Jesus Must Die!
The Suffering of Christ Through the Eyes of Matthew • Sermon • Submitted
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Perspective in an interesting thing. Our perspective on things is often founded by our own personal experiences, beliefs, and biases. In our society today many believe that all perspectives are equally viable — at least if they agree with my perspective! In other words most believe that everyone should be tolerant of their own perspective, but they don’t need to be tolerant of the perspective of others.
It is quite possible to have two different and yet compatible perspectives. On the other hand, it most common to have two or more opposing perspectives. Because we, as created being are finite in our understanding, our personal perspectives are very limited. But God, who is infinite in understanding, as well as in every other area, has no limitation to His perspective. Thus, we can be sure that His perspective is always accurate.
Please take your Bible and turn to . This morning we begin a new series in which we look at the suffering of Christ through the eyes of Matthew.
In our passage for this morning we will note that Jesus had to die, but there were varied views as to why, how, and when. As we go through our text we will look at four perspectives regarding Christ’s pending death.
Let’s read our passage together.
When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples,
“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, named Caiaphas;
and they plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him.
But they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.”
Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper,
a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.
But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste?
For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.
For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.
Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”
Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
and said, “What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?” And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.
From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.
Let’s look first at:
The Perspective of God
The Perspective of God
Which is:
Jesus must die as the ultimate Passover Lamb
Look again at the first phrase of verse 1:
When Jesus had finished all these words, He said to His disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
When Jesus had finished all these words,
If you have been with us throughout our study of the Gospel of Matthew you should recognize the significance of this phrase. It marks the ending of a discourse — in this case the Olivet Discourse which we looked at last fall.
Now notice what Jesus said in verse 2:
“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
This is the fourth time in which Jesus had made a similar statement.
The first statement emphasized the role of the religious establishment of Israel —
The second statement emphasized the role of the Romans —
The third statement emphasized the role of the betrayer —
This statement in our text emphasizes that it will happen at Passover
Matthew took particular effort to highlight how God was in control of all things — particularly as it relates to Jesus Messiah. And Jesus prior knowledge of what was about to transpire indicates this. Not only that, but so do:
The various fulfillment passages in Matthew’s account — i.e., “this was done to fulfill...”
Jesus specific knowledge of what was going to happen:
, , , , ,
As they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.”
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’
Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”
And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
Peter acknowledged that it was God’s intention for Jesus to die as a sacrifice in
this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
It was God’s intention that Jesus would die at the same time in which they were sacrificing the Passover Lamb. This obviously points to the fact that Jesus is our True Passover.
Let’s turn our attention now to the second perspective:
The Perspective of the Religious Establishment
The Perspective of the Religious Establishment
Which was:
Jesus must die to preserve our way of life
Notice in verse 3 that:
The Perspective of Judas
The Perspective of Judas
Note Judas’ perspective:
The chief priests and the elders of the people were gathered together
Since Jesus must die, I might as well profit from His death
This clandestine meeting may have taken place while Jesus was delivering the Olivet Discourse to His disciples. During this clandestine meeting
They plotted together to seize Jesus by stealth and kill Him.
These supposed religious leaders of the nation wanted to wait until after the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread to do their dirty deed. They had determined that it should
Not [be] during the festival, otherwise a riot might occur among the people.
They agreed with God that Jesus had to die, but it for a much different reason. They had to protect their way of life. If a riot broke out Roman troops may storm their festivities and destroy their way of living. And since it was Passover season there were a lot of folks from Galilee who had come down for the festival. Their anticipation was that the Galileans would not be happy that One of their own was arrested and killed.
So far we’ve looked God’s perspective, and the religious establishment’s perspective. Now let’s consider:
The Perspective of Christ’s Faithful Follower
The Perspective of Christ’s Faithful Follower
Which was:
Since Jesus must die, I should serve Him in an extravagant way
Since John’s account places this incident just prior to the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, many commentators believe that these verses are a flashback to the Saturday just before His entry. Note the following:
Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper
It is presumed that this man had previously been healed by Jesus since Levitical law would have forbidden him from living in his own home if he were still a leper. And since there was no cure for leprosy it can be reasonably surmised that he was one of the many lepers whom Jesus healed.
Note next that:
A woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.
John’s gospel identifies this lady as being Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus. He also informs us that this perfume was worth about a years wages. I don’t know about you, but I’m not apt to spend that kind of money on perfume! Notice the disciples’ reaction in verses 8-9.
We are told elsewhere that this perfume was worth about a years wages. I don’t know about you, but I’m not apt to spend that kind of money on perfume! Notice the disciples’ reaction in verses 8-9.
But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, “Why this waste?
For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”
In John’s account of this event we learn that Judas was the one who made this statement. It very well could be that on this instance he was acting as a spokesman for the twelve like Peter so often did.
But John tells us something else which none of the other gospels mention: Judas was the treasurer of the group. Being treasurer he had access to the money and used to embezzle some of it for his own purposes. So his indignation may not have been as spiritual as it sounded!
Note Jesus’ reaction to the twelve’s indignation:
“Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.”
Many people have tried to use this statement by Jesus to justify NOT helping out the poor and needy. But that is not a proper interpretation of it. Jesus is actually alluding to a statement in Deuteronomy which implies that the people need to be kind hearted toward the poor. R. C. Sproul had an interesting experience while preaching at a church in Cleveland, OH. In his commentary he related:
“Several years ago, I preached at a church in inner-city Cleveland, and area that was afflicted with all the problems of urban blight — drug abuse, crime, and so on. The minster of that church had been there for many years, but he told me that he had had more than fifteen associates during the time he had been the pastor. When I asked him why he had experienced such high turnover, he explained that young ministers would come out of seminary with zeal to do good works, but when they came to inner-city Cleveland, they rarely lasted more than a couple of years because they were defeated by the poverty, the squalor, the crime, and hopelessness. That made me curious as to how he had been able to stay there so long, so I asked him about it. He said: ‘Because of what Jesus said: “You have the poor with you always.” I didn’t come here to eliminate poverty, because I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I came here to minister to people in the middle of it.’”
Sproul went on to say: “That is precisely what Jesus meant. He was not saying that we are free to ignore the poor. He was giving His disciples a realistic picture of ministry … selling one alabaster flask of perfume would not have solved the problem of poverty.”
But it did accomplish something very important:
When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.
At that time in history, when a criminal died a criminal’s death then his body was not prepared for burial as normal. This intuitive disciple, in her lavish love for her Lord, prepared Jesus’ body, in advance for burial.
This woman’s devoted service to the Lord should be emulated by all who follow Him. What could be too great a cost to serve the One who lost His life for our sake?
So far we’ve looked at the necessity of Jesus’ pending death from three perspectives: God’s perspective, the religious establishment’s perspective, and His devoted follower’s perspective. Our text speaks of one final perspective:
The Perspective of Judas
The Perspective of Judas
Note the perspective of the religious establishment of Israel:
Which seems to have been:
Jesus must die to preserve our way of life
Since Jesus must die, I might as well profit from His death
The name of Judas Iscariot seems to have been despised by the gospel writers, since they always seem to spit out his name with an acknowledgement of his treasonous betrayal. His surname, Iscariot, seems to indicate that he was from Kerioth, which is a village in Judea. If so, then he was probably the only one of the twelve who was not from Galilee.
Note God’s perspective:
The Bible doesn’t address the motive for Judas’ betrayal. But is seems likely that, unlike the other apostles, he understood clearly what Jesus was saying about His impending death. It may well be that he believed that this movement, of which he had aligned himself with, and become an integral part of, was about to come to an end. And if so, then he might as well try to get something out of his wasted years of service.
Jesus must die as the ultimate Passover Lamb
The interesting thing to me is that God used the collaboration of three entities that were in opposition to Him to accomplish His will. Satan, Judas, and the religious establishment.
Matthew took particular effort to highlight how God was in control of all things — particularly as it relates to Jesus Messiah.
We know that Satan had tried on countless occasions to thwart God’s plan. He used Haman during the time of Queen Esther to try and wipe out the Jewish race. He used Herod the Great shortly after the birth of Jesus, to kill all the young boys in Bethlehem. And he used Peter in an attempt to persuade Jesus to bypass the cross. These are just to name a few.
The various fulfillment passages in Matthew’s account — i.e., “this was done to fulfill...”
We know that Satan was behind Judas’ betrayal. And he was behind the opposition of the religious establishment as well. Jesus said as much when He called them son’s of the devil.
How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
Jesus specific knowledge of what was going to happen:
But nothing can thwart God’s redemptive plan for His people.
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What can we as believers take away from this?
What can we as believers take away from this?
As they were eating, He said, “Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me.”
First of all, let’s not be like Judas and allow Satan to use us
I firmly believe that if we aren’t zealous in our walk with Christ then we give Satan an opportunity to wreak havoc on the church for which Jesus died.
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’
Second, let’s be like Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning of Him; And serving Him with sacrificial devotion
Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”
What can non-believers take away from this? If you don’t embrace Jesus as your Passover Lamb then you will experience the same fate that the religious establishment, as well as Judas Iscariot, experienced. Eternal separation from God. Eternal damnation. An eternal dwelling in the Lake of Fire!
And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
This morning, as we close, I’m going to ask you to bow your heads, close your eyes, and make a commitment.
Perhaps you have never embraced the gospel of Christ, but today you sense the Lord is moving in your heart to do so. I would love to be able to pray for you — and to pray with you, if you are willing; so please raise your hand so I can know better how to pray
Perhaps you are a believer and you recognize that your zeal in your walk with Christ is not what it should be. I would love for you to raise your hand so I can pray for you — and I’d love to have the opportunity to pray with about this matter
Perhaps you’d like to make a commitment to more sacrificial in your service to the Lord. If so, please raise your hand so I can pray for you — and I’d love to pray with you about this as well
Let’s pray.
Closing Song: #678
We Are An Offering
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”
But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
Peter acknowledged that it was God’s intention for Jesus to die as a sacrifice in
this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
It was God’s intention that Jesus would die at the same time in which they were sacrificing the Passover Lamb. This obviously points to the fact that Jesus is our True Passover.