This is your daily reminder. God has not run
out of mercy, not for you, not today. Welcome
to the New Mercies Podcast. Welcome. Today is
Tuesday, March the 24th, and we are in a very
powerful passage of Scripture today. But before
we get into that, if you are new, go ahead and
hit that like or subscribe or follow button so
that you don't miss an episode Monday through
Saturday every single day as we jump into God's
Word together and go through a reading plan that
our church family gets to walk through together
as we get ready for Sunday. Every Sunday, every
week, Sunday comes. every single week, first
day of the week, and it is the time we celebrate
a risen Savior. All four gospel accounts explain
that the resurrection of Jesus happened on the
first day of the week, so the early church began
to meet on Sunday rather than on the Sabbath.
That's important for us to know because Christianity
is built on this beautiful miracle of Jesus conquering
death, hell, and the grave, and every week we
gather to celebrate that. And so I'm encouraged
today to walk alongside you as we look at this
passage of Scripture in the book of Luke today,
chapter 23, verses 26 through the end of the
chapter. As we look through this and check out
this text, I want to just say there's a lot that
happens in these next few verses. I'm not going
to read any of the text officially today. I want
to give us an overview and just a couple of thoughts
as we look at it. Here's the lens that I'm looking
at this today in. As I was reading it and trying
to figure out, God, what do you want me to share
on the podcast? What do you want me to share
on this time that we have together? A little
bit shorter episode probably today as we just
look at the overview. So we've seen now and what's
taken place, Jesus was betrayed. He was arrested
under false pretenses. He was beat up. He was
put in front of one leader. Then he was put in
front of another and then another. And then he
was mocked again. And then he was ridiculed.
And then he was put in front of another. Then
the crowd would not release him. They said, don't
release him. Let him die. Let him be crucified.
Now we pick up the scene. Jesus is going to the
cross. He's going to the place where he would
die and pour his blood out. Now the scene begins
with Jesus and this guy named Simon of Cyrene.
He's a guy that's just an onlooker passing by.
I think about this guy a lot, actually, whenever
I read this narrative. He's a guy in Jerusalem,
there for Passover. This guy is being sent up
for capital punishment, and he's looking on.
Imagine, there's a crowd that has gathered. There's
people that are watching him. Jesus stumbling
with the beam of wood that's on his back, and
a guard just grabs this guy named Simon and says,
Pick up the cross. It is a command. It's not
a suggestion. It's not who wants to volunteer.
It's you pick up this cross. I think about this
guy quite a lot. I wonder, if I'm standing there,
how this seems, how this looks. He's been beaten.
He's been stripped. He's been bloody. Jesus is
not looking like a great, clean person at this
point. He has been beaten. He's been stripped.
He's bleeding everywhere. And this cross, this
beam is going to be bloody. And this guy, Simon,
picks up this cross and carries it to the final
destination. I think about him and think about
how he does what we kind of do, right? He picks
up a cross, but he doesn't die. Jesus died on
the cross. He gave his entire life. What does
Jesus tell us to do? Pick up our cross. We have
a burden to bear. As a believer, everything that
I share whenever I talk to people in our church
and Christians around the world, I like to encourage
them and say, you know, Jesus tells us to bear
your cross, right? Pick up your cross and follow
him. We do have a little bit of a burden to bear.
I'm a very joyful person. And I have a lot to
be thankful for, and I'm very joyful in all the
things that I get to experience in life. But
there's also a bit of a burden, this spiritual
weight that's on me, because I live in a world
of sin, and I live in a fleshly body that has
these natural tendencies to go away from the
will of God. He tells us, Bear your cross, but
follow him. Simon literally does that. He bears
the cross of Jesus, and he walks with him up
to the place of the skull, Golgotha. This is
a skull -shaped mountainside, most likely. I
have been to the Holy Land. I've seen the area
they believe the cross was, and it is a powerful.
powerful presence. When I was standing in the
garden where the tomb was, I was looking and
seeing how this must have played out, and very
emotional and very heavy. And I'm trying not
to get too emotional right now, thinking about
how incredible this scene was that took place.
But as this text goes on, you've got the scene
of Simon and how he fits into the narrative.
Then you've got these ladies that were following
after Jesus, and they were weeping, they were
mourning as they were following him. Here's what
I want to point out. Not one woman in the gospel
accounts was an enemy of Jesus. Not one. Not
one spoke up against him. Not one called out
against him. Not one spoke an ugly word. Jesus,
not one. And I also know Jesus wasn't an enemy
of women. He was always giving them dignity.
The news of the birth of the Savior came to a
peasant woman. The miraculous things that God
did through Jesus and through the miracles happened
with women. And I look at even the news of the
resurrection of Jesus was discovered and revealed
to women. Jesus was a friend to women. He was
always showing dignity and showing honor and
showing respect. I've preached before to a group
of men and said, if you would be more like Jesus,
your wife or your significant other, your girlfriend,
your person, they would like you more. And how
do I know that? Because they liked Jesus. They
liked him. What's not to like? He's a guy who's
kind. He's wise. He's peaceful. He's giving,
showing value. We need to be more like Jesus,
men. If you're more like Jesus, the women that
are in your life, your spouse, your kids, your
daughters, the people around, they will like
you more. Jesus was a friend of women. These
women seeing this thing has happened, they're
seeing this injustice of this man's death, and
Jesus even kind of adjusts the view a little
bit. He says, don't mourn over me. Mourn over
the fact that there's a lot of destruction of
a whole nation coming. Now, he's warning against
something that we'll talk about probably in another
episode, but as he's telling these women this,
he's looking past this moment, and they're just
brokenhearted. I cannot help but think, why are
the men not more like Jesus? If you want your
wife to love you more and to show you more respect,
be like Jesus. Jesus was always favored by women.
They loved him. They cared for him. They're the
ones that mourned and wept as he was on his way
to the cross. I can't express that enough, how
powerful of the moment this is. After we see
Jesus with the women, the scene continues. Then
we see Jesus with the criminals. Jesus with the
criminals on the cross. Isaiah 53 and Luke 22,
they say that the Son of Man must be among the
transgressors. meaning he's going to be hanging
between two thieves. He's going to be in between
all of those that have transgressed. And the
scene that takes place is beautiful and incredible.
After we see Jesus with the criminals, we see
Jesus with the Father. He's praying to the Father
while he's on the cross. And as he's praying,
he says, I've finished your mission. So into
your hands, I commend my spirit. I'm going to
give up the ghost. I'm going to give it to you
because I've completed the mission. In that moment,
the temple veil, the curtain that separated us
from the holy place, the presence of God has
been ripped from top to bottom. The access is
now granted. That's what happened in the moments
of the end of the cross scene. Then we see Jesus
and the guy named Joseph of Arimathea. He's a
faithful man, a God -fearing man. We see this
scene take place even after Jesus has passed
away. After he has died on the cross, we see
this guy named Joseph come up and how he interacts
with the body of the Lord. And this is rolling
into the Sabbath day. He's got to get preparations
done and take care of the body because there
are rules and laws that you couldn't handle a
dead body. those that have died on the Sabbath
or it would make you unclean. So he takes care
of this in these moments. This is a powerful
passage of Scripture. You know if you've been
around the podcast very long, you're going to
be listening and reading this a couple of times.
I'm going to be talking about it on Sunday, Lord
willing. This is the plan and the process. So
it's a heavy chapter. Just know all of these
scenes are Jesus with somebody. Even in his death,
he is still with us. I want you to be encouraged
today. I want you to be challenged today. Read
the Word. Allow it to soak into your heart and
see what will happen today.