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Death on a Cross │ Msg 1116 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: There are few scenes in all of literature more filled
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Speaker 1: with anguish and pathos than the death of Jesus. In
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Speaker 1: the first century, the cross was not a symbol of
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Speaker 1: faith but a failure. It was not a symbol of veneration,
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Speaker 1: but of unspeakable shame. Crosses loomed menacingly on the frayed
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Speaker 1: hymn of the city's outskirts, overlooking the garbage dumps. They
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Speaker 1: stood ominously on the horizon, as brutal monuments that crimes
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Speaker 1: against Rome did not pay. For Jesus, however, the cross
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Speaker 1: was not a place of despair and defeat, but of
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Speaker 1: hope and victory. His cross was the altar on which
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Speaker 1: the spotless lamb of God would bear our sins, which
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Speaker 1: he would declare freedom from Sin's curse in his triumphant words,
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Speaker 1: it is finished. I want you to listen very carefully today,
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Speaker 1: and as you do so, I want you to reflect
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Speaker 1: on John's reverent portrayal of Christ's death. As I read
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Speaker 1: from John nineteen sixteen through thirty seven. Then Pilot turned
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Speaker 1: Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took
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Speaker 1: Jesus away, carrying the cross by himself. He went to
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Speaker 1: the place called place of the Skull in Hebrew Galgatha.
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Speaker 1: There they nailed him to the cross. Two others were
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Speaker 1: crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them,
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Speaker 1: and Pilot poshed a sign on the cross that read
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Speaker 1: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. The place
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Speaker 1: where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the
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Speaker 1: sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that
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Speaker 1: many people could read it. Then the leading priests objected
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Speaker 1: and said to Pilot, change it from the King of
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Speaker 1: the Jews to he said, I am King of the Jews.
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Speaker 1: Pilot replied, no, what I have written, I have written.
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Speaker 1: When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes
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Speaker 1: among the four of them. They also took his robe,
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Speaker 1: but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top
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Speaker 1: to bottom. So they said, rather than tearing it apart,
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Speaker 1: dice for it. This fulfilled the scripture that says they
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Speaker 1: divided my garments among themselves, and through dice for my clothing.
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Speaker 1: So that is what they did. Standing near the cross
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Speaker 1: were Jesus' mother and his mother's sister, Marry, the wife
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Speaker 1: of Clophus and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother
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Speaker 1: standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said, to her,
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Speaker 1: dear woman, here is your son. And he said to
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Speaker 1: this disciple, here is your mother. And from then on
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Speaker 1: this disciple took her into his home. Jesus knew that
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Speaker 1: his mission was now finished, and to fulfill his scripture,
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Speaker 1: he said, I am thirsty. A jar of sour wine
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Speaker 1: was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it,
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Speaker 1: put it on a hissop branch, and held it up
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Speaker 1: to his lips. When Jesus had tasted it, he said,
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Speaker 1: it is finished. Then he bowed his head and gave
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Speaker 1: up his spirit. It was the day of preparation, and
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Speaker 1: the Jewish leaders didn't want the bodies hanging there the
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Speaker 1: next day, which was the Sabbath and a very special
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Speaker 1: sabbath because it was passover weak. So they asked Pilot
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Speaker 1: to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken,
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Speaker 1: then their bodies could be taken down. So the soldiers
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Speaker 1: came and broke the legs of the two men crucified
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Speaker 1: with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they saw
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Speaker 1: that he was already dead, so they didn't break his legs.
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Speaker 1: One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear,
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Speaker 1: and immediately blood and water flowed out. This report is
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Speaker 1: from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the
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Speaker 1: truth that you also may continue to believe these things
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Speaker 1: happened in fulfillment of the scriptures that say not one
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Speaker 1: of his bones will be broken, and they will look
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Speaker 1: on the one they pierced.
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Speaker 2: There is nothing pleasant or attractive about execution. There is
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Speaker 2: no way that you can decorate or make appealing the
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Speaker 2: instrument that causes death. We come today, in our study
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Speaker 2: of John, to the death of Jesus Christ, which in
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Speaker 2: his day was brought about by crucifixion, an irony. In
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Speaker 2: all of this, it seems that the Christian's focus is
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Speaker 2: on the death of Christ, and yet we know so
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Speaker 2: little about crucifixion. You and I have never witnessed such
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Speaker 2: an act. As a matter of fact, we have never
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Speaker 2: witnessed any kind of execution, unless perhaps we were in
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Speaker 2: the far reaches of battle and saw it happen among
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Speaker 2: enemy troops. I was raised in a state where a
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Speaker 2: capital crime was that which led a man to the
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Speaker 2: all electric chair. If you were raised in this state,
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Speaker 2: it has been in the gas chamber. In Utah, it's
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Speaker 2: by a firing squad, or if you choose another method
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Speaker 2: in Kansas, I believe it is still true. It is
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Speaker 2: by hanging, as it is in the Commonwealth, in the
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Speaker 2: British Isles. It's not attractive, it's not meant to be.
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Speaker 2: Crucifixion in those days and execution in our day, however,
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Speaker 2: have two great differences. First, our method of taking a
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Speaker 2: life is private. It is never done for the public
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Speaker 2: to view, either visibly or on any kind of television set.
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Speaker 2: It's long since it seemed passed off the scene. Criminals
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Speaker 2: are set free with some manipulative device of legal procedure,
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Speaker 2: and those that do live out their lives living behind bars.
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Speaker 2: But crucifixion in Jesus' day was designed to be public.
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Speaker 2: It was purposely planned to say crime does not pay.
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Speaker 2: It was to leave a lingering reminder in the minds
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Speaker 2: of those who witnessed it that if you break the law,
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Speaker 2: you pay a supreme price. It was public. The second
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Speaker 2: great difference is that in our day, when we took
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Speaker 2: the life of criminals, give guilty of capital crimes. We
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Speaker 2: did it swiftly, the snap of the spine, the flash
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Speaker 2: of electricity through a body, a bullet wound in the chest,
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Speaker 2: or some noxious gas that instantly takes a life. But
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Speaker 2: in the days of Jesus, crucifixion was designed to be lingering.
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Speaker 2: It had a reason, and behind the reason was the
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Speaker 2: brutal and sadistic feeling that if the world could witness
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Speaker 2: death in process, crime could be curtailed. Whether or not
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Speaker 2: that works is another subject, but the Romans believed it did. Now,
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Speaker 2: as we go to the subject of crucifixion, we come
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Speaker 2: to an anguishing and torturing message. There is no way
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Speaker 2: to make it attractive. Funny thing about a cross, isn't it?
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Speaker 2: In our day it's a beautiful thing. We put it
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Speaker 2: in mosaic indirect lighting, we frame it in lovely metal,
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Speaker 2: or we put it with jewels on our person, or
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Speaker 2: on our per or on our bibles. I think people
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Speaker 2: of the first century would gasp to see such a thing.
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Speaker 2: If I may say it without wanting to be humorous,
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Speaker 2: it would be like wearing a hangman's noose on your
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Speaker 2: lapel or an electric chair on your purse. It is
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Speaker 2: a symbol of death. The most hideous anguishing of all
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Speaker 2: kinds was crucifixion. Now, some could get the false impression
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Speaker 2: that Jesus was the helpless victim of an aborted plan.
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Speaker 2: He was a pitiful mortar. He planned one arrangement and
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Speaker 2: it failed, and he wound up on a cross of
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Speaker 2: all things. And as a martyr to this cause, he
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Speaker 2: nevertheless established a new religion. So say many people today,
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Speaker 2: in fact, had been written with that particular plot in mind,
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Speaker 2: that Jesus, when his plan failed, wound up on a cross.
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Speaker 2: And so let me set the records straight to begin
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Speaker 2: with by saying that jesus death was no afterthought. It
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Speaker 2: was part of God's predetermined plan. Look at Acts chapter
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Speaker 2: two before we look at John nineteen. Together Acts chapter two,
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Speaker 2: beginning at verse twenty two, we have a record of
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Speaker 2: Peter's sermon. He preached the day of Pentecost, and standing
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Speaker 2: before Jew and gentile alike, he addressed the Jews who
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Speaker 2: were there, and he said, men of Israel, listen to
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Speaker 2: these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you
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Speaker 2: by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God
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Speaker 2: performed through him in your midst just as you yourselves
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Speaker 2: know this man. Now mark these words delivered up by
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Speaker 2: the predetermined plan and fore knowledge of God. You nailed
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Speaker 2: to a cross by the hands of godless men, and
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Speaker 2: you put him to death. You notice that the apostle Peter,
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Speaker 2: without removing the responsibility of guilty man, you nailed him
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Speaker 2: to a cross, declares the plan of God. It was
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Speaker 2: all in the sweep of time, arranged in the council
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Speaker 2: of the Trinity's chamber in eternity past. His death on
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Speaker 2: a cross was no afterthought. It was not only planned,
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Speaker 2: it was prophesied. Look at chapter three of Acts, verse eighteen.
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Speaker 2: The things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of
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Speaker 2: all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer. He has
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Speaker 2: thus fulfilled marked the words announced beforehand by the prophets.
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Speaker 2: You could turn to a number of sections in the
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Speaker 2: Old Testament prophecies as well as the Psalms, and you
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Speaker 2: will find references to the death of the Savior, some
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Speaker 2: date as far back as nine centuries before the fact.
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Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, the irony of it is
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Speaker 2: that in those days there was not crucifixion, and yet
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Speaker 2: they prophesied of a crucified death. For example, David writes
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Speaker 2: in the twenty second Psalm these words nine and a
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Speaker 2: half centuries before the Savior came. His hands and feet
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Speaker 2: would be pierced, his bones would be pulled out of joint,
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Speaker 2: His clothing would be divided. They would cast lots on
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Speaker 2: his garments. He would be the opt of scorning and mocking.
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Speaker 2: Think of that, nine hundred and fifty years before the
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Speaker 2: fact he gave those details. About seven hundred years before
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Speaker 2: Christ's coming, Isaiah wrote that he would be the object
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Speaker 2: of misery, torture, and pain. He would be like a
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Speaker 2: sheep led to the slaughter the Lord God had planned
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Speaker 2: to bruise his son. He would be crucified with thieves.
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Speaker 2: All of that in the fifty third chapter. So this
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Speaker 2: came not as a sudden and abrupt, passionate act in
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Speaker 2: the minds of the Romans and Jews. The death of
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Speaker 2: Jesus came planned by God. And whatever else I say
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Speaker 2: this morning of this message, remember now, the significance of
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Speaker 2: the death was that you and I might have sins forgiven,
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Speaker 2: and a pathway to Heaven opened, prepared and paved with
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Speaker 2: his blood. Back in John chapter nineteen, there are a
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Speaker 2: couple of historical matters we should clarify. One has to
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Speaker 2: do with place, the other has to do with time
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Speaker 2: of day. The place is told us in verse thirteen.
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Speaker 2: That is the place where it all began, this process
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Speaker 2: of crucifixion John nineteen thirteen. This is at the end
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Speaker 2: of the sixth trial. Pilot, therefore, when he heard these words,
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Speaker 2: brought Jesus out, that means, out of his chamber, out
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Speaker 2: of the place where he had interrogated him, and he
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Speaker 2: set him down on the judgment seat at a place
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Speaker 2: called the pavement. Excavations have been made of this area,
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Speaker 2: and we have discovered through the spain of the archaeologists
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Speaker 2: that this particular site was located on the northwest corner
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Speaker 2: of Herod's temple, not too far from the castle of Antonio.
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Speaker 2: That's where the soldiers were in barracks. They probably saw
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Speaker 2: it from their windows. Those that were not out there
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Speaker 2: witnessing it firsthand. Within a close proximity, you could see this.
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Speaker 2: On the pavement area, there is an elevated section of
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Speaker 2: massive pavement, and it was there at the place called
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Speaker 2: Gabbatha verse thirteen that Jesus heard that final sentence, and
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Speaker 2: where Pilot washed his hands and no longer dealt with
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Speaker 2: Christ judicially, he turned him over to the mob. By
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Speaker 2: the way Mark fifteen fifteen tells us, he did it
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Speaker 2: to appease the people. He knew in his heart Jesus
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Speaker 2: was innocent, but down deep within he had a greater
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Speaker 2: fear of people than he did of God, and he
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Speaker 2: made a foolish, stupid decision. Now, the time of day
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Speaker 2: is not as clearly specified. You will remember from our
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Speaker 2: study on the trials of Jesus that Pilot's final trial
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Speaker 2: took place around seven point thirty in the morning. Probably
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Speaker 2: this happened that is the beginning of the crucifixion, around
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Speaker 2: seven point thirty to eight o'clock that day. We know
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Speaker 2: specifically from the writings of Mark that jesus hands and
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Speaker 2: feet were nailed to the cross at nine o'clock in
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Speaker 2: the morning. So somewhere between seven point thirty seven forty
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Speaker 2: five and nine o'clock, several preliminary things were taken care of.
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Speaker 2: To begin with, the victim was scourged. Now, in the
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Speaker 2: next number of moments we have together, we're going to
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Speaker 2: be walking where Jesus walked. We're going hopefully to feel
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Speaker 2: his presence near. But the path is not going to
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Speaker 2: be pleasant. I won't linger unnecessarily over these torturous experiences,
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Speaker 2: but I do want to make the point clear as
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Speaker 2: we move through several steps that were common in crucifixion.
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Speaker 2: The scourging of the victim is not mentioned by John,
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Speaker 2: probably because he wrote sixty years or so after the
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Speaker 2: other writers, and it had already been clearly revealed by
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Speaker 2: the Gospel writers before him. Though. Let's turn to one
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Speaker 2: that mentions it, Matthew. Let's go to chapter twenty seven.
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Speaker 2: As we analyze this terrible means of extermination, we need
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Speaker 2: to see to begin with that the victim was scourged Matthew,
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Speaker 2: twenty seven, verse twenty six. The he of the verse
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Speaker 2: is pilot. Then he released Barabbas for them, but Jesus
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Speaker 2: he scourged and delivered over to be crucified. In those days,
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Speaker 2: there were two kinds of scourging. One was Jewish, described
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Speaker 2: in Deuteronomy twenty five one through three. In that passage
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Speaker 2: we are told that a victim was not to be
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Speaker 2: beaten more than forty times. The jew was terribly afraid
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Speaker 2: of breaking the law, so he would commonly beat the
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Speaker 2: victim thirty nine times, making sure he hadn't missed one
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Speaker 2: in his count so as never to go over forty.
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Speaker 2: But in Romans scourging there was no number of times
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Speaker 2: a victim was beaten. That's why the Romans commonly called
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Speaker 2: scourging halfway death. In the room of scourging, which was
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Speaker 2: a room of torture, there was a low, thick stump
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Speaker 2: or post. It was about knee high or a little
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Speaker 2: above that. At the base of the post were four
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Speaker 2: metal rings made for the tying of the wrists and
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Speaker 2: the ankles. The victim was stripped of all his clothing.
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Speaker 2: He was bent forward over the stump and tied in
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Speaker 2: that position. The instrument of torture was something like this
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Speaker 2: that I have put together for you to notice. It
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Speaker 2: was used by a man called a lictor. Lic tr
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Speaker 2: He was a profane in the grim art of torture.
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Speaker 2: This instrument was called a flagellum. It was a piece
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Speaker 2: of wood from fourteen to eighteen inches long, circular in shape,
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Speaker 2: to which were attached long leather thongs. And to the
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Speaker 2: thongs the straps were sown bits of glass, bone, pellets
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Speaker 2: of lead, and pieces of metal. Adding weight to this flagellum.
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Speaker 2: The lictor went through a standard process that is described
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Speaker 2: for us very clearly in the writings of this man. Listen,
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Speaker 2: the soldier who performed the flagellums the flagellations moved to
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Speaker 2: a position about six feet from his victim and spread
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Speaker 2: his legs. The flagellum was then brought all the way
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Speaker 2: back over his shoulder and whistled forward, making a dull
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Speaker 2: drum sound. As the strips of leather smashed against the
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Speaker 2: back of the rib cage. The bits of bone and
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Speaker 2: chain and glass curled around the sides of the body,
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Speaker 2: raising small hemorrhages on the chest, stomach, and sides. The
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Speaker 2: flagellum came back again, aimed slightly lower, and again aimed higher,
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Speaker 2: and it crashed against the skin and flesh. The flagellum
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Speaker 2: now moved in slow rhythm. One historian writes it reduced
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Speaker 2: the naked body to strips of raw flesh and inflamed
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Speaker 2: bleeding wounds. You see, it was not uncommon for a
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Speaker 2: man to die on the stump. It was also not
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Speaker 2: uncommon for one to go insane and lose his reasoning. Invariably,
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Speaker 2: the victim passed out through pain. One man who was
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Speaker 2: an eyewitness of a scourging states that as the body
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Speaker 2: is in that position, blood comes from all the holes
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Speaker 2: in the face and head during flagellation. As a result
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Speaker 2: of this awful and yet what appears to be insignificant
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Speaker 2: part of crucifixion, but it was not, Jesus, no doubt,
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Speaker 2: fell into a spasm. His body shook out of shock,
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Speaker 2: and I am sure his teeth rattled audibly. Victims were
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Speaker 2: revived through buckets of salt water that were splashed on
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Speaker 2: the person. To revive him, they used pain to keep
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Speaker 2: the level of pain conscious. From this point on, Jesus
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Speaker 2: became in the minds of the soldiers a comic king
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Speaker 2: verse twenty seven of Matthew twenty seven. The soldiers then
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Speaker 2: took Jesus into the pratorium and gathered the whole Roman
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Speaker 2: cohort around him. Now we have the second phase, the
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Speaker 2: mocking by the soldiers. Now remember, through all of this
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Speaker 2: he has not said a word. There is not a
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Speaker 2: recorded word of Jesus until the cross. Standing before the
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Speaker 2: barracks of soldiers, Jesus Christ was stripped of all his clothing.
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Speaker 2: Verse twenty eight reads he stood nude before them. His
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Speaker 2: body was a mass of swollen flesh, his back and sides.
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Speaker 2: By now his face is swollen and bruised, scarcely looking
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Speaker 2: like the figures of a man. They decide that if
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Speaker 2: they have a king on their hands, they need to
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Speaker 2: treat him like a king. And in sarcastic fashion, they
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Speaker 2: did four things you do for a king. They gave
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Speaker 2: him a crown, they gave him a robe, they gave
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Speaker 2: him scepter, and they gave him praise, all of it
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Speaker 2: in mockery. Verse twenty eight mentions the robe. It says
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Speaker 2: they put a scarlet robe on him. The Greek word
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Speaker 2: is clamouse, and it's not the word for a long
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Speaker 2: flowing robe. It's for a short cloak that didn't come
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Speaker 2: down hardly to the elbows, and it was spread over
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Speaker 2: the shoulders and probably tied or buttoned or in some
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Speaker 2: way fastened at the neck. He was naked from his
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Speaker 2: chest down, and standing before that barracks full of godless
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Speaker 2: base man. I'm confident that that's the reason we do
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Speaker 2: not have a recording of what they said to him.
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Speaker 2: Having spent some time in a military barracks, I know
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Speaker 2: just a little bit about how a person of that
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Speaker 2: right talks when he has no heart for God, and
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Speaker 2: you can believe that, as Jesus stood in that humiliating
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Speaker 2: place in front of those base men, every obscene, vulgar
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Speaker 2: statement you can imagine, was shouted at him. Now, a
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Speaker 2: king needs a crown verse twenty nine. And so they
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Speaker 2: put together a crown of thorns and put it on
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Speaker 2: his head. Friends of mine, some time ago went to Jerusalem,
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Speaker 2: as a number of you have been there, and they
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Speaker 2: picked up what was probably a pretty good replica of
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Speaker 2: that crown. I measured the thorns on this particular crown.
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Speaker 2: Some are as short as three quarters of an inch,
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Speaker 2: some are as long as three and a half inches.
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Speaker 2: The thorns in those days were common in that area.
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Speaker 2: In fact, they would be snipped when they grew too long,
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Speaker 2: and stuffed in a bucket and dried, used as kindling
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Speaker 2: for a firewood to start a fireplace. And outside public
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Speaker 2: places there would be large receptacles with these dried thorns
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Speaker 2: and these vines stuck in there. Probably they went out,
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Speaker 2: snatched a few from the bucket, platted together a mocking crown,
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Speaker 2: and shoved it down on his head. And then a
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Speaker 2: king needs a scepter, so they put a reed in
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Speaker 2: his right hand, and they kneeled down before him, hail
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Speaker 2: kidding of the Jews. These romans shouted, they hated the Jews.
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Speaker 2: And as they stood before one who was a fanatical
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Speaker 2: self appointed ruler, they shout. The Bible says that they
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Speaker 2: spat on him verse thirty. And they took that read
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Speaker 2: and beat him on the head. And what is remarkable
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Speaker 2: to me in all of this, in the grossest form
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Speaker 2: of mockery, our Savior never reviled in return. Peter was
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Speaker 2: probably as close an eyewitness as any of the disciples,
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Speaker 2: and he writes, Jesus did no sin, neither was deceit
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Speaker 2: found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled
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Speaker 2: not in return. When he suffered, he threatened not, but
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Speaker 2: he committed himself to him who judges righteously. Did you
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Speaker 2: hear that? That's what he was doing. First, he was
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Speaker 2: committing himself to him, the Father who judges righteously. Hebrews
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Speaker 2: twelve two tells us that Jesus was also thinking of us,
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Speaker 2: who for the joy set before him, endured the cross.
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Speaker 2: There's every reason to believe that Jesus focused on the
30:10
Speaker 2: ultimate joy, the bringing into his body his family, his believers,
30:20
Speaker 2: and focusing on you and me that day of infamy.
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Speaker 2: He endured without one voice of reproach. None of the
30:36
Speaker 2: gospel writers say much about the walking to the site,
30:40
Speaker 2: probably because it was very common, as common as a
30:45
Speaker 2: funeral proceason. There's not a person here who stops his
30:49
Speaker 2: business very long except to look in passing as a
30:53
Speaker 2: funeral proceason passes. That's the way it was with the crucifixion.
31:00
Speaker 2: How you'll notice that they redressed him verse thirty one.
31:05
Speaker 2: They put his garments on him. A jew wore five garments, sandals,
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Speaker 2: a head piece of some kind called a turban, an
31:16
Speaker 2: inner tunic, an outer cloak, and a girdle which we
31:23
Speaker 2: would call a wide belt. Four pieces were divided among
31:29
Speaker 2: the soldiers. But as we will see in a few moments,
31:32
Speaker 2: when they came to that seamless tunic that one of
31:37
Speaker 2: his followers had made for him, they gambled for that
31:41
Speaker 2: to tear it into four pieces would be useless and foolish,
31:45
Speaker 2: and they wanted that it was from that particular piece
31:49
Speaker 2: that there has been written the novel The Robe, and
31:53
Speaker 2: interesting in some imaginary and legendary ideas had been suggested
31:58
Speaker 2: with what happened to that tunic. But back to the subject.
32:03
Speaker 2: Let's take him to the site. Verse thirty one says
32:06
Speaker 2: they led him away. Now back to John nineteen quickly.
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Speaker 2: Now time is fleeting. John nineteen, Verse seventeen says, and
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Speaker 2: he went out. That's all that's said. Several things took
32:26
Speaker 2: place on the road between the place of sentencing and
32:30
Speaker 2: the place of crucifixion. First of all, once again, let
32:34
Speaker 2: me remind you that it was all done publicly. There
32:37
Speaker 2: was no reason to hide a criminal. It was once
32:41
Speaker 2: again I remind you, for the purpose of public viewing,
32:46
Speaker 2: so as to curb crime. The victim stood in an
32:50
Speaker 2: imaginary square in the hollow of this square, cornered on
32:56
Speaker 2: each place by a soldier with a centure in the lead.
33:01
Speaker 2: You'll notice it. On the insert you received a little
33:05
Speaker 2: diagram of how they stationed themselves for this journey Jesus.
33:13
Speaker 2: In this case, the victim carried the cross beam around
33:18
Speaker 2: his neck was a board on which was painted his crime.
33:26
Speaker 2: The board was no wider than twelve inches and no
33:29
Speaker 2: longer than twenty four and scribbled on this board was
33:33
Speaker 2: the crime. That board. When he arrived at the cross
33:38
Speaker 2: and he was nailed to the beam was taken from
33:42
Speaker 2: around his neck and nailed to the cross above him,
33:45
Speaker 2: so that everyone who passed by not only could see
33:47
Speaker 2: the criminal, but could read his crime. The contrary to
33:53
Speaker 2: popular belief, no man carried the entire cross would have
33:57
Speaker 2: been too heavy. An eight foot piece of timber four
34:03
Speaker 2: by six plus a cross beam no less than six
34:08
Speaker 2: feet wide is too heavy. And he didn't drag his cross.
34:12
Speaker 2: He carried it. The upright piece remained At Golgotha, the
34:20
Speaker 2: victim carried only the cross beam, which he put over
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Speaker 2: his shoulders as you would carry an oar or along board,
34:30
Speaker 2: and he would be chained to that cross beam, with
34:35
Speaker 2: the sign around his shoulders, around his neck, and walking
34:40
Speaker 2: in methodical fashion the longest path they could find to
34:45
Speaker 2: the site, so as to get in view of all
34:48
Speaker 2: the people as many as possible. Jesus was taken the
34:52
Speaker 2: Via della Rosa, it is called, but it is nothing
34:54
Speaker 2: at all of beauty. It must have been a stumbling, halting,
35:00
Speaker 2: difficult experience. Remember the scourging, Remember the beating, the torture,
35:07
Speaker 2: and now the beam. In the process of time, someone
35:12
Speaker 2: was brought to help him carry that beam. By the way,
35:17
Speaker 2: it's interesting just to pause and add that in those days,
35:21
Speaker 2: taking up one's cross was a colloquialism. It was a
35:26
Speaker 2: slang expression for dying to what you want. That's why
35:31
Speaker 2: when Jesus refers to discipleship, he says, if any man
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Speaker 2: will come after me, let him deny himself, take up
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Speaker 2: his cross daily and follow me. Using that same thought spiritually,
35:44
Speaker 2: he is referring to giving up your desire for his desires.
35:50
Speaker 2: You see, when you saw a person carrying a cross beam,
35:53
Speaker 2: there was one thing ahead of it, death, and it
35:56
Speaker 2: became sort of the nomenclature of the people of that day.
36:02
Speaker 2: Now back to John nineteen, we come to what Berkley
36:06
Speaker 2: calls the dreadful routine crucifixion. They took him out verse seventeen,
36:15
Speaker 2: bearing his own cross, to the place of a skull
36:20
Speaker 2: called Gulgatha, where they crucified him three words. And yet
36:28
Speaker 2: there's an awesomeness about them. Three words they crucified him. Klausner,
36:35
Speaker 2: the Jewish historian, says crucifixion is the most terrible and
36:39
Speaker 2: cruel death man has ever devised. William Wilson, an Englishman, adds,
36:46
Speaker 2: not only was the cross the most painful of debts,
36:49
Speaker 2: it was the most debasing, The condemned was stripped naked
36:54
Speaker 2: and left exposed in his agony. Often the Romans even
36:59
Speaker 2: denied burial to the victim, allowing the body to hang
37:04
Speaker 2: until it disint agreed. It all began in Persia years ago.
37:12
Speaker 2: They believed in the god Ormused or m use Zd,
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Speaker 2: the god of earth, the pure god, and no criminal's blood,
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Speaker 2: no person of a criminal should contaminate the earth by
37:27
Speaker 2: dying on it, and out of worship to Ormus, they
37:31
Speaker 2: went through a series of trials to find out the
37:35
Speaker 2: best method of torturous death, and they devised this ingenious
37:40
Speaker 2: plan whereby a victim could be lifted off the earth
37:44
Speaker 2: which was pure, and die in that position and taken
37:50
Speaker 2: and never placed again on the earth, so as to
37:54
Speaker 2: keep the earth pure. This was passed on to the
37:57
Speaker 2: Egyptians and then on to the Romans, who embraced it
38:02
Speaker 2: and developed it into an actual art, so that they
38:06
Speaker 2: knew the very best plan by which to carry it out.
38:12
Speaker 2: They crucified him. There. I want to read a rather
38:17
Speaker 2: lengthy rendering of crucifixion, and I don't want you to
38:23
Speaker 2: let your mind wander. It's better that I can say it.
38:28
Speaker 2: It is more brief than I would be, and it's
38:31
Speaker 2: to the point. The executioner laid the cross beam behind
38:36
Speaker 2: the victim and brought him to the ground quickly by
38:40
Speaker 2: grasping his arm and jerking him downward. As the victim fell,
38:45
Speaker 2: the beam was fitted under the back of his neck
38:49
Speaker 2: and on each side. Soldiers quickly knelt on the inside
38:52
Speaker 2: of the elbows. Once begun, the matter was done quickly
38:57
Speaker 2: and efficiently. The execu acutioner wore a leather apron with pockets.
39:04
Speaker 2: He placed two square five inch nails between his teeth
39:09
Speaker 2: and a hammer in his hand. Kneeling beside the right arm,
39:14
Speaker 2: The soldier, whose knee rested on the side inside of
39:17
Speaker 2: the elbow, held the forearm flat on the board, and
39:23
Speaker 2: the executioner probed with his hand the wrist and hand
39:28
Speaker 2: of the victim to find the little hollow spot, meaning
39:32
Speaker 2: where there would be no vital artery or vein. When
39:37
Speaker 2: he found it, he took one of the square cut
39:39
Speaker 2: iron nails from his teeth, held it against the spot
39:43
Speaker 2: directly behind the so called life line, raised the hammer
39:48
Speaker 2: over the over the nail head, and brought it down
39:51
Speaker 2: with force. As soon as he was satisfied that the
39:55
Speaker 2: condemned man could not, in struggling, pull himself free. He
39:59
Speaker 2: did the same. On the the other hand, the two
40:03
Speaker 2: soldiers would grab each side of the crossbeam, and as
40:06
Speaker 2: he motioned, they lifted. As they pulled up, they dragged
40:12
Speaker 2: the victim by the wrists. When the soldiers reached the
40:17
Speaker 2: upright the four of them began to lift the crossbeam
40:20
Speaker 2: higher until the feet of the victim were completely off
40:24
Speaker 2: the ground. The body writhed with pain. When the crossbeam
40:32
Speaker 2: was set firmly, the executioner reached up set the board
40:37
Speaker 2: which listed the name of the prisoner and his crime,
40:40
Speaker 2: and then he knelt before the cross. Two soldiers hurried
40:45
Speaker 2: to help. Each one took hold of a leg at
40:50
Speaker 2: the calf. The ritual was to nail the right foot
40:55
Speaker 2: over the left foot. This was probably the most difficult
40:58
Speaker 2: part of the work. If the feet were pulled downward
41:03
Speaker 2: too far and nailed close to the foot of the cross,
41:06
Speaker 2: the prisoner always died quickly. Over the years, the Romans
41:11
Speaker 2: learned to push the feet upward, buckling the knees so
41:16
Speaker 2: the condemned man could lean on the nails so as
41:20
Speaker 2: to stretch himself upward. He isn't mentioned here, but occasionally
41:25
Speaker 2: historians will mention a saddle like effect on the upright,
41:31
Speaker 2: where the victim could rest himself right at the base
41:33
Speaker 2: of the pelvis and find relief. Here's the reason why.
41:41
Speaker 2: The victim was now in a v position in his
41:44
Speaker 2: arms and became conscious of two unendurable circumstances. The first
41:52
Speaker 2: was that the pain in his wrist was beyond bearing,
41:57
Speaker 2: and that muscle cramps nodded his war arms and upper
42:01
Speaker 2: arms and the pads of his shoulders. The second was
42:05
Speaker 2: that his pectoral muscles at both sides of his chest
42:09
Speaker 2: were momentarily paralyzed. This induced in him an involuntary panic,
42:17
Speaker 2: for he found that while he could draw air into
42:20
Speaker 2: his lungs, he was powerless to exhale. He goes on
42:26
Speaker 2: to describe how on the cross victims literally were in
42:30
Speaker 2: constant motion so as to keep breathing. To hang strictly
42:36
Speaker 2: from the hands long enough would prohibit the breathing process,
42:42
Speaker 2: and so he literally rubbed himself up and down, up
42:48
Speaker 2: and down constantly, so as to live on. You see,
42:54
Speaker 2: a victim did not die because of loss of blood.
42:58
Speaker 2: He died because of suffocation. He could no longer breathe properly.
43:04
Speaker 2: Once he sighed and couldn't lift himself up. With each
43:10
Speaker 2: second the pain mounted, but death was not ready. The arms,
43:17
Speaker 2: the limbs, the torso screamed with pain. The nerves were
43:21
Speaker 2: pulled across a bridge like that on a violin, and
43:24
Speaker 2: the nerve endings were screwed tighter and tighter and tighter. Slowly, steadily,
43:31
Speaker 2: he was being asphyxiated, as though two hands were on
43:36
Speaker 2: his throat. Doctor Merrillanger states in his dictionary that some
43:43
Speaker 2: lived nine days before death. It seems incredible now he
43:53
Speaker 2: died from that awful, awful pain. The scripture tells us
43:58
Speaker 2: in verse thirty that having received the sour wine, he stated,
44:02
Speaker 2: it is finished. It's incredible even to think that Jesus
44:07
Speaker 2: could have made one statement, But he made seven, all
44:11
Speaker 2: of which made perfect sense, none of which were stated
44:15
Speaker 2: in bitterness or ugliness. And then he states verse thirty,
44:23
Speaker 2: it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave
44:28
Speaker 2: up his spirit. Just one concluding quotation before we close
44:36
Speaker 2: our thoughts with how they dealt with the body. Few
44:39
Speaker 2: more terrible means of execution could be devised. Pain, thirst,
44:47
Speaker 2: the torture of insects, exposure to brutal spectators, the horror
44:53
Speaker 2: of rigid fixation, all continuing interminably, combined to make it
45:01
Speaker 2: a supreme humiliation and torture. Thankfully, Jesus' death came quickly
45:11
Speaker 2: six hours. The soldiers were concerned, prompted by the Jews
45:19
Speaker 2: because a high day was on the heels of that
45:22
Speaker 2: event at six o'clock that evening, and it was already
45:26
Speaker 2: then three o'clock. They would be faced with the decision
45:30
Speaker 2: of what to do with the bodies, because no Jew
45:33
Speaker 2: could operate on the Sabbath. And so they sought Pilot
45:37
Speaker 2: and asked the favor of taking down the bodies. Now
45:41
Speaker 2: look at verse thirty thirty two. The soldiers came and
45:46
Speaker 2: broke the legs of the first man and of the
45:49
Speaker 2: other man who was crucified. Now you understand why the
45:53
Speaker 2: breaking of the legs would hasten death. No longer would
45:57
Speaker 2: he have the leverage. Now he would say and die.
46:05
Speaker 2: And they came to Jesus, and it says they saw
46:08
Speaker 2: he was already dead and did not break his legs.
46:11
Speaker 2: But I'm impressed that the spirit of God doesn't stop
46:14
Speaker 2: with that point. The spirit of God adds a dimension
46:19
Speaker 2: that would be of great significance to any medically minded
46:24
Speaker 2: person to prove death. For example, verse thirty four says,
46:31
Speaker 2: one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear,
46:36
Speaker 2: and immediately there came out blood and water. But the
46:42
Speaker 2: dead don't bleed. However, the heart is encased in a
46:51
Speaker 2: small I should say, thin membrane, a sack I am told,
46:57
Speaker 2: called the pericardian, And for some strange reason, when death occurs,
47:05
Speaker 2: a small amount of liquid blood settles in the right oracle,
47:10
Speaker 2: the chamber of the heart, and stays there. At the
47:15
Speaker 2: same time, the white corpuscles, I should say, the red corpuscles,
47:22
Speaker 2: divide from a serum in the blood called hydro pericardium,
47:29
Speaker 2: called water. Here John was no medical man, and in
47:34
Speaker 2: the separation there is proof of death. This serum rests
47:38
Speaker 2: in the sack, and the blood stays in the chamber,
47:43
Speaker 2: so that when the soldier inadvertently punctured the side, he
47:48
Speaker 2: went through the sack, releasing the serum, and into the chamber,
47:55
Speaker 2: releasing the blood, proving for all to see that he
48:00
Speaker 2: was in fact dead. Now why is that significant? Well,
48:05
Speaker 2: if you have no actual dead Christ, you have no
48:10
Speaker 2: actual resurrected Christ. You see, the critics and the years
48:16
Speaker 2: to come would build great cases on the fact that
48:19
Speaker 2: he didn't die, he swooned, and therefore when he was
48:23
Speaker 2: in the tomb, he simply revived in the moisture of
48:25
Speaker 2: the tomb and pushed aside the stone and slipped away,
48:28
Speaker 2: claiming he had been resurrected, when in fact he had
48:32
Speaker 2: never died. Ah John says, there came out blood and water.
48:39
Speaker 2: He was dead as quickly as we began. It is over,
48:45
Speaker 2: and we have hanging before us this morning, the Lord
48:51
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, and for the first time in our study
48:56
Speaker 2: he is dead. Is touched more closely to the sufferings
49:05
Speaker 2: of Christ than the mystics of the twelfth century, one
49:09
Speaker 2: of whom was a man named Bernard, a monk who
49:15
Speaker 2: studied and meditated upon the death of the Savior and
49:20
Speaker 2: began to write works that followed him, one of which
49:26
Speaker 2: was put to a melody of Bach. It appears in
49:30
Speaker 2: our hymnal, my favorite hymn of the Cross, Oh sacred head,
49:36
Speaker 2: now wounded with grief and shame, weighed down. I think
49:45
Speaker 2: the best is the third stands of what language shall
49:48
Speaker 2: I borrow to thank you, dearest friend, for this, thy
49:54
Speaker 2: dying sorrow, thy pity without end. Oh, make me thy
50:00
Speaker 2: and forever, and should I fainting, be Lord, let me
50:04
Speaker 2: never never outlive my love to thee. The story of
50:09
Speaker 2: the Crucifixion tells itself. It's the finest example in any place,
50:19
Speaker 2: in time of love and obedience, the provision of eternal life.
50:32
Speaker 2: Some of you have heard for the very first time
50:34
Speaker 2: today just a simple literal rendering of crucifixion. And also
50:41
Speaker 2: for the first time you have become aware of what
50:44
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ endured with you in mind. And it's a
50:53
Speaker 2: perfect occasion for you to express in gratitude your faith
51:03
Speaker 2: in him. Let's do that. That's about our father. We
51:13
Speaker 2: have witnessed on the page of scripture the day of infamy,
51:22
Speaker 2: and we paused together to thank you for our dearest
51:29
Speaker 2: friend who in love gave it all, and we acknowledge
51:39
Speaker 2: all to him we are in the loving name of
51:44
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. We pray Amen.
51:49
Speaker 3: The preceding message Death on a Cross was copyrighted in
51:53
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy six, nineteen eighty two, nineteen eighty eight, two thousand,
51:58
Speaker 3: two thousand and two, in twenty eighteen, and the sound
52:01
Speaker 3: recording was copyrighted in twenty eighteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
52:07
Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
52:11
Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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Speaker 2: The MO