Rahab [Part 1]

Pastor, author and Bible teacher Alan Wright when you think much of the crucifixion of Christ.

Though it may be sobering to your soul. It will simultaneously bring profound blessing and ultimate delight to your soul when you see the depth of what God has paid you see the depth of your worth to God's pastor welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life for no hold. I'm Dino print excited for you to hear the teaching today. In the series titled God used to and you may just be surprised as presented it right know the church in North Carolina.

If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministry as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastor@an.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program but now let's get started with today's teaching here is Alan Wright you ready for some good news.

When you think much of the crucifixion of Christ.

Though it may be sobering to your soul. It will simultaneously bring profound blessing and ultimate delight to your soul. But when you see the depth of what God has paid for you.

You see the depth of your worth to God. We are going to today join some hidden jewels, women that were at the cross, who watched on from a distance while so many others had scattered and turn you to Matthew chapter 27. I know it's the day of Palm Sunday in which we remember Jesus and his so-called triumphal entry but let's remember when he entered into Jerusalem omits the allowed hosannas that he was coming as one foreordained purposefully, resolutely headed towards the cross on Good Friday and I pick up reading it.

Matthew 27 verse 27 the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gather the whole battalion before him stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a read and his right hand kneeling before him. They mocked him, saying, hail, King of the Jews. I spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head and when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

As they went out they found a man of serene Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross, and they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. They offered him wine to drink mixed with gold, but we tasted it.

He would not drink it, and when they had crucified him. They divided his garments among them by casting lots and they sat down, Watch it from there in over his head. They put the charge against him, which read this is Jesus, King of the Jews and two robbers were crucified with him one on the right and one on the left and those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and say you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross, so also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him, saying he saved others, he cannot save himself. He's the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and will believe in me.

Trust in God.

Let God deliver him now if he desires and present on the son of God and the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way now from the sixth hour. It's noon until the ninth and about the ninth hour there was darkness over the land and about the ninth hour. Verse 46 Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying LA LA homicide.

That is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Some of the bystanders hearing it said this man is calling Elijah. One of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled with sour wine through a read gave it to him to drink, but the other said wait let's see whether Elijah will come to save Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit and to hold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

The tombs also were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who are with him, keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with all and said truly, this was the son of God, and there were also many women there looking on from a distance who follow Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of 79. Like most, I'd rather jump quickly to yesterday like to think mainly about the Easter egg hunts and chocolate bunnies in the basket. We had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of kids with happy faces and bright baskets picking up eggs here and in the union cross YMCA – what a delight it isn't such a wonderful thing with it is maybe because we like these happy thoughts that we tend to jump right past the cross so often.

In fact, the cross seems to have been trivialized in so much of our society is chocolate.

The story of the family that decided they take their teenage boy and remove them from public school put in a strict Catholic school because he was doing so poorly in his academics, especially in math.

He was doing so poorly I just gave a different environment and sure enough they move over this Catholic school and before long, his math grades all improved as straight A's, and they said this is amazing. The sun is out.

What is that hip is it is it better teacher says that you suddenly come to love math. What has brought about this difference in your math grades and the boys had always known that as it wasn't well. So when I took us to Chapel that first day, and I looked up there on the wall and tell her they'd nailed that got to the + I knew they were serious. We wear little crosses around her neck jewelry forgetting that it is the symbol of the most gruesome form of execution known to the world. Think think of wearing a hangman's noose around your neck or a little silver guillotine. The cross is not one part of the gospel.

The cross is the gospel. Paul said, I resolved to know nothing. But Jesus and him crucified and the thought of letting your soul contemplate the sufferings of Jesus. I know it first. Is not an attractive thought that I invite you into at least some some level of that contemplation today because there blessings that come about that challenge right will have more teaching in a moment from today's important series that you believed in mind while experiencing the left but not of myself love story from beginning to end spiritual bra house, the perfect bike. The Bible tells you when you walk with us, met with a woman tasted the sweetness of God's love for you is pretty woman who searched for 2525 Dr. the five love languages size incredible reality that God pursues us in life comes to a number of myself ancient biblical accounts explode in the extent this proposal and showing his embrace raveling after the match made in heaven, lover of my soul were in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. Thanks from our night ministries, seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor hour and lack today's teaching now continues here once again is I was thinking back to the phenomenon of Mel Gibson's the passion of the Christ, the movie that surprised everybody Mel Gibson's had his issues that that that that aside, it was so surprising that he just wanted to make a graphic representation of what the sufferings of Jesus would look like if you had been one of these women and you had been held that it's astonishing to me but I was surprised by this, that it it remains the highest grossing domestic R-rated film in history of our country that interesting movie. Jim Covey is Elva who played Jesus was struck by lightning onset violently and was somehow unharmed.

Two people were converted to an Italian actor who played Judas was an angry atheist and by the end of the filming had converted and a Muslim who played a role is when the guard to be Jesus was also converted. What was amazing about it was that anybody would could sit through it and my wife never seen it. I thought once and then in preparation for this week and I watch portions again. It's hard to watch something so deep and so so troublesome not just about the violence but about who the violence was being perpetrated against and so it stirs you sometimes too much. I think of the old spiritual were you there when they crucified my Lord. And the reason that such beautiful haunting poetry is because the initial answer. That is, no, I wasn't there but there's a deeper answer that can be seen on several levels. Least of which is I was there. In this sense, because it was my send that he was paying for. And so I was there. In that sense, figuratively, but for any Christian you are there because if you don't see the cross and you haven't seen the gospel in and so to be a Christian means that you have seen at least at some level what is happened on the cross. I just want to invite you today to come alongside of these unheralded women that witnessed the crucifixion and instead so much of preaching about these women. I want to simply turn your eyes to the cross and ask you to look with them and ask you what you see and ask you why are you more blessed having seen it and then ask you what is it that you could not see if you were there, is one of those women that that you can see today through the lens of the gospel.

These women who were there. They are much discussed, we have three that are mentioned in Matthew but other ladies are mentioned in other Gospels. We know there were at least three Maries that were there, Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus was there. Also there was a Mary who was called the sister of Mary who most scholars think was probably Joseph's brothers wife were not totally clear about who they all are but it's almost like the point of it is not so much who they were, individually, but you recognize that their lives had been touched so much by Jesus, and they couldn't bear being away from Jesus when he was being crucified, so it's interesting. By contrast, so many of the men disciples we see conspicuously absent and these women who had been healed by Jesus who supported his ministry financially and who traveled with him. They were there.

These women had never been so honored by an authority figure, much less religious authority figure ever in their lives. Jesus was completely countercultural and the way that he honored women in his time. For example, no one was no Jew would speak to a Samaritan, no man would speak to woman and he went and had an in-depth conversation with the Samaritan woman in a well they had never been so loved and there was something about always happening that the men were able to run but the women stayed.

Why were the women there in the men not there is right, so will the men were just website or maybe the headset I think maybe there's something else that's going on in a an interesting thought process. Some commentators have pointed to a growing body of research about how different men and women actually are in their endocrine systems and that when men have adrenal responses to a dangerous situation to a hurtful situation or traumatic situation is the famous fight or flight tendency but growing body of research has shown that women in similar circumstances where there is something that is traumatic, something that is harmful or hurtful or dangerous, that they move not to fight or flight is much as they do to tend and befriend is really a beautiful thing. I talked to an endocrinologist this week to have him explain it to me when women are in that sort of situation like would have been at this horrific scene of the crucifixion their endocrine system releases oxytocin men have adrenal release of oxytocin also. But women because of heightened interest in estrogen and their bodies are more receptive to oxytocin and it does something that causes an instinctive desire to nurture beautiful thing is how mothers are able children might be in some bad situation and and everything with anyone you get away from the 19 thing about it, but that of the mother can't help yourself adjusted to draw near, and it may be that there something like that that in their heart and in their frustration.

The men they felt like they could only fight or they can only flee, and they couldn't fight the Roman army and so they went there but the women, even the mother. Jesus was there and we know from John's gospel that when they they they have a subsidies women at some point pull close to the cross with her close enough to hear the staggering breath of Jesus himself and the Lamb is beautiful and poetic scenes from the passion of the Christ is when Mary sees her son fall under the weight of the cross on the Via Dolorosa and he is bleeding the crown of thorns has pierced his brow. He is been flogged and his flesh is raw and he falls and Mary has a flashback to a scene when Jesus was a little boy and he stumbles on the cobbled sidewalk and she runs over to Alyssa's mother is here and so is Gibson's movie depicts it when he stumbles under the cross.

Mary runs to him and says mother is here, even while you are under the weight of the cross is a beautiful thing is a blessing for these women who dared to watch the crucifixion. There's a blessing for us if you let yourself see it and imagine yourself that you're there with those women. They gathered at nine in the morning for this crucifixion, but what they would've seen had preceded that flogging the famous kata nine tails.

It was a horrific torture or web that has leather cords and hard balls that pound, the flash and and metal hooks that gouge the flesh, they would've seen in flogged a lot of scientists say that the experience of that brutal beating is one that many didn't live through it, could have died before the cross that he was going to live until it was time to lay down his life so they wants to be flogged. The cross itself was so horrible.

Cicero said that no Roman citizen should even come near across no early Christian leader no early Christian leader suggested that it become the symbol for Christianity.

It really was Constantine in the fourth century. After Roman Emperor had a vision of the cross, he finally banded as a form of execution and then it became a symbol more and more, but CS Lewis put it this way, the crucifixion did not become common in art and to all who had seen a real one had died. Phil Yancey tells the story of a Jewish rabbi in the prewar years of Nazi Germany, who one day was picked up by German police just for fun and they came and illegally arrested this rabbi and took him to police headquarters were for fun.

They stripped him totally naked and demanded that he preached the sermon he was going to give that some at Shabbat service that we can and the rabbi asked if they would allow him to wear his yarmulke and so they put a little covering on his head and made him preach and he stood there wearing that little yarmulke completely naked and preached out of Micah on what it is to walk humbly with your God. Until you begin to allow your soul to see something like that. You can't even begin to understand what Jesus was enduring the pit to build on the cross beam may have been what he was carrying because oftentimes a custom was that the one to be crucified would carry that crossbeam and then the upright beam they would attach there on the hillside just outside the city's Northwest walls, a place they called Ogata, which means the place of this goal is a very common entry way into the city. It was passed over time, so thousands and thousands of Jewish pilgrims would come by and see Jesus being crucified and in our series, God used unheralded women in astonishing ways. It is the teaching on the women at the cross and Alan is back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life in a final workout.

Glad you believed my experience in the left lever of myself love story from beginning to end spiritual bride of Christ, the perfect bike. The Bible tells about moms and the links to walk with her anymore. It's gonna mother the woman tasted the sweetness of God's love for you is pretty woman who searched for 25 inches long and fully doctor the five love languages size incredible reality that God pursues us in life comes to lever of myself ancient biblical accounts explode in the heart except his proposal and showing his embrace of the match made in heaven, lever of myself gospel is shared when you get to write ministries were in the final days of this special offer being made available to you, 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor and like what's the contrast what stands out here to you in this teaching is you were studying the women at the cross. Well, it's a beautiful thing in first place that they were there when so many of the disciples had fled out of fear and were hiding and you can imagine how grizzly difficult it would be to watch the son of God be crucified to watch your beloved teacher friend be crucified and that way and yet these women were there they saw the flogging they saw the horrors of the cross. They saw the mockery they saw Jesus's mercy and wonder all that was happening. I just think that there's a benefit, even though it's difficult even for us to do. There's a benefit of joining these women in looking deeply at the cross, let yourself see the suffering that costs how deep the payment lots do what you're really saying your own worth to God, so it's not an exercise in discouragement darkness, but thinking on the cross, our greatest greatest joy. Today's good news message is a listener supported production Alan White ministries