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[0:00] So, as we begin this morning, we are going to be looking at another one of the sayings of Jesus Christ from the cross. And as we get closer to the cross, we're going to be continuing with those sayings of Jesus.

[0:14] We started with, Father, forgive them. This was an expression of forgiveness by the perfect Son. Then, today, you will be with me in paradise.

[0:26] This was an expression of assurance by the perfect Savior. And third, today, we're going to be looking at, Woman, behold your Son, an expression of affection by the perfect man.

[0:43] Dr. G. Campbell Morgan said this about these three sayings. He said, the first was his pity for man. The second, he says, was his power toward those who believe in him.

[0:57] And the third, his provision for those upon whom his love is set. So, let's jump right into it this morning, into the Gospel of John.

[1:08] For this third saying of Jesus Christ, we move from Luke to the Gospel of John, Chapter 19, and verses 25 through 27. We begin with verse number 25.

[1:20] Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciple, whom he loved, standing by, he said to his mother, Woman, behold your Son.

[1:39] Then he said to the disciple, which was John, Behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home.

[1:51] As we're considering these words of Jesus Christ, as he thought about his earthly mother while he was hanging there on the cross of Calvary, he was going to make sure that she would be taken care of.

[2:04] And these words remind us this morning of Jesus and the family. In his dying hour, Jesus speaks of motherhood and sonship.

[2:16] And we know from the Old Testament that the family is instituted by God. One man, one woman. And they were told to go and multiply.

[2:27] They were told to fill the earth. And then ultimately again after the flood to replenish the earth. And Jesus, we know, chose to be born as a what?

[2:40] As a human being. Jesus chose to be born into an earthly family. And I believe that tells us that that is continuing with God's plan as family.

[2:51] And Jesus chose to accept the training and the upbringing and the nurture within a family, the discipline of the home. Jesus taught us as well that marriage is for life.

[3:04] Jesus insisted on the sanctity of the home and the marriage relationship. And he also shows his love for children. And so we see Jesus Christ talking about the entire family throughout his ministry, showed the importance of home, showed the importance of family, showed the importance of a husband and wife relationship in his teachings, showed his love for children.

[3:31] And also we know that Jesus longs to be at the center of every home. We see in Psalm 127.1, So we know that as our homes, as the homes that we are building for him, Jesus wants to be the center of those homes.

[4:01] And I believe happy is the home where Christ is the head, where there are not two heads, not three heads, but Jesus Christ is the head of the home. And he wants to remove the strife from our homes.

[4:15] I know we have many homes around us in our neighborhoods, in our community where there's strife in the home, where the parents can't get along. And when the children can't get along with the parents, Jesus, when he comes into a home, wants to bring unity with him.

[4:31] And when the Holy Spirit is there, the Holy Spirit is there to build the unity within the home. And so I believe one of our responsibilities, as we make a difference in the lives of those around us, is as we make disciples, we teach people and we help people to understand how the Holy Spirit can help bring unity to that home.

[4:53] And he wants to plant love in every home as well. And that's only possible as we look to the greatest example of love, and that's Jesus Christ. And the greatest example of love is sacrificial love.

[5:05] Not what you can do for me, or not what you can provide to me, but what can I, or how can I fill your needs? How can I meet the other person's needs?

[5:17] Imagine how homes would be revolutionized revolutionized if husbands would take care of their wives like they need to be, if wives would care for their husbands like their husbands need, if parents would care for their children as their children need.

[5:35] And we would see homes revolutionized. So first of all, what we see is that Jesus reminds us of family. He wants to be the center of every home.

[5:47] When he says, woman, behold your son. And when he tells John, behold your mother. We know that Jesus Christ is talking about the importance of the family. And he wants to care for his earthly family.

[6:01] As we continue, we also see that this word, these words of Jesus reminds us of Jesus and the faithful few. As we look around the cross at Calvary, when he was hung up on the, when he was nailed to the cross and when he was lifted off the ground, we see that there were very few that there were there around the cross, Jesus and John, and only a few who were there for women.

[6:26] And one man who was left there with Jesus, who were willing to identify themselves. With a person who was being crucified. Where were his disciples? Where were his faithful followers who were there for some three and a half years of his ministry?

[6:40] Who had said, what about the one who said, Jesus, I will never leave you. Jesus, I'm not. Well, we find that they scattered and they ran. So we see four women and one man here under the cross.

[6:51] Matthew 25, or excuse me, Matthew 26 and verse 56. But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.

[7:02] Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. Do you realize that, that what happened at the cross was prophesied? That when his disciples fled and forsook him, that was all prophesied.

[7:14] That was all part of God's plan. God knew exactly what was going to happen. And Luke verse chapter two, verse 35. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul.

[7:25] Also that the thoughts of many hearts might be revealed. But John returns. As we see, they all, the rest of them forsook him and they fled.

[7:36] But John came back. He was there under the, under the cross. And we know maybe a little bit more why he was called John the beloved. Maybe we know a little bit more why when Jesus would spend time with his disciples, there were three or four disciples that he spent most of his time with.

[7:54] He spent a lot of time with all of his disciples, but those more close, intimate moments, those friendship moments were spent with just a few.

[8:04] And then there were a few that were spent with just Jesus and John. And we know that, that John had a special place in the heart of, of Jesus. And John came back to the cross.

[8:16] Here were, here are the few were faithful, but how faithful were the few? There were few that were faithful, but how faithful were those few who were willing to be with Jesus in the end, knowing that they might've been arrested themselves and they might suffer the same fate as Jesus Christ.

[8:32] They stood there at the cross. And I can imagine it was not an easy place to stand. It's not an easy place to be because where were all the eyes? Not only were they on the, on the three guys being crucified, but I can imagine the crowd was looking upon those, those five people there under the cross.

[8:49] Wow. They're there. They must be, they must really love him because they are standing with him. So we have Mary and the fulfilled prophecy where it was prophesied that a sword will pierce through your own soul.

[9:03] Also can imagine, can you imagine those of you who are mothers, just imagine how piercing, how, how she must've been, how she must've felt when her very own son that she gave birth to was hanging there in agony on the cross of Calvary.

[9:18] So these words of prophecy were being fulfilled. The sword will pierce through your own soul. Also, I'm sure she felt like she was being run through when the soldier, uh, pierced Jesus's side.

[9:29] And I imagine she felt it just like as if it would have been her. And we know that men and women are, are, are willing to rally behind so many banners behind so many causes. We have all kinds of people on the picket lines.

[9:41] We have all kinds of people that are carrying signs and are opposing everything. And they are willing to follow just about any cause, but are they willing to follow Jesus Christ? And I was, uh, walking in the neighborhood this week and, and I got to stop to talk to one of our neighbors down the street and, uh, got a chance to talk to him a little bit about the Lord and, and, uh, his response was, Oh, I'm not into that stuff.

[10:06] I'm not into that stuff. That stuff's not for me. Well, there are many who are like that, that you're Jesus. Now that that's just not for me. Or I'm not into Jesus. I'm not into that. I'm not into that religion stuff.

[10:17] Well, hopefully I'll have the opportunity as we walk for days because we talk from time to time to share the gospel with him, to share that it's not about church. It's not about religion. It's about the savior of the world who hung upon us.

[10:31] On the cross of Calvary, because God was demonstrating his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ was dying for us. And like we learned last week, Jesus Christ paid the pardon for the whole world.

[10:45] But remember, we have to receive that pardon for it to be legitimate. We have to receive that pardon for it to work for us. It was available to everyone, but it has to be received in order for it to be, in order for us to be pardoned.

[11:00] Few are willing to stand at the cross. There have been many martyrs of the cross down through the ages, both men and women, the faithful few who are willing to stand up for Jesus. Do you realize that most of the work of the gospel has been done by the minority?

[11:14] Most of the people who are led into the kingdom, through faith in Christ, are led there by the minority. The majority of Christians rarely, if ever, share their faith.

[11:27] If things are to be done, they're typically done by the minority. And we know any, any organization that you're involved in, whether it be volunteer or what have you, you've got the 80, 20 rule. 20% of the people will do a hundred, do 80% of the work.

[11:41] 80% of the people just are, are, are happy to let the 20% do all the work, even if they're paid to do it. You can see those who kind of don't get by.

[11:53] And there are those who do the work and make sure that it gets done. Christianity is no different. And I believe what Jesus wants of us. He wants a hundred percent of us. And he wants us to be following him, even to the cross.

[12:08] Take up your cross. He said, and follow me. Verse 37 of Matthew chapter nine. Then he said to his disciples, what did he say? The harvest truly is plentiful.

[12:19] There are a lot of people who need to hear the gospel, but what do you say? But the laborers are few. There's a lot more of them than there are of us. And we need to be sharing the word of truth.

[12:30] We need to be sharing the gospel with the rest of the world. So we know this morning, and we see that Jesus reminds us of the family. We also see that these words were a reminder of Jesus and the faithful few.

[12:44] But we also know that these words of Jesus reminds us of his faithfulness to us. We see in verse 26 and 27, when Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved, which was John, standing by, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son.

[13:08] Notice that John is to take care of Mary. Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. In effect, he was saying, mother, here's your son. Then he said to the disciple, behold, this is your mother.

[13:22] From this point forward, treat her as your very own mother and take care of her. And from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home.

[13:32] Notice that John is to take care of Mary. What was Jesus showing us there on the cross of Calvary, even while he was in pain, he wanted to make sure his mom was taken care of. He wanted to make sure that she, her needs, her emotional needs, her physical needs were being cared for.

[13:49] Her emotional needs, he sent her away before the hour of darkness, while he was in his greatest agony. For his, for her spiritual needs, he was dying for her. And for you, and for me, and for her temporal needs, he gave her someone to take care of, feeding her, providing her a home, a roof over her head.

[14:09] So John was going to become the personal, representative of Jesus Christ in his home for Jesus's mother. And so by the same token, we are also to be ambassadors and to represent Christ for others.

[14:22] Because how will the world hear of Jesus? Unless they hear it from us, or they read God's word. And so we need to be his ambassadors to a dying world, a world who needs to hear about Jesus.

[14:35] Verse 20, verse 20 of second Corinthians chapter five. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

[14:50] So in conclusion, what are these words of the cross mean to you? How will you respond? Will we allow Christ to be the head of our home? And will we be faithful to him?

[15:03] Even if that means we are in the minority. And as we've seen modeled by our Lord Jesus Christ, are we taking care of our families? Are we being the spiritual leader in our home?

[15:15] Are we taking care of the emotional and the spiritual and the temporal needs of our families? They need to be cared for. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you this morning.

[15:26] We thank you that our Lord Jesus declared there on the cross and showed us and modeled for us to take care of our families. Lord, help us to be good stewards of our time.

[15:41] Help us to be taking care of those whom you have given us responsibility over and to be cared for. Father, we pray that we would allow Jesus to be the center of our homes.

[15:57] Father, we thank you for what you're going to do in our lives. We thank you what you're going to be doing through us. Father, this morning we praise you. For it's in the name of Jesus Christ we pray.

[16:08]  Amen.