The Crucifixion of Our Lord

Good morning, everybody. I am aware of the way the

Holy Week calendar falls, but since I have the next three weeks,

I thought I might as well try to make the most of it and put something together that can kind of flow into the next.

And so obviously with next week being Resurrection Sunday, where we'll be talking about that, and some of the wonderful truths that lie there, we're going to today, well, we're going to be giving kind of a preamble to that and talk about a few things as we prepare for next week.

And again, since I'm blessed with the opportunity to do that, to deliver the messages over the next few

Sundays, I figured we would do something that hopefully will be edifying to all of us.

I know it will be for me, but I assume the same will be for you guys as well.

And essentially what we're going to do is we're going to be going through three of the most significant points of the gospel in the order that they took place.

Three specific events that happened. They're historical, but in addition to being historical, in addition to being physical events that took place, they are a massive part, if not the foundational part, to the gospel that we share every opportunity we get.

And so just for starters, if you guys wouldn't mind, turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we're going to take a quick look at the

Apostle Paul's summary of that, just to kind of kick us off here.

And then we will jump into our lesson for today. Of course, this is a tremendous honor for me to get to do this.

I appreciate Dad for trusting me with this responsibility while he's out.

If you guys don't already know, it was not necessarily planned this way that Mom and Dad would be gone, not only for today, but also for Easter Sunday next week.

So usually when people plan out a trip, whether it be for business purposes or otherwise, in this case it was for business purposes, like 10 months out, you don't think to look way ahead and see, hey,

I wonder if Easter is going to be in March next year or whatever it may be. Well, that's what ended up happening.

And so they are on a business trip right now with a number of our other friends and in some cases other church family as well.

And they don't get back until Easter Sunday. They'll be traveling while we're all here worshiping together.

And so that wasn't necessarily planned. Dad was a little bit upset when he realized that that is how it played out.

But in the Lord's providence, he set it up this way. And back in December, I reluctantly volunteered to cover while he was out.

Originally, it was just for next week, but turned out being again about three Sundays that I'll be covering.

And, you know, if you guys were here last week or if you guys saw Dad's email, you know why

I am excited about the opportunity to be doing this. And so I am excited about it.

Let's take a look at this really quick, just a quick portion in the opening verses of chapter 15 of 1st

Corinthians. It says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which

I preached unto you, which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved.

If ye keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

For I delivered unto you first of that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the

Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the

Scriptures, and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain into this present, but some are fallen asleep.

After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

For I am the least of the apostles, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, excuse me, that I am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me, not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all.

Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Now we're going to take a look at that same passage again next week, but it serves as a really good intro for today as well.

Paul gives us probably one of the most succinct summaries of the gospel that we have.

And while there, of course, are a lot of other components that could be included in making up the whole story that the gospel proclaims,

Paul is certainly addressing, like I said a minute ago, the foundational components of that here in this portion of his letter to the

Corinthians. First, he says that Christ died for our sins according to the

Scriptures. Now, as marvelous as the event of the resurrection was, which is what we're going to be talking about next week, it simply couldn't have happened without first having the death of Christ.

It was through His death that our sins were paid in full, making it possible for our high priest to now mediate between God and man.

The sacrifice had to have been made in order for Christ to have played that role that He's currently playing for us as we speak.

Again, so many dimensions to these realities, to these stories that we are so familiar with, but the crucifixion, the death for our sins had to happen, logically, prior to the resurrection, which, of course, is the culmination of everything that we'll be celebrating next week.

Now, second, though, Paul mentions, again, he's summarizing the gospel here. First, that Christ died for our sins, but second,

He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. So it's by the resurrection that we receive the seal to an ancient promise that was talked about by Daniel, that was talked about by Isaiah.

It was even mentioned by Job, arguably the oldest book in the Bible, and that is the promise of our own bodily resurrection.

Now, we're going to talk about this more next week. Obviously, Jesus being the first fruits of that, being the one that has already risen again,

He's going to be the crux of that conversation, of that topic, every time we talk about it. But you can't leave out a very important detail, and that is with Him being risen, with Him coming out of the grave three days later, it sealed that promise that was made centuries prior, millennia prior, in that someday we ourselves will be resurrected in these bodies that we live in right now.

Now, for those of us who have loved ones that have already gone before us, that are in heaven as we speak, that is a tremendous promise, because that is a promise that means we will one day get to embrace that person as we knew them once again.

So we can't leave that detail out. We're going to talk about that a lot more next week. But thirdly,

He was seen, and because of that, because there were eyewitnesses there to testify of His resurrection confirming the promises kept, we have a seal in that regard as well.

Jesus said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He did keep that promise, and we have hundreds of eyewitnesses that confirmed that for us, and that have been a testament to us for the last 2 ,000 years.

Now, we can't leave this passage without addressing the very intentional emphasis that Paul put on the death, burial, and resurrection of our

Lord. And what is that emphasis that he did, that he put there? It's that all of these things happened according to the

Scriptures. This is an example of Paul's view of the

Bible, of Paul's view of Scripture, the high view that he held of Scripture, which of course models

Jesus' view of Scripture, and which likewise was modeled by Peter, of course, and the other apostles.

It could have been really easy for Paul to come in and simply reference these great events for what they were, but instead he took the time to emphasize that important aspect of prophecy, the fact that prophecies were fulfilled, that these events fulfilled something just as great as the events themselves.

You have to remember something, and that is that someday, and we've had examples of this throughout history, but someday we are going to see supernatural events that will take place that will mimic a lot of what

Jesus' work has accomplished in times past, including the resurrection itself.

We will see evil powers at be that will mimic these things. It'll be a great event because it'll be supernatural.

It'll be a menacing event, but it'll still be great to those that see it happen. But in this case, we have divine prophecies being fulfilled as these events take place.

So Paul adds this emphasis as according to the Scriptures very intentionally, and it gives us one more example of the apostles and Jesus' view of Scripture.

That is that it is the highest thing to hold up compared to anything else.

Jesus put His word before His own name, and in doing this, in these events fulfilling these prophecies, it solidified both

Testaments of God. It solidified the Old Testament because everything those prophets talked about previously, most of them had been fulfilled.

There are a few even far -out prophecies that will happen even in our future, but these specific messianic prophecies were fulfilled and solidified the

Old Testament. And of course, it solidified the message of the New Testament that will come through the pens of the apostles and a few others later, after the events we're going to look at today, next week, and the week after that.

So over the next three Sundays, we're going to work through some of these things as much as we possibly can.

And of course, it all starts with Paul's first reference in summarizing the whole gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the

Scriptures. So today, we're going to be talking about the crucifixion of our Lord, in the build -up, in the lead -up to talking about the resurrection of our

Lord next week. So now, if you guys wouldn't mind turning with me to Matthew 27. That's where we're going to remain parked for the rest of our morning here.

Now, while we will certainly make some allusions to the deeper doctrines found in this particular event, our main focus today will be to walk through the event itself.

So, I have no idea how long it's going to take, but relatively speaking, it will be quick.

Because this is an event that there's no shortage of significant detail that can be unearthed as we go through these particular verses, these particular

Scriptures. And so, there's a lot of deep doctrines here. There are a lot of fulfilled prophecies, some of which we will take a brief look at.

But for the most part, we're going to be walking through the event itself. We all know the story so well.

At times, that can be a little bit of a problem. It can be a little bit of an issue, because perhaps our familiarity with the story of the crucifixion, the passion of our

Lord, the lead -up to it, the betrayal, the agony in the garden.

We're so familiar with all these things that, at least for a time, it can keep us from really immersing ourselves in the power of everything that we're about to look at.

Again, the fulfilled prophecies, the wickedness of the principalities that were at work, and of course, the sacrifices that were made on our behalf.

When you become so familiar with a particular story, it can be easy sometimes. Even though we all know it, and we all love it and appreciate it with all of our hearts, even still, it's a story that we're familiar with.

Some of the emotional appeal to it might come or go, depending on the way we're looking at it, which is totally fine.

But again, there are times when it's really good to hone in on these things, to immerse ourselves in the

Word, specifically, as we'll do today in this narrative of the crucifixion. One of the most pervasive themes of this story is just how much wickedness actually surrounded

Jesus in His final hours before He willingly gave up the ghost. He was treated with the greatest manifestations of wickedness, of evil, that the earth has ever seen.

In that happening, in the reality of what He dealt with, we're actually given really great insight into the deeper works of these principalities that are around us, even to this day.

As we work throughout this passage, there was a particularly heightened activity, for lack of a better term, in the powers of spiritual darkness while Jesus was on earth, but certainly in the moments leading up to His crucifixion and during the crucifixion, and in the days following, or at least the hours following.

And we learn a lot about the enemy that we face even still as we go through this story.

It's worth noting, for starters, though, that wickedness was not anything new to Jesus. It was not a new experience.

This was not an isolated thing for the events of the cross. It wasn't like Jesus lived a life of peace, and then

He was sentenced guilty before the Sanhedrin, and then all of a sudden the evil started.

We have the murderous rampage of Herod, killing all of the innocents in his kingdom to prevent

Jesus' birth. So while He was still, well, presumably still in the womb, there was already some evil going on.

Now, at the time Herod actually did this evil, Jesus, of course, was alive at that time.

But the point being is He was, even at the youngest of age, He was already surrounded by evil.

Whether you want to look at that or the temptations that came to Him in the wilderness, of course, the wicked motives of the religious leaders that strove continually to discredit

Jesus' teachings and everything that He stood for, all of His statutes, all of His precepts, everything that He brought to the table,

He was continually discredited by the religious leaders that should have known

Him better than anybody at that particular time. And, of course, it was wickedness that absolutely decimated any form of a just trial when

He was brought before the Sanhedrin. And that's both by Jew and Gentile standards. It doesn't matter what standard you're looking at, whether it be the pagan or the

Jewish standards at that time. His trial was one of the most unjust events ever recorded in history that ultimately put

Him before Pilate and ultimately led Him to the cross. So Jesus had been surrounded by evil, surrounded by wickedness

His entire life, the entire 33 years He walked on earth. So we have to remember that the evil was not isolated at the cross.

However, like I said a second ago, perhaps it was on an even greater level than at any other point in history, at least up to this time, as He was being tortured and was being led to the cross.

But in a very real sense, kind of like I said a second ago, you could say that His crucifixion was certainly the culmination, was the apex of all of the wickedness that led up to that, all of the wickedness throughout all of human history.

This was the peak. This was the pinnacle. So when Christ met this particular wickedness, arguably the peak of it, it didn't just kill

Him, but it tormented Him. He wasn't allowed to die quickly or even in the singular execution method of the cross as bad as that was.

Instead, He had to be lashed. He was beaten. Of course, He was slapped. His beard was plucked out.

His head was pierced with thorns. And not to mention the blasphemies, the verbal taunts that He had to endure.

When you look at the detail of the story, He wasn't attacked in any singular way.

It was an attack on all of His senses, physical, verbal, the things

He was having to hear, the things He was having to process in His mind, while at the same time bearing the excruciating pain of all that was about to come.

So it's important for us, as heavy of a topic as this is, not to shirk away from these hard truths, because it was this devastation that makes what we're going to be discussing next week all the more beautiful.

So it'll be hard. It's always tough to go through these passages. But we're going to be edified by it, ultimately.

And it's there for that. So let's start in verse 27 of Matthew 27. It says here in verse 27,

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto Him the whole band of soldiers.

Just really quick, I want to point out something kind of gross. Jesus ultimately, in this particular moment, was taken into the common hall.

This was the vertorium. This is a place where only the Roman soldiers were. And it says there was a band of soldiers, the

Greek word there that I can't think of off the top of my head, but it represented a particular number of Roman soldiers, anywhere from four to six hundred.

So you have hundreds of born -bred killers that are in a room with Jesus.

It's just Him and them. The Jews wouldn't set foot in this room at this particular time, lest they defile themselves in the lead -up to Passover.

So the ones that are demanding His crucifixion are outside of this particular hall at the moment, because they can't be defiled.

Jesus is in here alone with 600 of some of the most ruthless, merciless killers on the planet at this particular time.

Verse 28 says, And they stripped Him, and they put on a scarlet robe. Now, we know there's obviously detail in everything.

We could take hours and hours and hours, break down every word, break down every phrase. There's going to be something interesting that we can pull from that.

And this is one of them that I'll just briefly mention, the scarlet robe. Number one, they did this, of course, to mock

Him. They wanted to dress Him up like He's kind of like a fake king playing dress -up kind of idea. It was a form of mockery, no doubt.

And perhaps in John's account, we kind of get the idea that what Pilate was doing is he was trying to humiliate

Jesus to such a degree that the Jews would feel kind of bad for him and that that would be enough, and that then

Pilate could wash his hands of actually crucifying what he knew to be an innocent man. And so in John's account, we get a little bit more detail on what's happening here, what the motives were behind Pilate ordering all this stuff.

But regardless, what he's doing is they're mocking Jesus. Ultimately, he wanted the

Jews to see how ridiculous they were for being threatened by this beaten man, or even kind of making fun of their idea that how on earth could this

Jesus be of any threat to Rome? And so the soldiers are mocking

Jesus. Pilate ordered this mocking to take place. But what Pilate's kind of doing is he's trying to play 4D chess and say that by this ugly, gross scene of this weak little man from his perspective, that the

Jews will see how ridiculous they're being, and that perhaps they'll be like, just leave him alone.

He's fine. This has been enough. Of course, we know that did not satiate the Jews or the religious leaders.

They wanted more, but that was Pilate's game plan at the moment. But regardless of what his motives were, it was still mocking, of course,

Jesus himself. And again, we knew that Pilate was reluctant to do this.

He knew that Jesus was innocent, but he was still very much a coward because he was scared of the crowds that were demanding all of this.

So rather than just proclaiming his innocence from the human viewpoint, of course, he thought about beating him so badly that they would relent and that he wouldn't have to kill him.

And in doing so, he beat him so badly as a preamble to the cross itself. And so he was still very much a coward.

Now, the detail I was referencing a second ago, the scarlet robe. You know, we hear that.

We think, OK, they're mocking him, this and that. The thing is, the scarlet robe would have actually been a part of one of the

Roman soldiers uniforms. It would have been an outer coat that they wore to keep themselves warm,

I suppose. And in just one particular portion of clothing they had as they fared bad weather and battles and all these types of things.

So this is a very rough outer coat that one of the Roman soldiers took off, threw on Jesus.

And by doing so, this would have made all of the open wounds on Jesus's back at this point just even worse, just more excruciatingly painful.

And so it's not just a matter of being mocked. It's additional pain on top of what he has already endured to this point.

Verse 29 says, All these guys care about.

Now, just a really quick note. We're certainly seeing evil taking place here.

We're certainly seeing a gross level of wickedness. But it is interesting to consider the fact that these

Roman soldiers that are all in this hall together with Jesus, just beating him and mocking him and all these things, they had no idea who he was.

So I heard, I can't remember who preached the sermon, but in a sermon

I was listening to recently, I heard him point out this was like an ignorant wickedness. It was wickedness all the same.

Obviously, they will be held accountable for the way that they treated human beings in general, and certainly the way they treated the creator of the universe.

But it was an ignorant wickedness. To Jesus, he was just,

I'm sorry, to them, Jesus was just the next guy that they got to beat up. But the point is, that is exactly how they viewed it, an opportunity to impart torture for sport.

And so that's what was happening at this time. That's all they cared about was torturing for sport to aggravate the agony of their prisoner in every way possible.

They were there, again, totally ignorant of who he was. But with that being said, the principalities that were within these soldiers, they knew exactly who was in front of them.

The evil that was within these soldiers knew who they were getting to torture, and they took the opportunity and they reveled in every second that they had to torture the very one that they feared the most, because they saw him let down and they saw that he was letting it happen.

Now, that's not to dismiss the actions of the Roman soldiers. Of course, they had to open up the door to the evil within them at some point.

So, again, you can have spiritual principalities within a person having them enact evil acts, but that doesn't let the person themselves off the hook, because at some point, as we know through a lot of Brother Rocky's teachings on spiritual warfare, at some point they had to open the door to allow that evil within.

They had to open that door. They were trained to torture. They were trained to kill. They were thirsty for the blood of their next victim, and they were trained to find great joy in imparting this devastating pain on whoever they got to do it to, mercilessly.

In verse 30, it says, They spit upon him, and they took the reed and smote him on the head.

So you got sarcasm and ridicule at essentially peak levels here, because first they dressed him up like the fake king to make fun of him and things like that.

They put a reed in his hand, then they take the reed out of his hand, and they beat his head with that. And to make matters worse, they spit on him.

Now, if there was ever a universal symbol of disgust and of disrespect shown toward any person, throughout any culture, throughout all of human history, it would be spitting on that person.

It doesn't matter what culture you're looking in. It doesn't matter at what point in human history that you're living within. That has always been like the top tier universal symbol of disrespect, of disgust.

And so that's what they were doing at this point. It's to mock someone in the most vitriolic terms.

They hit him on the head again with the reed that he had been holding. Nothing but a sign of the brutal amusement of all of it.

They were just having fun at this point. These Roman soldiers were, again, reveling in every moment they had to torture yet another person.

In verse 31, it says, So after the merciless beatings and the savage mockery was over, after the

Jews, as we know from John's account, came and screamed for more of his blood, because this was the point in John's account where Pilate is like, is this enough?

And they said, no, crucify him that his blood may be on our heads and on the heads of our children. So this is the point in John's gospel where the

Jews are screaming for more of his blood. They deroged him. And in verse 32 is when the procession from the

Roman hall to the cross begins. It says in verse 32, Winston, you're totally fine, buddy.

He can have a front row seat anytime he wants. He will not distract me in any way.

Now, Simon here was a Jewish man from North Africa. And he had come to Jerusalem for the

Passover, which was about to happen, which is about to take place. Now, imagine how unbelievable it is to think about the fact that a man who came to observe the

Passover, to commemorate God sparing his people before the death plague of Egypt.

He came to do that, and then he found himself, perhaps unknowingly at first, bearing the cross of the one whom that first Passover was a picture of.

Now, all we have, unfortunately, is speculation of what happened in Simon's life after. Of course, the

Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, they have venerated him. They look at him as a saint.

We don't know what happened to him after this event. I like to think that before the end of it, he understood exactly whose cross he was bearing, and that he understood the significance of what he was getting to do.

But we're not told that, so it's simply speculation. But either way, the odd harmony of that, of having a

Jewish man travel from a totally different country, but coming to honor his God, to observe the

Passover, he got to bear the cross of the sacrifice of the Lamb, not just a lamb, but the

Lamb, that all other lambs prior to that for every Passover represented. Now, notice in verse 32, it says,

As they came out, it says at the top of verse 32, As they came out, executions were always done outside the city.

And the reason they did that was so that ultimate humiliation could be accomplished, as the charged criminal would be essentially paraded through the city on the main highway.

And again, it was for a matter of humiliation, but it was also meant to be a warning to everybody else, a reminder of Rome's power.

They wanted everyone to see this criminal, alleged criminal, be embarrassed, be humiliated, be stripped of their clothing, to be carrying their cross, and then ultimately to be crucified on the main highway as well.

So all of it was intentional. It was all meant to convey something. Yes, for humiliation, but also as a demonstration of Rome's power.

So they came out, they came out of the city. They're on one of the main highways. They want everybody to see this. In verse 33, it says,

And when they were come into a place called Golgotha, that is to say a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall.

And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. Now, it's really interesting because the gall that was mingled with the vinegar here was essentially a narcotic, and it was used to bring about this sort of delirium in the person that drank it.

There are a lot of people that say this was actually kind of like a mini act of mercy on the part of the Romans. It was something to help ease the pain a little bit, maybe like an opioid of some kind or something like that.

Probably not. They had absolutely zero interest in having mercy on their victims here.

Rather, what this was, is it was a form of a drug that made them delirious, and that essentially made them, it was like the last act of breaking their will, so that they could not fight back in any shape or form, but the pain was still there.

It was not an act of mercy. They still felt everything, but they weren't able to agonize quite as dramatically when this particular narcotic was consumed.

It was for the purpose of the one suffering the execution, but it wasn't a merciful act.

It wasn't intended to remove or even minimize the pain. Again, the Romans, to assume that they had any interest in minimizing the pain, would just not make any sense in the context of what they were doing.

It was for one reason only. It was intended to subdue the human being to remove any fight that was left in the person, so that when they could crucify the person, when they got to the point where they could do that, they could do it even easier than had they not given the gall to that particular person they were trying to crucify.

As if the lead up to such a humiliating death wasn't enough, this was the final blow to breaking the will of the person, of the one being killed, to remove any remaining ability to make the job tougher on the executioners.

They wanted it to be as easy as possible, that being the Roman soldiers. But notice

Jesus sped it out. He rejected it. It wasn't necessary for Jesus to take something to keep him from fighting back.

He sped it out, and that's because a lamb doesn't need to be subdued to be sacrificed.

They calmly lay there, and they accept their fate. And when I say lamb, I'm talking about a physical lamb.

When they are taken to the altar, they don't fight back. They lay there and wait for their throats to be cut.

And they never show the agony that they're feeling within. They don't show any form of fight in them.

Jesus was telling them, I am the lamb. I do not need to take this narcotic. I am not going to fight back.

Now, I use the term fate there kind of tongue -in -cheek, because it wasn't fate at all.

If you guys want to turn with me just for a really quick passage to look at in Acts 2, we're going to go right back to Matthew, so keep your thumb there.

But Peter tells us exactly what this was. This wasn't—well, let's just read it, and we'll let

Peter say what it was. Acts 2, verse 22. The reason that Jesus rejected the gall, the reason he did not need to be subdued, and to be put in this weird, nebulous mental state of delirium so that he wouldn't fight back, was because of this.

In Acts 2, verse 22, it says, Ye men of Israel—of course, this is Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost, the birth of the church, one of the most glorious days in all of human history.

Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which

God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. He did absolutely everything he could have and would have to seal the authority of his ministry.

And yet, verse 23, him being delivered. Here is why

Jesus didn't take the gall. This is why he was not worried about fighting back in any shape or form.

Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

What Jesus was doing here, as he took what was being given to him, the pain, the agony, the suffering, all of it, and why he rejected the gall mixed with vinegar, is because his life wasn't being taken from him, he was giving it.

This is the simplest way that I can put it. He didn't need it because there was no one actually taking his life from him.

He was laying it down himself, willingly, in obedience to the Father, as it was determined in the predeterminate counsel, as we just learned in Acts, and for the redemption of his people.

That was all done and sealed and confirmed and done in obedience prior to any of it actually happening, in fact, prior to the foundation of the earth itself.

And so Jesus didn't have any reason to want to fight back because he knew what was happening was happening because he was being obedient, because he was being the

Son that was meant to be a sacrifice for the redemption of his people, and in obedience to the

Father as well. Now go back to Matthew for a second. Let's pick it back up in verse 35.

And here we have everything, like, it's the whole thing in a matter of a couple of words.

In the Greek, it's literally like three words, I believe. Verse 35, and they crucified him.

Notice here that there is no description of the crucifixion itself.

Up to this point, we've learned at great lengths the ways in which the

Romans inflicted pain. We learn of the lengths that they went to to torment him, to beat him, to blaspheme him, to mock him.

But when it comes to the act of the crucifixion itself, the event that would finalize

Jesus' sacrifice once and for all, there's no detail given aside from the fact that it says, and they crucified him.

The reason you might wonder why the gospel writers wouldn't go into more detail, you know, we see the movies, and in the movies they depict it.

You have the Roman soldiers with their massive garb on and their armor and the massive hammers and the massive stakes and them tying the rope.

And you have the full scene displayed in movie form, as if that is going to be any kind of representation of what actually happened.

We have all that, but in the actual gospels, none of that is talked about. And the reason is simply because it was not necessary for Matthew, in this case, or Mark, Luke, or John, to give any detailed description, because everyone at that time fully understood the horrors of the cross.

Everyone at that time in history fully understood what was happening when they read the sentence, and they crucified him.

It was as vivid as any movie screen image we could ever come up with ourselves.

It was not necessary for him to go into that kind of detail. There were ancient writers, even, which lived closer to the time that crucifixion was still practiced, and they would not even write the word crucifixion, because it was deemed, it kind of had this off -color, indecent connotation to it, almost like a crude, crass joke.

They didn't want to be uncouth. And so they literally wouldn't even write the word crucifixion because of what the scene entailed.

And so that is how the ancient people viewed this particular thing. Now, the gospel writers, despite how reprehensible the scene was and how reprehensible the act of the crucifixion was, the gospel writers had absolutely no issues using it.

They used the term plainly, as we see Matthew right here, but without expanding upon the details because they simply did not need to do that.

Everyone could picture in their minds exactly what they were talking about when they read these words.

This was something that was reserved for the most filthy, worst criminals, and it was the worst, most gruesome way to be executed, and everybody knew that.

And so we have no description of the crucifixion aside from, and they crucified him. But verse 35 continues, and it says,

Now, there's a fulfilled prophecy here.

In fact, it's from Psalm 22, one of the most significant messianic psalms that we have.

And it won't be the last time in this narrative that we're reading verse by verse here. It won't be the last time here that this particular psalm is fulfilled.

In fact, we have a couple more coming up. But this is the first mention of it here, and this was specifically

Psalm 22 .18. And they parted his garments, the point where they parted his garments and cast lots for his vesture.

That is a fulfillment of prophecy. Verse 36 says, Now, you've got to ask, or you've got to wonder.

You just picture these Roman soldiers. They're just watching him there? Like at this point, he was beaten beyond recognition.

He was no longer a human being anymore. Any person that could have recognized him would not have recognized him, except for those like John and his mother and Mary Magdalene that actually followed the full procession and watched point by point as he went from the

Jesus they knew to this mangled human being. And the Roman soldiers who enacted a lot of this torture are sitting there, and it says they watched him there.

And you can just picture it. They were sitting there, totally indifferent to who this man really was, totally unknowing that their very creator is the one that's laying there bloodied and bruised by their hands, and they just watch in total indifference.

Without a care in the world, they stared at him, just business as usual for these soldiers. They watched and they waited out the death of what was to them just a pathetic, weak little man.

They had no idea who they were dealing with at this time. And the irony there is they had this attitude as if they were the ones who had condescended to act out their duty, as if they were some high and mighty

Roman soldiers, probably a pretty high class at that particular time in the Roman Empire, and they are the ones that have to stoop down and do the dirty work and live out or to play out the torture and the beatings and the crucifixion themselves.

But in reality, of course, it was the very one whom they were apathetic to, whom they were apathetic toward in this moment, who was the one that actually condescended, and that was, again, their very creator.

So you have some irony there. Jesus is the one that condescended so that this could happen, and yet you have these haughty, arrogant, born killers who are the ones that presume they are the ones that are condescending in this moment.

Verse 37 says, And they set up over his head his accusation.

Now keep that word in mind in a couple of minutes. They put above his head his accusation written,

This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Now, there is something that can be observed throughout all of the

Gospels in many different ways, in many different points throughout all of the Gospels, and that is

Jesus' enemies will state a truth either unknowingly, well,

I would say in every case unknowingly, they would state a truth that they could not even come close to beginning to understand.

It may have been done in a sarcastic way or in a mocking tone or in some way, of course, that they intended evil, but in reality they were stating a truth that they could not even begin to understand or to comprehend.

And in this case, the Romans were attempting to demonstrate their power and their supremacy over the people by giving

Jesus this title in a mocking kind of way. Here's your King of the Jews. But simultaneously, what they were doing, and they were ignorantly doing it at the same time, is stating a very obvious truth.

The idea was to give Jesus this title to make a point. Their point was to say there is one

King of the Jews, and that is Caesar. And anyone who claims otherwise is going to look like this guy.

They wanted to put this vivid imagery into everybody's mind so that no one else would try anything even close to it again.

Now, as innocent as Jesus was and as much as Pilate knew that, he sure didn't want this mess on his hands again. He didn't want to deal with the ruckus

Jewish crowd that was angry and calling for the blood of this man that, in their words, blaspheme.

And so they're doing everything they can to demonstrate to everybody, you are not going to follow in this man's footsteps or this will happen to you.

Here's what happens to the King of the Jews. So they were doing it in this mocking way, and yet there was more truth to the accusation than the ones that were making the accusation could even begin to understand.

He was the King of the Jews, the ultimate King of the Jews, but he was also their king too.

And to, again, to even imagine the things they were saying and the ignorance behind what they were saying is almost incomprehensible to us.

It's just steeped in irony again, but an irony that we can learn from. When the

Romans put a sign above the head of the criminal on the cross, I've said it a couple of times, but they did so to warn the passers -by not to even try the same thing, not to even come close to it.

They were scaring everybody from doing the alleged crime that was committed. Remember, the crosses were put into the ground and raised up on the main highway.

So it was intended for everybody to see, as gruesome as it was. Women, children, all of the men, everybody was going to see what was happening here.

And they did it to scare everybody, to scare them out of their crimes. So when they put the words,

King of the Jews, above his head, the Romans were again saying there's no king but Caesar, no revolution happens on our watch.

If you want to claim to be a king, you will be crucified in like manner, is what they were, the point that they were trying to get across.

But what is amazing about it, what they didn't know, is that it was this death that they were enacting, that they were taking part in, that wasn't going to lead to a revolution.

The kings at that time were always scared of a revolution. They were always scared of someone coming and challenging their power and maybe displacing them.

Of course, that is why Herod ordered the killing of all of the baby boys. Kings were inherently afraid of losing their power.

The Romans, Caesar, they were scared of it too. They wanted to thwart any kind of revolution that would come.

But what they didn't realize is that it was by the death of Jesus that it would eventually lead to the slow burn of a great societal reformation.

And I use that word. I'm not talking about the reformation, quote unquote. I'm talking about reformation, societies changing, hearts changing, the gospel being spread, people's hearts of stone being replaced for a heart of flesh.

That's what I'm talking about. And they had no idea that that is what was at the doorstep, and that this death was the beginning of that.

And it was through this death, again, that we had the spread of Christianity, something like the world had never seen before.

This reformation was one that led to the eradication of slavery in the empire.

It was one that led to the eradication of paganism in this empire. And it was one that eventually led to the eradication of the empire itself, which as we know, ancient

Rome, it was built on the fault lines of an ancient humanism. And so they thought they were thwarting some revolution here, but what they were doing is they were setting the cornerstone for a reformation that would be lasting for all of human history after.

It was from here, beginning at this death, that Christianity went forth, that it built the

West, it brought salvation to Africa, it brought salvation to many parts of the

East, it built lasting kingdoms that are with us to this day. I'm reading a book right now, Dave, I don't know how far along you're in it,

I'm almost done, about Alfred the Great, King Alfred, king of Wessex in the 800s.

And it's unbelievable. It's a wonderful example of God's providence throughout time, and what he can do when a man who fears him puts him first, and what a kingdom can do when that happens as well.

Not just the man, but the kingdom itself. And lo and behold, we have England to this day. So kingdoms that were built on the foundation of the gospel and of God's word, those kingdoms are still here.

But Rome has been eradicated long since this event took place. They thought they were stopping something with this crucifixion, when in reality it was very much the beginning of something beyond their comprehension, a conquering beyond their comprehension.

Verse 38 says, Then there were two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, one on the left.

And I'll just say really quickly, we don't have a lot of information in this particular gospel account about the thief on the cross, the one that repented prior to his death, and that met

Jesus in paradise that very day. This particular account doesn't mention that.

What this particular account will mention, as we'll see in a couple of verses, is that that very thief actually mocked

Jesus himself for a little while prior to his recognition of who Jesus really was, which is a really amazing thought.

So put a pin in that for just a second. It says in verse 39, And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads.

That is also another fulfillment of prophecy. Them walking by wagging their heads, I believe that's Isaiah 53.

And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself.

If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. They that pass by.

These are people that literally were just walking down the highway, just by coincidence from the human viewpoint, walking down the highway at the time of Jesus' crucifixion.

And in one sense, to see a crucifixion, as gruesome as it was, it wasn't anything new to these people because, again, the

Romans were doing this on purpose in such a way so that people wouldn't forget about it. And so that it would be something memorable and that they wouldn't forget.

So in that sense, it wasn't anything new. It was just another crucified man by the

Romans. On the other hand, though, and this is the truly amazing part, they knew exactly who this man was and what his claims were during his ministry because they knew these passers -by, these common men that were just going about their business and happened to walk by at the moment

Jesus was being crucified, they knew what to mock. They mocked his own words. They said,

Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. They remember Jesus making that claim.

They remember him saying that he is the Son of God. If thou be the Son of God, come on down from the cross. So you picture the

Romans just being ruthless. You picture the Pharisees over here, who we'll see in a second as well, just literally being the devil manifest.

But it's just the common men that are walking by, going about their business, going to the market, doing whatever, putting bread on the table for their family, in some cases perhaps going to prepare for the

Passover if they were Jewish. Even they were mocking Jesus, likely with their little kids walking down the highway with them.

Every single person from every angle, from every corner, everyone was mocking Jesus, and he could hear all of it.

Again, what he went through was an attack on every one of his senses, not just the pain, not just the physical, but mental, the things he was hearing, everything.

If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross, they say. Now surely, the one who had created the very tree that he was hanging on at this particular time had the power to save himself, to save himself from the thing that he created, from the tree.

The problem, though, is that if he had done that, which he could have done without even thinking about it, is that it would have been contrary to his own mission that he took the responsibility to fulfill, and that he took responsibility for long before this event started to unfold, as we saw in Acts just a few minutes ago.

He would have betrayed his own purposes, which is an impossibility.

So they're mocking, and they're throwing this taunt, and even perhaps a temptation at him. As we know, Satan tempted him likewise in the wilderness when he said, just fall off the cliff and you're going to be protected for crying out loud, and he even quoted

Scripture in doing so. And then Jesus thwarted the idea of fatalism right there, because he, in context, mentioned to Satan that you can't tempt the

Father, you can't tempt God like that. And this was a similar temptation. You're there, you're on the cross, if you be the

Son of God, come down and save yourself. This was a temptation and mocking form that he could have done, but he wasn't going to, because he would have been, in contrast, it would have been contrary to his own purposes that he had already decided long before that he was going to fulfill.

So there is great irony here in the type of humiliation and humility that Jesus is enacting, the humility that was being shown, because it was actually a demonstration of just how powerful

Jesus really was, if you think about it. Because it was the power of restraint.

It was the power of self -control on a divine level that he was demonstrating, because he could have done what they were saying.

He could have acted out the taunts they were throwing at him. And it was by his own self -control and his own power that he didn't.

And so it looks like he's being humiliated. He's fully undressed, sitting on the cross, fully beaten, and in the process of being killed, and as pathetic of a situation or a predicament that you could ever be in, and as weak as a person could ever look.

And yet, he was enacting some of the greatest portions of his power that have ever been enacted, ever.

And that includes the creation. That will include his returning glory. It will include the establishment of the new heaven and the new earth.

All of these wonderful, massive demonstrations of his glory here is one of the greatest ones in the greatest moment of his humiliation.

And it's because of that self -control and the restraint, in a divine sense, to a divine scale, that this happened and that he fulfilled all of these things.

The reality is that he does have all that power. But in controlling that power, he fulfilled his obedience to the

Father. If he had come down from the cross, then what would these people have even believed in him for?

Because that is going to be a taunt we have here in just a second. Come on down, and then we'll believe you. What would they have believed in him for?

What would that belief have accomplished, had he not followed through with the sacrifice?

He's in the middle of doing the very thing that is absolutely necessary for belief in him to have any saving power whatsoever.

Any saving effect. Because he had to pay for our sins in order for us to have access to God.

If that was ever going to happen, if he could ever be the mediator that he is right now, as we speak, in heaven, on our behalf, he had to die first.

Because an atonement had to be made. A once and for all sacrifice had to be made. So they are going to say in a second, come down from the cross, we'll believe.

Well, first of all, no they wouldn't have, because they didn't up to this point. And he had a multitude of miracles leading up to this point.

But secondly, what exactly would they have believed in, had the sacrifice not taken place? When it says that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world in the book of Revelation, we know that long before humans existed, this was the mode of salvation full stop.

So there's no plan B, as Dad talks about often. No one would get to say, well, we've seen enough, come on down, let's see this miracle, and then we'll believe in you, and then we'll be saved.

That's not how it was ever going to work, nor was that how it was supposed to work.

So it was just vanity spewing out of their mouths at this point. And so if Jesus had done what they had demanded, what they were prodding him on to do, he wouldn't have done the precise thing that the

Son of God came to accomplish. The incarnation would have been meaningless.

It would have been totally unnecessary had he not gone through with it. And of course he was going to go through with it. But my point is that the ignorance behind the irony of these words is just like, how can you even comprehend it?

They had no idea what they were saying. Verse 41 says, likewise, also the chief priests, the

Pharisees, mocking him with the scribes and with the elders. You had the religious leaders of every stripe at the foot of the cross now mocking him.

Now they do something interesting, because you have the people walking up and down the road, they're pointing at Jesus, they're saying, do this, do that, you're the

Son of God, come on down. But look what the religious leaders do in verse 42. He saved others, himself he cannot save.

If he be king, if he be the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.

They're referring to him in like the third person, like indirectly. They're not looking at him and saying, you, you, you, like all of the pastors did.

It's as if they have their backs turned to him, and they're looking at the crowd, go figure, for these manipulative, hypocritical religious leaders to be focused on the multitude, and they're pointing back behind them saying, look at him, if he can do this, if he can do that, that will vindicate what he has said, then we'll believe on him.

And they were mocking the entire time they were doing that. He saved others. Why can't he save himself?

He's right there. And they're talking about him in the third person. Verse 43, he trusted in God, let him deliver him now.

This is so important. In verse 43, he trusted in God, let him deliver him now, if he will have him, for he said,

I am the son of God. This is one of the most bizarre things in this entire narrative right here, coming from the words of the

Pharisees, coming from the words of the arch enemies of Jesus and his ministry on the earth.

And I'll explain why the mockery here reaches its peak. With the scorn coming out of the mouths of the religious leaders of all stripes, again, the elders and the scribes were there too.

You have messianic prophecies being fulfilled left and right, right in front of their eyes.

And again, these are the guys that know the book better than anyone, supposedly. And yet, they could not overcome their pure and undiluted hatred toward Jesus at this time.

They were totally blinded to everything other than their singular goal of crushing the one who brought out their hypocrisy, that pointed out their hypocrisy, that dared to call out their hypocrisy.

All they cared about was crushing this one. They were totally blinded to the fulfillment of prophecies that they should have known like the back of their hand happening right in front of them.

But more amazingly than that, we have our next reference to Psalm 22, another fulfillment of prophecy, a quotation of a psalm about the one being crucified.

But we get that quotation in a really bizarre way. First, we saw fulfillment in the parting of his garments from Psalm 22.

But here we find a direct quotation, and it's from the very mouths of his enemies that the quotation came of this messianic psalm.

What they said in verse 43, He trusted in God, let Him deliver him now, if He will have him, for He said,

I am the Son of God, is a quote from Psalm 22. But it's coming from the Pharisees as they are standing with Jesus, presumably to their back, mocking

Him, prodding Him on, and trying to get the multitude to see how ridiculous He really was and that He can't vindicate

Himself. He did all these amazing things, but look, He's about to die. So much for the

Son of God. These are all of the things that they're saying here. And in the middle of that, they quote a psalm. You have to ask the question.

Did they know that they just did this? Were they aware that they just quoted a messianic psalm with Him, as they are speaking it, it being fulfilled in that very moment?

Or were they intentionally quoting the psalm, perhaps in a sarcastic way? It would still be a fulfillment, whether that was their intention or not.

Or were they so blinded to the prophecies being fulfilled in front of them that they did not even realize they were being fulfilled, the prophecies were being fulfilled through them?

Now, that is what I take it to be. I think it was the latter. I think that they were so blinded by the devil and by their own conceits, by their own evil, by their seared consciences, all of the above.

Anything evil was here in manifest in the form of the religious leaders of the time.

I think they were so blinded by all that, they had no idea that from their very mouths a prophecy was just fulfilled right there in verse 43 about Jesus, the one on the cross.

That's Psalm 22 .8. They quoted Psalm 22 .8. And I believe without even knowing that they did so.

I don't think they knew about it and were doing it in a sarcastic way. I don't think they were smart enough for that. I think they were too blinded for even that.

I believe they did it being blinded, not knowing that they just fulfilled prophecy themselves.

While at the very same moment mocking the one and making fun of the one who claimed to be fulfilling those prophecies.

But, there's still more of Psalm 22 to come. That was just the second time it was referenced so far.

In verse 44, back to Matthew, the thieves also, we're getting close to the end by the way.

I know we've been at it for a while. But the thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.

So here we have reference to the fact that both robbers at this moment were casting mockery at Jesus.

Again, Matthew doesn't give us the account of the thief on the cross that came to repentance and saving faith before he passed away.

What a glorious story that is. But it makes that all the more amazing when you hear Matthew's account that prior to that he was mocking

Jesus too. So both sides of his ears, everyone in front of him, the blasphemies, the mocking, all of it was coming from every person of all stripes, man, woman, boy, and girl, religious leaders,

Roman soldiers, Gentiles, Jews, it was coming from every area. The robbers were throwing the same mockery and blasphemies at him as everyone else.

What's amazing about that is you just skim by it, you think, yeah, sure, I mean, why not? They're going to jump in on it with everybody else.

You would expect everyone to be doing it at this point. But what's crazy about it is they were expending energy doing that while they were being tortured and executed themselves.

That is a telltale sign that you had demonic powers at play here because it doesn't make any logical sense that as a person, after being beaten and after being tortured and now hanging on the cross, bleeding out, why they would be looking over and making fun of the other guy.

It doesn't make logical sense from a human viewpoint, but it makes perfect sense when you consider that the demons that were as active as ever at this time, the principalities and powers at play, were most likely within these men as well, having them cast these same blasphemies while they had the opportunity.

The demons that were running rampant on the earth at this time were in full pursuit of this opportunity, filling every host that made themselves available so that there could be that much more spite thrown at Jesus while they had the opportunity.

It was a short window, and they took all of it. They took the opportunity, and they literally ran with it.

Verse 45 says, Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.

You have three hours of really thick darkness. And about the ninth hour,

Jesus cried with a loud voice, fulfilling the next part of Psalm 22,

Eli, Eli, lama shabachthani, that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

What happened during those three hours of darkness leading up to these words? I know we're using up a lot of time, but you all turn with me to Philippians really quick.

Let's see here. Philippians 2, let's start at verse 5.

This is a beautiful, one of the most beautiful passages. It's known as the Carmen Christi. A lot of theologians throughout the last 2 ,000 years believed that this was

Paul actually quoting an ancient hymn of the early church. But in doing so, of course, it's an inspired form, and we learn a lot about the deity of Christ in these verses.

Starting in verse 5, it says, Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.

I don't have time to go into the Greek here because it's super fascinating. We actually talked about it in a

Sunday school lesson I did at Christmas on the Incarnation. So if you all want to hear more about this, you all can go listen to that, I suppose.

But this is really what we want to hone in on here. He made himself of no reputation.

He took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. So that's the

Incarnation in general. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death on the cross.

That's what was happening during those three hours of darkness. It was Christ fulfilling that humiliation, the humbling of himself so that he could fulfill that death on the cross.

And of course, that was the lead up to the words of the psalm, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

In verse 46, these words are spoken from the very same psalm that spilled from the mouths of the mocking high priests, scribes, and elders just moments before.

Well, a few hours before. And he cries these words at the point of his death, after the three hours of agony, after the

Son of God has submitted Himself to the will of His Father. He has made

Himself to be a sacrifice for our sins in this moment. He cries,

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But how does that end? How does that psalm end?

It ends with the vindication of His suffering. Every Jew that knew their scriptures, of which were abounding at this particular moment, because they were there to mock.

So if they're going to be there, they're going to hear this. Every Jew that knew their scriptures knew the ending of the psalm that Jesus just quoted and fulfilled.

And He quoted verse 1, by the way. Jesus, being in agony, isn't going to necessarily quote the entire psalm.

I think there's like 30 verses in that particular one. But He didn't need to quote the whole one. All He needed to do was to quote the opening lines of this psalm, and everybody knew

He was the one that was being talked about. And by virtue of that, of course the ones blinded may not have come to this conclusion, but for our sakes, for the sakes of the church for the last 2 ,000 years, we understand that by quoting these opening words to the psalm,

He was fulfilling the fact that He was the one to be vindicated at the end of the same psalm.

They know that He is making another claim, if they were thinking anyway, that He is the fulfillment of that psalm and will receive the vindication of that psalm.

For now He is forsaken, but not forever, and certainly not for long. What happened during these moments of forsaking?

I know there's a lot of opinions on that. And I actually hold a view that I feel a pretty good balance between the two.

Some people think it's merely a quote, and then others preach hard that this is Jesus literally being forsaken by God.

It's a little bit... it would take the rest of our time. We don't have any time. I certainly don't have the time to go into it now.

But I'll just say this. There was something that was happening here during this forsaking, and in 2

Corinthians 5 .21 it tells us what was happening during the forsaking of this moment. It says,

For He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

So in that moment, as He screamed, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? In that moment,

He was made sin for us. You've got to think about it. You think about Isaiah, He had to literally be cleansed in the third heaven with some kind of angelic coal on His mouth to even be able to come before the throne of God.

So obviously, when we are in the same sinful state as Isaiah was, and as Jesus now was, hosting all of our sins on our behalf, those sins were separated from God the

Father, who could not even come close to them at any point in all of human history. So in the moment that Jesus cried these words, it was the moment in which

Paul was referencing when he said, He was made sin for us. He bore our sins right then and there, and as we'll see in a second, in fulfillment of the full work, the finished work.

Let's round this out. Verse 47, Some of them that stood there when they heard that, when they heard him quote that psalm, said,

This man calleth for Elias. They totally misinterpreted what he was saying. And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with vinegar, and put it on the reed, and gave him to drink.

The rest said, Let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

In verse 50, Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

Now what happens next, and I intentionally left out of my notes because I knew by then we would be long past time, but what happens next is that the veil in the temple separating man from the

Holy of Holies tore from top to bottom. Obviously not a lot of time or enough time to go into the significance of that particular event in detail.

But just know this, that miracle was only possible, the only way that veil could have ever been torn, is because the wrath of God the

Father had been propitiated in that same instant. What is propitiation? It means that you are satisfied with the payment.

So the purpose of that veil was to separate man from the glory of God, of which would have annihilated them had they been in its presence.

But, and why is that? It's because God is wrathful, and because there is a penalty for sin, and that is death.

But in this moment, that wrath was propitiated in the veil tore. It was an unbelievable miracle.

If Christ had not been obedient, we would all be lost. We'd be doomed from any hope that we could ever have in this particular world.

There'd be no relationship, there'd be no possession of salvation, no ability to have salvation, and to be righteous before God.

None of that would be even on the table. But it was in these moments, during the dark death of a perfect man, that we received our life.

And if we have life today, it's because of what Christ did then. It's because He did not succumb to the taunts to come off that cross that He Himself had created.

Now, if you're here this morning, or if you're listening to this recording 30 years from now, and you've heard the story before, but it just sounded too otherworldly to even take seriously.

It's a beautiful story. It's a great story of self -sacrifice. A man lays down his life for his friends.

It's beautiful. Maybe we can learn something from it. But, you know, aside from that, it's just a story.

If that is the way that you have viewed this particular story in times past,

I would urge you to consider the fact that not only did it happen in history, it was a true historical event.

But it was by that self -sacrificial giving, the humbling of Himself, the giving of Himself, that a person can be saved today by calling on the name of the

One who died, the One who did that, the One who condescended, and that emptied

Himself for the sake of His people. But, as Paul says, if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain.

If Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain. That's what we're going to be talking about next week, which is the seal of our faith and our justification.

So I'm looking forward to that. And it's going to be a beautiful continuation of what is otherwise one of the most epic, the most epic story that could ever be told.

And, you know, what can you even do with it? It's hard to put into words.

It's hard to bear the burden of being responsible to share that gospel, this gospel, the one we just read.

And that's a burden for every believer, by the way. All of us are responsible for sharing this story and the gravity that it holds within it and the ramifications of it, which is the salvation of His people.

Paul makes it really simple. He says, call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved. How beautiful is that?

There are so many intricacies and complexities and dramatic overtones and undertones of this story.

And it's like, how can I even grasp what's actually happening? But Paul says, believe on Him, call upon His name and you will be saved.

And I believe as time goes on, when you're in that state, when you are a believer in the Lord, stories like this will just grow in their magnificence, their glory, and their gravity as time goes on through the sanctification process.

It's certainly been the case in my life. This is one of the earliest stories I was told. And I have memories of talking about it at the age younger than my own kids.

And as the years go on, it becomes more and more impactful. And I think that'll be the case for all of us.

And so I hope this has been edifying to you guys, although I know it is a particularly heavy topic.

So I appreciate y 'all sharing that with me. So I'll go ahead and pray and then we'll dismiss and we'll fellowship together. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this wonderful day that you've blessed us with.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to come to you and to talk about your word, but not just your word, the stories that are within them, the real histories of your redemptive history, the stories behind your redemptive history for our sakes, obviously of which culminates in the crucifixion of your son and the fact that you, from eternity past, decreed that that is what would happen, that that is what would take place for our sakes so that we can live in glory with you someday, so that we didn't have to be separated from your glory forever, and so that we can have access to God through Christ our mediator.

We thank you for these things, even when we can't totally understand just how magnificent they actually are, we can rest easy in the fact that it is truth, that you have given us these truths in your written word, and that we have that blessed hope that someday we will get to be in your presence and we'll get to continue to learn about these truths forevermore.

We ask you to continue to be with us today, Lord. Bless the rest of our afternoon. Bless our time of fellowship here in just a moment.

The food we're about to have. We ask you to be with us throughout the week, and if it be your will, to bring us all safely together this time next week.