Jesus Crucified

Introduction

Piano dissonance

dis·so·nance /ˈdisənəns/ lack of harmony among musical notes.

I really don’t believe it is possible to grasp the central drama of the Bible until we begin to feel this tension. Until the coming of Jesus Christ, the Bible is like a piece of music whose dissonance begs for some final resolution into harmony. Redemptive history is like a symphony with two great themes: the theme of God’s passion to promote his glory; and the theme of God’s inscrutable electing love for sinners who have scorned that very glory. Again and again all through the Bible these two great themes carry along the symphony of history. They interweave and interpenetrate, and we know that some awesome Composer is at work here. But for centuries we don’t hear the resolution. The harmony always escapes us, and we have to wait.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the resolution of the symphony of history. In the death of Jesus the two themes of God’s love for his glory and his love for sinners are resolved. As in all good symphonies there had been hints and suggestions of the final resolution. That is what we have in Isaiah 53 seven hundred years before Jesus came.

God’s pleasure in his name and his pleasure in doing good to sinners meet and marry in his pleasure in bruising the Son of God.

Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, pp. 158–159). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.

1. The text itself

2. The significance of Christ’s death- what has it resolved?

3. The Illocution of Christ’s death - how will we respond?

What is it saying to us

vs 26-31

26 As they led Him away, they seized Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus. 27 A large crowd of people followed Him, including women who were mourning and lamenting Him. 28 But turning to them, Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and your children. 29 Look, the days are coming when they will say, ‘The women without children, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed, are fortunate!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Luke: An Introduction and Commentary 2. The Daughters of Jerusalem (23:27–31)

28. Jesus greets them as Daughters of Jerusalem, so that it is the city-dwellers and not the Galileans who had come up for the feast who made up this group. At this moment, as he goes out to execution Jesus thinks not of himself but of them. He wants their repentance, not their sympathy. He is not saying that they were wrong to mourn over him, but he is thinking with compassion of the doomed city and its inhabitants. His words direct the women to the importance of looking beyond the present moment to the inevitable consequences of the nation’s sins.

Jeremiah 9:

vs 32-38

32 Two others—criminals —were also led away to be executed with Him. 33 When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified Him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. 34 [Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.” ] And they divided His clothes and cast lots. 35 The people stood watching, and even the leaders kept scoffing: “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One!” 36 The soldiers also mocked Him. They came offering Him sour wine 37 and said, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!” 38 An inscription was above Him: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

vs 39-43

39 Then one of the criminals hanging there began to yell insults at Him: “Aren’t You the Messiah? Save Yourself and us!” 40 But the other answered, rebuking him: “Don’t you even fear God, since you are undergoing the same punishment? 41 We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!” 43 And He said to him, “I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.” to deny oneself ⇔ carry the cross

Luke 9:23

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

The unmistakable unavoidable reality of the savior’s sacrifice

vs 44-49

44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three, 45 because the sun’s light failed. The curtain of the sanctuary was split down the middle. 46 And Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.” Saying this, He breathed His last. 47 When the centurion saw what happened, he began to glorify God, saying, “This man really was righteous!” 48 All the crowds that had gathered for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, went home, striking their chests. 49 But all who knew Him, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

1 Peter 4:19 NIV

19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Committing ourselves to the LORD in the midst of suffering.

1 Peter 4:16–17 NIV

16 However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

vs 50-56 The Burial

50 There was a good and righteous man named Joseph, a member of the Sanhedrin, 51 who had not agreed with their plan and action. He was from Arimathea, a Judean town, and was looking forward to the kingdom of God. 52 He approached Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. 53 Taking it down, he wrapped it in fine linen and placed it in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever been placed. 54 It was preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 The women who had come with Him from Galilee followed along and observed the tomb and how His body was placed. 56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.

John 19:38 NIV

38 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.

What hath God wrought!

What has God wrought in the death of His Son! Pleasure - Glory

Isaiah 53

What has God sought in the death of His Son?

Reconciliation:

Man to God

Colossians 1:20–22 HCSB

20 and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross — whether things on earth or things in heaven. 21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. 22 But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him —

God’s character with God’s character

Romans 3:24–25 HCSB

24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.

dis·so·nance /ˈdisənəns/ lack of harmony among musical notes.

I really don’t believe it is possible to grasp the central drama of the Bible until we begin to feel this tension. Until the coming of Jesus Christ, the Bible is like a piece of music whose dissonance begs for some final resolution into harmony. Redemptive history is like a symphony with two great themes: the theme of God’s passion to promote his glory; and the theme of God’s inscrutable electing love for sinners who have scorned that very glory. Again and again all through the Bible these two great themes carry along the symphony of history. They interweave and interpenetrate, and we know that some awesome Composer is at work here. But for centuries we don’t hear the resolution. The harmony always escapes us, and we have to wait.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the resolution of the symphony of history. In the death of Jesus the two themes of God’s love for his glory and his love for sinners are resolved. As in all good symphonies there had been hints and suggestions of the final resolution. That is what we have in Isaiah 53 seven hundred years before Jesus came.

God’s pleasure in his name and his pleasure in doing good to sinners meet and marry in his pleasure in bruising the Son of God.

Piper, J. (2000). The pleasures of God: meditations on God’s delight in being God (Rev. and expanded, pp. 158–159). Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers.

The Pleasures of God Forsaken but Loved

FORSAKEN BUT LOVED

When the Father forsook the Son and handed him over to the curse of the cross and lifted not a finger to spare him pain, he had not ceased to love the Son. In that very moment when the Son was taking upon himself everything that God hates in us, and God was forsaking him to death, even then the Father knew that the measure of his Son’s suffering was the depth of his Son’s love for the Father’s glory. And in that love the Father took deepest pleasure. The crucifixion of Jesus was a mysterious event. In that hour Jesus “became a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). But in the very moment when God’s curse rested most heavily on Jesus because of sin, the Father’s love for his Son reached explosive proportions. This is why Jesus, with his dying breath, could say, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). Though he knew the wrath of his Father was being poured out on him, he also knew that he was bearing it for the Father’s glory, and that the Father loved him for it. “For this reason the Father loves me,” Jesus said, “because I lay down my life, that I may take it again” (John 10:17). And the Father rewarded his Son for the very suffering which was the Father’s curse: “We see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9; see also Philippians 2:9).

When Jesus died, he glorified the Father’s name and saved his Father’s people. And since the Father has overflowing pleasure in the honor of his name, and since he delights with unbounded joy in the election of a sinful people for himself, how then shall he not delight in the bruising of his Son by which these two magnificent divine joys are reconciled and made one!

What has God bought in the death of His Son?

Redemption:

New Identity

Revelation 5:8–10 HCSB

8 When He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.

(HCSB)

New LIFE - Future

Hebrews 9:11–15 HCSB

11 But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation ), 12 He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God? 15 Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Hebrews 9:26–28 HCSB

26 Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment — 28 so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

What has been taught in the death of His Son?

Restoration:

Forgiveness

Colossians 1:9–14 HCSB

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves. 14 We have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, in Him.

Freedom

Romans 6:18–22 HCSB

18 and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. 21 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification —and the end is eternal life!

CONCLUSION

I preach christ crucified - a stumbling block to the jews and foolishness to the gentiles.

the cornerstone- a stumbling block (luke 2:34

the Greeks are unimpressed with a humble and wounded servant.

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

The New International Version Chapter 1

22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

And so it is today.

What is it saying to me? What is it saying to you?

I need you Jesus!

I’m feeling so crappy!

Don’t trample on the blood of Jesus! There’s no other sacrifice for you?

Who else is there to make it right?

It’s the only way you’re getting in

In Christ:

Through death:

buried with Christ

dead to your flesh

Jesus “Is there another way?

God says:

yes surely, here is option B.”

no. no other way was provided

The Companion Bible: Being the Authorized Version of 1611 with the Structures and Notes, Critical, Explanatory and Suggestive and with 198 Appendixes 165. The Hours of the Lord’s Last Day

165 THE HOURS OF THE LORD’S LAST DAY

The Diagram below shows the 24 hours of the “Preparation Day”, i.e. the day before the Passover (John 19:14, &c.). The Four Gospels agree in stating that the Lord was laid in the Sepulchre on the Preparation Day, which was Nisan 14th, immediately before “the High Sabbath”, Nisan 15th (Matt. 27:62; Mark 15:42; Luke 23:54; John 19:31, 42). Therefore He must have been crucified on Wednesday, 14th of Nisan (see Ap. 144, 156, 166).

As shown above, the 14th of Nisan, which was the “Preparation Day began at sunset on our Tuesday (Gentile reckoning). “The sixth hour” of John 19:14 is the sixth hour of the night, and therefore corresponds to midnight, at which, according to Gentile reckoning, Wednesday began.

The Roman numerals on the dial-plate show the 24 hours of the complete Gentile day. And on either side of the dial are shown the Hebrew “hours” corresponding to the Gentile hours a.m. and p.m.

The twenty-four hours were divided into the twelve hours of the night (reckoned from sunset), and “twelve hours in the day” (reckoned from sunrise. See John 11:9). Hence “the sixth hour” of John 19:14 was our midnight; “the third hour” of Mark 15:25 was our 9 a.m.; “the sixth hour” of Matt. 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44; was our noon; and “the ninth hour” of Matt. 27:45, 46; Mark 15:33, 34; Luke 23:44; was our 3 p.m.

cross. A torturous instrument of Roman execution and a *symbol of Christ’s atoning death (Lat. crux; Gk. stauros). Crucifixion was a most reviled and shameful means of death for criminals (cf. Deut 21:23) but it became a symbol of Christianity due to the atoning death of Jesus on a Roman cross at Golgotha, outside of Jerusalem (Gal 3:13). In Christian symbolism the Latin cross has a longer vertical arm (†) while the Greek cross has arms of equal length (+). The use of the cross as a symbol was gradual, not to be found in the *catacombs except perhaps for the cross pattern of the *dome of heaven in the cubicula (perhaps making a connection with Jn 3:14; 8:28; 12:32).

Dt 21:22–23 “If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not…

Mk 8:34 Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

Lk 23:26 As they led Him away, they seized Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, and laid the cross on him to carry behind Jesus.

1 Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

Ga 6:14–15 But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.

Greekσταυρός stauros cross (27x)

Mt 10:38 And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.

Mt 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.

Mt 27:32 As they were going out, they found a Cyrenian man named Simon. They forced this man to carry His cross.

Mt 27:40 and saying, “The One who would demolish the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

Mt 27:42 “He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him.

ξύλον xylon tree; wood; club; cudgel(4x)

Ac 5:30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging Him on a tree.

Ac 10:39 We ourselves are witnesses of everything He did in both the Judean country and in Jerusalem, yet they killed Him by hanging Him on a tree.

Ac 13:29 When they had fulfilled all that had been written about Him, they took Him down from the tree and put Him in a tomb.

1 Pe 2:24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; you have been healed by His wounds.