The Bible in 16 Verses: 13. The Cross

The Old Testament Story Leading to the Cross

So, let's just give a real quick recap of where we've been. We were in the Old Testament. The time is coming. We've gone through creation, human beings, Adam and Eve, the fall, redemption promised, Abraham, Judah the king, the Passover lamb, King David, the promised king, suffering servant, the resurrection promised, and new creation, all part of the new covenant.

We are now in the New Testament. We went through 12 fulfillment today. We're going to go through the cross. Then next week will be resurrection, justification, and glory. So I'm not going to read, normally I read the whole summary of where we are up until this point.

It's a little longer now that we've gotten to the New Testament, so I'm going to read it at the end. But today's verse is John 19, 30. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

And our quote for the day is this, how you start is important, but it's how you finish that counts. How many of us finish what we start? Anybody have some unfinished things that you haven't yet completed?

Yeah, I got about 6 ,000 of those. And on my completed list, I probably got two things, right? All right, let's get into this. All the way back in Genesis 3, we saw that Adam and Eve failed to obey God and instead took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Their refusal to obey at that tree destroyed the fellowship that they enjoyed with God. And the beauty and perfection of his creation was horribly scarred. In other words, sin had entered into the world.

Adam failed in his responsibility to guard the garden, to specifically guard his wife and cast out anything that would come in and upset the peace that they had in the garden. Adam should have said, get out, Satan, you don't belong here, and pushed him out of the.

Garden.

He didn't do that. But it was not hopelessly scarred. Before Adam and Eve could even begin to comprehend the new reality of life under the curse, God announced that there was a plan in place to make all things new again.

Again, this points to the grace and mercy of God. He didn't have to make all things new again. He could have left it as it is, took a step back, and let creation fall into sin and never redeem it. But God would eventually make restitution and eventually replace the fruit back on the tree and then crush the head of the serpent.

So the fruit that was taken off the tree in order to make restitution, fruit would have to be put back on the tree. And that's what we're going to talk about today. We have seen this redemptive plan unfolding in the Bible.

We are finally arriving at its culmination.

The cross.

The Meaning of the Cross and Crucifixion

The cross is the centerpiece of Christianity. It's Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. So the cross and the resurrection are the two most important events for Christians. Again, we find ourselves looking up at a tree.

Unlike the first tree in the garden, there was nothing attractive about this one, the.

Cross.

It had been stripped of its branches and shaped into a cross in order to be used for crucifixion, the Romans' preferred method of execution for the worst of criminals. So the God who created the entire world and created everything in it, including the trees that would be cut down and used to make the cross that he would be put on, they're using God's materials to crucify the Lord of glory.

And we're going to see the Romans' preferred method of execution was the cross. In fact, that's where we get the word excruciating pain. X out of cross. That's the first time that term is used because the pain on the cross was so unbearable.

That's where we get the term excruciating. On that cross was the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God himself, who had become human in every sense of the word. The only person who had ever lived a truly innocent life was being executed in one of the worst ways possible.

Yet it could not have been any other way. When he had made the payment for sin that God's people had needed all along, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head, not in resignation, but in victory.

And we're going to go through what that word, it is finished, is to tell us in Greek. But what most people don't realize, it was being crucified was the most humiliating way to die. In fact, you were completely naked on the cross.

All of the pictures that we have of the so-called crucifixion show Jesus with a loincloth on. That's not true. In fact, he was specifically not wearing a loincloth because that's what Adam and Eve used to cover themselves.

They used leaves. So where they covered themselves, Jesus exposes himself in their place. After Jesus announced the good news of God's faithful promises and the impending arrival of the kingdom, he spent about three years teaching and proclaiming this good news.

What does the word good news mean? What is the word for good news? What do we use?

Gospel.

Gospel, right?

And the gospel is what?

Good.

All right.

Great.

It's good news.

The good news of the God, the good news is Jesus is Lord. Where they used to proclaim the gospel when a king conquered a city, Caesar is Lord. Now the good news is Jesus is Lord. We have the one true king who's perfectly righteous, who everyone is going to eventually bow their knee to.

As the long-awaited seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, he destroyed the works of the devil and fought against the curse by casting out demons, healing the sick and even raising the dead.

Remember, the first Adam did not cast out the fallen angel, Satan. Jesus comes and he starts casting out demons.

You're out.

You don't belong here. I'm purchasing this. This is my earth. This is my kingdom. As the seed of Abraham, Jesus, he brought the blessing of God's presence back among his people. On some occasions, such as when he spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, he began to bring that blessing of Abraham to all the families of the earth.

Again, she's a Samaritan. She's not a technical Jew. And through Abraham, there will come a seed that will be a blessing to all the families.

Of the earth.

Not just Israel, not just Judah, but every tribe, tongue, people, and language. Unlike all of his ancestors before him, all the way back to Adam, Jesus perfectly kept the covenant with Israel, the law of God.

He did all the things that God had required of his people. There was not one person who was capable of keeping all those things aside from Jesus. We'll see this in the book of Hebrews. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Jesus, God, takes on flesh, comes into the world as a man. He's truly God, truly man.

All right?

This is the hypostatic union. You have two natures in God. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. This is to fulfill the covenant to Abraham. Through him, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Now, what does it take to be an offspring of Abraham?

Say again?

No.

Faith.

We're all sons of God, we're sons of Abraham through faith in God. So this is a spiritual promise. And Jesus came into the world to help the children of God, those whose faith would be in him for their salvation.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Who wants to give me a shot at what propitiation means? Fulfillment of?

Exchange.

Say again?

In place of that substitute, we're going to get there. Propitiation means to satisfy God the Father, to satisfy his need for justice on the sinner. So Jesus turns, he becomes the sacrifice that God looks at and is now, that is now the payment for the sins of the people whose faith and trust are in Christ.

So it turns away God's wrath from those people and Jesus takes it on himself. Now there's some people who say on the cross God the Father turned his back on God the.

Son.

I don't necessarily hold that. That would seem to be a fracture in the Trinity. I just believe that God the Father, when the sins were poured out on Jesus, he was looking at Jesus as if he was a sinner and punishing him that way.

We're going to get into that as well. But there was a promise, a problem I should say. After they had returned home from exile in Babylon, the Jews had rebuilt the temple and relaunched the sacrificial system.

Once again, every year on the Passover, lambs were offered as substitutes for God's people. Again and again, the priests would slaughter the lambs as a reminder of God's justice and mercy but the lambs still were not enough to pay the price for sins.

Why?

The blood of bulls, goats, lambs could never take away the sins of a human being. Remember the temple was now rebuilt and they're going back there. They're going to the Mosaic Covenant, which is all they had, to make atonement for their sins.

They would have to sacrifice the animals, right? But we saw in Isaiah 53 that the final substitute for the sins of God's people could not be a lamb. It couldn't be an animal. No, it had to be a person, one of them, to stand, one of them.

It had to be the promised one who would represent the people and stand in as their substitute. It shouldn't surprise us to hear Jesus say that his mission was not to be served but.

To serve.

His main task as a servant was to give his life as a ransom for many. And in Isaiah 53, we hear it real clear. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his wounds we are healed. That's talking about a person, not an animal, not a bull, not a calf, not a goat, not a.

Lamb.

It's a person. Jesus fulfills that.

When Jesus said that, he was pointing back to Isaiah 53. He was the servant Isaiah was prophesying about that all pointed towards the coming.

Of Jesus.

Not only did he have to keep God's covenant perfectly so as to do what Adam, Abraham, Israel, and many others failed to do, Jesus had to go one step further. He would have to suffer and pay the penalty that all these, along with countless others, deserved for their sin.

This is a substitute. This is one who takes your place. In fact, this is a verse that would point to what's called penal substitutionary atonement. In other words, there's a penalty for sin. Jesus took that penalty on himself, stood in as our substitute, and takes the penalty, pays the penalty so that we could go free.

So, if you're a Christian, when Jesus died on that cross, you died on that cross with him. When Jesus was buried, you were buried. But you didn't stay there because when Jesus was raised, you were raised.

You were raised in Christ. Now people say, how's that possible that I could have been crucified, buried, and resurrected.

With Jesus?

Well, if it's possible that you sinned in Adam when he first sinned, it's also possible that you were crucified, buried, and resurrected in Christ. That's why he's called the second Adam. So when rumors started circulating in the Judean countryside about a possible Messiah, the next logical step was seen as to revolt against Rome.

After all, the people assumed the only way Jesus could really prove that he was the Messiah was by defeating God's enemies. Obviously, they were under Roman occupation. A few groups, like the Zealots, who claimed Messiahship, had tried that tactic.

They thought it was a military battle. It wasn't a spiritual battle. These men tried to gather armies together to defeat Rome, but they were either run out of town or executed themselves. Crucifixion.

So, as Jesus continued in his ministry, everyone was waiting for him to make his move on Rome. All right, when are we picking up arms? When are we going to attack them? Finally, some of them thought it was coming.

After returning from Galilee, Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey. Not really what you would expect a white knight in shining armor to come riding in on. You'd expect the big horse, okay, we got a military battle to win.

Jesus comes in riding on a donkey. People were cutting palm branches down from the trees and waving them, literally throwing their clothes in the road to make a path for Jesus and shouting, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Every year we remember this triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. Jesus was indeed entering Jerusalem with victory on his mind, but it is unlikely that many of the folks who were celebrating that day understood what Jesus' victory would entail.

Again, they're awaiting a conquering king, one who's going to beat back the enemies of Israel. Remember from early on, they were under Egyptian occupation. Then it was the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, now the.

Romans.

They're like, when are we going to get out from under this? But Jesus never tried to conquer Rome militarily, but as the week after his arrival went on, some of the Jewish leaders, along with Judas Iscariot, one of his followers, hatched a plot to kill him.

Judas began looking for a chance. Jesus knew he was heading toward the cross. Before he went, though, he wanted to celebrate a Passover meal with his closest followers. They followed the normal order of the meal, but when he broke the unleavened bread, Jesus said something strange, this is my body.

Then when they were drinking from the cup of wine together, he said, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. He was saying that his broken body and spilled blood would fulfill the promise of the new.

The same way they celebrated the Passover meal, and they drank from the cups and ate the sacrificed lamb, Jesus is now saying, I'm here, I'm the Passover lamb, my blood is going to be the blood shed for the new covenant, as per Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, Isaiah 53, he's going to be the suffering servant, he's going to be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The king is here, but victory is not as he climbs, victory is him sacrificing and laying his life down for others. That's why we're told in the New Testament, deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow.

Me.

That's not what the world expects. The world expects, if you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you. How about when the world hurts you, you feed your enemy, you bless those who persecute.

You.

You think that's going to change the way they think or look at you? Like, why are you doing that?

Why?

My king died for me. I'm willing to lay my life down for you because you're an image bearer of God who needs a savior as well. Not easy to do, easy to say, very easy to say, difficult to do. Soon after that, those same disciples saw the terrible price that had to be paid.

Jesus was arrested and taken to the cross and executed between two common criminals. As he suffered on the cross, there is no doubt that Jesus was in physical anguish, but despite what the movies might lead you to believe, his greatest pain was yet to come.

Now remember, Jesus is in the middle. They have an unrepentant thief on one side, a repentant thief on the other. One of the thieves looks at Jesus and says, Lord, you know I belong here, right? I belong on the cross.

Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And in saying that, Jesus says, today you'll be with me in paradise. The thief on the cross didn't have time to be baptized. He didn't have time to do good works.

He didn't have time to go to church. He didn't have time to read the scriptures. All he had was faith in the Messiah. The unrepentant thief cursed Jesus, get us down. If you're the son of God, get us down from here.

So most people look at the thief on the cross and say, he's the exception to the rule. You need to be baptized. You need to do this. You need to do that. And if you're alive and you're not on a cross, you do need to do those things.

But you're saved by faith. You're not saved by baptism. You're not saved by how much you read the Bible. You're not saved by how many times you go to church. Those are all the fruit of what the spirit gives to you in your heart.

As your heart is changed, you're going to seek out others to do good things for them, to magnify and glorify your Father in heaven. That's not the basis for your salvation. The root of your salvation is faith in Christ.

The fruit of your salvation is the work of your hands. And so in fulfillment of Isaiah 53, to the cross Jesus went. To most Jews in the first century, that was a shocking and downright blasphemous. They had read the prophecies of God's anointed one, the Messiah, but very few made the connection between the royal son of David and the suffering servant in Isaiah 53.

Because of this, most of them had no category for a suffering Messiah. The Messiah, they thought, would ride into Jerusalem as a conquering king and run the Romans out of town. Then he would conquer the promised land, reestablish the throne of David, and usher in a new golden age for Israel.

You could imagine the Jews who really believed that, how disappointed they would be in seeing Jesus and people saying, he's the Messiah. The Jews at that time, forgive me of saying, he's a loser.

Look what he's doing.

He's eating with sinners and drunkens and all that stuff. He's not the conquering king. Jesus was always in a perfect, righteous relationship with God the Father. His greatest pain would come from being looked at and treated as a sinner by his Father while bearing the weight of sin for his people.

Again, this is where penal substitutionary atonement comes in. God looks at Jesus as if he sinned and lays the punishment for that sin out on Jesus, which is death. He stands in our place. He absorbs the consequence for the sin.

He absorbs death, and now we are set free. This is a good verse to point this out. 1 Peter 3, 18, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

Christ suffered many times for sins. No, it says once. You know how many times once is? Once. You don't need to count too long to find it. It's once. Jesus isn't sacrificed or crucified over and over and over again, as is the case in some other religious traditions.

We don't re-sacrifice the body of Jesus on the altar every week.

Why?

Because he was sacrificed once for all. As the suffering servant, he was the final substitute, the representative who took the weight of sin and the wrath of God on himself. No more bulls, no more goats.

And he cried out in his spiritual and emotional anguish, the words of Psalm 22, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But that would not be his last words from the cross. In fact, he previously asked three times, If there be any other way, yet not my will, but thy will be done.

God, Jesus knew he was in perfect relationship with God, the Father. God never looked at, the Father never looked at him as anything but righteous. Now he's going to look upon his son as a sinner and pour the punishment, the consequence out on Jesus that he did not commit.

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The word, the sentence, it is finished, is one Greek word in the New Testament. It's tetelestai.

It means paid in full. It would be when you went and you bought goods from somebody and you paid them back on the bottom of the receipt, they would write tetelestai. In other words, your bill is paid.

So when Jesus died on the cross, for those whose faith and trust is in him, your bill.

Is paid.

There is no purgatory. There is no additional works you need to do in order to pay the bill. In fact, if you try to do works to pay the bill, you're just proving that you don't have faith in Jesus. The question you want to ask people when you're witnessing to them is, what are you counting on to get you to heaven?

Are you counting on something you've done? You're in big trouble. I need to count on, trust in, place my faith in what the perfect son of God has done in my place. If you're counting on yourself, you're doomed.

You need to repent and trust in Christ. Finally, here was a sacrifice that would pay the price of sin once and for all. For centuries and centuries, the people of God had offered sacrifices that only pointed forward to their need of something more permanent.

Those sacrifices never finished the job. The next year, the next month, the next day, there would be another sacrifice to offer. But finally, this came to a conclusion with Jesus.

No longer.

As the end drew near, in spite of his anguish, in spite of his pain, Jesus could confidently say it is finished. In fact, the book of Hebrews says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross for.

Us.

For since the law was but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The old covenant could not make you perfect. All the old covenant can do is prove that you're guilty. Prove that you needed a sacrifice. Prove that you needed a substitute. You could never fulfill the law.

That's the whole point of the law. To show you your need for God and the fact that you were created to be dependent on God for everything. Not just breath in your lungs, not just food, not provision, but salvation.

You are dependent wholly and completely on God to rescue you from your sins because you are not able to do that in and of yourself. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? In other words, if these sacrifices were good enough, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin?

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Now, the old covenant, there was a, where is it, where's the, there's a reminder of sins every year.

What do we celebrate every week that's a reminder of something else? We celebrate communion. What's that a reminder of? Our sins have been paid. They had a reminder that their sins were ever before them.

We have a reminder that Christ went to the cross and our sins are behind us. On the cross, it was a perfect work that brought perfect results. It was a perfect work and a permanent work. It is finished.

You no longer owe God anything for your sins. You owe him for your life and for your salvation, but he made the, he made the payment, took the penalty for your sins in your place. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings, you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the.

Scroll of the book.

So here's Jesus coming into the world, taking on flesh, a body to do God's will, which is to be the suffering servant and to fulfill the seed of the woman, the king, the royal line of David, all the seed of Abraham.

He's the one who comes and fulfills each one of these covenants. He came to do God's will. When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.

These are all offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I've come to do your will. He does away with the first, the old covenant to establish the second, the new covenant. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

So as a Christian, when you turn from your sins and you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you have been justified. You are made right in God's sight. You now have God's, Jesus' imputed righteousness to your account.

So when God looks at you, he sees Jesus. He sees perfect righteousness. But now the process of sanctification has begun, right? We're justified. Then we have this gap of sanctification until we die, and then we'll be glorified.

So if you're a Christian, you live between work begun and work complete. And every one of us is in a different little spot on that line. We're to help each other to move forward so that when we are glorified, we receive the rewards that were promised for doing the things in Christ's name to the people around us.

But you're sanctified through the blood of Jesus. You're not sanctified by the good works of Mary, the saints, or anyone else, or your own good works. Again, if you're relying on the treasury of merit, where the merit of Jesus, Mary, and the saints are put into a bank account, if you're counting on that to cleanse you and purge you of your sins when you die, then you're not trusting in Jesus.

You're trusting in Jesus plus something. Scripture says Jesus alone. That's all that he is the only one you are to put your faith and trust in. Anything else is idolatry. Anything else is saying that Jesus' price, purchase on the cross was not good enough, was not enough, it wasn't sufficient.

Again, Rome says grace is necessary. Jesus says grace is sufficient. In Rome, it's grace plus your good works. For Jesus, it's grace alone.

I did it.

Christianity is not spelled D-O. Christianity is spelled D-O-N-E. Done. Finished. It is finished. This is good news. Somebody should clap.

All right.

Every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice, not a weekly sacrifice or a daily sacrifice, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So if you place your faith and trust in Jesus and you've been justified, you are now in the process of sanctification.

That is a perfect work that will perfectly sanctify you.

All right.

It's a guarantee of eternal life because it's not dependent on what you do. It's dependent on what he did for you. This attacks the prideful heart of mankind, the autonomy of mankind, thinking that I can add something to the finished work of Jesus that will put God in my debt.

Well, I did what you said, so now you owe me eternal life. You will never, ever be able to say that to God, ever. You do not put God in your debt. And that's what a system of works is designed to do because it's man-centered, not God-centered.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them in their minds.

Then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds all the time. I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. You are free to go. Justice has been served and you didn't do a second of time behind bars.

You're freed because of what Jesus did. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. In other words, you do not have to offer a bull, a goat, a lamb. You do not have to offer good works as another sacrifice.

You do that in reaction and out of love for God, not in order to earn or put him in your debt. This is the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant. Which one would you rather be in? Thank you.

New covenant. Somebody shout. Do we not put enough caffeine in the coffee? What's going on today? Why? We look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

When the priest went behind the curtain to offer the sacrifice and sprinkle the blood on the atonement seat, he never sat down because the work of atonement was never complete. There would have to be another offering, another sacrifice continually until the Messiah.

He sprinkles his blood on the cover of the ark. God accepts that. That's how he makes propitiation. The wrath has been satisfied. Now Jesus can sit down because the work is done. He doesn't need to stand and continually do it.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

We enter through the flesh of Jesus. He sacrificed his flesh so that we don't have to sacrifice us. Now here's a trick question and the answer's right here. Do you have to come to a priest for salvation?

Yes.

I said the answer was right there.

Where is it? We have a great high priest. We come to Jesus. He's our high priest.

Coffee.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, without wavering. You do not add anything to the finished perfect work of Jesus. Do not waver. Faith is trust in Jesus as your perfect sacrifice in your place.

For he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together. Brothers and sisters, I plead with you. Come to the prayer meeting.

Come to service. Plug in everywhere you possibly can. You have one life to live. Make it all worth it for Jesus. Fill your mind with the things of God and what comes in here will come out through your hands.

The more you dwell on Jesus, the more you recognize I don't deserve this. The more you recognize other people need this and I'm a vessel of God's mercy and love. What can I do to bring the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?

In his suffering on the cross with those criminals, they made his grave with the wicked. And in his burial, the tomb of the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea, he was a rich man in his death. Jesus fulfills all these prophecies.

In the big and small details, Jesus perfectly fulfilled the prophecies of the suffering.

Servant.

Psalm 22 and the Suffering Servant Fulfilled

Let's look at Psalm 22. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him for he delights in him. They were shouting at Jesus.

If you're the son of God, get yourself off the cross.

Come on.

Psalm 22 again. I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws.