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I think that some of the hardest-hitting scriptures in the Bible are those that deal with the tongue and the words that we speak. And rightfully so, because James the brother of Jesus said that on our own, no man can tame his speech. If we are to talk Godly and righteously, then we will have to have divine help. I believe that one of the reasons that God chose speaking in a heavenly language as the Spirit gave the utterance to be a sign accompanying the infilling of the Holy Ghost in the Book of Acts was because that was the one part of the anatomy that is the hardest for men and women to control. There are people that can go most of their life without punching somebody's lights out or walking on their feet into an inappropriate place, but everybody has to continually watch their mouth. Just when you think that it's under control then you have to pray to get it subdued again.

This sinful world does not realize the importance that God places upon your mouth and the words that you speak and the language that you choose to use. Let me throw a few scriptures at you just to impress upon you the importance of controlling your speech. Jesus taught:

The sobering thought is that God hears every word that we speak and we will give an account for every one of them! When you stand before God, what you say or don't say will be much of what you are judged upon. Just as important as your actions, is your speech. And the reason for this is that the Bible teaches that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." What we say is an indicator of how we feel and are thinking inside. That's why Jesus said it's so important to consider your words carefully.

James said this:

In other words, whether or not you are truly a Christian can be easily seen by your speech because the speech reveals the true inner man. It's not the preacher's opinion, but rather the Word of God that questions the validity and sincerity of the Christian who claims to be Christ-like and yet whose mouth is filthy or full of lies. Someone who can go from praising God in one place to cursing in another does not really have Jesus Christ as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings on the throne of their life. Someone who can go from talking eagerly about God to gossiping and speaking evil of their fellow brother or sister has not truly been born again and changed yet into His image. In James' words, if you think you are religious, and yet you cannot control your tongue, then your religion is worthless! A sign of total surrender to God is the surrender of our language to Him, both in the Spirit and in the natural! True Spirit-filled Christians ought to be the most positive, trustworthy, promise keeping, clean-mouthed, uplifting voices in this world! After all, if we are the body of Christ then not only are our hands and feet His in this world, but also our tongues are to be the voice of Christ! People should see Jesus in our speech!

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I'm not here to preach on gossip, cursing, lying or any of the other various things that we should NOT do with our voice. But rather to preach about some things that we don't often talk about and that is what we SHOULD hear from a Christian's mouth. About now somebody is thinking, that "this is Easter" and "what in the world does this message have to do with Calvary and Jesus dying on the Cross and the Easter story?" It actually has quite a bit to do with the cross, because of all the lessons that can be learned from studying the final, dying day of Jesus Christ, the most powerful ones are found within the words that He spoke that day and the words that He did not speak. While on the cross, we have recorded seven utterances that Jesus spake. These things are not recorded by accident, but teach us about a language that must be coming from our mouths if we are to be like Jesus. To truly be a Christian -- which means Christ like -- we must be able to speak in the language of the cross as Jesus did.

I want you to understand while Jesus was God revealed in flesh, He also felt pain and anguish like the average human being. The nails hurt. The pain was just as unbearable as in any other crucifixion and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the details of such a death, you need to understand that the cross represents one of the most painful methods of death ever invented by humanity. The nails through the hands and the feet were sources of pain and gradual blood loss and the only way a victim could breathe was to push against the nails in the feet and pull at the same time with the hands. Not only was each breath painful but each effort further weakened the victim through the loss of blood making the next breath even harder. Jesus' death on the cross was heightened beyond the suffering of every previous crucifixion by the fact that He was beaten with the whip known as the cat o' nine tails first which had ripped the flesh off of His back with pieces of bone and metal and left Him at the point of death even before He was nailed to the cross. Jesus was not the wimpy skin and bones that you see in the pictures of Catholic painters but had worked for eighteen years in a carpenter's shop in Nazareth before He began His ministry and was a strong man. And yet even this strong man who was in better shape than most could not carry His own cross because of the beating that had been applied before ever getting to Calvary.

All of this was even magnified by the amount of abuse that Jesus was getting while hanging there dying. His enemies and the religious leaders of the day pummeled Him with insults and jeers. They cursed Him to His face and made open shame of Him while He hung there exposed upon the cross. And yet His suffering was even heightened more by the fact that when they offered Him a drug that would have allowed Him to pass the final few hours of His life in a semi-awakened stupor, Jesus refused it and would not take it -- choosing to suffer the pain and punishment while in His right mind and with a clear head. Combine this with the fact that all of His disciples had fled and deserted Him except the few women and John and that His chosen leader of the disciples, Peter, had cursed Him to His face three times and then add to that the shame and judgment that Jesus' body felt as God exacted the wrath and price of every sin that had ever been committed by humanity. You may have had bad days, but even the worse possible day of your life cannot compare with the final day of the Son of God's life! I am moved every time that I read the scriptural accounts of the cross because I realize that this great God that I serve suffered in such a way with me in mind! To save me was His goal!

Ultimately, a crucifixion victim either died by asphyxiation when they no longer had the strength to pull against the nails to draw a breath, or they died from their heart bursting from the stress of the cross. The fact that blood and water flowed from His side when the Roman soldiers pierced it, indicates to us that Jesus -- quite literally -- died from a broken heart.

The greatest way that Jesus' death was different from other crucifixions was in His response and conduct on the cross. Jesus acted so radically different than any other person that had ever been crucified before that by the end of the day, the Roman officer that was in charge of the crucifixion shook his head in amazement and said "surely this man was righteous and innocent." Some traditions have that the soldier eventually became a follower of Jesus Christ. I don't know if that's true or not, but one thing is absolute: Jesus Christ has convinced more people in His death of His identity than He did in His ministry! And so let me ask you a simple question today. What was it about this day that so made an impression upon the Roman soldier's mind so much that he confessed in one place "surely this was the Christ?" It wasn't where Jesus had gone or what He did with His arms because they were nailed to the cross. It wasn't great miracles or healings because there were none this day. What so moved and impacted those around the cross was what they heard Jesus speak and what they did not hear Him say. What they saw Him do with the one part of His body that was not nailed to the tree: His tongue. They were shaken and moved and humbled by the "language of the cross." If our world is to be impacted and we are to truly be like Jesus Christ, then we must learn to speak this same speech, this language of Calvary! We will be judged one day not just by what we do not say, but by what we do say that we should. If you want to be saved, you must learn the language of the cross!

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The language of the cross began with:

The first words that Jesus spoke that day were not curses at those nailing Him to the tree. In fact, probably for the first time in the history of the world, the soldiers saw a victim willing lie down and take the nails without uttering a word! Even at the beginning there were definite signs that this victim was quite extraordinary because there were no threats and vile oaths spewing forth from His mouth. And then when His mouth finally did open, they were shocked -- shocked, I say -- by what He said:

I can imagine the surprise on the soldier's face as they look at this One in the middle with curses and taunts coming from beside them directed toward Him and curses and taunts coming from the crosses at either side and yet this "man" has forgiveness on His lips! If it is true that from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks then it is also true that the true heart slips out of the mouth in the worst of circumstances. People can some times put up a good front and hide the sin and hurt and deceitfulness on the inside as long as the sun is shining and everything is going all right, but let a dark day come and let something go wrong and let pain come and then we find out from their speech what is really within! The person that we really are is the one that we manifest when everything is going badly! And yet here is Jesus experiencing pain, humiliation, heartache, and suffering far beyond anything any of us have ever and probably ever will experience and yet His language is that of forgiveness to those who are hurting Him! Not only does He not lash back and forgive them, but He prays for God to forgive them as well!

Oh, that men and women today would learn to speak the language of the cross! God forgive us for getting our feeling hurt or having someone cross us and then holding grudges and allowing unforgiveness to harbor in our heart! Jesus said that if we would not forgive others, then our heavenly Father would not forgive us! He said that if we bring our gift to the altar and remember an ought against our brother, that we are to leave the gift at the altar and go get things right with our brother before we give anything to God! John said "if you cannot love your brother whom you have seen, then how can you love God whom you have not seen?" It doesn't matter how wrong you were done, or how right or innocent you are. It doesn't matter how much hurt and pain has come into your life from the situation. None of that gives you the right to hold unforgiveness and not forgive and stop holding people to the debts of what they have done. If anyone had a right to be offended and mad and upset and bitter it was Jesus Christ on the day of His death, but the language of the cross said "forgive them!" Forgive them!

We pray "God I want to be more like you!" "Let me walk as Jesus walked." And then when we have a bad day and persecution comes and someone hurts us and our life falls apart, we scream and get upset and hold people hostage to petty little things that happened years ago and wonder why we cannot see more of God in our life and more of His power working within us! We will only experience the power of Jesus when we learn His language! And the language of Calvary begins with the voice of forgiveness! Did it ever occur to you that your bad day or great hurt might be God's way of answering your prayers to be more like Him! It's your opportunity to be like Jesus and speak the language of the cross into your world! We must learn to speak "Father, forgive them!" Jesus said to "pray for them that despitefully use you." And it's first and foremost in the language of Calvary! If you don't learn to speak the voice of forgiveness then the rest of this message is not for you or even available. To speak the language of the cross, we must begin with forgiveness! Our excuses as to why we cannot overcome the hurts and pains in our life will pale in comparison to Calvary and will seem lame, indeed, as you express them to the One with nail scars and a pierced side! No one has ever been betrayed and hurt to the magnitude that He was that day. We must learn to forgive! Forgiveness does not excuse the other party but rather frees us! Forgive: it's how you begin speaking the language of the cross.

The second utterance of Jesus on the cross was:

One gospel records that at first both thieves on either side of Jesus Christ railed on Him and cursed Him and made fun of the Messiah. But then in Luke, one of them changed his mind and cried out to Jesus for mercy. What changed His mind? When he heard Jesus speak the voice of forgiveness! You see, your willingness to forgive will determine your ability to win others to Christ! The voice of forgiveness changed the thief's attitude from one that was totally contrary to the will of God to one who wanted the will of God! Never forget that God could have allowed the hurt and pain in your life to come so that you could show someone else Jesus! Someone is watching you to see how you handle the ridicule and the pain! Jesus then told the thief:

You should be very much aware that you cannot be saved as the thief on the cross was saved. Jesus told His disciples that the "New Testament" was "in my blood." Hebrews chapter 9 tells us that where there is a testament, there must first be the death of the testator for the testament to go in effect. Jesus came to abolish the Law of Moses and to usher in an era of Grace, but that New Testament or New Plan of Grace did not come into effect until Jesus Christ died on the cross! The fact that Jesus responded to the thief indicates that Jesus was alive and therefore they were still under Law. Was the thief saved? Yes, but under the Law of Moses. In the Law of Moses, a person had to bring a sacrificial lamb and allow the High Priest to offer it to God for his sin in order to be saved. The scriptures teach that Jesus was the "lamb of God" (John 1:29) and that He is our High Priest (Hebrews 3:1). The thief was quite possibly the last person saved under Law, but under Law it was.

I've heard some people say "well, I don't need to be baptized to be saved or to repent or to receive the Holy Ghost because the thief on the cross didn't do those things." But the thief on the cross was saved under the Law of Moses before Jesus Christ died to fulfill it! You have been born after Calvary in this great era of Grace! And in the first sermon ever preached in Grace, Peter plainly told the crowd what they needed to do to "save themselves:"

That was the plan then and it's still the plan now! Don't settle for anything less than a complete obedience to God's Word!

But all of that doesn't overshadow the fact that in His darkest hour, Jesus was not able to forgive the thief, but was genuinely concerned about his salvation and the eternal destination of his soul. God has a way of using dark situations and the worst days of our life to place us in contact with people who need Him the most! And it's easy to get so focused on our trials and our problems that we forget the person next to us watching us needs a Savior! But the language of the cross reaches out to the lost no matter what is going on in our own life. We must allow the voice of forgiveness to lead us to the voice of witness!

The third utterance of Jesus on the cross was also not about Himself. As He looked down upon the faces of those who stood by, He saw Mary, His earthly mother standing there with the Apostle John. The scriptures say:

Joseph is not mentioned in scripture after Jesus' twelfth birthday and as the eldest son, it fell Jesus' lot to take care of the family and in particular His mother. As Mary stood there that day, she was not only witnessing the death of her son and of her Savior but also her "breadwinner" and caretaker. The amazing point is that despite the punishment and pain and suffering that He was experiencing Jesus' thoughts were still toward those who were in His care and their well being. The Son of God was truly the most unselfish person that ever lived.

It has been said that every family relationship in our lives that is not as is it should be whether it be parent/child, brother/sister, or husband/wife stems from selfishness one or both of the parties. Everybody is nice and caring in the good times, but we need to learn the language of the cross and be able to care and have compassion on others even when it really us who have need of help! A sign of true Christianity is the ability to reach out to others with true compassion when we ourselves are in need and pain! The Voice of Compassion is a much needed element of the language of the cross!

Most people don't understand this scripture and although I have preached extensively on this text before, let me explain the crux of the matter. Jesus was quoting an Old Testament scripture that was about His death on the cross. The scripture is the 22nd Psalm and the words "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?" were the first line of the scripture. It was a common song used in temple worship and all of the Jewish people standing by would have immediately had the rest of the scripture come to their mind much as you have the remainder of the song pops into your thoughts when I say "Amazing Grace, how sweet . . . " Most Bible Scholars believe that Jesus either tried to quote the entire Psalm or did so in His mind as He hung there on the cross.

The point is that Jesus was able to find and remember scripture that applied to His current situation and used it to keep Himself strong to His mission. The Psalm starts out with the "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me," but it ends with this:

True Wisdom is the ability to apply the written Word of God to our everyday situations! When Jesus began quoting this Psalm the effect was not to depress Him or to weaken His faith, but rather He was encouraged to continue being faithful in the will of God!

When you are in a situation or trial, find a scripture that applies to your life and describes what is going on and use it to encourage yourself in the Lord and stand upon those promises! Jesus could be faithful on the cross because He was holding on to what the Word of God said would be the final result of His suffering! "Posterity shall serve Him!" We need the voice of Wisdom and Godly, self-encouragement in our lives! Such is a part of the language of the cross!

The last three utterances of Jesus are very closely related and speak greatly today to all of us:

One of the natural byproducts of being crucified and one of the worst side effects was a terrible thirst that comes to the victim. When Jesus said "I thirst," the soldiers mockingly dipped a sponge in soured wine that had been mixed with vinegar and placed it to His lips. This offering obviously could not quench His thirst. His thirst was a direct consequence of bearing the brunt of our sins.

Although He was God in human form, Jesus' flesh did not want to die any more than our flesh wants to die. Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane was to teach us the importance of prayer, but was not just a token offering. Jesus really had to pray for His flesh to submit to the will of God. Our flesh does not like to surrender if such a surrender involves sacrifice. It was at this point that Jesus' fleshly will finally stopped fighting against the death process and He completely surrendered to the sacrifice required.

The scripture says that because of sin, we are born into this world with a spiritual thirst. The Psalmist said:

Jesus told the woman at the well that had been trying to fulfill the spiritual thirst in her life with relationships and promiscuity that she needed to drink of the "living water" that He gave. In John chapter 7 we find that this "living water" represented the outpouring of the Holy Ghost:

The Holy Spirit is the only living water that can quench the spiritual thirst of a sinful humanity! But the lesson of the language of the cross is that 1.) this world will never be able to provide drink to quench the spiritual thirst caused by sin, and 2.) you must be willing to admit that you are thirsty.

Fame, fortune, relationships, sex, drugs, alcohol, rebellion, tradition, and social works are just some of the offerings that the world gives to try to fill that spiritual thirst of man. But all of these things do not satisfy the thirst placed within you by sin. Only the Holy Spirit can do that! But you must first admit that you are thirsty! All of those things that you are seeking are just a bid to find acceptance, love, and purpose but only the Holy Spirit and living for God and His plan for your life will truly fulfill that inward thirst!

And you can receive the Holy Spirit today, but you must first surrender your spirit and fleshly desires completely to Him! It's time to stop fighting against His Word and His Will! It's time to stop allowing your fleshly desires to dictate what you do and not. It's time to commend your spirit to Him! The best way to do that is through repentance. Realizing that your sin and your shortcomings have hurt God and separated you from Him, but admitting them to Him and asking for His forgiveness and asking Him to help you make a change of direction from those paths. True repentance is submitting your spirit and fleshly desires to God's will for your life. If you truly submit and surrender to Him, then He will give You His Spirit and your thirst will be quenched!

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The last statement that Jesus spoke upon the cross was "It is finished." Despite being tempted like all men were, Jesus had lived His life and died holy, and without sin and had perfectly fulfilled the will of God for His earthly life. He had been faithful in easy times and hard times. He had lived for the divine purpose day in and day out. He was able to say with His final breath "It is finished." Literally in the Greek "It's now completed." "I have reached my goal!"

We need to learn to speak the language of the cross! We must speak forgiveness. We must witness to others and reach out. We must speak compassion and unselfishness even in our hardest times. We must speak the Wisdom of the Word of God and stay true to it's promises and use them to encourage ourselves. We must admit that we spiritually thirst and only God's Spirit will fulfill that thirst. We must surrender our fleshly desires and our natural wills that are contrary to God completely to Him and die out to doing things our own way! But if we do all of those things for a time or for a season and then stop speaking the language of the cross, then what good has it done us? We need to continue on with Jesus until -- like Him -- we can also say "It is finished." "I've made it!" "I've reached my goal." You may be saved in the sense that you were delivered from the judgment of your past sins, but none of us are saved in the sense that we have it made no matter what. Jesus said:

We must continue on in what we know to be truth until we are able to speak the language of the cross: "It is finished!"

I don't know where you are today but the language of the cross must be in your mouth when you leave. Jesus' words have spoken in our life again. At this Easter, let's come and ask Him to work on us so that we will be more like Him! We need Him to change us on the inside so that we can fluently speak in the language of Calvary!