crucified
Notes
Transcript
Handout
PRAY
PRAY
The trial of is over.
The accused has been found inncocent of all charges,
But community protests and preassure force the hand of the authorities!
It’s a courtroom drama to rival John Grisham or Hollywood -
But this isn’t fiction
Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
Pilate may have handed Jesus over to the Jews in giving in to their demand,
but they are calling for a Roman execution - and that is what they will get.
Jesus will be bruttaly crucified.
Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
Just like Issac carried the wood for his own sacrifice by His Father Abraham,
So, Jesus carries his own wooden cross for his own sacrifice in obedience to His father in heaven.
But this time there will be no sacrficial lamb to take anyone’s place.
Jesus is the lamb.
The cross Heavy and brutal after his beatings.
To the place of the skull - of death.
There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
ON the skull, on a low wooden cross,
Jesus is nailed first his hands,
then his feet,
Between 2 actualy criminals,
2 transgressors.
It’s no suprise to the well verse Jews reading this account,
800 years earlier.
Isa 53 12b
The New International Version Chapter 53
he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
And John our author,
who has been legendary with his irony all the way through his book,
cannot help but draw our attention to uttery hipocrasy and irony of human sinfulness
as the Romans,
put their charge against Jesus on the cross for all to read and see:
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews.
These sigsn often translated for all who pass,
as a warning against similar crimes!
Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
Perhaps Pilate wanted his own little sick revenge on the Jews for making him crucify a man
he consdiered inncocent - but the irony stands for all who read it!
The King has come,
and has been undone,
numbered amoung the trasngreossors,
carried his own cross in obediecne to His Father,
beaten and mocked,
found perfcetly inncocent,
yet hung on a cross on the hill of the skull.
The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
If we ever need to see or be reminded of the irony of justifying our sin,
well perhaps this sign is it.
The words are ever true,
Jesus of Nazareth - fully man
The King of the Jews - fully God.
And our fullness of sin, nailed him there.
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
An odd fact to record,
unless of course it adds weight to the truth of who Jesus was:
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Quoteing exactly the words of Psalm 22 18,
we’re reminded again,
Jesus the saviour of the world is not here by mistake -
A psalm written 1000 years earlier - knew of this day.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
These faithful and devoted women are deliberatly set-up in contrast to the crowds adn soldiers.
Of course they can only see the tradgedy at the moment.
They have not understood, anymore than the disciples,
the reality of what is to come,
But they stand near
- not an easy thing to do as your son, nephew, friend hangs mercilessly,
bruised and bloodied.
But it is Mary the mother of Jesus,
that our hearts now turn to.
Is there a worse emotion to imagine in our world
than the tradgedy of a son or daughter being forcibly taken from his or her mother
in horrifc pain and tourture?
But Jesus,
even in his state,
will not foresake his love and honour for his mother.
He asks his beloved disciplpe - the author of this very book, John
- who is likley the nephew of Mary as well
- to accept her as his own,
and for her to accept him as his own.
Many have looked for the symbolism or theology to be derived from this encounter.
But I think the context in this passage of Jesus fulfilling scripture is the key.
In yet another example of Jesus perfcetly fulfiiling the OT promises,
in perfect obedince to His Father.
we go to:
“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
As Jesus, in love, honors his mother, even on his brutal death bed,
HIs earthly adoptive Father probably already passed away,
But,
he is still perfectly obedient to His heavenly Father in heaven.
More irony possible from John -
for Jesus doesn’t appear to be enjoyign the long life promised for obeying this promise
but this is the very act of obedicene to his Heavenly Father,
that will buy not just him,
but all that follow in belief,
a long and eternal life with God the Father.
The earthly symbol of honouring his earthly mother,
fulfilling his perfect obedicene and honouring of his Heavenly father - even to death.
It makes wonderful scense of the vert next verse:
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
Jesus is fuliflling all the OT promises of salavtion and prohesy
in his death.
Perfectly obedient to God the father,
honouring his mother,
becoming the promised sacrfice for Issac,
being crificied and counted amoung the transgressors,
having his garments shared out by lot,
being rejected by mankind as King,
It is all coming to completeion, it’s now finished,
I am thirtsty he says.
Perhaps he hinting at his expectation to drink the cup of wrath of judgement
for the sins of the world
so that all who believe may taste the refreshing water and river of life instead.
But John, and Jesus,
will leave no promise unfulfilled and the cry of thirst is first met by another prophesy fullfilled:
A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
This sedative type vinegar would dull the pain.
But highlighting who he is is Jesus’ real thirst:
As he calls for a drink to fulfill:
They put gall in my food
and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
They gave it to him on hysoop branches,
Reminding us of another great act of salavtion in the OT,
Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out of the door of your house until morning.
The very passover they are celebrating at this time of crucifiction,
being fulfilled for all people in Jesus.
Judgement will passover those who come to believe!
When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Pause
Eveything is finished:
accomplished:
In my Father’s timing,
according to my Fathers will,
For my Father’s glory,
so that those I love may be saved:
It is finished.
Pause
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.
Pause
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
The whole nation may have conspired,
The darkness may have gotten it’s way,
Pilate may have judged,
The Jews may have called,
The solideirs may have taken charge,
The women may have stood close,
But only 1 person really knows what is going on.
Only one person has all authroity,
Only one person chose the moment of the death that would change history,
JESUS
Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that,
HE
HE
bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Jesus realy was dead.
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other.
Normally the Romans would leave the bodies up for longer to rot,
and warn others of a similiar fate!
But if for reasons such as this,
where a Jew was not to be hung dead on a sabbath,
they would break the legs of the crucified to speed their death up.
With broken legs the victim could no longer support their weight with their legs, and their circualtion ad breathing would end fast.
But that was not God’s plan for His Son,
Scripture has foretold that no bones would be broken:
But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
Roman soldiers in charge of crucificions don’t make mistakes,
the Jews would be only to aware of that.
But just to make certain that Jesus was dead,
they perform a test
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.
Probably a well practiced peiring in the chest cavity where upto 2 litres of clear liquid and blood can accumulate in this type of death,
prooves to the readers - Jesus is finished.
The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.
Probably referring to himself - he vowes that this is true.
Many other eyewitnesses would still have been alive at the time this book was circulated,
it would have been very difficult to deny it’s truth.
Believe that Jesus died,
John urges us and his readers
for he died for you and me.
And still the fulfillment of prophesys contines:
These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
The passover lamb in Exodus was to have no bones broken,
And Psa 34, predicts the same of the saviour
he protects all his bones,
not one of them will be broken.
And Zecheriah promises the sacrifice of a peirced saviours
ZECH 12 10
They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
And the famous
isa 53 5a
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
To end this passage:
for anyone who wasn’t sure about the validity of this account,
we get people named and details of the burial,
Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Joseph of Arimathea - once a secret believer, now printed in scripture for all then and now to see.
Nicodemus - the man of hiding, coming to Jesus at night in chapter 3
- not prepared to put Jesus first,
now far from hidinig in the dark,
He comes into the light,
to align himself with jesus,
and extravagantly prepares his body for burial.
As we leave Jesus in the grave until next week,
We are not to see darkness enveloping the world,
We are to see the dawning of a new light.
As the church of Jesus,
begins to step out of the darkness and secrecy,
and begin to put Jesus above themselves for once.
But don’t take their example as the hope for humanity:
Take their example as a right response to all that we have heard!
As we’ve seen Jesus walk to,
and die on,
the cross -
we have seen every prophesy and promise in the OT being fuliflled in him!
And if we were a devout Jew as John’s readers were,
or we simply put the effort into studying th OT today,
then we will see more than just the death of a King in the OT,
Right along side all those OT prophesies
is a promise of loving grace,
forgiveness for believers,
a God who will save.
When they divided his garments according to PSa 22,
that great psalm ends with those great words:
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!
After the prophesy of the vinegar drink:
The poor will see and be glad—
you who seek God, may your hearts live!
The Lord hears the needy
and does not despise his captive people.
Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and all that move in them,
for God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.
Then people will settle there and possess it;
the children of his servants will inherit it,
and those who love his name will dwell there.
After the hysooop was used to put blood on the Israelites door frames:
When the Lord goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.
When they don’t break his bones fulfilling Psa 34, it ends
The Lord will rescue his servants;
no one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.
In fulfilling the prophesy of being peirced in Zecheriah, he goes on to promise:
“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
We could literally go on all week - page after page of promises of salavtion,
and grace from the Lord,
being fulfilled in the sacrificial work of Jesus.
Believe he died says John,
Believe he was the promised saviour,
God himself in human form,
See that he fulfilled all of scripture in his death,
And as you see that to be true,
we see every promise of grace and mercy,
and eternal life and love with Him
for those who repent and believe,
HAS TO BE TRUE ALSO!
Be encouraged friend of Jesus,
come again into the light.
For His work in finshed!
Pause
Why don’t you set yourself the challenge this summer to read all these OT passages around these verese we’ve looked at today?
They’re all on the handout available on Friday’s email.
They will help us trust and love the sacrificial lamb,
Jesus
PRAY
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!