What Did Jesus Suffer Before He Died?

Well, thank you very much, ladies. I thought I would wait until you all got back in here, but they're not all back in here. So, I'm sure they'll eventually be here, at least in a little while. And I apologize again for not being able to think of trio. I was... Some... Don't do that. No, I couldn't think of what it was, as far as if we had three who were singing.

So, I thank you, Dorothy. I appreciate the special music here today. But I couldn't think of trio right at the right time. Well, I am thankful to be able to see all of you again today. And it's always a delight to head out, as I normally do early, to see the people of God on the Sabbath. I'm always delighted to see people in Fulton. And then, as I come back here, I look forward.

I look forward to seeing all of you as a family that God is causing to grow, and causing to grow together in many, many unique ways. And so, I am happy to see you. I want to cover something today that is, in a sense, looking toward the Passover service that we are going to be celebrating here in about five weeks. All of us are aware it's been a number of months since we were able to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles last October.

So, November and December and January and February, and now we're into March. All through that time, now that the Holy Days occur. Holidays occur, Halloween and Christmas and Valentine's Day, and I guess usually you even hit Easter often before you would actually get to the time of the Days of Unleavened Bread in the Passover season. But, it's absolutely fabulous to be able to celebrate the Passover every year.

I want to point that out to you. I know that you perhaps realize that. You're very aware of that. You know that that's something that God asked us to do. But, I'd like for us to think about the Passover as we not only examine ourselves, which we're told to do, but as we think about the Passover, which actually focuses on Jesus Christ. It focuses on Him being the Lamb of God.

It focuses on Him having allowed Himself to be a sacrifice for us. And there's a lot of blessings that we need to be growing in as we think about the understanding, the inspiration, and the blessing that we have with our knowledge of Jesus Christ. See, I know that many of you, perhaps in the past, I know I think for myself in the past before I became a part of the Church of God, I knew a little bit about Jesus Christ. Of course, I was a kid back then, and I did attend some kind of a church service.

And yet, what I knew about Jesus Christ was pretty limited. It was pretty narrow. It was very sketchy. And yet, I know over the last 40 years that I've learned considerably more. And yet, I know there's still more that I need to learn, because what it tells us in John 17, verse 3, is that this is eternal life. That we know the only true God, and that we know Jesus Christ, whom He sent.

See, that's a very critical verse that all of us want to continue to grow in as we celebrate the Holy Days, but particularly as we think about the Passover and the sacrifice that Jesus gave for us. Actually, whenever we prepare for the Passover and think about it, I think what we should be doing is realizing that, well, we do want to look at ourselves. We want to see whether or not, examine whether or not I am growing in the faith that God wants me to grow in.

And in many ways, I know we can always enumerate numerous things. You can enumerate different categories of laws of things that we are to observe, and how well are we observing them? How well are we keeping the commands? There are a lot of different ways to try to evaluate ourselves, but ultimately, this is what we're doing, brethren. We are not comparing ourselves with one another. I'm not comparing myself with you, and you are not comparing yourself with me or each other, husband or wife or person seated before or beside you.

Each and every one of us are simply examining ourselves in comparison to the perfect standard. The perfect standard, which is Jesus Christ. We're actually coming to see, and I hope we see this year more than ever before, how much I personally need Jesus Christ living in me. How much I personally need to be asking God to help me to be susceptible to that, help me to be requesting that, help me to be wanting that, because that's ultimately what we're told.

We're told that Christ is to live in us in Colossians 1, verse 26 and verse 27. And we're told in Philippians 2, verse 5 that, let this mind be in you, which was also in Jesus Christ. See, so we have a perfect standard, and we will never achieve the type of obedience that Jesus obviously had.

But see, we want to grow in the mind of Christ. We want to grow in the outlook that He had. And ultimately, Jesus shed His blood. And ultimately, when you read at the end of the book or at the end of the life, the end of each of the Gospels, you see the accounts of the leading up to and ultimately the crucifixion. And as Christ was crucified, as His spear was stuck into His side and His blood and water flowed out, His blood was shed and He died. And He allowed that to happen.

He allowed that blood to be shed so that my sins could be forgiven. He allowed that to be shed for me. And of course, each of us need to think about it in that way. Because it is something that we have to personally identify with.

But what I want to discuss before or through the sermon today, what I want to discuss is what is it that Jesus went through before He died? Because ultimately, He died. And of course, amazingly, at least according to people who were watching, after He had predicted three days and three nights, He would be in the grave and then He would rise from the dead.

He would be resurrected and He would be able to then interact with them and interact with God. And He would be able to guide the disciples who would make up the church of God. He would be able to guide them through the power of the Holy Spirit. He would be able to lead.

And yet, what was it that Jesus endured before He ever died?

See, what do we think about when we think about Jesus Christ's life? See, He didn't live all that long. He lived 33 and a half years. That's relatively young life. Very young life. As I would look at it at this point now, I'd love to be 33 again. But, see, that was the extent of time that Jesus lived. What kind of life did He have? Was He happy? Did He enjoy life? Well, you see examples where it looked like He was gregarious. He was able to be around other people. He was a popular dinner guest. He was sought after by others. He obviously must have been able to carry on a conversation of some type. And be able to, even when He was 12, baffle the doctors of the law. He was a remarkable kid in every way. And yet, I would think that in many ways, Jesus' life was pretty pleasant. Pretty exciting. Pretty uplifting. He was always ahead of everybody else. He always knew what He needed to know. And certainly at times when we read the accounts, He was able to know what people thought. He was certainly able to escape when He needed to, clearly, whenever you see different times when He gets into discussions. And all of a sudden, He just lost in the crowd. He's not trapped at that point. Any kind of discussion He ever had, He was always the master of the answer. So, He lived a very positive, a very uplifted, I would say, very wonderful life. But the last week or so of His life wasn't so fun. He wasn't so exciting.

As Cleo was reading the section here in Matthew 26, Jesus is told to talk to His disciples as He's now come to Jerusalem for the last time. And He tells them in almost a pleading, He says, I am so grieved. I am so exasperated because I know what's going to happen. I know what's going to go on here in the next few hours or days. And of course, the disciples, they couldn't be vigilant. They had to go to sleep. They just nodded off. He's going to be praying some more, I'm sure. And He was.

And yet ultimately, what Jesus endured was a great deal of humiliation, a great deal of abuse, disgrace, and suffering.

I want to look at this in Matthew 26. Matthew 26, starting in verse 59, He's at the house of the high priest. The high priest is a crook. That might seem unusual to us, but when you see what they were doing, obviously, He was not only up and up. The high priest was in the pocket of the Roman government. He was a pawn. He maintained power by being sure that He had the right connections. And in this case, He was going to bring about something that had been predicted, whether He knew it or not.

And yet you find in verse 59, the chief priest and the counsel were looking for false testimony against Jesus, so they might put Him to death, but they couldn't find any. They couldn't find anybody to be able to accuse Him, falsely even. Though many false witnesses came forward, at least two came forward and said, This fellow said I'm about to destroy the temple of God and I'm going to build it in three days. Well, He said that. He did that. Not yet, but He was going to do that. So that wasn't really an accusation that you could make against Jesus Christ. And yet the high priest stood in verse 62. He said, Don't you have an answer? He said to Jesus, as He has now been betrayed and He has been taken, He has been brought before this kind of a kangaroo court of the high priest and his cronies. He says, Don't you have any answer? What is it that they testify against you? In verse 63 it says, But Jesus was silent. The high priest went ahead to say, I put you under oath before the living. God, tell us if you are the Messiah. Tell us if you are the Son of God. And Jesus simply said, Well, you have said so. But I tell you, from now on, you're going to see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming from the clouds of heaven. Now, He did make a statement here, but for the most part what you see is that He didn't answer. He was being maligned. He was being accused. He was being criticized. He was being castigated in every manner. And yet He didn't answer. Or, in this case, He just simply made a statement that I'm going to be acknowledged for who I am very shortly. And so in verse 65, the high priest has a fit. He has a fit. He tears his clothes. And He says, He's blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? All of us have heard this blasphemy. What is your verdict? And He says in verse 66, the answer is, Well, He deserves to die. Clearly, He deserves to die. And then verse 67, Then they spit in His face, and they struck Him and slapped Him. And it would appear that that was probably more than just a simple slapping, but a brutal beating. If verse 68 would indicate anything, prophesy to us, you Messiah! Who is it that struck you? Either He was blindfolded, or He was beaten to a point to where He couldn't see well, to be able to even see who it was that was whacking away at Him. Over in chapter 27, see again, I know all of you have read this. I know you're familiar with it. But there's more to learn. There's more to learn about the mind of Christ every time we read what He did, what He said, how He acted, how He reacted, and why. Verse 11, now Jesus stood before the governor, so He's in a different setting now. And the governor asked Him, are You the king of the Jews? And Jesus said, well, you say that I am. You're saying that I am. You've of course been told that, or you wouldn't even ask the question. He didn't even say much.

But in verse 12, when He was accused by the chief priest and the elders, He did not answer. When Pilate said, do you not hear how many accusations they're making against you? But it says in verse 14, He gave Him no answer, not even a single charge. And the governor was greatly amazed. See, now, what's a normal human reaction if people are accusing you falsely, even? Usually even a human reaction to an accusation that's true is, oh no, no, it's not me. I didn't do it. Somebody else did it. All kinds of baloney. All kinds of reaction. All types of excuses. This is the example of Jesus Christ. In verse 14, He gave no answer, not even a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. The governor was actually quickly figuring out, I don't need to be here judging this man. I do not need this on my record, because there is no reason why this man is going to be punished. Verse 24 of Pilate saw that he could do nothing but rather riot was beginning. He took water and washed his hands and said, I'm innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourself. And the people said, his blood be on us and on our children. Remarkable. The type of self-control. The type of ability to say the right thing or say nothing at all that Jesus Christ had. Verse 26, after they released a criminal, they released Barabbas and then they scourged Jesus.

They flogged Jesus and handed Him over to be crucified. And I know, you know, surely we have many times over the years gone through descriptions of what is scourging or flogging. A Roman scourging would be a great deal of brutality involved, a great deal of bloodshed, a great deal of beating and tearing of flesh. Verse 27, when the soldiers of the governor took Jesus to the governor's headquarters, they gathered the whole cord around Him and they stripped Him. And they put a scarlet robe on Him and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put that on His head. They put that on His head and they put a reed in His hand and knelt before Him and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. They spit on Him. They took the reed and struck Him on the head. And after mocking Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes back on and they led Him away to crucify Him. See, all of this is a description of what Jesus endured. What He suffered. How He willingly endured false accusation, being despised, being mocked. Here is the King who created the universe, being mocked by some fools from the Roman garrisons. Amazing that He didn't have anything to say, isn't it? Amazing that He had the composure to know that it wouldn't do any good. And actually, it's my example to show what it is like to suffer as a Christian. See, obviously, He was the ultimate in being able to do that. See, brethren, this is a part of what we are reminded of. Whenever we think of the Passover and our observance of the Passover and what Jesus did for us, we are wanting to learn from Him what His mind is like. How it is that, you know, does it appear that He's the type of retaliatory hothead who immediately cries out whenever something goes wrong? That's not the case. Does it seem like He's willing to accept abuse or willing to accept the mocking of others, even when it's completely uncalled for? Well, of course, the answer to that is, again in verse 27, He gave no answer, and the governor was greatly amazed. He couldn't believe it. He just was completely stunned with the mind that Jesus had and used in response to the suffering that He was going through. I think what we should think of as we think of the fact, the wonderful blessing of how much we personally need Jesus living in us is to think about the perfect example that Jesus shows of how to suffer.

How to suffer is a Christian. And actually, when you look back to Isaiah 52 and 53, which we'll read only a part of, I'm not going to go through all of this, but Isaiah 52, I can tell you the Scriptures. Isaiah 52, starting in verse 13 and verse 14 and 15, and then Isaiah 53 from verse 1 on down to the end of the chapter, verse 12.

That section describes prophetically what the suffering servant Jesus Christ would go through.

It describes what He would endure. It describes how He would react. It describes what He would do in response to terrible, terrible trauma.

It describes how it is that Christians will suffer.

Not that we're going to suffer in the same way Jesus did, because I don't think we could ever say that that's what we're being asked to do. But we do, we are acquainted with a certain amount of suffering.

We're all familiar with not only many prayer requests, but all of us, if we're ailing, if we're sick, if we're struggling with something, then we're suffering. But sick is not the only type of suffering that people do. I know that undoubtedly here over the last several days that there are people all over this country who are suffering because of loss of property, because of destruction to property, because of destruction of perhaps the building where their job was before. There are people who are struggling and suffering with a lot of things.

You can suffer just from anguish, from anxiety, from mental stress, and a lot of different sufferings that we can go through. And yet the perfect example for suffering is Jesus Christ, as we see described here. And I'm not going to again take the time to read all of this in Isaiah 53, but I will just mention verse 4 of chapter 53. It says, Yet we accounted Him stricken and struck down by God and afflicted, but He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquity, and upon Him was the punishment that makes us whole. And by His bruises, we are healed. So you see the indication that clearly ties together with what Jesus was going to do and what Peter would later write about in his discussion of Christian living.

And how that suffering is even a part of Christian living. That's what we're going to read. Peter will be telling us. Down in verse 10 it says, It was the will of God to crush Him with pain, and when you make His life an offering for sin.

The last part of verse 11, You know, we have a glorious God. We have a glorious Savior. And yet His example of suffering is an example that all of us can learn from. It's an example that we can emulate. It's one that we clearly can benefit from. I want to go to 1 Peter, because here in 1 Peter, you have Peter writing.

This is actually somewhat a little later. He was writing to the church in general. He was writing to Christians who were scattered in many different areas. And yet when you read what Peter had to say, Peter said, I know that a number of you are suffering. I know that a number of you are going through various trials and tests.

And yet I'm writing you to show you or to tell you, you know, don't be dismayed. Don't be disturbed. Don't be shaken by the fact that you are enduring trials. Realize what Jesus went through and also understand that there is tremendous hope as we look into the future. Tremendous hope! That's what Peter has often said to have been an apostle that wrote about hope.

And yet that's what we read here in 1 Peter 1, verse 6. He says, in this rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that perishes, is tested by fire.

It may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. To hear even if He's talking about the Christian life and Christian life involving the certain level of suffering. In chapter 4, verse 12, He says, Beloved, don't be surprised that the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange has happened.

He actually points it out very clearly that, well, if I am suffering, and I'm not again going to be able to read all these verses here in 1 Peter, but He goes over and over and over about individuals suffering, some of which appeared to be kind of brought upon themselves.

If you suffer if you're doing wrong, then what did you expect? That would be what you might expect. But if you suffer as Jesus did for no cause, for no reason, well then you need to understand how valuable that suffering is.

You need to understand that to suffer as a Christian and to suffer as a part of the will of God, then you need to understand how that is following in the footsteps of your Lord and Savior. Here in chapter 2, in verse 21, I want us to identify with what Jesus went through, because it says, and we've already read at least one of the descriptions of the suffering that Jesus endured. Now, I know that that appears to have gone on at least a few days or at least a short period of time, but the severity of it was quite extreme.

The severity of the trauma and the disgust with which He was treated, it was appalling. And yet here it says in verse 21, and to this, you brethren have been called, because Jesus has suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps. See, He tells us that if Jesus endured what He endured, that we have to consider the possibility that, well, I may need to suffer as a Christian. And if I do, then I want to do that following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, actually sharing in the suffering of Jesus.

In chapter 4, verse 13, He says, but rejoice in so far as you are sharing Christ's suffering. Here's what He's telling us in verse 12. Don't be surprised if you go through some fiery ordeal, but rejoice in that you are sharing in Christ's suffering. And if we look at it that way, if we see that in our own lives as we endure affliction as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, which again Paul told Timothy that that's what He needed to do, if we're doing that, He tells us to rejoice that we can share in the suffering of Christ, because we identify with the King of the universe.

We identify with the Lord of Lords. We appreciate what He went through and the example that He set and the perfect responses that He always gave. If we go back to chapter 2 again, it says in verse 23, when He was abused, He did not return abuse.

When He suffered, He did not threaten. This is just a description of what we've already read in Matthew. It's a description of how it was that as Jesus was in the fiery trial of going through what He realized was going to be required, He says talking back is out of the question. Responding in kind is ridiculous. It certainly would not improve the situation. See, I think we might be able to tie this together with what we read here in Matthew 5. Matthew 5 is the beginning of some very important statements that Jesus makes.

It's called the Sermon on the Mount. He goes through many topics in this sermon. He goes through a lot of Christian living. And yet, one of them here in chapter 5, verse 38, He says, You have heard in the past, you've heard the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. He says, You've heard that. But I'm going to tell you something.

The way you need to learn to be like Me. The way you need to learn to endure suffering as a Christian is, do not resist an evildoer, but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. See, turn the other cheek. That's not something we like to do. That's not something anybody really likes to do. See, that's something that Jesus set the pattern in doing.

See, now, did He seek revenge? See, that's too commonly human response. Even if we do suffer, some type of disgrace, some type of statement, some type of injury, some type of action toward us, some type of disrespect. Even if we do manage to endure without retaliating, we sometimes are thinking, how can we get back?

How can we get back at someone else? That was not what Jesus was doing. Jesus was thinking about, how can I ask the Father to forgive them? Because that's what He actually did. Even those who were driving nails in His hand, He's asking the Father to forgive them because they don't know what they're doing.

They are just insane with jealousy. They've been driven to a frenzy, and people want to see this horrible show. And yet, of course, Jesus' example and pattern was not retaliation. It was not revenge. I've often thought of it, what is turning the other cheek?

What is that really talking about? Well, that's being like Jesus Christ. Thinking about how suffering might have to be endured, and as we share in that suffering with Jesus Christ, we're told again back in Peter that we can rejoice in that. Rejoice because ultimately we'll be beyond that. Ultimately, there's great hope. Ultimately, there is great glory for the sons of God, as we're going to read in a little while. But I'd like to show you again here in Peter, what it is as Jesus endured this horrible disaster that He went through, the horrible reaction from others, the horrible disrespect and humiliation from others.

How was it that He responded? Well, in 1 Peter again, chapter 2, verse 23, when He was abused, He didn't return abuse when He suffered. He didn't threaten. But it says in verse 23, He entrusted Himself to the One who judges righteously. He entrusted Himself to the One who knew all the answers. He entrusted Himself to the One who He communed with all the time. His Father. He entrusted Himself to His heavenly Father. And it goes ahead to say, He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross so that free from sin, we might live for righteousness.

So He's setting a perfect example of what it is to have a righteous life. It is to be looking to the Father in everything. It goes ahead to say and repeats what we read back in Isaiah, By His bruises or wounds, You have been healed.

So He ties this together with suffering. He ties this together with what we endure. And yet I hope that we can see it's not only stated here over in chapter 4. In verse 19 He says, Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator while continuing to do good. Not only was Jesus willing to endure, but He realized the value and the import of suffering, and that My followers were going to suffer.

They were going to share in that suffering. But as He entrusted Himself to the One who judges rightly or justly, we're told here in chapter 4, verse 19, Let those suffering in accordance with the will of God entrust themselves to a faithful Creator.

See, this is the mind of Jesus Christ. This is the response that He wants us to seek. This is not a normal human response. This is a response of God to situations that were truly extraordinary, and yet they can very directly apply to us. And here in chapter 5, and there's a lot of information.

Again, Cleo went through some of this, thankfully. I'm not going to try to go through so many different things that 1 Peter 5 talks about because there's way too much there. But actually, in verse 10, you have one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible. Because it tells us here, 1 Peter 5, verse 10, After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Jesus Christ, the God of all grace, He Himself will restore and support and strengthen and establish you.

I think the King James mentions restore. It mentions settle. It mentions strengthen. And in verse 11, to Him be the power forever and ever. To the one who's watching over us, the one who's aware of our Christian lives. See, He's the one who's watching us and He's the one who allows us at times to suffer. He wants us to learn how to suffer and follow the pattern of Jesus. He wants us to be able then to realize that, well, after we've suffered a while, He's going to help us. He's going to revive us. He's going to restore us.

He's going to pick us up. He's ultimately going to glorify us, but He's going to settle and restore our lives. And I think that's wonderful. I read that quite often because if I'm unsettled, if my mind is unsettled, I want it to be settled. I want it to be more stable than it is. That's what I ask for. And I think that clearly is something that we can and should be praying for.

But we see that the example that Jesus gave, the example that He gave as the Son of God, who was offering Himself as His sacrifice for sin, His blood was going to be shed. But He suffered a great deal of bruising, a great deal of disgrace, a great deal of distress before He ever died. And He did that as an example for us.

Over in Romans 8, we see the conclusion to this. Because beyond our Christian lives, as we live those lives in obedience to God, and in deep appreciation of how much we need Jesus Christ living in us, here in Romans 8, you have a chapter that in many ways is about having the Spirit of God. It's about being the children of God because God has chosen to give us His Spirit.

And it says in verse 17, the children, as the children of God, we are heirs of God. We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And verse 17, if in fact we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. See, that's what He tells us. You know, suffering and sharing the suffering of Jesus, suffering as He did, asking for His mind, asking for Him to live in us, in a sense enables us to look forward to be glorified. In verse 18, I consider that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that's about to be revealed in us.

For this entire creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. The creation was subject to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

See, brethren, that's what God is doing. Whether we think about it, whether we consider it, you know, this world is in a state of decay. It's in a state of deprecation. It's in such decline because of mankind's mess that we are creating all over the globe, but because of Satan's exaggeration of everything that's wrong, and of course, his promotion of everything that's wrong, this entire world needs to be rescued. It's going to be rescued by the children of God. It's going to be rescued by Christ's return and His intervention in world affairs, but ultimately, and at that time, the children of God are going to be glorified.

And so, it's wonderful to read the Scriptures that talk about Jesus and what He went through. I think it's even better to tie it into the suffering that we go through and the fact that, as Christians, we want to learn to endure. We want to learn to even look at it in a way that is hopeful and even joyous. And we want to be truly grateful that we can simply entrust ourselves to the one who always has the right answer, and that would be our Father and the way that He is able to bring about a solution to all of the problems that mankind is facing.

As we think about the Passover, I hope we'll think about the suffering that Jesus went through, and I hope we'll identify with that in a way that maybe we never have before, but in a way that God wants us to, because as He says here in verse 17, if we suffer with Him, then we may also be glorified with Him. And that truly is a wonderful thing to look forward to. So, praise be to God that He allows us the privilege of knowing Him and knowing the Son that He sent.