Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Over the next couple of months I want to take some time and do a topical study on the suffering of Jesus Christ.

When I say topical I mean we will focus on one primary topic versus going verse by verse through a particular book of the Bible.

We will survey the entire Bible looking for answers to the question, Why did Jesus Christ suffer and die?

What was the purpose of His suffering and death and what was accomplished in and through it.

There’s really two over-arching question that I hope to answer;

Why did Jesus Christ suffer and die?

What did it accomplish?

The 2 questions kind of go hand in hand and we intend to get our answers from the Bible, of course.

I think these are 2 of the most important questions that one could ask and the answers to these questions are of massive importance and we want to look beyond just the human cause but have an understanding of the divine perspective.

The most important question of the twenty-first century is: Why did Jesus Christ come and die?

To see this importance we must look beyond human causes.

The ultimate answer to the question, Who killed Jesus?

is: God did.

It is a staggering thought.

Jesus was his Son!

But the whole message of the Bible leads to this conclusion.

Piper makes reference here to it being God, the Father, who ultimately killed Jesus, the Son, and perhaps you’ve never really thought of Jesus death on the cross as God’s doing but as John Piper mentions, a study of the entire scriptures leads us to this conclusion.

So having said that, it really begs the question of why and that is our purpose on this study, to answer why did Jesus suffer and die.

Why did Jesus suffer and die?

As a quick sidenote - thinking about evangelism.

What a great conversation starter is this question, what was accomplished in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection?

Regardless of the answer given there will be much to talk about.

And I think a really good way to pursue evangelistic opportunities is through asking questions.

Hopefully this study will help us be able to pursue those opportunities and be able to have the biblical answers.

Each week I would like to preface our study with these verses from .

There is so much in them and I believe it will kind of focus our thoughts to the cross and all that God was doing through it.

Quick summary of this passage.

It’s believed that Isaiah was written, by the OT prophet Isaiah roughly 700 years before Christ was born yet you will notice it is written in the past tense.

It’s written as if it has already taken place.

This is truly a prophetic passage.

So it’s written in the past about a future time when Israel looks back to the suffering servant.

GOD MEANT IT FOR GOOD

The Hebrew prophet Isaiah, centuries before Christ, said, “It was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10).

The Christian New Testament says, “[God] did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32).

“God put [Christ] forward … by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25).

But how does this divine act relate to the horribly sinful actions of the men who killed Jesus?

The answer given in the Bible is expressed in an early prayer: “There were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus … both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27–28).

The scope of this divine sovereignty takes our breath away.

But it is also the key to our salvation.

God planned it, and by the means of wicked men, he accomplished it.

To paraphrase a word from the Jewish Torah: They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20).

So we can ask this question, and I’ve asked it before:

Who killed Jesus?

We have already given the ultimate answer, God did.

Yet it was through the means of sinful men and in that we can see the evil purposes of the men responsible and still God’s good purpose.

A few weeks ago we talked about providence, God’s providence.

God’s providence includes not only His sovereignty, that is His power and authority, to brings things to pass but also includes His will and purpose which also reveals His character.

The cross most certainly was providential.

It wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t plan B.

“It was the will of the LORD to crush him...”

Jesus Death Was Absolutely Unique

Jesus died in a manner that from the human perspective was not completely unique, death by crucifixion.

At the very time of Jesus death there were two others we are told that hung on either side of Him.

Crucifixion was a relatively common way for criminals to be put to death in the Roman empire.

Crucifixion

Definition

The practice of executing certain criminals by staking their hands and feet to a cross as punishment for their crimes

Use of Crucifixion

Sources attest to cases of women being crucified as well.

Josephus reports of a freed woman who was crucified for helping in the seduction of a Roman lady (Cook, “Envisioning Crucifixion,” 278; Antiquities 18.66–80).

Crucifixion was a gruesome penalty reserved typically for those criminals of the lowest social standing i.e. slaves.

So death by crucifixion was necessarily unique however Jesus’ death was unique.

It was unique because Jesus’ wasn’t merely a man.

His death was unique because he was more than a mere human.

Not less.

He was, as the ancient Nicene Creed says, “very God of very God.”

This is the testimony of those who knew him and were inspired by him to explain who he is.

The apostle John referred to Christ as “the Word” and wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.…

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1–2, 14).

So Jesus death was absolutely unique in that it was God in the flesh who was put on a cross to hang, suffer and die.

What an act of unimaginable humility!

Philippians

Second, His death was unique because He was innocent.

Jesus never sinned and had no guilt.

Moreover he was utterly innocent in his suffering.

Not just innocent of the charge of blasphemy, but of all sin.

One of his closest disciples said, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22).

Add to this the fact that he embraced his own death with absolute authority.

One of the most stunning statements Jesus ever made was about his own death and resurrection: “I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again” (John 10:17–18).

The controversy about which humans killed Jesus is marginal.

He chose to die.

His heavenly Father ordained it.

He embraced it.

The Purpose of His Death was Vindicated by the Resurrection

God raised Jesus from the dead to show that he was in the right and to vindicate all his claims.

It happened three days later.

Early Sunday morning he rose from the dead.

He appeared numerous times to his disciples for forty days before his ascension to heaven (Acts 1:3).

vin·di·cate

/ˈvindəˌkāt/

verb

verb: vindicate; 3rd person present: vindicates; past tense: vindicated; past participle: vindicated; gerund or present participle: vindicating

clear (someone) of blame or suspicion.

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ACYBGNQSoRXcVSaxz5LescdTuuCUplwzqQ%3A1575118096436&ei=EGXiXfWdGsOotQXmuaWACQ&q=define+vindicate&oq=define+vindicate&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i10j0l5.1077430.1082776..1082943...6.0..3.282.3950.0j21j4......0....1..gws-wiz.....10..35i39j0i7i30j0i20i263j35i362i39j0i131j0i67j0i273j0i13j0i13i10i30j0i13i30.jcEpYhKYvfw&ved=0ahUKEwj15feU_JHmAhVDVK0KHeZcCZAQ4dUDCAo&uact=5

Vindication is also synonomous with justify or justification.

What does it mean to be justified?

All of Jesus claims and everything He ever taught or said was validated in His resurrection.