Got that one!

There are seven sayings from the Cross: three in Luke, one in Matthew and Mark and three in John.

“The first one in John is the one nobody ever understands,” says Jordan. “He looks at John. John is the only disciple who goes with Him all the way from the garden to the Cross. John’s with Him in Pilate’s judgment hall. John’s with Him at the Cross.

“There’s His mother and John says, ‘Son, behold your mother. Mother, behold your son.’ And He cares for His mom. It’s John who reminds us that Christ said, ‘I thirst!’ demonstrating the intensity of His suffering. It’s in John that you read the triumphant cry of the Lord, with His head held high, ‘It’s finished,' demonstrating the finality and the work and the will of the Father being done. And there’s nothing more to do than what He’s done.”

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The first three sayings deal with the dispensational setting of the Cross. The middle one demonstrates the depths of the suffering of Christ and, as Jordan says, “If there was any one of these messages that I’d tell you you’ve got to get, it’s that one!”

And then the last three demonstrate the sufficiency of what’s been accomplished at Calvary.

All seven statements are the direct fulfillment of Scripture. They establish the authority of Scripture and demonstrate the place the Word of God played in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“They reveal His heart,” says Jordan. “They reveal that the Scripture was on His mind as He hung on Calvary’s Cross. The thing that was on His mind was the Word of God and what God was doing. And He literally kicks off the verses; He’s literally thinking through the verses that apply to Him, and that He knows He’s fulfilling, and He’s literally going, ‘Got that one, got that one, got that one. Are there any more left? Oh, yes!’ Literally it’s that way in His mind!”

*****

Jordan continues, “So when Paul says in Philippians 2:5, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,’ He’s talking about the mindset that Christ had toward the program of God that He lived under; the mindset that He had toward God’s Word that led Him to be obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.

“And that mindset that Christ had, that thinking pattern, focused on only one thing and that was God’s Word. The written Word of God was the source of His strength and determination; it was the place His faith and confidence wrested. Now, if there’s something that should encourage you and me today, it ought to be that!

“When Paul said, ‘Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,' he’s talking about, ‘Have in your thinking process the same kind of understanding that Christ had about where He stood in the program of God--that what He was doing was what God gave Him to do--and have that complete and total dependence upon on God’s program, and God’s word, and what God’s said, cause you to be obedient unto death: The absolute total denial of yourself so that the life and purpose of God might be what’s accomplished.'

*****

“What does it mean ‘to be filled with the Spirit’? Here’s the verse of an illustration of someone who is totally filled with the spirit. John 3:34. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only person who ever walked this planet who was absolutely, totally, unreservedly, without any measure, filled with the Spirit, and if you want to see someone who is filled with the Spirit you look at Him. Completely, totally, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 30 days a month, 12 months a year, 33 years of His life. And Paul says, ‘Let the mind of this completely, totally Spirit-filled person be yours.’

“Now what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Well, you know how to compare the verses. Ephesians 5:18, Col. 3:12. If you compare Ephesians 5 and 6 with Colossians 3:16 and following, you’ll see that exactly the same results come from being filled with the Spirit as come from having 'the Word of Christ dwell in you richly'!

“And, folks, if A equals B, and B equals C, then what does A equal? It also equals C. If being filled with the Spirit produces these results, and being filled with the Word of God produces these results, I know something about being filled with the Spirit. And I know something about having the Word of Christ dwell in me richly. They are synonymous terms! Two terms that describe in two different ways the SAME thing!

“We know that today, in the dispensation of grace, God the Holy Spirit works through the instrumentality of His Word and it is an objective reality. It is not an experiential wish, not some mystical idea. This thing about Christ living in you is not just some, ‘Well, I just feel like He’s here.’ It is an objective reality based upon words on a page in a book that you can hold in your hands. It’s that real.”