CRUCIFIED TO DEATH
#485 CRUCIFIED TO DEATH
Scripture John 19:13-22 Orig. Date 4/14/1968
Rewr. Dates 3/14/1991
Passage: 13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). 14 It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews. 15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
The Crucifixion of Jesus
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Purpose: In a series on Christ’s nature for Easter, point to His death as an essential criterion.
Keywords: Christ/Death Easter Crucifixion
Timeline/Series: Nature of Christ
Introduction
Dr. James Stewart, noted New Testament scholar, writes of the resurrection of Jesus, “Not one line of the New Testament was written . . . not one sentence, whether of Gospels, Epistles, Acts, or Apocalypse, was penned apart from the conviction that He of whom these things were being written had conquered death and was alive forevermore.”
For the present, however, we must deal with, not His resurrection, but His death. Easter cannot reach us at all if we do not pass through the burdensome stage of crucifixion and death.
Death, of course, touches all of us. We want to make light of it as often as we can. I read about a West Texas rancher who went to his local undertaker to make arrangement for his burial when the time came. “I want to be buried in my trusty old pick-up truck,” he said. Well, the funeral director saw the difficulties and tried to talk him out of such a notion. “It’s like this,” said the rancher, “I ain’t never seen a hole that truck couldn’t get me out of.”
Then I read about the Louisville, KY, woman whose husband was a retired electrician. The local priest made arrangements for him to repair an electrical shortage in one of the confessionals. He would have to crawl across the rafters in the highest and least protected part of the church. She decided to be on hand if anything went wrong. She was sitting in a pew below the work space. Congregants entered the back part of the building for a special mass. Unaware of the presence of the other people, and concerned because she was hearing no sound, she called out, “Sam, Sam, . . . are you up there? Did you make it okay?” [The people in the mass] hear a voice answer back, “I am doing fine, Christine. Stop worrying!”
I. First, Consider the Covenant and the Cross. V19 “And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.
Pilate, an enemy of the covenant, calls Jesus King. I remind you, it was not done in faith. This was a man of evasive action. Don’t do anything if you can help it. The Jews: “Take Him yourselves.” Herod’s jurisdiction: sent Him back.
Pilate: “I find no fault.” But then he would beat Him, a faultless man. Then he brought up Barabbas. Did Pilate really think the Jews would fall for that? Vengeance, not justice. Finally, Pilate tries to blame others for his own irresponsibility. “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.”
Such people are all around us. Pretending that they are beyond the claims of the gospel. Blaming others for their own sins.
Interestingly, the people of the covenant disclaim His sovereignty. John 19:13 “he maketh himself . . . king.” Mark 15:15f “purple, . . . crown of thorns, . . . Hail king.”
But it was his message to which they objected. Matthew 3:7 He called the Pharisees and Sadducees “generation of vipers.” He accused religious leaders of being hypocrites. Matthew 23:13. Matthew 10:38 “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me.”
Faith was a volatile commodity. They who believed, believed the more strongly because of the covenant. The Messiah had come to them. They disbelieved, crucified. Their hands were stained with the sin that wrought His death. How about your hands, and mine? Only the hypocrites see themselves as guiltless.
II. [SUBTITLE LOST]
V16, “Then delivered he him unto them to be crucified.” Most significant were the occupants of the other two crosses. “They crucified him, and two others with him.” On those two crosses were the prototypes of all who would pass by. One would find in Jesus a source of strength. He would die with Jesus, But it would be remorseful, repentant, forgiven. To the other Jesus was an anomaly. He was no more dead than the other. But it was an angry, accusing, hopeless death. It was also a Christless death.
L. Wade spoke of a lady at nursing home who asked about ______ Prison—“Why would a man die without the Lord?” Does it concern us that there are others all around us who know the Lord?
Speaking of crowds, there was a Roman Legion there that day as well. They wanted to think that they were in charge. Doing the procurator’s (Caesar’s) bidding. Punishment meted out by the book.
But this is God’s doing, and “is wondrous to behold.” Psalm 72:18 “Blessed be the Lord God, . . . who only doeth wondrous things.”
Jerry Clower tells about Uncle Versie Ledbetter and his mule named Della. She fell in a cistern (reservoir for rain water). Tried to get Della out. Finally, rather than see her starve, he’d bury her there. But every time he threw in a load of dirt, she shook it off, stomped on it, [CLIMBED on it], and waited for the next load.
Whether you understand the crucifixion or not, it’s the means of God’s choosing, to deal with our sin. You can’t help Jesus bear that cross. But it’s foolhardy to think that it is no more than man’s work.
III. Lastly, We Examine Christ and the Cross. V17 “And He bearing His cross went fort into a place . . . called . . . Golgotha.”
You will note that it was a cross of commitment to the will of God. RSV and NEB both translate “his own cross.” It was expected that His followers would show evidence of their commitment. “If you were accused of being a Christian, is there enough evidence to convince you?” Where between 6 and 8 tonight? Last Wednesday at 6:30, four deacons for mission emphasis. When was the last time you did something/anything for Jesus’ sake?
It was a cross meaning pain and suffering. It was so in the ultimate sense with Jesus. The disciples were affected by the crucifixion as by nothing else. Remember Stewart: “Not one line of the New Testament . . . not one sentence , . . . was penned apart from the conviction . . . that He had conquered death and was alive forevermore.” How does the crucifixion touch and change your life? The lives of those around you?
But leave here this morning remembering that it was a cross of glory.
“In the old rugged cross stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ‘twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
To the old rugged cross I will ever be true,
Its shame and reproach gladly bear.
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.”
Conclusion
Listen to Donald Miller in The People of God. “The sentimentalized Jesus of our time is not one before whom men of our time would fall on their faces, and certainly, He would frighten away no devils! He is one whom nobody would crucify, and for whom, few, if any, would be willing to die. He could not have brought the church into being, nor could He have sustained it through all the tortuous course of the long centuries.” Which Jesus do you follow?