Please turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 23. That was a sample from Elijah that you just heard the choir sing and We invite you all to come back tonight at six o'clock for Elijah to be an amazing piece of music and I'm sure it'll be a real blessing. So we'll pack the place out tonight at six o'clock This is Palm Sunday. If you didn't know that Palm Sunday And historically that Christian church celebrates Palm Sunday room Jesus Christ triumphant entry Into Jerusalem on the cult of a donkey. You wonder why was he on the cult of a donkey? It's because kings After they were victorious Kings that were coming in peace rolled it rode in on the cult of a donkey Why would you think why would Jesus he was gonna go down the cross? Why wouldn't he Be riding in on a stallion Stallions are for war is because Jesus Christ came to give his life for peace And Jesus Christ had claimed Jerusalem already He was going to give his life to be led like a sheep was to slaughter And to bring peace the true peace that comes from his death
Luke 23 Beginning in verse 32 It's the account of the crucifixion of Jesus Two other men both criminals were also let out with him to be executed When they came to the place called the skull There they crucified him along with the criminals one on his right the other on his left Jesus said Father Forgive them but they do not know what they are doing And they divided up his clothes by casting lots The people stood watching and the rulers even sneered at him They said he saved others let him save himself If he is the Christ of God the chosen one the soldiers also came up and mocked him They offered him wine vinegar and said if you are the king of the Jews save yourself There was written a There was a notice Written above him which read this is the king of the Jews It's pray Lord Jesus We believe that you're alive And that you beat death So we need to see you this morning Holy spirit we need for you to fill us so we ask Blow into our hearts Would you bring real life there Would you grab our attentions Our hearts that are wandering away to so many different things Let us be fixed upon the crucified Jesus
We need him this morning What I pray for those who are unconvinced this morning who are here And they would be Transformed by your spirit to see Christ in the way they never have before I pray that those who Do trust in Jesus that they would be comforted when they hear the words of Jesus
Lord, I ask as your servant At this church That you would bless your people That you would bring life where there is death that you will bring hope where there is despair That you would give us an eternal vision to realize that we We truly stand on the edge of eternity that your kingdom is true That Jesus you are returning What do we ask for that? I ask for that My own heart my own life and I ask that for your people Thank you for this time that we can look at Christ Here's the name we pray I'm in How's it feel to be on the high seat seniors? It's pretty weird You're gonna be staring straight at you
I want to embarrass you But I do think this really applies to you It's applies to everyone What difference does the death of Jesus make in your life We just want to come up and ask you that question
What difference does the death of a Jew 2000 years ago
What difference does it make in your life now
Jesus did not come into this world just to just to give the world a new idea About salvation and they are new ideas He didn't come into this world just so that we would understand the meaning of the cross We could do that by tracing the great themes of the New Testament and going to places like Corinthians and first and second Corinthians and Galatians and to understand the meaning of who Jesus is and Romans Alistair McGrath who is a theologian professor writer He said there's far more required of us Than merely understanding the meaning of the cross now We're saved by faith alone that we trust in Jesus that we believe this and we don't bring any works to it That's silly that's foolishness we can never earn our salvation But there's far more required of us than just understanding the meaning of the cross Says we fail to understand the cross if we think that the cross of Christ is just about introducing new ideas to the world
The cross of Jesus is about transformation
The cross of Jesus is about the changing of lives now to know Christ is not simply to know about a man who was crucified As a mere fact of history It's to experience the present reality of the crucifixion in your life today now and so I ask you the question again What difference Does a crucified Jesus make to you today?
We come to things like Palm Sunday You have the Palm stuff, you know, it's so nice it's pleasant any Easter Easter such as the jelly bean season Pastels Right It's a fun time you know you get to wear your Easter stuff It is a great tradition But I think the crucified Jesus for many of us maybe for some of you the crucified Jesus is just someone who's just sort of behind the glass at a museum You think oh, that's great. I'm not gonna go to hell. I believe that that's good check off that But the rest of your life the rest of your world Jesus is just up there in the glass it doesn't make any difference that there's a crucified Jesus now in your life I can relate to that Because of Jesus that's behind the glass is really not very dangerous But a Jesus that's not in the glass Now that's dangerous The Jesus that actually has a living active role in your life right this minute The crucifixion of Jesus means something now. It reminds me of the story about the the Egyptian cobra I don't like snakes. You know about the Egyptian cobra at the Bronx Zoo They finally found it, but it was gone for like weeks You just couldn't find it I hate snakes And the thought of an Egyptian cobra which sounds even extra terrifying If you know what that is An Egyptian cobra has escaped. I'm not going to the Bronx at all Because I'll go see a snake if he's behind the glass But if I don't know where the snake is he could bite me And what I'm saying to all of us today Jesus Christ is alive and he's not behind the glass and he's dangerous And he can actually change you now
Two things today two things we're going to look at first We're going to look at Jesus. We're going to go to the cross I want to I want us to go there in our imaginations the This is good for us Presbyterians God has given us imagination and given us four gospels that invite us to experience What's going on there to imagine it? Yes To imagine it So we're going to look at Jesus dying second that we're going to hear Jesus forgiving We're going to look at Jesus dying and we're going to hear Jesus forgiving and this Jesus is a dangerous Jesus I promise you now listen. Let's look at our first one Let's look at Jesus dying on the cross Who's crucified? There's an old spiritual song that's been remade Called not a word not a word not a mumbling word maybe some of you know it The first line is they led him to pilots bar not a word not a word not a mumbling word
They all cried crucified not a word not a word he spoke not a mumbling word They nailed him to a tree not a word not a word not a word not a mumbling word Jesus Christ went through this entire experience not a word not a word not a word not a word not a word He was betrayed First The trade from one of his own followers With a kiss the soldiers came and arrested him then they took him to a kangaroo court The middle of the night made up of the chief priests chief priests and scribes that had hated his guts from day one And now finally they had him Trumped up charges Let's get rid of this guy. Let's hand him over to pilot before they handed him over to pilot after he had been betrayed Do you know what they did? The guards and some of the others they hit him slapped him spit on him and then they said this Hey Christ Price I who hit you who hit you can you tell who hit you now because all the hands were hitting him people were coming in who hit you Which one of us hit you if you're the Christ not a word not a word not a word not a word
And they beat him They see him over to pilot pilot didn't know what to do with him
Matthew 27 27 Three finally decide that he was the one the people who yelled to crucify him he had him beaten They had him beaten they stripped him Put a scarlet robe on him Twist together a crown of thorns set it on his head they put a staff in his right hand And nelt in front of him and they mocked him A whole crowd this one three or four people this is Jesus Christ and a whole crowd of people are surrounding Jesus Christ They have stripped his clothes off put a scarlet robe on him put a crown of thorns dug into his head gave him a staff like a king Should have and then they took the staff and they hit him again and again and again Oh hail king of the Jews. Oh hail king of the Jews not a word not a word not a mumbling word
Jesus Bow up the one on the amount of transfiguration he'd know but his mouth
And he was led out with two criminals verse 32 tells us The two other men both criminals were also let out with him to be executed Dead men walking when they came to the place called the skull and it was called the skulls because it looked like a skull It it jutted out of the earth and it was in the main thoroughfare It was it was like popular and mended hall where everyone would pass it Everyone would pass where this place was so that's why they executed people there So everyone would know you don't mess with the Romans Everyone would have seen and passed by the place called the skull everyone knew where it was
And they crucified him Along with the criminals one on his right and the other on his left Because Isaiah 53 says he will be counted and numbered among the transgressors he will be Reckoned as a criminal everyone saw this man Jesus as an utter failure everyone This silent bloody broken beaten Jesus as an utter failure the grocery store near my house There is a wall and it's full of people that have That have been they've robbed the grocery store They've used bad credit cards I mean there's a whole wall of them and they're so embarrassed and so shameful You can you see those ads the magazines about the people that have been arrested and now shameful their mug shots Look you just want to look at him and say I'm so glad. I'm not one of those people. I'm so glad. I'm not one of the on one of those pictures Jesus Christ is one of those pictures
the one that blessed and gave and healed and loved to live very in the one who never sined he is on The wall at the grocery store
Are you there then they took him to a cross verse 33 they crucified him This form of torture was the most agonizing The most horrific the most dehumanizing form of execution ever devised by human beings
Every commentary I read said the same thing And the historians said the same thing the death was slow and unspeakably painful unspeakably physically painful unspeakable
There was no different for Jesus Christ as it would be for any criminal that it was ever crucified
nailed you on a rough piece of wood Heavy spikes through your hands through your feet and then you're left there to dangle In front of everyone Dying by either exposure asphyxia loss of blood or a combination of all those things because you literally drown in your own fluids
Not a word not a word not a mumbling word
Because Psalm 22 said they pierced his hands in his feet As they have 53 said he was wounded for our transgressions They cast lots for his clothes or 34 we read It's what they did It was the executioner's decision what happened to the condemned's clothes All his possessions the executioner decided what happened to your stuff and all Jesus had was some clothes And so Jesus Christ Looked down and what he saw were men Playing games with the only possession he had his clothes so that they can have him like a trophy like a trinket The way savage men would act during war taking a piece of the one that they'd killed And they carried around to show their power and domination that's why man man It's always been and that's what they're doing to Jesus Christ right here It would be something funny to be hilarious you know what happened to that that Jew that zealot that weirdo that we killed When it's so funny we put a we put a crown of thorns on him we beat him over the head We called him king of the Jews he spit on him he died like every other dog
There's a piece of his clothes And he was naked He was crucified naked in front of his mother and his enemies Not a word not a word Not a word It's not what she says that's trying to dramatize this Luke is inviting you to go there
This came out vividly in Corey Ten Boom's book When she experienced the shame of Jesus in her own life when she was In her account from the hiding place when she was in the concentration camp with her sister Betsy She said I read a thousand time of the arrest of Jesus The soldiers slapped him they laughed at him they flogged him Now such happenings had faces and voices for me On Fridays Always the recurrent humiliation of medical inspection The hospital corridor in which we waited Was unheated and a fall chills had settled into the walls still we were forbidden even to wrap ourselves in our own arms Because we had to stand there erect hands at sides As we filed slowly in front of group of grinning soldiers
There be any pleasure she says in the side of a stick thin leg hunger bloated stomach
Nor could I see the necessity she writes for the complete undressing when we finally reached the examining room a doctor looked down each throat Another presumably a dentist looked at our teeth And then someone looked between each finger And that was all then we trouped down along the cold corridor and picked up our ex marked dresses At the door, but it was one of these mornings While we were waiting shivering in the corridor That yet another page of the bible left out at me she says as she was sitting there getting her clothes back on She said another page from the bible leapt back at her he hung naked on a cross
The paintings the carved crucifixes showed at least a scrap of clothing But she says she knows that was just the respect a reverence of the artist But at But on that Friday morning the real Friday morning there had been no such reverence
Cory Timbim looked at her sister and she said Betsy They took Jesus clothes too
And a herd of me ahead of me she said I heard a gasp It was her sister Betsy and she said Cory And I never thanked him for it
Some of you know what it's like to be humiliated Some of you know what it's like to be cold And some of you know what it's like to be broken to be made fun of to be made mock It does not hold a candle to what Jesus Christ experienced here in this real-time event Are you there and they marked him
Not a word not a word not a word
Put a sign verse 38 says this is the king of the Jews when a criminal was killed It was normal for the authorities to put what his crime was above his head And so pilot in a jab to the Jews said here is the king of the Jews John 19 tells us that outraged the Jews
But here's the irony They mocked him and they said if you are the Christ if you are the son of God Why don't you save yourself? Here's the king of the Jews Here's the irony of it. He is the king of the Jews He did not save himself and by not saving himself. He saved you That's why he didn't speak a word not a word not a mumbling word Why did Jesus Christ keep his silence why did he keep his silence it is for you Christian Why did he go into Jerusalem why did he why did he insist that he must go to the cross over and over and over again It's for you. This kind of Jesus is outside the glass
He said not a word But then he finally opens his mouth in verse 34 What is he going to say What's he going to say? What does this bleeding dying pathetic naked man say what is he going to say
Call out fires of hell upon these men
Would you listen to what this dying man says? Father Forgive them They do not know what they're doing No one has ever in the history of mankind ever said anything more powerful more poignant more meaningful to you and to me right now No one has ever said it this dying man is telling us something that if you believe it now in this moment not just Palm Sunday But if you believe that in this moment that a man that was dying would say this You can be changed right now. Let's hear what Jesus has to say Let's hear what Jesus has to say I want to look at four different people And some of you are going to fit these descriptions of the four different people that are going to be at the cross People I was thinking about this week People that I meet with and my own life I look at my own heart and what I need to hear Jesus say to me And if these words are said by a man who's dying then my life can be changed right now. Here's the first one The hopeless Some of you are hopeless You think of yourself as hopeless This man said this it's Jesus said this The very people who were doing these things to him that were beating him mocking him killing him watching him die They were committing the worst imaginable sin and what Jesus Christ says listen to this what Jesus Christ says is forgive them
And some of you are hopeless and you see yourself as a hopeless case And you're defined by your hopelessness and some of you live in constant perpetual self-pity
What you look at Jesus dying on this cross And I don't know how messed up you are if you're anything like me. You're pretty messed up
How much we run from God how many times we've broken his promises how sinful we see ourselves And we see ourselves as being impossible to laugh But if a dying man listen to me if a dying man says this and not something else if he says father forgive them They do not know what they're doing if he says this then there is hope for you There are no exceptions to his grace
Some of you live in a prison of sin and guilt and self-condemnation I'm telling you listen to me this man and what he's saying is He is your one true hope. You know people always talk about finding a cure for cancer If I could just find a cure for cancer Who wouldn't love to find a cure for cancer? It's almost a joke now, right? Because cancer claims every single person if someone could find a cure for cancer What if someone could find that one thing that cured it all That one thing that could cure your impossibility in your life Your sin your brokenness the one thing I'm telling you here is the cure There is no other cure Jesus Christ spoke not a word and he waited just to the right moment so that you who live in despair East Memphis I call it secret despair Some of you live in a silent secret despair with a big fake smile on your face
No one could love me No one could ever forgive me I want you to look at this Jesus and listen to this Jesus This guy listen to me this guy does
Give him that Give him that he was stripped naked so that you would know there is no one beyond repair
Every other savior. We're looking for everything. We're trying to get to rescue us or make us worthy our gifts our beauty our powers our future our past our family Every other savior will let you down. Jesus is the only one. I'm telling you today Some of you are defined by your despair
Jesus Christ spoke not a word and then when he did finally speak He's speaking to those of you who are in the darkest caves of despair
He has he poked a hole in the darkness
It's true Right now right now Right now it's true Secondly For those of you who are unconvinced I've been here unconvinced about Jesus and are fascinated by the tradition and you come to church and you think Jesus is a good person You want to give you a good moral person you're going to live life and you understand that this cross It's about sacrificial love and it's just like every other religion Here's what going on here the wrath of the living God is being poured out upon Jesus Christ All the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to this one moment What does that have to do with me, Richie? If you believe in God what kind of God do you believe in? What kind of God is it? Is he a God that's just going to wink at sin and wink at all the injustice? Is he just going to sort of look over all the other things and just say why don't we all just get along? Let's have a big party Let's not worry about all the the fear and all the the wretchedness in this world in our own hearts Let's just get over with it. Is that it? Let me take something. That's not a good God It's not a good God the living God the true God his name is Yahweh and from the Old Testament he made promises And that one day there would be a final sacrifice Here's what I'm saying to you either you take the justice that your sins deserve Or Jesus Christ takes the justice that your sins deserve and he looks at you and he says father forgive him forgive her I'll take it Folks, this is not a joke It is highly offensive in fact it's so offensive. It has to be true
That if you are trying to live your life outside the sovereignty of God's will and his kingdom and you are pushing him back And you're saying I'll get to it. I'll do what I want to I'll go to Sunday church I'll kind of play the game in your life and you want to have your own world. I'm telling you do not do that
Because the one who's being crucified is the only sacrifice He is the final sacrifice And I'm telling you if you're running from Jesus turn around and run back to him Because there you will find someone Who naked bleeding dying is saying forgiveness for you
Third Those of us who are trying to find significance in this world Those of us who are seeking to find significance this cross is the great equalizer This cross and what Jesus Christ says is the only thing that can free us from the rat race. It's it This is it you know, this is a performance-based culture I'll say that a lot. No, what does that mean? It's not a preacher talk. It's a performance-based culture. Well great A performance-based culture Means that it matters most about who you are What you're good at and you must be exceptional at something
I grew up in this kind of culture. I love this culture But one of the bad things is you must be exceptional at something and if you're not exceptional at something If you don't stand out something then ultimately you don't have worth
Even if it's basket weaving You better be the top at basket weaving Parents you feel the pressure How's your kid doing oh really? Oh, that's not so great Tough This because this culture is telling us that we need to be something and do something and folks it's driving us crazy It's killing our children And the cross of Jesus frees us from the rat race and it says it doesn't matter what I do or who I am I have Jesus Christ like Philippians 3 says all the things that I once counted is so precious and meaningful to me All the things that I needed to give me definition all the things that I'm scared to lose all those things I consider Absolute filthy rubbish compared to knowing Christ Jesus my Lord if you look at Jesus this morning And you listen to what Jesus Christ is saying this morning and tomorrow morning what you're going to hear is you are free
You're free from performance You know death clears off all the unnecessary things in our lives I've been around hospital beds where someone is dying and I see families Gathered around and families are funky. Okay across the board. It's not just mine I'm sorry. They're just are and they're just weird stuff But when there's someone dying when mother is dying or grandmother or someone's dying something amazing happens And not always but a lot of times something amazing happens is all those things that we thought were so important all those grudges like you didn't you know Talk to me at Christmas or whatever it is all those things that we harbor and think we think are so important when death shows up all those things seem to fade away just for a moment And coming around the dying Jesus all the things that you and I think are so important that we think are so crucial to our lives And we can't imagine not having a membership to this and not being this and not doing this and not looking like this All those things just absolutely evaporate when you see Jesus the Son of God crucified
And God wants to free us from that bondage
seeing Jesus now and hearing him now There's the only way that we can be free from the rat race building our own kingdoms. Who do we think we are honestly This passage is meditating on it this way. It makes me feel silly About the things I think are so important I can't believe that person didn't talk to me How dare that person disagree with me But if I don't get this and what if I don't have this and I realize this is the meaning of the world Jesus Christ crucified for me my righteousness my righteousness
You hear it and finally The worshipper at the cross We've looked at the hopeless we looked at the unconvinced We've looked at the one seeking for significance and now look at the worshipper those who want to do something for Jesus If you've heard this let me tell you if you've heard this some of you may you're ready for lunch. I totally understand Some of you've heard this or like I don't I don't get it. That's that's great. We need to talk But some of you heard this message today and you've heard about Jesus and you're listening to this You're like I don't know what he's talking about really. I've heard it a million times But I want it in me. I want it in me. I want it in my life. I want it to change who I am is that possible That's the Holy Spirit in you. What do we do? What do we do with this Here's what I'm saying The cross of Jesus the sacrificial death of Jesus is God's only pattern for changing everything
Sacrificial love is the path to recreation. That's it God is recreating the world through the death of his son. That's it There is one way in What does that mean for me as I ask the question? What does the gospel mean to you? How's it making a difference in my life? I'm asking you that question today. What does it mean for me? God is telling us to give our selves away for him It's real clear folks. I have meetings And I have meetings about meetings. I have meetings about meetings about meetings And we all the pastors get in there maybe a few other people real spiritual types that can meet with pastor I meet with the pastors and we have lunch I know y'all think I remember a old Delta farmer once told me that the only thing that a preacher holds in his hand is a pen and a fork
All y'all do is have meetings and eat and sounds like well I wish you were wrong But we have meetings about meetings and we have meetings about What Jesus wants us to do in this city and how we can be missional. I love that we can just say the word missional and have a great lunch Just missional. Let's be missional. You know, probably let's probably let's sing I don't know you missional and I'm thinking let's have a lunch and let's talk about being missional I had one of those this week and I was just thinking about it You know Thinking about this passage and thinking about how great this content is and how we hit each other on the back and say man We're just doing so great. We're so good. And I said okay, God If this is true if you really came here to this world and you were crucified and instead of calling out condemnation among me You called out forgiveness on me and on your on your enemies If you did that what do you want me to do And God got back to me real quick. He's not like me They take me a few days to get me get me email back. God backed me real quick. You know, he said go And die I don't like it when he says that Give your life away for someone else. That means you're gonna have to get out of your comfort zone Richie means you're gonna have to be inconvenience that means you're gonna have to die to your prejudice and your control and your standing Because Richie you are in the way of God's love when you want your kingdom and God is pushing you out of it pushing you out of it Folks, I don't know what he's doing with me and with you But I can promise you this he's going to lead us towards sacrificial love
The only way that God is gonna make any impact in this city with independent Presbyterian church is not because we have a church for ourselves A church where we can come and see our friends as important as wonderful that is This church will never make an impact on this city I can promise you in richi sessions will never make an impact on this broken world unless I die
I'm thinking I don't want to do that To that think about what do you what do you want from me? And do you know what I go back to Jesus Christ was broken And bleeding and betrayed And when he finally spoke he said forgive Richie Give me You know what Jesus saying If you have Christ You have all that you need In other words, what are you hanging on to? If you are reconciled with the God of this universe seniors My school listen to me If you are reconciled with the God of this universe The world is going to promise you all kinds of things that you think that you need and tell you that you need I'm telling you all that you need is what Christ can give you And then when he calls you to give your life away for something greater than you For this kingdom for this world and a world that is dark and a world that hates this gospel God is calling you give it away because it's all mine anyway He's calling you to bold discipleship Not because you have it just because he gave it to you What difference does it make? Honestly what? Some of you came today in Palm Sunday He's like I hope I hear a good little Palm Sunday sermon Hope I see some kids holding up some breakfast Make me feel good Get me in the Easter spirit whatever that is By the way, I don't like bunnies I don't like big bunnies hiding in my room Give me Easter eggs That's not a cool holiday What difference does the crucifixion of Jesus making your life? Do you really believe it?
Let's pray Well Jesus, I pray for these seniors I'll lift them up to you You know them, you know their story You know that what they're going through You know their fears
I asked Lord that you would go after them and that they would see Jesus as crucified And as Jesus as loving and that they would give their lives away for something greater Not for the American dream but for the dream of the kingdom Because the kingdom is forever Lord, I pray that they would not Go after power, but they would give power away
I pray that they would love with abandon
I pray that you would protect them and keep them pure in all the relationships
I ask that you would give them a bigger picture of this world I don't just pray that for them. I pray that for all of us What are you wanting us to do? What are you asking of us?
Or to answer us as we ask you We know that you're calling us to give our lives away for you I guess do that Enable us to do it Let us see all that we have in you Jesus, name we pray Come in