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The Last Words of Jesus Christ
Sermon by Martin G. CollinsJesus Christ, God's only Son, endured His greatest personal agony and pain while nailed to a stake at Calvary, despised and rejected by the humanity He had come to serve. The night before, His disciples deserted Him in fear, and one betrayed Him to His executioners. As the only perfect Person who ever lived, He took upon Himself the consequence of every sin humanity had ever or would ever commit. From Golgotha, outside Jerusalem's walls, He spoke seven times during His final hours, revealing the depths of His mind and heart through statements preserved in the New Testament. His first statement, recorded by Luke, was a prayer to God: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Amidst Roman soldiers, mocking crowds, religious leaders, and grieving followers, including His mother Mary, Jesus sought forgiveness for His crucifiers, showing His love and commitment to serve even in agonizing pain. His second statement offered hope to a repentant thief crucified beside Him, assuring a future in God's Kingdom. The third expressed concern for His mother, entrusting her care to His disciple John, honoring family responsibility despite His suffering. In His fourth statement, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Spoken after three hours of supernatural darkness, this reflected His total aloneness, bearing the sins of mankind and experiencing separation from His Father. He felt the anguish of being cut off, stepping into humanity's place to pay the penalty of sin. His fifth statement revealed physical thirst, requesting a drink from the crowd, fulfilling prophecy and underscoring His true humanity and suffering. The sixth, "It is finished," proclaimed the completion of His redemptive work, the penalty for the world's sins paid in full, spoken with humility and focus on His mission. Finally, His seventh statement, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit," affirmed His trust in God as He gave up His life, showing complete dedication even at death. These final words from the stake stand as a powerful message of God's love, offering encouragement and hope for victory over sin and death through His sacrifice. Jesus overcame every obstacle placed by satan and deceived men, demonstrating that even in severe suffering, His thoughts were for others, His mission, and His Father.
Jesus' Final Human Thoughts (Part One)
Article by StaffIn His final hours as a human being, Jesus Christ endured profound agony, not merely in a legal sense where our sins were laid upon Him and He paid the penalty for them, but in a deeply personal and emotional struggle. As He bore our iniquities from Gethsemane to the stake, His thoughts were not focused on the individual acts of human sin, but on the weight of His mission and the suffering He knew He must endure. Jesus foresaw the travail of His soul, knowing precisely when His torture and execution would occur on the Passover Day in AD 31, and that He must be dead and entombed as that day closed. Despite His welcome into Jerusalem days earlier, Jesus knew He was despised and rejected, regarded as contemptible by the world, even becoming the subject of scorn. He was aware of the spiritual weakness of His closest friends, foreseeing that they would stumble, forsake Him, and scatter, with one even betraying Him. Upon arriving at Gethsemane after the Passover dinner, Jesus was suddenly overwhelmed with intense sorrow and profound distress, a depth of suffering beyond human comprehension. His agony was so severe that, had He sunk any lower, He might have died there, yet He remained determined to stay alive until the appointed time for His death, knowing He had to carry the sins of the world for several more hours. In this time of great agony, though no physical harm had yet come to Him, Jesus prayed more earnestly, His sweat becoming like great drops of blood falling to the ground. The reasons for His sorrow likely included the rejection by every generation of mankind, the betrayal and abandonment by His closest friends, the looming physical torture, and the dread of death itself. Yet, more painfully, He faced being cut off from His human brothers and sisters, whose sins caused His suffering, and, most agonizingly, from communication with His perfect, loving, and eternal Father. In His final moments, Jesus cried out in delirium, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" expressing the profound desolation of being deserted by His Father in that place of suffering.
Jesus' Final Human Thoughts (Part Two)
Article by StaffIn the final hours of His human life, Jesus Christ endured profound agony, both mental and emotional, as He bore the weight of the world's sins. The repulsion between God and sin, an unbridgeable chasm, forced His Father to turn away, leaving Him to complete His mission alone, a desolation unimaginable to His pure nature. This separation, though brief, felt like an eternity to both, with Jesus' last human day stretching like a thousand years, and the three and a half days of separation seeming like millennia to His Father. Even in delirium, Jesus cried out the prophetic words, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" fulfilling the scripture He inspired David to write a thousand years prior, marking the peak of Their planned agony. In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed about the cup He was to drink, a spiritual mixture of the world's sin and Their separation, a deadly poison to Him. This cup racked His body and mind with stinging agony, yet He accepted it, asking only that the time to endure it might pass quickly if it aligned with His Father's will. He bore this spiritual poison, knowing it must be poured out with His life-blood, releasing the sins that contaminated Him as they flowed out in remission. Despite the foreknowledge of this torment, Jesus remained resolute, never wavering from the plan agreed upon with His Father since the world's foundation. He knew He could call upon legions of angels for rescue but suppressed this thought, understanding that choosing deliverance would doom humanity. His focus was not on individual sins but on the collective weight of seven millennia of human transgression, striving to overcome the physical torture and spiritual poison with thoughts of reunification with His Father. After Gethsemane, Jesus displayed quiet resignation through the barbarous events of His last hours, enduring unjust trials and inhuman torture without further complaint until His final cries of agony at the separation from His Father. His human thoughts ceased as His tortured body lay dead for three days and nights, but His wait ended as His Father did not leave Him in the grave, raising Him up to restore the eternal bond They shared.
Why Did Jesus Have to Die by Crucifixion?
'Ready Answer' by StaffCrucifixion is man's most cruel form of punishment. Why did Jesus need to die this way? What does it teach us? And was Jesus stabbed before or after He died?
The Price of Your Life
Sermonette by Ted E. BowlingFilms try to depict the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, but have all fallen short of presenting the full dimensions of the event—the price of our sin.
Death of a Lamb
Article by StaffSince the church no longer keeps the Passover with the slaughter of a lamb, we miss important and poignant details that could enhance our observance.
By This We Know Love!
Sermon by Martin G. CollinsAs God's people keep God's law in its spiritual intent, they begin to think like the Father and His Son, both of whom habitually do good.
Matthew (Part Twenty-Three)
Sermon/Bible Study by John W. RitenbaughThe apostles' inability to drive out the demon teaches that faith is not a constant factor; it will deteriorate if it not exercised through prayer and fasting.