Come and See: The Cross of Christ

If you have your Bibles, turn to Mark chapter 15.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

Haven't you been blessed by this music this morning?

Some of you have.

If you've ever been in worship and not been blessed by the music,

you know the difference.

I can promise you that.

And we have been blessed this morning.

Well, the events of the last week of Christ

are the basis of really everything that a Christian places his or her faith on.

And I really don't believe that you get the complete message

from one event without looking at another event

of the events of the last week of Christ.

In other words, to understand the significance of the triumphal entry of Christ

when he rode through on the donkey

and people threw down their garments and palm branches

and shouted, Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,

which was on Palm Sunday, which is today.

To understand that, you must see the cross.

And to understand the significance and the depth of the meaning of the cross,

I believe you have to look at the agonies of the garden.

And we've done that together.

To understand the triumph of the empty tomb,

I believe you have to understand the cross of Christ.

Over the last few weeks, we've explored the teachings

and the events of the upper room.

And we've considered the pressing weight of the garden.

And we've even witnessed through Scripture

the midnight, unjust scramble of the courts

maneuvering to do what they needed to do

or wanted to do to Jesus.

This morning, we look at the cross of Christ.

And to be blunt,

it's where all the world changed,

was in the cross of Christ.

Mark chapter 15,

Mark 15 · chapter mention

beginning in verse 16.

It says,

And the soldiers led him away inside the palace.

That's the governor's headquarters.

And they called together the whole battalion.

They clothed him in a purple cloak

and twisting together a crown of thorns,

they put it on him.

They began to salute him.

Hail, King of the Jews!

They were striking his head

with a reed

and spitting on him

and kneeling down in homage to him.

And when they had mocked him,

they stripped him of the purple cloak

and put his own clothes on him.

And they led him out to crucify him.

They compelled a passerby,

Simon of Cyrene,

who was coming in from the country,

the father of Alexander and Rufus,

to carry his cross.

And they brought him to the place called Golgotha,

which means the place of a skull.

And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh,

but he did not take it.

And they crucified

and divided his garments among them,

casting lots for them

to decide what each should take.

And it was the third hour

when they crucified him,

and the inscription of the,

that's about 9 a.m.,

and the inscription of the charge against him

read,

the king of the Jews.

And with him they crucified two robbers,

one on his right

and one on his left.

Now down to verse 33,

and it says this,

And when the sixth hour had come,

there was darkness over the whole land

until the ninth hour.

And at the ninth hour,

Jesus cried out with a loud voice,

Eloi, Eloi,

lama shebachthani,

which means,

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

And some of the bystanders hearing it said,

Behold, he's calling Elijah.

And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine,

put it on a reed,

and gave it to him to drink,

saying,

Wait,

let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry

and breathed his last,

and the curtain of the temple was torn into two

from top to bottom.

And when the centurion who stood facing him

saw that in this way he breathed his last,

he said,

Truly, this man was the Son of God.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father,

I pray today that as we look at the events of the cross

and the significance of the cross,

and we look at the details of it,

I pray, dear God,

that the details of it will not get in the way

of the message of the cross, dear Father.

Lord, I also pray that whatever else

is in our hearts and lives today

that may distract us in the next few moments.

God, I pray that you'll remove those things from our mind,

that in a Holy Spirit sweep,

you'll just allow us to focus

on the cross of Christ together.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

As horrible as it is,

and I do not want to ever look as if

I enjoy talking about such matters,

I believe we need to look into the depths of the cross

and understand the significance of

what the Lord Jesus went through on the cross.

Come with me and let's look at the cross of Christ.

Come and see the physical agony of the cross.

Jesus was battered,

he was bruised,

he was ridiculed,

he was mocked.

On his way to the cross,

they placed a crown of thorns upon his brow,

and they hit him in the head with a reed.

Remember a scalp that was already sensitive and sore

due to a stress-related malady

that he had suffered in the garden.

Gospel writer tells us

that he was sweating drops of blood,

which speaks of hematidrosis,

which is a painful, sensitive matter in the face

that can only be caused by the worst of stress,

and on top of that,

they place a crown of thorns upon him,

thorns of an inch or two long a piece,

drive him into his head

by beating him in the head with a stick.

John 19, 1 tells us that he was flogged.

Flogging was not intended for execution,

but instead often was used instead of execution,

and at times they would do it along with crucifixion,

which they did to Christ.

The purpose of the scourging was not to kill a man,

but to brutally, painfully humiliate the man.

It was meant as a demeaning and a belittling,

so much so that the Roman citizens could not even be flogged.

They didn't allow them to.

They used what they called a flagellum.

It was similar to what the British called the cat of nine tails.

It was a whip with as many as nine strands coming out from the end of it,

and on those leather strands,

they were weighed down with pieces of lead or metal or pieces of bone.

They were intended to increase the impact of the whip hitting the flesh

when brought down in force,

as well the depths of the wounds of such a lash absolutely amazed people.

Eusebius, an ancient historian, said this.

He said,

The lacerations were, and I quote,

Even to innermost veins and arteries,

sometimes the hidden inward parts of the body,

both their bowels and their members were exposed to view.

Bound to a post, stretched out over a frame,

they were beaten from shoulders to legs

until the flesh was literally shredded and the inner parts exposed.

The Jews limited that to only 40 lashes.

And I always say you get your best counting buddy to count for you

when you do that,

because if they gave more than 40 lashes,

they got the same treatment themselves.

So there became a trend for the Jews to stop at 39,

just in case the old boy might have missed one.

But not for the Romans.

They didn't care.

They could whip you as long as they gauged necessary,

and they did.

He was then led out to be crucified.

The one to be crucified,

instead of carrying the whole cross,

as we typically have seen,

probably in reality carried the horizontal cross beam

called the Pertullum,

weighed somewhere between 75 and 125 pounds.

However, he was not able to carry it.

Christ was not able to carry it for long

because of the beating that he had endured.

And, you know,

the Romans loved the exhibition of a man

having to struggle under that.

So sometimes the Romans,

when one would move too slowly with the cross beam,

they'd actually tie a rope around him

and pull him along the way to help him,

to make it more agony.

But for Jesus,

they got Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross from there,

and down the Via Della Rosa,

they went out of the city gate

into a place called Golgotha,

which is Greek for the place of the skull.

Later, and you may be familiar with it being called Calvary,

that's the Latin term for it.

Having reached his destination,

his hands were nailed to the crossbar

right through the hollow spot above the wrist.

If he was actually nailed in the hand,

it would have tore through.

So instead, they found this hollow part

right at the end of what they call the lifeline,

and there's a hollow spot there that they hit

where there's no vital artery

with nails that were about four to five inches long,

very similar to a more narrow railroad spike.

Those nails symbolized Roman cruelty.

Other societies would rope a man to the cross,

but not Rome.

The crossbar had a hollowed-out cup

in the center of it,

and that crossbar was lifted up

and placed upon the stipes

that usually were planted in the ground vertically

and stayed there with a point on the end,

so it just kind of fit like a log cabin fits together.

Or if you don't know what that is, like a Lego.

How about that?

Fit together.

Jesus was then placed in the center

as the chief criminal.

His greatest agony, however, was as he hung.

Jim Bishop wrote a book called

The Day Jesus Died,

and he described the agony of the cross like this.

To be able to breathe,

the victim had to stay in constant motion,

literally dragging himself up and down

until he could no longer.

Each time the pain mounted,

his arms, his legs, entire torso,

screamed in pain.

Slowly and steadily, he was being asphyxiated,

as if two thumbs were pressing against his throat.

Some say the crucified ones died of suffocation.

Others, hunger.

Still others, sheer exhaustion

as their bodies just wore out.

End of quote.

The Roman soldiers were experts in crucifying.

They learned how to do it right,

and they also learned that

when you bend a man's knees

at the proper anger,

you could actually prolong his agony.

When they were ready for them to die,

they would simply shatter the legs of the man

who could no longer pull himself up on the cross

and therefore would asphyxiate.

Death came quickly after that.

Now, you may be thinking,

why do you share all that?

Why all the grotesque?

Why deal with that?

I don't have to,

but I want you to know

what Jesus suffered for our sins.

Come and see.

Not only the physical agony,

but come and see the physical darkness

because while Christ hung on the cross,

the sky strangely turned black,

although the time was noon.

For three hours,

the sky was as dark as night

in the middle of the day

until about three o'clock when Jesus died.

And the moment he died,

the earth began to shake.

The earthquake was so violent,

it says that rocks split.

It was not a rumbling.

It was more than a typical tremor.

And quite honestly,

it had to be somewhat horrifying

to be standing in that area

and to be witnessing

such a horrific experience.

It was a physical darkness.

But quite honestly,

I believe the greatest agony

and darkness of the cross

was not physical,

but instead was spiritual.

Understand and come and see

the physical,

the spiritual agony of the cross.

Understand that Jesus was sinless

and understand that it is sin

that restrains us

from having a perfect

Garden of Eden type experience

with the Lord.

Jesus had never had a conflict

with the Father.

Jesus was never,

never sinned,

was not born into sin,

never even had a hindrance

in his relationship

with the Father.

Never did he suffer

with understanding

what God was up to.

He was literally

the mind of Christ.

He knew exactly

what the Father would have.

Christ was sinless

without any hindrance.

That is until

he became sin

on our behalf.

2 Corinthians 5,

2 Corinthians 5:21

verse 21

puts it this way,

for our sake he made him

to be sin

who knew no sin

so that in him

we might become

the righteousness of God.

And for the first time

in his life

there was a sin hindrance

between Christ and the Father

as the weight of the world's sins

fell upon his shoulders

and hid the face of God

from him

for the first time

and he felt forsaken

by both God and man.

As he was wounded

for our transgressions

and bruised for our iniquities

and faced hell

so we don't have to,

there had to be

a powerful sense

of the forsakenness

of the Father

and it was absolute

spiritual agony

for the Lord.

I told you

a couple of weeks ago

that that's the cup

that he spoke of

in the garden

and that's what he dreaded

the most.

The spiritual agony.

But in the midst of that

I also want you to see

the,

to come and see

the spiritual darkness.

because while the sinless

Lamb of God

is dying for the sins

of the world

the sky strangely

turned black

although the time

was noon

and stayed that way

until he died.

And in that darkness

the soldiers gambled

for his clothing.

Remember they had

taken his clothing off

and put a mocking

purple robe on him

and beat him with it

and then took it back off

and put his clothes

back on him.

And then as he hung

before he hung

they stripped him

of those clothing.

Scripture tells us

that he wore

a seamless tunic

which is a very nice

piece of clothing.

Normally it was

had seams.

And

while he died

for their sins

they gambled

for that

and the other articles

of clothing

that he had.

While he was dying

for their sins

they gambled

and the sky

turned black.

As well

the very people

that he died for

came by

and hurled insults

at him

made sarcastic

and mocking remarks

that if he was

so miraculous

why don't he

save himself?

The reason why

he didn't save himself

is because he was

too busy saving them.

it was a

dark moment.

We live in a world

of dark moments.

We had a dark moment

last week

or ten days ago

when a crazy person

went to school

in Nashville

killed innocent victims.

Horrible dark moment.

last week

the storms

that rolled

through

the dark

killed two dozen

people in Mississippi

and destroyed

nearly 2,000 homes

and then a revisit

of storms

just this past

Friday night.

That's dark.

But I want you

to understand

there has never

been

one more

than the darkness

of high noon

when the Savior

hung on the cross

for you

and me

and them

and all

the world.

It is horrible

to look at

even 2,000

years later

but I think

you have to

understand

the spiritual

darkness.

I am just

thankful

that it

don't stop

there

because if

it did

I wouldn't

have told

you all

of that

and honestly

I wouldn't

be standing

here doing

what I'm

doing.

I want

you to

come and

see the

spiritual

hope

that comes

from the

cross

because there's

a wonderful

spiritual hope

in this

passage

that I

don't want

you to

miss

at all

and that

is

eternal

life.

It's in

Luke chapter

Luke 23:39

23 verse

39 and

it says

this

one of

the criminals

who were

hanged

railed at

him saying

are you not

the Christ

save yourself

and us

but the

other rebuked

him and

said do

you not

fear God

since you

are under

the same

sentence

of condemnation

and we

indeed

justly

for we

are

receiving

the

reward

of our

deeds

for this

man has

done

nothing

wrong

and he

said

Jesus

remember

me

when you

come

into your

kingdom

and he

said

truly I

say to

you

today

you

will

be

with

me

in

paradise

I want

you to

understand

the spiritual

hope is

eternal

life

in Christ

he gave

eternal

life

to

a robber

and a

bandit

that hung

beside him

Matthew 27

Matthew 27:44

verse 44

tells us

that the

robbers of

the bandits

on both

sides of

him were

insulting

Christ on

the cross

they joined

in with the

crowd taunting

this so-called

king and

then something

happened one

of them

suddenly changed

his attitude

and thought

and when the

other taunted

he corrected

him

and Luke

23 says

that he said

to him

do you not

fear God

since you're

under the

same sentence

of condemnation

what changed

that man

what happened

in the midst

of that

I believe

it was what

he saw

for the first

time

and that was

he saw a

king for the

first time

he saw the

Christ for the

first time

for the first

time it was

sinking in

that this

God man

was real

but secondly

I want you

to notice

the silence

Jesus never

sparred back

he let them

waggle their

tongues

however

thank God

however it

happened

he saw

Jesus

he submitted

himself to

Christ

asked for

mercy

and Jesus

said

remember

he said

Jesus

remember me

when you

come into

your kingdom

and Jesus

replied

today you

shall be

with me

in paradise

and theologians

have tried to

figure out

where paradise

is

it's fascinating

to hear their

conversation

you know what's

most important

to me

paradise

is where

Jesus is

because he

says today

you shall be

with me

in paradise

salvation

came to that

man that

day

and that

gives hope

to all that

we meet

no matter

your circumstances

no matter

your lifestyle

no matter

the good

choices in

your life

no matter

the bad

choices in

your life

it's not

the will

of God

that any

should perish

but that

all should

come

to have

eternal

life

it means

so much

more to

Christ

that he

gave

it means

so much

to Christ

that he

gave his

life

for you

to have

that

opportunity

and if

he'll save

a hardened

convicted

criminal

on his

death

cross

don't you

dare wonder

whether

Christ is

willing to

save you

or not

he died

for you

he bore

the cross

for you

I'm

thankful

for the

eternal

life

that he

gives

but I'm

also

thankful

for the

eternal

access

because when

the earthquake

at that

moment he

died

rocks

split

it was

so violent

that scripture

says

that it

tore

the veil

in the

holy of

holies

in half

that curtain

was 60

feet

long

and 30

feet

wide

and they

say that

it was

as wide

as the

palm of

a man's

hand

and yet

in the midst

of that

earthquake

it split

tore all

the way

and what's

fascinating to

me about

that is

is that

it ripped

from top

to bottom

it would

have made

a lot

of sense

in an

earthquake

if the

ground

split

so much

that it

caused the

curtain

to split

as well

that would

make sense

but the

veil was

ripped

from top

to bottom

the veil

was ripped

by God

as the

earth

quaked

by God

in the

midst of

the darkness

by God

what a

horrible

experience

to live

through

but the

Hebrew writer

tells us

what that

means

Hebrews

Hebrews 10:19–25

chapter 10

verses 19

through 25

says this

therefore

brothers

since we

have confidence

to enter the

holy places

by the blood

of Jesus

by the new

and living

way that he

opened for us

through the

curtain

that is

through his

flesh

and since

we have a

great priest

over the

house of

God

let us

draw near

with a true

heart and

full assurance

of faith

with our

hearts

sprinkled

clean

from an

evil

conscience

and our

bodies

washed

with pure

water

and let us

hold fast

the confession

of our

faith without

wavering

for he who

promised

is faithful

and let

us consider

how to

stir one

another

to love

and good

works

not neglecting

to meet

together

as too

many are

in the

habit of

doing

but encouraging

one another

and all the

more as you

see the day

drawing near

it is because

of Christ

my friend

that we can

approach the

throne of God

forgiven

clean

and we can

enter boldly

we can stand

strong in our

faith

and we can

we can trust

the word of

God

because he

does

what he

says

he'll do

he's faithful

to his

promises

and understanding

that what he's

done for us

and understanding

how he's faithful

to his promises

and understanding

that whatever

tomorrow holds

he's already

there

understanding

all that

it ought to

stir us up

it ought to

change our

lives

and as

Christians

we ought to

we ought to

stir each

other up

to encourage

each other

in our

faith

it ought to

encourage us

to invite

others to

come to

Christ

through the

work of

the cross

come and

see

the cross

of Christ

it'll change

your life

for all

eternity

with every

head bowed

and every

eye closed

I want to

ask you

if you've

ever surrendered

your heart

and life

to the

Lord Jesus

Christ

has there

ever been a

time when

you can go

back to

where you've

committed your

life to

Christ

confess that

you'd sinned

ask him to

forgive you

and promise

to live for

him

none of us

have done that

sufficiently

living for

him but

it all

begins with

the first

step

and if

you've never

taken that

first step

or unsure

about that

first step

to come to

Christ

I want you

to know

today's the

day of

salvation

if you'll

come to

him today

he'll save

you

he'll change

you

that yearning

that you have

within you

to make a

decision for

Christ

didn't come

from you

it came

from him

he's calling

you to

himself

maybe you're

here this

morning and

you do know

that you're

a Christian

but the

reality is

your life

is not a

life of

the cross

as he told

us to deny

ourselves and

pick up our

cross and

carry it

daily

is your

life reflected

of the cross

Christian

or is today

a day of

renewal for

you

I want

you to know

that you can

renew your

life right

where you

are

you can

have a

pastor pray

for you

or you can

just come to

this altar

and lay it

down before

God

but I

encourage you

to not let

anything be a

hindrance in

your life when

you leave

here and

you'll walk

with the

Lord

maybe you're

here and

you're visiting

with us this

morning and

God's drawing

you to be a

part of this

church how

we'd love for

you to be a

part of our

fellowship

I encourage

you to come

we'd love to

guide you in

that process

or maybe

you're here

and you've

given your

heart and

life to the

Lord Jesus

but you've

never publicly

acknowledged it

it was a

private decision

that you made

and you've

never shared

that with

anybody

you need to

be baptized

you just come

say pastor

I know I'm

saved but I

need to be

baptized as a

believer

and we'll

guide you in

that

we're going

to stand

right after

I pray

and we're

going to

sing but

more important

than singing

I encourage

you to be

obedient and

follow him

heavenly father

I love you

and I thank

you dear God

for the love

that you have

for us and

I ask right

now father

that you'll

work and

you'll move

in the hearts

and lives of

each individual

in this place

and help us

to be obedient

to follow you

as you lead

us oh God

I pray

in Jesus name

amen