1 Cor 15:1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,
1 Cor 15:2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
1 Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1 Cor 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
For the next three lessons we will go on an investigative journey starting today with the death of Jesus Christ. Next lesson, we will examine His resurrection and conclude later with a look at some of the appearances of Christ after His resurrection.
We will gather insight on our journey from a reporter who was formally an atheist, but brought to faith in Christ as he worked incessantly to answer three questions:
Was Jesus really dead after his ordeal on the cross? Did He really, truly die?
Was his tomb actually empty on that first Easter Morning? Did He really rise from death?
Did credible people subsequently encounter him? Did credible eyewitnesses see Him?
The reporter, Lee Strobel, recorded his findings in a book called, The Case for Christ. Today we have in a gift for our guest, excerpts from that book collected in a booklet called The Case for Easter. We will be using this material in our Easter series of messages to be given over the next three Sundays.
Most of us are familiar with the television series, CSI- Crime Scene Investigation. Today we are going to do a CSI. We are going to do a “Christ’s Suffering Investigation.”
Strobel says that medical evidence is crucial to a CSI investigation. It can determine whether a child died of abuse or an accidental fall. It can establish whether a person succumbed to natural causes or was murdered by someone who spiked the person’s coffee with arsenic. And yes, even in the case of someone brutally executed on a Roman cross two thousand years ago, medical evidence can still make a crucial contribution: it can help determine whether the resurrection of Jesus—the supreme vindication of his claim to deity—was nothing more than an elaborate hoax.
If Jesus really didn’t die, our celebration of His resurrection next Sunday is ludicrous. He had to die before He could be raised from the dead. Paul writes in Romans 8:34, “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
Usually when a person dies, it is bad news for some and sad news for others. But for the Christian, part of the Gospel or the Good News of Jesus Christ is that He died.
The death of Jesus is Good News for the sinner. Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
In fact, the death of Jesus pleased God the Father. Who in their right mind would be pleased if one of their children was put to death? But Isaiah 53:10 says, “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; When He would render Himself as an offering for sin…”
The devil has been behind an attack against the death of Christ ever since He died on that old rugged cross.
* In the seventh century the Koran was written and taught that Jesus never really did die on the cross. Ahmadiyya Muslims contend that Jesus actually fled to India. To this day there is a shrine that supposedly marks his real burial place in Srinagar Kashmir.
* As the nineteenth century dawned, many others have tried to explain away the resurrection by suggesting that Jesus only fainted from exhaustion on the cross. Others have taught that He was given a drug that made him appear to die, and that He had later been revived by the cool, damp air of the tomb. They get this thinking from the passage in Mark 15:36 that shows Jesus being offered some liquid on a sponge while on the cross and that a few verses down (vs. 44) Pilate seemed surprised at how quickly Jesus had succumbed.
This hypothesis is referred to by some as The Swoon Theory. This theory was regurgitated in the 1965 bestseller by Hugh Schonfield, The Passover Plot and popped up again in the controversial 1982 book Holy Blood, Holy Grail. The Swoon Theory plays a central role in Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code published in 2003.
The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail added the twist that Pontus Pilate had been bribed to allow Jesus to be taken down from the cross before he was dead. However, the authors confessed that they “could not and still cannot—prove the accuracy of their conclusion.”
The Scriptures say repeatedly that Jesus died and that is enough for me. But it might not be enough for others, so we will do a brief CSI –an investigation into the suffering of Jesus Christ from the time He was in the Garden of Gethsemane to when He was nailed on the cross and pronounced dead by the Scriptures.
Suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane
In Luke 22, the Bible records that after the Last Supper, Jesus went with disciples to the Mount of Olives and stopped for prayer at the Garden of Gethsemane. It was at the garden that He prayed all night long.
Luke 22:44 says, “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”
While some have called this account the product of someone’s overactive imagination, it is actually known as a medical condition called hematidrosis. Though not very common, it is associated with a high degree of psychological stress. What happens is that severe anxiety causes the release of chemicals that break down the capillaries in the sweat glands. As a result, there’s a small amount of bleeding into these glands, and the sweat comes out tinged with blood—a very, very small amount of blood.
Jesus knowing what was coming and how He would be crucified for the sins of the world, in His humanity, pleaded with the Father to remove this cup from Him. Jesus prayed, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done."
As He accepted the Father’s will, He got up and encouraged His disciples to pray that they would not enter into temptation. As He was speaking, a multitude came and He was arrested and taken into custody (Luke 22:63-65).
Suffering in the Custody of the Sanhedrin
While He was in the custody of the Sanhedrin (the Chief Priests and Scribes), the Bible says the guards blindfolded Him and mocked Him and beat Him, striking Him in the face and asking Him, saying, "Prophesy, who is the one who hit You?"
When it was morning Jesus was taken before the Sanhedrin, both the chief priests and the scribes questioned Him. When He acknowledged in response to their questions that He was the Christ, the Son of God, the high priest tore his robes and accused Jesus of blasphemy.
Matthew 26:65-68 tells us that those assembled cried out that “Jesus was worthy of death” and began to spit on Him and beat Him with their fists while others slapped Him.
After this Luke 23 says they took him before Pilate, the Roman prefect, or governor, of Judea. Pilate interrogates Jesus for a minute and discovers that Jesus was a Galilean, so he sends Him to Herod, because Galileans are under Herod’s jurisdiction.
Luke 23:9-10 says, “And Herod questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate.”
Pilate interrogates Jesus again. Matthew chapter 27, Mark 15, Luke 23 and John 19 records the interrogation. After speaking with Jesus, Pilates announces to the crowd that he finds no fault in Jesus.
But the crowd rejects his decision. He tries to compromise with the vicious, satanically-inspired crowd. Pilate follows one of their customs and releases one of the criminals, since the Passover celebration was about to start. He offers them the choice of Jesus or a robber named Barabbas (John 18:40).
Now Pilate was on bad terms with Caesar, so not wanting to let a riot break out and Caesar hear about it and brand him a bad governor, Pilate gives Jesus over to the crowd to be crucified and symbolically washes his hands of his actions.
In Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15 and John 19:1 there is found a word that we need to unpack: “Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him.” Let’s look at the word, “scourged.”
Suffering By Scourging
The word scourge is from the Italian word scoriada (scor-e-ada). The Latin has two words, excoriare "to flay" and corium = "skin"). These words describe a whip or lash, especially a braided whip used to inflict severe corporal punishment on the back.
The Roman scourging or flogging was known to be terribly brutal. Scourging usually consisted of thirty-nine lashes but frequently were a lot more than that depending on the mood of the soldier applying the blows.
The movie, The Passion of the Christ, had a segment that depicted the flogging of Jesus that seemed to go on and on.
The soldier would use a whip of braided leather with metal balls woven into it. When the whip would strike the flesh, these balls would cause deep bruises or contusions, which would break open with further blows. The whip oftentimes had pieces of sharp bone as well, which would cut the flesh severely.
In Mel Gibson’s depiction of the scourging, Jesus was whipped all the way from the shoulders down to the back, the buttocks, and the back of the legs. If you saw this movie you may also remember how this beating exposed his rib cage.
A third century historian by the name of Eusebius (U-seb-i-us) described a flogging by saying, “The sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were laid open to exposure.”
I could go on to describe what our Lord went through but we need to save room for what took place on the cross. However I need to say one more thing.
Many people would die from this kind of beating even before they could be crucified. At the least, the victim would experience tremendous pain and go into hypovolemic shock.
Hypo means low, vol refers to volume, emic means blood, so hypovolemic shock means the person is suffering the effects of losing a large amount of blood. When a person experiences hypovolemic shock, four things happen:
The heart races to try to pump blood that isn’t there
The blood pressure drops, causing fainting or collapse
The kidneys stop producing urine to maintain what fluids are left
The person becomes very thirsty as the body craves fluids to replace the lost blood volume.
There is evidence of this in the Gospel accounts.
Jesus was more than likely in hypovolemic shock as he staggered up the road to the execution site at Calvary, carrying the horizontal beam of the cross. Finally, Jesus collapsed, and the Roman soldier orders Simon to carry the cross for Him (Mat 27:32).
Later in John 19:28, the Bible says that “Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I am thirsty.’”
Because of the terrible effects of this beating, there is no question that Jesus was already in serious to critical condition even before the nails were driven through His hands and feet.
By the way, in John 19:2-3 it is recorded that after the scourging, “the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and arrayed Him in a purple robe; and they began to come up to Him, and say, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and to give Him blows in the face.”
We’ve looked at how Jesus suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and how he suffered in the custody of the Sanhedrin. We have looked at how Jesus suffered by scourging.
Now let’s briefly look at how Jesus suffered the agony of the Cross.
Suffering the Agony of the Cross
Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead. The cross was the instrument for exacting capital punishment on those who were guilty of committing capital crimes. This form of execution was widely practiced in Ancient Rome and in neighboring Mediterranean cultures.
Today, when condemned criminals are executed, they are usually strapped down and injected with chemicals; some states give criminals the choice of being executed by electric chair or gas chamber.
With these modern devices of execution using these controlled processes, death comes relatively quickly and predictably but when it came to the ancient practice of crucifixion, it came crudely and slowly. In fact, most people today aren’t even sure how the cross kills its victims—let alone if the victim was actually dead while hanging on the cross.
So again, we need to appeal to the trained medical examiner. Could it be, as some have alleged, that Jesus made it through the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and the suffering in the custody of the Sanhedrin and the suffering by scourging and crucifixion and amazingly come through all this alive?
After His scourging, Matthew 27:33 says that Jesus is taken to Golgotha, which means Place of a Skull. He is more than likely laid down, and His hands would have been nailed in the outstretched position to the horizontal beam. This crossbar was called the patibulum, and at this stage it was separate from the vertical beam, which was already permanently set in the ground.
The Romans used spikes that were five to seven inches long and tapered to a sharp point. They were driven in His wrists about an inch or so below his left palm. The nail would go through the place where the median nerve runs so it would be very painful, to say the least.
In fact, the pain was so unbearable that they had to invent a new word: excruciating. Literally, excruciating means, “out of the cross.”
At this point Jesus was hoisted as the cross bar was attached to the vertical stake, and then the nails were driven through Jesus feet—more excruciating pain.
Psalm 22, which foretold the crucifixion hundreds of years before it took place, says in verse 14, “And all my bones are out of joint…” When Jesus was hoisted up as the crossbar was attached to the vertical beam, His arms would have been immediately stretched under the weight of His body. Mathematical computations calculate the stretching of His arms would be about six inches which would have caused both shoulders to have become dislocated.
Once a person is hanging in the vertical position, crucifixion is essentially an agonizingly slow death by asphyxiation. The reason is that the stresses on the muscles and diaphragm put the chest into the inhaled position; basically, in order to exhale, the individual must push up on his feet so the tension on the muscles would be eased for a moment. In doing so, the nail would tear through the foot, eventually locking up against the tarsal bones.
After managing to exhale, the person would then be able to relax down and take another breath in. Again he’d have to push himself up to exhale, scraping his bloodied back against the coarse wood of the cross.
This would go on and on until complete exhaustion would take over, and the person wouldn’t be able to push up and breathe anymore. As the person slows down his breathing, he goes into what is called respiratory acidosis—the carbon dioxide in the blood is dissolved as carbonic acid, causing the acidity
of the blood to increase. This eventually leads to an irregular heartbeat. In fact, with his heart beating erratically, Jesus would have known that he was at the moment of death, which is when he was able to say, ‘Lord, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ And then he died of cardiac failure.
Even before he died—and this is important too—the hypovolemic shock would have caused a sustained
rapid heart rate that would have contributed to heart failure, resulting in the collection of fluid in the membrane around the heart, called a pericardial effusion, as well as around the lungs, which is called a pleural effusion.”
The significance of this is that when the Roman soldier came around and, being fairly certain that Jesus was dead, confirmed it by thrusting a spear into his right side. It was probably his right side; that’s not certain, but from the description it was probably the right side, between the ribs.
The spear apparently went through the right lung and into the heart, so when the spear was pulled out, some fluid—the pericardial effusion and the pleural effusion—came out. This would have the appearance of a clear fluid, like water, followed by a large volume of blood, as the eyewitness John described in his gospel.
John probably had no idea why he saw both blood and a clear fluid come out—certainly that’s not what an untrained person like him would have anticipated. Yet John’s description is consistent with what modern medicine would expect to have happened.
There is more CSI evidence that Jesus really died but I do not have time to go into it here. The point of this discussion is that Jesus really died. There is no possible way that Jesus could have survived all of this suffering.
Could He have faked His death and then somehow gotten past the trained eyes of the Roman soldiers who specialized in execution? No way! In fact, if a prisoner somehow escaped, the soldiers would have to pay for their blunder by being put to death themselves.
Jesus was dead! Why is it so important that He be dead? It is important that He died because if He hadn’t died, there would be no basis for a resurrection from the dead—which is at the core of the Christian’s faith (1 Corinthians 15).
In addition to this is our consideration of the reason for His death.
The Old Testament book of Isaiah was written approximately 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. In this book, the death of Christ and the reason for His death was foretold.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isa 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
The death of Jesus Christ was not merely the martyring of a religious leader. The death of Jesus Christ was not merely evil men getting even with someone who rubbed them the wrong way.
The death of Jesus Christ was the act of God in heaven giving His only Son as a sin offering to pay the price for sin in order that sinners such as you and me might be forgiven.
Earlier in this message we noted that the death of Jesus pleased God the Father. Who in their right mind would be pleased if one of their children was put to death? But Isaiah 53:10 says, “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; When He would render Himself as an offering for sin…”
Jesus faced capital punishment for the capital crimes of another. Who was the “another?” It was you…and it was me. We were the guilty ones that He died for.
In the letter of 1 Peter 3:18 the Bible says, “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God…”
In order for the unjust to be treated as just and the unrighteous to be declared righteous, the innocent had to be treated as guilty. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God the Father, “made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
How does one respond to the death of Jesus Christ?
Accept the death of Christ as payment in full for your sins.
Isaiah writes, “But He was pierced through for your transgressions, He was crushed for your iniquities; the chastening for your well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging you are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
A True Story
John Griffeth lived in the western part of the United States during the depression years of dust bowls, dryness and drought. Married in 1929, the Griffeths watched their farming dreams blow into dust. Finally, they gathered their little son with their meager belongings and moved east.
There John landed a job at the Mississippi River tending a drawbridge. One summer day in 1937, he took his son to spend the day with him. Wide-eyed and full of questions, Greg watched his father as he raised the bridge to let the ships pass, and then lowered it for the great trains to roar across the river.
About noon, John put up the bridge and sat with Greg on an observation platform to eat their lunches. They enjoyed the activity on the waterfront. John dreamed about traveling so he told his son stories about the ships and where they were headed. He was so caught up in the stories that he lost track of time. Suddenly he was awakened by the shrill whistle of a locomotive. He glanced at his watch, noting that it was nearly time for the Memphis Express.
John made his way to the gear-room, sat on the stool and took the lever in hand. He looked up the river and back down to see if any ships were coming. Then he glanced below ... Terror gripped him as looked below and discovered that Greg tried to follow him and had slipped off the catwalk and fell into the massive gears below. His son’s leg was caught and if the bridge was lowered, six tons of revolving metal would grind him to death!
As his mind frantically sought a solution, John thought, "I'll run back, tie a rope, let myself down..." – but no, there was not enough time.
The whistle of the train let him know that it was very close. More than anything, he wanted to spare his son; but if he did many would die! There was no other way to spare their lives! Stricken and overwhelmed with grief, John bowed his trembling head, closed his eyes, and released the lever. The gear room shook as the wheels turned and the great bridge settled down into place. In moments it was over and the Memphis Express came roaring past.
John lifted his head and looked in the train. There a man read the morning news, the conductor was looking at his watch, and a woman in the dining car was feeding her little girl with a spoon. No one noticed the heart-broken John Griffeth. No one was aware of the grieving father or the mangled body of his dear son.
Choking with passion John called out, "What's the matter with you people? I just GAVE MY SON for you! Don't you even care?" Nobody heard; nobody looked; nobody knew and no one responded as the train disappeared across the river.
We just examined the suffering of our Lord Jesus—suffering that led to His death. Will you be like the passengers of that train, speeding down the rails of life?
John Griffeth gave his son’s life so that hundreds of passengers on that train could live.
Without Jesus we too are hopeless and headed for destruction. Our sovereign God "sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9). What an amazing sacrifice as God "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32).
How does one respond to the death of Jesus Christ? Accept His death as payment in full for your sins.
Perhaps you are already a Christian. How should you respond to the death of Christ? Do you feel the need to give your life to Christ again? Sometimes I feel the need to do it. Perhaps what God is calling you to is a time of rededication.
How does one who is already a Christian respond to the death of Christ?
Die to self
Rom 6:6-7 – “ knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Here the Apostle is painting the picture of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and hanging right next to Christ is your old self—this is the old you before you were saved.
As Jesus was facing His death on the Cross, He prayed, “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me.” But Jesus went on to pray, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36).
The Christian’s confession when dying to self is the same: “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt…” In this confession you are realizing:
There are some things that the world wants me to do, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
There are some things that this flesh wants me to do, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
There are some things that the devil wants me to do, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
There are some things that my school friends want me to do, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
There are some places that my co-workers what me to go, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
There are some things that I want to buy with your money Lord, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
There are some things that I am compelled to do with the time you bless me with Lord, but now that I am saved, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt”
Jesus died! He was dead, truly dead, absolutely dead, incontrovertibly dead! He died for our sins—He died to pay the price for our sins. We were guilty but He was innocent. He died!
Next time we are going to continue this series of messages and look at how the biblical account continues.
Let me tell you a secret…He got up! He lives!
There are some who have no problem believing that He died. “Of course he died; he was crucified!”
They have a problem believing that a dead man can come back alive. Job 14:14 ponders this reality with the words, “If a man dies, will he live again?” But Jesus was no ordinary dead man; He was the God-man! He got up! We are going to deal with this next time.
