WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 We're going to look back today at the… we're taking a break from… for those of you who 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.120 normally worship with us on a Sunday morning, we're taking a break from Mark's gospel 00:00:12.120 --> 00:00:15.000 just for the next couple of weeks as we come towards Easter. 00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.280 We're going to look at the death of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:22.080 We're doing that from John's gospel. 00:00:22.080 --> 00:00:24.039 And this is a really familiar passage. 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:30.000 I'm sure it's a really familiar passage to many of us here, especially for Christians. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.840 And we mentioned that Cori and I and whoever's preaching mentions the gospel all the time, 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:40.159 mentions the crucifixion all the time, mentions the death of Christ all the time. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:43.719 But it's ages since we've read it and preached from it. 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:49.560 And it's just… it's just so sacred. 00:00:49.560 --> 00:00:51.879 It's difficult to read. 00:00:51.880 --> 00:00:58.800 And it's… you feel, as a preacher, you're on holy ground, that it's almost too holy 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:05.040 to even mention and speak about because we've never grasped and we can't grasp its depths 00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:08.760 and its heights and the amazing reality of it. 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:14.480 But… and it's… there's far too much in a passage and the event of the cross to 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:19.320 deal with in one or a million sermons. 00:01:19.319 --> 00:01:24.919 So I'm only going to focus on one very small part of this story today. 00:01:24.919 --> 00:01:30.319 And to begin with, I'm going to take you to the very beginning of John's gospel to 00:01:30.319 --> 00:01:32.719 a word you know well. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:38.599 When John the Baptist sees Jesus, he says the next day, we're told in John 1.29, the 00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:45.719 next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, Look, or behold, the Lamb of God 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:49.079 who takes away the sin of the world. 00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:56.840 And so I'm going to focus on one statement in John 19 where we read from, verse 35 and 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:59.840 verse 36. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:06.480 And John says, John, the beloved disciple, he has saw this poor witness, his testimony 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:11.240 is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you may also believe. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:16.039 These things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones will 00:02:16.039 --> 00:02:17.039 be broken. 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:19.439 So that's what we're going to look at today. 00:02:19.439 --> 00:02:24.159 That Scripture that is prophesied in different places in the Old Testament, including the 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:31.000 Psalm that we sung, but also in different places, that his bones would not be broken. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.239 And we'll look at why that is the case. 00:02:33.239 --> 00:02:39.319 And connect these two incidental verses, behold, the Lamb of God and his bones will 00:02:39.319 --> 00:02:41.399 not be broken. 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:47.719 And there's a thread that links these two verses from the beginning of John's gospel, 00:02:47.719 --> 00:02:51.759 the Lamb of God, and the crucifixion, his bones will not be broken. 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:53.879 And it comes in Exodus chapter 12. 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:57.960 I'm just going to read some of this, so please follow this because it's the story of the 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:01.960 Passover Lamb, or a bit of the story of the Passover Lamb. 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:06.560 If you remember from the Escape from Egypt, we'll speak about it in a moment. 00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:13.920 And Jesus, just before He died, celebrated the Passover with His disciples and instituted, 00:03:13.920 --> 00:03:16.400 at the same time, the Lord's Supper. 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:20.759 So there's a whole lot of connections going on between the Old Testament and the new. 00:03:20.759 --> 00:03:24.879 And if we're going to understand why his bones weren't broken, we need to understand that 00:03:24.879 --> 00:03:26.520 He was the Passover. 00:03:26.520 --> 00:03:29.680 We need to understand the Passover and the story of the Passover Lamb. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:34.599 So Exodus 12, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, in the land of Egypt, this month shall 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:38.479 be for you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year for you. 00:03:38.479 --> 00:03:43.579 Tell the congregation of Israel that the tenth day of this month, every man shall take a 00:03:43.579 --> 00:03:48.039 lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household. 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:51.919 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and the nearest neighbour shall take 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:57.639 according to the number of persons, according to what each man, what each of you will make 00:03:57.639 --> 00:03:59.719 your count for the lamb. 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:02.840 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:06.840 You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:10.520 day of the month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:13.480 lambs at twilight. 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:16.759 Then they shall take some of the blood, and they shall put it on the two doorposts on 00:04:16.759 --> 00:04:18.759 the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 00:04:18.759 --> 00:04:23.519 They shall eat the flesh of that night, roasted in the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:25.199 herbs, they shall eat it. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:30.199 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted its head with its legs and its 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:31.699 inner parts. 00:04:31.699 --> 00:04:35.039 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning. 00:04:35.039 --> 00:04:39.839 Anything that remains until the morning, you shall burn. 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:46.360 And then verse 46 of the same chapter, which says about the lamb, it shall be eaten in 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:53.719 one house, you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house, you shall not break any 00:04:53.719 --> 00:04:55.199 of its bones. 00:04:55.199 --> 00:05:03.719 Okay, so we're going to look briefly at this Old Testament lamb of God, this Passover lamb 00:05:03.719 --> 00:05:06.680 where the people were enslaved in Egypt. 00:05:06.680 --> 00:05:17.120 And what we have in that account is Moses going down to Egypt speaking with Pharaoh, 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:20.439 let my people go because they were enslaved. 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:23.399 And Pharaoh was saying, no, my gods are stronger. 00:05:23.399 --> 00:05:26.679 And Moses was saying, no, the living God is the only God that there is. 00:05:26.679 --> 00:05:31.560 And we saw all the plagues that came down on the people in order to change Pharaoh's 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:33.439 mind to let the people go. 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:38.759 But this living God who'd been revealed to Abraham was the only God. 00:05:38.759 --> 00:05:43.839 And of course it comes to this last plague, the plague of the firstborn, where God will 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:56.759 judge the people by destroying the firstborn of Egypt and of Israel unless Israel embraces 00:05:56.759 --> 00:05:59.239 God's lamb. 00:05:59.239 --> 00:06:03.959 Israel must embrace God's Passover lamb that we've read about there. 00:06:03.959 --> 00:06:10.439 In other words, he was saying to them, you need to recognize that there is only one hope 00:06:10.439 --> 00:06:17.480 of not being under God's judgment that there's only one solution and there's only one way 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:21.639 that you will gain your freedom because they were enslaved. 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:27.680 Not just to release them from the slavery in Egypt, but also to release them from their 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:30.560 condemnation and sin before the living God. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:41.600 And that was to accept a sacrificial lamb that would be killed in their stead. 00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:46.439 The lamb was God's visual aid. 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:51.000 It was to help them understand their need of Him that He loved them and He was their 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:53.920 only Savior, okay? 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:58.800 It spoke of His mercy because we're told in the Old Testament that they cried out to 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:03.759 God in their enslavement and in their misery and in their hopelessness. 00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:05.960 And God sent them Moses. 00:07:05.960 --> 00:07:08.560 God gave them a lamb. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:13.400 God told them to take that lamb to sacrifice it, to put the blood on the doors of the lintels. 00:07:13.400 --> 00:07:18.720 And when the angel of death passed over in that terrifying chapter, He would save and 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:23.120 release them from God's judgment. 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:24.280 So it spoke of His mercy. 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:29.919 It also spoke of the cost of what He was doing in symbolic ways because we're told it was 00:07:29.919 --> 00:07:32.599 to be the best lamb that they had. 00:07:32.599 --> 00:07:35.319 It wasn't just to be a runt from the flock. 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:44.039 It was to be their best lamb, the most priceless, unblemished lamb that was to be used. 00:07:44.039 --> 00:07:45.039 It was to be whole. 00:07:45.039 --> 00:07:47.039 It was to be unbroken. 00:07:47.039 --> 00:07:48.519 It wasn't to be damaged. 00:07:48.519 --> 00:07:51.279 It wasn't, you know, to be lame. 00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:56.559 It was to be the best that they could have, and it was to come into the home. 00:07:56.559 --> 00:07:57.559 See that small bit? 00:07:57.559 --> 00:07:58.559 It was to come into the house with them. 00:07:58.559 --> 00:08:02.439 You know, they didn't have a, you know, it wasn't a five bedroom, up and down with a 00:08:02.439 --> 00:08:03.439 kitchen and a dining room. 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:07.799 They all kind of lived in the same room, and they would bring the lamb in with them into 00:08:07.799 --> 00:08:10.119 the home for 14 days. 00:08:10.119 --> 00:08:16.839 Oh, and you can imagine the children, they'd tell they loved the lamb, feeding the lamb, 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:19.279 loving the lamb, because lambs are lovely. 00:08:19.279 --> 00:08:20.599 Sheep are horrible and ugly. 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:21.600 Lambs are nice, aren't they? 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:22.600 They're nice. 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:23.600 They're like chickens. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.920 Chickens are lovely till they become hens, and then they're very ugly. 00:08:26.920 --> 00:08:29.760 But the lamb was beautiful, and the children loved the lamb. 00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:35.440 And this is Easter time, and we think about lambs, because we love seeing the lambs skipping, 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.680 because the children loved the lambs, and the lamb was taken on into the home like a 00:08:39.680 --> 00:08:44.000 child was fed and looked after. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:53.320 And then after 14 days, it had to be slaughtered, and it was a visual picture for all in the 00:08:53.320 --> 00:08:57.600 family, because it was a substitute when the angel of death came. 00:08:57.600 --> 00:08:58.600 It was a substitute. 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:03.960 Leviticus 17 verse 10 tells us, For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:07.279 given it to you to make atonement for yourselves in the altar. 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:14.199 It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life, because life is in the blood. 00:09:14.199 --> 00:09:21.759 You see the symbol, the sacrifice that is being spoken of here that God is revealing 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:29.519 to them that He would protect them and protect their lives and protect their firstborn. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:36.120 And the firstborn there is very much really, again, a symbol of the most potent sign there 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:41.399 can be, isn't there, of our ability to be creative, to create life. 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:46.600 And the firstborn is where we... the firstborn child is the focus of where we foster our 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:51.080 love, it's the cradle of hope for the future. 00:09:51.080 --> 00:09:57.159 But also if something happens to our firstborn, it's just the focus of despair and of life 00:09:57.159 --> 00:09:59.200 being taken from us. 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:10.040 It's symbolic of really all of us and the life that is reflected in the firstborn. 00:10:10.040 --> 00:10:15.520 And to take the life of the firstborn was symbolic of taking... a recognition of the 00:10:15.520 --> 00:10:17.840 judgment was under all who were there. 00:10:17.840 --> 00:10:23.320 And so the doorposts were to be covered with His blood, so the angel of death would pass, 00:10:23.320 --> 00:10:30.840 and the firstborn would be protected, and indeed therefore all of them would be protected. 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:32.640 And this is a prequel. 00:10:32.640 --> 00:10:39.560 We speak about films, we often have sequels, but we also now increasingly have prequels, 00:10:39.560 --> 00:10:41.080 the beginning of the story. 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:47.120 And this is very much a prequel to the main event that we read about in John's Gospel. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:52.840 It's full of shadows of the Old Testament, full of shadows, full of hints, full of pointers, 00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:56.600 thousands of years before the coming of Jesus Christ. 00:10:56.600 --> 00:11:04.360 And the Lamb that was slain whose bones would not be broken is not fulfilled by Christ in 00:11:04.360 --> 00:11:08.560 the sense that He fulfills what happened in the Old Testament. 00:11:08.560 --> 00:11:15.720 Christ is the real event, and these earlier events speak of and point towards Jesus, not 00:11:15.720 --> 00:11:16.720 the other way around. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.200 Jesus doesn't point to the Passover Lamb in the Old Testament. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:26.160 The Old Testament Passover Lamb points forward to, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away 00:11:26.160 --> 00:11:30.600 this sin of the world, because all of history revolves around Him and revolves around what 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:31.600 He did. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:36.920 So you have that Old Testament Lamb that brings us to the New Testament Lamb of God. 00:11:36.920 --> 00:11:38.840 Behold, the Lamb of God. 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:41.960 You know what sense does that make if you just read that cold? 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:45.360 Well, if someone came in here who had never read anything about the Bible, didn't know 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:49.160 anything about Jesus, and he heard this description, be it the Lamb of God, who in 00:11:49.159 --> 00:11:54.639 the earth has been called the Lamb of God, it makes no sense until we bring it into the 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:58.360 context of God's revelation. 00:11:58.360 --> 00:12:06.600 And hours before His crucifixion, He sat at the Passover meal, the Passover meal which 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:16.919 they enjoyed every year to remember what had happened, allowing the people into the freedom 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:22.240 slavery into the promised land, this meal of remembrance. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:27.399 Because what Jesus is doing, as John says at the beginning of His gospel, He's taking 00:12:27.399 --> 00:12:31.120 away the sin of the world. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:36.039 You know, all the shed blood of the Old Testament, all the sacrifices, all the Passover lambs, 00:12:36.039 --> 00:12:39.479 all points towards Jesus Christ. 00:12:39.479 --> 00:12:46.679 And it's the core crisis of the world in which we live, is the reality of a world under judgment. 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:48.159 Is a world that's broken. 00:12:48.159 --> 00:12:49.159 We know that. 00:12:49.159 --> 00:12:54.199 A world that has deserted God, that's what He says. 00:12:54.199 --> 00:12:59.759 So the realities of the troubles we face personally, the struggles in the Bible, and the world 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:04.599 which we live are relational. 00:13:04.599 --> 00:13:06.839 They're not philosophical. 00:13:06.839 --> 00:13:08.359 They're not political. 00:13:08.359 --> 00:13:11.039 They're relational. 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:12.599 That we have abandoned. 00:13:12.600 --> 00:13:19.440 They abandon a relationship with the living God, deserters of God, denied His place, His 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:21.920 worship, His friendship. 00:13:21.920 --> 00:13:28.000 And all we're left with without Christ are whispers of what has been lost. 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:33.080 So you'll rise from here and there'll be glorious whispers that you'll enjoy. 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:37.040 And those who don't know Christ enjoy every day. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:47.039 In beauty, love, music, banquets, newborn, smile of the firstborn or the secondborn or 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:50.039 the thirdborn and laughter. 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:55.599 But we can see and understand all these things that all still have a shadow. 00:13:55.599 --> 00:13:59.919 If we're honest, there's always darkness. 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:05.000 There's always death in our hearts and in the world in which we live. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.679 The price that is paid for deserting the author of life. 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:15.120 And Jesus comes to take the price for our sins. 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:20.960 Behold a Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:23.360 Nobody is exempt from that. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:24.960 Nobody is outside of that. 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:28.279 Many will choose to be outside of that. 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:33.159 Many will reject that they are part of that sentence. 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:38.799 But Jesus Christ at the centre of history remains our hope. 00:14:38.799 --> 00:14:44.639 And like the Passover Lamb in a much greater way, it's so costly, isn't it? 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:48.559 He's spoken of in the Bible as God's firstborn. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:53.480 Not that He was created, not that He was born, but it just speaks of His preeminence of Him 00:14:53.480 --> 00:14:56.360 symbolizing all that is life. 00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:03.079 And God gives, the Father gives, the Son accepts willingly the humiliation of being born 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:05.960 in Mary's womb and living. 00:15:05.960 --> 00:15:07.360 He humbles Himself. 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:12.680 He lives among us like the Lamb lived among the family to be examined for its purity and 00:15:12.680 --> 00:15:15.280 to be loved for the few days it was there. 00:15:15.280 --> 00:15:22.000 So Christ came among us and lived a life and showed Himself and showed Himself to be perfect, 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:24.240 the perfect substitute for us. 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:29.800 And His unparalleled love and commitment continued to give and give and give even when He was 00:15:29.799 --> 00:15:36.719 rejected, celebrated on a donkey coming in on Palm Sunday, crucified the next week because 00:15:36.719 --> 00:15:42.399 He was a rotten Savior to those who rejected Him. 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:50.639 And He's this great Lamb of God that is spoken of in Peter who speaks about Him for, you 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:54.399 know, it's not with perishable things that you're saved, but with the precious blood 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:55.399 of Christ. 00:15:55.399 --> 00:16:02.519 What does He say, a Lamb without blemish or defect? 00:16:02.519 --> 00:16:03.519 Same thing. 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:08.439 Bones were not broken, Lamb without blemish. 00:16:08.439 --> 00:16:20.879 Without any failing or anything that takes away from His perfection and the broken bones 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:27.639 speaks of that in this crucifixion story, it speaks of Him being the whole perfect, 00:16:27.639 --> 00:16:35.279 unblemished sacrifice of God given without any failing in Him to be our substitute. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:40.939 And you know, there's something else in the broken bones I think that doesn't necessarily 00:16:40.939 --> 00:16:47.360 come from the Old Testament picture of the perfect Lamb that was unbroken. 00:16:47.360 --> 00:16:55.720 And maybe I'm wrong in this, but I think it could be significant. 00:16:55.720 --> 00:17:02.680 Is that it speaks of the fact that what Jesus did was entirely voluntary. 00:17:02.680 --> 00:17:05.160 Entirely voluntary. 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:08.039 Where's the connection? 00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:20.920 These bones were not broken because just before the Jews wanted all the crucified men to have 00:17:20.920 --> 00:17:24.319 their bones broken so they would die before the Sabbath because it was unclean to be hanging 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:28.299 on the cross on the Sabbath. 00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:34.200 Just before that on the Saturday or Friday night it would have been Sabbath was the Saturday. 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:36.879 Jesus said, it's finished. 00:17:36.880 --> 00:17:39.120 The work is done. 00:17:39.120 --> 00:17:41.360 It's completed. 00:17:41.360 --> 00:17:48.440 He enters His Sabbath rest before the actual physical Sabbath. 00:17:48.440 --> 00:17:51.120 And He chose to lay down His life. 00:17:51.120 --> 00:17:57.800 There's a very important verse in John chapter 10 verse 8, 17, 8 where Jesus says, I think 00:17:57.800 --> 00:18:03.960 we often forget this, I think we think that Jesus died, but it's something much more significant. 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:12.600 We're told Jesus says, the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to 00:18:12.600 --> 00:18:14.279 take it up again. 00:18:14.279 --> 00:18:19.279 Listen, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:24.720 I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. 00:18:24.720 --> 00:18:30.319 No one in history has ever said that and no one in history has ever done that except Jesus 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:31.319 Christ. 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:36.679 Now, He chose to lay down His life and to take it up again. 00:18:36.679 --> 00:18:38.899 He wasn't killed. 00:18:38.899 --> 00:18:40.799 He wasn't a victim. 00:18:40.799 --> 00:18:43.439 There's been no other death like Jesus. 00:18:43.439 --> 00:18:44.679 He finished His work. 00:18:44.679 --> 00:18:47.240 The darkness was on the cross, the three hours of darkness. 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:51.879 That's where He subsumed and took our hell and judgment on Himself. 00:18:51.879 --> 00:18:54.439 And He said at the end of that, it's finished. 00:18:54.440 --> 00:19:04.360 But in order to fully fulfill His role of having defeated death and evil, He gave Himself 00:19:04.360 --> 00:19:05.360 to death. 00:19:05.360 --> 00:19:06.840 Devil didn't take it. 00:19:06.840 --> 00:19:08.600 Death didn't take it. 00:19:08.600 --> 00:19:12.799 He gave Himself over in our place. 00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:15.880 He wasn't to be killed by human hands. 00:19:15.880 --> 00:19:19.440 The breaking of His bones would have hastened His death. 00:19:19.440 --> 00:19:26.840 Interestingly, it was probably, in many ways, an act of mercy, a cold mercy certainly. 00:19:26.840 --> 00:19:29.840 But it was an act of mercy because it did hasten death. 00:19:29.840 --> 00:19:31.880 And if you were on the cross, that was a good thing. 00:19:31.880 --> 00:19:43.000 You didn't want to die the death of a cross any longer than you could possibly suffer. 00:19:43.000 --> 00:19:46.720 So He wasn't even given that act of mercy. 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:49.640 There was no mercy for Him. 00:19:49.640 --> 00:19:55.720 He said it was finished. 00:19:55.720 --> 00:19:58.519 He didn't need anyone to hasten His death. 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:01.480 He didn't need any act of cold mercy. 00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:15.880 He didn't need to be under the brutal invitations of the Jews to somehow fulfill a cold ritual 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:19.240 of the dead not being on the cross on the Sabbath day. 00:20:19.240 --> 00:20:20.520 He chose to die. 00:20:20.520 --> 00:20:21.960 He said it's finished. 00:20:21.960 --> 00:20:28.960 And that remains entirely relevant in our understanding of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:32.560 So today, it's also far away, isn't it? 00:20:32.560 --> 00:20:38.440 Twenty-first century, top of the royal mile in Edinburgh, time geographically, culturally, 00:20:38.440 --> 00:20:44.080 socially, in a world that we live in today which at least regards this truth of a crucified 00:20:44.079 --> 00:20:49.639 Savior at best to be something you just keep to yourself as a private belief. 00:20:49.639 --> 00:20:56.119 The private belief of a marginalized few, or at worst, it's the exposure of a dangerous 00:20:56.119 --> 00:20:59.599 faith that needs to be eradicated altogether. 00:20:59.599 --> 00:21:05.439 No place in a modern society, a modern liberal way of thinking. 00:21:05.439 --> 00:21:10.199 We have these extremes, and it's tough. 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:15.680 But we're called to consider the reality of good and evil and life and death and hope 00:21:15.680 --> 00:21:20.759 and despair that marks every single one of our lives. 00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:23.960 And to ask if there is ultimate truth. 00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:29.000 And if Jesus is who He claimed to be, then time, geography and culture and society doesn't 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:30.000 change that. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:33.799 And we need to be bold and courageous and stand up as Christians for that. 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:36.559 And there'll be apologetic in the wrong sense of that. 00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:40.319 There'll be embarrassed by it because it's the greatest news ever. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:42.519 You know Jesus came to see you, he said, hey, I came to bring good news. 00:21:42.519 --> 00:21:44.399 It's great news for us. 00:21:44.399 --> 00:21:49.119 You know, yeah, there's solemnity and all of course there is, but it's great, good news. 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:50.799 That is why Jesus came. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:56.480 It's the greatest revelation of love that there ever has been. 00:21:56.480 --> 00:21:58.279 Because it's divine love, the Lamb of God. 00:21:58.279 --> 00:22:00.279 He becomes the forsaken one. 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:06.799 He experiences our hell of desertion, our death of separation, He becomes sin. 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:08.279 The living one dies. 00:22:08.279 --> 00:22:12.079 Unfathomable mystery in that truth for us. 00:22:12.079 --> 00:22:16.599 It's as deep as the ocean, but it's as simple as giving someone who's dying of thirst a 00:22:16.599 --> 00:22:19.319 cup of cold water. 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:22.839 God the Father giving His preeminent Son. 00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:27.839 The whispers of which we see in Abraham in the Passover and in Mary and all that happened 00:22:27.839 --> 00:22:29.879 to their firstborn sons. 00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:40.400 The deep, deep mystery of the shepherd, John 10, becoming the Lamb of John 10. 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:43.760 If it's new to you, please examine it. 00:22:43.760 --> 00:22:49.480 If you're complacent about it, please think it again and consider what he's saying. 00:22:49.480 --> 00:22:55.720 It's not just for odd people like Simon reminded us last week. 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:57.160 We're all weird. 00:22:57.160 --> 00:22:59.960 But it's for all of us, we need Him. 00:22:59.960 --> 00:23:00.960 We need this substitute. 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:08.840 We are faced with a fragile death as we hold a firstborn or as we hold a child and all 00:23:08.840 --> 00:23:15.040 the hope of a child, the children we have with us, as we remember that we were children, 00:23:15.040 --> 00:23:18.800 all of us, and we're the subject of great hope. 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:25.040 All that they embody of life and of love and of hope and of ambition and dreams and potential, 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:34.359 all that we hold to be good, yet we know as we grow, and sometimes not even until we grow, 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:37.799 we experience a growing darkness that casts a shadow. 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:44.759 There's brokenness and bruisedness and there's a letdown and our hearts are disordered, there's 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:51.559 fracture, division, tears, guilt, abuse. 00:23:51.559 --> 00:23:58.960 But insecure mortal's at best and sometimes we just want to just crush it all and ignore 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:02.399 it and just live for the day. 00:24:02.399 --> 00:24:07.359 But we do know we fall short of our own standards. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:14.559 How much more will we fall short of God's, the living God, and yet how much He has done 00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:20.759 to set us free to live for Him. 00:24:20.759 --> 00:24:32.480 The only living being who came, who was born in order to die, and the only living being 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:41.640 who died of his own volition and who took his life up again, not for himself, but for 00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:44.279 you and for me. 00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:48.640 And it needs, as I finish with this, it needs to get personal for all of us. 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:55.480 It does, it's not generic, it's not just for everybody in the sense that it doesn't matter 00:24:55.480 --> 00:24:58.960 what we think and do, that it has to get personal. 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:03.840 Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, 7 talking about using the image of the Passover that we don't have 00:25:03.840 --> 00:25:04.840 time to go into. 00:25:04.840 --> 00:25:08.960 He says, get rid of the old yeast, because you know it was unleavened bread they used. 00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:12.360 I'm not going to lie, that was the case, great symbolism there. 00:25:12.360 --> 00:25:15.120 So you can eat the new unleavened batch as you really are. 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:20.000 For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:23.919 See how personal it becomes? 00:25:23.919 --> 00:25:26.679 You need to say my Passover lamb. 00:25:26.679 --> 00:25:28.319 Jesus is my substitute. 00:25:28.319 --> 00:25:34.199 Jesus is the blood and the lentils of our lives that He has to represent. 00:25:34.199 --> 00:25:41.199 That's why the Passover was a meal, you know, because they ate the meat and they didn't 00:25:41.199 --> 00:25:43.039 leave anything behind. 00:25:43.039 --> 00:25:48.639 And so the Lord's support in the New Testament symbolism of that or fulfillment of that is 00:25:48.639 --> 00:25:50.879 a meal we eat, you know. 00:25:50.879 --> 00:25:55.039 I've said it so often here, I've never said any new here, but no one else can eat for 00:25:55.039 --> 00:25:56.039 you. 00:25:56.039 --> 00:26:00.119 You don't go to a restaurant and have a lovely meal and just give it to someone else to 00:26:00.119 --> 00:26:01.119 eat. 00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:02.119 You can't do that. 00:26:02.119 --> 00:26:04.079 We eat because we need nourish ourselves. 00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:07.879 It's the most personal thing we do, eating and drinking. 00:26:07.879 --> 00:26:09.879 No one else can do it for us. 00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:13.880 And so Jesus says, take, eat. 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:16.080 This is my body, which is for you. 00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:20.400 Do this in remembrance of me. 00:26:20.400 --> 00:26:24.720 You hear a lot today in the site we live in about expressive individualism today, you 00:26:24.720 --> 00:26:29.800 know, that everything's about the individual, everything's about how we feel, if it's good 00:26:29.800 --> 00:26:31.400 for me. 00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:43.840 Now that has gone to the nth degree, of course, but it's disordered truth. 00:26:43.840 --> 00:26:51.360 It's not wrong in the sense that we are unique and that God calls us into a personal relationship 00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:52.440 with Him. 00:26:52.440 --> 00:26:58.360 And the most, the greatest, most responsible individual act you ever do is to recognize 00:26:58.359 --> 00:27:04.240 your responsibility before the living God as an individual and come and accept His greatest 00:27:04.240 --> 00:27:08.159 gift in Christ. 00:27:08.159 --> 00:27:12.479 Glorious resurrection to eternal life, which Corrie will look at next Sunday. 00:27:12.479 --> 00:27:14.759 What a great Sunday next week is going to be. 00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:16.719 Well, every Sunday is resurrection Sunday. 00:27:16.719 --> 00:27:17.719 I know that. 00:27:17.719 --> 00:27:18.719 We know that here. 00:27:18.719 --> 00:27:23.839 That's why we're featured, because we worship and we celebrate the resurrection every single 00:27:23.839 --> 00:27:30.119 Sunday when we come together, every Sunday is Easter Sunday for us, but we remember especially 00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:34.959 on Easter Sunday because it's important what a great Sunday next week will be. 00:27:34.959 --> 00:27:39.799 Adult baptism, child baptisms, Lord supper in the evening service. 00:27:39.799 --> 00:27:42.639 What a bonus, what a day. 00:27:42.639 --> 00:27:44.919 I hope you're already looking forward to it. 00:27:44.919 --> 00:27:50.480 Chomping at the bit for next Sunday to come and worship and to know His blessing. 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:56.400 In Christ, a glorious resurrection to life in which we share. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:28:00.120 Why don't you take someone along next week? 00:28:00.120 --> 00:28:01.120 Take someone with you. 00:28:01.120 --> 00:28:02.120 Go on. 00:28:02.120 --> 00:28:03.120 Be courageous. 00:28:03.120 --> 00:28:04.120 Be bold. 00:28:04.120 --> 00:28:12.240 Take someone along to hear about the greatest man who ever lived and died and rose again 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:13.240 for us. 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:14.240 Let's pray. 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:20.799 Father God, we ask and pray that You would help us to know You better. 00:28:20.799 --> 00:28:24.000 What unbelievable depth is in this passage. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:28.359 We barely, we barely even touched it. 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:35.400 We looked at one verse, one bit of one verse, and yet every single syllable is jam-packed 00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:44.400 full of unbelievable truth, of astonishing reality, of fulfilled prophecy. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:49.519 Lord did we notice how often in that passage John says, in order that Scripture might be 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:58.960 fulfilled, the pattern is all there, the picture is all there, the plan is all there. 00:28:58.960 --> 00:29:07.039 Nothing happened on the cross that was incidental, that was governed or overseen by men. 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:20.880 It was all part of Your glorious, mysterious, simple, committed, sacrificial, loving act 00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:23.400 on our behalf. 00:29:23.400 --> 00:29:29.759 Lord may we as Christians today be utterly grateful and see more clearly. 00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.440 And if there are any here today who don't know You or don't love You or don't understand 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:40.440 You or are angry with You or reject You, Lord, I simply ask that Your Holy Spirit will touch 00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:46.040 their hearts and help them to see things in a new light today that they may have not seen 00:29:46.040 --> 00:29:47.040 before. 00:29:47.040 --> 00:29:49.360 We ask it in Jesus' precious name. 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:56.359 Amen.