Sermon Tone Analysis

Words Remembered

Christ’s Words on the Cross   |   Shaun LePage   |   Palm Sunday, April 9, 2006

 

 

I.

Introduction

A.   Words.

Vowels and consonants all jumbled together in a multitude of ways in a multitude of languages.

English alone has almost 990,000 words.

Millions of words are spoken every day.

The average man speaks about 2,000 words every day.

The average woman speaks about 7,000.

Shakespeare used about 24,000 words total in his complete works.

In fact, he invented about 1700 words.

Since the beginning of time, people have been talking and writing and publishing and memorizing and reciting and—now—emailing and posting and blogging…words.

B.    The majority of these words are forgotten.

They get deleted.

They get tossed in the trash can.

The spoken words are rarely recorded, so they soon stop ringing in someone’s ears.

C.   But other words linger.

Some burn their way into the memory of a person who is touched by them or flattered by them or hurt by them.

Some words linger because of their greatness.

Some are too profound to be forgotten.

Some are spoken at just the right time in just the right place by just the right person and they will always be remembered.

D.   Some of the words we—as Christians—remember every year are the words shouted in a parade long ago.

There was only one entry in the parade—a man riding on a donkey.

But the crowd was bouncing with joy and excitement!

The Bible tells us “*all the city was stirred*”!

They waved palm branches and shouted, “*Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!*” (Matthew 21:9; NASB).

E.    Less than one week later, that same crowd had very different words for Jesus—one of those words was: “*staurwqhtw**!*”—“*Crucify

Him!*” The crowds, the religious leaders, even condemned criminals—we are told—insulted Him with words.

F.    There were other words that day—spoken by Jesus.

Some were shouted for everyone to hear.

Some were—no doubt—whispered for the few who stood nearby.

The words Jesus spoke while hanging on the cross are among the most remarkable words ever recorded.

They are among the most studied.

The most cherished.

As He hung on the cross, Jesus spoke 41 Greek words.

Perhaps He spoke more, but only 41 are recorded for us.

Those 41 words make up seven statements.

Remarkable statements.

If we consider who was speaking them and what He was going through and what He was doing for us, we must listen.

We must study them.

We must let them change us.

G.   We will look at them in the order that I believe they were spoken.

II.

Body

A.   Luke 23:33-38

1.

Here we have Words of Forgiveness for His Murderers.

2.     “*Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing*.”

3.     How they must have hated Him.

He was dying by one of the most horrible forms of human execution ever invented by human creativity—but that wasn’t enough.

They weren’t satisfied with that.

They also mocked Him.

The sign Pilate put up, declaring that Jesus was the King of the Jews, may not have been a joke to start with, but the crowd turned it into one.

4.     They were wrong.

This was a complete distortion of justice.

Jesus was clearly innocent and everyone there knew it.

He had every right to defend Himself and curse His murderers.

But Jesus practiced what He preached—and He preached forgiveness.

Remember Matthew 5:43,44: “*You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you*…”

5.

This prayer was answered on Pentecost in a huge way.

The Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles and Peter stood and told the crowd, “*Therefore, let all the house of **Israel** know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified!

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’

Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins*…” Verse 41 tells us 3,000 of them believed that day, repented of the sin of the murder of Jesus and received the forgiveness Jesus prayed for.

6.     “*Father, forgive them*?!” Drink those words in for a moment.

Consider how astonishing those words were coming from that mouth, at that moment.

Consider the greatness of those words.

Consider the example those words are to those who are facing persecution.

The first Christian martyr—Stephen—obviously was forever changed by those words.

As he himself was being stoned to death, the example of His Lord was fresh in his mind.

Acts 7:60 tells us Stephen said, “*Lord, do not hold this sin against them*!”

7.     Who in your life have you not forgiven?

Who is it that you consider unforgivable?

Please don’t let it escape your notice that those who were sinning against Jesus were not repentant.

They were not saying they were sorry—they were mocking Him!

They were insulting Him.

They were killing Him by lying about Him.

Who is it you can’t forgive?

8.     Wurmbrand story?

B.    John 19:25-27

1.

Here we have Words of Provision for His Mother.

2.     Long before this day, when Jesus was eight days old, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple.

A righteous and devout prophet named Simeon was there.

The Holy Spirit had told Simeon that he would not die until He had seen the Christ.

He held the child and praised God and blessed Mary and Joseph.

Then he said to Mary, “*Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed—and a sword will pierce even your own soul*…” (Luke 2:34,35).

Imagine the pain and helplessness Mary must have felt as she watched Jesus being tortured and executed.

This was—no doubt—the sword Simeon spoke of.

3.

She was probably widowed by this time and in a very touching, personal moment, He made sure that she was going to be taken care of by a believer.

She had other sons—half-brothers of Jesus, the biological sons of Joseph.

This is clear from at least four passages.

Listen to this one, Matthew 13:54-56: “*He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

Is not this the carpenter’s son?

Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

And His sisters, are they not all with us*?” Mary had other children to take care of her, but they did not become believers until after Jesus rose from the dead (John 7:5).

John was a believer and even more than that, He had been as close to Jesus as almost anyone.

Mary and John had something very special in common—their great love for Jesus.

4.     Jesus once again sets an example to us.

Here, He shows how we are to care for our family members—especially our aging parents.

Paul would later write in 1 Timothy 5:8, “*But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever*.”