Mark: Jesus is our... [Mark 15:16-47]

Mark: Jesus is our… []

Today we’ll cover a rather large portion of scripture…more verses than we normally look at in one setting. I wrestled with this this week whether to lump it in one whole sermon or break it up in two… I decided to tackle it in one whole message because I believe that’s how Mark intended it to be.

Just a disclaimer, there is much much more content in this section we’ll read than I’ll be able to cover…I leave some digging up to you…and I want to challenge you to not set this section off to the side as, well known but do some research on your own…study this section carefully and discover the beauty of the gospel. I put a primer for you’re study in the bulletins for you…OT prophecies fulfilled in …read, compare, study, and marvel at God’s plan.

Today my focus is primarily on the theological significance of this section. You might think, that sounds boring or over my head, but actually the theological significance of this section is the most important thing we could ever deal with. In this section we will deal with who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us. Jesus is God’s Son, Jesus saves sinners!

Stand for the reading of the word of God []

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. , perhaps the most well known scripture in the NT, but at the heart of this well known scripture is the heart of the gospel…for God so loved the world. This cannot be overlooked…God loved rebellious people so much that He was willing to send His Son to die in our place…that surely is a love that is hard to comprehend but a love we can’t deny.

As I studied our text for this week I couldn’t help but notice something amazing about it…the horror of it is also the glory of it. God loved us so much that He willing laid down His own life for us. Peter put it in his epistle [] “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree...” Jesus, God in the flesh, loved us so much He took, in Himself, our punishment for sin…this truly is love.

It was the early church father of the 4th century Augustine that said, “The cross is the pulpit from which God preached His own love to the world.” You want to know what God is like? Look to the cross. You want to know if God loves you? Look to the cross. People ask, “where is God in suffering?” Look to the cross! We don’t have a God who sits on a recliner in the sky watching things spiral out of control…no we have a God, who in Christ, took the matter of sin and separation into His own hands by sending Jesus to die upon the cross for you and for me.

Today, I’m basically going to lift out three things from our text…as I said before, I can’t cover every detail due to the amount we covered, but my intent is to cover the theological significance of the cross.

Jesus is our substitute []

Jesus our substitute...

1. Jesus was mocked and abused for us [] At the end of a night of betrayal Jesus was made the object of a torture play, the same kind of thing happened after the trial before Pilate. Abuse of a condemned prisoner was common in that day, but this abuse and mockery is disgusting. They fake dressed Him up like a king, placed a crown of thorns on His head, struck Him in the head with a reed and spat on Him. They bowed down before Him and pretended to worship Him. The absolute disdain for Jesus is appalling, yet we know He endured this for us.

One thing I want to note that the gospel writers do not do…they do not give us much detail on the physical suffering of Jesus. In fact we have more about the physical suffering of the Messiah from the OT then from the gospels. and are both very descriptive. So why don’t the gospel writers do this? Why do they just skim over the physical suffering of Jesus??? The theological significance. The gospel writers are not as much interested in how Jesus suffered as to why Jesus suffered! Jesus is our substitute.

Years ago Mel Gibson produced the movie “The passion of the Christ.” Gibson’s focus primarily on the physical aspect of the suffering, and I think it was a good wake up to many to see that…but the gospels don’t do what that movie did…their focus is on the why…Jesus suffered to... save sinners!

Jesus our substitute...

2. Jesus was stripped naked for us [] Normally condemned men were made to carry their own cross or cross beam, it could weigh up to 100 pounds. Jesus began carrying and needed help due to the brutal beating he had taken. So a man named Simon of Cyrene was made to help Jesus carry His cross. I’ve heard much made out of Simon of Cyrene, sermons and lessons taught about taking up your cross and following Jesus like Simon of Cyrene. Personally to take those kinds of liberties with scripture can be dangerous, we know very little about his man, in fact Mark wasn’t as familiar with Simon as he was Simon’s sons Alexander and Rufus [Simon, you know Alex and Rufus’s father]. I think it’s pretty simple, Jesus was extremely weak and needed help, and the Roman’s were surely not going to carry it for Him.

They stripped Jesus of His clothing and gambled for his clothes, as further mockery. It’s possible our Lord died completely naked or with just His loin clothe on. Either way, it was humiliating. John Calvin captured the theological importance well, he said: “The gospels portray the Son of God as stripped of His clothes that we may know the wealth gained for us by this nakedness, for it shall dress us in God’s sight. God willed His Son to be stripped that we should appear freely, with the angels, in the garments of His righteousness and fullness of all good things.”

Jesus our substitute...

3. Jesus was crucified with sinners [] Jesus was crucified at the third hour, around 9:00 a.m. as an act of further mockery they nailed the charge against Him above His head: “The king of the Jews” The irony of that…the charge against Him is a testimony of who He really is…the King! And we killed Him because of that…the bible tells us He came to His own and His own did not receive him. But He who has received Him and believed He has given the right to become Sons of God.

Two criminals were on the right and on the left of our Lord as He hung on that cross. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy “He was numbered with the transgressors.” Ironically, James and John had asked Jesus if they could sit at His right and left hand in Jesus’ glory…Jesus told them they did not know what they were asking…and I bet this isn’t the seats they were expecting…but God glorified Jesus upon that cross…are you sure you want those seats James and John??? It is this hour, on the cross, when the Son will glorify the Father and the Father will glorify the Son.

Jesus our substitute...

4. Jesus was ridiculed for us [] Jesus once again was subject to ridicule as He lie hanging, dying upon a cross. It says those who passed by wagged their heads, yelled insults, said things like “save yourself.” Come down off that cross. It’s interesting to me that the temptation to come down from the cross is the same one Satan threw at Him in the wilderness in . It’s the same temptation He faced in the Garden hours before... to forego the cup of suffering. Jesus faced the same temptation at the beginning of His ministry that He did at the end of His ministry…don’t go to the cross. Satan did not want Jesus on that cross…he knew it was his ruin and our redemption. You see...

Jesus our substitute...

5. Jesus was crucified to save others [] The religious leaders could not resist the opportunity to to point out, “he saved others, Himself He cannot save.” They challenged Him to come down as well. The irony is, in order to save others, Jesus could not save Himself. And save Himself He would not!

These religious hypocrites claimed that if Jesus came down off that cross they would believe…if we see, we will believe…but we believe because HE did not come down, but stayed on it. Even today people say, “if only I could see, I would believe.” but that’s not true. In John’s gospel there is an account of the guards of Jesus tomb that told the religious leaders what they saw…He is alive! The religious leaders pay them money to keep it quite and that’s what they did…they saw and they didn’t believe. Jesus says blessed is He who believes and has not seen. In fact, we believe so we might see Jesus is the Son of God, the savior of the world!

Jesus is our propitiation []

Jesus our propitiation… [wrath absorbing substitute]

1. Jesus died in darkness [] Jesus had been on the cross for three hours. Suddenly at noon darkness engulfed the whole land until three. This was not some solar eclipse, since the Passover was held at the time of a full moon. This is a miracle of God, a cosmic sign of God’s judgment on sin poured out on His Son [: ; ; ]

Remember in Exodus the plagues? The ninth plague in Egypt was a three-day period of darkness followed by the final plague, the death of the first born [] Warren Wiersbe said, “The darkness of Calvary was an announcement that God’s firstborn and Beloved Son, the Lamb of God, was giving His life for the sins of the world!” See how even in the Exodus God is pointing to Christ…it was always God’s plan.

Jesus our propitiation...

2. Jesus died alone [] The cry of verse 34 is the most heart-wrenching one in the whole Bible. It’s a quote from and it identifies Jesus as the righteous suffer of that Psalm. Jesus cried out in Aramaic, His mother tongue, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani” which means “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” The cry was not one of physical pain, psychological confusion, or dread of death. No, it was the cry of the Son of God, who was now experiencing something He had never known in all of eternity: separation from and forsakenness by God.

Tim Keller said in his book “King’s Cross”, “Jesus, the Maker of the world, was being unmade, Why? Jesus was experiencing our judgment day. “My, God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Wasn’t a rhetorical question. and the answer is: for you, for me, for us. Jesus was forsaken by God so that we would never have to be. The judgment that should have fell on me fell on Jesus instead.” That is a good picture of propitiation.

Jesus our propitiation...

3. Jesus absorbed the full wrath of God [] Jesus cried out with a loud voice and breathed His last, Jesus died alone as our substitute and our propitiation. God separated from God??? Who can understand it??? I may never understand it, but I will forever praise Him for it!

Jesus is our reconciliation []

Jesus our reconciliation...

1. Jesus died and opened the way to God [] In John Jesus’ last words are “it is finished” atonement had been made, the work of salvation had been done. And as tangible evidence of it the veil in the temple was torn in two…don’t miss it…from top to bottom…this was God’s work! Man had nothing to do with it. The work of salvation is completely God’s work through Jesus death upon the cross. We do not add to or contribute to salvation at all!

The significance of the curtain in the temple was separation, it had been a sign and a separation from people to God…God was unapproachable by man…but now, because of Jesus, the way to God is standing wide open!

The symbolism of the veil torn is theologically significant.

A. It points to the complete, perfect, and altogether sufficient sacrifice for sins that Jesus has offered in Himself on the cross. The sin that had created a barrier both spiritually and naturally between God and man has been atoned for.

B. It also points to the end of the Mosaic Covenant and its laws, which have been fulfilled in Christ. A new covenant has now been established.

C. It points to the fact that God, in all his glory, is now freely and full accessible to all men and women who come to him by faith in Jesus Christ. For centuries before the coming of Christ, God had confined the revelation of His glory and majesty to the Holy of Holies. Now he bursts forth to dwell no longer behind a veil in a house built with wood and stone and precious jewels, but to dwell in the hearts of his people.

We’ve arrived, , at the destination Mark has intended since . Which is on the lips of a Gentile Roman Centurion, he confesses… “this man really is the Son of God.” This confession is not sparked by one of Jesus’ marvelous miracles or tremendous teachings…this confession is invoked by His passion. Jesus on the cross is all anyone needs to say…this is the Son of God!

We don’t have time to get into....

2. Jesus’ death was witnessed by women []

3. Jesus was buried in a rich man’s tomb []

But what Mark’s gospel is trying to convey to his readers is…look at the evidence before you…here is Jesus on the cross as substitute, propitiation and reconciler...will you believe and confess Jesus as the Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world? The question is…have you? It’s a question only you can answer. The evidence is before you…what will you do with Jesus who is our substitute, our propitiation, our reconciliation. If you haven’t repented and believed do so this morning.