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Introduction: The year was 1707.
Sir Isaac Watts published his first book of hymns.
This was a bold move, because just about every Church of England congregation only sang out of Psalms.
Watts felt like this practice limited the church from singing about all Christ had accomplished in the New Testament.
He is credited with writing over 750 hymns.
One of my personal favorites is the hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
Here are just a few of the words:
When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
[His dying crimson, like a robe, Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe, And all the globe is dead to me.]
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Scripture Introduction: Today as we turn our attention once again to Luke 23 I would like to share with you what I see when “I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
Although this is the darkest day in human history, it is one of the greatest days in human history!
It is the day that our forgiveness was purchased and hope was born!
As we take this journey together my prayer and hope is that we will all realize how wondrous and amazing the cross really is.
As we learned last week, Pilate finally gives in to the pressure from the Jews and hands Jesus over to be crucified.
The Jewish people had chosen Barabbas, who had been guilty of murder, to be released and demanded Jesus to be crucified.
The guilty was set free and the innocent would be beaten, bloodied, bruised and marched up Golgotha’s hill to be crucified.
As Jesus begins to walk up this hill, after his tortuous night, the soldiers demand a man named Simon, a man from Cyrene, to assist Jesus in taking His crossbeam.
As they approach Golgotha, also known as “the place of the skull” we find there are two criminals who will be crucified along with Jesus that day.
Let’s begin our reading in Luke 23:33-37.
As I read this passage and survey the wondrous cross . . .
I See Forgiveness
Explanation (vv.
33-37)
Imagine everything Jesus has been through up to this point.
He has been up all night.
He has agonized in prayer, to the extent that His sweat has become like great drops of blood.
He has been hit repeatedly in the face.
He has been mocked.
He has been whipped with a “cat of 9 tails.”
He has had a crown of thorns placed on His head and driven down into His scalp.
He was walked uphill, with the crossbeam on his back part of the way.
He has had spikes driven through His wrists and His feet.
He has been raised up on the cross, and his bones have probably come out of joint as the cross dropped into the hole with a thud.
Now the linen garment that has been stripped from His body is being gambled over by maybe the very soldiers that have nailed Him to a cross . . .
and what does He say?
He doesn’t curse them, but He cries out to His Heavenly Father and says, “Father, FORGIVE THEM for they know not what they do.”
Charles Swindoll notes in his book, “The Darkness and the Dawn”, the phrase “Father forgive them,” conveyed the idea of continued past action.
In other words He did not just pray it one time, but rather prayed this prayer repeatedly throughout the ordeal.
He prayed it over and over again.
Let me quote from his book:
“Perhaps when they drove the nails into His hands, He was praying, ‘Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.’
When they nailed His feet to the beam and lifted that timber high and dropped it in the hole, with a jolt that tore His flesh, He was praying, ‘Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”
The very first words that Jesus uttered from the cross, were the words of forgiveness.
These words were directed toward the men who were guilty of literally picking up the hammer and the spikes and driving them through His flesh and raising that cross up to be suspended between Heaven and earth while the Son of God was left to die in the most agonizing manner ever invented!
Yet He proclaimed, “Father forgive them.”
But I do not believe those words were just directed to the Roman soldiers doing their job that day.
I believe those words were directed to you and I that day as well.
Because we are just as guilty of Jesus’ death as they were.
Jesus wasn’t just dying on the cross that day because of Pilate’s decision, He was dying on the cross that day because of the Father’s decision to pour out His wrath on Him instead of YOU and I! Look down in your hands today, and if you look hard enough you will see that it was your hands and mine that gripped the hammer and drove the spikes into His body.
Note Romans 5:6-10
Forgiveness is made possible, not because of what we do, but because of what Christ has already done!
We must simply trust what He has done on our behalf, and we can be reconciled to God through faith and receive the forgiveness of our sins!
Illustration
I found a story this week that I think illustrates this forgiveness well.
The story is told about the first missionaries who came to Alberta, Canada.
They were savagely opposed by a young chief of the Cree Indians named Maskepetoon.
But he responded to the Gospel and accepted Christ.
Shortly after his conversion, a member of the Blackfoot tribe killed his father.
Maskepetoon rode into the village where the murderer lived and demanded that he be brought before him.
Confronting the guilty man, he said, "You have killed my father, so now you must be my father.
You shall ride my best horse and wear my best clothes."
In utter amazement and remorse his enemy exclaimed, "My son, now you have killed me!"
He meant, of course, that the hate in his own heart had been completely erased by the forgiveness and kindness of the Indian chief.
Application
When I read this story I am reminded of the fact that I am guilty of killing God’s only Son.
My sin is what brought God’s judgement upon Him.
My sin brought His death.
My rebellion, my lust, my guilt was placed upon Jesus and although He knew no sin, He became sin for me so that I might have His righteousness and His forgiveness!
O what a glorious thought, when I survey the wondrous cross!
And then to think, God the Father comes to me and says, “Now YOU can be MY son! Now YOU can wear the robes of righteousness that belong to Christ who died in your place.”
The home that my Son is preparing can now be yours.
O the forgiveness of God Almighty, what a wonderful thing it is, but what a HIGH cost it was for me to have it!
If God can forgive me for what my sins put Christ through, then who am I not to forgive others who have put me through far less?
We have been forgiven of MUCH, therefore we must learn to forgive MUCH!
That is one of the most important evidences of being a true Christ follower.
Not only do I see forgiveness when I survey the wondrous cross, but . . .
I See Hope
Explanation (vv.
38-43)
While hanging on the cross a conversation begins between Jesus and the two criminals that has been crucified on either side of them.
It is obvious they had both heard of Jesus and had heard stories about who He claimed to be.
We are not sure how they learned about Him, or even if what they had heard was even accurate.
Some of the Gospel writers reveal that at the beginning both of the criminals had mocked Jesus, but it is obvious that one of them had been touched by the Holy Spirit through something he had seen Jesus do, or perhaps he had heard Jesus say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Regardless of what transpired, these two criminals ended up with very different responses to the Christ they were dying beside.
One wanted Jesus to set him free from his pain and agony by delivering him off the cross and the other wanted to be free by becoming a part of Christ’s kingdom.
He comes to the realization of WHO Jesus is and simply requests for Jesus to remember him when He enters into His kingdom.
He understands that Jesus is the Messiah and he understands that he truly is the King and he wants to be a part of Jesus’ kingdom.
While Jesus is dying for the sins of the world, he is also dying for the sins of this man—a guilty criminal.
A man who knew he was guilty.
A man who knew he was getting what he deserved.
A man who did not have time to preform any good works.
A man who did not have time to go to the temple and put in an offering.
A man who did not have time to get baptized.
He had wasted his life, he had hurt people, he had stolen from people . . .
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