Friday: Crucifixion

SERMON OUTLINE:

(1). He did not have the strength to carry his cross (vs 32-33)

(2). He did not accept the cup (vs 34-37)

(3). He did not come down from the cross (vs 38-44)

(4). He did not know the Father (vs 45-49)

(5). He did not die in defeat (vs 50-54)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• In the book ‘Miracle On The River Kwai’.

• Ernest Gordon's Tells the true story of some Scottish soldiers,

• Who were forced by their Japanese captors to work on a jungle railroad.

• Under the strain of imprisonment they had degenerated to cruel behaviour,

• But one afternoon something happened.

• "A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged.

• He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else.

• When nobody in the squadron budged,

• The officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot!

• It was obvious the officer meant what he had said.

• Then, finally, one man stepped forward.

• The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death.

• When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse;

• And carried it with them to the second tool check.

• This time, no shovel was missing.

• Which meant that there had been a miscount at the first check point.

• The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp.

• An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others!”

• Ernest Gordon writes; “The incident had a profound effect on all the prisoners;

• From that moment on they began to treat each other like brothers”

• TRANSITION: An innocent man sacrificed his life on behalf of others;

• A group of men saved by one man’s courage and sacrifice.

• The Bible teaches that Jesus would give his life as a sacrifice:

• “The just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous”;

• Than he might bring us, reconcile us to God!

• In today’s study (part of our series on ‘Jesus’ Last Week – The Passion Week’)

• We are looking at Matthew’s record of these events as found in his gospel.

• I want to divide the passage under five headings.

(1). He did not have the strength to carry his cross (vs 32-33).

“As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha

(which means ‘the place of the skull’).”

ill:

• A water bearer in India had two large pots,

• Each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck.

• One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect;

• And always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk,

• From the stream to the masters house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

• For a full two years this went on daily,

• With the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his masters house.

• Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments,

• Perfect to the end for which it was made.

• But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection,

• And miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

• After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure,

• It spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

• And said: “I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.”

• The bearer replied to the pot:

• “Why? What are you ashamed of?”

• The pot responded:

• “I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load;

• Because this crack in my side

• Causes water to leak out all the way back to your masters house.

• Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work,

• And you don’t get full value from your efforts.”

• The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and said,

• “As we return to the masters house,

• I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”

• And as they went up the hill,

• The old cracked pot took noticed the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path,

• But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load,

• And so again the Pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.

• So the bearer said to the pot;

• “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path,