Announcements
📚Redemption Seekers
Join our monthly Bible study group as we delve back into the Book of Revelation.
Email Pastor Alex at RevAlexBurchnell@ChristsRedemptionChurch.com if you would like to participate via Zoom.
⏰ Wednesday (4/8) at 4 pm EST
📍Blue’s Brews, Johnson City, TN
🕹️Escape Room
In lieu of service we will be celebrating our community and individual achievements. Let’s have some fun as we try to escape! 🤣
Contact us if you are interested in attending.
⏰ Saturday (4/11)
🛡️Redemption Warriors
Join our support ministry if you have any hurts, habits, or hang-ups. Boundary building, self reflection, and more! Come on down even if you just need a space to vent.
⏰ Saturday (4/18) at 5 pm EST
📍Frannie’s Vegan Cafe, Johnson City, TN
🏈 Valkyrie Sponsorship
Join us as we attend the Valkyrie game in Bristol. CRC will be sponsoring their drinks and cheering them on. This will be in lieu of service.
⏰ Saturday (5/30) at 7 pm EST
📍Gene Felty Stadium (Tennessee High School), 1112 Edgemont Ave. Bristol, TN 37620
🤝Volunteer Day
We will be volunteering at the Habitat For Humanity ReStore. Help us give back to our community!
⏰ Saturday (6/27) at 1 pm (before service)
🏊♂️ Pool Party and Potluck
In lieu of service we will be fellowshipping at Brother John’s house. If you would like to attend please contact us.
We ask that everyone bring a side dish and drink if you are able.
⏰ Saturday (7/4) at 12 pm EST
⛺️ Camping Trip
A group of our members will be camping and fellowshipping for a weekend. If you are interested please contact Elder Curtis via RevCurtisWalsh@ChristsRedemptionChurch.com asap.
⏰ 9/18-9/20
💸 Donations
In order for us to keep our ministry active and reaching more people we need your support.
Here is where your dollars go: donations to those in need, access to spaces that churches otherwise would not go, building space rental, feeding people, etc.
You can donate in person or via our donate page.
Sermon
I want to thank you all for being part of tonight and reading this sermon online. Tonight we are commemorating the most important event in our faith. Jesus’ death and Resurrection.
Let us pause in silence for his suffering. For all people. For all time.
I was praying and meditating on this sermon. I have been for weeks. I wanted it to be monumental. Just how he is monumental. His death. Monumental. His Resurrection. Monumental. I wanted desperately for it to be different. I don’t want it to feel stale or stagnant. I believe it was Sister Mary (a member of our church) who encouraged me on that. Not to be stale. Stagnant. Thank you for that. So, I began to look at what Jesus said at his crucifixion. Things stood out.
“When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion who stood facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!””
-Mark 15:33-39
What stood out to you in these verses?
What stood out to me was line 34. Jesus cried out, “My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?” This struck me as odd and I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me deeper. Did you know that the Bible didn’t have chapters and verses in Jesus’ time? Heck there wasn’t a “Bible”. They had each “book” as individual scrolls or a massive one. How did they reference chapters of verses then when communicating?
People would reference them by saying the first verse. In Jesus’ case he was referring to Psalm 22.
Psalm 22 is prophetic for Christians. Followers of Jesus. Yeshua Hamashiach. It tells us that, “…future generations will be told about the Lord and tell of his deliverance to a people that haven’t been born yet, saying that he has done it.”
Psalm 22 foretells of the mockery Jesus will face. The ridicule. The thirst he will experience. Can you imagine being so thirsty that your mouth is dry as a clay pot? How agonizing that is? Not to mention the pain of nails through his limbs. Suffocating.
Psalm 22 told of how Jesus’ garments he wore would be fought over and they would draw lots for them. Humiliating.
Psalm 22 tells of how he would be bound in some way by his hands and feet. Nails. Binding him to the stake. A Roman torture device. Foretold centuries before this became their common practice. Psalm 22 was written around 1,000 years before The Messiah was born!
Psalm 22 points to Jesus and Jesus points back!
But wait there’s more!
Jesus left us breadcrumbs in the word he used. In English we have “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But the words in Mark are “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” Why is this significant? Well, in Hebrew the “forsaken me” bit would have been “azavtani”. This word is what would have been used in the Temple. By the learned elites. But Jesus chose another word. Sabachthani. Why? This word isn’t Hebrew. It’s Aramaic. The “street” language of Jesus’ day. Before I deliver the point I want to tell you a store. Or maybe ask more questions.
Have you ever been in an emergency situation? A family member had to go to the hospital. Needed to have a procedure done. It was scary. Maybe you were the one. Have you ever had a doctor come in with terrible bedside manner? They use medical jargon. They didn’t explain anything in layman terms? How did or would that make you feel? Were you confused? Angry? Why was the doctor speaking to you as if you knew what a Thoracotomy is? Or a Pericardiocentesis! You need to know what’s going on! What to do! You are panicked. Your head is spinning. No on is stopping to just explain! Or they get frustrated you can’t just get it. How could you?! You didn’t go to medical school! You don’t understand! Understand.
This was a problem in Jesus’ day too. If you were a commoner you wouldn’t have access to the education that the Temple provided its workers. The priests. This Hebrew would have been the language the Scriptures were written in. The formal prayers were said in. But Jesus. Jesus used an Aramaic word. The commoner’s language. Trade language. “Street” language.
Sabachthani has significance. It means “left behind for a specific purpose”, “for a reason”, “destiny”. Not carelessly discarded. To permit. To forgive. To this end he was kept. But it means something that he used the Aramaic and not the Hebrew. It means that even at the brink of death Jesus focused on making himself available to all people. For all time. By choosing Aramaic—the “street” language of the common person—Jesus was bridge-building even in his final moments, ensuring his cry was understood by the everyday observer, not just those trained in the tongue of the Temple. Every chance God in the flesh too to get closer to us he took.
First God the Father. The Almighty. Then He came down in the flesh. Jesus. To walk among us. To fulfill his promises. To tear the veil. The curtain separating the Temple’s Holy of Holies that kept all but the High Priest out of the space God’s Presence resided. Jesus’ sacrifice opened the gates. It is done. It is finished. For all time. For all people. We all now have access to his presence.
As we pivot to a time of worship and communion I want us to read the promise Jesus pointed to in Psalm 22.
“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.”
-Psalms 22:27-31
Amen.
