The Sacrifice of Jesus Christ

Well, good morning again, brethren, and it's delightful to be able to see each of you today. I know, as we're approaching the time of the Passover and of the Days of Unleavened Bread, that all of us are preparing for that. We're thinking about that. We're analyzing ourselves. We're examining ourselves. And that, of course, is what God asked us to do. He tells us that He wants us to examine ourselves and then eat of the bread and drink of the cup because we need it. Because we need it. That's why He tells us to do that. And it's a fabulous thing to realize that God gives us these Holy Days. He does this because He's able to plan things out. The Holy Days actually picture a plan. The plan of God. The plan that He is working out here on the earth, and as Brian was mentioning earlier, people are very scrambled. People are extremely confused. Someone was telling me the other day just how much different people were saying this and saying that and seemingly not having any clue what is really right, what is really true, and almost oblivious to the fact that is so obvious to us. Now, well, God has a plan. He's working out that plan. He's actually provided the Redeemer. He's provided the ransom. He's provided the one that we each need to have a very close relationship with. And of course, that's our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what really helps us. And amazingly, if we look back in Isaiah 53, we see the recording of a prediction of what Christ was going to go through.

And I know all of you are familiar with this, but it's good for us to go over it again. And I know that oftentimes we encourage people to study the Gospels, to read the Gospel accounts. You have four very good accounts of the death of Jesus as He went into that last few days of His life as He went into a trial that is in many ways beyond our comprehension. We have trials, but we didn't go through exactly what Jesus did. And we didn't have the distresses that He had, and yet we know that He did that not only to just complete the plan, not only to follow the plan as far as what was predicted, but He did that because He's really concerned about us. He's concerned about each of us. He's concerned about us eternally, but He's concerned about us right now. He's concerned about the things we go through now. He's concerned about our lives, and He's clearly able to help us, and we want to take advantage. We want to take advantage of that wonderful blessing. Here in Isaiah 53, in talking about the suffering servant, the servant who would come and suffer, he would not come as a ruler and as a king. He was a king, but he was not installing his kingdom yet. But he was coming as a suffering servant. It says in verse 2, 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, surely or nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised. He was rejected by others, a man of suffering and acquainted with iniquity, or excuse me, acquainted with infirmity, not iniquity. He was obviously aware of the iniquity around him, but he was acquainted with infirmity and as one from whom others hide their faces, he was despised.

We held him of no account. Surely he has borne our iniquity. I'm really getting confused here. He has borne, well, he hasn't borne our iniquity, our infirmity. I'm not reading that word right. He has borne our infirmity and he has carried our diseases.

Yet we account him stricken and struck down by God and afflicted, for he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities and upon him was the punishment that made us whole by his bruises. We are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have all turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. What Jesus went through, he went through for me. He went through for you. He went through for each of us individually and all of us collectively. He went through that, not only for us, but for the entirety of humanity, for all people who will come to ultimately bend their knee and bow their head before the ruler of the universe. That's why he went through it so that we would have a ransom so that we could be forgiven. So as we partake of the Passover service here in a very short period of time, I want to remind us of the wonderful gifts that are offered to us by Jesus Christ.

See, whenever we come to the Passover, it's certainly a solemn and it's a sobering affair. It's a serious occasion, as you know, and we want to benefit from that because we want to respect the death of Jesus Christ. We want to respect what he went through. But it also has a very joyous, a very encouraging, a very uplifting side. You know, it's kind of bittersweet, I guess you could say, because there's a great deal of bitterness with what Christ went through, but it's also very sweet. It's very uplifting. And I think we should also focus on that, because through that he offers forgiveness. Through that he offers hope. Through that he offers absolute assurance to us. You know, really, that's what we really want to focus on as we endeavor to draw closer to God. And as we appreciate the way that God is offering us salvation. And this is actually how he's doing it through Jesus Christ. I'd like for us to look in the Gospel of Mark here in Mark 14 and 15 and 16. This is Mark's account of what Jesus went through, leading up to the time when he would be crucified. And of course, in chapter 16, explaining his burial and then his resurrection. And I'm not going to be able to go through all of that today. I'll probably go through some of that next week. And yet I do want us to focus on just what it was that Jesus went through there in the last day or two of his life. It's an amazing account that we have several different accounts of. And actually, when you read the different Gospel accounts, you see different things that are added. And yet, the one that I want to cover here is in Mark. And so I'd like for us to see just how it was that Jesus was preparing. How it was that he viewed what it was he was going through. And how it is that he's going to be rejected. He's going to be denied. This is what it says back in Isaiah. He's despised. He isn't looked upon in any valued way. And of course, there's going to be a great deal of disrespect as other human beings that he created turn on him and abuse him. And ultimately, his death is perhaps the most hideous type of death that you could ever imagine.

So I'd like for us to look in chapter 14 verse 3, because it says, while he was at Bethany in the home of Simon Leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with a jar of very costly ointment.

And she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. And of course, some who were there said to one another, well, why is she doing that? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. We've got a bottle, a very expensive expensive ointment that could have been sold for a year's worth of wages. That was the type of ointment that actually was being extended to Jesus in this case. And of course, the argument was, well, why was the ointment wasted in this way? And from this, anointing could have been sold for more than 300 denarii and the money given to the poor. And so those who were there, and you see it, Judas is one of those who was leading this charge, now they scolded her. But Jesus said, let her alone. Let her be. Why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me.

You always do have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for its burial. You know, here was an amazing thing. It was a thing that was criticized. It was viewed dimly by the disciples, some of them at least, Judas being one, and maybe some of the others, wondering why is this being allowed? Well, there was a very important reason why it was being allowed because it was focusing on, as Brian pointed out, the real answer. It was focusing on Jesus Christ. It was pointing out the significance. It was pointing out the benefit. It was pointing out the value of the Son of God. And of course, he made the statement, leave her alone. She is performing a good service for me. And so clearly, something he looked at in a different way than the rest of the disciples. You see down in verse 12 that Jesus told his disciples to prepare the Passover. And down in verse 22, while they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it broken and gave it to them, and said, Take this as my body. And then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he gave it to them, and all of them drank from it. And he said, This is the blood.

This is my blood of the covenant, the new covenant, which is poured out for many.

Truly, I tell you, I'll never again drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And so this is a common thing that we observe when we go through the Passover service, when we take the bread and we take the wine. But here Jesus was actually He was instituting a new symbol. He wasn't focusing on the lamb, or on the bitter herbs, or on the unleavened bread that they always had focused on in the Old Testament. That was all looking forward to His coming. That was looking forward to Him being the Lamb of God, to some of the bitterness that He would go through as He was crucified, and also signifying His body in the unleavened bread. But now He was using the bread and the wine in a different way. He was starting a new thing. He was starting a new covenant observance of the Passover. And that's, of course, why we're doing what we do when we take of that bread and drink of the wine.

We see in chapter, or verse 26, rather, that they sang a hymn, and shortly thereafter, you know, Peter, of course, says, I'll never forsake you. Peter didn't really know, as we mentioned last week, he didn't really know the extent of the problem. He didn't really know what was going to happen. Now, he had been told, and he kind of understood, but he really didn't even understand himself. He clearly didn't understand how needy he was. He didn't understand how deceitful he was. And see, that's a part of what we all see if we examine ourselves, you know, that there is some deceit. There is some deceit. There may be a lot of deceit in some things we do or say, and clearly our heart needs to be purified. We find in verse 32, Jesus went to the garden of Bismani to pray. He took Peter and James and John with him, wanted them to pray with him. You know, they were unattended. They couldn't figure out why is he so distressed? Verse 34, he says, I'm deeply grieved, even to death. Remain here and keep awake.

And of course, he was praying to the Father. And he asked the Father, is there any way not to do this? You know, that wasn't that he was going to not going to go through with it. He knew what he was going to do. But he asked, you know, is there any other way that we could address this down in verse 36? He says, all things are possible with you, Father. Is there any way to remove this cup? And of course, he knew the answer to that. I'm sure he said, it's not what I want. It's not what physically I would wish. It is not my will, but your will that I want to follow. And of course, that's what he was going to do and his disciples again, you know, they just couldn't understand the distress. They couldn't understand what it was he went through. And the next section, starting in verse 43, involves Judas coming as his betrayer. And he came in verse 44, the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one that I'm going to kiss, he's the one, he's the man, arrest him and lead him away under guard. So he came to him, went up to him at once and said, Rabbi, and kissed him. Isn't that amazing? You know, that as Judas had been influenced, and of course he was influenced by Satan's influence, he was influenced to betray the Son of Man. And he goes up to Jesus Christ and calls him rabbi and kisses him.

And of course, they laid hands on him and arrested him at that time.

But how was it that Jesus thought about Judas? You know, how was it? We've read before how he washed Judas's feet. He was here to serve humanity. He was here to serve mankind. He was here as a servant of all. And even when Judas comes and betrays him, tells everybody who he is, he's the one, take him. You know, the way Jesus responded in Matthew was that whenever he saw Judas, whenever he commented on what Judas was doing, what did he call him? Well, he called him friend. You know, he was one of the disciples. He was one that he had taught and been around a lot.

You know, his ability, his capacity to be able to overlook flaw and to overlook error, and in this case to overlook dismissal and denial and the disrespect was amazing. But in Matthew 26, 50, he called him friend. You know, go ahead and do what you're going to do. It's predicted that this has to be done, but he didn't hold any animosity. He didn't have any anger or any hatred toward what Judas was doing. We find in Mark in verse 50, whenever this encounter was going on. And of course, I think amazingly, maybe we should back up to verse 47 again, one of those who stood near him, drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. We know from other accounts that Peter was the one who was doing this. You know, Peter played a, you know, quite a role in this whole event because he was the one who wasn't going to deny him, but of course did. He was the one who, you know, says lots of things he shouldn't have been saying. And in this case, he grabs his sword and starts, he starts fighting.

He cuts off the ear of the high priest. And yet, of course, amazingly, again, as Jesus put an end to that, he said, stop that. We don't need that kind of fighting. I'm not needing you to rescue me. I'm here to rescue you. You don't even know you need to be rescued, but that's why I'm here. I'm here to rescue you. And again, amazingly, in Luke 22, verse 51, what it says there was Jesus touched the ear of the servant of the high priest and healed him. You know, that should have been a little bit of notice. It should have been quite a bit of a drawing back and perhaps by the few who may have seen that or may clearly have seen what happened. And if somebody was, you know, I don't know how much that ear was cut, it would appear, you know, it could have been cut. Maybe it was cut off. Maybe it was in somebody's hand. I don't know. But it didn't make any difference because all it says in Luke 22, 51, is that he touched the ear and healed him. And if anyone saw that, you know, they probably decided, I don't really want to be involved in taking this man to trial. And yet in verse 50, back in Mark again, it says all of the disciples deserted him and fled. So it wasn't just Peter. It wasn't just Peter who fled away. He's the one who had said, I won't. But he fled and everybody else fled. They didn't want to be connected with Jesus at that point. And so in a sense, Jesus, you know, didn't have any support. At least he didn't have any support from the other people that you would have hoped maybe could have offered some encouragement. Starting in verse 53, he was taken to the high priest. Of course, he was questioned and he was abused. You can say he clearly is going to be abused physically, ultimately when he dies. But he was clearly abused extensively before. He suffered a great deal before he ever died. Down in verse 63, the high priest yells, well, we've heard his blasphemy. What is our decision? All of them condemned him to death.

Verse 65, some began to spit on him. You know, in human terms, you know, you see this, I think, somewhat commonly. You know, people spitting on each other is a very derogatory thing, a very disrespectful thing. And I know that, you know, certainly in baseball, if you follow baseball at all, you know, that is a taunt or that is a deep disrespect that usually causes both teams to get into a huge brawl. And it seems anymore that people are much more easily incited anyway. But here, you see this description written in such a, you know, can it have as much impact as it should have upon us? It says, they began or some began to spit on him. Some began to blindfold him. Some began to strike him saying, why don't you prophesy? Why don't you prophesy now?

And the guards also took him over and beat him. See, what a horrible verse. Here in verse 65, they spit on him, they blindfolded him, they struck him, they taunted him to prophesy. And then it says the guards beat him. See, what kind of a horrible situation to find yourself in? Of course, the next section documents Peter's denial. And I know again, Jesus clearly understood what Peter was going through. You know, this was brand new for Peter. And clearly, you know, as he looked to Peter with compassion and concern, he wasn't looking down on Peter. He wasn't looking down on Judas.

He was looking at others with compassion, with concern. He was looking at those who were fighting him in great restraint, actually. I think that's the only way because it said back in Isaiah, he's not going to answer, he's not going to respond in kind, he's not going to react. You know, he was bigger than that. And clearly, it's something that is amazing for us as we think about how that when he looked at Peter, you know, he did that out of concern. And, you know, Peter knew, you know, that was burning that in Peter's mind. He was never going to forget that. He was always going to remember that until the day he died, ultimately, in a somewhat similar way, but he at least asked and wanted to be crucified upside down because he didn't want to be in the same manner that his Lord had been crucified. But he never forgot. He never forgot what Jesus went through that day. Chapter 15, he's brought before Pilate. And of course, amazingly, Pilate almost wants to let him go. He said, there is no reason for me to be bringing you to death. There just isn't. And he points out that he even realizes in verse 10 that the chief priest had delivered Jesus because of their jealousy. Because of the jealousy.

See, the human inclinations, the human sins, the human disrespect is what Jesus was doing this for. And yet Pilate could even see through that. And of course, whenever they ask or Pilate asks, what should they do in verse 13? They said, crucify him. Crucify him. And Pilate asks, well, why? What evil has he done? They shouted all the more, crucify him. So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them.

And after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified. Again, an amazing account of complete perverted justice. And that's really what again says in Isaiah, that what he went through was clearly not even legal. And yet it was a part of the plan of God. It was a part of what would play into that plan of salvation. Verse 16, the soldiers led him into a courtyard in the palace.

They called together the whole cohort. In verse 17, they clothed him in a purple cloak. After twisting some thorns in a crown, they put that crown on him. Tom spoke about that last week, amazingly, you know, carrying the symbol of the curse that had been given to man, even in his victory over sin and over death. You know, this was something that, you know, these men, you know, in many ways may have unwittingly done. And yet, you know, it did fulfill prophecy.

It did fulfill statements that we read in the Old Testament. They began saluting him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! They struck his head with a reed, and they spit upon him, and they knelt down in homage to him. And after mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and they put his clothes on him, and they let him out to crucify him. So we find in this next section in verse 21, Simon was compelled to carry the cross, because at this point, Jesus was clearly, he was clearly stricken, bruised.

He was clearly injured in many ways, you know, almost to death. And yet, you know, you only see the words that are here, and in many ways, you know, the flogging. You know, you can read accounts of that, and you know, that was clearly a scourging. That was unbelievable. And yet, it says in verse 22, when they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, and they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, and he didn't take it.

And it says in verse 24, they crucified him and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take. It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him. And they continued to deride him, they continued to mock him, they continued to taunt him. In verse 33 at noon, darkness came upon the whole land. And at three o'clock, he cried out with a loud voice, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You know, Jesus made a number of statements. Most of them were directed at other people.

In this case, it was simply stating to God, you know, I realize you're allowing me to go through this. You're allowing me to bear the sin of humanity. And in a sense, you have to forsake me right now, knowing that you will shortly recover. And of course, that's what was going to happen. And down in verse 37, Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And in verse 39, after seeing some of these things, and of course, all of these things I know are familiar to you. But I mention them simply because, you know, we want to be impacted.

We want to be impacted by what it was that Jesus endured for us. What it was that he went through. And after seeing these miraculous things, after seeing some of these remarkable things, the healing of a servant's ear, after seeing how that Jesus did not respond back when he was accused, after seeing how he endured the terrible flogging, the terrible beating, and then ultimately being crucified, they find the curtain of the temple torn in two.

It says in verse 39, now when the centurion who stood there facing him saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, truly this man was the son of God. Truly this man was God's son. See, some people were coming to a realization there. Of course, there were women there who were watching. And you find in verse 42 that Joseph of Arimathea came and took the body of Jesus and put him in a tomb. And we can read through that fairly easily.

And I hope that between now and next week you may read through these accounts, either in one of the Gospels and just contemplate on what it was that Jesus went through. Because we're told that, you know, he went through not only the death and the shedding of his blood, but that he endured a great deal of suffering. He endured a great deal of anguish. When he was talking to his disciples in the garden and they, you know, they weren't able to even stay awake. They surely were not praying, not praying like he was.

If they were showing a certain level of human weakness, a certain level of human in understanding, you know, they didn't understand, they couldn't understand what it was that he was enduring. And yet he went through that suffering. He went through all of that because he wants us to be able to have an abundant life. He wants us to be able to thrive. He wants us to be able to have what many people clearly do not have today, which is a clear conscience, a clear understanding, knowing that we can be completely and totally forgiven. Most of us know that we're forgiven. I think probably all of us know that. We can read that. That's pretty easy.

Many times we don't really believe that. Sometimes very deep down inside of us, you know, we don't really understand the depth of forgiveness that Jesus extends to us because of how much not only he went through, but how much he loves us. He doesn't want us to labor. He doesn't want us to labor with some of the difficulties that we labor with. We labor with a lot of things sometimes, and we struggle with things internally, mentally, emotionally, psychologically. And yet he was overcoming all of those things. He was able. He was far beyond. He was the creator of the universe. And I'd like to go back and focus a little more on just what it says here. What it says in verse 24. Pretty simple statement. As he went through all of this preparation up until the time that he would be ultimately brought to where he would die.

In verse 24 it says, they crucified him and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to see who should take what. A very simple statement. It's almost couch there in such a way where it looks like, well, they're dividing up his clothes. Does he have, you know, any good shoes? Does he have a good robe? Which he did. Does he have other undergarments that would be of value, would be of import? That's really not the important part of that, I think. I mean, that was carrying through on a prophecy. That was something that had been predicted.

But the part that I want to focus on is just simply that they crucified him. Because crucifixion is not something that we normally think about here in this age. We think about people being given the death sentence, and of course some of that being through electrocution or earlier being through other different methods. Some of it is drug-induced today, and of course they want that to be as inhumane as possible. You know, this was inhumane. This was terribly, terribly distressing. And I want to read to you just an account of what a medical doctor has written about a crucifixion. This is something that you may have heard before. But I think it is important for us to perhaps just think through what it was. We can easily read what Jesus endured, but this is actually a report that a doctor, a medical doctor, his name is C. Truman Davis, he wrote over 40 years ago. And he published this in the Arizona Medicine Magazine, and it appears to me he is a believer, or he believes in Jesus Christ anyway. And yet he points out just what goes through. This is his description of what a crucifixion involves, of how it is that whenever Jesus was not only beaten and not only disrespected, not only abused, but as he hung on the cross, what was he going through? Well, this description, a medical doctor giving it, he says, a cross is placed on the ground, and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood.

A legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist, and he drives a heavy square wrought iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. And quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and some movement. The cross is then lifted into place, and the left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. And he just makes the statement that the victim at this point is now crucified. But as he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in his wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in his brain. The nails in the wrist are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid his stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet, and again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones and his feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, nodding them deep and relentlessly and throbbing pain. And with these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. And air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. And finally, carbon dioxide brings a dioxide that builds up in the lungs and into the bloodstream. And the cramps partially subside, but spasmodically he's able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. Hours of limitless pain.

Cycles of twisting, joint-reading cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back. And he moves up and down against the rough timber. And then another agony begins, a deep and crushing deep pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It's almost over now. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level. The decompressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air, and he can feel the chill of deep creeping through his tissues. Finally, he allows his body to die. And then this writer goes on to say, after describing from a medical standpoint the degree of distress, the degree of suffering, the degree of trauma that he would endure for us, he says all of this the Bible records with the simple words and they crucified him.

It'd be too easy to read those words, too easy not to know or not to remember. And I think for most people in this world they have no clue what it is that Jesus went through, how it was, how much it was he was concerned about us and what he was willing to go through for us and for our benefit. See, all of this that Jesus went through and that he endured, he did in order to fulfill what was written in Isaiah 53, talking about not opening his mouth, certainly no deceit was found in his mouth. He was offering himself as a sacrifice for sin. And in Isaiah 53 verse 11 it says, the righteous one will make many righteous and he shall bear their iniquities. See, that's what he was doing. That's what he wants us to be reminded of. He wants us to be impacted by that. But he also wants us to be able to see beyond that and to know that because of that, because of his mercy, because of what he extends in forgiveness.

He then gives us hope. He gives us hope of eternal life. He gives us hope of a future. He gives us hope of being able to serve mankind. Ultimately, large numbers of people will become a part of the family of God. And we are grateful and should be grateful to be a part of the people who will be helping and serving others. And yet ultimately, the ultimate servant will always be Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, the one who is willing to endure, the one who is willing to give himself for us. And so I want to focus just briefly here before I conclude in John chapter 3 because John 3 verse 16 is a verse we're easily able to quote. But what it says is that God still loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. See, Jesus went through what He did because He loves us. God loves us. The Father loves us. He's concerned about us. He's concerned about us being motivated in our Christian lives. He's concerned about us being able to look beyond that, to look into the eternity that He offers and to know that He will be there. He will help us. In verse 17, it says, indeed, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world.

He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. He was the ultimate sacrifice. He was the one who would endure for us not only death, which we know He shed His blood for us, but He also endured the suffering. He endured the shame. He endured all of that in order to be available to us, to be able to help us. And as it says here in verse 18, those who believe in Him, are not condemned. Brethren, that applies to us. We believe in Him. We believe what He went through. We believe why He did what He did. And it says, those who believe in Him are not condemned. Those who do not believe are condemned because they've not believed in the name of the only Son of God. But here He talks about, you know, Jesus was not there condemning. He was not there taking out His or lashing out with His authority against those who were crucifying Him. He was enduring the cross and enduring that shame, you know, in order to offer us His sacrifice for our sin. So ultimately, I guess we should say that the Passover service is a reminder. It's a reminder of very sobering things, but it's also a reminder of very encouraging things that I hope to be able to talk about a little more next week. But I think ultimately, you know, what this points out to us is that as we take the Passover, as we observe the things that He asked us to observe, we ask that He would empower our minds to be motivated in His service and perhaps more than anything to ultimately be more and more thankful, more thankful for what has been extended to us and how, you know, God has chosen to offer such many such wonderful, fabulous blessings to each and every one of us.