Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good morning and welcome back today!

If you will start turning in your Bibles back to .

This morning and tonight we are going to be picking up in verse 27 and making our way all the way through verse 66, the end of the chapter.

And that seems like a lot of ground to cover in a short time, but the entire focus today is going to be around some of the historical events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion and it is really something that you can’t separate into segments.

If you recall, last week we ended with Pilate, under the peer pressure of the Jews setting the criminal Barabbas free and turning Jesus over to the soldiers to be flogged and executed.

And the reason Jesus was flogged by the way was that flogging was such a severe punishment that the blood loss during the flogging would speed up the death process in crucifixion.

In fact, many would not even survive the flogging process.

It was a brutal process where they took what’s called a “Cat of 9 tails” which is a whip with 9 ends on it with things like bone, rocks, and broken pottery tied to the end, which would rip the flesh from the bone.

It was a brutal torture that was only the beginning of what the condemned faced.

And they are now taking Jesus, who was not guilty of anything, and subjecting him to this torture.

All because people who knew what was right would not stand up for what was right.

All because they powerless and hopeless.

All because they were under the impression that their “leaders” were too powerful to stand up against.

And the reality was the ruling Jews had them convinced that the Romans would “get them” if they resisted, if they didn’t get on board.

When the fact was the Romans could have cared less.

The Ruling Jews had the people bluffed into thinking this was right because “they said so.”

And the people, who had just days before gathered by the masses praising Jesus, shouting “Hosanna” to him, were now sucked into this mob mentality, yelling “crucify him!”

Not because he had done anything but because it was easier just to go along instead of standing up.

And now we have Jesus before them and the people resounding . . .

Matthew 27

Which is still hard for me to believe they would even say such a thing.

Let his blood be on us and on our children!

It is shocking as to how low the morality of these people has shrunk to .

Matthew 27:37-

Mocked and Humiliated (vs 27-31)

Mocked and Humiliated (vs 27-31)

But Barabbas is freed to go back to his life of crime and Jesus is flogged and handed … over to be crucified.

Matthew 27:27

Now, this is just par for the course for the Roman soldiers.

They were so hardened by war and years of treating humans like animals, that Jesus was just another criminal to them.

To them, he was worthless, less than human, so to them it was all fun and games.

Which actually speaks to the level of sin and depravity in their society.

The Romans were known to be ruthless, but they took it to the extreme and tortured people.

And I’ve heard people say that “it was and different culture and different times”

But the reality is, they were a society overcome by sin and depravity.

Which led them to dehumanize people and treat them in this way.

And we live in a society that is quickly approaching the same level of sin and depravity.

We live in a society that is all about “peace and justice” so long as you agree with certain points of view.

And the vast majority of the time, those certain points of view are things that are sinful and stand against God’s Word.

And when this vocal minority don’t get their way, they turn violent.

And they are able to do that because they devalue and see others that don’t share their point of view as less than human.

And these groups or factions, which on their own are relatively small, will join together and before you know it, you have people being mocked, ridiculed, made fun of, being treated as less than human.

And others see this happening and they are afraid to speak up and stand against these actions, and before you know it you have Roman culture and society, which fell by the way.

And if we are not very, very careful and if we continue to act the way that we are acting, this is the road our society is heading.

You are already mocked and made fun of if you believe in Jesus in many places.

Called, “backward” or “ignorant” or “old fashioned.”

Which is a mild version of what Jesus had to endure before his death.

Our Bible tells us that a whole company of soldiers, which is about 600 soldiers, gathered around him.

Matthew 27:28-

And all they were doing here was delegitimizing Jesus’ authority as the Son of God.

They had no understanding or reference of who God really was and who Jesus was.

They continued and . . .

Matthew 27:

And when they had had their fun . . .

And honestly, they had no clue what they were actually doing and who they were doing it to.

Save Yourself IF you are the Son of God (vs 32-44)

And I have heard people say time and time again, “how many times have we crucified Jesus because of the way we act.”

Or, “how have we mocked Jesus by the way we act.”

And to answer the first question, ZERO.

And the second question, maybe before we were saved we mocked Jesus but afterward, ZERO unless we were never saved and just acting the way the crowd we were around at the time expected us to.

And I bring this up because the fact is Jesus was crucified once and for all.

He rose again and when that happened he defeated death, hell, and the grave once and for all.

And when we say things like this all we are doing is trying to put him back on the cross over and over.

And all that does is just show that we don’t really believe what we say.

If we believe that Jesus finished the work, as he did, there is no need to put him back up there.

They real need is for us to repent of our sins, put our faith in him, and follow him.

So we really need to stop just trying to guilt people into things and get people to realize #1 the depth of their sin, #2 the hope found in Jesus Christ, and #3 their need for repentance and faith in Jesus.

Because like we talked about last week, just feeling guilty doesn’t save us.

We have to do something with that guilt.

And that something is repentance.

Jesus don’t want you feeling sorry for him.

Jesus wants you to do something with the sacrifice He made for you.

So, Jesus has been flogged.

He has been beaten.

He has been mocked.

He has lost no telling how much blood.

And now they are leading him out to be crucified.

And part of this is carrying the cross member of the cross you are going to be crucified on.

But they had beaten Jesus too much and he was unable.

And the Romans were not going to do it.

So . . .

Matthew 27:32-

By the way, Golgotha “the place of the Skull” and Calvary all mean the same thing Golgotha is Aramaic and Calvary was the Latin word.

So, they reach Golgotha and . . .

Matthew 27:34

Now, this wine mixed with gall.

People have claimed that this was a mixture made to dull the senses and make the pain easier to bear, but Jesus refused it because he wanted to feel the pain.

That’s ridiculous.

The reality was that all the blood Jesus lost would have led him to be severely dehydrated, and mixing this wine with gall made it bitter and undrinkable, which was just one more way they were mocking Jesus.

Matthew 27:35-

Now, the reason they were dividing up his clothes was because it was part of their payment.

The soldiers had to sit and wait on the condemned to die.

They had to ward off any rescues and they also had to report back that the condemned was dead.

So, they got to divide up the clothing of the condemned.

And yes, the crucified were naked as just one more way to humiliate them.

But one significant thing here is verse 37...

Now, the Jews wanted them to put “this is Jesus who claims to be the king of the jews” but Pilate refused.

We don’t know the real underlying reason why Pilate refused but maybe he knew who Jesus really was.

And also maybe the Jews did as well and this was a last attempt at easing their guilt.