Nearly everyone has
a natural desire to fight or flee when they are faced with impending
danger. We saw this several years ago, when hurricane Hugo threatened
to hit South Carolina. As the people were warned about the possible
damage that Hugo could cause, the people from the coastal areas fled
in such huge numbers that they had to turn I-26 into a one-way Interstate.
But if we don’t see any real danger, we don’t experience the desire
to fight or flee. A couple of years ago, when some tornadoes hit the
CSRA, Carol & I were sitting at home, in the dark, having a good time
talking to each other. We weren’t concerned about what had caused the
power to go out.
Then all of a sudden, Patsy Best called and asked if we were all right.
I said sure, and asked her why she was concerned. She told me that she
heard on the radio that a tornado was going down Vaucluse Road, and
doing a lot of damage. For those of you who don’t know where Vaucluse
Road is, it is 1 mile to the left of here, and we live right behind
the building.
I immediately got into my truck, and drove down to discover that the
tornado had only missed us by 1/2 a mile. Let me tell you, the sight
caused my knees to get weak. I didn’t realize how close I was to dying.
Since I tend to believe that tornadoes are God’s answer to the over
abundance of trailers, I would have gotten as far away from the danger
as I could have.
I said all of that to say this, Jesus, unlike me that night, knew his
life was in real danger. Yet he didn’t fight, nor did he flee. Instead,
he willingly endured the worst kind of punishment ever inflicted upon
mankind: Crucifixion. Follow along with me as I read vv. 16-18.
This is all John says about the crucifixion. He doesn’t dramatize it.
He doesn’t go into all the gory details of the agony Jesus went through
while he hung on the cross. The reason for this is because John’s purpose
in writing his gospel is not to show us the humanity of Jesus Christ.
Rather, John’s purpose is to show us the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is to show us the majesty of Jesus as he fulfills prophecy. John
only records the words & deeds of Jesus so that you might “Believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have
life in His name.” (John
20:31)
Let’s begin our final leg of Jesus journey to the cross, the crucifixion,
by looking first at v. 16. Please underline the word “delivered.” Pilate
knows he is about to have a riot on his hand. So to keep the crowd happy,
and to keep his his hands from getting dirty with Jesus’ blood, he gives
Jesus to the Jews so they can do go ahead and have Jesus killed.
Keep that thought in mind as you look at what Paul wrote to us when
he said, “God, who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for
us all.” (Romans
8:32) When you take these 2 verses and put them together, you see
that the governor of Israel & the governor of the universe, were working
together to have Jesus put to death.
As I said Wednesday night, you will never hear God say, “OOPS!” The
Holy Spirit wants us to know that there were no mistakes in the arrest,
trial, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ. All was according to the
divine purpose of salvation that would provide a way for eternal life
to those who were dead in their sins.
God’s plan of salvation was not side-tracked by what Pilate did. God’s
plan of salvation was right on schedule. He just used a sinful man to
ensure that Jesus would be put to death by the means that had been established
in eternity past. Once again we see “God turning into good what man
meant for evil.” (Genesis
50:20)
This principle is what gives us the strength to make it through life.
How many times have we gone through tough times, times we thought God
had abandoned us, only to discover some powerful blessing when we finally
get to the other side? Some of you this morning might be going through
some rough times because someone is treating you badly. Some of you
this morning might be going through some rough times because your financial
world is falling apart. Some of you this morning might be going through
some rough times because your body is falling apart.
If that is you, please don’t give up on God. Each step of Jesus’ journey
to the cross proves to us that even when our world appears to spinning
out of control, that it is God who is spinning the world. And he is
spinning the world in such a way that when the world stops, we will
look a little more like Jesus then we did before the world started spinning.
So please hear me: God can & will use sinful people, he can & will use
stressful situations, to accomplish his will in your life.
If that is you, please don’t give up on God. Each step of Jesus’ journey
to the cross proves to us that even when our world appears to spinning
out of control, that it is God who is spinning the world. And he is
spinning the world in such a way that when the world stops, we will
look a little more like Jesus then we did before the world started spinning.
So please hear me: God can & will use sinful people, he can & will use
stressful situations, to accomplish his will in your life.
Did a mere man deliver the Son of God into the hands of the executioners?
Yes indeed! But only because he was a part of the preordained plan of
God. This was not man exerting his authority over God. But God the Father
giving God the Son into the hands of sinful sinful Pilate to bring about
the means of our salvation.
Notice also in v. 16 that John tells us that Jesus was led away to be
crucified. To the naked eye this seems like an insignificant statement.
Most people don’t even pay these words any attention.
According to historians, since crucifixion was such a painful way to
die, and since the prisoner was so afraid of the pain, normally he would
have to be dragged, literally kicking and screaming, every inch of the
way to the cross. Not so with Jesus.
John tells us that they didn’t have to drag Jesus to the cross. Jesus
didn’t panic as he realized what was about to happen to him. He didn’t
put up a struggle. Instead, Jesus willingly, without any kind of resistance,
quietly followed the death squad up to Calvary’s hill.
Though these 3 little words may seem to be insignificant, they fulfill
one of the most powerful prophecies concerning the suffering Savior.
Hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born, the prophet Isaiah said:
“He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter.” (Isaiah
53:7)
Since most of us have never spent much time with sheep, we probably
don’t see the significance of a lamb being led. I have read that sheep
are some of the most stubborn of all animals. They are about as stubborn
as a mule.
You can’t drive them like you do a herd of cattle. Instead you have
to lead them. Or otherwise they will start to fight you so hard that
they won’t budge an inch. And when they get to that point, the only
way you can get them to move is to literally put a rope around their
necks and drag them. Through this seemingly insignificant detail, John
shows us the deity & the majesty of Jesus Christ, as Lamb of God quietly
moves to the final leg of his journey to the cross, the crucifixion.
Look now at v. 17. The fact that Jesus was bearing his own cross is
also important. A cross weighed upward of 75 to 100 pounds, which after
the agony of scourging would have been quite a weight to carry through
the streets before the jeering mobs. Jesus, who had flesh dangling from
his back, who was extremely weak from having experienced the excessive
loss of blood during the scourging, was required to carry his own cross
as he walked to Calvary’s hill.
Jesus carried his own cross, not because he was a criminal, but because
he was the Messiah. Keep that thought in your mind as your read a verse,
written thousands of years before crucifixion was ever developed, that
gives us a beautiful preview of how the Messiah would have to carry
the wood that would be used to kill him. In the story of Abraham offering
his son Isaac as a sacrifice, we see Isaac becoming a type of Christ.
Look at what Isaac had to do: “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt
offering and laid it on Isaac his son.” (Genesis
22:6) Isaac had to carry his own wood, that if God hadn’t proved
a ram as a substitution, would have been used in his own execution.
And Jesus did too. Coincidence or God-ordained?
Why did Jesus have to do this? He did this because everyone has sin
in them. Because we were born with a nature to sin, it’s only a matter
of time that we sin. The Bible tells us that “All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.” (Romans
3:23)
Let me ask you, if you drive 65 m.p.h. through the middle of town, and
you are not caught by the police, are you still guilty of speeding?
Or are you only guilty of speeding if you are clocked on radar by a
policeman, and he pulls you over and gives you a speeding ticket? The
answer is the second you exceeded the posted speed limit, you broke
the law.
So the question is not whether or not getting caught is what makes us
guilty. The question is why do we go ahead a exceed the speed that is
clearly posted on the signs? The answer is we sin because we are born
sinners. The only thing the ticket declares that you acted upon the
wrong internal impulses that are within you. The moment you broke the
law that tells you how fast you can legally drive proves you have the
propensity towards sin within you.
The ticked also declares that you are guilty of breaking the law and
you must now face the consequences of your action. Now in the courts
of our land, breaking the law will cause us to either get fined, or
put into jail. But when we break one of God’s laws, he is not going
to make us pay a fine, nor he is not going to send us to jail. The Bible
declares that “The penalty of sin is death.” (Romans
6:23)
The death Paul talks about is not the end of life. Rather it is being
seperated from the presence of God, both in this life and in the life
that comes after death. But that’s not God’s desire.
His desire from the time he created Adam & Eve is to have an intimate
relationship with those he created. But because of our sins, this relationship
was broken. So something had to happen to pay the penalties for our
crimes so that our relationship with God could be restored. And that
is what happened when “Jesus Christ bore our sins in His body on the
cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness: for by His
wounds you were healed.” (I
Peter 2:24)
That’s not the only prophesy Jesus fulfilled in this verse. Underline
the words “went out”--v. 17. John lets us know that it was immediately
after Pilate gave the Jews permission to kill Jesus that they did so.
They weren’t legally allowed to do this. Since Pilate never gave Jesus
a Roman trial, he was still under the protection given to condemned
men by Jewish law. Jewish law provided a 2-day waiting period between
the sentencing and the execution. This was in case any new evidence
might be discovered that might prove the innocence of the criminal.
But not in this case.
By the time Jesus is nailed to the cross it’s only been about 2 hours,
not 2 days, since Pilate gave the Jews the permission to have Jesus
put to death. This shows us that the Jews were in a hurry to have Jesus
killed. They wanted Jesus dead, and they wanted him dead now. They weren’t
about to allow 2 days to pass, because they knew that during that time
all kinds of evidence would be discovered that would prove that Jesus
was innocent.
Jesus went straight from Gabbatha to Golgotha. He went immediately from
judgment to execution. Is this important? You’d better believe it is.
Once again we see Jesus fulfilling verbal prophecy.
Isaiah also prophesied concerning the Messiah, that “From prison and
trial they led Him away to His death.” (Isaiah
53:8) Isaiah tells us that when the Messiah dies, he will go straight
from prison to judgment to death. That was not the way the Jews normally
executed their prisoners. Normally the prisoner would go from prison
to trail, then back to prison for 2 more days before the death sentence
was carried out. They did it differently this time because God said
that was the way the Messiah was going to led to his death.
The Roman executioners, a squad of 4 soldiers under command of a centurion,
took Jesus to the place called the Place of a Skull--v. 17. Golotha
was not a pretty place. It wasn’t the place you would take your family
for a picnic. It was covered with the blood of criminals who regularly
died upon the Roman crosses. No one wanted to go to Golotha. Except
One, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Golotha was associated with cruel, excruciating pain that led to death.
The word “excruciating” finds its roots in the Latin word that mean
“out of the cross.” The Romans had perfected the art of crucifixion
in order to bring about a slow death with maximum pain through intense
suffering. No one wanted to go to Golotha. Except One, the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Once the criminal arrived at Golotha, he would be thrown to the ground
with the bloody wounds of his scourging being exposed to the dirt and
rocks. With his arms stretched out as far as they could go, he would
have long, square spikes, about 5- 7 inches long, nailed through a particular
spot in his hands that would cause his fists to be drawn from the pain
of the spikes ripping through the nerves. His feet were nailed to the
upright post of the cross, with his knees bent just enough to allow
him to push himself up to get some air. Then the soldiers would lift
the cross and drop it into the ground, which would cause his bones to
be pulled out of their sockets. No one wanted to go to Golotha. Except
One, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he faced the agony of trying to breathe. In order for the criminal
to breathe he had to push himself up with his nail-spiked feet so that
his diaphragm could enlarge long enough to inhale the air in his lungs
so he could breathe for a few moments. But the pain was so severe against
his feet that he would have to drop back down to get a few minutes of
respite from the pain. But this caused him to exhale all the air that
was in his lungs, so that he felt like he was suffocating. So to keep
this from happening he would repeat the same agonizing process of pushing
himself up, and dropping back down.
Every time he raised himself up, and fell back down, his bloody back
would rub up and down the wooden beam. This caused excruciating pain
to shoot through every inch of his body, every time he raised himself
up to get a breath of air. Doctors say that the pain a criminal experienced
trying to breathe on the cross is the same as getting hit with a bolt
of lightning.
The criminal would cry out in sheer agony from the pain that felt like
getting hit with a bolt of lightning, over and over again, as he pushed
himself up to keep from suffocating. Sometimes this would go on for
days, depending on how strong the criminal was. But eventually, the
prisoner would get to tired from all the pain. And he would quit pushing
himself up, which caused him to die from not being able to breathe.
No one wanted to go to Golotha. Except One, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just like everything else that has happened to Jesus, even the agony
of the cross had been foretold thousands of years before crucifixion
was ever invented. King David foretold about the agony of the cross
when he wrote: “I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out
of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength
has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my
mouth. They pierced My hands and My feet.” (Psalm
22:14-16) King David even saw the cry of agony that would come out
of the Messiah’s mouth as he cried out “My God, My God! Why have you
forsaken Me?” (Psalm
22:1)
Since the cross was obviously a horrible instrument of suffering and
torture, why did the Son of God have to suffer the cross? Wll, according
to God’s plan of salvation, the Messiah was to be “Smitten of God and
afflicted.” (Isaiah. 53:4) But why was that “the LORD was pleased To
crush Him, and put Him to grief”? (Isaiah
53:10)
Isaac Watts answered these questions when he wrote “Alas! and did my
Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred
head for sinners such as I! Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned
upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!”
Yes, it was for crimes that we have done that Jesus groaned upon the
tree. That is the amazing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It
is mine & your crimes, our sins, that sent Jesus Christ to the cross.
John captured this truth in the simple words, “There they crucified
Him”--v. 18.
I’ve thought much about those words this week. Jesus didn’t deserve
to die, but we sure do. In fact, we deserve more than just dying by
crucifixion. We deserve an eternity of God’s judgment, the furious storm
of his wrath poured out upon us, because we have dared to sin against
God. But because of God’s amazing grace, not only didn’t he give us
what we deserve, he gave us what we don’t deserve: eternal life. John
put is this way: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right
to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. For God
so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whosoever
believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John
1:12 & 3:16)
The last scene we see in Jesus’ journey to the cross is that the spotless
Lamb of God, the only person who never sinned, is crucified in the middle
of 2 sinners--v. 18. Even though Pilate may have had those other 2 criminals
put to death at the same time to mock the Jew’s king, instead he exalts
Jesus Christ as Jesus brings the first citizen into his kingdom. Luke
tells us that as these 2 thieves were hanging next to Jesus that “One
of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, ‘So you're the Messiah,
are you? Prove it by saving yourself-- and us, too, while you're at
it!’ But the other criminal protested, ‘Don't you fear God even when
you are dying? We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t
done anything wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when
You come into Your kingdom.’” (Luke
23:39-42) Don’t you know if must have blown that thief’s mind when
“Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with
Me in Paradise.’” (Luke
23:43)
Was it a coincidence that Jesus was crucified between 2 sinners, or
was it God-ordained? John proves that even this part of the crucifixion
was also ordained by God. The Messiah had to die among other criminals
because Isaiah prophesied about this aspect of the Messiah’s death when
he said, “He was counted among those who were sinners.” (Isaiah
53:12)
Let me leave you with 2 final thoughts. First, Jesus was not the victim
of Good Friday. His life didn’t tragically come to a sudden end. This
is the God-ordained, God-authored, climax of Jesus’ life. So even as
Jesus goes to a criminal’s death, he is the victor on the way to his
triumph. Never forget that fact.
The greatest proof of this is seen by him fulfilling all the prophecies
concerning him. Of just the major verbal prophecies concerning his birth,
life, and death, mathematicians have calculated that the chances for
any one person to fulfill all them, would be as likely as a blindfolded
person, walking through the state of Texas, that was covered waist deep
in silver dollars, and with one try, reach down and pick up the only
silver dollar that had a red “X” on it. They have also calculated that
for one person to fulfill all the verbal & typical prophecies concerning
the Messiah, would be like taking the same blindfolded person, send
him through space at the speed of light, and with one chance, reach
out and grab the only atom that has a red “X” on it. Tell me, is there
any way anybody could manipulate all the events of his birth, life and
death so they fulfilled all the prophecies & types concerning him? I
don’t think so. This proves that not only is Jesus sent from God, but
he was sent to be our Savior.
Which leads me to my second thought. That is that Jesus has to go beyond
merely being the Savior of the world, to being the Lord of your life.
When Jesus cried out “It is finished!,” he meant that God’s demand for
judgment had been paid in full. There is nothing more we can do to be
saved except put our trust in his death. But simply believing the fact
that Jesus died will never bring you into an intimate relationship with
God.
In order for us to able to enter into this presence, we needed to be
declared sinless. That’s because God will not allow any sin to be in
his presence. So one further thing had to happen to make you just as
if you have never sinned. And the one thing that had to happen is why
we have gathered here this morning. God had to raise Jesus from the
dead so he could declare that not only are our sins forgiven, but they
have been completely washed away.
The resurrection is God’s stamp of approval upon the blood of Jesus
as the only cleansing agent that can wash away even the taint of sin
from the fabric of our lives. When Jesus said it is finished, God said
Amen by raising him from the dead 3 days later.
So in order for you to be declared sinless before a holy God, you have
got to go merely beyond believing in your head that Jesus died on the
cross. That information has got to filter down into your heart as a
lifetime committment to serve the crucified Savior as your risen Lord.
The final answer that will determine your eternal destiny, is if you
have invited Jesus Christ, the only one who ever came back from the
dead to never die again, into your heart your Lord!
Please close your eyes as I read in closing these words from the apostle
Paul: God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God,
who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. He was handed over to
die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us
right with God. Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight
by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord
has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this
place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and
joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
While every eye is closed, if you want to make Jesus your lord right
now, if you want to experience the joy that comes from having your sins
forgiven & forgotten, if you want to experience peace with God, and
if you want to be able to looking forward to going to heaven, instead
of being afraid of going to hell, then please just slip your hand up
and down as as way of letting God know that you want to be saved. Let’s
pray!
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