Matthew 27:38-44 We Will Believe Him 23/3/08Hd
Luke 23:39-43
“He saved others, but He cannot save himself. If He is the King of Israel, let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe Him.” Mat 27:42
Do you suppose they really would have believed if Jesus had climbed down from the cross? Maybe? Then why didn’t He come down? First, He was obedient unto death. Obedient? To Whom? To his Dad. Since the third chapter of Genesis, God has been promising a Saviour who would crush Satan’s head:
And I will put enmity
between you [Satan] and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Satan has struck Christ’s heel, but the heel wound has healed. It only took three days. Has Christ crushed Satan’s head yet—a mortal, incurable wound? Apparently not. I have seen results of his work even recently around here. But it will happen, and probably soon. God offered Jesus the opportunity to become human, to suffer, and to die, to pay for all humanity’s sins for all time. And Jesus accepted, because He loves His Dad and wanted to please Him.
Sin has become a bad word in our world. Nobody wants to admit to it, but God still holds us accountable. There are at least four branches of sin:
SIN, proper, means failing to do what God has commanded. The picture in Romans 3 is of a bull’s eye with two circles. The inner circle says “Love God.” The outer circle says “Love your neighbour.” Every day, we are given a fresh arrow to shoot at the target. And every day, we pull the bow back, take aim, and…miss; therefore, we’re all going to die.
As well, every human being is guilty of TRESPASS. Sin is negative; trespass is positive. In our lives, God gives each of us a small area that He says is forbidden. It is surrounded by a fence. God says that we can go anywhere, and do anything, but we are not to climb that fence. We’re not to cross the line. We’re not to enter the forbidden territory. It’s different for each of us, but we know what it is for us. Are you with me?
The trouble is that people look around them and say, “Wow! I can do this and this, and this, but not that. Why not?” So we step over the line. We climb the fence. We enter forbidden territory. Then we discover that the forbidden territory is like quicksand. It sucks us in, and holds us back so we can no longer enjoy all the other things God has given us to enjoy. We’re all guilty of trespass, so we’re all going to die. How are you feeling?
A guy went to court. The judge asked, “Are you guilty or innocent?” The guy said, “I’m innocent.” After four hours of trial, the guy finally yelled out, “I’m guilty. I’m guilty!” The judge asked, “Why didn’t you say so four hours ago?” The guy said, “I didn’t realize I was guilty until I heard all the evidence.”
Like it or not, we’re all guilty of sin and of trespass.
On top of that, we’re all guilty of INIQUITY. Iniquity is perverting the beautiful things of God, especially those connected with love, sex, and relationships. We’ve perverted them. We’ve polluted them. And we’re all guilty.
And one more we’re guilty of is GUILE. Guile is projecting what is false. We do it all the time. We rationalize—rational lies. We pretend to be something we’re not. Pilate tried to release Jesus to the Jews because he knew that Jesus had been set up. What happened? The priests stirred the people up. Pilate saw things were about to get ugly. He made a quick choice—a rationalization. Instead of making the right choice, and getting into the middle of an uprising, he gave up his leadership. He washed his hands of the whole thing. He let them do what they demanded. He could have stopped it, but he knew that meant bloodshed, and he was looking for the easy way out. And, of course, we know that God already had it planned that way.
We’re all guilty of sin, trespass, iniquity, and guile. All of that disconnects us from God.
P”s???? Here’s a clean, crisp, twenty dollar bill that’s worth $20. If I wrinkle it up, and scrunch it all into a ball, how much is it worth? $20. What about if I step on it, and grind it into the dirt—even tear it? Yes, it’s still worth $20. If that’s true for a piece of paper with numbers and pictures on it, can you see that it doesn’t matter how much sin, iniquity, trespass, and guile we have, we are still valuable to God? And HE wants to reconnect.
But somebody has to pay for all the sin. We can’t. All we could pay for is our own. The Law of God, found in Leviticus 17:11, says that life is in the blood, and blood was given to make atonement, or to pay for, sin. A life for a life. That’s why the Israelites had to offer an animal sacrifice, yearly, to temporarily cover their sins. But Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, as He was called, could, and did, pay for all the sins of all mankind, once and for all, as Hebrews 9:28 tells us. now [Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. He never once sinned—in thought, word, or deed—so He doesn’t have to die to pay for his own sin; therefore, He could die for you and I, to pay for our sins.
Did you notice another thought in Hebrews 9:28? He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages. That was nearly 2000 years ago. Does He need to get His Timex repaired? Peter tells us that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and 1000 years is like one day. (2 Peter 3:8) When you live forever, time doesn’t mean much. Peter goes on to say that the only reason God hasn’t sent Jesus back to clean up the mess, and to take His followers home, is that He is patient. He wants as many as possible to make it to Heaven to live with Him forever. (:9)
Secondly, if He had jumped down from the cross—and there is no doubt that He could have—we would have to die for our own sins. We’d never make it to Heaven. When the chief priest, the scribes and elders taunted Him to jump down, they were enticing him to take the easy way out, just as Satan had offered him the kingdom if he would bow down, and Peter had when he said, “Surely You’re not going to die.” He said, “I am so! And stop calling me Shirley.” [Forgive me.] But Jesus knew there was no other way for us to get out of this world alive. So He stayed put.
The people may have believed in Him if He had escaped crucifixion, and He would have ‘saved face’, proving He could. But if He had, there would have been no escape for the rest of us. We would die in our sins, and go to Hell. Praise God He stayed there! It is precisely because He did not save Himself that He can save others. Love kept Jesus on the cross, not nails! Love for His Dad, and love for us!
To make things even worse, if that were possible, even the robbers who were crucified beside Him started ridiculing Him. But something happened between Matt 27:44 and Luke 23:42. In Luke’s version, one of the robbers realized the irony of the situation—the pot calling the kettle black, as it were, and asked Jesus to save Him. I love Jesus’ response, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” I’m not sure that was Heaven, because Jesus stayed around Earth for awhile yet. The Old Testament saints went to a place called Abraham’s Bosom until Jesus unlocked the door to Heaven. Perhaps that’s where the robber went. I’m not sure, but I know that where Jesus is, ‘tis Heaven there, or Paradise, if you will.
But here is something truly remarkable here: a deathbed conversion. This is the only one in the Bible! Why is it there? So that no-one who wants to go would despair of making Heaven. No-one! But to wait until the end is as foolish as hoping there’s a rock close by to save you as you float down the Niagara River towards the Falls.
Do you hear Jesus’ cry in Matt 27:46? Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? Or, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? That is the only time in Scripture where Jesus calls His Father, God. Everywhere else, He calls Him Father. What has changed? Jesus has truly become one of us—a sinner. He has inherited all the sin of all mankind for all time, and has been separated from the Father as we all were, by sin, as Isaiah 59:2 says. Still, it is MY God. He trusts the Father in spite of the pain of separation, the first time in all creation that He was separated from His Dad. Do you think He does not understand our separation, or the agony our sin has produced?
A father knelt down beside his little boy’s bed. It was time for prayers, hugs and kisses, and tucking in. The little boy began the childhood prayer he had repeated so many times before: Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. This time the words got mixed up. Unwittingly, the child spoke words of the greatest wisdom. He prayed, “If I should wake before I die.” Embarrassed, he stopped. “Oh Daddy, I got all mixed up.” Wisely, his dad responded tenderly, “Not at all, Son, that’s the first time the prayer was ever prayed properly. My deepest longing for you is that you may wake up before you die.” The child drifted to sleep, but the father turned the prophetic words about in his mind. “If I should wake before I die.” “That’s it!” he exclaimed. “That’s the promise and the hope of Easter. Now is the time to come alive and live forever.”
Jesus died, inevitably, but just to be sure, a Roman soldier jammed his spear between Jesus’ ribs, and right into His heart. In eternity, Jesus will bear the marks of His crucifixion. Rev 5:6 says He appears as a Lamb "looking as if it had been slain". We know that when He appeared to Thomas, He bore the scars of the nails and the spear in His side. (John 20:26-28) John 21:12, says that the disciples did "not dare to ask Him His identity, because they knew that it was the Lord." It is possible that His resurrection body still will wear the marks of His beatings as a badge of honour.
Why did He do it?
1. "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost" (Lu 19:10)
2. "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Timothy 1:15)
3. "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame."
(Heb 12:2) What joy? The joy of receiving lost sinners into His Kingdom.
Even here on the despised cross, feeling the weight of the world’s sins, He received
a foretaste of that joy for which He was dying.
Why did He die?
So He could say to you in your hour of death, "Today, you shall be with Me in Paradise."
Well, it’s a nice fairy story. But how do you know any of it is true?
1. When the ladies arrived early Sunday morning with spices to complete the embalming, HE WAS GONE!
2. The huge stone that had been rolled in front of the grave to seal Him in, WAS ROLLED BACK!
3. The seal of Tiberius Caesar, whose removal meant certain death, WAS BROKEN!
4. The mummified grave-clothes, WERE INTACT, BUT EMPTY!
5. Sixteen highly-trained Roman soldiers who had been guarding the tomb, WERE TERRIFIED!
6. Five hundred and thirty-four people, SAW HIM ALIVE!
7. Twelve cowardly disciples who had run and hid, BECAME FIERCE AND FEARLESS PREACHERS –EVEN TO THOSE WHO HAD CRUCIFIED HIM!
8. Several of those disciples, for preaching about Christ, SUFFERED CRUCIFIXION THEMSELVES!
WOULD YOU DIE FOR A FAIRY STORY?
Max Lucado, in his book, “Six Hours One Friday,” tells the story of a missionary in Brazil who discovered a tribe of Indians in a remote part of the jungle. They lived near a large river. The tribe was in need of medical attention. A contagious disease was ravaging the population. People were dying daily.
A hospital was not too terribly far away — across the river, but the Indians would not cross it because they believed the river was inhabited by evil spirits. And to enter its water would mean certain death.
The missionary explained how he had crossed the river & was unharmed. But they were not impressed. He then took them to the bank & placed his hand in the water. They still wouldn’t go in. He walked into the water up to his waist & splashed water on his face. It didn’t matter. They were still afraid to enter the river.
Finally, he dove into the river, swam beneath the surface until he emerged on the other side. He raised a triumphant fist into the air. He had entered the water & escaped. It was then that the Indians broke into a cheer & followed him across.
Isn’t that what Jesus did? He entered the river of death & came out on the other side so that we might no longer fear death, but find eternal life in Him.
