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 Sermon > The message of the cross |
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Title |
The Message of the Cross(17) - The Last Seven Words on the Cross 3 |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Jn 19:26-27, Mt 27:46 |
Date |
2005-08-07 |
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Passage
John 19:28-30, Luke 23:46
Running Time: 38 Min
John 19:28-30
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Luke 23:46
And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit." Having said this, He breathed His last.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and television viewing audiences,
There is a lot of heartbreaking news around the world today. Especially, in big accidents, many people lose their lives. Sometimes, the victims of these big accidents send a message or talk to their family members on mobile phones for the last time, and some of them are introduced by the media.
In most cases, the last words they say at the final moments of their lives are "I am sorry for not being nicer to you," or their confession of love.
The last confession of love has such great power, and this word is imprinted in one's heart so deeply. Our Jesus also gave us a message of love at the last moments. They are the last seven words on the cross.
Jesus' head, face, and whole body was covered with blood, and he hung on the cross with His hands and feet nailed to the cross, suffering such great pain for six hours. In this excruciating pain, He left each word like His last will to give us life until the last moment of His life.
I hope you will imprint what kind of pains Jesus took for us and what words He left for us even in excruciating pain. I pray in the name of the Lord that the last words of Jesus would be active in your heart and become the signpost to guide your life.
Viewing audiences, the fifth word is found in John 19:28. It says, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, *said, "I am thirsty." "A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon [a branch of] hyssop, and brought it up to His mouth."
If one bleeds a lot, he will be very thirsty. Especially, Jesus was hung on the cross for a long time under the scorching sunshine of Israel's dry weather. He shed His blood for a long time, with dehydration, so His thirst got worse and worse. But by saying "I am thirsty" Jesus was not only talking about His physical thirst.
This word has spiritual meaning, too. Jesus is asking us believers to quench His thirst by recovering the price of His blood. Then, how can we recover the price of Jesus' blood? The reason why Jesus shed His blood was to redeem the mankind who are sinners.
Therefore, to recover the price of Jesus is to save the souls who are going to hell. It is to preach the gospel more diligently, let more people accept the Lord, and lead them to enter heavenly kingdom with faith.
Other than preaching the gospel directly, praying for the salvation of souls and giving offerings for missionary works are also saving soul indirectly. The reason why Jesus said, "I am thirsty" is to urge us to try harder on saving more souls.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when Jesus said, "I am thirsty," somebody took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. Sponge absorbs liquid, so this man gave sponge filled with the sour wine so that Jesus could suck from it.
But the reason why Jesus received it was not to quench His thirst. He just tasted it because He had to fulfill the spiritual meaning of tasting sour wine as prophesied in the Old Testament. The prophecy in Psalm 69:21, "They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," was fulfilled.
Then, what is the spiritual meaning of tasting sour wine? This symbolizes that by Jesus drinking sour wine, He let us drink new wine instead. The sour wine, namely the old wine refers to the Law of the Old Testament, and the new wine to the law of love that is perfected through Jesus.
According to the law of the Old Testament, sinners had to receive the punishment, and to be forgiven of their sins, they had to offer the sacrifices of blood with animals. Every time they committed sins, they had to kill an animal and offer sacrifice of blood.
But Jesus became the atoning sacrifice and redeemed us from all the curses of the law by dying on the cross. It means He received the sour wine for us.
If we believe this deep in our heart and repent of our sins, we can be forgiven of sins through that faith. This is to drink the new wine. Jesus received the sour wine and touched His mouth to let us realize this fact.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the sixth word of the last seven words is found in John 19:30. It says, "When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit." 'It is finished' means Jesus accomplished the providence of human salvation completely and He accomplished the Law with love.
What does it mean by accomplishing the Law with love? According to the Law, the wages of sin is death, so all sinners have to receive the punishment of sins and go to hell. Also, for the people of God to receive forgiveness of sins, they had to offer sacrifices of blood every time by killing a cow or a lamb.
But Jesus redeemed us from all curses of the law by dying on the cross. Hebrews 7:27 says, "who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself."
This redemption process was done with such great love that we cannot even fathom. The precious Son of God came to this earth in wretched human body, preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and healed all diseases and infirmities.
He had authority to punish all evil people, but like a powerless person, he was whipped, wore the crown of thorns, and was nailed through His hands and feet by evil people. Through this tremendous love and sacrifice of love, the authority of the enemy devil and Satan was broken down and we can now gain eternal life with faith and enter into heavenly kingdom.
Then, what should we do now? Our Lord Jesus accomplished all the providence of God and became the King of kings and the Lord of lords, so we have to accomplish the will of God towards us. What, then, is the will of God for us? It is our complete sanctification and faithfulness.
We have to accomplish the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, spiritual love, and the Beatitudes, and save many souls as the Lord told us to become His witnesses to the ends of the earth. If we accomplish the will of God this way, we will be able to dwell near the throne of God in New Jerusalem, just as our Lord sits on the right hand of God's throne.
We will not just receive shameful salvation like the criminal who had no heavenly reward to receive, but we will be able to stay close to God's throne and meet Him face to face.
I hope you will finish the preparation as the bride of the Lord before the Lord comes back and fulfill all your God-given duties. I urge you in the name of the Lord that you will be able to confess, "I have finished everything," when you meet the Lord.
The last seventh word is found in Luke 23:46. It says, "And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, "Father, INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." And having said this, He breathed His last." At the fourth word of the last seven words, Jesus did not call God 'Father', but 'God.'
This was because Jesus was being crucified in place of a sinner, and it was to let us realize Jesus was completely forsaken by God for us. But because Jesus now accomplished all the providence of salvation, He was calling God 'Father' again.
Here, it is said, "crying out with a loud voice." As explained before, it was because Jesus' last words had to be heard by the people. Also, another reason why He cried out with a loud voice is because it is the will of God to cry out in prayer.
Jeremiah 33:3 says, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know." In many places of both Old and New Testaments, God tells us to cry out in prayer.
The disciples all cried out in prayer. When the blind man Bartimaeus came to Jesus, he cried out with a loud voice. Even when people around him were telling him to keep quiet, he rather called out more loudly. Then, he finally received the answer.
Acts 7:59 portrays a scene where Stephen was dying a martyr while preaching the gospel. It says, "And they went on stoning Stephen as he called upon [the Lord] and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" We can see he was crying out in prayer even while he was being stoned to death.
In John 11:43, when Jesus brought the dead Lazarus back to life, "He cried out with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.'" It had already been four days since Lazarus had died and there was smell of decaying, but our Lord still cried out with a loud voice.
Actually, He didn't have to cry out with a loud voice. The people were very close to Him, so they could hear Him well even with soft voice. Our Lord is also following the word of God. He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth."
If you cannot cry out in your prayer yet, or you can speak up a little bit but cannot really cry out with a loud voice in your prayer, can you not break your pride to obey the word of God and to please God?
Even if you have fame, authority, or wealth in this world, it belongs to this world only. It is great blessing to obey the word of God. It is the way to go into spirit. You should break that pride and framework and cry out with a loud voice in your prayer according to the word of God.
I am not saying you have to yell, but it would be very good to raise your voice so that angels of God can hear you very well. I explained to you why you have to cry out with a loud voice in prayer. Our God the Father looks at our heart but there are angels who record your prayers and take it to God who is in heaven, and they cannot understand you if you just pray in silence.
God knows everything but not all angels will know your prayers. They can hear you only when you cry out with a loud voice. But sometimes, there are times when you have to pray in silence. For example, you may be in a bus or in a restaurant or something.
Even in places where it may disturb other people, when I pray, I speak up to make my prayer heard by at least people right next to me or people who are with me. Not with very loud voice to disturb other people, but with a volume that can be heard clearly.
It may seem that it would be the same whether Jesus commanded the dead Lazarus with a loud voice or not, but when Jesus commanded Lazarus, it was also a kind of prayer before God, so Jesus cried out with a loud voice like in a prayer, obeying the word of God.
Also, when Jesus prayed on Gethsemane, He prayed so earnestly with all His strength that His sweat became like the drops of blood.
Medical doctors say if you strain yourself so much, the capillary vessels may burst and the blood comes out with the sweat, so that the sweat looks like drops of blood. This cannot happen if you just pray in silence. Especially, nights in Israel are quite cold.
Because Jesus cried out so much even to sweat and especially He toiled in prayer so much that His sweat was drops of blood falling to the ground.
Of course, there are times when we have to pray in silence, but when we pray on a regular basis, we have to pray with all our heart.
Jesus was praying with a loud voice even on the cross to tell us the will of God clearly, and to act according to the will of God Himself.
Next, Jesus committed His spirit into the hands of God saying, "Father, INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." When Jesus died on the cross, His physical life was ended, but it is not that His spirit also became extinct.
Our Father God receives the spirit. Men do not only consist of visible body. They consist of spirit, soul, and body. The body is only the shell to contain spirit and soul. Even though the body dies and becomes extinct, the spirit is everlasting and never disappears.
I already explained about spirit, soul, and body in more than 40 sessions. Let me just tell you briefly. God made the body of Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Then, the seed of life, namely Adam's spirit was created. God filled the knowledge of spirit, which is the truth, into Adam's spirit, and the heart of Adam was the seed of life surrounded by the knowledge of truth.
So, that is why Adam is called a living spirit. It was not necessary to have the term like 'heart', because his heart itself was his spirit. Soul is the generic term for the memory device in the brain, all the contents in it, and the utilizing and using all the memories.
In the beginning, Adam's spirit was the master to rule over his soul and body. Because his spirit was filled with the truth, the soul controlled by spirit had only truthful thoughts, and the body controlled by the spirit also acted only in the truth. But after Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and committed sin, his spirit died.
The death of spirit means that its communication with God is disconnected so it is not active any more. Since the communication stopped, it could not receive the knowledge of truth any more. We say it is dead if it cannot communicate with God.
So, the Bible says that the Gentiles who have not received the Holy Spirit of God are dead, even though they do breathe and live. They are alive in physical body, but they are dead.
When the spirit, which is the master, died and became inactive, the soul took the place of the master of men and began to control the body. And the soul accepted the knowledge of untruth by the work of Satan. To the extent that untruth was filled in heart, the truth that was sown by God began to leak out.
Meekness leaked out and anger was planted. Seeking others' disappeared and instead seeking one's own filled the heart. Integrity and truthfulness were gone and they were replaced by falsehood and craftiness. Instead of humbleness and service, pride and arrogance were planted.
All the characteristics and the kind of heart that belong to God began to disappear one by one, and instead, untruth came into men. Untruth came into men, and it means truth began to disappear.
It is not that truth first disappeared and untruth came in, but because untruth came in, the truth began to disappear. Likewise, when the knowledge of untruth surrounds the seed of life to make it inactive, we say the spirit is dead.
But even though the spirit is dead and inactive, it does not become extinct. Because men's spirit contains the breath of life of the everlasting God, it cannot become extinct. Though the body perishes, spirit exists forever. Then, what will happen to the soul when the body dies?
Only when we have brain, can we remember something or think through the brain cells. For animals that do not have spirit, when the memory device of brain disappears after the decaying of the body, their soul goes back to nothing along with the body. But it is different for men. For men who have spirit, when they have operations of soul, the operation is passed onto the heart, and it is recorded in heart.
So, the soul does not become extinct but it is recorded in spirit. So, it exists forever combined with the spirit.
When Jesus said, "INTO THY HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT," this spirit means spirit with soul combined. When people hear the gospel and accept Jesus Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit. Then, their dead spirit is revived.
Why does the dead spirit revive by the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit knocks on the seed of life in you to make you hear the gospel. If you hear, the word will become your faith and the Holy Spirit helps you to practice the word. But He can give you more strength only when you pray.
You can receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit and gain the strength to overcome the untruth with truth. This way, prayer will give you strength to overcome in truth.
The Holy Spirit wakes up again and again, so the seed of life that has been asleep will revive. It will accept more and more truth, and because you act according to the truth, you begin to cast off untruth. Then, the truth becomes stronger.
Then, you begin to communicate with God again, and receive truth from Him. As much as your heart is filled with the truth, you can cast off untruth. If your heart is filled with truth, you will have thoughts of truth and act in truth.
If you come into spirit, whatever you see, hear, or speak will be all truth. You will see everything in truth, hear everything only in the truth, and speak only in the truth.
Likewise, if our spirit is revived and our heart is filled with the truth, we say our soul is prosperous.
Namely, because our spirit is active and living, so the soul only obeys the spirit. So if we want anything in our heart, it is done as we want. It's because what we want in our heart will be truth and goodness. If our spirit wants anything, our soul only obeys. So this kind of person is the one who has gone into spirit.
3 John 1:2 says, "Beloved," and you know it is the word of blessings if it says, 'beloved'. It says, "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers." As your soul is prosperous, namely, as your heart is filled with the truth, you will prosper in all aspects and be in good health.
John 3:5 says, "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'" As said, those who are born again by the water and the Holy Spirit, namely those people whose spirits are revived, die on this earth, their spirit, along with the soul combined, will go up to heavenly kingdom.
But those whose spirit is not revived and have not accomplished truth in their heart cannot go to heaven. So, hell is the place to accommodate this kind of souls. Those who die after living in sins will be put into the eternal fires of hell along with the enemy devil.
The worldly people, even though they do not know these things in detail, instinctively fear death. They try to live as long as they can, and at the moment of death, they become stiffened with fear, not being able to close their eyes.
If you have seen many people's death, you know that those who live in evil are caught by great fear at the moment of their death, opening their eyes widely.
But those who have the assurance of salvation do not fear death. If you fear death, it means you don't have the assurance of salvation or you are in a situation where it is very difficult for you to receive salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:8 says, "we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord." We can see the apostle Paul rather wanted to finish this life quickly and go to the Lord. At the moment of their death, those with faith confess like Jesus, 'Father, I commit my spirit into thy hands.'
In fact those who have faith die very peacefully at the last moment.
They already have faith and hope, and at the last moment, their spiritual eyes will be opened and see the angels who have come to take them and the lights of the heavenly kingdom.
They already know that there is heaven and hell before death. So, just by looking at the last moments of life, we can see that the Bible is true and that there is truly heaven and hell.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus prayed that He commit His spirit into the hands of God. This testifies that He obeyed and accomplished everything according to the providence of God. It is God who controls the life, death, fortune, and misfortune of human history.
Jesus' coming to this earth, being crucified, and resurrecting was not done by the will or plan of Jesus.
John 4:34 says, "Jesus *said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, (namely the will of God the Father) and to accomplish His work.'" As said, Jesus only obeyed the will and providence of God the Father. God started and finished everything, and took the spirit of Jesus, too.
So, when we pray for something, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, but the one who answers is God.
Because God's one and only Son Jesus shed His blood to forgive our sins and became the atoning sacrifice for us, God says He will answer us only when we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. So, we receive answer only when we pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ because He redeemed us from our sins and became the mediator for sinners before God. But the one who answers to prayers and rules over life, death, fortune, and misfortune of human beings is God the Father.
Matthew 10:29-31 says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And [yet] not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows." If you understand the spiritual meaning of this verse and imprint it in your mind, you can commit everything into God's hands.
It's the same with those who have illnesses. Why should you be sick and unhealthy? Why do you sometimes receive answers and not receive answer at other times?
Without God's permission, even one sparrow will not fall to the ground and God counts even every hair on our head. If you can truly rely on God with faith, there is no reason for you to be sick and be unable to receive answers.
It's not only about diseases. It is the same for the blessings in your businesses and workplaces or when you perform God's work. Jesus, being the very nature God, only followed the will of God and committed everything to God. In the same way, I urge you to rely on God only, not on any other human method or other people.
When you use human methods, you can accomplish things only within the boundary of human ability and limits, but when you rely on God in everything, you can give glory to God and accomplish the kingdom of God greatly, going beyond the limits of men. I urge you to commit everything into God's hands in everything, whether you die or live.
Now, you may have a question. It is said spirit and soul will go to the kingdom of heaven combined together, and the souls of animals will become extinct. Then, for those who are not saved, their spirit is dead. So, if they die right now, how can soul alone go to hell?
Doesn't it become extinct? No, it doesn't become extinct. This soul will be contained in the spiritual body and go to hell. The spiritual body is the body to contain spirit and soul. So, in your physical body, where is your spiritual body located? Where is your spirit?
Is it in your chest or in heart, or in your thoughts? The spiritual body is located in the whole body. Your spiritual body has the same shape as your physical body. So, when one's spirit comes out, you see the spiritual body come out as it is.
Those with spiritual eyes open can see it. The spirit and soul will be contained in the spiritual body, and for those who are falling into hell, only the soul will be contained in the spiritual body because the spirit is dead. In sum, those who go to hell will have only soul and those who go to heaven will have both spirit and soul contained in the spiritual body.
When both spirit and soul will go together, this soul belongs to spirit. Only the soul belonging to spirit will be combined with the spirit. The soul belonging to flesh cannot combine with the spirit. So, although I don't have memory power, I don't feel uncomfortable because my soul belonging to spirit is combined with the spirit. Of course, for physical things I feel uncomfortable.
I don't remember names of people or some dates or telephone numbers. But because I don't live with things of the flesh but of the spirit, I don't feel uncomfortable at all. Also, for the things that are necessary I have my helpers around me, so I don't feel uncomfortable.
I don't have anything uncomfortable about spirit because in my spirit is my soul belonging to spirit. So, I can remember things of soul belonging to spirit even if it is 23 years ago.
Some workers say, "Senior pastor, you say you don't have memory power but you remember things very well. How can you remember such old things very clearly?" It is because I have soul combined with the spirit, I can remember the things whenever necessary. I don't have to try to remember something. It is just reminded in my heart.
And I can remember better than even the person himself who experienced it. Why? When God shows it to me, He shows it to me like a vision so clearly and exactly as if I am watching a movie. So, when the Lord and Stephen said, 'spirit' the soul belonging to spirit is contained in this spirit.
Our Lord obviously does not have any soul belonging to the flesh, so His soul completely belongs to spirit. It's the same with Stephen. Because he was sanctified and had no forms of evil, his whole soul belonged to spirit. But what if you are saved by faith but you have not gone into spirit yet and still stay in flesh? What happens to your soul?
That soul will remain on this earth and become extinct. Then, what will go up? Only the soul belonging to spirit will go up. Because you have been acting in truth, you have accomplished something in spirit. So, only what you have accomplished will go up, only the things that belong to spirit. So, in heaven, can there be falsehood? Of course not! Can there be hatred?
There can't be. Is there adultery? It cannot be. Why? It's because soul belonging to the flesh will not go up there, so you won't even remember such things once you go to the heavenly kingdom. You can remember only the things that belong to sprit. So it is so beautiful and there is no evil whatsoever.
Is there envy, jealousy, or hatred in heavenly kingdom? Even though you have not gone into spirit completely yet, your soul belonging to flesh will become extinct, and only the soul belonging to sprit will unite with the spirit and go up to heaven. That is why the heavenly kingdom has to be divided.
Why? Those who have accomplished spirit completely should live together. Those who accomplished only little bit of spirit can dwell in the Paradise, the 1st kingdom, or the 2nd kingdom of heaven.
As much as they accomplish the spirit, they will have same brightness of their light. So, if you accomplish more of spirit, your light will be brighter, so others cannot even look at you directly. When you look at spiritual men with spiritual eyes, you won't even be able to look straight.
So, when you are invited to the 3rd kingdom of heaven or New Jerusalem, angels will clothe you with the appropriate dress that is very shiny.
But for those who fall into hell, only their soul will go because they don't have any spirit accomplished. And even that soul is the soul belonging to the flesh only. So, when they go to hell, they will give out their evil forever.
So, in hell, even between husband and wife and parents and children, they will blame each other. Wife will say to her husband, "Because of you, I was not saved and came to hell, and I am suffering because of you. You stopped me from attending church. You persecuted me not to believe in Jesus, so finally I came to hell."
Also, the husband will say, "If you were nice to me and preached the gospel to me, I would have gone to heaven, but because of you I came to hell." They will blame each other and fight there too. They will do it forever. Why? Because they don't have any goodness, or the spirit!
You can understand these things if you read the books 'heaven' and 'hell', that spirit and soul go together, and what happens to the thoughts that belong to this world. Things that belong to the flesh will be erased.
Our Father God will not remember those things either. So, because there is only goodness in heaven, how good it is! for example, in the kingdom of heaven, you will not have any thoughts like, "That person hated me and slandered me on this earth, and he is here!" You will not have any thoughts of evil and untruth.
You will only have love. All the words of your mouths will be goodness and love. How happy the heavenly kingdom will be since there is no evil at all!
Let me conclude the message. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I delivered messages about the last seven words on the cross until this session. The fifth word is "I am thirsty." This is earnest request of Jesus telling us to recover the price of His blood which is shed for sinners falling into hell.
God wants us to preach the gospel and save numerous souls through this word. The sixth word is "It is finished." It means Jesus obeyed the will of God completely and accomplished all His providence. Like Jesus, we should be sanctified and faithful for the kingdom of God to fulfill all God's will toward us.
The last seventh word is "Father, I COMMIT MY SPIRIT INTO THY HANDS." It testifies that it is God who rules over the life, death, fortune, and misfortune of mankind and human history.
It tells us that God is the one who planned the providence of human salvation and accomplished it. We can also give glory to God and God's providence will be fulfilled through us when we rely on God in everything.
2 Timothy 4:8 says, "in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."
I hope you will understand the heart of Jesus crying out with a loud voice even in the midst of excruciating pain and fulfill God's will completely, so that you will be able to confess that you are longing for the Lord to come back. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be able to receive the glorious crown of righteousness along with all those who love the appearing of the Lord. |
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