Oh say! My friend, we're grateful to you for inviting us into your home for Bible study. We are committed to searching the Scriptures to learn the Lord's way for man on this earth. We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and it is suitable and sufficient guide for us here in this life and for preparation in the life hereafter. If it doesn’t do that we are at a loss as to its real purpose and its meaning. We are so pleased and we are honored to have you join us.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the very heart and center of Christianity. Whatever the church is doing or saying, it must have this at the very center of it, or it's useless. It's vain. Jesus said, "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself." And, you can count on it, friend. Christians must never permit themselves to drift away from the cross. Paul, the apostle of Christ to the Gentile world said, "We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness; but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."
The death of Christ for our sins is the very heart of the scriptures. From the transgression of Adam to the closing words of Malachi, the Old Testament points to the One God who would send a redeemer into the world to make atonement for the sins of the world. And, certainly, it is the death of Christ on the cross for the sins of the world, and His triumphant resurrection three days later that gives meaning to all of the New Testament. It gives purpose to the very existence of the church and every act of Christian faith and worship and service and sermon. Whatever else may be the subject of our messages, repentance, sacrifice, service, baptism, happiness-- whatever it is, we remember Paul's words, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14).
Well, "The Death of Christ” is the title of our message today. If you think you might want a free printed copy, CD or audio cassette tape of it, simply address your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. If you would rather call, our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. It's also being streamed on our website, searchtv.org. Visit us there, will you? Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now as we sing to the Lord, and then we will be back.
We will be reading today from 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. We will begin at verse 20 and we’ll read through verse 25. “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we are so thankful to You that You have revealed to us Your mighty plan for the redemption of man. And all the way from the beginning of the Scriptures clear on through to the end of them we have this message sounding again and again in so many ways; and the beautiful story of Jesus and the gift of His life that He gave for our sins revealed to us in the gospels in the New Testament. We pray Your blessings upon our study today. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
The night Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples the last time He took a bit of bread and a cup of the fruit of the vine and He instituted the supper in His own memory. And when they had sung a hymn, He went with them, went with the eleven to the garden of Gethsemane where He often retreated to pray. (Judas had already left the company to consult with those people into whose hands he would betray the Master.) According to Hebrews 5 and 7, there in the shadow of the olive trees, He "offered up prayers and supplications and vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save him from death;" and He was saying, "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." That is Matthew 26 and verse 39. Then came Judas with a great multitude sent by the chief priests and the elders of the people, carrying swords and clubs to take Him who knew no sin, bound as a criminal to Caiaphas, the high priest of the Jews. There was a meeting of the twenty-member council of the Jews that night called the Sanhedrin at the high priest's house, at which on the testimony of two false witnesses, Jesus was convicted of the sin of blasphemy, because He said He was the Son of God. Blasphemy carried the death penalty under the law. But the Jews were under Roman rule at the time, and didn't have the power to execute the death penalty. So when morning came they brought Him to Pilate the Governor and they demanded crucifixion. Since Pilate was at odds with Caiaphas, who was the high priest, and he wouldn't be inclined to be in favor, to favor him with any kind of involvement in questions about their religion, the charge against Jesus was changed. It was changed to treason.
Even so, Pilate found no fault in Jesus and made several attempts to appease the Jews and to release Jesus. He suggested that they release Jesus and crucify a prisoner whom they held, whose name was Barabbas, who was a convicted murderer and insurrectionist. But, they demanded the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Christ. When Pilate saw that he could do nothing with them, and only a riot was made, he took a basin of water and washed his hands before the surging crowd saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it." But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified and his blood be on us, and on our children." As a last effort, Pilate would send Jesus to Herod Antipas who was present in Jerusalem at the time for the Passover. In doing so he would avoid having to crucify an innocent man himself. But after making sport of him, Herod returned him to Pilate.
Matthew says, "Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, He delivered him to be crucified." Now, scourging consisted of a severe beating. The instrument was a wooden handle some 18 to 24 inches long with (usually) three long leather straps attached to the end. Each of those straps had a piece of sharp metal or stone in the end which when they came around the victim's body would lay open wounds and dig out chunks of the flesh. The prisoners were stripped of his clothing and stretched over a stump or post the circumference of which would be similar to that of, oh, one of our power lines or power poles cut off about waist high, rounded off at the top. His hands would be secured in the two rings on the opposite side where there was no possibility of escape. The soldier would stand back with all of the weight and might of his husky body, he would lay those straps across the prisoner's back, once and twice and again and again. Well, it was forbidden by Roman law to beat a prisoner to death. But, often he was beaten as near death as possible without a violation of the law.
After the scourging, soldiers took Jesus into the common hall, put on him a scarlet, a red robe. They put a reed in his right hand for a scepter, and crowned Him king with a crown of thorns. Royalty always wore purple, but purple was a very, very expensive dye at the time and was only used in the most costly cloth. So, when in the theaters, and every city of that day had one, they wanted to portray royalty in their plays, they substituted a scarlet or red robe. And that's the robe the Savior wore. "They bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head." And when they had had their fun, they put his own garments back on him and led him away to crucify him.
It was the common procedure to have the prisoner bear his cross to Golgotha. We're not sure just how much of the cross was born by the prisoner, though, whether it was the cross-beam only, or the entire cross, we can’t say for certain. Some say, it was probably the former. But, after inflicting the severe scourging upon Jesus, with the loss of blood, the Roman soldiers then compelled a man from Cyrene in North Africa to help Him carry His. The place of execution bears the name Golgotha and Mark, in his gospel, interprets as the "place of a skull;" some believe because it was the common place of a crucifixion and skulls might be found lying thereabout. Others say it was because the hillside forms the appearance of a skull. Well, I have been there and I can testify to that; it does appear so. The familiar name "Calvary" comes from the Latin and also means the "place of a skull." "Calvary" is used more often, especially in our hymns, because it has somewhat of a less harsh sound than "Golgotha." It was outside the city, just as the sacrificial lamb of Jewish atonement was slain outside the camp of Israel.
When the company reached Golgotha, the soldier stretched his prisoner out upon the implement of his torture, the cross. The arms were extended along the cross beam and the soldier, by placing his knee on the forearm to prevent any wrenching away from the terrible pain, with the use of a mallet, drove the nails in one hand and then in the other-- and after placing one foot on top of the other, he also nailed the feet to the cross. Then he put the "accursed tree" with the living human burden and it was slowly heaved upward and the weight of the body fell upon the nail-pierced hands and feet. Death by crucifixion seems to include all the pain that death can have of the horrible and ghastly dizziness, cramping, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, mortification of unattended wounds and prolonged continuance of torment, horror of anticipation and public shame-- all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured, but just short of the point of the relief of unconsciousness. The unnatural position made every movement and every breath excruciatingly painful; the lacerated veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish-- and added to all of that and more was the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst. Two malefactors, or felons, were crucified with Jesus, one on the one side, so fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 53, verse 12: "He was numbered with the transgressors."
There the body of Jesus remained well within the reach of any of the milling mob who chose to strike him, from 9 o'clock in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. After death had come, the Savior's body was tenderly removed from the cross and buried in the tomb of one Mark calls a "secret disciple," named Joseph. He was a rich man of Arimathea, fulfilling Isaiah chapter 53, verse 9: "And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." It was a new tomb hewn out of a rock and was probably prepared for Joseph's own burial. Some of the women knew the burial place and three days later came to find it; and they found it opened and empty. Jesus had been proven to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead according to Romans chapter 1, verse 4. He had brought life and immortality to light (2 Timothy 1 and 10).
From the purely human point of view the cross is an enigma, a riddle, a puzzle. It's the mystery of the ages. There is really no valid explanation for it. First of all, He came to His own people and they didn't receive Him. (John 1:11). "He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil, for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). "He did no evil: Neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). He once asked them, "Many good works have I showed you from my Father: for which of those works do you stone me?" (John 10:32). Even Pilate said he found no fault in him. Then, why did they crucify him?
Well, first, Matthew tells us Pilate "knew that for envy they had delivered Him" to be crucified (Matthew 27:17). And Peter told the Jews that it was "through ignorance that you did it" (Acts 3:17). Jesus said that it was hatred. He said, "They have hated me without a cause" (John 15:25). Prejudice was a part of it, too. Jesus once said to them that their prophets had spoken of them saying, "This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them" (Matthew 13:15).
All these things, envy, ignorance, hatred, prejudice were contributing factors to the terrible deed, envy, ignorance, hatred and prejudice. And that is the human side of it, but where was God when it happened? (Perhaps you have asked that yourself when you faced some trouble, some kind of a crisis in your own life.) The apostle Peter explained it: "Those things which God foretold by the mouth of His prophets, that Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled" (Acts 3:18). So then, it was all according to the Divine plan. Do you mean God really planned it that way? Yes, the men who participated in it did so of their own volition and will, but it was God's plan for redeeming us.
In the beginning, He pronounced the death sentence on sin; "In the day you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17). And it still prevails: The soul that sins, will die (Ezekiel 18:20). And in the New Testament, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans. 6:23 and 5 and 12)). "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." You see, the sentence of death had passed upon all men-- no, not because we inherited the guilt of Adam's sin, but because "all have sinned." You and I were destined to eternal death-- that's eternal separation, banishment from God, because we have sinned. But, Christ died in our stead. He died so we don't have to die. God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." That is 2 Corinthians 5:21. "He was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification" (Romans 4:25). "Who his own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we are healed." Well, “When we are without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Now what are we going to do with Jesus? That is our question after the hymn. Father, we thank You for the message of the Savior and the price He paid for our sin. And it is in His name that we pray and we give You our thanks. Amen!
When Jesus came to Golgotha, They hanged him on a tree. They drove nails through his hands and feet, There at Calvary. They crowned him with a crown of thorns, Red were his wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, And human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to our town, They simply passed him by, They never hurt a hair of him, They only let him die. For men have grown more tender, And they would not give him pain They only passed down the street, And left him in the rain. Still Jesus cried, "Forgive them, For they know not what they do." And still it rained the winter rain, And drenched him through and through. The crowds went home and left the streets, Without a soul to see, And Jesus crouched against the wall, And cried for Calvary."
That little poem by G.A. Studdard Kennedy very well expresses the modern attitude toward Christ and his crucifixion. Does it express yours? Will you just pass Him by, or will you respond to his love and accept his salvation? If we may assist you or send someone by to talk to you more about your obedience to the gospel, please let us hear from you. You need to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin.
A free CD, an audio cassette tape or a printed copy of this program is available to you, simply at your request. You may write us at In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. By e-mail it is searchtv@searchtv.org. If you prefer, you may use our toll free telephone number. That number is 1-800-321-8633. Our website is searchtv.org. The message is being streamed there. Thanks again for sharing this time with us today. We pray you have been blessed and we pray God’s blessings on you continually. We love you.
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