Many people died on crosses, but none for the same reason as Jesus. What is that reason?
For this reason John 12:27 Jesus was born in order to die.
On this day that we remember the death of Jesus, let’s look into this reason. We’ll look at how God revealed his purposes through scripture.
1) Jesus would crush Satan’s head
Gen 3: 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
a) What a promise. Adam and Eve’s lives had been ruined.
b) ILLUS: What does Hansie feel right now? What does he think about when he looks at his children and his wife?
“I messed up, I wish I could change it”
c) Adam and Eve felt that remorse, only worse. If only we could change it. God says “I’ll change it” From that day, they began to look at their children differently “will he be the one?”
2) He would be our substitute
Gen 22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." …
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
a) God revealed a little more about the Promised One, the Messiah
i) The only son of father who loved him dearly
ii) He would be a substitute
(1) We can’t save ourselves. We need someone else to do it for us
(2) God’s standard is perfection, and there is just no way that we can meet that
(3) Sin means “to miss the mark”
3) He would purchase us with his blood (Exodus)
a) Passover … Each family was to get an innocent, spotless lamb and kill it
b) This shows me how valuable we are to God
c) Tetelestai
4) He would take our sins on himself
a) Lev 16: 20 "When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.
b) That goat would never be seen again.
c) Put yourself in Aaron’s sandles … there go my sins. Imagine if the goat came back … BUT THEY’RE GONE
d) He has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West.
Is 53
Jesus is the Promised One who crushed Satan’s head; He is our substitute (dying in our place); He paid for us with His blood; He carried our sins.
While Passover lambs were being declared “without blemish” by the head of the household … Pontius Pilate declared of Jesus “I find no fault in Him”
At 3pm when the Passover lambs were sacrificed, Jesus cried out “it is finished and gave up his life”
That was when the veil was torn in two … the time of symbolism was over … the Promised One had come and died and had defeated Satan.
Continue reading from The Triumph.
We have access into the Holy of Holies, into the Heavenlies,
God doesn’t want us to stay out. Let’s go in.
A medical doctor provides a physical description:
The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement.
The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed.
The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain – the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet. As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them with deep relentless, throbbing pain.
With these cramps comes the inability to push upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint wrenching cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against rough timber.
Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level-the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues and the tortured lungs are making frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues. Finally, he can allow his body to die...
All this the Bible records with the simple words, "and they crucified Him",
(Mark 15:24).
