I am blessed to be here this
evening, thankful for this opportunity, and thankful to see the faces
of so many friends. It's good to be among friends.
And some of you are old friends. Old friends are best friends.
And we're blessed to be here this night. We pray the Lord's
blessings will be upon us. I invite your attention to the
gospel according to Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. My text is found in verse number
33. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucify him and the
malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. My text has four words. There they crucified him. My message has a title comprised
of those same four words. There they crucified him. My message has four points. There They crucified Him. And if you understand my subject,
I think that you will agree that the most important point is that
fourth word, Him. There they crucified Him. Who is Him? I suppose the The
best brief biographical sketch of Jesus that you'll find is
found in the book of Acts chapter 10. Go back if you will to the
book of Acts chapter 10. Peter gives a brief biographical
sketch of Jesus beginning in verse number 38. I do not know
that for its briefness and for telling us whom Jesus Christ
is, I do not know that you'll find a better. But look in verse
38, that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we
are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the
Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him,
God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to
all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to
us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. and he commanded us to preach
unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained
of God to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give all the
prophets witness that through his name, whosoever believeth
in him shall receive remission of sins. I do not know that you
would find a better brief biographical sketch of him than the one that
you just read. But the part of that biographical
sketch that I want to emphasize now is this point. He went about
doing good. There they crucified Him, Him
who went about doing good. You could have followed the steps
of Jesus Christ by all the goodness that was in the way. Come with
me. Let's see if we can see where
He has been. And so we walk along in that
land and we've come to a man And we ask him, tell me, sir,
has Jesus been by this way? And he says, oh, yes, he has.
You just take one look at me, and you can tell he has been
here. Look at me. I'm here sitting, clothed, and
in my right mind. Just a short time ago, I was
a demoniac, possessed of demons. I was naked. I was running through
the tombs. No man could tame me. And Jesus walked by. I ran toward
him, but he did not flinch. I ran toward him, and he said,
what is your name? And the demons replied, we are
legion, for we are many. And he drove them out. Yes, he
did. He drove them out. When he did
so, I became sedated and calm. No man could bide me before,
but look at me now. Here I am. I'm sitting and I'm
clothed and in my right mind. I tell you, he has been here
because there's goodness everywhere he's been. Which way did he go? That way. So there we go. Tell me, sir. Has Jesus of Nazareth
been this way? Have you heard of him? Have I
heard of Jesus of Nazareth, you ask? I'll say I have. Indeed,
his name was the first that ever I heard. I was a deaf mute when
he came this way. It was communicated to me that
Jesus of Nazareth was coming by. And I came to him. I knew that if anyone could heal
me, it had to be him. I had heard that he had healed
others. Perhaps he would heal me. I believed he could. And
I came to Jesus and, well, I was mute. I could not speak, but
he heard my heart. He knew what I wanted. He opened
my ears and the first words that I heard were, your sins are forgiven
you. He opened my mouth and I'm glad
to say to you that his name was the first name that ever I spoke. Oh yes, he's been here this way. I know because I've heard him
and I've spoken his word. Which way did he go? That way.
So we went that way. We came to another man and asked
him, tell me, sir, have you seen Jesus of Nazareth? Have I seen
Jesus of Nazareth, you ask? I'll say I have. Indeed, he was
the first person whom I ever saw. I was here, sitting by the
road, begging alms. I heard a commotion and I asked,
what is this noise? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth
is walking by. And I hollered out, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And they told me to shut up,
but I would not. I would not. All the louder I
cried, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Well, I heard the traffic stop. I heard him tell them to bring
me to him. He said, sir, what do you want?
Well, I tell you, if you've been blind all your life, there's
only one thing you want. I told him I wanted to see. And
he opened my eyes, and the first thing that I ever saw was Jesus
of Nazareth doing good to me. He went about doing good. Which way did he go? That way.
We went that way. And everywhere we went, they
told us the same stories. A woman came and said that she
had had an issue of blood for many years, spent all her livelihood
on doctors and none of them could heal her. She thought, if I could
but touch the border of his garment, I think I could be healed. And
she told us that as he walked by, she came up and touched the
border of his garment, and she felt the virtue and the power
coming through him. And the fountain of her blood
dried. She now was clean. Yes, she said,
he's been this way, and he did good everywhere he went. There
are others. One tells us that he had palsy.
The Lord healed him. Another tells us he was arthritic. The Lord healed him. There was
a man, he said, that he was sitting there in the mat by a pool when
they could not walk. And Jesus said, sir, take up
your bed and walk. And he says, I can't. Jesus said,
yes, you can. Take it up and walk. And he said,
I did. He told me to do it. I did it. I picked up my bed
and I walked. Another man came by and he says,
I'll tell you what he did for me. I was a leper. I was not even allowed in town.
I had to stay outside. I was unclean, could not come
into the company of other people. Jesus walked up to me and touched
me, put his hand, no man had ever done that. He said, sir,
be clean, be clean. And he was clean. Another woman
came and she says, I'll tell you what he did for me. I was
a whore. I was caught in the very act
of adultery. The Pharisees had found me and
they brought me to Jesus and cast me at his feet. And they
said to me, the law says she must be stoned. What do you say?
And she said, I knew what was coming. He would have me stoned. This man who kept the law, he
looked around and he said, whichever one of you is without fault,
you go ahead and cast the first stone. And they all walked away. And she said, he asked me, he
said, where are your accusers? And she said, well, sir, thanks
to you, I have none. Well, neither do I condemn you.
Go and sin no more. Another came and said, I was
there one day. He had taught us, and oh, what
a teacher he was. He taught in the language of
the people. We all understood everything
that he had to say. He spoke as one having authority
and not as the scribes and Pharisees. And we were hungry, and there
was no food, no place to obtain it. He took a few pieces of fish
and bread and fed a few thousand. Another said, well, I was not
there, but I saw the same thing on another occasion. Another
said, I remember his preaching. Just everywhere he went, he went
about doing good. I remember him saying to us,
come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me. I'll take your burden. I'll give
you rest. And another said, He's the only
man from whom God spoke from heaven saying, this is my son,
my well-beloved, in whom I am well-pleased. I'm telling you,
my friend, we could go on and on. And everywhere we go, you'll
find this. You can follow the steps of Jesus
by the goodness that is there along the way. This man went
about doing good, never sinned. Can you imagine? We, all of us,
have sinned enough tonight to cast us all to hell. Even since
we walked in through that door this night, we all have sinned.
This man never sinned. He never sinned. A deed he committed,
in a word he spoke, even in a thought he imagined, he never sinned,
went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed by the
devil. God was with him. God was with
him, but man wanted no part. That is to him whom they crucified. There, they crucified. Him. Look at that next word. Well,
the next to the last word. There, they crucified Him. Crucified. Consider what it was
to be crucified for just a moment. It was a Roman method of execution. The Jews did not practice it. Jesus was under the authority
of the Jews in his first trial, and they wanted him killed, but
they did not want themselves to be the ones to do it. They
wanted the Romans to do it, and they wanted it to be as hideous
and as terrible a death as it could be. They handed him to
the Romans. This death was a Roman method
of execution. This death This crucifixion,
this manner of death that Jesus of Nazareth suffered, it was
a demeaning method of dying. Although the Romans crucified,
they did not crucify Roman citizens. They crucified only other people,
lower class people. This was a torturous way of dying. Before they crucified him, a
garrison of Roman soldiers tied him to a stake and with their
whip, which probably was a cat of nine tails, they plowed furrows
up and down his back and across his body. They beat him. They buffeted him. They took
the palms of their hands. They smoked him. They plucked
the beard from his face. They said he's a king. Needs
a robe, so they mocked him with a robe. He's a king, he needs
a crown, they plaited one of thorns and crushed it to that
holy brow. King needs a scepter, they took
a reed and put it in his hand, said here's your scepter. Then
they took it from him and beat him with it. And that was only the beginning,
only the beginning. They made him carry his cross
until he stumbled under the weight of it. You could have marked
his tracks then. In his life, you could have marked
his tracks by the goodness that was along the way. Now you just
follow the blood. There he goes. They took him
to a place of execution. They laid him on the ground on
that cross, and there they drove spikes into his hands and into
his feet. There was a hole dug. They brought
the cross up to it and just dropped it down in his sinews, his nerves,
his muscles. He is in one rack of pain now. They crucified him. It was a
torturous death. It was a shameful death. He was
stripped of all his clothing so that these soldiers could
gamble for it there at the foot of his cross, up there stripped
of his clothing. He was made sin for me on that
tree and had not a stretch of garment to cover him. Also a shameful way of dying
because here we read he was crucified between two malefactors, two
thieves. Three men crucified one day.
The man in the middle, he's the worst. He's the worst. That would
be Jesus of Nazareth when there they crucified him. It was a
heathen way of dying. It was a torturous way of dying. It was a shameful way of dying. It was an abasing way of dying. And it was an accursed way to
die. God Almighty decreed that cursed
is everyone who hangs on a tree. Cursed! And there he is on a
tree. Cursed! Men have done all they
could to him. Now God puts a curse on him and
turns his back on his own son. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? There. They crucified him. Third point. crucified him. Who are they? Best commentary on that probably
is in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter in verse number 25 of Acts
4. who by the mouth of thy servant
David hast said, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine
vain things? The kings of the earth, that's
who crucified him, the kings of the earth stood up and the
rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against
his Christ. 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." Who crucified him? Jews and Gentiles. Jews and Romans
crucified him. in concert together. Jews and
Gentiles despised each other, but in Jesus they had a common
enemy. And there they crucified him.
That Sanhedrin had paid a man, Judas Iscariot, 30 pieces of
silver to betray the Lord. Judas betrayed him. A group of
soldiers from the temple complex had gone and taken Jesus and
brought him in. About midnight and illegally
in a kangaroo court against the law of God, they conducted a
session there to try him with false witnesses brought in. They
could find not even their witnesses to bring their witnesses together.
Until finally they asked him, tell us, the high priest said.
Are you the son of the blessed? And he said, I am. And the Sanhedrin
said, you heard what he said. This Sanhedrin, 70 elders of
Israel, led by the chief priests and the other priests and the
scribes and Pharisees and Saul of Tarsus, probably among them. And they found him guilty. They crucified him, not with
their hands, but with their motives, with their hearts, and sent him
off to Pilate. Pilate had the authority to have
him crucified. Pilate did not want to crucify
him. He was afraid of the man and
washed his hands of him, but, well, he would not stop the people. King Herod! King of the Jews. He most certainly did not want
anybody who might be thought of to be competition in this
King of the Jews. Yes, he had him crucified. He was complicit in this as well. The Jewish people were complicit
in this. Just a few days earlier, Jesus
had walked into or had rode into Jerusalem and they threw their
garments in the way and said, Hosanna to the King. And now,
when they stand before Pilate, they say, crucify him. Crucify
him. They crucify him. Here we go. The Sanhedrin, Herod, Pontius
Pilate, the people of Israel, Roman soldiers, and most parks. Moose Parks. He's there because of my sins. My sins nailed him to that tree. Take a look at that soldier with
that spike in his hand. Watch him as he drives the spike
into the hand of Jesus nailing him to the tree. When he turns around, that might
be your face you see. My sins naked there. There they
crucified him. There they crucified him. There they crucified him. Where is there? Luke says it's
Calvary. The other three gospel writers,
Matthew, Mark, and John, say that it is Golgotha which is
translated the place of a skull. Calvary, Golgotha, the place
of a skull. And that is more or less the
translation. Golgotha is the Hebrew and the
Aramaic term. It is said to be the place of
the skull. Actually, that is not the best
translation. It is simply mean the skull is
all it means. The Greek text uses the word
croneion. That's the word which we get
the word cranium. You know what a cranium is? It's
a skull. Our word calvary is the Latin
translation. That is a beautiful word. Calvary. Would not be so beautiful were
it not for what happened there. I mean, some may say, well, you
know, she old is a pretty word. That might sound good, but not
a beautiful word to me because of what I associate with it.
But when I think of calvary, and it means simply the skull,
It is said that it derived the name Calvary because it had been
used as a place of execution so often there were skulls lying
around. Perhaps that's true. There's
a rather fanciful idea that the very skull of the first man Adam
was found there. I put no stock in that. We do
not know where it was. That's just as well. It would
be made an idol. But it appears that Perhaps there
was a place, a promontory, a place that was clearly visible that
had the shape of a skull. There is a place like that just
outside Jerusalem. The skull. There they crucified
Him. It was a visible place, we know
that because we read of the people that came by walking into Jerusalem. It was a high season and Jerusalem
was going to be a full city and the people are coming by. They
want Jesus crucified where he can be clearly seen. A promontory,
a high place. Calvary, the skull, Golgotha. a prominent place and a place
that was outside the camp. Outside the camp, he would not
be crucified inside the holy city. He would not be crucified
close to the holy temple. He would be crucified outside
where lepers had to live. where the refuse was taken and
dumped. Put him out there. That's what
men thought of him. That's what men thought of him.
Take him outside the camp. There, they crucified him. Where is there? Tonight, there is here. Right here. Because I'm preaching
Christ crucified, am I not? Preaching Christ crucified. And it's in fulfillment of a
prophet who said that in that day there shall be opened A fountain
for the sin and iniquity of Israel. A fountain shall be opened. And it was. A Roman soldier made
sure of that. With his spear and with malice
aforethought, took his spear and drove it into the precious
side of the Savior and fulfilled scripture. He opened a fountain
filled with blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. Where is Calvary? It's right
here, right now. Now come with me to Calvary.
Come with me to Calvary. Behold him on that tree. Behold this Jesus of Nazareth. despised of men, forsaken by
friends, rejected by God, suffering in the place instead of sinners,
crucified cruelly, torturously, and accursedly. Crucified by
people like you and me. Crucified there. Take a good look at him and maybe
you can sing. At the cross, at the cross where
I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight and now I am happy all the day. All because there They
crucified him. Now come to him right now.