WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.240 Well, we're taking a break from 1st Timothy for this Sunday, next Sunday as we, in this 00:00:07.240 --> 00:00:12.400 Easter season, look at the crucifixion this morning and the resurrection next week. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:16.420 And we read from Matthew's account of the crucifixion. 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:20.679 And Matthew's account, if you were following along, you might have noticed this, that it's 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:25.679 very factual with a lot of details. 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:31.399 And it doesn't really say much by way of interpretation like John does, for example. 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:36.640 It just gives you facts and it gives you a lot of the surrounding details about the crucifixion. 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:42.200 But actually one of the interesting things is it says very little about Jesus himself 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:43.519 in the event of the crucifixion. 00:00:43.519 --> 00:00:49.159 So if you notice, it talks about two authors of wine, about Simon of Cyrene and Elijah 00:00:49.159 --> 00:00:53.480 and the darkness and the resurrection bodies and the temple being torn into and the earthquake 00:00:53.479 --> 00:00:55.399 and the rocks being split. 00:00:55.399 --> 00:01:00.039 But it only has one verse that turns to focus on Christ. 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:04.519 And that is verse 46 where it says that he lifted up and he shrieked. 00:01:04.519 --> 00:01:07.920 He cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.280 And that's the only moment that focuses on Jesus himself. 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:16.679 And what you've got to say then, Matthew, that must be the centerpiece of the text. 00:01:16.679 --> 00:01:21.079 If you give me all these surrounding details, but then there's one moment where it turns 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.400 to the man on the cross. 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:29.680 And when you look at this passage, I think one of the ways to read it is actually to 00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:34.240 come to Paul's interpretation of the cross. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:39.840 And if you look at Paul's interpretation of the cross in 1 Corinthians 1, it maps out 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:44.240 very closely to the way Matthew presents the cross here. 00:01:44.240 --> 00:01:47.600 And what does Paul say about the cross in 1 Corinthians 1? 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:54.280 And he says to some people, the cross is utter foolishness and to others, it is the power 00:01:54.280 --> 00:01:56.519 of God to salvation. 00:01:56.519 --> 00:02:00.719 And so that's what we have to see this morning, that the cross on the one hand is foolishness 00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:02.959 and on the other hand, it's the power of God. 00:02:02.959 --> 00:02:04.879 And that's exactly what Matthew does here. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:06.479 So let's look at that. 00:02:06.479 --> 00:02:14.359 Verses 31 to 50 highlights constantly that the cross is foolishness to the world. 00:02:14.360 --> 00:02:18.400 If you look at 1 Corinthians 118 in fact, where Paul says that carefully, he doesn't 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:22.440 just say the cross is literally nonsense. 00:02:22.440 --> 00:02:26.480 He says the word of the cross is nonsense. 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:28.360 And there's two ways to take that. 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:36.040 On the one hand, he's saying when anybody tells another person about the story of Jesus, 00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:40.680 it's almost like it's foolishness in the eyes of the world. 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:41.920 And we'll see why in just a moment. 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:43.880 But there's a second way to take that. 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:48.240 And that's that Paul uses the Greek word there, logos. 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:51.199 The logos of the cross is nonsense. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:57.039 And he knows very well from John that Jesus is called in the gospels the logos himself. 00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:58.759 He is the word. 00:02:58.759 --> 00:03:02.680 And so when Paul says the logos of the cross, the word of the cross is foolishness, he's 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:06.719 saying it's not just the gospel message, but the man. 00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:13.240 That in the eyes of the world, the man himself hanging on the cross is foolishness. 00:03:13.240 --> 00:03:17.320 And when you come back to Matthew, that's very clear that that's exactly what Matthew 00:03:17.320 --> 00:03:18.520 is showing. 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:24.040 One commentator points out that if there's one key thing in Matthew's take on the cross, 00:03:24.040 --> 00:03:30.040 his testimony of the cross, it is that the mocking of Christ is overwhelming. 00:03:30.040 --> 00:03:33.240 And it's a holistic mocking, you might say. 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:36.800 And one commentator points out that it exists at four levels. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:38.240 So let me show those to you. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:40.920 First, the soldiers mock him. 00:03:40.919 --> 00:03:44.679 Verse 31, they mocked him, they stripped him of his robe. 00:03:44.679 --> 00:03:49.719 Just before that, they put a purple robe on him to make fun of him because of his claim 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:51.000 to kingship. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:56.399 And then they pressed the thorns into his brow, both acts of mockery. 00:03:56.399 --> 00:04:00.479 Verse 32, they make Simon of Cyrene carry the cross beam. 00:04:00.479 --> 00:04:01.479 What is going on here? 00:04:01.479 --> 00:04:07.879 Simon of Cyrene is forced to carry Jesus' cross beam because they were mimicking a kingly 00:04:07.879 --> 00:04:10.560 royal processional. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:15.879 So it's as if he has a servant in front of him carrying an announcement that the king 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:17.560 is coming up the hill. 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:19.399 But it's all ironic. 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:21.879 It's for the sake of mockery. 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:25.000 Verse 35, they strip him naked. 00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:30.560 And they gamble away his garments and they hang him completely naked on the cross. 00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:34.879 In verse 37, the soldiers, they put the king of the Jews above his head. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:41.240 You see in all this, the soldiers treat this as an ironic enthronement. 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:45.719 They're trying to say, this man claimed that he was king, now let's make him a king. 00:04:45.719 --> 00:04:47.560 And they do it as an act of mockery. 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:50.480 Now the second level is the civilians. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:55.719 We read the story of Palm Sunday entering into Jerusalem where the civilians lay down 00:04:55.719 --> 00:04:58.040 their coats and worship him. 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:06.480 And now a week later in verse 39, it says they, quote, hurled insults, wagged their 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:07.879 heads, abuse. 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:10.840 It's actually a Greek word you'll recognize. 00:05:10.840 --> 00:05:12.840 It's the word blasphemon. 00:05:12.840 --> 00:05:15.680 They committed blasphemies against him. 00:05:15.680 --> 00:05:17.360 They said, son of God. 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:21.040 You see, the soldiers say, he's the king and they laugh. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.280 And now the civilians say, son of God. 00:05:24.280 --> 00:05:25.879 And they laugh at him. 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:31.120 They mock him for that claim that he had throughout his ministry. 00:05:31.120 --> 00:05:35.120 In verse 47, they say, is he calling down Elijah? 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:36.279 And you know why they say that? 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:38.920 Because that's, Matthew gives us the Aramaic. 00:05:38.920 --> 00:05:47.040 And you hear in the Aramaic when he says, Eli, Eli, my God, my God, it sounds like Elijah. 00:05:47.040 --> 00:05:50.240 And so they say, is he calling Elijah down? 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:54.199 And when they reach to give him wine, why? 00:05:54.199 --> 00:05:55.839 It's not that they're being kind. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:01.199 It's that they think in his calling Elijah, he's losing consciousness. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:03.439 He's going crazy in his suffering. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:08.479 And so the wine, the sour wine was meant to regain consciousness so that he could suffer 00:06:08.479 --> 00:06:09.639 longer. 00:06:09.639 --> 00:06:12.879 And that's why a spectator says, wait, wait, wait, don't give it to him yet. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:17.959 Let's see if Elijah really will come down, which is an act of mockery. 00:06:17.959 --> 00:06:19.719 Don't give him his consciousness back. 00:06:19.719 --> 00:06:20.719 He's going crazy. 00:06:20.719 --> 00:06:21.719 Let's watch. 00:06:21.719 --> 00:06:23.799 Let's see what happens here. 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:27.439 Verse 49, they see it as an entertainment activity. 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:31.560 The reason that this is possible is because crucifixions always happen, by the way, along 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:33.120 a main thoroughfare. 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:37.800 And so you could literally just pass by on the street and see whoever was being crucified 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:38.800 at the time. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:41.120 Today it was Jesus. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:43.560 Third level, the chief priests. 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:45.240 This is how much Matthew is highlighting this. 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:49.480 Verse 41 says, also the authorities mocked him. 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:54.040 Meaning Matthew's saying, have you noticed yet that I'm highlighting the mockery, the 00:06:54.040 --> 00:06:59.759 civilians, the soldiers, also the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, and how do they do 00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:00.759 it? 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:04.439 They say in verse 41, if you're really God, save yourself. 00:07:04.439 --> 00:07:08.560 Come down or tell God to send somebody. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:12.720 And if we're blaspheming you, then why don't you do something about it? 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.360 That's how they mock him, the chief priests. 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:22.040 And then finally the criminals, verse 44, two men who are being executed on either side 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:30.199 of him for their crimes, mock him for being crucified as the king of the Jews. 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:37.920 And you see, Matthew is saying like Paul, that every type of person, poor and rich, 00:07:37.920 --> 00:07:42.560 and every degree in between, it doesn't matter your socioeconomic status, your race, your 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:47.160 creed, any of it, human beings mock Jesus Christ. 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:50.079 They regard the cross as foolishness. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:54.399 It doesn't matter where you come from or when or what your background is. 00:07:54.399 --> 00:07:56.959 The cross is nonsense, Paul says. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:08:01.360 The Logos is a fool, Paul says, in the eyes of the world. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:07.920 And that's because we learn here that he's a God at the cross who's appearing to the 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:15.640 eyes of the world weak, a pretender to the throne, he's naked and he's shamed publicly 00:08:15.640 --> 00:08:16.640 here. 00:08:16.640 --> 00:08:21.840 Now John Stott commenting on this, the great Anglican theologian, this is what he asks. 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:27.120 He says, what kind of a religion would have a God who dies in weakness at the hands of 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:30.240 his own creatures? 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:36.399 And he points us to evidence that that really was the question in the first and second centuries. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:41.439 And this is what he says, no matter whether their background was Roman or Jewish or both, 00:08:41.439 --> 00:08:47.399 the early enemies of Christianity lost no opportunity to ridicule the claim that God's 00:08:47.399 --> 00:08:51.600 anointed and man's savior ended his life on a cross. 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:53.439 The idea was crazy. 00:08:53.439 --> 00:08:58.240 This is well illustrated by Grafito from the second century, discovered on the Palatine 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:04.000 Hill in Rome, on the wall of a house considered by scholars to have been used as a school 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:06.639 for imperial pages in the court. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:12.799 It's the first, this is an important historical note, we have the first surviving picture 00:09:12.799 --> 00:09:17.759 of the crucifixion just after the turn of the century, 100 AD, still today, and it's 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:24.159 a caricature and it's a crude drawing that depicts a man stretched out on a cross with 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:27.600 a donkey as his head. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:31.960 And you see the response to the cross throughout history, one pastor points out how whether 00:09:31.960 --> 00:09:39.360 it's from the religious or the ouriligious has always been what Paul says, foolishness. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:45.360 For example, when Islam looks at the cross, Islam says that the cross is inappropriate 00:09:45.360 --> 00:09:47.160 for the prophet of God. 00:09:47.160 --> 00:09:52.440 And so the story, Islam accepts the story of the crucifixion, but it says that at the 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:58.000 last minute Jesus was replaced on the cross by Simon of Cyrene or some other man that 00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:04.000 Jesus never actually died because it's foolishness for the prophet of God to be killed in such 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:09.600 a way or if you go to Hinduism, Gandhi, the great modern prophet of the Hinduism, this 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:15.960 is what he says, I could accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice and as 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:20.360 a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:24.399 And his death on the cross is a great example to the world, but that there was anything 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:30.919 in it like a mysterious or miraculous virtue that we cannot accept. 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:35.759 That's the religious response, but the ouriligious, the anti-religious response, you can go to 00:10:35.759 --> 00:10:40.439 the greatest atheist thinker that's ever lived, Friedrich Nietzsche, the great German philosopher 00:10:40.439 --> 00:10:45.199 of the 19th century and listen to what he says about Jesus and about the cross in his 00:10:45.199 --> 00:10:47.240 book, The Antichrist. 00:10:47.240 --> 00:10:55.200 He says, true happiness is a feeling of power when it increases in your life. 00:10:55.200 --> 00:11:01.519 And the most harm then that we can do is to have active sympathy for the ill constituted 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.799 and the weak. 00:11:03.799 --> 00:11:10.360 Therefore Christianity in taking the side of everything weak, base and ill constituted 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:13.080 has done the most harm to the world. 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:18.480 Because the religion of pity, it preserves what is ripe for destruction and it thwarts 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:21.200 the law of evolution. 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:27.920 At the center is the contemptuous God on a cross, weakness incarnate. 00:11:27.920 --> 00:11:36.960 You see, ancients, moderns, every class, religious, ouriligious and today books are still being 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:37.960 written. 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:43.040 The cross is unjust, it's cosmic child abuse, that's the more modern favorite way to go. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:45.839 It's ultimate weakness on display. 00:11:45.839 --> 00:11:50.759 And so here's Stadegan, the Christian's choice of a cross therefore as a symbol of their 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.199 faith is surprising. 00:11:53.199 --> 00:11:57.759 When we remember the horror with which crucifixion was regarded in the ancient world, we can 00:11:57.759 --> 00:12:02.480 understand why the message of the cross was to many of Paul's listeners foolishness in 00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:08.319 the first century, even madness, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.23. 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:14.120 How could any sane person worship as a God, a dead man who had been justly condemned as 00:12:14.120 --> 00:12:18.879 a criminal subjected to the most humiliating form of execution? 00:12:18.879 --> 00:12:25.000 This combination of death, crime and shame put him beyond the pale of respect, let alone 00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.000 worship in the mind, the Roman mind of the first and second centuries. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:37.840 And yet, Jesus Christ's cross turned the world upside down and millions and billions of people 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:43.040 look at the cross and say the power of God into salvation. 00:12:43.040 --> 00:12:46.879 And so we've got to turn in and ask, how, why? 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:51.980 And Matthew sets it up for us, he tells us about the foolishness of the cross at every 00:12:51.980 --> 00:12:58.399 level of society, but then he thwarts it to tell us that the cross is the power of God, 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:02.960 secondly the power of God in the cross. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:08.000 Everything we've said so far means that Jesus Christ, the Logos, the Word is divisive. 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:09.000 He's divisive. 00:13:09.000 --> 00:13:12.560 If he came into the world and he divided people from the beginning and he still does that, 00:13:12.560 --> 00:13:18.280 people bow, they trip and they bow before him or they trip and stumble, frustrated and 00:13:18.280 --> 00:13:21.040 angry, rejecting him. 00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:25.560 And I've mentioned this before, but I think since I've been back, I can't remember actually, 00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:33.839 but when I was in Germany several years ago, one of the really incredible memorial pieces 00:13:33.839 --> 00:13:40.319 that Germany has put in place since World War II and the Holocaust is the Stolpersteine 00:13:40.319 --> 00:13:42.159 in German, the stumbling stones. 00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:46.399 So if you're in Germany in Berlin or Frankfurt or Stuttgart, other places, you'll walk along 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:52.119 the sidewalk and all of a sudden you'll trip over a stone that's been set two inches off 00:13:52.119 --> 00:13:54.119 the normal pavement. 00:13:54.120 --> 00:14:00.919 I mean, every lawyer's nightmare that there's these purposeful trip hazards all over the 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:03.080 pavement in Germany, but they're there. 00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:07.919 And where they put them is out in front of homes where Jews were ripped from the home 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:11.720 and they're home and murdered and taken to concentration camps and the names are often 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:19.840 written in Hebrew and they're there to say, remember what humans can do. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:22.120 Remember the possibilities of sin. 00:14:22.120 --> 00:14:23.120 And they're all over Germany. 00:14:23.120 --> 00:14:28.000 Where do they get the idea of the Stolpersteine, the Stolpersteine, Simon, I hope will tell 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:31.080 me I'm pronouncing that correctly, the stumbling stones. 00:14:31.080 --> 00:14:32.879 It comes from the Bible, right? 00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:36.840 Jesus Christ is the cross, is the stumbling stone. 00:14:36.840 --> 00:14:42.840 You have to trip over it and you trip over it because of a number of things. 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:48.039 And this is the main reason and Acts chapter two tells us Peter, whether you're a Roman, 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:55.439 did you, a modern Scott, an American, whatever, wherever you're poor or rich, whatever a criminal, 00:14:55.439 --> 00:14:59.959 a saint, Gandhi, Nietzsche, everybody trips over the cross. 00:14:59.959 --> 00:15:01.759 And the reason for that is Acts two. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:08.079 Peter is standing in Jerusalem in Acts chapter two and there's a crowd of thousands and 00:15:08.079 --> 00:15:13.799 most of the people there had not been present physically for the crucifixion. 00:15:13.799 --> 00:15:19.039 And yet Peter looks out and says, you crucified him. 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:20.439 Let's use the Southern American. 00:15:20.439 --> 00:15:21.439 It's the best way to say it. 00:15:21.439 --> 00:15:22.639 Y'all crucified him. 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:23.639 It's the plural. 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:25.120 You have to have a plural you. 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:27.479 You all crucified him, all of you. 00:15:27.479 --> 00:15:30.319 And he says it to people that were not there. 00:15:30.319 --> 00:15:31.519 And what does he mean by that? 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:38.399 He's saying that every single person that has ever lived cried out, crucify him. 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:43.919 And we did it, we mocked him and we said full because we shook our fist at God from the 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:45.919 day we were born. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:50.360 Adam crucified him and I crucified him and everybody has crucified him. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:56.639 We shouted that because human, you know, by human nature, we reject anything that limits 00:15:56.639 --> 00:15:59.679 our autonomy, our power. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:06.720 And we're happy to maximize our freedom in life and we're happy to follow a Messiah. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:12.000 If that Messiah is to lead in a way that we expect, that would give us more and more 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:14.600 freedom and more and more power as individuals. 00:16:14.600 --> 00:16:19.440 Let me give you an example of how Nietzsche was right, how we all desire power. 00:16:19.440 --> 00:16:21.840 And so we reject anything that thwarts it. 00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:27.800 Nietzsche was right because in the first century, the expectation of the Messiah, whether you're 00:16:27.800 --> 00:16:32.080 Roman, Greek, Jew, whatever, the Messiah, the Messiah was to be a person who came in 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:39.080 the Jewish mindset to start the revolution and to take back Israel from Rome and to march 00:16:39.080 --> 00:16:43.280 straight to Rome with an army and displace Caesar from the throne. 00:16:43.280 --> 00:16:46.480 And so the Messiah was expected to come in immense physical power. 00:16:46.480 --> 00:16:51.040 If you're Roman or Greek, if you're looking for a Messiah, you expect him to be Hercules, 00:16:51.040 --> 00:16:55.560 to be the strongest, to be the fittest, the prettiest, to look like Saul from the Old 00:16:55.560 --> 00:16:57.759 Testament in every way. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:02.679 And that's why in that way Nietzsche is right, natural humanity, natural humanity. 00:17:02.679 --> 00:17:07.839 If the Messiah should come and he should show power and maximize my freedom, then I'll follow 00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:09.339 him. 00:17:09.339 --> 00:17:18.839 Now Matthew comes here and he says, then the reason why the cross is not foolishness and 00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:25.079 the reason why the cross is the power of God is because of the deepest irony moving throughout 00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:27.599 the thread of sacred history. 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:34.839 And the deepest irony of all of sacred history is this, that Jesus came to claim ultimate 00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:39.000 victory by way of ultimate loss. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:42.679 And it's the thread that Nietzsche would not accept and it's the thread that we don't 00:17:42.679 --> 00:17:46.519 first accept, but it is the power of God. 00:17:46.519 --> 00:17:51.559 And it's so unexpected, it stands so counter to every human instinct. 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:55.799 Look, this might be old hat to you, you've sat in the church for a long time and you've 00:17:55.799 --> 00:18:02.399 heard the cross, but recognize the true revolution of the cross is that God came to earth to 00:18:02.399 --> 00:18:05.440 ultimately win by ultimately losing. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:10.240 And it's the grand irony of history, it doesn't make sense in the stories that we want to 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:11.240 write. 00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:12.639 And that's why Nietzsche hated it. 00:18:12.639 --> 00:18:17.679 And where does Paul then say the power of God to salvation, where can we find it? 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:21.840 And let's turn towards the end by saying two ways. 00:18:21.840 --> 00:18:26.360 Two ways you can find the power of God here on to salvation. 00:18:26.360 --> 00:18:33.279 The first is this, Jesus Christ manifest here the power to choose. 00:18:33.279 --> 00:18:38.360 And when you pay careful attention to the text, the crucifixion story that Matthew writes, 00:18:38.360 --> 00:18:43.880 you see on the one hand the mocking is intense and it's holistic, but on the other hand Matthew 00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:50.560 writes it in such a way that you begin to recognize over time that it's deeply ironic. 00:18:50.560 --> 00:18:55.760 And for example, let me just show you this, in verse 40 the civilians say, you said Jesus, 00:18:55.760 --> 00:18:59.560 you're going to tear down the temple and in three days you're going to raise it back up 00:18:59.560 --> 00:19:00.660 again. 00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:03.400 But look at you now. 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:09.800 And verse 43 the scribes say, you say you're God, why don't you deliver yourself, why don't 00:19:09.799 --> 00:19:14.559 you raise yourself up from the cross right now and as soon as you hear something like 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:18.519 that, look you should do what Nietzsche seemed to fail to do. 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:23.039 And what you want to say to Nietzsche is did you read the next chapter? 00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:26.519 Did you read the next paragraph? 00:19:26.519 --> 00:19:32.960 And this is, look next week is Easter, but Jesus Christ is alive today as well. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:36.879 And here's the question, the theologians have been exploring for centuries. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:46.560 You raised Jesus Christ from the dead and we say God did, God the Father, God the Son 00:19:46.560 --> 00:19:47.560 and God the Holy Spirit. 00:19:47.560 --> 00:19:49.040 And you know what that means? 00:19:49.040 --> 00:19:55.560 That means on the third day the Son of God, Jesus Christ, raised himself from the dead. 00:19:55.560 --> 00:19:59.160 That's been the confession of all of Christian history. 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:05.360 And that means that what's happening in this moment is not utter weakness. 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:14.279 It's that Jesus Christ has decided and determined to voluntarily condescend and give himself 00:20:14.279 --> 00:20:16.679 as a display of utter weakness. 00:20:16.679 --> 00:20:22.199 The issue is not that he's weak, it's that he is absolutely strong and has determined 00:20:22.199 --> 00:20:25.719 to give himself for us an ultimate weakness. 00:20:25.719 --> 00:20:32.119 You see he's commanding the Son of God from eternity is commanding this very moment as 00:20:32.119 --> 00:20:33.439 he dies. 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:37.000 It's not passive, it's active, he chose to die like this. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:41.640 He determined that that was not a secret in the Gospels, not at all. 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:46.960 Jesus says, Mark 9, the Son of man will be betrayed into the hands of men and they will 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.880 kill him and in three days he will rise again. 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:52.880 He told him, he told him point blank what he was going to do. 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.880 Or Matthew 26, the chapter just before this, he says, do you not know that the Son of man 00:20:57.880 --> 00:21:03.080 is about to be handed over to crucifixion and that the Apostle said, don't do it, no. 00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:09.159 And he said, if I wanted to, I will call on my father and he will send a legion, 12,000 00:21:09.159 --> 00:21:12.279 angels to my aid, if I just say the word. 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:14.759 That's my power. 00:21:14.759 --> 00:21:17.399 You don't even have to go to the resurrection account to find the irony. 00:21:17.399 --> 00:21:18.480 It's right here. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:22.839 This ultimately, the way Matthew presents the story is ultimately to be read as a tragic 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:28.480 comedy in the classical sense of that term because first it appears to be tragedy but 00:21:28.480 --> 00:21:32.000 at the very end there's a great irony, almost comedic irony. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:38.519 In the midst of great sorrow and it's in verse 54 and did you catch it when we read it? 00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:45.519 The rocks have split, the earthquake has come, the land is dark and all of a sudden the centurion 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:54.440 that had stripped Jesus naked and mocked him mercilessly, he lifts up his head and he said, 00:21:54.440 --> 00:21:57.319 this really is the Son of God. 00:21:57.319 --> 00:22:00.880 Before we ever get to the resurrection, the soldier says it, he realizes it, he wakes 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:08.680 up that this really is the man of power who is giving himself and utter weakness for us, 00:22:08.680 --> 00:22:11.640 only the soldier at the end of this story could see it. 00:22:11.640 --> 00:22:18.440 This is the voluntary condescension of God himself and this is what it means. 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:26.520 Jesus Christ in the middle of history let death swallow him so that he could destroy 00:22:26.520 --> 00:22:29.760 it from the inside out. 00:22:29.759 --> 00:22:38.319 It's not weakness, it's absolute power meets absolute love displayed for the mocker, me 00:22:38.319 --> 00:22:41.119 and you. 00:22:41.119 --> 00:22:45.079 Now that leads us to the second and final thing, the second power on display in Matthew's 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:48.519 story and that's the power of Jesus to forgive. 00:22:48.519 --> 00:22:54.400 At the very center of the story as we mentioned at the beginning is the cry in Aramaic, my 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:56.879 God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:22:56.879 --> 00:22:59.240 Why is it in Aramaic? 00:22:59.240 --> 00:23:03.880 You read the whole book and it's all in Greek and then in one moment all of a sudden there's 00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:06.720 a sentence in Aramaic. 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:12.880 And we're told here in the Greek that it was a shriek very literally, it was a cry, not 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:18.839 just a yell but a gut wrenching shriek, a cry. 00:23:18.839 --> 00:23:22.559 We call it the cry of dereliction typically. 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:26.160 And it says here that God, why have you forsaken me? 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:30.320 Jesus says that God the Father had forsaken him in that moment. 00:23:30.320 --> 00:23:36.080 And this is why it's in Aramaic, the same reason that it says that God forsook him. 00:23:36.080 --> 00:23:42.120 If you're trying to write a story, a religion into history in the first century and you're 00:23:42.120 --> 00:23:46.800 trying to convince the Romans and the Greeks and others whose gods come down to earth and 00:23:46.800 --> 00:23:53.680 display themselves in utter power, the demigods, Hercules and others, would you ever write 00:23:53.680 --> 00:24:00.600 a story where you claim that God the Father and God the Son were God the Father abandoned 00:24:00.600 --> 00:24:02.759 his Son? 00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:04.519 You would never do it. 00:24:04.519 --> 00:24:06.720 It's foolishness. 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:12.320 It's not on the first past a convincing narrative and that is the same reason that it's written 00:24:12.320 --> 00:24:13.320 in Aramaic. 00:24:13.320 --> 00:24:14.720 You see, why is it written in Aramaic? 00:24:14.720 --> 00:24:17.160 Because Jesus said it in Aramaic. 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:18.160 That's why. 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:19.160 Because it happened. 00:24:19.160 --> 00:24:21.440 I mean, you couldn't write this story. 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:23.360 You couldn't make it up. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:28.479 You would never write a story where God the Father abandoned and forsakes God the Son 00:24:28.479 --> 00:24:30.599 and where he cries it out in Aramaic. 00:24:30.599 --> 00:24:34.559 It's written that way because that's exactly what happened in the middle of history. 00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:36.639 You see, it's power. 00:24:36.639 --> 00:24:42.719 This is a subordinate thing, but it's power, it's reality is in the claim itself. 00:24:42.719 --> 00:24:44.879 How could this be anything other than true? 00:24:44.879 --> 00:24:49.919 And we know that from the moment he rises from the dead that so many that saw this day 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:55.720 saw him alive again, more than 500 witnesses and the message spread throughout all the 00:24:55.720 --> 00:25:00.600 land and Larry Hurtado, one of the former scholars at New College right across the street 00:25:00.600 --> 00:25:06.320 here wrote a very helpful book just before he died a few years ago, sadly, about this 00:25:06.320 --> 00:25:11.759 and he said that the only way to account for the power of this message just spread across 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:17.360 the first and second century Roman and Greek landscape in the midst of what they expected 00:25:17.359 --> 00:25:21.439 for a God was if the resurrection really happened. 00:25:21.439 --> 00:25:25.479 That was the only way as a historian he could figure it out. 00:25:25.479 --> 00:25:30.000 Now here's the real power though, the power of forgiveness and we see it in just a couple 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.079 ways very briefly. 00:25:32.079 --> 00:25:37.479 First when he says this, when Jesus cries out in dereliction, this is the power of Jesus 00:25:37.479 --> 00:25:41.000 to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:47.240 And this is from Psalm 22, verse one, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:25:47.240 --> 00:25:53.880 It's a Psalm of David and let me just say that there are statements in Psalm 22 that 00:25:53.880 --> 00:25:59.120 the commentators will say we can't make sense of because they don't ever seem to have happened 00:25:59.120 --> 00:26:01.480 to David anywhere. 00:26:01.480 --> 00:26:04.920 So let me give you just one or two quick examples in verse seven and eight of Psalm 22. 00:26:04.920 --> 00:26:10.079 This is what it says, everyone who sees me mocks me. 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:15.759 They make their mouths at me and they wag their heads. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:22.920 They say he trust in the Lord, let the Lord deliver him, let him rescue him for he delights 00:26:22.920 --> 00:26:27.960 in him or flip the page, verse 16 and 17. 00:26:27.960 --> 00:26:32.319 Where could we ever say this about David? 00:26:32.319 --> 00:26:33.799 Where in the Old Testament? 00:26:33.799 --> 00:26:40.279 And this is what it says, dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me. 00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:41.480 Here it is. 00:26:41.480 --> 00:26:45.119 They have pierced my hands and my feet. 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:47.399 I count all my bones in pain. 00:26:47.399 --> 00:26:50.639 They stare and gloat over me. 00:26:50.639 --> 00:26:58.199 They have divided my garments amongst themselves and for my clothing they cast lots. 00:26:58.199 --> 00:27:05.119 See this Psalm 22 is the son of God writing about the son of God. 00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:09.519 It's the son of God telling you so long ago exactly what the son of God would do for you 00:27:09.519 --> 00:27:11.479 when he cries out. 00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:15.319 And here's what that means, that means that when Jesus says, my God, my God, why have 00:27:15.319 --> 00:27:18.160 you forsaken me? 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:20.000 These are covenantal words. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:22.759 This actually comes from the Abraham story. 00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:24.279 My God, my God. 00:27:24.279 --> 00:27:29.200 When God says to Abraham, I'm going to make you my people, I'll be your God and you can 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:32.599 say my God, my God. 00:27:32.599 --> 00:27:41.039 And so Jesus is reciting a covenantal phrase here that God is covenant with Israel. 00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:45.079 When you read through the gospels, one of the things that you may notice is this, that 00:27:45.079 --> 00:27:49.440 at every point of Jesus' life, Jesus looks like Israel. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:51.319 He goes through the Exodus like Israel did. 00:27:51.319 --> 00:27:53.639 He goes into the wilderness like Israel did. 00:27:53.639 --> 00:27:57.480 And over time in Matthew's gospel, you start to see something. 00:27:57.480 --> 00:28:01.720 Jesus Christ stands in the place of Israel. 00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:02.720 He is Israel. 00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:05.480 You see, Israel was meant to fulfill the covenant. 00:28:05.480 --> 00:28:10.559 Israel was meant to be perfect and to usher in salvation for human history and they failed 00:28:10.559 --> 00:28:12.039 at every point. 00:28:12.039 --> 00:28:18.679 And Jesus comes to be the new Israel, to be the covenantal man, one with God, and at every 00:28:18.679 --> 00:28:22.960 point he relives Israel's life perfectly. 00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:26.799 You see that when he hangs on the cross, he is the only human being in history that's 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:37.279 ever deserved to say, my God, my God, and to hear my son, my son. 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:39.919 He's the only one that's ever deserved it. 00:28:39.920 --> 00:28:42.200 And yet Israel heard it. 00:28:42.200 --> 00:28:44.000 Israel heard God say, my son. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:49.560 And you today can hear God say, my son, my daughter, only because when Jesus cried out, 00:28:49.560 --> 00:28:52.160 my God, my God, he heard deafening silence. 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.680 He was abandoned. 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:55.680 And this does not mean he felt abandoned. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:57.240 He was. 00:28:57.240 --> 00:28:58.840 And he went into the hell of hells. 00:28:58.840 --> 00:29:03.220 This is Christ's descent into hell, as the creed tells us. 00:29:03.220 --> 00:29:08.400 When he hangs here and he's forsaken by God, he experiences the wrath of God fully and 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:11.960 finally in this moment, completely in our place. 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:13.960 We call this the great exchange. 00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:16.400 He died for me so that I can be in him. 00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:25.640 You see, the cloud of darkness covers the land and the rocks split and the earthquake 00:29:25.640 --> 00:29:26.640 comes. 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:29.160 This is not the first time we see this in Scripture. 00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:34.440 This is exactly how the prophets of the Old Testament describe the coming of the day of 00:29:34.440 --> 00:29:36.560 the Lord, the day of judgment. 00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:41.480 And when does the day of the Lord come that Amos and Jeremiah and others talked about? 00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:45.599 The darkness descends the land in the middle of history and the rocks split and the earthquake 00:29:45.599 --> 00:29:46.599 comes. 00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:49.639 You see, this is the ultimate judgment of God being poured down. 00:29:49.639 --> 00:29:53.039 Jesus descended into hell and he didn't deserve it. 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:54.919 We did. 00:29:54.919 --> 00:29:56.039 And he did it. 00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:05.039 You see, absolute power of giving oneself and ultimate and absolute love for his mockers. 00:30:05.039 --> 00:30:07.799 And that's every single human being that's ever lived. 00:30:07.799 --> 00:30:09.159 This is the power of forgiveness. 00:30:09.159 --> 00:30:17.839 He could take that so you could get his righteousness, the great exchange to close. 00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:22.240 What is so hard about looking at the cross and saying power, the power of God? 00:30:22.240 --> 00:30:27.159 Why is it that Paul is so right and Matthew that we struggle to do that? 00:30:27.159 --> 00:30:28.799 And I think it's this. 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:34.240 Here's a simple statement, but an incredibly controversial statement in the 21st century. 00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:38.880 The cross demands that every single person recognize and come face to face with their 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:40.720 own guilt. 00:30:40.720 --> 00:30:43.480 That you're guilty, that I'm guilty before God. 00:30:43.480 --> 00:30:44.480 That I'm not right. 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:45.799 That I'm not what I should be. 00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:46.799 That I'm broken. 00:30:46.799 --> 00:30:47.799 That I'm centered. 00:30:47.799 --> 00:30:48.799 That I'm bent. 00:30:48.799 --> 00:30:50.640 That I'm going in the wrong direction. 00:30:50.640 --> 00:30:54.480 And that I deserve the wrath of God. 00:30:54.480 --> 00:30:59.559 And another way that it's hard for us to accept the cross. 00:30:59.559 --> 00:31:04.960 The cross says to you that when you said no to him, God said yes to you. 00:31:04.960 --> 00:31:12.839 And that's hard as well to accept because it requires saying I cannot be my own God. 00:31:12.839 --> 00:31:14.039 I can't be my own savior. 00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:16.279 I can't be autonomous. 00:31:16.279 --> 00:31:22.679 But God has come to you in Christ Jesus and you are the ultimate. 00:31:22.679 --> 00:31:25.079 You're the apple of his eye. 00:31:25.079 --> 00:31:29.440 And that's why nature was so wrong. 00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:33.400 The last thing I'll highlight here. 00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:39.400 The text tells us again, I want to highlight this again, that he was stripped naked. 00:31:39.400 --> 00:31:45.240 And it's important to cast away all the paintings that you've ever seen. 00:31:45.240 --> 00:31:47.559 They're not right. 00:31:47.559 --> 00:31:50.799 We're told here like every other person who was crucified in the first century by the 00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:53.120 Romans that they were, he was stripped naked. 00:31:53.120 --> 00:31:55.600 And he was here. 00:31:55.600 --> 00:31:56.920 His garments were gambled away. 00:31:56.920 --> 00:31:59.680 He was naked and shamed publicly. 00:31:59.680 --> 00:32:01.840 And there's a real reason for that. 00:32:01.840 --> 00:32:04.759 Not only is it an act of humiliation. 00:32:04.759 --> 00:32:11.840 But in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve broke the world, God sent a curse upon humanity. 00:32:11.840 --> 00:32:14.440 One of the things he cursed was the ground, we're told. 00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:17.759 And theologians often call that the curse of the thorns. 00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:21.120 They drove the ground was cursed. 00:32:21.120 --> 00:32:22.360 The world was cursed. 00:32:22.360 --> 00:32:23.360 Everything's broken. 00:32:23.360 --> 00:32:24.640 Nature is broken. 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:28.600 And its representative symbol in Genesis 3 is the thorn. 00:32:28.600 --> 00:32:32.120 And here they drive the curse into his head. 00:32:32.120 --> 00:32:34.440 Now, he doesn't just bear your sin. 00:32:34.440 --> 00:32:38.240 He bears everything wrong with the world, the curse of the thorn. 00:32:38.240 --> 00:32:39.520 He doesn't stop there. 00:32:39.520 --> 00:32:42.920 The second curse that was given is the curse of death. 00:32:42.920 --> 00:32:44.440 And he yields his spirit. 00:32:44.440 --> 00:32:45.440 He dies. 00:32:45.440 --> 00:32:47.120 He bears it. 00:32:47.120 --> 00:32:52.840 But the one term in Genesis 3 that encompasses the whole of what's wrong with the world is 00:32:52.839 --> 00:32:59.359 that when God comes to be present with Adam and Eve, they say, I'm naked and I have to 00:32:59.359 --> 00:33:00.359 hide. 00:33:00.359 --> 00:33:01.359 I'm ashamed. 00:33:01.359 --> 00:33:06.519 Nakedness, you see in Genesis 3 is the metaphor and the actuality that represents everything 00:33:06.519 --> 00:33:10.759 that's wrong with the world and with us and with humanity inside and out. 00:33:10.759 --> 00:33:15.119 It's an external representation of an internal problem. 00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:18.559 And Jesus was stripped. 00:33:18.559 --> 00:33:25.279 He was hung naked and shamed because we are naked and ashamed before the Lord unfit to 00:33:25.279 --> 00:33:27.000 be in the presence of God. 00:33:27.000 --> 00:33:32.119 And when the curtain temple is torn into, that is not just saying that now you can go in. 00:33:32.119 --> 00:33:37.119 It's saying that God has been let out, that God has extended himself to heal the whole 00:33:37.119 --> 00:33:40.440 world, the whole land from top to bottom. 00:33:40.440 --> 00:33:42.319 You see, it's not just about your forgiveness. 00:33:42.319 --> 00:33:44.039 That's huge, the power of forgiveness. 00:33:44.039 --> 00:33:47.279 But Jesus, don't just think of it in the negative. 00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:48.279 Jesus came for my sins. 00:33:48.279 --> 00:33:54.359 Jesus came for you, not just your sin, but for you, your person. 00:33:54.359 --> 00:33:57.599 That God, you see, the point is that God wants to be with you. 00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:00.920 He wants to have a relationship that lasts forever. 00:34:00.920 --> 00:34:02.599 That's the point of the cross. 00:34:02.599 --> 00:34:05.079 So here's the diagnostic question this week. 00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:07.920 Is the cross in resurrection? 00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:14.159 The man of power who lost everything for you, is he the heartbeat of your life as we enter 00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:15.840 Easter week? 00:34:15.840 --> 00:34:18.239 Can you say today, I know he came for me. 00:34:18.239 --> 00:34:22.000 And more than that, I know him. 00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:28.079 And the cross in his resurrection is the heartbeat of my life, of what I live for, how I live, 00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:30.879 how I understand myself, what I came to do. 00:34:30.879 --> 00:34:34.719 I'll give the last word to Malcolm Muggeridge. 00:34:34.719 --> 00:34:38.959 Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist in the middle of the 20th century. 00:34:38.959 --> 00:34:42.399 John Stock quotes him in his fantastic book, The Cross of Christ. 00:34:42.399 --> 00:34:46.719 Malcolm recalls rejecting the cross in his childhood. 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:47.919 And this is what he says. 00:34:47.920 --> 00:34:53.960 I would catch a glimpse of a cross, maybe two pieces of wood accidentally nailed together 00:34:53.960 --> 00:34:56.200 on a telegraph pole, for instance. 00:34:56.200 --> 00:34:59.280 And suddenly my heart would stand still. 00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:04.920 In an instructive, intuitive way, I understood that something more important was that issue 00:35:04.920 --> 00:35:07.360 than our personal good causes. 00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:12.960 However admirable my intentions might be, this symbol, which was considered to be foolishness 00:35:12.960 --> 00:35:18.880 at my house, was yet the focus of inconceivable hope and desire. 00:35:18.880 --> 00:35:24.400 And as I remember this, a sense of my own failure lies lettently upon me. 00:35:24.400 --> 00:35:30.519 I should have worn the Jesus of the cross over my heart, my whole life. 00:35:30.519 --> 00:35:36.360 A precious standard, never to be rested away from my hands. 00:35:36.360 --> 00:35:37.960 It should have been my religion. 00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:39.519 It should have been my uniform. 00:35:39.519 --> 00:35:41.920 He should have been my language, my life. 00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:44.519 I have no excuse. 00:35:44.519 --> 00:35:46.680 I cannot say that I didn't know. 00:35:46.680 --> 00:35:48.559 I saw the cross from the beginning. 00:35:48.559 --> 00:35:53.039 I knew from the beginning and I turned away. 00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:56.200 But then Malcolm didn't turn away any longer. 00:35:56.200 --> 00:35:59.599 And he turned to Jesus and the foolishness became power to him. 00:35:59.599 --> 00:36:03.280 And that's an invitation. 00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:08.000 The invitation is this, as it's put by one modern hymn writer. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:17.360 I stumble out into the light, raise my fist up to fight, but then I catch your eye so 00:36:17.360 --> 00:36:19.920 full of love. 00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:23.280 And I'm disarmed by the cross. 00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:25.039 Let's ask that God would make that our heart. 00:36:25.039 --> 00:36:26.039 Let's pray. 00:36:26.039 --> 00:36:36.159 Father, we ask now that you would disarm our enmity to you and cast our eyes on the love 00:36:36.159 --> 00:36:40.039 on display in the cross of Jesus. 00:36:40.039 --> 00:36:41.039 Pray this for all of us today. 00:36:41.039 --> 00:36:42.039 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:36:42.039 --> 00:37:10.039 Amen.