What Jesus Said From the Cross — 7 Statements Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good afternoon to everybody. We've got the largest class I guess we've had since we started televising. And again, you're so far removed from where you've come from, I can't begin to list all the various cities, but how we do appreciate that you've put forth the effort to come in and be a part of this program. You know, it's amazing what catches people's attention. We had a couple write the other day as they were going through their channels, the thing that caught their attention was the blackboard. And that was because they were both college professors and used blackboards, and I suppose they thought, maybe here comes something like what we teach. And as a result, they've gotten really interested in the program. Other times they'll just see these people out there, and they'll say, well what in the world? And God will use all kinds of things to get people's attention. So that's why we appreciate your coming in. Now again for those of you out in television, this is an informal Bible study. We're not supported or held up by any particular organization. We just simply teach the Word across all denominational lines, and this taping will wind up our video tape number 16. Now that means this culminates almost 4 years of television programs. The Lord has been good, and our outreach is growing little by little, and again we always like to have everyone aware that all the programs are available on video tape. We have put 12 half hour programs, or 3 months on one tape, and then those are being transcribed into a booklet, and so every video tape has a corresponding book. We are now up, I guess Jerry number 8 is coming out, and how far are you in transcribing? Almost 11. So as funds are available we'll just be taking them into the printer, and Jerry thinks that by fall or by Christmas he'll be caught up with us, so that every 6 hour tape will also have a book to go with it. So much for announcements for right now, and I think most of you are aware that you've been watching our program for a while. This program is not edited, it's strictly right off the cuff, and if I make a mistake I have to live with it until the next program. That happens periodically where someone here will point out where I made a mistake in addition, or something like that, and then in the next program we correct it. In our last program of our last month's taping when we were going through the I AM's of Jehovah in the Old Testament, and then drawing the parallel of the I AM's in John's Gospel, I was running out of time, and I was hurrying as usual, and I only gave you six instead of seven, and somebody caught it. And so we're going to correct that right away before we go any further, otherwise someone is going to call from out there in television land and say, well you said there were seven, but you only gave six. So we'll run through them again quickly, and the one I missed I'm sure was John 14, but we're going to start with the first one in John's Gospel chapter 6. Remember there are seven of these, and then after this we're going to go in and look at the seven statements that Christ made from the cross. Now it isn't that people don't know the various things that He said, but I fear that so few people are realizing that everything in this Book is in a distinct pattern, and it's for the purpose of proving to us that this is not something that man thought up. This is not man's idea. It is so intrinsically put together that only God could have done it, and especially as He groups these things in sevens, which is of course God's perfect number. Now the first of these I AM's in John, just a quick review, was here in chapter 6 verse thirty-five where Jesus said, "...I AM the bread of life, he that cometh unto me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." Now we find the next one in chapter 8, and you drop down to John's Gospel chapter 8, and now verse 12. Now you want to remember that the term Jehovah in the Old Testament translated out of its contractions stood for the I AM. Jehovah is the I AM, all of Scripture. We picked that up especially in Exodus chapter 3 at the burning bush, when Moses said, "...when I go to the children of Israel, and tell them that God hath sent me, what shall I tell them is your name?" And you all know the answer back there. God said to Moses, "...you go tell the children of Israel that I AM, the great I AM hath sent you." And then we normally go all the way into John's Gospel where it's so definite that Jesus referred to Himself as the I AM from the Old Testament economy, and so consequently now in John's Gospel we also have all these I AM's. It just ties Him to the person of Jehovah all the way back to the Old Testament. Now the next one here would be chapter 10, and you come into the Good Shepherd chapter and drop down to verse 7 where He says, "...I say unto you, I AM the door of the sheep." He is the Jehovah God, and He is the door of the sheep. And then you drop down to verse 11, and you have the fourth one, and that is I AM the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep. And then the next one will be in chapter 11, the account of Lazarus, and when Martha made reference to the resurrection of the last day, then Jesus came back in verse 25 of John 11, and Jesus said unto her, that is unto Martha, "...I AM the resurrection and the life." Now you just can't escape it. And then the one that I missed in our last program would be in John's Gospel chapter 14. Now in John's Gospel chapter 14, you drop down to verse 6, and I think this is the one that I skipped over, where He says, "...I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me." Then the next one will be in the next page or so, John's Gospel chapter 15, and now He says, "...I AM the true vine, my Father is the husbandman." And then we always like to tie the 8th with the 7th, and that would take us back to Revelation chapter 22. The number 8 in the Scripture is always indicative of new beginnings. So after the 7 I AM's of John's Gospel have accomplished what they were given for, and we now enter into the eternal state in Revelation chapter 22. Here we have the 8th I AM, and I love it, it's just so explanatory of the whole program from start to finish. And now in chapter 22, verse 16, where Jesus said, "...I have sent My angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I AM the root, the offspring of David, the bright morning star." Well what's so important about the morning star? It shines the brightest in the heavens just before the dawn of the New Day. That's the whole idea of the morning star. So what's being shown here is that Christ claims rightfully that all of human history, the darkness of it, the 6,000 years of darkness while man has been existing under the curse, is now about to end, and the dawning of the new day, the eternal day, of which He is of course the bright and morning star, or the 8th I AM in our New Testament. Now that was just a quick review, now I'd like to take a look and probably spend the rest of this half hour on the 7 statements from the cross. I'm going to have you turn with me now in the class to Luke chapter 23, and as I warned you before the cameras started rolling, we're going to be jumping back and forth, and we're going to take these 7 statements in their chronological order in time, not according to their order in Scripture. Hopefully you can see this unfold as we jump back and forth. This is what you have to do with the Gospels. I think a lot of people have got the idea that the feeding of the 5 ,000 spoken of in one Gospel is the same feeding of 5,000 in one of the other Gospels. That's not necessarily true. Each one if you look at it closely, they all have different circumstances, and there are different details. Now that doesn't mean that the writers are conflicting, it just simply means that one is talking about one event, and one is talking about another event, because as we're going to see when we get to the end of John's Gospel, what does John say? Oh, they haven't recorded all of his miracles, only just a little small portion of them. Because John says if we'd record all of the miracles that Christ did in those three years, the world couldn't contain it. It would just take too much material to write it all down. And so we only have just the highlights of it. So this is why as you study the Gospels always keep that in mind, that we don't have contradiction. We simply have one writer giving an account of this event, and this one over here. Sometimes they will record the same one, but when they do you can tell by the details. And if the details don't fit, then just rest assured that they're reporting on something that was not in the identical same time. Now in Luke chapter 23, drop down to verse 34, and here is John's first words from the cross. Luke 23. John says, "...and then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Now we know that Romans and Jews were both involved in this crucifixion, but Scripture primarily lays the onus of all this on the nation of Israel. Israel should have known. Oh I've told my classes how many times over the years, Israel should have known who He was. Israel could have known who He was. The Old Testament was full of it, but Israel did not know. And so Jesus here is referring primarily to the Jew on whom the responsibility is going to be laid, as we go into the Book of Acts here, if not in this series of programs, we sure will in the next one. But the ones that He's talking about to forgive, for they know not what they do, is the nation of Israel. He's not including the Romans as much as He is the Jew. So they parted His raiment, and cast lots. Now that would be the first one. Then I think we have to take you back to John's Gospel, in chapter 23, and come down to verse 43. And here is His second statement from the cross, and the malefactor has just recognized who He is. And verse 42. And he said unto him, Jesus, Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom. And now verse 43, His second statement. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And of course I think you all understand if you've heard me teach very long, that in the Old Testament economy, people who died as believers did not go up to heaven, they went down into paradise. And Jesus has made that so plain, and so that's what He's saying to this thief on the cross, that that very day He would attend Christ's descent into paradise. Now then for the third one, we have to go back to John's Gospel, in chapter 19. John's Gospel chapter 19, and I'm going to have you drop down to verse 26. John's Gospel chapter 19, and let's start with verse 25. Now they are stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. Verse 26. And when Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciples standing by whom he loved, which is always John, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Now I always have to stop and clarify some of these words. I suppose in our day and time, for us to address a lady as a woman, we would almost think it's a little bit of a put down. It's not a real term of endearment. But under this economy, when Jesus is speaking, it was certainly a word of endearment. It was not any kind of a put down, it wasn't that He was detracting from her name Mary, but in perfect accord with the custom of the day, He refers to her here as Woman, behold thy son. And then verse 27, all in the same breath, He says to John, Behold thy mother. Now of course we know from that, and from the rest of Scripture that Mary evidently was under John's protective custody for the rest of her life. Joseph was evidently removed from the scene before all this, but that's the third statement from the cross. Now we have to flip back again to Matthew chapter 27, and now I have to drop all the way down to verse 46, and again I'd rather start at verse 45. Remember we made reference to this three hours in one of our previous programs, how that I feel that during that three hours of intense darkness, and absolute silence from the cross, that Christ in His Deity, in His omnipotence, in everything that was associated with His being God, He in the spirit realm at least, in the soul and spirit, went and suffered the punishment for every human being. And then He comes back from that three hours of silence, and we pick it up now in verse 45, that from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour, that's high noon until three in the afternoon. And then verse 46, and about the ninth hour, now remember there's been total silence for three hours. Then the ninth hour, or three o'clock in the afternoon, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, "...Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" That is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? Now that statement has caused consternation amongst believers for hundreds and hundreds of years. Martin Luther wrestled with it, and finally after many, many years, he came out of his study one day and exclaimed to his wife, "...I've found it, I've found it!" And I can just about imagine his wife saying, "...You've found what?" And he says, "...I can finally see it, that when Jesus said, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" It was God speaking to God. Now we've got to never lose sight of the fact that the Christ of the cross was the same God who created everything in Genesis chapter 1. He's one and the same, and the New Testament constantly gives Him credit for being the Creator. I'm afraid too many believers are not aware of who Jesus really is. He is the Creator God. I got a letter from a Muslim listener, if you can believe that. He's been watching the program, and he starts out his letter as a Muslim, but he has of course a lot of arguments, and one of the things that he brings up is that Jesus was never God. He was just another prophet, of whom of course Muhammad has now superseded because he came on the scene later. But you see folks, you just can't comprehend that Jesus was not just a prophet, He was the Eternal Creator God, and He never stopped being God. He was God in the womb, He was God in the manger, He was God in those growing up years, He was God when He began His ministry, and see the whole concept of His earthly ministry is to prove to the nation of Israel who He was. That's why He performed these miracles, that's why He performed the signs, is so that they could understand that this was not just another great man, this was the Eternal God. Now maybe while I'm on that point, I wasn't intending to do this, but come back with me to Isaiah, and believe it or not I have quite a few Jewish listeners that have responded to the program. And I'm not talking about Messianic Jews, I'm talking about Orthodox Jews. And you see they can't comprehend this either. They just cannot see that Christ was the God of the Old Testament. They can't comprehend the Trinity, they refuse the Trinity, and of course they use the verse in Deuteronomy where Moses writes, "...our God is One." Well absolutely He's One, but we know from all the rest of Scripture that He is in three persons. Now I can't understand that, and you can't understand it, and they can't understand it, so what do we do? We take it by faith, because that's what this Book says, and this is what God is looking for is our faith. He expects us to believe what He has said, and we're not to argue with it. You know I always like to use the illustration, I don't care who you are, if you know something, and you know you know it, and someone comes along and says I don't believe it, how do you feel? Well they're calling you a liar, and nobody likes to be called a liar, especially when you know you're not. Well you see that's what we do to God. Any time that a man says, I can't believe what this Book says, he's calling God a liar. And this is why God has made it so plain that it's impossible to please Him without faith. We have to believe what He has said, or we can't please God. I don't care if you give a million dollars a week, I don't care if you go visit the sick every night, I don't care if you go to the worst mission field in this world, it won't do you a nickel's worth of good if you're going to do it outside of the realms of faith. We have to take God at His Word. So back in Isaiah chapter 9, and we're going to go down to verse 7. This is Old Testament, for unto us a child is born. Now whenever we look at Isaiah and some of these Old Testament prophets, who are the pronouns? Well the nation of Israel. They didn't write to Gentiles, Isaiah wasn't writing to the Egyptians or the Babylonians, he's writing to Israel. And so to the nation of Israel he says, for unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given. Now flash in your mind to John 3 .16, what does it say? For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. How did God give His Son? When He was born in Bethlehem, and the government shall be upon His shoulder. In other words, that Kingdom on earth that He was talking about in His earthly ministry, that all of Old Testament prophecy is looking forward to, that there's going to be a King of kings, and a Lord of lords who's not only going to rule Israel, but the whole world. And it's going to be perfect, there's going to be no sin, no corruption, no rotten politics, and His government is going to rest upon the shoulder of this person that Isaiah is talking about. Now everybody knows who's the Prince of Peace, don't they? That was Christ. But do they know that He's also God the Father? A lot of them don't. Do you see how this verse ties it all together? And then you come on down to the next one, where it says, "...and the increase of his government, and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David." Now I pointed out in one of the classes the other night, and I've done it here on television, I know I have. You go into Matthew's Gospel, the very first verse, and it throws you only way back to Abraham. Not to Adam, but only back to Abraham. Why? Because Matthew is one of the Gospels that presents Christ as the King. And this whole concept of a coming King comes out of the Abrahamic Covenant, not out of something that God promised to Adam, but what He promised to Abraham. And so that genealogy that comes out in Matthew only goes back to Abraham, because he's presenting the King, the One who's going to rule and reign not only the nation of Israel, but the whole world. Then you get into the other genealogy in Luke's Gospel chapter 3, and that genealogy goes how far back? To Adam! Because you see Luke is presenting Christ not as the King, but as the Son of Man. And so consequently he is tied to Adam, the first man. And then Paul refers to Christ as the second Adam. So you see how beautifully all the Scripture fits. So here we have in Isaiah that Christ was indeed God. He's God the Father, He's God the Son, and we can show you another one. Let's go to John's Gospel now, and the next statement from the cross is going to come in chapter 19. But on your way to chapter 19, just stop at chapter 14 again for a moment. Now I'm going to get myself confused, I'm not careful. But anyway, John 14, you all know the verses, you've all heard sermons on it, and here they are in the upper room. John 14, verse 8 says, "...and Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" They're one and the same. The only difference is that Christ is God the Father in human flesh and appearance. Now I've only got a minute left, and again I'm going to run out of time. Let's come back to the next statement of Christ on the cross, and I bet I won't have time to finish them all again. But now let's come into John's Gospel chapter 19, and then we come down to verse 28, and after this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He saith, "...I thirst." That should be the fifth one, and then just drop down to verse 30, and we'll pick up the sixth one, and now He says it is finished. But we've got to go back to Luke 23 one more time, and pick up His final statement, and that would be in verse 46 where He says, "...Father, into Thy hands have I commended My Spirit," and He gave up the ghost. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. 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