Remember The Cross | Nick Bodine

Well, hey, everyone, I'm Pastor Judd Wilhite, and I want to thank you for joining us today. You know, Central's a place where it's okay to not be okay, and we are so glad that you're here. I hope you enjoy this message. What an amazing time of worship. I know the Holy Spirit is flowing through here right now. Hey, I want to give a giant welcome to anybody watching through the Pando app, with our partnership with God Behind Bars. We are so thankful that you guys are watching. Man, it's amazing. Yes, we're so glad that you're joining us. And hey, we just want to give another quick reminder of how powerful this message is about to be. We're really celebrating what it means to remember the cross before we get to Easter, and we're just going to slow it down a little bit, just prepare our heart for what is going to happen. If you don't have communion supplies yet, make sure you go and grab those at all of our entries because really it is going to be a time where we just get to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. That's right. Yeah, it's going to be an amazing time, and Pastor Nick does an amazing job. So why don't we give it up big while Pastor Nick comes out with a message of hope. Welcome.

So glad you guys are here this weekend. If you're new, you did pick a powerful weekend to join us, to be here with us, because every year right before Easter, we just slow things down to take a moment and remember the cross. Because Easter, it's powerful, but you don't fully feel the power of the resurrection until you've taken the time to sit in the weight of the cross. And the truth is we see the cross everywhere in society, right? I mean, it's on necklaces. It's on tattoos. You see it on bumper stickers, hospitals. You see it everywhere. And my fear is that because you see it everywhere, it starts to become normal. And I feel like anything that starts to become normal eventually loses its meaning. Meaning we can get so used to seeing the cross that we forget what it actually cost. That it wasn't just a symbol, but this was love at its most powerful. That this was a sacrifice at its most brutal. That this was God stepping into our brokenness and taking that on himself. So today we're not going to rush past this moment. We're going to fix our focus on Jesus. Fix our eyes and ears on the cross. Fix our ears on the words that Jesus spoke

in his final moments. Because if you want to understand the heart of God, you have to look at the suffering of Jesus. And here's what I know to be true. For a lot of people in this room, today you're going to find that this isn't just a normal church service. My prayer is that it's not. Or this isn't just another sermon or a message. My prayer is that this becomes incredibly personal to you. Because I think some of you walked in here today carrying something heavy. Some of you walked in here today carrying something that nobody else sees. Maybe it's something you don't really even have the words for. It's just how you feel. Or maybe life doesn't look the way you thought it would right now. Or maybe you're dealing with loss or disappointment or anxiety, depression, fear for the future. Maybe you've been praying like crazy and it feels like God isn't even listening. Maybe you're wondering, is there even a God? And if there is a God, does He even see me and love me? And the cross, it answers all those questions. Because the cross shows us we don't worship a God who stays distant from pain. We follow a Savior who stepped into it, who suffered, who bled, who cried out, who felt what we feel.

So when you're hurting, He doesn't just understand it, He's been there. And because He's been there, He can meet you in the middle of it. Which means, you can give it up for that, we have an incredible Savior. That means even in your darkest moment, God, He's not absent, He's present, He's working and He's not finished. And there is no clearer picture of that than Jesus on the cross. So today we're going to slow it down. We're going to sit in it and we're going to remember the greatest gift that we've ever been given. We're going to remember the price paid for our salvation because the beauty of the blessing is only understood through the brutality of the suffering. Which means you don't get the beauty of Easter. without the brokenness of the cross. And 2,000 years ago, on this very week, Jesus was condemned to die on a cross for us. He stood before six different trials, three before Jewish leaders, three before Roman authorities. And at the end, they all had the same unfair verdict, which was crucify Him. And crucifixion wasn't just execution. Crucifixion was torture. Crucifixion was humiliation. It was designed to absolutely break a person.

Rome had perfected crucifixion. They didn't want people to just die. They wanted to humiliate them. They wanted their deaths to be excruciating, to be embarrassing, to spread fear all over the world that if anyone dare go against Rome, well, the cross is what would happen to you. And it was reserved for the worst of the worst offenders, a brutal warning. As if crucifixion wasn't bad enough, the journey to the actual cross was unimaginable torture. It was designed to break a person before they took their final breath. Many wouldn't even survive the walk to the cross, the beating before the cross. So when it came to Jesus, before the cross came the beating, they whipped Him with an absolutely horrific device. It was this whip with leather strands and it was weighted with metal. It had pieces of glass and bone fragments sharpened so that every strike just tore deeply into Jesus's back. As they ripped it away, it would expose muscle, it would expose bone. Jesus would go through excruciating pain with every lash. And they didn't stop there. After they were done torturing Him, they hit Him, they mocked Him, they spat on Him, they draped a heavy robe over His raw wounds, they placed a crown of thorns onto His head. And this is the Romans,

they weren't gentle about that crown of thorns. It's not like they just said it on there. And then they pretended to worship Him all in just a twisted display of mockery. I mean, this was the Son of God. This was the Savior of the world. This is the King of all kings. And this is how He was being treated. After all of that, they forced Jesus to carry the heavy wooden beam of His own cross on top of His broken and battered body. And when they reached the site of the execution, they stripped His clothes off Him. They stretched His arms out as far as they could possibly go. And they drove nails into His hands and into His feet, strategic places to once again, just cause excruciating pain. As the cross was raised, the pain that Jesus' body would go through as His entire weight hung from those nails. And for six hours, from nine in the morning till 3 p.m. in the afternoon, our Lord, our Savior, an innocent man was exposed and suspended as a public spectacle of suffering. And in that moment, while Jesus is hanging there on that cross, He speaks. He speaks. Every word spoken carried weight.

Every word mattered. Every word was spoken for a reason. And Jesus' words were, and they still are, a beacon of hope, even in our darkest of times. Words that were the assurance that even in our deepest suffering, we are never alone. So today, let's let His words transform us. Let's let these words heal us. Let's let these words remind us of the grace that was poured out for us. Do you know the very first thing that Jesus said from the cross? It's pretty astonishing. It's pretty amazing. The very first words out of Jesus' mouth, we gotta go the right way here. Very first words. Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing. Father, forgive them. The very first thing Jesus said, it wasn't anger. It wasn't condemnation. It wasn't revenge. It wasn't judgment. It was forgiveness. It was grace. This is the same Jesus that we were just talking about that went through all that suffering,

beaten, nailed to a cross, whipped, exhausted, broken, and the very first words out of His mouth are words of forgiveness. And thank you. Think about this for just a second. He didn't forgive later. He didn't forgive once the suffering and the pain had stopped. He didn't wait for an apology. He forgave them anyway, in the moment, while they were still doing it, while the nails were still in his hands. He forgave them while the crowd was still mocking him. Jesus' very first words, he chose forgiveness. And I know our tendency is probably to think that Jesus is just talking to them, to those that are at the site of the crucifixion, the leaders that delivered and sentenced him to an unfair verdict. Or maybe the people, even the friends that betrayed him. Maybe they were words to the soldiers that did the beating, that did the crucifixion, that hung him from that cross. And yes, they were words for them, but the forgiveness wasn't just for them. It was for you as well. It was for me, it was for us. Because every single one of us has fallen short. And in a way, we've all played a part

in that crucifixion moment. And here's what's so powerful is that no one said sorry. No one asked for forgiveness. They weren't even changing their behavior and Jesus forgives anyway. That, that's the very heart of the gospel. That God didn't wait for you to get your life together. That God isn't waiting for you to get your life together, for you to change your behavior or to come with your apologies. He moves towards you in love anyway. He moves towards you first. And the beautiful thing about Jesus is he didn't just see what they were doing. He saw what was underneath it all. He saw the brokenness that was inside of them. He saw the confusion. He saw the blindness. He saw that broke people do broken things. And that's why he says, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. Even in his pain, his heart isn't focused on himself. It's on us. It's on people who don't realize how far they've drifted. So I want you to know if you're here today and you've ever felt like you're too far gone, like you've made too many mistakes or God could never forgive someone like you, I want you to remember Jesus' very first words spoken from the cross.

He had you in mind from the very beginning. It's at this point that Jesus is hanging between two thieves and one of the thieves looks over at him and he says, oh, so you're the son of God, are you? Well, if you're the son of God, then why don't you get yourself down from here? And while you're at it, why don't you get us down as well? The other thief looks over. He says, you and I, we deserve to be here, but this man, he's done nothing wrong. Then he looks at Jesus and he says, Lord, will you remember me when you come into your kingdom? And it's right here in this moment that we hear Jesus' second statement from the cross. He tells that thief, he says, I assure you, today, you will be with me in paradise. Today, you will be with me in paradise. What a statement. Jesus' very first words were words of forgiveness. His very second words were words of hope. Today, you will be with me in paradise. And here's what makes this so powerful is that this promise wasn't given to a good man. This wasn't someone who had lived a faithful life. This wasn't someone who had time to turn things around. This was a criminal. This was a man who had failed, who was guilty, who was literally in the middle of paying for his consequences. And his prayer, it wasn't polished.

He didn't necessarily have the perfect words. He didn't have a long history of following God. He didn't have anything to offer, just a simple, desperate, honest moment. Jesus, remember me, remember me. And that was enough because here's the deal, church. If the cross had to be earned, well, none of us would qualify, none of us. And in that moment, Jesus does what only he can do. He bridges the gap. He bridges the gap between heaven and earth. He bridges the gap between guilt and glory. He bridges the gap between brokenness and restoration. And he does it instantly. Today, you will be with me. Not someday, not after you prove yourself, not after you clean your life up. Today, instantaneously. That means for you, it's not too late. It's not too messy. You're not too far gone. You've done too much, you are not beyond God's reach. And I think some of us need to hear that today because we carry around so much guilt. We carry around so much shame. We have stuff in our past that we haven't let go of because deep down, we start to think grace, that word, that action, that's for everybody else. That's not for me. Surely it's not for me.

But this moment proves something. It proves that whether you come to Jesus after a lifetime of faith, or you come into him in a last second, desperate prayer, his response is the same. It's grace, it's forgiveness, it's restoration. Jesus looked at a man at the very end of his life and he said, you are not forgotten. You are not too far gone. Your story, it isn't over. It's at this moment that Jesus is hanging on the cross and he's struggling to breathe and he's in unimaginable pain. And he looks out at the crowd and he spots his mother, Mary. This is the same Mary who was told by an angel that she was gonna give birth to the son of God. This is the same Mary who raised her son, who watched him live the perfect life. The same Mary that watched her son fulfill every promise said about him. An innocent man, and she's now watching her son be crucified and die. And Jesus sees her. He sees her not just in the crowd. No, he sees right through her. He sees her grief, he sees her pain. He sees the uncertainty of what's coming next. And in the middle of saving and redeeming the whole world, he stops to care for one moment, one person. For one person.

It's here that we get Jesus' fourth statement from the cross. He looks at his mom and he says, here is your son. He then looks at his friend and his disciple, John, and he says, here is your mother. In other words, he's saying, take care of her, John. Mom, take care of John, take care of each other. And in that moment, Jesus creates a new family right there from the foot of the cross. And I don't want us to miss this. This isn't a small detail in the story. This is the very heart of Jesus on display. Because even in his suffering, he's not just focused on the big picture of salvation. Even in his suffering, he's paying attention to people, to relationships, to needs, to what's happening right in front of him. Which means that Jesus doesn't just save souls, he cares for people. He cares for you, he cares about connection. He cares about community. He cares that no one walks through this life alone. And this wasn't new for him. If you go through the gospels, through Jesus's earthly ministry, this is what he had always done. He healed the sick, he fed the hungry, he welcomed the outsider. And now even from the cross, he's still doing it. And here's what that means for us.

It means that Jesus sees you. He sees you. He sees your suffering. He sees the things that are weighing on your heart, the relationships that you're carrying, the fears that you don't feel like you can even talk about. He sees the places that you feel all alone. And just like he cared for Mary, he cares for you. Not just for your eternity, but for your right now, the present. The cross shows us something powerful. It shows us that God's love is not just global and for all eternity. It's amazing that it is, but it's also very personal. And it's for you right now. He doesn't save you for someday. He provides for you today. He gives you people, he gives you community. He gives you a place you can belong. He gives you this church, a community of people that are there for you, family that will walk you through life's hardest moments, darkest times. In Jesus's final moments, Jesus is still showing us how to love and care for people. He continues to hang there on the cross. The pain becomes excruciating. And it's at this point that he cries out his fourth statement from the cross. Jesus cries out.

He cries, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why have you abandoned me? Now what's important to understand here is that this isn't just a cry of despair. This is actually a connection to scripture. He's pointing to Psalm 22. to which these exact words are written in Psalm 22. It says, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And the amazing thing is, is that Psalm 22 was written hundreds of years before we have any evidence that crucifixion even existed. And yet it describes the very suffering that Jesus is experiencing. And what that means is that this moment, what Jesus is going through, this wasn't random. This wasn't unfortunate. This wasn't an accident, that the cross was the plan. It was a plan set in motion long before this moment to show us that just how far God is willing to go to bring us back to him, show us his love. But this moment also shows us something deeply personal. And that is that Jesus doesn't hide his pain. He reveals it, he cries it out. And I think for us, if we're honest, this is something that we all struggle with because we don't like to say things out loud. We don't like to talk about how we feel. In fact, we feel like we have to have it all together. Like we're to stay silent, just stay silent in our pain, suck it up, push through.

Like we're supposed to stay positive, keep the faith. So what happens is when we feel hurt, when we feel confused, when we feel distant from God, we tend to just hide it. But that statement, Jesus doesn't hide it. He says, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? And what he shows us is that you can be honest with God and still have faith. You can bring how you're feeling to him and still have incredible faith. And that gives us permission to do the same thing that Jesus just did. That even when he feels abandoned, he's bringing it to God. We can go to God and we can say things like, God, I don't understand why I'm going through this. God, it doesn't feel like you're very close right now. God, it feels like you've completely abandoned me. Right now, it doesn't feel like you love me very much, God. God, it feels like you're not here right now. Listen, church, statements like that, that's not weakness, that's real faith. Because pain, your pain isn't something you have to hide from God, it's something you can bring to him. And you're not the only one that's ever felt this way. You go back through your Bible, through all of history, biblical history, you're gonna see throughout all of scripture, people cried out to God over and over again in their confusion.

They cried out to him in their grief. They cried out to him in their questions. We're not the only ones, you're not the only one. Jesus is showing us that it's okay. That even if you feel far from God, you can still reach out to him. You don't have to have your prayers all polished and cleaned up. You don't have to pretend everything's okay. God can handle those questions. He can handle that pain. And even when he feels distant, you're still connected to him. It's after this cry that Jesus gives us his fifth statement from the cross. And I feel like this statement is the most humane statement, the most human moment we see from Jesus on the cross. He gives us a statement that says, I am thirsty. I am thirsty. After everything he's endured, the beating, the blood loss, the hours, six hours hanging on the cross, Jesus says, I am thirsty. It's at this moment that we read that a soldier, he takes a sponge and he puts it on a pole and he lifts it up to Jesus's mouth. And this might look like a moment of compassion, like finally somebody is having some kindness and some mercy, but as we read on,

we're going to realize that this wasn't a moment of compassion. This was just more mocking because the sponge was soaked in a sour wine. It was bitter. It was harsh. This wasn't relief. This was just more suffering. But even in this moment, Jesus is fulfilling what was written about him. In Psalm 69, 21, Jesus says, they offer me poison for food and they give me vinegar for my thirst. The psalmist writes long before Jesus even walked this earth they give me vinegar for my thirst. Just another fulfillment of scripture. It means that this isn't just random here. This isn't just a coincidence that God's plan is unfolding. And I don't want us to miss this. These words are also something very personal because when Jesus says, I am thirsty, what he's not pretending to do to be strong. Jesus isn't just pushing through the pain. No, he needs to say it out loud. And most of us, we don't live like that. We hide our needs. We mask our exhaustion. We act like we've got it all together. But once again, Jesus shows us that there's no reason to hold that kind of posture. Your need, it doesn't disqualify you from God. It doesn't push God away from you. It actually pulls you closer to him. And these words show us that Jesus, he didn't just suffer spiritually, that he felt it physically, that he understood what it means to be empty. He understood what it meant to have nothing left, to be worn down. And because he's been there, we can bring him our needs, our burdens, our weakness,

our exhaustion. We can bring him everything and he'll meet us there. He'll meet us in the middle of it with a reminder that the deepest thirst in our souls will one day be fully satisfied in him. Every need fully satisfied by Jesus. Jesus continues to hang there at this point. He knows that he's nearing the end of his life. And he looked out from the cross and he gives us the sixth statement from the cross. He says, it is finished. It is finished. And at first glance, those words can look like defeat. Like maybe the weight of everything was just too much. Like sin had won. Like darkness won. Like death had won. But that's not what this is. Jesus doesn't say, I am finished. He says, it is finished. This isn't a whisper of defeat. This is a declaration of victory. In the original language, it is finished. It would have been translated back to one word, the word to telestai, a word that would be written anytime there was a bill or a debt to be collected. And meaning that that debt is now paid, paid in full. It's accomplished. It's complete. This word would be written meaning no balance. Oh, there is nothing left remaining to telestai. It is finished. And in that moment, Jesus is saying, he's saying everything I came to do, it's done. I've carried the weight. I've taken the punishment. I paid the price, your sin, your past, your guilt, your shame. It's done. It's paid in full. And what once looked like a symbol, a shame, a cross meant for humiliation and fear and torture became a message of our victory because this was the, wasn't the moment Jesus had lost. This is the moment he won. First John tells us this is real love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and that he sent his son as a sacrifice for our sins. That means what Jesus finished, what he accomplished, that gift he offers us as our sin paid in full, us being able to have a right relationship with God again. It's in this moment, Jesus, his final moment on the cross. He looks out at the crowd. He looks out at the soldiers that, that hung him up there. He looks at those mocking him. He looks at the people who insulted him, who betrayed him. He looks at his family that was suffering, his mother who was grieving his friends at the cross. And he gives us his seventh statement from the cross. He says, father, I entrust my spirit into your hands. These are Jesus's final words before he takes his last breath and he dies. After all that suffering, after all that torture, after all that pain, after feeling abandoned, I want us to notice that Jesus doesn't pull away from God. He leans in. He calls him father. And in that moment, we see something powerful that even at the

very end, Jesus is still trusting in God. He is still trusting into his father. He says, I trust my spirit into your hands. In other words, I'm placing my life completely in your care God once again this is not the first time that we heard these words this is another prophetic reminder psalm 31 one says i entrust my spirit into your hands rescue me lord for you are a faithful god jesus is showing us that all of this all of this was always the plan no one was taking his life he was giving it freely he was choosing it he was laying it down for us and in his final breath his last words he shows us what it looks like to fully trust God to rest in the father to place everything in his hands to believe that even in death God is still in control that not sin not suffering not even death can ever separate us from him that statement this is what real trust looks like father i entrust my spirit into your hands i'm all yours God when we look at the cross it should say something to us it tells us that even when we're hurting God is still working that even when we feel broken that he's not done that even when it feels dark light is still coming and the cross it speaks it speaks of hope it speaks of love it speaks of grace it speaks of love it speaks of grace it says that no matter who you are no matter what you've been through no matter what you've done you are not too far gone it speaks to your guilt and it says you're forgiven it speaks to your shame it says you're covered it speaks to your past and says you get a brand new beginning the cross is the greatest picture of love the world has ever seen a love that took your place that carried your sin that held the weight of your shame and guilt so that you wouldn't have to and it's not quiet about it the cross the cross it shouts it shouts that you're seen it shouts that you're loved it shouts that you're not alone and it's still speaking today so don't just look at the cross listen to it listen to Jesus's words from it let it hit your heart let it move you because this isn't just a moment from the past some historical moment just worth giving some attention to no this is so much more this is a message for us right now that the cross can change everything the way you live the way you love the way you forgive there is power in the cross and it's for you and in just a moment our team is going to lead us in a time of worship and reflection and as they do i'm asking that you don't do anything that you don't worry about standing you stay seated you just stay reflecting don't rush this moment sit here and bring everything to God everything to Jesus the

weight the guilt the questions the pain bring him your sin confess it lay it at the foot of that cross and let his grace meet you right there so as we prepare to take communion fix your eyes on Jesus remember what he did remember what he said and thank him thank him for giving everything for you before the cross just hours before all of this would even take place Jesus sat down with his closest friends and in that moment he gave them something to hold on to something to remember he took some bread and he broke it and he said this is my body broken for you in other words he's saying i'm about to take your place i'm about to carry what you couldn't carry so that you don't have to live broken anymore and then he took a cup and he said this is my blood poured out for you my life for yours my sacrifice so that you can be forgiven so that your guilt and your shame they don't have to be the final word and he tells his closest friends his disciples he tells us to do this in remembrance of me so today we're going to take this together we're going to take communion together to remember the cross to remember the cost to remember the love because Jesus is the only one who stepped in for you he's the only one that could step in for us the only one that can pay our debt the only one who defeated death so that you could have life. So today we take this out of a moment of gratitude. If you're online, you can go ahead and grab some bread or a cracker or something to drink that can represent the juice. And if you're in the room, go ahead and get your bread ready out of the cup you were handed on the way in. Matthew 26 tells us, it says that Jesus, he took some bread and he blessed it. And then he broke it into pieces. He gave it to the disciples saying, this is my body. Take the bread, do this in remembrance of me, his body broken for us. So as we take the bread,

let's remember Jesus and his body broken. He then took a cup of wine. He gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to his disciples and he said, each of you drink from it for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for you. It is poured out as a sacrifice for you. It is poured out as a sacrifice for you. It is poured out as a sacrifice for you. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many. So let's take the cup together and remember his blood poured out for us. Would you pray with me? Jesus, thank you. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the sacrifice you made, for the love you poured out, for the forgiveness that now covers us. Thank you for stepping into our pain, for carrying the weight of our sin, God, for making a way when there was no way. And God, we don't wanna rush past this moment. We wanna feel it. We wanna sit in it. We wanna remember it. We wanna remember what it costs. But we also know that this isn't where the story ends. Because while the cross was real, the grave was not the end.

And on the third day, everything changed because light broke through the darkness. Hope, it rose up of what looked like defeat. Death, it did not have the final word. Jesus, your sacrifice, it was enough. It's in your name that we get to experience your power. We get to experience God's love. It's the cross that reminds us that you are for us. Who could ever be against us? It's in your name we pray all these things, the powerful and mighty name of Jesus, amen. Well, hey, thanks for joining us today. If you enjoyed this podcast, there are a couple of things that I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe and review this podcast and connect with us on social media by following at Central Online. You can also contribute to what God is doing through Central. You can simply visit centralchurch.online.org and you can give a gift today. And thanks again for joining us on the Central Church Podcast.