Mat 20:17-19 17 Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”
If you ask what is the central, highest truth of the Bible, it is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The three verses I read talk about the most highest truth in the Bible.
This is not the first time the Lord spoke of this. If you remember, this is the third and last prediction of our Lord regarding His death and resurrection. The first one, He gave to the disciples in chapter 16, verse 21. The second one, He gave them in chapter 17, verses 22 and 23. And this is the third and final prediction. The second adds detail to the first, and the third adds detail to the second. This is a fuller prediction than any of the others. If you compare it with Mark and Luke, this has complete details of the Lord’s death and resurrection.
The reason the Lord repeats this is that, more than anything, the disciples needed to hear and understand this message. The Holy Spirit records it repeatedly because for us, there is no greater important message that we need to hear again and again and again—not only hear but preach this again and again to the perishing world. When I preached last time from chapter 17, I said this is a message we need to hear again and again and gave three reasons.
- This is the message that creates faith in a sinner, gives him new birth, and this is the truth that grows faith in a saved sinner.
- Secondly, this is the message that reveals how much God loves us, the depth of divine love.
- This is a message that can give hope in any hopeless situation of our lives.
All these blessings come when we grasp this personally. Sadly, this is a message that, though we hear it repeatedly, just like the disciples—some even from childhood—many don’t grasp and personalize it. We experience great redemptive blessings when we do it. So, a message that needs to be repeated is this story of the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It is most apt for today, as this is our communion service, as we remember His suffering and death.
Detail of the Suffering
In this third announcement, the Lord takes us beyond the earlier two, which simply talked about Him dying and rising; this one seems to stress the nature of His suffering and the details of it. He doesn’t just say He will die and rise. But rather, He explains detail by detail that He will be betrayed, He will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn Him to death, then hand Him over to the Gentiles where He will be mocked, scourged, and finally crucified. And following that, He will rise from the dead. A tremendous amount of detail is given. All this before anything happened.
Some books and TV documentaries tell us about a historic Jesus who was a good human teacher who somehow got caught in a very hostile world and accidentally wound up getting cruelly crucified. They claim He wanted to create a revolution, somewhere took a wrong turn, and He wound up being a victim of His own revolution. How foolish! The sufferings of Jesus Christ were no accident. They were no surprise or shock to Him. But rather, He gives here detail by detail precisely and exactly what is going to happen to Him, which even those who planned to kill Him did not know so many details of.
He knew from the beginning He came to this world to die. The wonder of His person as God-man and the depth of His love is that, though He had to suffer as a man, in His divinity, He knew every detail of it. And the fact that He knew every single detail of His sufferings shows to us that He must have suffered through them a million/billions of times before He actually went to the cross. In His omniscience, being able to conceive of all that, those sufferings would be terrible to Him. If you ever knew clearly how you will die and if that happens to be a terrible accident/crushing or terrible many diseases, like cancer or leprosy—all hair loss, skin and flesh eaten—and knew the details, that would make your remaining days in life a living hell. He knew all that. How many nights would you wake up in shock, horror, not able to enjoy anything in life? What use? When He sees a mirror, this face will be spat upon and crushed; see His hands or feet, nails pierced, body scourged. But my Lord went through life knowing all the details of His cruel death and the horrendous suffering He would go through. To think, the wonder is He knew this even before He was born. He knew this even before creation as the Lamb that was slain. How could He have lived all past eternity with the prospect of going through this suffering? If we have to just take a COVID vaccine next week, we think, “Oh, something terrible…”
This was not easy for Him. Remember last week when John and James wanted to sit next to Him (verse 22): “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” He used terrible words to describe His suffering: it is a cup and a baptism.
We know the struggles He went through to drink that cup in Gethsemane, when He had a kind of foretaste—not even drinking, but just a glance of the contents of the cup: the unmixed wrath of God for the sins of depraved sinners. How terribly you and I had stored that cup with our horrible iniquities. His soul and body shuddered, and arteries burst, and He sweat blood. It made Him shrink back and plead, “Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me.”
He calls it Baptism. Luke 12:50 says, “But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!” Oh, how distressed. He was like a man pent up against His will. He longed to be discharging His tremendous task. He had an awful work to do, an agonizing suffering to bear, and He felt fettered until He could be at it; “How am I straitened till it is accomplished!” He was as a hostage bound for others, longing to be set free. He longed to be bearing the penalty to which He had voluntarily subjected Himself by His covenant with the Father.
The sad thing we saw earlier is that if there is something bursting in your heart, the great aim of your life, and you cannot share it with anyone, no one understands, even His own disciples don’t grasp or sympathize. He was a lonely soul on the entire earth with this suffering burning in His heart; no one to share. When His heart was about to break, the Father had to send the two greatest men of the Old Testament so Jesus could share His heart with them: Moses and Elijah.
Even though they don’t understand this now, they may realize later how He knew all this, so He shares this prediction with them. And so our Lord calls them aside for the third time and tells them this.
So we look at the suffering of the Lord in these verses in three headings:
- Place of the suffering.
- Prophecy of suffering.
- Nature of the suffering.
Place of Suffering: (Vs 17)
Verse 17: “Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem…”
You remember He ministered in Galilee, finished His Galilean ministry, crossed the Jordan at a northern point, came to the east of the Jordan known as the Beyond, called Perea; and He had been in Perea. Chapter 19 and the early part of 20 give us incidents in that ministry. Now He crosses the Jordan again, coming toward Jerusalem. He will go through Jericho. Chapter 20, verse 29, has Him departing from Jericho. He will go to Jerusalem. It’s only a matter of days now until He faces the passion, the death, and the resurrection. Notice it says, “going up to Jerusalem.” They must have been already in motion that way, already on the move.
As they were going, Mark 10:32 says, “Now they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was going before them; and they were amazed. And as they followed they were afraid.” “The disciples were” – and he uses two words – “amazed and afraid.” Amazed, thambeō. It’s a very rare word, meaning “to be confused,” or “to be baffled,” “to be unable to understand the situation.” Head spinning in confusion. Fearful, phobia, shivering fear.
What made them amazed and fearful? It is the manner in which the Lord moved towards Jerusalem that caused amazement and fear to the disciples. Mark says Jesus walked in front of them, and they were in the back. This is kind of different. Generally, He is in the midst of the crowd or the midst of the disciples. Here, we see the Lord separates Himself from the crowd, and separates Himself from the disciples, and He is moving forward.
They see Him going aggressively forward in physical posture, in a way nothing could hinder Him. But also, His bearing and demeanor were different from all other journeys; He was absorbed with His thoughts. Luke 9:51 says, “And He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” There was great determination in His face. Isaiah says, “I have set my face like a flint to do whatever opposition. I will go to Jerusalem.”
When they see His determination in His body language and face, He is moving forward eagerly with a tremendous sense of urgency where? Jerusalem. The place the disciples knew for terrible hostility, the center of all opposition, where all the leaders were bubbling with hatred. Both the chief priests and the scribes were thirsting for His blood. They had the Roman center there. Nobody in their right mind could go to Jerusalem like this.
They may remember what He said would happen to Him when He goes to Jerusalem: “last time they will arrest and crucify him.” To that place He is going with such determination. When they see Him moving resolutely, His mind wrapped up in His coming suffering, face determined, eager, they are amazed and filled with fear, knowing Jerusalem means terrible suffering and death. They don’t see Him going with the hesitancy which is natural, but He goes ahead of them, with determination, with an intensity of commitment that can be seen in His face, the look in His eyes, the bearing of His shoulders, and the firmness of His step. This causes amazement; they cannot figure out how He can go like this—going fast as if He is going to be crowned there. They are fearful, shivering, knowing what will come on Him and what will happen to them, yet at the same time, they will never dare to stop Him.
He’s like a commander who’s leading his troops into battle, and he puts himself in the most dangerous and vulnerable position. May the Holy Spirit create a picture of this in our hearts. Look at my Lord with what determination He is going to what? To be mocked, spat upon, and crucified for you and me. If we can draw a picture, there cannot be a more moving, more striking one than that. Jesus faced steadfast, resolute, moving toward His own death on behalf of these disciples, and they’re afraid and amazed, cowering in the back, dragging behind Him, with the fear of death, and not really knowing what to expect.
What made Him go like that? Oh, doesn’t this amazement and fear of the disciples tell us the infinite love Christ had for you and me? His majestic, mighty mind saw beyond the suffering and the cross. His omniscient eye, which knows every detail, would have seen you and me wallowing in our sins and perishing eternally in hell if He didn’t go to Jerusalem. His infinite love for me made Him bold and determined to go face all the pain and suffering in Jerusalem, which no man would do. Look at His unchanging love in His face, body, and in every step towards Jerusalem.
For you and me, worthless, ungrateful sinners, out of His strong love to us, even to us, He determined to pay our ransom price in death; it was part of His solace that He would deliver you and me. “He loved me, and gave Himself for me.” He made a voluntary offering of Himself for me, before He actually died, often and often surrendering Himself in purpose. In His situation, humanly, anybody would even hesitate to sleep towards Jerusalem. He did not hesitate, or seek to avoid it, but He resolutely set out to meet His sufferings and His death with so vigorous and bold a step, and with such a calm, determined air of heroism upon Him, that His followers were filled with astonishment.
Now looking at their amazement, Matthew verse 17: “Now Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road.” Imagine that they weren’t alone, because the Peraean ministry had no doubt congregated around them a mass of people. Chapter 20, verse 29, again says there was a great multitude that followed Him. And as this multitude is moving, it’s Passover time, they’re attracted because they would normally be on this journey anyway; and as well, they have now found themselves in the company of this wonder-working Jesus, this astounding teacher and healer. So He is going with the crowd.
He sees their amazement and takes them aside away from the crowd and says, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem.” “Behold” indicates a certain amount of surprise. It’s an exclamation. “It may seem startling to you, it may seem shocking to you, it may seem surprising to you, you may not understand it, but we are going to Jerusalem.” There’s a resolution in His statement. There’s a conviction. You remember last time He said, “I MUST.”
The place of suffering is Jerusalem. Next is the Old Testament Prophecy of Suffering.
If you look at Luke 18:31, before He says anything He says, “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.” So He says, “We have to go, because it’s the prophetic plan.”
This is not an accident. This was foretold by all Old Testament prophets. This is the culmination of the redemptive plan of God. He says in Luke 18, “all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished.” The disciples had a wrong understanding of what is written about the Messiah in the Old Testament. If they open their eyes, which Jesus will do after the resurrection, you will find passage upon passage upon passage predicting all the factors of Jesus Christ’s life.
- Zechariah 9:9 says that He would enter into Jerusalem.
- Psalm 2 says that He would know the fury and rage of His enemies.
- Zechariah 13:7 says that He would be deserted by His friends.
- Zechariah 11:12 says that His betrayal would be for thirty pieces of silver.
- Psalm 22:16 says that He would be pierced on the cross.
- Exodus 12:46 says that none of His bones would be broken.
- Psalm 22:18 says that His garments will be parted by the casting of lots.
- Psalm 69:21 says He’ll be given vinegar to drink.
- Psalm 22:1 says He will cry out in the pain of distress.
- Zechariah 12:10 says they’ll pierce Him with a spear.
- And Psalm 16:10 says that He will rise from the dead.
- Psalm 110:1 even says He’ll ascend into heaven.
All of those things are part of the Old Testament prophets. And if you want a piece-by-piece detailed description of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in minute detail, you read Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah’s prophecy, and you’ll have there explicitly a description of all the details of our Lord’s death on the cross.
Not only explicit/direct verbal predictions, but the whole sweep of the Old Testament, the whole flow of the Old Testament in its types, rituals, laws, symbols, and pictures all point to the Messiah coming and dying for the sins of the world. The whole picture, the graphic of the Old Testament, shows that. It is the scarlet thread woven through the whole Scripture.
Starting from the Fall in Genesis, mankind is separated from God. They are guilty and shameful as naked sinners. How does God deal with that? He gives a promise that the woman’s seed will be bruised. God shows the need for sacrifice by clothing them with animal skin; this first shows sin can only be dealt with by sacrificial death.
Then in Genesis 22, God gave Abraham a son by the name of Isaac in whom all his hopes resided. God comes to Abraham and says, “Sacrifice your only son.” Abraham goes to Mount Moriah and is about to kill him when God stops him and provides a ram as a substitute for his son. The doctrine of substitution: God will provide a substitute.
Then you come to the twelfth chapter of Exodus, and you get the third great principle in relation to redemptive sacrifice. God says, “I’m going to send the angel of death through Egypt, and he’s going to slay the firstborn of every house. If you want to be protected, you have to sacrifice a lamb that is unblemished, without spot, a pure lamb. Put the blood on the doorposts and the lintel; the angel of death seeing that will pass by you.” In other words, “You will be delivered from judgment by making a blood sacrifice.”
Now that repeats what we learned in Genesis 3, that sin has to be dealt with by sacrifice. It also repeats what we learned in Genesis 22, that a sacrifice can be substituted for the guilty person. But then it adds a third and very important dimension to redemptive truth, and that is this: that the sacrifice must be unblemished, must be pure.
Now we go from there to the wanderings of Israel, and we get into the wilderness at Sinai. And God draws all the people together. Moses goes up the mount; God gives the law. And then God begins to unfold through Moses all of the intricate, complex elements of the sacrificial system, so that sacrifice for those people became a way of living. Every day, every national feast, every act of worship, every approach to God, every day of every year was based on sacrifice. So sacrifice became a way of life. They were giving bloody sacrifices day in, day out, year in and year out. No coming to God or worship without sacrifice.
Now you bring all these pictures together. God kept showing them not only through clear direct prophecy but also in the way of their worship and national lifestyle, in the entire sacrificial system, that the Messiah has to suffer and die to deliver them. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn, and the sacrificial system was over, because He was the one final sacrifice all those pointed to. He opened a way to God from which we could worship from now on without ever having to offer another sacrifice.
The whole flow of it, the whole sweep of it, the whole concept of it is that there is the need for a sacrifice. That’s what the Old Testament was saying. The Pharisees, scribes, and chief priests all missed that point. The disciples, brought up under them, missed all this. After His resurrection when He met those disciples on the road to Emmaus, it says in Luke 24, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” He started at Moses, the prophets; and I think He probably took them through a better lesson than I just gave you, but a similar one.
So here He says all that is written by the prophets will be fulfilled.
Nature of His Suffering: Details of His Suffering
Verse 18: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”
There are seven details given about the nature of His suffering. The Lord says this when He is moving steadfastly towards Jerusalem. These are His deepest thoughts: “These words are the outcome of His innermost meditations.” Is it not more painful to anticipate death than it is actually to die? Yet our Lord dwelt upon His sufferings, even to their minutiae.
1. Betrayed
Firstly, verse 18: “and the Son of Man will be betrayed.” His suffering starts with being first betrayed! It is as though I heard the deep boom of a death knell. “Betrayed”!—that means sold by cruel treachery. Those whom you trust commit treachery. Have you ever been betrayed by those whom you loved and trusted? I think no greater pain exists. The greater your love and trust, the greater the pain will be. The starting of the suffering itself is so painful. His pain is expressed in prophecy. It means that one who ate bread with Him lifted up his heel against Him. One who eats bread… and then lifts his heel and kicks me in the chest…
Here was one He loved, one that He walked with and talked to for three years, one who promised to be loyal to Christ to the extent of making him an apostle… trusted treasurer of money… you wouldn’t give your purse to someone until you fully trust them, right… love, and intimacy, and care, and trust, and all of that. He was betrayed by Judas.
“Betrayed,” for thirty pieces of silver! Judas, is that the value you placed on the infinite love of the Son of God? For the blood of such a friend! And He was not only betrayed, He was betrayed with a kiss. The suffering of betrayal, the overwhelming suffering when someone close to you violates that intimacy and seeks to destroy you; the ugly sin, the deep pain of being betrayed by a friend. If someone is with us in church for many years and then goes off saying wrong things, how our heart breaks. How it must be for Christ, who was with him all three years, and then betrayed.
“Betrayed”! Hear how He cries, “If it were an enemy, then I could have borne it.” “Betrayed”! It was no stranger; it was not an enemy like the Pharisees who hated Christ, but His own disciple. “Judas also, which betrayed Him, knew the place.” Betrayed with a kiss, and with a friendly word! Handed over to them who sought His blood by one who ought to have defended Him to the death. He is suffering the pain of betrayal and disloyalty.
“Betrayed”! It is a dreadful word to be set here before the passion, and it throws a lurid light over it all. We read: “The same night in which He was betrayed He took bread.” This was the bitterest drop in His cup, that He was betrayed. He is suffering that even now… can you imagine taking the twelve and seeing Judas’ face… “Son of Man will be betrayed.” He suffered all of this in anticipation.
2. Betrayed to the Chief Priests and Scribes
Secondly, betrayed to whom? Chief priests and scribes. The chief priests were the top leaders of Israel. Below them, they had priests, Levites, and other temple workers. They were at the top of all the temple activities and above them was the high priest. These chief priests were the hereditary aristocracy. They were in the priestly line; they got their rank by heredity. If anybody in Israel understood the work of the Messiah, it must be them. What was their everyday primary responsibility? When Israel bowed before the Lord, the chief priests presented the sacrifice. The chief priests ought to have been His best defenders always. Yet these were our Lord’s most bitter enemies, first to kill Him. What a wonder!
They were also accompanied by the scribes, who got their rank not by heredity but by knowledge. They attained knowledge by studying the law. They were the lawyers, and nobody could interpret anything without them. Today they are legal lawyers. They know all the details. Then these were experts in the Old Testament law and Old Testament scriptures and all Hebrew meanings and languages. They explained the meaning of the law and interpreted the law.
So you had the hereditary aristocracy and you had the scripture knowledge aristocracy. This executive body of the temple priesthood, this body of men with the high priest and elders, constituted the supreme court in Israel: the Sanhedrin. There was no higher court to appeal to. The irony of all the groups in Israel is that more than anyone, they should know the sacrificial system and that the entire Old Testament points to one coming and suffering as a sacrifice. But they are the first to kill Christ. In their sin and jealousy, world love, to save their name, fame, and position in the world, they saw Him as a threat.
3. Condemned to Death
Thirdly, here our Lord predicts this court will condemn him to death. They will pass a death sentence upon Him. How, on what basis? What wrong did He do? He exactly predicts these jealous men, seeing Jesus as a threat to their corrupt system, will bring false charges and hold a fake and mockery trial unjustly in the middle of the night, and condemn Him to death. And that’s what He saw happening, and that is exactly what happened. Amazing, He predicts the exact details with the outcome.
Do we realize how bitter it is to have the professed servants of God against you? Those who knew sacrifices and the entire Old Testament pointing to the true Messiah… if they are the first to kill Christ… oh, how painful that must be for Christ! Chief priests reject the final sacrifice of all the sacrifices they and their forefathers were giving all their lives. All chief priests reject the one final God’s high priest. The scribes, too, those Bible writers and Bible interpreters, who more than anyone should know about the Messiah’s suffering role.
Do we realize how painful this suffering must have been to the Lord? It is wretched suffering to have those against you who are reckoned to be the best men of the time. It was little to Him to have Herod against Him, or Pilate, and the Romans His foes, for they knew no better, but it was heart-rending work to see the men of the Sanhedrin, the men of prayers, experts of scriptures, sacrifices, and the men of the temple and of the synagogue, arrayed against Him. Yet into their hands He falls! Good Master, how bitter was your suffering… and from whom these sufferings came…
4. Delivered to the Gentiles
Fourth: “and deliver Him to the Gentiles.” In our Master’s death, all men conspired; not half the world, but all of it, must have a hand in the tragedy of Calvary.
Again, notice the precision. The Sanhedrin couldn’t kill Him because the Romans had removed their right to give a death sentence to anyone. But in spite of that… their hatred for Christ was so much… They did not leave the sentence of condemnation to the Romans, but themselves passed sentence upon their victim. Those who were professedly the servants of God condemned Him to die. If you have ever tasted of this cup you know that it has wormwood in it. Look at it: even though they cannot execute, they pass sentence, and then use Gentiles to fulfill it. This is the Romans. They took Him to the Romans with all false charges. We know that it did not work with Pilate initially. Ultimately the charge was that He speaks against Caesar and stops people from paying taxes. Remember with Pilate, even that didn’t work. Pilate couldn’t find anything wrong with Him. He didn’t directly sentence Him to crucify initially. He tried to save our Lord and pacify their thirst for blood… How? By scourging Him. It is amazing… Lord even knew that… Look at what He says…
5. Mocked and Scourged
Fifthly, delivered to Gentiles for what? To mock and to scourge.
Three words. These three words follow: “To mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him.” Mark puts in, “To spit upon Him.” That was a sad part of the mockery. We know they took Him down into the Fort Antonia. What dreadful scorning He endured! From the Jews when they blindfolded Him, and buffeted Him; and from the Gentiles when they put on Him a purple robe, and thrust a reed into His hand, crammed a crown of thorns on His head, bowed the knee, and cried before Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They plucked His hair, they smote His cheeks, they spat in His face. Mockery could go no farther. It was cruel, cutting, cursed scorn. They mocked Him.
Spit on Him… can there be a greater insult? To spit upon… has anyone done it to you? No greater insult for a Jew than to be spat upon by Gentiles. A Jew would actually spit down when speaking the name of a Gentile, as it was such a dirty name. But to be spat upon not on the hand or body, but on the face, is so shameful.
You see, that’s emotional pain. That’s pain for the soul, not the body. The lovely, glorious, beautiful, sinless Son of God who should be exalted is humiliated like this. He’s embarrassed. He’s ridiculed. And Peter says in 1 Peter 2:23, He never retaliated; He took it in silence. I just can’t imagine what it would have been like for Him to be spat on; but that’s what they did. And so there’s the pain of humiliation.
Ridicule sometimes breaks hearts that are hardened against pain, and the Christ had to bear all the ridicule that human minds could invent. They were maliciously witty. They insulted everything about Him… jested at His person; ministry, birth, they didn’t even leave His relationship with the Father and jested at His prayers. They mocked Him when He cried, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Herein is grief immeasurable, and the Savior foresaw it, and spoke about it. They mocked Him, and they scourged Him; He dwells upon each separate item.
That was not all; they scourged Him. What torture it is… a leather whip with sinews, bones of oxen, sharp metals, and stones, so that every time the lashes fell, they plowed the back, and laid bare the white bones of the shoulders. It was an anguish more cruel than the grave, but our Lord endured it to the full. They lacerated His back. One less forty lashes was the Jewish way. For Romans, two Roman soldiers repeatedly, without rest, would hit; one on one side of the back, and then the shoulder, and turn to the chest. It usually took two men to do it, because one wasn’t strong enough to continue the whipping at the pace they wanted it. They would tie the hands to a post so the body slumped, lean heavily, and the first blow to the back, and they’d turn it around and take care of the chest. And the organs and bones would be exposed, the bleeding would be profuse, and many people would die. And He suffered tremendous physical pain.
6. Crucified
Sixth, He says they will crucify Him.
After all the scourging, we know Pilate brought Him before them, blood and flesh flowing. But they were not satisfied even after seeing His blood and flesh flowing, and he said, “Behold the man,” He is almost dead. They all cried out, “Crucify Him.” Pilate finally succumbed to crucifying Him because of blackmail. They said they’d tell Caesar. He already had political problems with Caesar. To avoid a riot, he allowed them to crucify Him while washing his hands. The Lord knew all those events much before.
He sees it all. He makes distinctions; He does not say that He should be condemned by Pilate, but He is condemned to die by the chief priests, and then He is delivered to the Gentiles. See Him delivered to the Gentiles, while His fellow countrymen cry, “We have no king but Caesar!” They shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” and the Gentiles carry out their cruel demand. Unanimity among our persecutors must add greatly to the sting of their unkindness.
They crucify Him. On Calvary… Behold Him! Behold Him! And then they nailed Him naked before the whole world. His hands are extended and cruelly nailed to the wood. His feet are fastened to the tree, and He Himself is left to bear the weight of His body upon His hands and feet. See how the nails tear through the flesh as the weight drags the body down and enlarges the wounds! See, He is in a fever, has become like an oven! His mouth is dried up, and His tongue cleaves to the roof thereof! Crucifixion was an inhuman death, and the Savior was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” The wonder is that He could foresee this, and speak of it so calmly. He meditates upon it, and speaks to choice, familiar friends about it. Oh, the mastery height of love, strong as death! He contemplates the cross, and knows every detail, shares briefly with the disciples, and goes steadfastly to face it… my Savior.
The suffering of rejection by His own men is so painful, especially when you love them so much, and He was sentenced to death by the highest religious men. John says it so sadly: “He came unto His own and His own” – what? – “received Him not.” “And He sat over the city of Jerusalem,” – the Bible says – “and He wept.” He said, “How often I would have gathered thee as a hen gathers her brood, and you would not.” They just rejected Him. Isaiah said, you remember we just read it, “He was despised and rejected of men. He was the stone the builders rejected.” They didn’t want a thing to do with Him.
And so those He loved, His own people, those that He worked with and healed and taught, they rejected Him. The heartbreak is enough to crush you. Here He’s been betrayed by a friend, denied by the leader of His apostles, all disciples fled, and rejected by His own people. Worst of all, He was even rejected by His Father, unbearably screaming, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” What suffering Christ went through! And I believe in all of this, He suffered a broken heart; and that’s why when the spear went in, out came a combination of blood and water. I think the anxiety had already crushed Him, burst Him.
The unbearable thing is that He suffered for unjust guilt. The pain of being held responsible for something you’re not guilty of. Have you had an experience of suffering terribly for something you never did? Oh, the terrible pain. I mean, you know, if we had been accused of something for which there was a severe penalty and weren’t guilty, we would be screaming all over the place.
But in silence, He had to accept the guilt for all the sins of the elect, which He never ever committed. And all the guilt of all the people that ever lived was put on Him. I can’t imagine any pain or suffering more terrible than to be accused of a crime with a death penalty, and you knew you didn’t do it. And then to have all the guilt put on you, just incredible.
We all talk about the physical, but His greatest suffering is the suffering of the soul. Cumulative grief, anxiety, pain, suffering, and shame are unimaginable. Though we cannot grasp everything, may the Holy Spirit help us remember the love of Christ by understanding how wide, and broad, and vast the degree of His suffering was.
7. The Grand Finale: Resurrection
Finally, seventh, the grand finale. He says: “and the third day He shall rise again.” We must never forget that, for He never forgets it. Ah! You may think as much as you will of Calvary, and let your tears flow like rivers. You may sit at Gethsemane, and say, “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for my Lord!” But, after all, you must wipe those tears away, for He is not in the grave; He rose again on the third day. O blessed morning! Not to be celebrated by an Easter once a year, but to be commemorated on every first day of the week, fifty-two times in each year. Every seven days that the sun shines upon us brings us a new record of His resurrection. We may sing every Lord’s-day morning: “Today He rose and left the dead.” The first day of the week stands forever as the remembrance of our risen Lord, and on that day He renews His special communings with His people. He comes and says, “peace to you,” and “He ever lives to make intercession for us.”
So today as we partake in the communion, we remember His suffering and resurrection.
Why Christ Suffered So Much
Now, why did Christ suffer so much? Because He was not born and suffered as an individual person; He came as the Second Adam. He was a representative according to the covenant of grace. Like Adam, Jesus stands as the representative of His descendants. Just as Adam’s sin is reckoned to his natural children, so Christ’s righteousness is reckoned to His spiritual children. He came, lived, and died for His people.
When a man or woman believes in Christ, they are taken out of Adam’s union and put in Christ’s union. What happens because of this? Oh, glorious blessings! This glorious concept of union alone explains how one Jesus Christ can die and so many are saved by His sacrifice. It is because God has designed humans in such a way that we all come from one man. Because one Adam sinned, we were all made guilty.
By the same principle, when we are united to Jesus Christ, Jesus came, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross as a sin-atoning sacrifice, not as an individual, but as a representative. Those who believe in Him are united to Him and experience the blessings through that union.
All blessings of His death and resurrection are passed to us. It is just as if believers obeyed the law perfectly when Jesus obeyed, and the believer suffered for sin when Christ suffered on the cross for sin. So in this union, there is a great transaction that happens: a believer’s sins are imputed to Christ, and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to the believer.
The two ordinances the Lord instituted for the church—baptism and communion—exactly indicate that. Yesterday we had a Baptism. Baptism is a beautiful picture of our salvation. It is a picture of a believer’s union with Christ in His death and resurrection. A new disciple is plunged beneath the water, which is a sign of death: you have died with Christ, buried, and then you are lifted up again as God’s children with Christ’s righteousness. This is a picture of death, burial, and resurrection.
What is communion? It is again a picture of our ongoing communion with God and partaking of the blessings of His death and resurrection. It is the renewing and celebration of our union with Christ and enjoying those benefits.
Communion is a celebration of our union with Christ. It is a joyful event today. We have three new members added to our church. Can I invite them to come and stand facing the church as an expression of their covenant before God and the church to read out the covenant sheet?
You can read with me…
Now Regene, Asha, and Stephenie will be new members of Grace Reformed Baptist Church!
Why Christ Suffered
Why did Christ suffer? We saw in the Confession of Faith:
- He suffered, that He might satisfy God’s justice for us. We, by our sins, had infinitely wronged God; and, could we have shed rivers of tears, offered up millions of burnt-offerings, we could never have pacified an angry Deity; therefore Christ must die, that God’s justice may be satisfied.
- He reconciled us to God. Christ’s blood is not only called a sacrifice, whereby God is appeased, but a propitiation, whereby God becomes gracious and friendly to us.
- He died that He might purchase for us glorious eternal inheritance; therefore heaven is called not only a promised, but a ‘purchased possession’ (Ephesians 1:14). Christ died for our preferment; He suffered that we might reign; He hung upon the cross that we might sit upon the throne. Heaven was shut, the cross of Christ is the ladder by which we ascend to heaven. His crucifixion is our coronation.
Use of This Truth
Use One: The Horrid Nature of Sin
In the bloody sacrifice of Christ, see the horrid nature of sin. Sin, it is true, is odious as it banished Adam out of paradise, and threw the angels into hell; but that which most of all makes it appear horrid is this: that it made Christ veil His glory, and lose His blood. We should look upon sin with indignation, and pursue it with a holy malice, and shed the blood of those sins which shed Christ’s blood. The sight of Christ’s bleeding body should incense us against sin. Let us not parley with it; let not that be our joy which made Christ a man of sorrow.
Use Two: God’s Goodness and Severity
- The goodness of God in providing a sacrifice. Had not Christ suffered upon the cross, we must have lain in hell forever, satisfying God’s justice.
- The severity of God. Though it were His own Son, the Son of His love, and our sins were but imputed to Him, yet God did not spare Him, but His wrath did flame against Him (Romans 8:32). If God was thus severe to His own Son, how dreadful will He be one day to His enemies! Such as die in willful impenitence must feel the same wrath as Christ did; and because they cannot bear it at once, therefore they must endure it forever.
Use Three: Christ’s Ended Affection
Is Christ our priest, who was sacrificed for us? Then see the endeared affection of Christ to us sinners. ‘The cross,’ says Augustine, ‘was a pulpit, in which Christ preached His love to the world.’ That Christ should die, was more than if all the angels had been turned to dust; and especially that Christ should die as a malefactor, having the weight of all men’s sins laid upon Him, and that He should die for His enemies (Romans 5:10). Oh infinite, amazing love of Christ! A love that passes knowledge, that neither man nor angel can parallel (Ephesians 3:19). How should we be affected with this love! If Saul was so affected with David’s kindness in sparing his life, how should we be affected with Christ’s kindness in parting with His life for us! At Christ’s death and passion, the very stones cleave asunder: ‘The rocks rent’ (Matthew 27:51). Not to be affected with Christ’s love in dying is to have hearts harder than rocks.
Use Four: Love and Suffering
- Let us love a bleeding Savior, and let us show our love to Christ by being ready to suffer for Him. Many rejoice at Christ’s suffering for them, but dream not of their suffering for Him. Christ’s death was voluntary. ‘Lo, I come to do thy will, O God’ (Hebrews 10:7). ‘I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished’ (Luke 12:50). Christ calls His sufferings a baptism; He was to be (as it were) baptized in His own blood; and how did He thirst for that time! ‘How am I straitened!’ Oh then, let us be willing to suffer for Christ!
Use Five: Applying the Blood
- Let us apply this blood of Christ. All the virtue of a medicine is in the application; though the medicine be made of the blood of God, it will not heal, unless applied by faith. As fire is to the chemist, so is faith to the Christian; the chemist can do nothing without fire, so there is nothing done without faith. Faith makes Christ’s sacrifice ours. ‘Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Philippians 3:8). It is not gold in the mine that enriches, but gold in the hand. Faith is the hand that receives Christ’s golden merits. It is not a cordial in the glass that refreshes the spirit, but a cordial drunk down. Per fidem Christi sanguinem sugimus [By faith we drink the blood of Christ], Cyprian. Faith opens the orifice of Christ’s wounds and drinks the precious cordial of His blood. Without faith, Christ Himself will not avail us.
Use Six: Comfort in Guilt
This sacrifice of Christ’s blood may infinitely comfort us. This is the blood of atonement. Christ’s cross is the fountain of our comfort. This blood comforts in case of guilt! Oh, says the soul, “my sins trouble me,” but Christ’s blood was shed for the remission of sin (Matthew 26:28). Let us see our sins laid on Christ, and then they are no more ours but His.
Use Seven: Bless God for the Sacrifice
Bless God for this precious sacrifice of Christ’s death. ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul’ (Psalm 103:1). And for what does David bless Him? ‘Who redeemeth thy life from destruction!’ Christ gave Himself a sin-offering for us; let us give ourselves a thank-offering to Him. If a man redeem another out of debt, will he not be grateful? How deeply do we stand obliged to Christ, who has redeemed us from hell and damnation! ‘And they sung a new song, saying Thou art worthy to take the book, and open the seals; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood’ (Revelation 5:9). Let our hearts and tongues join in concert to bless God, and let us show thankfulness to Christ by fruitfulness; let us bring forth (as spice trees) the fruits of humility, zeal, and good works. This is to live unto Him who died for us (2 Corinthians 5:15).
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 