JESUS: THE REAL IRONMAN
John 19:16-18
INTRODUCTION: MODERN IRONMEN
A. HUMOR: THE TUNNEL
1. Boudreaux and Thibodeaux were traveling on a train. They had packed sack lunches and at last they got hungry. 2. Boudreaux opened his sack and got out a banana. He peeled it back and prepared to take a bite. Thibodeaux also opened his lunch sack and got out a banana.
3. Just as Boudreaux took his first bite, the train went into a tunnel. Boudreaux said, "Thibodeaux, have you taken a bite of your banana yet?"
4. "No." "Well, then don't! I just took a bite of my banana and went blind!"
5. Obviously, Boudreaux’s not the brightest star in the constellation! But there are a lot of men who are champions.
B. IRONMAN COMPETITIONS
1. The Ironman world championship competition has been held annually in Hawaii since 1978. It is known for its grueling length and harsh conditions as men and women push themselves to their absolute limits in the triathlon.
2. The race begins with a 2 ½ mile swim, then a 115 mile bike ride, finishing up with a 26.2 mile running marathon.
3. To complete this course is an incredible achievement. Whoever can do it is an Ironman!
C. IRONMAN MARVEL MOVIE
1. Another modern Ironman is the Marvel Comics Tech Hero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3MTUPdjpZ0
2. It’s the story of Tony Stark the genius billionaire who lives only for himself until he is tortured and almost dies at the hands of terrorists in Afghanistan.
3. His near-death experience makes Stark rethinks his life and he becomes the protector of human freedom from tyranny, as he fights off power-hungry megalomaniacs (whether Ivan Vanko or Aldrich Killian).
D. JESUS CHRIST: THE REAL IRONMAN, TEXT
16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
I. NOTICE THE REAL AGONY OF THE CROSS
A. THE SUFFERING OF THE CROSS WAS REAL
1. John 19:16; “Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.”
2. We see so much make-believe in our world today that we have lost our sense of reality. But I want you to know that the Cross of Jesus was real. There was no stunt man, no fake blood, no rubber nails, no paper cross -- it was real.
3. When they beat him in the face, it was real. When they spit upon Him, it was real. When they whipped Him, it was real. When they pounded the nails into His hands and feet, it was real.
4. HORRIBLE DEATH OF THE CROSS
a. The March 21, 1986, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association gave a clinical analysis of Jesus’ death on the cross.
b. Replete with diagrams and technical language, it painted a chilling picture of human cruelty. The report mentions seven-inch spikes; the work of insects and birds on the victims’s eyes, ears and nose; continued blood loss and infection at the scourge wounds; and painful mutilation of the "sensorimotor median nerve."
c. The doctors wrote that the cause of death by crucifixion had many factors and varied with each case. The two most prominent causes likely were hypovolemic shock and exhaustion asphyxia.
d. The article’s language is clear. Crucifixion had a catastrophic effect on breathing, the heart, and the body in general. It was a horrible death.
5. John spares the gore, only mentioning the fact of
Jesus’ crucifixion. Probably because the true ordeal of the cross was more spiritual than physical. Jesus was made . . . sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and the wrath of God we deserved was poured out upon Him: incomprehensible suffering!
B. THE SHAME OF THE CROSS WAS REAL
1. Matt. 27:35, “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots.”
2. He had His outer clothes stripped off. The crucifixion took place along a road-side, before a hostile crowd.
3. Rubber-neckers mocked and gawked at this ghastly freak show. He was made a public spectacle before the world and He bore the shame we should have borne.
C. HIS SEPARATION FROM THE FATHER WAS REAL
1. Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
2. He had been forsaken by religious leaders, by His family, by His disciples, by His friends, and now by His Father.
3. He wasn’t forsaken because of His sins, for he was sinless. But he was forsaken because He was taking the guilt of our sins upon Himself.
II. WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO SUFFER?
A. A – BECAUSE OF OUR SIN
1. HUMOR. Not everybody wants to tell you the truth about your health. Two ladies were talking:
a. "So Mabel, is your son Richard a good doctor?"
b. "Good? He’s such a sweet boy, that last year, when I needed an operation and couldn’t afford it, he touched up my X-rays."
2. But God tells it straight. Rom. 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” and consequently are equally helpless and guilty.
3. ILLUSTRATION: At the end of a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, a missions group was climbing into taxis to go to the airport.
4. Suddenly one of them said, “I left a piece of luggage in my room!” and went to retrieve it. The leader of the group criticized her sharply in her absence to the group.
5. When they got to the airport and were unloading the luggage from the taxis, the leader discovered to his dismay that he too, had left some of his luggage behind!
6. He apologized and said, “I’ll never criticize so harshly again!”
7. Because we all have faults and weaknesses, we should bear with one another and forgive each other when things go wrong. [Lawrence Darmani]
8. Because we ALL have sinned, Jesus had to go to the cross!
B. “B-BECAUSE OF MAN’S SEPARATION”
1. Isaiah 59:2 – “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.”
2. The problem isn’t with God’s power, His knowledge, or His interest. The problem is with our iniquities. Sin has
separated you from your God. God is Holy and can’t look upon sin but at the cross, Jesus was bringing mankind and God together.
3. ILLUS. Death
a. A story is told of a father and his son who had a terrible argument. In the end, the argument became so heated that the son left, vowing never to return or speak to his father again.
b. Later on, he was contacted and asked to come home, for his mother was dying. When he got home, he was ushered into her bedroom where his father was at her bedside.
c. His mother took his hand and the hand of his father and placed them across her body and said, “Will you make peace with each other over my dying body?” Of course, they forgave one another and did make peace with each other.
4. That what Jesus did on the cross, he took the hand of a loving God and the hand of sinful mankind and joined them together over his cross. And if we accept His salvation, we have peace with God.
C. “C-BECAUSE OF MAN’S SALVATION”
1. Rom. 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” At the great cost of the Savior’s blood, shed for us at Calvary, we have been counted righteous by God.
2. ILLUS.: JOY OF A CLEAN CONSCIENCE
a. Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, an early missionary to India, recalls that while preaching to a group who had
come to bathe in the "sacred stream" of the Ganges, a man joined them who had crawled many agonizing miles on his knees and elbows to reach that spot.
b. The poor exhausted soul made his prayer to Gunga, and then slipped into the water, but emerged with the same conviction of sin as before. The fear of death still tugged at his heart.
c. Then he heard Chamberlain tell the wonderful story of grace and how Christ died on the cross to pay the debt of sinners before God.
d. He quoted the verse, “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”
e. The man staggered to his feet, clasped his hands together, and cried, "Oh, that’s what I need! That’s what I came for! Tell me again this happy news!” The missionary soon led him to Jesus.
III. NOTICE THE RESULTS OF THE CROSS
A. BY THE CROSS-HE PURCHASED OUR PARDON
1. Eph. 1:7, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of
his grace.”
2. Redemption always implies a price being paid for the freedom that is purchased; here the price is His blood. Jesus does not redeem us by His sinless life or His moral example, but only by His death in our place -by His blood.
3. In his book, “What Money Can’t Buy,” Michael Sandel tells some unusual things money CAN buy:
a. a prison-cell upgrade for $90 a night;
b. the right to shoot an endangered black rhino for $250,000;
c. your doctor’s cell phone number for $1,500.
4. But one thing money CAN’T buy is Redemption – freedom from the stranglehold of sin. That could only be purchased by Jesus on the cross, breaking the power of sin over us!
5. Peter says that we “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (I Pet. 1:18-19).
B. BY THE CROSS- HE PURCHASED OUR PEACE
1. Rom. 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. Before, while under a sense of the guilt of sin, we had nothing but terror and dismay in our own consciences; now, having our sin forgiven, we have peace in our hearts, feeling that all our guilt is taken away. Peace is generally the first-fruits of our justification.
3. ILLUS. WHAT YOU CAN DO
a. A young man went to a minister in great distress about his spiritual state. He said to the minister, "Sir, can you tell me what I must do to find peace?"
b. The minister replied, "Young man, you are too late." "Oh!" said the young man, "You don’t mean to say I am too late to be saved?" "Oh, no," was the reply.
c. "But you are too late to do anything. Jesus already did everything that needed to be done twenty centuries ago."
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: BABY GRACE
1. Headlines in the Savannah, Georgia News were all about Baby Grace. Baby Grace was a newborn girl discovered in a dumpster by a garbage worker.
2. Amidst the refuse of a ghetto area of Savannah, lying in pornography, in the green broken glass of discarded cheap wine bottles, in coffee grounds and rotting food was a tiny little girl not over a week old.
3. The garbage collector named her “Baby Grace.” And the story of Grace is changing the hearts of that neighborhood like nothing before. There will be no problem finding parents for Baby Grace, couples are lining up to claim Grace as their own.
4. I think what God is telling us in this passage is that the message of Grace – God’s Grace in Christ – is equally surprising and even disturbing.
5. For on a garbage dump outside of a two-bit occupied country, on a Roman cross, Grace could be found. And those who find Grace, and tell it best, are not professional clergymen, but people who have lived close to the dumpster themselves, fellow refuse workers, if you will, who have discovered Grace.
6. That is all I am. That is all you are. And if you have wandered in here today for a nice dose of religion, forget it. We’re just a bunch of sinners saved by grace, calling you, too, to admit your weakness and reach out for His Power – His Grace – which was demonstrated when Jesus died for us on the Cross.
B. THE CALL
1. There was a law in Tokyo around the year 1900 that no foreigner could take up residence there unless he had a "substitute."
2. There were natives who hired themselves out for
this purpose. If the foreigner broke any law, the substitute suffered the penalty for it, even if the penalty was death.
3. Jesus -- on the cross, in the grave, and Risen -- is our substitute. He took our place. He paid the penalty on our behalf.
4. Prayer for salvation.
[This message uses much of the outline of Evie Megginson’s “A Visit to Calvary.”]
