1.      Father, forgive them

It was a memorable afternoon as we sat together as a group, sharing God's Word. About fifteen to twenty of us had gathered under the porch of a house in the tropics. There was a good-natured atmosphere, which made the time spent there immensely enjoyable, but what was most thrilling was a real sense that God's Word was being received as the voice of the living God. Here was a group engaging with the Bible as the Word of God. The sounds of a neighbour's karaoke machine and a passing rain-shower weren't sufficient to distract us that afternoon. Questions came pouring out, and again and again we turned to the most relevant Bible verses and found answers that truly satisfied hearts that were seriously thirsty. Finally, the lady, under whose porch we were sheltering from the heat, exclaimed, "It's magnificent!"

It truly is a magnificent experience whenever we hear God's voice speaking to our heart out of our reading of his Word, the Bible. In the days which followed, the unfolding of events clearly confirmed that a work of God's Holy Spirit really had taken place in the hearts of our host family, and days of rejoicing followed just like we read about in the New Testament.

But that unsolicited remark extolling the magnificence of God's voice in his Word remained with me afterwards, and reminded me of Psalm 29 - a psalm which graphically describes for us the voice of the Lord. Let me remind you of what it says:

The voice of the LORD is upon the waters;

The God of glory thunders, The LORD is over many waters.

The voice of the LORD is powerful,

The voice of the LORD is majestic.

The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;

Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,

And Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire.

The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;

The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve

And strips the forests bare;

And in His temple everything says, "Glory!"

(Psalm 29:3-29)

These words themselves are magnificent. They give us a breathtaking illustration of the power and majesty of the Lord's voice set over against the background picture of a breaking storm. It's certainly possible (indeed, it's likely) that David had been watching a storm approaching the land of Israel from out over the Mediterranean Sea when the words of this psalm came to him. Picture this storm as David describes it approaching with its 'many waters': there's darkness and lightning; thunder and earth-shakings; waves rising and leaves falling. It's as if we follow the storm inland, across and down the land of Israel. And this noisy storm, which displays God's power and majesty in creation, makes David think of the power and majesty of the voice of the Lord - the very voice which spoke the world into existence.

But it also reminded David of the fact that God's in control of the storm. Seven times he mentions 'the voice of the Lord' - as being on the waters; as being powerful; as being majestic; as breaking trees; as making flames of fire; as shaking the desert; and as making the forest bare - seven reminders that the voice of the Lord really is magnificent, and is over all and in all.

Some countries, for example in the tropics, know all about storms. But there are other kinds of storms too. It's in the storms of life that God's voice can sound most powerful and majestic to us. In storms of doubt and despair; when our way seems dark; and our beliefs are shaken, and we're stripped of our hopes, how magnificent it is when we hear the sound of the Lord's voice in our reading of his Word. Remember, what the Bible says - God says (e.g. compare Romans 9:17 & Exodus 9:16). 

God's Word changes lives; it did mine. I'd like you to imagine you’re out walking. The night is dark and you're all alone. Suddenly, you turn around to see ten strong men coming towards you! Then you notice that each one of them is carrying a Bible. Wouldn't that make a difference to how you feel? The Word of God makes a difference!

God is stronger than any storm, and we've moved on to consider various kinds of storms in our lives. I would now like to take this a stage further in relating it to the experience of Jesus Christ. The world became dark on the Friday Jesus died on the cross around 2,000 years ago. The Bible describes Jesus’ experience there in terms of a storm breaking over him - and that was the greatest storm ever. Listen to this description from another psalm in our Bibles, this time from Psalm 69. As you hear the words, try to relate them to Jesus dying on the cross, crying out in his agony:

Save me, O God,

For the waters have threatened my life.

I have sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.

I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched;

My eyes fail while I wait for my God.

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head;

Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies;

What I did not steal, I then have to restore.

(Psalm 69:1-4)

Sin had robbed us of our relationship with God, but Jesus, God's own Son, had come to make its restoration possible for any one of us. Psalm 69 with its waves and deep waters is one of the Bible's poetic and graphic descriptions which we can take as having an application to Jesus when he died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). For it was then he was baptized in floods of death, when the waves of God's judgement against sin broke over him: the innocent, sinless substitute who'd been provided as part of God's plan to bring salvation to everyone who believes on him.

Seven times in association with that great storm of the cross, the voice of the Lord was heard, reminding us of the seven mentions of 'the voice of the Lord' in Psalm 29 in the middle of the storm described there. You'll remember how we said that the marvellous word picture of the development of a great storm there is punctuated seven times by 'the voice of the Lord'. In this booklet, I'd like us to consider each of the seven sayings of our Saviour from out of the terrible storm of Calvary where he died. We begin with the first of those seven cries from the cross, which we read about in Luke chapter 23:

When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.  But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.

(Luke 23:33,34)

Obviously, this is the scene of the crucifixion. Jesus' days of moving about among the people, his days of teaching and healing were at an end, for his hands and feet – those hands which had done such good - were now nailed to the cross. He could no longer travel on errands of mercy, but what he could do, he did: he turned to the ministry of prayer on behalf of others. We pause here just to say that, as you listen, you may be someone who doesn't have freedom of movement any longer, perhaps as a result of advancing age or because of the onset of illness. Please don't feel that there's nothing useful you can do now; instead, follow our Lord's wonderful example of engaging in a ministry of prayer for others.

In praying like this for those who abused him, the Lord was fulfilling his own teaching, for he'd previously said: "Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Luke 6:28) This was a masterful example of practising in our own lives what we preach to others.

Previously, Jesus had pronounced forgiveness - as in the case of the paralysed man. On that occasion, recorded in Mark's gospel, chapter 2, he'd said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven" (v.5).  But now, here on the cross, he prays to his Father in heaven to forgive them. Why the difference? Is it because here at the cross, Jesus, though still the Son of God, was now our representative, identifying with us so that he might, in the will of God, die the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18)?

The Lord was praying for those who did not know what they were doing. The law of God in the Old Testament had underlined the seriousness of sin in God's estimate, by demanding that even sins committed in ignorance had to be dealt with (e.g. Leviticus 4:2). Ignorance is no excuse. Those who nailed Jesus Christ to that shameful cross were not aware of the enormity of what they were doing: imagine crucifying the Lord of glory! Satan still blinds the minds of the unbelieving today to prevent them from seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4) - and from seeing what the cross, in reality, is all about. But this blind ignorance is no excuse. The Lord's prayer shows such sins also require to be forgiven. Think about that.

As the storm was about to break, the Lord's voice was heard in prayer - and what a prayer! And what a magnificent Saviour! - one who's now risen as the living Word of God! Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (Hebrews 4:7).