#5 Lent Holy Ground

When living in Kansas City, I went to a large church that was mostly young people who loved the Lord. I was moved at how, during communion, they all slipped off their shoes to go up to the altar, for it was holy ground.

In the weeks up to Easter, we participate with most of the Christians in the world who are looking at the meaning of Jesus’s death and his sufferings, and we’ve been looking at the gospel of John and his account of the last days and hours of Jesus’s life. And tonight, we come to the passage that actually describes the death of Jesus. And just like Moses in front of the burning bush took his shoes off because it was holy ground, I feel that somehow before this passage, we need to do something equivalent in our hearts. We need to come before this passage with a sense of its amazing holiness. And maybe the best way to do that is to be simple. And, you know, Jesus won our salvation with very few words, so there’s not much use perhaps in me describing our salvation in a lot of words. So let me just simply suggest to you that there’s three things we see in this account of His death, 1) the secret of His strength, 2) the nature of His offer, 3) and how we can appropriate it personally and practically.

Keller says to do the same in our hearts this week, for we are at the holy ground of the cross, where we see many of Isaiah’s prophesies of the suffering of the Messiah fulfilled. Please listen to Keller and don’t just read, for the preaching is so anointed by the Spirit. Here is the sermon link where you can download “I Thirst.” 

https://gospelinlife.com/sermon/i-thirst/

I Thirst

Sunday:

1. How have you experienced the goodness of the Lord this week? Also, can you share one time last week when you quoted Scripture to your soul? What was it and why did you do it?

Monday: The Context and Text 

2. The Context: Read John 19:17-24

1. What stands out to you and why?
2. Why do you think Pilate said what he did in verse 22?
3. The only material thing Jesus had was the garment He was wearing. What did they do with it? How is this a fulfillment of Psalm 22?
4. What does it mean to you that Jesus was naked on the cross?

3, Read John 19:25-30

1. What did Jesus tell John and His mother? What reasons might He have had for choosing John over His step-brothers?
2. We don’t know if offering the sponge of vinegar was mockery or mercy, but it could have been to moisten his lips so he could speak the final time, “It is finished.” What have you been taught or what do you believe and why?
3. What did Jesus mean when He said, “It is finished.”

Keller’s Introduction

In the weeks up to Easter, we participate with most of the Christians in the world who are looking at the meaning of Jesus’s death and his sufferings, and we’ve been looking at the gospel of John and his account of the last days and hours of Jesus’s life. And tonight, we come to the passage that actually describes the death of Jesus. And just like Moses in front of the burning bush took his shoes off because it was holy ground, I feel that somehow before this passage, we need to do something equivalent in our hearts. We need to come before this passage with a sense of its amazing holiness. And maybe the best way to do that is to be simple. And, you know, Jesus won our salvation with very few words, so there’s not much use perhaps in me describing our salvation in a lot of words. So let me just simply suggest to you that there’s three things we see in this account of His death, 1) the secret of His strength, 2) the nature of His offer, 3) and how we can appropriate it personally and practically.

Tuesday: The Secret of His Strength

As we saw last week in Philippians 2: Jesus emptied Himself of Divine Power. Therefore He has no more resources that we do in overcoming temptation. This is huge. Please listen to Keller’s sermon up to Point 2. Here is the text:

The Secret of His Strength

First, the secret of His strength. Now, I could have actually made this point any of these last few weeks as we’ve been looking at the gospel of John, but notice it says, later, knowing that all was now accomplished, and so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled, Jesus said… That the Scriptures would be fulfilled. Now, you know how often this has come up, that Jesus does things because the Scripture will be fulfilled? What does that tell us? A lot. You know, we have a tendency to, with a semi-conscious assumption, we have a tendency to underappreciate the strength with which Jesus faced what He faced. He faced opposition. He faced suffering, of course, at the very end. He was never understood. Nobody understood Him. Even His best friends never even understood Him. He was always utterly alone, assaulted by the devil, assaulted by the religious leaders, at the very end assaulted by the soldiers. How did He get the strength to face the things He faced? And there’s an unconscious assumption or semi-conscious assumption on our part that doesn’t even ask that question. You know why? We tend to say, well, He was the Son of God. You know, He was the Son of God from heaven. He was this divine being. I mean, I guess that’s how He faced it. But that’s missing something pretty important. Philippians 2 says, Jesus Christ, when He became a human being, emptied Himself of His glory. When He assumed a human nature and became truly human, He emptied Himself. He voluntarily cut Himself off from His divine prerogatives. He didn’t use His resources. And in Acts chapter 10, verse 38, this little offhanded comment by Peter as he’s preaching, Peter says this, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, and He went about doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil, because God was with Him. I remember some years ago reading that and realizing the implications of this. What this is telling us is the reason Jesus was able to do the things He did was because of His reliance on the Spirit and the Father. Jesus Christ did not use any resources that aren’t available to us. He had no access to resources that weren’t available to us. He did everything because He relied on the Spirit and the Father, just like we can. He didn’t use His own resources. He accessed the Spirit and the Father, and that’s how He got the strength to face these incredible things He faced. Well, how did He access the strength of the Spirit and the Father? And I believe that at least, I’m sure there’s more than one way to look at this, but at least one of the main ways is through His knowledge and His use of the Scripture. Every place Jesus faces something, He handles it with the Bible. When the devil assaults Him, every time He says, it is written. When the Pharisees assault Him, He says, “You know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” When Peter takes his sword out, in order to, you know, defend Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says, “Put that away. Of course, I could call on angels to get out of this, but then, oh Peter, how would the Scripture be fulfilled?” He’s always thinking of the Bible. On the way to Jerusalem, on the way to Mount Calvary, He’s carrying His cross. This is in Luke 23, I think, Luke chapter 23, and there’s these women weeping, and He turns to them, and He says, “Daughters of Jerusalem, why do you weep?” And He quotes Hosea to them. And on the cross, on the cross, when He’s in the greatest of agony, He quotes Psalm 22, verse 1, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And it tells us right here, He’s constantly, even now, at the very end of His life, thinking about the Scripture. Now, you know what this means? Look, when you’re in the extremity, when you’re in pain, when you’re in incredible danger, you act instinctively. You know, you have, there’s two you(s), you know. There’s the instinctive, visceral you, the real you, the true you, the naked you, and then there’s the you that you want to project after reflection. So, for example, you know, there’s people watching you, and you know, well, say, “Now, how should I respond?” So, for example, somebody criticizes you. The true you wants to strangle them, but then you see there’s people around you and the reflected you does something there. See, the true you says, wants to strangle them. The reflected you says, “That’s a very interesting point.” But when you’re at extremity, like Jesus is here, there is no projected self. There’s only the visceral instinctive you. And how is it possible that Jesus Christ is taking all this with courage, with poise, with submission, with comfort? “Oh, He was the Son of God.” He had the same things, the same resources we had. He also had the same frailty we had. How is He doing it? When you prick Jesus Christ, when you stab Jesus Christ, He literally bled Scripture. He knew the Scripture so well. He thought about the Scripture so pervasively. It so saturated and permeated His whole being and His imagination and His feelings and His will and His knowledge that it shaped Him instinctively, that He was… the Scripture shaped every part of Him. It was who He was. And that’s how He was able not to have… didn’t have to sit and think, well, now how should I act? His nobility, His courage, His peace, His faith, all that happened because He was just saturated with the Scripture. Now, you know, I have people constantly saying to me, “Well, you know, I have problems with the Bible. You can’t take the Bible literally here.” You know, I just spent… I just went to a number of college campuses, some of you might know, over the last few days, and I had question and answer times on all these campuses about Christianity, and that came up all the time. “Well, how can you, you know, believe when the Bible says this? And aren’t there legends in the Bible? And aren’t there things you can’t take literally? And aren’t there regressive things in the Bible that really offend me now?” And what I always want to ask people is this. I want to say, “Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe Jesus was the Lord of heaven come to earth? Do you believe He was raised from the dead?” Figure that out, would you? You decide whether He was the Son of God. You decide whether He was Lord from heaven. You decide whether He was bodily raised from the dead. Because if He is, there’s absolutely no way, there’s no way to follow Christ to admit that He’s the Son of God without accepting the authority of the Bible. Because Jesus Christ submitted to the Scripture. He loved the Scripture. He knew the Scripture. He bowed to the authority of it at every point. And if He is the Son of God, so are you going to have to. And anybody who says, “Well, I believe in Jesus. I love Jesus, but I have trouble with this parts of the Bible.” Then you don’t believe in Jesus. You don’t love Jesus. You don’t know who He is. You’ve created a figment of your imagination. If He’s the Son of God, you have to deal with the authority of the Scripture or you can’t follow Him. And you don’t, if you love the Son of God, you have to love the Scripture. Because He loved the Scripture. It’s what He was made of. On the other hand, if He wasn’t the Son of God and He wasn’t raised from the dead, then who cares whether you can take the Bible literally. Be offended all you want. I mean, why are you struggling with it? You see, the authority of the Scripture rises and falls with the person of Jesus Christ. If He is who He said He is, and if He needed the Scripture to face everything in life, how much more do you need it? That’s the secret of His strength.

5. Listen and read the above (please listen!)

1. What at first stands out and why?
2. What resources did Christ have that we do not? Point?
3. Give some examples of times Jesus quoted Scripture.
4. Why does Keller say there is no way you can truly believe Jesus is the Son of God if you do not accept the authority of the Bible?

Wednesday: The Nature of His Offer (Part A)

But then secondly, we have the nature of His offer.

What is it that He offers us? Now, when He says, “I thirst,” at first sight, you might say, of course, He’s being crucified. He’s being crucified under the Near Eastern sun. And one of the things that people died of when they were crucified was, they died of dehydration and thirst. And that’s a horrible death. People who know something about it, medical authorities will tell you, if you know what it’s like to have a burn, you know, burns are awfully, awfully painful. If you’ve been burned by steam or contact with a stove or something like that, you know how incredibly painful burns are, not just when they happen, but for a long time after that. They say that to die of dehydration is basically like to have that burning inside. You feel like you’re burning up on the inside. You feel like you swallowed a furnace. It’s absolutely horrible. And so, if you’re crucified, of course, you’d feel like that. So, you say, well, of course, you’d say, “I’m thirsty.” He’s being crucified. No, wait. On second thought, it’s weird. On second thought, it’s significant. Because you know, Jesus up to now has not complained about any physical pain at all. When they blindfolded Him and they beat Him in the face and said, you’re a prophet, prophesy, who hit you? He opened not His mouth. And when they scourged Him, and a scourge is a whip, yeah, but a whip with all these thongs on it, and every one had attached to it a bone, a piece of bone or metal, so that when you whip somebody, when you do that 39 lashes, you are literally ripping His back to ribbons, just tearing His back into ribbons. So, it just looked like a piece of raw meat when it was done. And He didn’t say a thing. He opened not His mouth. I mean, over and over, the gospel writers say, He submitted. When they put thorns on His brow, and when they pounded iron spikes through His feet and hands, He didn’t complain. He accepted it. He knew that this was what He was to do. He had that kind of courage. He had that kind of fortitude. He accepted it. He submitted to it. Why then, if He doesn’t cry out, ow, when He’s being scourged or when He’s being nailed, would He suddenly say, I’m thirsty? And the answer is, because something more than physical thirst is going on here. Jim Boyce, who used to be the pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, gives this interesting illustration that if you go to the Schuylkill Expressway or go to the Schuylkill River, the expressway goes down this side, and on the other side is the River Drive. It’s now called Kelly Drive, and you have Boathouse Row. It’s very lovely. And if you go opposite 15 Kelly Drive, one of the houses, boathouses, there is a statue of a Puritan, nine feet tall, bronze, big Puritan, flowing robe, and a Bible. And he says, what you can’t see unless you really look carefully is there’s actually a little underground stream that comes out into the river at that point, into the Schuylkill River. And if you walk back up the hill, Sedgley Hill, behind the statue, you’ll find a spring from which the water comes. And the spring years ago was made, a viaduct, a little viaduct was made by a city engineer for the spring for it to come out. And inscribed on the stone viaduct by, I guess, the engineer are these words, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” And it’s the first half of the famous statement where Jesus Christ says to the woman at the well, “You see this water you’re drawing? Whoever drinks of this well water will thirst again. But I,” he says, “I have a water that if you drink of it, you will never thirst again. Indeed, the water I will give will become a spring of water welling up within you to eternal life.” Now, what in the world is He talking ab out? In the Bible, thirst is a metaphor for the spiritual emptiness that comes when God’s not at the center of your life. You see, it’s one thing to believe in God. It’s another thing to have Him be the central reality of your life. So, Psalm 42, the psalmist says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” What the psalmist is saying is it’s not belief in God that my soul needs, as much as the body needs water. It’s not just belief in God that my soul needs, otherwise I literally die of thirst. The spiritual agony is as bad as the physical agony of dying of dehydration. It’s not belief in God, it’s meeting God. It’s knowing God. It’s experience of God. 

6. Listen and Read the above (Please do both.)

1. What stands out and why?
2. Keller likens crucifixion to being burned. Have you ever suffered a burn? What was it like?
3. Keller tells of a sign at a river that says “Whoever drinks of this water will thirt again.” What was his point? What was Christ truly thirsting for?
4. What are some ways you can know if Christ is the central reality of your soul?
5. How often do you praise Him or cry out to Him?

Thursday: The Nature of His Offer (Part B)

Or another way to put it is God is the central reality of my life. So, you can believe in God and yet professional success be the real central reality, the meet and drink of the soul, or friendship, or your family, or sex and romance, or influence, or money. That can be the real meet and drink of the soul, thethe central reality of the soul. But here’s what Jesus is saying, “If you put the bucket of your heart down into anything more than the love of God, more than the glory of God, more than the beauty and comfort of God, you will thirst again, you will thirst eternally.” So, remember when we mentioned this, when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, the woman says, she’s drawing water, remember, John 4. And Jesus says, “Hey, anyone who drinks that water will thirst again, but I have the water that if you drink it, you’ll never thirst again. Indeed, the water I will give you will well up within you as a river of eternal life.” And so, she says, “You’ve got water that if I drink it, I’ll never thirst again? I won’t have to come and draw water anymore? Tell me about this. Show it to me. Really? Give me that water.” And what does Jesus say? Immediately in response, He says, “Go get your husband. We’ll talk about it.” She says, “Well, I don’t have a husband.” And He says, “I know you’ve had five husbands and the man you’re living with right now is not your husband.” And when you read this, your first response is, whoa, she’s talking about spiritual stuff, Jesus, she wants the river, she wants the water of living water. And He changed the subject and brings up her broken, messed up love life. What’s the matter with Him? Why did He change the subject? And why is He being so harsh? And the answer is He’s not changing the subject and He’s being incredibly tender. Because you see, she says, “I want this living water.” He says, “Okay, let’s talk about your messed up love life. The reason you want closure, the reason you want a man to have you in his arms and tell you he loves you, the reason you want that so badly is because you’re really thirsting for God. And the reason your life is going so poorly is because anyone who looks to anything more than God for that love, for that significance, for that meaning, for that hope will thirst again. And anyone who continues to do it and continues to look at it instead to God will thirst eternally. He’s being tender. He’s convicting her. He’s not just confronting her. And you know what He’s saying? You don’t need an abstract belief in God. She actually did believe in God, you know, in an abstract way. You need God imbibed. You need God as a living reality in your center. You need the love of God so that you don’t look to love of men, He’s saying to her, to give you what only the love of God can give you. You need the love and glory of God imbibed, welling up inside of you, washing over you. You need to know it or you will thirst eternally. Well, now how can He offer that? Especially in light of what the psalmist said and what we saw a couple of weeks ago. The psalmist says, what I really need is not just belief in God, abstract knowledge of God, I need to meet God, meet Him. And yet you remember what happened when the, in John 18, the first part of John 18, when the people came to arrest Jesus, and all Jesus did was get up and say, “It is I.” Remember what happened to them? They all fell down. They couldn’t stay on their feet in front of Him. That one bit for one second. And we trace that idea back to the Bible. And what the Bible says is, look, if you think it’ll be pleasant to meet God, if you think it’d be wonderful to have God come into your life, that shows you don’t know who the real God is. That shows that you’ve kind of concocted a man with a big old beard, or you’ve got some idea of a force of love in the universe. But when anyone ever gets near the real God, this is about three weeks ago, when we talked about this, when anyone gets near the real God, who is perfectly good and absolutely just, and you immediately become profoundly aware of the fact that you don’t even live up to your own standards, let alone God’s standards. How can you meet a God like that? How can you know a God like that? How can you stand before a God like that? Maybe that’s who we need in the center of our soul. How can we get that? And now we know why Jesus is saying, “I thirst.” He’s not talking about the physical, particularly. It’s a picture of what He’s really going through. Jesus Christ is experiencing the ultimate thirst. Jesus Christ is experiencing the everlasting burnings. Yeah. The prophet Nahum puts it like this. Who can stand before God’s wrath? Do you not know his fury is poured out like fire? Who can dwell with the everlasting burnings? Jesus Christ was getting what the whole human race deserved for all of its evil. Jesus Christ was getting what everybody deserved for all of their sins. It was like 10 million suns beating down on Him because He was experiencing the divine burnings, the everlasting burnings of divine justice. And you know what He’s doing? He is thirsting so we can have a living water. He’s having the ultimate thirst. He’s dying of spiritual thirst. He’s experienced the agony of an eternity without God. He’s being separated from God, the fountain of living water, so we can have the fountain of living waters. He’s paying for our sins. And here’s what He’s saying. I lost the favor and love of my Father. I was separated from the favor of the love of my Father and received the everlasting burnings which you deserved so that you could have His nearness and you can have His love, which is what I deserve. I thirsted eternally so you could have a river of life welling up within you, His favor, His love. You can know it, unto eternal life.

7. Listen and read the above (Please do both)

1. What stands out at first and why?
2. What point did Keller make with the story of the woman from Samaria?
3. Into what well of wells do you put the bucket of your heart? What does this tell you?

Friday: How We Can Appropriate This

And let me just, let me close briefly. And it’s silly in a way to use this amazing statement, these last words of Jesus as a third point. You could easily preach a sermon. You could preach a whole series of sermons on this last point. But the last thing Jesus says is as He breathes His last, He says, “It is finished.” And anybody who’s ever, if you’ve ever heard a sermon on this or been or studied this or heard teaching on this, the teacher will always tell you, and they’re absolutely right, that Jesus is saying one word here, it’s the word ‘tetelestai’. And it’s a word that means totally paid. It’s a word that you would put, you would write across a bill. If you had a bill and it said you owed and you had paid it and you totally paid it, totally redeemed it, as it were, you would say ‘tetelestai’. It’s paid. It’s accomplished. Now, you know what Jesus is saying? One of the great paradoxes, one of the wonderful paradoxes of history, here is Jesus Christ and by the world standards, and in fact, by all standards, He is absolutely helpless. He is totally defenseless. He can’t even, He can’t even scratch his nose. He is utterly powerless. He is utterly dependent. He is utterly impotent. He is utterly out of control. And as He dies in this incredible helpless state, you know what His last words are? His words are, “I did it.” “I’ve done it.” “I’ve triumphed.” “I’ve accomplished it.” Well, what has He accomplished? 1 Peter 3:18, Christ died for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God. And here’s what He’s saying. I have traversed every inch. There’s an infinite chasm between you and God, an infinite distance. And I have traversed every inch. I have paid it all. I have accomplished it all. There’s nothing more for you to do. Now, contrast this with the last word of Buddha. The last words of Buddha were evidently, “Strive without ceasing.” Now, if you know anything about the eight-pulled path, and there’s a lot of admirable stuff in Buddhism I’ve always admired. You know, there’s the self-denial and the recognition that self-centeredness is what’s wrong with us. It’s fascinating. But the eightpulled path to enlightenment, the eight-pulled path to salvation is incredibly hard, unbelievably demanding. And that’s the reason why Buddha, the last words he said is, if you want salvation, you must never stop striving. You have to strive without ceasing. That’s the last words of Buddha. And the last words of Jesus Christ were exactly the opposite. He says, I’ve done all the striving. Don’t you dare. I’ve done everything to bring you salvation. See, religion is, you give God a performance, and then God blesses you. But the gospel is, God blesses you in Jesus Christ, and then you do your best to love and serve the one who’s already given you the welcome, and already given you the blessing, and already given you the acceptance. It’s already there. And Jesus says, “It is finished!” You know, if I was to make you, in fact, I did this once many years ago, worked very hard. It’s the only woodwork I ever did. I worked very, very hard at kind of refinishing an old chest of drawers. And we put about, Kathy and I put about 3,000 coats of stuff on it, and we sanded it every time, over and over and over again. I was really proud of it. And if, when I gave it to the person who we were giving it to, if that person had said, picked up, you know, a piece of sandpaper, or picked up a chisel, or an awl, or something like that, and said, “Well, let me just put one or two more strokes on it here,” I would have said, “Wait a minute, it’s finished!” Which is to say, which is to say, to add to it will subtract from it. Any effort on your part to make it better will make it worse. Any effort at all. And when Jesus Christ says, “It is finished,” what he’s really saying to you is, “It’s finished!” You can’t receive my salvation and act as if you can add to it. And let me give you two, just to close here, just two kinds of people who add to it. And it’s an awful lot of people in this room, I’m sure, no matter what room I’m talking to. Some of you are what I call, some of you beat yourself, and other people are always trying to prove themselves. They’re self-beaters and self-provers. You know what a self-beater is? Every time somebody criticizes you, you’re devastated, and you beat yourself up. Every time you do something wrong, or you make a mistake, you beat yourself up. In fact, you did something wrong five years ago, and you can’t get past it. You just always feel bad about it. You beat yourself up. You know what Jesus is saying? “I was beaten up for you. Are you telling me that wasn’t good enough? I was scourged. I paid for your sins. Why are you still trying to pay for them? I atone for your sins. Why are you trying to atone? It is finished! To try to add anything to what I’m doing is going to subtract from it. How dare you hate yourself? How dare you loathe yourself if you’re a Christian? Don’t you know what I’ve done for you?” Then, of course, there’s another kind of person, not so much the self-beaters, the selfprovers. You usually feel better about yourself, and you’re very proud that I live in New York City. I’m cool. I went to the best schools. I’ve made it to the top of my profession, and I’m on my way up, and I’m making good money, and I’m doing this, and I’m doing that. That’s going to drive you into the ground because you won’t always do well. I tell you that. And you see, you want to be a workaholic? Then what you’re really saying to Jesus Christ, what He did is not finished. To feel significant, to feel secure, I’ve got to make that money. I’ve got to have that fame. I’ve got to do this. “Oh, I’m so glad that Jesus paid for my sins, but now I’m out here.” What are you doing? It is finished! Those of you beating yourself up, working yourself into the ground, it’s finished! You’re not taking seriously what Jesus has done. You know, the gospel is you’re a sinner saved by grace, and you’re more evil than you ever dared believe and more loved than you ever dared hope. The people who are trying to prove themselves, you never will. You’re more evil than you ever dared believe. The people who are always beating themselves up, God loves you enough that He’s done all this. God affirms the people, the self-beaters up. He humbles the self-provers down. And until you see it is finished, and you stop acting as if Jesus’ death was something that kind of made a contribution to your salvation, but you have to finish it. Don’t you know your self-hatred? Don’t you know your worry? Don’t you know your anxiety? Don’t you know your overwork? It’s all because you don’t know that it’s finished. You’re not rejoicing enough in what He’s done. You’re not really taking seriously what He’s done. That’s how you appropriate, and that’s how you personally make personal what Jesus Christ has done. Or as the hymn says, Lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus’ feet. Stand in Him and Him alone, gloriously complete. It’s finished! Let’s pray. Father, please help us. We’ve seen the secret of His strength. We’ve seen the offer of absolute satisfaction, soul satisfaction. And we’ve seen the glorious finished work of Jesus Christ. And if we took all this seriously, we’d be very different people. So now help us to take it seriously because Your Son paid such a price to give these things to us, such a price. And now we ask that You would help us to receive it. Help us to take, in a sense, our shoes off because we’re standing before holy ground. Help us to receive what You’ve given us. How ungrateful if we don’t. How ungrateful if we stay worried, driven, anxious, self-loathing, guilty. How dare we do that? We thank You that these offers stand, and we also thank You that You love us even when we don’t actually take seriously the finished work of Jesus. And even though it takes us years and years and years to practice it, You’re there. You’re there for us because the work is finished, and You’re still accepting and loving us in Jesus. We receive that. We thank You for that, and we ask that You would accomplish all these things in our lives for we ask it through Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.

8. Listen and read the above:

1. What stands out on first listening and reading and why?
2. What did Jesus mean when He said “It is finished”? How do you need to speak this to your soul?
3. I always love how Keller brings this back to Christ — He was naked so we could be clothed, He was beaten so we wouldn’t beat ourselves up, He was thirsty, so we wouldn’t be. He finished or salvation so we would haven’t to. Praise Him here.

Saturday:

9. What is your take-a-way and why?