INTRO ¶ - There is no FREEDOM of the PRESS in China. Most if not all of us have followed the continuing saga of the airplane collision & the subsequent detaining of 24 military personnel...The governmentally
controlled Chinese media’s officially sanctioned story has been that we took aggressive action against them...anti-American sentiment.
There was no FREEDOM of the PRESS in Israel during the time of Christ. The officially sanctioned story of Christ was that after His crucifixion, His disciples stole His body & had claimed He had risen again.
The Apostle Peter knew this to be untrue, so he used this occasion of the coming of the Holy Spirit to preach the truth about Jesus Christ.
TEXTUAL ¶ -PETER INDICTED THOSE WHO WERE GUILTY OF THE
LORD’S CRUCIFIXION.
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RELATIONAL ¶-How many of you enjoy watching “Whodunits?” - Murder Mysteries {Murder She Wrote, Columbo...} This morning, GOD WOULD HAVE YOU SOLVE THE MOST IMPORTANT MURDER MYSTERY OF ALL TIME - that is, the MURDER of Jesus Christ. You may be thinking that such an endeavor = TOO EASY! After all, everyone knows that the fault lies with Pontius Pilate...or Judas Iscariot...But the scriptures suggest
others = involved.
WHO PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS? Was it...
1.)...the JEWS?(vs. 22a & 23b)
“Men of Israel...this Man...you nailed to a cross.” - Note Peter’s lack of specificity. He doesn’t single out the Sanhedrin or Caiaphas... “Men of Israel.”
Annas, Ciaphas & the Sanhedrin were certainly GUILTY.
THE TRIAL = FARCE!
a.) No trial = allowed at NIGHT.
{Jesus tried & convicted between 1-3am}
b.) The Arrest = result of a BRIBE.
c.) TESTIMONY = INCONSISTENT.(Mark 14:56)
d.) Jesus was asked to INCRIMINATE HIMSELF.
e.) No hearings were to be done during a festival.
f.) Judgment wasn’t to be passed until the DAY
AFTER conviction.
g.) They themselves STRUCK him. “Prophesy, who hit
you?”
So why does Peter implicate them all by saying “Men of Israel?”
ANSWER: THEY ASKED FOR IT! (Matt. 27:24-25)
But Peter = addressing several thousand Jewish people - 3,000 will be converted! Many had nothing DIRECTLY to do with the death of Jesus...weren’t among the mob that shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” How were they guilty?
[TR] You’ll see in a moment, but first we must consider a 2nd suspect.
Was it...
2.)...the ROMANS?(vs. 23b)
“by the hands of godless men”
Jewish law prevented the Sanhedrin from executing prisoners, so they delivered Jesus to the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate.
Pilate = tragic figure...wanted no part in this lynching of Christ so he sends Him to Herod, who sends Him back...tries to appease them by offering Barabbas...Then he has Jesus scourged & worked over by
Roman soldiers...hoping that would appease the crowd. “Behold the man.”
Pilate was like so many today...NOT hostile to Jesus but more desirous of appeasing the crowd...fitting in!
Certainly Pilate & the Roman soldiers deserve some blame for the crucifixion.
[TR] But there = 2 others to consider. Who put Jesus on the cross? Was it...
3.)...YOU?
“How? I didn’t live in 33 AD!” It doesn’t matter because EVERY ONE OF US ARE SINNERS!(Romans 3:23)-Doesn’t matter whether you are Jew or Gentile. The VERY REASON Christ was on that cross was to ATONE FOR OUR SIN. (1 Peter 3:18)
Who put Jesus on the cross? YOU DID!!!!!!! & SO DID I!
Your sin & mine drove the nails...
And had we been there at the crucifixion, some of us would’ve mocked Him. Others would’ve deserted Him. “Not me!” What makes you think you would’ve done any better than His disciples? Calvary shows how far men will go in sin, & how far God went for man’s salvation.
[TR] That leads us to one final suspect...Who put Jesus on the cross? Was it...
4.)...GOD?(vs. 23a)
“delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” Almighty God is the culprit! He had it all planned! He even told the Jews His plans.(Isaiah 53)...
THE CROSS = NO ACCIDENT!!!!!!! Not an afterthought
{C. I. Schofield’s interpretation that the Triumphal
entry = Kingdom offer by Jesus rejected by the Jews
is erroneous...What if they’d accepted? Such a belief
makes the Cross become a “fortunate accident”
dependent upon the faithlessness of the Jews. The
Cross wasn’t "plan B." God had it all planned from
the foundation of the world!
You might ask: “Why would a loving God subject His only Son to such torture?”
ANSWER = Precisely because He is a loving God.(Romans 5:8)...
You might ask: “But why couldn’t God just forgive? Even I can do that.”
ANSWER = BECAUSE GOD IS HOLY...“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity” (Hab. 1:13)
So often we characterize the crucifixion as Christ dying FOR US. But what we fail to proclaim is that CHRIST DIED FOR GOD not just us..(Romans 3:24-26) Christ’s sacrifice made it possible for God to maintain His holy character & still save us.
Oswald Chambers writes: “We trample the blood of the
Son of God if we think we are forgiven because we are
sorry for our sins. The only explanation for the
forgiveness of God & for the unfathomable depth of
His forgetting is the death of Jesus Christ.”
[TR] It is only through His sacrifice that we can come to a Holy God.
REPRODUCTION ¶: WHO PUT JESUS ON THE CROSS? God would
have you solve that mystery. Was it...the JEWS?(John 1:11) ... the ROMANS?...GOD? Was it YOU? The ANSWER = ALL the above.
You & I put Christ on the cross.
APPLICATION ¶: He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owed a debt we couldn’t pay.
INVITATION ¶: You cannot wash your hands of Him the way Pilate did. Do you want to bear the guilt for your sin, or do you want Christ to bear your sin?
