Christopher: On the cross, the almighty God of eternity meets you, Christian, meets me, meets us in the shattered, stinking, festering pits of this mortal life and all the mess that comes from it. He meets us there, not just to weep, but to revive.
Caleb: The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor,
and
sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Christopher: The rest of us are going to be not returning to first John which may be a surprise because we've been out of first John for a while and then we were back into it for two weeks and now we are going to be in a sense taking a step back from it. Let me explain what I mean by that. So if you can remember last week our sermon looked at we we asked the question, why does John emphasize love so much? Why is he making it the center of what he's calling for and teaching? And the answer was because John sees, John realizes that at the cross, God is revealed in and as love.
At the cross in Christ, God reveals himself in the act of love and as this love. And because the cross is that revelation, that unveiling, John realizes everything is here. Every everything I'm going to say derives from what we've seen God to be at the cross. That's why in first John, John's emphasizing this concept of love. What we're going to do today is to press down deeper into that idea of the cross as a place of revelation, which is which was undergirding everything we looked at last week, but this week we're gonna press into it explicitly.
And in fact, we're going to do that for three weeks. There's going to be three weeks drilling down into the concept of not only the cross as revelation but this this whole three day reality of Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, what has traditionally been called the Paschal mystery of Christ. This concept, The next three weeks we're going to be looking at each one of those more closely. And there's two reasons for this. One is because at the end of this month, Friday and Saturday at the end of this month, I'm going to be traveling to Louisiana to lead a retreat at a church down there and I'm going to be teaching these three points.
The crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Christ. And so I wanted to preach them here first before I go down there. Give the same teaching to you as I give to them. So that's kind of the practical reason. But there's a deeper and more central reason which is these three things.
Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. While they may be seemingly the most familiar things, the most simple things like, oh yeah, if you're a Christian, of course, Jesus died, buried, rose again. Everything we believe is there. Everything we believe as Christians is found in this reality, in this in this Paschal mystery, in Christ's death, burial, and resurrection held together as the single great work that he achieves. Everything we believe is there.
The heart of our faith is there. The revelation of God is there and and the point of all reality is there. And so we're going to press into it for simply that reason because this is this is what it means to be a Christian, to be a human being, to exist is all found in what Jesus does and what God does through Christ in this three movement act of death, burial, and resurrection. So we're gonna pause then our walk through first John to focus here. But in a sense it's also not pausing through first John which is fittingly Johannine because John will say things he says, it is this but it also isn't this.
And I'm telling you that we're pausing on first John but we're also not really pausing on first John because everything John says in first John is derived from what God does in Christ in these three acts, in this death, burial and resurrection. Everything in the first epistle of John which we'll return to in a little while, everything there is drawn out of this well. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ and over these next three weeks John is going to continue to be our guide because I'm going to look at the cross and the tomb and the resurrection of Jesus through the eyes of John. So we're not really leaving John behind. We're we're we're more pressing deeper into his mind and into his thought so that when we return to first John we'll have a deeper and fuller understanding of John's own vision because that's really what we're doing in this series is saying how does John, how does the beloved disciple see the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus?
What does it mean to him And therefore what does it mean to us? And today we're going to look specifically at the crucifixion, at the cross, which is really where all these things come together. If you were to make one place where the singularity happens, it's really at the cross where we see the crucified Jesus in light of his resurrection and there behold our God as we looked at last week. And so this week I wanna ask ourselves, I wanna ask you, all of us together, how does John see the crucifixion of Jesus? Because remember, he's the beloved disciple.
All disciples are beloved but for John that name struck home. He realized I am only who I am in Christ's love for me. He's the beloved disciple. He leaned back on the heart of Jesus during the last supper, heard and felt the heartbeat of God in the flesh, and he's the only author of scripture who was actually present at the crucifixion. He's the one that Jesus entrusted his own mother to, to care for for the rest of her life and I want to ask with you, how did this man understand the crucifixion?
Because that's how I wanna understand it. That's how I want to see it. So that's what we'll be looking at today and we're going to look at it by looking at a unique phrase John uses in his gospel, lifted up. You remember we we were singing, it was talking about high and you are high and lifted up. We're going that comes from Isaiah and from John.
We'll look at that today. John uses this phrase, lifted up, very conspicuously and repetitively in his gospel. That's going to be our inroad today to ask the question, how does John understand the crucifixion? Let me just read for you one of the lifted up passages we find in John's gospel and then I'll pray for us. It comes in John chapter eight verse 28 when they are the leaders of the Jews are coming to Jesus and they're saying, when are you gonna tell us who you are?
When are you gonna tell us if you're the Messiah? What's going on here? And here's Jesus' response. Jesus said to them, when when you have lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own authority but I speak just as my father has taught me. When you've lifted up the son of man then you will know I am he.
Let me pray for us and then we'll look at these things together. So father we come to you now and I appeal to you father in the name of Jesus for your grace, for your grace to be at work, for your holy spirit to be at work. Taking human words now and turning them Lord to means that you would use to do eternal work in the lives of your people. So my I am aware, not aware enough, but I am aware father that these words I'm about to speak are inadequate and I'm asking that you would do more through them than than I can make happen. That you would use them, that you would align them to the truth of your word, that you'd align them to the beauty of Christ, and that they would be a means that your spirit would use now to to not just stir emotions, but to plant flags for the kingdom, to tear down barriers and walls in minds and hearts, to destroy strongholds of habit and thought and feeling and desire and to create in your people, father, outposts of Christ's kingdom, oases that are filled with the with the water flowing from Jesus Christ, flowing from his own heart, that you would create in your people now Christ.
Form him in your people through these words. I pray this, father, for the sake of your name, for the glory of your name, for the joy of your people as Jesus Christ is lifted up before our eyes. We ask it in his name, amen. So in you know there's four gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
In the first three, you get these anticipations of Jesus' death where Jesus says, the son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and he will suffer and die and be raised. You get this three times in the other gospels. Jesus explicitly anticipates I'm going to die and be raised up again. You don't get that in John's gospel. It's a little strange.
You don't get Jesus anticipating his death in that way in John's gospel. What you get instead are these lifted up sayings. Three times in John's gospel Jesus says, the son of man will be lifted up. The first one comes in John chapter three verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up. Second one comes in John eight twenty eight which we just read for you, when you lift up the son of man then you will know that I am he.
And then the third one comes in John chapter 12 verse 32 where Jesus says, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. So we have these three lifted up statements in John's gospel instead of three explicit I'm going to die statements. But they're doing the same work. They're doing the same work because when Jesus says lifted up, part of what he means is literally, I'm going to be lifted up on a cross. Because think about when you die on a cross, you are lifted up like a flag or like a banner, lifted above the ground.
And so Jesus says, instead of those the way it comes in the other gospels where he says I'm gonna suffer and be shamed and spit on and die, In John's gospel he just the the quotations that John chooses of Jesus is simply Jesus saying, I'm going to be lifted up. I'm going to be lifted up. But it's doing it's saying, I'm going to the cross. Now by choosing that phrase lifted up, John is injecting a few things into our mind. First, he's injecting this idea of visual vividness because lifted up creates this picture in your mind of something raised, something lifted, something high, and Jesus says, I am going to be lifted up.
So the actual visible physical elevation of Jesus in his body on the cross is stamped in our mind when we hear this phrase lifted up. John, using Jesus' words here, wants us to see Jesus lifted up vividly before our eyes. That's the first thing this phrase is doing. Instead of all the different stuff, suffering, spit on, beaten, shamed, crucified, buried, raised, that's what you get in the other gospels. In John it's just lifted up.
One bright picture for your mind. But the other thing that's happening with the phrase lifted up is a bit of mystery is being brought into the crucifixion because just imagine you didn't know what was going to happen. Either you've never heard, you've never read the gospel before and so you're reading it for the first time or you're back in the first century Judah Israel and you're hearing Jesus talk this way, you'd think, lift it up. By who? When?
Where? What does what does lifted up mean? It's a phrase that's not immediately clear. It creates questions. And by using that phrase, John as an author is inviting us as readers into that mystery.
He could have said crucified. He could have clarified it for us. I'm going to be crucified, but he he emphasizes the mystery element here and he says, lift it up, lift it up, lift it up. And it's inviting us to say, what does it mean? Why does Jesus talk that way?
Jesus is fully capable of being as clear as he wants to be. Why does he say, I'm going to be lifted up when he's talking about the cross? And it's not as easy as just saying, well, he means crucified. If he meant crucified simply, he could have said crucified simply, but he says lifted up. And the reason this mystery is deepened for us is because the phrase lifted up can mean not just physically brought up into the air, but it can also mean exalted or honored or glorified.
Like when you lift someone up on your shoulders and you're praising, you know, you're celebrating them. It has that idea as well. And John, or we could say Jesus in saying this, means us to see that. Not just lifted up on the cross, but this idea of lifted up in glory. A place you find that phrase lifted up being used in the glory side of things comes in Isaiah.
Isaiah chapter six verse one through four. And John, if you study John's gospel, you'll see he act he's very influenced by Isaiah. There's a lot of Isaiah in John's thought. So it's not for nothing that we find the phrase lifted up used here in Isaiah chapter six. Let me read it for you and listen for the lifted up phrase.
This is Isaiah writing now. In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe or the fullness of his robe, the cloak of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the Seraphim, each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one called to the other and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the whole house was filled with smoke. Now the Seraphim, we're not gonna get deep into this. Seraphim are burning angels, angels made of fire And they're surrounding the throne which is high and lifted up and they're shouting one to another holy holy holy and at at the cry of their voice the foundations of heaven are shaking. It's like you can hear in Wilmington these jet engines taking off. You can hear them from here.
If you're closer you can hear it. It's rumbling your chest. Imagine every cry of holy of these burning six wings six winged angels is rumbling like that so deep that the heavens are shuttering at their voice and they're crying out holy surrounding the high and lifted up throne of Yahweh, of the Lord. That's this vision we get in Isaiah. And you can see here how lifted up means exalted, glorified.
And we can take two things from it I think. Lifted up means here at least enthroned and glorified or glorious. Look at the text or listen to the text. He's high, he is sitting on a throne high and lifted up. So his high and lifted up position, the Lord is high and lifted up because he's on a throne.
So high and lifted up means enthroned. But then from that throne, like a lighthouse or a beacon, his glory is going out into all the earth. Holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. So high and lifted up or lifted up here in Isaiah means enthroned and glorious.
At least that's what it means. Enthroned and glorious. Now before we see how John is riffing on this idea in his gospel, let me pause for a second and say something about glory. And I've said this before if you've been here for a while but it's important for us to refresh our minds about this because so easily the word glory means for us bright white light. You know, it can just mean, I don't know, bright, good, powerful, right?
We use the term, but we might not know what the term means, and that's a big problem because in scripture, you know, we say all things are for the glory of God. Let God be glorified. My life given for the glory of God. It's hard to give your life for a bright white light. It's hard to lay down your family, lay down your your precious most treasured things into the hands of a bright white light.
So we need to know what glory means. We can't just say, oh, know, God's glory. Right? And without going into it because it could be a whole sermon, in scripture glory is tied to identity. It's tied to character.
So the glory of someone means who they are internally being made known externally. The beauty, the excellence, the the personhood of who someone is inside invisibly being shown outside visibly. The outward showing of the inward beauty is called glory. You can think of that with the sun. The sun is full of internal energy and and all these reactions that are happening inside, and you see that when the light shines out from the sun.
What is happening inside is seen by the rays that come outside. Similarly, the beauty, the excellence, the character, who God is in himself, when he makes that known, that's called glory. That shining forth of who he is is called glory. What's the glory of God? It's who God is inside being made known outside.
And lifted up here means enthroned and glorified, seated on the throne and made known, made known in the excellence of who he is. Now these same two aspects, the reason why we went to Isaiah, right? Why did we go to Isaiah? Because Isaiah uses that phrase lifted up and we went there because John uses that exact same phrase to talk about Jesus' crucifixion. That's the shocking thing.
John uses the same words as Isaiah lifted up to talk about the crucifixion of Jesus and these same two concepts are at play. This idea of enthronement and glory. Let me read for you one of them. In John 12, we read this, I read this for you a few moments ago. In John twelve thirty two, Jesus makes this statement that you might think, oh yeah, okay.
But I wanna I wanna help you see the implications of it. John 12, actually let's start at verse 31. Now, he has just said he's going to the cross. He's just said, Father, glorify your name. It's time for the Son of Man to fall into the ground like a seed and die and be raised up.
The cross is before us here and with that in mind he says, Now is the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. When is this now Jesus? And when I am lifted up from the earth on my cross, when I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself. So what's happening there?
Jesus is saying, when I go to the cross, that's the judgment of the world. Now is the judgment of the world. Now Satan, the ruler of the world, is cast out when I am lifted up. Jesus is bringing together judgment and his being lifted up. Why does that matter for what we're looking at today?
Because in Jewish tradition and scripture in general, God judges the world from his throne. Judgment God isn't just you know, judgment doesn't just happen by somebody standing there and passing judgment. Judgment happens when the judge is on his throne. And so if Jesus says, I will judge the world when I go to the cross, he's saying the cross is my throne of judgment. Let me read for you a passage in Revelation chapter 20 that is sobering for all of us to hear.
Revelation 20 verse 11. Then I saw a great white throne and him who is seated on it. And from his presence or from his face, earth and sky fled away and there was no place for them to be found. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. Then another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in these books according to what they had done.
And Jesus says that moment happens when I'm lifted up on the cross. So Jesus is saying, see that throne, the white the great radiant white throne of judgment? See that when I'm lifted up on Calvary because this is the moment when the world is judged. Now there's all kinds of awesome things going on here that we don't have time to get into. I'm pointing out to you simply this.
When Jesus is lifted up on the cross, he's lifted up on a throne. Throne of judgment. And that's John is showing that to us in the text. Also, when he's lifted up on this throne, he's lifted up in glory. Another passage for you.
I'm gonna look at a few passages so feel free just to sit back and listen. You don't have to try to track with me. There's we're we're doing a lot of text hopping today because I want you to see what John's doing. John eight twenty eight, we already read this. Jesus says, when you have lifted up the son of man then you will know that I am he.
When you've lifted up the son of man, then you will know that I am he. Now we might not hear that with our twenty first century ears, but when Jesus said, I am he, a bell goes off for all his listeners and they realize he's talking about Yahweh. He's talking about the God of the Old Testament. It's like this. I wish I had something more serious to point out but our shared culture is what it is.
If you heard me say a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, almost all of you would immediately know, oh, he's talking about Star Wars. I know I know exactly what he's talking about. I don't need to go into, it was this movie in the seventies and this happened and then it got, you know, all this stuff going on. You just know. You you know and you're importing all the different things about Star Wars when you hear me say a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Okay. Take that experience infinitely deeper, infinitely weightier. When Jesus' audience heard him say, I am he, they they knew he's talking about God. But look what he says. When when will Jesus when does Jesus say, I will be revealed as Yahweh?
When does Jesus say, the inner excellence of the unseen God will shine out from me so that you recognize me to be the goodness and the beauty and the very presence of God almighty himself? When will that happen? He says, when I am lifted up. When you lift me up, then you will see that I am Yahweh, that I am the one who reveals Yahweh to the world. So by using this phrase lifted up, John is doing something truly amazing, truly shaping our vision of reality because he's saying when Jesus is physically lifted up in agony on the cross, When you see the man Jesus lifted up, stripped of all that he possesses, beaten, pierced through, when he is lifted up as an image of suffering and death, also see in that very moment, John says, Yahweh, God lifted up as king on his throne, radiant in the glory of who he is.
Lifted the phrase lifted up is pulling both these things together. And John's saying, when you see the one, see the other. And this is not you might say, okay, is this interesting? This interesting scriptural interweaving. This is how the apostle of Jesus Christ calls us to see the cross and it's also how he calls us to see God.
It it changes reality if God is revealed in this moment as this one. And it's amazing for me to think that the John is the one who actually stood there and if anyone could have been expected to say it was it was horror, I don't ever wanna think about it again, It would be John because he saw it. But he's actually the only one who says the very moment of his crucifixion was glory, was glory. It's awesome to consider. And we have to ask ourself, how did John get to that?
How how did he how did he see this? Well, he sees it. One way we could say he sees it is through Isaiah. So I mentioned to you before that there are that Isaiah uses that word lifted up. He uses the word lifted up to talk about Yahweh on his throne.
There's another place he uses that same phrase and it comes in Isaiah 53. Let me let me turn there so you can read it or I'll read it for you. In Isaiah 53, we read about the one who is referred to as the suffering servant. You've maybe heard this before. Let me read to you what it says about the suffering servant in Isaiah.
As many were astonished at you for your appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and your form beyond that of the children of mankind, so he sprinkled many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him for that which has not been told to them they see and that which they have not heard they understand. And then a few verses down, it continues in this way. He who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not.
Yet surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows and we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities and upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. By his stripes or by his wounds, we are healed. So this figure, this figure, the man of sorrows, the man who's acquainted with grief, the man who's crushed and wounded and pierced for us, our grief, our sorrow, our wounds taken on him, This figure is the suffering servant and if anyone is in the depths of mortal agony, it's him. And yet, look at what John says.
Look how John introduces this figure. Behold or I'm sorry. Look how Isaiah introduces this figure. Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up.
So that's talking about this suffering man. The suffering servant is introduced as the one who is high and lifted up. And Isaiah doesn't use that phrase very often. And by using that phrase here, he only uses it three times in the singular, once here, once in the throne room, one more time we'll look at here in a minute at the very end. By using that phrase here, Isaiah is saying, hey, link link these two phrases.
Link the suffering servant who is lifted up with Yahweh on his throne who is lifted up. Because remember what he says in Isaiah six, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. So by using that same phrase high and lifted up, it's like Isaiah is taking this text of the suffering servant and this text of the glorious Yahweh and linking them together with this unique phrase high and lifted up. And he's saying, consider those two in light of each other. And that's a mystery.
Isaiah doesn't solve it for us. He just says, somehow the suffering one, the agonized one, the shattered one is high and lifted up and the Lord in glory is high and lifted up somehow. That's what Isaiah says. John then comes along and says, I I know how. I know what the connection here is.
It's because the lifting up of this servant in suffering and the lifting up of this Lord in glory are the same lifting up. That's what I that's that's the statement that John is making. John realizes these two moments are the same, and he's calling you and I to see these two moments as the same. The one who bears our suffering is God exalted in glory, and God exalted in glory is seen in this work of love bearing our death, our sin, our iniquity. Such that it is theologically true for us to mingle these two passages, for us to envision.
Do this with me if you can. Envision in your mind standing before the throne of heaven where Yahweh sits in unapproachable light, where the ground and the molecules around you are shuddering at the cry of the angels, holy, holy, holy, here is Yahweh exalted in glory. And before this throne, our words are this, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities and upon him was the chastisement and the wound that has brought our peace. It's right to stand before the throne of God and say that just as it is right, envision with me again, to stand before the cross of Golgotha and to see there Jesus hanging crowned with our thorns, stripped with our shame, pierced with our sin, crushed for our punishment. See this man who is bearing your agony and mine, your hell and mine, your sorrow and mine, and before him for us to say, I see the Lord upon his throne, high and lifted up. And I see around him the Seraphim with six wings and I hear, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. What do we say before the throne before the cross where Jesus Christ our Lord is lifted up in the agony of our hell? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. That's that's what John calls us to say before the cross.
That's where John calls us to see our Lord and our God. You know, in in the book of Isaiah, the gospel, the good news, is summarized with the phrase, behold your God. Comes in Isaiah 40 chapter nine. And John, writing by the Holy Spirit, would call us to see our God, to behold our God as we stand before the cross of the man of sorrows, which is the throne of the exalted Lord. That that's not made up.
That's not my idea. That's what that's what the holy spirit is calling us to see. And if God is like this, everything it it ripples through everything. And that's where I wanna end today because you might hear these things and say, interesting interesting theological connections, interesting scriptural, you know, patterns, but it's more than that. It's infinitely more than that because this matters.
This matters for us. This makes a difference for us, and that's where I want to conclude. I wanna help you feel how this vision of the cross makes a difference for our existence. Just in one way for the sake of time. Remember last week we said, we quoted Romans eleven thirty six and saw that all things exist from, through, and to God.
The bible says that. That's true. Everything exists from, through, and to God. You, me, my desires, your desires, heaven and earth, every nation, every country, everything that everything is for God. Which means in a universe where everything is for God, who God is makes all the difference.
Do you see how that makes sense? If everything is for God, then who that one for whom everything is, what he's like makes all the difference in the world. Here's an example. Imagine you've got a violin recital. What's that about?
The whole violin recital is about hearing the violin music. If the music is good, is in tune, is beautiful, then the whole violin recital is a wonderful experience. If the music is out of tune and grating and pitchy, then the whole violin experience, the whole violin recital is a uncomfortable experience. The character of the violin, the character of the music determines what the whole thing is like because it's all about the music. In a similar way, existence itself is like a violin recital and God is the violinist, the violin, and the song.
Who he is then determines whether this whole recital of reality is horror and discomfort and torture or wonderful, beautiful, trustworthy. If everything's about God, who God is determines what everything is like. It's like changing the color tone on everything, and that matters for your heart and mine because when we're suffering, when we're failing, when we're in the midst of loss or hardship or confusion or agony and things are falling apart, in that moment, who I understand God to be makes all the difference for me. If I think of God as a distant authoritarian force, then in the midst of all that pain, I'm I'm gonna try to keep him at bay or cover up what I'm feeling or fight through it because the authority wouldn't like it. If I believe God to be an angry, abusive father, then I'm gonna hide these things, cover up these things, put on a smile, push them away, push them away.
If I believe God to be a soft, milquetoast, semi senior, senile grandfather who just gives good gifts and wants to see everybody happy, well, when things actually get hard, he can't help me. Okay? I need something real to help me. If I think of God as this religious cardboard cutout and I can say the right things but he's just this flat idea out there, then how's that gonna help me when everything falls apart? When when we need help, what we understand God to be makes all the difference.
And if we know, if you know Kingstree, in the marrow of your soul, that God is the one revealed at the cross who articulates his name to us in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ given for us, if I know that God is the one who descends into the depths of my health and meets me there and brings me to himself, that's going to change how I suffer. That's going to change how I respond to people. It's going to change how I relate to people, how I react to situations around me. And I want to give you this final text from Isaiah because I told you Isaiah used lifted up. He uses lifted up three times in his in his vision, in his book.
And I think John sees the first and the second united at the cross in the third. This third one that Isaiah uses is really a summary of John's vision of the cross. Here's here it is. Isaiah fifty seven fifteen. Thus says the one who is high and lifted up.
There it is. Thus says the one who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is contrite or crushed and lowly in spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the crushed. I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the crushed. That is who God is declaring himself to be from the cross.
That, you can imagine, is the name Jesus swears to be true with every ragged breath he breathes from the cross. I am. I am, I am this God. This God enthroned in the heights of glory, even as I am right here with you, looking you eye to eye in the midst of your hell, in the midst of your agony, in the midst of your crushed life. I'm right here in the midst of it.
I'm here and I'm here together because I'm there on the cross because that's where I declare myself to be. And look at what he does in the depths. He descends to the depths, not just to weep with us, though he does. He descends to the depths, what's it say? To revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite.
On the cross, the almighty God of eternity meets you, Christian, meets me, meets us in the shattered, stinking, festering pits of this mortal life and all the mess that comes from it. He meets us there, not just to weep, but to revive, to raise up. He meets us in the brokenness as light breaking into the darkness, as symphony breaking into static, or as a spring breath, the fragrance of spring breathed down as a promise into the wintry tomb of where we are. He meets us as life in the midst of our death. So may we, may we stand before the cross where we see Christ crucified knowing that this one too is raised.
May we stand before the cross and there with John look upon Jesus Christ lifted up in suffering, lift it up in glory, and in that moment truly be able to say, behold, behold our God. May it be so. Let me pray for us. So father, we have touched on the deepest things in all reality and human words are so inadequate. Glorify your name, father.
Glorify your name. Cause your people to be enraptured by the beauty of your name. And thank you, father. Thank you that you have declared yourself in this awesome way, that on the cross, in the beloved son, you are the king reigning over all in absolute power. And on the throne in your glory, you are the one who meets us in our suffering and brokenness in the love of Calvary.
You are this God, and there is none like you. And so, Lord, may we be a people treasuring you, loving you, conforming to you, and proclaiming you in all our life. We pray these things, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Caleb: Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.