27 – Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around Him.
28 – They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him,
29 – and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand and knelt in front of Him and mocked Him. “Hail, King of the Jews!” they said.
30 – They spit on Him, and took the staff and struck Him on the head again and again.
31 – After they had mocked Him, they took off the robe and put His own clothes on Him. Then they led Him away to crucify Him.
32 – As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.
33 – They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull).
34 – There they offered Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall; but after tasting it, He refused to drink it.
35 – When they had crucified Him, they divided up His clothes by casting lots.
36 – And sitting down, they kept watch over Him there.
37 – Above His head they placed the written charge against Him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
38 – Two robbers were crucified with Him, one on His right and one on His left.
39 – Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads
40 – and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! Come down from the cross, if You are the Son of God!”
41 – In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked Him.
42 – “He saved others,” they said, “but He can’t save Himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him.
43 – He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.'”
44 – In the same way the robbers who were crucified with Him also heaped insults on Him.
45 – From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land.
46 – About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”-which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
47 – When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48 – Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink.
49 – The rest said, “Now leave Him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save Him.”
50 – And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He gave up His spirit.
51 – At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.
52 – The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.
53 – They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54 – When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely He was the Son of God!”
What about us this morning? We have looked at the cross together. We have seen that God’s heart is a heart of holiness…that our sin separates us from Him. But we have also seen that His is a heart of love….love that led Him to take our sin upon Himself so that we who were far from God could draw near to Him. We’ve seen that this one act provided the power to make it possible for us to have access to Him…walking by His side everyday of our lives just as Adam and Eve did before the fall. We have looked at the cross and seen these wonderful things. How will we respond? If you are here and are not a Christian, I hope and pray that you will look at the cross and respond by embracing a personal faith in Him….for, referring to His death, Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Me.”
So as Jesus draws you, we invite you to come.
And you know….you can tell a lot about a person by the way that he dies. In fact if you really want to know someone…if you really want to see their heart…the best way to do this is to observe them in their moment of death. For, people are most real… most honest….in those final minutes as death approaches. When a man knows the end is near-only the important surfaces. Impending death tends to distill everything in life so that all that remains is that which is truly vital.
Now lets consider together what this means. Since it is true that we can know a person best in their moment of death….then, if we really want to know God……if we desire to understand what He is truly like, the best place to look is the cross. And as we stand poised to begin holy week this year I want us to do exactly that. Let us attempt to understand the true heart of God by looking at the way that Jesus died. You see, to understand the cross is to understand God. For…..it was God’s naked essence-His very soul-that hung open and vulnerable on a physical cross 2,000 years ago.
So, looking at the cross gives us the clearest, deepest look into the heart of God. And if we dare to look at the cross on this Palm Sunday, what will we see? What aspects of the Almighty will we see that we can’t from any other perspective?
1. One thing we will see is that God’s heart is a heart of HOLINESS…
For God is perfectly holy….and scripture proclaims this over and over again. Remember the words of Isaiah? He said, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” When Moses was praising God for delivering the Hebrew nation from Pharaoh’s army he proclaimed God’s holiness. In Exodus 15:11 it says that he even sang. Listen to his lyrics: “Who is like Thee oh Lord, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” Throughout the Bible God is referred to as “Holy One” or “The Holy One of Israel” In fact “holy” is used more often as a prefix to God’s name than any other attribute. You see, holiness is God’s crown. Jerry Bridges writes, “HOLINESS is the perfection of all His other attributes: His power is HOLY power; His mercy is HOLY mercy; His wisdom is HOLY wisdom. It is His HOLINESS more than any other attribute that makes Him worthy of our praise.”
So, holiness is one of the essential foundational characteristics that makes God — God.
Now understand….holiness is by definition the total absence of any evil. We say that a garment is clean when it is free from any spot and that gold is pure when all dross has been refined from it. In the same way we can think of the holiness of God as the absolute absence of any sin. As John wrote in his epistle: “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” God is absolutely free from any moral evil and in fact is Himself the essence of purity and goodness. And….Because God is holy, He hates sin. It is His opposite. And we see this more clearly when we look at the cross, than from any other perspective. The cross shows how absolutely serious God is about sin-your sin-my sin. Looking at the cross allows us to see how much He is opposed to sin because as His only Son hung on that tree God actually turned His face away. Remember Jesus’ words as He hung there? He cried out, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?” And God did this….He forsook His own Son because He could not do otherwise….He could not look at Him…..He abandoned Him….because God is Holy and at that moment on the cross Jesus was not.
II Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” The Living Bible paraphrases this verse in this way, “For God took the sinless Christ and poured our sins into Him…..” You know in the Garden of Gesthemane the night before His crucifixion, Jesus dreaded the cross. Remember? Two times….in great anxiety….He prayed, “Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me.” I don’t think that Jesus feared the beatings that He would receive. He wasn’t afraid of the lashes of the cat-of-nine-tails that would cut across His back. He wasn’t trying to avoid the pain of the nails that would soon pierce His hands and His feet. It wasn’t even that He feared the unbelievable agony He would face as He was executed in the most cruel of all deaths.
No, the thing our Lord dreaded was the one thing He had abhorred for all of eternity….the one thing which He had never known….SIN. For on Calvary’s cross all the sins of all mankind were placed on His shoulders….and when that happened He was separated from His Father…..which by the way is the truest definition of Hell. Jesus went through Hell for you and me….our sin caused this separation to happen. You see sin is the enemy of God. He hates it because he is HOLY. Proverbs 6:16-19 says, “There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.” We all have a sinful nature. Listen to the way Galatians 5 describes it, “What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these.” Have you ever had a dream in which you did an immoral thing? All of us have, proving that even our subconscious is polluted by sin! And this sin that is in all of us puts us in opposition to God for God is HOLY.
Have you ever watched The Discovery Channel? If you have you know that often they show films of lions hunting antelopes and things like this. These films depict the natural hostility that exists between various beasts of the animal kingdom.
Well, according to Scripture, the most natural enemy we all have in our sinful, fallen state is God. Due to our sin, we are by nature at enmity with our Holy God. R. C. Sproul writes, “The natural enemy of the sinner is one who is holy, and not only holy but powerful, and not only powerful but just, and not only just but omniscient, not only omniscient but immutably so.” And God is all these things….so when Jesus took our sins upon Himself…as He did on that cross on that first Good Friday….God could not look at Him. God…in His holiness….turned away. He forsook His only Son. On the cross, Jesus took our “Godforsakeness” upon Himself….and when He did, our Holy God abandoned His only Son. But listen here….He turned from His only Son, so He could turn toward you and me. The cross made this possible as Jesus Christ-the perfect sacrifice — took our sin upon Himself…which leads us to the second aspect of God’s nature that we see when we look at the cross…
2. for the way Jesus died also tells us that God’s heart is a heart of LOVE…
You know those nails didn’t really hold Jesus to the cross. As Paula sang last night, He could have called ten thousand angels-TEN MILLION ANGELS……to free Himself…but He didn’t.
No,the nails didn’t hold Him there…..it was His LOVE for you and me that did this. Many people know John 3:16 by heart, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” But if you have ever wondered if those familiar words were really true…..if you have ever questioned whether or not God really did love humanity that much then you need only look to the cross. For the cross leaves no room for doubt. He does love us! The cross is the tangible, historical evidence of this fact! It does not say “why” God loves us, but it does answer “How much” I love the way the Contemporary English Version translates Romans 5:8 . It says, “God showed HOW MUCH he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.” And you know…not only does the way Jesus died provide undeniable proof of God’s love….it also shows us how long He has loved us. For….Jesus’ death was not accidental. It was obviously part of the plan all along.
Revelation 13:8 says that Jesus was, “…the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world.” and Jesus of course knew this. Matthew 20 is one example of something that Jesus repeatedly told His disciples. We read there that Jesus said, “We are going to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be turned over to the leading priests and the teachers of the law, and they will say that He must die. They will give the Son of man to the non-Jewish people to laugh at Him and beat Him with whips and crucify Him. But on the third day He will be raised to life again.” (Matthew 20:18-19 ) So forget any suggestion that Jesus was trapped by the Jewish religious leaders of His day. Erase any theory that Jesus made some sort of miscalculation that last week and as a result was caught and crucified. Ignore any speculation that the cross was the unforseen consequence of a last-ditch effort to salvage a dying mission. The cross was His mission…Jesus died on purpose….no surprise…no hesitation…no faltering. The way Jesus died…the way He marched resolutely to His death…leaves no doubt. He had come to earth for this moment. Years later Acts 2 records that the Apostle Peter wrote, “Jesus was given to you and you put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross. But this was God’s plan which He had made long ago; He knew this would happen.” Max Lucado writes, “The journey to Jerusalem didn’t begin in Jericho. It didn’t begin in Galilee. It didn’t begin in Nazareth. It didn’t even begin in Bethlehem. The journey to the cross began long before. As the echo of the crunching of the fruit was still sounding in the Garden of Eden, Jesus was leaving for Calvary.”
So, Jesus’ death for you and me was no accident. It was God’s plan all along. As Jeremiah 31:3 says God has, “…..loved us with an everlasting love!”
Recently the diary of Madelyn Murray O’Hare (founder of American Atheists) was auctioned off by the IRS in an attempt to raise money for back taxes and creditors. On several different occasions she had written in her diary, “Somebody, somewhere, love me.” Throughout her life, as she was seeking to be loved, she fought against the God she believed didn’t exist. Ironically…tragically…she ran from the God who loved her in the way she desperately wanted to be loved. And God has always loved us. The cross forever answers the question, “Does God love us?” But then we can see one other aspect of the true nature of God by looking at the cross.
3. We see that God’s heart is a heart of POWER….
You know, when I was a boy my favorite hymns were those where the men sang an echo on the chorus and my favorite by far was “THERE’S POWER IN THE BLOOD” It was hymn #193 in our hymnal. When the chorus rolled around I loved singing the men’s part of the refrain, “There is power, power, power, power wonderworking power in the blood….of the Lamb!” And you know, Lewis Jones was right to emphasize this truth in his arrangement of this hymn…for there IS POWER in the blood.. In that one violent act as God’s Son shed His precious blood on Calvary’s cross — God powerfully crushed His greatest enemy, Satan. The gospels record that during Jesus’ earthly ministry several times He cast out evil spirits-sometimes one-sometimes many. But on the cross…on the cross….Jesus took on the prince of the power of the air himself and every demon under him and He overpowered them all. Listen to how Paul described this in Colossians 2:13-15 In Christ, God forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Not only did Jesus defeat Satan but through His death on the cross He made it possible for us to once again have access to God. You see, since the first sin in the Garden of Eden, mankind was separated from God. In the temple this separation was symbolized with a thick curtain that divided the HOLY OF HOLIES where God dwelled. Only the High Priest could enter this area and he could only go in there once a year….when he did other priests would tie a rope around his waste so they could pull him out if God were to strike him dead.
Well, remember our text…the moment Jesus exclaimed “It is finished!” and died, that curtain was rent in half from top to bottom. Scripture says that the power of His atoning sacrifice was such that the earth shook and rocks split. Tombs broke open and many holy people were raised to life. There IS power in the blood of the lamb…power to wash away sin and give us access to our Heavenly Father. And as Andre’ Crouch sang, “That blood will never lose it’s power….it reaches to the highest mountain…it reaches to the lowest valley. The blood that gives me strength from day to day will never lose it’s power.”
During the war between the states, a young soldier in the Union Army lost his older brother and his father in the battle of Gettysburg. The soldier decided to go to Washington, D.C. to see President Lincoln to ask for an exemption from military service so that he could go back and help his sister and mother with the spring planting on the farm.
So he requested and received a furlough from the military so that he could go to Washington and plead his case. When he arrived he went directly to the White House, approached the front gate and asked to see the president. The guard on duty told him, “You can’t see the president, young man! Don’t you know there is a war going on? The president is a very busy man! Now go away, son! Get back to the battle lines where you belong!” So the young soldier left, very disheartened, and was sitting on a little park bench not far from the White House when a little boy came up to him. The lad said, “Soldier, you look unhappy. What’s wrong?” The solder looked at the little boy and began to spill his heart to him. He told of his father and his brother being killed in the war and of the desperate situation at home. He explained that his mother and sister had no one to help them with the farm. The little boy listened and said, “I can help you, soldier.” He took the soldier by the hand and led him back to the front gate of the White House. Apparently the guard didn’t notice them, because they weren’t stopped. They walked straight to the front door of the White House and walked right in. After they got inside, they walked right past generals and high-ranking officials, and no one said a word. The soldier couldn’t understand this. Why didn’t anyone try to stop them? Finally, they reached the Oval Office-where the president was working-and the little boy didn’t even knock on the door. He just walked right in and led the soldier in with him.
There sat Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of State, looking over battle plans that were laid out on his desk. The president looked at the boy and then at the soldier and said, “Good afternoon, Todd. Can you introduce me to your friend?” And Todd Lincoln, the son of the president said, “Daddy, this soldier needs to talk to you.” The soldier pled his case before Mr. Lincoln, and right then and there he received the exemption that he desired. This is what Jesus did for us when He died on the cross. In taking our sin upon Himself, He provided us access to God. Ephesians 2:13 says, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, Who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…for through Him we have access to the Father.”
You know you CAN learn a lot about a person by they way he dies….and we are not the first to learn something about God from the perspective of the cross. In fact our text from Matthew records that someone else present that first Good Friday noticed the way Jesus died. Look again at verse 54….the Roman Centurion….the officer in charge of the unit of troops assigned to carry out the crucifixions that day. He looked at the cross…and what he saw caused him to respond by saying, “Surely He WAS the Son of God! Or….He was Who He said He was!”
What about us this morning? We have looked at the cross together. We have seen that God’s heart is a heart of holiness…that our sin separates us from Him. But we have also seen that His is a heart of love….love that led Him to take our sin upon Himself so that we who were far from God could draw near to Him. We’ve seen that this one act provided the power to make it possible for us to have access to Him…walking by His side everyday of our lives just as Adam and Eve did before the fall. We have looked at the cross and seen these wonderful things. How will we respond? If you are here and are not a Christian, I hope and pray that you will look at the cross and respond by embracing a personal faith in Him….for, referring to His death, Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to Me.”
So as Jesus draws you, we invite you to come.