GOSPEL DEEP
JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS – HEBREWS 2:14-15
-In 2004 a controversial movie was released.
-Directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel this movie was called “The Passion of the Christ”.
-Like many people, we went to see this movie about Jesus and it was a weird experience.
-We sat down in our seats and people were chatting like they always do at movie.
-I remember a man in front of me stuffing his face with popcorn.
-Just a regular night at the movies: It’s a night out, date night, get out of the house and have some fun.
-There was a lot of hype about that movie and people were excited to see it.
-But when the movie began the climate in that room changed almost immediately.
-The Catholics have long since called the sacrifice of Jesus his “passion”, which they derive from the Latin word “passio” which means suffering.
-If the movie had been called “The Suffering of Christ” it probably wouldn’t have sold as many tickets.
-So many were shocked by the horror and gruesome nature of that R-rated film.
-But anyone whose read the Bible’s account of Jesus and the cross knows that it’s an “R-rated” story.
-Jesus suffered as he died a brutal death on the cross.
-I remember people asking me, “How was the movie?” I didn’t know how to answer.
-It was awful. I cried. I’m glad I saw it.
-I don’t want to see it again. I don’t want to buy the DVD.
-It was a sobering reminder that Jesus Christ suffered greatly on the cross for our sins.
-We are in week 3 of our series Gospel Deep.
-We’ve challenged our church to know the gospel and share the gospel. And in order to share it, you have to know it.
-Our youth group has been learning this. I want you to watch this video footage that Justin filmed. VIDEO: Gospel Deep Youth
-Now it’s our turn. Hold those right hands up.
-If your neighbor doesn’t have their right hand up we can safely assume they are Atlanta Falcon fans.
WHAT ARE THE BASIC POINTS OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE?
• Jesus came to save.
• Jesus never sinned.
• Jesus died on the cross.
• Jesus rose from the grave.
• Jesus is coming back.
-If you know these 5 Basic points you’ll have a basic outline.
-This is just a guide to help us know how to share the Gospel.
-And what does the word gospel mean? GOOD NEWS!
-Now, what is our response to the Good News?
-Now raise that left hand up!
-If your neighbor doesn’t have their left hand up we can safely assume they are New England Patriot fans.
• Admit my sin.
• Trust in Jesus.
• Turn away from sin.
• Be baptized.
• Follow Jesus.
-I know some of you are thinking…“I’ve already heard this! Rerun!
-Why do we keep doing this?”
-If followers of Jesus can’t share the message of Jesus, who is going to do it?
-If we don’t know this, we can’t share this, and if we don’t share this unsaved people will never hear the Good News?
-Jesus came to save, Jesus never sinned, Jesus died on the cross.
-Every year we take special time to talk about the cross on Good Friday…but there is so much to cover when it comes to the death of Jesus.
Rom 5:6-9 “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
-We sinners were powerless to solve our sin problem: Jesus came
7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.
8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.”
-We established in week 1 that Jesus came to save.
-And that his motivation was love. Not just a loving feeling.
-He laid down his life, proving his love for us.
-And the perfect Son of God died for sinful people like us.
-As we consider the cross this morning I want to approach it from a bit of a different angle.
JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS…BUT WHO KILLED HIM?
-When I would spend the night with my Grandma and Grandpa they watched Murder She Wrote and Matlock.
-I learned early to love a good mystery, especially the ones that have a lot of twists and turns.
-The mark of a great murder mystery is it makes you ask the question “Who dunnit?”
-And the death of Jesus is one of the most complicated plots in all of history. You have to read this book!
-When it comes to the death of Jesus the usual suspect is…
-Judas killed Jesus for money. (Matt 26:15)
-Judas was a key player in the plot to kill Jesus.
-John 12:6 tells us that Judas was greedy for money and had actually stolen money from the disciples shared ministry funds.
Matthew 26:15 says that Judas went to the leading priests and asked them, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.”
-He had seen heard Jesus preach with authority.
-He was there to witness the powerful miracles.
-He saw sight returned to the blind, and hearing to the deaf.
-He saw lame people walk and dead people raised to life.
-Judas’ weakness for money led him to do the unthinkable.
-You could argue that Judas killed Jesus. It’s true that he is the one to hand Jesus over, but Judas only played a part.
-The death of Jesus was a bigger and more complicated affair.
-The Pharisees killed Jesus to maintain their standing. (John 12:19)
-The Pharisees were the popular religious sect in the days of Jesus
-They were the ones who crushed people with hundreds of rules and regulations.
-They kept the people enslaved to guilt and shame.
-Jesus constantly exposed their hypocrisy, challenged their oppressive rules…generally speaking he really ticked them off!
-When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday there were crowds of people worshipping him and
John 12:19 “Then the Pharisees said to each other, “There’s nothing we can do. Look, everyone has gone after him!”
-He was a threat; they were losing their grip on the people.
-The leaders of the Pharisees were part of the payoff to kill Jesus.
-They were also present during some of the 6 trials that Jesus was put through.
-And the Pharisees were there inciting the crowds to crucify Jesus
-With Jesus out of the way the Pharisees would eliminate the competition and get back to oppressing the people unopposed.
-But it wasn’t just Judas and the Pharisees.
-The Sadducees killed Jesus to protect their interests. (Mk 11:15-17)
-The Sadducees had been given power by the Romans because they showed a certain willingness to cooperate.
-So the high priesthood of Israel was given to the Sadducees which meant they were in charge.
Mark 11:15-17 “When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace. He said to them,
“The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
-Who do you suppose was getting all that kickback money from the business being conducted inside the temple?
-The people in charge! The Sadducees!
-And who did Jesus stand before when he was on trial?
-Two Sadducee high priests…Annas and Caiaphas!
-When Jesus turned over the tables at the temple, he was disrupting the flow of money…so he had to go.
-And then there’s another party we have to mention.
-Pilate killed Jesus to avoid political tension. (Jn 19:4, Mt 27:24)
-Pilate was the head Roman in charge of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.
-That was a bad assignment for anyone. No one wanted that job.
-With Judas working with the Pharisees and the Sadducees in collusion; Jesus was presented to Pilate on trumped up charges.
-Pilate didn’t know what to do so he sent him to King Herod who sent him back to Pilate.
-Stuck in a difficult situation; Pilate made and attempt to save Jesus.
John 19:4 “Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.”
-A crowd had gathered and a mob was forming.
-The leaders of the Jews were daring Pilate to oppose him.
-He had the power to release Jesus but if a riot started he’d have to send troops in and word of a rebellion would surely get back to his superiors in Rome.
- Pilate in a no-win situation. And at the end of the day he decided the life of one man wasn’t worth all that trouble.
Matthew 27:24 “So he sent for a bowl of water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. The responsibility is yours!”
-So he washed his hands of Christ’s death and then handed him over to be killed.
-When you think about Judas and his money, the Pharisees influence, the Sadducees business interests, and Pilate’s political future…there is another co-conspirator we must name.
-Another key player we’ve not yet named in this plot to kill Christ.
-Satan killed Jesus to protect his hold on the world. (Lk 22:3)
-In John 10:10 Jesus said that Satan’s business is killing, stealing and destroying.,
-That’s his job and he loves going to work each day.
-He kills people and breaks things.
-He destroys lives and shows no mercy in doing so.
-As we consider a sinister plot against God’s one and only Son we should assume that Christ’s great enemy was involved.
-And in fact, the Bible tells us he was involved.
Luke 22:3 “Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples…”
-He was under Satan’s influence when he betrayed Jesus.
-The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Romans were all unwitting parts of Satan’s plot to kill Jesus.
-They all served a part, all had a role to play.
-But was the cross really Satan’s idea? Yes and no.
-I recently had the opportunity to read the book Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick.
-If you love history you’ll love that book.
-It is a book that chronicles the careers of George Washington and Benedict Arnold.
-History records that Benedict Arnold was in fact a great soldier and heroic in combat.
-He was daring in battle and inspired the troops he led.
-But his was a self-absorbed narcissist.
-He believed that he should be promoted, he should be celebrated, and that he deserved to be rich, famous and admired.
-Meanwhile the people who worked with Arnold believed he was difficult, selfish, and downright annoying.
-So when they didn’t give him what he thought he deserved, he offered his services to the British.
-Through a series of secret correspondences he developed a plan to surrender the Colonial fort known as West Point to the British.
-But the plan was foiled and the thing he thought would bring him power and prestige…became the basis for a kind of universal disdain for the traitor; Benedict Arnold.
-Hundreds of years later his name is still used as a synonym for being a traitor.
-The man who wanted fame and glory for defeating the Colonials earned scorn and infamy when his plan backfired.
-Was it Satan’s plan to get Jesus killed? Yes!
-Was he attempting to kill the Son of God with an elaborate plot?
-Was he hoping to get rid of his rival and preserve his stranglehold on all of humanity?
-He thought killing Jesus would solve his problem. But it backfired!
-What he failed to recognize, and maybe what we fail to realize…is
that there was another co-conspirator in the plot to kill Jesus.
-Hold on to your seats because this is the surprise ending to history’s most famous murder.
-God killed Jesus to defeat sin once for all. (Rm 8:32, Heb 2:14-15)
-What Satan didn’t realize is that it wasn’t his plan to kill Jesus, it was God’s plan all along.
-When Satan helped incite all those people to kill the Son of God, he lost. He outsmarted himself.
-Some argue that Satan knew what would happen but I don’t buy it. If Satan had known what God was doing he would tried to keep Jesus alive.
“Sin killed itself when it killed Jesus. Sin committed suicide when it killed Jesus.” John Piper
-The death of Jesus put Satan on notice that he was kingdom was eroding and would one day end.
-At the cross God masterfully maneuvered Satan into a corner and at the Resurrection God declared “checkmate!”
-We’ll talk about the Resurrection next week.
-All of the conspirators in that murderous plot thought they were killing Jesus!
-But they didn’t realize it was God’s plan all along.
-And I promise you they never saw the resurrection coming!
Rom 8:32 “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”
-As we consider the story of Christ’s suffering death it makes us want to ask, “Why God? Why did you let that happen?”
-Why did an innocent man die?
-Why did Jesus go through that shame and humiliation?
-Was all that really necessary?
Hebrews 2:14-15 “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood.
-Like we said last week Jesus had the fully human experience.
-He came down and lived a human life just like us.
-But he life was different from our sin one important way.
-He never sinned. And that’s important.
-You can’t send a sinner to save people stuck in sin!
-You don’t send addicts to an addict for counseling!
-The one sent to save mankind had to free from mankind’s frailty.
-The one meant to be the sacrifice for all people; had to be perfect, had to be holy!
For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.”
-Why did God send his One and Only Son to die a suffering death?
-Why did he let those wicked men have their way with his perfect Son? It was the only way he could set us free.
-As we’ll see in week 6, our sin deserves no less than death.
-That’s why people live as slaved to fear of dying.
-We know that judgment awaits and that we’ll have things to answer for on that day.
-But it was God’s plan break the chains of sin, to break the power of the devil and to set us free by the death of Jesus.
-Sometimes in a murder mystery the case gets solved but there a last surprise twist at the end.
-And there is one more conspirator to name. It’s me. It’s you. Us.
I (we)_ killed Jesus…he died for my sins. (Is 53:4-6 ) Jn 15:13; Rom 5:6-9)
-We had no part in the plot but we are just as responsible as the bad guys in this story.
-Every time we sin we’re pressing the crown of thorns down onto his head.
-Every time we sin we’re holding the nails to his hand.
-Ever time we sin we may as well be swinging the hammer.
-Make no mistake. The body of Jesus was nailed to the cross for our lust and blasphemy and jealousy and rage.
-His blood was shed for our pettiness and cruelty and pettiness and violence.
-To say that Jesus died for sinners makes it’s impersonal.
-Jesus had to die because I sinned and you sinned.
-And yet; here is what the Bible says.
John 15:13 “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
-And if anyone questions the love of God, point them to the cross!
-Why else would the only man who never sinned willingly go through such a thing IF NOT FOR LOVE?
-Jesus willingly laid down his life for us because he loves us.
-And if he had not been raised; this story would not be considered Good News.
-You’ve gotta to come back next week and here about the resurrection.
Isaiah 53:4-6 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
-No one wants to think that an innocent man died for their sins.
-No one wants to think of their sins are so severe as to deserve death.
-If we could earn it, deserve it, or measure up in some way we’d much rather go that way…
-But if we could just behave ourselves and get to heaven…why would Jesus have gone to all the trouble.
-On the cross, Jesus did for us, what we could not do for ourselves.
-By his wounds we are healed! By his death we have life!
-By his suffering…we are saved.
• Jesus came to save.
• Jesus never sinned.
• Jesus died on the cross.
• Jesus rose from the grave.
• Jesus is coming back.
• Admit my sin.
• Trust in Jesus.
• Turn away from sin.
• Be baptized.
• Follow Jesus.
