Sermon Tone Analysis

For Life and Salvation, God Gave His Son

Even Death on a Cross...

This “Hymn of Christ Jesus” in Philippians was written during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome near the end of his life and career.

It echoes the conviction that he had preached for many years.

The Key to Paul’s Success:

You might remember that when Paul first went to Athens, he boldly went to the place where the philosophers and thinkers of the city wen to present and debate big ideas.

There he began to speak about Jesus is a way that philosophers would understand it.

Paul’s brilliant mind labored to show that faith in Christ was a reasonable conclusion of God’s work for us.

But Paul couldn’t explain it is rationally, as he apparently focused on what they should certainly believe simply on the evidence of the resurrection.

But here is the problem: If we focus on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we miss the power of the Gospel that is present in the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

So we can read how, earlier, Paul found the one key to success in his ministry:

and that was because:

So let’s dig in to what we know about why the crucifixion is the core of our hope in Christ.

We will begin with . . .

Isaiah’s Prophecy of Christ’s Death by Crucifixion

There are echoes of the work of Jesus for our salvation in almost every Old Testament book.

But one place makes it clear that the Christ of God would suffer the Cross.

Every step in the crucifixion is listed in Isaiah 52 and 53.

Let me just read this passage in a way that, hopefully, will bring it to life for you.

You can open your Bibles and follow along: I am in Isaiah 52, starting at verse 13, and reading most of the verses all the way to Isaiah 53:

Isaiah 52:13–14 (ESV)

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.

14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

Isaiah 53:2–3 (ESV)

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:4–5 (ESV)

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:6–7 (ESV)

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Isaiah 53:8–9 (ESV)

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Isaiah 53:10 (ESV)

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Isaiah 53:11–12 (ESV)

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The Apostles Preached the Crucifixion

The Pentecost Sermon:

Peter and John to the Sanhedrin:

What Makes a Crucifixion:

Crucifixion was a form of execution.

It was a common way to deal with rebels and uprisings.

It was also a way to execute criminals, and a Roman Citizen generally would not face crucifixion unless he was convicted of treason.

The Roman writer Cicero described crucifixion as “the cruelest and most terrible punishment.”

That didn’t mean it was uncommon.

Jesus had seen the results of crucifixions by Rome.

So had his disciples.

Crucifixion was used to intimidate, horrify and terrorize a population.

After all, it was common enough that there was no great surprise that Jesus was executed alongside two criminals.

Crucifixion was designed to be a public show of power over the people, a way to submit someone to “the ultimate shame.”

Celsus, a non-believer, argued against the idea that Jesus could be the Messiah because he was executed in such a “dishonorable and shameful way”

The normal pattern for execution by crucifixion began with a flogging or a beating on every part of the body.

This was done in public, and the convicted was usually stripped naked first, so every part was abused.

Then the convicted was dressed again, and made to carry the crossbeam of his execution to the waiting pole or tree on which he would be hung.

When they arrived at the place of execution, the convicted was once again stripped naked, nailed to the crossbeam, and the beam was lifted with the convicted on it and attached to the pole.

Usually not very high off the ground, but high enough that there was no way for a man to ease the burden of his own pain.

For Jesus, as for many others, to increase the suffering and humiliation, the feet were also nailed to the cross.

Death came slowly: rarely by bleeding to death; often by suffocation, and perhaps by just the whole package of assault on the body, as every organ shut down because of the great stress of crucifixion.

Sometimes it took days.

But Jesus died in hours: Proving his intensity of his beating, the burden of our sin, and the power Jesus reserved to give up his spirit willingly to the Father.

The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Means

Jesus bore the guilt of our sin

Jesus bore the shame of our sin

Jesus took the punishment for our sin

Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for our sin

After he had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, Peter boldly said, to the gathered court of Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who had arrested him and John, that the cross proves

The Cross Proves Jesus is Our Only Hope of Salvation

Paul wrote to the Church at Colossus why this is so

Jesus’ crucifixion is our exoneration.

The only way our sins could be paid is by death; the only way we can be seen as holy enough for heaven is through the covering of the blood of Christ.