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The Sovereign March to the Cross: Christ’s Decree and the Disciples’ Despair (Matthew 17:22-23) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reform thinking. Glad to be here for this one.
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  If you are joining us today, you are likely looking for a way to
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  grasp the massive, weighty theological truths of Scripture.
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  And you want to do that without feeling completely overwhelmed
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  by academic jargon, right? That is the whole mission for
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  this deep dive. Yeah, it is.
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  Today we are looking at a shockingly brief passage that
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  carries just a staggering amount of weight.
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  Matthew 17.22 through 23. It is so short but so dense.
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  We have gathered a stack of excellent sources for this
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  discussion. We're looking at comprehensive
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  theological commentaries that focus intensely on the absolute
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  necessity of Christ's suffering. His sovereign March to the
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  cross. Yes, and the incredibly short
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  sighted sorrow of his disciples. Right out of the gate, we need
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  to establish the lens we are using.
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  Absolutely. We are looking at this text
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  through the specific framework of Reformed theology.
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  Heavily referencing the structure provided by the
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  Westminster Confession of Faith. That framing is critical for the
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  conversation we are about to have.
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  I mean, when we approach these two verses in Matthew, we're not
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  looking at an isolated historical anecdote, no?
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  Or some random conversation between a teacher and his
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  students. We are looking at the axis upon
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  which all of redemptive history turns.
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  The sources we are working from point out that in just a few
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  sentences, Jesus completely upends human expectations of
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  glory. He lays out the divine necessity
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  of the Cross. And if we fail to read this
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  through a robust confessional lens, we risk reducing the
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  crucifixion to a tragic accident.
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  Or a political miscalculation. Right, rather than the
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  sovereignly ordained climax of God's covenantal plan.
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  So I want to set the scene for us because the geography and
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  then the literary context here are crucial.
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  They are massive for understanding the sheer shock
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  value of what Jesus says. The text tells us they're
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  gathering in Galilee. For Jesus and the disciples,
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  Galilee is familiar territory. It is sun drenched.
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  It is ordinary. It is the home base.
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  This is the region where Jesus has performed massive public
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  miracles. He is healed the sick.
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  Cast out demons. Fed thousands of people with
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  just a few loaves of bread. And taught the massive crowds.
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  For the disciples, Galilee feels like a place of continuous
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  victory. Yeah, they are gathering
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  together in this incredibly familiar region, and from their
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  perspective, the momentum is entirely upward.
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  They are building a movement. The contrast Matthew sets up
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  here is brilliant. To understand the gravity of
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  this ordinary moment in Galilee, we have to look at what happened
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  immediately before this. Jesus and his inner circle,
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  Peter, James and John. They have just descended from
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  the mound of Transfiguration. On that mountain, those 3
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  disciples witnessed something entirely outside of ordinary
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  human experience. They saw Christ's pre Incarnate
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  glory physically unveiled. The text says his face shone
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  like the sun and his clothes became dazzling white.
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  And he did not stand alone. No, he stood alongside Moses and
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  Elijah. Think about the theological
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  gravity of those two figures. Moses represents the Law.
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  And Elijah represents the prophets.
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  Both of them point directly to Christ.
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  Furthermore, on that mountain, the disciples heard the audible
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  voice of God the Father from a break cloud.
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  Declaring his absolute pleasure in the sun.
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  They literally saw the majesty of heaven touching the earth.
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  Right. So you have to imagine the
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  adrenaline pumping through the veins of Peter, James and John.
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  They have just seen the veil pulled back.
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  They've seen the glorified king. Then they come down the
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  mountain. They enter the dusty, familiar
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  region of Galilee. And Jesus chooses this specific,
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  very ordinary moment to drop an absolute bombshell.
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  He delivers an incredibly sobering prophecy about his own
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  passion. He tells them he is going to be
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  betrayed and killed. I have to ask, why do this right
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  now? Why choose the moment
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  immediately following the greatest spiritual high of their
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  lives to deliver the darkest possible news?
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  He does it to purposefully shatter their expectations.
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  The human heart naturally desires a crown without a cross.
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  1st century Judaism was ripe with expectations of a
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  conquering Davidic king. A king who would usher in an era
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  of unprecedented national glory and military triumph.
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  The disciples were breathing that cultural air, they.
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  Were anticipating an immediate, visible political conquest.
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  They wanted Rome overthrown. They wanted the Kingdom
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  established right then and there with absolute triumph.
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  They were ready for the crown, but they were entirely UN ready
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  for the suffering Servant described in Isaiah 53.
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  Jesus brings them off the mountain of glory and plunges
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  them into the valley of divine necessity.
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  He makes it clear that the path to true glory runs straight
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  through intense humiliation, suffering and death.
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  He is dismantling their triumphalist mindset brick by
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  brick. I want you, the listener, to
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  pause and consider times in your own life when you expected a
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  continuous string of spiritual mountaintop victories.
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  Maybe you thought following Christ meant moving from triumph
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  to triumph. You expected the promotion?
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  The healed relationship. The perfect family dynamic.
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  But then you were met with the harsh, sober realities of life
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  in a fallen world. We so often want the spectacular
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  shining moments to last forever. When the path forward requires
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  suffering or loss or walking through a dark valley, we are
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  utterly shocked. We assume something has gone
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  terribly wrong. The disciples are standing in
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  our shoes in this narrative. They're experiencing the exact
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  same shock. If we connect their experience
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  to the bigger picture of Providence, it changes how we
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  view our own trials. We frequently assume that
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  hardship indicates we have taken a wrong turn.
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  Or worse, that God has abandoned the plan entirely.
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  But Jesus demonstrates that the valley is the plan.
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  The suffering is not an interruption to his mission, it
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  is the very core of it. The cross is not a detour on the
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  way to the Kingdom, it is the gateway.
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  Let us look closely at the specific language Jesus uses in
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  Matthew 17.22 to describe himself.
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  He says the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands
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  of men. He brings up the specific self
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  designation the Son of Man. To a casual reader today, that
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  might just sound like Jesus stressing that he is a human
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  being. It sounds humble.
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  It sounds lowly. But based on our sources, there
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  is so much more happening beneath the surface of that
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  phrase, isn't there? This is not just a statement
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  about biology. Not at all.
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  That phrase is heavily loaded with Old Testament theology.
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  It connects directly back to the apocalyptic visions in Daniel
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  Chapter 7. In Daniel's vision, he sees 4
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  terrifying beasts rising from the sea.
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  Representing the violent, chaotic empires of the world.
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  Babylon, Medo, Persia, Greece and Rome.
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  But then the scene shifts to the courtroom of heaven.
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  The Ancient of Days takes his seat.
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  And Daniel sees one like a son of man, coming with the clouds
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  of heaven. He is presented before the
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  Ancient of Days. And to this figure is given
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  everlasting dominion, glory, and a Kingdom that shall never be
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  destroyed. All people's nations and
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  languages will bow to him. So when Jesus calls himself the
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  Son of man is not an admission of mere.
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  It is an apocalyptic title of supreme majesty.
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  He is claiming to be the cosmic king of the universe.
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  The one who will crush the chaotic empires of the world and
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  rule forever. The contrast he sets up in this
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  verse is staggering. The cosmic King, the one who
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  holds everlasting dominion, is the very one who says he is
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  about to be delivered into the hands of men.
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  The one who will judge the nations is submitting to the
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  judgement of sinful men. The tension in that sentence is
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  immense. And the phrase is about to be
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  delivered is a theological goldmine.
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  The original language uses a specific word here that points
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  to absolute certainty fixed in the eternal counsel of God.
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  Jesus is not looking at the political climate in Jerusalem,
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  noticing that the Pharisees are getting angry, and concluding
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  that he might get arrested soon. He is not analyzing poll numbers
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  or calculating the risk of a riot.
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  The cross is not a tragic possibility.
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  It is definitely not a reactive Plan B because his teaching
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  ministry failed to win over the religious elite.
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  I think we need to break that down even further.
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  It is so easy to read the Gospels like a suspense novel,
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  wondering if Jesus will escape the trap.
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  But the language Jesus uses roots this event in absolute
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  divine necessity. Let us talk about the concept of
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  the divine passive that the commentaries highlight regarding
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  the phrase to be delivered or handed over.
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  What does that mean for how we understand who is actually in
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  charge of the crucifixion? Yes, the verb for delivered is
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  passive. This is a massive point of
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  theology. On a historical, earthly level,
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  Judas acted wickedly in betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of
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  silver. The chief priests acted wickedly
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  and handing him over to Pilate out of envy.
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  The Romans acted wickedly in nailing an innocent man to the
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  wood to maintain political peace.
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  Every human agent involved was entirely guilty of murder.
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  But the passive voice points to the primary actor standing
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  behind all these human agents, God the Father.
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  The father is delivering the son.
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  The prophet Isaiah says it was the will of the Lord to crush
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  him. So how do we reconcile God's
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  control over history with the wicked actions of men?
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  This is where the reformed confessional framework becomes
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  essential for our listeners. The Westminster Confession of
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  Faith has a massive section regarding God's decree in
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  Providence. It states that God freely and
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  unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass.
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  He did this from all eternity by the most wise and holy counsel
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  of his own will. But it also explicitly states
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  that God is not the author of sin, nor is violence offered to
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  the will of the creatures. We must explicitly refute the
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  modern theological errors that try to water down God's
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  sovereignty. Systems like Arminianism and
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  open theism suggests that God is up in heaven, simply reacting to
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  human choices. In those frameworks, God is like
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  a grandmaster chess player. Constantly adjusting his
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  strategy based on the unpredictable moves of human
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  beings. Doing his best to pull a good
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  outcome out of our autonomous decisions.
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  That framework falls apart completely when you read Matthew
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  17.22. The most horrific, unjust act in
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  human history, the murder of the sinless Son of God, was not a
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  surprise to God. It was ordained by God.
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  Let us use an analogy to make this clear.
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  Imagine an author writing a sprawling, epic novel.
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  The characters in the novel make choices based on their own
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  desires, their own flaws, and their own motivations.
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  Within the story of Villain acts wickedly because he wants to.
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  He is fully responsible for his actions.
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  But zooming out, the author wrote the entire story from
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  beginning to end to accomplish a specific narrative purpose.
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  The hands of men that Jesus mentions perfectly showcase
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  total human depravity. Given the opportunity to
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  physically handle the creator of the universe, humanity's
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  instinct was to torture and kill him.
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  Men are fully responsible for their wicked actions.
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  Yet God remains the absolute sovereign architect of
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  redemption, using their malice to accomplish His holy purpose.
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  That is a crucial balance to strike.
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  The men acting against Jesus were doing precisely what their
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  sinful hearts desired. Nobody forced Judas to love
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  money more than the Messiah. Nobody forced Pilot to love his
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  political career more than justice.
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  But those simple desires were the very instruments God used to
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  secure salvation for the elect. The cross is not God scrambling
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  to fix a broken world after human beings messed up his
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  original plan. The cross is the blueprint of
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  redemption drawn up before the foundation of the world.
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  Which brings us to a really difficult part of the text.
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  In the very next breath, Matthew 17.23, Jesus lays out the brutal
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  reality of what this delivery entails.
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  He says and they will kill him. There is 0 softening language
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  used there. He doesn't say I will pass away
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  or I will leave you. He's painfully blunt.
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  And they will kill him. The Greek active verb exposes
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  the sheer lawless rebellion of humanity.
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  They are striking the author of life.
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  They are not just silencing A controversial teacher, they are
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  executing the Lord of glory. The malice is active,
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  intentional and deadly. Crucifixion was designed to
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  maximize physical agony and public humiliation.
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  It was a terrifying deterrent used by Rome to crush rebellion.
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  Jesus is looking his disciples in the eye and telling them he
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  is going to be subjected to the most horrific execution method
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  known to the ancient world. But even in the face of this act
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  of human malice, we cannot view Jesus as a victim.
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  Our sources point us to Westminster Confession Chapter
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  8, which addresses Christ the Mediator.
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  It declares that Christ did most willingly undertake this office.
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  I think this is where a lot of modern sentimentality gets it
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  wrong. We picture Jesus as a helpless
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  victim caught in the geopolitical machinery of Rome.
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  Dragged kicking and screaming to go ghetto because the religious
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  leaders outsmarted him. But the theological reality is
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  that he is the great high priest and he is also the sacrifice.
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  He is offering himself. He lays his life down on his own
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  accord. No one takes it from him.
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  This brings us to the bedrock doctrine of our faith, penal
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  substitutionary atonement. Let us break those words down
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  for the listener. Penal means it involves a legal
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  penalty. It involves the righteous wrath
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  of a holy God against sin. Substitution means he took our
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  place. The sinless one dies for the
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  guilty to satisfy divine justice.
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  Think of a modern courtroom analogy.
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  You are the defendant standing before a perfectly just judge.
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  You have wrapped up a massive debt of crimes, treason against
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  the King of the Universe. The penalty is deaf.
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  The judge, because he is, just cannot simply bang the gavel and
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  let you walk free. Justice demands that the penalty
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  be paid. Right.
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  If a human judge let a serial killer go free just because he
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  felt bad for him, we would call that judge corrupt.
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  God is not a corrupt judge. He cannot sweep rebellion under
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  the cosmic rug and maintain His Holiness.
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  Absolutely. The penalty must be paid.
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  So Jesus steps into the courtroom.
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  He does not just offer to pay a financial fine.
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  He stands in the place of his people and absorbs the full
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  measure of the Father's wrath. Every drop of punishment due to
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  the elect was poured out onto Christ.
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  We have to draw connections back to Isaiah 53 here.
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  Hundreds of years before this moment in Galilee, Isaiah
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  prophesied about the suffering servant who is smitten by God
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  and afflicted. Isaiah writes, He was pierced
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  for our transgressions. He was crushed for our
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  iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement
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  that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
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  Contrast this massive, weighty biblical truth with what you
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  often hear today. There is a rampant seeker
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  sensitive pragmatism in modern evangelical circles that
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  desperately attempts to bypass the offense of the blood in the
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  cross. You hear messages about Jesus
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  being a life coach. A moral example.
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  A buddy who wants to help you achieve your dreams and reach
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  your full potential. They talk about the cross as an
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  example of God's love, but they strip away the wrath.
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  I need you to hear this clearly. A gospel without substitution is
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  no gospel at all. If Jesus did not stand in your
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  place and take your specific punishment, you are still dead
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  in your sins. A life coach cannot save you
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  from the wrath of a holy God. The modern aversion to the blood
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  of Christ is a fatal error. When churches minimize the cross
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  to make the message more palatable to a secular audience,
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  they strip the Christian faith of its only mechanism for
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  salvation. The cross is offensive to the
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  natural mind. It demands that we admit our
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  absolute spiritual bankruptcy. It tells us that we are so
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  sinful, so completely corrupted, that the only way we could be
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  saved was for the perfect Son of God to be slaughtered in our
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  place. We could not save ourselves, so
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  the Son of Man had to be killed. I am so glad you highlighted
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  that because we cannot afford to get this wrong.
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  But the narrative Jesus gives the disciples does not stop at
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  the grave. After delivering this crushing
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  blow about being killed, he immediately shifts the focus to
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  the promise attached to the warning.
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  He says and he will be raised on the third day.
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  Here is the turn to triumph. The cross is the altar where the
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  sacrifice is made, but the empty tomb is the vindication.
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  Let us analyze the language you use for this resurrection.
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  It is a passive verb. Jesus will be raised.
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  This is highly. Significant.
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  It means God the Father is acting to vindicate the Son.
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  By raising Jesus from the dead, the Father is making a cosmic
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  public declaration. The payment for sin has been
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  accepted in full. Think of it like a receipt.
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  When you pay off a massive debt, the creditor hands you a receipt
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  proving the transaction is finished.
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  The resurrection is the Father's receipt to the universe that the
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  debt of sin has been cancelled. Justice is satisfied.
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  Death, which is the wages of sin, no longer has any legal
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  claim on the Son. Nor on anyone united to him by
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  faith. I want to talk about the
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  physical reality of this event. We have to defend the literal,
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  bodily nature of this resurrection against modern
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  theological liberalism. You hear a lot of modern
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  theologians say the resurrection was just a spiritual awakening
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  in the disciples hearts. They argue that Jesus rose again
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  in their memories. Or that the resurrection is just
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  a beautiful metaphor for springtime and new beginnings.
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  Based on the sources we are looking at, how does the text
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  push back on that kind of thinking?
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  The text obliterates that kind of thinking.
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  The grave was literally empty. The Roman seal was broken.
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  The massive stone was rolled away.
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  When Jesus appeared to the disciples, he ate fish with
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  them. He told Thomas to put his
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  fingers into the physical scars on his hands in his side.
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  A metaphor cannot eat. Fish, a spiritual awakening in
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  someone's heart, does not leave behind an empty tomb in
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  Jerusalem. If Christ has not been raised
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  physically, the apostle Paul says our faith is futile and we
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  are still in our sins. The physical resurrection is an
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  absolute historical reality. It is a historical reality, and
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  it is also the climax of so many Old Testament patterns.
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  Throughout redemptive history, God has operated on a specific
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  pattern, bringing life out of death and exaltation out of
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  profound humiliation. Let us trace some of these
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  patterns to show the listener how deeply this is woven into
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  the scriptures. Think of Isaac in Genesis 22.
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  Abraham is commanded to take his promised son, his only son, and
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  offer him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah.
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  Isaac literally carries the wood for the sacrifice up the hill on
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  his own back, just as Jesus carried the cross.
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  Abraham binds him to the altar and raises the knife.
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  For all intents and purposes, in Abraham's mind, Isaac is dead.
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  But God provides a substitute ram caught in the thicket, and
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  Abraham receives his son back alive.
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  The writer of Hebrews says Abraham received Isaac back as a
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  figure or a type of the resurrection.
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  That is a brilliant example. Another powerful pattern is seen
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  in the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis.
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  Joseph is the beloved son of his father.
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  What happens to him? His brothers betray him out of
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  envy. They strip him of his robe and
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  throw him into a dark pit, intending to leave him for.
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  He is sold into slavery for pieces of silver.
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  He suffers intense humiliation in Egypt, is falsely accused and
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  is thrown into a dark dungeon. He goes down and down into
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  humiliation. But what does God do?
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  God raises him up out of the dungeon and exalts him to the
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  right hand of Pharaoh. The highest throne in the land.
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  And through his exaltation, Joseph provides the bread of
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  life to a starving world, saving the very brothers who betrayed
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  him. Humiliation precedes exaltation.
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  And we cannot forget David. David was anointed king by the
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  prophet Samuel. The oil was caught on his head.
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  He was the chosen king. But did he immediately take the
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  throne in Jerusalem? No.
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  He spent years running for his life, hiding in cold caves in
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  the wilderness. Facing intense persecution and
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  violent malice from Saul. He had to walk through the
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  valley of the shadow of death before he ever wore the crown.
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  Jesus is the true substance that all these Old Testament shadows
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  pointed toward. He is the true Isaac, the true
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  Joseph, the true David the. Cross is the ultimate pit, the
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  ultimate K the ultimate altar, and the Resurrection is the
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  ultimate throne. So how does this apply to you,
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  the listener? This brings us to a crucial
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  concept in theology, the difference between the
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  indicative and the imperative. The indicative is a statement of
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  fact. It is what God has already done.
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  The objective reality. The imperative is a command.
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  It is what we are called to do. In the Gospel, the indicative
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  always precedes the imperative. We do not obey in order to be
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  saved. Rather, our obedience flows
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  entirely from the reality that Christ is risen and we are
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  united to Him. The pressure is off.
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  You do not have to earn your justification by perfectly
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  executing a set of moral commands.
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  The Cosmic King has conquered the Grays, and by faith, his
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  victory is counted as your victory.
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  I have to admit I am a bit baffled by the disciples
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  reaction to all this incredible theology Jesus just laid out.
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  Jesus has given them the full sequence.
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  He will be delivered, he will be killed and he will be raised.
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  And how do they react? Matthew 17.23 says and they were
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  greatly distressed. We have all had those moments of
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  selective hearing, right? It is like telling a kid we have
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  to go to the dentist to get a shot, but afterward we're going
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  to Disneyland. All the kid hears is the word
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  shot. They're weeping in the minivan,
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  totally deaf to the promise of Mickey Mouse.
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  That seems to be precisely what Peter, James and John are doing
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  right here. That is a highly accurate
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  analogy. The phrase, translated as
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  greatly distressed, implies a deep, staggering grief.
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  It is a sorrow that completely paralyzes the soul.
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  But we have to ask the critical question why?
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  Why were they so sad when Jesus literally just promised them a
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  resurrection? He gave them the punch line of
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  the joke. He told them he wins in the end.
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  They were sad because they were listening with Galilean ears.
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  They were listening with worldly expectations.
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  They heard the word killed and became completely, utterly deaf
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  to the promise of the third day. They locked onto the pain and
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  ignored the promise. This is not just a momentary
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  lapse in emotional control. This is a severe theological
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  failure on their part. They failed to rest in God's
• 21:51
  Providence. They viewed the impending cross
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  as an unmitigated tragedy, a failure of the mission rather
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  than the absolute required mechanism for their salvation.
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  They wanted to dictate the terms of victory.
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  They assumed that because Jesus was the Messiah, suffering was
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  permanently off the table. We need to point out the direct
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  parallel here to the modern prosperity gospel.
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  The prosperity gospel promises a life completely free from
• 22:16
  distress. It claims that if you have
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  enough faith, you will be wealthy, healthy, and successful
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  in all your earthly endeavors. It trains people to view any
• 22:25
  hardship, any illness or any financial setback as a lack of
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  faith or a direct demonic attack.
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  Rather than a potential tool in the sovereign hand of God.
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  It promises the crown of glory without the cross of suffering.
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  And it is not just the prosperity gospel.
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  We see this in modern mysticism that tells us to constantly seek
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  emotional highs, signs, wonders and spiritual ecstasies.
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  When we buy into these false frameworks, what happens when
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  real agonizing trials hit? We fall into the exact same
• 22:54
  worldly sorrow the disciples experienced in Galilee.
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  We become greatly distressed because we idolize comfort and
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  control instead of trusting the risen Savior.
• 23:04
  We think God has failed us, when in reality God is simply working
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  out a sovereign plan that requires us to pass through a
• 23:10
  dark valley. This requires a massive shift in
• 23:13
  how we apply this passage pastorally.
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  We need to address the head, the heart and the hands of the
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  believer. Let us start with the head, the
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  intellect. As a believer, you must train
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  your mind to rest in absolute sovereignty.
• 23:25
  You must firmly believe that nothing, not even the darkest,
• 23:29
  most vicious malice of men, falls outside the Father's
• 23:32
  ordained counsel for the Elect. The intellect must be anchored
• 23:35
  in the doctrine of Providence. When?
• 23:37
  Tragedy strikes your mind must know that God is still on the
• 23:40
  throne. I completely agree.
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  And the intellect informs the heart, the affections.
• 23:44
  I want to speak directly to the weary Saints listening right
• 23:47
  now. Afflictions are not proof of
• 23:48
  God's absence. You might be in a season of
• 23:51
  intense physical pain. You might be walking through
• 23:55
  relational betrayal or severe financial strain that keeps you
• 23:58
  awake at night. The believer must cultivate
• 24:00
  affections that love Christ specifically for his
• 24:03
  humiliation. We must exchange our wordly
• 24:06
  despair for a gospel centered hope.
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  Think about the logic here. If God used the most horrific
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  event in human history, the murder of His own sinless Son,
• 24:17
  to bring about the greatest good in the universe, He can
• 24:20
  certainly use your current affliction to conform you to the
• 24:23
  image of Christ. This moves us naturally to the
• 24:25
  hands our actions. In Reformed theology, we talk
• 24:28
  about the third use of the law. The law does not save us.
• 24:31
  The law condemns us and drives us to Christ.
• 24:33
  But for the believer who is already justified, who is
• 24:36
  already declared righteous and empowered by union with Christ,
• 24:40
  the law becomes a guide for grateful obedience.
• 24:42
  Because you are united to a resurrected king, you are called
• 24:46
  to act like a citizen of his. Kingdom.
• 24:49
  This requires active daily repentance.
• 24:52
  We need to repent of modern cultural sins.
• 24:54
  We must reject the contrary sexual ethics of our day that
• 24:58
  rebel against God's holy design for the body.
• 25:01
  We must reject the mysticism that looks for truth inside our
• 25:05
  own fickle emotions rather than in the objective, unchanging
• 25:08
  Word of God. You're living as a member of a
• 25:11
  resurrected King's household. Your body belongs to him.
• 25:14
  Your actions must align with his.
• 25:16
  You cannot live like the world when you belong to the one who
• 25:19
  conquered death. And the ultimate visible picture
• 25:22
  of this entire theological reality is the Lord's Table.
• 25:26
  It is the visible word. When you gather with the Saints
• 25:28
  on Sunday and take the bread and the cup, you are not holding a
• 25:31
  sad funeral for a defeated revelationary.
• 25:34
  You are not just remembering A tragic death.
• 25:36
  You are communing with the living Sovereign Lord.
• 25:39
  The elements represent the body delivered and the bloodshed, but
• 25:43
  the one who invites you to the table is alive forever more.
• 25:46
  The Lord's Table anchors us in physical reality.
• 25:50
  It prevents us from drifting into abstract philosophy or mere
• 25:54
  emotionalism. It is a physical, tangible
• 25:57
  promise that the Son of Man, who is delivered into the hands of
• 26:00
  men, has conquered the grave. As you eat the bread and drink
• 26:03
  the cup, Christ communicates the benefits of his mediation to
• 26:08
  your soul. It seals the promises of the
• 26:10
  gospel to our hearts and nourishes our faith for the long
• 26:13
  March ahead. It is a foretaste of the great
• 26:16
  marriage supper of the lamb. We are bringing this deep dive
• 26:19
  to a close. To summarize the massive
• 26:22
  sequence of the Gospel found in this single incredible passage
• 26:25
  delivered. Guild raised.
• 26:27
  Jesus did not flinch. He did not back down.
• 26:29
  He walked straight into the jaws of death with absolute sovereign
• 26:32
  authority, so that the wrath of God would be completely
• 26:35
  satisfied on your behalf. My call to you is direct.
• 26:38
  Cast aside your short sighted sorrow.
• 26:40
  Abandoned your worldly expectations of a crown without
• 26:42
  forns. Stop demanding that God make
• 26:45
  your life perfectly comfortable and pain free right now.
• 26:47
  Instead, trust entirely in the finished substitution work of
• 26:51
  Christ. Your salvation is secure because
• 26:54
  his victory is absolute. Rest in the sovereign hands that
• 26:58
  hold the universe. I want to leave you with a
• 27:00
  provocative thought as you go about your week.
• 27:02
  Consider this. When Jesus rose from the dead,
• 27:05
  he did not leave his wounds in the grave.
• 27:07
  He maintained the physical scars of his crucifixion.
• 27:10
  His glorified, indestructible body still bore the marks of his
• 27:13
  suffering in his hands, his feet, and his side.
• 27:16
  As you look at your own life and the distresses, the pains and
• 27:19
  the deep sorrows you carry, what if the eternal state does not
• 27:23
  simply erase your trials, but redeems them?
• 27:26
  What if your scars, united to Christ, will stand forever, not
• 27:29
  as signs of defeat or shame, but as brilliant, eternal proofs of
• 27:33
  God's sustaining grace?