So I direct your attention again
to that passage, Luke 23, verse 24 through verse 33. Of necessity, we have to bring
in the other Gospels as well. We'll do that along our way. But here is our original text,
Luke 23, 24 and following. Remember last week we dealt with
Jesus before Pilate, on trial before Pilate? Well, look how
verse 24 picks up. 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
had desired, that would be Barabbas, but he delivered Jesus to their
will. And as they led him away, they
laid hold upon one Simon Assyrian, 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. But 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 which they shall say, blessed are the barren and the wombs
that never bear and the paps that never gave suck. Then shall
they begin to say to the mountains, fall upon us, and to the hills
cover us. For if they do these things in
a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Now I'd like to
stop and say, that is a great text for another study coming
up in the future. But look at verse 32. And there
were also two other malefactors, that is criminals, led with him
to be put to death. And when they had 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
hand. They brought him to Calvary and
there they put him to death. Now there are many events that
are connected to the crucifixion of our Lord. They're not all
recorded in the gospel according to Luke. Some are in one gospel,
some are in another. But it is a fact that no one
or single gospel gives every single detail about the crucifixion
of our Lord. So we must bring all of the gospels
together, bring all of them to bear upon this incident in an
attempt to harmonize for maximum effect the crucifixion of our
Lord. And by doing that harmony, of
all four of the Gospels, it will give us the fullest account of
our Lord and of His death." Now, it is of particular interest
that we take notice of the several prophecies that were literally
fulfilled in these last hours of our Lord's earthly life. We began with Pilate delivering
the Lord up to be crucified after deciding to let Jesus go, but
finding no cause of death in Him, nothing in Him worthy of
death at all, and Pilate knowing that it was a religious squabble
that had to do with a Jew, and he knew that for envy they had
delivered the Lord Jesus Christ unto him. But the Jews made such
a clamor and such an uproar and came to the verge of riot against
Pilate and against Christ, at one point saying in John 19 and
verse 12, the Jews said to Pilate, you let this man go, you are
not Caesar's friend. Whosoever makes himself a king
is not a friend of Caesar. And in their hypocrisy, the Jews
say in John 19 and verse 15, we have no king but Caesar. the conniving Jews had managed
to politicize the issue before Pilate, himself a devious politician
in the last word. They knew they had no chance
with Pilate to pursue a charge against Christ upon religious
grounds as they had brought before the Sanhedrin court. So the Jews,
in their hypocrisy, fake an allegiance unto Caesar and hint that they
would inform Caesar if Pilate did not take care of this man. If Pilate did not take care of
the imperial interest, as one has called it, he delivered the
Lord up to the cross. And in chapter 23, 24, he gave
sentence that it should be even as they required. And in verse 25, delivered Jesus
to do their will. John 19, 16, they delivered Him
unto them to be crucified in the manner of the Roman crucifixion
upon the cross. In Matthew 27 and verse 26, He
had Jesus scourged, Pilate did. He had Him beaten, He had him
whipped, then he delivered him to be crucified. And listen to
Mark's account, chapter 15 and verse 15. Pilate, willing to
content the people, released Barabbas, and when he had scourged
Jesus, delivered him up to be crucified. J.C. Ryle said of
this governor Pilate, quote, he would rather connive at a
murder to please the Jews than to allow himself to be charged
with neglect of his political responsibility and an unfaithfulness
and unfriendliness unto Caesar." So at that point Jesus is taken
from Pilate from the judgment hall, they lay hold upon him
and carry him outside of the city of Jerusalem under Golgotha,
or as it is sometimes called the Place of the Skull, also
called Calvary. Now Luke tells us of a couple
of things that occurred on the way to the cross in his account. such as in verse 26 of Luke 23,
Simon, a man who providentially just happened to be passing by,
a Cyrenian coming out of that country, passed by just at the
time, and they lay hold upon him, and they compelled Him to
bear the cross upon which our Lord would be crucified. John
19 and verse 17 tells us Jesus went forth bearing His cross
with no mention of Simon. But Matthew 27, 32, Mark 15,
21, Luke 23 and verse 26 all mention
the compelling of Simon the Cyrenian to carry the cross of our Lord. And the consensus of most expositors
and commentators is that the Lord, weak and weary and beaten,
fell perhaps under the weight of that cross as he began to
bear it away to Calvary. And Simeon is then taken and
forced to carry the cross the rest of the way. Luke also tells
us something else. In chapter 23, verse 27 through
verse 31, he tells of an incident on the way to the place of execution. A large crowd was following along
behind the Lord and the soldiers and all of those that were going. And there were especially a number
of women that followed along in this crowd. And the scripture
said they mourned and they lamented after the Lord. as he was taken
away. They made great cries and perhaps
great mourning. Linsky thought that the women
were, quote, raising the Jewish death wail for him, unquote. Some even think that they were
paid or professional mourners that were used in those days. Were they disciples? Were they
sympathizers with the Lord Jesus? Were they secret admirers of
the Christ who was being taken away? Or did they just bewail
the great injustice and illegalities that were done unto our Lord
that put Him to death. At any rate, the Lord turns to
speak to them and He warns them of a coming calamity that would
come upon their city and their nation. Calvin called this, quote,
an imminent disaster out of the ordinary, unquote. A divine retribution. A time of great trouble. A time
of great sorrow, a time of sore judgment coming upon them. And we read what our Lord said
in verse 28 through verse 30. Jesus predicted a heavy judgment
upon the city and upon the nation and upon their posterity. And in verse 29, the days are
coming in which it would be a blessing to be childless. It would be
a blessing to not have a child because the people in that time
would be wanting the mountains and the hills to fall upon them
and cover them and shatter them. The Lord speaks, I believe, of
the great destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. And this is one of
the great predictions of that event, when their nation would
reap the wages of what they had done to their Lord. They who
said, let His blood be upon us and upon our children. And the Lord uses there a mysterious
simile in the 31st verse, if we might look at it, to compare
what He would suffer to what would be done in a dry tree. And then Luke reminds us in verse
23 to 32 of the two criminals that were crucified on either
side of our Lord. There were two other that were
taken on that day to be crucified with our Lord. Now, crucifixion
was the Roman method of execution. Crucifixion upon a cross was
the Roman style or method of capital punishment. And needless
to say, it was cruel, painful, shameful, degrading, a way of
dying. And it was reserved for some
of the worst dregs of their society. The victim was taken out to that
place. He was affixed onto a cross. The cross was stood up. He was
left there to hang upon that cross until he was dead. At times it was like a spectator
sport. Many came out and passed by and
wagged their heads and mocked. The condemned was mocked and
jeered as they hung there in their agony and in their suffering. Heartless bystanders would deride
the suffering man who was there being crucified upon a cross. It was an act of providence that
the Jews seek to have Christ crucified at the hands of the
Romans rather than do it themselves. That upon more than one ground. For we all know that the Jewish
method of execution or of capital punishment was by stoning until
one was dead. This was the law of Moses. It was in force until As long
as that economy did stand, it was by stoning, the whole congregation
would bring the guilty one and they would stone them to death. You remember in John 8 and 5,
the woman they claim to have taken in adultery, and they bring
her before the Lord to see if He would approve of her being
stoned to death. based on Leviticus chapter 20
and verse 10. Once upon a time, John 10 and
verse 31, the Jews earlier had taken up stones against the Lord
Jesus Christ because they considered Him a blasphemer because He had
made Himself to be equal with God. When he said, I and my Father
are one, they gathered up stones as if to stone our Lord. We do know that the Jews did
stone Stephen to death. You'll find that in Acts 7 and
verse 59. Being in a rage because of the
things that Stephen had said that they could not refute. But Christ, Christ was to be
hanged upon a tree. He was not to be stoned to death
or put to death in any other manner. He was to be hanged on
a tree. And why? Cursed is everyone that
hangs on a tree. Galatians 3.13 from Deuteronomy
chapter 21 verse 22 and 23. You remember in Israel when one
was put to death, then they hung their body on a tree by the side
of the way, taking it down before the night, and then burying it,
because cursed is he that hangs upon a tree." But again, in connection
with the crucifixion of our Lord, in Psalm 2, verses 1 and 2, it
tells us that there was to be an illicit confederacy of Jew
and Gentile against the Lord's Holy and Anointed One. You can
read this in Acts 4, verse 27 and 28, because Acts 4, 27 and
28 confirms the second psalm, that it was fulfilled in the
crucifixion of our Lord. Now, Psalms 2 was fulfilled when
the many different ones combined together against Jesus. Acts 4, 26 and 27. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. And then He names them. Herod,
Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, the people of Israel. This illicit gathering together,
this illicit conspiracy against our Lord. Then too, the manner
of our Lord's death was also fixed. How was our Lord to die? That as Moses lifted up the serpent
on the pole, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. John 3 and verse 14. He was not
to be put to death by stoning, but by crucifixion. He was not
to die under a hail of stones, but on a cross, since it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. And though the manner
of the Jews putting to death was by stoning, the Lord Himself
had foretold on more than one occasion that He would be crucified. He would die. He would die in
Jerusalem and it would be by crucifixion. Matthew 20, verse
19. And Matthew 26 and verse 2. Luke chapter 24 and 7. He would
die by being put upon a cross. And the death that he would die
would be even the death of the cross. As Paul puts it in Philippians
chapter 2. And verse 8, our text said in
Luke 23, 33, And when they were come to the place which is called
Calvary, there they crucified him. He was crucified. Now the Gospels don't speak so
much of the details of it or the various circumstances that
are involved. But as Thomas Manton wrote, much
is shut up in that one word, crucified, unquote. And we understand the meaning
of crucified. It was known for its cruelty,
involving torture and disgrace, unbearable torture. Edith called
it a thousand deaths in one, that one died upon the cross.
And even until this day, it is reckoned one of the most shameful
and disgraceful of all deaths that one might die. For it was a slow dying. It was not over quickly. It was not fast, but slow and
torturous. Sometimes it could take two days
for the crucified one to actually die. And this was by design. It was intended to be cruel,
torturous, and disgraceful. Under Roman law, it supposedly
was inflicted upon none but slaves and the very worst of society. Some have noted that Roman law
was violated again and again in the crucifixion of our blessed
Jesus. First in that he did not meet
the criteria of one worthy of crucifixion, not being a slave,
much less a vile criminal. And I have read that none were
to be crucified except by the expressed consent of Caesar himself. So that Pilate and the Romans
violated Roman law in putting the Lord to death in the manner
that they did. But let's consider the process,
if we might. The victim, condemned, was taken
to the place of execution. There a band of soldiers were
dispatched to carry it out, and the victim was stripped naked
of all of their garments and of all of their possession, which
then was divided out among the soldiers that were participating. Then the one to be crucified,
already bloody from the scourging, was fastened then unto the cross
or to the stake. Hands and feet were nailed to
that cross so that they were impaled upon it, causing more
pain and the loss of more blood. Then the cross was stood up and
raised upright. the nails bearing the weight
in the hand and the feet of the one put to death. There they
hung without mercy and without help and without relief until
they were dead. Whether it was a few hours or
that night or the next day, they were hanged there until they
had expired. Other things added to the Lord's
humiliation, his shame and his misery, such as the place, the
place where our Lord was executed. It was an infamous place indeed,
Golgotha, the place of the skull, Calvary, where many a vile, vile
criminal, murderers, robbers, insurrectionists had been carried
and their blood shed in that place. Again, not only the place,
but consider the time of our Lord's crucifixion. It was when
the city was brimming full with many visitors and pilgrims doing
the Passover. When Jews out of every region
round about were in the city. for that holy day. And in effect,
Jesus is crucified before the eyes of the whole nation, if
we may use that expression. Also, don't forget, as our Lord
hung on that cross, many mocked, taunted, ridiculed, and blasphemed
our Savior as He hung there, teasing Him with His very own
words from Matthew 27 and verse 40. You that will destroy the
temple, build it again in three days, save thyself and come down
from the cross. Others cried out as our Lord
hung there. Others He saved. Himself He cannot
save. Come down from the cross and
we will believe You. Remember, He was crucified not
only before the whole nation gathered for the holiest day
of the year, but between two thieves or robbers was He crucified,
one on each side. And this fulfilled a wonderful
prophecy from Isaiah chapter 53 that said, he was numbered
with the transgressor. As in Mark 15 and verse 28. Not just that he died near them
or in the same manner that they died, but that he was counted
as a male factor or a criminal. Treated as if he had been the
world's worst criminal, even put in the middle of the other
two for emphasis and focus. And the passers-by, to those
who were strangers in the city, but Jews by profession, even
as they passed by, they saw a man on a cross and thought to themselves,
he is guilty of some great crime. Cursed is everyone that hangs
on a cross. But even the providence of God
intervened in the case of Christ and his crucifixion with Pilate,
an unwitting instrument in the providence of God. Because, you
see, it was the custom of the Roman authority to write on a
sign above the head or above the cross the accusation for
which they were being put to death. Matthew 27, 37. Or as
Mark 15 and verse 26 calls it, the superscription of His accusation. Or the NIV renders it, the written
notice of the charge against Him. What was written above the
other two we are not told. I don't know what was written
above the cross of those two thieves, but Matthew 27 and verse
38, And Mark 15 and verse 27 call
them two thieves. And Luke 23 and 33 call them
the male factors, that is, the evildoers, the lawless ones,
the criminals. put to death? What pilot had
caused to be written over the cross of our Lord what was written
there? What inscription, what accusation,
what superscription of accusation was above the cross of our Lord? John 19, 19 and 20, Pilate wrote
a title and put it on the cross of Jesus, and it said this, Jesus
of Nazareth, the King of the Jew. Not only so, but Pilate
caused it to be written in the three most prominent and popular
languages of the day, in Greek, Hebrew, and in Latin. So that all that passed by would
see, not insurrectionists, not blasphemers, but Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jew. It is amazing at the other prophecies
that were fulfilled as the Lord's Christ was dying yonder upon
the cross. We have already noticed that
He was numbered with the transgressors. But other prophecies are listed,
and in John 19 there are some particular and blessed ones. Let's look at them if you want
to turn. It's John chapter 19. There in verse 23, And verse
24, we find that the soldiers, impressed in some way by the
unique garment that our Lord was wearing, we find that there
the soldiers cast lots for a unique garment of our Lord. And that
fulfilled Psalms 22 and verse 18. For my vesture they cast lots."
In John 19 again. Secondly, in verse 28 through
verse 30, Psalm 69 and verse 21 was fulfilled, when the Lord
in His agony cried out, thirst. And that prophecy came to pass. Thirdly, in verse 31 through
verse 36, was fulfilled a scripture having to do with a Passover
lamb, not a bone of him shall be broken. It was usual to break
the legs of those on the cross to hasten the hour of their death. And hypocritical Jews wanted
the body of Christ taken down before they entered into the
holy day. But not a bone of him was broken. They break the legs of the two,
but Christ was dead already, and they break not his legs.
And so a scripture was fulfilled. Fourthly, in verse 37, from Zechariah
12 and verse 10, was fulfilled, they shall look on me whom they
have pierced. For instead of breaking his legs,
A soldier took a spear and thrust it into the side of our Lord. They shall look upon me whom
they have pierced. Fifthly, in verse 38 through
42, was fulfilled a prophecy from Isaiah 53 and verse 9. He was with the rich in his death. Thus, there was such a harmony
between what the prophets wrote and what occurred when the Lord
was upon the cross. One by one, one after another,
prediction after prediction, prophecy after prophecy came
true, exactly as stated in detail, even down to the Lord saying
the two words I thirst in His agony of the cross, even to a
Roman soldier with a club or a bar coming to break the legs
of the other. But in addition to the several
prophecies that came to pass as our Lord suffered and died
upon the cross, I want to call your attention to several supernatural
manifestations that did accompany His dying. Things happened that
signified this was no ordinary man, and this was no ordinary
death. We read that never man spake
like this man. Now we see never man died like
this man. No other ever died in this manner. Not Abraham, the great patriarch. Not Moses, the great mediator. not Aaron the great high priest,
not Jacob or Joseph, not David, not the martyrs, not the prophet. When Christ died, and this is
important, as Christ gave up His life, the veil yonder in
the Jewish temple was rent in two. That veil split from top
to bottom when the Lord died upon the cross when He died the
veil in the temple rent, and also darkness covered the land
for three solid hours while our Lord was upon that cross. The earth shook and quaked and
graves threw open in the city of Jerusalem. Creation acknowledged
the death of the Son of God. The elements travailed. The sun
went dark. Judaism died when Christ did. The old covenant was abolished
and the new one is brought in. We dare not fail to mention that
God had made him to be sin for us. 2 Corinthians 5 and 21, to
him was imputed the sins of all of the elect. God made our sins
to light upon him. Isaiah 53 said it. He was made
a curse for us. Galatians 3 and verse 13. He was bearing our sins in His
own body on the tree. 1 Peter 2 and verse 24. He gave Himself for us, an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Ephesians 5 and verse
2. He offered Himself without spot
unto God. Hebrews 9 and verse 14. God, not men. God, not the Jews. God, not the
Romans. God and certainly not the devil. Punish Christ, the just dessert
of our sin in the tree. Christ being our surety, God
exacted from him the full, complete, and absolute debt. He being the
surety of the new covenant, he libeling himself to answer for
our debts, then God required of him the last farfling, and
he took the full measure of wrath against our sin. Zechariah tells
us something, that he awakened the sword of divine justice against
his very own fellow. Zechariah 13 and 7. He gave it
a command. He sent that sword upon a mission. And that command to it was, smite
the shepherd. Go and smite the shepherd. And the sword of divine justice
pierced the soul of our dear Savior upon the cross. And Paul tells us in Romans 8
and verse 32, God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him
up for us all. that even though it was the son
of his love, he did not lighten the strokes. Because it was his
son, God did not even lighten the strokes. He did not hold
back. He let fly the fiery arrows of
his fierce anger and of his wrath. And while a soldier pierced his
body in the side, the sword of God pierced his soul. While men pained the body, The
Lord God pained the soul of our suffering substitute. And while
he was in that agony of soul in the garden, no angel came
to strengthen him this time. Yet, as Thomas Goodwin wrote,
the curse came on him in all of its fullness on the cross. It might have been coming before,
maybe even in the garden, but there on the cross the curse
came on him in all of its fullness, without any angelic comfort,
and he even felt the loss of the gracious presence of his
God and of his Father. In Matthew 27 and 46 He cried,
my God, my God. Now notice, not my father, my
father. But he cried, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? And Gil said, part of the punishment
of sin is the loss of the divine presence of God. A sinner has
no sense of the sensible, gracious presence of God to be with him. And as the curse came on our
Lord in all of its fullness, the Lord for a while was without
the gracious sense of the presence of God. Not only so, For this
is a part of the penalty. But on the other hand, he was
filled with a sense of divine wrath from the Father. He drank
that bitter, bitter cup that the Father had set before him. And that bitter cup is the heinousness
of sin that our Lord endured. God made him to be sin for us. Here we must be careful, for
though he was made sin, yet he was neither sinful nor a sinner. He was a sin bearer. He was a sacrifice for sin. Sin was punished in Him. Only one without sin could atone
for the sins of others. Only an infinite one could endure
sin's punishment and not be absolutely and totally consumed. Now, we'll
work our way to a close by remembering that the Lord made several cries,
several statements, several words while he was upon the cross. A.W. Pink counts seven and has
written a good book on the seven sayings of our Lord. But the
next to last, the next to last saying of our Lord, John 19 and
verse 30, three words, it is finished. Just before our Lord
died, it is finished. Several good commentators have
pointed out that our English words 1, 2, 3, it is finished,
is but one single word in the Greek. And it is in the perfect
tense there, meaning it has been finished or completed. It has been finished and it stands
completed. That He had done all, He had
finished all, He had suffered all that God had appointed and
required of him as a sin-bearer. The bitter cup he has drunk down. The prophecies are complete up
to this point in his life. The great sacrifice has been
accomplished. Sin is atoned for. The devil's power of death is
broken. The Old Testament's hate, sins
are put away. Sin's power is broken by the
death of Christ. Everlasting righteousness is
brought in, as Daniel did prophesy in that book. It is finished. Nothing more is required. And my friend, I'll close by
saying, there's nothing that you could add to the atoning
death of Christ that will have any influence on saving you. There is not one thing more that
you can do to add to what Christ has done. He has finished it
in His completed work. The saint of God, the believer,
stands absolutely perfected before God Almighty. Don't drag in your
filthy works or your supposed self-righteousness or your heritage
or whatever you might bring. It is finished! And Christ has
done all that is necessary. All needs to be done is for God's
regenerating grace to quicken you, to create faith in you,
and for you to believe on the Son of God who died upon the
cross of Calvary. It is blasphemy to add anything
to the death of Christ upon the cross, whether it be your church,
your works, whatever it be. It is finished. And the Lord's
done all that needs to be done to put away sin. Thank God for
that.