Please turn in your Bibles this evening to Luke chapter 23 as we gather together to celebrate Good Friday.  I know, that sounds kind of strange, celebrating the death of Jesus. I guess it is a kind of bittersweet celebration. Bitter in that God almighty, the creator of heaven and earth became flesh, dwelt among us to die on a cross. It is also sweet in that apart from the shedding of His blood we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins. And in this sacrificial act we see God’s tremendous love for us, for sinful man as Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”  John 3:16-17.  That is what we are celebrating this evening, God’s love for us and the work He completed on the cross of Calvary for us!

            As some of you know, my wife and I were on vacation a few weeks back and on the islands we were on they, of course, had many shops and straw markets.  In one of the stores they had some Christian tee shirts and that always interests me.  I like to see what is being advertised regarding the Christian faith and there is always something new, something different, something that reflects the days we are living in.

            One of the tee shirts that caught my eye had on it, “Jesus, Deal or no Deal?”  At first I thought that was pretty interesting until I really began to think about it. God is not hiding in some case that you have to pick and if you are lucky enough, you will find Him!  In Jeremiah 29:13 we are told, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”  You see, it is not some gamble we take and if we are lucky, there is Jesus. If we seek Him, we will find Him because He is not hiding Himself, but He wants all to see and receive Him. So I really didn’t think this was a good Christian tee shirt!

            The second shirt, I have to admit, spoke volumes to me. All it said is, “Can You Hear Me Now?” and there was a few bars, each going higher and the last one was a cross! I think that is perfect.  God is shouting to us through His creation that He is real and He has created the heavens and the earth, that there is a God!  That is natural revelation, it doesn’t save a person, but it does point them to the creator God.

            Then there is the Word of God, which shows us who God is, we call this special revelation and it is the Word of God that is opened up to us by the Spirit of God that brings us to saving faith. Paul put it like this in Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

And Peter said in I Peter 1:22-25, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.’  Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”

I truly believe, without a doubt, that God is calling out to sinful man to receive the free gift of life that is found in Jesus Christ. And one of the ways is the work that He did on Calvary, His crucifixion! The problem is that many are not listening. They have so much noise in their lives that they refuse to still their spirits and listen to His still small voice calling out to them.  Thus, I have called this study, “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?” because we will see our loving God calling out to us as He died in our place on the cross of Calvary, bearing the sins of the world!

Now, before we get to our text this evening, let me give you some background information. Jesus, as he went to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, was arrested and thus began a series of trials. First there were the three religious trials. There was one before Annas, the former high priest and yet he still had the power. The people looked to him, a kind of power behind the position now. Next he faced Caiaphas, who was the acting high priest, placed there by the Romans and he was also the son-in-law to Annas.

And lastly, Jesus comes before the Sanhedrin or what we might call the Jewish religious Supreme Court. It is here that we are told, “As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, tell us.’ But He said to them, ‘If I tell you, you will by no means believe. And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go. Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God.’ Then they all said, ‘Are You then the Son of God?’ So He said to them, ‘You rightly say that I am.’ And they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.’”  Luke 22:66-71.

Since the Jews lost the right to capital punishment, they send Jesus to Pilate for a civil trial so that Rome could put Jesus to death for them.  Jesus will have 3 civil trials. The first civil trial was before Pilate and it amounted to nothing. Pilate found not reason to put Jesus to death but as soon as he found that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to Herod, who was in town for the Passover. Pilate was trying to wash his hands from this situation and dump it into the lap of Herod!

Now this second civil trial was a joke. Herod was only interested in seeing Jesus perform for him, do some miracles. I remember when I was a kid; my mom got me in to see the play Jesus Christ Superstar. I don’t recommend this play, it is blasphemous, but at that time, I was not saved and did not know better.   But what Herod sang in that play I think nailed it.  This is what he was saying:

            What a sad state of affairs for Herod and yet, many feel that way today. They think of Jesus as some kind of magic genie and when they don’t get what they want, they toss Jesus away, they basically say, “Get out of my life!”  And for Herod, he sends Jesus back to Pilate and he wants Pilate to deal with Him.

            Now, His third and final civil trial was before Pilate who once again found Jesus innocent of breaking any Roman law and yet, the power of the people caused him to give in and send Jesus to His death by crucifixion. Now, after being tortured, beaten, scourged or a brutal whipping that left many dead after this torture, Jesus will carry His cross to Calvary. That is where we will pick up our story this evening, in Luke chapter 23, starting in verse 26 as we look at the love of God for sinful man and the question He brings to us, “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”

            In our day and age we tend to lose the perspective of what crucifixion was all about. We tend to wear necklaces of a cross like some kind of good luck charm. Folks, the cross spoke of death, a painful, excruciating, and inhumane death. The closest thing we have today would be an executioner’s chair, which also meant death.  Thus, today if we wore an executioner’s chair as a charm, it would speak the same idea as a cross.  We will look at what Jesus went through in a few minutes, but for now, let’s review these verses we read this evening and expound on them.

VERSE 26-27

            Keep in mind that Jesus is severely weakened from the torture that He has received.  He probably lost a lot of blood secondary to the scourging that He received. And now they have Him carry this wooden cross beam, part of the cross that He would be shortly nailed to, and it weighted some 75 to 125 pounds!

            As Jesus was being lead to Calvary or Golgotha, meaning, “the place of the skull,” He can’t go any further and the Roman soldiers compelled Simon to carry the cross for Jesus the rest of the way. Interestingly enough Simon was from North Africa, a Cyrenian, who traveled some 800 miles to celebrate the Passover and now he has an encounter with the Passover Lamb, Jesus Christ who has come to take away the sins of the world, not just cover them for a time!

            Now keep in mind that Simon did not come to meet Jesus, but to celebrate the Passover and yet, look at what God did!  You see, Simon got saved; he believed Jesus was the Lamb of God who came to take away not only his sins but also the sins of the world! How do I know that for sure?  Because, in Mark 15:21 we are told, “Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross.”  And in Romans 16:13 we are told, “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.”  You see, I believe not only did Simon get saved, but also his family and some became leaders in the early church!

            Some of you this evening may have come here to celebrate this feast you might say, but I pray that if Jesus is not your Lord and Savior, that you would come to know Him as such. That you would leave as Simon did, saved by the grace of God and not just embracing the feast, but embracing Jesus Christ!

            Tragically, there were many people following Jesus to Golgotha, watching Him as He made His way up, lining the streets as Jesus and these other 2 criminals were also being lead to their death. And for most, it was just a show for them, they never received what Simon received, eternal life with Jesus!

VERSES 28-31

            As you read this you would think Jesus was in control of the situation, and you know what, He was! The Jews did not crucify Jesus, nor did the Romans, but Jesus freely gave His life for us!  And as He looked at the women weeping for Him, He told them to weep for themselves because of what is about to transpire in their lives!

            You see, back in Luke 19:42-44, as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem as the Messiah the King, as foretold by the prophets and Daniel prophesied this to the exact day, Jesus said, “ . . . ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’”

            And that is exactly what happened in 70 AD as Titus and the Romans came in and killed millions of Jews and burned the temple to the ground. And this was all the result of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah. And Jesus concludes this by saying if He, being the green tree or innocent had all this done to Him, imagine what is going to happen to the guilty or the dry wood, what will happen to them!  Obviously it was not good and you can read of the destruction that Rome brought upon them in The Wars of the Jews Book 7 by the historian Josephus, and the destruction was devastating as Jesus said it would be!

VERSES 32-33

            Calvary or the place of the skull was not some burial ground where skulls were seen, but it is the face of a skull that is cut into the rock. I have been to Calvary and I have seen this skull face in the rock and just above this skull is Calvary, where Jesus was crucified, along with the other 2 criminals that were put to death that day.

            Now the Catholic Church believes that Calvary is located within the city limits, the city gates and has built a church there called the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, but I don’t believe this is the place. Not because I say so but Paul tells us in Hebrews 13:12, “Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.”  Thus, Calvary was located outside the city gates, next to the Garden Tomb!

            Today, the area by Calvary is a bus stop and many people come and go not even seeing or thinking about what took place there some 2,000 years ago.  And today, people all over the world are busy running to and fro; they are so busy that they totally miss what the Lord has done for them, especially on this day!

VERSE 34

            I don’t know about you but at this point, if they were doing this to me, I would be calling fire down from heaven and toasting them, and not with a drink if you get what I mean! But now our Lord, He forgave them and that is the kind of love God wants us to extend to others. The same love He extends to us, unconditional love!

            Now, from the cross of Calvary Jesus cried out seven sayings and here they are in the order I believe they were spoken.

            “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  Luke 23:34

God demonstrates what true love is all about, not based upon feelings, but upon an act

of our will, it is a choice we make and it is not dependent upon the circumstances.  Jesus reminds us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” May we have that kind of love, filled with forgiveness!

            “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43

Some struggle with this one as Jesus speaks to one of these thieves on the cross because He has not died and rose from the grave yet, so how can this man be with Jesus in Paradise? I believe that anywhere a person is with Jesus is Paradise and once Jesus did rise from the dead, this man was with Him and He did go to heaven. Until that time, he was with Jesus in Hell those 3 days and 3 nights being comforted in Abraham’s bosom.

            “Woman, behold your son!” “Behold your mother!” John 19:25-27

Jesus entrusted His mother into the care of the apostle John and not His own brothers and sisters, why?  Because at this point they were not believers yet, it was only after His death and resurrection that they did believe. Thus, John was to care for her, he was a believer!

            “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46

As the sins of the world were placed upon Jesus the Father broke fellowship with the Son, the only time in eternity past and eternity future that this would occur. I don’t think we get the full impact of this, but Jesus cried out in agony over this separation and I believe that this was His struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, not the physical pain but the separation from God the Father!

            “I thirst!”  John 19:28

This thirst, was it physical? It could be as He was dehydrated, but I also see it as a spiritual thirst. That the fellowship with the Father was broken and now He thirsted for that relationship once again, He wanted it restored!

            “It is finished!” John 19:30

The words, “paid in full” or TETELESTAI speak of the work of our salvation was paid in full. He completed the work for us. Paul, in Colossians 2:13-14 tells us, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

This “handwriting of requirements” was the debt a person owed and the debt of sin condemned us to Hell, it “was against us.”  And God has come, taken all our sins, nailed them to the cross, and they are completely taken away, and the paper which contained all our debts has written on it TETELESTAI or paid in full!  But what about this sin or that sin?  TETELESTAI!  Jesus completed the work for us and all we must do is receive the free gift by faith!

            “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Luke 23:46

No one took the life of Jesus, but He freely gave it for us so that we can have fellowship with God the Father!

VERSES 35-37

            They continue to mock this beaten and bloodied man who hung on the cross for them. For three years He did miracles before them showing them that He is their Messiah and they rejected Him, they still didn’t believe and now they are asking for more miracles. They still won’t believe and Jesus knew that, it was a matter of the heart not just head knowledge!

VERSE 38

            Maybe Pilate was getting back at the Jews for making him crucify Jesus but for whatever reason, He places this sign above Jesus showing that He is King, not only of the Jews, but of this world and one day He will rule and reign from Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom!

VERSES 39-41

            Keep in mind that at first both of these criminals were mocking Jesus, but at one point one of them looks into the eyes of Jesus and his heart is broken and he receives Jesus into his life, he is saved! How do I know this for sure? Look at the next few verses.

VERSES 42-43

That is the reason Jesus came, to save sinners!  Now I want you to take note of this.  Two sinners before Jesus, each with an equal opportunity to receive the gift of life, both were close to death, both were sinners, and yet only one turned to Jesus, Why?  Man has a choice to make and the same is true today. You can either accept Jesus or reject Him, but by your actions there will be consequences. The one who came to Jesus entered into eternal life with Him, the one who rejected Jesus entered eternal life apart from Him in Hell and ultimately in the Lake of Fire.

            Listen carefully to what Charles R. Erdman had to say regarding this man’s salvation and ultimately our own.  He said:

            This story reveals the truth to us that salvation is conditioned upon repentance and faith.  However, it contains other important messages also.  It declares that salvation is independent of sacraments. The thief had never been baptized, nor had he partaken of the Lord’s Supper . . . He did in fact boldly profess his faith in the presence of a hostile crowd and amid the taunts and jeers of rulers and soldiers, yet he was saved without any formal rites.  It is further evident that salvation is independent of good works . . . It is also seen that there is no “sleep of the soul.” The body may sleep, but consciousness exists after death. Again it is evident that there is no “purgatory.” 

Out of a life of sin and shame, the penitent robber passed immediately into a state of blessedness.  Again it may be remarked that salvation is not universal. There were two robbers; only one was saved.  [That is each had a choice to make, to either accept Jesus or reject Him.  All have the same opportunity].  Last of all it may be noted that the very essence of the joy which lies beyond death consists in personal communion with Christ. The heart of the promise to the dying thief was this: “Thou shalt be with me.” This is our blessed assurance, that to depart is “to be with Christ” which is “very far better.”

                                           - William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary, p. 1456

VERSE 44-45

            The sixth hour was 12 noon, and for the next three hours darkness covered the land as Jesus bore the sins of the world for us. 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.”  He took our sins and received the wrath that was due us and we received His righteousness into our life!

Also keep in mind that in the temple, it was time for the priests to offer the evening sacrifices and as they were doing this we are told that the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom signifying that God opened this veil.  This veil was some 18 inches thick and it separated man from God, the holy place from the holy of holies where the ark was and the presence of God dwelt.  Ripping this veil showed that man could now come before God through Jesus Christ, he did not have to go through the priest. 

You see, it was only the High Priest who could enter the holy of holies and only once a year, on Yon Kippur, after a rigorous ceremonial cleansing.  But now Jesus has taken down that curtain and we can come before God, not in our own righteousness, but His!  It is as Paul said in Romans 5:1-2, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

            It is because of what Jesus has done for us that we can boldly come before the Father, we can enter the holy of holies through Jesus as Paul tells us in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  But apart from Christ, we can’t approach a holy and righteous God in our own righteousness, which is like filthy rags before Him!  And folks, that is what this day is truly about, the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary for our sins!

VERSE 46

            Once again, and this is important, no one took his life, He freely gave it for us. In John 10:18 Jesus reminds us of this as He said, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”  You see, Jesus gave up His life when the work was finished, when the debt was paid in full!

            Before we finish up the last verse this evening, let me share with you what crucifixion was all about so you can understand what our Lord did for us and in it you will see how much He loves us. This information is from Dr. C. Truman Davis and He tells us:

The crucifixion began.  Jesus was offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic, pain-reliving mixture.  He refused the drink.  Simon was ordered to place the patibulum on the ground, and Jesus was quickly thrown backward, with His shoulders against the wood.  The legionnaire felt for the depression at the front of the wrist.  He drove a heavy, square wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood.  Quickly, he moved to the other side and repeated the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement.  The patibulum was then lifted into place at the top of the stipes, and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" was nailed into place.

The left foot was pressed backward against the right foot.  With both feet extended, toes down, a nail was driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed.  The victim was now crucified.

            As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrist, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain.  The nails in the wrists were putting pressure on the median nerve, large nerve trunks which traverse the mid-wrist and hand.  As He pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He placed His full weight on the nail through His feet.  Again there was searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of his feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurred.  As the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps swept over the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain.  With these cramps came the inability to push Himself upward.  Hanging by the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act.  Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled.  Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath.  Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided.

            Spasmodically, He was able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.  It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences that are recorded.

He suffered hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue was torn from His lacerated back from His movement up and down against the rough timbers of the cross.  Then another agony began: a deep crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, slowly filled with serum and began to compress the heart.

The prophecy in Psalm 22:14 was being fulfilled:  "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels."

The end was rapidly approaching.  The loss of tissue fluids had reached a critical level; the compressed heart was struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood to the tissues, and the tortured lungs were making a frantic effort to inhale small gulps of air.  The markedly dehydrated tissues sent their flood of stimuli to the brain.  Jesus gasped His fifth cry: "I thirst."  Again we read in the prophetic psalm: "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death" (Psalm 22:15 KJV).

A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine that was the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, was lifted to Jesus' lips.  His body was now in extremis, and He could feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues.  This realization brought forth His sixth word, possibly little more than a tortured whisper: "It is finished."  His mission of atonement had completed.  Finally, He could allow His body to die.  With one last surge of strength, He once again pressed His torn feet against the nail, straightened His legs, took a deeper breath, and uttered His seventh and last cry: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."

            The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the leg.  This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest, and rapid suffocation occurred.  The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers approached Jesus, they saw that this was unnecessary.

Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart.  John 19:34 states, "And immediately there came out blood and water."  Thus there was an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart and the blood of the interior of the heart.  This is rather conclusive post-mortem evidence that Jesus died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

- Dr. C. Truman Davis A Physician Analyzes the Crucifixion, A medical explanation of what Jesus endured on the day He died

            Jesus died of a broken heart! Folks, that is how much God loves us, He went through all that not because we deserved it, but purely out of love! Thus, the question of Jesus to you this evening is this, “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”  For one soldier, here is his response to the question, “So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, ‘Certainly this was a righteous Man!’”  Luke 23:47.  I pray that you, like this centurion hear the voice of Jesus, you see His love for you and you receive that free gift of life that is only found in Him.  All you need to do is pray this little prayer, “Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I come to you asking you to forgive me my sins and to be Lord in my life. I believe by faith that you have forgiven my sins and that you are Lord of my life. Thank you Lord for your love and forgiveness. Thank you for saving me. Amen.”  Welcome to the family of God if you have made that prayer here this evening.  See me afterwards and I will get you some materials to help you grow in the Lord!

            If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, if you are saved, may you leave here rejoicing in all He has done for you, that you may leave here changed by His love, growing in Him. Remember what Paul said, and this is from the Living Bible, “For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God's goodness into us!”  “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?”