4/2/2023 - The Cross

(Opening Prayer)

(Sermon Introduction)

Today we begin our three week series entitled “The Cross, The Tomb, and the Road,” focusing on the story of crucifixion and resurrection as seen through the eyes of the Emmaus Road Disciples in Luke 23-24.

Luke 24:13–14 (ESV)

13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,

14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.

(Emmaus Context)

Jesus had twelve disciples that he chose to be close to Him but had many other disciples (students) who followed Him. We find later in Luke 24 that one of them is named Cleopas.

They are upset and wrestling with the events that had just transpired within the last seven days.

These two disciples were not doing well.

Luke 24:15–24 (ESV)

15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad.

18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,

20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.

21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning,

23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.

24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

(Emmaus Context)

Let’s recap, what has happened during the last seven days?

It is important to remember that the gospel writers record what happens according to the Jewish culture and timeline not ours.

The Jewish calendar is lunar not solar like ours.

According to Scripture and the Jewish understanding, each new day starts at sunset the day before not midnight or sunrise.

We must remember that these accounts were written through eastern eyes, not western eyes.

It is important that we study to know what is meant by what is written.

Otherwise we can find ourselves in a place of great misunderstanding.

This misunderstanding has caused much confusion throughout history in reference to the Biblical account of what is referred to as Passion week.

Today is Palm Sunday.

Today kicks off the week known as Passion week.

This is what the Emmaus road disciples were referring to when asked, “What things?”

Sunday:

Jesus weeping over Jerusalem.

Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey.

The people waving palm branches, which was done during the fall feast of Tabernacles, not before the Passover feast.

Psalm 118 “Blessed Is He who comes in the Name of the Lord” is declared over Jesus.

The people declaring Jesus to be their deliverer from the Romans.

Monday:

Jesus cursing the fig tree and driving out the money changers from the temple.

Jesus being tested by the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Scribes.

Jesus rebuking the religious leaders and teaching about future events from the Mount of Olives.

Jesus having dinner at Simon the Leper’s house and being anointed with expensive perfume by a broken woman.

Judas making plans to betray Jesus.

Tuesday:

The disciples preparing the Passover Seder Meal to be shared with Jesus.

Acknowledging that the fig tree that Jesus cursed withered and died.

Jesus leading the disciples in the Passover Seder.

Jesus praying in the garden, and being betrayed by Judas.

Jesus being humiliated, mocked, and beaten.

Wednesday:

The Sanhedrin putting Jesus on trial (very early Wednesday morning).

Pontius Pilate’s placing Jesus on trial.

King Herod's sending of Jesus back to Pilate (Luke).

Pilate bringing Jesus to trial again at the hands of the Sanhedrin.

Pilate releasing Bar-Abba instead of Jesus.

Pilate sentencing Jesus to flogging and crucifixion.

Jesus being flogged, mocked, and beaten by Roman soldiers .

Jesus carrying the cross beam to Golgotha.

Jesus being nailed to the cross by 9am on Wednesday.

Jesus dying on the cross by 3pm on Wednesday.

Jesus being removed from the cross, prepared for burial and placed in the tomb by Joseph and Nicodemus before 6pm on Wednesday.

(A High Holy Shabbat that coincided with the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on Thursday that year.)

Thursday (Wednesday Night and Thursday Day):

Jesus being in the tomb.

Disciples having a somber High Holy Shabbat in celebration of the First Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Friday (Thursday Night and Friday Day):

Jesus being in the tomb.

Disciples celebrating another somber day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Saturday (Friday Night and Saturday Day):

Jesus being in the tomb.

Disciples having a somber Shabbat until 6pm Saturday.

Heading away from Jerusalem during the feast of first fruits was unusual.

They were traveling the Joppa road and were near Emmaus and they were discouraged...

Listen to how Jesus responds to them:

Luke 24:25–27 (ESV)

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

Jesus asks them an important question:

Was it not necessary?

For Jesus to suffer.

For Jesus to enter into glory.

It is important to realize that Jesus is referencing the first testament.

He is speaking about what we have come to call the Old Testament or Old Covenant.

The Hebrew Bible!

The Torah being the first five books of the Bible, followed by the prophets, and the writings.

Jesus is saying…the “Old Testament” testified concerning himself!

The New Testament hadn’t been recorded yet.

In this three part series we want to help us connect the life-transforming revelation that the Emmaus Disciples received from Jesus to our own lives today.

Today I have entitled the message, “The Cross.”

I want to look at how the cross displays Who Jesus is!

We need to understand that the week that is referenced was the week of the feast of Passover.

Here is a quick synopsis of where Passover started:

The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years.

Moses was called by YHWH to deliver the people by way of the Lord’s hand.

Pharoah refuses over and over again and the Lord pours out 10 plagues upon the Egyptians.

The final plague involves the Lord striking down the firstborn of every household.

The Lord commands the Israelites to slaughter lambs and place the blood along the doorposts of the home to protect them as He “passes over them.”

Finally Pharoah heeds yields to the will of God and releases them.

You can read the story in Exodus 12.

The feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread becomes an appointed feast for the people of Israel.

There are specific instructions that had to be followed to properly celebrate Passover (Passover Seder Invite).

Dr. Richard Booker

The common understanding of Passover that has come down to us over the centuries is that God somehow passed by the dwellings where the blood was applied. But the Biblical understanding is much more powerful. When people applied the blood to the threshold and doorway, they were inviting God to pass over or cross over the threshold into their house as their protector from the angel of death. God, in a sense, stood in the doorway protecting the people from death. He entered into a threshold-blood covenant wit the people as He crossed over the blood-stained threshold while His executioner entered the houses of those who did not have the blood. The Passover was actually a Crossing Over or Threshold Covenant.

Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts (2016, pg. 38).

For 1,500 years, previous to the time of Jesus, the Jewish people had been celebrating the Feast of Passover by killing a lamb and offering it as a sacrifice to God.

In fact, the Jewish Historian Josephus reported there was more that 250,000 of these Passover lambs killed in Jerusalem in the first century (The War of the Jews).

So we know they knew lambs!

But the the blood of an animal could only cover their sins; it could not take them away.

In view of this, God sent prophets to explain to the people that, one day in the future, a lamb provided by God, would come who would deal with the problem of sin and death once and for all.

It is important to understand the context and realize that Passover has always been about Jesus and has always pointed to Jesus.

1. Jesus Had to Suffer to Forgive Our Sin

Psalm 22:1-18 (ESV)

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

3 Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

4 In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”

9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.

10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.

12 Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;

13 they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.

14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;

15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—

17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me;

18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Isaiah 53:1-9 (ESV)

1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Deuteronomy 21:22–23 (ESV)

22 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,

23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Numbers 21:4-7 (ESV)

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.

5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

2. Jesus Had to Suffer To Make Us Righteous

Psalm 22:19-31 (ESV)

19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!

20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!

21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:

23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.

26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.

28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.

30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

Charles H. Spurgeon

Sovereign grace shall bring out from among men the blood-bought ones.

Nothing shall thwart the divine purpose.

The chosen shall come to life, to faith, to pardon, to heaven.

In this dying Saviour finds a sacred satisfaction.

Toiling servant of God, be glad at the thought that the eternal purpose of God shall suffer neither let nor hindrance.

None of the people who shall be brought to God by the irresistible attractions of the cross shall be dumb, they shall be able to tell forth the righteousness of the Lord, so that future generations shall know the truth.

Fathers shall teach their sons, who shall hand it down to their children; the burden of the story always being “that He hath done this,” or, that “It is finished.”

Salvation’s glorious work is done, there is peace on earth, and glory in the highest.”It is finished,” these were the expiring words of the Lord Jesus, as they are the last words of this Psalm.

May we live by living faith be enabled to see our salvation finished by the death of Jesus Christ!

The Treasury of David #22, (1950, pg. 334).

Isaiah 53:10-12 (ESV)

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Charles H. Spurgeon

The scars in His hands, feet, and side, and perhaps other marks of His many wounds, remained after His resurrection.

And John saw Him, in vision, before the throne, as “a Lamb as it had been slain.”

All these expressions and representations, I apprehend, are designed to intimate to us that, though the death of the Messiah is an event long since past, yet the effects and benefits are ever new, and to the eye of faith are ever present.

How admirable is the expedient, that the wounds of one, yea, of millions, should be healed by beholding the wounds of another!

Yet, this is the language of the gospel: “Look and live!”

“Look unto me, and be ye saved!”

Three great wounds are ours, guilt, sin, and sorrow; but by contemplating His scars, with an enlightened eye, and by rightly understanding who was thus wounded, and why, all these wounds are healed.

Spurgeon’s Sermon Notes #81 “Christopathy”, (1884, pg. 227-228).

[Text]

Zechariah 12:10 (ESV)

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

Zechariah 13:1 (ESV)

1 “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

Numbers 21:8–9 (ESV)

8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

John 3:14–21 (ESV)

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 (ESV)

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

(Response)

(Invite the Worship Team and the Prayer Team)

Luke 24:28–32 (ESV)

28 So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther,

29 but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.

31 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

(Closing Tension)

The Cross:

Jesus Had To Suffer To Forgive Our Sin

Jesus Had To Suffer To Make Us Righteous

(Response Card)

1. What did you hear? (Blank Lines)

2. How will you live it out? (Blank Lines)

3. Who will you share it with? (Blank Lines)

4. Who are you discipling? (Blank Lines)

5. What are you praying for? (Blank Lines)

6. How has God answers your prayers? (Blank Lines)

(Closing)