After sitting down there, I noticed that I have my chapters
wrong on the board. It should say chapters 26 and 27
and not 27 and 28. So for a reading this morning,
we're going to go ahead and read both of those chapters, the most
important event ever known to mankind that we could read
about. And I want us to understand the
gravity of what we're going to be reading about this morning
and studying. So if you would please follow
along in your Bible or have your phone or a device, that's fine.
But I want to make sure that we are reading this together as a
congregation, starting in Matthew 26.
Now it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these things
that he said to his disciples. You know that after two days in
the is the Passover, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to
be crucified. Then the chief priests, the
scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace
of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to
take Jesus by trickery and kill him.
But they said not during the feast, lest there be an uproar
among the people. And when Jesus was in Bethany at
the House of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him having an
alabaster flask of very costly fragrant oil, And she poured it
on his head. And he sat at the table as he
sat at the table. But when his disciples saw it,
they were indignant, saying, why waste this?
For this fragrant oil might have been sold for much and given to
the poor. But when Jesus was aware of it,
he said to them, Why do you trouble the woman?
For she has done a good work for me.
For you have the poor with you always.
But me you do not have always, For in pouring this fragrant oil
on my body she did it for my burial.
Assuredly I say to you, whoever this gospel is preached in the
world, in the whole world, what is what this woman has done will
also be told as a memorial to her.
Then one of the 12 called Judas Iscariot went to the chief
priests and said, what are you willing to give me if I deliver
him to you? And they counted out to him 30
pieces of silver. So from that time he sought
opportunity to betray him. Now on the first day of the
Feast of the Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus,
saying to him, where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the
Passover? And he said, go into the city to
a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, my time is at
hand, I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.
So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them, and they
prepared the Passover. When evening had come, he sat
down with the 12 Now as they were eating, he said.
Assuredly I say to you, one of you will betray me.
And they were exceedingly sorrowful.
And each of them began to say to him, Lord, is it I?
He answered, and said, he who dipped his hand with me in the
dish, will betray me. The Son of Man, indeed goes just
as is written of him. But woe to the man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed? It would have been good for that
man if he had not been born. Then Judas, who was betraying
him, answered and said, Rabbi, Is it I?
He said to him, You have said it.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread blessed and and broke
it, and gave it to his to the disciples, and said, take, eat
this, this is my body. Then he took the cup and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, drink from it all of
you, For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for
many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not
drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when
I drink it new with you in my Father's Kingdom.
And when they had sung A hymn, and they went out to the Mount
of Olives, then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to
stumble because of me this night.
For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of
the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I
will go before you to Galilee. Peter answered and said to him,
Even if all were made to stumble because of you, I will never be
made to stumble. Jesus said to him, assuredly, I
say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you
will deny me three times. Peter said to him, Even if I die
with you, I will not deny you. And so said all the disciples.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called the Gethsemane, and
said to them to the disciples, Sit here while I go and pray
over there. And he took with him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful and deeply
distressed. Then he said to them, My soul is
exceedingly sorrowful even to death.
Stay here and watch with me. He went a little further and
fell on his face, and prayed, saying, Oh my father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will,
but as you will. Then he came to the disciples,
and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, what could you
not watch with me? One hour?
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
The Spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak again.
A second time he went away and prayed, saying, Oh my father, if
this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, your will
be done. And he came and found them
asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.
So we left them and went away and prayed the third time,
saying the same words. Then he came to his disciples
and said to them. Are you still sleeping and
resting? Behold the hours at hand, and
the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.
And while he was still speaking, behold Judas, one of the 12 with
a great multitude was swords and clubs, came to the chief priests
and elders of the people. Now his betrayer had given them
a sign saying whoever who whomever I kiss he is, the one
sees him. Immediately he went up to Jesus
and said greetings Rabbi, and kissed him.
But Jesus said to him, friend, why have you come?
Then they came and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
And suddenly one of those who were with Jesus stretched out
his hand and grew his sword, and struck the servant of the high
priest, and cut off his ear. But Jesus said to him, Put your
sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by
the sword. Or do you think that I cannot
now pray to my Father, and he will provide me with more than
12 legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be
fulfilled that it must happen to us in that hour?
Jesus said to the multitudes. Have you come out as against a
robber with swords and clubs to take me?
I sat with you daily. I sat daily with you teaching in
the temple, and you did not seize me.
But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might
be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled, and those who had laid hands on Jesus led him away
to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and the elders
were assembled. But Peter followed him at a
distance with to the high priest's courtyard, and when and
he went in and sat with the servants to see the end.
Now the chief priests, the elders, and all the council
sought false testimony against Jesus to put him to death, but
found none. Even though many false witnesses
came forward, they found none. But at least two false witnesses
came forward and said. This fellow said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.
And the high priest arose and said to him, Do you answer
nothing? What is it?
These men's tends to testify against you.
But Jesus kept silent, And the high priest answered and said to
him, I put you underoath by the living God, tell us, if you were
the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus said to him, It is as you
said. Nevertheless, I say to you,
hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand
of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.
Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying he has spoken
blasphemy. What further need do we have of
witnesses? Look now to you have heard his
blasphemy. What do you think?
They answered. His said he is deserving of
death. Then they spat on his face and
beat him, and others struck him with the palms of their hands,
saying, prophecy to us. Christ, who was the one who
struck you? Now Peter sat outside in the
courtyard, and a servant girl came to him, saying you were
also were with Jesus of Galilee, but he denied it before them
all, saying, I do not know what you were saying.
And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him
and said to those who were with them, who who were there.
This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth, but again he denied
with an oath. I do not know the man.
A little later those who stood up stood by, came up, and said
to Peter, surely you are also one of them, for your speech
betrays you. Then he began to curse and
swear, saying, I do not know the man.
Immediately the roaster crowed, rooster crowed, and Peter
remembered the word of Jesus, who had said to him before.
The rooster crows, you will deny me three times.
So he went out and wept bitterly when the morning came.
All the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted
against Jesus to put him to death, And when they had bound
him, they led him away to deliver him to Pontius Pilate,
the governor. Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing
that he had been condemned, was remorseful, and brought back the
30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I
have sinned by betraying innocent blood.
And they said, what is that to us?
You see to it, Then he threw, then that he threw down the
pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and
hanged himself. But the chief priest took the
silver pieces and said it is not lawful to put them in the
treasury, because they are not. They are the price of blood.
And they consulted together and bought with him the Potter's
field to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been
called the field of blood to this day.
Then was fulfilled what the spoken by the by Jeremiah the
prophet saying, And they took the 30 pieces of silver, the
value of him who was pierced, whom they of the children of
Israel Christ, and gave them for the Potters field as the Lord
directed me. Now Jesus stood before the
governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Are you the king of
the Jews? Jesus said to him it is as you
say, and while he was being accused by the chief priests and
the elders, he answered nothing. Then Pilate said to him, do you
not hear how many things they testify against you?
But he answered him not one word, so that the governor
marvelled greatly. Now the feast of the governor
was accustomed to releasing the multitude 1 prisoner whom they
wished, and at that time they had notorious prisoner called
Barabbas. Therefore when they had gathered
together, Pilate said to them, who do you want me to release to
you, Barabbas or Jesus, who was called Christ?
For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy, while
he was sitting on the judgment seat his wife sent to him,
saying, have nothing to do with that just man.
For I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him.
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes
that they should ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus.
The governor answered and said to them, Which of the two do you
want me to release to you? They said, Barabbas.
Pilate said to them, What then shall I do with Jesus, who was
called Christ? They all said to him, let him be
crucified. Then the governor said, why?
What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more,
saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could
not prevail at all, but rather that atonement was rising, he
took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I
am innocent of the blood of this just person, you see to it.
And all the people answered and said, He is blood beyond us and
on on our children. Then he released Barabbas to the
to them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him
to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the
governor took Jesus into into the praetorium and gathered him
and gathered the whole Garrison around him, and they stripped
him and put a scarlet robe on him.
When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head
and a Reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before
him and mocked him, saying Hail king of the Jews.
Then they spat on him, and they took a Reed and struck him on
the head. And when they had mocked him,
they took the robe off him, put his own clothes on him, and led
him away to be crucified. Now as they came out, they found
a man of Siren Simon by name him They compelled to bear his
cross, and when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is
to say place of the school skull, they gave him a sour
wine, mingle with Gall to drink, but when he had tasted it, he
would not drink. Then they crucified him and
divided his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled,
which was spoken by the Prophet. They divided my garments among
them, and for my clothing they cast lots sitting down.
They kept watch over him there, and they put up over his head
the accusation written against him.
This is Jesus the king of the Jews.
Then the two rob. Then two robbers were crucified
with him, one on the right and. One on the left and those who
passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying,
You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save
yourself, If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Likewise the chief priests, also mocking with the scribes and
elders, said he saved others himself.
He cannot save. If he is the king of Israel, let
him now come down from the cross and we'll believe him.
He trusted in God, Let him deliver him now if he will have
him. For he said, I am the Son of
God. Even the robbers who were
crucified with him reviled him with the same thing.
Now from the 6th hour until the 9th hour there was darkness over
the land. And about the 9th hour Jesus
cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli, lama Sabakthani.
That is to say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this
man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and
took sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on the Reed,
and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, Leave him, let
him alone, let us see if Elijah will come and save him.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his
spirit. Then behold, the veil of the
temple was torn in two from top to bottom the earth quaked, and
the rocks were split, and the graves were open, and many
bodies of the Saints who had fallen asleep were raised and
coming out of the brick, the graves.
After his resurrection they went into the holy city, and appeared
to many. So the centurion that, and those
with him who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake, and
the things that had happened they feared greatly saying,
Truly this was the Son of God, and many women who followed
Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him, were there looking on
from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of
James and and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's son.
Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea
named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.
This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him, when Joseph
had taken the body and wrapped it and clean linen cloth and
laid it out in in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the
rock. And he rolled a large stone
against the door of the tomb and departed.
And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary sitting up
opposite the tomb. On the next day, which followed
the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees
gathered together to Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember while
he was still alive. How?
How that deceiver said, after three days I will rise.
Therefore command that the tomb may be secure until the third
day, unless his disciples come by night and steal him away and
say to the people, he has risen from the dead.
So the last deception will be worse than the first, Pilate
said to them. You have a guard go your way,
make it as secure as you know. So they went and made the tomb
secure, sealing the stone and setting the guard.
We're going to look at the cross of Jesus Christ today, the
center point of all history, all of mankind, as we said.
And understanding the cross is really understanding the key to
everything that we do in our life and how we understand the
Bible. And so the question I want to
ask is why? Why is this event?
So significant that happened
2000 years ago. Why is it so significant, so
significant? And if you were to ask me, what
is the significance of the cross, Why is the cross so
important? I think that we need to really
understand what the holiness of God is first to to start
understanding what the cross is about, to remember the holiness
of of God. It's critical to understanding
the importance of the cross. Until we see God for who he is
and ourselves for who we are, we'll never see the cross for
what it means. But when we see God for who He
is, and when we see ourselves for who we are, then the
necessity and the wonder of the cross becomes so obvious to us
that we can't deny it, and we're astonished by it, and we just
center our lives around what Jesus has done for us.
So the character of God, basically an overview of His
Holiness, His glorious uniqueness. #1 He is sovereign
over all, He is sovereign over all psalms. 24 verses one
through 2 says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it the
world and all who live in it. For he founded it upon the seas,
and established it upon the waters.
God created all things. God knows all things.
God sustains all things. God owns all things.
Sovereignty means authority. God is the author of all things
which mean which means that he has authority over all things.
He has authority to govern the world that we live in.
He has the authority to govern our lives.
He has all the rights. We belong to him, however.
Humanity has rebelled against God and the authority of God,
and this is what we see in Genesis chapter three of the
Great Fall. Even though God said not to eat
from that tree, well, we're going to go ahead and do it
anyway. We have rejected humanity, has
rejected the the authority of God in that way.
Secondly, he is righteous above all.
He is right in all that he does. We look at Genesis and Psalms.
In Genesis 1825 it says Will not the judge of all the earth do
right? And also in Psalms 145 verse 17
says the Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward
all He has made. God is right.
He's righteous in all of His ways.
He has never had a wrong thought, never done a wrong
deed. He has never had a wrong motive,
never said a wrong thing. He is totally and completely
right all the time, and humanity has despised his righteousness.
Romans 3 verses 10 through 12. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is no one who understands.
There is none who seeks after God.
They have all turned aside. They have all together become
unprofitable. There is none who does good.
No, not one. Our humanity, our human nature
tends to be completely opposite of what God is.
We have wrong thoughts, we do wrong things, we possess wrong
motives, We say the wrong things.
God is totally right and we have despised His righteousness,
rebelled against His righteousness.
Thirdly, He is just in all of his wrath.
He is just in all of his wrath. Because God is holy and
righteous, He cannot stand sin. His justice flows from his
righteousness with God. A wrathful response to sin and
evil is not just a possibility, it is an inevitability.
Scripture uses more than 20 different words to describe
God's wrath, and there are over 580 different references to
God's wrath in the Bible. In the Old Testament, it makes
it clear that God's wrath is real and it is personal.
It is intense and it is constant.
God's wrath is not mysterious or irrational.
It's not unpredictable. It is always predictable because
the evil provokes the wrath of God every time, and this is the
consistent response of a holy and righteous God.
His His wrath is pure and his wrath is also loving.
It is good for God to hate that which destroys you and I, and
the New Testament only deepens that picture of God's wrath,
making it clear that His wrath is continual.
It is coming. We see that in Matthew 3, John
the Baptist announcing the King is coming with a winnowing fork
in his hand, Jesus comes into a world under the wrath of God.
In John 336 it says He who believes in the Son has
everlasting life and he who does not believe the Son shall not
see life. But the wrath of God abides on
him. God's wrath is deserving.
It's dreadful, it's final, and it's eternal.
The reality is because God is holy and righteous and
infinitely honorable and infinitely worthy, one sin
against him is an infinite offense and an infinite dishonor
deserving of infinite punishment.
I want to remind us, and we all know this, that one sin alone,
just one sin led to the curse of God that affects all of us
today, the entire world. One sin eating a piece of fruit
in the in the disobedience of God.
That one sin, we have all the effects that we see throughout
history. We see wars, Holocaust, cancer,
diseases, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes,
terrorism, pain, suffering, all because of 1 sin that we saw in
Genesis. Chapter 3, Romans 5 says that
one sin brought condemnation to all men.
That was one sin and you and I have thousands of sins in our
lives. We have so many.
Which is why Romans 3 verses 5 through 6 makes it clear that
God is just and bringing His wrath on us.
He is just in all of His wrath and we have disregarded His
wrath. Fourthly, He is loving toward
His creation In John First John 4 verse 16, it says and if and
we have known and believe the love that our that God has for
us, God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and
God in him. God is love and we have denied
His love, meaning we have turned from his love and we have, as it
says in Romans 2 verse four, shown contempt for the riches of
his kindness, tolerance and patience towards us.
So how can a righteous God be loving to rebellious sinners who
are due His wrath? That is the question at the
center of the Bible. If all this is true, if God is
sovereign and we have denounced His sovereignty, if God is
righteous and we as humanity have despised His righteousness,
If God is just in all His wrath and we have now disregarded His
wrath, if God is loving toward all His creation and we have
denied His love, then how can a righteous God be loving to
rebellious sinners who are due His wrath?
And if we're ever going to understand the cross, we must
feel the the intensity and the weight of that question.
It's the question that Scripture ultimately is concerned with and
deals with. How can sinful man be righteous
before God? Proverbs, if you have your
Bible, if you want to go to Proverbs 17 verse 15, it's an
interesting verse. This verse helps us kind of have
a better understanding. It says in Proverbs chapter 17,
verse 15, He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the
righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord.
He who justifies the wicked and condemns the righteous, they are
both an abomination to the Lord. So if a judge says to a wicked
person you are right, you're innocent, we would.
No, that's not correct. That's an abomination.
If a judge says to a righteous person you are wrong, you're
condemned. That is an abomination to the
Lord. That makes no sense to us.
We understand that now if we apply this to God and to us, if
God were to look at you and I and our wickedness and say
you're right or you're innocent, that would not be understanding
at all. We, we can't fathom that That
would be an abomination to the Lord, and that's a problem.
And as soon as God tells rebellious sinners that they are
right before him, God becomes He has that problem.
He has that conflict there. So we see the tension.
How can a righteous God be loving toward rebellious sinners
who will rightfully do his wrath?
That's the fundamental problem that we see.
Dealt with in the Bible, in the Scripture.
But it's not the problem that we actually normally identify it.
You know, if we think about it, you know, not many people in our
culture are worried about how God can be just and kind to
sinners at the same time. There's not a whole lot, not
many, if any at all. How many people are losing sleep
at night because God is being kind to sinners?
No, that's what we want. We want God to be kind to
sinners, right? We're so wrapped up in thinking
that we can point the finger to God and people start saying, how
can God punish sinners? How can you let people go to
hell? How can God being so good, let
people go to hell? But the question of the Bible is
quite opposite. But the question of the God how
can you be just and right and let rebels into heaven?
Romans 325 is saying the purpose of the cross was to show the
righteousness of God because of in his divine forbearance
patience, God has passed over former sins.
That's the whole picture of the Bible.
God is passing over sins. In Second Samuel 12 we remember
David, a man after God's own heart, but he was he was guilty
of adultery, he was guilty of murder and lying.
And the prophet Nathan confronts him.
And in Second Samuel 12 and verse 13, David says to Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord, Nathan replied.
The Lord has taken your sin, you are not going to die.
Adultery, murder just passed over.
Is that justice? I don't think so.
I don't think that's justice. If a judge were to look at this
case today and say he puts murder and adultery and just
you're innocent, we would want that judge removed from the bar
immediately and never be able to sit on the bench again.
That judge is not right. God's forgiveness of our sin.
God's forgiveness of your sin is a problem for God.
I know I'm saying a lot, but I'm going to wrap this up.
I'm going to bring this all together.
God cannot be just and yet acquit you and I and our sin and
our rebellion and our belittling, belittling over his
glory. He just can't Passover sin.
It's against his nature. If God were to overlook sin, His
justice, His Holiness would be completely compromised and he
would no longer be God. And this is where we realized
that before the cross is for anyone's sake, the cross, the
cross was really for God's sake. This is God showing and
displaying His justice and His righteousness towards sin.
Who did Christ die for? Me and you, Yes.
But I don't think that's the complete answer.
I don't think that's the full answer.
Did He die for all the nations and all the people?
Yes, but with there's still more that he died for than that
ultimately, Christ died for God. We have heard the gospel
presented as God's answer to human problems, and it is.
It absolutely is. But first and foremost, it is
God's answer to a divine problem.
It's God's vindication and declaration of his glory, God
demonstrating his justice and his righteousness.
And this is what drove Jesus to the cross.
The glory of God drove Jesus to the cross.
John 12, verse 27 and 28 says, This is Jesus speaking.
Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say, Father?
Save me from this hour. No, it was for this very reason
I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.
So why did Jesus go to the cross?
To save you and I from our sins, Yes.
We say things like you and I were on the Savior's mind when
we went to the cross, and I believe that's part of it.
Absolutely. The Father was on the Savior's
mind while he was on the cross, and that is good news for us.
Christ died for God, and us remember the holiness of God.
Otherwise we'll never grasp that significance of the cross.
Second key to understanding the magnitude of Matthew 26 and 27.
We must remember the holiness of God, and we also must tremble at
the horror of the wickedness at that time.
We see that here, one writer said.
And I've tried to summarize the wickedness.
I'm sorry. I've tried to summarize the
wickedness of man on display and different people at different
times during this scene, doing different things to the Son of
God. So during this scene we see the
Jewish leaders rejecting, arresting, accusing and judging
the Son of God and they crucify him.
Maybe one of the most telling sentences in all that we just
read is in Matthew 26 verse 63. It says this is where the high
priest is sitting on judgment upon Jesus.
And he says, I put you underoath by the living God.
Tell us if you were the Christ of the Son of God.
Jesus said, it is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you,
hereafter you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand
of power and coming on clouds of heaven.
That is quite a statement from Jesus.
Jesus is saying you're sitting in a judgment seat right now
judging me, but there will be a time where I'm going to be
judging you. And that pushed that high priest
over the edge. He tore his robes and said he
has uttered blasphemy. What is his judgment?
And the Jewish leaders answer and said he deserves death and
they spit in his face and they struck him.
Jewish leaders judging the very Son of God.
Additionally, Roman leaders sentencing and crucifying the
Son of God. He is taken to Roman leaders,
the pilot, where he is where we see them sentencing and
crucifying the Son of God. Pilate tries Jesus.
In a response the crowds. He gives the crowd the option of
either releasing Barabbas, a murderer, or Jesus to them.
And the crowds want Barabbas released and they want Jesus
crucified. Pilate, of course tried as we
read, tried to absolve himself from the responsibility.
But there's no question that Responsibly was on his hands, as
well as the Jewish leaders hands as he released them for them.
Barabbas and having scourge Jesus delivered him to be
crucified. The soldiers, the Roman
soldiers, stripping, scourging, mocking, beating and spitting on
the Son of God. Which leads to one of the most
horrible scenes that we can picture in our mind.
Taking the dreaded whip of bone and or lead bound into leather
thongs, lashing the victim's body into a bloody pulp.
The horror of wickedness as they twist a crown of thorns into his
head, put a scepter in his hand and a robe around his neck,
around his naked body and bowing down a mockery, saying this is
the king of the Jews. Then they spit in his face more
and they led him away to the cross, the most degrading way to
die, one writer said. The crucifixion was unspeakably
painful and degrading. Whether tied or nailed to the
cross. The victim endured countless
peroxiums as he pulled with his arms and pushed with his legs to
keep his chest cavity open for breathing, and then collapsed in
exhaustion until the demand for oxygen demanded renewed.
Peroxiums, the scourging, the loss of blood, the shock from
the pain all produced agony that could go on for days, ending at
last by suffocation, cardiac arrest or loss of blood.
When there was no reason to hasten to death, the execution
squad would smash the victims legs.
Death followed. Almost.
Immediately, either from shock or from the collapse that cut
off breeding, the crowds ridiculing, reviling and
shouting at the Son of God, all this was taking place.
The clap, the the the crowds were doing this, They were
saying, and you should destroy the temple and bring it down in
three days. You need to save yourself if you
are the Son of God. Come down from the cross.
They derided him. They were wagging their heads
and yelling at him, the text says.
But sadly it wasn't of course, just the crowds.
It was also the disciples we see in the middle of all this.
What was potentially the most disheartening were the disciples
betraying, denying, disobeying, scattering, and deserting The
Son of God, Judas, Peter and others, after three years of
walking in with him, are now just walking away from him,
deserting him. When you think of this scene of
Jesus and everybody just turning their back on him, who do you,
who do you identify with the most?
Do you identify with being Peter, weeping as you realize
the magnitude of your denial of Christ, Simon of Sirene, caring
in Jesus cross for him? Were you the women who stood at
a distance watching those things?
Were you Mary standing at the cross looking up at her son, the
thief, asking Jesus to remember him and his Kingdom?
The centurion who, after Jesus died, shouted out truly this man
was the Son of God. I think I would identify most
with the crowd shouting crucify him.
The old spiritual asked, Were you there when they crucified my
Lord? And the answer is yes.
We were not as spectators but as participants, guilty
participants, plotting, scheming, betraying, bargaining,
and handing him over to be crucified, another writer said.
Until you see the cross as that which is done by you, you will
never appreciate that it is done for you.
A Scottish hymn writer wrote, twas I that shed, shed the
sacred blood. I nailed him to the tree.
I crucified Christ of God. I join the mockery of all that
shouting multitude. I feel that I am one, and in
that den of rude voices, rude, I recognize my own.
Around the cross the throne I see mocking the sufferers groan,
yet still my voice. It seems to be as if I'm mocked
alone. When we read Matthew 26 and 27,
we have reverence for the humility that Christ had, the
most humble man in the most humble situation.
In those verses, in those two chapters, we need to understand
actually what is happening below the surface with what Jesus is
dealing with internally. Spiritually.
We got images of the cross that we may have seen in our minds.
You know, we have pictures in our minds of what the cross is.
But what makes the cross significant is not ultimately
the physical things that come to our mind.
What makes the cross significant is the spiritual realities that
are are all coming together to this point, the most important
point in all of history. And if we think and there are
depths that we're, you know, they're to be explored and
uncovered. And if we've tried to depict the
depth of what's happening here, there's there's three words
based around these key events that we just read about the
Lord's Supper. We read about the Garden of
Gethsemane and Jesus's cry from the cross.
And there's three words that I want to go over that deal with
this. The first one is substitution.
Jesus died are death. The first keyword is
substitution. Scripture is clear from the
start. The payment for sin is death.
Yet Jesus had no sin. So why are we reading about
Jesus's death if he had no sin? We see him dying in our place
there in chapters 26 and 27. And he tells his disciples this
when he institutes the Lord's Supper, Matthew, 2626, through
29. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples,
and said, take ye, this is my body.
Then he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them,
saying, drink from it, all of you, For this is my blood of the
new covenant, which is shed for many of the remission, remission
of sins. But I say to you, I will not
drink of this fruit of the vine from now until that day when I
drink it new with you and my Father's Kingdom.
Jesus is celebrating the Passover feast meal with his
disciples. A meal that was every year
remembering the day in Egypt when the all the Israelites
homes took an innocent lamb and slaughtered it.
They put the blood of the lamb above the doorposts at each
house when they were where they were doing this Passover meal so
that when God, in a judgment and sin came to each Israelite, each
Egyptian home, any home that did not have the blood over the
doorpost would see the first born son in that home die.
It was the night when God provided the lamb, provided the
blood of a lamb, a substitute sacrifice to save his people
from the payment of sin. And every year they would
celebrate this meal. Every year that's the Passover
meal. They would take the lambs to the
temple. They were to be slaughtered and
the blood would spill out and they would gather together in
their homes. Remember that night, and it's a
backdrop. Jesus says my blood will be
poured out for many. For the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is the Passover lamb. We see that in Exodus 12 who
saves us with his blood, so that when God had in His wrath and
judgment comes free to you and me.
If we hide under the blood of a substitute sacrifice, which is
Jesus, the Lamb of God, we are saved.
He is the Passover lamb who saves us with his blood, and he
is the covenant keeper. And we see that in Exodus 24,
who seals us with His blood, Jesus says, this is my blood of
the covenant. And this is the only time in the
entire book of Matthew that we see the word covenant.
So what does that word covenant mean?
We go all the way back to Exodus 24, where God had given his
people, which were the Israelites, his law on the mount
on Mount Sinai, and he entered a covenant with those with the
Israelites through blood. Exodus 24 verse 8 says Moses
took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said this is the
blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in
accordance with all these words, and is the picture not only of
God's forgiveness of his people, but his binding of his people to
himself in a relationship with Him.
So that's the picture here in the New Covenant, sealed not
with the blood of an animal, but sealed with the blood of the Son
of God Himself, Jesus himself. He is our substitute sacrifice.
He died the death we deserve to die so that before the cross
we're we're headed to eternal death.
Before Jesus died, that's where our destination was.
But because of the cross, we now have the opportunity for eternal
life. Substitution.
Jesus died our death. Second word, propitiation.
We read it earlier in Romans 325.
God put forward Christ Jesus as a propitiation by His blood.
So what does that mean? The word propitiation literally
means one who turns aside wrath by taking away sin.
And that word only makes sense when we understand all the
things we have already covered. God is holy just in all of His
wrath, and we are sinful, deserving of His wrath.
And so when Jesus went to the cross, he endured that wrath
that we all deserve. That is the key to understanding
the cross. What is happening to Jesus here
is what we deserve. We go to.
If you go to Matthew 26 and verse 39, Jesus is in the garden
of Gethsemane, Gethsemane preparing to be betrayed,
arrested, and eventually eventually crucified.
And what does he pray? He prays.
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me
nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
So that begs the question, what is this cup?
In that passage? We need to realize that the cup
of the cross is not primarily physical suffering that Jesus
went through. It's really comes down to
spiritual suffering that Jesus is going through at this time.
Psalm 75, verse 8 says In the hand of the Lord is a cup filled
full of foaming wine mixed with spices.
He pours it out and all the wicked of the earth drink it
down to its very dregs. Isaiah 51, verse 17 says, Awake,
awake, Rise up. O Jerusalem, you have drunk from
the hand of the Lord the cup of His wrath, you who have drained
to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.
Also you get down to verse 20 through 23 of Isaiah 51.
They are filled with the wrath of the Lord and the and the
rebuke of God. Therefore hear this You
afflicted one make drug, but not with wine.
This is what your sovereign Lord says, your God who defends His
people. See, I have taken out my out of
your hand, the cup that made you stagger from the cup, the goblet
of my wrath. You will never drink again.
Also in Jeremiah 20. Five Verse 15 This is what the
Lord of the God of Israel said to me.
Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my
wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because the
sword I will send among them, the cup in Scripture here is a
reference to God's wrath, the wrath of God.
We see that later also in Revelations 14 verse 10.
It talks about those who drink the wine of God's fury, which is
poured full strength into the cup of His wrath.
When we see Jesus is when he's sorrowful here or troubled here
in the garden, we need to realize that Jesus is not being
a coward towards the Roman soldiers at all.
He is not worried about the Roman soldiers one single bit.
He was actually worried about experiencing the divine wrath
that God the Father was going to bestow upon him to take on our
sins. And when Jesus went to the
cross, that full cup of wrath of God do your sin and mine was
poured out upon the Son of God. And at the cross God expressed
his full judgment upon sin. At the cross God endures himself
his full judgment against sin. And at the cross God enables
free salvation for sinners throughout all human mankind,
all because of His propitiation. He endured the wrath of the
Father that we might experience the love of the Father.
Third word here reconciliation. This one is based on Matthew 27
verse 46. It says now from the 6th hour
until the 9th hour there was darkness over the all the land.
And about the 9th hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice
saying Eli Eli Lama Sabatani that is my God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? What does it mean when when
Jesus cried out my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
It means reconciliation. And follow this with me.
I'll get to my point here. This is not a cry of unbelief or
confusion or despair that Jesus has on his mind.
Jesus is not doubting God the Father.
He is not confused about what is happening.
Jesus is not asking why is this happening to me, God, why are
you doing this to me? As if he doesn't understand.
Jesus understands everything that is happening.
At that point. He knows what's going on.
He actually foretold that moment when he was will.
At that end he was willing instead.
This cry is physical agony, spiritual anguish, relational
alienation. It's a quote from Psalms 22 and
understanding that Psalm is the key to understanding that cry.
We don't have time to to read everything there, but we'll just
quote some of the verses to you in verse 14 of Psalms 22.
It says I am poured out like water and all my bones are out
of joint. My heart has turned to wax.
It is melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a
pot shirt and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You lay me in dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me and
band. A band of evil man has encircled
me. They have pierced my hands and
my feet. It's also a cry of spiritual
anguish, just like we were talking about.
Jesus is not is not now not anticipating God's wrath.
He's now experiencing God's wrath.
At this moment, it's also a cry of relational alienation.
God is Jesus is experience experiencing in a way that I
don't fully understand, Alienation from not only his
friends, but from God the Father as well.
It's the curse of the cross. 2nd Corinthians 521 says God made
him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God. Before the cross, we were cast
out of God's presence, cut off from his favorable presence,
separated from his love and his mercy and his goodness.
We were alienated from God. But now, because of the cross,
because of what happened on that day, that event, we are now
invited into the presence of God through only Jesus.
Because what he did on that day, right after the cry on the cross
that Jesus let out, Matthew writes that the curtain of the
temple was torn into top to bottom, not a single thread left
connecting the two, and that is absolutely significant.
The barrier separating man from God was ripped away by God so
that all the deserving sinners of hell could be welcomed safely
into the presence of God through Jesus.
So do we see how why the cross, what Jesus did on the cross is
so significant? You and I can't dream that stuff
up. Smartest man in the world can't
dream that stuff up. Yet the God of the universe
provided a way for you and I to have a relationship with him, to
be have a hope of heaven with Jesus one of these days.
What is happening here is so much more than just a nearly
naked man dying on a wooden post on the side of the road in a
nondescript part of the world. This is the holy God of the
universe giving his Son to die our death, endure our
condemnation, and suffer our separation.
That is so that that us wicked sinners can be declared
righteous when we come into God's presence.
All of history revolves around this scene.
We count time by what happened on that day.
Around that time, our year 2023, we counted because of that event
in time. So surrender our hearts to God.
Follow Him. Turn from turn from our sinful
ways. Believe what Jesus has done for
us. Believe in His gospel.
Repent, change our path. Confess Jesus as the Son of God
and be baptized for the remission of your sins.
We thank you for listening to our podcast put on by the Church
of Christ at 2215 Plans Rd. in Bakersfield.
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