[0:00] And Jesus went before them, and they were amazed. And as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles.
[0:30] And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise again. Here today we have a passage that focuses upon Christ.
[0:53] Sometimes we can get bogged down with the stories, the miracles, the parables, and myth, the very center of the gospel.
[1:07] Paul said, we preach Christ. And that's what we should be preaching too.
[1:19] Christ is the very center of the church. Everything depends upon him. Without Christ, we have nothing. With Christ, we have everything.
[1:31] Without Christ, we perish. Having Christ, we will never perish. Outside of Christ, God is a consuming fire.
[1:46] But in Christ, God is our loving Father, who has prepared for us a home with himself.
[1:56] And so as we read the scriptures, we must see Christ there. As we preach God's word, we must proclaim Christ.
[2:08] And as we live out the Christian life, we must say with the apostle, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain.
[2:19] Now, first of all, in looking at this passage, I want you to notice that Jesus is determined to save.
[2:33] Verse 32 is very interesting. And they were on the way going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went before them, and they were amazed.
[2:45] And as they followed, they were afraid. They're on the road up to Jerusalem, and there's something different. Usually, when Jesus is walking along, he's surrounded by people, and he's talking to them, and they're asking him questions, and he's answering their questions, and then he'll turn, and he'll ask them a question.
[3:08] And there's all this interaction with the crowd around him. And there's people in front of him, and people behind him, and people all around him. But here, it's different.
[3:21] Jesus, as it were, has pushed the crowd aside. He's not listening to their questions. He's not talking to them. But he pushes on in front.
[3:32] And he walks in front of the crowd, going up to Jerusalem. And there's determination in his face. He's marching forward with a determined step.
[3:48] And they look at him, and they see that there's something different here. And they are amazed. What is going on? Where is he going? What is he deciding to do?
[3:59] And he's going up to Jerusalem, and they follow him. And they're told that they were afraid. He is going forward with such determination.
[4:16] What is he going to do? Why is he marching like this towards Jerusalem? Is he going to fight with the Romans? And they have no weapons.
[4:29] How can they fight with the Romans? So well armed are these Roman soldiers. No. Jesus is going to fight with someone much more powerful than a Roman army.
[4:43] He's going to fight with Satan. He's going to fight, indeed, with someone, in a sense, fight with someone more powerful than Satan.
[4:55] Although it's not really fight. He's going to face the justice of God. And that is fearful.
[5:08] It is frightening. It requires all the determination he can muster to keep walking up to Jerusalem, knowing what is in front of him, knowing the wrath and curse of God that is about to descend upon him, knowing that he is going up there as the sacrificial lamb to die in the Roman place of his people.
[5:34] And so he sets his face as flint to go up to Jerusalem. The devils are trying to frighten him, but he will not be frightened.
[5:47] flesh and blood find this journey to Jerusalem terrifying. But he contends.
[5:59] He persuades himself. He is determined. He is marching on with purpose. You remember at a later date when he's up in Jerusalem, and when the day has come that he must die, how he goes out to the garden of Gethsemane and how there he is in agony and his sweat is like great drops of blood falling to the ground and he says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
[6:42] What cup? There was no cup there. But cup is a picture. It's a symbol of the sufferings before him. And he sees the cup and he looks into it and the cup is so full and the liquid that is in it is so red.
[7:03] And he tastes, he takes a little of the liquid from that cup and oh, it's so bitter. How can I possibly drink this whole cup?
[7:16] Even one drop makes my whole body quake and tremble. It is so, so terribly bitter. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.
[7:33] How can I face it? And yet he adds, not my will but thine be done. He prays again a second time more earnestly.
[7:50] And again a third time he prays even more earnestly with strong crying and tears to him who was able to deliver him from death and he was heard in that he feared.
[8:08] And God delivered him but he had to drink the cup. He had to drink every drop but God sustained him, sent an angel to help him, to support him and God promised to raise him from the dead.
[8:29] I lay down my life that I might take it again, this commandment have I received of my Father. And so he says, the cup that the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?
[8:47] I certainly shall. Father, save me from this hour. Nevertheless, for this purpose came I unto this hour.
[9:00] thousands of years before it had been said, the seed of the woman, the child of the woman, shall bruise the serpent's head.
[9:17] And here is the child of the woman, Jesus, and he is marching up to Jerusalem to bruise the serpent's head, to crush it, to destroy him, but knowing at the same time that the serpent will bruise his heel.
[9:38] He goes up to Jerusalem with determination to meet him who is stronger than flesh and blood, the principalities and powers of darkness, to wrestle, to fight, and to overcome.
[9:56] he is going towards the tree of life and a shout comes from heaven and says, away go sword against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow.
[10:14] Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. The little ones, the children, the feeble ones, those who become like little children putting their faith in God and Jesus Christ, I will turn my hand upon them and they shall be saved and they shall eat of the tree of life and they shall enjoy eternal life for he who has the Son has life.
[10:46] Isaiah 53 is to be fulfilled, wounded, bruised, chastised, made an offering for sin, with a rich in his death, with a wicked in his burial.
[11:10] and what is driving Jesus on? What is moving him?
[11:21] What is motivating him as he with determination pushes the others aside as it were and marches forward towards Jerusalem?
[11:36] What is the great power that is impaling him? love, love to his people, concern, compassion, grace, mercy, and love for you and me.
[11:57] And so we see this Savior full of love, weak and aware of his weakness, filling me awfulness of what is in front of him, but with determination going to face his death.
[12:27] It's good for us today to think of Christ and to think of him there walking up to Jerusalem for me, for you, to rejoice in him as our personal Savior.
[12:46] Don't despise him. Don't be amongst those who see no beauty in him, no attractiveness in the Son of God, but be amongst those to whom this Jesus is the altogether lovely one, the cheapest among ten thousand, precious, as the Prince of Life, who has given to you the unspeakable gift of eternal life.
[13:23] so that's the first thing we notice here then, Jesus is determined to save. Then, secondly, I wish you to notice the sufferings of Jesus as they are described for us here.
[13:46] He took again the twelve and began to tell them what things should happen unto him up there in Jerusalem saying, Behold, we go to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto the scribes and they shall condemn him to death and shall deliver him to the Gentiles and they shall mock him and shall scourge him and shall spit upon him and shall kill him.
[14:18] Going up to Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her cheeks under her wings, but ye would not.
[14:43] Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the destroyer of the prophets. and Jesus is going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man shall be delivered to the priests and to the scribes, to those who should love him.
[15:09] He came to his own and his own received him not. To those who were the leaders in the sacrifices in the worship in the temple.
[15:20] Those who were involved in the service of God, who were close to God, who were the ones who came in between Israel and God.
[15:34] He shall be delivered to the chief priests and they shall put him to death. Delivered to the scribes and these scribes were people who spent all their time studying the word of God.
[15:53] They knew the Bible intimately. They were the doctors of the law, the theologians of the day, the great teachers and ministers of Israel.
[16:08] And here comes the Son of God, delivered, betrayed, to the chief priests and the scribes. He who sat at table with me has lifted up his heel against me.
[16:27] One of his closest Judas, one of the twelve, hands him over to the chief priests and scribes to die.
[16:42] They condemn him to death. The stone which the builders have rejected, that stone is made the head of a corner by God.
[16:53] But here we see the builders, the chief priests, the scribes, the leaders in the religious life of Israel rejecting Christ.
[17:09] He shall be delivered unto the chief priests and scribes and they shall condemn him to death. The prince of life condemned to die. And they shall deliver him to the Gentiles, to the uncircumcised, to the heathen.
[17:26] He who is the king of the Jews and they will hand over their king, their precious one, their glory, the witches of Israel, the Messiah, they will hand him over to the Romans.
[17:45] And they shall mock him, the ever blessed one, the glorious one, who is more glorious than he, and they will put him to shame.
[17:56] The angels veil their faces in his presence because he is so glorious. But man, puny little man, blasphemes him, mocks him, ridicules him.
[18:16] The Lord of glory put to shame. The judge of all the earth condemned by human judges.
[18:28] And they shall scourge him. They will not have this man to reign over us. And they take him and they beat him.
[18:41] So painful, so humiliating, scourged. He had never sinned and yet he is whipped. And they shall spit upon him.
[18:57] Strange to think that any man would come up to his maker and spit in his face. What a thought, isn't it?
[19:08] And one day you and I are going to see Jesus Christ again. And we will see him sitting upon the throne in all his glory.
[19:22] And heaven and earth will flee from before his face. And the wicked will cry for the mountains to follow them and the hills to cover them from him who sat upon the throne.
[19:33] And yet here we see man, little puny man of the clay of the ground, worms of the dust, coming up to the king of kings and lord of lords, and spitting in his face.
[19:52] psalm 2 we were singing these powerful words, why rage the heathen and vain things?
[20:05] Why do the people mind? Why are the people thinking such empty foolish things? Kings of the earth do set themselves and princes are combined to plot against the lord and his anointed the messiah saying thus, let us asunder, break their bands and cast their cords from us.
[20:30] We will not have this man to reign over us. And he that in heaven sits shall laugh, the lord shall scorn them all, then shall he speak to them in wrath, in rage he vex them shall.
[20:47] and they shall kill him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him, put him to death, he is not fit to live, and not just any kind of death, but the accursed death of the cross.
[21:09] The Jews and the Gentiles, the whole world combine together to get rid of the Messiah. And what about you and I?
[21:22] Well, in a sense, you and I, we're there along with the Jews and the Gentiles, crucifying Christ. This is something of which the whole world is guilty.
[21:36] God came into the world and the world took him and killed him. You and I are guilty.
[21:48] And friends, if we persist in unbelief, in rejecting Christ and the gospel, we are guilty of crucifying Christ a second time.
[22:02] It's bad enough to do it once. But if, having heard the gospel, we persist in rejecting the message, we are crucifying Christ for the second time.
[22:22] And when he died, what was he doing? He bore our sins in his own body on the tree.
[22:32] behold the Lamb of God, said John the Baptist, right at the very beginning of his public ministry, when he was revealed to Israel, when he was baptized and through his baptism identified with sinners, John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descending upon him and said, this, behold the Son of me, behold the Lamb of God.
[23:02] He who sent me, said, the one upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and abiding upon him. He is the Messiah, he is the Savior.
[23:15] And John knew that Messiah had come, that Jesus was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. In Old Testament times, the greatest day in the calendar of Israel was the day of atonement, the day when sin was dealt with, and on that day two goats were killed, or rather two goats were taken, one was killed, killed as a sin offering, and the other goat was taken as the scapegoat, and the sin was laid upon it, and it was led out into the desert, far away from human habitation, and there it was let go, let free.
[24:07] The scapegoat, never again would it be seen, it departed, carried away the sins, into the land of God forsakenness, and Christ died as our sin offering, and he carried away our sins to the land of God forsakenness.
[24:32] Led the lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Jesus is marching up to Jerusalem with determination.
[24:47] Jesus is going there to suffer for us, to die in the room and place of his people, and to offer up the sacrifice which alone can satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God.
[25:11] And then, thirdly, we notice that on the third day he shall rise again. On the third day he shall rise again.
[25:25] Sometimes people say things like Jesus took a risk, Jesus took a risk when he died, but there's no risk here.
[25:37] He wasn't gambling with his life in any sense. He knew exactly what was going to happen, he told long before it happened, he said, I will rise on the third day.
[25:51] I know I will rise, because everything happens according to the will of my father, and this commandment have I received of my father. I have been commanded to die, and I have been given the authority to rise, and I know I will.
[26:08] As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the belly of the earth.
[26:21] And just as Jonah came out of the whale, so shall the son of man come out of the tomb. There was no doubt whatsoever. He was as sure of his resurrection as he was of his life.
[26:38] When he died, he knew it was not a waste of death. He knew that it was not a pointless death. He knew exactly what he was doing.
[26:50] He knew that the cup that he was drinking was the cup that would give to his people salvation. And that's why before he died he gave to them the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
[27:05] my body broken for you. This cup is my blood shed for you.
[27:16] This do ye as oft as ye do it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do show the Lord's death till he come.
[27:32] There was no doubt about it. Yes he was dying. He would rise again the third day and go to heaven and then for hundreds of years his people would be showing forth his death till he come.
[27:48] And he will come. And there's no doubt about it. There's certainty. There's assurance. His death was not even a martyr's death.
[28:00] But it was a vicarious death. A death in the place of his people. Not a mere example but a substitutionary death.
[28:14] Sometimes people say the substitutionary death, the idea of the vicarious atonement, that's just a theory of the atonement.
[28:26] And there are various theories of the atonement. various theories of the death of Christ. And one of them is that Jesus died suffering the punishment due to us for our sins.
[28:43] But this is not a theory of the atonement. This is the fact of the atonement. This is the purpose and point of it.
[28:53] This is the only explanation of the death of Christ. God!