Good Friday Live Service

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Oh, the perfect Son of God

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In all His innocence

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Here walking in the dirt with you and me

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He knows what living is

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He's acquainted with our grief

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Man of sorrows, Son of suffering

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The blood and tears

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How can it be?

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There's a God who weeps

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There's a God who bleeds

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Oh, praise the One

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Who would reach for me

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Hallelujah to the Son of suffering

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Some imagine You

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Are distant and removed

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But You chased us down in merciful pursuit

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To the sinner You were grace

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And the broken You embraced

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And in the end, the proof is in Your wounds

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Yes, in the end, the proof is in Your wounds

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Blood and tears

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How can it be?

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Oh, praise the One

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Who would reach for me

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- Good evening. Welcome to Crossroads.

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My name is Greg. I'm one of the pastors here.

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Tonight, we're gathered to celebrate

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the life and the death of Jesus Christ.

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Many of us looking forward

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to celebrating Easter, the resurrection.

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But there can be no resurrection

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without yet first having a death.

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Matthew 27:45 says:

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that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

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We all had a hand in this.

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We've all chosen our own way, and therefore,

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my sin and your sin helped nail Jesus to this Cross.

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And even though it happened 2000 years ago,

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we were there.

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- Were you there when they crucified my my Lord?

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Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

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Whoa,

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sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

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Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

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Whoa,

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Whoa, whoa!

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Were you there when they cruicified my Lord?

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Whoa,

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Were you there?

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- Lord, we want to be fresh with You tonight.

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We want to grieve appropriately.

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We want to celebrate appropriately.

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We want to remember appropriately.

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And we want to hear the old story again.

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And for some of us, it may be the very first time.

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Help us to see ourselves the way You see us

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and to see sin the way You see it.

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I pray these things according to the character,

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according the name of Jesus. Amen.

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It's really freeing to as our church

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have a Holy Week experience instead of

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what has been in the past, which is always just

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trying to jam everything in on a communion service,

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or on Easter Sunday, where we can understand

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what's happening in all of these situations.

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Maundy Thursday, the communion experience we did,

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Good Friday, which we'll find out a moment,

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there's not a lot that's good about it.

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Which all leads us and prepares us for Easter.

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Breaking news, breaking news, in case you didn't know,

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an innocent man was murdered over 2000 years ago.

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Utterly innocent. It was a set up job.

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There was a sham of trials.

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Utterly unjust as far as the rules of that day.

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He was unjustly tried and crucified.

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He was murdered, and He went along with it.

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Why did He go along with that?

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What did He go along with? What did He experience?

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That's where we're going to try to freshly understand today.

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W.H. Auden says this:

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I came to Christ through an organization

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called Young Life, which has a, or at least did,

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anyway, I haven't been to a Young Life camp

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for a while, but it has a very tried and true

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system and methodology gets you in the door,

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make it fun to understand God.

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It happens at all their camps, whether a summer camp

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or a weekend or whatever it is,

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have a Cross talk where you feel the weight

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of what we're going to talk about today.

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And then leads to an amazing, cathartic ability

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to give your life to Christ.

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This is sort of the ability we have to

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go through every stage of the process.

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And so we're not going to try to be happy clappy tonight.

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We're going to sit in the crappiness

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of what took place on a cross

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a couple thousand years ago.

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The book of 2 Corinthians 5:21 says this.

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It's a good overall summation statement.

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We might become the righteousness of God.

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You aren't automatically righteous,

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you might become righteous.

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And the only way you do become righteous

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is if you receive the sacrifice of Jesus,

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if you give your life to Him.

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This perfect man

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who never did anything but heal people,

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never did anything but teach people,

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never did anything but love people,

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never did anybody other than being

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an amazing moral example and God Himself.

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No one could say He did anything wrong,

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unless you were an incredibly religious person

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and your toes are being stepped on because

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He did everything better than you.

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In fact, they said of Him, "He does all things well."

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This sinless, perfect, loving being

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goes to a cross, and He doesn't have to,

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He chooses to because of His love.

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We need to understand the gravity.

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The cross is three things.

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It's a spectacle, it's savage, and it's salvation.

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It's a spectacle.

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The Cross, and I don't bring it out very often,

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we don't bring it out very often a Crossroads,

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because we don't want it to become

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just another religious symbol that we advertise

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kind of we're Christians here,

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or this sort of bleeds in the background.

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I have nothing against churches that have crosses.

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Crosses are wonderful.

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I have nothing against anybody who wears a cross,

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has a cross tattooed. All that's good.

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I just think it's such a sacred and deep symbol

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that unless we're going to really deal with it,

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we shouldn't just stick it out there.

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It's not meant to be eye candy.

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It's the most horrible thing

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that's ever happened in all of human history

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to the greatest person it ever happened to.

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And so when we appropriately understand it

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and we dig into it, and it sounds strange,

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but even to say, celebrate it.

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Great. Let's bring it out and let's do some business.

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The spectacle, the book of John 19:1-2.

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Let's keep going here. Let's look at it.

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The cross the Romans greatest innovation

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for public pain and torture.

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It is the worst way that people

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have ever died in all the world.

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And it wasn't just it was savage.

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It was also they intensely made the person a spectacle.

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They would take the crosses that they had,

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and they would put them on the highways

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and the byways leading into major cities.

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So as you were entering a city,

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you would see people lined on crosses

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who were dying horrible deaths

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or who were just sitting there

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rotting on those crosses.

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The message being from Rome is, "We are Rome,

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cross us, and this is what happens to you."

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Jesus is made a public spectacle

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and His process starts going before

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this Roman governor who really doesn't want

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to have Him killed.

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He wants to keep the peace.

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He wants to keep the religious elites

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who have put Jesus up for these charges,

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he wants to keep them somewhat happy and placated

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because he doesn't want a Jewish revolution.

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But he doesn't really want to do it.

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He partially starts beating Him,

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hoping that that satisfies their bloodlust.

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It doesn't.

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But Jesus just undergoes horrible things.

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Crown of thorns jammed in His head.

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It's not nicely placed on His head.

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It would have gone in and actually stuck into his skull.

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Not the skin, but in the bones

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or scraped off of the bones underneath the skin.

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I'm going to get very graphic tonight, by the way,

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very graphic because we need to remember

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what Jesus did for you, what He did for me

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of His own free will and going along with

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the will of His Father.

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As they would jam that crown on them,

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it was Pilate's way of saying, "Oh, yeah,

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you really think He's a king? He's not a king.

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This is His crown? Really?"

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They spit on Him. They punched Him.

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They slapped Him, did all kinds of things

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it says there with his hands in front of everybody.

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And then he takes and and has Him scourged.

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This would be when you would take a person,

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and they would either wrap them around a post

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that was standing up or bend them over.

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They would wrap around a post standing up.

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They would take a cat o' nine tails,

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which is leather straps, and woven into it

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would be chunks of bone, glass.

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The Journal of the American Medical Association

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decades ago actually did a deep dive,

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the preeminent periodical for physicians

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at what exactly took place in a crucifixion.

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And they would strike the back.

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And every time they struck the back,

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those chunks of bone and metal would stick to the back,

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and they would yank it off, taking away flesh.

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Sometimes they would intentionally

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wrap around the body,

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so it would go all the way around

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and grab on the back and then pull it out

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until the person was a horrible, bloody mess.

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By Roman law you could do this 40 times, because 40 times --

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You could not do this 40 times

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because 40 times means you would be dead at 40.

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So they gave Jesus a break,

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they did this 39 times to Him.

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This is something that is done in public

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for everybody to see.

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It's a public spectacle.

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And it is savage, it's savagery.

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That's why I don't really understand the Easter Bunny.

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You know? What? Easter bunny. Easter.

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First of all, bunnies don't have eggs.

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If it was Easter turkey,

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maybe you could have some eggs, right?

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Easter bunny.

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What does a cute little bunny

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have to do with resurrection,

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or let alone a cross, a brutal cross?

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Like, I would just nominate,

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I'm on a campaign to do this.

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We should start leveraging Crossroads resources

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and do a social media campaign.

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I think if we're looking for a mascot,

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it should be a grizzly bear.

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That's what I think.

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Easter grizzly, that's what I like.

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Easter grizzly. Real masculine.

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And because you could say this is a grizzly death.

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See the connection? See what I did right there?

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Easter grizzly.

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This is a grizzly, awful, horrific death.

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It's the worst death human beings have ever invented.

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We get the word excruciating from crucifixion.

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Some of us wonder, why is it

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that Jesus came during first century Jerusalem,

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Palestine, the Holy Land?

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This whole area is like a little backwoods place

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before there was TVs, satellites, and social media.

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Why then? Why there?

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Some theologians believe that God perfectly timed

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Jesus to be sacrificed for your sin,

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because the idea was He would be sacrificed for our sin

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so we wouldn't have to be sacrificed for all eternity.

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He took the pain, He took the hit

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that we don't have to take, and it was painful.

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Perhaps God chose that point in human history to come,

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because that was the moment

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when the worst means of execution ever invented.

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There's never been a worse one.

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Never. It's horrible.

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If Jesus came back to America today,

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or for the first time He came to America,

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yeah, he would have social media

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and jet planes to get around and see people

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and official hospitals where people were sick

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to heal all that stuff.

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But lethal injection, electric chair,

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life in prison, none of those things

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can satisfy the justice requirement of God.

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See, God is a God of justice.

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Many of us don't think that.

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We think God should just ignore things,

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let things go, let things be.

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Why does He have to do this?

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He has to do that, I don't know why He has to do it,

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but He chooses to do this.

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And it reminds us that He's a God of justice.

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None of us respect politicians who aren't into justice.

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We don't respect courts of law

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where someone is convicted, but there's no punishment.

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That's a violation, right?

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But our God is a God of justice.

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He sees your sin, He sees my sin,

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and decides to do something about it.

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And His plan is His Son taking the hit,

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taking the pain, the justice demands,

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instead of you and I.

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That's why it's called Good Friday,

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because there's good that comes out of it.

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But as far as what took place on that day,

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there was nothing good about it.

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This wasn't a cause of celebration at all.

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This was just a dirty job that had to get done,

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and Jesus stepped up and did it.

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And in Galatians 3:13, it says:

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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law

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by becoming a curse for us, for it is written,

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"Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree."

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Jesus becomes cursed by God.

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That's why it's believed that darkness

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comes upon Him when He's up on the Cross

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is because God at that moment,

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it's a great transaction.

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All the sin in the world is placed on His back

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and it's so disgusting, it's the only time

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He felt disconnected from God.

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And God darkens the sky.

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He can't even look at the sin it disgusts Him so much.

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Why is that?

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It's because He's getting cursed

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for the ways that you and I have cursed.

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He's getting cursed

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for the way you and I have gossiped.

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He's getting cursed for the ways

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you and I have cheated, how we've stolen,

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how we've hogged glory for ourselves,

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how we've defiled our bodies sexually.

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He's taken the hit for how we have

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exalted ourselves instead of exalting God.

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He's taking the hit for

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how we have dishonored our parents.

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He's taken the hit for how we have

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taken the weak way out

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and have not disciplined our kids

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as every loving father and every loving mother does,

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so says the book of Hebrews.

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He's taken the hit for every act of greed,

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which of course, no one thinks that they're greedy

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because sin has defiled us.

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We can't even see that we're greedy.

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He takes the hit for every idle word

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and every lie that's uttered.

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All of it. All of them.

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And He becomes grotesque and a savage,

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savage act of the Cross is warranted.

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Verse 16 of John chapter 19:

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So for John, when they described crucifixion here,

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he doesn't have to describe crucifixion

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because everyone knew crucifixion,

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they had all seen it. It was part of their way.

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It was part of the spectacle

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that they all lived with as Rome reminded them

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of their place in the world, which was

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you're way down here,

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and we are way up here with the power.

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What is crucifixion?

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Well, after they beat Jesus, after they --

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By the way, this is before,

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before He's actually beaten,

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crown of thorns stuck on His head, scourge,

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before all that happens, He has another stress point.

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He is betrayed by one of His best friends, Judas,

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with a kiss.

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His disciples, most of them flee.

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He gets abandoned relationally.

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He has physical turmoil, relational turmoil,

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and He has emotional turmoil.

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While he is in the Garden of Gethsemane

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before He is arrested, the Bible tells us

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that He is sweating blood.

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Now, when I used to read that, I would think,

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"Well, some people say this happens

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every once in a while. Okay?

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The Bible says it, I guess the Bible says it,

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I believe it. That settles it.

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But the Bible also has figures of speech

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and speaks poetically about certain things.

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Maybe this is poetic."

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I had on my podcast just this week

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a Dr. Colleen Schreier, and she talked about

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this as an actual medical reality, hematidrosis.

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Hematidrosis, she says, where the blood capillaries,

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very, very, very rare,

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which is why none of us have ever seen it.

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Blood capillaries come right close to the scalp,

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and they can actually burst

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and get mixed in with sweat

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that then starts coming through the pores.

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This is verifiably happened a few times in history,

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and it happens to Jesus.

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He's sweating blood over the emotional trauma

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that He is in the midst of.

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A downside of this is that this condition

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causes you to have thin skin.

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We talk about having thick skin.

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Well, this is the opposite.

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When you have thin skin, His skin is more brittle

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and more tender at this point

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in His life than ever before.

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This skin is not in any condition to be scourged

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or to have nails taken through His hands.

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In the Greek hands can mean this whole region here.

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It's not just the palm.

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In Hollywood you'll see someone who's lifted up

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and they'll have ropes around their arms.

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That's just for the actor to be able to do the scene.

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There was no ropes.

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They were held up with nails

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and nails through the hands, the palms,

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would not have held, would have ripped right through.

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So, it was really through the wrists

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because that's where a nail could be held.

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Sometimes they would lay the person down

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and put them on just the cross piece of the cross,

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and then pulley system it up

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and nail that cross piece to the cross.

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Sometimes they would take the whole cross

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and they would lie down on the ground.

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We don't know which of these is Jesus's situation.

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They'd take the whole cross, lie down on the ground

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and the victim would stretch out

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and have nails through either wrist

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and then put the feet together and take

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basically a railroad spike through both feet at once.

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And as that victim would hang there,

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any of those things, by the way, would be horrible,

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any single one of those things.

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But the problem is it's not done.

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The worst is yet to come, because now

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the victim has to deal with how to breathe

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while you are on a cross, nailed,

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and your lungs, collapse and are asphyxiating you.

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I'll just read what Dr. Colleen Schreier says about this.

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She says it better than I can.

00:28:14

In the Journal of the American Medical Association,

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I like they're drawing I'm providing for you

00:28:19

as a spear in another account of this in the Gospels

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goes up under the ribs.

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And as it goes up under the ribs,

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something bursts and water comes out.

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The Journal of the American Medical Association

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says this is due to water building up around the heart.

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Jesus perhaps literally died of a broken heart

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when the heart broke, the water broke.

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He dies of a broken heart, not just because

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of the pain that this is, scraping up and down

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on a cross with thin skin that shredded

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and skeletal tissue and ligaments and raw muscles

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and raw nerves, like literal raw nerve.

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You could see the nerves dangling out

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from between his discs as He would have to push up

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just to be able to exhale.

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Up and down. Up and down.

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And the broken heart isn't just the pain

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that He's dealing with, it's the emotional

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and spiritual pain that He's dealing with

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carrying our sin, carrying our wrongs

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that He doesn't have to die.

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This is not a warrior's death.

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This is a humiliating spectacle, savage of a death.

00:29:41

And why does He do it?

00:29:43

He does it so you and I can be saved.

00:29:46

We can be saved.

00:29:49

I don't like just having a Cross

00:29:52

at all our buildings at Crossroads,

00:29:54

unless we're going to talk about it.

00:29:56

Personally, this is me personally,

00:29:57

I don't like wearing a Cross.

00:30:02

I don't like having --

00:30:03

I don't have a tattoo of a Cross.

00:30:05

No judgment on you. Wonderful. Fine.

00:30:08

You're worshiping God your own way. Great.

00:30:09

For me, the Cross is such a brutal, hideous,

00:30:15

horrific thing of what happened to Jesus,

00:30:17

I don't want to think about it that much.

00:30:20

And I definitely don't want it to become

00:30:22

just Christian art that I become numb to.

00:30:27

Last year my Bible reading plan last year

00:30:29

had me going through the, amongst some other things,

00:30:31

going through the whole New Testament twice.

00:30:33

That meant that I read Matthew, Mark,

00:30:35

Luke and John two times through.

00:30:38

That meant eight times I read last year,

00:30:41

plus whatever Crossroads did on Holy Week,

00:30:44

so 9, 10, 11, 12 times, whatever it was

00:30:47

about the crucifixion of Christ.

00:30:49

I finally said, "I can't take it anymore.

00:30:50

I'm done, I'm done. I'm not going to --

00:30:52

Not I'm not going to read it anymore."

00:30:54

In fact, my Bible reading plan this year,

00:30:56

I'm like, "When I go through these things,

00:30:57

I'm not going to read that other than once a year.

00:31:00

Because why? Because I don't want to."

00:31:03

Because I understand it.

00:31:05

Of all the things I don't understand in the Bible,

00:31:08

this is one thing I understand and I don't like it.

00:31:10

I don't want to be reminded of it too much

00:31:12

because just -- it's too painful, you know?

00:31:17

When you have a personal relationship with Jesus,

00:31:23

you just don't want to think about that.

00:31:25

Anybody you have a personal relationship with,

00:31:27

you don't want to relive how

00:31:30

they wrapped their car around a tree and died.

00:31:33

You don't want -- you're not going to walk around

00:31:35

with a tree around -- a car around a tree necklace.

00:31:42

You're like, "Man, there comes a time to remember.

00:31:44

But I can't live in it."

00:31:47

Again, this is me, this is just me, this isn't you.

00:31:52

The reason though we have to talk about it

00:31:55

at least once a year is because we have to remind

00:31:58

of what He does for you and for me.

00:32:01

He doesn't have to do this, but He wants to do this.

00:32:04

He could have got Himself out of it.

00:32:06

He could have talked His way out of it with Pilate.

00:32:08

He could have -- He could have misled Judas

00:32:11

where they were staying and evaded authorities.

00:32:13

He could have. He could have played nice at any time.

00:32:16

But he goes through this because He understands

00:32:19

His heavenly Father and He understands Heavenly Father,

00:32:22

and He's justice, He understands His love for you

00:32:24

means He's willing to take the hit

00:32:27

that you and I deserve.

00:32:30

And there's another very significant thing about this

00:32:35

we'll spend the rest of our time looking at.

00:32:37

In the book of Colossians 2:13 and following

00:32:43

it says this about the cross

00:32:49

and its significance in that day and age.

00:32:51

Here's what it says:

00:32:54

And you, who were dead in your trespasses.

00:32:58

Let's stop right there. That's us.

00:33:01

We are not nice people who are spiritual.

00:33:06

We are not understandably flawed people

00:33:09

who just need a little bit of spirituality.

00:33:12

We are dead in our trespasses.

00:33:15

We are dead in our rebelliousness.

00:33:18

Dead as in, God's not impressed with us at all.

00:33:22

He's not impressed with our morality in the slightest.

00:33:25

We have nothing to do in getting to salvation,

00:33:29

which is another thing that

00:33:31

I don't like to talk about when I got saved.

00:33:35

I'll tell you when I got saved

00:33:37

if you really know that that's what salvation is.

00:33:40

Salvation is when you get saved.

00:33:43

And when we just throw that term out

00:33:44

without making sure people understand it,

00:33:46

it's not necessarily a helpful thing.

00:33:49

I get saved from going to hell

00:33:52

because I was dead in my trespasses and sins,

00:33:56

and I deserve to go there.

00:34:00

In the beginning of you becoming spiritually sober

00:34:04

is when you stop asking questions of why

00:34:07

and you just realize me too. Me too. Me too.

00:34:23

That means nothing spiritual about you

00:34:25

that God is impressed with.

00:34:35

How does He forgive us our trespasses? Here it is.

00:34:48

Now, this is one of the things

00:34:49

that is an amazing verse, amazing truth.

00:34:52

But let me tell you what's happening culturally here

00:34:55

so that we can really, really get with this.

00:34:58

We're going to celebrate the rest of our time.

00:35:00

We're going to celebrate the fourth nail.

00:35:02

I told you about the first three nails.

00:35:04

Two wrists, one in the feet.

00:35:09

But there's a fourth nail.

00:35:10

It's the nail that goes above Jesus

00:35:14

with a sign that declares Him King of the Jews,

00:35:16

which is meant as sarcastic,

00:35:18

which is meant as negative.

00:35:20

But that declaration also means the King

00:35:24

to us who are spiritually sober,

00:35:25

the King is dying for you.

00:35:27

The fourth nail holds the proclamation

00:35:31

that you can be good with God.

00:35:33

And here is something that we don't get very well

00:35:36

because it's not in our culture.

00:35:39

You guys are welcome to come up.

00:35:40

I haven't even begun to preach, but come on up.

00:35:44

We in our culture, we do not understand shame.

00:35:52

In fact, we hate shame.

00:35:55

We think if there's shame,

00:35:57

somebody is doing something wrong.

00:35:59

The reason why we don't like shame is because

00:36:02

we don't understand communal cultures,

00:36:05

like this ancient culture, and many cultures

00:36:07

in the world today are communal in nature.

00:36:09

Every culture for it to survive,

00:36:13

it has to have regulations to what you do,

00:36:15

what you don't do, or else the community doesn't work.

00:36:21

It doesn't hold together.

00:36:22

It's like, you know, when you go on an airplane,

00:36:26

you've got a four year old.

00:36:27

And your four year old is crying and screaming.

00:36:30

Maybe it's because of the air or the pressure,

00:36:32

it's making them cry.

00:36:34

You got to teach them how to, you know,

00:36:35

equalize their nose and all that stuff.

00:36:38

But when a child is just crying

00:36:40

and a parent is not doing anything about it,

00:36:43

that's not good, is it?

00:36:45

Especially if you're one of the passengers,

00:36:47

because there's a culture and a code on the plane.

00:36:51

And the code is we're all in this experience together,

00:36:55

so everybody should be as nice as possible

00:36:58

to everybody else.

00:37:00

And when somebody thinks that all is around them,

00:37:02

even a four year old

00:37:04

and a parent doesn't want to do anything about it,

00:37:06

it upsets everybody.

00:37:07

There should be appropriate shame.

00:37:09

This is the way all healthy communal cultures operate.

00:37:13

There's a very clear code of what's expected,

00:37:17

and shame acts as a deterrent

00:37:19

so that you don't step out because that means

00:37:22

you've hurt the rest of the country

00:37:23

or hurt the rest of the culture.

00:37:24

And today in America, we're so individualistic

00:37:27

we will play by nobody's rules.

00:37:29

It doesn't care what the community wants,

00:37:30

doesn't care what the community needs. It's about me.

00:37:32

And when you've got everybody who's about me,

00:37:34

shame just goes away because, "Oh, if you feel bad,

00:37:37

it's all about you, just personally you.

00:37:38

So you shouldn't feel bad. You should --"

00:37:40

No, you should feel very bad

00:37:41

if you're in a communal culture because

00:37:43

you're making other people feel bad,

00:37:44

so you should feel bad and this should be deterrent.

00:37:47

So this was the ancient cultures, all ancient,

00:37:49

every single one, every single one,

00:37:51

and most cultures in the world today,

00:37:53

just not developed countries like ours.

00:37:58

They would have a code and it included

00:38:01

if you borrowed money, you had to pay it back

00:38:04

and there would be a note that people would see,

00:38:08

a note that would be on display, like,

00:38:10

so and so owes me money, and everyone would see that.

00:38:14

Eventually, eventually it becomes shameful

00:38:17

because if people see that note

00:38:18

on the township bulletin board

00:38:20

for a long period of time, they're like,

00:38:22

"What is going on with Johnny over there?

00:38:24

Oh my gosh, this is, jeez,

00:38:26

he still hasn't paid Bill back?

00:38:28

What is -- what is going on here? This is just --"

00:38:32

So when this verse talks about Him canceling the debt,

00:38:35

He's talking about the shame

00:38:38

that all of us should be in for our sinfulness,

00:38:41

the same for our choices,

00:38:43

the shame for our motivations

00:38:45

that have been about us

00:38:46

and not about the Kingdom of God.

00:38:48

The shame that's been about my will

00:38:50

and not the will of God.

00:38:51

The shame that's been about what feels good to me

00:38:53

and not what feels good to God.

00:38:55

The shame.

00:38:56

The shame of being the center of everything

00:38:59

and having ourselves as the idol

00:39:01

which everybody should be celebrating.

00:39:03

This creates a massive debt.

00:39:06

And when Jesus goes to the Cross, it's nailed

00:39:11

and it says to all who would receive Him, canceled.

00:39:16

It's been canceled and it's been paid in full.

00:39:19

That's what Colossians is saying.

00:39:22

He is up as a spectacle.

00:39:24

He's hung as a curse.

00:39:25

He is cursed because

00:39:27

He's being cursed for all of our shame.

00:39:29

And on His body it says, "I love them and I've paid.

00:39:35

I've paid."

00:39:41

We're going to have a fourth nail moment tonight.

00:39:46

When you came in you got one of these.

00:39:51

Oh, man, I feel so bad here.

00:39:53

I borrowed this from somebody.

00:39:55

I thought they hadn't filled it in.

00:39:57

They did fill it in.

00:39:58

And now I can't read your stuff here,

00:40:00

brother, come over here. Take your thing back.

00:40:01

I'm not going to look at your thing.

00:40:03

Someone give me an empty one.

00:40:05

There you go. There you go.

00:40:06

I didn't look, I didn't look,

00:40:08

though you shouldn't have done that to her. [laughter]

00:40:15

I didn't see, I did not, I did not, I did not.

00:40:23

So, a little brief release,

00:40:26

but let's get back into it here.

00:40:31

Let's go through the certificate

00:40:33

that we have of our own life.

00:40:37

And I want to give you some time to fill this out.

00:40:42

When you fill this out, we're going to have a moment

00:40:51

where it's going to be finished,

00:40:53

because that's one of the seven things

00:40:55

Jesus says on the Cross. He says it's finished.

00:40:57

Where you don't have to be in shame over

00:41:01

the things that may be on your death certificate.

00:41:05

It is finished.

00:41:07

It was finished 2000 years ago

00:41:10

for all who received Jesus.

00:41:13

Maybe some of us, for the first time,

00:41:16

want to deal with our shame because

00:41:19

our culture denies it, says it doesn't exist,

00:41:21

or we say it's no big deal,

00:41:24

but our God, He deals with it. He deals with it.

00:41:28

Jesus dealt with it by going to a Cross.

00:41:33

So, we're going to do these right now.

00:41:42

Just take your pen out and just put on here

00:41:45

an adjective that describes you at your worst.

00:41:48

I'm not going to give you all my answers.

00:41:50

I'll give you -- I'll give you this one.

00:41:51

Mine for this. Mine is going to be,

00:41:54

as an example, impatience.

00:41:57

Now that doesn't sound to some of you

00:41:59

like a really bad thing, but let me tell you

00:42:02

why it is bad in my situation,

00:42:05

my hurtful language always comes out

00:42:07

when I'm impatient.

00:42:10

In my situation, my frustrations,

00:42:13

and my medicating my myself in some way

00:42:17

to to deal with my frustrations

00:42:19

comes down to my impatience.

00:42:21

So much of what I regret comes down to that in my life.

00:42:26

What is it for you?

00:42:28

What's an adjective describes you at your worst?

00:42:35

What sin are you hiding?

00:42:41

And you can put here a code word.

00:42:46

This is a code word because

00:42:48

you're going to nail this to the Cross.

00:42:50

And maybe you don't want someone seeing

00:42:52

exactly what that is or the thought of them

00:42:54

seeing that what that exactly is.

00:42:55

So this would be a code word that you know

00:42:57

and God knows as you write it down.

00:42:59

Maybe it's the color of the person's car.

00:43:05

Maybe it's a date. Maybe it's --

00:43:10

It's a code word that tells you and tells God

00:43:16

this is -- this is it. Put that down.

00:43:20

And then what is one way

00:43:23

you have disobeyed or disrespected God?

00:43:27

There are three different ways to remember

00:43:31

the things that we should have appropriate shame over,

00:43:34

the things that we have done

00:43:35

that have put Jesus on the Cross,

00:43:37

the sins that He bore for us.

00:43:46

Let's sit in these.

00:44:20

Now what you're going to do with this now,

00:44:23

if you want to do this, if this is you,

00:44:25

and if this is your life, we have stations up here.

00:44:29

We have crosses.

00:44:31

These are all meant to be the Cross of Christ,

00:44:33

all three of these.

00:44:34

We have Crosses here and we also have cross pieces

00:44:37

because last year we had a bit of a traffic jam.

00:44:39

We have nails up here and we have hammers up here.

00:44:44

And you're going to take, well, first of all,

00:44:48

what you're going to do, you're going to open this now.

00:44:52

Take the bottom and rip the bottom open.

00:45:15

It doesn't matter what Pilate was charging Him with,

00:45:18

God was charging Him with what's on this paper.

00:45:26

The fourth nail is what makes you innocent

00:45:32

and shame free.

00:45:34

So you're going to come to whatever Cross

00:45:36

or piece of wood you want.

00:45:50

You're going to nail your sin,

00:45:51

you're going to nail your shame to the Cross,

00:45:55

to the cross members, which will then

00:45:57

also get up to the crosses.

00:45:59

We're going to worship in here.

00:46:01

We're going to sit in this moment because

00:46:03

this is Easter right here, friends.

00:46:05

This leads to Easter.

00:46:06

And then I want to encourage you go back to your seat,

00:46:09

because this sets us up for Easter

00:46:12

and our experience isn't quite over yet.

00:46:16

But let's worship and let's nail our sins to the Cross.

00:46:47

Blood and tears.

00:46:51

How can it be?

00:46:54

There's a God who weeps.

00:46:58

There's a God who bleeds?

00:47:00

O praise the one who would reach for me

00:47:07

Hallelujah to the Son of suffering.

00:47:27

Oh, the perfect Son of God

00:47:30

in all His innocence

00:47:33

here walking in the dirt with you and me

00:47:42

He knows what living is

00:47:45

He's acquainted with our grief

00:47:48

Man of sorrows, Son of suffering

00:47:54

Blood and tears

00:47:57

How can it be?

00:48:01


00:48:05


00:48:08

Oh, praise the one who would reach for me

00:48:17


00:48:26

My Jesus.

00:48:34

Some imagine You

00:48:37

are distant and removed

00:48:41

but You chased us down in merciful pursuit

00:48:45

to the sinner You were grace

00:48:51

And the broken you embraced

00:48:56

and in the end the proof is in Your wounds.

00:48:59

Yes, in the end the proof is in Your wounds

00:49:07

Blood and tears, How can it be?

00:49:15


00:49:19


00:49:22

Oh, praise the Lord who would reach for me

00:49:28


00:50:03

Your Cross, my freedom

00:50:06

Your stripes, my healing

00:50:10

All praise King Jesus

00:50:13

Glory to God in heaven

00:50:17

Your blood, still speaking

00:50:21

Your love, still reaching

00:50:24

All praise, King Jesus

00:50:28


00:50:31

Your cross, my freedom

00:50:35


00:50:39


00:50:42


00:50:46

Your blood is still speaking,

00:50:48

Your love, still reaching

00:50:52


00:50:56


00:51:00

Your Cross, my freedom

00:51:03


00:51:10


00:51:14

Your blood is still speaking

00:51:17

Your love is still reaching

00:51:20

all praise King Jesus

00:51:25

Glory to God in heaven, to God in heaven

00:51:35

Glory to God in heaven, Glory to God in heaven

00:51:57

Blood and tears, how can it be?

00:52:00


00:52:04


00:52:08

Oh, praise the One who would reach for me

00:52:13


00:52:32

- If you're still in line,

00:52:34

sing with us while you're in line.

00:52:36

If you're back at your seat, you could stand

00:52:38

and worship the Savior who died for you,

00:52:42

worship the Savior who offers you freedom,

00:52:45

worship the Savior who said, "Forgive them, Father.

00:52:51

They know not what they do."

00:52:53

Respond to this Savior who set you free.

00:53:01

- You know what else?

00:53:03

God knows what it is.

00:53:06

Doesn't matter what it is.

00:53:08

Murder, adultery. His love covers you.

00:53:13

Whatever it is, love covers you.

00:53:17

There's nothing that He can't die for.

00:53:21

There is nothing that He can't get over.

00:53:24

There is no one that He can't love.

00:53:28

And if we don't believe that,

00:53:29

we don't understand the love of God

00:53:32

and the mystery and the transcendence

00:53:35

and the profundity of the Cross, He can take you,

00:53:40

He can handle your stuff just as you are right now,

00:53:44

no matter what it is.

00:53:46

Be honest with Him. That's what He wants.

00:53:49

He can take it.

01:04:23

- Behold, the Lamb of God

01:04:25

who takes away the sin of the world. [applause]

01:04:29

The Lamb who was slayed for you,

01:04:40

knowing full well who you are.

01:04:43

The Lamb who knows and loves and gives

01:04:49

and sacrifices and lays His life down

01:04:52

to cancel the shame that may be in your life.

01:04:56

It doesn't matter what it was,

01:04:57

it doesn't matter how long ago it was,

01:05:00

how soon it was.

01:05:01

Hey, if Jesus over what you did at 15,

01:05:03

you need to get over it.

01:05:05

If Jesus is over the stuff that you did last week,

01:05:09

you need to get over it.

01:05:10

You've gone through the process.

01:05:12

He loves you, He's for you, and He's with you.

01:05:17

It's not over. We'll see you this Easter.

01:05:28

- Matthew 57-61: At evening time,

01:05:32

a rich man from Arimathea arrived.

01:05:34

His name was Joseph,

01:05:35

and he had become a disciple of Jesus.

01:05:38

He went to Pilate and asked to be given Jesus's body.

01:05:41

Pilate assented and ordered his servants

01:05:43

to turn Jesus's body over to Joseph.

01:05:47

So Joseph took the body,

01:05:48

wrapped Jesus in a clean sheath of white linen,

01:05:50

and laid Jesus in his own new tomb,

01:05:53

which he had carved from a rock.

01:05:55

Then he rolled a great stone

01:05:57

in front of the tombs opening, and he went away.

01:08:45

[cheers & applause]

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