Good morning. I invite your attention to the
Gospel according to Luke chapter 23. The Gospel according to Luke
chapter 23. We are blessed immensely to be
here. I have been thanked for coming,
but I would not have come had I not been invited. And so we
are blessed by the invitation and so glad to be here. The gospel according to Luke
chapter 23. Verse one, then the whole multitude of them
arose and led him, Jesus, the pilot, the Roman governor, And
they began to accuse him saying, we found this fellow perverting
the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar saying that
he himself is Christ the King. Their first accusation was a
lie. So Pilate asked him saying, are
you the King of the Jews? And Jesus answered him and said,
it is as you say. Then Pilate said to the chief
priests in the crowd, I find no fault in this man. But they
were the more fierce, saying, he stirs up the people, teaching
throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. When
Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. And
as soon as he knew that he, Jesus, belonged to Herod's jurisdiction,
he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. It was a high feast. Now, when
Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for
a long time to see Jesus, because he had heard many things about
him and he hoped to see some miracle done by him. Then he
questioned Jesus with many words, but Jesus answered him nothing.
And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused
him. Then Herod, with his men of war,
treated him with contempt and mocked him and arrayed him on
a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. That very day,
Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for before that,
they had been in enmity with each other. Then Pilate, when
he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the
people, said to them, you have brought this man to me as one
who misleads the people, and indeed, having examined him in
your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning
those things of which you accuse him. No, neither did Herod for
I sent you back to him and indeed nothing worthy of death has been
done by him. I will therefore chastise him
and release him for it was necessary for him. to release one to them
at that feast. And they all cried out at once
saying, away with this man and release to us Barabbas, who had
been thrown into prison for a certain insurrection made in the city
and for murder. Pilate, therefore wishing to
release Jesus, again called out to them and they shouted saying,
crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate said to them the third
time, why, what evil has he done? I have found no reason for death
in him. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. But they were insistent, demanding
with loud voices that he be crucified. And the voices of these men and
of the chief priests prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that
it should be as they requested. and he released to them the one
they requested, Barabbas, who for insurrection and murder had
been thrown into prison, but he delivered Jesus to their will. Now, as they led him away, they
laid hold of a certain man, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming from
the country, and on him they laid the cross he, Simon, might
bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the
people followed him, and women who also mourned and lamented
him. But Jesus turning to them said,
daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves
and for your children. For indeed, the days are coming
in which they will say, blessed are the barren, the wounds that
never bore, and the breasts which never nursed. And then they will
begin to say to the mountains, fall on us into the hills, cover
us, for if they do these things in the greenwood, what will they
do in the dry? There were also two others, criminals,
led with him to be put to death. And when they had come to the
place called Calvary, there they crucified him. and the criminals,
one on the right hand and the other on the left. Look in verse
number 33. Those four words, there they
crucified him. That's my text. Those four words,
there they crucified him. That also is the title of my
message, those four words, there they crucified him. My message has four points. It's
those same four words, there they crucified him. But if you understand anything
at all about him, you surely will agree that That's the most
important point, him. So we'll take those four words
in reverse order and look at him, crucified, they, there. Look at that first word, him.
There they crucified him. Whom and what is him? Well, he is Jesus of Nazareth. We could say much about him,
but suffice it to say that he is the Lord and Savior. He is
the theme of all the scriptures. He himself said, the scriptures
testify of me. On one occasion, he walked a
distance of a few miles and the scripture says he walked with
two men and on the way he expounded unto them in all the scriptures
the things concerning himself. He is the theme of all descriptors. As you and I considered earlier,
this book is a hymn book. It's all about H-I-M-M, this
one whom they crucified. Him, Jesus of Nazareth. The law of the Old Testament
pointed to him and led the faithful to him. Paul says the law was
a tutor, a schoolmaster. It led us to Christ. When you
look at the law that Moses gave, you're looking at Christ in every
detail. All the commandments point to
him. All the Sabbaths point to him. All the festivals point
to him. The priesthood points to him.
The sacrifices point to him. Every aspect of the law will
point you to Jesus Christ. The Psalms sing of him. The Psalms begin with, Blessed
is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful. His delight is in the law of
Jehovah, that's Christ. That psalm fits Christ better
than it fits anyone else. He is the only one who fits that
psalm perfectly. The psalms all the way through
speak of him and sing of him. You come to the prophets and
they prophesied of Christ. They told when and where and
how he would be born of his virgin birth. They gave all the details
of his life and of his death, his resurrection, and his mediatorial
offices, and his reign, his kingship. The prophets prophesied of him.
The four gospels described him in every detail, describing his
humanity, his deity, the dual natures in one person. When you
look at the gospels, you find a complete description of Jesus
Christ from four different men, from four different angles and
they never contradict. They compliment each other. You
come to the epistles and they explain Christ. You learn about
justification and redemption and remission and glorification. Then you read the epistles and
what do they do? They explain all of these things
are found in Christ. The epistles explain Him, what
the gospel preachers do. We preach Him. We preach not
ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord. Today, this morning,
God willing, I'd like to talk to you about Him. this one day crucified, him. The best, I assume the best short
biographical sketch of Jesus Christ will be found in the words
of Peter in Acts chapter 10 in the house of Cornelius when he
speaks about how that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about
doing good. That's all he ever did. He just
went about doing good. You could track Jesus Christ
by the good that was done in this place and that. If you wanted
to find out where he had been, find out where some good had
been done. So let's go looking for Jesus
this morning. We go looking, we find a man
and we ask him, sir, have you heard of Jesus of Nazareth? Have
I heard of Jesus of Nazareth, you ask? Yes, I have heard of
Jesus of Nazareth. His voice was the first I ever
heard. For you see, when Jesus walked
this way, I was a deaf mute. I could neither hear, I could
not speak. Jesus came to me and put his
fingers in my ear. Then he touched my tongue. I
could see what he was doing, but I could not hear and I could
not speak. And then he said, meaning be
opened. And my ears opened. The first voice I ever heard
was the voice of Jesus. And he loosened my lips. The
first words I ever spoke were of praise of Jesus. You ask,
have I heard of Jesus? Yes, I have heard of Jesus. Which way did he go? That way.
So we go that way. We find a man and we ask him,
sir, have you seen the Jesus of Nazareth? Have I seen Jesus
of Nazareth, you ask? Yes, I'll say, I have seen Jesus
of Nazareth. He came through my city one day. I was blind. I could not see. I was sitting by the road when
Jesus walked by and I heard the commotion. I could not see. I
asked, what's going on? And someone said, Jesus is walking
through Jericho. Jesus, son of David, have mercy
on me, I cried. And they told him, shh, be quiet. You're not that important. And
I would not be quiet. Jesus, son of David, have mercy
on me. And silence, the parade in the
street had stopped. And I heard him say, bring that
man to me. And they took me to Jesus, and
Jesus said, sir, what do you want? Well, sir, Jesus, I'm blind. What does a blind man want? I
want to see. He said, it is as you say, and
I see. You ask, have I seen Jesus? I
saw him. First person I ever saw was Jesus
of Nazareth. Well, which way did it go? He
went that way. So we ask, we start going in
that direction to which he points. We're still looking for Jesus.
We do know this. Everywhere he went, he went about
doing good. So we see another man. Sir, have you seen Jesus? Yes,
I have seen Jesus. You see me walking? I'm walking
because Jesus walked this way. You see, I was a paralytic. I
could not walk, and my friends had four of them, and they brought
me to where Jesus was, but we could not get into the room.
It was so crowded, and so my friends took me onto the roof
and removed some of the tiles in the roof, tied my pallet on
the four corners, and dropped me down and put me right in front
of Jesus. Remember, I'm paralytic. I cannot
walk. I have no movement. And there
I am looking up at Jesus and he's looking down at me. He looked up those men and he
looked at me and he said, sir, your sins are forgiven. Well,
that was not really what I had come for, but okay, I'll take
that. Surely I will. Your sins are
forgiven. And then he said, now pick up
your bed and go home. And sure enough, I did. Jesus
walked by. He did good to me. I got a ball
for my palate, packed up my bed. I walked to my house rejoicing
all the way. For you see, everywhere Jesus
of Nazareth went, he went about doing good and then Some people
find out that we're looking for Jesus and they come looking for
us. There's a man, he says, I was
a stark raving mad demoniac possessed of demons. They controlled me.
Everyone who walked by the place where I was, I lived in the cemetery. Nobody else would go there, but
they would walk by the road and when they would, I would run
out and scare them and watch them run away. And then I saw
this man walking by one day and I run up to him and he did not
run. He just looked at me. Then he
drove the demons from me. And there I was sitting clothed
and in my right mind because Jesus of Nazareth walked this
way. There's another man who says,
I was a leper when Jesus walked by. He did. He did the impossible. He did what no one else would
do. He, he touched me. He touched the leper. I was healed. There's a woman who tells us,
yes, I had I had a flow of blood for 12 years. I spent every penny
I had on worthless doctors and none of them could help me. And
one day Jesus walked by and I just touched the hem of his garment
and the issue of blood, it stopped. There's a man who says he raised
my daughter. She was dead. Jesus walked by
and raised my daughter. There's a woman, she says, he
walked through Samaria just looking for me. He had to go through
Samaria and there I was at the noonday sun when no respectable
woman would come to draw water. There I was and he was there
waiting for me and he talked with me. And then he told me
more about me than anyone else knew. I knew he was a prophet. He came through Samaria just
looking for me. I told everyone about what this
man had done for me, this prophet, this man of God. There were people
who came who had all kinds of infirmities, and they wanted
to tell us he did this for me. He did the other for me. Everywhere
he went. This is him. This is the one
of whom I speak to you this morning. He went about doing good. You could follow his footsteps
by looking at the good that had been done everywhere he went. There they crucified him. That's whom they crucified, him,
Jesus of Nazareth. No judge. found fault with him. No judge did. Herod did not. Pilate did not. The only people
who found fault with him had trumped up charges with false
witnesses and even their witnesses could not agree with each other
because he went about doing good. Never did bad to anyone. There they crucified him. Second
point, there they crucified him. Crucified. Look at that word,
crucified. What's involved in being crucified?
It was a shameful way to die. A shameful way to die. Nailed
to a tree, suspended between heaven and earth, there on a
high hill where all could see. There they crucified him, nailed
to a cross. A shameful way to die. It was
such a shameful way to die that Romans would not kill a Roman
that way. No Roman was executed. This was done for those people,
the Jews, those whom we hate and despise. Yeah, we'll crucify
them. This is a shameful way to die. It was shameful in the eyes of
men. It was shameful in the eyes of
God. God said, cursed is everyone
who hangs on a tree. And there is Jesus Christ. There
they crucified him on the tree. It was shameful. It was a shame
because it was increased by the fact that he's crucified between
two malefactors, meaning that he's in the middle, he's considered
the worst of the three. It was a shameful way to die. It was a painful way to die.
Not only shameful, but also so painful. He was scourged by Roman
soldiers. This was called the intermediate
death. You came so close to death, you
wished you could die before this would be over. They probably
tied him to a post in the barracks. Roman soldier takes a whip, probably
a cat of nine tails. It probably had bits of glass
or metal embedded in the whip. That's the way they did. He was
stripped of his clothing. tied to a post, and this man
gives him the 39 lashes with a cat of nine tails. It's not
only his back, it wraps around his torso. They plowed his back. They plowed furrows in it. They
ripped the flesh. He says, I can see my bones.
He could. It was a painful way to die,
the intermediate death. but they were not done. They
said, he said, he's a king, he needs a crown. Someone went and
found a thorn bush, cut a limb off the thorn bush, planted a
crown of thorns, put it on his head. He's a king, he needs a
scepter. Here, give me that reed. They
took the reed, they took the, and then they beat that crown
into his head so that it would not come off. It's a painful
way to die, folks. The crucifixion is not just what
happened on the tree. It is what happened before the
tree as well. He was, he was beaten by the
palms of soldiers. The beard was plucked from his
face when they finally got him to Calvary. It is doubtful that
even his mother could recognize him. He's bruised. He's beaten. He's a bloody pulp. And there they bring him to this
place and they lay him down on that tree that is on the ground. They nailed his hands and his
feet into it. They have a hole that is dug
into the ground. They take that cross and these
strong soldiers bring it over into the hole and drop it into
the hole. And for a few hours, he's there. Every breath is agonizing. The posture on the cross makes
it almost impossible to breathe. And every breath is an effort. And this is the way that he died.
He died. It was a painful death, this
crucifixion. It was not only a shameful way
to die, it was not only a painful way to die, it was the worst
way to die, the absolutely worst way to die because God had something
to do with this as well. God took every sin of every one
of his elect people and laid them on Christ, every one of
them. and Christ willingly took the
load. God made him to be sin. The one thing he was not, God
made him to be sin there on Calvary. Then God plunged the world into
darkness, and for three hours, under the wrath of God, My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me? Because of whom and what
you are now. You went about doing good, but
now you are the sin of your people. And he must pay for those sins.
And for three hours, he suffered the hell and damnation that God's
elect deserve. And were it not for his divinity,
and were it not for the fact that Jehovah said, I have laid
help on one who is mighty, he could not have done it. For three
hours, the worst way to die until finally he shouts in victory,
it is finished. It is finished. There they crucified
him. They crucified him. Third point,
there they crucified him. Who are they? They are identified
in Acts chapter four, verses 27, 28, wherein we read, for
truly against your holy serpent Jesus, whom you anointed, both
Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, and the people
of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and
your purpose determined before to be done. Folks, everybody
had a part in this. Everybody had a part in this.
The Roman soldiers laid him to a tree, oversaw his crucifixion. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate
directed them to do so. The Jewish Sanhedrin had condemned
him to death The Jewish King Herod approved of the death.
And all the people there said, crucify him. We approve. Crucify
him. Do not let him go. Crucify him. And you and I had a part in this. You and I had. Well, I was not
there, you say. Well, true, you were not physically
there, but had you been there, you would have been among them.
Crucify him. But Jesus also says, and the
scriptures declare, they shall look upon him whom they pierced.
And all of us have done so. If it was not with our spear
driven into his side, we have pierced his heart with our unbelief. The shafts and the arrows of
our unbelief, we all have pierced him. Folks, Every member of humanity
is involved there in when we read, they crucified him. All right, there, they crucified
him. Now we come to that final point,
there they did it, there they did it. Where is there? The scripture
says it was Calvary. Calvary is a Greek word translating
the Hebrew word Golgotha and Golgotha means the skull. And evidently this place was
a promontory. It is said that it had the shape
of a skull. It was a promontory and where
everybody walking by could see this place called Calvary, Golgotha. The skull, there they crucified
him. It was a public place. It was
by road because people were walking by. It is Passover season. Every Jewish male required by
the law to be in Jerusalem on this occasion. They're there
from all parts of the Mediterranean world, and it's a public road,
and everybody's walking into Jerusalem, and there he is. It's
a public place. The death of Jesus Christ was
not a private affair. It was not a private affair.
It was in a public place, and it was a shameful place. Where
was he crucified? Outside the gate. Get him away
from the temple. Get him away from this holy city
outside the camp. Put him out there in Gentile
land and let him be put to death out there where we kill criminals. It was a shameful place. It was
a public place. It was a shameful place. But
let me tell you something else. It was a blessed place. It became
a blessed place to me one day when I walked by the place where
they crucified him. It was a blessed place. It was
a blessed place when I finally saw him with the eye of faith. It was a blessed day when I beheld
that one who was stricken and smitten of God and afflicted
and made sin for me. It was a blessed day when I beheld
that one dying for me, saying, Father, forgive Moose Parks.
He does not know what he's doing. A blessed day when he prayed
for me. A blessed day when I beheld him
dying in my place instead so that I could live. It was there
they crucified him. A public place, a shameful place,
but for believers in him, it is a blessed place. It is a blessed
place. Oh, that we might visit it often,
that place where there they crucified him. The one who went about doing
good did more good on that cross than he had ever done before.
There, he redeemed me. There, he justified me. There,
he sanctified me. There, he washed me. There, he
saved me. It's a blessed place. And I hope
and I pray that it is a blessed place for you as well. May the
Lord open our understanding. May the Lord give us faith. May
the Lord give us hope to look to Jesus Christ where they crucify
him.