WATCH THE LAMB
Mark 15:21-24
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. I heard about this minister, he'd been out bear hunting all day. He searched through the woods, but found no signs of a bear. Frustrated, he threw his gun down on the ground and walked over to a stream to cool off.
2. About that time he saw this huge grizzly bear running at him, full speed, only a hundred feet away. He fell down on his knees and said "God, I need protection. Please convert this bear into a Christian."
3. Miraculously, the bear stopped in his tracks, lifted both paws to the Heavens and said, "Lord, thank you for this food I am about to eat."
B. CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO COVENANTS
1. There are two covenants. We Christians don’t live under the Law, but under grace. In Christ we have freedom.
2. The Old Covenant – the Mosaic Law – revealed our sin, the sacrifices, the demands of the Law for God to accept us. But the Old Covenant was never meant to solve the problem of sin.
3. On the other hand, we have the New Covenant which is based on grace. Jesus accomplished it all. We’re saved by His sacrifice – not by works, but grace.
4. For some people it’s hard to accept GRACE ALONE – we feel we must do something to earn our salvation.
5. Today we’re looking at a man who was caught in between the two covenants. He saw each of them clearly portrayed before his eyes. His name was Simon of Cyrene.
C. TEXT & TITLE
1. “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha....and they crucified Him.” Mark 15:21-22,24.
2. The title of this message is “Watch the Lamb.”
I. SIMON’S CONVERGENCE WITH DESTINY
A. HISTORY OF HIS JOURNEY
1. Cyrene was a city about 800 miles from Jerusalem. It was located near modern Tripoli, Libya. There was a substantial colony of Jews living there.
2. Most likely Simon (and possibly his 2 sons) came over land 600 miles to Alexandria, Egypt, and then crossed the Mediterranean by Roman galley from Alexandria to Joppa. Rowed through the surf, he/they arrived at Jerusalem just in time for the Jewish Passover.
3. As a Jew living abroad, he had longed to come to Jerusalem – to see the great Temple & be a participant in the faith of his fathers and join in the sacred Passover feast.
4. Simon (and possibly his sons, since Mark mentioned them in the context of Simon’s journey) had traveled all those miles and barely gotten the motion of the ship out of his mind when, in the providence of God, he became involved in one of history’s greatest moments.
B. PROVIDENCE OF GOD
1. It’s especially interesting that it was NOT one of the apostles or a local Jew who was compelled to carry Christ’s cross, but a stranger from North Africa, in no way connected with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
2. Imagine how many miracles God must have worked so that this man from North Africa would arrive at the exact day and at the precise second of the clock to carry Jesus’ Cross up Mt. Calvary!
C. LOOK AT THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
1. Having spent the night in a nearby town, Simon of Cyrene got up early and made his way on the winding roads leading to Jerusalem.
2. His heart was bursting with anticipation of seeing the City of his Fathers. His steps were light. Finally the City came into view!
3. As he drew near the city gate, he began to hear shouting, and a rhythmic beat that sounded like “Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!”
4. All at once the mob came boiling out of the gate and he was caught up in it. He became aware of 2 moving walls of Roman steel between which there staggered a man carrying a cross. Then he noticed three men.
5. But it was the first One that attracted his attention. Blood was trickling down His face from a twisted ring of long-thorn briars someone had shoved on His head. His cheeks bore the marks of bloody sweat and had black and blue bruises.
6. Yet His face was like none he’d ever seen before –
a. Majesty blended with misery;
b. Innocence with agony;
c. Love mingled with sorrow!
7. But it was the terrible look in His eyes that fascinated, awed, and frightened Simon! Everything else was forgotten – the feast, celebration, Temple, the people he was to meet. This Man filled his senses.
8 AND THEN HE LOOKED UP and their eyes met. And Time stopped. Never could Simon explain what happened in that moment when Jesus read his heart and knew all about him. What made Jesus smile that slow, sad smile that said so much and calmed Simon’s wildly beating heart? And then Jesus stumbled.
9. The soldiers, moved more by impatience than by pity, seeing that the Nazarene was too exhausted to carry his cross any farther, laid hands on Simon and forced him to lift it up.
10. Simon’s heart almost stopped beating. Just minutes before he’d been a pilgrim quietly approaching the Holy City. Now he was in the middle of a procession of howling men and women, between two moving walls of Roman steel, and carrying on his shoulder another man’s cross!
11. AND THEY ARRIVED AT CALVARY. As Simon stood there beholding Jesus on the Cross his life was changed. All at once he saw the meaning of pain; he understood the significance of suffering and the meaning of prayer was unveiled. The Messianic Psalms came alive and the words of Isaiah about the Suffering Servant of Jehovah all found their meaning.
II. THE 3 COLLISIONS OF SIMON
Simon carried the cross up to Golgotha – the “place of the skull.” Golgotha was only about ½ mile from the Temple Mount. If a person backed up, they could see Christ crucified and the Temple at the same time. There stood Simon watching the Lamb of God be crucified & the new covenant of grace be put into effect in front of him. To his left was the Temple with all its rituals, religion, & sacrifices. Simon was caught in between the two covenants: grace versus works. As Simon stood there, there were 3 dynamic collisions, 3 shifts from the Old Covenant of Law to the New Covenant of Grace.
A. COLLISION #1 THE LAMB OF MAN VERSUS THE LAMB OF GOD
1. Josephus wrote that there were 250,000 lambs sacrificed on Passover that day. Picture this: Jesus (to the right) is on the cross and ½ mile away, one quarter of a million sheep were bustling about, crying out, & bleeding out at the Temple where they were led to the slaughter. There were multitudes of people, of commotion, and of noise.
2. And a half mile away to the right you have Jesus on the cross fulfilling Isa. 53:7, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.” He could have called down 12 legions of angels, but He didn’t; He was silent.
3. While the Israelites were sacrificing the lambs to celebrate the passing over of God’s judgment, God was pouring out His wrath of judgment on His Son, the true Lamb, so we could live in the new covenant of grace.
4. You can never give enough. You can never shout enough. You can never do enough to earn the favor of God. But you don’t have to. WHICH LAMB DO YOU HAVE YOUR EYES ON?
B. COLLISION #2 THE DEFILING BLOOD & THE CLEANSING BLOOD
1. 1 John 1:9 says, “The blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.” Eph. 1:7, “7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins...”
2. Simon had the blood of Jesus literally all over him (from the cross). Simon would have seen that blood as defiling, because according to the Law, that blood made him unable to participate in the Passover; it made him ceremonially unclean.
3. But the New Covenant says the blood of Jesus has the power to save, to cleanse, to heal, to deliver, to change hearts & minds, to renew, to restore, to lift up.
C. COLLISION #3 THE UNFINISHED WORK VERSUS THE FINISHED WORK
1. The Hebrews sang psalms/songs at Passover, especially Ps. 113-118 – the praise psalms. One of them was Ps. 118:22, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
2. Here was a Messianic prophecy being fulfilled in Jesus, happening ½ mile away on Calvary as they are singing about the Cornerstone! They had unknowingly rejected their Messiah.
3. They looked God’s perfect salvation in the face and rejected Him for the old covenant system and its rituals.
4. John 19:30 tells us that just before Jesus died, He cried, “It is finished.” Scripture was fulfilled; Grace finally overcame Law. Jesus completed the work of redemption. We don’t have to try and finish what Jesus already did.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. There’s an old song called, “Watch the Lamb.” Scholars believe that Simon moved toward the New Covenant after this experience with Jesus.
2. Simon had traveled with his two young sons to Jerusalem for the Passover. He probably brought his sons along to watch the lamb – their Passover lamb – that was their job. But then Simon got separated. And so he was standing at Calvary, between the two covenants. This song tells us how the story ends.
3. “WATCH THE LAMB” LYRICS: “I stood for what seemed like years, Lost all sense of time; Till I felt 2 tiny hands, holding tight to mine. My children stood there weeping, & I heard the oldest say; “Father please forgive us, the lamb ran away.” I took them in my arms & we turned & faced the Cross; And I said, “Dear children – watch the Lamb!”
B. THE CALL
1. Salvation Call.
2. The Lord’s Supper celebration.
[This is a rewrite of Josiah Deroos’ “Watch The Lamb” and Peter Marshall’s “Were You There?”]
