Introduction:
We are approaching the time of year in which Christians look and remember the death of our Lord Jesus. The movie “the Passion” has stirred a renewed interest in the death of Jesus. Many people after watching that movie and contemplating the life and death of Jesus ask the question, why Jesus had to die. I know that in many ways the death of Jesus was a gruesome thing, but it was a needed thing. The death of Jesus on the cross has stirred much controversy over the course of history. People have despised the meaning behind the cross. Because of the cross lives have been changed, nations have fallen, and governments have been established. The death of Jesus is one of the most talked about and debated events in all of history. Let me assure you today that the death of Jesus on the cross in not a fable or a fictional story, but is an actual event in history. The death of Jesus has also had great meaning on believer’s lives. Many people treasure the cross and the meaning behind it. People where crosses on their necks and in the ears, but we should never become so focused on the cross that we loose the meaning.
There have been a lot of meaningful events that have taken place in history, but the death of Jesus in foundational to the Christian faith.
Although I know the significance and the necessity of the cross, I am still left wondering why really did Jesus have to die, and why did he have to die the way that he did?
I sometimes try to picture for myself the scenes surrounding the death of Jesus. I picture the look of innocence on His face as he was betrayed and arrested. I picture the sadness on his face as he stood facing a crowd and the yelled for him to be crucified. Then I picture the pain on his face as hung bleeding on the cross, and I still wonder why. The reason why is you and me. Jesus had to die because we chose sin above God. We love sin more than we love God, and Jesus wanted to bring about a restoration between us and the Father.
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
I hope that as we enter into this holiday season that we do not treat this like just any other season, but that we look back thankful for the cross. I think that sometimes we become so used to the idea that Jesus died on the cross that it has no impact on our lives. The fact that Jesus died for our sins should impact us deep down and penetrate our hearts, and then leave us as it left the Jews on Pentecost; pierced to the heart wondering what we can now do.
I know that to the world they do not understand the death of Jesus, as Paul said in Corinthians that God choose the foolish things like the cross to shame the wise. The world will never understand such a sacrifice of our savior. They will never understand why God would allow Jesus to go through what he went through, but hopefully we can better equipped to share this message with other people. The world may laugh and scorn that we value the cross in the way that we do, but without the death of Jesus we would be lost in our sins.
Text: Isaiah 52:13-53:13
I. To obey the Father
One reason why Jesus had to die for our sins was out of obedience to God the Father. Jesus had to die simply because it was the will of God that he did. We know what God’s will is early on. Just after Adam and Eve sinned and lost the fellowship they had with God, God said that he would provide a way for a restoration to take place. God then through Abraham gave the promise that from him would come the Messiah. We see that promise flow through the Old Testament. It was the will of God that a sacrifice once and for all for people’s sin. It was God’s will that Jesus should suffer and die for our sins.
Jesus knew from very early on in his life what His purpose was, he knew what He came to do. The gospels tell us that he fixed his face to Jerusalem and did not turn back. Many times he would speak of what he had come to do.
Jesus knew it was the will of God that he be killed. Jesus told his disciples that he must be handed over and killed and then rise again on the third day. One reason that Jesus was killed in the way that he did was because it was God’s will. We learn from the Old Testament sacrifices that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus needed to die because it was God’s will that he be killed so that he could be a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus was completely obedient to the Father’s will.
The best example we see in scripture that it was the Father’s will that Jesus die is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prayed there for God to let this cup pass through him, yet not his will, but God’s be done. It was God’s will that Jesus die. I believe that shows us the great love of God. God would willingly spare the life of His son so that we might spend eternity with Him. Jesus was perfectly willing to be obedient to the Father. Jesus willingly left Heaven to come and die for our sins.
O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
II. To fulfill prophecy
Another reason that Jesus died was to fulfill prophecy predicted in the Old Testament about Him. God had worked in His perfect plan to slowly show people what was to come through Jesus. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament previewed what was to come through Jesus. God worked it out so that he taught the people that the shedding of blood was needed for the forgiveness of sins. God instituted the sacrificial lamb, which would become a foreshadowing of Jesus the Lamb of God. God required that the people offer a spotless lamb as a sacrifice so their sins could be forgiven. This all was to foreshadow that there was one day going to come a sacrifice once and for all.
The Old Testament law and the sacrifices that were offered in the Temple were still powerless to save man.
Hebrews 10:1-4
God again gave a glimpse to the people through the story of Abraham and Isaac of what was to come through the sacrifice of Jesus. God told Abraham to take his only son, Isaac and offer him as a sacrifice to God. Abraham took Isaac on a journey to Jerusalem, and up to Mount Moriah to offer him as a sacrifice. This is the same mountain that many years later Jesus would be crucified on.
Not only did God show through foreshadowing the things which would come through Jesus, but in the Old Testament scriptures we also have predictions about the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Isaiah predicted graphically the death of Jesus, and we can see that Jesus fulfilled those Old Testament predictions. David in Psalm 22 predicted graphically also the death of Jesus. Some people would say that Jesus set out in his life to fulfill these Old Testament predictions, but it is clear that many of the things that took place were out of Jesus’ control.
Psalm 22:14-18
One lady wrote in to a question and answer forum.
"Dear Sirs, Our preacher said on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health.
What do you think? Sincerely, Bewildered.
Dear Bewildered,
Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy strokes, nail him to a cross; hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run a spear thru his side...put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens."
The way that Jesus lived up to what was written about him many years before is simply amazing. Within the Old Testament scriptures there are over 300 prophecies in which Jesus fulfill all of them. The likelihood of anyone else doing this is astronomical. The way that Jesus fulfilled prophecy proves he was the Messiah. The Old Testament predicted that one would come and die for the forgiveness of men’s sin, and Jesus fulfilled those predictions.
Christ redeemed us from the curse that we deserver of death and spiritual death by becoming a curse on the cross for our sins. The Scriptures teach that there were two ways to be cursed in the Law. One was to break the commands of the law, we did that, but Jesus never did. Second, was cursed is anything which hangs on a tree. Jesus become a curse for us by dying on the cross in the way that he did.
Jesus died to fulfill Old Testament predictions.
III. To forgive sin
The main reason why Jesus had to die was because of sin. It was because of sin that separation from God came.
Romans 3:23
Jesus came to be the sacrifice, the Lamb of God to remove the sins of the world. It was because of sin that we could not enter into God’s presence.
Following the Civil War, a dejected confederate soldier was sitting outside the grounds of the White House. A young boy approached him and inquired why he was so sad. The solider related how he had repeatedly tried to see President Lincoln to tell him why he was unjustly deprived of certain lands in the South following the war. On each occasion as he attempted to enter the White House, the guards crossed their bayoneted guns in front of the door and turned him away.
The boy motioned to the old soldier to follow him. When they approached the entrance, the guards came to attention, stepped back and opened the door for the boy. He proceeded to the library where the President was resting and introduced the soldier to his father.
The boy was Tad Lincoln. The soldier had gained an audience with the President through the President’s son.
We have access to God through the son, because Jesus died on the cross to remove our sins. Jesus died on the cross as a sin offering, he became sin on the cross so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God. Sometimes I think we overlook the severity of our sins. We do not think they are a big deal so we never change or stop. We know we have forgiveness so we continue to indulge in our sins without changing our lives. We rename our sins into names that sound better so we can justify our actions. We can adultery an affair. We call homosexuality and alternative lifestyle. We calling lying fibbing, or exaggerating. It is time we take our sins seriously because we were bought at a price, it is by Jesus’ wounds we were healed. Our sins came at the cost of a perfect sacrifice. Someone innocent had to die for our sins. Jesus became the spotless lamb of God on the cross taking away our sins.
The best message we can gain from the cross is that Jesus willingly took on the sins of the whole world. As Jesus hung there all of our sins were upon him. The good news is he would have gone through all the beatings, the torture, and the pain just for one of us so that we might be forgiven of our sins.
We cannot obtain forgiveness from any other means except through Jesus. He alone can bring forgiveness of sins. The truth of the matter is none of us deserve God’s grace, none of us deserve to have forgiveness of sins, but through Jesus we do not get what we deserve. Our sin deserved a penalty. That penalty is death.
Romans 6:23
We all deserve spiritual death and separation from God, but because Jesus died as our sacrifice we a pardoned, and sanctified.
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
