Isaiah 27:27-44 - Humiliating the Humble One

Well good morning, church family.

Can you guys hear me?

You can hear me?

Testing?

Testing one, two, three.

A little soft.

How about now?

There we go.

Well, good morning again.

I know that a lot of you wonder every time you see me up here, what's next?

Seminary, pastoral ministry.

And uh the honest answer to that question is the secret things belong to the Lord.

Um, but what's really next in 21 days, I do have the joy of marrying a beautiful lady who loves the Lord.

And to that, I want to say thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the last time when Valerie was in town.

Uh, she was greatly moved and encouraged by your warmth and love toward her.

And it just really reassured her that when she does move here, that she is joining a family that is ready to support her and us in any way.

So, again, thank you so much.

And also, thank you very much for your prayers for me, because I don't think I'd be up here right now.

So, this morning I have the great privilege to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ.

On one hand, it is a great joy to speak about a sinner who cave to same sinners like you and me.

And on the other hand, it is a grief burden, because without the help of the Holy Spirit, my words are empty.

Without the Spirit, our hearts and our minds cannot comprehend in the slightest bit the wonder of wonders.

So my prayer is that as we consider our passage today, that the Spirit would be at work in our hearts so that we can behold something more of the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that would lead us to more worship, and that we would want to honor Him as Lord and King in our lives.

So please join me in a brief moment of prayer.

Lord, thank you for your people.

Thank you for this opportunity that I now have to present to them your word.

Lord, it is my prayer that your people may be edified, that I would be edified.

Please, Lord, sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth.

And my weakness, Lord, help me to preach.

Help me to preach.

Praise, Lord, help me to preach.

For your name's sake, I pray these things.

Amen.

Turn with me to Matthew 27.

If you want to look along in the Pew Bible, it is page 884.

We've been in the book of Matthew for a little more than two and a half years now, and we are approaching the very end.

In our passage today, we are met with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as we dive into our passage today, we are going to consider four things the place of the crucifixion, the person of the crucifixion, an underlying principle of the crucifixion, and the paradox of the crucifixion.

Let's read our passage, starting with verse 27.

Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the governor's residence and gathered the whole company around him.

They stripped him and dressed him in a scarlet robe.

They twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and placed a staff in his right hand, and they knelt down before him and mocked him.

Hail, King of the Jews.

Then they spat on him, took the staff, and kept hitting him on the head.

After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him.

As they were going out, they found a Cyrene man named Simon.

They forced him to carry his cross.

When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they gave him wine mixed with gold to drink, but when he tasted it he refused to drink it.

After crucifying him they divided his clothes by casting lots.

Then they sat down and were guarding him there.

Above his head they put up the charge against him, in writing, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.

Then two criminals were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.

Those who passed by were yelling insults at him, shaking their heads, and saying, You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.

In the same way the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, He saved others, but he can't save himself.

He is the king of Israel.

Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.

He trusts in God, let God rescue him now, if he takes pleasure in him.

For he said, I am the Son of God.

In the same way, even the criminals who were crucified with him taunted him.

As I just mentioned a few moments ago, we are near the very end of Matthew, and this brings us to our first point.

The place of the crucifixion.

But I want us to consider the place of the crucifixion first in the larger literary context of Matthew.

Back in January 16th, 2022, Pastor Doug launched us into this book of Matthew, and he gave us a few things to keep in mind when reading through a gospel.

It was mentioned that a gospel is not exactly a biography, it's not exactly a story of chronological events, but rather a gospel is a collection of small episodes that centers around one main character.

And that main character of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is the person of Jesus Christ.

And even though you are met with these groups of small episodes of who Jesus is, when you read through the Gospels, there is one important detail to notice.

And that detail is this: is that the crucifixion is always towards the end of each gospel.

And that is what I want us to keep in mind as we look at our passage.

The fact that the crucifixion is placed at the end helps us to see that everything that came before was mainly to lead us to this very moment.

Everything that we've been looking at in the Gospel of Matthew over the past two and a half years concerning the Lord Jesus will now start to reach its climax.

It is the end of the life of Jesus that helps us to make sense of his beginning.

But there's not only importance in the literary place of the crucifixion, there was much importance in the geographical place as well.

Let's look at verse 33.

When they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they gave him wine mixed with gall to drink.

Now the exact place of Golgotha is not as clear when reading Matthew Gospels alone, but when we take consideration into the other gospel accounts, we are given a clearer picture where Golgotha is exactly.

Listen to these words from Mark 15, verses 20 and 22.

Mark 15:20

After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple robe and put his clothes on him.

They led him out to crucify him.

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull.

Listen to these words from John 19, verses 16 and 17 and verse 20.

John 19:16

Then he handed him over to be crucified, then they took Jesus away, carrying the cross by himself.

It is called Golgotha.

Many of the Jews read this sign because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city.

Golgotha's geographical place was outside the city of Jerusalem.

While this was a common place for criminals to be crucified, Golgotha's place bears much importance when considering the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.

While the place of it being outside of the city may seem like a small detail, there is actually a big implication to see.

And just to give a hint, I want to remind us that the reason why Matthew is writing in the first place is because he wants his readers to see that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament anticipated.

In the Old Testament, within some of the Levitical sacrifices, there was a part where the priest was required to take some of their sacrifice and burn it outside the Israelite camp.

Exodus 29 14 says, But the but burn the bull's flesh, its hide, its waste outside the camp, it is a sin offering.

Leviticus 27, 16, 27.

But for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the most holy place to make atonement, must be brought outside the camp, and their hide, flesh, and waste burned.

In the same way that these sin offerings were brought outside the camp, we see the Lord Jesus being brought outside the city of Jerusalem as the ultimate sin offering.

That is why we have these words in Hebrews 13, verses eleven through twelve.

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp.

Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.

So there are two things we ought to take away as we've just considered the literary and geographical place of the crucifixion in the life of ministry and Jesus.

Number one, because the crucifixion is placed towards the end of his earthy ministry in the gospel writings, we can simply conclude that Jesus came to this earth to die.

But number two, when we consider the geographical place as well, in light of all that the Old Testament foreshadows, we see that the Lord Jesus came not only to die, but he came to die as a sin offering.

This moves me to my next point, the person of the crucifixion.

There are a lot of people mentioned in our passage today.

We have the governor's soldiers in verse 27, the Cyrenian man by the name of Simon in verse 32, two criminals in verse 38, chief priests and scribes in verse 41.

And I was originally going to call this section of the message the people of the crucifixion, and I thought I would spend some time on each of the groups and individuals, but after wrestling with the passage, I figured I'd just keep it simple and focus on one person instead.

The Lord Jesus himself.

Because in the end, this passage is really all about him.

So as we consider the person of the crucifixion, as we consider the Lord Jesus Christ, I want going to take us back to some of the snapshots that are given to us by Matthew that tell us who Jesus really is.

Listen to these words from Matthew 1.1, an account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

Jesus is the bridge between the Old and the New Testament.

He is from the royal line of David, the long-awaited Messiah.

And as Abraham was the father of national Israel, Jesus is the founder of a new spiritual Israel.

Matthew 1 23, see, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us.

Jesus is the very presence of God dwelling with humanity.

He is God in the flesh.

For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in him.

Matthew 15, 17.

Don't think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.

I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

The law referring to the first five books of the Bible, and the prophets referring to the rest of them.

Jesus is the one that came to perfectly obey all that the laws of God, all the laws of God that we see in the Old Testament.

He is the one that did not come to replace the Old Testament, but rather he is the sure fulfillment of it.

What the Old Testament foreshadows is found in Christ.

And we have such a clear example of this in our passage today.

Look with me at verse 35, and then we'll move on from from there from verses 41 to 43.

After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots.

Verses 41 through 43.

In the same way the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, He saved others, but he cannot save himself.

He trusts in God.

Now briefly turn with me to Psalm 22, a psalm that was written close to a thousand years before the life of the Lord Jesus.

And let's look at verses six through eight, and then verses sixteen through eighteen, starting with verse six.

But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by people.

Everyone who sees me mocks me.

They sneer and shake their heads.

He relies on the Lord, let him save him.

Let the Lord rescue him, since he takes pleasure in him.

Verse sixteen.

For dogs have surrounded me, a gang of evildoers has closed in on me, they pierced my hands and my feet.

I can count all of my bones.

People look at me people look and stare at me.

They divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing.

What David spoke about concerning himself in the Old Testament was then later used to speak about the greater one than him and the New Testament.

Now, Jesus being the bridge between the Old and New Testament, the fulfillment and the long-awaited Messiah are great truths with great implications.

But I also know that it can sometimes be hard to see what those truths really mean for us today, individually as people.

So in addition to what I just mentioned before, I want to give you just a few more snapshots from Matthew that invite us into the heart of Jesus.

Now I will be doing quite a bit of reading from a few passages, but the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any double-edged sword.

Sometimes it doesn't need to be exposited, sometimes it just has to be heard.

So I pray that as I read, the word of God would be at work as you listen.

Matthew 8, verses 1 through 3.

Matthew 8:1–3

When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.

Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, I am willing.

Be made clean.

Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Matthew 9, verses 10 through 12.

Matthew 9:10–12

While he was reclining at the table in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And when he heard this, he said, It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

Go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice.

For I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.

Matthew 9, verses 35 and 36.

Matthew 9:35

Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.

And for our last one, Matthew 15, verses 29 through 31.

Matthew 15:29–31

Moving on from there, Jesus passed along from along the Sea of Galilee.

He went up on a mountain and sat there, and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others.

They put them at his feet, and he healed them.

It is impossible to miss the love that the Lord Jesus had for people, and particularly for those who were considered unclean, those who were often despised by society, distressed and dejected, those who were unwell, the lame, the blind, the crippled, and those unable to speak.

When we turn on our TVs and we're scrolling through social media, we do get to a certain point where we find ourselves asking the question, what is wrong with the world?

And the answer is simply this the world is spiritually unclean and done well.

The world is spiritually lame, blind and crippled.

And if we are genuinely honest with ourselves, we are all spiritually lame, blind and crippled.

I'm spiritually broken, and you are spiritually broken.

But the person of the crucifixion, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to die for people like you and me.

This is the person of the crucifixion in our passage today.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the God man, the friend of sinners, who was flogged, who was stripped, crowned with a crown of thorns, who was mocked, who was spat on, beaten with a staff, and who was crucified.

The only one who ever existed that committed absolutely no wrong, humiliated at the hands of wicked men.

Now one could ask, where is God in all of this?

Is he just standing by, twiddling his thumbs as this injustice is happening?

And this leads me to our next point, an underlying principle of the crucifixion.

If we want to make sense of our passage today, if we want to make sense of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is an underlying principle we must understand.

And that principle is this What man means for evil, God means for good.

What man means for evil, God means for good.

If we were to go back to the early stages of Old Testament history, we would encounter the story of a young man named Joseph.

Joseph was one of twelve sons that were born to a man by the name of Israel.

Joseph was favored greatly by his father, and so much so that his own brothers grew jealous of him.

And when Joseph's brothers could no longer stand him, they betrayed him and sold him as a slave.

And in addition to that, later on in his life, Joseph gets falsely accused of rape and thrown into prison for many years.

Fast forward many, many years later, Joseph finds himself in a position of authority where if he wanted to, he could have had his brothers killed.

But instead of being brash and revengeful toward his brothers, we have these words found in Genesis 50, verse 22.

Genesis 50:22

As for you, you meant evil against me.

But God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive.

In other words, when Joseph's brothers really did plan to do him wrong, they did.

They made the deliberate decision to throw him into a well, to sell him into slavery, and to lie about his death to their father.

But at the same time, they were not at all aware that their actions were a part of a much bigger plan that was meant for the ultimate good.

There was another planner.

So when Joseph says these words, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, Joseph understood something profound about the sovereignty of God that must be considered in our passage today.

Joseph understood that the outworking of history is not left to chance, that it is not left to the whims and wills of human beings.

But in actuality, there are two planners in history.

There's God and there's man.

And that's what we see in our passage today in Matthew 27.

On one hand, we have the governor's soldiers that do not have the slightest bit of remorse in their actions towards the Lord Jesus.

They are planning and they are deliberately inflicting pain, scorn, and mockery.

And yet, on the other hand, we have those famous words in Isaiah 53 about the suffering servant, Jesus Christ himself.

But he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

What the Roman soldiers meant for evil, God meant for good.

On one hand, we have the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders who were trying who were trying to figure out a way to kill Jesus from the very beginning.

And in our passage we see them mocking the Lord Jesus by saying, He saved sinners, but he cannot save himself.

But on the other hand, we see in Matthew 6, 21, that it was necessary for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and scribes, be killed and be raised on the third day, because the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

What the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders meant for evil, God meant for good.

Now, if this is so with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, if the Lord is able to bring about eternal good in salvation through what seemed inhumane and downright cruel to truly the only innocent man that has ever walked this earth, how much more will the Lord ultimately make good out of the things that are wrong in this world?

Oh, but you know, things just seem to be getting worse and worse compared to 15 years ago.

Maybe true.

But all things work together for good for of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

All things work together for the good.

And this brings me to my last point.

The paradox of the crucifixion.

Today we're likely to see people wearing a gold chain with a cross on it.

People have a tattoo of a cross somewhere on their body, and we generally look at crosses today and we have this positive connotation to it.

But in the days of Jesus, the cross was the last thing that people wanted to identify with.

In the ancient world, the cross was synonymous with crucifixion.

And as we saw a little bit in our text, death by way of crucifixion was truly the most horrible.

For the Jew, you were considered cursed by God if you were crucified.

Normally, after a criminal was condemned, he was beaten severely with whips that would leave his skin open with many gashes.

And then from there he would have to carry one of the beams of the cross to his execution site.

He would then be stripped naked and have his hands and his feet nailed to the cross, and then the criminal will be put on public display with his crime written on a sign placed above his head.

Truly, there is nothing more shameful and humiliating.

And yet, this is part of what the Lord Jesus Christ endured, so that he could save us.

Brothers and sisters, the paradox of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is this: the message of the cross.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

The paradox of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is this a king becomes a servant.

He became naked so that we might be clothed in righteousness.

He redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

He died for us so that we might live for him.

The paradox of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is this.

It is at Calvary we see men's hatred for Christ, yet we see Christ's love for men.

And this leads me to one little extra point.

A plea to look to the crucifixion.

Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Brothers and sisters, I encourage you today to look at the cross and be reminded that what the Lord Jesus Christ suffered was because he loved us.

And he loved us not because we had anything to offer him, but he loved us simply because he loved us.

Let's pray.

You came in our place to die as a substitute.

We took the wrath of God that we rightfully deserved.

And Lord, we recognize that we do not deserve such kindness and such love.

But Lord, we praise you and we thank you that you have revealed yourself through your word, that you came and died for us.

And Lord, we want to glorify and honor you with our lives and all that we say and do.

So we thank you for the word that was went forth.

May our hearts be stirred to worship you all the more today.

In your name I pray.

Amen.