April 5, 2020

FAMOUS LAST WORDS, PART 2
April 5, 2020
Pastor Jonathan Falwell

Have you ever undertaken a project, activity, lifestyle or exercise that you knew, in advance, would cause you enormous pain? How did you get through it?

Open:

Today we continue to examine the last words of Jesus, spoken while hanging on the cross. Last week we found much reassurance in His words of forgiveness, of hope, and of comfort. Today we will look at His words as He was near death, showing His pain, His humanity and His purpose.

Key Verse: Luke 23:46: And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

Focal Passages: Matthew 27:45-46; Luke 23:44-46; John 19:28-29.

HIS PAIN

  • Read Matt. 27:45. What time frame is mentioned here? What was special about darkness at these hours? What would you attribute the darkness to?
  • Read verse 46. Jesus is ready to die; what kind of pain would have caused Him to cry out to the Father like this? In that moment, what was He feeling physically and mentally?
  • Read John 12:27. Was Jesus always fully aware that this was why He had come in the flesh? Read John 18:11 and Matt. 26:53-54. Did Jesus ever really consider not going to the cross?

HIS HUMANITY

  • Read John 19:28. Jesus was fully God and fully Man (both 100%), while He was on the earth. His pain would have been just the same as yours. What does this verse illustrate about His humanity?
  • Read Psalm 69:21. Had any other of Jesus’ words indicated His suffering in the flesh? Why, then, was it necessary for Him to articulate His thirst?
  • When Psa. 69 was written, what did the prophecy say Jesus would be given? What did the soldiers give Jesus? Why was it necessary to fulfill this prophecy?
  • If Jesus was so particular, in His incredible and intense pain, that He would not fail to see all prophecy fulfilled, what does that mean to us that He will go with us through everything in order to have no promise left unfulfilled?

HIS PURPOSE

  • Read John 12:27-28 again. Would Jesus have taken a way out from being crucified if He could have?
  • Read Luke 23:44. Why was the veil of the temple torn from top to bottom?
  •  What had the veil originally been used for (Exo. 26:33)?
  • Read John 3:17. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross at Calvary?.

Close:

Only one week until the church celebrates Easter! An Easter this year that is unlike any that most of us have ever celebrated. No new spring dresses, no big Easter egg hunts, no early morning Sunrise services with coffee and donuts. As has been posted on Facebook thousands of times this past week, the church buildings will be empty—but that’s okay, the grave is empty as well! Jesus Christ lives!

We are so immersed in the deity of Jesus Christ that we often forget that He was also fully Man when He came to the earth. Fully, 100%, of both. His pain was like our pain, His suffering like our suffering, and we can only imagine what He went through in order to take the wrath of God upon Himself. To think He did not cry out is incomprehensible. None of us could have done that.

How has His death impacted your life? Have you suffered with Him, when He hung on the cross for you? Do the verses telling of the crown of thorns feel as if they’re being crushed into your own head as you read? Do you want to tell those whom you love what He has done for them?

The whole world is experiencing a pandemic called Coronavirus. It will probably be many years before life has become “normal” again. For many of us, perhaps not in the remainder of our life. Just as we don’t want to be the same as we were before the virus, with all the busyness, the lack of values, and so much more, so also we don’t ever want to return to a way of life that we lived before hearing what Jesus did on the cross for us. May we never forget what He went through the pay for our salvation!