Why It Had To Be Calvary

WHY IT HAD TO BE CALVARY

Luke 23:33

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. SUPPORT A FAMILY : THE PROSPECTIVE FATHER-IN-LAW ASKED, "YOUNG MAN, CAN YOU SUPPORT A FAMILY?" THE SURPRISED GROOM-TO-BE REPLIED, "WELL, NO. I WAS JUST PLANNING TO SUPPORT YOUR DAUGHTER. THE REST OF YOU WILL HAVE TO FEND FOR YOURSELVES."

2. GRANDMA'S AGE : LITTLE JOHNNY ASKED HIS GRANDMA! HOW OLD SHE WAS. GRANDMA ANSWERED, "39 & HOLDING." JOHNNY THOUGHT FOR A MOMENT, AND THEN SAID, "AND HOW OLD WOULD YOU BE IF YOU LET GO?"

B. OPENING STORY: “God’s Amazing Love”

1. The young woman was married and had two beautiful children, but one day as she was standing over the sink, washing dishes, she thought, ’There must be more to life than this.’

2. When her husband came home, he found a note she’d written and he began to weep. She would call him about once every week to check on the children, and he would always tell her of his great love for her and beg her to come home. She would always say no and hang up.

3. Finally, he hired a private investigator to find her. He went to the apartment where she was staying, nervously holding a spray of flowers in his hand as he stood at the door. He had rehearsed over and over what he would say and he finally got up the nerve to knock on the door. She opened the door and he started to speak, but she suddenly began to weep and fell into his arms. She managed to say through her tears, "Let’s go home."

4. Months after, when things were starting to heal, he finally asked her something that had been bothering him. "All those times I talked to you on the phone; I asked you to come back and you refused. Why did you come back now?"

5. "Before," she started, tears in her eyes, "you were just telling me that you loved me. When you came, you showed me."

6.The Bible tells us of God’s love, but Jesus came and showed God’s love. Jesus proved God’s love by dying for us. Let’s examine the five specifics of God’s love.

C. TEXT & THESIS

1. “And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left” Luke 23:33. Why Calvary?

2. First, we find that when Jesus died…

I. IT HAD TO BE THAT SPECIFIC PLACE(There)

Jesus crucifixion didn’t happen just anywhere, it happened THERE. God’s plan was for His Son to die there.

A. THAT COUNTRY

1. We know what country this happened in: Israel.

2. Palestine is the land bridge between three continents. It was the land of promised to Abram and the fathers. But more than that, it was specially chosen; in Isaiah 62:4 God calls it “Beulah,” which means, “married.” God sees himself as being married to that land; it was special then and remains special to God today.

B. THAT CITY

1. It not only took place in Israel, but it also came about in Jerusalem, the City of Peace. Literally, Jerusalem means “The Place of Peace.” In over 2,000 years, it has known absolutely no peace. Wars have raged in, for and concerning Jerusalem, the City of Peace.

2. Jesus said, “Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Mt. 23:37); & Lk. 13:33 “In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!

3. Jerusalem was the center of the martyrdom of the prophets simply because it is the center of the spiritual warfare waged concerning the whole world. It will be that way as long as the earth exists.

C. THAT PARTICULAR HILL

1. Finally, we see that Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem at a place called “Calvary.” Luke 23:33 uses the Latin word “Calvary” which means “The Skull.” Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, and John 19:17 all use the Aramaic name “Golgotha” which means “The Skull.”

2. This is the same hill upon which Abraham offered Isaac. It is the same hill as Araunah’s threshing floor, upon which David offered sacrifice to stop the plague of three days over Israel. 2 Chr. 3:1.

3. It is on the same hill that Solomon built the first Temple on and sacrifices were offered for Israel’s sins for many generations. Thus it was chosen as the ultimate location where sacrifices were to be made, especially the final sacrifice of God’s only Son, Jesus.

4. We know that Jesus not only died in a specific place but He died for and by the hands of…