The Sacrifice of Christ

If I was going to ask you, what of the prophecies that are in the Bible, what is the event that has been talked about or prophesied the most? Both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Would you say that would be the Millennium, the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ? There's a number of prophecies that relate to that. We have pretty vivid pictures of what the Millennium will be like when Christ was on earth. Or would it be the second return of Jesus Christ?

Certainly, the Bible talks about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and what He will do at that time. It talks about what the times will be like, where He will return, what the world will be like at that time. Well, you would be in the neighborhood if you guessed one of those two things, but according to the Bible dictionaries, the most written about prophecy in the Bible was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The most prophesied, the most written about prophecy in the Bible was Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that He made for all of us.

And that's fitting because in the history of the earth, in the history of humanity, that is the single most important event that has ever occurred. When He lived, when He died, He changed everything. If He had not completed the mission that He came to earth for, well, none of us would be here.

We wouldn't have any idea of what the plan of God was or is. Everything would be different. Everything would have changed. The whole earth, its purpose, mankind's purpose would have all just gone right out the window. There was a movie back whenever called The Greatest Story Ever Told, and really, the story of Christ's life, but the story of His death and His sacrifice for us is the greatest thing that has ever happened. And here we are just one week away, well, eight days away from observing the Passover, a time when we commemorate Christ's death, when we think back on what He did and the significance it has for us.

And when we take the Passover and we take the bread and the wine and we do the foot washing that symbolizes humility, Paul says that we are keeping the Passover, turn with me over to 1 Corinthians 11. Of course, it's a time we recommit to God. We say that every year. We've been examining ourselves. We've been looking at ourselves through the eyes of God and the words of the Bible to see that we are walking where He wants us or walking the way He wants us to. But in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, Paul writes this.

We'll read through just a few verses here. I received from the Lord, he writes that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, Take eat, this is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it.

And that's once a year following Christ's example on Passover, as often as you do it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. So as we take the Passover, we're mindful of Christ's death. The significance that it has, the vast difference that it makes for all of mankind, the even vaster and bigger difference in our lives, the fact that we know what it means, that we know so much more than the churches of the world who will talk about Christ's death here in the next few weeks as well.

But they don't understand the significance of it. They don't grasp what it means. They don't understand the scope of what Christ's life, what His death, and why He died was so important. So today, as we look toward Passover, I want to talk about the sacrifice of Christ, answer some questions along the way as well, and bring back into our cognizance here the magnitude of what He did. Because sometimes I think we take it for granted. Christ died, He suffered, He died, He was crucified for us. But when you really think about what He did, and you think of the ramifications and the choices that He made along the way, and the choices that He had, what He did for us should reach down into our very souls and motivate us.

Let's go back to John 1, and remember or refresh ourselves on who Christ was. We know Him as the Son of God, and indeed He was and is. Back in John 1, we're introduced in the Gospels to the two God beings who coexist and who are co-eternal. 1 John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word. Logos is the Word in the Greek, and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was there with who we know is God the Father today, and He was God. He was part of the family. He was God just as God the Father is God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made, referring to the Logos, the One who became Jesus Christ.

He's the One who made the earth that we walk on. He's the One who created the plants that we, some of which we eat, the plants that we enjoy looking at. He's the One who fashioned these bodies that we live in that are capable of so many things. He created it all. He was there before any of it was, working along with God the Father, but through Him everything was created. So literally when we say we owe everything to God, we literally owe everything. He was there in the beginning. He knew what the earth was going to be like.

He was there when the pieces were put together. He was there when the plan was laid. It wasn't just by accident that the earth came. It wasn't by accident that man is following the path he is. There was no accident to what God had prepared for those that love Him. It was all there and it was the One who became Jesus Christ that was there with God. And by Him all things were created. Keep your finger there in John 1. Let's go over to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. We read this a week or two ago, but let's read it again. Colossians 1. And verse 15, He is the image.

Speaking of Christ, He is the image of the invisible God, the one that men didn't know until Christ came and revealed Him to them. He's the image. He's the exact copy. They are unified in purpose, in mind, in everything. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things consist. The sun stays in His place because He's in control. The earth's not going to spin off of its axis or out of its orbit because He's in control. There's a purpose that He's working out.

There's something that God had determined before you and I were even thought of, that He's working out on this earth below. Let's go back to John 1. Pick it up in verse 14. We see that the Word, the Logos, the One who became Jesus Christ and God the Father were there. All things were created by Him. Verse 14, The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.

He was there. And at some point in time, before the earth was created, He said, and He and God decided, I, Christ, Logos, choose to give up being God and come to earth and live as a man. It's a pretty big choice when you think about it. A pretty big choice. Now, much of the world, most of the world, has no idea what the plan of God is.

No idea. It's been hidden from them. You can go to another. You can flip on channels tomorrow morning. You're probably going to hear something about Jesus and the sacrifice He made. They have no idea the magnitude of what He did. They have no idea of why He came to earth. They have a peace, but they don't have the whole picture. God has revealed the full picture and His plan to His people that He's working with now. It's a tremendous blessing that you and I have to know that God is in control, that there is a purpose below, that there's an answer for everything that goes on down here.

The answer doesn't always lie with humans, but all the answers lie with Him. Let's go over to Ephesians 3. Paul addresses this as well because back in his day, people really didn't understand the reason that Christ was there. They put Him to death. But even after the fact, the rest of the world just didn't get why they were there, what they were doing, why they were doing it. Ephesians 3 and verse 8.

Paul writes, To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery. The fellowship of the mystery. The true plan of God, why we're here, why the earth existed, why Christ came, why He suffered, why He died. Paul says he's privileged to be able to preach this and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ.

The mystery of what He's working. The world doesn't know. Most of the world's religions have no clue. It hasn't even entered their mind. And yet, year after year, we keep the Holy Days. Those Holy Days picture the plan of God. As you well know, if you've read booklets, as you've been in the Church for a while, and every year we talk about how that Holy Day pictures the plan of God.

The Passover was the first step, an enormous step. Christ did it all for us, but we have a part to let Him know. We understand, we know, we accept you as our Savior, and we choose to follow you. It's the mystery to the world. Back to a couple chapters in Ephesians 1. In verse 7, Paul references the same thing. He says, in him, speaking of Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will.

We know it. What a blessing that is to have those answers, to have that comfort, to know what God is doing. To us, he's made known that mystery, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself. He chose, and he decided, this is the way it's going to be.

This is the plan for mankind. And when we get into it, when we start thinking about what Christ did, we have to ask our questions. How important must this creation of God bend to him that he would do what he did? And how much must he have loved all of us to even consider doing what he followed through and did? According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him, reconciling man and God, having the whole universe in harmony again, God, man, creation, whatever else is out there that we don't even know about.

Perfect harmony, perfect unity, perfect peace, perfect everything, as opposed to what we live in today. The mystery that you and I know about, that we'll talk about over the next several weeks as we go through the spring Holy Days and more as we get into the fall Holy Days. And the thing is, none of it was an accident. 1 Peter 1. Sometimes we'll make plans.

Things don't go the way we want and then we have to adjust our plans and come up with plan B or plan C. Not so with God and Jesus Christ. Everything was thought out, everything was planned out.

1 Peter 1 and verse 18.

Break into the middle of the sentence there, but it doesn't really affect what we're going to read here. It says, Know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. You weren't bought with silver and gold, but you were bought with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through him believe in God.

Before the world ever was, before the earth ever existed, God the Father and Jesus Christ in his time before he was man got together and they formed the plan for the earth, a physical earth, a mortal man. And part of that plan, since they knew what Satan would be like, and they knew that mankind would sin, would turn against them, would yield to that spirit.

It wasn't a surprise. It didn't take them, catch them off guard. It was foreordained.

Foreordained that Jesus Christ would give up being God, would come to earth to live as a human, to suffer and die, so that you and I might have the hope of eternal life.

He made that decision before the world ever was.

So for how many years, in our way of thinking, has he purposed this in his will? I will do this for them because what I'm working out with here below is that important. And because God loved us that much.

Over in Revelation 13, it tells us the same thing. Revelation 13, the chapter that talks about the Beast's power in verse 8, it's talking about those who would yield to the Beast's power, who really understand and have it, who turn, well, those who yield to the Beast's power. Revelation 13, verse 8, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, the Beast, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, determined from the foundation of the world, or before it, that he would die for us.

It's a pretty big choice. He was God, and he made the choice.

To die for us before we ever existed.

Would you have done that? Would I have done that?

And thought, I'll put myself through this for these creatures that I'm creating on earth, who are going to do all manner of things against me. But I will die for them, and put myself through that. Many people quote John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. How much did God love the world that before it was even formed, he put himself in the position that this is what was going to happen?

I will die for them.

Now, if we're honest with ourselves, not many of us would have made that decision, but it just shows the magnitude of God's love, the magnitude of his mind. And he calls us to develop his mind. He gives us his Holy Spirit and puts his nature in us so that over time, we begin to think like him and be like him. Over in Philippians 2, Paul even talks about letting the mind of Christ be in us.

Philippians 2, verse 5. With the background of who Jesus Christ was, the fact that he was God, that he gave up being God, to come down and be a lowly, weak man, just so that you and I would have the hope of whatever he created us to become. Philippians 2, verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Well, what kind of mind did he have that he could make that decision as God? Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God. And I'm going to give you an alternate translation here in a minute that's going to make that clear. But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. That's what his mind was, that he was willing to give it up. Let me read from the J.B. Phillips translation. It's not the only one that gives us an insight into what those words, especially robbery, to be equal with God mean. Let's translate it this way. Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be.

For he who had always been God, he had always been God, he existed forever. That's all he ever was, was God. For he had always been God, didn't cling to his prerogatives as God's equal.

He had the choice. He could have said, I'm not, no, I'm going to be God. Why would I even think about being anything other than God? Why would I give that up?

Again, would we have given that up to become something so far less and so inferior?

Didn't cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege.

Just think of the privileges of being God, and then think what his life was like when he was on earth, what our life is like. Gave it all up so that you and I might have future, might have a hope, might have eternal life. Gave up everything. We don't even know the extent of what he gave up. We can only imagine, and our minds can't even imagine, everything that God works with, and what we might call the universe, but it's really infinity and hasn't even entered into our minds what it is that God has beyond the physical earth that he's worked with. Stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man.

And having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience.

You know, it was God, or Jesus Christ, YHWH, who was the God of the Old Testament. He was the one that worked with Israel that we read about back there. People didn't know who God the Father was until Jesus Christ revealed him to them. He knew what was in this word that you have sitting on your lap. He knew that the Scripture was going to be perfect truth, that everything in it was going to be done exactly the way that it was written to be done.

There were no words in there that he read the chapter and said, wait a minute, I didn't bargain for that. Someone snuck that in on me without looking.

He was there. This book was inspired by God for us to read. The Scripture was going to be broken. Every single prophecy was going to be fulfilled exactly as written. No surprises.

And he was there when it happened. When he came to earth, he lived by this word.

He lived it perfectly. He obeyed every command.

He had all the right attitudes.

Did everything exactly the way he should.

And he wrote. He wrote the book, He and God, and he followed it perfectly.

He gave up a lot. Gave up more than you and I have given up, wouldn't you say?

When you think about how much Christ gave up.

When he asked us to give up a day of our week to devote to Him, give up some of our pleasures and some of the weaknesses that we have, and give our lives to Him, He has the right to do that, doesn't He?

Look what He gave up. Look what He gave up and then compare it to what God asks you and me to give up. He's not asking us to do anything He hasn't done. He gave up being God. And He asks us to give up being ourselves, yield to Him, turn to Him, be led by His Spirit.

Not asking us to do anything He hasn't done in a far greater magnitude than we've ever been asked.

And when He says, follow Me, obey Me, follow My example. The words that are in this book live them, and He gives us His Holy Spirit to do that. Is He asking us to do anything different than He did? He lived by every word. He walked by every concept. The words of that Bible were His mind, His heart, and His soul. The same thing that He asks us to make them part of. And if we want what He wants for us, we'll do it. And He gives us the power to do that.

He stripped Himself of being God. He obeyed as a man and lived a life of utter obedience, even to the extent—and you can follow there in the verses. I'm going to be reading 5 through 11 here. Even to the extent of dying, and the death He died was the death of a common criminal.

God made man, went through what He went through, and then died as a criminal, even though He lived a perfect life, even though His example was one of love, even though His example was one of compassion and mercy, even though He spent His time on earth doing the works of the kingdom, healing people, preaching, being an example of what life then would be like. He died the death of a common criminal.

That's why God has now lifted Christ so high and has given Him the name beyond all names, so that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, whether in heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why in the end every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father. When you really think about what He did, what He did for us, and what He gave up, the real sacrifice, the full concept of the sacrifice that He made, how could there be any other name that we would worship? How could there be any other who could be called our Savior? How could we not understand and commit to someone who is given at all so that He could give us everything, even beyond what we can even imagine?

Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus, Paul said. He humbled Himself, He prostrated Himself, He loved us, and every man, woman, and child who has ever lived.

Loved in a way that not one of us has loved another yet, but look at the scope and look at what He has done.

And this God, the Logos, Jesus Christ, who before the earth was formed, chose that He would come down and be part of it, chose that He would suffer the things that He did for us, choose to die for us, live His life as a perfect example. Because again, what He asks us to do, He's already done.

He knows exactly what He's asking when He asks us. And while we pray to Him and we say we have struggles and problems, He understands fully what we're going through, understands it fully.

He's been there, and everything we've gone through, He's gone through so far much worse than anything we've experienced. He understands that. He was the one who, back when Israel came out of Egypt and that Passover service was instituted on that night of the 10th Plague, He knew what He was doing when that Passover lamb was killed and its blood was put over the doorpost.

He knew that the people of Israel who obeyed that law, who put that blood over their heads and over their houses, that they'd be saved from death that night. And He knew that He was going to be that Passover lamb for all of mankind. He knew that it would be Him who was sacrificed one day. When He set up the sacrifices in the Old Testament system, He knew that they were picturing Him. He knew He was coming to earth. He was going to be just like you and me, and He'd be willing to have His life and His comfort sacrificed. It didn't come as a surprise to Him. He didn't wake up one morning and look at what was happening the next day. He knew. He lived with what His mission was, and He was willing to do it every day, every step of the way for you and me.

Back before Jesus Christ was born as a man, there were so many prophecies in the Old Testament that talk about His coming, that talk about His death. One of those that we read at Passover every year is found in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. When the Bible was written, God who became Jesus Christ knew what these words were. He knew what was written in there. They weren't written on an after-the-fact basis. They were written before He was ever born. They were written from the foundation of the world.

And as we go through these verses, think about, would you have done that? If you were God, would you have allowed those verses to be written? Or would you have said, man, there's got to be an easier way? There's got to be an easier way than that to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.

Isaiah 53, verse 2, He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root that of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. Jesus Christ wasn't the rock star of His age. People weren't flocking to Him because He was the best-looking guy or the tallest guy in Jerusalem. He looked just like you and me. Every day, everybody, there was nothing about Him physically that was going to attract people to Him. And when we see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire Him. All too often, in our physical lives, we run after the people that we perceive to be better looking, not so in Jesus Christ. And then in verse 3, it says, He is despised and He is rejected by men.

He's despised. Christ knew that those words were written about Him. He's despised.

Do you like being despised? I hope. I hope there's no one that despises me today. I can't think of who it might be. But no one wants to be despised. We want people to like us, right? We want to be part of a group. We want to be liked. Jesus Christ was coming as a man. He was God, and He was coming as a man, and men were going to despise Him. I think it's in Luke 18 or 19 that it says, The people hated Him, and we know they hated Him because they put Him to death.

They were all lined up there saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him.

He was despised, and He chose this for Himself as part of our salvation.

He was rejected by men. No one likes to be rejected.

I remember well when I would ask girls out on the dates, and they said, No, it wasn't fun.

No one likes to be rejected. Did I mention here last week or did I mention in Jacksonville about defriending on Facebook?

And how that can hurt some people's feelings? I think I did mention it here. One of the reasons I am not on Facebook. I don't know if I could take the rejection of someone defriending me. But no one likes that. It hurts our feelings. It's not good if we find out that someone's rejected us and they don't like us. It kind of ruins our days when that happens. If someone walks by you that you know, they just kind of look the other way or give you a scowl, you think, Wow! There goes my day. He is despised and He is rejected by men. He chose to have that happen to Him. He knew what was in these chapters before He ever was born a human, before the world was formed. He is a man of sorrows, sorrows, a man of pain. And not just physical pain. The physical pain we might think about when He endured that last day of His life. But also the mental pain, the emotional strain, the emotional pain that He went through. Because you know, with the love that He had, what He wanted was those people to listen to Him. He was there that they would come to Him and that they would follow Him. And yet they laughed at Him, they set traps for Him, they were looking to do anything they could other than follow Him. And He suffered physically, and He suffered mental anguish, and He suffered emotionally just like you and I do. And He suffered physically as well. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And if you look in the Hebrew with the word Greek there, it talks about sickness, physical sickness. He was acquainted with all of that.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. It kind of turned and looked the other way.

It didn't really want to see what He was going through. And the people of His day, as He was going through what He was going through, it kind of just hid their faces from Him. Some of them were there saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. Others just, you know, let Him walk on by. He's probably getting what He deserves. And we talk about it year after year. Many in the world talk about it year after year. Do we hide our faces from Him? Or do we do what He asks us to do? We hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. He wasn't esteemed by the people of His day, despite everything that He did. They hated Him. They wanted Him dead. His own people wanted Him dead. They didn't want to hear what He had to say. They didn't want to change the way they did things and be transformed into the person that people that He wanted them to be. They just wanted to keep doing the same old, same old. And hoped—no, they didn't hope. People today hope He did it all for us, that we don't have to do anything else. We didn't esteem Him. They didn't know who He was. They didn't understand the magnitude of what He was doing for us. First of all, surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He didn't do anything wrong. He didn't deserve anything that He received. He lived the perfect life. He was the perfect example of love and sacrifice. He did everything exactly the right way. He didn't deserve anything that He received. But He did it, and He bore what we deserve. Because of our sins, yours and mine, and every single man, woman, and child who has ever lived. All the wrong we've done, all the sins we've committed, He's borne our griefs. He's borne our sorrows. He took it upon Himself.

And when you read about what He went through, wow! Mankind laid it on Him thick. He took it all for us, sparing us of so much of what we would otherwise endure. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was getting what He deserved. It's God who's humbling Him, the people of His day might have said. They didn't esteem Him who He was. They esteemed Him stricken by God. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was wounded because of what you and I do. Not because of anything He did, but because of what you and I do, and what every man, woman, and child does when we sin. He was bruised for our iniquities.

You read about the bruising that He had, the wounds that He endured before He was crucified. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him.

He wants us to have peace. He'll bring peace to this earth. In John 17, Christ said, My peace, I leave with you to His disciples.

But we haven't earned it. We haven't learned the way. We're learning the way, if we follow Him every step of the way, but we haven't learned the way fully yet. The chastisement for the way that we've lived our life so that we might have that life of peace was upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed. We're healed of our physical problems. We're healed of our mental grief. We're healed of our emotional stress when we have His mind in us, when we let the Holy Spirit lead us and guide us and permeate our minds. And we're healed spiritually as well, because we all still need that healing. When we pray for each other, we pray for our physical sicknesses and our other emotional problems that we might have. We all need God's spiritual healing to continue right through the rest of our physical lives. By His stripes, by what He suffered, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Not one of us have followed Him.

We are now, but we haven't in the past. We all like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord or the Eternal has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

All that pain, all that suffering, all that heartache, all that mental stress of people mocking you, jeering you, rejecting you, despising you. Several years ago, you remember the movie that came out called The Passion of the Christ.

And that movie was a tremendous hit, if you will.

But it took people by surprise the cruelty with which Christ suffered and what the people of His day inflicted upon Him. And it's pretty graphic if you've ever seen the movie. You can't come away from that movie minimizing at all what Christ went through. And what that movie depicted is probably just a fraction of what really occurred. Back in the 1950s, there was a man by the name of Jim Bishop who wrote a book called The Day Christ Died. And in the end, he took the last 24 hours of Christ's life. He did a lot of research, and he went hour by hour what Christ was going through in his life. What he was doing with those Passover symbols, what he was thinking as he went out to the garden, as he talked to his disciples that day and how they didn't know what he was doing. And then in graphic detail, he explained what went on when he was scourged and when he was mocked and what would have been the weapons of that day. And how it happened to him was not at all like things that happened to other men of the day who were judged for real crimes, and not just because it was the will of the people to get rid of him.

And it's a moving book. It's a very long book and a very detailed book.

I want to read to you just some excerpts from that book. Believe me, it goes on for pages and pages, and I paraphrase some of this. But just so that we have a picture of what Christ went through. And then we'll ask a question when we're done with it. Why did he have to go through that?

Okay. Preparations, he says, for Jesus' scourging were carried out at Caesar's orders.

The prisoner was stripped of his clothing and his hands tied to a post above his head.

Now, remember as I'm reading this, and you hear it, he chose to do this.

It wasn't thrust upon him. He chose to do this for you and for me.

Before the foundation of the earth, he chose that this was going to be. He decided he would do this for us.

And ask yourself, would you?

The prisoner was stripped of his clothing and his hands tied to a post above his head.

The robe and legionnaire stepped forward with the flagrum or the flagellum in his hand. This was a short whip consisting of several heavy leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each.

The heavy whip was brought down with full force again and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs.

At first, the weighted thongs cut through the skin only.

Then, as the blows continued, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels and the underlying muscles.

You and I can't even imagine what that feels like.

I don't know anyone that's been through that, but he did it. He chose. He chose to have that done for you and me. The small balls of lead first produced large, deep bruises that were broken open by subsequent blows. Finally, the skin in the back was hanging in long ribbons, and the entire area was an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue.

When it was determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner was near death, the beating was finally stopped.

We don't know that type of pain, and this was the precursor to being nailed to the cross or stake.

I can't even imagine what it would feel like to have a nail go through my wrist or my palm, wherever it was placed. I can't even imagine that pain, and yet it happened to him. He chose that he would do that because it meant that much to him, that mankind who he was creating would become the people that God wanted them to be. He loved that creation and planned for it so much, he was willing to do that because he wanted you and me to repent and to turn to him and to be able to enjoy what he wanted us to be. But he didn't do it all for us. He said, take up your cross and follow me. You follow me. You give up your life just the way I gave up my life. You give up and sacrifice just like I sacrificed, although he sacrificed so much more.

And if you do that, if you develop the character, the mind of Christ, the nature of which he puts in us, then we can experience that. The physical pain that Jesus Christ endured, we can't even imagine. And then there was the other pain as well, mockery.

And as you read Matthew 27 and the other gospel, the accounts there, sometimes I think we just read over those things and I count myself and then we read it because we've heard it so many times, we just kind of take it for granted. And we don't really appreciate it. We don't really appreciate what he went through. After this scourging, says the half-painting Jesus was then untied and allowed to slump over or slump to the stone pavement, wet with his own blood.

The Roman soldier saw a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be a king. They threw a robe across his shoulders and placed a stick in his hand for a scepter.

They still needed a crown to make their travesty complete. Small, flexible branches covered with long thorns, commonly used for kindling fires, and the charcoal bougiers in the courtyard were plated into the shape of a crude crown. And then the crown was pressed into his scalp.

Ever have a thorn in your hand? We moved to Florida and we bought this this Oganthea tree. And it is really a pretty tree.

And when it's blooming, it is nice. But every time I go out there to trim that tree, I wish we hadn't bought it. It's got these small little thorns, and no matter what gloves and no matter how careful I am, the thorns press in, and for a few days afterwards I can feel the effect of those things just going into the skin. And when that happens, I have to remind myself, wow, thorns hurt. You probably have had rose bushes with the same thing. But then Jesus Christ, after he was in the shape that he was in, I don't know what kind of branches they used then. I don't think they were rose branch crown of thorns, but even if there was a crown of bougainvillea branches on my head, it would hurt. And they pressed that into his scalp. Can you imagine what that would be like? And yet he chose that that would be it. There was a prophecy written about it, and it was fulfilled exactly the way he planned it would be.

The crown was pressed into his scalp, and again there was copious bleeding as the thorns pierced the very vascular tissue. After mocking him and striking him across the face, the soldiers took the stick from his hand, struck him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into his scalp.

Finally, they tired of their sadistic sport and tore the robe from his back. The robe had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds and its removal, just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage caused excruciating pain. The wounds again, the wounds again began to bleed. It's kind of mind-boggling, isn't it? When we put ourselves into that and try to imagine what he went through, all in those very few hours. And then when we remember, he did it for us, and he chose to do it for us. We all know why Christ died. We know that he died, that our sins might be forgiven, that he would pay the death penalty for those sins. But why did he have to suffer so much? Why couldn't he have just written the script? After all, he was God and said, you know what? Yes, this is what we're going to do. I'm going to come to light. I'll be born as flesh. I'll do all these things, but you know when the time comes, I just want to be put over against that wall. I want him to take a arrow or a spear and just kill me. If I was writing the script, that's probably what I would have said. Forget the hours, just kill me, because death is a release in a way, isn't it?

And yet he wrote the script. It was planned from the foundation of the earth that he would suffer this way before he died. Why would he do that? I didn't want to suffer, but why would he write the script that he would have to suffer so much? Wouldn't death have been enough? After all, he paid the death penalty for us. Why would he need to suffer? Well, before I get into that, I was going to look at Isaiah 52 here. After I finished reading that description, Isaiah 52 in verse 14 says, "...just as many were astonished at you. So his visage was marred more than any man." He didn't even look like himself when this was all done. That morning, they saw Jesus Christ up there with Pilate when he was saying, I'll give you Barabbas or I'll give you Jesus. And they chose Barabbas, but he looked like a normal man. Later on that afternoon, who could recognize him? Look what he had been through! His visage was marred more than any man.

Can't even imagine another human being who would have gone through what he went through, and his form more than the sons of men. Did it all for us. Why?

Well, we all know that we've earned death. Every single one of us here has earned death. The wages of sin is death. And without Jesus Christ's sacrifice, that's the only thing we have to look forward to. The wages of sin is death. He paid the death penalty for us. We know that.

But think about it for a moment. If the only penalty of sin is death, if you could just live your life doing whatever you want, however you want, and the only penalty was death. Just do whatever you want. Life's going to be good.

But at the end of it, you're going to die. How many people would say, it's worth it?

It's worth it.

But life isn't that way, is it? Life's not that way. We have become accustomed to living in life, lives that are filled with suffering, filled with pain, filled with agony.

We get accustomed to it. But if we were all living exactly and perfectly by God's will, our lives would be very happy. Our lives would be very joyous. Yes, we'd have our tests and trials, but we would understand fully that God is preparing us for what He wants us to become. But our lives aren't that way. We make mistakes, we sin.

And there's penalties for those sins. Sometimes they don't come immediately. Sometimes they can come later, as a result of sickness, or in the form, I should say, of sickness. Sometimes they just come in the form of emotional pain. Look at the world around us, for instance.

A lot of people in the world would say, you know, do away with all morality. We just want to do whatever we want. These are our bodies. Who's to dictate how we should use them?

But look at the suffering that that sin has brought on the world. Sure, you can talk about the diseases and all those things, and yes, they are important. But look at the suffering in lives as well. How many children are out there without mom and dad? Without even mom or dad caring?

A lot of sick, a lot of hurt, a lot of misery, a lot of suffering. How many people are out there that are affected by abusing drugs or alcohol or gambling or all the other sins of addiction that we could commit? We might think we're just giving in to ourselves, but there's prices that are paid in the suffering and in the misery and the loss of freedom and having that bondage on us.

Every sin comes with a price to pay. We all have earned death, but we all suffer as a result of our sins. How many people suffer the scars of people who have sinned against them? People who have had horrific upbringings by parents who maybe abused them, maybe never showed any love for them? Maybe never showed any love for them? And they spend the rest of their lives never enjoying life, always looking over their shoulder, always having some problem. How many of the eating disorders that are out there, how many of the other disorders that are out there are a result of people who have had sins committed against them or sins that they committed themselves that have taxed on them and weighed on them and they're paying the price? We read in Revelation 21, you know that when Christ returns and the world lives by His way, there will be no more pain. There will be no more suffering.

The tears will be washed away in His world, in His way of life. There's none of that that we just take and accept as everyday life around us. No more wars, no more the effects of greed on the population. You can go on and on and on and list the things and then how people pay and the things, the choices they make and then the effects that that has on their lives. The world is full of suffering and pain and misery. Sin has a price.

Yes, death is a price, but we pay for it throughout our lives as well. Jesus Christ suffered because the payment for sin is a lot more than death. He suffered the way we suffer. He suffered for our transgressions. He was wounded and beaten for our iniquities.

His chastisement was for our peace.

When we think about what He did, the magnitude of how He lived His life, what He did for you and me, it should make what we're going to be doing a week from tomorrow night that much more meaningful. When we take of His body, when we take of His blood, when we take the form of a servant as He did as we wash one another's feet, Christ did that all. He knew what was ahead of Him every step of the way. Before the world was formed, He knew what was going to happen.

As He grew up, He knew what the end of His life would be like. How would you like to know every day of your life how it was going to end and the agony that was going to be in that roughly 24 hours before you died? He knew it, and He chose to do it.

As He left His disciples on that last Passover, they didn't really know what He was doing when He gave them the bread and the wine and He washed His feet. He told them, you'll know after this what I'm doing. We know today, and as we proclaim His death and as we contemplate His death and as we contemplate what we do at Passover and as we follow Him, we can appreciate the sacrifice that He made. We can appreciate that He has the right to ask us to do anything because He's done much more for us than we could ever do for Him. Over in Luke 22, in Luke 22, we see the man Jesus faced with what is about to befall Him as He leaves His disciples at that last Passover and He goes out into the garden to pray.

And He beseeches God and He does what you and I would do. And He's very human. He's very aware of the pain that He's going to endure. And as He faces those final hours, He's in agony just thinking about it. He's in dread just thinking about it. Luke 22, let's pick it up in verse 41. He was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if it's Your will, take this cup away from me. What cup? That same cup when we lift it to our lips on Passover evening. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, He says, not my will but Yours be done. He knew what He was about to face. It had been written before He had chosen to do it.

And as He's faced there with what is going to befall, it troubles Him.

And He asks God, is there any other way? Is there any other way we can do this? I know we talked about it before. I know I agreed. Is there another way that all the verses can be fulfilled, all the prophecies can be fulfilled, that the plan that You set, You and I, Christ would say, set in motion before the world was? Is there another way? And the answer was no. No. It's the only way for mankind to have the chance of eternal life. It's the only way for their sins to be forgiven. It's the only way that you can take upon you all the sins that mankind has committed. It has to be this way.

And Christ knows that He says, Nevertheless, not my will but Your will be done. I wish it could be another way, but I'm committed to the plan. And an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. When we're faced with trials, when we're faced with tough, tough times, turn to God.

There's something He's working for you, something He's fulfilling just like Jesus Christ was fulfilling His mission. And He'll strengthen, just like He did for Christ here. And notice verse 44, In being in agony, agony, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Do you think He was aware of those prophecies that were written about Him? Do you think He was aware of what He was going to go through? Did anything take Him by surprise that was going to happen during the next 18 hours? No. He knew what was going to happen. It was planned that was going to happen. It was planned that He was going to pay the price for us in every single aspect. Not to exempt us from any pain and suffering, because when we sin, we do pay the price, and that He would pay the death penalty for us.

It was foreordained, and He was committed to what God had called Him to, and what He had chosen to do, that He agreed to do, because He loved you and me and every other man, woman, and child just that much. And we're in this time of year when we reflect on His sacrifice, when we understand more fully, unappreciate maybe more fully, we always appreciate it every day of the year, just what He did for us, and how important His life was, the first step in the plan, and He did it.

Let's conclude over in Hebrews 4.

Hebrews 4, verse 14. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Don't throw in the towel. Don't give up. Endure to the end.

Commit that you're going to be there when He returns. Don't let wins of doctrine. Don't let something you read on the internet. Don't let another person sway you from the path that God has put you on. Stick with it. Keep your eyes on Him. Hold fast to our confession, for we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And over in chapter 5 verse 8, Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered, and having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. So, as we participate in Passover, as we go into the days of Unleavened Bread, the meaning of those two steps, pray that God will help you to understand more about what they mean. Never take His sacrifice lightly and commit to Him, and take of that Passover, and understand what He did for us, and give yourself back to Him.