Participants: Glenn Russell & Ranko Stefanovic (Host)
Series Code: MTBOTB
Program Code: MTBOTB00025B
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00:01 We're back discovering and exploring the marvelous
00:05 love of Jesus on the cross for you and for me. 00:08 Let's continue on with Matthew Chapter 27. 00:12 Jesus comes to the place of the cross. 00:14 It's early morning, it says here 00:18 in verse 45, the sixth hour. 00:20 What time would that be, Ranko? 00:22 Sixth hour would be noon. Because Jews, 00:26 they count the time from 6 in the morning. 00:28 But some things that happened earlier in the morning, 00:31 let's go back and notice. 00:32 He arrives there at the cross and he is nailed to the cross 00:37 and it's interesting to notice how the people respond. 00:41 And in verse 39 of Mathew 27, 00:44 "And those who passed by deride him, 00:46 wagging their heads saying, 00:47 He who would destroy the temple 00:49 and build in three days, save yourself 00:51 If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." 00:53 What they are saying is really true. 00:55 He couldn't be the Savior and come down from the cross. 00:59 Actually the more serious statement is, 01:00 the one who helped others, he cannot help himself. 01:05 That was actually what Jesus mission was, 01:08 to come to save us, but he could not use 01:11 His divine prerogative to help himself. 01:18 And a few technical things which has to mention is, 01:21 we go to Jerusalem, we can be very much certain 01:27 about the place where Jesus was crucified. 01:30 It's called here Golgotha 01:32 or Calvary, which is one Latin, 01:34 another one is Aramaic, is the same place. 01:39 It's probably the place that is marked today 01:41 by the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. 01:45 It's most likely-- their own evidences were that, 01:48 that place was outside of the city wall. 01:53 Second thing is Jesus was on the cross 01:56 for about six hours He was crucified 02:01 at the 3rd hour, which was 9 in the morning. 02:04 So the trial was very early in the morning. 02:07 And He died at 9 hour, 02:11 which was actually 3 in the afternoon. 02:13 So, he was--actually, it's very interesting is, 02:17 when we read the gospels, 02:19 the gospels did not put too much emphasis 02:22 on the physical suffering of Jesus. 02:25 For instance, Gibson's movie, it's there. 02:28 Jesus was much shorter time 02:33 on the cross than other criminals. 02:34 Usually criminals would be there 02:36 on the cross for several days. 02:38 In fact, that's why the Roman soldiers 02:40 came to break the legs. To break the legs. 02:41 So they couldn't flee away overnight or something. 02:43 But they were surprised actually that Jesus was there 02:46 when they approached after six hours. 02:48 It was very unusual, what is telling us 02:51 that the emphasis on the gospel 02:53 is not on the physical suffering of Jesus. 02:56 It was on his mental and emotional. 02:58 When Jesus died, it was not just 03:01 because of the physical suffering. 03:04 That famous phrase that Jesus died of broken heart, 03:08 it was the weight of the sins of the humanity 03:11 that was placed on Him and He died 03:15 because of the broken heart, you know, 03:17 to save people from their sins. 03:20 Ranko, you mentioned that we have very little 03:22 evidence of exactly how crucifixion was. 03:24 But there has been a discovery that can give us 03:27 some light on this very important subject. 03:29 Tell us about it. Yes, praise God. 03:32 We have at least one finding from the first century 03:39 that give us little bit of glimpse into how terrible 03:45 and agonizing the experience of crucified 03:48 people on the cross was. 03:49 Actually, in 1968, a discovery 03:53 in Jerusalem was found of the -- 03:57 containing bones of a young man. 04:01 You know even his name, 04:03 by name of John the son of Eleazar. 04:06 He was crucified in the first century. 04:09 We mentioned already that crucified 04:12 people were not allowed to be buried. 04:16 But most likely the family of this young man, 04:20 his parents, were very rich. 04:23 So they were able to bribe the Roman authorities 04:26 and to purchase the body of their son 04:31 and to bury him properly. By the way, 04:34 when I was in Jerusalem, if you go 04:36 to the Rockefeller Museum there, 04:37 we see the remnants of the bones of that young man 04:41 and we learn something. 04:42 Says that he was fastened to the cross with three nails. 04:48 Okay? Two of them were on the forearm. 04:50 So it was not here. It was here, right here. 04:53 Because here if you put the nail, 04:56 there is not too much, I mean, 04:57 there is a pain but not too much. 04:58 When you put here, it's agonizing pain. 05:02 But I still cannot erase from my mind 05:07 what I saw about the third nail. 05:10 And please I'd like to demonstrate a little bit-- 05:12 So you're talking about nails in the feet. 05:14 Feet. Usually, people think that the nail went here, 05:18 but actually he was fastened on the cross and put away. 05:22 His body was completely twisted 05:26 and very huge nail was put here, 05:30 through this bone here, through this joint here 05:32 and come here 05:34 and that's how He was nailed on the cross. 05:37 So can you imagine, I mean, 05:39 when he was hanging on that cross there. 05:43 When you go to the museum, 05:45 there is an astonishing scenery that you can see. 05:49 Evidently, they could not pull out the nail, 05:54 you know, to bury him. 05:55 So they cut the piece of the cross. 06:01 And it was in such condition that 06:03 this young man was buried. And of course, 06:07 one of the terrible things about 06:08 crucifixion was actually, a person couldn't breathe 06:11 and they would have to push themselves up. 06:14 Imagine with that spike through your ankles. 06:17 Actually, really, when the person 06:19 was on the cross, the person could easily die 06:21 because the pressure was so much, 06:22 he could not breathe. 06:24 So what they put there, on that vertical 06:29 beam on the cross, they would put here 06:31 support to keep the person alive as long as possible. 06:36 So that person would suffer and die in the agonizing pain. 06:40 But so many times when we watch 06:42 the picture of crucified Jesus on the cross, 06:45 it looks so nice that almost you like to be there. 06:48 But we have to understand that actually, 06:50 the person was stripped of the clothes, of the robes. 06:54 We read it clearly in the Gospel of Matthew 06:56 and other gospels. The person was on the cross 06:59 completely naked. 07:02 The humiliation was total. Actually, Glenn, 07:05 this is what explains what happened at noon, 07:08 actually, in the sixth hour. What do-- 07:10 If I may read Mathew 27 verse 45 and following. 07:14 "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness 07:17 over all the land until the ninth hour." 07:19 So let's remember, He's been on the cross for three hours, 07:22 now moves to the next stage 07:24 and darkness surrounds the cross. 07:26 So there was mocking, there was, you know, 07:29 laughing, torture, spitting on Jesus, 07:31 accusations, all kind. But now happened something, 07:34 what was that--Now we even see nature responding. 07:37 "About the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, 07:41 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' That is, 'My God, My God, 07:45 why have you forsaken me?' 07:47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, 07:49 This man is calling Elijah.' And one of them 07:52 at once ran and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar. 07:54 Put it on a reed and gave Him to drink. 07:56 But the others said, 'Wait, 07:58 let us see whether Elijah will come and save him. 08:00 '" What an attitude. So what happened at noon? 08:03 Darkness, why darkness? We have to understand 08:08 that the Father was still close to His son there. 08:11 So we have here the heaven's intervention, 08:13 even the sun darkened. Why? To cover Jesus, 08:18 to hide Him from the eyes of the people 08:21 being humiliated there on the cross. 08:23 So for three hours, 08:24 people could hardly even see Jesus. 08:27 The darkness was so dense there. 08:30 And, you know, we should pause right here to notice, 08:32 sometimes in our experience, 08:34 God may seem far away just like 08:37 He seemed so far from Jesus. 08:40 But He was right there beside. 08:42 The sin blotted His presence out. 08:45 But the Father was with the Son. 08:47 He never abandoned Jesus, 08:49 even though the experience was so difficult. 08:51 And we should remember that in our own lives, 08:53 sometimes we just can't see God. 08:55 It doesn't mean He's not there. 08:56 It means that there's a darkness that comes. 08:59 My Father, my Father, why have you forsaken me? 09:01 The Father did not forsake-- But He felt forsaken. 09:05 He couldn't see beyond the cross. 09:08 Only faith hung on. And, Glenn, 09:10 I would like to go to the final point. 09:12 And finally Jesus died. Verse 50, what was going on? 09:16 "And Jesus cried again with a loud voice, 09:18 and yielded up His spirit. 09:20 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, 09:22 from top to bottom. And the earth shook, 09:24 and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened. 09:27 And many bodies of the saints 09:28 who had fallen asleep were raised." 09:30 We should notice at the ninth hour, 09:33 at 3 o'clock, was the time of what, the Passover lamb? 09:36 Passover lamb. The slaying of the Lamb. 09:38 Has been fulfilled with Jesus-- 09:39 You know, for centuries, the Jewish people 09:44 were offering that sacrificial lamb on the altar 09:48 and with every Passover, they would eat that lamb 09:52 and take the blood and put there on the doorpost. 09:57 And now at the moment, you see that the Lamb of God, 10:02 the real Lamb finally died, 10:06 was offered on the altar 10:09 for the sins of all people who lived before. 10:12 You remember? Yes. 10:13 The beginning of the gospel of Matthew, 10:14 Jesus came to save His people from their sins. 10:17 Now that salvation is there provided, and now, 10:20 all the function of the temple, 10:23 all the lessons that the temple-- 10:25 that the rituals in the temple were teaching people 10:29 actually came to the end. 10:30 You don't need anymore animal sacrifices. 10:33 You don't need the animal blood because 10:35 now the live sacrifice, the live sacrifice of 10:38 Jesus Christhas been offer. 10:40 But there is also the second point. 10:41 When Jesus died, there was an earthquake. 10:44 What happened, Glenn, with the earthquake? 10:46 This is a detail that's often neglected. 10:48 The earth shook, and verse 51 "The tombs were opened. 10:51 And many bodies of the saints 10:53 who had fallen asleep were raised. 10:54 Coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, 10:57 they went into the holy city and appeared to many." 11:00 It's very hard to deal here with this text 11:02 because it's not clear 11:04 if those people were resurrected 11:07 at the moment Jesus died 11:09 or at the time of His resurrection. 11:11 When I look Greek text carefully, 11:14 it indicates the moment Jesus died, 11:16 the tombs were opened and they resurrected 11:21 most likely at the resurrection of Jesus, 11:24 which was on Sunday. 11:25 They went there to Jerusalem to show themselves 11:28 there to the people and actually this group-- 11:32 people were very much curious about. 11:35 Who were those people? And the few things 11:39 that the rest of the Bible indicates was, 11:43 most likely we are dealing here 11:44 with the prominent 11:47 personalities of the Old Testament. 11:50 Who knows? Maybe David, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 11:54 prominent personalities of the Old Testament. 11:56 They were resurrected. What did they do? 11:59 They went there to Jerusalem, telling people, 12:02 you crucified the promised one. 12:04 You see we are talking about the day of Pentecost, 12:08 how 3,000 people responded, 5,000 people responded. 12:12 There was not any emotional outbreak at Peter's preaching 12:17 Actually, those people repented 12:18 and the ground was prepare with powerful 12:22 testimony of this resurrected saints. 12:25 Just to the viewers, most likely, 12:27 these resurrected saints, they ascended with Jesus 12:32 to the heavenly places, according to Ephesians 12:35 Chapter 4 and they were the ones 12:37 presented in the Book of Revelation as 24 elders 12:40 there before the throne of God. You go. 12:43 So we see this incredible experience. 12:46 Jesus had said I have the keys of heaven 12:50 and of death and when He dies the graves open. 12:53 Actually, these resurrected saints were the first 12:57 fruit of Jesus' resurrection, telling us that 13:01 one day we accept today Jesus Christ as our Savior. 13:04 We will one day resurrect, 13:07 and be with Jesus there in the heavenly 13:09 places through all eternity. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17