16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic.1 But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
The Death of Jesus
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Footnotes
[1]19:23Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin
16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion
So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic.1 But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,
“They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
The Death of Jesus
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Footnotes
[1]19:23Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to John, chapter 19. John chapter 19. The text will also be in your worship guide. We'll begin reading in verse 16. So He delivered Jesus over to them to be crucified.
Joel Brooks:
So they took Jesus, and He went out bearing His own cross to the place, to the place called the place of a skull. Which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified Him and with Him 2 others, 1 on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
Joel Brooks:
Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write, the King of the Jews,' but rather, this man said, 'I am the King of the Jews.' Pilate answered, what I have written, I have written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into 4 parts. One part for each soldier. Also, his tunic.
Joel Brooks:
But the tunic was seamless, woven in 1 piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, they divide they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. So the soldiers did these things, but standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman behold your son.
Joel Brooks:
Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.
Joel Brooks:
And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me. Our father, I feel like we are treading on the most holy of grounds as we approach this text.
Joel Brooks:
And I pray that the moment would not be lost on us. That we would hear the words of your son, Jesus, as he hung on a cross right before he died. Lord, may the words that we hear change us. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and be remembered no more, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. In the strong name of Jesus we pray.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. So after spending a lot of time going over the trial of Jesus and the mocking of Jesus, We come to the crucifixion of Jesus, and John spares us going through all the details of that crucifixion. He simply writes, They crucified Him. Now, of course, we know that was a horrible death. Jesus would have been stripped of all of His clothing.
Joel Brooks:
Nails would have been driven in His hands and His feet. He would have been exposed, hung on the cross, tormented. It was a horribly painful death. He was on the cross for about 6 hours in agony. During this time, he spoke 7 times.
Joel Brooks:
The gospel of John records 3 of these times for us. Now these words, every statement that Jesus makes while on the cross is of utter importance because when you're on a cross, you're crucified, and you die of an asphyxiation. You can't breathe. Speaking is hard, and yet Jesus takes painful breaths in order to communicate these things to us. And in John's gospel, three important words.
Joel Brooks:
We find his first words in verse 25. Read these with me again. Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, woman behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother.
Joel Brooks:
And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. Now if Jesus had been crucified at any other time or at any other place, it's likely that Mary would have never got to see her son be crucified. But this was Passover week. Mary was likely traveling and in town to to be part of the festivities. And even though Jesus, the trial of Jesus was so quick and it was done at night and he was crucified so fast, word was able to get to Mary, and she was able to get there in time.
Joel Brooks:
3 other women are with her. The disciple John is also there. John, likely the youngest of all the disciples, probably just a teenager. He didn't pose any threat to the Roman Empire. He could stand there with no fear of being arrested.
Joel Brooks:
And so Jesus looks at His mother. I I can't imagine what Mary is thinking as she looks at Jesus. Throughout church history, some people have actually had a translation or an interpretation of what Jesus says, behold your son. He's not talking about John. He's talking about himself because he's marred beyond any resemblance to the person she knew.
Joel Brooks:
You just gotta wonder what's going through Mary's heart. I mean, in addition to all the emotional pain she has got to be feeling, she has also got to be feeling extremely vulnerable at this moment. She's a widow in the 1st century. She's losing her eldest son and in that day there is no social security. There is no 401 ks plans.
Joel Brooks:
There's no nursing homes for her to go to. Jesus was the one who was responsible for her. The oldest child was always responsible for the mother's care. And Jesus had been doing this. Mean, we got to see this at the start of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
Mary is somehow she's in charge of of of some catering at a wedding and things go wrong, and and what happens when something goes wrong? She does what she has always been doing in her life. She goes to Jesus. With just a catering problem, Jesus, this went wrong. Can you fix this?
Joel Brooks:
And Jesus fixes it because Jesus has always been fixing things for her. He has always been taking care of her, and now she's about to lose Him. And Jesus as He's hanging there from the cross, He has nothing to give her. At this moment, He is the poorest person on the planet. He only had the clothes that He wore.
Joel Brooks:
That was His only possessions, and those had been given away, stripped of those clothes and the tunic people gambled for. And yet as Jesus is pinned to this cross with literally nothing, He still takes care of His mama. He still thinks of her, but but he doesn't do what you would expect would be done in a situation like this. He doesn't do the natural thing, which is hand down the responsibility of taking care of Mary to the next oldest son. He doesn't go to family to take care of Mary.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus had several brothers. We know this from the other gospels, and apparently these brothers were really close with their mother, Mary, because they are always pictured together. They are always traveling together. And if Jesus had not said a single word, the responsibility of Mary would have fallen on them. But Jesus does not want that to happen.
Joel Brooks:
And so He takes a painful breath and He says these words. And His last words to Mary, He looks down and He sees her weeping next to one of his disciples, and he says, behold your son. And then he looks at John, and he says, behold your mother. So when Jesus says, dying breaths, He is creating a new family. He's rearranging relationships.
Joel Brooks:
He's redefining what family is. So so every person here in this room was born into a family. Alright? You didn't have any choice in who your family was. You probably wish you had a choice, but you're born into it with no say.
Joel Brooks:
You all have a father and a mother and probably some of you, many of you have siblings. And you had no say in the matter whatsoever. They're your family. Jesus here is now declaring that through his death, you are now reborn and once again, you're given a family and you have no say in the matter. This just is your family that you were born into and it is one that supersedes your blood family.
Joel Brooks:
I know it, especially in America, individualistic country, we love to say, Jesus died for you, or Jesus died for me, and that is certainly true. But don't miss the glorious truth that Jesus died for us. He died to create a family, the family of God. It's what church is. And now there is no loyalty, there is no allegiance, there is no commitment that is ahead of our commitment to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Joel Brooks:
There is no school. There is no athletics. There is no work. There's not even blood ties that are more important than our commitment to one another in Christ. Jesus, He He said this to His disciples, in particular, He said it to Peter in Mark chapter 10.
Joel Brooks:
I love it. Peter was making a really big deal about, look at all that I've given up to follow You, Jesus. And I think Jesus, maybe with a hint of sarcasm, kinda said, really? Really, Peter? Look at all that you've done for me.
Joel Brooks:
And then he says these words, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel. Who will not receive a 100 fold now and this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands. Through the death of Jesus, we receive a 100 more mothers and brothers and sisters and children in this life, not just in the life to come, but in this life, our family just grew. Lauren and I, we were able to see this in a unique way this past year. My sister-in-law, she goes to a church in Atlanta, and it's a church very similar to ours, and they were doing a outreach out to a a poor Hispanic community that was near them.
Joel Brooks:
And and through one of their outreaches, they came to know a single mother of 4 children. She came to know the Lord. She came to be a part of their church, and it was just this beautiful friendship and relationship that, that grew throughout all of this. She became family. She got sick, ended up being cancer.
Joel Brooks:
They thought for sure she would be able to fight this, and she thought she could fight this, but then after the treatments, she realized she wasn't getting better and that she was going to die. And she's responsible for her 4 children. She didn't know what to do, but after praying about it, she decided she was gonna give her kids to the church. And so in her last will and testament, her kids were given to the care of the church, her family, and for the elders to take responsibility over her children. That is a beautiful picture of of what it means to be part of the family of God, in which the relationships that Jesus has built here supersede any other relationships we have.
Joel Brooks:
In a very real way, that church got to experience the behold your son, behold your children, take care of one another. Look around this room. Look around this room and hear that Jesus says, you will receive many more houses, brothers, sisters, and children in this life? Are you pressing into that? Are you into this incredible gift that God has given you?
Joel Brooks:
Are you trying to just branch out on your own? Live Christianity as an individual. He has not called you to be a part of that. Matter of fact, His dying breath has been that you would be family. So that's His first word that we have on the cross, in which He redefines all relationships.
Joel Brooks:
Let's look at his next word. Once again, let's look at verse 28. After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. Now as we've been going through this great gospel, Jesus has been defining who He is through a number of I am statements. So we've heard Jesus say, I am the light of the world.
Joel Brooks:
I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the door. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life.
Joel Brooks:
But let's not forget this I am statement. From the cross, Jesus said, I am thirsty. I am thirsty. You're thinking, can the son of God really be thirsty? Can this really happen to to Jesus, one who could go 40 days of fasting, and yet here He's thirsty?
Joel Brooks:
What does this say about him? How does this define who he is? It's just as important as all those other I am statements he has been making through this entire gospel. I am thirsty. Some of you are thinking, well, of course he's thirsty.
Joel Brooks:
He's been up all night. He's been tortured. He's lost a ton of blood. He's carried his own cross until he has collapsed from it. Now he's he's been hung on the cross, bleeding, baking in the sun for 6 hours.
Joel Brooks:
Of course, he is thirsty. I want you to realize this, that Jesus has not once said anything about his physical pain. Never. When he was flogged, he didn't say a word. When he was repeatedly beaten with rods, he was silent.
Joel Brooks:
When they're smashing that crown of thorns on his head, he He didn't open His mouth. When He's being flogged, He didn't He didn't He didn't do anything. All of the pain, the nails being driven through his hands, driven through his feet, and he doesn't say a word. And now after going through all of this and spending 6 torturous hours on the cross, he complains about being thirsty. I'm thirsty?
Joel Brooks:
That's what finally comes out. This is more than a physical thirst. If you read this story along with the other gospels, you realize that he says this right after he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I am so thirsty. He is thirsty for God's presence.
Joel Brooks:
The irony shouldn't be lost on this as you read through this. It's a cruel, cruel irony. In John 4 Jesus, He encountered the woman at the well. And He tells her, you drink from this, you're gonna be thirsty again. But if you come to me, if you if you taste the water that I have to give you, you'll never thirst again.
Joel Brooks:
John 7, he says, come to me all who are thirsty and I will give you drink. And now Jesus is the one who is bone dry. And so you gotta ask the questions, what in the world's going on here? Why is Jesus so dry? And throughout scripture as you read Old Testament, New Testament alike, whenever you come upon dryness and thirst, it is always a symbol.
Joel Brooks:
It's a symbol of somebody not having God at the center of their life. Thirst. The prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 2 says, my people have committed 2 evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water. And this is a great picture of the fallen condition in which you work really hard, hewing out a cistern, digging through, chiseling through rock, hard hard work doing this.
Joel Brooks:
But all you get is a broken cistern. All you get is something that can't hold water, and the picture is that we forsake the living water that God offers, and we go to things that cannot satisfy us. We we go to whether it's money or sex or power or control or approval or fame. We go to these things over and over yet they have never satisfied. They cannot hold water.
Joel Brooks:
They will always leave you thirsty. Let me ask you some questions. Why is it? Why is it that no matter how much you have, it never seems to be enough? Why is that?
Joel Brooks:
Why is it that the moment you finally get that thing that you've been wanting for so long, that thing that, you know, has a 100 pins in your Pinterest account, the thing that's, you know, been the object of countless internet searches. That thing you keep talking to everybody else about that you, you want and maybe you'll get someday? How come when you finally get that thing, you're already thinking about the next thing? Why is it that you cannot ever seem to really be content ever to really have peace? The answer is this, you're thirsty.
Joel Brooks:
You're thirsty. And you keep trying to lower down this this bucket into the broken cistern of a heart you have and you keep trying to pull up water. You keep lowering it down thinking, okay, if I could just get married, if I could just get a spouse, then I can have a really big drink and be satisfied. Or if I could if I could just draw on this and and maybe have children, then I could be satisfied. If I could just draw on this and maybe get good children.
Joel Brooks:
If I could just draw on this and maybe get children and go to a great school system. In fact, I'd just dig down and maybe get a better job, a more rewarding job, or dig down and pull up something in which people approve of me, people think high of me, people appreciate me. If I could just get that and drink from it, I'll finally be satisfied. And you keep drawing down into a broken cistern. You know if you were to ever increasingly do this for all of eternity, do you know what the Bible calls that?
Joel Brooks:
Hell. Hell is the place of eternal thirst. It's the place where we go forever longing, but never satisfied, because there is no fountain of living water for us to draw from. That's how Jesus describes hell in Luke 16. He gives us a parable, a story about what hell looks like, And in the story he talks about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus who is his servant.
Joel Brooks:
And both the rich man and Lazarus died. Lazarus goes to heaven. The rich man goes to hell, a place of never ending thirst. No fountain of life to draw from. And at one point, this this rich man, he is in such torment as he is in hell, he cries out to Abraham, he sees Abraham at a distance, and he says, Could you just send my servant Lazarus back over here?
Joel Brooks:
And if you could just dip his finger in some water and touch my tongue. If you could just do that because I'm in torment here. This rich man is in agony because of his thirst, but I want you to notice the things he doesn't ask for. He doesn't ask to get out of hell. That's not his request.
Joel Brooks:
Notice that he also still thinks of Lazarus as his servant. Lazarus, one that he could still boss around, give commands to. This man still thinks he's rich. He still thinks he's in control. Still thinks that if he could just this one time maybe get a little relief, that things won't be so bad, but there's no relief.
Joel Brooks:
I've said this before, but but hear it clearly, the picture that Jesus paints of hell looks an awful lot like the American dream. Looks like getting everything you've ever wanted, but without God at the center. And you're and you're working so hard for it, you're just you're chiseling down and you're digging down, trying to get that cistern, but it's broken, and you're working so hard yet you are never satisfied. That's the thirst that Jesus endured on the cross. That's it.
Joel Brooks:
Was He physically thirsty? Of course he was physically thirsty. That's his humanity there, but that isn't why he cries out. John tells us here, he actually says that the reason Jesus cried out I thirst was in order to fulfill scripture. He was fulfilling God's plan.
Joel Brooks:
You've gotta wonder what scripture is Jesus fulfilling when he does say, I thirst. You can read a lot of different commentaries, and usually 2 different scriptures rise to the surface. People are unsure, but but these are the 2 leading candidates. You have Psalm 69. I am weary with my crying out.
Joel Brooks:
My throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God, and for my thirst, they gave me sour wine to drink. We have Psalm 22. My strength is dried up like sun baked clay. My tongue sticks to my jaws.
Joel Brooks:
You lay me in the dust of death. Dogs surround me. A couple of evil doers encircle me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. So which of these Scriptures is Jesus fulfilling when He says, I thirst.
Joel Brooks:
I'm not sure, but probably both. Probably both. Because both speak from a heart that has been abandoned. That's ultimately what's going on in both of these Psalms, abandonment. And that is what Jesus feels here.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus is there and he is he's crying out his father. I'm sure his heart is just pleading. There's only silence. He doesn't get the, Hey, everybody. You're crucifying Jesus, but this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Joel Brooks:
He doesn't get a dove sent down to remind him of God's presence. His Father doesn't send angels to him to minister to him like like he did in the garden or he did after he fought 40 days with the devil in the wilderness. Jesus gets nothing but silence from his father. He's abandoned. He's being denied the fountain of living water for the first time ever.
Joel Brooks:
And so he's experiencing the agony of being separated from God. The spring of eternal life is now dry. The God of heaven has now descended into hell. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I am so thirsty.
Joel Brooks:
I am so thirsty. Jesus endures this thirst so that you will never have to. When we read this story, we should be asking ourselves why why why do I still go to broken cisterns that do not hold water? Why why why am I always believing that the next thing I get apart from God will satisfy? Why?
Joel Brooks:
Jesus took our place so we would never be thirsty again. He was denied living water so that you would never be denied living water. Are you pressing into that? Let's look at these final words. Verse 30.
Joel Brooks:
When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, it is finished. And he bowed his head, and he gave up his spirit. Three words. It's actually just one word in Aramaic, the word, tetelestai. It is finished, or it is accomplished.
Joel Brooks:
Actually has for its root, the same root as shalom. You could translate it peace made or wholeness achieved. It is accomplished. It is finished. For us here in this room, it is possibly the most important words in all of scripture.
Joel Brooks:
It is finished. The the obvious question is when he says, it is finished, is what does the it refer to? When He says it is finished, what what is the it? Verse 28 gives us our our immediate context clues. Let me walk you through this.
Joel Brooks:
After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished, said to fulfill the scripture, I thirst. Okay. That word finished there is the same word that we have in verse 30. And so Jesus, He knows something, and then He can say, it's finished. So what is this?
Joel Brooks:
Well it says in verse, starts off, after this, after what? After Jesus looks at Mary and John and forms a new family. That's at least one of the things Jesus means when He says it's finished, is I have created a new family. I've created the church. Through my blood, I have created this.
Joel Brooks:
And if you were to see Isaiah 53 as the backdrop to everything that's going on here, which I think you should do, and I think John wants you to do it. You read through things like he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And then you read this. His soul makes a sin offering and he shall see his offspring.
Joel Brooks:
He shall see his offspring. He shall see his family. That's what Jesus is seeing here, And when He sees the family of God being created, He says it is finished. But there's more than that. When he says, this in order to fill script scripture, he's also talking about scripture is now fulfilled at this moment.
Joel Brooks:
All the scriptures that had been read written up to that point now fulfilled in Jesus. All the prophecies from virgin birth to being born in Bethlehem, to being raised in Nazareth, to healing the blind and the lame, to suffering for our redemption. Every prophecy, and there are 100 of them from Genesis 3 to Isaiah 53, all of them are now fulfilled as Jesus is there on the cross. The love story that we have seen all throughout the Old Testament finally reaches its climax here in Jesus. The the great mystery, the tension we've seen throughout the Old Testament of how can God be just, and yet how can God also be merciful, now we see in the cross fulfilled.
Joel Brooks:
Now you see it. It's finished. And certainly what Jesus also means when He declares it is finished, is that through the judgment of Jesus, we can now be just, righteous before God. The justice of God has now been satisfied. Our salvation is secured.
Joel Brooks:
There is nothing left for you to do. In the 1st century, the the word, tetelestai, is something that would be written on a bill of sale after the debt was paid. You bought a house, you bought a horse, whatever you bought, and you had a bill of sale, the moment you made that last payment, the word would be written on it. Debt paid in full. It is finished.
Joel Brooks:
Our sins, the debt of our sins has been completely paid for by Jesus. Our home in heaven bought and secured. We don't owe a thing, because Jesus has done everything. Jesus, in one word, tetelestai, gives us the gospel. He has done it.
Joel Brooks:
He has done it. There is nothing left for you to do in regards to your salvation. And so the question is, do you believe that? I mean, do you really trust that? Or or is it the way you live your life thinking, it is nearly finished, but I've gotta pick up the pieces and finish.
Joel Brooks:
It is almost finished, but there's still some more work for me to do. Or do you believe that Jesus really did pay it all? If you still believe that there is work left for you to do in regards to your salvation, then you're gonna either live a life of terrible anxiety or one completely filled with pride. If you still feel there's some work to do, you're always gonna be wondering, did I do enough? I haven't done enough, and you'll be a very anxious person, Or you'll be filled with pride because you think that somehow you were earning your own salvation.
Joel Brooks:
But Jesus says, you do nothing. I have done everything, and that destroys fear and pride. These words separate Christianity from every other religion out there, which tell you you need to do these things in order to be saved. Jesus says, do nothing. I've done it all.
Joel Brooks:
Pray with me. Like we've been praying, Father, press these truths into our hearts. I feel like our cry is, I believe, but help my unbelief. Jesus, thank you for creating a new family. May we press into that.
Joel Brooks:
May we not take that gift lightly. You died in order that we might be family, stronger than any blood ties. Thank you that you, at great cost yourself, have made sure that we will never be thirsty again. May we press into that and drink deeply from you. And Jesus, thank you that you did the work we could never do.
Joel Brooks:
You lived the perfect life we could never live, and you died the death we all should have died. It is finished, and may we rest in that. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.