S. Lewis Johnson - Leading Figures in the Drama of Golgotha: (Part 2) - The Divine Side of Jesus' Crucifixion on the Cross

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said,.

But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Introducing S. Lewis Johnson and the Sermon on John 19

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Today we're continuing our series with S. Lewis Johnson as a guest speaker. Would I have loved to interview S. Lewis Johnson here in the No Compromise Radio studio.

Today's part two, Crucifixion of Jesus, the Divine Side of Jesus' Suffering on the Cross, from John 19, verses 16 through 30. It's the second half of his sermon. I will regularly play some of his sermons because I want you to be encouraged.

I listen to him all the time, probably listen to about 300 hours of him preach this year, so I was glad for that, all via audio. You can go to Believer's Chapel and get some of his sermons there, 1 ,500 of them.

But today, No Compromise Radio, Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Divine Side of Jesus' Suffering on the Cross, with Samuel Lewis Johnson, Jr. His new book on Romans, the commentary on Romans that I edited, should be out in 2014,.

Zondervan Press. It's rather startling, isn't it, that we don't really have any acknowledgment in a public way of the death of Christ, such as we have of the birth of Christ. We have Christmas and we have Easter, and of course Good Friday is there, but who pays much attention to Good Friday today?

The Shame of the Cross and the Nakedness of Christ

We pay much more attention to his birth than to his death. But when Jesus died upon the cross, there was a tremendous symbol in that which took place upon Golgotha. We read here of the fact that Messiah's clothes were taken off of him, and that he was hanging naked upon that cross.

Now this is not unimportant. When the birth of Jesus was announced, it was said that he should be found in a manger. This shall be a sign to you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.

That was the sign. Now when he hung upon the cross, the sign was the sign of his nakedness. In fact, if we were to put it in that way, we would say, in this sign language, we would write something like this.

This or this shall be the sign unto you. You shall find the surety, not wrapped in swaddling clothes, but hanging naked upon a tree. That is the evidence of the fact that he is the sin offering. Now the nakedness of the Lord Jesus is something that goes right back to the second chapter of the book of Genesis.

You'll remember that when God created Adam and Eve, he created them, and the text says in verse 25, I think it is of chapter 2, that they were both naked, Adam and Eve his wife, but they were not ashamed.

And then in the third chapter we read that when they sinned, they looked at themselves, they saw their nakedness, and they were ashamed. And they ran to hide themselves. In fact, made clothes of fig leaves.

In other words, the picture in Genesis that we get is the picture that when sin came, shame for what they had done came to them. Now we're not going to engage in a long discussion of the kind of clothing, if any, they had before.

Some have suggested they had a covering of glory, and they lost that covering of glory when they sinned, and thus they saw themselves really naked. That's really not the point of the message this morning.

The message this morning's point is simply this, that shame is the inevitable consequence of the realization of lost innocence, and hence shame belongs to sin. When a man sins, he's ashamed of it. Inevitably.

We feel guilt and we feel shame. Now the Lord Jesus must die not only for our guilt, but he must also bear our shame. And to show this outwardly, the Lord Jesus was hanging upon the cross of Golgotha naked.

It was inevitable. It was required that Jesus should hang there naked, and that is what he did. Now it's also striking that they take his garments and they cast lots among them, and the soldiers take these garments and clothe themselves.

And if you remember that back in the Old Testament, when Adam and Eve are naked in the Garden of Eden, God, when they come to faith in him, and Adam says he's going to name his wife's name Eve, then God takes off the fig leaves of man's clothing, slays an animal, takes the skins of the animals, and with the skins clothes Adam and Eve.

In other words, the clothing comes by way of sacrifice. And here on the cross, at Golgotha, this whole drama again is played out like a pageant before men. Here is the shame, here is the one who bears the shame of sin.

He's hanging upon the cross. The garments are taken from him, and they are given to others. And so the soldiers find themselves clothed in the garments of the one who typically bears the shame of sin.

And so we have right on Golgotha again a picture that God is active in the cross of Christ. And those garments which are taken are figurative, illustrative of the righteousness that comes to us when we put our faith and trust in this one who was hanging naked upon the cross at Golgotha.

Someone has said God could put clothing upon the first Adam only because he would one day take it off of the second Adam. But at least it's true that all of this was an active drama. Now I want you to see, you see, that through all of this, God is active, much more active than men.

Men are little puppets who are moving about, moved by their base passions. They're moved by their antipathy and rebellion to God. But over and above all of this activity of the cross, it is the Father who is really active, and he is controlling all of the events of Calvary.

I've been greatly impressed this week in the North, as I've been reading and studying God's word on my own, of how we ought to be thankful for the sovereignty of God. I think I've become an even deeper and stronger believer in the sovereignty of God, his complete sovereignty in everything from beginning to end.

And you surely can see it in the cross of Christ. Now fourthly, the Messiah and the Virgin, verses 25 through 27. The last words of dying men are very important. Just recently we listened with bated breath to see what Jack Ruby would say in his last words.

And I think that we must acknowledge, though we may have different opinions of what really happened November the 22nd, 1963, that the last words of a dying man are more likely to be true words than other words.

What men say when they die has always been given supreme recognition and respect. Now the last words of our Lord Jesus are also important, and a great deal of study has been devoted to them. Some of them are given us in the 19th chapter of John, and he has some words here for Mary and for John.

They really go together. Primarily they are words that concern the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. She was the first to plant kisses upon his brow. She was the first to guide his hands and his feet in infantile movements.

She was the first to feed him and clothe him and care for him. And now she feels the sword through her heart that long before Simeon had said would come, that a sword would pierce through her heart, and standing beside the cross, looking upon the Lord Jesus in almost total isolation from the men, for the men are sunk in consuming disappointment and are afraid and have fled for the most part.

John has come back to the cross, and so Jesus speaks, and he says, Woman, behold thy son. And then to John, behold thy mother. The Lord never spoke of Mary as his mother, as you know. I don't think that that's because he would not have used the term.

I think he probably would have used the term. The Bible does speak of Joseph as his father and Mary as his mother. I see nothing wrong in that if we realize that Mary was the mother, in a sense, of the human nature of our Lord Jesus.

It is very, very misleading to say Mary was the mother of God. She was the mother of the human nature of our Lord Jesus, but she was his mother in his human life. Mary is unique because Jesus is unique.

But in the words that are given here, we see one or two things which I want to just say a word about very quickly. First of all, you notice the Lord Jesus is the provider for his own. Now, back in 1 Timothy, it is stated that one of the marks of an unbeliever is the fact that he doesn't care for his own.

Our Lord Jesus, even in the last breaths that he draws as a man, cares for his mother. And so he says, Woman, behold thy son. That is, John the Apostle now is to take care of you. We also notice him here as the fulfiller of the law.

The law said that a son should honor his father and his mother. And Jesus completely fulfilled the law. And so even to the last, he must honor Mary. So woman, behold thy son. And now to John, John, I want you to care for her.

Behold your mother. One last thing. Notice the day on which this statement was made. It was not made on the day of the ascension. It was not made on the day of the resurrection. It was made on the day of the cross.

Because the ultimate significance of what Jesus was doing is related to the cross of the Lord Jesus. And he is telling Mary something like this, Earthly relationships are over. You're only related to me via the new birth now.

Believers are all in one family. And Jesus relates Mary, gives her no special position, but relates her to the Apostle John. Woman assigns her a position in his body. He is not part of her body. She is to be part of his body.

And so in a sense, our Lord Jesus naturally and gently leads her from the natural union which she had with him through the human nature to the mystical union which she has through the new birth. And Mary, the mother of our Lord, is given typically her place in the body of Christ with others.

For now she is united with them who are typically his body. Fifthly, the Messiah thirsting. And I imagine some of you are thirsting because this room is a little warm. But I notice some of you are like this.

And one of the elders has caught the hint. And maybe we'll get a little air. But I hate to disturb, I hate to disturb you now and talk about thirsting. But will you notice the 28th verse. After this, perhaps it's because you're excited about what's going to happen this afternoon at 3 o 'clock.

I don't know. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. This is the fifth statement that Jesus made. Now behind our Lord Jesus is his eternal death.

For remember, the fourth statement that he uttered is, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And so when he uttered that statement at the ninth hour, that was a token of the fact that the Lord Jesus was bearing the separation from God that we should have borne.

And so that marked his eternal death. Shortly thereafter, he said, I thirst. And I want you to notice that this statement, I thirst, is in very close relationship to that, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Now I think it's so important because ordinarily when we read the Bible and we come to this statement, I thirst, we think that this is just an incidental remark which the evangelists threw in, in order that we might just kind of catch the scene, so to speak.

That we might put ourselves there on the cross with him and just realize some of the little insignificant details that transpired on that point. But that is not the reason that Jesus said, I thirst. I have no doubt that he was genuinely thirsty, but that is not, he was not thirsty simply because he was hanging upon a cross.

This thirst is related to what was going on in Jesus Christ's soul. In other words, the thirst that he speaks of is ultimately the thirst of one who is headed to undergo the fires of divine judgment. Now the reason for that, I think, can be found in the study of passages of Scripture in the Word of God.

Back in the 22nd Psalm, for instance, when the psalmist speaks of the suffering of this servant of God, he describes his sufferings in terms of thirst. He speaks about the thirst that he has. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, my tongue cleaveth to my jaws, thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

And then David, do you remember David's experience when he sinned? He said in the 32nd Psalm, in verse 3, when he kept silence and didn't confess his sin to God. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. You see, when a man sins against God and then doesn't confess that sin, even though he's a believer as David was, he senses this lack of fellowship with God and judgment begins to work in Christians.

If we should judge ourselves, we should not be judged, Paul says. And judgment has the effect of bringing to us the sense of thirst, because the fires of divine judgment work. They work, of course, most of all in the man who has not received our Lord Jesus as Savior.

That's why the ultimate penalty for rejection of Christ is to be put in the lake of fire. And so when Jesus said, I thirst, of course he meant physically, I need some thirst to assuage, some liquid to assuage my physical thirst, but that was not the primary thirst that he was feeling.

He was feeling there the results of the fact that God had brought judgment into his soul. And he had cried out, my God, my God, why'st thou forsaken me? Because he was enduring everlasting judgment. And now there are results from that, this agonizing cry, I thirst, Messiah thirsting.

The Finished Work of Redemption and the Call to Believe

And now sixthly, notice in verse 30, the Messiah evangelizing. In verse 30 we read, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished. It is a supreme spiritual joy to finish the spiritual work of redemption.

And so Jesus says, it is finished. You know it's a kind of, it's a kind of joy to finish anything. I know it especially because I hardly ever finish anything. But when I am able to finish something, you know there comes a feeling of satisfaction over you when you've really done something that you wanted to do.

I think that Dante, for example, must have had a wonderful sense of completion when he finished one of his great works, like the Divine Comedy. Or how must Milton have felt when he wrote the last words of Paradise Lost?

Or how must Columbus have felt after he had endured all that he had endured, including the mutinous soldiers on the way over, when he saw the peaks of Darien? And so the Lord Jesus, when he finally was able to say, it is finished, tremendous spiritual joy must have flooded his soul.

This, someone has said, is a triumphant cry with a great dogmatic significance. You could talk for hours on the subject, it is finished. By the way, he doesn't say, I am finished. This is not the last gasp of a worn out life, as Mr. Pink said.

This is a triumphant cry. The work of God is done. It is finished. Now, of course, he must die physically, and we'll say a word about that in just a moment. But when he says, it is finished, this means the work of redemption is done.

Some time ago I mentioned an experience that happened to Mr. Ebenezer Wooten, a well-known evangelist of a few generations ago. He was holding some meetings in Britain, and they had been tent meetings.

And when the meetings were over, he had been out on the village green, pulling up the tent pegs in order to move on to the next location. A young man came up to him and said, somewhat casually, Mr. Wooten, what must I do to be saved?

He didn't seem to be interested, according to the tone of his voice, and so Mr. Wooten didn't even bother to look up. He said, too late, son, too late. Then there came a note of urgency and earnestness into the man's voice, and he said, oh, Mr. Wooten, you mean it's too late because the meetings are over?

I cannot be saved now? And he stood up and looked at the man, and he sensed that he was earnest, and he said, son, it's still too late. The work of salvation was done 1 ,900 years ago. You said, what must I do to be saved?

It's too late. Jesus has died and has already done it. Now if you want to be saved, all you need do is to say, thank you for the work that has been done. Hudson Taylor, you know, put it so wonderfully.

He said, I finally came to sense that the work of redemption was done, and there was nothing more for me to do but to fall down and worship the one who had done it all for me. That's all we need do to be saved.

Not join the church, not pray through, not be baptized, not learn the Catechism, not be confirmed, not become good. All of these things are impossible. As far as obtaining for us salvation, God wants us to say, we are lost, and we need a Savior, and he wants us to see that Christ has done it for us.

And then he wants us to say in our hearts, just, thank you, Lord, for giving Jesus Christ to die for me. That's all that's necessary, all, mind you, nothing else. Just say, thank you, Lord, from your heart.

That moment, you have everlasting life, born again, wonderful. Do you have it? Have you been born again? Do you have that everlasting life? One last thing. He bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Now over in Luke, chapter 23, when he bowed his head and gave up the ghost, he gave it up with a word, and that word was, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

You know, John has it very wonderfully here. We give up the spirit, and then we bow the heads, as you know. When we die, we die quite differently from our Lord Jesus. You see, the spirit leaves us, and our head collapses, because our strength is gone.

But Jesus Christ is in complete control of this situation, even in his death. And so he bows his head, and then gives up the ghost. Now Jesus, of course, had died spiritually when he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

But he must show us that the work was done. And so he must die physically, which was an effect of sin, and hence the work, while complete spiritually, when he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And said, It is finished. He must pass finally into the experience of physical death. And so he dies physically, after he has died spiritually. But the words on his lips were, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

We have misunderstood that. Unfortunately, we have never learned, as a Christian church, to read the New Testament in the light of the Old Testament. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, is not a kind of resigned cry, when Jesus died.

It is a triumphant affirmation of the resurrection. Where do you get that, Dr. Johnson? Just reading the Bible? Get lots of things when you read the Bible. Get lots of things when you ponder the Bible.

It so happens that, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, is a citation from the Old Testament. Did you know that? Now, if you turn back to Psalm 31 and verse 5, you needn't do it. It's all right, it's there.

If you turn back to that psalm, you will discover that in the context of that psalm, the psalmist is having a great deal of difficulty, and he's speaking about his difficulties, and then he says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, and shortly he says, thou hast brought me into a large place.

He knows, you see, that the conclusion of these difficulties is the fact that he has gone through them. He has surmounted them. Now, it just so happens that this petition, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, was the Jewish equivalent of, now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to take. I said that prayer thousands of times before I was converted. That's a child's prayer, isn't it?

We teach our children that. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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