Tonight I'm going to preach a sermon called He Endured the Cross.
Let's start out at the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12 there.
The Bible reads in verse 1, Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds.
The Bible says that Jesus endured the cross.
For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.
He despised the shame, but he endured the cross.
Now let's flip back over to Matthew chapter 26 and we're going to go through the book
of Matthew tonight and see what did that entail when Jesus Christ endured the cross.
What exactly did he endure?
And we're just going to focus on the Gospel of Matthew.
The book of Matthew is probably the most parallel with the book of Hebrews because the Gospel
of Matthew is predominantly directed at the Hebrews more than any of the other four Gospels.
So before we get into what Christ endured on the cross, let's just go to Matthew chapter
26 and see where Jesus is agonizing before he goes to the cross in the garden of Gethsemane.
Look at chapter 26 verse 36.
The Bible says, Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith
unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and
very heavy.
Then saith the unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
Tarry ye here and watch with me.
And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it
be possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou will.
Now this is a very powerful scene here in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus takes
his closest friends, his closest disciples, and he says to them, My soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death.
I mean he's just trying to express how upset he is.
I mean he's very sorrowful.
What is it that's got him sorrowful?
Obviously, he is dreading what he's going to have to go through the next day.
It's the dread of the next day enduring the cross, and the Bible says he despised the
shame.
Obviously, it was not pleasant or easy to go through what he went through on the cross.
He knows what's coming.
He knows all the prophecies.
He knows what he's going to endure, and he's very sorrowful even unto death, and he wants
his closest friends to be with him there, praying with him, and to help him go through
this time.
And when he gets on his face and prays, he says, Oh my father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Don't miss this.
I mean, Jesus Christ did not just have an easy time.
He wasn't just on autopilot or, okay, yeah, I'm going to go, I'm going to die on the cross,
I'm going to be buried and rise again.
I mean, this is something that he has to actually go through as a human being, okay?
And he's dreading it.
He's sorrowing through it.
And I've heard some people try to twist this or sugarcoat this or try to take away from
Christ's emotion here in the Garden of Gethsemane.
I heard this dumb theory that when Jesus said, Let this cup pass from me, he's not actually
saying that he doesn't want to go through with his mission on the cross.
They said, Oh, he's just nervous that he would accidentally die in the Garden of Gethsemane
because he sorrowed unto death.
I mean, come on.
That's just ridiculous.
And they said, you know, Oh, he had blood coming out of his sweat glands and that means
he's about to die or something.
Well, that's ridiculous because it says that the sweat that he was sweating was dripping
as it were great drops of blood, which means that it wasn't blood.
It was just dripping like blood would drip.
Basically, he's just sweating so much that the sweat is dripping off of his face as blood
would drip from a wound is what the Bible is saying.
He didn't actually have blood coming out of his body when he's sweating there in the
garden.
And look, this is just insane to say, Oh, well, he's just afraid he's going to accidentally
die.
No, no, no.
He says, look, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
What's he saying there?
He's saying, look, if there's any other way, I don't want to go through this because obviously
humanly speaking, he despised the shame.
He doesn't want to have to go through the horrible things he's going to go through the
next day.
But he said, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
You know what that shows us that Christ is the only way to heaven.
If there was some other way for you to be saved, then he would have just said, okay,
great.
Let this cup pass from me then.
There is no other way.
If it be possible, no, it's not possible for that cup to pass from you and for people to
be saved because people can only be saved by Jesus Christ dying for them on the cross.
That's the way.
That's the only way.
And so that cup could not pass from him and he went along and yielded himself and was
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
And again, this is a great picture of the Trinity as well because we see him saying
to the father, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
You know, what are these fools, these modalists or oneness idiots have to say about that?
Oh, you're saying that there's two different wills?
You got it right because he said, not my will.
Is everybody counting?
Not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Two wills there, buddy, because we've got the father, the son and Holy Ghost, three
persons, one God, not one person, three persons, one God.
And so we have Jesus praying to the father and he's saying, not as I will, but as thou
wilt.
That's how he was able to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
You know, obedience can't exist with one person, okay?
Obedience is one person obeying another.
It's a son obeying the father.
Jump down if you would to verse 42.
The Bible says he went away again the second time and prayed saying, oh my father, if this
cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done.
And he came and found them asleep again for their eyes were heavy.
And he left them and went away again and prayed the third time saying the same words.
So we're going to come back to this later in the sermon, but three different times he
prays to the father and says, look, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me.
But he's yielding to the will of the father.
He's obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
But the reason I'm showing you this is just to really drive in the fact that this is going
to be some hard things that he's going to go through on the cross.
And he's sorrowful even unto death.
He's sweating.
He's in agony.
He's praying.
He's begging the father if there's any way that he can bypass this, but he's reiterating
the fact to the father that he's willing to do it if this is what it takes to save you
and me.
Amen.
Look at Matthew chapter 27 verse 26.
Let's see what Christ endured on the cross when he endured the cross for us.
Let's look at the events of his physical suffering.
The Bible says in chapter 27 verse 26, then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he
had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto the
whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.
And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, plaited means braided, a crown of thorns,
they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand.
And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, Hail King of the Jews.
So the first thing we see is that according to verse number 26, he was scourged.
It says when he had scourged Jesus.
What does it mean to be scourged?
It means to be beaten with a whip.
Now the Bible tells us all the way back in Isaiah 53, which is probably the greatest
chapter in the entire Old Testament.
In Isaiah chapter 53, it says that by his stripes, we are healed.
By his stripes, we are healed.
Why is that?
Because it's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from all sin.
And what were those stripes?
They were stripes of blood.
He was beaten with a whip to the point where it left a bloody stripe.
And when the prophet Isaiah is looking at that bloody stripe, he says by his stripes
were healed.
Why?
Because without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.
So it's the stripes of Christ that heal us.
So Jesus was beaten with a whip to the point where each stroke of the whip created a bloody
stripe that was left behind.
He was probably beaten 39 times because that was the custom in those days to whip someone
just short of the legal limit of 40.
So he was beaten with stripes.
He was scourged.
Then after that, he was stripped of his clothing.
Now look, this is humiliating.
How would you like to be in a group of soldiers and the whole band of soldiers and they strip
you down of your clothing, right?
That's humiliating.
That's degrading to be stripped naked.
And they put on him a scarlet robe.
Now this is something that a king would wear.
A lot of people think Jesus just wore a robe around.
Jesus never wore a robe.
The only time you see Jesus in a robe is when he's stripped and they put one on him to make
fun of him.
Now when he comes back, he's going to be wearing a kingly robe.
Amen.
But when he was on this earth, he walked around humble among men and was among the working
class and a humble garb.
But they're making fun of him saying, well, you know, if you're a king, let's dress you
up like a king.
So they strip him down and they put this scarlet robe or purple robe or this gorgeous robe
upon him.
What you would picture a king wearing purple and dyed garments because back in those days,
purple and scarlet were colors that were pretty expensive because of the dye technology that
they use.
They had to get rare plants or rare animals to get these colors.
And so they put this robe on him and they make fun of him.
They bow down to him, make fun of him, call him the King of the Jews.
But then in verse 30 it says, and they spit upon him.
I don't know if you've ever had anybody spit in your face, but when somebody spits in your
face, it really makes your blood boil, right?
I mean, it's, it's angry.
It's pretty humiliating.
It's pretty much one of the most insulting things you could do to someone is just spit
right in their face.
So here he is.
He's been beaten horribly.
His back is bloody and he's got that scarlet robe on his back.
He's got that crown of thorns shoved into his brow and they're spitting in his face.
Just spit flying out of their mouths into his face.
Think about that humiliating, gross.
The whole band of soldiers, all these dirty men spitting in his face, the crown of thorns
itself shoved into his brow, causing more blood and, and, and harm.
Now I've been over there to that region of the world and you know what it looks like?
Arizona.
All right.
And I know Arizona, man, everything is sharp.
There are thorns everywhere.
Every tree, every plant, every cactus has very long, sharp needles.
So you could produce a crown of thorns that would be pretty formidable in Arizona.
And it's the same stuff over there.
It's a lot of the same landscape, a lot of the same plant life over there.
And so it says, when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, in verse
29, and a reed in his right hand.
And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, hail, king of the Jews.
And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head.
So think about this.
They just put a stick in his hand as his royal scepter.
So get the picture.
He's bloody, he's beaten, he's surrounded by soldiers making fun of him.
He's got the crown of thorns shoved onto his brow.
He's got a stick in his hand and they're bowing down, making fun of him, spitting on
him, laughing at him, ridiculing him.
And then they just take the stick and just slam it into his head, just beat him in the
head with a stick.
He's probably still wearing the crown of thorns.
I mean, they probably beat that thing into his head with a stick.
So Jesus is being beaten.
He's being humiliated.
He's being ridiculed.
Then the Bible says in verse 31, after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off
from him and put his own raiment on him and let him away to crucify him.
You know, I imagine that when you're switching clothes and your back has been beaten, that's
going to hurt because as soon as you put on that robe, what's going to happen?
All that blood gets into that clothing.
And I don't know if you've ever had a bandage or clothing get saturated with blood and it
dries and then you rip it off.
It's pretty much just going to reopen all those wounds, right?
So then they rip that robe off of him, reopen all those wounds, and then put his own clothing
back on him and lead him away to crucify him.
It says in verse 32, and as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name,
him they compelled to bear his cross.
Now from the other gospels, we know that there was a time when Jesus carried his own cross,
but then at this point we see that someone else has to carry it for him.
Probably just because of the fact that he was physically unable to do it at this point.
I mean, if you think about it, he's probably carrying it, but he's been so beaten and so
whipped and hit in the head and the crown of thorns and everything like that, that he
probably needed someone to help him carry the thing.
So they get this other man, Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for him.
Says in verse 33, when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say a
place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink mixed with gall, and when he had tasted
thereof, he would not drink.
Hey, I don't blame him.
That doesn't sound like a very tasty beverage.
Vinegar is not exactly a thirst quencher, okay?
I went hiking with a guy, and he had water with apple cider vinegar in it as a beverage.
That's too radical for me.
I don't care how healthy that is.
Give me Gatorade or something, right?
But they give him just the nastiest possible drink you can imagine, right?
They're giving him vinegar mixed with gall.
This is everything that's just bitter and nasty and sour and rotten tasting.
So here he is, he's thirsty, he's exerted himself to the point where he's probably collapsed
under the way of the cross, and they had to get Simon of Cyrene to carry it for him.
He's beaten, he's mocked, he's ridiculed, and then he's given vinegar and gall to drink
as his beverage.
Then it says in verse number 35, they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots
that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet.
They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.
And then look at verse 36.
I'm always kind of intrigued by the short verses in the Bible, when there's just a little
short verse like this, and sitting down, they watched him there.
And sitting down, they watched him there.
So what is that?
He's a spectacle.
He's basically, this is entertainment for people.
It's people just sitting down and just enjoying the show.
What wickedness.
Who would enjoy such a spectacle?
He didn't do anything wrong.
This isn't some violent criminal.
He wasn't even accused of being a murderer, or being a rapist, or a pedophile.
I mean, he's not even being accused of those things.
What's he being accused of?
Oh, this man spoke against our religion.
Right?
I mean, think about it.
That's all they're even accusing him of is blasphemy, when he of course did not commit
any blasphemy.
Everything he said was right and pure in God's word, but they sat down and they watched him
there.
A laughing stock, an entertainment, a spectacle unto them as they sit down and watch him there.
Then the Bible says in verse number 37, they set up over his head his accusation.
People are probably thinking, man, maybe some people showed up and they don't know, what
did this guy do?
This guy must have done something horrible.
Look at the way they're treating him.
He's spat upon, beaten, bloody, bruised.
Everybody's sitting down and watching and enjoying the show, and they set up the accusation,
this is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
That's the accusation that's written.
Then there were two thieves crucified with him.
One on the right hand and another on the left.
And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads.
I mean, people are just shaking their head, just totally disgusted with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Just shaking their head at how wicked they think he is or how bad they think that he
is or just total hatred and disgust for the Son of God.
It says in verse 40, and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three
days, save thyself.
If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Likewise, also the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved
others, himself he cannot save.
If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
in him.
Now, some people would say, you know, Jesus Christ is not affected by this.
This doesn't bother him, but that's not what the Bible says, because the Bible says that
he despised the shame.
It says he endured the cross, despising the shame.
You know what?
He did not want to go through this.
He did not enjoy being mocked.
He did not enjoy being made fun of.
He was not just passively or just neutrally just saying, oh, go ahead, spit in my face,
hit me in the head, make fun of me, laugh at me, ridiculed.
Look, I don't like being laughed at, ridiculed, mocked, made fun of.
I don't want to have the crown of thorns on my, I don't think anybody would want to go
through this.
And Jesus endured this.
And he endured it because he so loved the world that he went through this.
He sacrificed his life.
He laid down his life for us.
He said, greater love hath no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his
friends.
This was not easy.
This is not a cakewalk for him.
This is something that he agonized over and dreaded and endured this suffering.
Then the Bible says, as they continued to mock him in verse 43, he trusted in God, let
him deliver him now, if he will have him.
For he said, I am the son of God.
The thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth.
Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land under the ninth hour.
And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.
He cries out with a loud voice.
That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Now why did Jesus Christ cry out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Well first of all, the Bible says there's darkness over all the land.
So get the picture, okay?
Jesus Christ is hanging on the cross.
He's beaten.
He's bloody.
He's bruised.
His visage is more marred than the sons of man.
He doesn't even look quite human.
He's so beaten and swollen and bloody and bruised.
And as he hangs on the cross, there's darkness.
Some kind of an eclipse of some kind where there's this darkness, even in the daytime,
it just becomes dark.
Imagine it's just daylight.
He's hanging on the cross and it just gets totally dark.
And at Christ's darkest hour, I mean, when he's gone through the most pain, the most
suffering, the most mockery, the most ridicule, it's all culminated in this and he's hanging
on the cross and then it's just darkness.
He cries out and says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
This is a very profound utterance on the cross.
This is very important.
You know, Jesus Christ made seven utterances from the cross.
There are seven things that the Bible records Jesus saying from the cross, but in order
to get all seven of them, you have to read all four gospels.
This is the only one that's repeated because this one's in Matthew and Mark, but not only
is it repeated in Matthew and Mark, he gives it to us in the actual original language of
what Jesus actually said and then he repeats it by giving us the translation.
So the things that Jesus said on the cross, most of them are recorded once.
This one's recorded four times, right?
Because it's given to us in the original Aramaic and then in English and then we go to the
book of Mark and there it is in Aramaic and English once again.
This is a quadruple mention.
This is something very important, okay?
This is part of the suffering that Christ endured on the cross is being forsaken of
the father.
Now again, this is something that people will try to whitewash or sugarcoat or try
to explain this away or twist this.
Look, let's just believe what the Bible says.
If God emphasizes something four times, it's pretty important.
Wouldn't you agree with that?
I mean, everything Christ said on the cross was important.
We hear a lot about it is finished.
I mean, I've heard a lot of sermons on it is finished, right?
Okay, this is recorded four times.
This is an important statement that Jesus Christ made on the cross and so we don't want
to allow people to twist this or water this down.
Let's just stop and look at these words.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He didn't say, did you forsake me?
He said, why hast thou forsaken me?
Now if Jesus Christ was not forsaken by God the father, then this will be a false accusation.
If I said, why have you forsaken me and God didn't forsake me, then that wouldn't even
make any sense, right?
Jesus Christ, he knew all things.
He's perfect.
Everything he says is perfect.
He's not just going to make some spurious claim here, just some utterance that's wrong
and then, oh, let's record that four times in the New Testament.
What he's saying here is right.
He was forsaken here.
Why is that?
Because of the fact that the Bible says in Habakkuk that the Lord is of purer eyes than
to behold evil and can't not look on iniquity.
I mean, God is so holy that when Jesus Christ actually took upon him the sins of the world,
the Bible says he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him.
So when Jesus Christ is on the cross, the Bible says who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree.
So when Jesus Christ is on the cross, he who knew no sin became sin for us.
That's why the picture of Jesus on the cross was a serpent on a pole.
Why would a serpent represent Jesus?
But the Bible said in John chapter 3, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
eternal life.
Why would Jesus Christ be represented by a serpent?
A serpent is everything that's wicked because he who knew no sin became sin for us.
He took upon him the sins of the world.
He who knew no sin, he who was perfect, blameless, the spotless lamb of God.
He was tempted at all points like as we are, yet without sin, he took upon him the iniquity
and the Bible says the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And so all the rotten sins of every human being who's ever lived, an unimaginable amount
of sin.
I mean, we each have our own huge laundry list of sin.
Of all the thousands of sins that we've committed in our lifetime, now take all the sins of
all the billions of people in the whole world.
I mean, it's just an unbelievable amount of sin that was placed on Jesus Christ.
And you know what?
No longer is there the sweet communion between father and son.
No longer is Jesus Christ that beloved son in whom he so well pleased, who does always
those things which please him.
Now all of a sudden he has taken upon him the sins of the world.
Now all of a sudden he who knew no sin became sin for us.
And so now God the father's relationship to the son becomes one of judgment and wrath.
Now God the father is bruising the son.
Now God the father is punishing the son for the sins of the whole world.
Think about that change.
Think about having sweet communion and fellowship with your father and then getting to the place
where your father is judging you for the worst possible crimes.
I mean, whatever the worst possible crimes, add them all together.
That's what Jesus is being punished for.
So God the father is now his judge.
You know, God the father is now taking out the punishment on him.
I mean, that's pretty profound.
That's pretty important.
You see why it's an important statement.
That's why he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
So here's how people try to twist this.
I've heard a few different things about this.
Some people said, well, he's just quoting Psalm 22.
He's just quoting scripture or I've even heard some people take it even so far as to say,
well, he's singing a song.
You're not going to sing songs when you're beaten within an inch of your life, hanging
on the cross and being condemned for the sins of the whole world.
You're not just going to burst into song.
Okay.
I heard, I mean, there's some dumb doctrine out there.
Somebody said, oh, he's singing because he wanted them to sing along.
So he gives them the first verse expecting them to pick up the rest.
It's nonsense.
Okay.
But I'm going to prove to you right now, by the way, Jesus is not even quoting Psalm 22
right here.
Okay.
Because here's what they say.
Oh, he's just quoting scripture.
And these are the same people that, oh, in the garden of Gethsemane, he didn't really
mean that when he said, you know, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
He's just setting an example of prayer.
No, he meant that.
Jesus didn't just go through the motions, you know, just pretending to kind of go through
life and being tempted and all points like as we are.
No, no, no.
He went through those things.
He really was hungry, thirsty, angry, sad.
He really did get tired and, and, and go through the struggles and trials and tribulations
that we go through.
He went through all that.
We have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
So Jesus Christ wasn't just going through the motions here and just, uh, pretending
to pray in the garden just to kind of show us how to pray or, or he's on the cross.
No, no.
The Bible says he's screaming out at the top of his lungs.
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me at his darkest hour in literal darkness?
He screams it out.
Why?
Because he's speaking to the father crying out saying, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken
me?
It's coming from his heart.
He's not quoting scripture.
I'm going to prove it to you.
You say, well, he's just quoting Psalm 22.
Flip over a few into Psalm 22 verse one, Psalm 22 verse one.
Keep your finger in Matthew.
We'll be back there.
Psalm 22 verse one and this is where we find the exact same words.
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
Psalm 22 verse one says, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring?
And you say, well, see right there, he's clearly quoting Psalm 22.
Wrong.
He is not quoting Psalm 22 and I'm going to prove it to you.
Here's why.
Because there's a reason why God gave it to us in the original language.
I mean, how often does God tell us what Jesus said in the original language?
Very rarely.
Usually he just gives it to us in our language, right?
We're reading our King James Bible and we're just going to get it in English.
Or if we were reading a Greek New Testament, we're just getting it in Greek, right?
Because that's what the people understand.
That's what we understand.
But yet if I'm reading a Greek New Testament, I get it in the original language.
If I'm reading a King James Bible, I get this original language.
Eli Eli lama sabachthani.
Why did he give us that?
Just for fun, just say, let me just give you a little original language here.
Just spice up your reading a little.
No, there's a reason why.
I'll tell you the reason why.
Because it's not Hebrew, okay?
The reason he tells us that he said Eli Eli lama sabachthani is so that we'll know it's
not Hebrew.
That is not Hebrew.
That is Aramaic.
It's a different language, okay?
So God's trying to show us something here.
Let me illustrate to you what he's trying to show us by giving us this original language
and showing us this isn't Hebrew.
This is Aramaic, okay?
So let me get a couple volunteers.
Let's get my guys from Fresno up here, all right?
Let's get these guys up here.
So let's have you stand over here, okay?
And let's have you stand over here, okay?
Now this right here is going to illustrate David, okay?
David is the one who gave us this psalm, Psalm 22, right?
And so David was the psalmist of Israel, that God inspired the Holy Ghost, spake through
David to give us this psalm, Psalm 22, right, okay?
Now this guy's living around 1,000 B.C.
So this is about 1,000 years before Christ roughly, okay?
And then over here, he's going to represent Jesus, okay?
Jesus on the cross and then all these people here, right?
These are the people that are watching Jesus on the cross, that are observing Jesus on
the cross, that are with Jesus at this time, okay?
And then all the people over here are going to represent David's audience, okay?
So these are the people, they're living in 1,000 B.C., right?
They're living in Jerusalem, they're living in Israel, they're living in wherever, in
1,000 B.C., ancient kingdom of Israel.
This is their king, this is King David, right, okay?
And then over here, who's this?
This is Jesus, he's on the cross, right?
And these are all the people in Judea or just whoever that's there observing on the cross.
Everybody understand?
Okay, so the question is, what language does this guy speak?
This guy speaks Hebrew, right?
This is the heyday of Biblical Hebrew, 1,000 B.C., Book of Psalms, written in the Hebrew
language by David and others, 1,000 B.C., they're speaking Hebrew, okay?
Now what language does this guy speak?
This guy speaks Aramaic, okay?
And all throughout the Bible, in fact, when you see Jesus and it tells you exactly what
he said, like where it says talita kumi or when it says ephathah, who knows what I'm
talking about, where you get those little statements where it'll say, here's what he
said and it's interpreted as, and then it tells you the interpretation, those words
are all Aramaic.
So that's one of the reasons why we know Jesus spoke Aramaic.
He's not speaking the Biblical Hebrew of 1,000 B.C., he's actually speaking Aramaic, okay?
That's the language of the day, that's the most popular language.
There's also obviously Hebrew in the synagogue and Greek is a big language as well.
And when Jesus went to the synagogue, yeah, they're rolling out the scroll and they're
reading the Bible in Hebrew, but what you have to understand about these two languages,
okay, this guy's language of Hebrew and this guy's language of Aramaic is that they're
related, okay?
They're related like, say for example, Spanish and French.
Now Spanish and French are pretty closely related, aren't they?
Or we could say Spanish and Italian, okay?
They're pretty closely related and you'll see a lot of similarities and a lot of words
will even be exactly the same or things will be the same, but then other things are very
different.
Other things are closely related, okay?
But these languages are pretty similar languages, but they're not the same language.
They're different, okay?
So stop and think about this, okay?
This guy over here, what is he saying in 33 AD?
He's saying, Eili, Eili lama sabachthani.
God felt the need to tell us that that's exactly what he said and these people heard him in
Aramaic, the language of that day, okay?
This guy over here, what is he saying, okay?
He's not saying, Eili, Eili lama sabachthani, because if you look it up in a Hebrew Bible,
that's not what it says.
It actually says, Eili, Eili lama azafthani.
It's a different word.
Azafthani, it's a different word because it's Hebrew, biblical Hebrew is what this guy's
speaking.
This guy's speaking a different language, Aramaic.
Now part of it's the same, the Eili, Eili lama, because they're very closely related
languages, like Spanish and French or Spanish and Italian are going to have a lot of words
in common, but it's not the same, right?
Because this guy's saying, azafthani, and this guy's saying, sabachthani, and it's two
totally different words in two different languages.
Everybody understanding?
Now stop and think about this, if this guy is quoting this guy, okay?
Isn't that what they're saying?
Oh Jesus, when he's on the cross, he's just quoting Psalm 22.
Well look, has this guy read a Hebrew Bible before?
Yeah, didn't he go in the synagogue every week and pull out the Bible and read it?
So did this guy read out of a Hebrew Bible?
Does this guy know how to speak Hebrew?
Yeah, he did know how to speak Hebrew because there are other times when he spoke in Hebrew
where it tells us he said it in Hebrew, or when he's reading in the synagogue and rolling
out the scroll of Isaiah as his custom was on a weekly basis.
This guy knows how to read the Bible in Hebrew, does everybody understand?
But what's his everyday language?
His main language is Aramaic.
See that's his heart language.
You see, people who speak multiple languages, one language is the one that's closest to
their heart.
So if they get in an emergency situation, they're not going to speak a foreign language,
right?
I mean, think about it, like let's say I'm just speaking German all the time and I'm
in Germany and I'm speaking German, but I'm an English speaker at heart.
Well let's say I hurt myself really bad and cry out to God.
Let's say I chop a finger off and I'm just crying out, oh God, please help me.
I'm not going to do that in German, right?
What am I going to do that in?
I'm going to do it in English because that's my heart language.
So Jesus here on the cross is speaking his main language, his heart language, his primary
language.
He cries out to the father, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me in his heart language?
Now if he were quoting scripture, he'd quote scripture, right?
Think about this.
Let's say that you felt like you were forsaken by God, okay?
Could you do it in a King James English?
If you were going through your darkest hour, if you have nails through your hands and nails
through your feet and you're hanging on the cross, you're beaten, you're dying, and now
God's wrath is on you, are you going to cry out and start quoting scripture in the King's
English?
Wherefore, hast thou done this unto me, Lord?
You're going to be like, why are you doing this to me?
What's going on?
Right?
Does everybody understand the difference between your heart language?
Now look, if I need to speak King James English, I can do it.
If I need to speak German, I can do it.
If I need to speak Spanish, I can do it.
But you know, if I'm in a jam calling out to the Lord, it's going to be in English.
It's going to be in my heart language.
It's going to be in my own vernacular.
So here he is on the cross crying out in his heart language.
Why?
He's in his most dark, bleak, miserable hour crying out from the heart to the Father.
Not quoting scripture because if he wanted to quote scripture, then he would have quoted
it right.
He would have quoted it in the language of scripture.
Instead he quotes it in his heart language.
Now let's stop.
So this doesn't make any sense to say that he's quoting him because if he's quoting him,
then he would have said,
He would have done the Hebrew.
He wouldn't have said it in Aramaic.
But now let's say this guy's quoting this guy.
Let's say that David in 1000 BC is looking forward to the cross, being a prophet, being
a seer, foreseeing that Christ would die on the cross.
And he's prophesying about Christ on the cross, right?
And he foresees the future that this guy's going to say, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?
And he wants to deliver that truth to these people who speak what language?
Okay.
And he wants to deliver it as a song for them to sing in what language?
Why?
Because guess what?
At this time they don't speak Aramaic because they picked up Aramaic in the Babylonian captivity
hundreds and hundreds of years later.
So at this time, Aramaic's not even a thing.
In 1000 BC when Psalms is being written, when King David's on the throne, Aramaic is not
a thing in Israel.
It's only Hebrew.
It's all about the Hebrew language.
So if he's going to give it to them in their language, he's going to give it to them in
Hebrew.
Does everybody understand?
So he's taking what Jesus said in Aramaic and he's giving it to the people in Hebrew
because that's what they speak.
Does everybody understand?
So guess what?
He proves that this guy is quoting this guy and not that this guy is quoting this guy.
Does everybody see the difference?
Because if this guy's quoting this guy, he would have done it in Hebrew.
Whereas if this guy's quoting this guy, he can't do it in Aramaic.
It's not around in that geography at that time.
So he's going to do it in Hebrew.
Go ahead and have a seat.
And look, you say, well, you're, you know, you're, you're splitting hairs or you're going
too deep or you're getting too complicated.
Well, you know what?
There's a, why did God even put that in the Bible then?
Why did he even spell it out?
A lee, a lee, lama, sabachthani in both places, Mark and Matthew, when we can flip open a
Hebrew Bible and see that it says something different.
It says a lee, a lee, lama, as of Tani, which is a totally different word because it's Hebrew
versus Aramaic.
Why is that so important is because it shows the power of prophecy is looking forward to
the cross quoting Jesus.
So Jesus is not quoting Psalm 22, Psalm 22 is quoting Jesus.
And when we see Isaiah 53, it's looking forward to the cross.
Psalm 22 is looking forward to the cross.
When it says they pierced my hands and my feet, that's Jesus talking.
So it's just so dumb to say, Oh, Jesus quoting scripture, no scriptures quoting Jesus.
Why?
Because Jesus Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And guess what?
David, the prophet, he looked forward to the cross of Christ.
Isaiah, the prophet looked forward to the cross of Christ.
Every saved person in the old Testament looked forward to the cross of Jesus Christ.
So don't try to water this down and say, well, you know, he's just quoting a verse.
He wasn't just doing a little scripture memory up there.
He's up there at his darkest moments, screaming out to God, but you know, this goes against
a lot of this oneness, Pentecostal, modalist, because they don't, they believe that God
is one person.
They don't believe in the Trinity, the father, son, and Holy ghost.
So this verse makes no sense without the Trinity.
Because if you believe that God's just one person, what is he forsaking himself?
He can't forsake himself, right?
No, it's the father forsaking the son is what happened.
And you know what?
That proves that there's a father and a son and it proves that the father is not the son
and the son is not the father because one is forsaking the other.
And you know, a lot of these oneness, Pentecostals and modalist, what they'll do then is they'll
say, well, it's God forsaking the man Jesus.
Well, who's this the man Jesus, because Jesus is God.
You know, the man Jesus is divine.
The human being, the man Jesus Christ is deity.
He's God.
Jesus is God.
He's always been God.
He always will be God.
He's divine.
But God exists as three persons, father, son, and Holy ghost.
Now if you're Muslim, you're going to have a problem with that.
You're going to say, God's one person.
You know, if you're a, if you're a, a Sikh, you're going to say, God is one, God's one
person, right?
If you're any other fault, if you're Jewish, you're going to say, God's only one person.
But you know, if you're a Christian, you're going to say, God's three persons, the father
of the son and the Holy ghost.
See, have you noticed that our God is totally different than all the gods of the heathen?
Their oneness God is not the God of the Bible.
The God of the Bible said, let us make man in our image after our likeness because he
internally exists as father, son, and Holy ghost.
Very important.
And so we see that nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
Everything is there for a reason.
And when God gives us these words that, that are just gibberish unto us, you know, for
us, we're unlearned and we say, what is that?
There's a reason, huh?
Why?
Because you can do what?
You can figure out number one, Jesus speaking Aramaic, put that in your Hebrew rights or
Hebrew roots pipe and smoke it because think about the Hebrew roots.
They act like, Oh, Hebrew is the special, magical, wonderful language.
Oh, really?
It's funny because our savior walked around speaking a different language, nothing special
about that language.
God can speak to us today in English, just as well as he did in Hebrew.
He can speak to us today in English, just as well as he did in Greek.
He can speak to us in English, just as well as he did in Aramaic.
He can speak to us in Spanish just as well as he does in English.
He can speak to us in all tongues.
The Holy ghost can speak any language.
And so God is not limited to Hebrew as a mystical language.
Nope.
Wrong.
Hebrew is just like any other language.
A language is a language is a language.
And you know what?
God's the one who split up the languages at the Tower of Babel and he wants all of us
to know him and we can all know him in the tongue we're in, we were born.
We don't have to learn a foreign language today.
You know, who here only speaks English?
That's all you speak.
Hey, guess what?
You can know everything you need to know about God with that one language.
You have everything that pertains to life and godliness right here in this book.
You can go to the grave being an only English speaker and you can have all the right doctrine
from this book right here, the King James Bible.
You don't have to learn Hebrew in order to understand the Bible, okay?
The only Hebrew you need is the couple of little words that he gives you where he tells
you a couple of words and tells you what they mean, right?
You know, he'll tell you, hey, the king of Salem, that's the king of peace.
You know, he'll tell, he'll break things down for you like that in the Bible, but you don't
need to learn a foreign language today to know God.
You can know God in English or Spanish or whatever your language is.
Now let's go back to Hebrews chapter 12 now.
So we've specifically seen what Christ endured on the cross.
I've lost some of my notes here.
Oh, here they are.
We've seen specifically what Christ endured on the cross.
Let me just give you a quick review.
He was scourged.
He was stripped.
He was put in a scarlet robe as a mockery.
He was planted a crown of thorns and shoved it on his head.
He was mocked.
He was spat upon.
He was smitten on the head with a stick.
They ripped off his robe off of his bloody back and put his own clothing on him.
His cross had to be carried by someone else, which is humiliating that he can't carry his
own cross.
Somebody else had to carry it for him.
He was given vinegar mingled with gall to drink.
Even later, I didn't get there for sake of time, later he's given vinegar to drink a
second time.
In the book of Matthew alone, it records twice that they're giving him vinegar to drink.
He was made a spectacle and a mockery.
They sat down and watched him there.
He was reviled and worst of all, he was forsaken by God the father.
Why?
Because God the father, he couldn't look on the sin.
He couldn't look on the iniquity.
He had to basically now change that relationship from a sweet, loving father-son relationship
to being the judge and punishing Jesus for our sins, bruising him for our iniquities,
laying on him the iniquity of us all.
He went through some horrible things on the cross, didn't he?
Because of his love for us, he endured those things and suffered on the cross for us.
Now Hebrews chapter 12, with all that in mind, look what the Bible says in verse 1.
We're foreseeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.
Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied
and faint in your minds.
What's he telling us?
And then he says, you've not ever resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
What's he telling us here?
He's saying, look, we need to look to the cross of Jesus today.
And what does that mean when we say look to the cross of Jesus?
That means that when we're going through struggles, when we're going through trials, when things
are going bad, you know what we need to think about?
We need to think about the fact that Christ was beaten and that he was stripped down of
his clothing, that he was mocked, that he was spat upon because you know what?
They're going to be times when you go through financial problems or they're going to be
times where you get physical sickness or physical injury.
They're going to be times when you're laid up in the hospital.
They're going to be times when you are spat upon.
They're going to be times when people tell you horrible things or that they hate you
or that they're disgusted with you.
People that you love will turn on you.
But you know what?
You're never going to go through anything worse than what Jesus went through.
Oh, you might be spat upon, but you're not going to be spat upon and stripped naked and
crowned with thorns and hit in the head with a stick and whipped 39 times and have God
the Father just turn on you.
You know what?
That's never going to happen because he'll never leave us or forsake us.
We're never going to go through that aspect.
I'm never going to have to know what that feels like where you cry out from the depths
of your soul, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
Because he'll never leave me nor forsake me.
But Jesus was forsaken.
Jesus was forsaken so that we'll never be forsaken.
Amen.
And you know what?
No matter what you're going through, you're never going to go through more than what he
went through.
Never.
I don't care what you're going through.
It'll never add up to that.
And then he says to consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself
lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.
You know, you might get to the point where you just say, you know what?
I've had it.
I'm tired.
I'm worn out.
I'm sick of fighting.
It's such a struggle all the time.
It's just a struggle to go to church.
It's a struggle to stay out soul winning.
It's a struggle to be faithful.
It's a struggle to take a stand.
Everybody's telling me I should quit.
My family thinks I'm crazy.
You know, nobody supports me on this.
You know, I'm just thrown in the towel.
You know, I tried, but it's just too hard living the Christian life.
It's just too hard going to Faith Board Baptist Church.
It's just too hard living this Christian life of soul winning and zeal for the Lord.
It's just too much.
I quit.
I give up.
And you know, we've all felt that way.
Just like I've had it, I'm done.
But you know what?
That's when we need to look at Jesus.
When we get to that point where you're broken down and you're ready to quit and you've had it and you're sick of it and everybody's giving you a bad time, your friends have turned on you, family's not supporting you, the bank accounts and the negative and everybody's just got it in for you or maybe you're sick, you're injured, you're in physical pain,
you're bleeding, you're in the hospital, broken and suffering.
You know what?
That's when you need to open your Bible and read Matthew Chapter 27.
And that's when you need to get in your mind's eye.
Jesus Christ beaten, bloody, hanging on the cross.
And you know what he's saying?
He's saying, this is my body, which is broken for you.
This is my body, which is given for you.
This cup is the New Testament in my blood.
And picture Jesus Christ broken, bleeding, dying on the cross saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
And realize that as he said, he could call legions of angels.
But how then would the scripture be fulfilled?
How then would he drink the cup that the Father had given him?
How then could he get you saved and get you to heaven?
Well, you know what?
We need to get other people saved.
And you know what the Bible says, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and
do what?
Take up his cross and follow me.
So we look to Jesus and then you know what we do when we look to Jesus?
We pick up our cross and say, you know what?
If Jesus did that, if Jesus endured that, if Jesus suffered through that, you know what?
I can go through some suffering.
I can keep fighting.
I can suffer.
I can keep going.
I'm not going to faint in my mind.
I'm not going to be weary in well doing.
I'm going to keep on going.
I'm going to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because
I know that my labor is not in vain.
And just as Jesus for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, we can endure
our cross for the joy that is set before us.
Say, well, he's doing it to save mankind.
You know what?
But we're doing it to save some.
We're doing it to save some.
He did it to save all mankind, but our suffering's not as great as his and we're doing it for
people to be saved.
We're doing it to reach people.
What did Paul say?
He said, I endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Now one last place I want to go to is second Corinthians chapter 12, second Corinthians
chapter 12.
Do you remember how when Jesus was in the Garden of Eden, or I keep wanting to say Garden
of Eden, Garden of Gethsemane.
You remember how Jesus was in the Garden of Eden too, by the way.
He was walking with Adam in the cool of the day, right?
Yeah, Jesus was in the Garden of Eden forming man with his own hands and forming him from
the ground to the earth and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life.
Don't tell me Jesus didn't exist in the Old Testament.
Don't tell me Jesus was not a man in the Old Testament or that he wasn't the son of God
in the Old Testament.
No, he walked in that garden and he physically formed man from the dust of the ground with
his own hands, but that was just because I misspoke and said, Eden, I meant to say the
Garden of Gethsemane.
Hey, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and he prayed, how many times did he ask for
the cup to be removed from him?
Does everybody remember?
Three times, right?
He went and he prayed and asked the father to deliver him.
If there's any other way, let the cup pass from me, but not as I will, but as thou will.
Then he goes and checks on the disciples.
He prays a second time.
He goes and checks on the disciples and a third time.
Now the first two times it gives us exactly what he said.
The third time it said he prayed the same words.
So that tells us that three times we know for sure that he asked the Lord if it's possible
to remove this cup from me.
Okay, everybody got that?
Now let's look at what the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
The Bible says in verse number seven, and lest I should be exalted above measure through
the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger
of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ
may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then am I strong.
What's he saying?
Three times I asked the Lord for this cup to pass from me.
Three times I asked that the thorn in my flesh would be removed.
Three times I asked that the messenger of Satan that's buffeting me, what does buffet
mean?
Beating me up will be removed.
Well, you know what?
Jesus asked three times not to be buffeted.
Jesus asked three times that the thorn in his flesh wouldn't be there, right?
Did he have a thorn in his flesh?
You better know he did, the crown of thorns.
Three times he didn't want to be buffeted.
Three times he didn't want to be suffering and going through the thorns and the punishments
and the messengers of Satan buffeting him, but you know what?
The Lord said, My grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness.
And he said, you know what?
I'll gladly go through whatever cross God has for me to carry that the power of Christ
might rest upon me.
You know what we're seeing here is we're seeing that the apostle Paul had his own cross to
bear.
Just as Jesus had his cross to bear, just as Jesus had the cup that he had to drink.
You know what?
We all have the cup that we have to drink and it's different for everybody.
We all have the thorn that we have to endure.
Are you going to endure it?
He endured the cross.
Will you endure your cross?
Will you pick up your cross and fall across or do you want the easy life or do you want
your best life now?
Or do you want the easy Christianity down at the comfortable church where everybody
makes you feel good and good devil, good sin, cold hell type of a church.
It's out there or do you want to go to take up your cross Baptist Church?
Thorn in the flesh Baptist Church.
Sufferings of Christ Baptist Church.
Hey, gladly.
Paul said, I'll endure it gladly.
Hey, I'll ask the Lord three times.
Why?
Jesus asked the Lord three times, but you know what?
He had to go through it.
What about the disciples when they said, you know, hey, we want to sit at your right hand
and on your left, Jesus.
He said, are you ready to drink of the cup that I drink?
And you know what he said?
You know what?
Verily, you will drink of the cup that I drink.
Take up your cross and follow me.
It's no different today in 2018.
If you follow Christ, there's going to be suffering.
There's going to be a cross to bear.
Now it's not going to be as bad as what Jesus went through.
You'll never go beyond what he would do.
But when you find yourself in that dark hour, don't quit and don't go running down to the
sissy church down the street.
We're a little sissy Baptist where everything's soft and smooth and comfortable and trendy.
I don't know.
You know what?
We look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith and keep going, take up the cross
and follow him.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
We thank you so much for sending the son to be the savior of the world.
Lord, we thank you so much for the supreme sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, his death,
his burial, his resurrection, his stripes that heal us.
Lord, help us pick up that cross and never put it down, Lord.
And when we're tempted to quit and when we begin to faint in our minds, help us look
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And help us not to be weary in well doing.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.