Pastor Scott Purkey
Bay Summit Church

1 Corinthians 15:54b-58 – “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting? For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

What a statement!  This was perhaps the first declaration of independence ever recorded.  But it wasn’t independence from people or another nation but from the greatest bondage of all time, sin.  Up until Christ, sin had no antidote.  Nothing could reverse its effects on the human race.  But the Apostle Paul is making it very clear in the above passage this was no longer true.  Death, sin’s greatest travesty, has already been defeated.

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Pastor Art Barrett
New Life Christian Church

John 19:34-35 One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water flowed out. 35 This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account; it is presented so that you also can believe.

This gnarly eyewitness account leads to another, “so that” in the story of Jesus. “So thats” are always worth a pause.

“So that you also can believe” is an invitation just too good to miss. It’s an invitation saying ‘come closer.’ You may come closer to this Jesus without distrust. The original language has the invitation bowing before us saying, “others have come this way, you too are most welcome.”

The soldier, the piercing, the flow of blood and water, all say, ‘Jesus is real, He was here, He was really dead.’ The eyewitness is emphasis, You can trust this, He really laid His life down for you. Believe it.

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Pastor Doug Stevens
The Leadership Connection

John 19:28-30 Jesus knew that everything was now finished, and to fulfill the Scriptures he said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. 30 When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

We cannot know the depth of suffering endured by Jesus on the cross.  We can only imagine —but our best effort to empathize falls far short.

We may know about the discomfort of deprivation, or have some personal experience of physical pain that became a protracted agony, or some memory of social rejection, or some recollection of betrayal, or some connection with a history of injustice — or even been victimized by a cruel conspiracy.  But the cross, this Cross, the Cross of Christ, was unlike any trauma any human has ever faced.

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