Matthew chapter 27, we're going
to pick it up at verse 27. I'm just going to read these
verses as we go through this. The pilot had just released Barabbas
according to the demand of the people. They had demanded the
Lord Jesus Christ be crucified, and so Pilate now has given sentence
that it would be according to their will. And so in verse 27
it says, of the governor took Jesus into
the common hall and gathered to him the whole band of soldiers."
This would be the band, I think, that had arrested him, but more
than that, it would have been the band that was under the governor's
detail. And so I don't know how large
that band was, but it emphasizes here the gathering together of
all of these soldiers into this place of judgment, which was
called the Praetorium, or this common hall where Pilate gave
judgment. And so all these soldiers are
around him. Now in the Psalms, in Psalm 35, 15, the Lord Jesus
says, the abjects are gathered against me. The abjects. And the word abjects means those
who are base men, immoral men, men who are slanderous and bitter
against. And the abjects were these soldiers.
And then in Psalm 22, it says, dogs have compassed me about.
You know what dogs are like? Dogs are, when we think of dogs,
we think of cute little pets. But the dogs, if you've been
around dogs, they're aggressive and violent and they
have no mercy. And they will eat you. They will
tear your flesh and eat you. And so these are the dogs, these
are the abjects, these are the men who've gathered around the
Lord Jesus. In verse 28 it says, and they
stripped him. In verse 28 of Matthew 27, they
stripped him. Now that's a shameful thing,
isn't it? To be stripped. The Lord Jesus
was a man. And he was stripped before men,
by men, by these abjects. It wasn't stripped in private. It was stripped in public before
all the soldiers of the governor. They stripped him. They did this
outwardly to him and physically to him. But remember, everything
that was done to the Lord Jesus Christ has a one-to-one correspondence
to everything that we deserved because of our sin. So whatever
came upon Him should have come upon us, His people. All those
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ were represented by Him
when He did this. And so they stripped Him. The
other thing I want you to remember is that it's one thing to be
stripped forcefully or to have the things done here that are
recorded. But it's another thing to have
it done with full power to resist, but not resist, but to do it
submissively and obediently. Out of love for his people. And
that's what the Lord is doing here. They stripped him. Now
Adam, by sinning, made himself naked before God to his own shame,
and to the shame of his children. Remember that? In Genesis chapter
3, when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
he heard, he and his wife Eve, heard the voice of the Lord God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and
his wife hid themselves among the trees. And the Lord called
to him, he says, Adam, where are you? And He said, I heard
your voice, and I was afraid because I was naked. So here,
these men stripped the Lord Jesus Christ so that in His body, His
clothes were removed from Him. And it takes us back to the first
Adam. The Lord Jesus is the second,
the last Adam. The first Adam stood for all
of His children. The last Adam stood for all of
His children. But that first Adam, by sinning,
made himself naked before God to his shame. And his sin also
made all of his children naked to God in their shame. Because
our sin causes us to be naked before God. It exposes us before
God. There's nothing more shameful than to be naked in
our sin before God. And when Adam heard the voice
of the Lord, he hid himself. But the Lord Jesus Christ, who
did no sin and knew no sin, owned our sin and made Himself naked
before God in our sins, in order that He might clothe all of His
children with righteousness. Adam's sin exposed his children
to their nakedness before God. Christ, owning our sin, covered
us with His righteousness before God. He was made naked that the
shame of our sins and nakedness before God might be covered.
Now, what is nakedness? Well, it's the exposure of our
shame in the sight of God. And here, it also exposes us
in the sight of men. God repeatedly told Israel in
the Old Testament they were not to make themselves naked. In
Exodus 32, the children of Israel, when Moses was up on the mountain,
commissioned Aaron to make a golden calf, which he did. And they
bowed and worshipped to it. And when Moses came down the
mountain, it says, when Moses saw that the people were naked,
For Aaron had made them naked unto their own shame among their
enemies." The Israelites made themselves naked. How? By worshipping
idols. This idol. They claimed that
golden calf had delivered them from Egypt and an idol is the
work of men's hands. So to worship idols corresponds
to men coming to God by their own works in religion. Trusting
their works. And that makes us naked, shameful
before God. So nakedness is exposing our
sinfulness before God and to others as those whose consciences
are seared. This world delights in making
one another and themselves naked, uncovering themselves. You see
it all the time. And this corresponds to men boasting in their sin,
boasting shamelessly of their sin, and wanting to see the sin
of others. As it says in Romans 1, it says
they not only did the same, but had pleasure in them that do
them. Those things that are opposed to God, and they boast in it.
And so we see this, that when we worship God, if we attempt
to worship God by worshiping Him in the works of our own hands,
that corresponds to our own filthy rags righteousness, essentially
being made naked before God. We have no covering before God.
Isaiah 64, 6 says, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags in thy sight. But the Lord Jesus Christ here, He was stripped by these men
to show that before God He was actually made naked. Now everything
not only corresponds here in what we deserved, but God did
it outwardly and physically to show us what was really going
on on a spiritual level. So the Lord Jesus was made ashamed
before men because before God He bore our sin and His sin made
Him ashamed before God. Our sin laid on Him, made to
be His, made us, made Him ashamed before God. We come ashamed when
we come in our own works, but when we come by the Lord Jesus
Christ, we come in the covering of His righteousness. We look
to Him, knowing that nothing in us, everything in us, is shameful. Everything in us would make God
reject us, but everything in Him gives God a right to be favorable
to us. In Psalm 132, I'll read this
to you. In Psalm 132, he says this, in verse 9, "...let thy priest be
clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy."
When we have the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ on us,
We're joyful. It causes us to shout for joy
before God. We come to Him with joy. It says
that in Psalm 71 6, that I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. And in Isaiah 45, look at Isaiah
45. I want you to see a couple of
verses here. Isaiah 45, how the Lord emphasizes the covering
He has worked out for His people and where that covering is. Isaiah
45, verse 24, In the Lord have I righteousness
and strength, even to Him shall men come, and all that are incensed
against Him shall be ashamed. To be incensed against the Lord
makes me ashamed. To be incensed against Christ
exposes me in my sin. All who are incensed against
him shall be ashamed." But it says in the next verse, "...in
the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory." Justified by God, because God sees the righteousness of
His Son on them. And God says, in justice, justified,
righteous before me, because He counts, He credits the obedience
of Christ to His people as their own righteousness. Isn't that
a wonderful thing? To have the Lord Jesus Christ,
our covering, His own obedience, His own standing before God.
Our standing. Philippians 3.3 says, we have
no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence is in Christ alone.
He is our confidence. He is our righteousness. So then
it says also over here, in Matthew 27, it says, not only did they
strip him, but they put on him a scarlet robe. Now, scarlet
is the color of red. And that reminds us, doesn't
it, of what it says in Isaiah 1.18. What does it say there?
It says, "...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
as snow." White as snow. "...though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool." Here they took a robe and put it on
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the color of red. Scarlet
red. The same word that's used in
Isaiah 118. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. So God uses this color to describe
our sins. Why would He use this color to
describe our sins? Because our sins bring upon us
the judgment of death. Ezekiel 18.4 says, "...the soul
that sinneth, it shall die." Our sins make us guilty. Like David said in Isaiah, I
mean, sorry, Psalm 51, he says, "...deliver me from blood guiltiness."
The wages or the payback of sin is death, Romans 6.23. So our sins, by our sins and
for our sins, God's justice demands our death. And God says in Leviticus
17.11, the life of the flesh is in the blood, so it corresponds
to the death that we deserve because of our sins. That's the
color of red. Therefore, our sins are scarlet
before God. They're red like crimson. Because
for them, God's wrath demands our death and the shedding of
our blood. But our blood can never pay for
our sins. If it were possible for our blood
to pay for our sins, then hell would not be eternal. Because
at some point we would finish paying. But hell is eternal. Because we are debtors in a debtor's
prison. And in prison you can't earn.
We have a debt we cannot pay and we have nothing to pay with.
We can't earn. We can never pay it off. We're
always going to be in that prison. If our sins are not paid for
by our Redeemer. By His ransom price of His own
blood. We have no way to earn and nothing
to pay, therefore hell is eternal because we must be kept under
the judgment of God in eternal repayment for our sins. We're
worthy to die, but see here, the holy, the harmless, the Son
of God in our nature is clothed by these men, these abjects,
these dogs, clothed in scarlet. Why is He clothed in scarlet?
Because before God, He's clothed with our sins. It's the same
meaning. This is repeated throughout Scripture.
It's repeated over and over, because the point is so important.
So that we would get it, because it's certain. The Lord Jesus
Christ was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him. That's the reason the
scarlet robe was put on Him. The scarlet robe was put on Christ
in order that the fine linen of His righteousness might be
put on us. And this vision of the Lord,
the revelation of this in scripture is doubled over and over again
because it's certain and sure. It must come to pass. Just as
when Pharaoh dreamed the dream and Joseph interpreted his dream
and he had the fat cows and the skinny cows and the fat ears
and the skinny ears of corn. And Joseph said the dream is
doubled, the dream is one because the Lord is going to make it
surely come to pass. And so here, the Lord Jesus Christ
first stripped Stripped and made naked in our sins before God
that we might be clothed, and then clothed with our sins in
order that we might be clothed with His righteousness. This
is what these things signify. And then it says in Matthew 27
that after they did this, that they plaited or platted a crown
of thorns. The word plaited, it means to
braid together, to twist together this crown of thorns. And they
braided it and they put it on His head. Now, the scripture
uses thorns to represent the curse of God. Remember again
from Genesis, God says in Genesis 3.17, when Adam had sinned, He
said, is the ground for thy sake, thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee." Adam sinned, God cursed the ground
so that it might bring forth thorns and thistles. I've never
met a farmer who likes thorns and thistles. There might be
some use for them, but I've never found a good use for them. And
they seem to grow vigorously even after you weed them up.
I was just looking in my garden. I had a little piece of a root
down in the ground just laying there and it sprung up again. You can't kill them, those rascals. In Hebrews chapter 6 verse 8
it says, "...that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected,
and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." And remember
what Gideon did when those treacherous men of the place called Succoth,
they wouldn't allow him as he was pursuing after the Midianites,
Ziba and Zalmunna, in that Old Testament Judges chapter 8 account
where Gideon is trying to finally put the put the final victory
on these kings of the Midianites. And Gideon said this to those
men because they wouldn't help him. He said, "...when the Lord
has delivered Ziba and Zalmunna to my hand, then I will tear
your flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with briars."
And so the scripture throughout uses thorns to represent God's
curse and the suffering of God's curse for our sin. And so the
soldiers put this crown of thorns on the Lord Jesus Christ. They
meant it for pain. They meant it to shame the Lord
Jesus Christ. Pilate had given a sentence to
crucify Him, so they immediately began to carry it out with shameful
and painful things. These symbols. To them it was
the actual thing. That was the end of it for them,
but they had a deeper significance. And so they mocked Him. And they
inflicted this pain upon Him. They wanted to crown Him on the
very day of His death. As if to say, oh, so you're a
king. Well, we will bring the day of
your coronation will also be the day of your death. We'll
crown you, and then we'll unking you, and then we'll put you to
death to show that we have power over you, and to shame you, and
to make your crown a shameful thing. So that's what they did. They did it without pity. Like
dogs, they were merciless, without pity. And this was sanctioned
by the governor. at the demand of the Jewish people. So here again we see the will
of God. It was not man who determined what would be done to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at Acts chapter 4. Acts
chapter 4 says, who did this, really? It says in Acts 4 verse
26, "...the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were
gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ."
It wasn't just against Jesus, it was also against His Father.
"...for of a truth Acts 427, for of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Everything that happened to the
Lord Jesus was determined by God to be done. And it was God's
will that it might be done. Man intended evil, and shame,
and suffering, and pain for the Son of God. But God meant all
that came upon Christ for the good of His people. Remember
what Joseph said, I keep reading these things over because it's
a marvelous thing. He told his brothers, When they
were standing before Him, after He discovered Himself to them,
and they knew that their sin was known by Him, He said, "...be
not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold Me hither. For
God did send Me here before you to preserve life." That's in
Genesis 45.5. God sent me here. Joseph didn't
say, I was really faithful to the Lord. I didn't commit adultery
with Potiphar's wife. I was faithful in prison. I told
the dreams of the butler and the baker and Pharaoh noticed
that. He raised me to this point of authority. No, he said, God
did it. It wasn't anything in me. God
did it and he did it to preserve life. Even the lives of you,
my brothers, who sold me here. with a wicked intention. And
so in Genesis 50, 20, he tells them, as for you, you thought
evil against me, but God meant it to good, to bring to pass,
as it is this day, to save much people alive. Doesn't that teach
us the same thing that Romans 8, 28 says? And we know that
all things work together for good, to them that love God,
to them that are the called according to His purpose. That's the story
of history. All of history is designed by
God, determined by God, to bring about good for His people. Everything
works together for His people in Christ. God poured out reproach
and shame and pain on Christ at the hand of His enemies. Because
in love and grace he took that shame and suffering from off
his people that we might be delivered from our enemies. Isaiah 53 says,
it was for the transgression of my people that he was stricken. He, his own self, bear our sins
in his own body on the tree that we, being dead to sins, should
live into righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Isn't
that the story? Christ was crowned with thorns
of cursing that we might be crowned with righteousness and eternal
life. Romans 5.21 says, "...as sin
has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans
5.21. Isn't that a wonderful? That
is one of the most wonderful verses in all of Scripture. Sin
reigned to death. That's our story. That's our
history. And God says, but the Lord Jesus
Christ has made grace reign through righteousness, His own righteousness,
unto eternal life. The Apostle Paul said, there
is laid up for me, and this is in 2 Timothy 4.8, he says, listen
to these words, Paul says, "...there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give
me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love His appearing." We love the appearing of the Lord
Jesus Christ, don't we? Because He appeared the first
time in sin, to take away sin, and He appears the second time
without sin and to salvation. He says also, In 1 Peter 5, verse
4, he says, "...when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall
receive a crown of glory." A crown of glory, a crown of righteousness.
And then he says in Revelation 2, verse 10, the Lord Jesus says,
"...be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life."
Christ was crowned with thorns that we might be crowned with
eternal life and all blessings from God in Him. And then in
Romans 8, 17 it says, "...if so be that we suffer with him,
that we may also be glorified together." How do we suffer with
the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we suffer with Him because
in Him, in our covenant head, we suffered when He suffered.
That's the first thing and the most important thing. We suffered
when He suffered. We also suffer in our own experience
when we suffer in the body of this flesh, O wretched man that
I am, the new man The life of Christ in us causes us to recognize
the old man and we suffer in this constant struggle because
we can't do the things we would. So it's a constant struggle.
And we suffer when we declare to others that Christ is our
only hope. We have no other glory but the glory of the cross. And
according to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, that's foolishness to men.
The wisdom of this world, I mean, to this world the cross is foolishness,
but to us it's the power of God. It's the wisdom of God. And so
we suffer with the Lord Jesus Christ and we'll be glorified
together with Him. We suffer with Him when in our
life, in God's providence, He causes us to realize through
the pain of whatever it is, whether it's circumstances of life or
our own conscience, our own weakness and sinfulness, that we might
be pointed to Christ and we learn that over and over again. We
suffer, don't we? Sometimes we suffer. The Church
certainly has throughout history. Sometimes we actually suffer
physical persecutions and even death. The Church of God suffers
because they're with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ's sufferings
are actually completed in the sufferings of His people. That's
what it says in Scripture. And so we suffer with Him and
we'll be also crowned with Him. This is the grace of God. And
so the Lord Jesus Christ here was made, they put the crown
of thorns on his head, that the crown of glory and life and righteousness
might be put on the head of his people. What an amazing exchange. And then in Matthew chapter 27,
he says this next, after they did that, and they put upon his
head, they put a reed in his hand. A reed. Now a reed meant
like a stick. Like a walking stick, probably
shorter than that. A reed. They intended to mock him with
his reed. They chose a reed as a mock scepter. You know what
a scepter is. A scepter is what a king holds. It signifies the king's authority
and sovereignty and power. But here they put a stick in
his hand. Because they were mocking him as a king. That was their
intention. They wanted to show his weakness. But they mistook his weakness. They didn't understand that his
weakness was not a weakness of his own person. But it was a
willing weakness of obedience and submission to the will of
God. And so it was actually strength, wasn't it? That's strength. Weakness,
because we don't trust God, is weakness. But strength is finding
our strength in our Savior. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
as man found His strength in His Father, and He trusted in
the Lord. When all this came upon Him,
even though these men, who were ungodly, wicked men, and the
Jews, who were apostate in religion, and the mob, which was an uncontrolled What's the word? The group of
dogs. A pack of dogs. These men, they
mistook what he was doing. They didn't understand that he
was actually fulfilling the will of God. And they took advantage
of his affliction by God. And they actually added affliction
to his affliction. But he trusted in the Lord no
matter what came upon him. He trusted in the Lord. He did
not strike back. He was in full control. They
put the reed in his hand, but he was in full control. He willingly
submitted himself to the will and the judgment of God, even
though that judgment came upon him through the premeditated
murderous plot of these proud and corrupt and apostate men. He says in Isaiah 50, let's read
that together. Take a look at Isaiah chapter
50. These are amazing words. The submission of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the willingness, the voluntariness of His obedience
to the greatest shame and pain and suffering. He says in Isaiah
50, verse 5, "...the Lord God has opened mine ear, and I was
not rebellious, neither turned away back." I didn't run and
hide, like Jonah. He says in verse 6, I gave my
back to the smiters and my cheeks, I gave my cheeks to them that
plucked off the hair. I did not hide my face from shame
and spitting. That's what is described here,
isn't it? He willingly did this. He was crowned with the crown
of thorns and they put the reed in his hand all the while he
was in full control. He didn't defend himself. He
didn't remove himself. He didn't judge these soldiers
for their sinful treatment of him. When he was reviled, he
did not revile in return. That's amazing, isn't it? The
first thing you think of when someone accuses you of something
you didn't do wrong, you rise up on your hind legs in righteous
indignation and say, what are you talking about? I'm totally
righteous here. Jesus didn't do that, and He
was, but we do that in our arrogance, in our self-righteousness. Instead,
He committed Himself to His Father and His God, to Him who judges
righteously. Look at 1 Peter 2. That's where
I'm quoting that from. 1 Peter 2, where He says this
in verse 22. He says, "...who did no sin,
neither was guile found in his mouth, who when he was reviled,
reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but he committed himself to him that judges righteously."
That's what our Lord Jesus did in the same book in 1 Peter 4.19
it says, The Lord Jesus Christ committed Himself to His Father and His God as
a man Because it was an obedience on
his part, and he did it all as a king with great majesty. That's something we don't find
explicitly mentioned here, but when you read this, what you
see here is the majesty and the dignity of the Lord Jesus Christ. These men, they brought all kinds
of accusations against him. He didn't say a word. When Caiaphas
said, I demand you to tell me by the living God, made him like
by an oath, tell me, are you the Christ, the Son of God? And
Jesus said, I am. It's just like you say. And not
only that, but you shall soon see the Son of Man sitting on
the right hand of power, coming in the clouds of glory. So he
did tell the truth. He witnessed a good confession.
As 1st Timothy 6.15 says, before Pontius Pilate, he was truthful,
He was not reviling. He stood. When they made Him
naked. When they clothed Him with His
scarlet robe to mock Him. When they put the crown of thorns
on His head. When they put the reed in His hand. He didn't let
go of it. He took hold of it. He let the
crown stay there. He let the robe stay there. And
so they did all these things to Him willingly, and He was
in control of it all, because He was doing it in obedience
to His Father, as a King. It's an amazing thing to think
of this. It says in Hebrews chapter 11,
"...for the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross,
despising the shame, and He endured the contradiction of sinners
against Himself." That's what our Lord Jesus did. He spoke
the truth, and only the truth. And though all around spoke lies
and deceit, He did all that He did and suffered all that He
suffered, gave His life up and offered Himself to God, all for
His Father's glory and for the salvation of His people. That's
what the King did. That's what the King did. As
a King, He committed... On his way to the cross, when
the women were weeping, we'll read that later on next week.
When the women were weeping, he said, don't weep for me, weep
for yourselves. Because if they do this in the
green tree, think what they'll do in the dry. And then on the
cross, he saves the thief. The centurion realized he's the
son of God. This is the king going about
his His duties as a servant, and yet as a king he's entering
into battle. As a king he comes into the battle.
Remember David with Goliath? The whole army of Israel is shaking
and terrified. And Goliath stands and booms
before them in the valley. Give me a man to fight with me.
And if I destroy him, then you're all our servants. But if he kills
me, then we will be your servants. And all the men were terrified
and no one would go down but David, the shepherd, the little
boy, the shepherd boy. I don't know how old he was,
maybe 15 to 17 years old. He says, who is this uncircumcised
Philistine who defies the armies of the living God? And then he begs, he asks King
Saul that he can go down and fight with him. And so he gathers
up the five stones, he goes into the valley, and the giant mocks
him. Come on, I'll give your flesh
to the birds of the air. And David says, I'll give the
entire army of the Philistines to the birds of the air. And
then David comes and he throws the stone with his sling and
that stone sunk in his head. The giant Goliath falls and David
comes and takes his own sword. He cuts off his head. He stands
on his body. He lifts up his head and his
sword in the other hand and his head in his... And he shows the
victory, the triumph of the battle. And all the armies of Israel
are amazed. Look at the captain, their king.
Because he acted like a king. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
enters the battle with Satan and all of his kingdom. He enters by obeying his father.
He fulfills as the great shepherd of the sheep in meekness and
lowliness. And he defeats the entire kingdom
of Satan, holding up the sword and the head of the giant that
held us in fear, the fear of death. That's what the king did.
He radiated majesty. All around him were abjects and
dogs. But he, as a king, behaves himself
in dignity and majesty. Remember when he cried from the
cross? He didn't say, it is finished. It wasn't a cry of weakness.
In fact, that's what occasioned that centurion soldier to stay. This truly was the Son of God. It says he cried with a loud
voice. The Lord Jesus, they took the
cross off of him and they laid it on Simon the Cyrenian to carry
it behind him because he was weakened by all the beatings
they did. But there on the cross, having had his hands pierced
and his feet pierced and his head And everything, all the
weakness of his body, he lifts himself up and he cries, triumphant
as the king! Just like David with those two
emblems of his victory in his hand. It is finished! And then
he bowed his head and he gave up the ghost. That's the king. That's the one that they put
the reed in his hand. And then it says in Matthew 27,
They not only put the reed in his right hand, they bowed the
knee before him and they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the
Jews! And then it says they spit upon
him. They spit upon him. Now, you
know what spitting is. It's a nasty thing. When the
entire Jewish council condemned Jesus to be guilty of death in
Mark and Matthew, earlier chapters, it says the temple guard held
him, those who held him while Caiaphas the high priest interrogated
him, those men, when they heard the high priest and the whole
council condemn Jesus to death, it says that they, these men,
struck him on the face, they hit him, and they spit in his
face. They spit in his face. And they
said, prophesy thou Christ, who hit you? They hit him with their
fists in the face, and then they covered his face, and they did
that. And they also hit him with their hands, with the palms of
their hands. They struck him in the face, and they spit in
his face. These men here, the soldiers of Pilate, spit. In the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Two things are emphasized by
doing that. The cruelty that Jesus suffered at their hands.
And the mocking that He endured by their words and their gestures.
They flung their foul spit of their mouth into the face. Rather
than rendering the praise of their hearts that He deserved.
This is the face of the Son of God and the Son of Man. It's
the face of God. Caiaphas demanded that he tell
them, are you the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus said, you said
it, I am. And he answered their question,
I am the Christ, I am the Son of God. And then they spit in
his face. There's no doubt that he was
the Son of God. He told the truth, even though it cost him this. He says in Isaiah, we just read
it a minute ago, that he gave his face, he gave himself. He
didn't hide his face from spitting and from shame. They spit in
his face. Now in Numbers chapter 12, Miriam,
remember Miriam? Who was the sister of Moses and
Aaron? Miriam is the one who found Moses, who hid Moses in
that little basket in the river when the Egyptian princess came
and took him out of the river. Miriam. Moses' older sister,
Aaron, Moses' older brother. They were upset because Moses
had the authority from God and they thought they deserved just
as much authority as he had. And they spoke this way against
Moses. And God plagued Miriam with leprosy. And immediately
Aaron was terrified. They knew what they had done.
And Moses prayed for Miriam. But the Lord said this in Numbers
chapter 12, 14, "...if her father had but spit in her face, should
she not be ashamed seven days, let her be shut out from the
camp seven days." Therefore, spitting in the face in Numbers
chapter 12 is taught to us as being significant of great shame. And God equated the shame of
Miriam's leprosy to her father spitting in her face to show
the shame of his daughter for some wrong that she had done.
Therefore, when the temple guards heard that Jesus was condemned,
and they spit in Jesus' face, when they heard this, it was
God who was showing the outward shame that He determined and
intended to be done to His Son. In Psalm 69.9 it says, "...the
reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me." Psalm
69.9, the Lord Jesus, "...the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me." The spit that was hurled into His
face was the reproach that we hurled into God's face. And we
deserve that spit, and the Lord Jesus Christ took it Himself.
He was openly reproached before men and God because He was made
sin for us before God. And being made sin, He was plagued
with our disease, as God made Miriam, as He plagued Miriam
with leprosy. Isaiah 53 says it this way, He
has borne our sicknesses, He carried our pain, yet we esteemed
Him plagued, smitten by God, and afflicted, but He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
He was shamed before men in many ways. But his shame before men
was ordained by God to show his shame before God with our sins.
Spitting in the face was a sign of great shame. And so these
men did it. And here's the amazing thing. The very face that these men
spat in. is the face that we long to see
and is promised to all believers in Revelation 24 says, "...and
they, the redeemed of the Lord, they shall see his face." When
Joseph cried from the pit his brothers had thrown him into,
his brothers turned a deaf ear to him. They would not hear his
crying. They turned their backs to Joseph's
crying. And here, the Son of God, men
spitting in His face, the disciples all forsook Him and fled. Men
despised Him when the affliction of God had come upon Him, and
they spit in His face. And yet this is the face of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the face of God's grace towards His people.
It says in 2 Corinthians 4-6, God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There's a one-to-one
correspondence of all that happened here to what we deserve from
God. It was our sin for which He suffered
and His sufferings were justice and no more and no less. It was
incomprehensible shame and spitting that came upon Him. And then
it says here in Matthew 27, that after they spit in his face, actually I read that out of sequence,
it says here that after they bowed the knee before him and
said that, and they spit in his face, then they took the reed
that they had put in his hand, they took it back from him, and
they whacked him on the head with it. The crown of thorns
is sitting on his head, and they take the stick, and they hit
him on top of the head. right where the crown was, driving
the thorns deeper into his head. These are all symbols of his
shame, aren't they? Symbols of his shame. Symbols
of the obedience he suffered. I mean, what he suffered because
of his obedience to God in order to save his people from our sins. But just as each affliction laid
on Jesus has a one-to-one correspondence to our shame before God for our
sins and the sufferings we deserve, even so, and note this, every
affliction that he endured is but a token of His love. Isn't that what we understand
here? Everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ endured, the spitting in His face, the crown, the reed,
the beating, the scarlet robe, the stripping, it's all a token.
These are all the tokens of His love for His people. And I want
to take you to a few of these places in Scripture. In John
15, verse 13, remember what it says there? "...greater love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
Galatians 2.20, he says, I'm just quoting these because they're
familiar. I'll take you to a couple here in a minute. Galatians 2.20,
Paul the Apostle says, "...the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me." That's love, isn't it? Look at 1 John,
chapter 3. These are tokens not only of
His sufferings, the sufferings we deserved, the exacting of
God's justice by which He made complete restitution for our
sins before God, but also They're the tokens of His love for His
people. 1 John 3, verse 16. Listen to this. He says, "...hereby
perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life
for us." That's how we know the love of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
laid down His life for us. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25,
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And then in Revelation
1 5 it says, unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins
in his own blood. All these things point to his
love for his people, don't they? Not only his satisfaction to
God, but we don't preach just an abstract satisfaction to justice. We preach the love of God in
Christ Jesus. It's the love of God we need
to ponder. He says in Ephesians chapter
3, Paul prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith
that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth
and height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge
that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians
3, 17-19. When I do something for my wife,
or she does something for me, I want it to be known to her
that it was for love, even though my love is corrupt. And I want
to understand that what she does for me is her love for me. Love
endears our hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ's love for
us endears Him to us. The Lord Jesus loved His Master,
He loved His wife, and He loved His children, and He would not
go out free. Exodus 21 5. It was love that
moved the king of glory to be made the king of our shame, that
he might cover our shame in the glorious robe of his righteousness,
and then delight over us with great joy in the perfection that
he made. He made us the perfection of
his righteousness before God by his own death. Hebrews chapter
10 verse 14. It was love that moved the king
to answer justice and honor God's law. How do we know the love
of God? How do we know the love of Christ?
Because it was Christ who died. And I delight to think about that.
And we ought to think about that. You see how the cross of Christ
is everything? We not only see the love of the
Lord Jesus Christ, but we see His grace. His grace. The king was made the king of
shame for his people. He was the one. It says this
in 2 Corinthians 8-9. I love this verse. You know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet
for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty
might be rich. 2 Corinthians 8-9. Made poor
how? In every way. Shamefully? Sin
laid on him, sufferings, death, and every way. He was made poor.
He was treated, he says in Psalm 22, I'm a worm and no man. Not
even rising to the level of a man. The law was given by Moses. Grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 117. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ. What makes a difference between
us and those in hell? It's the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He stooped. He took our place
that He might raise us up. Grace. It's a wonderful thing.
Grace, grace, grace. Let me just tell you some of
the things that grace does. Election is of grace, Romans
11.5. It's called the election of grace. Romans 3.24, we're
justified by grace. Ephesians 2.8.9, we're saved
by grace. And in Acts 20.24, Christ sent
his apostles to preach the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 18.27
says, we believed through grace. We believe through grace. And
salvation is of faith that it might be by grace. Grace is God
doing everything for us. And doing it without fail. It's
not a possibility of salvation. Grace doesn't make salvation
possible. Grace saves. It's the love of
God that will not be disappointed or frustrated for those He loves. He saves His own. This is the
power of our Lord. He's a King who is victorious. A God who saves. A God of grace. It says we know the grace of
God. We know the grace of God in Colossians
1.6. We're not under the law, but
we're under grace. And in Colossians 3.16 we sing
with grace in our hearts to the Lord. And then in the very last
verse of the Bible, do you know what it says? The grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. That's the grace of
our God. Paul the Apostle said, the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant. Look at this, 1 Timothy chapter
1. I don't want to wear you out, but we have here before us in
the account of the crucifixion, not only the obedience of Christ,
the satisfaction of God's justice, but we have the love and the
grace of God in such a display. that it should endear our hearts
to Him. See the symbols of His love. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse
13. Paul says, I was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy. Because
I did it ignorantly in unbelief. It doesn't excuse me. It makes
it worse. I did it in ignorance. In unbelief. Willful unbelief. And the grace
of our Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord was exceeding
abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. God
showed me. He gave me faith and showed me
the love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying. As
Paul sums it all up, he says, this is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I'm chief. That's grace, isn't it? You know
how we know the grace of God? Because He saved me. He saved me. All that we see
here, we see man's wickedness. We see the exceeding proud hypocrisy
and merciless cruelty of these blind and willfully ignorant
men who turn from the truth and the dignity and majesty of Christ
and are blind to the love of Christ and the holiness of God.
And then we see the exceeding sinfulness of our own sin that
caused such shame and suffering to come on one so high and holy.
And we see God's will to reconcile us to Himself, to His great glory,
by the death of His Son. And we see the love and the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a Gospel. Now in closing,
there's just two things I want to mention here. First of all,
that the Lord saves great sinners. And secondly, in the crucifixion,
He gives us a great warning. A great warning. We can never
forget these things. Great sinners. Do you know who
the gospel was first preached to? It was preached to the very
people that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
sent his apostles, he says, go to, first, Jerusalem. And in Acts 3.16, Peter preaches
this. He says, "...unto you first.
God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you,
and turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts
3.16. These are the people that cried
out when Peter preached. They said, "...men and brethren,
what should we do? Given the fact that we crucified
the Lord of glory, what should we do?" And he tells them, The
Lord sent, raised up His Son Jesus to bless you and turn you
from your iniquities. The Gospel was first preached
to them, and that is the grace. John Bunyan has a book called,
Jerusalem Sinner Saved. Jerusalem sinners saved. Why?
Because the worst sinners were the Jerusalem sinners. And if
God saved those first, what is He teaching us? But the grace
of God that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners, of whom
I'm chief, But besides this, realize also there's a great,
great warning in the crucifixion of Christ. One thief is lifted
from death to glory, and the other thief is left in his sins,
mocking and casting shame on Christ, hanging on the cross
as he dies there. One centurion says truly this
man was the Son of God, and the rest seem to be left. And many
more remain unmoved in conscience. Many Jews hear the gospel and
cry out, Sirs, what must we do to be saved? And many more remain
hardened in stubborn unbelief. And think of Judas. Think of
Judas. Because when you think of Judas, it makes your skin
crawl, doesn't it? Here's a man. The torment of
his conscience was so great. He didn't have any faith. He
doesn't go to Christ with his sin, asking for mercy. He goes to these men who represent
the law and the justice, these hypocrites, these foolish men,
and he seeks their pardon. And then he goes out and hangs
himself, because the torment of his conscience was so great,
like the pigs into whom those devils entered, and they ran
over the cliff to the sea. Judas hangs himself, casting
himself, as it were, into the abyss of eternal damnation. This
is the warning. These things are not to be taken
lightly. We must flee to God in Christ. If he suffered this,
What would it be for us to suffer for our own sins? And so the
gospel comes to us, I beseech you, by the mercies of God, be
reconciled to God. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for this salvation that you've preached to us in our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Thank you for the things that
came upon him that we might be freed from our sin and covered
with his righteousness. Thank you for the symbols of
his love. Help us, Lord, to see his love for us that we might
truly rest in your love for us and love you in return to take
the cup of your salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
Help us, dear Lord, to love one another as sinners, saved by
grace, that we would know ourselves to be the worst of sinners, and
our brothers and sisters in Christ to be those that you love and
gave yourself for. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.