I invite you to turn with me tonight in the Scriptures to John chapter 19. It says John 18 in your bulletin, it's actually John 19, and the verses that we're focusing on tonight are verses 25 through 27, but I'm going to back up and read verse 16 to the end of the chapter. John 19, verse 16. The verses that I'm focusing on tonight, I've always found unique, surprising, something that we wouldn't expect in the middle of Christ's death. And I really want to focus on that tonight. And hopefully you'll understand and see the big picture of how wonderful the Savior's love is for us. So John 19, beginning at verse 16. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of the skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, do not write the king of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what I've written, I've written. When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier, also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture which says, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. So the soldiers did these things. And now our text. But standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished, said, to fulfill scripture, I thirst. A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. Well, early this morning, I went on a walk and it was just glorious out. Sun, birds, it was just beautiful to walk even down Broadway and to look at everything that was there. I thought to myself as I was walking, what if I knew that today was the day I was going to die? What if I knew that today was the day I was going to die? How would that have affected me? Would I have been on the walk? What would I be doing? What would you be doing? What would you care about? Would you be frantic? Would you start thinking about a few things that you need to get in order? What would be on your mind? And then what if you knew you were going to hell? What if there was nothing to stop that? What if there was nothing that could change this day and you had to die and go and suffer the torments of hell? Can you imagine that? I want you to think with me for a moment about the scene. In our text tonight, in John 19, verses 25-27, things have sort of calmed down. Jesus is hanging there dying. The horrid events have now transpired. Instead of releasing the just and the Holy One, they have let go a criminal, the murderer in Barabbas. They had come with clubs and an army to take him away as he had entered the garden. He endured and faced a trial of accusations that were never true about him. Lies were spoken of him. He took on a lot. Think of the shame in 19 verse 1 where it says, Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And struck him with their hands. a trial happens think about this the soldiers punching him and lining up a trial then follows and Jesus comes out wearing this crown of thorns and this purple robe and Pilate says to to them behold the man is this enough Pilate sits down on a judgment seat in a place called the pavement in Hebrew, Gabbatha, but notice this, it really was a sort of terrace that sat out in a public form of judgment out on the street so that people would come up and watch this whole thing, similar to an act in our culture of a judge coming in and presiding and taking a seat and rendering a verdict, a lofty place of judgment, a raised place it means. Pilate says, behold, your king. They begin to cry away with him, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate says, do you want me to crucify your king? The chief priest answered, which is just appalling and stunning. We have no king except Caesar. Caesar? So Pilate gives the judgment. Even though it's not stated in the Gospels. I'm guessing it went something like this. Because this Jesus from Nazareth has set Himself up as King of the Jews and is a seditious rebel against the imperial crown, I sentence Him to death on the cross that He be punished and hanged on the cross as a rebel. All the pain, the strikings, the judgments, the mockery, the beatings, the whippings, the crown of thorns, the purple robe, garments now divided, and there hangs over him a sign of mockery that says Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Garments being divided. Do we know what that is? They've stripped him naked. And he's facing the ultimate shame. Shame that we really don't fully understand. I guess we get some degree of it. The kind of shame that happens when life is uncovered. Something terrible that maybe somebody has been hiding and they wouldn't want anyone to know about. It's so humiliating, so disgusting, so damaging. You would never want to face society again if it were exposed. We see it in small levels when some prominent figure's life is opened up and the shame of all of that is just unbearable and then the media just tramples on somebody like that. Look at Bill Cosby. Oh, this is far worse. Our righteous Lord is facing a shame that has never been known nor could ever be known. Of course, it was none of His own. That's what's so remarkable about it. All of the shame of having our sins, everything that we've done, everything that has happened in our life laid upon Him. And if you think about the things that you've done in life, the things that have happened in life that maybe you would never want exposed, there on the cross, He's bearing the shame of that in front of God, the Father. Shame. All the sins that we have so carelessly committed in life and done and not taken seriously. That if God were to expose that and put that out in the open, you would be utterly humiliated and then you would have to answer. Shame. He's facing at this point the most intense, hottest wrath of God. And now silence. I can't describe that. I can't get there. All I know is that yes, whatever we have depicted, described about the body was awful, but it was nothing compared to the wrath of God being poured out on his soul. And that it's going on that night from when he entered the garden and started sweating big drops of blood all the way until the time he said it's finished, he is undergoing your punishment. He's facing it. What you deserve. The soldiers want him quickly dead. Things at this point have died down somewhat in terms of the outward pomp and circumstance. Silence on Golgotha. Three men are there dying. How many of you know the horrid pain and silence before a loved one dies? It's awful. It's eerie. In those last hours, you sit there and you know death is imminent. You know it's coming. You simply wait for the pain of all of it just to end. One of the worst experiences, really, it is. It's hard to describe when a loved one is dying and it's happening right in front of you. I'll never forget the first time in the hospital when I was newly in the ministry and the first time this man was in the ER and right in the room in front of me, he died. And the shock that came over the family. on the pain that came over the family. You can't describe it. It's the worst kind of emptiness. That's the scene. Jesus tells us, John tells us, there are only really a few devoted followers there standing by at His death. Verse 25, this is what I want to really focus in on tonight. Now, there stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother. His mother. where his mother and his mother's sister marry the wife of Clopas and marry Magdalene. Yet all of a sudden, the scene turns almost very tender. It's really moving to think about this scene. We really do get a picture of these other women from the Scriptures, these Marys and the Lord's interaction with them and what the Lord had done for them, freeing them from some really bad ways of life. Now they are embracing her. Who am I talking about? His mom? His mother? I can't imagine what it must have been like for her. I really can't. How is she able to stand at the foot of the cross? You don't read of deep anger? You don't read of bitter and horrid complaints rising up to heaven? You don't read of her crying out in rage? She stands there, eyes fixed, feeling as a mother feels. And how would a mother feel at that moment? Enduring as she looks up upon her son and Lord. Who can understand her anguish? Mothers and sons, there's a bond there that fathers don't know. All the while, it seems she has been following. She has witnessed her son. She's witnessed her son take the beatings and bleeding. She sees him so exhausted he cannot even carry his cross to the place of his execution, falling down. Soldiers twisting and beating and mocking him. What a horror when they released Barabbas, whom everybody knew was a thug. And they put her son there instead. Years ago, when the Savior had come, when Jesus had come, when Simeon held up the child, remember what he said to Mary. He said, a sword shall pierce through your own soul. The hour had come, and she's experiencing that. The agony of seeing the nails go through. Oh, this was no ordinary son. He was perfect. He had never caused her grief. Never once. He's always doing the will of his father. He had never agonized them. He was a child of glory to her. And one who loved her as a child should love his mother. Beautiful. She must have felt that her last bit of earthly comfort was being taken. Where was Joseph? Clear implication is he's dead. We're not told how he died, whether it was some time ago or recent, but she's a widow at this point. What a lot in life. Now her son is being taken. And what now? She will be alone in the world. Will she live the rest of her days a bereaved widow? Like Jacob after Joseph was taken, would she say something like, my soul shall go to the grave in sorrow? Helpless, penniless, a little widow in a selfish, cruel, unpromising, compromising, dark world. No social security. No means of having money. No way of knowing where her next meal will come from. Think of her plot. Think of her lot in life now. All Christians are tried and tested. But this almost seems, for a mother, unbearable, doesn't it? Looking upon the death of her son, but then to begin to place the whole event and everything as she has come to know and believe of him, this child was destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, said Simeon. Wasn't this the one that was announced so many years ago who would save God's people from their sins? Everything must have been overwhelming. the disciples didn't get it they couldn't put it together who's putting it together maybe many of you have lost loved ones and you know a bit of this feeling how am i going to go forward what am i going to do i know in my time i've experienced that a lot when a husband dies and the wife is now left behind and she asks those questions i just don't know well tonight you can somewhat know the lot, know what happened, know what Mary experienced at the foot of the cross? Can you understand her pain? Can you understand her dilemma? Who has said, my affliction in life is greater than Mary's? At this moment, in this state, that our Lord, in the heart of His afflictions, In the midst of the wrath of God. God forsakenness. My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me? In the midst of that kind of thing that's happening. He looks at her from the cross. He looks at her. How can he do it? And then you look at verse 26. When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, her, He said to His mother, Woman, behold your son! I'm really moved by that for a few reasons tonight. Do you know what's happening? He is suffering in His soul the torments of hell. it's not taking place after he didn't go down into hell after he said it's finished he's about to say it's finished which means it wasn't done yet at this point right now he's suffering it jesus is being inflicted he's being inflicted with the wrath intense wrath of god upon him and and remember my soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death. He has no relief. He's just about to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He has no clothes. He has no home on this earth. He's in total poverty. He has no money to throw at her. And his last earthly possession, his garments were just torn in four. He has nothing. He's been stripped down to absolutely nothing and they're ripping apart his body and he looks down and there is his mother and he can see that in her heart her very treasure is being taken from her feeling as a mother and experiencing as a believer something that's painful what does he do at that moment for mary who's feeling those things and experiencing those things filled with compassion in the heart of his affliction filled with love what does he say he looks at her and then he looks at john and he says to her woman behold your son your son right here now that just shows you your savior tonight doesn't it you ever try to talk to someone dying in pain there's no talking it's almost impossible it's agony and before he breathes his last it is god forsakenness he looks upon the one whom he loves and seeing her looking upon her in horror, knowing what she's going through. Her pain moves him. 30 years previous, she said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. He's regarded the lowly state of his maidservant and exalted the poor. As he's paying for her sins, he wanted to ensure that what He promised would come to pass. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. A little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. This is really comforting tonight in the valley of the shadow of death. Tonight, our Lord is raised. Tonight, He's seated. He's triumphant. He's no longer in the state of His humiliation. And that means that whatever in life, whenever we're in the heart of affliction, whenever we're hurting, He is in that state. Think about it. In His state of exaltation right now and He provides for you from heaven and we have comfort in that. He's a shelter for us and He's going to come again. And in the interim, He provides for us. He feeds us. He cares for us. He feeds the birds of the air. He gives them clothing and shelter and He's going to do that for you too. He's doing it. for Mary, bound on the cross, being wounded for our transgressions, in the greatest time of need, in the greatest time of His afflictions, when all of history was coming together, even then, right then, there was grace to help. My strength is dried up like a pot sheared. My tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast lots. In the midst of that, he says, Woman, behold your son. It really is the greater picture here of his love for his people. In that agony, there he hangs. so that the greatest provision would be given for all the children of God. That as he is dying, he would bring many sons to glory as he dies and rises from the dead. What manner of love the Father has lavished upon us that we should be called sons of God. See him in his afflictions, caring for and looking upon us in our. See him in his heart of his affliction even then not worried about himself. Looking down on the cross to those whom he loves and then providing. Let me ask, how did he provide ultimately? What did he do for Mary at that moment? Well, he's offering up his life as a ransom. He's paying the penalty. But even then, how did he care for her? Well, he couldn't physically get down and help her. That desire was there. How is he going to help that woman standing there? He looks at John. There is your son. And then he looks at John and he says, Behold, your mother. He had the power to call down legions of angels to help them. He had the power to turn water to wine. He had the power to feed 5,000 with just a few loaves of bread. He could have dropped manna from heaven. Instead, what did He do on the cross? He did the thing that the cross has always done. Shatters barriers. What was the greatest barrier right now to Mary's joy? She's struggling to see Jesus as a son and not a Savior. and right in front of them jesus shattered the family bond by the way he shattered the family bond and he said do you know who your mother and your brothers and your sisters and your fathers are he had been teaching at his whole ministry he had been teaching his whole ministry your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you but he answered to them who is my mother and who are my brothers and he stretched out his hands and he said whoever does the will these are my mothers and my brothers and my father my sister they are and now you understand it the man and the woman sitting next to you those in in the family of god are jesus's mothers and brothers and sisters and fathers and your old family bonds now don't even take the same kind of precedence. Did you know that? John understood what Jesus was saying that in his absence, in his absence, the way he continues to show his love and provision for his people is through you. I want you now to regard what my work has done because I loved and have paid for your sins to regard all of them as your mothers and brothers and fathers and sisters. He wants people to understand what the cross means. That He's forgiven. And that He cares for us. And that He was totally selfless in it. And so what do we read as the very end at verse 27? And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. He took his new mom and he brought her home. He didn't stuff her away. He brought her home. And He cared for her. And He loved her. And that's what the cross brings. Really, if you're standing there and you're looking up at that, you're saying, behold, what a Savior. What selfishness must come out of us tonight? We're too much about us. Our Savior gave His life and in the midst of it paying for your sins demonstrated the kind of love that this sad world needs to see but that it starts in this house right here. As we feed on His body and His blood spiritually in the supper, let us be strengthened in all of life's afflictions that Christ, think about it, looks upon us from heaven. He sees us. He knows what we need. And He provides for us. And the way that you show that the cross has really gotten into your heart is by how you treat your mothers and your brothers and your fathers and your sisters. That's what Jesus wants from us. That's the response to Him giving Himself and paying for our sins that we might have life. And as soon as that is done, as soon as John takes her, we read in the following verses that Jesus says it is finished. Let's pray to Him tonight. Heavenly Father, thank You for showing us the wonderful Gospel tonight. Lord Jesus, thank You for teaching us Your love. Thank You for showing what it opens up and what it accomplishes. And I pray tonight that we would be so thankful that You endured all of that to forgive us. And that it would then inspire us to understand that You have saved a family. A family, a spiritual family. A church to Yourself. And now, Lord, as we have understood that You care and love and provide for us, would we now go and care and love and provide for one another? Thank You tonight. And now as we receive that provision in the supper, we receive it with thanksgiving. You've supplied everything we need. And tonight we rejoice in your wonderful work on our behalf to save us from all of our sins. In Jesus' name, amen.