Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning Calvary Chapel Lake City!

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Next Sunday: Fellowship Lunch | Potluck

Passover Seder: April 15th… details to come.

If you’re new to Calvary Chapel…I’m Pastor Marc, welcome!

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Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew 27.

Today, we are looking at verses 27-44… a most sober section of scripture… for it pertains to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

These verses are of the most significant in the Bible for they are the capstone to mankind’s redemption.

As Peter said in Acts 4:11-12 “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders [speaking to the Sanhedrin], which has become the chief cornerstone.’

12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Being saved eternally, only happens by looking to Jesus… believing in Him… and His finished work on the cross… paying for our sins by His blood.

That’s what we are looking at today.

As a recap… the last two weeks, we looked at the 6 trials of Jesus.

Three trials before the Jewish religious leaders, and three trials before the Roman officials.

The last week of Jesus Christ is highly documented by the four Gospel writers- and, each writer has a different style and writes to a different audience.

Matthew writes specifically to the Jews to demonstrate that Jesus is the awaited Messiah… and the King of the Jews.

Now, I’m feeling a little slow, because we been in Matthew since June 28, 2020… over a year and a half… and I just last week realized that I struggle a bit with Matthew’s thematic writing style.

Matthew often breaks from writing chronologically, for ex. he writes of Pilate washing his hands earlier then the event occured… as compared to the other Gospel writers.

So, I went through the four Gospels, studying the order of the Passion events thus far (I did this more for me then you), and here’s a a quick overview:

During the trials, Pilate had Jesus scourged.

Then the Roman soldiers mocked Him and placed the crown of thorns on him, which is where we pick up today.

Pilate presents the bloodied and tortured Jesus to the Jews… who were not satisfied by His torturous scourging… they wanted death…

They shout, “Crucify Him!”… and the Jews accept the fallout, “His blood be on us and on our children.”…

Then, Pilate washes his hands, and Jesus was led out to be crucified.

Big Picture: This was Passover.

The feast day looking back to Exodus 12, where a lamb without blemish was sacrificed, and it’s blood was applied to the lintel and two doorposts.

Exo 12:23 reads, “For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you.”

The lintel and doorposts formed two crosses, with the blood of the lamb central and covering it all.

All pointing forward to this event today, as Jesus will hang between two other crosses, and His blood will be our covering.

In 1 Cor 5:7, Paul wrote, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”

This is what He did for us in love.

Sin is our destroyer, but Jesus’ blood covered our sin.

What we read here is NOT just some story.

Understand the gravity, as we look at “The Crucifixion of the King”… our sermon title for today.

Let’s Pray!

Matt 27:27-28 “Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison [a cohort- 600 men] around Him. 28 And they stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him.”

Luke says it’s a gorgeous robe… insinuating a king’s robe as a form of mockery.

It’s a scarlet robe.

Isa 1:18 states sins are like scarlet.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”

Appropriately symbolic for exactly what Jesus did for us… He clothed Himself with our sins, and clothed us with His righteousness.

2 Cor 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The Great Exchange.

Matt 27:29 “When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand.

And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 Then they spat on Him, and took the reed and struck Him on the head.”

Jesus was beaten during the religious trials, but once in the hands of the Romans… true torture began…

He was brutally scourged under Pilate, and now the Roman soldiers play their brutal games with Him.

Hardened and trained Roman Soldiers… trained killers.

Elite at the administration of pain.

We often think Jesus was killed by the Jews, but truly both Jews and Gentiles had their part.

God’s whole creation is guilty for the death of His Son.

They twist a crown of thorns… which is not easy.

In the Philippines, Ethan and I came across a gnarly sticker bush, and we made a dozen crowns of thorns.

I stuck myself 40x twisting those crowns.

The thorns were not small rosebud thorns, but long thorns… similar to what was native in Israel…

They may have been palm spines… interesting if so…

Palm branches were waived at Jesus in honor during His triumphal entry…

Perhaps now the same branches the Romans use to mock Him.

Whether this plant… or another thorn laced plant…

Thorns were pressed into Jesus’ already battered head.

The Roman soldiers mocked Him, spit on Him… which is disgusting… (and the religious leaders already spat on Him as well, so He is covered in their filth), and they struck Him with the reed/ the staff which they were using as a mock king’s scepter.

He could have called down 12 Legions of Angels, but He endured to redeem us.

Thorns were introduced as a result of sin.

During the fall, God said to Adam… Gen 3:17 “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.

18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you…”

Again, appropriately symbolic for what Jesus did for us… He crowned Himself with our sins, and and will crown His faithful with…

The Crown of Life (Jas 1:12)

The Crown of Glory (1 Pet 5:4)

The Crown of Righteousness (2 Tim 4:8)

The Crown of Rejoicing (1 Thes 2:19)

By all rights, we should be wearing the Crown of Thorns, but He wore it for us...

Now turn to John 19… the next scene… that shows Pilate’s attempts to release Jesus, but being he is under tremendous pressure to keep order… he caves… as the Jews become increasingly hostile…

John 19:4-15 “Pilate then went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you, that you may know that I find no fault in Him.” 5 Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.

And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”

Another of Pilate’s statements that has become widely known and immortal as it stands here in scripture.

Was Pilate sincere?

Impressed that Jesus took the beatings and did not confess, nor give up accomplices?…

which would have lightened the beatings.

Did Pilate have sympathy for this innocent Man who was brutalized… who was handed over because of envy?

Or, was this a statement of mockery… even apathy?

After all, Pilate asked, “What is truth?”

But, didn’t stick around for the answer.

V6 “Therefore, when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.”

Which they couldn’t do, because the right to capital punishment was revoked… though they did sneak in a stoning here or there…

Have you ever considered, “Why didn’t the Jews stone Jesus?”

They stoned Stephen in Acts 7.

It was God’s sovereign will for Jesus to be crucified.

Prophetically, it was written around 1000 B.C.... 1000 years prior to Christs’ birth… when David penned Psalm 22-

A Psalm about a righteous man… put to death by the wicked.

A Psalm that contains not a single word of confession from that righteous man.

A Psalm the speaks about the pierced hands and feet of the just man.

Crucifixion wasn’t even systematically used.... possibly not even invented until around 550 B.C. by the Persians.

If you let all that sink in… it should blow your mind… God, in every generation has been in control.

V7 “The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.”

Referring to Lev 24:16 which states, “And whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death.