Good morning. I invite your attention to the
gospel according to Luke chapter 23. My text will be found in verse
number 33. We will begin reading from verse
number 13. In the year of our Lord, 1984,
I visited here for the first time, was blessed to preach. I believe that's 40 years ago.
I remember so well your late pastor,
Maurice Montgomery, and I also remember that Every
time he scheduled a preacher, he would put in the bulletin
the name of the preacher and say, he will preach to us the
unsearchable riches of Christ. I hope that's the case today.
And I want to express my appreciation to this church for all your kindnesses
to me during the years when I was a missionary. for the friendship
we've enjoyed. And I pray the Lord be pleased
to meet with us this day. Luke's Gospel, chapter 23, verse
number 13. My message is titled, There They
Crucified Him. And Pilate when he had called
to gather the chief priests and the rulers of the people, said
unto them, ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth
the people. And behold, I, having examined
him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those
things whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet Herod. I sent you
to him, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him
in releasing, for of necessity he must release one unto them
at the feast.' And they, the Jews, cried out all the more,
saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas, who
for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder was
cast into prison. Pilate, therefore, willing to
release Jesus, spake again to them, but they cried, saying,
Crucify him! Crucify him! And he, Pilate, said unto them
the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no
cause of death in him, I will therefore chastise him and let
him go.' And they were instant with loud voices requiring that
he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of
the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that
it should be as they required. And he released unto them him
that for sedition and murder was cast into prison. whom they
desired, but he delivered Jesus to their will. Let me make a
comment on that phrase. He delivered Jesus to their will. People who boast of man's free
will in choosing Jesus or of anything
else regarding salvation need to consider this text. He delivered
Jesus to their will. Men treat Jesus of their will. Freely they do it because of
the bondage of their will, like these folks here did. No man
of his free will ever chose good for Christ and never wanted Christ
It is God's will if you desire Christ. He delivered Jesus to
their will, and as they led him away, they laid hold upon one
Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country. And on him they
laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And there
followed him a great company of people and of women, which
also bewailed and lamented him. And Jesus, turning unto them,
said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming
in the which they shall say, blessed are the barren, and the
wombs that never bear, and the paps which never gave socks. Then shall they begin to say
to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For
if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the
dry? And there were also two other
malefactors led with him to be put to death. And when they were
come to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified
him. and the malefactors, one on the
right hand and the other on the left. My text is those four words in
the middle of that scripture that reads, there they crucified
him. My message is titled by the same
four words, there They crucified him. My message has four points,
the same four words. There, they crucified him. But if you know anything at all
about my subject, you surely know that the most important
point in this message is the fourth word, So we're going to
begin with the word Him, the fourth word in the text, and
then I'll work our way toward the first part of it. The word
Him. There they crucify Him. Who and what is Him? He is the Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. And he is the one theme of all
the scriptures from cover to cover. He said on one occasion,
that beginning in Moses and in all prophets, he spoke unto them
all the things concerning himself. From the first page of scripture
to the last page of scripture, the one theme throughout is this
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the one theme of scripture. If you'll look, you'll find him
on every page. When you go to the law, you'll
find that the Old Testament pointed to him. Paul says, the law was
a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. If you look for Christ
in the law, you'll find him. Look at the Ten Commandments.
They are not our code of conduct. They are not our rule of life. We are not under the law. All
its righteousness has been fulfilled in us through Jesus Christ. But
take a look at those 10 commandments. You'll learn at least two truths
if you do. You are a sinner. And second,
you need a savior. And if you'll go to the end of
the Ten Commandments, you'll find that after the Lord gave
the Ten Commandments, He told Israel to build an altar. He knew they could not keep that
law. He knew they would need salvation.
He said, build an altar. Look at that altar. It's pointing
you to Jesus Christ. There is that altar again in
the tabernacle. Look at that tabernacle. It's
pointing you to Jesus Christ. The scripture says he is our
tabernacle because he tabernacled among us, John chapter 1. Walk
inside the tabernacle. There's an altar. That altar
is pointing you to Jesus Christ. We have an altar and he is it. At that altar stands a priest.
He's pointing you to Jesus Christ. He is our priest. On that altar
is a lamb. It's pointing you to Jesus Christ. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. Look throughout the law and what
will you find? It's pointing you to Jesus Christ. He's the one thing found recurrent
in every part of the law. Go to the Psalms. They sing of
him. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of the scornful. There's only one such man, and
that was Jesus Christ. He's the theme of the first psalm.
He's the theme of all the psalms. When we sing, the Lord is my
shepherd, we're singing of Him. He's our shepherd. All the way
through that book of Psalms, what are they? It's our hymn
book, and he is the hymn of that book. Go to the prophets. They prophesied of him. Isaiah
speaks of a child being born, a son being given, the government
being on his shoulder. The birthplace was identified. Look through the prophets. They're
all pointing you to Jesus Christ, and he is the fulfillment of
all their prophecies. The four gospels describe him
and the epistles of the New Testament, they explain him. The one theme
of all the scriptures from cover to cover, the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. But I would point you also to
the book of Acts chapter 10. You do not need to locate the
passage, but I want to bring what I think to you would be
the best brief biographical description of Jesus Christ, when Peter says,
he went about doing good. Jesus of Nazareth, anointed by
God, he went about doing good. Everywhere he went, he was doing
good. He never did bad in any place. He never went to any place in
order to do bad. Everything he did and every place
he went, he was doing good. You could follow the steps of
Jesus Christ by observing the good that was done in that place. Let's see if we can find him. So we go looking for Jesus Christ. We find the man and we say to
him, Sir, have you heard of Jesus Christ? Have I heard of Jesus
Christ, you ask? Oh yes, I have heard of Jesus
Christ. His voice was the first voice
I ever heard. For you see, I was a deaf mute
when Jesus walked by here. He saw that I was deaf, could
not speak. He put his fingers in my ears
and on my tongue. And he said, be loosed! And I heard for the first time
his voice. My tongue was loosed. His name
was the first praise I ever uttered in my life. Yes, I have heard
of Jesus Christ. He went about doing good. Which
way did he go? That way. So we go. that way,
and we find another man. Sir, have you ever seen Jesus
Christ? Have I seen Jesus Christ, you
ask. Yes, I have seen Jesus Christ. His face was ever the first face
I saw, for I was blind when he walked through my town. I was
begging by the road. And Jesus walked by. I did not
know whom it was. I could not see, you see. But
I asked, who is it? It's Jesus. And I cried out,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. No, they told me
to be quiet. But no, I shouted all the louder. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. He called me to him. Some people took me to him because
I could not see my way to him. But I finally stood before him.
He said, sir, what do you want? Oh, Jesus, I'm blind. I want what every man who is
blind wants. I want to see. He opened my eyes
and his face was the first face I ever saw. Oh yes, I have seen
Jesus. He went about doing good. Which
way did he go? That way. So we're gonna go that
way. And we find another man. Sir,
has Jesus walked by this way? Has Jesus walked by this way,
you ask? Oh yes, and I'm walking because
he did. For I was a paralytic when Jesus
walked by my village. I wanted to see Him. I had heard
He had healed so many, but I could not get into the house. I could
not walk. My friends took me to the roof
of the house, removed some tiles from the roof and lowered me
down right into His presence, right there before Him. Jesus
saw me on the pallet being lowered down to Him. He looked up and
he saw the faith of those four men who had lowered me down,
who knew that he could heal me if he would. Jesus looked at
me and he said, son, your sins are forgiven. Well, that was
good news. But then he said something else.
Rise, pack up your bed and go home. And I did. This paralytic,
was able to stand and walk and went to his home. I am walking
proof that Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good. Which
way did he go? That way. So we go that way. We meet another man. Sir, have
you heard of Jesus Christ? Oh yes, I heard of Jesus. I remember the day that he came
by this way. I was a stark raving maniac,
a demoniac possessed of many demons. They tried to tie me
with chains. I broke their chains by the strength
of my demonic powers. I scared everyone that ever came
down this path. And one day I saw a stranger
coming down this way. I thought I'll just go ahead
and scare him off too. I ran up to him in my lunacy
and he did not budge. I ran right up to him and he
told the demons, get out of the man. And the next thing I knew, this
man running around naked, out of his mind, was sitting at the
feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. Yes, Jesus has
been this way and everything he did in this way was good. And then there are others who
come. There's a leper. He says, Jesus
came by this way and did the unthinkable. He touched the untouchable. He touched the leper. He healed
me. There is a woman, she says, I
had a menstrual flow continually for 12 years. I wasted all of
my living on physicians and doctors and no one could heal me. I heard
Jesus was passing by and I thought if I could just but touch the
hem of his garment, I had that much faith in him. I touched
the hem of his garment unnoticed. I thought, and Jesus said, who
touched me? And everyone said, oh, master,
you're in the press here with these people. Everybody's touching
you. No, no, no, no, no. He says,
someone touched me. Oh, it was me, but I believed
him. He healed me and my issue of
blood stopped immediately. There is a synagogue ruler. He
tells us Jesus did what no one else could do. He raised my dead
daughter. There's a Samaritan woman. She
tells us that Jesus went out of his way to come to my village
to save this sinful woman. Many others come to tell us,
Jesus walked by my way, and we are all the better for it. He
healed all who came. He never lost a medical case. He never charged a penny. And
he would labor and labor and labor in order to do good. He never did bad to anyone. So when we look at this expression,
there they crucified him. This is the one, this one who
healed the sick, faithfully preached the gospel, glorified God no
one else ever preached like him, glorified God and healed like
him. He went about doing good, second
point, crucified. There they crucified him. What was crucifixion? It was a shameful way to die. It was such a shameful way to
die that Romans would not crucify Romans
by this manner of death. It was for other people, non-Romans. It was a shameful way to die. If you were crucified by the
Roman government, it is because you were the lowest of the earth.
It was shameful in the eyes of God For the scripture says, cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree. And where was he hanged? On a
tree. Cursed by God. It was shameful with increasing shame because
he was crucified between two malefactors. The one on the middle
cross, was always the worst of those being crucified. This is
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Shameful in the eyes of men,
shameful in the eyes of God. And it was a painful way to die. A painful way to die. The crucifixion
was not merely what was done on the cross, but what was done
as a prelude to the cross. He was taken by the Roman soldiers
and scourged, tied to a post and scourged back and torso until
they plowed ferrules in his back and you could see his bones.
What a painful way to die. He was crowned with plaited thorns
placed on his brow. And then a reed that was given
to him for a scepter beat that crown into his precious brow. He was beaten by the palms of
the soldiers, beaten and bruised so badly that
none could recognize him. He was forced to bear his own
cross to Calvary and stumbled under the load because Even that
was too heavy for him. He was laid upon that cross and then spikes were driven through
his hands and his feet. The cross was then raised upright
and dropped with a thud down into the hole prepared for him.
And therefore, those hours on that cross, every
breath was torture. Every moment was painful, because
this was a painful way to die, and it was the worst way to die.
painful and the worst. What made it the worst way to
die was this. God laid on Jesus all the sins
of his people. Every one of those sins. And there, for three solid hours,
From high noon until 3 p.m., he was stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. Three hours. He suffered in those
three hours all the hell, fire, and damnation
that God's people deserve. and was able to suffer it only
because there was no sin in him. And
Jehovah laid help on one who is mighty. Until finally in glorious
victory, he shouted, it is finished. It is finished. The crucifixion
was over, but it was accomplished like never a crucifixion accomplished
before. Third point, the word they. There they crucified him. Who are they? The answer is found
in Acts 4, 27 and 28 where we read that truly against your
holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered
to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined to do.
By whom was he crucified? The Roman soldiers who nailed
him to the tree, they crucified him. Pilate, who ordered the crucifixion,
crucified him. The Jewish Sanhedrin that required
him to be crucified, they are complicit in his crucifixion.
The Jewish King Herod who approved of his crucifixion, he's complicit
in it. And the people, all of them,
saying crucify him, crucify him. All these are guilty of having
crucified Jesus Christ. But I tell you this, you and
I crucified him. physically have been there, but
you and I have crucified him. Jesus says, they shall look upon
me whom they pierced. There was a soldier there that
day that with his spear pierced the side of Jesus Christ. Now
we were not there. We did not pierce him with our
spear. but we pierced his heart every time we disbelieved the
gospel. Every time you have heard this
gospel preached, every time you've heard Jesus brought before you
and you disbelieved, you just took your spear and drove it
into his heart. They shall look upon me whom
they pierced And now my fourth point, there
they crucified him. Where is there? It is Calvary. Translating the word Golgotha,
meaning the skull. It evidently was a promontory
outside the gate of the city. in the shape of a skull where
malefactors were quite often crucified. There they crucified
him. It was a public place. It was
by a road. He was crucified during Passover
season. Every Jewish male over the age
of 30 is required to be there. Jerusalem is teeming with people,
and the roads and thoroughfares are heavily traveled, and they're
walking by this place of Calvary, and they're mocking Him, Jesus. If you are the Son of God, come
down from the cross. This one hears it, and the others
repeat it. If you are the Christ, come down
from the cross. It was a public place and it
was a shameful place. How shameful was it? It was outside the camp, outside
the city. His death was such a bad deed. They had to go far away as they
could from the holy place, the temple, in order to have him
crucified. Calvary. A public place, a shameful place, a blessed place. A blessed place. What place is more blessed than
the place where Jesus was crucified? John Bunyan, in his Pilgrim's
Progress, describes Pilgrim with the heavy burden on his back,
walking through this world until he comes to Calvary. until he
comes to the place where Jesus is crucified. He looks up, he
sees the crucified Jesus. He believes in him and trusts
in him. And the burden rolled away. What
a blessed place. I've been there. I can tell you
this, Calvary is a sweet and precious and blessed place. It
was there that my sins rolled away. It was there that my soul
was washed in a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. I never visited a more blessed
place than Calvary. If you have never visited that
place, do so today. Do not walk out
that door until you know this. I have come to the place where
there they crucified him. I have seen him dying for me,
and I have trusted in him. Oh God, our father, be pleased,
we pray, to bless this word to the glory of your son, in whose
name we pray, amen.