Turn with me please to Matthew
chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. And we're going to begin reading
from verse 24. And our subject this afternoon,
as the Lord will enable, is what happened at the cross? What happened
at the cross? Matthew chapter 27 and verse
24. When Pilate saw that he could
prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water
and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent
of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all
the people and said, his blood be on us. and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto
them. And when he had scourged Jesus,
he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor
took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole
band of soldiers. And they stripped him and put
on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right
hand. And they bowed the knee before
him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they
spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And
after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him,
and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found
a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his
cross. And when they were come unto
a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall. And when he
had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified
him, and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting
down, they watched him there, and said up over his head his
accusation, written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Then were there two thieves crucified with him. one on the right hand
and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled
him, wagging their heads and saying, thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests
mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others,
himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel,
let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God. Let him deliver
him now, if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of
God. The thieves also, which were
crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the
sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land, unto the ninth
hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabanthini, that
is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of
them that stood there when they heard that said, this man calleth
for Elias. And straightway one of them ran
and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on
a reed and gave him to drink. The rest said, let be, let us
see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had
cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And behold,
the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the
bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. And the graves
were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose
and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into
the holy city and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion
and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and
those things that were done, they feared greatly saying, Truly,
this was the Son of God. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. One of the most instructive name
applied to and accepted by the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible
is the name, the servant of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
servant of God. We were hearing last evening
that the Lord Jesus Christ is God, and that's true. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, in his mediatorial capacity, in the role which he
undertook, in the great service that he accomplished, is the
servant of God. And perhaps more than any other
name that is given to the Lord Jesus Christ, this name of servant
best describes his condescension and his humiliation. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the servant of the church. He is minister to
the church and this ministerial office speaks of his role as
a servant. Our verse This afternoon, you
don't have to turn to it at the moment, is the 20th chapter and
the 28th verse of Matthew. And it says this, the Son of
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life a ransom for many. What happened at the cross? In Isaiah chapter 49 we read
these words, Now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb
to be his servant, I will also give thee for a light to the
Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of
the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ was long
prophesied as being the coming Messiah, long anticipated as
God coming amongst men. And yet when the prophecies were
made, there was a strand too, which spoke about his servanthood,
spoke about his ministry. And in some ways it's understandable
if the Old Testament saints were somewhat puzzled by these prophetic
references. Is the promised Messiah the mighty
God or a suffering servant? Is he the king of kings like
Solomon in all of his glory? and a greater than Solomon is
here? Or is he like Joseph, that beautiful
type in those early chapters of Genesis who was literally
a servant to servants? Is he king of kings? Or a slave
of slaves? Will he be delivered of God? or smitten by God. It could be confusing. We would not be alone if we were
puzzled by these references. The Ethiopian Enoch was making
his way from Jerusalem back home, and he was reading Isaiah's prophecy. And Philip, The deacon Philip,
he ran alongside the chariot of the eunuch. I imagine that
that was not an altogether unusual thing to happen to the carriage
of a rich, powerful, and wealthy man. Perhaps if they ran alongside,
he would generously throw something out to them. Perhaps the children
would run alongside such a carriage. But Philip had something else
on his mind that day. I've never preached a sermon
while I've been running. I don't imagine it's an easy
thing to do. But Philip called out to the
man as he read, and he said to that man, do you understand what
you're reading? In Acts chapter eight, verse
31, he said, how can I? except some man should guide
me." We're very privileged if we have a man to guide us in
spiritual truths. And he desired, Philip, that
he would come up and sit with him. In the place of the scripture,
Luke, writing in Acts, continues, the place of the scripture which
he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. And like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away. Who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the
earth. The eunuch said to Philip, of
whom speaketh? the prophet thus, of himself
or of some other man. Then Philip opened his mouth
and began at the same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Isn't that lovely? Isn't that
lovely? That's what this is about, that
we preach to one another, Jesus. Enigmatic though it may appear,
Puzzling though it might be to see the wealth of revelation
that is given to us of this man Confusing as it may be at times
to deal with the immense work that is set before us here in
the gospel It is important that we understand what happened at
the cross Because there God himself showed himself to be a servant. Paul, grasp thee. significance
of the great contrast that we have here. And he said of the
Lord Jesus Christ in Philippians chapter 2, that being in the
form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. and became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ
is claimed today by countless people, countless denominations,
countless professors of religion, who claim to follow Him. They claim to be Christian. And yet if you were to ask them
the question, what happened at the cross, that crux of the matter,
that place where it is all important that we understand what it is
that happened, what it is that went on at that moment, in that
hour, they would struggle to begin to explain what happened
at the cross. Philip's question then is still
valid. Do you understand what you're
reading? Do you understand what you're
hearing? Do you understand what you're
saying? This little phrase, what happened
at the cross, if we understand that which did happen, would
dispel a lot of confusion today. the errors that pervade professing
Christianity, the misunderstandings that are all around us. And I
want, if the Lord will enable, to answer that question in our
presence in a few minutes and to think about what happened
at the cross. Matthew 20, 28 says, the Son
of Man came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. I don't know if it could be simpler
when we think about what the Lord Jesus Christ described his
own ministry to be. He said that he came to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many. Two things, to minister
and to give his life. Minister. Minister. That's a lovely word. Unfortunately
today we tend to use it as a noun rather than a verb. It means
to serve. And it ought to be a description
and not a title. It ought to be that it describes
the person who ministers rather than the position that somebody
holds. A minister of the gospel. What a beautiful phrase that
is. A minister of the gospel. A servant
of Christ to sinners. An administrator. of the great
truths, foundational truths of spiritual life in God's purpose
to men and women. The ministry is a calling, it
is not a career. It is to do with a man spending
himself his energies, his time, his resources, laboring in the
Word to comfort and help needy sinners. It is a little man being spent
in a big cause. It's interesting, when you look
at the word minister, it has the same root meaning as the
word minus, to take away a minus sign. If ministers knew that they ought
to be going around with a minus sign upon them, how many would
wish to fulfill that role or to run unsent? A minister gets smaller. as his labor is enlarged. The Lord Jesus Christ did exactly
that. He said, I come to minister. I come to serve. And he was a
minister. Willingly, voluntarily, he gave
all he had. He gave everything. He could
say that he didn't have a place to rest his head. They took the
very clothes from his body. There was nothing that he had. At the end of his life, he had
spent everything in the labor to which he had been called. He came to do His Father's will. The Lord Jesus Christ, as He
came, He has become the minister of the covenant to us. He is
the minister of the sanctuary, the place where peace is forged. We were reading a little bit
earlier about that covenant of peace. This is the ministry of
the Lord Jesus Christ to come and fulfill all the obligations,
all the duties, all the demands, all the commandments. The commandments
that God Himself gave Him with respect to the fulfillment of
His duties. When the deal was struck, when
the covenant was made, when the parties to the covenant agreed
on what they would do, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly became
a servant to His Father. A servant to God. He came to do his father's will. He came to fulfill his father's
purpose. And that work, that work required
that he become incarnate. He needed to take on a body.
He needed to take a body that had been prepared for him. He
had to have the flesh of those for whom he would stand. He took
up our body and he served his father by fulfilling the whole
law. He served his father by satisfying
divine justice and he served his father by bringing in an
everlasting righteousness for his people. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to minister and he served not only his father, but he served
his people. He served his people, which having
required by his father's command to take up our body, required
for the sake of his people that he laid down that body. And he laid it down in order
to conquer sin. in order to conquer Satan and
death and hell and the grave and to save his people from their
sins. And in the minutes that I've
got left to me, I'm going to simply show you what the Lord
Jesus Christ did as the servant of his father and of his people
when he hung upon the cross. It's very straightforward and
it's very simple. And I trust by the end of the
short period that we have at our disposal, that we will be
able to give some reason for the faith that is within us,
some answer to this question, which is the ground of our hope.
What did the Lord Jesus Christ do at the cross? What happened
at the cross? The first thing is this. The
Lord Jesus Christ came to the cross to give his life to satisfy
God's justice. There was wrath in God, anger
in God. God had been offended. God is
offended by sin. And God has promised that he
will judge sin. The holy God is offended by sin
and He's angry at iniquity. And He requires satisfaction
for that anger. That anger, because of God's
holiness. That judgment, because of God's
purity, requires to be appeased. And the cross, at the cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ, bared his soul as well as his back
to the righteous anger and indignation of God. Isaiah says he was stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. This was God who wreaked revenge
upon the sacrifice. He says in Zechariah chapter
13, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man
that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. and for the love
of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent
into this world under covenant auspices, to be their substitute,
to stand in the gap for them, and to bear in his body their
sins, and to die for them. 1 John 4, 10 says, He loved us
and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And Christ loved us and gave
himself for us. He laid down his life. We've heard a lot about the shepherd.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And at the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ carried our shame. He bore our curse and he satisfied
God's justice. At the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ shed his life's blood as a ransom payment to redeem
his people. There was that dimension of bearing
his back to his father's judgment and he satisfied his father's
wrath. But secondly, he paid a ransom
price to give his life as a ransom, to make a payment that would
redeem his people from their sins. Now, We know a little bit. When I was growing up, I would
occasionally read something from history about a kidnapping. And I thought that kidnapping
was something that happened years and years ago, and people were
held for ransom. Nowadays, kidnapping is commonplace. We hear about it regularly on
the news, and it happens all over the world. And people take
another captive and they say, he's not being made free unless
a payment is made. And they're looking for the money.
They're looking for the gold. They're looking for the silver.
Peter says, you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold. but with the precious blood of
Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. We're a redeemed
people. And that was one of the great
works that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished at the cross of
Calvary. He redeemed his people from their
sin. He bled It was designed that he should
bleed. This wasn't a stoning under the
direction of Jewish executioners. That's how it would have been
had it not been the fact that that right was removed from them. They sought to do it on another
occasion. or to throw him over a cliff,
but it was not to be. There was to be a judicial recognition
of this work which Christ accomplished. There had to be the hanging of
the Savior on the tree that was cursed. There had to be the clear and absolute draining of
the blood of that man from every part of his body as they pierced
and holed him and caused that blood to freely flow. From head, hand, feet, side,
that blood flowed, precious blood, the necessary payment for the
remission of sin, the only acceptable price. The dear Son of God, writes
Paul to the Colossians, in whom we have redemption, through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins. The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
His Father's justice as He hung upon the cross, and He paid a
ransom price with the shedding of His blood. What happened at
the cross? Thirdly, at the cross, the Lord
Jesus Christ gave his life to reconcile God and sinners. Christ made peace. That's what he did. He made peace. He made peace with parties that
were irreconcilable. He made peace with those who
were enmity. You know what enmity is? Enemy. It's your enemy. It's your implacable foe. It's the one who would rather
see you dead than living. And God, in his holiness, was
brought into peace with man in his enmity. That he might reconcile,
says Paul to the Ephesians, both Jew and Gentile, for there is
no difference, unto God in one body by the cross, having slain
the enmity thereby." Justice had to be satisfied and redemption
had to be paid. But having fulfilled those great
works, the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross brought together
parties long separated by condemnation, guilt, and fear. Mighty transactions
were undertaken by the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross in order
to win the peace. And the Lord, our merciful and
faithful High Priest, in things pertaining to God, hath made
reconciliation for the sins of his people. Do you see how important
it is to know what happened at the cross? Do you see how it
is the very essence of our relationship with God, the very ground of
our approach to Him, that there is no other way, there is no
other religion, there is no other means, but upon the cross, the
Lord Jesus Christ did all that was required in order to bring
His people to God. The Lord Jesus Christ, in satisfying
these great demands of His Father, in fulfilling these covenant
obligations that fell to Him as the very command of God, did
not only minister and serve His Father, He served us too. And there is
a personal and an experiential application of the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ to sinners in this world who are called
by God the Holy Spirit. Indeed, all who believe, all
who come by faith into the experience of God's grace know what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for them because they have been brought
to experience what it is to have their sins forgiven. And at the
cross, the Lord Jesus Christ not only satisfied His Father's
justice, not only was able there to pay a ransom price, not only
was able to reconcile sinners to Himself, but He liberated
the captives. He liberated the prisoners, those
who were bound under sin, who were in thralldom to Satan. He gave his life to liberate
the captives. The Lord's death on the cross
really, actually, experimentally delivered his bride from the
evil of sin. from the curses of a righteous
law, from the bondage that Satan had long time kept them under,
from eternal death, and from wrath to come in the future. The Lord Jesus Christ went to
the tabernacle, to the synagogue, I'm sorry, during his own ministry,
and he took the scriptures that were handed to him on one occasion,
and his reading there on that Sabbath day is recorded for us
in Luke chapter four. He read out publicly The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. And these things the Lord Jesus
Christ did for us on the cross. He healed the broken hearted. We have a sense of what it is
to come under conviction of sin, I trust. We have known something
of the depths of our own depravity. We have seen something of the
complete antipathy that we possess in our minds and in our souls
to the things of God. We have run roughshod over all
his commandments and transgressed at every point. And we're liars
if we imagine that there is any good within us. And then to see what we have
committed against God. Well may the Lord Jesus Christ
have to wipe away every tear when we fully understand what
he has done for us. Recovering of sight to the blind
and the liberty of the captive. It's an important point that
we emphasize here. Some men talk to us these days
of forensic declarations of righteousness. Well, I guess it's right what
they say. It's true that there has been
a declaration of righteousness made by God towards His people. But let me tell you this, God
declares us righteous because we are righteous. He doesn't
merely declare us righteous as if we're righteous, or in order
to overlook our sin. He has taken that sin away. He has removed that sin. And
the declaration that He makes of our righteousness is no more
than He would legitimately say, because He can only tell the
truth. We are righteous in Christ. We are accepted with God because
God has dealt with our sin. Accepted in the beloved for our
sin has been taken away. It's more than being declared
righteous. It is being made righteous. Believers
are new creatures and in the new creation, There is no sin. There is no sin. We are at peace
with God legitimately. We are reconciled to God because
the sin has been removed and it has been taken away. The Lord
Jesus Christ, says Paul, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us. took it away,
out of the way, nailing it to his cross. What happened at the
cross? He took all of that sin. He took it on his own body. He carried it in his own soul,
and he carried it away. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? That's real. That's to do with
experience. That's to do with the fact that
in our conscience, That sin no longer has control over us. In our conscience, that iniquity,
that opposition, that enmity has been dealt with. And we have
an assurance of peace with God through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Liberty. Freedom. Rest. Rest from fear. Rest from obligation. Rest from
law duty. Rest that was won for us on the
cross, because the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us
from all sin. John 8, 36 says, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. And freedom is
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ secured at the cross for his
people. What happened at the cross? He gave his life to secure for
his people all spiritual blessings, everything. All spiritual blessings
were won for us there at the cross. It's not a case of us
coming and adding anything to that which Christ has achieved.
That's what was meant when he said it is finished. Everything,
justification, sanctification, spiritual wisdom, redemption,
new life, hope, Glory to come in the entrance into all that
God has prepared for us. Found its moment, not in anything
that we add or contribute to the work of Christ, but at the
cross in its entirety. That's the point. I dare say
that's the point that distinguishes us today from so much else that
goes on in professing Christianity. What happened at the cross? Christ
secured every spiritual blessing for His people. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. in whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. Who are these blessed people? Who are these possessors of every
spiritual blessing? Well, they are all for whom the
Lord Jesus Christ stood substitute and surety and for whom he died
on the cross. Those who are chosen in the Lord
Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. This is God's initiative. This is God's gift. We are God's
people. And he has chosen us. He has chosen us to be holy.
and to be without blame before Him in love. They are the many
of whom the Lord Jesus Christ spoke in our verse. The Son of
Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give His life a ransom for many. The Lord Jesus Christ's own lips
testify to limited atonement. He gave his life a ransom for
many. This is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. What happened
at the cross? The Lord Jesus Christ ministered
to his father, to his complete satisfaction. The Lord Jesus
Christ ministered to his people, for their complete salvation. He satisfied God's justice. He
shed his blood to ransom and redeem his people. He reconciled
God and sinners. He brought liberty to the captives. He healed the brokenhearted.
He secured all spiritual blessings for us in heavenly places. In John chapter 19, there's just
a little scene, a little incident shown to us. We read in verse
25, one of these verses you just pass over and don't give proper
acknowledgement to. Now there stood by the cross
of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife
of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene. They're stood by the cross of
Jesus. It's a wonderful thing that we
do here today. We stand by the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It is what every believer does. He stands by the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Men proclaim universal redemption. They talk about an incomplete
work. They teach us that there is something
still remaining to be done to secure God's blessing. We stand
by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, who made peace through
the blood of his cross, who reconciled all things to himself, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven. May the Lord give
us grace to see and understand what happened at the cross.