus.

Took a nap on a boat.

How many of you are frustrated at times, annoyed?

How many of you are thirsty?

When I say it says I thirst, Jesus is giving validation that the cup of God's wrath for sinful man is upon an appropriate sacrifice.

If he was only God on the cross, then Jesus would not have felt pain.

He would not have felt hurt.

And God is immortal and eternal.

He could not have died.

And so in this acquisition, Jesus empties himself and experiences feelings of the flesh.

So when he says, I thirst, it's not just two little words that are thrown out there.

It's for us to understand, Jesus had feelings like a man.

The sacrifice on the cross had to be flesh.

Why?

God's wrath for sinners came because the Bible says, as by one man, one flesh, sin entered into the world, and death by sin.

And so for his wrath to be satisfied, it had to be flesh.

He said, I thirst.

Jesus, do you remember in John 4 when he talked to the woman at the well?

He said, If you'll drink my cup, you'll get living water and you'll never thirst again.

You see, this flesh, this human body will always have thirst.

Will always have thirst.

And we cannot possibly fulfill in this world, in the desert of this life, we're constantly parched with what the world has to offer.

There's only one fulfillment of our thirst.

See, this life empties a man.

No amount of money, no amount of trophy, no amount of person, nothing can fill a soul.

It's a big mirage.

There's one thing that can fill this empty thirst, and that's Jesus Christ.

It was only Jesus.

And so you have to understand as you come here today, you are, hear this, an eternal being.

You're living a human experience.

And when you were born to this world, to this earth, you were born homesick for heaven.

And so this heart, this soul has an empty feeling until it connects with Jesus Christ.

We're homesick for heaven.

There's only one thing that fills the void.

I want to tell you if you're visiting today, maybe you have young children, and there's only one thing that can fill that empty soul, that heart, as it begins to figure out all the world's voices and all the pursuits of success and trophies and the job and the college and the sport and all of the things.

Listen, they keep depleting this soul.

And we keep telling them, run after this, run after that.

You've got to be set.

Let me tell you, if you have children today, there's one thing, John 10, 10, he says, I came to give you life.

And I came to give you life abundantly.

You see, the thief came to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus came to give abundant life.

Your family needs worship.

I pray this every day over my children that God would have their hearts and their full surrender.

Your family needs that.

I know that you're here today.

I want to tell you, we've got three, 17, 15, and 11.

And the greatest need for my children, the greatest need for your teenager and your family, is that this heart would not leave this earth empty.

The psalmist said it this way: Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Jesus said, I'll give you living water.

Well, Jesus had physical thirst.

Letter B, we see a spiritual thirstiness, if you will.

I want you to see Matthew 27, 45 and 46.

Letter B is he was feeling forsaken.

Matthew 27.

Look what it says, 45 and 46.

Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land.

And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabakhtani.

That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Have you ever felt heartbreak?

Anyone here have been in a relationship and you've been heartbroken before?

Parents, have you ever felt heartbreak from your child?

You remember the age when you dropped them off at school and it was no longer okay to kiss mom or dad?

No longer cool to hold your hand.

Do you remember these feelings?

Do you remember as you got older and kids become teenagers and even to see mom or dad wasn't the best experience to them?

Y'all, teenagers, I need you to hear something.

When you were six, seven, and eight, you ran to the door to greet us.

And it was the best of our day.

And now it's like it's just dad.

Just mom.

Right?

Have you ever felt these kinds of heartache?

Think about this.

We can't hardly fathom it, parents.

It's hard to fathom this.

But in this passage, the father forsakes the child.

Think on that, parents.

It is so hard to consider.

Your child will do everything bad to you, and you'll still love it, right?

You'll go through everything bad on this earth.

I mean, you will you will love them.

You've decided you're going to love them.

It's hard to picture.

One time we were at Disney, and Wyatt was, I think, four years old.

Around that age.

He was just little and this cute little fella.

But he was busy and he was all over the place.

And we were over there by what's it called?

The little world, the small world.

We're by this ride, the one that we rode, okay, for 19 hours.

We saw four princesses and rode two rides.

Got our money's worth.

And we look around, and the four-year-old is gone at Disney with the 17 million people at Disney.

And Heather and I are like, hearts are racist.

She's like, Rick, I don't see him.

I'm like, I don't see him either.

He must have got on a ride.

Like, I don't know what's happened.

And we look, and I'm telling you, three minutes felt like an hour.

Like our hearts were sunk.

It made you feel sick.

We thought the child was lost.

We were in extreme panic right outside of that small world.

And I got thinking about that forsakenness.

This is a father who had to forsake his child.

I want you to see why.

God and Jesus, together since the beginning of creation, are missable.

They're two things that are a homogeneous mixture.

They are the same throughout.

They are one.

And God is light, the Bible says, and in him can be no darkness.

So therefore Jesus is light.

But we, Isaiah 53, 6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray.

And the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, our sin, the iniquity of us all.

When Jesus cries out in this moment, it is because he's always, for all of eternity past and up to this point, always been one with his Father.

Possibly the climactic point of his suffering was this heartbreak.

Separation from the one to whom which he was there to please.

Verse 45, don't miss this.

It's interesting.

When you see the weather involved in the Bible, it always is interesting to me.

Verse 45, it says, the sky turned dark at noon for three hours.

God who is light, and Jesus who is light.

The Father remains light, but the Bible says, He who knew no sin, Jesus, became sin for us.

And in this moment, he who knew no sin took on the darkness, the evil, and strapped it all on his back on that cross.

And when he became sin, God removed even his literal light.

It saw a literal forsakenness.

God removed his light and saddened at the end of that moment.

Jesus says, Father, Father, why?

He felt a literal forsakenness because Jesus had to be a bridge.

Because man is over here in his sinfulness, his darkness, and God is over here in his holiness, his purity.

And Jesus had to get on a cross and be a bridge.

And because he took on all of our darkness so that me and you and our children and everyone could get to God, he wore and bore all that pain.

And God turned his back to that sinfulness.

He gives us access to God.

John 14, 6 is why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

He had to be forsaken to be our way.

That takes us to the second point this morning.

We see a talk on forgiveness from the cross.

Look at Matthew 27.

We're looking at 39 through 43.

And then I want you to put your finger in Luke 23.

A talk on forgiveness from the cross.

Verse 39.

It says, And those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself.

If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

Likewise the chief priest, also mocking with the scribes and elders, said he saved others, himself he cannot save.

If he is the king of Israel, Israel, let him come now down from the cross, and we will believe in him.

He trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said, I am the Son of God.

If you look at Luke 23, 34, this is what he says about them.

There's criminals on either side of him.

And he says, about these mocking, he says, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing.

Can you imagine?

He says, Father, he says, the word is pater, where we get the word for paternal father, he says, Pator, forgive, aphiomi.

And that word means to omit, to leave it.

He says, Father, leave it.

Suffer not.

Considering all the people at the cross, think about what Jesus has said.

There's mockers, there's people that had uh accused him and punched him, they'd ripped his beard, they had spat on him, it says.

One of the most degrading things I think a person can do to another person is to spit in their face.

You ever had this done to you?

I had a seven-year-old once spit in my face.

Me of fool not about 20 years old.

And I grabbed him up and I ran him across the room.

And I didn't know what was about to come next.

So I had to taper myself and I shook him and I put him down.

And I'm thankful that that's what I did.

But he spat in my face.

It's so disgusting.

I thought about fights that I've been in and scenarios.

And I'm telling you, I wish I was a better Christian, but I'm just being honest before you today, all these witnesses, I've I've daydreamed on fights, and every time I daydream back, this is how it goes.

The enemy, the person against me, gets whooped a little more and I get hit a little less.

They give their just desserts every time I daydream on it.

I never once thought to myself, Father, forgive them.

For they knew not what they were doing.

My flesh dreams that the enemy gets what he deserves, but Jesus said, A fiame.

He said, Leave it, Father.

He said, They don't, they don't get it.

They don't see the big picture of this, they don't comprehend the evil that they're doing.

Jesus says, Drop it, Father.

He could have come in a moment.

Legions of angels.

Made me think about this practically speaking.

Matthew 5, 44 for us Christians.

It says, Love your enemies.

This is hard.

It says, pray for those who persecute you.

I have come to appreciate in my life that people are at different stages in their journey, in their Christian walk, or just their walk of life.

And I try hard not to judge people where they are, but there's some things that I've learned.

Listen, if you have a list of other people's wrongs and not a list of your own, the Bible has a passage that talks about having a speck, and you're picking at the speck in somebody's eye, but you have a beam in your own.

And Jesus gives us this ultimate example.

Sometimes I am difficult.

I know that's hard for all of you to believe.

I appreciate that.

But when I think about those times and the things that I cannot even believe that I've done, I think, man, Heather has been gracious with me.

My kids have been gracious with me.

My God has been so gracious and forgiven me when I was so unlovely.

Has someone hurt you?

Forgive them.

He said, pray for him.

Give people that.

Ephesians 4.29 tells us, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is used to build others up.

Build people up with your words, with your life.

And give people the benefit of the doubt.

Interestingly, about this, 700 years earlier, Isaiah prophesied, Isaiah 53, 12, he said, he was numbered with transgressors, talking about there on the crosses, and bore the sin of many, and made intercession for his transgressors.

He said, Father, just leave it.

We don't understand.

We can't comprehend.

He said, Father, leave it.

What letter B is this?

Not forgetting the criminal.

Turn over there to Luke 23.

I want you to see this quick conversation, but these words from the cross that are so powerful.

Luke 23, 39 through 43.

Not forgetting the criminal.

Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.

But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we received the due reward of our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong.

Then he, listen to this, then he said to Jesus, one very important word here.

He said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus said to him, his talk from the cross, assuredly I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

This criminal, you see this interaction, and he says, Lord.

Two criminals.

One is blasphemy, the other one says, Lord, and that word is curious.

It's important.

That means master from the cross, someone who has deserved to be on the cross, looking at their sin and plight, looks at Jesus and recognizes in this moment of being near Jesus that this is Lord.

He says, Master, the owner of all things, acknowledging his Lordship.

In Acts 16, Paul told a jailer, he said, What must we do to be saved?

And Paul said, You must call on the Lord, the curios.

And so he says, Lord, and then he says, Menomai, remember me.

That is, help me to abide through the fixture of your mind.

Keep me in mind.

And don't miss this.

In real time, we are seeing the last person to be saved before Jesus' death.

The last person in real time to call on him as Lord.

More than not forgetting, more than forgiving.

This is a fulfillment of why Jesus was there in the whole circumstance.

He was there to save, and this man was being saved right before Jesus took his last breath.

Can you imagine?

Imagine the angels celebrating that man's entrance.

Jesus came to save that which was lost.

One man mocks, another man was drawn to truth.

And listen to me, he said it in a word.

His salvation experience was a word.

He said, Lord.

You are Lord.

You are God.

He didn't hear me.

A lot of people in their uh denominations and things get a little bit, they get disgruntled about things.

This man did not get baptized, he did not take the Lord's Supper, he didn't join a church, he didn't go to one Sunday school class, he didn't go to one potluck, he didn't go to one revival, he didn't go to any of that, yet he was saved.

He went to heaven.

Jesus was dying and he was still saving.

Jesus was dying and he was still saving to the last.

This is also the clearest picture, these words, this remember me, the clearest picture of salvation by grace.

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, For by grace you are saved through faith.

It is a gift of God, not of works.

You can't heap up something today, church.

Folks, visit, you can't, you can't do enough good to earn or merit your way to heaven.

He says, it is by the grace of God, it is a gift, it's not of works, lest any man should boast.

You can't, you can't work your way into that.

And we see that because this man literally did nothing.

He got nothing right, he did nothing from the cross but die.

But he recognized who was Lord.

And I want to tell you, no matter who you are, no matter what you brought here this Easter, Jesus loves you.

And he died to prove it.

He loves you.

And hear me, that man wasn't good.

He was a criminal.

He doesn't love you because you're good.

Romans 5:8 says, but God commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

You don't have to leave here today saying, But I you don't understand, Pastor, you don't know the things that are in my life, you don't know the guilt that I feel, you don't know what I did last night.

Jesus doesn't care about your list because that cross, that blood that was shed, covers all our sin.

No matter how you feel today, no matter what you brought to this service, no matter how inadequate you felt in your life, he'll save you today.

He'll save you.

He loves you.

And 1 John 1 9 tells us, and in a few moments, in a few minutes, we're gonna have an invitation.

But it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us.

That takes us to the third thing this morning: a talk on finality from the cross.

Matthew 27, 50.

If you want to turn the Bible to John 19, there's a verse in John 19, 30 we're gonna take a peek at also, but Matthew 27, 50.

After he had felt the forsakenness of his father, it says, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and he yielded up his spirit.

In Luke or in John's account, he said this.

In that moment, he said, It is finished.

The word is to telesti.

And that word tatelesti means termination, or it is done to the uttermost.

The limit in which a thing ceases, to telesti, he says, it is finished.

Brown said this way the Old Testament law was fulfilled as never before.

Messianic prophecy that all was prophesied about Jesus and the Messiah coming is now accomplished.

Redemption for our sins had been completed.

He had finished the payment.

He had made reconciliation for sin and brought everlasting righteousness.

He has inaugurated the kingdom of heaven and given birth to a new world.

It is finished.

In John 4 34, Jesus said it this way it is meet that I do the will of my Father and the one who has sent me.

I'm come to finish his work.

I'm not here to just start this.

I'm come to finish.

And in Romans 8:1, the verse for you and I, it says, Now there is therefore no.

Romans 8:1

Everybody say no.

No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

He said, Tetelesti, it is finished.

I thought about that finishing work.

How many of you have driven long distances?

Had some long trips.

Anybody did this with children?

Hmm.

It's triple as long.

Well, Heather and I used to have to drive from Connorsville, Indiana to Cady, Texas.

And, you know, the map tells you 15 or 16 hours.

We've taken this trip, and I'm telling you, we've taken as many as 22 hours taking this trip.

And one time we did it nonstop, right?

A lot of times we tried to do it nonstop, but we got up at 3 a.m.

and we traveled till 12 a.m.

the next morning, just going.

And I got to thinking about that distance.

Anyone know the longest distance across Alabama?

If you travel from Phoenix City, Alabama to Yellow Pine.

Anyone been to these places?

I've never been.

Some of you, alright.

257 miles across the state of Alabama.

I want you to see this picture.

I've got a picture that's going to come up of uh Sacramento, it says there.

Sacramento, I've got to get my map over here because I'm going to show you a map in a minute.

3,073 miles from Sacramento.

You know where that picture sits?

Ocean City, Maryland.

I grew up going to this beach.

And I thought, it's always weird that I come riding up on this, and I'm like, who is gonna get ready to embark on their 3,073 mile journey to Sacramento?

But that is there, and then in Sacramento, there's a picture.

Look at what they've done in Sacramento.

But if you look at it on a map, these places are as far across the United States as you can get from one coast to the other, 3,073 miles.

Well, that got me thinking, what is the furthest place across the globe?

Alright?

And you can't travel a lot of places.

So the furthest place across the globe, this is at the northwestern portion of Alaska, and I'm gonna have to look at it again.

This is Attu Island, Alaska.

And you can travel from Attu Island all the way to Kiribati, Caroline Island.

Furthest points across this.

Anyone got a guess on mileage across the globe?

13,400 miles.

Pretty close.

13,673 miles to travel across the globe.

I want to tell you something.

Psalms 103, verse 12 says, as far as east is from the west, so far I have removed their transgressions.

Psalms 103:12

Jesus said, as far as you can possibly get, and it's ongoing because it circles.

As far as east is from the west, he's removed our sins.

Jesus paid it all, the song says, All to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow.

He said, To telestai.

Hear me, church, it is done.

It is finished.

Romans 8 tells us, then what can separate us from the love of God?

I need you to hear today.

Maybe you've come in and you feel like you're far from God.

I want you to know the blood of Jesus Christ has covered it all.

I don't know where you're at in that journey, but I know that he's beckoning.

He says, it is finished.

Romans 8 says, nothing, no height, nor depth, no angel, nor principality, no creature, nothing, no rule of darkness, nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Nothing you have done, nothing you haven't done.

He loves you with an overwhelming love.

And his blood, he says, don't let Satan be in your ear about how you're not any good or how you can't get back to this place.

Don't let Satan do that to you.

He said, I've removed it.

As far as East is from West.

It's gone.

It is finished.

People will read this to Telestai, and they'll see it as the despairing cry of a martyr.

And I want to tell you that's not it.

It was an expression of the end of suffering, not for Jesus.

To Telestai was a declaration from Jesus that it had been done.

It was securing an eternal home for all of God's creation and bringing to his Father that ultimate glory.

He said, it is finished.

It was a declaration.

It was not a cry.

Well, let it be as this.

We saw the payment was finished, but the product is forever.

Jesus Christ in Hebrews 13, it says, is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When you think about it, everything changes, right?

People change, circumstances change, environments change, weather change, fair-weathered fans, they change.

Somebody wanted me to say something about the tournament, but I said I will not.

I'm from Delaware, I don't care.

I'm sorry if you were visiting hoping for that.

Go blue hands.

Even our emotions fluctuate.

Right?

We can be up one minute and down the next.

But God never changes.

And I thought about if the cross could literally speak, if it could take on not being an inanimate object, if the cross could speak to us, what might it actually say?

Well, there's a couple of songs that hit some things that are good.

Some of you grew up hearing at the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away.

It was there by faith that I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.

That's that's a good line.

How about on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame?

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners, was slain.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down.

I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown.

That's a good one.

Jesus talked from the cross, and I thought about this.

If the cross could talk, I think it would tell us a couple of things.

1 Corinthians 1 18 says that it is the cross to the world, to the lost is foolishness.

They don't get it.

And I think he would want you to know it.

Listen, you can go out of here and be with the regular world, and they might think you're a little crazy.

They're probably gonna think that anyway.

I'm just saying, maybe just go ahead and be crazy about this cross.

But I think it might say a little more because logically and theologically there's a powerful tie that the cross has to something else, to another symbol of death.

Sometimes that symbol is called a grave, a vault, a mausoleum, a memorial, a burial plot, or a tomb.

I think the cross would say, I need you to see my connection to this other piece of death.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 7, hear this if Christ is not raised, we are still in our sins.

And in fact, the cross then just killed an innocent man.

But he says, married to me is an empty tomb.

Married to this piece of death, we are most necessary together.

And in Matthew 28, I need you to see what happens when the events of the cross meet up with this tomb.

Matthew 28, 5 and 6.

They come looking for Jesus and the angels there, and he says, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He's not here, for he is risen, as he said.

Come see the place where the Lord had laid.

He's risen, church.

Jesus is alive.

This church serves Jesus, and I want to tell you, he's not Muhammad because Muhammad is dead.

He's not Buddha because Buddha is dead.

He's not Joseph Smith because Joseph Smith is dead.

He's not C.T.

Russell who is dead in the grave.

He's not the Pope because they died.

He's Jesus, and because he's Jesus, he died, but he rose and he's alive today.

And he reigns.

And because of his death, burial, and resurrection, one day we too can live forever in eternity.

There's two choices, and we're gonna have an invitation a moment.

You can live forever with Jesus in heaven, forever living in eternal experience, or you can die forever in a place called hell.

I believe the cross, lastly, would echo this.

I believe he would say, look unto Paul's words about the cross and tomb.

This is our anthem, 1 Corinthians 15, 55 through 57.

It speaks on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and why it's so important.

He says, in the ending, the climactic point of that passage, he says, O death, where is your sting?

Oh hell, where is your victory?

The sting of death was sin, the strength of sin is law.

But thanks be to God who gave us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.

You see, he said, Tatelistine.

He said, It is finished.

I thought about that this week and I had a Holy Spirit moment.

He said, It is finished.

You know, church, he did not say, did you notice what he did not say?

He did not say, I am finished.

He said, It is finished.

He didn't say I'm done, I'm through.

He said, It is finished to telesty.

He said, It is finished because Jesus was not done.

Jesus is alive and at the right hand of the Father, and one day there's a trumpet gonna sound, and he's coming back to those who are his.

He said, It is finished.

We're excited you joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another and build a bigger kingdom.

If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.

Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94000.

Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.