Please turn in your Bibles this evening to Matthew chapter 27 as we look at the crucifixion of Jesus on this Good Friday. Before we get to our text this evening, let me share with you these words regarding John Bunyan’s book, The Pilgrim’s Progress. We are told:
Shoulders hunched, the man plods through life, straining with every step to carry the great burden to his back. It has been his night-and-day companion. Not once has he known relief from its merciless weight.
The man’s name is Christian, the central character in John Bunyan’s classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. In one moving scene from the book, Christian finds the path to salvation. Up the hill he staggers until he reaches the peak. There he sees a wooden cross and, just below it, an empty sepulcher. As he nears the cross, a miracle happens. The straps binding the massive weight to his shoulders loosens, and his load tumbles away into the sepulcher’s waiting mouth, never to be seen again.
A delicious feeling of lightness buoys Christian’s body, and joyous tears of relief stream down his face. Three Shinning Ones then approach him. The first announces, “Thy sins be forgiven thee;” the second strips away his rags and dresses him in splendid clothes; the third hands him a sealed scroll, which he is to present upon entrance to the Celestial City.
Overwhelmed by his new freedom, Christian sings:
Thus far did I come laden with my sin,
Nor could aught ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither. What a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall off from by back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Blest Cross! Blest Sepulcher! Blest, rather, be
The Man that there was put to shame for me!
In this brief scene, Bunyan has eloquently dramatized the message that we are all pilgrims, encumbered by a crushing load of sin. When we stumble to the cross, God releases our burdens, burying them forever in Christ’s own grave.
- Charles Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1,501 Other Stories, p. 129
And yet, we see so-called Christians today speaking and teaching apart from the cross, even mocking it! But folks, if there were no cross, we would still be in our sins; the payment for our sins would not have been paid. I do realize this is a hard concept to believe, that some so-called Christians would come against the cross, but folks, it is happening and the biggest but not the only proponent of this doctrine of demons is the Emerging Church.
Let me show you what I mean so you not only will understand the battle, but you will see by the time we finish this evening, the necessity of the cross. Back on December 11, 2006, Lighthouse Trails Publishing wrote this:
Some leading contemplative proponents say that a loving God would not send His son to a violent death on a Cross. Brennan Manning, in his book Above All states:
[T]he god who exacts the last drop of blood from his Son so that his just anger, evoked by sin, may be appeased, is not the God revealed by and in Jesus Christ. And if he is not the God of Jesus, he does not exist (p. 58).
Although Manning takes credit for penning these words, they are actually the words of panentheist mystic, William Shannon, from his book Silence on Fire, who wrote them several years ago. Shannon stated:
He is the God who exacts the last drop of blood from His son, so that His just anger, evoked by sin, may be appeased . . . This God does not exist. This is not the God whom Jesus Christ reveals to us” (p. 110).
What are the implications of Shannon’s statement? Basically, making someone suffer a violent death to save others is not something a loving God would do. Shannon believes such a sacrifice is unnecessary because he believes all creation (all people) are already connected to God:
The goal of all true spirituality is to achieve an awareness of our oneness with God and with all of God’s creation . . . and with all that is (p. 160).
Shannon says that we are all “contemplatives” (“mystics”) and that “God is the Hidden Ground of Love,” and we are “all one in that Ground” and “contemplative prayer [is] becoming conscious of what is already their [God]” (p. 22, 154, 160). That is why Thomas Merton said if we knew what was really inside of each other, we would fall down and worship one another – Merton’s biographer totally agreed with this.
Manning, Shannon and Merton are not the only ones who downplay the doctrine of the Cross. Alan Jones, in his book Reimagining Christianity, says that “Jesus’ sacrifice was to appease an angry God. Penal substitution was the name of this vile doctrine” (p. 168). Brian McLaren suggests that the doctrines of the Cross and of Hell are “false advertising for God.”
If it were true, that Jesus Christ suffering a violent death on the Cross was unnecessary for man to be saved, then Scripture becomes invalid for in Hebrews it says that “the Mediator [Jesus Christ] of the new covenant” had to die before the covenant could take effect (Hebrews 9). If Christ had not died a sacrificial death, the new covenant of grace would be non-existent, and there would be no means in which anyone could be saved.
Contemplative spirituality ultimately rejects the gospel message, and those who continue in its path will eventually follow after other gods and be led away from the salvation freely given to all who will believe. Henri Nouwen, one of the most prominent figures in the contemplative movement, said that Buddhism and Hinduism offered many spiritual treasures to contribute to the life of the Christian (Disciplines for Christian Living – Ryan). What do Buddhism and Hinduism offer? Panentheism (God in everything).
If Manning, Shannon, Merton, McLaren and Jones are right, then there is no need to preach the gospel to the lost, for there are no lost – they are already connected to God and they just need to be made aware of that. But if Scripture is correct, then believers are compelled to defend and preach this message that we are reconciled to God through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
- Lighthouse Trails Publishing, 12/11/06
Folks, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, PERIOD! Now, let me share with you some of the events leading up to the cross and then we will look at our text, I promise! On the Sunday before His crucifixion Jesus made His triumphant entry into Jerusalem as the Messiah, just as the Scriptures said would take place. And keep in mind that Passover was coming and 5 days prior to Passover they would inspect the lambs that would be sacrificed to see if there was any spot or blemish on the animal, disqualifying them from being sacrificed. Now, for 5 days Jesus is going to be examined to see if there was any fault in Him, but there was none, He was the perfect sacrifice!
On that Monday He cursed the fig tree and cleansed the temple from those that were dishonoring God by their corrupt practices, the moneychangers and-so-on. This is the second cleansing of the temple, the first came as Jesus began His ministry. On Tuesday He spends His last day in the temple and is challenged by the religious leaders once again.
On Wednesday evening, which at sundown to the Jew began the new day or Thursday, they shared in the Passover meal, Judas betrayed Jesus, He was then arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. After His arrest Jesus faced three religious trials. The first was before Annas, who was the previous High Priest but still remained as the power behind the scene; he was the one the people really looked to. Then Jesus went to Caiaphas who was the acting High Priest and the son-in-law of Annas. And folks, both these men were corrupt! And finally Jesus went back before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin or the Jewish religious supreme court you might say who found Him guilty of blasphemy. You see, He being a man claimed to be God and they rejected that. Thus, they sent Jesus to Pilate so He could be put to death!
Then began the civil trials before Rome or before Rome’s representatives, and once again there were three of them. The first civil trial was before Pilate and once Pilate found out Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to Herod who oversaw that region. Now Herod wanted to see Jesus do some tricks, entertain him, do some miracles and when He refused, Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate for the third religious trial you might say. And that is where we will pick-up our study this evening, in Matthew chapter 27, beginning in verse 15 and see what the Lord has for us as we gather together on this Good Friday!
Pilate knew Jesus was innocent; there was nothing he found that would condemn Him to death. But the Jewish religious leaders got the crowds stirred and they demanded that Jesus be put to death, to be crucified. Pilate, trying to get out of this mess since he already had two strikes against him with Rome and the third one would have him out of office, offered to let one of the two prisoners go, something that he offered during the feast of Passover, a good will gesture you might say. Here it was either Barabbas or Jesus!
Now Barabbas deserved this death sentence. He was a murderer. He was an insurrectionist. In fact, the name “Barabbas” means “son of the father” and I don’t believe this is speaking of his earthly father here, but his actions showed that he was of his father, the Devil! Now, on the other hand, Jesus was innocent, He committed no crime. He was not guilty at all! It is as Peter tells us in I Peter 1:18-19, “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” As much as they inspected the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, they could not find any sin, none in His life, not even blasphemy because He is God – He was the perfect sacrifice!
Now, in saying that, guess who they wanted to set free, to be released? Yes, it was Barabbas, this sinner and they wanted to put this innocent man to death, Jesus! Now we look at that and this outrages us. How could they do this? How could Pilate let this happen?
Folks, please understand this. I am not taking away the actions of Pilate or any of the people who put their stamp of approval for the crucifixion of Jesus because they are accountable for their actions. But hear me out on this. What it all comes down to is this; Jesus had to be crucified! You see, without the shedding of His blood, the perfect sacrifice, there would be no remission of sins!
Yes, two of the three crosses already had been reserved for robbers. Those men who had broken the law, they were guilty. The third cross was for Barabbas. But now there is a change. Barabbas is set free and Jesus will replace him on that third cross! Barabbas was guilty, he was condemned, but he was not executed for his crime, why? Because someone else took his place!
As mad as we may get over the injustice that was perpetrated upon Jesus and how this murderer, Barabbas was set free, please understand that the third cross, in reality was for each of us, for in our sin we are of our father, the Devil! You see, we are guilty before God, that is what Paul said in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Also, in Romans 5:12-14 Paul tells us, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned — (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.” And in Isaiah 64:6 we are told, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.”
Not only are we guilty before God, sinners separated from God, but we are condemned in our sin. Jesus said in John 3:18-20, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.” And in Mark 16:16 Jesus said, “ . . . he who does not believe will be condemned.”
Folks, like it or not, agree with me or not, here is the reality. We are guilty before God, we are condemned before God, but we are not executed or judged by God, why? Because, like Barabbas, He took our place on the cross of Calvary for us, paying in full the penalty for our sins.
You see, we deserve the judgment of God but instead of God pouring out His wrath upon us for our sins, Jesus went as the substitute and as He hung on the cross of Calvary and bore the sins of the world, He bore our judgment also! It is as Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Just as Barabbas went free, not because he was innocent, but because Jesus took his place, the same is true for us! Jesus was crucified, not because He was guilty, but He did so in that He could not only take the place of Barabbas, but He took the place of every sinner, you and me! In other words, He came to pay a debt He didn’t owe because we owe a debt we couldn’t pay! It is as simple and yet as profound as that.
A few weeks back I was talking with someone and they were reading through the book of Leviticus and having a hard time with it. This person didn’t understand all those laws, those sacrifices, the rules and regulations, what a burden, how difficult to keep. And I told this person that they did get it. That is the point!
You see, to approach a holy and righteous God you must be perfect. In Isaiah we are told, “Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken lies, Your tongue has muttered perversity.” Isaiah 59:1-3.
In other words, to approach God, to have fellowship with Him you must be perfect and we are not, our sin has separated us from Him! In fact, Jesus put it like this in John 16:8-11 as He speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”
First of all, the only sin that will keep a person out of heaven is their rejection of Jesus as their Lord and Savior, why? Because if you do not repent of your sins and receive the free gift of God that is found in Jesus, then you are still lost in your sins. Yes, you will be judged and punished in the Lake of Fire for your sins, but the reason you go into the Lake of Fire, separated from God is your sin of rejecting Jesus! It is as Paul said in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Then He speaks of righteousness, what is the righteousness that God accepts? Let me explain it like this. The word “sin” in the Greek is HAMARTIA and it was a word that spoke of missing the mark and the mark was a bull’s eye! Thus, all of us have missed the mark of perfection, none of us are righteous before God, and folks, perfection, righteousness is the only way God will accept us into His presence! How do I know that?
Because of what Jesus said, “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more.” John 16:10. You see, Jesus was accepted before the Father because He was perfect, there was no unrighteousness found in Him and thus, that is the only righteousness that God will accept, the righteousness of Christ and that can only be imputed into our lives by faith!
And lastly, apart from Christ you will be judged, just as Satan is judged. You can’t work your way into heaven, you can’t be good enough to get into heaven, all roads don’t lead to God, but as Jesus said, “ . . . ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:6. Outside of Him there is the judgment of God!
And folks, the law, the sacrifices of bull’s and ram’s and-so-on were never meant to save us but to point us to Christ. Imagine every time you sinned another sacrifice was needed; it never ended for the shed blood of these animals only covered your sin until the next time. And in the temple the sacrifices went on day-in and day-out, they never stopped and on the feasts days there were multiple sacrifices! It was laborious work, a heavy burden, it was not easy, and thus, the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 were a breath of fresh air to the Jewish people who were weighed down by these things. Jesus told them, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
You see, Jesus finished the work on the cross of Calvary, and what the law couldn’t do, cast our sins as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more, Jesus did! It is as Paul tells us in Galatians 3:19-29, “What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
In other words, the law cannot give to us life, why? Because the law only has power to expose our sin, it does not have the power to save us. The law tells us this is what God desires and it shows us how far short we come to perfection! It shows us that we are sinners before a holy and righteous God! Now some would argue they are not sinners, they are good. Think about it folks. Have you ever lied? Of course you have and that makes you a liar! Have you ever stolen anything in your life? Of course you have and that makes you a thief. Have you ever coveted someone’s possessions? Of course you have and thus you are a coveter! We can go on but you get the point, you have missed the mark!
The law was our schoolmaster that brought us to Jesus. It is not that the law is bad or evil, we are and that is the point. Thus, we need Jesus! Now, if that is true, and it is, why go back to the law when we have all that we need in life, we have everlasting life in Jesus! Paul put it this way in Galatians 2:19-21, “For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
Rembrandt has a painting of The Three Crosses, and if you were to look at this painting your attention would be drawn first to the center cross on which Jesus died. Then, as you would look at the crowd gathered around the foot of that cross, you’d be impressed by the various facial expressions and actions of the people involved in the awful crime of crucifying the Son of God. Finally, your eyes would drift to the edge of the painting and catch sight of another figure, almost hidden in the shadows. Art critics say this is a representation of Rembrandt himself, for he recognized that by his sins he helped nail Jesus to the cross. Folks, he is right, for like Barabbas who was guilty before God and yet let go for Jesus took his place, He did the same for you and me!
The tragedy is that many today negate the cross of Calvary or downplay the significance of it. Oswald Chambers put it this way, “All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, and Hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.”
I pray that this evening you have been encouraged and that you have a deeper insight into what the Lord has done for you and me, the Barabbas’s of the world! He took our place and in doing so He paid in full the penalty for our sins, enduring the wrath of God that was due us! And folk’s, having a correct perspective of the cross is vital in our outlook of things, in our relationship with God!
In Hebrews 9:24-28 we are told, “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another — He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
Please understand this. The sacrifice for our sins was made once by Christ – PERIOD! It was the just for the unjust in order that He might restore our relationship with God. Also, on the Day of Atonement the High Priest would go into the holy of holies after rigors ceremonial cleansings, to offer the sacrifices for the nation before God. Only he could enter and only once a year. And just in case he was not worthy to approach God, they would have bells on his robe and a rope around his foot, for if he was struck dead, no one wanted to go in to get him. If the bells stopped ringing, they would pull the rope and pull him out dead!
Thus, when the High Priest emerged from the presence of God the people took a big sigh of relief. Folks, our Great High Priest Jesus Christ is coming back, which tells me the sacrifice He made for us was accepted by the Father! And He is going to leave His heavenly holy of holies and return to this earth to set-up His kingdom on this earth. When Jesus comes this time He is coming apart from sin because our sin was paid for on the cross of Calvary for those who believe and receive it and He is coming this time for our salvation – we will receive the fullness of it!
In other words, “The cross cannot be defeated, for it is defeat.” That is, defeat for the enemy, for the Devil and for those who reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Folks, we are not better than anyone else, we are all Barabbas’s, we have just allowed Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins, to go to the cross for us and thus, we have received that gift of life that is only found in Him!
As I close this evening, let me share this with you to encourage you and to spur you on to preach the cross of Christ, to bring people to the foot of the cross where they can receive the forgiveness of sins. We are told:
Centuries ago on the South Coast of China, high up on a hill overlooking the harbor of Macao, Portuguese settlers built an enormous cathedral. They believed it would weather time, and they placed upon the front wall of this cathedral a massive bronze cross that stood high into the sky. Not too many years later, a typhoon came and God’s fingerwork swept away man’s handiwork, and all of that cathedral was pushed into the ocean and down the hill as debris, except the front wall and the bronze cross that stood high.
Centuries later, there was a shipwreck out a little beyond that harbor. And some died and a few lived. One of the men that was hanging onto the wreckage from the ship, moving up and down in the crest of the ocean as the swells were moving, was disoriented, frightened, and he didn’t know where land was. As he would come up on the swell, he’d spot that cross, tiny form the distance. His name was Sir John Bowring.
When he made it to land and lived to tell the story, he wrote,
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
And the last stanza.
When the woes of life o’er take me,
Hopes deceive, and fear annoy,
Never shall the cross forsake me:
Lo! It glows with peace and joy.
John Bowring is just telling us that we have a cross, we have an altar. And when all of life seems to crush in on top of us, we just need to go back to the Cross and remember the empty tomb and call to mind the fact that a Man is neither on the cross nor in the tomb, but He lives and He stands ready and able to give us victory through whatever we are going through at that time. Come by grace to the Cross and say, “That is my sufficiency. That is my only hope.”
- Kenneth Osbeck, 101 Hymn Stories
It is as Paul said in I Corinthians 1:17-18, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For 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 Amplified Bible puts these verses like this, “For Christ (the Messiah) sent me out not to baptize but [to evangelize by] preaching the glad tidings (the Gospel), and that not with verbal eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be deprived of force and emptied of its power and rendered vain (fruitless, void of value, and of no effect). For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the [manifestation of] the power of God.”
May we not lose sight of that fact and may we thank our God for loving us so much that He was willing to die for us so that we may live with Him! I will leave you this evening with these words from Thomas C. Clark. He wrote:
“Where is God?” inquired the mind:
“To His presence I am blind. . . .
I have scanned each star and sun,
Traced the certain course they run;
I have weighed them in my scale,
And can tell when each will fail;
From the caverns of the night
I have brought new worlds to light;
I have measured earth and sky
Reach each zone with steady eye;
But no sight of God appears
In the glory of the spheres.”
But the heart spoke wistfully,
“Have you looked at Calvary?”
- Thomas C. Clark