The Perfect Son Who Became Our Perfect Savior 3

Introduction and Sermon Context

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, April 6th, 2003, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn with me to the Gospel of John and the 19th chapter. Pastor Smith read to us from the 18th chapter some of the preliminaries to the actual trial and flogging and beating and disgraceful treatment our Lord received before He was taken out and impaled upon a cross. And here in chapter 19, He is on that cross. He has been there for some time. And we read in John chapter 19 and verse 25b. But there were standing by...

1:03 By the cross of Jesus, His mother and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother and the disciples standing by whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold your son. Then said He to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her unto his own home.

Recap of Previous Points and Introduction of Third Point

1:41 We announced at our prayer meeting this past Wednesday and then again in our morning hour of worship today that Pastor Jay would be continuing his expositions in the letter of the Epistle of Jude. However, since I was unable to finish this morning's sermon covering only two of the three major points, Pastor Jay took the initiative and approached me. After the morning service, inquiring as to whether or not it would be better for me to complete this morning's service, as this morning's message, as a communion meditation, rather than having it hang over for another week and be relatively incomplete as a message in itself. And as we talked together, I felt his judgment carried mine, and so I consented to do that very thing. For any who were not with us this morning, let me take just a few moments to highlight the main thrust of this morning's ministry, and then we will proceed to what would have been point number three in this morning's sermon. Our subject was that of seeking to gaze with wonder at our Savior,

2:59 who is the perfect example of One who obeyed and honored His parents. And after proving from the Scriptures that the very same Jesus, who is our Savior by His death, is also our example by His life, I then said we would consider His example of obedience and honoring His parents in three categories of biblical revelation. Number one, that Jesus is our example of principle, of principled obedience to His parents even though they were sinful and imperfect parents. And Luke 2 and verse 51 was our primary text of reference. Then secondly, we noted that Jesus is our example of righteous resistance to parental desires and expectations that were not in line with the will of His Father. When the desires and expectations of His parents were contrary to the revealed will of God,

4:15 Jesus becomes the pattern of righteous resistance both in His youth and in His adulthood. And with respect to this principle in His youth, we studied Luke 2 verses 41 to 51, and with respect to His adulthood, John says, John 2 verses 1 to 5 with a brief reference to Mark chapter 3 verses 31 to 35. Now tonight, I want us to consider the third category of His example before us as the perfect Son. He is not only our example of principled obedience, our example of righteous resistance, but thirdly, Jesus is our example, our example of sensitive caring for His mother even in the midst of the most distressful personal circumstances. He is our example of sensitive caring for His mother, a caring manifested in the midst of the most distressful personal circumstances. And in being such an example, He is fulfilling the demands of the fifth commandment.

Jesus' Interpretation of the Fifth Commandment

5:42 I want you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 15. In Matthew chapter 15, we read beginning in verse 1, There come to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees in stride, saying, Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And He answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?

6:16 And then He's going to isolate and identify a very clear example of how these people kept their rabbinical traditions, while at the same time they flagrantly disobeyed the clear commandment of God. And notice, Notice the commandment that He quotes. For God said, Honor your father and your mother, and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith you might have been profited by me is given to God, He shall not honor his father.

6:58 And you have made void the word of God, By your tradition. Here we have our Lord's infallible interpretation of one of the specific implications of the fifth commandment. Honoring father and mother according to Jesus meant that when a son or daughter saw a father or mother in difficult physical straits, that that son or daughter, out of obedience to the command to honor father and mother, was to respond to that awareness and to provide what was needful for that indigent parent. But they had cleverly learned how to walk right by a needy parent and say, Well, the thing that I might have given to you to help you in your need, it is dedicated to God. Therefore, I am free from responding to the need of that particular parent. And so we learn from our Lord's teaching that, And so we learn from our Lord's teaching that, And so we learn from our Lord's teaching that, treatment of the fifth commandment that one of the clear implications of that commandment one of the demands of obedience in the light of that commandment is that sons and daughters in keeping with their knowledge of and ability to respond to the needs of their parents they are to do so and

8:23 even money and goods that would be given unto God are not in any way acceptable to God if they are given at the expense of caring for one's parents in their needs now I'm fully aware and I have lived long enough to know but someone is sitting there saying ah the pastor doesn't the scripture say in 2nd Corinthians 12 14 the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children yes that's what 1214 says, but what it is saying is that in that period when children are still the lesser wage earners and they are more dependant it is not their responsibility to provide for the parents but the parents for the children that's speaking of a different time frame in life but when parents become aged and inferred it is a responsibility of the children to feel it the burden of caring for them, and our Lord Jesus very clearly articulates that in this Matthew 15 passage. So the conscience of our Lord Jesus is very sensitive to the fact that the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother, involves this dimension of caring

The Circumstances of Jesus on the Cross

9:48 for one's indigent parents in their need as one is able to respond to that need. Now then we come to our passage in John and see the implications of this for our Lord Jesus Christ himself. We're going to notice we look at the passage, the circumstances of the Lord Jesus, the circumstances of Mary, then Jesus' words and actions, and then the result of the same. What are the circumstances of our Lord Jesus?

10:28 Our text tells us that Jesus is in the midst of being crucified. They were standing by the cross of Jesus. This horrible means of execution, as best as historians can trace it, invented by the Lord Jesus Christ, is a horrible means of execution. It's a horrible means of execution. It's a horrible means of execution. It's a horrible means of execution. It's a horrible means of execution. It's a horrible means of execution. It's a horrible means of execution. And then incorporated into Roman forms of execution and capital punishment, one of the most cruel, torturous, miserable forms of death known to man, in which every single nerve becomes a track of the most intense pain, a kind of death in which the one crucified becomes dehydrated, undergoes a form of asphyxiation, and it was known that some hung on a cross for two or three days before they actually expired.

11:30 And here is our Lord, externally and physically, undergoing all of the horrors, all of the torture of crucifixion. He had previously undergone the indignities of being stripped and clothed in mock royal garments, a crown of thorn pressed upon his brow, beaten with rods, punched with fists, mocked and jeered, his hands tied around a post, his back laid bare by scourging, which in some cases actually took the life of the one scourged. Here is our Lord, having already been buffeted and bruised and scourged, now impaled upon the cross and He has been there for some time. These are the external, physical circumstances of our Lord. But beyond the external and the physical, there was the internal and the spiritual condition of our Lord. You remember that as He anticipated these hours.

12:42 And as the temporal and the spiritual condition of our Lord. And as the temporal and the spiritual condition of our Lord. And as the temporal and the spiritual condition of our Lord. cup of his suffering was presented to him in vivid outline in the garden of Gethsemane, our Lord drew back and three times prayed, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He came, as it were, to the brink of the horrible abyss of the spiritual suffering he would undergo, and when he looked over the edge, he drew back and said, No, Father, anything but that abyss. And now as he's on the cross, the abyss is worse than he ever anticipated in the garden. He does not hang upon the cross and say, Father, I thank you that what I anticipated was far worse than what I now experience. Rather, toward the end of those hours of darkness when God pulls a shade over the heavens, Jesus cries out.

13:44 What, to my understanding, are the most mysterious words ever uttered by a human being on God's earth? My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? He was experiencing nothing less than the tortures of hell itself. Hell will be God saying, Depart from me, you cursed. You want darkness? You want nothing. You will have nothing to do with me. God says you will have nothing to do with me. Depart from me. And our Lord Jesus is experiencing the horrors of that abandonment when he, the just one, suffers for the unjust. And so the circumstances of our Lord Jesus are externally and physically horrific beyond description. Internally and spiritually, he is experiencing the worst from it, which is the fear of his own flesh. He imposes his own heart and soul

14:48 upon his own flesh. He is in deep doubt about what will come of him. And so he says to himself, I thank you that you are in love with me and You are well in your flesh. The Lord said, I thank you, O God, that you love me and You love me and I believe Your word. Then he says, I thank you, O God, that you love me. So I thank you and I thank you in the name of your precious. tongue and nation, bearing their hell for them. If ever it would be justified for someone to be wrapped up and cocooned by his own world of reality, surely it would be here amidst the tortures externally and physically, amidst the horrors internally and spiritually. Those

The Circumstances of Mary at the Cross

15:42 were the circumstances of Jesus. Now note, secondly, Mary's circumstances. She is standing by the cross with Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Three Marys standing by the cross. What was her condition? What were her surrounding circumstances? Most likely at this time, she was standing by the cross with Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. At this point, Mary had been a widow for some time. You remember that in the Gospel records, Jesus goes from being described as, is not this the carpenter's son, to being described as, is not this the carpenter. After the passage in Luke 2 that we studied this morning, there is no more mention of Joseph throughout the entire Gospel record. He had brothers.

16:43 But they may not have been present, for their home was in upper Galilee, in Capernaum, according to John 2 and verse 12. After the miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, there is a retirement by Mary and the other siblings of Jesus to a home up in Capernaum, way up in Galilee, away from Jerusalem. At this point, these brothers who are described in John chapter 7 as not yet believing on the Lord Jesus, they may still have been rank unbelievers. We have no clear record that they came to faith until we find them in Acts 1.14 in the upper room, waiting upon God for the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit. And there in Acts 1.14, it is clearly stated that the disciples were there, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there, and His brethren. And so it could well be at this point, that the disciples were there, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there, and His brethren. And so it could well be at this point, that the

17:43 wake of this parable's marksck gentlemen. They were IRSh. At this point they were still unbelievers. It could well be that they did not even care to come to this particular Passover feast. And Mary is there, left exposed, most likely as a widow with her other male

18:00 siblings unbelieving and unsympathetic to her, and unsympathetic to her firstborn son. Those were Mary's circumstances. Then we notice thirdly, Jesus' words and actions. Look at the text. When Jesus therefore saw his mother,

Jesus' Words and Actions of Sensitive Care

18:25 he not only had an impact upon his retina of the physical image of his mother, when the text says he saw her, he saw her with a present cognition and perception of the reality of her circumstances. Soon he would be laid in a borrowed tomb. Shortly thereafter he would rise from the dead, but forty days later he would ascend to the right hand of the Father. Mary was going to be left destitute. Jesus saw her. He is able, as the image of this woman passes through his eye and impinges on the retina and goes by the optic lens, to see her. He is able to see her. He is able to see her. He is able to see her.

19:12 He has a bright nerve to the brain amidst all of the horrific physical torture, amidst all of the unspeakable spiritual torment. Jesus' mind does some calculating, and he sees Mary in her true circumstances. And beholding her in her true circumstances, note what he by whom he loved. This is John's way of modestly describing himself. John's chaste way of pointing the finger at himself. And Jesus sees his mother with true inward perception of her circumstances. And he sees this disciple for whom he had this special love. And with cognition and sensitivity to John's spiritual perception and that peculiar bond that had existed, this is the one who leaned his head on his bosom in the upper room the eve before he was crucified. He says to his mother,

20:31 woman, the same word that he used, back there in John 2. And remember I said this morning, on the one hand, it can be said in such a way that it seems to be rather curt and lacking in affection. On the other hand, it can be used in a way that has overtures of affection, and sometimes it quivers between the two. Well, surely here, it's over on this end of the nuance. When he says to her, woman, behold your son.

21:03 And I believe this. I pondered the passage. Jesus, in that moment, as he's upon the cross, he couldn't point a finger. He couldn't point a foot. But most likely with his head, looking at Mary, turned his head and said, woman, behold your son. And then looking at John, he says to the disciple, behold your mother. Simple words. What would they convey? Well, it's obvious that the intention of his heart was understood both by Mary and by John, for the result of those simple words are these. And from that hour, the disciple took her unto his own house. While this was no legal transaction, a legal appointing of John as a surrogate. John was a surrogate son or a stepson. It was understood in that bond of spiritual chemistry

22:15 that existed between Mary and her firstborn son upon the cross. And that relationship that existed between Jesus and his intimate friend and disciple, John. There was a reading of the intention of the heart of our Lord, who in the moment of his deepest agony, physically and spiritually, he is sensitive that the fifth commandment demands that he care for his widowed mother. And so I say our blessed Lord becomes to us an example of sensitive caring for his mother in the midst of the most distressful personal circumstance. Now, if that's what the passage is teaching, and I believe it is, let me say several things by way of application. First of all, here was obedience to the fifth commandment reaching its farthest bounds.

Application: Obedience to the Farthest Bounds and Resisting the 'Throwaway' Mentality

23:33 Think for a moment. Jesus is on the cross dying to prepare a home in heaven for Mary. But we saw this morning. She was a sinful and imperfect woman. But while he's dying to prepare a home in heaven for Mary, he's thinking of her need for shelter and protection here on earth. Is not this honoring one's mother to the utmost reaches? If ever someone could be exempt from that implication of her mother's imprisoned action, and package Water on her burden. Because of that simple act she'd experience, she could do authority in her mortal studies, work and life and take the righteousness of the Quarter? Surely we would exempt our Lord, but he was banished from the Father's rites of

24:25 piety. He was not exempt. He was manifesting in his own person and his works what it means truly to honor one's father and one's mother, while travailing with the sins of all who areuna'n. .

24:46 . . . of his people of all the ages our Lord is sensitive and aware of the needs of his earthly mother and he makes the only provisions possible for him as he hangs upon a cross surely then we have the perfect son perfectly obeying the fifth commandment and thereby becoming our perfect Savior here was obedience to the fifth commandment reaching its farthest bounce but then secondly by way of application here we have a gripping example for each one of us you and I live in our country our society in a throwaway society I I I am amazed and appalled at the things that are made with the intention that they will be used and thrown away. Some of us who are old enough to have lived through the tail end of the Great Depression and lived through the Second World War, we will never get accustomed to the throwaway culture that now exists. We just can't do it. Now granted, they aren't

26:14 granted, we've become pack rats with some things. I understand that. If you don't believe it, come and look at ourselves. But when you were reared as a child on the tail end of the Depression and lived through the Second World War when every scrap of metal and every scrap of tinfoil and everything that could in any way go into the war machine was husbanded and channeled into the war machine, it's very difficult to get accustomed to buying things that you buy them with the full intention that when the supply of whatever is in them is gone, you'll be able to buy them again.

26:50 So I think it's very difficult to get accustomed to buying things that you buy them with the full intention that when the supply of whatever is in them is gone, you'll be able to buy them again. So I think it's very difficult to get accustomed to buying things that you buy them with the full intention that when the supply of whatever is in them is gone, you'll be able to buy them again. And I make no statement about whether or not this is right or wrong. I'm not a crazy, stark, raving, mad environmentalist. But you see, the throwaway mentality has reached into the way children treat their parents when they become aged and infirm. They become throwaway stuff. They're no longer productive. All they do is sap our savings by having to pay for them in a nursing home, having to care for them in a place of assisted living, thousands of dollars year after year. They are throwaway stuff and an irritant.

27:38 My dear brothers and sisters, if there's ever an area where we need to listen to Romans 12, 2, it's here. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove the good and acceptable and perfect will of God if we're to be accompanied by the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. If we're to be accompanied by the good and acceptable and perfect will of God in any community of Christ-like disciples, we must resist with every fiber of our being this throwaway mentality when it touches the care of our aged, infirm and indigent fathers and mothers.

28:17 And look to our Lord Jesus Christ hanging on a cross, absorbed with the salvation of

28:26 a world of sin. Lord, where is the sin that we should have sinned and not you, Jesus Christ, the cross which was, I thank You Lord, for the salvation of a world of sin? of sinners saying, behold your son, behold your mother. Some of you may see much of your lifetime savings go down the tubes in the care of indigent parents. But my Bible says him that honors me will I honor. And as you, out of principled commitment to the Word of God, and out of a passionate commitment to follow the example of your blessed Lord, are prepared even if it brings tremendous pressure upon you. You'll never feel the pressure of dying for the sins of the world. And it's unlikely that you'll be strung up on a cross.

Apostolic Precept on Caring for Family

29:25 Look at your Savior, and behold in your Savior the pattern of sensitive care for one's needy parents, even in the midst of great personal distress. God has something very, very striking to say about this whole matter. I want you to turn with me to 1 Timothy, in chapter 5. Not only is our Lord a clear example, the Apostle has given us this very clear precept. In 1 Timothy

30:10 verse 3, is how widows are to be treated in the Church of Christ and by the people of Christ. Honor widows that are widows indeed. 1 Timothy 5.3. But if any widow has children or grandchildren let them learn first to show piety toward their own family and to requite their parents, for this is acceptable in the sight of God. How do we know it's acceptable in the sight of God? if the nearest relatives care for them, because that's God's commandment, honor your father and your mother. And what God has commanded is acceptable in His sight.

30:50 Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate hath her hopes set on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she that gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives. These things also command that they may be without reproach. But if any provides not for his own, and the context is his own indigent true widows, widows that are widows indeed, widows that have no structure of financial support beneath them, if any provides not for his own, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. That's some of the strongest language in the Bible.

31:44 Out of selfish concern to protect your nest egg, if you do not reach out in sacrificial loving concern to provide for those in true need within the bonds of family ties, you have become worse than an infidel. This is the language of the Word of God. How can I claim to be saved by a Savior who while having a child, while hanging on a cross, is concerned for his mother's practical needs, when I, not hanging on a cross, not undergoing any kind of duress that even begins to match his, show indifference and selfishness with respect to my parents and those bound to me by the closest ties of family relationship.

Communion Meditation and Concluding Prayer

32:43 In a few moments, we're going to come to the Lord's table. And here we're going to remember again that our salvation was secured by the Christ who bore our sins in His own body up to the tree. We come to this table as He commanded us to do, to show forth, to preach His death till He come, to declare afresh to ourselves, to one another, to unseen angels and principalities that are above us, and in our midst, that our only hope for acceptance with God is in Jesus Christ crucified. That's what we proclaim when we come to the table.

33:26 But we also proclaim that we are bound to the One who died in faith and love, and that we are committed by the strength of His Spirit and by His grace. As the Scripture says, He that says He abides in Him ought to walk even as He walked. And loving Him, because He first loved us, and having the confidence of sins forgiven because of His work for us, we are committed that we should follow His steps in the language of Peter, that we should do as He has done. And our blessed Lord is not only for us our example of principled obedience to one's parents, even though they are sinful and imperfect parents, not only our example of righteous resistance to any parental directives and expectations contrary to the will of God, but He is our perfect example of sensitive caring for one's parents, even in the midst of the most distressful of personal circumstances. May God grant that as we come to the table, our faith in His work on our behalf, will be deepened, strengthened, renewed, and our resolution to determine to be like Him

34:52 is deepened and strengthened and renewed. Let's pray. Our Father, how can we thank You enough that You have set before us our Lord Jesus Christ, not only as the only Savior of sinners who procured salvation by His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, but who has set for us such an example of what it means to obey the fifth commandment. Forgive us, Lord, where we have violated that clear directive given by You. We pray that You would purge from our thinking all of the world's insensitivity and indifference to that command, and help us by Your grace that as a community of Your people, we will be like our Lord Jesus. Continue with us as we come now to the table. May we know Your gracious presence in our midst.

36:06 Hear us, we plead in Jesus' name. Amen.