He Gave His Life
John 19:28-42
-There is a lot of ground to cover in this passage this morning
-I Want us to see something that is so important for us as Christians and that is the details in Jesus' last moments on earth.
-Our faith rest in the details. The Christian faith is not based on just mystical hope it rest in the details of prophecy that were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So we will be going back to the Old Testament and some today
-Not only do I want to look at the history of what happened and the details of Jesus' death and burial but then I want to bring it home and make application as we see the actions of different people who were there at the cross this day
-Remember again the reason that John wrote- so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).
-Because of this John focuses a lot on Jesus' deity (that he is God in Flesh) and draw a lot from the Old Testament to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah since the beginning of time
The verdict came from Pilate at 6:00 am by 9:00am they nailed him to the cross and by 3:00 in the afternoon he was dead when he cried out it is finished.
-This was very unusual because most men could stay alive on a cross for the entire day. It is necessary for us to understand this morning how hanging on a cross killed a person (explain)
-Jesus would have had the strength to stay alive on the cross as long as he wanted. Remember his body had not been tainted with sin so it was like the body of Adam in the garden when he was first created. Even after sin first entered in the picture of humanity people still lived to be 800-900 years old
-Jesus dying within six hours surprised Pilate. In Mark 15:44 it reads, “Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died and summoning the centurion he asked him whether he was already dead.”
We know something that Pilate didn't and that is the truth that Jesus was in complete control of his life. They didn't take it he gave it.
Turn to John chapter 10:15-18 Jesus had already told his disciples that he was going to give his life and take it up again by the power given him by God
as these men were on the cross the Roman guards would come along and as an act of mercy they would break their legs so that it would hurry up their death. And act of mercy because it would remove the pain and agony of fighting for every breath to stay alive
Yet Jesus was not a criminal dying for his crime. He was the almighty God the everlasting Father giving his life as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. In the Old Testament time the people would kill a lamb during passover (explain when Israel was in Egypt)
the unique thing about this lamb was in exodus 12:46, “It shall be eaten in one house; you shall not take any of the flesh outside the house and you shall not break any of its bones.”
the Apostle Paul drew the connection in 1 cor 5:7, “cleanse out th old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are leavened for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.”
the pslamist said, “He keeps all his bones not one of them is broken” (Pslams 34:20)
This is a very important detail because had they broken the bones of Jesus they would have taken his life and he wouldn't have been giving it and then he wouldn't have been the Passover lamb causing death to pass over our house
This morning I want to look at three different types of people that took part in the events of this day. The religious, the courageous, and the persuaded
first the Religious
When Jerry Falwell passed away in 2007 there were several protesters who came to his funeral because they didn't like the political stand that he took on several issues. Whenever his son Jonathan Falwell was interviewed about what took place at his dads funeral he simply replied, “Dad would have had it no other way.”
All throughout Jesus' ministry he had to contend with religious people who were so wrapped up in their tradition that they refused to see Jesus as the Messiah, the son of God
the religious people in Jesus' day had come up with 613 laws that if you kept them you would be accepted by God. The trouble was they had made it so rigid and complex that no one was able to follow them. The reason they came up with 613 was because in the original text there were 613 letters used in the ten commandments so a good round number. Remember one time when they tried to trap Jesus and they asked him what the greatest commandment was and he replied “love the lord thy God with all thy heart soul and mind.”
look at what the religious people do in this passage in verse 31, “since it was the day of preparation and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for the Sabbath was a high day) the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.
This wasn't just a Sabbath day that was coming up but it was Passover Sabbath the highest of Sabbaths.
They were so concerned about keeping the law in Deut 21:22-23, “And if a man committed a crime, punishable by death and he is put to death and you hang him on a tree his body shall not remain all night on the tree but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.
Concerned about keeping the law but not concerned about Jesus being the Christ even though every Old Testament prophecy in the prophets about the messiah were fulfilled in the person of Jesus
The Bible tells us today as Christians that we are to be concerned about the name of Christ and about other people. We are actually commanded to take the gospel into the whole world and make disciples out of those who believe by teaching them the things of God
but how many times do we allow our traditions and even our religion to get in the way?
Now I'm going to get real personal here. But sometimes we hold up our programs and our traditions as being more important than the great commission
reaching people and making disciples is more important than tradition. Churches that step out of the box are the ones that are effective. Charles Spurgeon use to upset people because sometimes he would take the whole congregation outside and have church and that wasn't the way it was suppose to be done.
Some churches today have Saturday night church, instead of having Sunday school some churches have small classes that meet during the week in peoples homes.
And religious people say you can't do that “if people want to learn about Jesus they need to come here at our set times.,”
I have news for you though sometimes God doesn't move during our set times because hes God and his ways are not ours and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Jesus brought the message of Gods love to a people who needed it. To a people who weren't allowed to enter the temple and worship because they were publicans and sinners. And he called us to do the same with the message
The Jews couldn't see Jesus because their religion was in the way and there are some people today who can't see Jesus because they are blinded by their religion, their tradition.
Second, the courageous
Then we have the courageous. In verse 38, “Joseph of Arimathea who was a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus and Pilate gave him permission”
Here was a man who had been a secret disciple of Jesus because he was afraid of the Jews and Mark tells us in his account that ,”Joseph of Arimathea a respected member of the council who was also himself looking for the Kingdom of of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.” (Mark 15:43)
He took courage and asked for the body
It was customary to take the bodies of the criminals down from the cross and throw them in a mass grave outside of town. They did not get respected funerals because they were criminals.
Yet the prophet Isaiah recorded some 700 years before the birth of Christ, “And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.” (Isaiah 53:9). This was the plan of God
but for Joesph to do what the prophet had predicted he would he had to find courage to do it
Here was a man who secretly followed Jesus out of fear when Jesus was alive. You might assume that he would just walk away after seeing Jesus put to death for his teaching.
He could have found a thousand reasons to walk away- fear for his own life, maybe Jesus wasn't who he claimed to be if they put him to death
but Joseph was persuaded that Christ was who he claimed to be he just was afraid. But on this day he found the strength the courage to stand up for the one he believed in and give him a proper burial.
Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
To be a courageous Christian means that you take a stand for Christ even when you a scared to. Our enemy loves to see us scared because most of the time when we are scared we are also quiet and when we are quiet no one is hearing about Jesus
It took courage for Billy Graham to stand in the Washington National Cathedral after 9/11 being a speaker among many faiths and to point to the cross hanging on the wall and proclaim “That is where my hope comes from”
It took courage for Abraham to leave his fathers land It took courage for Daniel to not eat the kings meat, it took courage for Noah to build an ark in the middle of the desert
for you it may take courage to bow your head in public and be thankful for the food that your about to eat. It may take courage to speak to your neighbor about Christ or invite them to church. It may take courage to walk away from the dirty joke at work. It takes courage in a world that is accepting of all religions to stand up and say I believe that Jesus Christ is the only way of Salvation
It takes courage in world that believes in the wisdom of man to stand up and say I believe that God created man in his own image and in seven days he created the world and everything in it.
But our faith is in the details. Either we believe that the Word of God is true or not and in the world we live in it takes courage to take a stand for the inerrant scriptures
our children and grandchildren need to see that our faith is real enough for us to find the courage to take a stand for Jesus.
so we see the religious in the Jews, and the courageous in Joseph and finally see the
Third the persuaded
There is another man listed in this passage that we read about earlier. Look in verse 39, “Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myyrh and aloes about seventy-five pounds in weight.
Turn back to John chapter 3
This encounter that Nicodemus had with Jesus persuaded him to be a follower of Christ
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he was a religious man. Yet he knew that he needed more in order to be saved and have the peace of God
the question this morning to all of us, is are we persuaded like Nicodemus?
One time the Apostle Paul stood in front of a king by the name of Agrippa and Paul preached to this king all about Jesus
and after the sermon Agrippa said, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”
we sing that song, almost persuaded, but almost is not enough.
This morning we have looked at how Jesus gave his life for his no man took it and then we saw the religious, the courageous and the persuaded
before you can become the courageous you have to go from being religious, to being persuaded that the answer is found in Jesus not religion then you go to being courageous where you take the first stand for Jesus in this place
this is the easiest place to do it among other believers
