INTRO: 1. In taking a fresh look at what the bible says about the events surrounding the cross, I made an interesting discovery.
2. Three out of the four gospel accounts refer to the place that Jesus was crucified in the Hebrew tongue as “Golgotha.”
a. Only in one account and only on one occasion in the entirety of the New Testament is the place referred to as Calvary.
b. But I also realized that seldom do we sing about Golgotha, but often about Calvary.
c. I personally can’t remember a church named “Golgotha Baptist” or anything like, but I can hardly count the churches named “Calvary.”
d. Why do we refer to that place in a way seldom referred to in the gospels?
e. I’m not suggesting there is anything wrong with referring to that place as ‘Calvary’ but I believe that the answer is quite clear.
f. Although, Calvary and Golgotha is the same place and there names bear almost the same meaning, I believe that in our modern world they have adopted subtle yet different views of that cross.
3. Golgotha has come to represent to ugliness of that place, where Calvary seems to point to the glory of that place. (Grace, Love, Victory…Calvary)
a. The meaning of it’s name is emphasized every time Golgotha is named as “the place of the skull.”
b. It seemed this mountain itself bear both the appearance of death (visitors testify to how it looks like a giant skull) and also the reputation of death.
c. Even the sound of the name seem more crude and ugly as it comes from our lips, while Calvary seems more poetic.
4. But, I’m here this morning to remind you that Golgotha and Calvary are in fact the same place, they are inseparable.
a. Neither can we separate the ugliness of the cross from the glory of the cross.
b. We can’t separate the grace of the cross from the pain of the cross.
c. We can’t separate the victory of the cross from the violence of the cross.
d. I am convinced that we can’t really embrace the power of the cross without embracing the ugliness of the cross as well.
e. In a sense we must discover that the victorious Calvary was first ugly Golgotha.
5. My desire is introduce you this morning to the ugliness of that Cross, so that it’s beauty may shine through.
a. The light never shines as brightly as it does in the darkest night.
6. Our destination this morning…Golgotha.
a. Be warned that what we are about to visit is not an idealized Renaissance painting, cleaned up for our sensibilities but the realities that was Golgotha.
I. A PLACE OF EXECUTION
a. This was not merely a religious ceremony, but the fact of the matter is that our Lord was executed.
b. He died as a criminal among criminals.
c. This was not the only form of execution… beheading, even being burned at the stake…but no form was so symbolically shameful, nor excruciating painful.
d. The Sanhedrin could have asked for any form of death…but they chose the worst imaginable in that time…the cross.
e. They understood that to the Roman’s they couldn’t even speak of the cross, to the Jews it was not merely a death…it was to be considered cursed by God, universally it was viewed with horror.
f. The religious leaders wished to heap on Christ the maximum indignity and shame.
g. It had also become the Roman’s favorite methods to deal with rebellions at that time.
h. No it was no mistake that Jesus was born when he was born and died when he died…the Cross was the only death that could reflect the wrath of God on our sins.
A. Where punishment was intentional and pain extended.
1. Unlike the executions of our day, death was not the chief goal…but pain was.
2. The Romans had perfected the art of crucifixion to maximize pain.
3. They knew how to prolong the horror of death without allowing their victim to laps into unconsciousness.
4. They took great care not to damage vital organs, so they could torture the body to the greatest degree.
ILL. The emperor Tiberius had admitted that he preferred crucifixion because it extended punishment without granting it’s victims the relief of death until they could utterly take no more.
5. Hanging on the cross naked and humiliated our Lord suffered the most painful death known to the ancient world.
6. A pain beyond description–excruciating.
7. As a matter of fact the word we use for ‘excruciating’ come from the latin word which means “Out of the Cross.”
8. Who could dare say of Christ, “He doesn’t understand my pain.”
9. Not only did he bare our pain, but he refused the narcotic mixture that was offered him when he got to the cross…nothing would be allowed by Christ to numb the pain.
10. It could last for days…Jesus suffered on that cross 6 hours before his death and Pilate was surprised when Joseph of Arimathea requested his body after 6 hours.
B. THE CROSS OF EXECUTION
1. The cross could weigh as much as 200 pounds.
2. The plaque bearing the crime that the criminal was charged with was either tied around his neck or a soldier would walk in front of him bearing it so that all could see, then would be nailed above the head of the condemned.
3. Jesus’ would read “King of the Jews.”
4. We must not forget that the horrors of the scourging, with the roman whip and the crown of thorns was just the beginning of the ever increasing torments that lay ahead for our Lord.
5. Jesus stumbled, he staggered, another helped him carry his cross, but he never stopped.
C. THE NAILS
1. The soldier first threw his opened back on the hardness of that cross.
2. I believe the centurion, experienced something at that point he had never before… this man stretched forth his own hand.
3. The large nails where approximately 6 inches long and looked like a railroad spike to us, but was much sharper.
4. The hands are nailed first, and then the left foot was pressed backward against the right foot and nailed in place.
5. As the nails pierced his hands and feet they would severe nerves sending excruciating pain through his body, causing him to convulse in pain.
6. He was nailed with his hands at a 90 degree angle but when the cross was lifted and dropped into place it would jerk his arms out of joint and the weight of his body would make it nearly impossible to breath.
Ps. 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
D. THE STRUGGLE OF THE CROSS
1. To breathe our Lord would have to push on those nail pierced feet and pull on the nails in in hands, just to catch a breathe.
2. Air can be drawn in, but it was difficult to exhale.
3. Most often men crucified didn’t die from their wounds but died when they no longer had the strength to push up and would literally suffocate or drown in their own fluids.
4. The most common method for ending a crucifixion early was the shattering of the bones in the legs, making it impossible to push up, this would be the fate of the two that hung next to Christ, but not Jesus Himself.
5. The fact that Jesus spoke from the cross lets us know that even in this kind of pain he would sacrifice that precious breathe to minister to those around him.
6. Death was the only relief when it came to the cross.
7. On the cross one struggled with almost every imaginable pain, hunger, a burning thirst, untended wounds, fever, severe cramps that sent waves of pain through his body, dizziness and nausea, convulsions, the loss of blood.
8. All that sin brought upon this earth, Jesus experienced that day.
E. BUT JESUS TRANSFORMED IT INTO A PLACE OF MERCY
1. The cross was the place where mercy seemingly had no place, until Jesu came.
2. When one was condemned to the cross, mercy was no longer an option.
3. I think it divinely orchestrated that Jesus be hung in the middle of two guilty criminals.
4. You see when they nailed one hand it was reaching for the man on the right, and the other nailed hand was reaching for the man on the left.
5. He used the cross to convert one of the thieves that hung there with him.
ILL. D.L. Moody— The thief had nails through both hands, so that he could not work; and a nail through each foot, so that he could not run errands for the Lord; he could not lift a hand or a foot toward his salvation, and yet Christ offered him the gift of God; and he took it. Christ threw him a passport, and took him into Paradise.
6. But his hands is extended both to those who will accept him as Lord and even those who will slur and slander him.
II. A PLACE OF DEATH
a. This was the end of the road for those condemned to die this way.
b. Death was the fullest sentence of the cross.
A. JESUS DIED
1. We must remember that he did not lose His life for us…He gave his life for us.
2. Don’t ever doubt his death.
ILL. Woman wrote J. Vernon McGee: "Our preacher said that on Easter Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed him back to health. What do you think?" McGee replied, "Dear Sister, beat your preacher with a leather whip for thirty-nine heavy strokes. Nail him to a cross. Hang him in the sun for six hours Run a spear through his heart. Embalm him. Put him in an airless tomb for three days. Then see what happens."
3. These centurions had crucified hundreds if not thousands of men upon crosses, they where intimately familiar with death,
4. Yet they even took the added precaution of piercing him beneath the ribs, many believed even piercing his heart.
5. When your eyes fall on that cross, let it ever remind you…Jesus was here and Jesus suffered and died for you!
B. BUT JESUS TRANSFORMED IT INTO A PLACE OF LIFE
1. Death came by way of Adam’s fall, but life is come by the Second Adam being lifted up.
2. He died so that I would never know the sting of death and that the door to eternal life would be opened before me.
III. A FORSAKEN PLACE
a. Have you ever felt forsaken, abandoned by those around you…that was the reality of the cross.
b. We often focus on the physical struggles of Calvary, but there was emotional pain heaped upon Christ as well.
c. We all fear abandonment—feel it keenly in our hearts.
d. The way to Golgotha was paved with those who had forsaken our Lord.
A. FORSAKEN BY HIS OWN
1. One disciple would forsake him for 30 pieces of silver and seal it with a kiss.
2. Another disciple would curse having known him, just to save face.
3. All but one disciple would abandon him at that cross.
4. Those who he had poured his life into now they act as if they don’t even know him.
5. Oh, the depth of the pain when those we love forsake us.
B. FORSAKEN BY THE WORLD
1. Crucifixion began with the Persians who believed that the earth was sacred and that certain criminals would defile the ground if executed upon it, so they designed this method to lift the victim from the earth…a forsaking of them as somehow separate from the earth.
2. There he hangs alone between heaven and earth, dying for a world that has forsaken him.
C. FORSAKEN BY THE FATHER
1. We can hear it in the cry of Jesus…the brokenness of knowing even heaven has abandoned him now.
“My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”
2. As far as we know it’s the only time he ever asked the Father ‘Why.’
3. We know the answer, he felt forsaken by the Father for a moment so that we would be forever accepted by the Father.
4. No father. No answers. Only silence.
D. BUT JESUS TRANSFORMED IT INTO A PLACE OF ACCEPTANCE
1. That cross is truly a bridge between heaven and earth.
2. It has removed the separation between us and God.
CONCLUSION: Will you forsake Him as well? He was man enough to endure Golgotha. Will you be man or woman enough to see him there?
