He Gave His Life Series

He Gave His Life

John 19:28-42

-There is a lot of ground to cover in this passage this morning

-I Want us to see something that is so important for us as Christians and that is the details in Jesus' last moments on earth.

-Our faith rest in the details. The Christian faith is not based on just mystical hope it rest in the details of prophecy that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So we will be going back to the Old Testament and some today

-Not only do I want to look at the history of what happened and the details of Jesus' death and burial but then I want to bring it home and make application as we see the actions of different people who were there at the cross this day

-Remember again the reason that John wrote- so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).

-Because of this John focuses a lot on Jesus' deity (that he is God in Flesh) and draw a lot from the Old Testament to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah since the beginning of time

The verdict came from Pilate at 6:00 am by 9:00am they nailed him to the cross and by 3:00 in the afternoon he was dead when he cried out it is finished.

-This was very unusual because most men could stay alive on a cross for the entire day. It is necessary for us to understand this morning how hanging on a cross killed a person (explain)

-Jesus would have had the strength to stay alive on the cross as long as he wanted. Remember his body had not been tainted with sin so it was like the body of Adam in the garden when he was first created. Even after sin first entered in the picture of humanity people still lived to be 800-900 years old

-Jesus dying within six hours surprised Pilate. In Mark 15:44 it reads, “Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died and summoning the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead.”

We know something that Pilate didn't and that is the truth that Jesus was in complete control of his life. They didn't take it he gave it.

Turn to John chapter 10:15-18 Jesus had already told his disciples that he was going to give his life and take it up again by the power given him by God

as these men were on the cross the Roman guards would come along and as an act of mercy they would break their legs so that it would hurry up their death. And act of mercy because it would remove the pain and agony of fighting for every breath to stay alive

Yet Jesus was not a criminal dying for his crime. He was the almighty God the everlasting Father giving his life as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. In the Old Testament time the people would kill a lamb during passover (explain when Israel was in Egypt)

the unique thing about this lamb was in exodus 12:46, “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house and you shall not break any of its bones.”

the Apostle Paul drew the connection in 1 cor 5:7, “cleanse out th old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are leavened for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”

the pslamist said, “He keeps all his bones not one of them is broken” (Pslams 34:20)

This is a very important detail because had they broken the bones of Jesus they would have taken his life and he wouldn't have been giving it and then he wouldn't have been the Passover lamb causing death to pass over our house

This morning I want to look at three different types of people that took part in the events of this day. The religious, the courageous, and the persuaded

first the Religious

When Jerry Falwell passed away in 2007 there were several protesters who came to his funeral because they didn't like the political stand that he took on several issues. Whenever his son Jonathan Falwell was interviewed about what took place at his dads funeral he simply replied, “Dad would have had it no other way.”

All throughout Jesus' ministry he had to contend with religious people who were so wrapped up in their tradition that they refused to see Jesus as the Messiah, the son of God

the religious people in Jesus' day had come up with 613 laws that if you kept them you would be accepted by God. The trouble was they had made it so rigid and complex that no one was able to follow them. The reason they came up with 613 was because in the original text there were 613 letters used in the ten commandments so a good round number. Remember one time when they tried to trap Jesus and they asked him what the greatest commandment was and he replied “love the lord thy God with all thy heart soul and mind.”