Part 1: Wake Up Sleeper

Sunday, August 7
“Wake up Sleeper”
John 20:1-10

Jesus had completed parts 1 and 2 of the Great Plan of Salvation.

He had endured the betrayal of Judas Iscariot.

The kangaroo court of Annas, Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin.

Jesus fought through the weariness and fatigue of severe sleep deprivation.

Our Lord didn’t back down to the voice of Rome through Pontius Pilate.

He by sure will suffered the 39 lashes of the Roman cat of nine tails, if a 12-thong whip, 468

separate lashes were laid upon him from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

The Savior emotionally school off the mockery of Herod, the soldiers and his countrymen, the

Jewish nation.

Donning a crown of thorns convicted realistically of no provable civil crime, he was already

dying, he was bleeding out, with all of his physical strength that he could muster he carried the

horizontal member of his cross along the Via Delarosa, until he could bear it no more.

Calvary was finally ascended pushing 9am the vertical member of his cross awaited him lying

on the ground as I picture it.

The two sections were tightly laced together. Jesus has unceremoniously cast upon the cross,

I believe his body was already in shock from the blood loss and his muscles were likely

tightening due to serious dehydration and shear physical exhaustion.

Then the blows of the hammer upon the 10 iron spikes impaling his hands and feet upon the

wood.

The cross and the Lord hoisted upright by ropes and set into a hole which would have shaken

Jesus’ body to the core.

A placard was also nailed above Jesus’ head which simply read “King of the Hews”

It was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.

Latin the dialect of the Romans, Creek the international language of the culture.

Hebrew the religious language of the Jews.

From 9am till approximately noon.

Christ mustered three utterances each profound in its own way.

1 st “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

2 nd “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

Jesus providing spiritual comfort and consoling words of promise to a repenting and dying

man.

3 rd “Woman behold they son.

Again, Jesus’ concern for others before himself still.

Giving over the care of his mother to his most loyal and trusted friend.

Remember still at this point his half siblings rejected him as Messiah, John did not. His next

eldest brother would have been the son traditionally to care for there widowed mother.

From mid-day till the 9 th hour or 3pm.

The Father caused a supernatural darkness over the scene.

An eclipse perhaps.

This was vastly symbolic as the Father dis-fellowshipped and rejected his Son bearing the sins

of this world.

This was the moment Christ had been dreading and this was the cup he begged to not to have

to bear.

Jesus suffered life ebbing away, labored breathing, asphyxiation bearing upon his tortured

lungs, time must have seemed like it was standing still.

Late into these final 3 hours, Jesus yells out. “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.” “My God, My God,

why hast thou forsaken me.”

Through swelled lips and tongue, through a parched throat, these words were mustered from

the very bowels of his being.

The separation of he and the Father was unbearable to him.

I believe he was now very close to death, but he had something else yet to say, but maybe he

physically now couldn’t even croak it out, so he said.

“I thirst.” – It wasn’t to prolong his live, it was to be so that he could pronounce to his world, a

world caught up in sin and rejection to Him.

All of his days, all of his ministry, the very reason he came to this world came to this point and

time.

And then he said, “it is finished.” My Fathers plan of salvation is come to a victorious end by

me and for you.

And then he through his las strength, his life’s work now complete, once again his

communication pointed to the Father claimed that victory.

“Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit.

His Spirit descended to paradise to introduce himself to the saints or old as their long-awaited

Messiah and he prepared them for their soon coming freedom into heaven.

His body laid in state in a borrowed tomb, resting in a sense, sleeping metaphorically speaking

waiting, waiting, waiting for the promised third day.

And then it happened. I believe as with Adam the Spirit of God came and breathed life once

again into his lungs and he began to have a heartbeat and the power of life burst through.

And I can hear it right now, like Jesus ears may have heard it.

Wake up sleeper!!

Arise my Love!!

Cuz death don’t live here anymore!!

As Christ speaks to our hearts and the Spirit convicts their sinful hearts.

It becomes his turn, his calling, promising a brand-new life.