Healed by His Stripes (Mark 15:1-20)

Good morning.

I'm well.

The kids are well.

We're taking advantage and uh before anything else happens.

And I'm not joking.

We're we're past due for a cold, I think.

I don't know if that's been going around your house or not, but I didn't want to worry about it, but we got this professional warrior.

It's been going great, but it's so expensive.

I just and I don't mean to say an inside joke, but if you remember Chris's analogy, I just I keep thinking about it.

Go, it just stuck in my head from uh like three couple weeks ago.

So anyway, let me open us up in prayer.

Everybody have a Bible who needs a Bible?

Don't hesitate to raise your hands and let me let me open this up.

Father, we thank you so much that we can gather here in person.

That you've given us the freedom to gather to pray, to worship you.

We are so blessed.

Um Father, you've given us your one and only Son.

We praise you for that sacrifice.

Father, we pray that your spirit would be here among us, that your spirit would anoint me.

Uh, Father, that you would speak to us all your heart of hearts.

Father, if there are things that are distracting us this morning, that you would remove those from our minds, that we would lay down the concerns and worries of the day and the week and of the tomorrow.

Father, we uh Father, I pray that uh you would have your work among us.

Lift up our time in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Okay, if you would turn to Mark chapter 15, we're gonna be going through verses 1 through 20.

Mark 15 · chapter mention

The we find ourselves here, and and we'll do it, I'll do a little recap because it's been a few weeks.

Um we've had a hiatus, we had uh Jackson last week.

But if if you recall, we're we're actually kind of right in the middle of a two-trial set.

So we had seen in Mark 14, we've seen uh the the uh Last Supper, we see, we saw the first Passover, right?

And uh Jesus took communion with his disciples.

The we'd seen the anointing of Bethany, Peter's denial came thereafter.

The Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus is arrested, and he he's sweating blood, right?

He he had had he experienced the hematidrosis.

He's had an extremely, he's been extremely burdened as he's been anticipating and seeing what's coming.

Um the suffering, the time on the cross.

Um the just prior to this, where we're starting, Jesus has gone through part uh trial one of two.

So as we've hit this moment, Jesus has gone through uh a trial before the uh the Jewish people and the and the Jewish leadership, the high priests, the elders, um, and and uh and then this morning we're starting in a second in a second trial.

So he's not just gonna go on trial before the Jews, he's going on trial before uh essentially the think of it, the Gentile world versus the Jewish world.

So we're gonna see this morning the the trial between the Jewish leadership and the and the point that he's gonna go to the cross.

That's where we're at this morning.

So before we get too far, uh we're gonna jump into, we're gonna read to the text.

Uh if you would uh stand and we'll turn together Mark 15, verse 1.

Mark 15:1

As soon as it was morning, having held a meeting with the elders, scribes, and the whole Sanhedrin, the chief priest tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

So Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews?

He answered him, and he answered him, You say so.

The chief priest accused him of many things.

Pilate questioned him again, Aren't you going to answer?

Look at how many things they're accusing you of.

But Jesus still did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.

At the festival, Pilate used to release for the people a prisoner whom they requested.

There was one named Barabbas, who was in prison with rebels who had committed murder during the rebellion.

A crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do for them, as was his custom.

Pilate answered them, Do you want me to release the king of the Jews for you?

For he knew it was because of envy that the chief priest had handed him over.

But the chief priest stirred up the crowd so that he would release Barabbas to them instead.

Pilate asked them again, Then what do you want me to do with the one you call the King of the Jews?

Again they shouted, Crucify him.

Pilate said to them, Why?

What has he done wrong?

But they shouted all the more, Crucify him.

Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them, and after having Jesus and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified.

The soldiers led him away into the palace, that is the governor's residence, and called the whole company together.

They dressed him in a purple robe, they twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on him.

They began to salute him.

Hail, King of the Jews.

They were hitting him on the head with a stick and spitting on him.

Getting down on their knees, they were paying him homage, and 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.

It's a heavy passage.

And going into the passage, I think I get I tend to get desensitized to these things.

And be seated, please.

I tend to get desensitized, and I think we watch a lot of well, sorry.

I should say sometimes we as people watch a lot of Marvel or uh there's a lot of media.

We get desensitized to violence, and sometimes it doesn't click, right?

It's just maybe our culture just got us to a place.

So I think slowing down to the passage really helps to remind, to get our least to get myself, back into remembering what's happening here.

Because we can skip by it because we just think violent just violence is no big deal.

And then and then once it gets personal, it becomes more real and more pertinent.

But that's where we're at.

So starting in verse one, we're starting the first trial of, we're starting the second trial of two.

We had we had just gone through, and I'm saying in terms of scripture, we had other than seeing Peter deny Christ, but we had seen uh we saw that in the first trial, Jesus went before the Jewish leadership.

He was falsely accused, and if and as the as that trial wrapped up, the clincher was the that they that Jesus essentially he claims to be God, and that triggers the leadership.

It's done.

They make their decision.

He's gotta die.

He blasphemed God.

Jesus made it very clear he was claiming to be God.

That trial was in the middle of the night.

That everything, most I think you could say very pretty clearly that everything about the trial was a farce.

It was he was falsely accused, it was at night.

They were going outside the bounds of what they should have been doing to try Jesus.

So it kind of it just had happens that this morning Jesus is going to enter into this secular or this Roman trial.

It was truly it was common that you would do this sort of business, this sort of trial, uh before the Roman, very early in the morning.

So as the passage starts out, as soon as it was morning, having held a meeting with the elder scribes in the whole Sanhedrin, the chief priest tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.

Timing was perfect for Pilate to be hearing this kind of thing.

Um, and really part of the sovereign hand of God in timing, because this will all lead up as we're seeing this, and I'm trying not to get too far ahead to the crucifixion because and these are all we're we're really in the these these are hours, so we're not we're not teaching and going through this passage in real time, but we're seeing, I mean, as of think about it this morning, we're going through this text this morning, but if you were up all night, you would have been in the garden with Jesus and you would have seen him go through this trial in the middle of the night, this illegal, essentially this illegal or ill illegitimate trial, false accusations, he is already, I don't know if you've been in extremely burdened or in a dark place or in but Jesus has he's already gone through the heaviness of confronting his death on the cross, right?

He's been talking to his father, he's been uh processing, he's been uh being confronted with uh with experiencing the death that we deserve, right?

So they tied him up, they take him to Pilate.

Who's Pilate?

So Pilate's the governor of this region, he would have his residence in Caesarea, and he would come, essentially, it's his job to keep things, one of different portion of his job, it's his job to keep things in order.

If it's not in order, he's in trouble.

So he's going, he's in Jerusalem, it's Passover, he's gonna be there firsthand to make sure it's going well.

And Pilate is in this, he's he's gonna be made famous, I think is safe to say by this whole thing.

Pilate is known for being merciless, cruel, and brutal.

So as Jesus is being brought to the to the secular world for for this trial, he's of all people, he's going before someone known in Luke 13 for a guy who mingled the blood of Galileans with the sacrifices.

Do you think would you have high hopes if you're if you were brought before Pilate?

It's the writings on the wall, right?

What would he give a care about a Jew being brought to him on trial?

He could have fun with it for all Pilate.

He had the authority, right?

We're gonna see the dynamic unfolding.

And we're so, and let me say, Mark is uh the book of Mark is more about what Jesus did than what he said.

So we could go through, we could spend a few weeks on this passage because if we go to John, for instance, there's much more text.

We see dialogue almost line by line.

And so we'll we'll hit on a few of those verses, but we're not seeing as many words, but there is much dialogue in this passage.

Um, there's quite a bit of detail in the dialogue.

So we'll we'll hit on those things as we go through.

But uh, so anyway, Pilate, known for being cruel and ruthless, he had married the the emperor's daughter, so he is essentially sort of married in.

He's given this area out here.

Maybe it's more of a curse because he's dealing with the Jewish people and and uh uh it can be things can be very tense between the Jews and the Romans.

So as we as we uh we get in, um there were accusations, we'll get to those in a moment.

Mark is not gonna pick up, it's not gonna all seem completely chronological, but we're gonna kind of pull in the way that Mark is running to the text.

So Pilate asked him, this is to Jesus, are you the king of the Jews?

And you can imagine if there's a king and he's not being submissive to Rome, that's an issue, right?

So for the Jews to go to Pilate, what we don't see here is the Jews would will um they'll later, later on, they will they'll they'll really kind of fess up, like, well, he's claiming to be God.

Well, in this case, they said he's he's claiming to be the king of the Jews.

They brought in false and true things, again, false things, but but they said, of course, he's perverting the nation.

Um let me get to that in a sec.

Are you the king of the Jews?

So clearly this would be a key to Pilate that would cue in things he'd be listening for.

Um Jesus answered him, no.

Uh Jesus answered him, you say so.

So making it very clear, right?

He just he he didn't have to guess.

Jesus and John will say, You rightly say that I am a king, for this cause I was born.

And imagine these are these words are not your normal.

This is not your normal earthly ruler.

For this cause I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is is of the truth hears my voice.

You think uh I I mean anyway, I would think Pilate's starting to tilt his head at this point.

Um what do you mean?

Everyone who of the truth hears my voice.

Um and so the Jews would will also, as they're this is a trial, right?

They brought accusations.

He's perverting the nation.

That's a lie, right?

Forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar.

That is the totally the opposite.

This is the guy who said pay your taxes.

Can you can you put yourself in the vagrant lies?

And maybe by this point some of them just heard it was hearsay.

Maybe they maybe things had been twisted around, there were false things flying around, but nonetheless, and then saying he, and saying one of the accusations, saying he himself is Christ a king.

This is John uh John 18.

You can see that we're missing the dialogue, but we're getting the gist in mark.

And so, yes, some false things, and so Pilate's hearing these things, these are the accusations they're bringing before him in this trial.

Pilate questioned him again.

Aren't you going to answer?

Look at how many things they are accusing you of.

He Jesus is brought before a man.

He, and I think if we think about other world regimes who uh who have the sole authority uh to bring judgment and death, the whole reason the Jews are here, even though we kind of wonder about Stephen, because they took things into their own hands with Stephen and Acts later, right?

But in this case, they he went through, Jesus was deserving of death in their eyes because he blasphemed God, he claimed to be God, but they did not have the authority to put Jesus to death.

That was the sole, capital punishment was the sole authority of the Romans at this point.

So Pilate had that, was essentially given that authority.

They had to go to Pilate.

They had to convince Pilate to take this guy and have him crucified or put to death.

So you've got a brutal re uh brutal leader.

He's known for being merciless.

We know that the Romans don't like the Jews.

I think it's safe to say that most people who are innocent going before a ruthless leader would be begging this man with many words about his innocence, pleading, giving him his side.

There is no begging, there is no intimidation.

Sorry, there's no uh, Jesus is not we don't we don't read that he's shaking, we don't read that the man is uh in any way quivering, crying, begging for his life, right?

Herod's again head tilting, what is going on?

As they again in verse 5, Pilate was amazed.

What we're gonna do, we're seeing this unfolding.

This is not a new thing to God, and so we're actually seeing the scriptures being fulfilled that were spoken seven centuries before.

So we're gonna jump to Isaiah because I don't, we don't, we're gonna get kind of kind of ahead, but we really want to frame what's happening in the fulfillment of the prophecy.

So if you'll turn, this is kind of roughly halfway in your Bible back to Isaiah chapter 52.

Isaiah 52 · chapter mention

We're gonna read through it.

Some of this is is all kind of mixed in with the crucifixion passage, but it is it is God's um, there is only really one person who can fulfill the scriptures that we're gonna read and that we're we are seeing being fulfilled before us.

So uh 52, starting in verse 13.

And you can keep your finger there if you want while we go through, because flipping back and forth, it is almost alive.

You would almost think it was written after the fact.

It's so canning of Jesus.

See, my servant will be successful.

He will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted.

Just as many were appalled at you, his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being.

So he will sprinkle many nations.

Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard.

Verse 53, verse 1.

Who has believed what we have heard, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground.

He didn't have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, nor appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.

He was like someone people turned away from.

He was despised and we didn't value him.

Yet we he himself bore our sicknesses and he carried our pains.

We in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities.

Punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.

Verse 6, we all went astray like sheep.

We have all turned on our own way, and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

He is oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like sheep silent before her shears, he did not open his mouth.

He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate?

For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was struck because of my people's rebellion.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was a rich but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.

Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely.

When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand the Lord's pleasure will be accomplished.

After his anguish he will see light and be satisfied.

By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many.

He will carry their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him the many a portion, he will receive the mightiest spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and he was counted among the rebels, yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

Okay, quite a bit of scripture, but and it's a little intersparal.

So Jesus did not answer, and so Pilate was amazed.

At this point, uh, what we don't see is that in other Gospels, Luke in particular, um, Pilate will now, and it's hard to count because there are so many instances.

Pilate will try to pass the buck five, six, seven times, depending on how you count.

But as we're going through, look at how many times he either tries to have someone else make a decision to convince them otherwise or to other to find a find a different solution, which in some ways I'll say seems pretty neat.

Like he's trying, not he's trying to do the right thing.

But let's let's just first see where it goes.

Sends him to Herod.

Herod seems to be more entertained in Luke 23.

I'm not going to go through it because we could spend, again, lots of time going through all the passages, but he's mocked, he's hated.

Held in contempt and he's arrayed in a robe.

Herod has his fun with him.

He had been wanting to see Jesus and meet this guy he'd heard of.

Herod says, I find no fault in him.

Sends him back to Pilate, and Pilate says, I have found no fault.

Herod has tried him and finds no fault of the things which you accuse him.

So at the festival, basically, then we move into verse 6.

This is sort of attempt one.

Pilate says, I find no fault in him.

And then Pilate spins again.

He says, and it says, it's the passage says, at the festival, Pilate used to release for the people a prisoner whom they requested.

So he's starting to think a little bit getting outside the box.

There's one named Barabbas who was in prison with rebels who had committed murder during the rebellion.

Other passages will use the word notorious, a notorious prisoner.

Some don't call him a murderer, but he was partially in prison because he was a murderer.

Seemed to be he was maybe an enemy of Rome or a patriot, but certainly having committed other crimes.

Man, I think that this might work.

This is a perfect timing.

And Pilate said, and it says, before he knew it was because of envy the chief priest had handed him over.

So Pilate is very privy to what's going on.

He's seeing through it.

He does not like the Jewish leaders, their enmity, but he's thinking, this guy is not guilty.

They're bringing me to him, and the whole problem is that they're envious of this Jesus.

And what they don't like is that Jesus threatens their very existence and everything they stand for, the power that they have.

Jesus is coming to fundamentally change the system.

He is going to not just, he is going to become the lamb, the Passover Lamb.

He is our great high priest.

This is rocking their world.

But Pilate is not getting out of it.

He's attempting to shift.

The Jews are manipulating the situation.

But the chief priest stirred up the crowd so that he would release Barabbas to them instead.

So let's get this straight.

He's really coming to be their savior.

But instead, they'd rather have a murderer released, and they, the lead, the religious leaders themselves, let's just call them the pastors or the church leadership, are instead, though the crowd could make this decision, right?

The crowd was the one that came to Pilate to begin with, but they're like, no, no, no, no, no.

Don't release this Jesus.

And of course they have power over the people.

This is a big, this is influence.

They're using their influence, which is horrible to think, but they're using their influence to try and release Barabbas so that they can rid themselves of this Jesus.

Isaiah 53, if you remember, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.

Jesus didn't even have the value of a murderer.

But as we know, Jesus would would take and would willingly go to the cross for the murderer, right?

And it's a really ironic turn, turn of events.

So Pilate asked them again, verse 12, what then what do you want me to do with the one you call the king of the Jews?

And whether this is a poke to them, because he continues to call him the king of the Jews.

In this case, you call the king of the Jews, he's acknowledging that it's them saying it.

And Pilate's sort of nearing the end, but he's not giving up.

And John he'll say, Behold, I'm bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no fault in him.

No fault.

He says it over and over.

They say, crucify him.

So not just, no, no, no, no, you need to torture him.

Pilate will say, You take him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.

Again, Pilate is trying to push this out, trying to convince the people.

As Pilate is about to be done with this because he's between a rock and a hard place, he receives something, it says in Matthew, Pilate's wife sends to him.

You know, this is like you're at work and you're in a meeting, and you get the text.

You're like, wait a second, this is about Jesus.

And she's saying, Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for today I have suffered terribly in a dream because of him.

So, guys, to do, and your wife says, Don't do it.

This guy is in a pickle.

You think that the decision is really clear, right?

And you know he's gonna be like, this is not gonna go over well.

So Pilate, he goes to place uh to the to the pavement of the to his judgment seat.

He's he washes his hands with water.

He's trying to say, look, I'm making a decision, but it's not my decision.

It's kind of what he's saying.

Washes his hands.

I'm innocent of the blood of this just person.

This is Matthew again.

You see to it.

So he's trying to say it's your decision, right?

His blood, and they say, the people say, his blood be on us and our children.

Like prophetically, would they be saying what they not knowing, but but ultimately sovereignly saying what will become the case, that his blood will be on them.

And so often this becomes, this becomes, there's a, there's, you know, the Jews crucified Jesus, right?

But it's so it's so balanced that it's really not the Jews only, because this was a Jewish trial and a Roman trial, and Pilate was trying to dish it off.

But was Pilate innocent of Jesus' blood?

If if there were a judge in our county who knew someone was guilty and let the man go and said, no, no, no, I I essentially, however, that judge would be in big trouble.

At least I would hope so in our in our culture.

Pilate was also guilty of knowing what was right and yet still committing Jesus to uh to suffering and death.

It's easy to judge Pilate, but this morning we're in a similar position.

Because every one of us have had and will have the opportunity to decide what to do with Jesus.

Because we can over and over kind of kind of put the bill, and some you know, people can push this off, and I'm not gonna decide what to do with Jesus just yet.

Or uh that's not for me.

I don't I'm not gonna I'm not gonna make the decision.

But but we all have and we are all called, uh, we're all given that decision as to what to do with this Jesus.

And it's a little different, but it's but it's very applicable.

We have the the decision this morning as to what if whether we will we will acknowledge that Jesus is King and God and that He is He has come to save us from our sins and to surrender to that, confess our sins, or we can turn the other way and ignore it.

But God, and I think it if if you know Him, or maybe now you're you're feeling the Spirit on can bringing that conviction and and uh and uh this is the time to respond and this is how and this is the decision we all need to come to is responding to the uh to the salvation message that Jesus has brought.

Moving on to 16.

The soldiers led him away into the palace, uh that is the governor's residence or the praetorium.

So this is where this is part of, this is this area where the judgment was happening where Pilate would have been staying, and called the whole company together.

The whole company, 600 soldiers, not just a few, but he he brings the whole company of soldiers stationed there.

They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns.

Oh uh, I got ahead of myself.

Sorry, verse 15.

How could I get past this verse?

So, wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Brabbas to them, and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified.

There is so much in this verse.

In Mark, it's just one verse.

There were three types of corporal punishment that he could bring.

And earlier in this whole dialogue, he offers to have Jesus uh whipped.

But so these three are essentially a beating.

That was called the Fustagio, Fustigatio.

The second level was a flogging or the flagellatio, or the third, which we commonly know here as it's being in this verse, um, a severe flogging or scourging was a verbatio.

So Pilate is, Pilate sent him off to be scourged.

So this is the heavier.

This was, some say it was it was merciful an act of mercy, so that they were closer to death before they hit the cross.

Others it was part of confession.

As we'll see in other Gospels, uh, this was another way Pilate was trying, just one more way that he was trying to get them to have mercy by having him scourged, so maybe they would say, That's enough.

Yeah, that's enough.

We we can't, so our conscience is just is actually activating, right?

They would have someone uh tied to a post or humped over, they would have the uh the flog with bone or lead or glass embedded or tied to the end.

This thing would they would be whipped and it would tear flesh.

There is it was known that this would uh damage internal organs, it would rip to bone completely.

So as Isaiah would say, as we had read, very, very early, 14, he was so disfigured that he did not look like a man.

His form did not resemble a human being.

Pilate brings him back, and in the other gospels we'll see that he he really tries to release him, and they say, No, crucify him.

One more chance.

So Pilate has him let off, and it's not just right to be crucified.

The soldiers led him away into the palace, that is the governor's residence, and called the whole company together.

They dressed him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on him.

At this point, in the garden, he had experienced the hematidrosis, so he's sweating, literally, very sensitive skin.

He had sweated blood.

He had been through what sometimes would bring, and remember, if we remember, the Romans were experts in this scourging.

These guys did this professionally.

They knew how to bring someone to utter.

This is torture, by the way.

Is that a good word?

They tortured him, but they knew just the point to bring someone to that, to that, before killing them.

So Jesus had been scourged, was absolutely probably in shock at this point, bleeding and and uh so they and I don't know, I I got uh in college, I was helping a roommate move a couch, my finger got crushed at a table, and it just it crushed the nail, crushed.

And uh, you know, I bandaged it up, it's just throbbing like crazy.

And I wrap it up, and I ended up having to go to the doctor.

I finally go to the doctor, and the bandage wouldn't come off.

And I don't know if you if you've had enough injury, it's like dried in the the nail.

I mean, you know the nerve endings, and in the fingernail, and the bandage was like caked on, stuck, and I'm sitting there like, I mean, you can't touch it.

And that's my finger.

Jesus is Jesus is is cut, bruised, whipped, I mean, broken, potentially broken ribs and bones.

And they put a they and they dr and they they drape these clothes.

Maybe it's a it's a uh a soldier's or a a soldier's coat, really, but a purple robe.

They're essentially trying to make him look like this king, right?

Um twisted a crown of thorns, and so uh this is classically, so they would call this the Radiant Corona, as in the classic, um, the classic ruler's crown.

Uh this is often the acacia with the really big long uh the big long uh thorns.

Not exactly clear, it's a twisted uh together crown of thorns, and they put it on him.

So here they're clearly dressing him up to mock him, right?

No reason to do that otherwise.

They begin to salute him.

Hail, king of the Jews.

Were they right?

Was he the king of the Jews?

Can you imagine having a child mock you mock you for being the father or going to work and bowing before your boss, you know, and and mocking their their position above you?

This is this this is um sort of an utter an opportunity for utter humiliation and mocking.

They were hitting him on the head with a stick and spitting on him.

So this is personal.

They're taking this is like, imagine there's pent-up awkwardness and hate with the Jews.

They're spitting, they're making it, this is a personal thing in disgust.

They're taking that rod that was his supposed to be his scepter, and then they're hitting him on the head after being flogged.

This is uh every opportunity.

Getting down on their knees, they paid homage to him, bowing down.

After they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple robe, so bloody, like my finger, but his entire body, they strip him of all those clothes.

So it's his entire his entire back, his sides, his body, his shoulders, who knows his head.

Uh they strip him of those clothes, so you know that doesn't feel good, right?

Every everything doesn't feel good at this point.

They strip him of the purple robe, put his clothes back on him, and they lead him out to crucify him.

Where does this leave us?

I think uh Peter can can put it better than I can.

So if you'll turn to 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Uh 2, verse 18.

Peter says, Household slaves, submit to your masters with all reverence, not only to the good and gentle ones, but also to the cruel.

For it brings favor if because of consciousness of God and someone endures grief from suffering unjustly.

For what credit is there if when you do wrong and are beaten, you endure it?

But when you do what is good and suffer, you endure it.

If you endure it, this brings favor with God.

For you were called to this because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in its steps.

He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.

Here he's quoting Isaiah.

When he was insulted, he did not insult in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that having died to sins we might live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed.

For you are like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

There's two things I see here.

This picture of an innocent man, and was he just a man?

He wasn't just a man.

He wasn't just an honorable man, uh like a he wasn't just a pastor.

He wasn't just, he was God, and he was the king, the coming king of the Jews, our coming king, tortured, mocked, falsely accused, bleeding to death.

And he did it willingly.

I'm inclined to go to Romans.

I mean, this is this is Romans 5.

You don't have to you don't have to turn there, but um I mean, for while we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly, right?

For scarcely would a man, I'm not gonna quote exactly, for scarcely would a man uh dare to die for some for a for a good man, but Jesus died while we were still in our sin for the ungodly.

Not only that, but he did it before we before time began.

It was as though done.

Outside of time, it was as though done.

So Jesus is in this position.

This is a man, um, and this picture should lead us to a point of submitting to God with our trust.

Just as Peter says here, uh, we have everything, every reason to trust him.

He went to the cross to suffer for us.

We should submit to him in trust and awe that he would die for us, not just because we're amazing, but because despite our sin.

And then as Peter will say, that we would live in righteousness.

So we're left with this, we're left with the with an exhortation of the passage.

Not that we're, he's even to the cross, but but this Jesus we can trust with our life.

And what he wants from us, and we remember this from weeks ago, um, he wants us to pick up our cross daily and follow it.

He wants us, he wants that submission of ourselves, but it's in goodness because he is going to the cross for us despite our sin.

He's on his way, we'll get there next week, but um, as 2 Corinthians 5 says, he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

That is amazing.

This morning, um, hopefully we're in awe of this.

But if you don't know, if you don't know Christ, this is also an opportunity to respond to this message.

There is not a God in the world.

Maybe someone could come up with a God somewhere in this concept.

There is not a God, there's not a religion that starts with, my God died for me.

This gospel starts with God first.

He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever should believe him would have everlasting life.

This gospel starts with God going to the cross on my behalf when I was imperfect, when I am imperfect, and when I still will be imperfect, he goes through shame and torture, and he looks for my response.

All of the religions are gonna start the other way.

He's gonna look for what I can do for God and how in my perfection.

This God is different, and this the scripture has a different story, and it's a good, it's it's the good news gospel story.

This morning, if you don't know Jesus, this is the this is the God who went and died for you and every bad thing you ever ever ever done or ever will do, and though that sin, that missing the mark is got in God's standard, that is deserving of eternal separation from all that is good and right.

That's what we've earned, that's what everyone has earned.

And we have the opportunity uh to take his this free gift of God and have uh look forward to eternity with him in his presence and uh of everything that is incorruptible and unchanging with him and in heaven.

Uh would you pray with me?

Father, we thank you so much for your gospel, Father, for this Jesus who suffered, who's going on his way to the cross.

Father, I pray that this your word would seat deeply within us.

Father, that you would uh build in us a hope that is everlasting of this Jesus who went to the cross knowing our sin, who endured this torture silently, knowing that it was the way that the only way, if there was any other way he would have done it, and this was the way that would uh win us uh to spend to be reconciled with him through his blood.

If this is you, you have an opportunity to submit your life and to give your life to him and receive this grace.

Father, for your word this morning that you would speak to us.

Father, we thank you for this Jesus who went to the cross.

I pray that we would celebrate the gift that we have, that we can boldly come to your throne of grace.

I pray that you go before us this week.

We thank you and praise you for our time in Jesus' name.

Amen.