John 19:28-37
Jesus Died For You – True or False?
Introduction
A. Why?
B. Why did this happen?
C. After reading our Scripture passage that is a normal reaction
D. When something happens we want to know the whole story behind it
E. Often when I watch the news on TV we do not get the whole story
F. We do not understand why something happens
G. And if it is a story that I really care about I will do research and find out the whole story
H. I am sure you have heard someone tell you that Jesus died for you, in fact I have told you that
I. But can that be true?
J. Did Jesus really die for you?
K. This is one of those things we have to do some research and find out the meaning behind all of this and why it happened
L. We Want to know the facts about the crucifixion
M. Today we are going to look at
a. What Crime Was Jesus Convicted of?
b. Did Jesus know this was going to happen?
c. Why did Jesus put up with this torture?
I. What Crime Was Jesus Convicted Of?
A. Explanation
1. When someone was sentence to Crucifixion, it was because of the crimes that they had commit
2. Just like today we do not sentence someone to the gas chamber because they are a mean person, we sentence them because they did a crime
3. The Jewish leaders really wanted to get rid of Christ, so when they had him arrested they listen to some people testimony and it was not going good for them
a) They could not keep their stories straight they would contradict what each other was saying
b) However, finally they had someone come and say that “He said he would destroy the temple”
c) A very week argument at that, but the leaders said that was good enough
4. The Jews however, were under Roman rule, because of that rule they could not sentence anyone to death
5. So they brought Christ before Pilate and ask Pilate to order Jesus to be crucified
6. Pilate could not find anything wrong with Jesus, and said to the Jews that He thought Jesus was innocent
7. That was not good enough for the Jews, they wanted Jesus killed
8. Pilate you have to understand was a politician, he wanted to reelect so he did certain things to make sure that he was reelected.
9. Pilate having found nothing to convict Jesus of, but wanting to please the Jews ordered that he be whipped, but not killed
10. After that beating, the Jews came back to Pilate and still ordered that He be killed
11. There was a custom of releasing a prisoner once a year. Pilate choose one of the worse prisoners he Had, Barabbas and made the Jews pick between Jesus and Barabbas, they choose to release Barabbas
12. And when asked what should he do with Jesus, the crowd yelled crucify Him
B. Application
1. What can we gain from this?
2. Jesus was never convicted of a crime.
3. There was no legal basis for Jesus to be sentence to crucifixion
4. Jesus was totally innocent
C. Illustration
1. Think about this in terms of our culture. If someone is convicted of a crime we have a trial, we know that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Jesus was never proven guilty. We also know that when a death sentence is involved there are usually many many appeals, no appeal, this all happen with in about 12 hours, we also know trials to convict someone usually last 12 months or so. None of that happened
2. Jesus, who was totally innocent, was convicted of no crimes, sentence to Crucifixion.
3. Amazing!
4. But did Jesus know this was going to happen?
II. Did Jesus Know this was going to happen?
A. Explanation
1. John 7:33 – Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent Me”
2. John 14:28 – You heard me says “I am going away and I am coming back to you.’
3. John 6:64 – “Yet there are some of you who do not believe” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him
4. Luke 9:22 and he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priest and teachers of the law and must be killed on the third day be raised to life.
5. Mark 8:31 He then began to teach time that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again
6. Luke 22:37 It is written ‘and he was numbered with transgressors’ and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment
7. John 17:11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to your. Holy Father protects them by the power of your name, the name you gave me – so that they may be one as we are one
8. Is this an exhaustive list of every time Jesus said that all of this will happen?
9. No!
10. There are plenty more what I would encourage you to do is to Search Mathew, Mark, Luke and John and highlight every time that Jesus made a prediction about His death. You will find there are many
B. Application
1. What this all mean?
2. It means that all the punishment that Jesus received He knew it was going to happen
3. It is not like it came out of no where
4. He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him
5. In fact one of the more amazing ones is John 3:14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up”
6. That verse is making reference to crucifixion, what is interesting about that is because Jesus was Jew you would expect a Jewish form of capital punishment, which was stoning
7. But Jesus predicted Crucifixion, which was the Roman way.
8. This did not come out of no where, Jesus knew
C. Illustration
1. I have a question; do you know how you are going to die? If you answer that honestly you would have to say you have no clue
2. We don’t know when we don’t know where we don’t know how we are going to die
3. But here is Christ he knew exactly when were and how. That is truly amazing
4. Ok we know that he was not officially convicted of any crimes, and we know that he knew He was going to die, that leaves us with a very important question.
5. WHY? Why did Jesus put up with all of this Torture?
III. Why Did Jesus Put up With This torture?
A. Explanation
1. 1 John 3:16 – This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.
2. This is purely an act of love
3. Jesus loves you so much, that he wants you to be with Him for eternity
4. What prevents that from happening however is we break the relationship we have with God when we sin.
5. That creates the separation, there has to be a payment for those sins
6. That is what Jesus did, he became the payment for our sins
7. Romans 3:23-26 (Read)
8. Without a payment for those sins, there would be no chance at Eternal life with Jesus
9. But because Jesus lived a sinless life, he was able to offer himself as a Sacrifice for our sins
10. Jesus offers to pay the penalty for our sins
B. Application
1. How do we apply this to our lives?
2. We must realize that all of this that we have been talking about for that last three weeks boils down to Christ loving us
3. All the mocking
4. All the beating
5. All the torture
6. Jesus could have easily called angels to rescue him from this.
7. Why did Jesus put up with this torture?
8. Out of His love
9. He offer Himself as a substitute for a debt that we could not pay
10. He did this all because he loved us.
C. Illustration
1. C.S. Lewis said this about Love. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because He is love
2. He did Because He loved us
Conclusion
A. This is truly amazing
B. Jesus was never convicted of a Crime
C. He knew he was going to be punished and tortured
D. Yet, He did it all, he put up with this, why? Because He loved US
E. If Jesus did not love us as much as he does, we would not have a chance of Eternal life with Him
F. But He does love us, and because He loves us, he died for us
G. Because He died for us, if we allow Christ to be our substitute for the punishment we deserve
H. We can have eternal life with Jesus
I. All we have to do is accept the fact that we are sinners
J. Accept what Christ has done for us
K. And ask Him to forgive us our sins and save us from eternal separation from Him
L. The one reason Jesus came to this earth, was to die for you
M. Amazing Love
N. Jesus died for you – True or False? TRUE
O. (Amazing Love)
