The Passion Pt 2
It Is Finished
Luke 23:26-49
Last week we began our discussion of the Passion of Christ. Those climactic 4 days in the ministry of our Lord. Last week in Gethsemane’s shadows we found the Love of God demonstrated. We found the frailty of human effort and the power of God, and we found the power of Darkness to blind us to the reality of Christ. Today we move from the deceptive beauty of Gethsemane’s shadows to the stark reality of a hill called Golgotha “the place of the skull”. A place of Pain, Brutality, Torture, and Death. I hope that these passages this morning make you squirm just a little in your seat – they certainly make me squirm to read them. The truth is I hate these lines of scripture – I hate them and I love them – and I squirm at the conflict – because I am faced in full with the cost of my sin and disobedience.
Luke 23:26-49
The scriptures spare us a little the gruesome details and agony of the Passion. Contained in our accounts are just enough detail to make us squirm and not enough detail for us to loose the message in the method. The truth is there is nothing magnificent, nothing wonderful, nothing engaging about the process of crucifixion. The message of this day is not in the cross but in the crucified. Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen the movie – the truth is that there is no glory here on Golgotha – it is brutal, bloody, and horrifying at the very best. When we come to these passages of scripture they should break our hearts open with grief and should wipe away the pride of our hearts. The Songwriter put it this way – When I survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died – my richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride.” Golgotha is a place on which our lives should break and crumble and where Christ should become all in all. Look at Golgotha this morning – the place of the skull – and find
1) The Power of Forgivness v34 – this passage continues to amaze me. – This is one place that I don’t like my translation. V34 in the Greek text reads this way – and after all this Jesus said. Those are some of the most powerful words in all of scripture. After all this – what’s this? Stand with me at the foot of the cross for a moment – not the sterilized picture that we often portray – but the foot of a torturous device of capital punishment. See Jesus, God in human flesh, hanging from nails driven into His hands and feet – see the crown of thorns pressed down on His head – see the blood dried and caked on his body from the brutal beatings and scourging that has gone before. See the Messiah now bearing the full weight of the sin of the world upon Himself – crying out Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani – my God my God why hast thou forsaken me? Sins separation of Father from Son. Now see with me His lips as they form the words – Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Seeing through the ages – Jesus looks upon – every lie you have ever told – every time you have cheated your boss, every word of gossip that seeped from your mouth, every outburst of anger, every moment of neglect, every act of disobedience, every lost and squandered moment – and those words ring more clearly Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing. He sees these things because He bore them all in His body. He hung on that cross to pay the price for what you purchased. Clear now are the scriptures from Isaiah – “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 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. 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.” And so the words ring loud and clear “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
2) The Reality of Forgiveness – Today ... paradise. No sweeter words have ever been spoken. Here was a man who had squandered his entire life – and with his dying gasps called on Jesus. And into his hopeless condition Jesus spoke these words of hope. Today you will be with me in paradise. We live in a world full of hopelessness.
A teenager commits suicide in the US every 90 minutes
Countless elderly people are taking or contemplating taking their own because they feel useless
Countless numbers of people call 1-900- Psychic for their Hope
45 million Americans turn to Astrology for Hope
But folks there is no hope in these things. There is hope in only one – the bringer of life eternal who promises that He has gone to prepare a place for us. A house not built with hands eternal in the heavens. Friends we are never without hope. No matter how dark things get no matter how difficult – as long as God is there is hope. Maybe your like this thief buried in sin and lost in soul – there is a reality for you this morning a hope beyond all hope if you will simply turn to Jesus and receive this gift that He gave you freely.
3) The Terrible Cost of Forgiveness – v46 – Understand something with me today folks – this bloody terrible moment in mans history was not something that could have been prevented. From the moment that sin entered the world and man was exiled from the presence of a Holy God, this moment was necessary. From the moment of man’s sin thousand of lambs were sacrificed upon the alter – their blood a covering for sin. But none could meet the price that needed to be paid. In those lambs we see a foreshadowing of the real cost – a cost that only God could pay – and as we here Jesus – the Christ – the Messiah – cry out “It is finished” we hear echoed the words of John the Baptist – “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Sin’s price is paid – the Messiah the spottless lamb of God – hangs dead upon a cross at the hands of His own creation. And the centurion cries “Certainly this man was innocent.” The same Centurion or another says, “Surely this was God’s Son.”
As we look today at the passion of Christ – understand that this is what He came for. Just 3 months ago we celebrated the birth of Messiah at Christmastime. The reality is that from the cradle to the cross there was one reason that Jesus came – to die for the sin of man. Your sin and mine. The message of the passion cannot be lost in the gruesome brutality of the cross. The message is – You can be forgiven. The price has been paid for your sin. Find in Jesus the hope for eternity. Open sin blinded eyes and allow the prince of glory to come in.
