Hey children, did you know that there's a Savior? Yes. Hey children, did you His name is Jesus? Say His name! I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Tim: So, what did you learn about today? I want that guy. You what? You barely got here? Okay, well let me tell you what they learned about today. At least this is what the email said. Okay, you tell me. How sinful we are? Is that was today's was about? What was it? You might have heard about that. You learned about Jesus Christ? Is that what you learned about too? Tomorrow, I think you learn more about the cross right? Isn't that how it goes? What did you learn about? Real loud, I can't hear your soft little voice. Okay, shh... Jesus dying on the cross? For our sins. What were you going to say? You forgot? No, you didn't forget. You just raised your hand 10 seconds ago. Okay, well, that's good. Now, the email I got said you were going to look at who Jesus is. Right? Does that sound familiar? Okay, let's think about this. You and I, we had a beginning. There was a time we were born. Any of you remember when you were born? No, you don't. You remember when you were born? Now, you may know the day you were born, but do you remember it? Do you remember looking at your mama for the first time? No. We don't have that good of memories right? We haven't been around long, have we? How long have you been around? This guy right here - 30 years? He's been around 30 years! But you know what? Jesus had no beginning. Jesus did not have a beginning like you and me. Why didn't Jesus have a beginning? Because He is God. See, you look at me. What do I look like? In a lot of ways, I look like you, right? He's scowling - "I don't want to look like that guy!" But the thing is, we both have arms, we both have fingers, we both have a head, we have eyes, we have a nose, we have ears, we have feet, we have knees. Right? All of you have that. All of you do. I forgot a lot of things. We have stomachs, right? We have shoulders. We have hair. Some more, some less, but we have hair. Jesus became a man, but He wasn't always a man. Before He became a man, what was He? He was a spirit. Now look, all of you pay attention. Before Jesus became a man, He has always been God. You know what that means? God is over here. He's right here. He's all around here. And He's over here at the same time. And if you ran to my house right now, He's over there. And if I ran to your house right now, He's over there. And if we went to the moon, He's over there. And if we dug a hole way down in the planet here and went way down in there, like down in the mines, way down there where they get gold and they get diamonds and they dig all those things out - He's there. And if we went to the bottom of the ocean, He's there. And if we went to Mars, He's there. And if we went way out to other galaxies, He's there. God is everywhere at the same time. I used to tell my children that. Is God in here? Yep. Is He out at the mailbox? (which was quite a ways from our house) Yep, He's out there too. How? Can you be in two places at once? He can be. Do you know why? Because Jesus Christ isn't just a man like you and me, He's God. Which means, He's almighty. He has power. Know this? Omniscience - that's a fancy word, but you know what it means? He knows everything. Did you know that Jesus knows every single thought that you have? When mom and dad can't look inside your head, He does. He knows every thought you have ever thought. Does that make you feel good or bad? Do you like it that He knows everything you've ever thought? Would you like it if I knew everything you ever thought? He does. He knows everything. He knows everything! He knows every hair on your head. He knows every little bird. He knows every pebble of sand. He knows everything. He knows exactly how the wind is blowing in every part of the earth right now. He knows every cloud. And you know what happened? Infinite, all knowing, almighty, the fullness of God came to this earth in a man. Just like you and me. You know what the Bible says? He was made just like us except one thing. What one way was He not made like us? Okay, sir, you raised your hand. Do you have the answer? What way wasn't Jesus made like us? See, one exception. He's made like us in every way except one way. Do you know what way? Sin. That's right. I know lots of you knew that answer. He never had sin. And you know what? He's a man now forevermore. And so here He came to this earth, and I want you to see something about what He was like. Georgie, come here. Yow know, Georgie is not Christ. But right now, imagine that he is. There was once a man. He had a horrible disease. It made his flesh turn colors and it was horrible, horrible! It made a person stink. It made their flesh come off. It's called leprosy. And here comes a man one day. He's horrible. You didn't even want to touch him. You didn't want to be around him. You didn't want to smell him. He was horrible. He was gross. He was covered with a horrible disease. And he came to Jesus one day. And he came up to Him and he said, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." And do you know what Jesus did? Jesus not only healed him. Jesus put out His hand and He touched him. You never touched a leper! Ever! Why? They were unclean. They were horrible. Everybody avoided them. Everybody ran from them. If you had leprosy, you had to go around saying, "Unclean! Unclean!" You had to cover your mouth so that you wouldn't breathe that stuff on people. And Jesus touched him, and He said, "I will. Be clean." And you know what the Bible teaches us? Jesus healed people of diseases to show us that He could heal your sin. That's what it's meant to teach. There was another day. Imagine he's Jesus again. He's not, but he's playing the part. Imagine me. I'm blind. Remember the guy's name? Bartimaeus. And you now what? He heard. Somebody told him. Somebody whispered to him, "Jesus! Jesus is coming!" "Lord, heal me! Lord, I need sight! Lord!" He called out to Him. "Son of David, have mercy upon me." Do you think Jesus would have mercy? You know why they all said yes? Because they've heard the stories enough. Do you know this? Jesus had mercy on everybody that wanted mercy from Him. No exceptions. Go through this book again and again and again. Jesus always had mercy on those who wanted mercy. And you know what Jesus said to him? "What would you have me do to you?" He said, "Lord, that I might have my sight." And He gave him sight. Go ahead and sit down. Do you know another day? Here's Jesus. All the fullness of God is packed into Him. And you know what happened? A friend of His died. Come on, you can come back over here. Lay down on the floor. Come here, little red shirt Marisa and Miss Patience. You come here too. These are the sisters. What are they doing? This is Lazarus. Lazarus is dead. You know how long he's been dead? Four days. Do you know what happens when somebody's dead four days? That plane was just shot down. Dead people begin to stink real fast. Where I go and pray in the morning, I can smell something dead. Animals die. They stink. He's been dead four days. They said that he already stank. His sisters - you're crying. You have to cry. And you know we laugh because you know these people. But do you know Jesus saw their sorrow? He heard the mourning of the people. He heard their cries. He heard their sorrow. And do you remember? It's the shortest verse in the Bible. Do you know what it says? "Jesus wept." What do you do with that? Hey guys, do you know Jesus wept? There's hope in those tears. You know what? God came to this earth as a man and He didn't go around with fiery thunderbolts and just zap everybody. Did He? In fact, there was a day, remember it? They came out to get Him. They had clubs and they had their lanterns or their torches. And they came out. They had swords. And you remember what happened? He said, "Who are you looking for?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth." And He said, "I am He." And remember what happened? They all fell down! But He didn't kill them. He didn't strike them dead. He showed them, you would have no power over Me unless I gave you power. He was God Almighty. He is God Almighty. He will always be God Almighty. And forevermore, He'll be a man. But He's almighty God joined to man. It's a mystery. And you know what He did at the tomb of Lazarus? He wept. Can you imagine tears falling down His face? You know what that does? It gives me hope! It gives me hope that God came to this earth and He would actually weep over our condition. Those tears tell me that He'll help us. He'll help us if we want Him. He'll help us if you call upon Him. He will. If you need His help, He'll come. And you know what He said? "Lazarus, come forth." Look at that! It happened for real. It happened for real. And they unbandaged him; let him free. You know what? He raised the dead. He healed blind eyes. He cured lepers to show us that He can get rid of our spiritual blindness and cure the leprosy of our sin, and He can raise us from the dead spiritually. He can give us eternal life. That's what He was showing us. That's what He was showing us. Okay, my actors can go sit down. Hold on, buddy. Where are you going? Bathroom? We just have a few minutes. I want you all to know this. One day, this Jesus is coming. Right now, if you ask Him for mercy, He'll heal you. But when He comes, it's too late. Or when you die, it's too late. And you know what He's going to do? The Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to judge all of us. And He's going to come as a great, triumphant King. And He's going to come, and you know what the Bible says? He's going to say: right here. There's the dividing line. All My sheep and My goats. He's going to divide every person like a shepherd divides his sheep and his goats. And to these on His right, He's going to say, "you did good. Well done. You poured out your lives on My behalf. You loved people. You lived righteously." These over here, they lived wickedly; they lived selfishly, and He's going to tell them to depart into everlasting punishment. The good and the bad. And you know how to be good? It says that the good, the resurrection of the just - how do you be good enough? How can you be good enough? When we've done bad things? Well, you know what we do. We go to Christ and we trust Him to make us good. We trust Him to heal us and wash away our sin and to make us good. And if He makes us good, we are good. And if we are good, He's going to welcome us in, but only if we're resting on Him. He's going to divide us. Which side do you want to be on? When He divides, do you want to be on the right hand or do you want to be on the left hand? You guys didn't like it over here, did you? You didn't like acting that part. You don't like being on the left hand. I feel that too. I don't want to be on the left hand. Even in the acting! You want to be on the right hand. But there's only one way to be on that right hand. When Jesus comes to separate man, what's the only way? What's the only way to be on the right hand of Jesus? And to hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant"? What's the way? Believing on Him. Trusting Him. Look how He healed everybody. Look how He gave sight. Look how He raised Lazarus. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He did all these miracles and you know why He did it? He calmed storms. He actually walked on water. Have you ever walked on water? You've splashed in water, but you haven't walked on top of it. Jesus did. And He did all those things to show us His power. Is Jesus powerful? You better believe He is. He showed us that He's powerful. So powerful that He can wash you whiter than snow. How many of you have ever seen snow? Whiter than snow. He'll wash all the sin away. Look, remember how it was with blind Bartimaeus? "Son of David!" He cried out to Him. "Jesus! Son of David!" You know the way he cried out? He would not give Jesus any rest until Jesus healed him. That's the way you need to be. You need to cry out that way this very day. Look, this isn't make believe. This is all very real. Children, we're having you come here because we want to tell you the truth. If you call upon this Lord Jesus, He will save you. And to be saved is the greatest thing in this world. To have Christ for your own and to be saved by Him and to have your sin washed clean, and to have Him working powerfully in your life to make you good, that's everything! You're young right now, and you think you're going to live forever, but you're not going to live forever. And very soon, we're all going to be gone. And you know what? Most people, let me tell you this, most people get saved when they're young. Not many people get saved when they're old. This is the time. This is the time to call upon the Lord. This is the time. The Bible says today's the day of salvation. Today's the day you want to be saved. Children, do you know what's going to happen as soon as I'm done? You're going to all jump up and you're going to get crazy right? Well, I hope these thoughts will stay with you. Jesus, we heard that You are God. We heard that You came to this earth and You became a man and You actually shed tears. And if you know you have sin, I hope you'll see that those tears speak. What Jesus did speaks. It says something. You know what? God becoming a man and coming here and weeping - if He was just angry: Argh! If He just did that at us, we'd think, wow, because of our sin, we deserve that. Think about it. He doesn't roar at us. He weeps. That tells us what kind of Savior we have. A gentle Savior. And that's what He said. He said, "Come unto Me, and I'll give you rest." "Learn of Me. I'm gentle. I'm meek." I saw that word "meek" over there. You guys have been making something today - all these different words that describe Jesus. I saw compassionate. I saw meek. That's right. I mean, what do you think? He weeps tears. And He raises Lazarus. Can you imagine how happy Lazarus' sisters must have been to have him raised from the dead? And you will be even more happy if He raises you from the dead. You say, "Well, I'm not dead yet!" Oh yes, you are - spiritually. Because of what we heard about yesterday - Adam fell. The problem is we all fell in him. We're spiritually dead. Not physically. I know you very much have physical life. But you need to be made alive. And Jesus can make you alive and He will make you alive if you call upon the Lord. You will find that He is very much a life-giver. What do you think, children? We have a great Savior. A great One. A powerful One. But He's coming. He's coming, and if you ignore Him, you can't ignore Him forever. Because He's going to come one day and He's got an appointment with you. He's going to come see you. And if you've lived your life resting on Him and trusting Him, He'll greet you with a smile, and He'll take you to His home forever and ever. You'll go to Heaven with Him. But if you turn your back on Him, even if you're little children, if you turn your back on Him, He will be very angry. And He will tell you to depart from Him into hell. It's a serious thing to reject this Jesus. He is glorious. He is a glorious King. But you reject Him, and you will find Him a fierce enemy. You don't want Jesus for an enemy. Oh, so often we think of Jesus with the tears, and we think of Jesus compassionate and meek, but if you ignore Him and refuse Him and reject Him, you will find Him to be a very great enemy. We don't want to toy with Jesus. He's compassionate, but He's also very holy, and He punishes sin and we have a lot of sin. You know what I want? I want my sin punished in Him. I want Him to take my punishment for me. Don't you all want that? So that I can go free. That's what you're going to all be learning about tomorrow. That's what I want. And you can have that. We can all have that. Jesus said it like this, "Come to Me." Come to Me. How do you go to Him because we can't see Him? You call upon Him. He's here. Here's very close to every one of us. How do you come to Him? You say, "Jesus, help me." "Jesus, save me." "Jesus, forgive me for my sins." You can all do that, right? I told you yesterday, talk to Him. Talk to the Lord. We have a Lord that healed. We have a Lord that gave life to the dead and gave sight to the blind and He healed lepers. Talk to Him. He's very kind. He's very merciful. He's the kind of Savior that you and I want. So talk to Him. Call upon Him. Do that. Seriously, do that. Father, I pray that You would draw these little ones to You. Draw them to Christ. Draw them. Pull them. Lord, may something in their simple ways, their minds may grasp hold of this and that in their youth, they would trust You; they would hear these things and in just simple faith they would cling to You. I pray in Christ's name, Amen. Okay, children. What did you learn about today? (unintelligible) Where's my little red shirt actress? Marisa, are you hiding back there? My kids last night said, "Dad, you forgot Marisa's name!" I said, "I didn't forget Marisa's name." Sometimes I just call people by other words. I called you "little miss red shirt" yesterday, right? Okay, what did you learn about today? (from the room) Me?
Tim: Yeah. Did you learn something about the cross? Do you all see the cross over here? Can you imagine if that cross was big? About this big, so that a man could hang on it. If I was hanging on it, I would be up higher. Can you imagine a big cross here? A real cross. Can you imagine a real cross? What's up there? Can you imagine a big cross? The Roman soldiers came. Once Jesus was up on that cross - we're imagining this cross. They nailed something to the top. They nailed something on there in three different languages. It said something. They nailed probably a piece of wood that they had written on. Does anybody know what it said? What did it say? The King of the Jews. Can you imagine that little guy right there knows that answer? You guys fill in all the names don't you? You won't let me get by with calling him "the little guy." He knows that. Why did they put that up there? Do you know what they did? Jesus wasn't the only one crucified. Lots of people were crucified. Do you know why they got crucified? There was more than one cross. How many crosses were there? Three. What did the guys on the other side do? They were thieves. Okay, think about this. Do you know what they would have gone up and put on the other crosses? They would have nailed something up there too. What would they have nailed up on top of their crosses? Thief. Right. Do you know what they did? They put the person's crime. The bad thing that they did, they nailed whatever it was to the cross so that you knew what their crime was. How is it a crime for Jesus to be the King of Israel? Or the King of the Jews? How is that a crime? What did you say? Well, you know what? The Jews said, "we have a law." You see, the Jews didn't like what was up on that cross. They told Pilate - Pilate was the one that had Him crucified. He was the Roman governor. They said to Pilate, "No, don't say, 'the King of the Jews.'" What did they want put up there? "He said He was the King of the Jews." You see, there's a difference. The Jews wanted it to be said that this was just what He claimed, and He's not true; He's not genuine. He's a fake. He's not really the King of the Jews. He just said He's the King of the Jews. And what did Pilate say? What I wrote, I wrote. You know what? I did enough for you Jews. Be done with you. Go away. Don't bother me anymore. You guys have bothered me enough. Pilate didn't want to kill Him. Pilate didn't want to crucify Him. The Jews kept saying, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" "Away with this man! Spare Barabbas, but kill Him." Now, here's the thing. Imagine that this is our piece of wood that we're going to nail up here to the top of our imaginary cross. You guys are good at imagining, right? Little children have imaginations. You can still see that cross up there. I want you to know what the Bible says about Jesus being on that cross. Have you ever done anything bad? What have you done bad before? I mean, what's something really bad that you remember that you did? Okay, come here. What store? (from the child) I think it was a gas store. Earnest. You know what Earnest said? Did you all hear him? He said he stole something from like a gas store. He stole something from maybe like a gas station or one of those corner stores. When somebody steals something, what does it make them? A robber. Here. Here's his crime. Earnest. Let's write this on here. Earnest. Robber. Thief. Now you know what? I'm making an example out of Earnest. But you know what? I stole things too. I've stolen things from stores. I could put my name on here too. In fact, not just Earnest, let's put Tim Conway on there. This is our crime. Earnest, you can go ahead and have a seat. This is my crime and this is Earnest's crime. And it's written. And do you know what the Bible says in Colossians 2? Here's what it says. Here's what happened. Jesus' cross - imagine it's still there. And Jesus has His crime - yeah, we could use this. This is probably good, but this is pretty stationary, isn't it? We can always make things mobile, right? So here's the cross. And Jesus, when He died on that cross, they nailed this up here. And it said, if you read this, it said, "King of the Jews." But you know what? That was really no crime. Because Jesus never committed any crimes. Jesus had no sin. Jesus was an innocent man. They were killing an innocent man. But you know what? Jesus didn't die on the cross for His own sins, did He? He didn't have any. In Colossians 2, it says this. Earnest, this is huge. Earnest, robber and thief. But what God does is He takes your crime. Do you see my name on there too? Tim Conway. You and me. We're thieves. This is our crime. What happens is God takes our crimes and nails them to the cross. What does that mean? That's what the Bible says. Our crimes get nailed to the cross. Our sins. Our bad things get nailed to His cross. What does that mean? What does it mean? See, Jesus is on this cross. What is nailed up here is the crime He's guilty of. But you say, wait! That's my crime! That's your crime! That's exactly right. See, that's what God did. God takes your crime, my crime - He takes our crimes and He nails them up here on Jesus' cross, and Jesus makes my crime His crime. It's kind of like if your mama would have found out that you did that, what would she have done? Or did she find out? Oh you're looking around for her. You were little? Being little doesn't excuse it. It's still a crime. You know what? You know what you deserve for that crime? What do you deserve? What does he deserve? We might think, oh, he deserves a spanking. That might be what he deserves from a parent. But what does he deserve from God? (from the room) Death!
Tim: Wow! Isn't that going overboard? Isn't that going overboard? Look, I just go into a store and I look and nobody's looking and I put some candy in my pocket. Should I go to hell for that? (from the room) Yes!
Tim: You're not so sure, right? I mean, doesn't that seem, to get thrown into fire for taking one piece of candy, doesn't that seem like it's going overboard? Does it seem that way? Doesn't that seem like God is being pretty severe? I mean, think about it. What's the last thing you can remember that you did wrong? Hm? You lied. Wow. We could put liar up there too. Don't look at her. We could put liar up there for every one of us, right? You can't get away down here on the end because you know. Liar. Lies. Okay. Patience tells a lie. Patience stand up. If I was her father and I said, "Patience, did you tell a lie?" She nodded yes. I take this hammer and crush her skull and drop her dead right here in front of you. Would you say, "Whoa!!!" "That's excessive!" "That's crazy!" You would look at me as though I was the criminal, right? But isn't that what God says He does to sin, to lies, to being a thief? Isn't that what God says? Death. You know the lie she told deserves death. She deserves death. We all deserve death. For stealing, you deserve death. You can have a seat. Look, but if it all gets nailed up here, can you imagine? The Roman soldier? He pounds it up there. There's Jesus hanging. And you run up there and you see what's His crime? His crimes? He's a liar. But He didn't tell any lies. And you look, and it doesn't say it's Jesus Christ's lies; it says it's Tim Conway's lies. My sin is nailed up there! What does that mean? That means that the punishment I deserve for those sins, He's getting it there on that cross. God is smashing and crushing His Son and punishing His Son and forsaking His Son. When He hung on that cross, He said, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" I'll tell you why God forsook Him. Because of these crimes. And they're none of His. None of His crimes are on here because He never committed a crime. The thing they put up there about Him that He was the King of the Jews, He was the King of the Jews! He is the King of the Jews. And He always will be. He is the King of Israel. There is a King. He is that King. He will always be that King. And what Pilate put there was truth. Remember, Pilate said, "what is truth?" I'll tell you what truth is. What Pilate had written on that piece of board that was nailed up there. That was truth. He is the King. But when we go up there and we look and it says "robber, thief, liar," you see that's what happened on the cross. (unintelligible) You did what without permission? (unintelligible) She started up her mama's car without permission. You were wanting to ride down the road? You know what? We could all talk about our crimes. Our crimes are many. You probably heard about this this week. You've probably heard about this today. You know what? It seems to us that if God kills us for sin, it feels like, wow, that's overreacting. I mean, really? If Diego took out this hammer and crushed Patience's head because she told a lie, we would all think, wow, that was overreacting! That was severe! But can I tell you this? Her crime was really that bad. We're almost done, buddy. Just have a seat. Her crime is that bad. We don't think of it that bad. You know why? Because all of us in here, we've all done those things, and so we look at each other and we say, well, I'm not as bad as that person. And I'm not as bad as that person. And I'm not as bad as that person. But compared to God? Remember, we fell. You remember we talked about that? We fell into sin. And now we're ugly. We are ugly to God. We become something terrible, something sinful, something vile, something that God looks at and He detests. The Bible talks about us being an abomination to God. That's a big word, but it just means we are really ugly to God. But Jesus took our crimes up here so that we don't have to suffer. He suffered in our place. I want to ask you all something. Jesus said seven things on that cross. Do you know what this week has been all about? We want you to know who God is. We want you to know who Jesus Christ is. You can learn about Jesus Christ by what He said on the cross. He said seven things on that cross. Can anybody tell me what He said? (unintelligible) Let's take them in order. What the first thing that we know that He said? Or one of the first things? The first thing He said was He prayed to His Father for those who were crucifying Him. Do you remember that? Think. What I'm going to tell you right now teaches you about who Jesus is. Watch this. Can you imagine you're nailed to the cross? And Jesus says to the ones who pounded nails through His hands and through His feet. Wham! He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." The people who were hurting Him - what do you usually say to the people who are hurting you? If somebody pinches you, what do you do? Punch him. That's about what everybody naturally (does). Revenge! Somebody hurts me. I hurt them back. Or I'm going to cry. What did Jesus do? He didn't cry. No self-pity. He didn't punch, and He could have punched. You know what He did? Watch Jesus. Jesus is a real Savior and watch Him even when He's dying on that cross. "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." He's praying for forgiveness. Listen, if Jesus will ask His Father to forgive those who are nailing Him to the cross, do you think He'll forgive you if you ask Him for forgiveness? Yes! If He forgives His enemies who nail Him to that cross, certainly He'll forgive you. What's the next thing that He does? What's the next thing He says? The next thing He says has to do with His mother. What did He say? (unintelligible) He looked at John. He said, "Behold, your mother." And He looked at His mother, and He said, "Behold, your son." Right? He gave His mother over to John. Even as He's dying, He's not thinking about Himself. He's thinking about how His mother's going to be cared for. Isn't that the kind of Savior you want? He's suffering and He's thinking about His mother. That's the kind of Savior you want. That even in the worst sufferings, He thinks about those that He cares for. Even while He's suffering, He thinks about His enemies. This is a tremendous Savior! What's the next thing that He says on that cross? We've got two. What's the next one? Remember there was a man hanging - I'm going to think it's on His right hand side - I don't know which side he was on. But there was another man - there were two other men - but there was one, a special man hanging next to Him, and He had some words for him. What words did He have for him? Remember? Here is a man hanging next to Him, and even as Jesus is dying, again, He's thinking about others. You can put your hands down because I'm going to tell you about it. This man looks at Him and He says, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom." What did He say to him? What did He say to him? Hm? He said, "This day, you will be with Me in Paradise." Have you noticed something about these first three things? He's concerned about His enemies - His crucifiers. He's concerned about His mother. And He's having mercy on this thief. This guy's just a common criminal. And Jesus has compassion. And He didn't say, "Oh, I'll just save you off the cross." He said, "I'll save you and take you to Paradise with Me." Wow. What's the fourth thing? You know all the answers. I'm not going to call on you. Okay, you're the only one that had your hand up, so I'll default to you. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Did you know that God forsook Jesus Christ? God left Him. God turned His back on Him. Did you know that the sun stopped shining? Why? Because God's judgment, God's wrath was being poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And He cried out. Three hours of darkness. He just hung there bearing the punishment for sin. Not for His own sin - for our sins that are nailed up here. Three hours of darkness and He just hung there. And only these words came from His mouth: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" I'll tell you why God forsook Him. God forsook Him to save sinners like you and me. He had to be forsaken in our place. Either He gets forsaken for our sins or we get forsaken for our sins and we go to hell. What's the next thing that He said on the cross? He said after it was all done, "I thirst." Jesus was every bit a man. He hung on that cross and He was thirsty. They offered Him something to drink before those three hours. He refused it. Now He said, "I thirst," and He drank. And once He drank, do you know what He said next? He said, "It is finished." Do you know what that means? That means that what's on here is done! It's done! It's finished! It's paid for! It's gone! He paid it. And what was the next thing He said? "Father..." It's not, "My God, My God, "why have You forsaken Me?" Fellowship has been restored. Why? Because sin's been paid! "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit." And He bowed His head and He was dead. But that grave didn't hold Him, did it? That cross is not the end of the story. He came out of the grave. Death couldn't hold Him. Three days later. I'll tell you, He came out of that grave to prove that everything He did on that cross, God accepted it. Wow, we have a wonderful Savior, don't we? We do. Children, we do have a wonderful Savior. Father, I pray to You that all the glories of "it is finished," all the glories of a thief this day being with Him in Paradise, all the glories of a Christ - we have a Savior who would actually ask that You would pity His enemies and caring for His mother and caring for a thief and bearing the wrath of God and the forsaking that our sins demanded, our sin... Lord, we admit, we think it's overreaction to our sin because we see our sin so small and we see You as being so small. Oh, Lord, if we could see it as it is. What crimes we've committed! What glory there is in the payment that Christ made! What infinite value, worth, of the shed blood on that cross! And to hear those words, "it is finished." All done. We don't have to do penance. We don't have to do works to earn Your favor. We don't have to do anything! It's done! It's finished! It's complete for those who trust in Christ. Lord, have mercy on these children. May something in all this that they've learned in this week, Lord, may these truths be used of You. May they register in their minds. May they be clung to and may they believe on this Jesus. I pray in Christ's name. Children, I want to tell you. All week I've been telling you this. Jesus wants you to trust Him. Talk to Him. Pray to Him. Even if you don't know how, ask Him, "Jesus, teach me to talk to You." "Teach me to pray." Anything you need, go to Him. Anything. Talk to Him. Tell Him about the fact you stole. Ask Him to forgive you. You told a lie. Ask Him to forgive that lie. He forgives lies. He forgives thievery. He forgives every sin. Every kind of sin that's committed by men, He forgives murder. He forgives the kind of sins you've done. Talk to Him. Tell Jesus what you did and ask Him to forgive you. Georgie, talk to Him. Seriously, talk to Him. He's here. He's not far away. He's close. And you know in the Bible, He said, "Bring the little children unto Me." Well, if He said it back then, He doesn't change. He'll have you come unto Him right now. Look, we have a Savior who prayed for His enemies. We have a Savior who took a thief to Paradise. Don't you want to go to Paradise? I do. I do! Oh, I want to go and see God in all of His glory. And I don't want sin to stand between me and Him. And Jesus, He took that barrier down by that cross. Okay, children. Thank you for being so attentive these last four days. I don't think I'll see you all tomorrow, but we still have one more day of Vacation Bible School. Tomorrow's graduation, I understand. Celebration? Not graduation? Okay. We're all done.
This Bible Study was taught for the children at Vacation Bible School that was done at our church. Tim talks about how Jesus did all these miracles of healing, He calmed storms, and did all those things to show us His power. He is so powerful that He can wash you whiter than snow, wash all your sins away. He is alive today and coming back to judge the world, and even if you are a child you must repent and believe before that Day.
Singing:
Hey children, did you know that there’s a Savior? Yes.
Hey children, did you His name is Jesus? Say His name!
I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Tim: So, what did you learn about today? I want that guy. You what? You barely got here? Okay, well, let me tell you what they learned about today. At least this is what the email said. Okay, you tell me. How sinful we are? Is that what today’s was about? What was it? You might have heard about that. You learned about Jesus Christ? Is that what you learned about too? Tomorrow, I think you learn more about the cross right? Isn’t that how it goes? What did you learn about? Real loud, I can’t hear your soft little voice. Okay, shh… Jesus dying on the cross? For our sins. What were you going to say? You forgot? No, you didn’t forget. You just raised your hand 10 seconds ago. Okay, well, that’s good. Now, the email I got said you were going to look at who Jesus is. Right? Does that sound familiar?
Okay, let’s think about this. You and I, we had a beginning. There was a time we were born. Any of you remember when you were born? No, you don’t. You remember when you were born? Now, you may know the day you were born, but do you remember it? Do you remember looking at your mama for the first time? No. We don’t have that good of memories right? We haven’t been around long, have we? How long have you been around? This guy right here – 30 years? He’s been around 30 years! But you know what? Jesus had no beginning. Jesus did not have a beginning like you and me. Why didn’t Jesus have a beginning? Because He is God.
See, you look at me. What do I look like? In a lot of ways, I look like you, right? He’s scowling – “I don’t want to look like that guy!” But the thing is, we both have arms, we both have fingers, we both have a head, we have eyes, we have a nose, we have ears, we have feet, we have knees. Right? All of you have that. All of you do. I forgot a lot of things. We have stomachs, right? We have shoulders. We have hair. Some more, some less, but we have hair. Jesus became a man, but He wasn’t always a man. Before He became a man, what was He? He was a spirit.
Now look, all of you pay attention. Before Jesus became a man, He has always been God. You know what that means? God is over here. He’s right here. He’s all around here. And He’s over here at the same time. And if you ran to my house right now, He’s over there. And if I ran to your house right now, He’s over there. And if we went to the moon, He’s over there. And if we dug a hole way down in the planet here and went way down in there, like down in the mines, way down there where they get gold and they get diamonds and they dig all those things out – He’s there. And if we went to the bottom of the ocean, He’s there. And if we went to Mars, He’s there. And if we went way out to other galaxies, He’s there. God is everywhere at the same time. I used to tell my children that. Is God in here? Yep. Is He out at the mailbox? (which was quite a ways from our house) Yep, He’s out there too. How? Can you be in two places at once? He can be. Do you know why? Because Jesus Christ isn’t just a man like you and me, He’s God. Which means, He’s almighty. He has power.
Know this? Omniscience – that’s a fancy word, but you know what it means? He knows everything. Did you know that Jesus knows every single thought that you have? When mom and dad can’t look inside your head, He does. He knows every thought you have ever thought. Does that make you feel good or bad? Do you like it that He knows everything you’ve ever thought? Would you like it if I knew everything you ever thought? He does. He knows everything. He knows everything! He knows every hair on your head. He knows every little bird. He knows every pebble of sand. He knows everything. He knows exactly how the wind is blowing in every part of the earth right now. He knows every cloud. And you know what happened? Infinite, all knowing, almighty, the fullness of God came to this earth in a man. Just like you and me.
You know what the Bible says? He was made just like us except one thing. What one way was He not made like us? Okay, sir, you raised your hand. Do you have the answer? What way wasn’t Jesus made like us? See, one exception. He’s made like us in every way except one way. Do you know what way? Sin. That’s right. I know lots of you knew that answer. He never had sin. And you know what? He’s a man now forevermore.
And so here He came to this earth, and I want you to see something about what He was like. Georgie, come here. Yow know, Georgie is not Christ. But right now, imagine that he is. There was once a man. He had a horrible disease. It made his flesh turn colors and it was horrible, horrible! It made a person stink. It made their flesh come off. It’s called leprosy. And here comes a man one day. He’s horrible. You didn’t even want to touch him. You didn’t want to be around him. You didn’t want to smell him. He was horrible. He was gross. He was covered with a horrible disease. And he came to Jesus one day. And he came up to Him and he said, “Lord, if You will, You can make me clean.” And do you know what Jesus did? Jesus not only healed him. Jesus put out His hand and He touched him. You never touched a leper! Ever! Why? They were unclean. They were horrible. Everybody avoided them. Everybody ran from them. If you had leprosy, you had to go around saying, “Unclean! Unclean!” You had to cover your mouth so that you wouldn’t breathe that stuff on people. And Jesus touched him, and He said, “I will. Be clean.” And you know what the Bible teaches us? Jesus healed people of diseases to show us that He could heal your sin. That’s what it’s meant to teach.
There was another day. Imagine he’s Jesus again. He’s not, but he’s playing the part. Imagine me. I’m blind. Remember the guy’s name? Bartimaeus. And you now what? He heard. Somebody told him. Somebody whispered to him, “Jesus! Jesus is coming!” “Lord, heal me! Lord, I need sight! Lord!” He called out to Him. “Son of David, have mercy upon me.” Do you think Jesus would have mercy? You know why they all said yes? Because they’ve heard the stories enough. Do you know this? Jesus had mercy on everybody that wanted mercy from Him. No exceptions. Go through this book again and again and again. Jesus always had mercy on those who wanted mercy. And you know what Jesus said to him? “What would you have me do to you?” He said, “Lord, that I might have my sight.” And He gave him sight. Go ahead and sit down.
Do you know another day? Here’s Jesus. All the fullness of God is packed into Him. And you know what happened? A friend of His died. Come on, you can come back over here. Lay down on the floor. Come here, little red shirt Marisa and Miss Patience. You come here too. These are the sisters. What are they doing? This is Lazarus. Lazarus is dead. You know how long he’s been dead? Four days. Do you know what happens when somebody’s dead four days? That plane was just shot down. Dead people begin to stink real fast. Where I go and pray in the morning, I can smell something dead. Animals die. They stink. He’s been dead four days. They said that he already stank. His sisters – you’re crying. You have to cry. And you know we laugh because you know these people. But do you know Jesus saw their sorrow? He heard the mourning of the people. He heard their cries. He heard their sorrow. And do you remember? It’s the shortest verse in the Bible. Do you know what it says? “Jesus wept.” What do you do with that? Hey guys, do you know Jesus wept? There’s hope in those tears.
You know what? God came to this earth as a man and He didn’t go around with fiery thunderbolts and just zap everybody. Did He? In fact, there was a day, remember it? They came out to get Him. They had clubs and they had their lanterns or their torches. And they came out. They had swords. And you remember what happened? He said, “Who are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” And He said, “I am He.” And remember what happened? They all fell down! But He didn’t kill them. He didn’t strike them dead. He showed them, you would have no power over Me unless I gave you power. He was God Almighty. He is God Almighty. He will always be God Almighty. And forevermore, He’ll be a man. But He’s almighty God joined to man. It’s a mystery. And you know what He did at the tomb of Lazarus? He wept. Can you imagine tears falling down His face? You know what that does? It gives me hope! It gives me hope that God came to this earth and He would actually weep over our condition. Those tears tell me that He’ll help us. He’ll help us if we want Him. He’ll help us if you call upon Him. He will. If you need His help, He’ll come. And you know what He said? “Lazarus, come forth.” Look at that! It happened for real. It happened for real. And they unbandaged him; let him free. You know what? He raised the dead. He healed blind eyes. He cured lepers to show us that He can get rid of our spiritual blindness and cure the leprosy of our sin, and He can raise us from the dead spiritually. He can give us eternal life. That’s what He was showing us. That’s what He was showing us. Okay, my actors can go sit down. Hold on, buddy. Where are you going? Bathroom? We just have a few minutes.
I want you all to know this. One day, this Jesus is coming. Right now, if you ask Him for mercy, He’ll heal you. But when He comes, it’s too late. Or when you die, it’s too late. And you know what He’s going to do? The Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to judge all of us. And He’s going to come as a great, triumphant King. And He’s going to come, and you know what the Bible says? He’s going to say: right here. There’s the dividing line. All My sheep and My goats. He’s going to divide every person like a shepherd divides his sheep and his goats. And to these on His right, He’s going to say, You did good. Well done. You poured out your lives on My behalf. You loved people. You lived righteously.” These over here, they lived wickedly; they lived selfishly, and He’s going to tell them to depart into everlasting punishment. The good and the bad.
And you know how to be good? It says that the good, the resurrection of the just – how do you be good enough? How can you be good enough? When we’ve done bad things? Well, you know what we do. We go to Christ and we trust Him to make us good. We trust Him to heal us and wash away our sin and to make us good. And if He makes us good, we are good. And if we are good, He’s going to welcome us in, but only if we’re resting on Him. He’s going to divide us.
Which side do you want to be on? When He divides, do you want to be on the right hand or do you want to be on the left hand? You guys didn’t like it over here, did you? You didn’t like acting that part. You don’t like being on the left hand. I feel that too. I don’t want to be on the left hand. Even in the acting! You want to be on the right hand. But there’s only one way to be on that right hand. When Jesus comes to separate men, what’s the only way? What’s the only way to be on the right hand of Jesus? And to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? What’s the way? Believing on Him. Trusting Him.
Look how He healed everybody. Look how He gave sight. Look how He raised Lazarus. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He did all these miracles and you know why He did it? He calmed storms. He actually walked on water. Have you ever walked on water? You’ve splashed in water, but you haven’t walked on top of it. Jesus did. And He did all those things to show us His power. Is Jesus powerful? You better believe He is. He showed us that He’s powerful. So powerful that He can wash you whiter than snow. How many of you have ever seen snow? Whiter than snow. He’ll wash all the sin away. Look, remember how it was with blind Bartimaeus? “Son of David!” He cried out to Him. “Jesus! Son of David!” You know the way he cried out? He would not give Jesus any rest until Jesus healed him.
That’s the way you need to be. You need to cry out that way this very day. Look, this isn’t make believe. This is all very real. Children, we’re having you come here because we want to tell you the truth. If you call upon this Lord Jesus, He will save you. And to be saved is the greatest thing in this world. To have Christ for your own and to be saved by Him and to have your sin washed clean, and to have Him working powerfully in your life to make you good, that’s everything! You’re young right now, and you think you’re going to live forever, but you’re not going to live forever. And very soon, we’re all going to be gone.
And you know what? Most people, let me tell you this, most people get saved when they’re young. Not many people get saved when they’re old. This is the time. This is the time to call upon the Lord. This is the time. The Bible says today’s the day of salvation. Today’s the day you want to be saved. Children, do you know what’s going to happen as soon as I’m done? You’re going to all jump up and you’re going to get crazy right? Well, I hope these thoughts will stay with you. Jesus, we heard that You are God. We heard that You came to this earth and You became a man and You actually shed tears. And if you know you have sin, I hope you’ll see that those tears speak. What Jesus did speaks. It says something. You know what? God becoming a man and coming here and weeping – if He was just angry: Argh! If He just did that at us, we’d think, wow, because of our sin, we deserve that.
Think about it. He doesn’t roar at us. He weeps. That tells us what kind of Savior we have. A gentle Savior. And that’s what He said. He said, “Come unto Me, and I’ll give you rest.” “Learn of Me. I’m gentle. I’m meek.” I saw that word “meek” over there. You guys have been making something today – all these different words that describe Jesus. I saw compassionate. I saw meek. That’s right. I mean, what do you think? He weeps tears. And He raises Lazarus. Can you imagine how happy Lazarus’ sisters must have been to have him raised from the dead? And you will be even more happy if He raises you from the dead.
You say, “Well, I’m not dead yet!” Oh yes, you are – spiritually. Because of what we heard about yesterday – Adam fell. The problem is we all fell in him. We’re spiritually dead. Not physically. I know you very much have physical life. But you need to be made alive. And Jesus can make you alive and He will make you alive if you call upon the Lord. You will find that He is very much a life-giver. What do you think, children? We have a great Savior. A great One. A powerful One.
But He’s coming. He’s coming, and if you ignore Him, you can’t ignore Him forever. Because He’s going to come one day and He’s got an appointment with you. He’s going to come see you. And if you’ve lived your life resting on Him and trusting Him, He’ll greet you with a smile, and He’ll take you to His home forever and ever. You’ll go to Heaven with Him. But if you turn your back on Him, even if you’re little children, if you turn your back on Him, He will be very angry. And He will tell you to depart from Him into hell. It’s a serious thing to reject this Jesus. He is glorious. He is a glorious King. But you reject Him, and you will find Him a fierce enemy. You don’t want Jesus for an enemy.
Oh, so often we think of Jesus with the tears, and we think of Jesus compassionate and meek, but if you ignore Him and refuse Him and reject Him, you will find Him to be a very great enemy. We don’t want to toy with Jesus. He’s compassionate, but He’s also very holy, and He punishes sin and we have a lot of sin. You know what I want? I want my sin punished in Him. I want Him to take my punishment for me. Don’t you all want that? So that I can go free. That’s what you’re going to all be learning about tomorrow. That’s what I want. And you can have that. We can all have that. Jesus said it like this, “Come to Me.” Come to Me. How do you go to Him because we can’t see Him? You call upon Him. He’s here. Here’s very close to every one of us. How do you come to Him? You say, “Jesus, help me.” “Jesus, save me.” “Jesus, forgive me for my sins.” You can all do that, right? I told you yesterday, talk to Him. Talk to the Lord. We have a Lord that healed. We have a Lord that gave life to the dead and gave sight to the blind and He healed lepers. Talk to Him. He’s very kind. He’s very merciful. He’s the kind of Savior that you and I want. So talk to Him. Call upon Him. Do that. Seriously, do that.
Father, I pray that You would draw these little ones to You. Draw them to Christ. Draw them. Pull them. Lord, may something in their simple ways, their minds may grasp hold of this and that in their youth, they would trust You; they would hear these things and in just simple faith they would cling to You. I pray in Christ’s name, Amen.
Okay, children. What did you learn about today? (unintelligible) Where’s my little red shirt actress? Marisa, are you hiding back there? My kids last night said, “Dad, you forgot Marisa’s name!” I said, “I didn’t forget Marisa’s name.” Sometimes I just call people by other words. I called you “little miss red shirt” yesterday, right? Okay, what did you learn about today?
(from the room) Me?
Tim: Yeah. Did you learn something about the cross? Do you all see the cross over here? Can you imagine if that cross was big? About this big, so that a man could hang on it. If I was hanging on it, I would be up higher. Can you imagine a big cross here? A real cross. Can you imagine a real cross? What’s up there? Can you imagine a big cross? The Roman soldiers came. Once Jesus was up on that cross – we’re imagining this cross. They nailed something to the top. They nailed something on there in three different languages. It said something. They nailed probably a piece of wood that they had written on. Does anybody know what it said? What did it say? The King of the Jews. Can you imagine that little guy right there knows that answer? You guys fill in all the names don’t you? You won’t let me get by with calling him “the little guy.” He knows that. Why did they put that up there? Do you know what they did? Jesus wasn’t the only one crucified. Lots of people were crucified. Do you know why they got crucified? There was more than one cross. How many crosses were there? Three. What did the guys on the other side do? They were thieves. Okay, think about this. Do you know what they would have gone up and put on the other crosses? They would have nailed something up there too. What would they have nailed up on top of their crosses? Thief. Right. Do you know what they did? They put the person’s crime. The bad thing that they did, they nailed whatever it was to the cross so that you knew what their crime was.
How is it a crime for Jesus to be the King of Israel? Or the King of the Jews? How is that a crime? What did you say? Well, you know what? The Jews said, “we have a law.” You see, the Jews didn’t like what was up on that cross. They told Pilate – Pilate was the one that had Him crucified. He was the Roman governor. They said to Pilate, “No, don’t say, ‘the King of the Jews.'” What did they want put up there? “He said He was the King of the Jews.” You see, there’s a difference. The Jews wanted it to be said that this was just what He claimed, and He’s not true; He’s not genuine. He’s a fake. He’s not really the King of the Jews. He just said He’s the King of the Jews. And what did Pilate say? What I wrote, I wrote. You know what? I did enough for you Jews. Be done with you. Go away. Don’t bother me anymore. You guys have bothered me enough. Pilate didn’t want to kill Him. Pilate didn’t want to crucify Him. The Jews kept saying, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” “Away with this man! Spare Barabbas, but kill Him.”
Now, here’s the thing. Imagine that this is our piece of wood that we’re going to nail up here to the top of our imaginary cross. You guys are good at imagining, right? Little children have imaginations. You can still see that cross up there. I want you to know what the Bible says about Jesus being on that cross.
Have you ever done anything bad? What have you done bad before? I mean, what’s something really bad that you remember that you did? (unintelligible) Okay, come here. What store?
(from the child) I think it was a gas store.
Tim: Earnest. You know what Earnest said? Did you all hear him? He said he stole something from like a gas store. He stole something from maybe like a gas station or one of those corner stores. When somebody steals something, what does it make them?
(from the room) A robber.
Tim: Here. Here’s his crime. Earnest. Let’s write this on here. Earnest. Robber. Thief. Now you know what? I’m making an example out of Earnest. But you know what? I stole things too. I’ve stolen things from stores. I could put my name on here too. In fact, not just Earnest, let’s put Tim Conway on there. This is our crime. Earnest, you can go ahead and have a seat. This is my crime and this is Earnest’s crime. And it’s written. And do you know what the Bible says in Colossians 2? Here’s what it says. Here’s what happened. Jesus’ cross – imagine it’s still there. And Jesus has His crime – yeah, we could use this. This is probably good, but this is pretty stationary, isn’t it? We can always make things mobile, right?
So here’s the cross. And Jesus, when He died on that cross, they nailed this up here. And it said, if you read this, it said, “King of the Jews.” But you know what? That was really no crime. Because Jesus never committed any crimes. Jesus had no sin. Jesus was an innocent man. They were killing an innocent man. But you know what? Jesus didn’t die on the cross for His own sins, did He? He didn’t have any. In Colossians 2, it says this. Earnest, this is huge. Earnest, robber and thief. But what God does is He takes your crime. Do you see my name on there too? Tim Conway. You and me. We’re thieves. This is our crime. What happens is God takes our crimes and nails them to the cross. What does that mean? That’s what the Bible says. Our crimes get nailed to the cross. Our sins. Our bad things get nailed to His cross. What does that mean? What does it mean? See, Jesus is on this cross. What is nailed up here is the crime He’s guilty of. But you say, wait! That’s my crime! That’s your crime! That’s exactly right. See, that’s what God did. God takes your crime, my crime – He takes our crimes and He nails them up here on Jesus’ cross, and Jesus makes my crime His crime.
It’s kind of like if your mama would have found out that you did that, what would she have done? Or did she find out? Oh you’re looking around for her. You were little? Being little doesn’t excuse it. It’s still a crime. You know what? You know what you deserve for that crime? What do you deserve? What does he deserve? We might think, oh, he deserves a spanking. That might be what he deserves from a parent. But what does he deserve from God? (from the room) Death! Tim: Wow! Isn’t that going overboard? Isn’t that going overboard? Look, I just go into a store and I look and nobody’s looking and I put some candy in my pocket. Should I go to hell for that? (from the room) Yes! Tim: You’re not so sure, right? I mean, doesn’t that seem, to get thrown into fire for taking one piece of candy, doesn’t that seem like it’s going overboard? Does it seem that way? Doesn’t that seem like God is being pretty severe? I mean, think about it.
What’s the last thing you can remember that you did wrong? Hm? You lied. Wow. We could put liar up there too. Don’t look at her. We could put liar up there for every one of us, right? You can’t get away down here on the end because you know. Liar. Lies. Okay. Patience tells a lie. Patience, stand up. If I was her father and I said, “Patience, did you tell a lie?” She nodded yes. I take this hammer and crush her skull and drop her dead right here in front of you. Would you say, “Whoa!!!” “That’s excessive!” “That’s crazy!” You would look at me as though I was the criminal, right? But isn’t that what God says He does to sin, to lies, to being a thief? Isn’t that what God says? Death. You know the lie she told deserves death. She deserves death. We all deserve death. For stealing, you deserve death. You can have a seat.
Look, but if it all gets nailed up here, can you imagine? The Roman soldier? He pounds it up there. There’s Jesus hanging. And you run up there and you see what’s His crime? His crimes? He’s a liar. But He didn’t tell any lies. And you look, and it doesn’t say it’s Jesus Christ’s lies; it says it’s Tim Conway’s lies. My sin is nailed up there! What does that mean? That means that the punishment I deserve for those sins, He’s getting it there on that cross. God is smashing and crushing His Son and punishing His Son and forsaking His Son. When He hung on that cross, He said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
I’ll tell you why God forsook Him. Because of these crimes. And they’re none of His. None of His crimes are on here because He never committed a crime. The thing they put up there about Him that He was the King of the Jews, He was the King of the Jews! He is the King of the Jews. And He always will be. He is the King of Israel. There is a King. He is that King. He will always be that King. And what Pilate put there was truth. Remember, Pilate said, “what is truth?” I’ll tell you what truth is. What Pilate had written on that piece of board that was nailed up there. That was truth. He is the King. But when we go up there and we look and it says “robber, thief, liar,” you see that’s what happened on the cross. (unintelligible) You did what without permission? (unintelligible) She started up her mama’s car without permission. You were wanting to ride down the road? You know what?
We could all talk about our crimes. Our crimes are many. You probably heard about this this week. You’ve probably heard about this today. You know what? It seems to us that if God kills us for sin, it feels like, wow, that’s overreacting. I mean, really? If Diego took out this hammer and crushed Patience’s head because she told a lie, we would all think, wow, that was overreacting! That was severe! But can I tell you this? Her crime was really that bad. We’re almost done, buddy. Just have a seat. Her crime is that bad. We don’t think of it that bad. You know why? Because all of us in here, we’ve all done those things, and so we look at each other and we say, well, I’m not as bad as that person. And I’m not as bad as that person. And I’m not as bad as that person. But compared to God? Remember, we fell. You remember we talked about that? We fell into sin. And now we’re ugly. We are ugly to God. We become something terrible, something sinful, something vile, something that God looks at and He detests. The Bible talks about us being an abomination to God. That’s a big word, but it just means we are really ugly to God. But Jesus took our crimes up here so that we don’t have to suffer. He suffered in our place.
I want to ask you all something. Jesus said seven things on that cross. Do you know what this week has been all about? We want you to know who God is. We want you to know who Jesus Christ is. You can learn about Jesus Christ by what He said on the cross. He said seven things on that cross. Can anybody tell me what He said? (unintelligible)
Let’s take them in order. What is the first thing that we know that He said? Or one of the first things? The first thing He said was He prayed to His Father for those who were crucifying Him. Do you remember that? Think. What I’m going to tell you right now teaches you about who Jesus is. Watch this. Can you imagine you’re nailed to the cross? And Jesus says to the ones who pounded nails through His hands and through His feet. Wham! He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The people who were hurting Him – what do you usually say to the people who are hurting you? If somebody pinches you, what do you do? Punch him. That’s about what everybody naturally (does). Revenge! Somebody hurts me. I hurt them back. Or I’m going to cry. What did Jesus do? He didn’t cry. No self-pity. He didn’t punch, and He could have punched. You know what He did? Watch Jesus. Jesus is a real Savior and watch Him even when He’s dying on that cross. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He’s praying for forgiveness. Listen, if Jesus will ask His Father to forgive those who are nailing Him to the cross, do you think He’ll forgive you if you ask Him for forgiveness? Yes! If He forgives His enemies who nail Him to that cross, certainly He’ll forgive you.
What’s the next thing that He does? What’s the next thing He says? The next thing He says has to do with His mother. What did He say? (unintelligible) He looked at John. He said, “Behold, your mother.” And He looked at His mother, and He said, “Behold, your son.” Right? He gave His mother over to John. Even as He’s dying, He’s not thinking about Himself. He’s thinking about how His mother’s going to be cared for. Isn’t that the kind of Savior you want? He’s suffering and He’s thinking about His mother. That’s the kind of Savior you want. That even in the worst sufferings, He thinks about those that He cares for. Even while He’s suffering, He thinks about His enemies. This is a tremendous Savior!
What’s the next thing that He says on that cross? We’ve got two. What’s the next one? Remember there was a man hanging – I’m going to think it’s on His right hand side – I don’t know which side he was on. But there was another man – there were two other men – but there was one, a special man hanging next to Him, and He had some words for him. What words did He have for him? Remember? Here is a man hanging next to Him, and even as Jesus is dying, again, He’s thinking about others. You can put your hands down because I’m going to tell you about it. This man looks at Him and He says, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your Kingdom.” What did He say to him? What did He say to him? Hm? He said, “This day, you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Have you noticed something about these first three things? He’s concerned about His enemies – His crucifiers. He’s concerned about His mother. And He’s having mercy on this thief. This guy’s just a common criminal. And Jesus has compassion. And He didn’t say, “Oh, I’ll just save you off the cross.” He said, “I’ll save you and take you to Paradise with Me.” Wow.
What’s the fourth thing? You know all the answers. I’m not going to call on you. Okay, you’re the only one that had your hand up, so I’ll default to you. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Did you know that God forsook Jesus Christ? God left Him. God turned His back on Him. Did you know that the sun stopped shining? Why? Because God’s judgment, God’s wrath was being poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And He cried out. Three hours of darkness. He just hung there bearing the punishment for sin. Not for His own sin – for our sins that are nailed up here. Three hours of darkness and He just hung there. And only these words came from His mouth: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” I’ll tell you why God forsook Him. God forsook Him to save sinners like you and me. He had to be forsaken in our place. Either He gets forsaken for our sins or we get forsaken for our sins and we go to hell.
What’s the next thing that He said on the cross? He said after it was all done, “I thirst.” Jesus was every bit a man. He hung on that cross and He was thirsty. They offered Him something to drink before those three hours. He refused it. Now He said, “I thirst,” and He drank. And once He drank, do you know what He said next? He said, “It is finished.” Do you know what that means? That means that what’s on here is done! It’s done! It’s finished! It’s paid for! It’s gone! He paid it.
And what was the next thing He said? “Father…” It’s not, “My God, My God, “why have You forsaken Me?” Fellowship has been restored. Why? Because sin’s been paid! “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” And He bowed His head and He was dead. But that grave didn’t hold Him, did it? That cross is not the end of the story. He came out of the grave. Death couldn’t hold Him. Three days later. I’ll tell you, He came out of that grave to prove that everything He did on that cross, God accepted it. Wow, we have a wonderful Savior, don’t we? We do. Children, we do have a wonderful Savior.
Father, I pray to You that all the glories of “it is finished,” all the glories of a thief this day being with Him in Paradise, all the glories of a Christ – we have a Savior who would actually ask that You would pity His enemies and caring for His mother and caring for a thief and bearing the wrath of God and the forsaking that our sins demanded, our sin… Lord, we admit, we think it’s overreaction to our sin because we see our sin so small and we see You as being so small. Oh, Lord, if we could see it as it is. What crimes we’ve committed! What glory there is in the payment that Christ made! What infinite value, worth, of the shed blood on that cross! And to hear those words, “it is finished.” All done. We don’t have to do penance. We don’t have to do works to earn Your favor. We don’t have to do anything! It’s done! It’s finished! It’s complete for those who trust in Christ.
Lord, have mercy on these children. May something in all this that they’ve learned in this week, Lord, may these truths be used of You. May they register in their minds. May they be clung to and may they believe on this Jesus. I pray in Christ’s name.
Children, I want to tell you. All week I’ve been telling you this. Jesus wants you to trust Him. Talk to Him. Pray to Him. Even if you don’t know how, ask Him, “Jesus, teach me to talk to You.” “Teach me to pray.” Anything you need, go to Him. Anything. Talk to Him. Tell Him about the fact you stole. Ask Him to forgive you. You told a lie. Ask Him to forgive that lie. He forgives lies. He forgives thievery. He forgives every sin. Every kind of sin that’s committed by men, He forgives murder. He forgives the kind of sins you’ve done. Talk to Him. Tell Jesus what you did and ask Him to forgive you. Georgie, talk to Him. Seriously, talk to Him. He’s here. He’s not far away. He’s close. And you know in the Bible, He said, “Bring the little children unto Me.” Well, if He said it back then, He doesn’t change. He’ll have you come unto Him right now. Look, we have a Savior who prayed for His enemies. We have a Savior who took a thief to Paradise. Don’t you want to go to Paradise? I do. I do! Oh, I want to go and see God in all of His glory. And I don’t want sin to stand between me and Him. And Jesus, He took that barrier down by that cross. Okay, children. Thank you for being so attentive these last four days. I don’t think I’ll see you all tomorrow, but we still have one more day of Vacation Bible School. Tomorrow’s graduation, I understand. Celebration? Not graduation? Okay. We’re all done.
