The Church Redeemed

In our series on the beauty of the church, we have looked at redemptive history. We have looked at the garden. We have looked at the life of Abraham, of Moses, of David, of the prophets, of the return, of the exiles to Jerusalem and Ezra and Nehemiah. We have looked at the incarnation, the birth of Christ. We have looked at His ministry and our discipleship in His first miracle, Him turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana.

And now we come to the blazing center. John Stott says, the cross is not only the center of history, but it is the center. Of the life of a Christian. The cross is not just a past event, but it is a present reality for us to continue to reflect back on and say, were you there when they crucified my Lord?

To which all Christians around the world on this day say, yes, we were. There.

The cross shapes the whole of our life, how we live and love and serve in light of Jesus's sacrifice. And so what I want to do this morning is I want to invite you to remain seated. And I'm going to read for you John chapter 19. This is the story the Apostle John writes down of Jesus's crucifixion. But I want to invite you with attentive ears to lean in as I read.

John, chapter 19. And I want you to hear it as though it's the first time you've ever heard it. Would you please, as you remain seated, give your attention to God's Word as I read the entirety of John, chapter 19. Let me take you there. Let's sit with the Apostle John as he tells us of this ignominious day that changed everything.

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in a purple robe. They came up to Him saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you, that you may know that I find no guilt in him.

So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man. And when the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! Crucify him! And Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. And the Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the son of God.

When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer.

So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend.

Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. And so when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement in an Aramaic Gabbatha. So it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king.

And they cried out, Away with him! Away with him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

And there they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city.

And it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am king of the Jews. And Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts.

One part for each soldier, and also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, and so they said to one another, Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

So the soldiers did these things, 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 hour, the disciple took her into his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar with sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. And when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

And he bowed his head.

Since it was the day of preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him.

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness. His testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you also may believe.

For those things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, not one of his bones will be broken. And again, another scripture says.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. And Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight.

So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. And so because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

The grass withers, the flowers fade, but God's word stands forever. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Father, I trembled even to speak after reading that story. But with the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing and acceptable to you, O Lord Christ, our Redeemer, Amen.

Dan Millman worked as a volunteer at the Stanford Hospital. He got to know a little girl there. Her name was Liza, who suffered from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be the blood transfusion from her five year old little brother. Have you heard this story before?

He had miraculously survived the same disease and he developed the antibodies that were needed to combat his sister's now illness. So the doctor explained the situation to her little brother and asked if he'd be willing to give his blood for his sister, and the boy hesitated for a moment, and then he took a deep breath, and he said, yes, for Liza, I'll do it.

And as the transfusion progressed, as you may know, the boy lay in his bed and stared at his sister, smiling, and then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and he asked with a trembling voice, will I start to die right away? The boy you see had misunderstood what the doctors had asked of him.

He thought that to give his blood to his sister meant that he had to give all of his blood to his sister to save her life. He was willing to die for her because he loved her so much. How many of you have heard that story before? It was made popular in 1993 in that great sentimental book, Chicken Soup for the Soul.

The problem with Dan Milner's version of it is it probably isn't true. It's a story that was repeated in another magazine in 1974, and in the late 60s it appeared, and also in 1925 it actually appeared. In a movie called Little Annie Rooney, where the roles were reversed, it was the sister who gave her blood for her brother.

But whether or not this particular story ever actually happened doesn't change the fact that it resonates deeply within us. It tugs at our heart because we know that in our bones, sacrificial love is one of the most powerful forces in the world. The idea of someone to willingly lay down their life for another is the ultimate expression of love.

And it resonates with us because deep down we know that it's an echo trace of a story that is too good to be true. This is the love we see in John chapter 19,

but it is not the story of a boy who misunderstood what was asked of him. It is a historical event in real time and space, verifiable by historical record of one who knew exactly what was happening to you because he knew your name and he went through it for you. Do you believe that? . Jesus wasn't confused about what was happening.

He knew that he would die fully aware of the cost, and yet he went to the cost the cross for us. Anyway, that is the gospel. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That is good news. I wonder if it's good news for you. The Apostle John wants us to see several reasons why Jesus had to die, and he wants us to be challenged by how our lives reflect the reality that Jesus went to the cross on that fateful day.

And so, in your sermon handout, you'll see that there's a cross with rays coming out from it. Those are different implications of the cross that I invite you to write down as we consider the cross this morning, and we spin it. As we rotate it and see it from the angle that John presents to us to see the profound implication of what Jesus death for you meant.

Listen, you are so flawed and broken, sinful, that Jesus had to die for you. And when you begin to understand that, then you're able to see that you are so loved and valued, that Jesus was glad to do it. The first thing that we see on the cross is that Jesus bore our penalty of sin as our substitute. He is our substitute.

Notice it's out of the words of Pilate. He says, I am bringing him to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Pilate, Pilate saw the righteousness of Jesus. Jesus. Again, he says, not just in verse four, but again in verse six, I find no guilt in him. John reiterates this as though to say, Oh, the sinless substitute is offered for you.

Do you know it? Just as Mark alluded to earlier, we don't say we're Christians because it's the cultural thing to do. We believe that Jesus died on the cross for me.

Earlier this summer, there was a story in a paper. Some of you may have seen it. It was on August 18th in the Tulsa world. Football players near death provides mission to help. Colin Cotton finally made varsity at Casha Hall. He was a junior, and he finally got to get on the field. After a defensive stop, he ran out onto the field playing offense.

And his parents were sitting there talking to friends as Colin took the field for the first time on varsity, and the play stopped. Whistles blew and they saw that there was a player down and the parents stopped talking and craned their necks to see who it was on the field and Colin's mom realized it was Colin.

His leg was in the air, they figured it was just a cramp. Then they saw the coaches run out onto the field and then the medic ran out onto the field and she knew something was wrong when they began to do CPR on her son on the football field.

They were playing Victory Christian. And across the sideline was a young captain of the Victory Christian football team. He had been their captain for three years. His name was Kingston Whitmore. He was born with a rare genetic condition. And that night, Kingston's mother, they don't often go to the game, but Lori decided to throw in an extra oxygen tank under Kingston's wheelchair.

It was hot. It was hard for Kingston. And so, that night, Lori, seeing that there was a young boy on that sideline, on the field, who had had cardiac arrest, runs down under Kingston's wheelchair. She gets that oxygen tank, and she runs it to the field. And they put the breathing mask on Colin Cotton, and they used the oxygen mask for a young boy on the sideline who had a rare genetic condition.

And later at the hospital, the doctor said it was the oxygen tank to get onto Colin as soon as it did that prevented severe brain damage. Colin's now at the University of Georgia, and he wears a bracelet that says, run the race for Kingston around his wrist. But, a couple of months after the accident, Kingston Whitmore who was Uh, by all the doctors not expected to live more than a few years.

Himself had a cardiac arrest at their home. And like many times before, they had resuscitated him, but that night they couldn't. And Kingston Whitmore died. And at his funeral, in Kingston's obituary, he It mentions Colin by name. And as Colin and his family came to the funeral, they heard these words. It is humbling, it says in the obituary, knowing that God was able to use the extraordinary life of a child with a terminal illness who was given only five days to live, was globally handicapped, legally blind, and deaf, unable to walk, talk, or do anything for himself, to live for 13 years just to save the life of another simply by showing up.

Oh, friends, the Lord Jesus didn't. just show up, but like Kingston Whitmore, Jesus lived for you. And I wonder if you recognize that you have a cardiac disease called sin. And I wonder if you recognize that you are dead in your trespasses and sins, and it's only because of the work of the cross that is for us the oxygen tank.

And it is only by faith that the breathing mask gets put on our mouth, and we are resuscitated from death. Oh, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Look at verses 16 to 18. He delivered him over to them to be crucified, Pilate did, and they took Jesus, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.

And there they crucified him. Jesus. Jesus was our substitute. Christ redeemed us, Paul says, from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, Curses everyone who hangs upon a tree. Not only was Jesus a substitute for us, but in Him being our substitute, He restores us to a proper relationship with our Father.

He restores the relationship to our Father. Through His substitutionary death, the barrier of sin is removed, and we can now experience the presence of God the Father. We can know Him, and we can, for the first time in our lives, be known. I wonder if you know this. Not only that, but in 27, it says, when Jesus saw His mother and the disciples with whom He loved, that is the Apostle John, standing nearby, He said to His mother, Dear woman, behold your son.

Meaning, behold your son, the Apostle John. Son, behold your mother. Why did John include that? Because he wants you to know that the cross of Christ is not just something that is between you and God. It is something that is for all of us as Christ's church. That you have, because of the finished work of Christ on the cross, you have been welcomed into a new family.

You have been adopted as His own. Jesus invites John and Mary to form a new family as if to say to the world, you are all now a new family in my blood. You have been welcomed. One of you walked into my office this week and you just walked in 10 steps and just broke down crying because of decisions that had been made in your own family.

And we prayed together and we spent time together. And we talked about the fact that God has given us a new family. in the local church. It's a messed up family, led by a messed up group of elders, but we look to Jesus together. Amen? He has brought us into a new family. Not only is He your substitute, not only has He reconciled us to the Father, but He has welcomed you by adoption into a new family.

I wonder if you know it. It reveals the depth of God's love for you. He said your name on that cross. He thought it. He knew it. He knew his whole church. He knew every one of you. And he loved you, even still.

Verse 28, after this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished, he said, to fulfill scripture, John includes, Jesus says, I thirst. He was aware that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises. Jesus, through his perfect obedience, fulfilled the moral law's call to a sinless life. Jesus fulfilled the law's penalty by being a curse of sin on the cross, as we heard earlier in Galatians chapter 3.

Jesus was the fulfillment of all the ceremonial law by being the final sacrifice. Jesus completed the judicial law by establishing a kingdom not bound by Israel's civil law, by being the true king. Given and serviced to his people. And Jesus is the true Adam who obeyed and fulfilled the covenant where Adam once failed and he did it for us.

R. C. Sproul says that Christ perfectly fulfilled the law on our behalf and he bore its penalties. I wonder if you know it. Verse 30 says when Jesus had received the sour wine he said it is finished and he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. Fully in control. He died for you. On the cross, Jesus satisfied justice and He absorbed the wrath of God.

This is called propitiation. He absorbed the wrath of the Father's justice upon Himself. He took your sin. Yes, the sin you committed this week. He died for that. Yes. The sin that brings you so much shame, oh he died for that one too. And there he is, our substitute, the one who reconciled us, the one who brings us into a new family, the one who fulfilled the law, the one who absorbed the wrath of God, I wonder if you know him.

Jesus, on the cross, when he said it is finished, he gave us access to the forgiveness of sins because he completed for us what Adam could never do, being the second Adam, perfect, the true Israel. Jesus died in our place. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once, verse 34, there came out blood and water.

On the cross, Jesus inaugurated a new covenant. The Old Covenant pointed to the day the Messiah would come, and when his side was pierced, out from his side came blood and water. The power of our salvation and the cleansing water of our sanctification was there at the cross. St. Clair Ferguson writes that Christ's blood is the blood of the New Covenant, fulfilling what the Old Covenant pointed toward the day.

John Stott says the new covenant was established in Christ's blood there on the cross, fulfilling the old and bringing us into a new relationship with God and setting us apart in the church. The reformer John Calvin said in his commentary on this chapter, by these two symbols of water and blood, Christ wanted to show that he possesses in himself the substance of all the blessings which are signified and conferred upon us by the sacraments, which we'll take in just a minute.

For the water is the symbol of washing, and the blood is the symbol of satisfaction. He's our substitute. He reconciles us. He brings us into a new family. He fulfills the law. He enables the forgiveness of our sins because He absorbed the wrath of God. He removes our guilt and shame. He inaugurates a new covenant.

Oh, is there any lack of words to be able to proclaim His excellencies on the cross? Have you ever noticed that John includes this little throwaway line in John 19 to the very end in verse 41? Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.

And in the garden, a new tomb. Why would he include that? Oh, the one who began his gospel talking about the creation of the world, which began, of course, with Adam and Eve in a garden, reminds his readers and you and I that, oh, Jesus, Jesus goes back to the garden. And he is literally laid in a tomb. Where?

In a garden. The second Adam. The true Israel brings us back to the garden, but not back, but forward to a day when heaven and earth will again be one. Where the garden will be in the midst of a city, and Jesus will be the light which illuminates everything. Hallelujah! That is our hope, friends. We are not just taking it to heaven.

It is not just about your relationship with Jesus. It's about the renewal of the entire world, far bigger, perhaps, than your understanding of salvation has ever comprehended. And it all happened at the blazing center at the cross. Once you admit that you are so flawed and broken and sinful that Jesus had to die for you, then you can begin to believe and see that you are so loved and cherished and treasured and wanted and desired that Jesus was glad to die for you.

This is the dual nature of the cross. Have you ever understood it? Today is the day of salvation for some of you. The cross humbles us But it also affirms us. It confronts us. But it also reassures us. Because the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is not some sentimental tale. It is not a parable meant to illustrate some vague moral principle.

It's history and it happened for you. God himself took on flesh and he stepped into our world and he gave his life willingly and voluntarily knowing every aspect of the cost to him so that we could have eternal life. In Jesus of the cross there was no misunderstanding. Jesus knew exactly what was happening to him.

And this is the good news of the gospel. He is our substitute. He is our reconciliation. He is the fulfillment of the law. He is the one who removes our shame. He is the one who inaugurates a new covenant, and He is the one who takes us back into the garden, yet through it. Into a day when we will be able to experience communion with our Father in heaven just as Adam and Eve had at the beginning.

And now we'll have, even in fuller measure, seen the beauty of Christ redeemed, crucified, and raised again from the dead for us. And this should change everything. Do you know it? As you come to the table this morning, may you see in the water, in the blood, and in the bread, may you see a picture of Jesus's death for you, and may you own it for yourself.

Amen. For you are so broken and flawed that Jesus had to die for you. But at the same time, you are so loved and accepted, treasured, and cared for that He was glad to do it. Hallelujah? Let's pray.

Oh Father, at the cross, we stand silent.

May we never take it for granted. May it change everything about our life.

And may we live as those who also pick up our crosses and follow you. Would you allow the finished work of Jesus to make us a community that loves each other, cares for one another, sacrifices for each other, gives generously, doesn't hoard our time, talent, treasure, yields the whole of our life for your glory, and sees in this community a beautiful picture of your finished work.

Sinners, us all, made saints because of the finished work of Christ. Oh Father, thank you. May it transform us as we come now to your table and give generously of our tithes and offerings. In Jesus name, amen.