He is Our Example
Matthew 27:27-44
October 25, 2009
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: I’ve mentioned a few times that there are some people in my life who have served as models or examples for me, especially in terms of living for Christ, raising a family, and being a pastor.
Some of you here have served as examples to me in a number of ways, and I’m grateful for that because I’ve still got work to do in a lot of areas.
We: Examples are good for us.
Even bad examples can serve some good, because we can learn what not to do or be like, right?
Well, in Jesus we have an example of someone who handles suffering well. And not just run of the mill suffering, if there is such a thing, but suffering that He didn’t deserve.
He was completely innocent, and yet He was put to death.
How do we handle it when we’re hounded or harassed for following Jesus in our world?
I think we can find some things in this passage from Matthew today.
God: In our passage for today, the trial before Pontius Pilate is over, and Jesus has been condemned to die.
So now he’s being prepared to be executed by crucifixion.
Matthew 27:27-44 (p.705) –
27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 38 Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"
41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others," they said, "but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ’I am the Son of God.’" 44 In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
Jesus went against the grain of our culture and of our natural inclinations toward unjust suffering:
1. He endured the mocking.
Four times in this passage Matthew tells us that Jesus was mocked and insulted.
And how does Jesus react in every case? He didn’t. He just took it.
They mocked Him in three ways:
> They mocked His majesty.
Jesus said He was a king. Not an earthly king, and His kingdom didn’t have earthly priorities.
But Pilate and the soldiers decided that His claim to be a king was something that deserved to be mocked and insulted.
So what did they do? They dressed Him up as a king. They gave Him a crown. They gave Him a robe. And they gave Him a staff.
And they mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
And because that wasn’t enough, they took that staff they’d given Him and beat Him on the head – while He was wearing the crown of thorns.
> They mocked His mission.
Verse 42 –
"He saved others," they said, "but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.
They didn’t get the fact that the cross was the mission.
For all their studying and learning, the religious leaders who were responsible for leading people to the Messiah couldn’t recognize Him even thought He was right in front of them.
Like most people, they made fun of something they didn’t understand.
Now sometimes, that’s okay. Disco, for example. It’s always okay to make fun of that…
But that’s not the case here.
Rather than listen to Jesus and learn, they heaped insults, even up to the very end.
> They mocked His message.
Verse 43 –
“He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ’I am the Son of God.’”
They saw His claim to be the Son of God to mean that He claimed to safe from harm.
They took Jesus’ words and twisted them to suit their own purposes.
People are really good that. Even Christians can be good at that. If you don’t believe me, just wait until the next election when there will be flocks of people, including Christians, who are ready to take someone’s words out of context and make them mean something they weren’t intended to mean.
Jesus was misunderstood and misrepresented. Just look at what they said in verse 40:
"You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!”
He could have said, “That’s not what I meant! Give me a moment to explain, for crying out loud! I was talking about my Body, not the building!”
But He didn’t. He just let them rail against Him in their ignorance of His true message.
I have to admit, I have a long way to go before I’ll be like Jesus in this regard.
I’m like most people. When I’m insulted, misunderstood, and misrepresented, I tend to get upset and want to set the record straight.
I want to make phone calls, write letters, or whatever. I want to make sure people understand the truth.
For instance, at no time did I ever call the baseball team from Kansas City the “Royal Pains in the Neck.” I’ve never said that, even when I felt like it sometimes, especially during the later part of the season.
It’s no fun to have your name smeared, especially when what’s being said about you isn’t true.
Anyone else feel like that? I think everyone does, at least to some degree.
Now the main difference between us and Jesus is that sometimes we actually deserve what we get because we’ve actually done things that make us look bad.
But Jesus didn’t deserve any of the stuff that came His way.
His message was the message of truth and life, and He was mocked for it.
2. He forgave those who hurt Him.
Luke 23:34 –
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
When was the last time you prayed for the forgiveness of someone who hurt you?
Have you been able to forgive them and to pray that God would forgive them as well?
Whether they did it on purpose or not, whether you think they did it on purpose or not, have you been able to take the example of Jesus here?
Whether they’ve asked for it or not, have you been able to forgive them and ask God to forgive them?
One of the measures of whether or not you’ve really forgiven someone is whether or not you can actually pray for someone – that God would not only forgive them, but bless them in spite of the hurt they’ve caused you.
Not easy. But let me tell, that’s a whole lot better than allowing the bitterness of unforgiveness fester and rot your soul.
I can’t encourage you enough to look to Jesus for your model here.
No one was asking Jesus for forgiveness. And yet He gave it anyway.
Their forgiveness was more important than His pride in waiting for them to realize their sin and ask for His forgiveness.
3. He finished the task.
There have been times in my life and I’m sure in some of yours, when the task was just too hard, and you came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t worth it.
So you just said, “That’s it. I’m out of here. It’s not worth the pain and the hassle that this is bringing.”
And we leave.
Hopefully that’s not a constant thing, but I think all of us know that feeling, right?
I have a feeling that when Jesus was on the cross, He was tempted to come down and put these people in their place.
Jesus could have showed them all. He could have come down from that cross with all the glory and power that was already His because He was the Son of God, and He could have convinced all the people of their error, and brought judgment to them right then and there for their treatment of Him.
But He didn’t.
He knew it was the only way to accomplish what God desired – the salvation of you and me.
The only way you and I could ever hope to be forgiven was for the Son of God to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Your sins. My sins.
So instead of saying, “You know what? You obviously don’t appreciate what I’m doing here, so I’m just going to come down off this cross and let you go to hell in your sins,” He stayed there.
And He bled and He died. For your sins. For my sins.
He finished the task.
Some might think that Jesus just wimped out here and took what they were dishing because He didn’t have a choice.
Wrong. This was the plan all along. Leaving would have been the easy thing. He could have just walked away and not suffered for us.
But He didn’t walk away when the going got tough. He saw it through because He knew it was the right thing to do.
It was His mission, and even if people didn’t understand it, it was still His mission and He was going to go through with it.
Folks, Jesus did all this – enduring the mocking, forgiving His killers, and finishing the task – because He loves you.
There’s no other reason. He came to seek and save the lost. And that’s you and me.
And I’m so glad He did it.
You: Some of you grew up in a home where you heard this:
“Why can’t you be more like your brother (or sister)?”
You hated that, didn’t you? I didn’t, because I was the angelic oldest child and got the good grades and stuff.
I’m pretty sure my brothers, if they did hear that, didn’t appreciate it a whole lot.
In a lot of ways, I wish I was more like them, because they’re much more athletic than I am.
The Bible says that if we’re believers in Jesus, then He’s our brother. And we need to be more like Him.
His handling of the mocking and suffering is an example for us.
He gave us a model for dealing with unjust suffering.
There’s another passage I want us to look at very briefly that gives us some more insight on how we can make this example real in our own lives.
1 Peter 2:20-23 –
20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." 23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
What can we do when we’re faced with hardship for Christ? Let me point out three things from this passage in 1 Peter:
1. Make sure your suffering is because of righteous living and not sin.
God commends suffering for living for Jesus, not suffering for taking long lunches or fudging your tax receipts.
Paul says that all who desire to lead a godly life will be persecuted. If you are called out because of your beliefs and how they shape your actions, then that is commendable.
If you’re called out because you’re shoving Jesus down peoples’ throats during work time, that’s not commendable.
Refusing to support a cause that goes against Biblical principles is commendable.
Refusing to give your non-Christian co-worker a ride home when his car’s not working isn’t.
Living for Jesus is commendable. Living for yourself isn’t.
So if you’re going to get in trouble, make it for living for Jesus instead of yourself.
2. Follow the example of Christ.
If you’re being harassed or hounded because you’re a Christian and trying to live for Jesus, then we need to keep in mind the example of Jesus, that we’ve been looking at this morning.
And this passage gives us more on that:
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.
I know that’s tough. But we have God to help us through those things. And because we have Christ and the Holy Spirit living in us, we can do the third thing this passage tells us …
3. Trust God to sort it out.
Folks, we’re not forgotten as we live for Jesus here on earth.
God is aware of everything we go through, and He is aware of the times you experience hardships for following Jesus.
Jesus trusted that the Father would take care of everything on His behalf.
And we can trust Him to do the same for us.
Watch this: (Video)
Here’s what I would suggest you pray today as you get ready to leave:
“Lord, thank You for the example of Jesus. Keep me mindful of Him when I get tired and discouraged in my living for Him, and give me the strength to live out His example in my own life.”
We: Folks, we live in a world where we’re told that we need to stand up for ourselves, and that if we are insulted and hurt, we need to retaliate.
Even many Christians are quick to quote, “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.”
But that’s not the example of Jesus. And it’s not His command to us.
His command is to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
It’s what He did and it’s what should set us apart from the rest of the world.
What do you think would happen if every Christian in Aberdeen and Brown County took this seriously?
I think it would be huge in helping people see Jesus for who He really is, because they’ll see Him more accurately reflected in you and me.
But since I can’t influence all the Christians in Aberdeen and Brown County, let me just ask you:
What do you think would happen if everyone in this room took the example of Jesus seriously enough to make it part of their lives?
I think it would be huge in helping the people we know see Jesus for who He really is.
So what do you say we start there?
Let’s begin today and tomorrow to show the world that we’re not interested in getting our knocks in when we’re hassled for following Jesus.
Let’s show them that we’re more interested in showing that Jesus loves them in spite of their rejection of us and Him.
And maybe – just maybe they might want the Jesus they see in you. I hope so.
Let’s pray.
