The Harmony of The Gospels. The Crucifixion of Christ

Redeeming Grace Church iconRedeeming Grace Church

10 views

Selected Scriptures

0 comments

00:00
I'd like to speak to you this morning about Gospel Harmony. I actually titled this
00:06
Gospel Harmony of the Crucifixion of Christ. I was thinking for our communion service to break away from the
00:19
Gospel of John, but there's not yet a complete break -off because a lot of the selected scriptures
00:25
I have today will be some from John. And that's why I titled it
00:31
Gospel Harmony of the Crucifixion. Please bow with me in prayer.
00:39
Father, as we seek Your face and Your blessing within this hour, O God, our Heavenly Father, we bow our hearts now as we come.
00:49
We tremble before Your Word. Lord, there's no way that I can do justice to this text and to the selected scriptures about this great day that when
00:59
You shook this world, You turned out its lights. So much happened as the hammer of Your judgment fell on Your Son.
01:13
Really, Father, all that really matters is that You alone are glorified.
01:21
Your name is hallowed and will be hallowed. Your Son, the
01:27
Lord Jesus Christ, is honored, and Lord, You are honored. He was lifted up.
01:32
You are lifted up. Father, we are humbled and changed by Your Word and Your Spirit, Lord.
01:42
And we just pray now, speak, Father, for Your servant here.
01:48
Glorify Thy name. In Jesus' name. Amen. In the book of 1
01:57
Corinthians 2, verse 2, the Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the
02:02
Holy Spirit, had an overpowering determination. I say it was overpowering because this man was absolutely consumed with preaching the message of the
02:16
Gospel. He had a complete resolve not to know anything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
02:29
This just was not an intellectual knowledge, but an experimental knowledge.
02:37
Anything among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
02:45
This is our message. This is what we must tell the world. Knowing Christ in His fullness and in the fellowship of His sufferings and the power of His resurrection, as Paul says in Philippians 3 .10,
03:01
was everything to Paul. As he said in Galatians 2 .20,
03:22
Folks, as we go through the harmony of the events, at the crucifixion of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ today, we will see all of God's great attributes in full demonstration and displayed.
03:43
A. W. Tozer said this about the cross of Christ, and I love this quote. The cross is the lightning rod of grace that short -circuits
03:54
God's wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers.
04:03
What a wonderful quote. This is what we will see. At the cross we behold the
04:10
Lamb of God high and lifted up. As Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 .14
04:16
-15, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
04:21
Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
04:28
That's our message. That's the message of salvation. That is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
04:36
At the cross again we behold all of the marvelous matchless attributes of God in full display, on full display at the cross at Golgotha's hill.
04:49
And as we go through the harmony of the gospels of the crucified Christ this morning, may we not miss one of those attributes that's on display.
05:00
For each of those attributes are the glories and the beauties of God in full demonstration.
05:09
For us to behold as vile sinners as we once were, but yet with remaining sin within us,
05:18
God deals with the sin that this world has and that we have through the cross of Christ.
05:25
It's all through the cross. And the harmony of the gospel here of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is a way that we can combine the four separate gospel accounts,
05:37
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, into a single unified narrative of Jesus' life, death, burial and resurrection.
05:46
How important is this? So this past week
05:52
I took out some paper and I started just jotting down and going through the scriptures. Now there's no way
05:59
I could be able to touch every one of these scriptures because they are so many compacted together.
06:05
And I was jotting this down and I'm telling you folks, study the death of Christ.
06:11
Study His crucifixion. It is life changing. It refreshed my soul as living water.
06:23
So when studying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ through the harmony, we can all see the gospel writers having emphasized the different aspects of this great event.
06:35
And by the way, this is the greatest event that ever took place in history. This is the day that God shook the world.
06:42
He shook the heavens. The hammer fell. And it fell on His Son, giving us a more complete picture of Christ's crucifixion.
06:54
Now, and starting off here in my introduction, I'd like to just mention this and then we're going to go into the events that took place.
07:01
But I'd like to mention how, in four ways, how a harmony of the gospel writers,
07:11
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, pulling this together, unifying it together, helps us understand the crucifixion of Christ.
07:19
And I'd like to give this to you. First of all, there is a completeness.
07:26
There's a completeness that it gives to us. A completeness. By combining the accounts, the harmony provides a more comprehensive view of the crucifixion, including the events mentioned by the different gospel writers.
07:45
So there is a completeness in studying the harmony of the gospels of the crucifixion of Christ.
07:53
Completeness. Two is context. Context.
07:59
As you've heard the saying in, if you study hermeneutics, context is king.
08:06
Context is king. A harmony can help us clarify the sequence of events and the context in which they occur.
08:18
Third, not only is there completeness in context, third, there is different perspectives.
08:27
We see different perspectives. It allows the readers to appreciate the unique perspectives and emphasizes of each of gospel writers regarding the crucifixion of Christ.
08:44
So it gives us a different synoptic view, as it says in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
08:55
But this is to help us. So we have the completeness, the context.
09:05
We have a different perspective. And fourth and final here, I was thinking is, and I think is probably one of the most important, that leads us to a deeper understanding of what took place.
09:23
A deeper understanding. It helps us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the
09:29
Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for us and accomplished at the cross. It brings us into a place of worship before Him.
09:39
And if we miss that, we've missed everything. And here we mean not just intellectualism, of knowing more intellectually about what took place historically, but what
09:54
Christ accomplished for us in our salvation unto the glory of God.
10:02
Pride cannot exist here, folks, when we go to the cross. Pride cannot exist.
10:09
For pride cannot even survive at the cross. If you want
10:15
God to deal with your pride as I pray, go to the cross. Kneel at the cross.
10:22
Many songs have been written and great hymns about the cross. At the cross, near the cross.
10:30
O .A .B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian Missionary Alliance, says, how about getting on the cross? I say amen to that.
10:39
So we need to come to spiritual wisdom through the Holy Spirit and only by the
10:44
Holy Spirit, for only the spiritual things can be spiritually discerned. And folks, this is something that's so deep beyond us, only as we study and survey the wondrous cross in which the
10:56
Prince of Glory died, meditate upon the crucified Christ and behold the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world by faith and believe it through seeing
11:07
Him, seeing Him through the Scriptures, we gain a rich and more profound understanding of the importance and the significance of the great sacrifice of all time.
11:20
The Lamb of God, to behold Him, to behold the man of sorrows, to behold the
11:27
Lamb of God, thus it strengthens our faith in Christ and God.
11:36
Now, may God help us put on the spectacles, the glasses, the eyeglasses, so to speak, of the
11:43
Holy Spirit as God would show us through the Scriptures of this great account and to behold the gospel harmony of the crucifixion.
11:53
And again, this is the greatest day in all history when God brought down His full judgment upon His own one and only
11:59
Son. So, here are the harmony events of the crucifixion of Christ and I want to mention this and there's no way
12:08
I'm going to be able to. I preached before the seven sayings of Christ on the cross and this will include that, but there's much more that took place and I'd like to talk about the events that also took place, but specifically as well bring up the seven sayings, the last sayings of Christ on the cross.
12:28
Makes me think seven is a number of completion and what Jesus said in those seven sayings is sufficient.
12:37
There's such depth to each and every one of them. But let's look at what happened at the cross.
12:45
We know at Calvary forgiveness is released, heaven is opened and victory was sealed. Jesus arrived at Golgotha, number one.
12:54
This is the first event that took place and we see this in Matthew 27 -33. And when they had come to a place called
13:03
Golgotha, that is to say the place of a skull. It's also recorded in Mark 15 -22,
13:11
Luke 23 -33, John 19 -17. Luke actually uses the name
13:17
Calvary from the Latin calvaria meaning skull.
13:23
So this is called the place of the skull. So first of all, Jesus is literally dragged.
13:31
He was beaten. Now He arrived at Golgotha. When they had come to a place called
13:38
Golgotha, that is to say the place of a skull. He comes to it.
13:46
Secondly, the second event that happens, Jesus refused to offer the offer of wine with myrrh as they nailed
13:58
Him to the cross. Matthew 27 -34, Scripture says, they gave
14:04
Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. What happened?
14:13
But Scripture says, but when He had tasted it, He would not drink.
14:19
Now I want you to keep this in mind. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ dying a very slow death that is absolutely so cruel beyond imagination.
14:34
And I'm sure His tongue was parched. He was thirsty. But He refused to take this sour wine mingled with gall.
14:44
What's the purpose here? And according to Mark 15 -23, it identifies as a myrrh, a narcotic.
14:54
The Jews had a custom based on Proverbs 31 -6 and administering a pain -deadening medication mixed with wine to victims of the crucifixion.
15:04
Why? In order to deaden the pain. Now I want you to think what our
15:11
Lord does here, folks. Tasting what it was, our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was thirsty, refused to drink.
15:20
Scripture says, would not drink. Why? Lest it dull
15:28
His senses before He completed His work. I want you to listen to what
15:34
Pastor MacArthur says as we all know he went home to be with the Lord this past week.
15:41
He's with the Lord and his work here was finished and it was
15:47
His appointed time and God called him home. But I thank God for this expository that's had such a great influence on my own life as a pastor.
15:57
MacArthur says this and this is so good. MacArthur says, the lessening of physical pain would probably not have diminished the efficacy of His atoning work.
16:10
But, He needed His full mental faculties for the hours yet to come.
16:20
It was necessary for Him to be awake and fully conscious, for example, to minister to the dying thief on the cross in Luke 23, 43, end quote.
16:32
Isn't that wonderful? Jesus refused to take any narcotics, anything to deaden the pain.
16:42
Though He was in great pain, He refused it because of His great love.
16:53
His greatest trophy. Third, Jesus was nailed to the cross between two thieves.
17:04
Matthew 27, 35, 38. Then they crucified Him. They crucified
17:11
Him. Divided His garments, casting lots. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.
17:21
And He quotes here Psalm 22, 18. They divided My garments among them and for My clothing they cast lots.
17:32
Sitting down, they kept watch over Him. And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him.
17:46
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Warren Wiersbe said this is the first gospel tract.
17:55
And it was. Then two robbers were crucified with Him.
18:01
One on the right and another on the left. That's what the Scripture says. The fourth event is
18:08
Jesus gave His first cry from the cross. His first cry was a prayer.
18:18
It makes me think that Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount, Love your enemies. Pray for them that persecute you.
18:27
Folks, Jesus demonstrated this before us.
18:33
He demonstrates this to the full. Luke 23, 34. Then Jesus said after they crucified
18:40
Him, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing.
18:51
He prays for His enemies. Now I want you to think of this. He could have easily said,
18:57
Injustice. Father, destroy them. But He doesn't pray that.
19:06
He prays, Father, forgive them. Forgiveness is released.
19:15
First words was a prayer directed to God, His Father. It was a prayer for those who crucified
19:22
Him. It was a prayer for those that did the most hideous sin ever committed to crucify the
19:34
Son of God on a cross. But does not that fit us as well, beloved?
19:41
Forgive them? That's us. The most hideous sin of all, they crucify the
19:55
Son of God, and yet He prays the most compassionate prayer of forgiveness.
20:03
He prays for His enemies. He prayed for forgiveness for the soldiers who were crucifying
20:10
Him. But His prayer again included much more.
20:16
It was included to the mob of the people who shouted out, Crucify Him, Crucify Him.
20:23
And by the way, a week before that, they were hailing Him, Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is
20:28
He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hypocrisy. And Jesus knew this.
20:37
And yet He prays, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing. He prays for His tormentors,
20:48
Jews and Romans. They were not aware of it. They were not aware of the full scope of their heinous sin, their wickedness, and neither were we.
21:01
Neither does this world know. But yet, He says, Father, forgive them.
21:08
Do you see what the heart of the gospel is? It's compassion and mercy and grace and not judgment.
21:22
The judgment fell on the sun like a lightning rod.
21:28
Just like the day of Elijah on Mount Carmel, the day the fire fell.
21:34
The fire did not fall on the people. It fell on the sacrifice. And here,
21:41
God's fire fell on His Son. They did not recognize
21:50
Him. Neither did we, until the Holy Spirit opened up our eyes.
21:55
And we were born again of the Spirit of God. And we see it, and we say, Lord, forgive us.
22:02
And Jesus says, He's prayed. By the way, we cannot pray until first Jesus prayed.
22:12
At Calvary, they nailed Christ to the cross. They crucified
22:18
Him, but yet He prays for His enemies. Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.
22:25
Acts 13, 27, 28 says, For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know
22:32
Him, nor even the voices of the prophets, which are read every
22:38
Sabbath, have fulfilled them in the condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked
22:45
Pilate that He should be put to death. The sinless, perfect Son of God.
22:56
Remember what Jesus said. It really wasn't the people there that were in charge.
23:05
God was in charge. Jesus laid down His life. Jesus said, I have authority to lay my life down, and I have authority to take it up again.
23:16
And He laid it down willingly. These people were blind to the light of divine truth.
23:22
1 Corinthians 2, 8 says, For if they had understood it, this is the Apostle Paul, they would not have crucified the
23:31
Lord of glory. You see who's in charge? God allows sinful man to do this, but really
23:38
God's in charge. This is God's Lamb. Still, their ignorance certainly did not mean they deserved forgiveness.
23:47
Rather, their spiritual blindness itself was a manifestation of their guilt. John 3, 19,
23:55
Jesus said, and this is the condemnation, that light, and Jesus is speaking of Himself, and that the light has come.
24:04
That the light has come into this world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
24:18
But Christ's prayer of forgiveness, while they were in the very act of mocking Him, is an expression of the boundless compassion of God's divine grace.
24:32
The fifth event that took place, the soldiers took Jesus' garments, leaving
24:40
Him naked on the cross. He's beaten. He's stripped.
24:47
The Canaanite tells us, opened Him up, wounds, blood. It was a gory sight.
24:55
Jesus takes our shame, and He takes it to the cross. You can read this in Matthew 27, 35.
25:04
I'll read that text. It's also found in Mark 15, 24, Luke 23, 34,
25:11
John 19 and 23. All four gospel writers gives this account, but I want to read
25:17
Matthew's version. In Matthew 27, 35.
25:27
Then they crucified Him and divided the garments, casting lots as it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet.
25:33
They divided by garments among them. For my clothing they cast lots. And I did read it before that, but it doesn't hurt to hear it again.
25:43
The sixth event, the Jews mocked Jesus. They mocked
25:48
Him. Matthew 27, 39 -43 says, And those who passed by blasphemed
25:54
Him, wagging their heads, saying, You who destroyed the temple and built it in three days, save yourself.
26:03
See, they're mocking Him. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.
26:09
Even there, see, Satan is tempting Him to come off the cross. Scripture says,
26:17
Likewise the chief priest, also mocking with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others.
26:24
Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
26:30
Him. He trusted in God. Listen to the mockery.
26:37
Let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him. For He said, I am the Son of God.
26:46
That's recorded in Mark 15, 29 -32, Luke 23, 35 -37.
26:52
Jesus' enemies were not satisfied that they had condemned Him to the crucifixion. Now here they are mocking
26:59
Him as He hung on the cross, suffering in agony and pain. They paraded below, mocking and jeering, and Satan is using them as tempting
27:10
Christ to come off the cross. They believed that they had defeated
27:16
Him, and they were flaunting their triumph in His face. Jesus' enemies taunted
27:25
Him, but in their taunting words we find a testimony of His own claims and to His own works.
27:33
Matthew 27 -42 says, And He saved others, He Himself cannot save.
27:40
If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe
27:45
Him. Basically what they said, but He is the King of Israel.
27:53
They admitted that Jesus was a good man, one whose life displayed supreme trust in God.
28:02
He was not a rebellious sinner, worthy of death, and now receiving His due punishment basically to their viewpoint.
28:17
A little bit more to say about this when we move to the seventh event. What a testimony this was coming from the lips of His very enemies.
28:26
Think of that. Their taunts show that they had not misunderstood
28:32
Jesus' claims. They had charged before Pilate that Jesus was an enemy of Caesar, but as He hung upon the cross, they made no mention of this charge.
28:45
Instead, they reminded Him that He said He was the Son of God and that He claimed to be able to destroy the temple and build it again in three days.
28:56
Basically referring to after Jesus cleansed the temple in John 2, verse 13 -22.
29:02
And they misunderstood the point completely. Yet, Jesus voluntarily laid down His life.
29:11
And Jesus again, I'll say this, and I quoted it a minute ago, but let me quote it again. John 10, 17 and 18.
29:18
Therefore, my Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again.
29:26
Notice what He says. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.
29:35
I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it again. This command I have received from my
29:42
Father. The seventh event that took place, He conversed with the two thieves on the cross.
29:53
The two thieves. And this is a wonderful, wonderful testimony here of the grace of God and the mighty, amazing pity of our
30:03
Lord to one of the thieves. But He converses. There's a converse in Luke 23, 39 -43.
30:16
Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him. One blasphemed Him saying, if you are the
30:23
Christ, save yourself and us. But the other answered and rebuked
30:30
Him saying, do you not even fear God? Seeing you are under the same condemnation?
30:41
This is the Spirit of God dealing with this thief. J .C. Rowe called this particular thief
30:48
Christ's greatest trophy. And the Scripture says, and we indeed justly for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
30:59
You see what he's saying? We deserve this. The other one is mocking.
31:06
And then he says, and this is the Spirit of God that's helping this man see his real condition.
31:15
But this man, and who Christ is, but this man has done nothing wrong. He done nothing wrong.
31:26
What did Jesus say to him? Well, Jesus has something wonderful to say.
31:37
The thief first says, and he prays, and he looks to the Lord, and he says, Lord, remember me when
31:44
You come into Your kingdom. Lord, remember me when
31:53
You come into Your kingdom. Notice what he's saying. First, he's acknowledging that He is Lord.
32:02
He's already acknowledged that Christ is sinless. Now he's saying, He's Lord.
32:08
Now he's saying, remember me. And now he's recognizing that He's the
32:13
King into Your kingdom. Where did he see that? Again, he must have read it above Jesus.
32:20
This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Jesus said to him,
32:26
He gives him that blessed assurance. So most assuredly, I say to you, today, you will be with me in paradise.
32:38
Charles Spurgeon said, this is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint.
32:46
This is the whisper of Christ to every dying saint. Much more could be said there, but we must move on.
32:54
The eighth event that took place, Jesus gave His second cry from the cross. We see this in Luke 23, 43.
33:05
And I think I just quoted it. That was the second cry.
33:26
Assuredly, I say to you, today, you will be with me in paradise. That's actually His second cry.
33:33
Okay. The next event is, He spoke the third time. John 19, verse 25 -27.
33:46
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother and His mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.
33:54
When Jesus therefore saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved, John standing by, He said to His mother,
34:01
Woman, behold, your son. And then
34:07
He said to the disciple, Behold your mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her to his own home to take care of her, to take care of Mary.
34:25
He was even thinking of His own mother's needs, her personal needs, or her being a widow, because Joseph at that time was already passed and dead.
34:40
Now we come to the twelfth event. And here is where we enter into holy ground before the burning bush.
34:53
It literally causes me to tremble, and I really mean that as we go here, because this is where the
35:02
Lord Jesus Christ takes the full wrath of God. Darkness came from noon, 12 noon to 3 pm, three hours.
35:17
Matthew 27, 45. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, three hours, there was darkness over all the land.
35:29
See, God cut out the lights. It was apparently during this time that Jesus was undergoing
35:35
His worst suffering. This here, beloved, is beyond the physical sufferings.
35:42
As horrifying as that is, now He will enter into the most horrific sufferings, and we will never ever know this.
35:53
People in hell know, but Jesus took the wrath of God.
36:00
Some say that God drew a veil across the scene so that men might not look upon the
36:07
Son in His great agony. I don't know. We don't know fully, but whatever the case,
36:13
God cut the lights out. Others think that this was God's sign that He was rejecting
36:19
Christ, even as men have rejected Christ. There's so many different comments on this.
36:26
Both of these are very possible, but the second seems to be more likely. G. Campbell Morgan, the great interpreter and espouser of his day, would not even comment on this.
36:41
He said, we just put our hand to our mouth and bow in worship.
36:48
I think that's the greater interpretation. But darkness of the heavens seems to be a reminder that our
36:56
Savior was suffering the very agony of hell itself because Christ spoke of hell as a place of darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
37:10
He takes the full judgment. And when you look in Scripture, any time you see darkness, it's always related to judgment, to wrath, to God.
37:22
Remember in Egypt? Darkness. They said darkness came.
37:29
God, it was one of the plagues, and when darkness came, it was so dark, they could feel it.
37:35
And here, there's darkness. The 11th event,
37:43
Jesus gave His fourth cry. In Matthew 27, 46 and 47, about the ninth hour,
37:50
Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, That is interpreted,
37:58
My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Folks, I tremble when
38:04
I say that. This is the Son of God.
38:11
This is the second person of the Trinity in flesh taking the full judgment and wrath and rejection of God the
38:21
Father so that we could be reconciled. The lightning rod is on Him.
38:28
He absorbs it for us to be reconciled. And He's the substitute. This cry from the cross is a fulfillment of Psalm 22, 1.
38:43
One of many striking parallels between that psalm and specific events of the crucifixion. Christ at that moment was experiencing abandonment.
38:56
We cannot know this, folks. He was abandoned by God the
39:01
Father. And despair that resulted from the outpouring of God's divine wrath on Him as a sin bearer.
39:13
Isaiah 53, 10, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to crush Him. He has put
39:20
Him to grief. When you make His soul an offering for sin.
39:26
Folks, do we really see how much God hates sin? That He crushed
39:35
His own Son? But yet Christ absorbs it all and we can have that blessed security in Jesus Christ that the
39:47
Father forgives us and welcomes us in. And you can be assured of that if you repent and have faith in Him.
39:58
2 Corinthians 5, 21 That wonderful gospel message in one verse.
40:04
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
40:13
Hallelujah! Again, let me quote MacArthur. And this is a wonderful quote.
40:21
God the Father using the principle of imputation treated Christ as if He was a sinner though He was not.
40:28
He had Him die as a substitute to pay the penalty for the sins of those who believe on Him.
40:36
On the cross, He did not become a sinner as some suggest, but remained as holy as ever.
40:45
He was treated as if He were guilty of all the sins ever committed by all who would ever believe.
40:53
Though He committed none, the wrath of God was exhausted on Him and the just requirement of God's law met for those for whom
41:04
He died. Praise His name, end quote. Let's go to the twelfth event.
41:12
The fifth cry of Jesus on the cross is found in John 19, 28.
41:17
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scripture might be fulfilled said,
41:25
I thirst. I thirst. I could not help but think after we have completed a two -part series on living water that we have a well of living water within us from the fountain of the cross here.
41:43
That Jesus was thirsty so that you and I would never thirst again. Psalm 22, 15 references this.
41:52
This may mean that His sufferings of hell agony was ended. When His soul was in torment,
42:02
He probably did not notice the pain of His body because He underwent the eternal agony of eternal wrath.
42:11
Now He became aware of the terrible thirst caused by the crucifixion and He cried out,
42:17
I thirst. The thirteenth event that took place next is
42:25
He drank wine and vinegar from a sponge. This is found in Matthew 27, 48,
42:33
Mark 15, 36, John 19, 29. Matthew 27, 48 says,
42:38
Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with sour wine. He put it to read and offered it to Him to drink.
42:48
The fourteenth event is that Jesus cried out the sixth time and said, and this is found in John 19, 30, and this is the great cry of victory.
42:59
It is finished. Three words. It is finished.
43:06
Paid in full. The cry of victory. The verb here carries the idea of fulfilling one's task.
43:14
In a religious context, has the idea of fulfilling one's obligations.
43:20
The entire work of redemption had been brought and paid for in completion.
43:29
In fullness. Doesn't that bring you great joy? That Jesus completed it.
43:34
The work of redemption was done and this was the cry of victory. His enemies thought that they had
43:40
Him. He was defeated, but really, He swallowed up death. The single
43:49
Greek word here translated, It is finished, again as you know, has been found in the papyri being placed on the receipts for taxes, meaning paid in full.
44:01
Colossians 2, 13, 14, Paul spoke of this, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
44:09
He has made alive together with Him, has forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us, and He has taken it out of the way.
44:26
What did He do? Having nailed it to the cross, it is finished, was
44:37
His cry. Now in heaven, exalted high, we sung it earlier. Fill it with bliss.
44:43
Let me move on to the 15th. The seventh cry of the cross, the number of perfection, from Luke 23, 46, and when
44:55
Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
45:02
Having said this, He breathed His last. Jesus actually quotes Psalm 31, 5, and the manner of the death accords with John 10, 18.
45:14
Normally, the victims of crucifixion died much slower deaths, but He was in control of His death, and He simply yielded up His soul, committing it to God.
45:27
He's in full control here. And as Scripture says,
45:32
Jesus offered Himself without spot to God. Hebrews 9, 14. He is the spotless
45:38
Lamb of God, and He offers Himself to God. Let me read
45:45
Hebrews 9, 13 and 14. For if the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, listen to what the writer of Hebrews says,
45:59
How much more shall the blood of Christ, through the eternal
46:04
Spirit, offer Himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living
46:11
God? Folks, when we sing power in the blood here, we mean it.
46:18
There's power in the blood. It has the power to remove all our stains of sin.
46:29
And for this reason He is the mediator of the new covenant. By means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
46:42
Hallelujah. Isn't it wonderful? Folks, this is the heart of the gospel.
46:49
What we're hearing today from Scripture is the power of God. The power of God.
46:57
Let's go to the next event. I'm sorry, the 16th event. He dismissed
47:03
His Spirit by an act of His own will. Matthew 27 .50, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit.
47:14
Again, He's in control. 17.
47:20
This is great. By the way, each one of these is full sermons. But I decided to go through this because of communion.
47:28
I can't think of any better way to have communion than think about this. And isn't that what it's about?
47:34
In front of that table, the words remember. Remember.
47:40
Do this in remembrance of Him. Now, what happened the 17th? Let's not forget the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom.
47:50
Not from bottom to top, from top to bottom. God tore this temple curtain.
47:58
Let me quote it to you. Matthew 27 .51, Then behold. Don't you love that word behold?
48:06
God's doing something important when God says behold. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
48:16
Then the scripture says, And the earthquake, God shook the earth. And the rocks were split.
48:25
Verse 52. And the graves were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
48:33
What's going on here? That's a foretaste. Amen. This, beloved, is a foretaste of the great resurrection that's going to take place in the future.
48:44
And all Jesus has to do is say, Come forth. And everybody that's been cremated, matter will come together.
48:54
And those appointed to eternal life will have a glorified body. Those saints are now, they're absent from the body, present with the
49:03
Lord. They are with the Lord. But they're waiting the day of resurrection until they, when they get a glorified body.
49:09
And glorified body to resurrection of life, then there's one resurrection unto damnation.
49:19
The great resurrection day. And God gave a demonstration of a foretaste right here.
49:25
The graves were opened. Many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
49:33
A foretaste. The veil of the temple, the curtain that blocked the entrance to the most holy place in Exodus 26, 33,
49:42
Hebrews 9, 3. And God tore the veil, signified that the way into God's presence was now open to all through a new and a living way.
49:54
Isn't that wonderful? The fact is that it tore from top to bottom, showed that no man could split that veil.
50:06
Only God could. And He did. The 18th event will be the final one.
50:15
Roman soldiers admitted. A Roman soldier admitted, surely or truly, this was the
50:24
Son of God. Matthew 27, 54, So when the centurion and those with him, notice with him, were guarding
50:36
Jesus, saw that the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly and said, truly, this was the
50:47
Son of God. They feared greatly. You know, if we were a heathen at that time,
50:57
I would think we would be in fear too. And what happened?
51:05
This is also recorded in Mark 15, 39, says the centurion was one who uttered the words of confession, but he evidently spoke for his men as well.
51:16
Their fear speaks of an awareness of their sin. This is healthy.
51:25
Awareness of their sin. And the word truly suggests a certainty of conviction that bespeaks of genuine faith.
51:37
These men represent an answer to Jesus' first cry. Remember what
51:43
He said? Father, forgive them, for they do not what they do.
51:52
As they crucified Him, being an enemy of the cross, an enemy of Christ, Jesus loved
51:58
His enemies. And God the Father answers
52:03
His Son's prayer. What's our response? I'm going to give you a very quick application to this, right from Scripture.
52:16
That's the best application. Amen? Isaiah 53. I'm going to read this, and then before we take the
52:25
Lord's Supper, I'm going to read something from the Valley of Vision. But hear what Isaiah 53 says concerning the suffering servant.
52:35
Who has believed, I report, and to whom has the arm of the
52:40
Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
52:49
He has no form of comeliness. And when we see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire
52:56
Him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
53:05
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem
53:12
Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed
53:21
Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions.
53:30
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His strikes we are healed.
53:42
All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way.
53:50
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
53:57
He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet He opened not
54:04
His mouth and He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers as sire.
54:13
So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment.
54:20
And who would declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living and for the transgressions of My people
54:32
He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked, but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence.
54:43
Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Verse 10,
54:50
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, to crush Him. He has put
54:58
Him to grief. And when you make
55:03
His soul an offering for sin, we shall see His seed. Hallelujah.
55:11
He shall proclaim His days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His name.
55:20
He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied. And by His knowledge
55:26
My righteous servant shall justify many. Folks, we're in that group.
55:33
And He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I would divide
55:38
Him a portion with the great. And He shall divide the spoiled with the strong.
55:48
Because He poured out His soul unto death. And He was numbered with the transgressors.
55:56
And He bore the sin of many. And He made intercession for the transgressors.
56:07
Hallelujah. What a Savior. Hear the prayer from the
56:13
Valley of Vision. Crucifixion and resurrection.
56:24
O Lord, I marvel that Thou shouldst become incarnate, be crucified, dead, and buried.
56:35
The sepulcher calls forth my adoring wonder. For it is empty and Thou art risen.
56:45
The fourfold gospel attest it. The living witnesses prove it. My heart's experience knows it.
56:55
Give me to die with Thee, that I may rise to new life.
57:02
For I wish to be as dead and buried to sin, to selfishness, and to the world, that I might not hear the voice of the charmer and might be delivered from his lust.
57:17
O Lord, there is much ill about me. Crucify it.
57:26
Much flesh within me. Mortify it. Purge me from selfishness, the fear of man, the love of affirmation, the shame of being thought old -fashioned, the desire to be cultivated or modern.
57:46
Let me reckon my old life dead because of crucifixion and never feed it as a living thing.
57:57
Grant me to stand with my dying Savior, to be content to be rejected, to be willing to take up unpopular truths, and to hold fast despised teachings until death.
58:16
Help me to be resolute and Christ -contained. Never let me wander from the paths of obedience to Thy will.
58:28
Strengthen me for the battles ahead. Give me courage for all the trials and grace for all the joys.
58:39
And help me to be holy, happy person, free from every wrong desire, from everything contrary to Thy mind.
58:54
And he concludes with this beautiful conclusion. Grant me more and more of the resurrection life.
59:04
May it rule me. May I walk in its power and be strengthened through its influence.