The Village Church
Road to Easter: The Suffering of Christ - Audio
All right, good morning everybody. How are you all hope y'all are doing all right this morning? Alex have been doing a series called the road to Easter where he's been kind of over the past four weeks looking at just What Easter means the fact that? We believe we confessed confess faith in Jesus Christ our Lord And just giving us these these vignettes of his life his final days his last moments and this week You know, I had a hard time preparing for this partly because You know we're dealing with the death of the Son of God and It's a lot to take in it's a lot to to really ponder and to meditate on And have to prepare a sermon and so there were a lot of times where I kind of just found myself in tears just because of some of the things you're going to read about today, and so What I'm going to ask you to do this morning is to To not think about the resurrection but to think about this passage that's before us this morning to look at The way they treated your Savior The way that they treated your loved one the way that they treated the one who died for you and to remember That in order to be resurrected he first had to die In order to come back from the dead he first had to to suffer to die And so that's what our passage is is dealing with this morning. It comes from Matthew 27 If you have your bibles, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 27 verses 24 through 56 This is God's good and holy word So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning He took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying I am innocent of this man's blood see to it yourselves And all the people answered his blood beyond us and on our children And then he released for them Barabbas And having scourged Jesus delivered him to be crucified And then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him and They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him And twisting together a crown of thorns they put it on his head and put a read in his right hand And kneeling before him they mocked him saying hail King of the Jews And they spit on him and took the read and struck him on the head When they had mocked him They stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him As they went out they found the man of Cyrene Simon by name and they compelled this man to carry his cross And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull They offered him wine to drink mixed with gall But when he tasted it he would not drink it And when they had crucified him they divided his garments among them by casting lots Then they sat down and kept watch over him there And over his head they put the charge against him which read this is Jesus King of the Jews Then two robbers were crucified with him one on the right and one on the left And those who passed by derided him Wagging their heads and saying you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? Save yourself If you are the son of God come down from the cross so also The chief priests with describes and elders mocked him saying He saved others and he cannot save himself He is the king of Israel let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him He trusts in God let God deliver him now If he desires For he said I am the son of God And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way Now now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli la masa baktani That is my God my God. Why have you forsaken me? Is some of the vice there there's here and it said this man is calling Elijah And one of them at once ran a tick of sponge filled with up sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink But the other said wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit And behold the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook And the rocks were split The tombs also were opened And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection They went into the holy city and appeared to many When the centurion and those who were with him keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place They were filled with awe and said truly this man was the son of God There were also many women there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee ministering to him among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee This is God's good word. Let me pray for us and ask God to bless our time this morning. Let's pray Father we thank you so much for giving us this word We don't deserve it we don't deserve to be here We don't deserve to know salvation to know mercy to know Jesus and yet You have delighted to give us this passage of scripture on that tells us of His death Now pray Lord that you would help us this morning to To be free from the distractions of the world if but for these next minutes Pray Lord that you would help us to to see our Savior Jesus. I Pray Lord that you would get glory Even out of me a sinner as I proclaim your goodness and your mercy I ask God that you would bless us this morning. We need to hear from you and not a man And I pray Lord that you would be gracious To your people that you would be gracious to those who may be here this morning who do not know you That you would give them eyes of faith and hearts that believe in Jesus I pray these things in His name amen All right, thank you. Sorry I cried front y'all but Last week I shared with y'all my resurrection story just a little bit about my life and One of the things I talked about was You know the death of my brother? it was Probably a couple of weeks ago. I was just kind of sitting in front of my computer screen and my brother's been dead for for almost 15 years now and I Just kind of just thinking about him and thinking about his life and I kind of found myself wanting to Try to revisit the details Of all the things that I can remember about just that that dark night So that left me, you know Looking to internet looking for any information looking for anything Just any perspective that other people had on it, and I was able to find Just kind of these court proceedings these court documents And so I want to share that with you this morning as we kind of jump into our passage, but This document read on December 26 1996 Martin Hubbard was shot and killed Earlier that even even in Kevin Ellis and his cousin Martin Hubbard. We're at home watching TV When he received the page from the white Lebran asking for a ride to pick up his daughter Ellis and Hubbard picked up Lebran who got into the back seat of a maroon BMW And sat beside behind the driver Kevin Ellis They pulled up to a house on France Road when Ellis heard shots inside the car Ellis then jumped out of the car and ran and as he turned to find his cousin Martin He observed Lebran chasing him and shooting at him Lebran fired two or three shots at him and one of the bullets grazed him in the head Ellis ran to a nearby house and asked the residents to call the police He also asked them if they had a flashlight so he could see if his cousin was still alive The victim Martin Hubbard was found shot dead inside the car from a gunshot wound to the head And as I share with you Martin Hubbard was my brother But even in that story Their details that were omitted That I know of that that kind of shaped further light on the situation and just the the tragic nature of this event One was that you know my cousin Kevin Ellis he dealt drugs. He sold drugs and he had got into trouble with some guys over a drug deal And what the guys decided to do in order to repay him Was they would put a bounty on his head to kill him And so what happens is you know my brothers is in this car Right with my cousin and not knowing that there's this bounty on him This guy in the back seat had actually took up the offer and Decided he's gonna be the guy who fulfilled that bounty but in order To kill my cousin you'd have to kill my brother first because he could possibly be a potential witness Now the story ends tragically because the guy that was his target got away That for the shooter The person he wanted dead was actually my cousin and not my brother And so in a lot of ways What's so tragic about this story is? You know the way people were worried is that? It's really a case of your brother being in the wrong place at the wrong time And that's really unjust and that's really unfair that that's the way That the world that's the best way that the world can put it That he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He did not deserve that now considering that story and then looking at The story we just read There are huge Distinctions first of all My brother's not the savior of the world. My brother is a sinner. My brother deserved Deserve death just like you and I That because we are sinners We deserve death Romans 1 says that And not only talks about people murder people, but it talks about people who are disobedient even to their parents at the apostle Paul equates murder being disobedient to your parents even That even that one sin Makes us worthy of death Makes us worthy of God's wrath and judgment against sin. It makes us worthy of hell. That's what we deserve But in thinking about Jesus What do we know about Jesus? He is the Son of God He never sinned he did everything his father asked him to do everything He did not fall into the temptations of Satan He did not falter from the way that God had him go from the plan that God had given and Yet when you read this passage You read about him dying You read about him suffering read about him being mocked But in this passage in the death of the Son of God, I think this passage at least teaches us three things at least three things And those three things are that the death of The Son of God teaches us about the depth of human sin That's one thing it teaches us about Who we are to the core the depth of human sin But secondly the death of the Son of God It teaches us of God's judgment against sin and Then finally the depth of the Son of God teaches us of the depth of God's love for his people For sinners like you and me So let's consider the first thing that the death of the Son of God teaches us of The depth of human sin all right if you look in this passage one of the things that Is commonplace is people will kind of read this and go oh, you know pilot messed up right here He should have let Jesus go he knew Jesus innocent or they'll go. Oh the soldiers. They're so wrong for doing this to Jesus and Just kind of high-mindedly just look at the people in this passage presented and go You know those those are some wicked people They were so bad They were so wrong for treating Jesus this way but one of the things that this passage is showing us is That this is what sinners do? That centers which the Bible calls all of us That if they had the opportunity to they would kill God In fact, they did kill God and so One of the things that I love You know about teaching kind of you know, I would say preteen youth Is that they will ask these questions that have incredibly profound answers And so a preteen you kind of look at this passage and know that Jesus is innocent and see all the testimony and go So why are they doing this again? Why are they killing this guy again if he didn't do anything and the answer to that question It's profound It's because these people are sinners It is because these people are fallen it's because these people They hate God Not only the Bible says that about these people the Bible says that about you and me That naturally This is our disposition towards God You can care less about Jesus But you can kind of look at this passion and go. Oh, that's so sad I'm so sorry for you and mock just as well as they did That apart from God God's grace to you This doesn't mean a thing to you care less about this Jewish man dying That Easter means nothing to you care less about Easter you come and you do your little one time a year thing and That's it This doesn't it doesn't it doesn't matter that this man is dying. It's dead as long as it's not happening to me That's the way we naturally think And what this is showing you That when you turn Just kind of a cheek to you know the things that you've read in this passage the injustice that you've read What it shows you is that That's the nature of humanity That's what we are born into That is our natural bent that is our natural inclination to hate God And so if you understand scripture and you understand that the Bible said this is about us Then when you read this passage the things that you reach and not be a shock And when you read this passage and you read about Pilate who from the other gospels He had every reason and the power to release Jesus from being from being crucified and killed That his wife tells him have nothing to do with this righteous man. I had a dream I suffered in this dream because of this man That his own conscience in this passage where you see in verse 23 where he asked the crowd why what evil has he done? That the people don't give an answer, but they just say just crucify him That Pilate knows This man didn't do anything to deserve death these people just want him dead and yet with all that testimony What does he do? He gives in And with that testimony, what does he do? He has Jesus scourged and I hope you know what that means It's when This whip is taken and this whip had bone and it had metal attached to the straps of it And what the Roman citizens with the Roman government would do is when they punished criminals you get 40 lashes and So this whip with bone and metal on it 40 times on your back and doesn't take you to have an imagination to imagine what happens to your flesh That these guys are flinging with all their might To punish you they're flailing with all their might these soldiers to punish you And only after about five straps. I'm guessing That you're a bloody mess And you still have 35 more to go And so most of the time what will often happen when people were scourged She usually died right there The fact that Jesus is alive that the passage does not stop right there after Jesus is scourged is a miracle It's amazing at least Because you usually were dead after that most criminals did not make it to the cross and yet Jesus is scourged And so in thinking about sin And this is what you should realize that this is what this is what sin does Not only to us, but this is what sin does to God himself That when you think about your sin It's not just you. Oh, I just messed up a little bit But that your sin is spitting in the face of God that your sin is Just honoring to God that your sin is Incredibly offensive to God And so I'm considering this passage of course part of it let him go And considering these people who are mocking Jesus as he is suffering, of course, they would do that they are sinners And in the same way in our individual actions in the things that go on inside our hearts that we think nobody knows about but God does That this is what you are doing to God That you and I we mock God with our words That we mock God with our thoughts that we mock God with our deeds That we spit in his face when we willfully engage in sin and it is in offense He hates it That when you verbally abuse your spouse or your children or your co-workers or your family members or your friends or people who are not like you You are spitting in the face of God That even when you think negative thoughts towards them You are looking at what God has said in his law and you're saying you know what I don't care what you've said That when you are on the internet when you're looking at things that you should not be looking at When you're lusting after a woman who is not your wife When you are Envious of what other people have you don't have it what you are doing is? You are mocking God. You are deriding the Son of God You are showing him how much you hate him And that's a serious offense but What else do we see in this passage That not only is the depth of our sin shown But that God is just not going to let that ride That God does judge sin That for these people in this passage That for some of these people they would come to faith in Christ, but a lot of these people would face God and judgment as Jerusalem is overthrown in 70 AD But what it is showing is That God does judge sin Where do I see that in this passage? Well, we could talk about you know the things that happens after this, but One of the things I want to point us to is to just look at the cross To look at Jesus who is dying on a cross Now the $10 million question is why is he dying on a cross? What is Jesus doing on a cross? If he was innocent If there was no guilt in him Why is he condemned to die a death like this? And the short answer is For his people sins That Jesus is paying for the sins of all who would trust in him That he's paying for the sins of those of the Old Testament That he's paying for the sins of the people of his state that he's paying for the sins of the people who would come centuries after him That Jesus is on this cross expiring that Jesus is facing the wrath of God He is suffering And he is taking the penalty that your sin deserves if you are believer So that it's not just this imaginary thing Because he says some pretty profound things in this passage one in verse 45 And 46 says that now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour and the sixth hour is 12 noon So at noon it just got dark for the next three hours. It was dark and In these three hours what you're seeing is God is pouring out his wrath on his son Jesus And what does Jesus say? He says Eli Eli lama sabakthani and it's Hebrew Aramic which means that is my God My God, why have you forsaken me? Now I am reading those words it probably doesn't seem to be that big of a deal But you have to remember the way Jesus often talked about God the father We'll read about him in the gospels He would call them father all the time my father this my father that my father knows my father this my father that my father is working all these things Until you get to this point in scripture And what does he say? Does he say my father? No, he doesn't He says my God My God why have you forsaken me? And this this passage or these words I actually words found in Old Testament Psalm 22 These are the words of David and David is Wrestling with what he perceives to be God leaving him He's wrestling with the fact the idea that because all these problems are around me because people are chasing me People are trying to kill me people are trying to murder me God why is it you forsaken me? But what David would know and realize is God hasn't forsaken me. He's been with me the whole time But Jesus He is really experiencing What it means to be forsaken by God? That he is really wrestling with this on the cross That he is really struggling and suffering And what's so fascinating about this is We're talking about one who's with God from before eternity before you were here before you even thought of Before the foundation of the world he had enjoyed Fellowship and communion with God That God exists outside of space and time and Jesus was with him and now Jesus is experiencing What it is like to be an enemy of God For our sakes That Jesus is suffering that Jesus is dying for our sakes and Just a much a lot to take in But in three hours This the Son of God is paying for the sins of his people That he is Suffering that he is bleeding that he is dying for you and for me and Asking my God my God why is it's aching me? and Because this is what our sin deserves and God must punish sin and This your savior This your servant this your king is what? It's God's answer to the problem of our sin That him dying on the cross it's God showing us This is how I'm going to make my people righteous before me This is how I'm going to save them and A question that that definitely has to be To be answered is No, the Jesus That Jesus died for everybody like this is Jesus dying on this cross just for everybody in the world and It's going to be applied to everybody in the world and It's going to save everybody in the world And the answer is no Because what is going to happen is The people are going to reject Jesus And not only in this day, but Those after him and so if he is dying on this cross For everybody in the world and what that means is everybody in the world will be saved and that is universalism and the Bible does not teach that So when Jesus is dying on the cross That he is dying for a particular people For the people who will profess faith in him and trust in him and rest in him That he is really dying for them Not only is he's just dying to make it possible for them to be saved But his death is actually accomplishing salvation So that the certainty of your being right before God even now if you are believer It's not based on the strength or weakness of your faith, but it's based on what Jesus has done There's a reason why when you read the Bible the Bible often speaks and past tense about you being saved About you being justified about you being made righteous because of the fact that is Because Jesus has died. It is a done deal It's the reason at the beginning of the gospel Matthew That we're told that Jesus will save his people from their sins And not us saving ourselves from our sins You can't do it Jesus will save his people from their sins It's the reason that you read at the end of John's gospel The Jesus others the words It is finished. It is done. It is complete Because he has accomplished salvation for us And so we as believers can take it take hard and insurance in the fact That Jesus Has saved us That this death is tragic that this death shows us How much our sin really costs? That nothing less than the Son of God dying could save us, but this death also shows us That for sure we are right with God Therefore the moments we wrestle in our daily existence in our daily experience of whether not God loves us And one of the things you can do is look at this passage And look at the son of God died and recognize yes God loves you Of course God loves you Yes, he loves you. He gave his son for you That he gave the most precious thing that heaven for you Of course God loves you And that kind of leads us to my final point and that's that the death of the son of God Shows us the depth of God's love for us for his people for sinners and One of the things That Thomas Kelly who was a 18th century 19th century him writer Said about This passage and reflecting on his words. He wrote the hymn Stricken smitten and afflicted which you may know of But he said Tell me ye who hear him groaning Was there ever grief like his? Friends through fear his cause disowning Those insulting his distress Many hands were raised to wound him None were interposed to save But the deepest stroke that pierced him Was the stroke that justice gave And I kind of want to focus on that last line or he says the deepest stroke that pierced Jesus Was the stroke that justice gave One commentator and kind of looking at this passage Says that the cross Is the place where where God's love and his justice meets? The cross is the place where God's love and his justice meets What is meant by that is what we see is God's wrath poured out On his son For our sakes They're almost five we talk about the depth of God's love for us that God shows his love for us in this that while we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly That while we were dead in our sin and that there is no hope for us That this is what God did His son dies on the cross for us So you can't say God doesn't love me. Look at the cross He gave you his best He is not withholding anything from you. He did not spare his own son for yes, you And you know about his son his son did everything right his son was most precious. What about you? You don't do everything right That Jesus tells you to love your neighbor as you love yourself You can really care less about them But you don't really even care about the people who are sitting next to you right now, but you don't even know their names That you just are really just hoping to kind of get over with this and get out of here And it shows you There's one who deserves praise that there's one who deserves glory and that is God What about you This son is perfect what about us So we can't say God is holding back on us because he gave us his best He gave us his son Jesus Romans 3 23 Says this for all have sinned and fall short of the Lord of God And we are justified by his grace as a gift Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance He had passed over former sins Was to show him right his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the just the fire of the one who has faith in Jesus And this is the heart of the Christian faith That at the cross God is showing us That he punishes sin that he is just That at the cross God is showing us that he is dealt really with your sin That really he is dealt with your mess That really he has dealt with all of your imperfections all of your flaws all of your brokenness And at the same time He has made you right With himself at the cross So in closing and thinking about these things I think Matthew gives us a couple of things to consider He gives us testimony That he gives us these signs the fact that there's darkness at 12 noon The fact that the curtain veil is torn into Not from bottom to top but from top to bottom And this veil was this the symbol of worship there's this thing that Separated that the holy place from the most holy place which the priest was only allowed to go in once a year on the day of atonement and So the priest really was the only one who had access to God's immediate presence And yet when Jesus dies his people Have access to God's immediate presence That for you and me we can go to God. We don't need a priest that we can go to God in prayer and be heard because of our great high priest Jesus But there's also these signs of people coming back from the dead That is kind of a first fruit or for taste of the fact That this was the son of God That died That you read about these saints Who people recognize who people knew Rising from their graves and going back into Jerusalem to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ That you read about this centurion Who? Romans would never say anybody was Lord, but season You read about this interior saying truly this man was the son of God It goes to show us That these are the kinds of people that Jesus brings into his kingdom That these are the kinds of people that Jesus is saving That even though it's not mentioned here in Luke's gospel These men who are crucified on the cross One of whom I mean both of whom were Mocking Jesus insulting Jesus as they're dying on the cross and lose gospel one of these guys come to their senses and Actually confesses faith in Jesus and is saved. Jesus says to him truly today. You will be with me in paradise That these are the kinds of people that Jesus saves That Jesus loves Jesus loves sinners Jesus loves people like you and me And so my prayer for you all is That as we are entering this holy week this passion week And one of the things that you would be You know again mesmerized by is How deep God's love for you is as you think about the death of God's Son And not only that if you are not a Christian this morning What I would ask you to do is to consider What this passage is saying That Jesus is drawing you in that Jesus is inviting you to come to him that you and People like you are people He died for And everybody in this room needs Jesus. So my hope and prayers that We would embrace our Savior. We will all take our place at the foot of this cross Let's pray My God and Father we again acknowledge that you are God We thank you for your your son We thank you for his life we thank you for And all that he took on That he became like us That he lived that he suffered that he died And that he did not come off the cross that he did not come down off the cross And that was for our sakes Thank you Jesus for being Committed to the task That your father called you to And Now we have reason to rejoice now we have reason to have hope What I pray that you would help us To treasure our Savior To love him to delight in him To lay all that we would say is ours before him Let him use it Pray God she would give us more grace And that you will continue to grow us and establish us in your word We pray these things in your name Amen You You You You [ Silence ]