Our Savior's Seven Sayings from the Cross part 2

Notice what we were just singing there. Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe. We studied the thief on the cross last week. What did we see? Grace, freely bestowed on the one who believed, even when he could not climb down off the cross. I thought that really fit well with what we have been studying, and it fits well with what we are studying. And I look forward to how all of this is going to be tied together in our hearts and in our minds this Easter season. Well this morning we are continuing in our Easter series. And this Easter series is what I'm calling our Savior's Seven Sayings from the Cross.

Now two things about that title. Number one, it's a tongue twister, and I do reserve the right to get it twisted sooner or later. But this is a common outline. If you do some studying and listening on your own, you will notice that there are some different ways people have approached these seven sayings. And this is a common theme and a common subject for many churches and pastors during the Easter season. Now something you may want to note about our series. The series title and the sermon titles are one and the same. It's just going to be our Savior's Seven Sayings from the Cross, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

And I know I shared this last week. This all comes out of Matthew chapter 27, Luke chapter 23, and John chapter 19. And I did say this at our scripture reading. I encourage you to take Matthew 27, Luke 23, and John 19, and make that a part of your personal study this week and in the weeks to come so that we can get the account of the crucifixion in our minds and in our heart. Now last week I explained how this series will work out. We are taking three weeks to study the seven sayings from the cross. And with the climax of our study on Easter Sunday morning, we will exalt and study the resurrection.

I can't think of any better way to conclude this type of a study than moving to the resurrection. Now remember what our goal and our purposes are in this series. We do not want to simply study certain things about the crucifixion and the resurrection. We do not want to merely store up information or to gain new knowledge here. It is our responsibility to study these things so as to make Easter what it should be, and that is Christian. Easter should be Christian in our mind and in our understanding and also in our approach to the holiday.

Easter is a cultural holiday for us and that is not necessarily a bad thing but we must be mature enough to move past our cultural celebration of Easter towards making Easter more Christian. Specifically we need to examine and exalt the crucifixion and the resurrection of our Lord and these things should move us to worship. They should move us to worship and there should also be a practical side of these things here. We should allow these things to impact our personal lives, they should impact our families and they should impact our church in every way. So this should be practically worked out in our lives.

Let me speak about this worship here. I was encouraged by the messages that I received and the testimonies that I heard by some of you that you really were able to worship last week. You were able to worship personally but then practically we should discuss these things at our home. We should discuss these things with our spouses, with our children, when we sit down at supper, when we're driving along in our cars. We should discuss these things amongst ourselves. So what I mean by practically is we should work these things out in our lives and in our families.

Now last week we studied the first two sayings of our Savior from the cross and we can summarize these two sayings in all that we studied last week in two words, the word forgiveness and the word salvation. It would be good for you to write those two words down. I will refer to them a few times throughout the message. But we need to see that all that we studied last week was all about forgiveness and salvation. In Luke 23 verse 34 we saw where Jesus prayed and he asked his father to forgive those who were crucifying him. This would have been the Romans, this would have been the Jews there and of course this would be applied to many more.

John MacArthur calls this a plea for forgiveness. I like that. He calls this a plea for forgiveness. Jesus was truly pleading with his father to forgive those who were crucifying him. And notice he even uses their ignorance. Yes he uses their ignorance of what they were doing, truly almost as leverage with his father. So Jesus offered a prayer for forgiveness. And in Luke 23 verse 43 we saw where Jesus promised salvation to one of the criminals who is being crucified beside him. John MacArthur calls this a promise of salvation. I like that. This was a promise of salvation.

Jesus promised this criminal that he most certainly would be with him in heaven on that very day. Of course we saw this promise after this criminal approach Jesus and he approached Jesus humbly submitting to Jesus as the true Messiah of God. So Jesus offered a promise of salvation. Well this morning I want us to continue in our study of these seven saints. And this morning we will turn our attention to the third, the fourth, and the fifth. And next week we will study the sixth and the seventh saint. So let's start off with the third saint from the cross. And we see that Jesus offered a promise for his mother. And this might surprise you.

This might seem out of place for you. But this is a promise for his mother. We see this in John 19 and I'm gonna read verse 25 down to verse 27. "But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. And when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby he said to his mother, 'Woman behold your son.' And then he said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.' And from that very hour or from that very time the disciple took her into his own home." Now notice what is taking place here. Jesus has been crucified and he was still on the cross.

John tells us that Pilate had a large inscription put on the cross and it read, "Jesus the Nazarene the king of the Jews." And also the soldiers had already gambled far and they were dividing up his clothing. And gathered there at the cross was a group of his followers. And there were three or four women. They debate, scholars debate if this was three or four. There were three or four women there and also the disciple John. Now notably Mary the mother of Jesus was there, Mary Magdalene was there and this disciple here was John, although John is not named. And surprisingly Jesus interacts with them, specifically two people.

And it may be a surprise to us what Jesus says and what Jesus does here. Now there are several things I want us to see here. Specifically I want us to examine two of these people and then I want us to see what Jesus said to these two particular people. First we see Mary the mother of Jesus. It's plainly stated in the Scripture. Of course we should all know who this Mary is. She is and was a prominent figure in the Gospel story. She is well known to all of us so there's no mistaking who this is and was. Basically she was there at the cross for several reasons. I will mention three. First she was there out of her love for Jesus.

As a loving mother she definitely loved her son. And then second she was there out of her love and her commitment to Jesus as her Messiah and Lord. She was a true follower of Jesus. And then third she was there as a fulfillment of prophecy. Luke 2 verse 35 says that she would endure great agony and sorrow from the cross. Also prophesied that she would witness the cross and all that her son would endure. So we have mother, we have a mother here, we have Mary the mother of Jesus here. A loving mother and a true follower of Jesus. And she was there in fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures. And then second we see John the beloved.

John the beloved. Now if we pay attention here we see that John does not name himself. That's pretty obvious if you read the text. He does not name himself but he refers to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved. Now we need to ask a question what is going on here with this phrase. What does this mean? Really there are two things here. First John was being humble. He was being modest as he is writing this gospel. John never named himself in his gospel. But the second thing that was happening was that John was referencing a unique relationship that he enjoyed with Jesus. John was closer to Jesus than the rest of the disciples.

Of all the disciples Jesus was closer to Peter and James and John. You might not know that. But of all of the disciples Jesus was closer to Peter and James and John. But Jesus was closer to John than those other two. So we see John the beloved disciple of Jesus. Meaning that Jesus had this unique relationship with John. And if you look at John 13 verse 23 those verse describes John as the disciple that Jesus loved. And then third we see the promise made by Jesus. We see this promise made by Jesus. Now what Jesus said here can seem unusual. You might even say that this can seem disrespectful.

Notice that he addressed his mother as woman not as mother. Now why would Jesus do that? Also Jesus directs Mary's attention to another saying behold your son. So we need to ask what Jesus is doing here. Basically Jesus was providing for his mother. It seems that Mary did not have the home and the physical support that she needed. It seems that her husband Joseph was dead and if she was a widow with no support she would have been poor and destitute. And Jesus being the oldest would have been responsible to care for his mother even in his death. And with Jesus dying she would have been helpless in many many ways.

So as Jesus was suffering and dying on the cross he was gripped with compassion for his mother and he sought to care for his mother. So in this statement Jesus is making a promise to provide for his mother. I like how the famous Baptist theologian John Gilder describes what's happening here. I just like the way it rings in my ear. Maybe it ministers to you. And I'm quoting he says, "How lovely appears the dying Savior thus remembering his afflicted mother and making her welfare one of his last cares on the cross and even when making atonement for the sins of the world." And then fourth we see the challenge.

There was a challenge given to John. Just like Jesus addressed his mother in this unusual way Jesus addressed John in a seeming unusual way. It is obvious what is happening here. Jesus was telling John to look to Mary as his mother. And in light of what Jesus told his mother it is fairly easy to see what Jesus was telling John. Jesus was challenging John with a great great responsibility. Jesus was giving John the great responsibility to care and to provide for Mary as if she was his own mother. Again this seems to tell us that Mary did not have a husband to care for her and to provide for her.

This seems to tell us that even her own children, her other children were not able to care for her. As a matter of fact scholars speculate that they were not able to care for her because they were not converted to Christ yet. And as an aging widow she needed a son to fulfill that role. So we see that Jesus he issued this challenge for John to take on the responsibility to care for Mary as his own. And you know if you do enough reading here you will stumble across scholars that talk about different Christian traditions that talk about how John actually took care of Mary and how he lived with her in his home.

So we see that Jesus offered a promise to his earthly mother Mary. As he was dying he promised to provide for her and to care for her and he promised that he would provide for her through John. And as he was dying he issued this challenge to his most loved apostle-disciple John. Basically as Jesus was dying on the cross for the sins of the world he still promised to care for his mother. Now just like last week I want us to look at what we're studying here and I want us to look at it in three places in time. First in eternity past. Notice what we see here. In eternity past God planned care for Mary.

God planned to care for Mary in her time of being left destitute. It seems that Joseph was dead. Jesus was her firstborn and he was not able to care for her anymore. And so God planned his care for her through John and he planned this in eternity past. You know this is a lesson for you. This is a lesson for me. This is a lesson for all of us. If God himself would plan out Mary's care in eternity past, how good and capable is God to care for us in our day and in our time? Why should we worry? Why should we fret? Why?

When God took care of Mary in eternity past and then second in time in that very day from that day forward, from this day forward John cared for Mary. I mentioned this earlier. Church tradition tells us that John did in fact care for Mary. Just as God had planned again we seek God's goodness and his care for his people. And again this is a lesson for us. As God's people he has his care in his hands. It was planned forever ago. But then third in our day. We need to look at this in our day and in our time. This is a lesson about trust. This is a lesson about trust in that we should trust in God.

But this is also a lesson in our responsibility to care for our family. Who are we responsible for? Are we not responsible for our children? Are we not responsible for our parents as they age? Now I know there's a cultural difference here. I know that. But yet the lesson still applies. We are responsible to care for our children and then as our parents get older we are responsible to provide for them the adequate care that they deserve. So notice that we should see that Easter is about family. Yes it is about family providing for and loving our earthly family.

And you know maybe we need to just slow down and maybe we need to make sure we spend the adequate time with our family. Again John chapter 19 when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, that would be John. They were all standing by. He said to his mother, "Woman behold your son." And then in verse 27 he said to the disciple, "John behold your mother." And from that very hour, from that time, the disciple, John took her, Mary, into his home. And then fourth, this fourth saying from the cross, Jesus offered a prayer from his anguish. We see from Matthew 27 that Jesus offered a prayer from his anguish.

Let's look at verses verses 45 to 46. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, three hours. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, "Eli, Eli, lemme sabachani." That is translated, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Now up to this point, notice, all the suffering and all the shame that Jesus endured at the hands of sinful men were minor compared to what he was about to suffer. Here we see in this fourth saying that it was about the sixth hour or noon. And from noon till about 3 p.m. there was darkness over the land. And then at 3 p.m.

Jesus cried out in a loud voice what can seem strange to us. Now I'm not referring to the language. I'm not referring to the language here. What I'm pointing to is that it can seem odd that God the Son cried out that God the Father had forsaken him. Now I want us to look at what is happening here in two ways. First we see physical darkness. First we see physical darkness. Verse 45 tells us that there was physical darkness all over the land. And we need to see that this physical darkness was a real physical darkness. Look what was actually happened here. This darkness cannot be explained by normal things.

A lot of scholars will reference an eclipse. A normal eclipse. We know what an eclipse is. An eclipse happens from time to time and although an eclipse is strange and it can seem otherworldly, an eclipse is a normal thing. It can be explained. It can be understood. But that is not what was happening here. This physical darkness could not have been from an eclipse because the Passover will celebrate it at the time of the full moon when the full moon was opposite the Sun. Well if that's the case what was going on? This darkness can only be explained as the intentional intervening power of God.

This darkness that enveloped the land happened because of the hand of God. God imposed in his great power over nature to bring about this darkness over the land for his purposes. And you know if you do some study it is interesting to note that even secular sources tell us that this darkness actually happened in that day and in that time. But I question what's the significance here? What does this mean? What does this darkness point to? Notice folks this great physical darkness that came about at the time of the cross pointed to the great spiritual darkness that came about while Jesus was on the cross.

So we see this physical darkness at the cross. Now why do we need to look at this darkness? Why not skip over this? Why should we take the time to look at this physical darkness? Jewish scholars, Jewish teachers in that day taught that the darkening of the Sun represented a judgment from God on the world. And we must see that judgment was about to come. We must see that judgment was about to come. It was a judgment that was coming that was and is a wonderful and awful judgment. So first we see the physical darkness and then second we see spiritual darkness. We see spiritual darkness.

Now when we look at what is happening here we must keep in mind that as Jesus was forsaken by God there were several things that did not happen. Jesus did not cease to be God here and at the same time Jesus did not cease to be human here. Listen, Jesus possessed the divine nature and the human nature as one person. Jesus was fully God and fully man, fully man and fully God. This is sometimes called the hypostatic union. If you're studying and you run across that term hypostatic union that is a term that references the fact that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

And during these events on the cross he did not at any time cease to be God or cease to be man. Also he was not somehow separated from the love of God. Now this is going to sound like semantics but follow me. He was not somehow separated from the love of God. He was not outside of the love of the favor of God at any time although how God related to Jesus did change. And Jesus did not lose his personal joy, his personal comfort and his personal internal satisfaction in his own soul and in his own being. But we must see what was happening here. At this time when Jesus was on the cross he was forsaken.

He was forsaken in that he was without the gracious presence of God and was at that time filled with the divine wrath of God. When Jesus was forsaken by God, God's gracious presence was taken from him and he was filled with the righteous wrath of God as he bore the sins and the iniquities of sinful men. So as to make full satisfaction for the sin and the iniquities of men, God's red hot righteous wrath had to be poured out on Jesus while he was on the cross bearing the sin and the iniquities of men. I love how William McDonald, the Bible commentator, summarizes what was happening here. And I'm going to add to his summary and I'm quoting.

William McDonald says, "Because God is holy he cannot overlook sin. Because God is holy he cannot overlook sin. On the contrary, he must punish it. The Lord Jesus had no sin of his own, but he took the guilt of our sins upon himself. And when God as judge looked down and saw our sins upon the sinless substitute he withdrew from the son of his love." And I would say that God withdrew his gracious kindness and love from Jesus and poured out on his son his righteous wrath. And God did all of this out of his love, out of his love for the son and out of his obedience and out of his sinless substitution.

So from the cross we see that Jesus offered a prayer of great anguish to the Father as a great physical darkness enveloped the land, a great spiritual darkness enveloped Jesus. His Father withdrew his gracious presence from Jesus while he was on the cross and he poured out his righteous wrath on Jesus. Jesus literally experienced the darkness of hell. McDonald calls this three hours of compressed hell. Three hours of compressed hell. And I will borrow that term as I continue. Now just like last week, these things in three different places in time.

Listen folks, in eternity past, Jesus bearing the wrath of God for sin was a part of God's predetermined plan and that was in every way planned out before time and before human history. It was determined in the halls of eternity that Jesus would be the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world by enduring three hours of compressed hell while on the cross. And get this, try and get this, try to get your mind around this. And with God's help we can embrace this. While Jesus was there in darkness, God placed on him every sin that was ever committed by his people.

Every sin, every sin that was committed in word, every sin that was committed in deed, even every sin that was committed in attitude, even the sins of motive, even the sins that are manifested and our personality quirks and hang ups. God took all of those sins and he placed them on his son Jesus while he was on the cross. And the everlasting wrath, judgment and hell of God that those sins and those sinful things deserve all that righteous wrath of God that was meant to be poured out on us for all of eternity, God took all of that. God took all of that and he poured it out on his son for those three hours.

It was three hours of compressed hell and damnation that all of God's people deserve for all of eternity. And it was pre-planned. It was pre-planned. But then second in time, on that awful but glorious day, on that day, the righteous red hot wrath of God was poured out right there on Jesus. And those Romans peering at Jesus through the darkness, somehow they saw that but they didn't. Those Jews peering at Jesus on the darkness, somehow they saw that but they didn't.

In time and in human history, on that very day, God took his precious loving presence from his son and he poured out three hours of compressed eternal hell that all of God's people deserve all throughout eternity. And he poured it on his son that day, right there. But what about in our day, right now, in our time? And I've got to ask you, are you living in the forgiveness that we discussed last week? Are you living in the salvation that Jesus promised and gave to the thief on the cross? Are you living in forgiveness? Are you living in salvation? Have you been born of the Spirit of God, converted to Christ? You've been forgiven of your sin?

Are you living in a here and now salvation and forgiveness? Or are you living in anticipation of this wrath? It's one or the other. I've said this from time to time in my years with you, we all know John 3, 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son." We know that. Most of you probably don't know verse 17, and most all of you probably don't know verse 18. I'm going to read them together. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." The thief believed.

"For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him." Jesus came to give salvation to men. And then verse 18, "He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already." That is a judicial term. It is as if God has taken the gavel in the halls of justice, and he has slapped the gavel, and he said, "Judged, judged, judged." And if you are outside of Christ, you are judged already, and you are waiting on the wrath of a holy God. Jesus endured it for three hours, compressed hell. You, if you die without Christ, you will endure it for forever.

So in this day and in this time, you're either forgiven, living in your salvation, or you're waiting. You're waiting on this. So notice, we should see that Easter is about the wrath of God. It's not eggs. It's not bunnies, or even candy. Easter is about the wrath of God being poured out on Jesus for the sin of men, a wrath that we deserve. Easter is not about time off from work and vacation. All of those things that we do enjoy, it's about the righteous wrath of a holy God being poured out on His Son for us.

Matthew 27, 46, about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, "Notice He doesn't say, 'Father, my God, my God, why have You forsaken me?'" And then the fifth saying on the cross, this comes out of John 19. Jesus offered a plea from His suffering. Jesus offered a plea from His suffering. I will read a verse that we covered already.

Verse 27, "Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.' And from that hour He," this is John, "took her into His home." And after this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the Scripture, "I thirst." Now here in verse 28, we find Jesus at the end of this three hours darkness. We have seen and learned that it was during this darkness that Jesus' Son was forsaken by God the Father. And of course, this happened as He was suffering our eternal damnation in three hours of compressed hell. And it was at the end of this three hours that Jesus cried out from His suffering.

Now in this very short statement, "I thirst," there are several things that we really need to see. First of all, this was a plea from real physical suffering. This was a plea from real physical suffering. Now last week we saw that Jesus' death was a natural death. Yes, His death was unnatural and it was supernatural in every way, but His physical death was a real physical death. He had a physical body that was destroyed. He actually spilled out His life's blood. Acts 20 verse 28 says that He, Jesus, spilled His own life's blood so as to purchase the church of God. But as He died, Jesus suffered a real physical suffering.

Right here scholars tell us that one of the most awful things about an actual crucifixion was the thirst of the one who was crucified. Because of the terrible nature of their wounds and the awful trauma that is inflicted on the body, the one being crucified was overcome and overwhelmed by a horrible, unquenchable thirst. There are even firsthand historical accounts from those who witnessed crucifixion and they attest to this horrible thirst from those who endured crucifixion. So in this statement, "I thirst," Jesus tells us that He was suffering a real physical thirst. But then second, this was a plea to prolong His suffering.

This might surprise you. This was a plea to prolong His suffering. Now of course, we have seen that Jesus cried out in thirst because physically He wanted relief from His thirst. But the Roman soldiers did not give Him a drink to help Him. They didn't do that out of pity. Their purpose in giving Jesus this sour wine was to prolong His life. When men cried out in thirst from crucifixion, the Roman soldiers would give them a drink because that would prolong life, therefore prolong their suffering. So this action by the Roman soldiers was not to help Jesus in His suffering but to prolong it.

And listen, everything the Roman soldiers did in crucifixion was to intensify the pain and the suffering of the one that was being crucified. But notice one fact that we must see here. This sour wine was not the same thing that Jesus refused in Matthew 27 verse 34. Chronologically, that was earlier. What Jesus was offered before was a wine that contained gall. It was a mixture of wine and gall. And that was intended to help deaden the pain. And Jesus refused that wine because He wanted to take the cup of God's wrath against sin without numbing the pain. So in many ways, this was a plea to prolong suffering.

And then third, this was a plea to fulfill Scripture. Your English Standard Version, your King James Version, note that this was a fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. Specifically, this was a fulfillment of Psalm 69.21, where David wrote, "They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink." So as Jesus cried out, "I thirst." And as these soldiers gave Jesus sour wine, Jesus was fulfilling the last of the prophecies that had to be fulfilled. So from the cross, we see that Jesus cried out, "I thirst." "I thirst." And in that plea, and the reactions of the soldiers, so much was happening.

This was a cry, a real cry from real physical pain. We see the prolonging of His suffering on the cross. But ultimately, this was a fulfillment of what God said would happen. And again, we should see these things in three places in time. From eternity past, Jesus' physical sufferings on the cross were predetermined. Yes, even His thirst. This was all a part of God's plan from the beginning. Every detail of the cross, including the spiritual sufferings, the emotional sufferings, and the physical sufferings were a part of God's plan.

And then second, in that time, in that day, on that horrible day, but yet that beautiful day, Jesus suffered physically, and He suffered physically from thirst. There were Jews there, they were Romans there, they were even His own followers there, and they all saw and heard of this terrible physical suffering. And it was all pre-planned. But in our day, in our time, I just simply have to ask you a question. What do you thirst after? What do you thirst after? What do you thirst for? I can tell you what will tell you what your thirst is. That is where you spend your time, where you spend your money, and where you spend your thoughts.

Is your time and is your money and all your thoughts, are all of those things bound up in your thirst for God, in the will of God, in the Word of God, and the purposes of God? Or do you thirst for nothing but sin, self, and the world, and self-gratification? And if that's the case, chances are you're not converted to Christ, and you're headed towards this wrath. So notice that we should see that Easter is all about the physical suffering of Christ. Yes, there are vacations. Yes, there are. We do get new clothes for Easter, but it is all about Christ and his physical sufferings. Again, John 19.28.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, he said, "I thirst," and it was to fulfill the prophecies made about him. Now, I want to conclude our message with the same question, or questions that I asked last week. How do we make this Easter season about Jesus' physical sufferings on the cross? How do we make this Easter season about the fact that Jesus was forsaken of God while he was on the cross? And how do we make this Easter season even about family? First, we do this by reflecting on these things, personally, in our minds and in our hearts. We should take time in prayer. We should meditate on what we have studied here.

Listen, we should worship God for the fact that Jesus endured our eternal hell and damnation for three hours of condensed hell. This should lead us to worship. This should lead us to love God and to serve God all the more. And listen, if this does not move you, if this does not move me, if this does not move us to thankfulness and worship, then something is wrong with us spiritually. And get this, if you've not experienced forgiveness and salvation like we saw last week, you can't worship. You can't. You can't worship Christ for taking on your wrath because that's the wrath that waits for you.

And then second, we should talk about these things in our home. We should talk about these things with our children, starting with the holy wrath of God that was poured out on Jesus while he was on the cross. This substitutionary Atonement, folks, we should talk about this with our children when they're young, as they get older, and as they continue to get older. And we should talk about these things when we get up in the morning, when we go to bed at night, as we're driving down the road. And we should talk about the fact that Christ is born God's wrath in their place, or the fact that they are still in their sin.

And if they die in their sin, they will suffer the righteous wrath of God in hell for all of eternity. And listen, folks, don't change truth here. Don't sugarcoat it for your children here. You might say, "Pastor, oh, that will be traumatic. It better be traumatic." The truth of these things are traumatic. And hell will not be three hours of condensed hell for those who go there. It will be an eternal hell for those who go there. And we should talk about these things in our homes for evangelistic purposes, yes, but also for worship. How can we not worship this God all the more? And then third, this should motivate us to witness.

Our neighbors need Christ. If we love our neighbors, we should be motivated by the fact that our Savior suffered on the cross. He bore the wrath of God for sin. And we should be motivated to share the gospel with those who need Christ. How many people do we come in contact with all throughout the week? Need Christ. They're everywhere. And listen, folks, people who die without being born again, they suffer the holy wrath of God for their sin because they must pay their own sin debt. Now, what's the title of the message? What's the title of the series? I think you've got that by now. Our Savior's seven sayings from the cross.

He made a promise to his mother. He prayed in anguish as he was forsaken by God, and he made a plea from his suffering. Let's pray and let's commit these things to God. And let's commit these things to God that he might do a lasting work in us according to his desires.