The Seven Words of Jesus on the Cross (Part 3)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Opening Banter, Trip Announcement, and Antinomianism Rant

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. Michael Lee Abendroth here. By the time you listen to this show, I�ll just turn 62 years old. I think I�m much younger mentally. I enjoy my children�s friends in terms of I think I can understand their lingo and their jargon and their nomenclature.

I always wonder to myself, why do only people in my age category listen to me? Probably the pop culture things. I appeal to Christian Harris, but that�s about it. Christian, how are you? Good to know that you listen to the show.

Israel, $500 refundable deposit, but necessary deposit for the February 21st through March 2nd trip from Boston. I think it�s $34 .99 to go. Everything paid for except a few lunches. If you need to get to Boston, you can do that.

I think the first flight, you get up to Newark, and then it�s Boston, Newark, Newark, Tel Aviv, and then on the way back, pretty nice, Tel Aviv, Boston. Anyway, that�s the way that works. If you want to send in your money, you can send it into the church.

Make sure you tag it as Israel, and that�s $500, Bethlehem Bible Church, 307 Lancaster Street, West Boylston, Mass, 01583. Okay. The other co-host of that trip will be Pat, the Pactom Abendroth. I hope you listen to his show.

I do. We�re talking about seven words. There are many people that have last words, and I was pretty close to death not that long ago. I don�t know what my last words would have been, �Help. I told you I was sick.

No remdesivir. Easy to laugh about now. I still have lung issues, but it is what it is. What are you going to do? God is sovereign. He�s sovereign over COVID. He�s sovereign over my lungs. He�s sovereign over the day I was born, when I�ll die.

He�s sovereign over it all. It doesn�t mean we have to walk around as robots or stoic or anything like that, but it�s true. I believe that, and therefore I can�t change the past, nor can I change the future.

I can just try to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, and in light of what the Lord has done for me, to obey Him, out of gratitude. Not to keep my standing, but to obey Him. Frankly, I�m getting tired of people who say over and over and over, �Sins I, No Compromise Radio, Mike Gabendroth, focus on free sovereign grace, that somehow we�re anti-law, that we�re anti-Gnomian.

It�s a farce, it�s a lie, it�s not true. All you have to do is listen to my three-part series on motivations to obey. We want people to obey. I want people to live a pure life, a holy life. Listen to one sermon at Bethlehem Bible Church, and say, �Is he an anti-Gnomian

First of all, it�s not historically true, because anti-Gnomianism is to deny the third use of the law. I endorse the third use of the law. We should take the law of God, the moral law of God, two great commandments, ten commandments, whatever you want to use, whatever way, shape, or form, and I want Christians to obey that.

If they disobey, they�re not going to go to hell, though, because those sins have been paid for. That�s my point. Hand of the judge gives the unbeliever the law, and they better do this and live. The hand of the Father gives that same law to believers, to guide.

God doesn�t change. His law doesn�t change. His law is a reflection of His character, so how can that ever change? But my relationship to the law-giver changes. That�s my point. And therefore, I don�t have to wrangle people and add extra law to the gospel, and extra law to say, you know, you better do this, and Romans 2 .13 and other passages, to make sure people don�t live crazy lives.

Jesus gave the free gospel of grace, and He didn�t hedge it with extra laws. And so, that�s not really my problem. If people run crazy with free grace, that�s not my problem, as long as I�m preaching the full counsel of God and make sure that we realize you�re saved by faith alone, and that faith won�t be alone.

Duh, I believe that. It�s just so silly to me when people try to throw these things out. �Oh, you�re antinomian. Well, listen, I don�t even say of my dispensationalist friends. I could say it. I could say to them, �You�re antinomian.

Most dispensationalists that I know don�t believe the Ten Commandments are for today, the moral law of God. They don�t believe in thinking about the law with moral, civil, ceremonial. They think it�s all together, take it or leave it, all moral.

It�s a false trifurcation, many would say, and they say that the Christian now is under the law of Christ, whatever�s a law given in the New Testament. And so, technically, the dispensationalists who believe that, they�re antinomian.

But I grant them, because I know where they�re coming from, that they�re not crazy about, �You know what? Run around in your wife, look at pornography, get drunk, do all these things. Who cares about serving in a local church

I know that they�re not that. And so, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Historically speaking, would Luther call them antinomian? The answer is yes, but there are flavors and there are nuances and there are degrees and other things.

And so, the dispensationalist friends that I have, they don�t function like they�re antinomian. Technically, yes, they are, but they don�t function because they think that they, and many of them, because of gratitude, some from fear, duty, other things, but the glory of God.

They�re motivated to obey God. Maybe some of them are motivated to obey God to keep their standing because they confuse ground and evidence, but overall, I give them the benefit of the doubt. They want to obey God because of their great salvation and their Savior.

Okay, found in the New Testament commands what they call the law of Christ. So, I don�t call them antinomian when I actually could. So, how do they call me antinomian when they actually can�t? Because functionally, I�m not antinomian, and theologically and historically, I�m not antinomian.

It just drives me batty, and I don�t know why. Over and over and over. It�s when people, maybe it�s, I�m dropping my phone, I�ve got to get this, because otherwise I�ll forget it. Maybe it�s my pride.

Maybe it�s, oh, well, on Twitter, you come across on this way or that way. And the reason why I do come across a certain way is because people are hammered all the time. Even with the new John Piper book on saving faith, they�re hammered with this Baxterian, neo-nomistic, adding volitional categories to the response to the Lord�s work.

Instead of fiduciary, believe, trust, rest, receive, accept, instead of saying things like that, you add these other things in, submit, surrender, treasure, desire, yield, and I don�t want to have any part of that.

Those are good categories in sanctification. Anyway, there�s my little rant. I�m Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio. Today is part three of Mike�s Rants. I�m actually in a series called The Seven Words of Jesus.

There weren�t just seven words that he uttered, but seven sayings. Like Cranner had the four comfortable words during communion. Those would be four Bible verses, actually more than four, because one of the words is 1 John 2, 1 and 2, but they were Bible verses.

Same thing here. What did Jesus say on the cross? Some argue the number of things he said. Are there seven? Some argue the order. So far, we�ve looked at Luke 23, �Father, forgive them. They don�t know what they�re doing.

Forgive them. They know not what they do. And truly, I say to you today, you�ll be with me in paradise, to the thief. So we have the prayer, �Father, forgive them probably to the Roman soldiers and for that thief.

He�s not praying for Judas and Pilate. I don�t think you�re going to see Judas and Pilate in heaven. And the second one, instantaneously, immediately, this man, with a quickened heart and mind and will, of course, doesn�t rail against Jesus any longer.

He rails against the railers and then says to Jesus, �Would you remember me? Remember me. And that�s actually what the Lord does. And it�s a wonderful word from Jesus on the cross. You can learn a lot about what people say on their deathbed.

Jesus Entrusts His Mother to the Beloved Disciple

So we come to word number three today on No Compromise Radio, and we move from Luke 23 to John 19. And that word is, �Woman, look your son, and look your mother. Or, �Behold your son, behold your mother.

John 19, let�s start in verse 16. �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 the skull. Matter of fact, that�s where we get the word cranium.

That�s the Greek word, cranium. �Which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him with 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. 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 priest and the Jews said to Pilate, �Do not write the King of the Jews, but rather, �This man said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, �What I have written, I have written. So we�ll stop there for a moment.

What you would do is, you would say, �Well, the person getting crucified was guilty of these crimes. So you put a thing around their neck, and then you could also hang it up above him so you would know why he was being crucified.

And so what we have here in the Gospel of John, a very detailed, vivid description, like he was an eyewitness, �Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And only John mentions the three languages, Aramaic, Latin, and Greek.

Okay, we understand this is actually true of Jesus, right? And he was crucified for that alleged, air quotes, �crime. And what he had hanging around his neck and then slammed, nailed up to the cross was actually true.

Aramaic, local people, Latin for the officials, Greek, that�s what people talked about in those days. And of course, this is Pilate�s little slam on the Jewish leaders, because here, you�re going to take, you�re going to eat this, you�re going to take this, and you�re going to like it.

And you know what? I think Pilate, although a very bad man, had enough of these Jewish people and getting manipulated by them. And so, this was his little dig at the leaders. Of course, it was a divine irony, because this is exactly why the Son came to earth, why he took on human nature, flesh.

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments, verse 23, �divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to the bottom.

And so, it seems, if there�s four pieces, there�s four soldiers. They said to one another, verse 24, �Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who it shall be. This was to fulfill the Scripture, which says, �They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

By the way, that was in Scripture, and then with an ominous tone, these six English words were written. So, the soldiers did these things. I mean, they hit you when you�re down. When it comes to crucifixion, cruel.

These executioners probably didn�t get paid much. It�s kind of like back in the old days. If you�re going to get beheaded in the Middle Ages in England, you�d want to give the beheader some extra money, because you wanted to make sure it was swift, because if not, he might be too clumsy, might not do it well.

So, you wanted to make sure it was done quickly. I don�t know if Jesus was completely naked or not. Some say he was. It doesn�t matter. Regardless, this is a very shameful thing. This is a very demeaning thing.

Sad. It�s just sad. You divide the clothing into four parts, which probably was a headdress of some type, an outer robe, some kind of sash or girdle, they said, sandals, and then this tunic that was the undergarment.

They can�t really divide that one up. Maybe Jesus is completely naked. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother�s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So, we�ve got two without names, two with names.

His mother, Mary. His mother�s sister, Salome, probably. Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene. And Magdala is on the shore of Galilee. You can go there. They have, I think, a temple that they�ve uncovered from 2nd or 3rd century in Magdala right now.

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother. So, here comes the third word, the third saying of Jesus on the cross. Well, what we can deduce from this is that Joseph, Jesus�s stepdad, has died.

Jesus, the oldest son, is responsible for his mother, and now he transfers the care for his mother to John, the disciple. Where Jesus� brothers are, or why Jesus didn�t give his mother to the brothers to care for, maybe they�re on the run, maybe they�re doubting, we�re not even told.

But here we see, you know, the point is, we see the compassion of Jesus. We see Jesus, to his death, honoring his father and his mother, fulfilling the law. Isn�t that one of the great commandments? Well, the great commandment is to love your neighbor, but isn�t that one of the Ten Commandments?

Honor your father and mother, fulfilling the law all the way unto his death. And that�s really what I want you to get out of this. You say, well, in a brutal, vicious, awful scene, you see Jesus�s tender, kind care for others, including his mother.

Yes, good. I want you to see that. But more importantly, I want you to see Jesus fulfilling the law, right? Jesus just didn�t come down on Friday, die, and be raised from the dead. He�s earning righteousness, not for himself, he already is righteous, but he�s earning righteousness for you, for me, for all those who would believe, for that thief on the cross next to him.

He�s earning righteousness, and he�s fulfilling the law all the way up until his death. I love that. There�s his family, and he�s concerned. Yes, if you say, well, is he the God-man? Is he truly human?

Is he truly compassionate? Is he perfectly human? Yes. I mean, don�t you see the play? The play is, the soldiers could give no care for this. They could care less. That�s what I was after. But now Jesus is the one caring.

Jesus, yes, he sees his mother. And of course, that prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2, a sword will pierce your own soul. His mother�s soul has been pierced. While Jesus�s side will be pierced, his mother�s soul has been pierced.

And now Jesus, on his deathbed, it�s agape love. It�s no bed, of course, but on the veritable deathbed, thinking about his mother, making sure she�s taken care of. When I was dying, I thought I was dying in the hospital, I emailed Steve Cooley, the Tuesday guy.

Did I say Cooley or Kool-Aid? Steve Kool-Aid, and said, �Take care of my wife. Right? That that meant elders take care of her. Now, I have life insurance and all that stuff, and you know, that�s a good thing to just kind of think about.

If I would have died, what would have happened? Well, they would have collected the life insurance policy, my wife, and it�s sizable. That�s enough to live on for a while. Would be many years of my salary.

And in the meantime, what would the elders do? I�m just going to guess. I don�t know what they would have done, but they probably would have paid Kim my salary for the next six months to a year, something like that.

Right? And then Kim�s got to decide, do you sell the house to move to California with the four other kids? What do you do? So my point is not, I�m great thinking about my wife on my deathbed. That�s not my point.

But that is a true human thing to do. Right? And he�s truly human, and he�s thinking about his mother. Right? Everybody else is thinking about what they can get, and he�s thinking about his mother. Suffering, having a hard time breathing, and he�s thinking about his mother.

The sword has pierced her soul. Mary�s a widow, and Jesus is supposed to take care of her, and he does. S .O .S. Johnson said, �The statement is to be related to what is happening on the cross, and the first thing that is happening is the final completion of the fact that earthly relationships are over.

But I want to make sure I honor my mother until the end. Exodus 20, �Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Dear Christian, on the cross, Jesus is still fulfilling the law.

And let�s just be very specific. Has there ever been a time that you didn�t think rightly about your mother or father? Has there ever been a time where you�ve disobeyed mother or father, not thought well of them, complained about them to someone else, to speak in a negative fashion about them, to not be concerned about their welfare?

I hear most people these days, �Well, you know what? I�m 21, and I�m out of the house, and I don�t need to obey my parents any longer. I don�t need to honor and obey them. When does this stop? When does it stop where you have to, you know, not honor your father and your mother?

Well, for Jesus, it didn�t stop until he died. He did it his whole life. You want to look at Jesus. This is active obedience. This is�there�s a positive side of the law. Honor your mother, and he�s doing it to take care of her and to provide for her.

Here�s the lawkeeper meriting your righteousness. And so now, dear Christian, because of Christ�s work, you�re united with Christ now, are you not? And when God sees you, does he see someone who has failed to honor his mother and father?

No, because he sees you in Christ. The law requires perfect, entire, exact, perpetual obedience, right? PEEP, P-E-E-P, right from Westminster Catechism. Confession. Shorter. Longer. The Westminster Standards.

And that�s exactly what Jesus is doing, earning your righteousness. Wonderful. Wonderful. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. It�s No Compromise Radio. I usually say that when I�m trying to think of something to say, because I�ve got two minutes to finish the show, and I don�t want to get to word number four, because it�s just going to bring us into a very fascinating passage, and I need more time to do it.

So we�re going to have to look at that next time on No Compromise Radio. We are going to probably have a few guests on. I think I�m super close in keeping my word and getting Kimberly Abendroth on No Compromise Radio.

Now our children are all out of the house. Haley got married a year ago and is pregnant now, so we�re excited. My first grandchild. We�re looking forward to some October birth date for that little one, boy or girl.

So Maddie was at our house for a while, was going to go to nursing school and had a vaccine exemption for religious reasons and was accepted into the school here locally. Then she couldn�t go do her clinicals because all the places that she�d have to go for clinicals required a vaccination, so she had to leave the school.

So she�s in a different field of work now. And doesn�t have as many student loans. But she just moved out last week to go back to California. So I have three in, I have four in Southern California between Ventura and San Diego.

And now what do we do at home? Well, it�s just Kim and I. So we had last night, we went to dance class. Last night was the rumba. And then Kim works at the mountain, the ski mountain. There�s a big party for the final year-end deal there, so we went to that.

And then what else do you do? Well, I�m going to get her to be on No Compromise Radio. How�s that going to be? I told people I�d try to do it, but that�ll be good. Maybe one show, maybe two shows. Kimberly misses No Compromise Radio.

Who came up with the title No Compromise Radio? Mrs. Abendroth. Like all good ideas.

Program Sign-Off and Church Information

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.