John 19:18-30 (The Coronation of the King)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you in ancient

Israel The coronation of a new king was a ceremony It was a right that was steeped in Sacred honor and joy and celebrations

It was a process that was laid out in the Old Testament Law where you would anoint the new king and that new king would have to fill out his own copy of the

Bible the Old Testament law the five books of the Bible He'd have to he'd have to write that out so that he could meditate upon the law day and night

That anointing happened to the first King Saul He was anointed by Samuel then David was anointed after that then

Solomon and you have this sort of process that's developed on how does an

Israelite nation Bring to power a new king First they anoint them as we said then they clothe them with royal robes then they crown them with a royal crown and then they sit them upon a royal throne in Jerusalem and Then they reign

Now what it's fascinating to me is that John 19 is talking about the coronation of the king of kings

It is talking about how the people of God Get a king and yet it could not be more ironic

Instead of being anointed with oil the face of our Lord Jesus Christ was anointed with his own blood that dripped down his beard

Instead of being instead of having the robes put on him and his riches our

Lord was stripped naked and abused and then clothed with a robe of mockery and then handed a scepter that was meant to belittle him

Instead of being crowned with a golden crown like his father David spikes

Thorns were woven together in a circle shape like barbed wire and shoved down upon Jesus's head he was being crowned.

He was being coronated he was being brought into his kingship, but the irony could not be more striking and Then instead of a throne instead of a royal throne like you read about in first Kings that Solomon Constructs in the city of Jerusalem this beautiful throne that the king would sit on instead of that Our Savior was enthroned upon a old rugged cross

John 19 18 through 30 is about Jesus's coronation it's about him becoming king and yet He's not doing it through pomp and circumstance

He's not doing it through cheering and feasting and parties and merrymaking He's not doing it through the people's chanting and going home with great excitement.

He is doing it through suffering disfigurement and death And what we're gonna see today in John 19, we're in verses 18 through 20 word to the reader

Go ahead and turn It's a little biblical joke. Sometimes you'll be reading in the scriptures and they'll say

If you're if you're wise you'll understand this the number is or or word to the reader pay attention to this

I'm just saying turn to John 19 But what you'll notice is we read this passage in John 19.

It's verse 18 through 30 Is that it's a perfect fulfillment of what was said a thousand years before Jesus came to Calvary You see the very first true king of Israel David The ancestor of Jesus is writing a song about Jesus and About what

Jesus would go through now David in his pomp and circumstance. He had a wonderful coronation.

He had a joyful coronation He got to sit in the throne his son got to sit in the throne and he was treated like a king

But David looks down the corridors of time a thousand years after his own death and he sees how the truest

King the king of kings Would be abused and mistreated All the part of his coming as king over the world so if you will

Join me in John 19 and we're gonna look at five aspects of Jesus's coronation today his mockery the stripping of him his final cry his thirst and his legacy

John 19 18 through 30 there they crucified him and With him two other men one on either side and Jesus in between Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.

It was written Jesus the Nazarene the king of the Jews Therefore many of the

Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Hebrew Latin and in Greek So the chief priests of the

Jews were saying to Pilate do not write the king of the Jews But only that he said

I am the king of the Jews Pilate answered what I have written I have written then the soldiers when they had crucified

Jesus took his outer garments and made four parts a Part to every soldier and also the tunic now the tunic was seamless woven together in one piece

So they said to one another let us not tear it, but let us cast lots for it to decide whose it shall be

This was to fulfill the scripture that they divided my outer garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots

Therefore 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 When Jesus then 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 from that hour the disciple took her into his own household and After this

Jesus knowing that all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture said I am thirsty and a jar full of sour wine

Was taken or was standing there so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and They 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.

Let us pray Lord. We see in this passage

The way that you came into your kingdom and the way that you came into your rule and the way that you came into your reign instead of being welcomed

Accepted and loved you were rejected hated and murdered Lord.

I pray that today That we would see the depths That you went to to Get us to claim us you went to the bottom of the septic tank

To pull us out so that we could be your citizens so that we could come into your kingdom

Let it never be thought that there was a inch lower that you could have went You went down to the very least

To pull us out of our sin and our depravity Lord help us today to see that to rejoice in that to have a view of what our sin is and Why it required such drastic measures from our good and holy

King It's in Christ's name. We pray. Amen The first way that Jesus was coronated as King was he was mocked

Which is absolutely ironic because no King is coronated in that way You coronate a king in that way off with your head as It's famous in Alice in Wonderland and king making traditions in Israel.

It was a glorious time. It's a festive time It was a joyful time But Jesus's coronation was nothing of the sort.

It was absolutely inglorious filled with extreme mockery and indignity and this is all foretold a thousand years as we said before today

John 19 is gonna run parallel with Psalm 22 and I would Encourage you because we can't do this today

When you go home read John 19 18 through 30 right alongside of Psalm 22.

It is unbelievable the prophecy in the specific Accuracy that David predicts about Jesus and what

John says happened. It is a glory to see it So I would commend that to you but Psalm 22 7 through 8 says this

All who see me sneer at me and they separate with the lip They run their mouth off They wag the head saying commit yourself to the

Lord. Let him deliver him Let him rescue him because he delights in him. Do you remember what they said to Jesus on the cross?

Let him call out to the Lord. Let the Lord rescue him They're saying what

Psalm 22 said How ignorant David foresaw the coronation of not any king, but the

God -man King David foresaw the mistreatment of Jesus the long -awaited grandson the true king of heaven who would come and who would bring his people into fullness and joy and he saw how they treated him violently how they mocked him and scorned him and screamed at him and You can imagine for David how this vision

Psalm 22 must have been sorrowful You can imagine if this were playing on a piano

It would be played in minor chords This is also a fulfillment of Isaiah 53 the mockery that Jesus went through it says that he was numbered with the transgressors

He was actually crucified between two sinners Did you know the word there?

This is bonus material? It's fun. The word for thieves in that passage is the same word for Insurrectionist, which is where we also get the expectation for what a

Messiah is You see the Jews wanted an insurrectionist as their Messiah to lead them in rebellion against Rome So Jesus was crucified beside two false

Messiahs two upstarts two men who led insurrections because they said that Jesus your kind of insurrection of overturning the world for the kingdom of God is not what we want

We just want to be free of Rome It was a pretty interesting scene on that hill that day

Now there's all kinds sorts of mockery built into this Jesus for one is not coronated in a castle.

He is brought into the palace of Pilate, but he's mocked there He's misunderstood there.

He's abused there He's being treated as detestable and even Pilate hangs a sign above his head with mockery

Jesus this is the king of the Jews and For added sting.

He translates it in three languages Hebrew Latin and Greek Latin at the time was the language of the intelligentsia in the

Roman Empire Hebrew was the language of the intelligentsia in the Jewish Empire and Greek was the language of the common man.

So Everyone would have seen this is what happens to you when you try to usurp the authority of Rome Crucifixion as we've said before is a public debasement of your very personhood.

It is a mockery and built into the disgusting practice of crucifixion is the entourage surrounding you wagging their heads at you

Shouting derisions that you spitting on your open sores and turning their back on you

Laughing at you as you were hung naked for all to see now.

It wasn't just the Romans who were Participating in that sort of mockery. The Jews were the ones surrounding him as Psalm 22 says like cows of Bashan Which were

Can't go into that that's a interesting little side thread we'll talk about that later This should have been a joyful moment for the

Jews Their King had finally arrived the one who was going who had been prophesied for over a thousand years.

He was there He was gonna bring them back into Fellowship with God and yet instead of receiving him

They derided him saying if God is for you, let him rescue you. Let him take you off the cross

Can you imagine being in that moment having the power to actually strike them dead and Watch them mock you like little ants is mocking a seven -foot -tall giant and Yet the

Lord chose this He chose to be on the cross. This was not an accident.

They didn't overpower him He chose it. It was predestined

Before the foundation of the world God predestined that his own son would die for the sins of his people Genesis 3 15

He would crush the serpents hit by himself being crushed It's a prophecy of the cross in the earliest pages of Genesis The Lord chose this because he wanted to showcase to us the depth of our depravity to show us that he identifies with his citizens

There is nothing that you can go through in life That is lower.

That is harder. That is darker and that is bleaker than what Jesus went through so in everything you walk through it doesn't matter if it's a disease or or A loss of a loved one those things are hurtful and hard, but Jesus has went deeper

He went to the depths of human suffering psychologically emotionally physically spiritually

Because there's no one that Jesus can't rescue He went to the depths because that's where we lived and that's where we were

Now this is unthinkable in the modern day. We have to somewhat get rid of our modern

Biases we think the world is bad today Can you imagine I want you to think about this walking out on the street?

We have a high hill here and Imagine as we walk out there maybe after service to hang out or whatever and we see a man stripped naked hanging on a cross with his organs exposed and people screaming at him and Laughing at him and having joy at his demise.

That was what was happening publicly right outside the city of Jerusalem That's not happening today Maybe in some countries in Africa in the

Middle East where the gospel has not yet penetrated but in every Christian nation that kind of horrendous violence has been eradicated and While we're not anymore a

Truly Christian nation were built upon that foundation and you would not see this here This kind of brutality and ugliness

What I find actually extremely depraved and If it weren't for Jesus in his grace, all of us would be in the same boat is

That the Pharisees right after this after they laughed and mocked him and watched him suffer and die

They walked home and they grabbed their glass of wine and they smiled as they celebrated

Passover Can you imagine that if you watched what happened here could you even eat

You look down at the plate and you see the meat could you even stomach it and Yet they walked home and they joyfully feasted thinking that they had done what was right in the eyes of God This is not a surprise to the

Lord as we've said he had predestined this Jesus had been prophesying about this he said that this generation had become evil and And that because of their evil

God was going to bring upon them covenant disaster Matthew 21 he tells them that the kingdom is going to be taken from them and given to a people who would bear its fruit

Matthew 22 he says their city is going to be set on fire because of their covenant sins

Matthew 23, he gives eight woes of judgment. He says that all of God's wrath that's been stored up.

Imagine this vault This this dam of God's wrath that had been stored up since Abel was murdered by Cain was going to be broken and the flood of it was going to come down upon that generation because they met

God in person and killed him again, this is hard for us to see

Today because we're 2 ,000 years removed and the world has experienced a lot of grace because of Jesus and his church

But they stripped mocked and beat their covenant Lord and with the same lips

That they screamed at him with and with the same hands that they beat him with they went home and celebrated

Passover the height of spiritual hypocrisy and David foresaw it all he says

In Psalm 22 18 they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots.

That's not true of David David had whatever he wanted David had

BC Gucci if he wanted it. He had whatever he wanted In another passage, it's talking about David's wives, which is it's wrong to have multiple wives in the

Bible It's all over the Bible, but God even says to him that I I spared nothing from you

David was a man who got whatever he wanted. So there's no one in David's life who divided his clothes

David was a boy who ripped a lion apart He was a young man who killed a giant and he was a guy who had who killed thousands of Philistines and they were singing songs about 10 ,000s of people that he murdered and David would not have let anyone take a handkerchief out of his pocket

This doesn't apply to David David is looking down the corridors of time to his great great great great grandson

The one who had all power and authority who could have stopped it but didn't that one is the one whose garments would be divided and For his clothing they would be cast lots.

Think about the providence of this That statement is a twofold prophecy.

They divided his garments and For his clothing they cast lots. That's two actions

Jesus had enough clothing on his body Providentially so that all four

Roman soldiers could have a piece fulfilling this prophecy

He didn't have three so that one was left without he didn't have five so that they had to roll the dice the second time he had

Four pieces of clothing that they could divide up among themselves and yet he had another piece of clothing his tunic in those days a

Tunic that was from ankle to shoulder length That was one piece was a very rare and very

Expensive sort of piece of clothing It was made with one seam which meant that it was made with excellence and precision

It was so nice In fact that the Romans refused to tear it apart and they rolled dice in order to see which one could have it

David says a thousand years before it happened. They divide my garments among them They did that and for my clothing they cast lots lots are the

Old Testament equivalent of rolling dice Unbelievable these things are being fulfilled right now before our very eyes in John 19 and They show us that light is coming even in the darkest moments

In the darkest day of human history. God is fulfilling his prophecy We often think that on our dark days.

God is not there. Don't we? when I'm struggling when I'm broken when I'm feeling rejected or when things are not going my way when the person that I care about their

Opinion is mad at me or frustrated me or whatever those days when we feel dark and we feel separated from God We tend to think there is no light

Your day and my day could never be this dark and yet One after another prophecy is being fulfilled showing that the light is

Coming to extinguish the darkness The problem is not how dark the darkness is.

The problem is how dim our eyesight is Spiritually because God is bringing his light into the people that he loves

To bring them into the good things that he's promised them he promises

For all who are calling a called according to his purpose. He's working out the good for you That means the hard thing you're walking through the dark thing you're walking through the painful thing you're walking through Whatever it is.

The thing that is breaking your heart in half if you're in Christ He's working that thing for your good so that Paul could even call these things light and Momentary in comparison with the hope that we have on the day of glory

There is nothing that we can face That's as dark as this and even this is a part of God's good plan to save the world

It's a part of God's good plan to bring his King into his kingdom what the devil used for darkness

God brought for light Amen That's the second thing

That they mocked him and then they stripped him and we see fulfilled prophecies in both of those things the third thing is the scream that Jesus releases on the cross, which is incredibly profound as The sky grew dark

It says in Matthew that at the moment right before Jesus's death the the sky went dark the land went dark

Creation itself the Sun itself was mourning at the death of God's own Son as that was happening as this eerie

Silence was descending upon Calvary Jesus was on the cross bearing every single sin that Christ any

Christian every Christian would ever commit All your past sins your present sins and your future sins were being poured out on Jesus the dam of God's wrath had broke and Jesus stood in front of his

Believers and he took the flood of God's fury for you If you're not in Christ, you will face the flood of God's fury alone but for the believer

Every sin you ever committed was poured out on him That means every adultery that means every lustful thought that means every fornication

That means every cursing that means every abuse. That means every addiction. That means every murder

That means every sideways glare and heart in harsh tone That means every drop of blood that is spilled in the womb

That means all of that and more every sin was poured out on him

Jesus became in a moment the perfect spotless one became in that moment the cesspool of the human condition the coagulated septic of our souls and he became and Was drowning in the noxious pool of our filth that God unleashed on him for every

Christian Man woman and child he took our and in that moment he screamed a final scream a crescendo of this bitter orchestra that was playing out before their eyes and He quotes

Psalm 22 Should we be surprised Psalm 22 has been here every step of the way.

He's quoting it He says ever I ever why never my sabbath

Tani my god my god Why have you forsaken me? What's fascinating about this quote is that he does not say it in Hebrew this quote

From Psalm 22 was written originally in Hebrew The religious leaders remember

I said earlier that Hebrew was the language of the intelligentsia In the

Old Testament something happened to the people of God it's called an exile The ten tribes of Israel were destroyed the two southern tribes

Judah and Benjamin and the Levites that remained Were exiled to Babylon the language of Babylon was

Aramaic so for 70 years an Entire generation where the youngest people who were exiled to Babylon had probably died out and Everyone instead of speaking

Hebrew was speaking Aramaic. That's why Jesus spoke Aramaic. That's why the first century

Jews the common Jews spoke Aramaic Because they lived for 70 years in a country that spoke that language and when they came back to Israel to rebuild

They kept the language they kept Aramaic They didn't speak the high

Hebrew only the religious leaders did that as a way of distinguishing themselves from the commoners in A similar way we see some religious traditions will still do their mass in Latin Even though no one knows what they're saying

It's a way of saying we are here and you are there Now, I think he did this on purpose.

I Think he gave this quotation in Aramaic because it would have been unfamiliar to those listening what he was doing in the ancient world

What you would do is if you wanted to quote a song if you wanted to remind someone of a song you would quote one

Of its lyrics we do this today If you have a favorite song that you like you quote a couple of the lyrics and someone else who knows the song say oh

Yeah, and then the song starts playing in your head, right? Jesus is quoting the very first lyric from Psalm 22

Not to tell us that God had abandoned him ultimately because how could

God abandon God? How could God? The triune

God who's perfect in all his being how could he ever cease to be

God? When Jesus said my God my God, why have you forsaken me? He's not saying that I'm ceasing in this moment to be

God He's not saying that God has ultimately abandoned me he is saying that God has turned his face away from Christ in a covenantal way of Punishing Christ on behalf of his people, but he's not abandoning him.

Ultimately. That's not what Jesus is saying Jesus is quoting the lyric of Psalm 22 and he's quoting it in Aramaic and He's telling them all the ones who are surrounding him you're the ones

You're the ones who are circling me like the cows of Bashan. You're the ones who were jeering at me

You're the ones who are fulfilling the song that I am quoting you're doing it right now in my presence

He's indicting them from the cross and Saying you like Nathan said to David you are

The man he did it in Aramaic I think also

Because Jesus didn't come for the well and the highfalutin He didn't come for the philosopher in the erudite

He came for those who are low and he spoke in the language of the low

Which I think is a beautiful point He's showcasing his sovereign plan to rescue sinners

And he's showing that that that this Was the path of his coronation.

He screams my god. My god. Why have you forsaken me as an indictment against all of them?

Showcasing the gospel had come for the low and the needy and the sick and the weak

That's the third thing. The fourth thing is the thirst That Jesus had upon the cross

The thirst is really important in a lot of ways Psalm 22 predicts that Jesus would have extreme thirst on the cross.

It says that his tongue would stick to the roof of his mouth Have you ever been so dehydrated that your tongue felt like flypaper and it stuck to the roof of your mouth?

Can you imagine trying to scream With that happening, can you imagine trying to speak with that happening?

Psalm 22 says that it was going to happen John 19 says that it was going to happen because it says Jesus asked for a drink a very subtle ask in John's in John's vernacular, but there is so much more going on under the scene for Jesus asking for a drink

This is not just Jesus being thirsty This is Jesus tasting even further down to the depths of our depravity

There is something underneath this that you've got to see if you want to see where Jesus went for you

And Good Friday we reference this but I want to reference it again in a crucifixion

Your body is bleeding out your organs are exposed What's happening to your body is that it's going through circulatory shock

And in your circulatory shock your body is doing what God designed it to do.

Your blood is leaving your limbs and It's it's pooling in the center of your chest

To try to keep you alive Your legs will go numb your arms will go numb and the parts of you that will still have feeling are your chest and your back

The part that actually scraped up and down the cross with exposed meat The Romans were no fools when it came to designing horrific torture

In that the fluid from your mouth the saliva would leave the fluid from your eye sockets would leave

Can you imagine your eyes trying to move with your eyes under extreme dehydration your tongue trying to speak?

With it sticking to the roof of your mouth. This is what Jesus was going through And Instead of water when he asked for a drink.

They gave him sour wine. They gave him polluted vinegar and this is important This is not just Jesus took a drink of something that you and I wouldn't want to drink

I mean who would want to drink sour wine or vinegar? I Kind of like vinegar, especially

I get a pickle jar. It's really nice But this is not what this is this is not nice at that time

There's no good way to say this so let's Let's go on it together At that time the

Romans in order to pacify the Jews built private toilets and The toilets were private because the

Jews were so concerned about their ritual cleanness So they built these private toilets to do their

Business and closed doors away from the Jews So the Jews wouldn't have to see it smell it be around it because it defiled their camp

Now at that time a toilet was made out of rock out of tablets of rock that were arranged into a rectangular like box at the top of the

Rock the face of it there would have been a hole cut out for you guessed it What we do when we go to the bathroom on the front of it would have been another hole

That hole would have been where they cleaned themselves Where the wiping occurred?

Now at that time toilet paper had not been invented actually toilet paper is a pretty astounding invention If you think about what it takes to create paper that thin Only could have happened in the modern world in the ancient world.

They didn't have such a thing So what they used was they used a moistened sponge? They would enter into the bathhouse with a moistened sponge attached to a stick

They would wet it in the water trough that was running from a fresh source of water. They would enter into The area where they would use the restroom and they would clean themselves

There was a water trough at their feet so they could rinse it off and do it again until they were finally clean and when they

Were finally finally clean they would stand up get dressed go back outside and go back to work like normal But they would leave the sponge soaking in vinegar

Because the vinegar was a disinfectant what they eventually learned over time was that if you didn't disinfect it

You would get infections So on the job training they learned that they needed to soak it in vinegar to disinfect it

There was only one kind of sponge attached to a stick at this time period

This was not mercy This was not grace. This was not how are we going to get the drink up to him because he's too high

So let's put it on a sponge and raise it up to him. This was their toilet paper

Raised up to the face of God and he knew it and He asked for it and he willingly submitted to it

And you ask yourself, why did he do that? Why was that necessary because I think he was showing us the depth and the ugliness of our sin

Our sin is not trifle to God Our sin is pollution Our sin is the most

Unimaginable defilement in the presence of a holy God it tastes like that It smells like that but infinitely worse.

That is what our sin looks like to a holy God That white lie that we tell that we think is acceptable is sewage before the

Almighty That porn addiction is bathing in sludge

That lack of church attendance or whatever other sin you want to throw down there is raw

Sewage before an almighty God. He's showing us the ugliness of it the depravity of it

Isaiah 64 6 says that our very best is like polluted rags That's an

English cleanup Our English translators like to clean up the text because we're more refined in the model.

I'm not saying this to be gross I'm telling you what the text means. It says that our righteousness our very best actions are like used tampons

That's what it meant The Bible describes our righteousness and our sin in the most extreme

Ways because they're extreme our rebellion is extreme And that is what

Jesus drank on the cross and that Was the final taste on his mouth as he said it is finished because brothers and sisters your sin looked like that smelled like that Jesus willingly took it because He came because he loves you

He adored the most vile Assault of our sin natures poured out on him

He pictured it through what he tasted on the cross to show us that he has forgiven us

There is no sin in your past that Christ can't forgive. Look at what he did Look at where he went

Look at what he tasted He was showing you That on your worst sin the thing that you've never told anyone else about the darkest and ugliest thing you've ever done

He Is still your Savior and he can go there and he can take that and he can forgive you of that and he can turn that ugliness into something clean

That's the gospel that he can take a sponge that is filled with that and Turn it into living water.

He can take your soul that is filled with that and Isaiah 64 goes on to say that he can take that and make it white as snow that's who

God is and I think that part of us understanding how

Incredible grace is is also being able to understand how incredibly terrible our sin is

Jesus says or the Bible says that he who has been forgiven little will will praise him little there's a correlation here

There's a connection here that to the depth that we see our sin will be to the depth that we actually experience gratitude if You understand how awful your sin really truly is

Imagine what it means that he has saved you You wouldn't have saved you You wouldn't have saved me

If we could all read each other's dossiers that had every sin we've ever committed Every one of us would probably turn our back on each other and we would never speak again.

Not so of Christ The word to tell us die.

It is finished is a pretty incredible word actually It's a for it. My grammar hammers among us

It is a perfect tense verb What does that mean that it's perfect? Well Yes, but not quite like that See a past tense verb describes something that happened in the past It happened and it was over a present tense verb describes something that's happening.

Now. It's ongoing a future tense verb Tells us about something that has not yet started but will one day in the future this verb does all of it

It tells us what has happened in the past What is happening in the present and what will happen in the future the present the perfect tense verb?

It has been finished is what Jesus said. He's saying that I started something today That will never end

That will eventually catch and sweep up into it every Christian that ever lives

It has no expiration date. Unlike the milk you buy a market basket It doesn't turn green like the hamburger that you bought at Whole Foods.

It turns green, too This doesn't perish His forgiveness the finishing of your redemption never

Ends it caught you in the past It's sanctifying you in the present and it will bring you into glory in the future and that good news

That's number four number five The legacy of this

King so far every element of Psalm 22 has been fulfilled We've seen it and we've tracked with there's more we could talk about but already we need to move on Again read it side -by -side.

It's incredible. But every element of Psalm 22 has been tracking Psalm 20 30 through 31 is the end of Psalm 22 and it shows what

Jesus is going to do on the cross for a legacy for a coming generation

Psalm 20 30 says Posterity will serve him. Did you hear that?

Jesus wasn't married How's he gonna have posterity how's he gonna have children?

How's he gonna have a family? How's he gonna have generations and generations and generations this prophecy from David says that he's going to have a legacy

Posterity will serve him and it says it will be told of the Lord to the coming generations.

He's gonna have future generations They are gonna come and they're gonna declare his righteousness.

They're going to proclaim his righteousness into the future To a people who will be born that he has performed it.

They're going to tell his Righteousness to people who didn't see it and then those people who didn't see it are gonna tell it to more people who didn't see

It and it's gonna keep on happening in perpetuity. How does this happen? Because Jesus on the cross

Introduces a new kind of family he looks down at his mother his biological mother

And he looks down at the unnamed disciple many people believe that it's John. I do think it's interesting that he's unnamed here and he says woman behold your son and You behold your mother

Now there's a lot going on here. It's fascinating We just be able to barely scratch the surface, but there's a practical thing.

Jesus is doing on the cross. He's about to die Jesus about to he knows his last breath is coming.

He's already said it is finished. The finished line has happened. So what is he doing? He's looking at his mother and he's saying my mom needs to be cared for I'm the oldest son.

It's my responsibility to care for my mom It's my responsibility to make sure that she's okay, and he looks at his disciple and he says you take care of her

Jesus is being a good King and he's looking out for those that he loves. There's a practical element here

But there's also a theological element to this That I think is very interesting.

I Wouldn't stake my life on this, but I think it's interesting In the ancient world your biological children took care of you in your old age

So Jesus is dying. So it makes sense that he would have to find someone else, but you know, Jesus had four other brothers

Jude Joseph James and Simon Why couldn't they look after Mary?

Maybe they weren't there. Okay. Well, that's fine But they also knew the expectation was that they were supposed to look after their mother

Why is Jesus looking at a man who is not biologically related to his mother and he's not looking at his sisters and he's not looking at his extended family and he's not looking at anyone with any blood relation to him and saying you

Take care of my mother. I think

Based off what Psalm 22 says that Jesus is creating a legacy that he's creating a new kind of family here

Jesus is talking to his mother who John the same writer, by the way in Revelation 12 compares

Mary to Old Covenant, Israel He uses her as a type The same author is using this passage.

I Think to showcase to us how Old Covenant Israel represented by Mary and unnamed disciple

New Covenant era represented by this disciple are coming to gather in The blood of Christ that there's one family of God The Israelites who worshiped

God at Mount Sinai and you and I who worshiped God in Chelmsford are all a part of the same family And the only reason that we exist in that same family together is because of the blood of Christ that's it and I Think even more so in this it shows that Jesus is not just building a natural and biological

Kingdom, which is what the Jews wanted. They wanted him to build a kingdom It was filled with their people and to hell with the

Gentiles literally Jesus is saying my kingdom is going to be made of my

Old Covenant Saints and a lot of no -name Saints this disciples not named a

Lot of no -name Saints from no -name places in no -name towns and no -name countries Are gonna be brought into the people of God through the blood of Christ He does this

Jesus knew he was gonna die. He could have done this the night before He's doing this on the cross

Because he's showing that the knitting together of everyone who come into the family of God through him was done at the cross which means that the church

Past present and future is our family. That's what that means

Brothers and sisters we live in a time period where the church at Best is a thing we go to once a week.

It's an event that we attend it's a I'll go if I have time sort of commitment.

It's I'm gonna go and listen to some messages. I'm gonna sing some songs. I'm gonna you know get my praise on whatever people say and It's not looked at as a family

Jesus Christ on the cross died to make us a family Do you know the blood that you are bound to by your mom and dad and your children

That's what makes you a family in your particular family. You know, you have a better blood of Christ The family the church the people who are sitting to your left and right the people who are sitting here with you are

Together knit together into a new family of grace by the blood of Jesus and as my friend

Michael Foster said the waters of baptism show themselves to be even thicker than blood

And that and that fascinating That the waters of baptism that you and I all have been washed in show themselves

Overall to be thicker and deeper than even our own family line and blood This is not saying that our families are somehow subpar and secondary and we should just now be you know

We should go home with a snotty attitude. Well, mom. I belong to Jesus's family. I don't listen to you

That's not what this is saying. We should because we love Jesus and have been brought into his family We should be the best family members.

We should be the best children the best husbands the best fathers on earth Because we've been brought into a better family and one of the things that's broken my heart over the past Several years is to look at Jesus's church his bride and to see how low her view is

I'm not talking about this church. I'm talking about the church How low her view is of the bride of Christ?

I'll go if I can My yard needs mowing. I have a baseball game that I got to take my child to a cheerleading competition

I can't possibly go because I don't have anything that that you know I don't know anything or I don't have any, you know

I don't have the right shoes or we make up all these silly excuses for the Relationship that was cultivated and crafted on the cross.

He bled and died to make you and I a family Another aspect of this that has been so difficult for me

And I want so badly just to be able to share this with every Christian. I know

The people who are sitting to your left and right are not strangers They're your family

They're the ones you call when you're in trouble. They're the ones who are gonna have your back. Do you know the relationship that sustained?

John and Mary John and Mary were two of the unique ones in the first century who didn't die

All of all the disciples except John were murdered brutally Many of the earliest Christians murdered brutally

Mary died a natural death John died a natural death and in that we see a parable That the church is the relationship where?

You were brought into nourishment safety security and a family It doesn't mean that you're not going to die but it doesn't mean that God has given you a place to be and a place to be known and a place to be loved and a place to grow and a place to be fed and a place to be cared for and Yet how often do we treat it that way?

We look at the persecuted Church of Acts how they were in each other's homes all the time and How often do we go in each other's homes?

How often do we actually have community with one another? This is one of the reasons why some of you already experienced this

It's one of the reasons why the session decided to start doing pastoral visits To come to the families of the church and have dinners with them because Jesus does that He goes to people's homes and he has dinner with them the early church had dinner together there's something beautiful about sitting across the table eating food fellowshipping in the name of Christ and Building friendships and building community that's going to help us

Stand up against the craziness of our society if you haven't noticed our society is falling apart and The relationship that Jesus has given you to sustain you and to strengthen you and to encourage you and to build you up and to Cause you to be known and loved and all those things is the church

That's the family he gave you and that's where we will thrive as a people and by ordinary things by ordinary things by eating at each other's tables

Through pastoral visits through Sabbath dinners Through feasting and toasting good wine and rabbi steaks

Through family worship through friendship through a bunch of men getting together on a

Tuesday night at a cigar bar and talking about the minor Prophets through our women getting together at a coffee shop and fellowshipping together and enjoying each other's company

The way we move forward is not just through good theology. We're not we're not just floating heads

This church cares about theology. We care about the depth of truth. We want to preach every aspect of the

Bible, but we're not just heads We have bodies and the way that Jesus has designed us to bless us is in community

You know almost all of the use in The Bible if they were translated correctly would be y 'all's in English It's not a first or it's not a second person singular second person plural most all of the use in the

Bible or second person plurals because The Bible doesn't consider us a bunch of eyes The Bible considers us we and us

We have been knit together in the blood of Christ God has decided to bless us in his grace

We're no longer individuals We are the body of Christ and we've been given each other as a gift of his grace until he returns

This is what Jesus was doing on the cross this is the crescendo Your salvation is not the end

Your regeneration is not the end It's not the finish line Okay, you've been saved now what now get plugged in to a church now get to know people now start fellowshipping now

Start reading your Bible and praying and taking the sacraments and and living under the blessings of God for decades

Because those are the good things that God has given you in an ugly world to sustain you and build you up and bless you

Do not neglect those treasures Do not neglect

The very good gifts that he's given you that can only be had in the church Your families are great.

I love every one of them but where can you come and Have the waters of his kingdom poured over you in baptism.

You can't go anywhere else. You can't do in your bathtub you can't do it with a squirt gun, even though people tried to during kovat, which was let's not comment and And where can you come to feast on the

Lord Jesus Christ His broken body and his blood at the table of communion. Where can you go?

You can go to the finest five -star restaurant on earth and you can eat the greatest food that you've ever

Tasted and in 48 hours, it will be in the toilet This food is

For you and it's life and it's nourishment Jesus said he who feasts on me lives Where else can you go where God has called his people to be in his presence?

Where else can you go to sing the praises of of his name? Where else can you go? To get to know your brother and sister who can who can love you read the one another

Passages love one another pray for one another care for one another serve one another be with one another bear with one another

There's hundreds of them. Where can you go? To get that kind of support The climax of your salvation is not your individualism

The climax of your salvation on earth is that you've been brought into a body So live there and be joyful there and be blessed there.

Amen. Let's pray Lord Jesus we thank you so much that You have died on the cross for our sins

Not just for my sins and not just for his sins or her sins or or your sins whoever your means

But Lord, you've died for our sins your people. You've made us into a covenant people. You've brought us into a family and You've not brought us into a family to take our joy

You've not brought us out of the world to rob us of pleasure. You brought us to give us pleasure in your hand our pleasures forever

Your mercies are new every day your blessings are sweet everything else It's like trying to overeat on saccharin

It tastes sweet and then it turns you bitter Lord your gospel is the only thing that tastes sweet is sweet and blesses us with the sweetness of your grace

Lord help us to have a high view of your people help us to have a high view of what you've accomplished on the cross