A Job Well Done

A JOB WELL DONE

John 19.16-42

S: Crucifixion

C: Jesus’ sacrifice

Pr: WE WORSHIP AND FOLLOW A SAVIOR WHO COMPLETED THE TASK SET BEFORE HIM.

TS: In our study of John 19.16-42, we will see how Jesus accomplishes our salvation.

Type: Inductive

I. DYING

II. DEATH

III. BURIAL

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• We should renew our appreciation for what Jesus has done.

• We should dedicate ourselves to worship and serving the Lord

Version: ESV

RMBC 06 April 07 PM (Good Friday)

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Cross (S)

Imagine with me for a moment…

Pretend that a man from South America is speaking here. His name is Jose Samblanco, and having just arrived, he proclaims the good news to us that a Peruvian peasant by the name of Carlos Hernandez was electrocuted on the electric chair for your sins.

He has even written a hymn. The words go like this:

Carlos was there

On that horrible chair

They tied him down with bolts

And then zapped him with 40,000 volts

It was for you he fried

It was for you our savior died

Despite the fact that his hair

caught on fire,

this one is God’s Messiah.

The wisdom of the world has been refuted

because Carlos was electrocuted

He is my savior and my lamp,

because he absorbed every deadly amp

Now I know that God does care,

’cause he sent Carlos Hernandez

to the electric chair

He has also written other hymns like, "In the chair of Carlos I Glory" and "When I cling to that old rugged electric chair". Now imagine if people caught on to this religion and they started wearing gold electric chairs on their necklace or if they put chairs on top of building. What if the Red Cross changed their named to the Red Chair. Prior to a big race, athletes, instead of making the sign of the cross made the sign of the electric chair as a gesture of good luck. Instead of hotcross buns you got hot chair buns.

Now what would your response to that be? You’d probably say that was the most stupid religion anyone had ever invented. But really, the offence that it causes, the images of idiocy that surround it would not be wholly different to the way a lot of people regard the scandal of the cross.

We need to recognize that…

1. The death of Jesus is scandalous.

A crucified Jew who died for my sins, in my place, it is utterly scandalous.

What kind of sense does that make?

It is not only scandalous in this regard.

It is also scandalous in the fact that we celebrate an unjust result.

Jesus did not deserve the treatment that He received from His disciples, the religious leaders, the people and the Romans.

This mistreatment led to His death.

So, perhaps…

2. What is worse is that we celebrate an execution.

How odd!

Why do we do this?

It seems…so foolish.

And yet…

We know that our faith rests in the fact that Jesus died on a cross.

We know that our salvation depends on it.

We know this intellectually, but we forget how scandalous and horrible it really is.

We know this, but in time, we become detached and desensitized.

The truth of the matter is that the events of the passion are real.

The gospel writers do not ask us to be overcome with a morbid preoccupation with the gore, but neither should the agony of the cross become a matter of dispassionate interest.

OUR STUDY:

For as we consider the text this evening, we see that Jesus is…

I. DYING (16-27)

(16) So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, (17) and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. (18) There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. (19) Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." (20) Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. (21) So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” (22) Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

(23) When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, (24) so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,