In Mark chapter 14, the Holy
Spirit gives us, or chapter 15 rather, he gives us the record of our Lord's sacrifice as the
Lamb of God. We will today look at verses
1 through 15 together. Mark 15, verse 1. And straightway in the morning
the chief priest held a consultation with the elders and scribes and
the whole council and bound Jesus and carried him away and delivered
him to Pilate. And Pilate asked him, art thou
the king of the Jews? And he answering said unto him,
thou sayest. And the chief priest accused
him of many things. but he answered nothing. And
Pilate asked him again, saying, answerest thou nothing? Behold,
how many things they witness against thee? But Jesus yet answered
nothing. So that Pilate marveled. Now at the feast, he released
unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired, And there was one
named Barabbas which lay bound with them that had made insurrection
with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection. And the
multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had
ever done unto them. But Pilate answered them saying,
will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews? For he
knew that the chief priest had delivered him for envy. But the
chief priest moved the people, that he should rather release
Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said
unto them, what will you then that I shall do unto him whom
you call the king, the king of the Jews? And they cried out
again, crucify him. And Pilate said unto them, why? What evil has he done? And they
cried out to more exceedingly crucify him. And so Pilate, willing
to content the people, released Barabbas unto them and delivered
Jesus when he had scourged him to be crucified. Now, whenever we think about
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that he made upon
the cursed tree 2,000 years ago, we ought always to remember three
things. These three things ought always
to be in the forefront of our thoughts. The first is this,
the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cursed tree as a substitutionary
sacrifice for our sins. He did not suffer for any crimes
of his own. The Son of God was cut off out
of the land of the living, but not for his sake, but rather
for our sakes. He died not for his own sins,
but for our sins, which were imputed to him. He died not for
his own transgressions, but for our transgressions, which were
made to be his by divine imputation. He died not because of his iniquities,
he had none, but because our iniquities were laid upon him
so that he was made to bear our sins in his own body on the cursed
tree. Listen to the scriptures. Surely
he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, but the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken, says the Lord God. He was cut off, but not
for himself, but for the people. For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Listen to this. Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. And it was evident that he was
made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that
hangeth on a tree. Secondly, understand this. Not
only did Christ die as a substitute in our place, as a substitutionary
sacrifice, but ever remember that the substitutionary sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ is the focal point, the essence, and
the message of Holy Scripture. Now, I cannot emphasize this
sufficiently. I want you to turn to 1 Peter
1 for a moment. 1 Peter 1. The law that was given back at
Sinai was given to show us our need of Christ. All the sacrifices
that were offered in the tabernacle and in the temple, the morning
and evening sacrifices, the annual sacrifices, those sacrifices
that came every seven years, all the sacrifices were designed
to show us the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. All
the priests, all the priestly garments, all the priestly ceremonies,
all the priestly rituals, all the priestly services, every
miracle, all the deliverances, the manna that fell from heaven,
the rock out of which came the water, the healing of the waters
of Myra with the casting in of that stick. All those things
are determined by God to be representatives and pictures of Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, who was sacrificed for us. I'm not suggesting, I'm
not even implying in the slightest way that this is the most important
thing revealed in Scripture. I am saying to you as plainly
as I know how to say it, this is the whole revelation of Holy
Scripture. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is not a book about morality.
It is not a book about law. It is not a book about religious
dogma. It is not a book about politics.
It's not a book about religious history. It is a book about Him
who loved us and gave Himself for us. Now, let's see if I can
make good on that in the Scriptures. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 and
verse 23. The Apostle Peter has told us
now about the death of Christ, how he redeemed us with his precious
blood as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He says
in verse 23 that we who believe had been born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible. I was challenged just recently,
a fellow said, now the Word of God teaches that we're converted
by the instrumentality of the Word, but not regenerated. I
beg your pardon. Now, I don't beg anybody's pardon.
This is what it says. You're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God. This book right
here, this book, the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. For all flesh is grass and all
the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
the flower thereof falleth away. In other words, we're just nothing.
We're just nothing. Flesh is flesh, never anything
but flesh, withering, dying, decaying, rotting, worthless
flesh. But the Word of the Lord. Endureth
forever now look at this and this is the word Which by the
gospel is preached unto you? What on earth are you saying
Peter? The whole word this word the whole thing Ove This whole
book is preached to you when the gospel is preached to you
and when the gospel is not preached This book is not preached When
the gospel is not declared, those who open this book do but mock
your soul in not preaching the gospel. Listen to this. The Apostle
John says, these things are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through his name. Now, here's the third thing.
Understand this. The death of Christ was a substitutionary
sacrifice. The death of Christ as our substitute
is the sum, the essence, the message of Holy Scripture. And
thirdly, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is the doctrine
of substitution, is both the revelation and the glory of God
and the glory of the gospel. How do men see the glory of God?
How can you see it? Well, I see the glory of God
in creation. No, I just see a little bit of it. I see the glory of
God in the handiwork that he has made. No, just a little bit
of it. I see his wisdom and his power in the stars, in the sun,
in the sky, in the earth, in the wonders of his hands. I see
his wisdom and his power. but Paul tells us plainly that
you see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, our crucified
substitute. That is, we see how that God
can be both just and justifier. We see how that God can be both
merciful and absolutely unrelenting in his wrath. We see how that
God can both punish our sin to the full satisfaction of his
justice and yet forgive our sin on the ground of perfect justice
satisfied. That's only in Christ Jesus the
Lord. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. No wonder the Apostle Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto
the world. Now, listen carefully to me.
When we talk about the cross, when I speak of it here or when
the book of God speaks of the cross, It is not speaking merely
about the historic fact of Christ's death. We don't glory in that. There's no gospel in that. Most
folks seem to think that the preaching of the gospel is simply
announcing the fact that Christ died, was buried, and rose again
according to Scripture. That is just not so. The preaching
of the gospel is declaring how, how, that Christ died for our
sins was buried and rose again the third day according to the
scriptures. So it's not the fact of the cross
we glory in. It certainly is not that wooden
Roman gibbet upon which the Lord Jesus Christ died. In all probability,
now in all probability, we have the idea, we've had the movies
picture us for years, we've had those Roman Catholic artists
show us pictures of that idolatry for years of Jesus stretched
out on a cross like this. That wasn't typically a Roman
cross, more than likely. He was just nailed to a tree,
a post shoved in the ground like so. It is not the fact of the
cross, nor the wood on which he died. Now, I want to tell
you something. It may shock the life out of
folks. It won't you, but it will some folks. If I could find that
piece of wood on which the Son of God died, I'd burn it up,
scatter the ashes, and I wouldn't tell you where it was. Oh, how
could you do that? Because folks would worship it.
They'd worship it. That's the way men are. We don't
worship the wood on which he died. We worship him who died. And I certainly don't have any
reverence for the symbol of the cross or emblems of the cross
or any of those things. Just silly. Idolatry and silly. If something
should happen, that some false accuser came and arrested Bobby
Estes, and took you and put you in an electric chair and executed
you. I can't imagine that woman sitting
beside you wearing an electric chair around her neck for the
rest of her life. But I just can't imagine that, can you?
I just cannot imagine it. Oh, no, no, no. That's horrid. Just the thought of such a thing.
So that's not what Paul's talking about. We don't sing about the
old rugged cross. You know, our hymn books, our
religious world is just so permeated with ungodly idolatry. We just don't do it. Well, preacher,
what are we talking about? We're talking about glory in
the cross, the doctrine of it. the doctrine of it. We glory
in the doctrine of redemption accomplished by God's substitute,
Jesus Christ the Lord. You understand that? Now that's
the message of Holy Scripture. Let's look now at what's revealed
here in Mark chapter 15. As we begin to deal with this
glorious, glorious fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
is led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. I want to show you four
or five things in these first 15 verses, and I won't be long
doing it. First, we have before us in verse
1 a fulfillment of prophecy. Hold your hands here in Mark
15 and turn back to Genesis 49. Let me show you. Why do you suppose
that these Jews, these Jews who prided themselves in their great
religious tradition and in their great authority as Abraham's
children, the chief priests, the scribes, the elders, they
all got together with the whole council and they decided, this
man, Jesus, will kill him. But they didn't do it. They didn't
do it. Was it because somehow they just
thought, well, we're too civil to stone him to death? No. Why is it that they carried him
over to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, and turned him over
to him and asked him to kill him? Well, we don't want to be
guilty of this. No, that wasn't it. That wasn't
it. By their very act, they demonstrated a fulfillment of prophecy. And
by their very act, they testified that they knew, if they simply
opened the scriptures, that the times of the Messiah were present,
because now they had absolutely no legal, civil authority to
execute the Son of God. Their power was gone, but they
were captives of the Romans. They were in Roman bondage and
captivity. The power of law had departed from under Judah's feet,
and Judah no longer had power as a political nation. Let's
look in Genesis chapter 49. This is exactly what Jacob said
was going to happen as he gave this word of prophecy to his
son Judah. He says in verse 10, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah. nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering
of the people be." These Jews did what they did because Shiloh
has come. And Israel as a nation no longer
has political power. It no longer has civil power.
It no longer has legal power. If they would execute any man
legally, it must be done by the Romans and not by the Jews. Not
only that, but they must also fulfill the scriptures in their
deeds. And the scriptures required that our Redeemer be crucified,
not stoned. Crucified as the Romans crucified
a man, not stoned as the Jews did. that he'd be crucified because
it was required that he be put to death in a publicly shameful
manner. And the book of Deuteronomy only
describes one manner of killing as being a public shame. Cursed
is everyone that hangs on a tree. So the Son of God must be hung
on a tree. But He must be hung on a tree,
not tied and hung with a rope. Not tied and hung up there just
to suffer and die being tied to the tree. No, no. They shall
look on Me whom they pierced. He's got to be pierced. His hands
and his feet and his side must be wounded. Our Lord Jesus then
must be crucified with nails driven in the extremities of
His body. He must be crucified, not stone. He must be crucified by nails
and not a bone in His body broken. That's all required in the Scriptures.
Therefore, when the Jews wanted Him dead, they took Him to a
Roman governor. And the Roman governor hung him
on a tree. And the Roman governor didn't just hang him there, he
nailed him to the tree. And not only did he nail him
to the tree, when they sent his man out to execute the rest by
breaking their legs, the Lord Jesus was hanging there already
dead. He had given up his life and
they didn't crush his legs like they did anybody else's. How
come? Listen to this. 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. Remember this my
brothers, my sisters in Christ, wicked men are never out of God's
control. All hell and all the peoples
of this world, Satan and all the demons of hell are but unwitting
vassals of our God to fulfill His will in all things. So that these ungodly, reprobate,
wicked men, the Jews and the Romans did exactly what they
wanted to do, but they did so exactly according to the purpose
of God, exactly. And then look in verses two,
through five. Here's an example of patience. The Lord Jesus was accused of
many things. And it didn't answer a thing.
He made no effort to defend his name. Made no effort to clear
his reputation. He made no effort whatsoever
to stand in defense of himself. But the scripture says he committed
him to God, committed himself to God who judges righteously. Oh, what an example he gives
us. We can do nothing more dishonoring
to our God. We can do nothing more contrary
to our faith than grumble, complain, and murmur against our God when
he sends trouble our way, no matter by whom he sends it. You
see, the one who brings the trouble is just the messenger. The one
who sends the trouble is our God. And we can never more dishonor
him than when we murmur against him, complain, and grumble at
his providence. and we can never more glorify
Him. We can never more exemplify the
character of our Savior than when we bear afflictions and
false accusations and injustices patiently. Turn back to the passage
we read earlier in 1 Peter 2. Verse 20. What glory is it if when you
be buffeted for your faults, that is you suffer because you
acted like somebody who deserved to suffer. What glory is it if,
somebody said, boy, I'm being persecuted because of the gospel. Most of the time it's because
you got a sharp mouth. Most of the time. What glory is it if
you suffer because you've acted like someone that folks look
down their nose at and say that his behavior is repugnant. That's
what you deserve. You get what you ought to. What
glory is it if you suffer, you're buffeted for your faults and
you take it patiently. But, now this is something else.
If when you do well, and suffer for it. You take it patiently. Now that's acceptable to God.
For even here unto were you called, that is you were called by God
to do well and suffer for it, because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps. who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
Now that's the example our Savior gives. God teach us to follow
it, to take heed to our ways, to set a bridle upon our mouths
that we sin not with our tongues. God guard our hearts and our
mouths and teach us patience. Teach us patience. Thereby we
exemplify the character of the Son of God. Now then, look at
verse 15. What an abuse of power we have
here. Pilot, willing to content the people, released Barabbas
unto them and delivered Jesus when he had scourged him to be
crucified. In verse 10 we're told that Pilate
knew the priest had delivered Jesus to him because they envied
him. They were jealous of his power
Jealous of his reputation, jealous of his influence. Said, but he
was a poor man. He didn't have anything. He didn't
have anything except what they wanted, respect. He didn't have
anything except what they wanted, the ear of the people. He didn't
have anything except what they wanted, leadership. Character
and for in there they delivered him to pilot and pilot knew it
He knew they didn't have a case against him. He understood there
wasn't one charge that wasn't trumped up There wasn't one witness
there wasn't hired to buy but to and Bob to give his testimony
and yet pilots Being a Typical politician being a typical political appointee,
was willing to content the people. Now, listen to me. Even if it
meant, Lindsay, sacrificing his conscience and the life of an
innocent man, you say, well, no man would behave
like that. And Pilate's behavior was typical.
Now I say that here and now not to stir up more anger and greater
disgust against our president, congressmen, and senators. They're
managing that pretty well on their own. I mention it here
to remind you and myself that we ought to take a higher ground
than the rest of the world. Men in high places without the
knowledge of Christ, without the constraint of moral integrity,
are to be pitied because they have absolutely nothing to restrain
them except our prayers on their behalf. I said that the way I
meant to. Listen to what Paul says, I exhort
therefore first of all that supplications, prayers and intercessions and
giving of thanks be made for all men, especially for kings,
for all that are in authority. How come that we may lead a quiet
and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Lord God, in these dark days,
teach us to bridle our tongues, and rather than joining the world,
teach us to pray, recognizing that those who are set in authority
over us are set in authority by your hand, and do only your
bidding for the good of your people. Let us then pray that
you may direct them for our good and your glory. Now then, here's
a portrait of human depravity. In these days of universal compromise,
in these days of ecumenical religion, everybody is trying to remove
every possible point of offense and trying to make it possible
for all guilt and all blame to be taken away from everybody
so that we can fix things up. At least if we can't say that
the behavior of men is saintly, at least we can excuse it and
not say that it's terribly reprehensible. Historians are rewriting history
every day to suit the trends of modern thinking. Theologians
are rewriting the Word of God to mold it to the opinions of
men without regard to what the scripture says. But all the rearranging
of things in the world by men will never alter facts. Here's
a fact. The Jews, the religious leaders
of the day, bear the guilt of crucifying the Son of God. They
had opportunity at the 11th hour to change their minds. But they
stayed with him. Pilate said, here, take Barabbas
instead. He did what he could to try to alleviate his own guilt
and soothe his own conscience. He said, I'll release Barabbas
to you. That's my custom. You know, Jesus, he's innocent.
What'd he do? I washed my hands of this matter. But the Jews said no. knowing
that Barabbas, I mean, this wasn't something in the corner. They
knew Barabbas was a murderous insurrectionist. Now, try to
stop and picture this. Here's this herd of religious
men, this herd of wild beasts in the name of religion, and
they say, turn this murderous man loose on our wives and children
and crucify the Son of God. How could they do so? because
man's heart is desperately wicked, depraved, and no man can know
the depths of his depravity, no man. Let us take care that
we don't make the same decision, choosing the world and rejecting
Christ, choosing our way and despising God's Son, choosing
to walk after our lust and despising the Son of God. And yet, Skip,
we will certainly do so unless God intervenes. That's the depravity
of man. You will not come to me that
you might have life. No man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me. Draw him. Now here's one last
thing. Here's a glorious picture of
substitution. What a beautiful picture it is.
Barabbas sitting in jail, justly condemned. as guilty as hell
itself, fix him to die. And can you picture the old boy?
He hears a guard coming and the keys rattling, open that door.
And he takes one deep breath. And he said, well, it's time
to go. And the guard says, you go and
grab us. What? What? You're free to go. What did you
say? You're free to go. The governor,
with the stroke of the law, has said you're free to go. Jesus
of Nazareth is going to be crucified in your place. And the guilty
one is spared. And the innocent one is crucified. That's what the Son of God did
for us. We're guilty. We're guilty. We're sitting in a prison house,
waiting execution, and now the gospel comes and says, set us! You're free to go. The Son of
God died in the place of his people. Now, take off. You're free. You're free. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bear our sins in his own
body on the tree, and thereby set us free. Amen.