[0:00] paid attention you will know that this is the third message which we've had from the 27th chapter of Matthew and we will not reach the end of it this morning. And that's because as we had said originally when we came to this point we want to slow down just a little bit and make sure that we're soaking in all that is to be brought in from the gospel. Because if you remember and you have to be sure to anytime you go into a portion of scripture that you do this you always want to read the word of God in context. Now in context it literally means you need to see who wrote it, why they wrote it, who they were writing it to and kind of their main idea and their central focus.
[0:32] That's a lot to do. This is when we study the word not just read the word. And if you remember one of the key things because it continues to carry its theme throughout the gospel and helps us to understand passages in light of the realities that we see is that Jesus is the king of kings in the gospel of Matthew. He's the king of kings. In the book of Mark he is the son of God and there's a reason for that. He is the son of man in the gospel of Luke and he has no genealogy because he is God in the gospel of John. But he's the king of kings in the gospel of Matthew. That's how he's presented.
[1:10] And this is where we begin to get the full four-dimensional view of who Christ is when we read the entirety of the gospels. But we say that because we come to the place as we are this morning, the crucifixion in particular. While Isaiah speaks of a suffering servant, and then we read in the gospel of Mark that the son of God was crucified. In the gospel of Luke, the son of man is crucified. Here in the gospel of Matthew, the king is crucified. It is the suffering king, which seems to be kind of an oxymoron, if you will. Because if he is the king of kings and he is the lord of lords, and he is, then there really is no reason for his suffering. But we see it being very clearly portrayed for us in the 27th chapter of Matthew, the suffering of the king. Our text this morning will be verses 27 through 44 in the 27th chapter of Matthew. If you are physically able and desire to do so, I'm asking if you will join with me as we stand together and we read the word of God found in Matthew chapter 27, starting in the 27th verse and going down to the 44th verse. If you remember, Jesus has just taken the place of a notorious robber named Barabbas. Barabbas has been handed over, set free.
[2:41] Pilate has asked, what do you want me to do with your king, who is called Jesus the Christ? And they said, crucify him. So the 26th verse says, so Pilate handed him over to be crucified. We pick it up in the 27th verse. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand. And they knelt down before him and mocked him saying, hell, King of the Jews. They spat on him and took the reed and began to beat him on the head. After they had mocked him, they took the scarlet robe off him and put his own garments back on him and led him away to crucify him. As they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear his cross. And when they came to the place called
[3:41] Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall. And after tasting it, he was unwilling to drink. And when they had crucified him, they divided up his garments among themselves by casting lots. And sitting down, they began to keep watch over him there. And above his head, they put up the charge against him, which read, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. At that time, two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes and the elders were mocking him and saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel. Let him come down now, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now. If he delights in him, for he said, I am the son of God. The robbers who had been crucified with him were also insulting him with the same words. Let's pray.
[4:53] Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you that we can come together as your people. We can come, we can take a break from our lives. We have the opportunity to read the word and to hear the word. God, we know that it is the word alone that can drastically and dramatically impact our lives for your glory. So Lord, as we have read this portion of scripture, we pray now, God, that you would speak to our hearts and minds, that you would open up the truth of it, that you would help it to see clearly that we may see ourselves better. Lord, I pray that as you open up the word, that you would also open us to open up our hearts, open up our minds. Lord, may our lives be conformed to your image for your glory. Lord, we pray that it is the truth of scripture which resonates in this place and not the thoughts or the opinions of man.
[5:47] Lord, we thank you for the opportunity. We thank you for the text. And Lord, we thank you for what you're going to do in the next few moments as you speak to your people. We stand and we say, here we are, oh God, speak to us. We ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated.
[6:09] Here we begin to see the suffering of the king. We could accurately say it is his suffering continued. Because if you remember, Pilate took him and had him scourged. And I encourage you as you read the word of God, not just to pass over the scourging of Christ. Because the scourging was possibly the most physically suffering, physical suffering that he would endure. It was the most painful of all of the events that took place. It was the whipping of his back, the shredding of his skin, probably the exposing of sinews, ligaments, muscles, and even bone. It is the ripping apart of his flesh.
[6:51] It is the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy in Isaiah 53 and 54 that he would be beaten beyond recognition. That is his scourging. Here we begin to see the continued suffering and really we see the crucifixion. We see the crucifixion taking place. We will take our time and make our way through the remainder of the 27th chapter if the Lord allows us to. And we will see what happens on the cross. We will see his death. We will see his burial. And then praise be to God if he continues and allows us to continue in this life. We get to the 28th chapter. We see the resurrection. We know where it's going.
[7:29] We see where it's pointing to. But in the moments, now the disciples are gone. Everyone has forsaken him. Peter has already denied him. Judas has already taken his own life. All are away from him. The multitudes have cried out for his crucifixion. Those who had proclaimed, Hosanna, blesses he who comes in the name of the Lord. Those who had proclaimed his goodness now have cried out for his death. Pilate is through with it. He's washed his hands of it. He's handed him over to the soldiers after being scourged, after being beaten. And the mockeries and the suffering continues here.
[8:05] And we see the crucifixion in general. We see it happening in practice. That which Jesus had spoken of ever since Matthew 16, the 16th verse where he declares for the first time based upon the testimony of Peter where Peter says, you are the Christ, the Son of God. And based upon that profession, Jesus declares for the first time that he will die. He knows that reality. And now everything has come about. The fulfillment has come. This is the time of the crucifixion. This is the time of his suffering. We see three great truths which resonate throughout this suffering. Three things which should speak to us in reality. And again, we dare not separate these from who Mark or Matthew has held him up to be accurately. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the man with the right genealogy. Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus Christ all the way back to David. He traces him back to David in particular and then some. He goes all the way back. But he includes David. He shows us that he has the right genealogy to set upon the throne. He shows us that he is the one who was set upon the throne of David for all of eternity. He declares to us in his works and in his miraculous deeds. He is not just the King of Israel, the King of the Jews. He is the King of all. The things which torment men, the things which bother men, the things which man has no control over. Jesus has absolute sway and absolute control. He literally treads upon the things which scares us the most. We see here that he is who he claimed to be through the works that testify to that. And now we have come to this place that he who has testified to the reality, he who has proclaimed the truth, he who has healed the multitudes, fed the hungry, clothed the naked. He who has raised the dead now is going to suffer.
[9:56] And we see his suffering. His suffering was necessary, but not for his sake. His suffering was needed, but not because of something that he did. His suffering is essential, not because of what he gained from it, but because of who we are. The first thing we notice is the mocking he faced.
[10:23] The mocking he faced. Matthew tells us that when Pilate handed him over, that he was taken into the praetorium, that is the royal palace. You will remember the praetorium because Paul was once imprisoned in the praetorium. More than likely, when Paul wrote that great passage about putting on the whole armor of God, he is sitting in the praetorium being guarded by a Roman soldier. And as he looks at this Roman soldier, he looks at his helmet, his breastplate, his swords, his feet, his loins being girded, and the shield of faith. He looks at all these things. He gives the great picture of being fully armored, putting on the armor of God. Well, those praetorium guards at one time had also played another, another important role in the crucifixion of the king. Because it says that Pilate handed him over to the soldiers, and they took him into the praetorium, and the whole Roman cohort gathered together around him. And as they gathered together around him, they began to play a game which they enjoyed playing, and it was a game of mockery. It was a game of asserting one's authority over a weak individual. It was a game of belittling an individual. So they took his clothes off of him, barely hanging on him, I'm sure at this point. He had already been stripped once, because when you are scourged, you are also stripped. And then they re-clothed him, and they strip him again.
[11:46] And they put a royal robe of royal purple upon him, and they twist together a crown of thorns, and they press that crown of thorns in his brow. They put a reed in his hand, and they begin to bow down in mockery, and mock him and say, Hail to the king of the Jews. Adrian Rogers preached a great sermon on that crown that was pressed into his brow. He spoke of the reality that they did it in mockery, but it holds a great reality. It is a crown of suffering. It's a crown of shame. It's a crown of redemption, because blood was shed with the pressing end of that crown. But yet they mock him, and after mocking him and hitting him on the head to ensure that he goes in, then they take the robe off of him, they put his clothes back on him, and they lead him away. So we have the Roman cohort mocking him. And then it says the people who were passing by his cross, because crucifixion was a very public display. As a matter of fact, when they did crucifixions, they did it intentionally beside public roads. And they did it on roads in which a number of people would walk beyond or walk past, and they would hang the sign up there so that everyone would know this is why this individual is being crucified. They would put your declared guilt above your head, and they would hang it up there so that when passerbys would go down the road on their way to Jerusalem, they would see the price of the crime, and they would understand, here's the crime, here's the price, there's the individual being crucified. And they took him to a place, and it says, and everyone that was passing by were wagging their heads and mocking him. So now we have the soldiers mocking him. We have the multitude of the public mocking him. And it says, and in the same way, the Pharisees with the scribes and the elders joined in in mocking him. So now you have the Roman cohorts. You have the individuals walking down the road.
[13:44] You have the religious leaders and the community leaders, the Pharisees, the scribes, and the elders mocking him. And then finally, it tells us in the 44th verse, and the two robbers that were crucified with him joined in the same way, saying the same thing, mocking him. Look at the mocking he endured.
[14:10] The political power of the Roman cohorts, the general public of people walking down the road, the religious and community leaders of the nation of Israel, and even those guilty of crimes fitting of death. In general, we could say everybody mocked him. His mocking was brought upon by each and every one of them. Friend, let's just be honest. There are times in our life and our practice when we mock the one who's hanging on the cross. Before we came to Christ, before we come to a true understanding of who our Lord and Savior is, we mock him because he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. We mock him by thinking that we can live however we want to live and do whatever we want to do and behave however we want to behave, and there's no one over us. We mock him in our words, we mock him in our actions, and we mock him in our thoughts. All have mocked this individual who's hanging on the cross. But the truth is, I mean the truth is that there's nothing in this man worthy of the mockery of any who are giving it to him. I mean think of it. He is absolutely 100% perfect.
[15:41] There's no sin. There's no shame. There's no guilt. There's no wrongdoing. It says a bruised reed he will not break. He is gentle and lowly, yet strength to the highest level. He controls that which overpowers man, yet in his action he undercuts none. There's nothing in him worthy of the mockery he deserves because the truth is, that's our mockery. The truth is, is that if we were as opened and exposed as he is right here, everyone who passed by us would mock us too. If people knew us as we know ourselves.
[16:34] But yet he endures the mocking. Second, look at the misery that he took.
[16:51] The misery that he took. It says, and when he brought him to this place, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall. Again, it's another one of those phrases which we read when we read the gospel of counsel. So many times we don't think much of it until we stop to read it. And it says that they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall. And after tasting it, he refused it. Now we need to go ahead and assert here that Jesus didn't taste it and say, oh, I don't want that just because it didn't taste good. We need to understand that wine mixed with gall was giving to numb the pain of crucifixion.
[17:22] It was a numbing agent of the misery and the pain that was about to take place. It was something that was given to make the pain kind of go away.
[17:34] So that you didn't have to feel the full brunt of everything that was about to come upon you. It was, if we had to say it, though the Romans were probably some of the most brutal leaders of all time in all society, the practices which they did throughout history are atrocious. And we see it going other ways.
[17:52] It is at least some show of compassion that though we're about to do this to you, we'll give you something to kind of take the edge off. But yet when we read the verse, it says that Jesus tasted it and denied it.
[18:05] Which shows us that he didn't even drink that which would numb the pain he was about to endure. Now, to me, that's astounding. To me, that's astounding because here he is, the perfect one, the king of kings and lord of lords, being offered an opportunity to bypass the pain of my suffering.
[18:31] Being offered an opportunity to be numbed the misery of the misery that I deserve. Knowing in reality that he is sinless and perfect.
[18:43] He who laid aside his glory and stepped into what we call our world. He laid aside the glory of heaven and took on the flesh of humanity.
[18:54] There are some people throughout church ages that will tell you that when this boy, Jesus, was born, he was a regular boy. He was just a boy that grew up in the flesh and he was raised in the right home.
[19:06] And there are some people that will tell you that it is at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist when it says, the spirit descended and lighted upon him. That that was the time that the spirit of God overcame the man, Jesus.
[19:18] And then the spirit of God dwelt inside the body of the man, Jesus. And those same people will tell you that when it comes to the cross, that when it came time for the crucifixion, that the spirit of God departed from the body of Jesus so that that's a man hanging on the cross.
[19:33] Now, friend, listen to me. That is a lie from the pits of hell. I hate to say it any other way, but that's exactly what it is because you're trying to remove the supernatural from the natural and you're trying to remove the magnificent from the wonderful and you're trying to remove God from the cross.
[19:46] But that is God on the cross. That is he who is perfect. That is he who is blameless. And that is he who endures my pain and my suffering and will not take anything to numb it. We need to understand that.
[19:59] It is God in the flesh hanging on the cross feeling it. Feeling it. He didn't numb it.
[20:15] He took no shortcuts around it. He felt it. And when we pause and comprehend that reality that all of the pain, all of the misery, all of the suffering that is due us is intimately known to him.
[20:43] Friend, listen to me. There's no pain, no suffering, no misery we will ever endure that he does not know. The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews that he has suffered in every way yet without sin.
[20:57] That he has been tempted in every way yet without sin. That he has endured it for our sake. See, he felt it for us because he knew that he needed to take the full weight of our suffering and the full weight of our misery.
[21:13] There was a time at the very beginning of his ministry, even before the public ministry began that Jesus could have bypassed the cross. When Jesus is in the wilderness, you remember when he's being tempted, it says that he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and for 40 days he was fasted and being tempted and for 40 days the temptation's coming and going and then we read of those three pinnacle temptations and one of those temptations we read where Satan comes and says, if you will bow down to me, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world.
[21:41] He showed him all the kingdoms of the world. He says, if you bow down to worship me, I will give you all the kingdoms. Jesus says, I'm not going to worship you because the Bible says you shall worship the Lord your God alone. You need to understand what Satan was offering was a way around the suffering because the kingdoms of the world do belong to Jesus because he's conquered the greatest enemy that man ever faces which is death, hell, and the grave.
[22:05] The kingdoms of the world do belong to him now because he died and was buried and came back to life and when he came back to life, the Bible says he took with him the keys of death.
[22:16] The kingdoms of the world do belong to him because he ascended and set up on a throne in which the world became his footstool and the last time I checked, whatever you put your feet upon, you also own, right, you possess it because it belongs to you.
[22:31] The kingdoms of the world are his now but they weren't then and what Satan was offering was a way around the cross and Jesus says, I'm not going to bypass the cross, I'm going to go get the kingdoms of the world through the cross and when he went through the cross he didn't even numb the pain because he wanted to fill our suffering.
[22:51] We look at the misery that was placed upon him and then we read and then they crucified him. Then they crucified him. No matter how painful life gets, no matter how much we endure, no matter what it is we go through, we have a Savior who knows.
[23:12] We have a Savior who knows. And the third thing we see in the suffering king is not only the mockery he faced, the misery he endured, number three, we see the message he proclaimed.
[23:28] You see the message he proclaimed. Now we know there are seven great sayings of Christ from the cross. The Lord allows us to next week we'll get to those seven great sayings.
[23:38] But here we don't see any of them in this passage and you say, well pastor, he didn't say anything. He didn't do anything. Which message are you talking about? And you're absolutely right.
[23:51] We see here that as the mockings come, people are ridiculing him, shaking their head at him and they keep repeating this refrain. It says, if you are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself.
[24:07] And if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. And then the chief priests and the elders and the scribes said, he saved others but he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel.
[24:18] Let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now. If he delights in him for he said, I am the son of God. The refrain is, save yourself, save yourself, save yourself.
[24:30] Come down from the cross. Now we know as they're crucifying Jesus, Jesus uttered this great statement, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. He did that as they were mocking him, beating him and crucifying him.
[24:47] But the greatest message he proclaims is he does nothing. As a lamb is silent before the slaughter, so Jesus remains silent.
[25:03] Make no mistake about it, at any moment he could have come down from the cross. At any moment he could have overpowered. Even in the ravages of his body he could have.
[25:18] If he is powerful enough to walk out of the tomb after being dead for three days, surely he's strong enough to come down from the cross. See, all three members of the Trinity are attributed to the resurrection of Christ.
[25:31] It says that he was raised by the Father, says that he was raised by the Spirit, but also says he raised himself. He is the fullness of God. And if that is God on the cross, and it is, then at any moment he could have come down.
[25:47] And if the Father was pleased with him, and he was, at any moment the Father could have intervened and taken him down. Jesus says he could have called for help and twelve legions of angels would have come down in the garden.
[25:59] How many more do you think would have came down on the hill of Calvary? See, we understand that he could have done everything people were mocking him not to do. He could have saved himself, but the greatest message proclaimed is he did not save himself because your salvation and my salvation was worth it.
[26:20] The greatest message proclaimed is that he would not do for himself what he was doing for you and I. in all of our sin and all of our shame and all of our failure and all of our mess-ups and all of our mistakes and all of our high-handed I know who you are but I'm going to do it anyway and all of our actions and all of our humanity.
[26:49] Friend, listen to me. The fact that he doesn't come down says one thing. we are worth it. He didn't have to.
[27:05] He didn't need to for his own sake. We needed him to. And the message being clearly proclaimed through his silence is he's willing to do it because we're worth it.
[27:20] who for the joy set before him endured the cross. You know what the joy is? Not just that he gets to go back to the Father because he can go back to the Father at any time.
[27:34] It's that he gets to lead others to the Father. Sometimes I think we forget it that we're worth it. Sometimes I think we fail to grasp the reality that we're worth it.
[27:51] Or even worse sometimes I think we convince ourselves that we're worth it on our own. Sometimes we say well yeah I'm worth it. I'm pretty good. Listen your pretty goodness does nothing in light of his holiness.
[28:07] Paul says all of our righteousness is like filthy rags before a holy God. I think we need to come to the place where we understand our unworthiness and then grasp the reality of his love that proclaimed our worthiness.
[28:29] And we realize that in our own efforts we will never get there. In our own ambitions we don't deserve to be there. In our best of days we're not worthy of being in his presence.
[28:45] But in his worst day he said we were worth the price he was going to pay for us. Jesus made that statement.
[28:56] Those who have been forgiven much love much. I don't think we really grasp what he willingly chose to endure to purchase our forgiveness because we think I'm afraid and I include we I put me in here that though I may mess up sometimes I'm not that bad.
[29:26] You want to see how bad we are? Look at the cross. That's us. being mocked suffering misery but shame that's our cross.
[29:43] But the message he proclaimed is that salvation the salvation of man is worth the price he's paying.
[29:56] I wonder if we live in reality of that. The reality of how much our salvation costs. How much forgiveness and redemption costs.
[30:11] Tony Evans shared a message and I have to say that because I'll get in trouble if I share it without qualifying that this doesn't originate with me and you'll understand why in just a moment. He shared a message one time and I remember I was sitting on the front porch with my wife we were watching a sunset drinking a cup of coffee listening to the message and he was challenging men how to love their wives he was challenging husbands how to love their wives he was preaching to the men I have to qualify this because ladies you're going to get mad at me if I say this and you think I came up with it I didn't I'm just setting it up and he said you know the way a husband loves his wife can be compared to a way a man sees his he said cows I'm not calling wives cows okay this is where I told you I'd get in trouble he said if a farmer went out and he bought a one dollar cow then a one dollar cow is just a one dollar cow he could care less how it goes he said but now if he goes out and he buys a five hundred dollar cow then that's worth a little bit more and when you begin to see the value of what you purchased and he asked the husbands he said how much do you value your wife because she will respond to the love when you demonstrate how much you value her and he asked the husbands he did not me is your wife a one dollar cow or is she a five hundred dollar cow see how that could get me in trouble and I thought well only he could say that and get away with it but I guess I'm trying but he was making the the the analogy that the value you put upon your bride and how she responds to that well the analogy carries on that when the great bridegroom who is Jesus put a value on his bride which is the church which is you and I for those that are redeemed the church is comprised of the redeemed the great bridegroom placed a value upon his bride hanging on the cross he said she's worth it so the bride needs to walk around with her head a little higher standing a little taller understanding that when Satan tells you you're not worth anything all you have to do is point to the cross and be silenced there's no argument for that you say oh Satan
[32:41] I know in the flesh I look terrible in the flesh I look awful but the one who loves me the most paid the most and you just point to the cross you can say you know what Satan in this world I'm not worth much because in this world I falter I stumble and I fall and I mess up in this world I get dirty in this world I say things and do things I should never do you know what I don't have a lot to offer this world but the one who loves me the most the one who is my bridegroom the one who's preparing a feast for me and will someday come back and get me he showed me how much I'm worth and he said I'm worth it on the cross see he could have come down but he didn't because he said the price that he's paying I'm worth it and when Satan pushes us down maybe we as the bride of Christ need to stand back up and say Satan to you I might not be worth much but the one to the one who's coming to get me I'm worth everything
[33:42] Satan maybe to you all I'm worth is being used a little bit here and there but the one who loves me more than you love me Satan he gave his life for me see Satan the one who loves me doesn't want to use me the one who loves me he bought me and he bought me at the expense of his own life he could have come down but he didn't and when he tells you you're not worthy then you look at him and you go you know what I don't think so either but Jesus Christ sure thinks so and when he thinks so that means I know so and since I know so I'm going to live my life in light of so and my life's going to look different because though Satan and the world may tell me I'm unworthy my savior tells me I'm worthy and if he is the king of kings and lord of lords I'm about to get excited if he is the king of kings and lord of lords and he is and if the king tells me I'm worth it friend I don't care what you say I don't care what the world says I don't care what the devil says because the one who's got his feet on everything tells me I'm worth it and if I'm worth it then friend that settles it because I am worthy of the price he paid for me not because of what I've done but because he didn't do anything but die in my place and may I live differently because I'm worth the price and when I realize so I stand a little taller and I say
[35:03] Lord if you think I am then maybe just maybe I am and life looks different see Satan's got some of us living in a shame we don't need to live in because it ain't Satan's place to tell you what you're worth only he who created you can tell you what you're worth and when you look at the cross when he didn't say anything he said a lot let's pray Lord I thank you thank you for the cross of Calvary Lord I realize that's my cross that's my suffering that's my due that's what I deserve Lord you took my place not only did you take my place you declared my worth so God I pray that I would live in the light of that reality
[36:13] Lord I pray that each one of us would comprehend the impact of that on our hearts and on our minds Lord I pray that our lives would be dictated not by what others say about us but Lord that our focus would be on you Lord Jesus our lives would be lived for your glory and your honor and for your name's sake because you alone are worthy be with us now as we come to this time of response and invitation by the power and presence of your spirit would you have your way with your people for your glory we ask it in Christ's name amen so
[37:50] Thank you.
[38:20] Thank you.
[38:50] Thank you.