In the 16th verse, Jesus has
been betrayed. He has been arrested. He has
been brought to trial before the Sanhedrin, passed over to
Pilate, passed to Herod, back to Pilate again, and been condemned
to die upon the cross. And we pick up the reading there.
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified, and
they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross
went forth unto a place called the place of a skull, which is
called in the Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him and
two other with him on either side one and Jesus in the midst. Now, it is no surprise, I presume,
that we find in all four of the Gospels an account and record
of the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In each one of the four Gospels,
it is declared that Jesus was crucified, that He was crucified
upon a cross, that He was crucified outside of the city of Jerusalem,
and that it took place at a place known as Calvary, or the place
of the skull or Golgotha in the Hebrew. The four accounts of
the crucifixion of our Lord are in the following places. Matthew
chapter 27 and verse 35 said simply, and they crucified Him. In the book of Mark 15 and verse
24, and when they had crucified Him, they parted His garments. In Luke we read 23 and 33, and
when they were come to the place which is called Calvary, they
crucified Him and the malefactors. And of course, the text that
we read in John chapter 19. Now we find several times at
the end of our Lord's ministry, that He predicted His death. And He predicted the manner of
His death. He predicted that He would be
crucified. And in final preparation to make
the disciples ready for that event and His departure, to fortify
them in His absence, our Lord spoke to them frequently of the
fact that He would be crucified. Matthew 20, verse 17 through
verse 19, telling His disciples there that He would be betrayed
unto the Jews, that He would be condemned, and that He would
be delivered unto the Gentiles, and they would crucify Him. In
Matthew 26, And verse 2, he said, the Son of Man is betrayed to
be crucified. In Mark chapter 10, 33 and 34,
the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the priests and the scribes,
and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him
to the Gentiles, and they shall scourge and kill Him. in Luke 18 and verse 31. He says to His disciples, we
go up unto Jerusalem, and all things written in the prophet
concerning the Son of God shall be accomplished there. His death,
therefore, in order to fulfill the Scripture, must be a death
of not just any kind, but of a specific kind of death. He was to die a certain kind
of death. That is, he was to be crucified
upon a Roman cross. He was to undergo not the Jewish
manner of stoning, but the Roman manner of execution upon a cross. In fact, it is noted, and it
is interesting, how close together are the two words in the Greek,
cross and crucify, how much alike they are. The word sthoros, cross,
means an upright pole or a stake, and is a noun. In that, it is
a thing. It is a material thing, a stake. a wooden stake or a wooden pole. And this word appears some 28
times throughout our New Testament. And then there's the word crucify. Storuo is a verb meaning to impale
or affix or fasten to a cross. to fat to affix unto a cross
for the specific and designated purpose of putting one to death
by the awful means of crucifixion. So it means to put to death upon
a cross. or to crucify. We might make
the point that both the cross and to crucify are also applied
in metaphorical senses throughout the New Testament in the experimental
Christianity of the people of God. That is, these words are
used literally of the Lord, and they also are used in a figurative
way, in a non-literal way, we might say, such as when the Lord
said, take up your cross and follow me. Mark 10 and verse
38. He said it again in Matthew 16.
You find it again in Mark 8.35. You find it in Luke 9 and verse
33. Now, this is not a wooden stake. that they are to bear upon their
shoulder and carry about. Again, in Galatians 5 and 24,
they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts thereof. Then there is another word that
is used a few times in the New Testament, sutoru, meaning to
be crucified together. to be crucified with, or jointly,
or conjointly, impaled and put to death conjointly. The word
is used in reference to the two thieves who died with our Lord
on either side on a cross in Matthew 27.44. It is again in
Mark 15.32 and John 19 and verse 32. Again, as a figure or a metaphor,
in Romans chapter 6 and verse 6, our old man is crucified with
Him. And that wonderful declaration
of Paul in Galatians 2 and verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. Now, these verses view Christ
as the one that is actually crucified, who is the first object of the
crucifixion, and others were both literally, the two thieves,
and spiritually crucified, co-crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. put
to death to sin by the death of the Lord on the cross. Now,
our text this morning speaks to us of the crucifixion of the
Lamb of God, or just outside of Jerusalem. Some think that
it was the Persians, the country of the Persians, who first used
this method of execution and that it had been adopted by the
Romans as their means also of execution or capital punishment. And this was in use by the Romans
in the time of our Lord's death in Jerusalem. Crucifixion, therefore,
was not the Jewish method of execution. They did not crucify
as upon a cross. The law of Moses prescribed stoning
as the means of inflicting the death penalty, such as blasphemers
and idolaters and violators of the law were stoned to death
by the congregation of Israel for certain violations of the
law. Those that were to be stoned
were stoned first of all by the two or three witnesses that charged
them with a crime, and then the whole congregation joining in
that they might stone a transgressor unto death." You will remember
that the Jews, prior to our Lord's actual crucifixion, made several
attempts on the Lord's life, and they attempted to stone our
Savior. You'll find it in John 8, 59,
and chapter 10 again, verse 31 and verse 32. But our Lord must not and will not die at
the hands of the Jews by stoning, but must die at the hands of
the Gentiles by hanging upon a tree or by crucifixion. And though crucifixion was not
the Jewish manner of execution, they had a provision in the law
that in some ways related unto this. that provision is found
way back in Deuteronomy chapter 21 and verse 23, that those who
were idolaters or blasphemers were stoned to
death. And once they were stoned to
death, they were then hanged on a tree by the wayside until
the evening, and then they were taken down and they were buried. And thus, the idea in the Jewish
mind, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a tree. Galatians
3 and verse 10. any soul hanged were reckoned
by a Jew to be cursed by the law and having been a transgressor. And this was the impression that
the Jews held of one crucified, particularly of the Lord. Cursed is everyone that hangs
upon a tree, even among the Romans. Crucifixion was generally reserved
and restricted to slaves and to the very worst sort of offenders
in the kingdom. This manner of crucifixion was
not only very painful, but it was very, very degrading. It was a shameful, shameful death. The victim was subject to many
violent things. There was the scourging before
put upon the cross. There was the stripping them
of their garments as they placed them on the cross. There was
the mocking of those and the jeering of those that passed
by until they saw them there. And they were left upon that
cross until they were dead, and sometimes that was more than
the same day. Yes, it was cruel, it was violent,
It was a barbaric death. And anybody that passed by and
saw one upon a Roman cross, a Jew, assumed that person to be a criminal
and to be the very worst sort, and therefore, held not back
from hurling insults and jeers and mocking toward that person
hanging, writhing in anguish and pain upon the cross. Now,
upon these crosses on Golgotha, there died such men as the seditionist,
the insurrectionist against the governor, the murderer, the thief,
the robber, the rebel against the king, and such crucifixions
were carried out in a very public place and a very public way,
perhaps as an example and also a deterrent unto others. But if such as were crucified
were among the very worst dregs of humanity, if those crucified
on the cross, the seditioning, or the most undesirable part
of the human family, then how is it that the Christ of God,
the sinless Holy One, the very sinless Son of God, is put upon
a Roman cross if this death is designed for the worst of transgressors
How is it then that our Lord is put upon a Roman cross and
is treated and crucified as if He had been the worst criminal
in Jerusalem that could be found? How comes a completely, absolutely
innocent man to be condemned and put upon that cross between
thieves on this occasion? How such a miscarriage of justice
came about? Is it a miscarriage of justice? Why is he condemned to die the
awful death of the cross when Pilate, in Luke chapter 23 and
verse 4, said to the chief priests and to all the people, I find
no fault in this man. And again, in John chapter 18
and verse 38, he brought him out before and said, I find in
him no fault at all. Also, King Herod. We read in
Luke chapter 23, and verse 13 through 15. I wanted to turn
there and read that. Luke 23, verse 13 through 15, please. And Pilate, when he had
called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people,
said unto them, You have brought this man unto me as one that
perverts the people, and behold, I have examined him before you
and have found no fault in this man Touching those things whereof
ye accusing, know not yet Herod, for I sent you to him, and lo,
nothing worthy of death is done unto him, both Pilate and Herod. find no fault in the Lord by
which He ought to be put to death. Then again we ask, how and why
is a man personally holy and innocent put to the death of
the crucifixion upon a cross? Well, I think we need to bear
in mind two things here. Number one, it was what was appointed
by God to be done. For all that was done to our
Lord, all the agony and the misery, all of that, according to Acts
4 and verse 28, was what God's hand and counsel determined before
to be done. He had ordained our Lord to the
death of the cross. Luke 22, 22. The Son of Man goes as it had been determined, or
having been determined, including his betrayal by a friend and
all else that followed leading to the cross. So it was the ordination
of God that His Son die upon the cross. The second point that
we want to make, that His suffering, His betrayal, His death and burial,
all of them and more, were done in exact harmony with the Scripture. All that was done unto our Lord
fulfilled the Word of God. How many times do we read from
our Lord, or concerning our Lord, that a certain thing fulfilled
the Scripture? Or was done that the Scripture
might be fulfilled? Let's look at some of those things
prophesied in the Scripture and brought to pass in the Lord. The betrayal by Judas. fulfilled Scripture. John 13
and 18. The apostasy and the death of
Judas fulfilled Scripture. John 17, 12. Acts 1, 20. And
Psalm 69 and verse 25 had prophesied that. The soldiers who gambled or odd-manned
out for the garments of the Lord fulfilled the Scripture in John
19, 23-24, fulfilling Psalms 22 and verse 18, when our Lord
was on the cross in His pain and in His agony. The giving
of vinegar unto our Lord to drink was a fulfillment of the Scripture
in Psalm 69 and verse 21 fulfilled in John 19, 28 through 30. Another marvelous example of
God's providence, that a bone of our Lord's body was not broken
in His crucifixion, fulfilled a Scripture. John 19 and verse
36, when those soldiers came with those bars of iron or clubs
of wood to break the legs to hasten the death of those, Jesus
was dead already, and they broke not his legs. And that fulfilled
Exodus 12, and verse 46, not a bone of him shall be broken. Again, the spear by the soldier,
I suppose, that was cast into the side of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, in John 19.37, fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah
12, and verse 10. And there are many, many more
that we might mention this morning. Let us dwell upon one particular
prophecy from Isaiah 53 and verse 12 that says simply this, And
he was numbered with the transgressors. Here's Isaiah's prophecy. Among
all else that he said, one thing was he was to be numbered with
the transgressors. Now what can this mean that our
Lord was numbered with a transgressor? For it's spoken definitely concerning
Messiah. He did receive sinners. He went
into their homes. He ate with them. He tolerated
a woman that was a known sinner to weep tears upon His feet. and to wipe them off with the
head of her hair." Luke 7, 37 and 38. Once he went to be guests
with a man that was a sinner, Zacchaeus by name. Zacchaeus
the tax gatherer in Luke 19 and verse 7. However, he is being
numbered with the transgressors. goes beyond His being in their
company, or eating with them, or speaking with them. For by
His being numbered with a transgressor is explained very clearly in
such places as Mark 15, 27 and 28, and Luke 22 and verse 37. I'm going to read Mark 15, verse
27 and verse 28. His being numbered with a transgressor
had its fulfillment when the Holy Son of God was crucified
on the cross between those two thieves that had been sent also
to that place to die. Let me find my place. My leaves
are stuck together. Mark chapter 15 and verse 17
and verse 18 of that passage of the Scripture. And they clothed
him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it
about him, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jew! And they smote him upon the head. Now verse 27 of that same chapter,
And with him they crucified two thieves, the one on the right
hand, the other on the left. And the Scripture was fulfilled,
and said he was numbered among the transgressors. That's what
Isaiah meant. That our Lord would be put to
death like a criminal. That our Lord would be put to
death with other criminals and crucified like one of them. To the Jew, seeing one being
a Jew, hanging on a tree, again was a sign that such was cursed
by God. For cursed is every one that
hangeth on a tree." Now, Jesus was not only put between two
thieves as to proximity, that's not the end of that, being near
them and among them, but the meaning is that He was treated
like a criminal. He was executed the same as those
criminals were. Those who passed by and saw it
reckoned him, however, to be a criminal, some of them. And
the evil and unbelieving Jews took delight in the suffering
and the death of our Christ." Herein is a marvelous stroke
of the providence of God as to the reason for our Lord's death. For it was usual and common to
inscribe above their cross as they were being crucified, their
accusation. In Matthew chapter 27 and 37,
we have the word, His accusation. And in Mark 15 and 26, the superscription
of his accusation. That is, the charge, the crime
for which a particular one was guilty of and for which they
were put to death. And for all to see and all to
know that passed by, the bill of indictment, such as thief,
murderer, insurrectionist, whatever, was posted or written and put
upon that cross. Now, the providence of God, I
ask, what was written over the cross or the head of our Lord
Jesus Christ? Over His head, Matthew 27, 37.
Written over Mark 15, 26. Luke 23, over Him. And John 19,
19 calls it a title. And this title was written over
him. What was written over our Lord?
Well, let's notice two things. A. All four Gospels record the
fact that a writing was written and was put on the cross of the
Lord. They all consider this important,
and all four include it in their Gospel record. Then B, let's
notice something else. Two of the Gospels, that would
be Luke and John, tell us that the writing was written in three
separate languages over the cross of our Lord. Spurgeon called
them this, and I quote, sacerdotal Hebrew, classical Greek, and
common Latin." In all three of those languages, there was a
writing written over our Lord. Now these were the chief languages
of the earth in that day and in that time. What David Brown
called the chief tongues of mankind." And this would allow practically
all, everyone that passed by that day and saw the three upon
the cross to be able to read and to understand why or what
the charges were against them. And then, what was written on
our Lord's cross. putting all the Gospels records
together, bringing all four of them together, the writing said
something like this, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jew. We see in John 19, 20-22, such
a writing was opposed by the Jews who appealed to Pilate to
change the writing. They said, don't put He's the
king of the Jew. Right, he said that he was king
of the Jew. Pilate refused, and the writing
stood. Jesus of Nazareth the king of
the Jews. Methinks that they are certainly
right, or have a point, who think that this was Pilate's way of
getting some revenge upon the Jews, tweaking them for the great
uproar they had caused, and for pressuring him into crucifying
an innocent man against his better judgment. squeezing him politically,
a man that he did not think worthy of death. The facts did not warrant
he be put unto death. And so Pilate perhaps took a
little revenge on him and said, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Jews. Not only that, but a great tithe
was fulfilled when the Lord was on the cross. of which the Lord
spake to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, 14 and 15, saying to him,
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, the incident referred
to is found back yonder in Numbers chapter 21, verses 4 through
9, when the people rebelled against Moses and even against God. And they spake against their
circumstances in verse 5, whereby in verse 6 the Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, and they bit many of the people,
and many of the people died from the bite of the fiery serpent. And in verse 7 of Numbers 21,
they beseech Moses, O Moses, pray to God that He might take
away from us these fiery serpents. In verse 8 and verse 9, Numbers
21, the remedy given to Moses by God, Moses must make a replica. He must make a likeness of those
fiery biting serpents and affix it and lift it up in the midst
of the people and everyone that looked upon that brazen serpent. if bitten, even if bitten already,
lived. Everyone who looked, they did
not die. Now, they did not pray to it.
They did not burn candles or incense before it. They did not
rub it or touch it or any of those things. It was lifted up. It was to be looked upon and
all looking were cured of the fiery serpent's bite. So the
Lord was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Romans 8 and
verse 3. But He had no depravity in Him. Made in the likeness of sinful
flesh without any depravity, without any sin. In outward form,
he resembled those that he died for, having the form of a man. Philippians 2, verse 7 and 8,
And as the serpent was lifted up upon the pole, so Christ was
lifted up up on the cross or the stake to die. He referred
to His death on the cross as His being, quote, lifted up,
unquote. In John 3 and 14, being the antitype
of the serpent on a pole in the wilderness, which also was lifted
up. Again in John 8 and verse 28,
when you have lifted up the Son of Man. Now, it seems a mistake
to apply this phrase, lifted up, to His resurrection, or to
His ascension back into heaven, or being exalted in the preaching
of the Word of God and of the Gospel, even though we do lift
up our Lord as we preach Christ. However, in John 12, Verse 32
and 33, the matter is settled very clearly. We read the Lord's
meaning of His being lifted up. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all unto Me. Now one might conclude that
the Lord spoke, perhaps, of His resurrection, or of His ascension,
or even of His glorification, except that in verse 33, of that
twelfth chapter of John, John puts in one of his many explanatory
clauses that dot his gospel and says this. This, he said, signifying
what death he should die. To be lifted up means his death. So the conclusion is when the
Lord spoke of his being lifted up, He referred to his death
upon the cross being crucified by the Roman. And both the serpent
on the pole and our Lord upon the cross show how quickly and
easily some are drawn away into superstition and idolatry. Did you realize concerning that
brazen serpent that in 2 Kings 18 and verse 4, They had kept that thing, they
had preserved it, and the children of Israel had come to the point
that they were burning incense to that brazen serpent. And they
called it nehushtan, a piece of brass. King Hezekiah broke
it in pieces and destroyed it because they were burning incense
onto it. Now, I want to ask you a question.
How many do you think today would make a shrine, an idol of the
cross, if they could have it or have any part of it? If they could get a hold of what
they are told is a nail that pierced Christ. You know what
they'd do? They would bow before it. They
would crawl before it. They would burn candles and incense. They would pray to it. They would
rub it. and they would touch it in search
of a miracle. And yet, Christ is the object
of our affection and worship, not that wooden cross or piece
of wood. When Paul said he glorified in
the cross, he meant not the cross itself, the material cross, but
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not just the wooden beams of
the cross, but the Lord Himself. You know, one thing not much
emphasized in connection with the Lord's crucifixion are the
times and the sayings of our Lord when He was suffering on
the cross. Several times during those hours
of His agony preceding His death, He spoke from the cross. Seven times, A. W. Pink said,
he's written a book on the seven sayings of our Lord upon the
cross. We'll not spend a lot of time
on it, but in here is the order that Brother Pink believed that
they occurred in. Number 1 in Luke 23, 34, the
first words or utterance of our Lord, Father, forgive them for
they know not what they do. The second one in Luke 23 and
43 is spoken to the penitent thief. You will be with me this
day in paradise. The third one, John 19, 25 and
26, to Mary, woman, behold thy son. And to John, behold thy
mother. Fourth, in Matthew 27 and 46,
perhaps one of the most agonizing Cries of awe. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Remember that? Eli, Eli, lama,
sebat, veinai. My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Number 5, John 19, 28. I thirst. And that was prophesied. Number
6, John 19, 30. Here's the glorious one. It is
finished. The work of redemption is done. It is finished. It is finished. And the final one, Luke 23, verse
46, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. The sayings of the
Lord from the cross. Another point. Consider the manifestation
in conjunction with the crucifixion of our Lord's anointed One. For
never did a man die like this man died. His death was fully
attested as unique and supernatural. The Father and heaven and angels
and nature did attest or certify by undeniable witness such things
as His birth. In Luke 1, 9-14, His baptism,
Matthew 6, 16 and 17, His transfiguration, Matthew
17, 1-6, Mark 9, 1-8. But the greatest manifestation
or attestation was saved for His death upon the cross. When
He died as no other ever died. No other death ever had the effect
of the God-man. When giants in the faith died,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, David, Moses, creation stopped not or
took notice. Nothing unusual occurred. All
things continued on their way as they had from the beginning.
But when the God-man was suffering and dying on the cross, amazing
things happened as never before and never since. such as Matthew
27, verse 45, Mark 15, and verse 33, there was darkness over all
of the land for three solid hours. The sun, in deference to the
dying Son of God, refused to shine. Nor was it an eclipse,
for it lasted three hours, as creation took special notice
of the man dying on the middle cross. And the spectators were
frozen in their blackness. for three hours while our Lord
was there. Nor is that all, because as our
great High Priest died, as our priest gave up the ghost, commended
His Spirit into the hands of the Father, the veil yonder in
the temple rent from top down to the bottom. The temple was
rent from top to bottom, the veil. 27 and 51. And Luke 23 and 45. What does this signify? This signifies that Judaism is
set aside. The new and the living way is
open. The temple now is but an empty
house. What's more, as the Lord yielded
up the ghost, in Matthew 27 and 51, the earth did quake. Spurgeon called this nature's
convulsions. and rocks split open. And perhaps most amazing of all,
the graves of many of the saints of God opened in Jerusalem. And the dead came forth, and
after His resurrection, They appeared to many in the holy
city as witnesses. And they who crucified the Lord
saw the things that accompanied His death. They were afraid. And that hardened centurion cried
out, This was the Son of God. Surely this was the Son of God. Now, brothers and sisters, Jesus
carried our sins to the cross, bearing them in His own body. God punished our sins there in
Him that are just as urged, making to light upon Him the sins of
us all. And though the Jews put Him to
death in their ignorance, the sovereign purpose of God was
perfectly accomplished in the death of this great substitute. They meant it for evil. God meant
it for good. And yes, says Paul, we preach
Christ crucified. Our message is Christ crucified. Crucified for sin. Crucified
to save. Dead that others might live.
Yes, in Christ's death is there salvation, forgiveness, and justification. And unashamedly, we preach Christ. And we preach Him crucified. We don't preach Him as a social
reformer. We don't preach Him as a do-gooder.
We don't preach Him as a good teacher or a good example. We
preach Christ crucified. Crucified for our sin. Thank you, and let's stand, please,
and we'll have prayer.