Two Journeys

God orchestrated all the divine details of Jesus' death and burial, including the timing, the Marys, Joseph's new tomb, and the Roman guards.

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Paul lovingly but strongly encourages Philemon to forgive and welcome Onesimus back as a beloved brother in Christ, no longer a slave, even promising to cover his debts.

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In Revelation 2:18-29, Jesus appears in blazing glory to warn Thyatira against Jezebel’s seductions, urging them to repent before God's approaching judgment and seek holiness.

The post Revelation Episode 3: Letters to the Churches: Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira – Part 3 appeared first on Two Journeys.

Paul teaches believers to be humbled by God's exalted wisdom and live sacrificially, loving and serving one another as God enables through Spirit-given gifts.

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See the signs of the cross: the hellish darkness, the torn curtain, the anguished cry, and the heartfelt confession, and believe in Jesus as the Son of God.

Almost two weeks ago, the staff went out and went onto the roof over here to look at the solar eclipse. Some of you may have done that day as well, it was about 3:15 in the afternoon. We had a similar eclipse back in August of 2017. I went out there and there were these special glasses, these NASA approved glasses that you were supposed to use when you looked at the sun. I hadn't had my turn yet, and I thought, "What can the harm be in taking a quick glance." I mean, we look at the sun all the time, don't we? The answer is no, we don't. We learned a long time ago not to do that. There's way too much brilliance that comes from the sun and it's blinding.  So those special glasses that are designed to enable us to look directly at the sun without damaging our eyes. That whole thing is kind of a strange metaphor as we come this morning to the cross of Christ.

The glory of God is the radiant display of the attributes, the perfections of God. I've said for many years there's no greater display of the glory of God than the cross of Jesus Christ.  But amazingly when we look at it, we don't see most of the light that comes from it. We have a different kind of blindness that's on us. We need a different kind of glasses to look at the cross— the glasses are faith. It is by faith that we can see invisible spiritual reality, and none of us sees all of the light that flows from the cross of Christ. None of us takes it all in. It's impossible.

But it's important for us to come again and again to this greatest display of the glory of God and understand it. The theme of today's sermon is how easy it is to misinterpret the cross, to misinterpret the events and the significance.  Across the centuries people have done this. They have misunderstood and misinterpreted the cross of Christ. It was going on even while Jesus was dying. They didn't even hear His statement correctly. They thought He was calling Elijah, so they didn't even interpret that properly, waited to see if Elijah could come get Him.

Jesus' enemies utterly hated Him and despised Him. They didn't understand who He was. They considered Him a blasphemer and a deceiver of the people. So for them, Jesus hanging on a Roman cross was clear vindication of these views. He was condemned by the high priest who tore his clothes and says, "You've heard the blasphemy. What do you think? He's worthy of death because of his blasphemy.”  Therefore, these religious leaders saw Jesus' death on the cross as a punishment directly from God for His blasphemies and His deceptions. The chief priests and the Pharisees, the teacher of the law mocked Him, saying, "He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now. If he wants him for he said I'm the son of God." For these religious leaders this shameful death on the cross was proof that Jesus was dying under the curse of God and obvious proof that He was not the Messiah and still less the son of God. Instead, God was killing Him for His blasphemies.

It's amazing that Isaiah centuries before that, and David, centuries even before Isaiah, had predicted this misunderstanding. In Isaiah 53:4, it says, "We considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted." Psalm 22:7 and 8, "All who see me mock me. They hurl insults, shaking their heads. 'He trusts in the Lord. Let the Lord rescue him. Let him deliver him if he delights in him.'" And when He didn't, it's proof that He didn't delight in Him.

The population of Jerusalem at that time also misinterpreted the cross of Christ. As they passed by in the road, they called out this exact mockery as well, "Come down from the cross if you are the son of God." The Roman soldiers, as we saw last time in the Praetorium, had taken part in this shameful mocking. They knew less about Jesus' life and ministry and doctrine. To them, He was just a rabble-rousing Jew accused of being king of the Jews. So they mocked Him, putting a scarlet robe on His shoulders, a crown of thorns on His head, a scepter of reed in His hand, and they scourged Him and beat Him and spat upon Him. Finally they led Him away to be crucified. How did they interpret the cross of Christ? Just another dead Jew, like thousands of others.

This has been going on across 2000 years of history. People have misinterpreted the cross of Christ. Thomas Jefferson went through all of the Gospels and culled out Jesus' moralistic teachings. He said it was as easy for him to do as finding diamonds in a dung heap. He thought that Jesus was a moral reformer who came to bring the Jews into a more enlightened morality, better than that of the old covenant. But they couldn't handle it. They weren't ready for it, and so they killed Him. In his abbreviated gospel, Jefferson cut out any reference to the atoning sacrifice, any reference to the resurrection or any of that at all. He was a moral teacher whose teachings were ahead of his time and He died for that reason.

The 12th century French theologian Peter Abelard came up with a moral influence theory saying Jesus died as a demonstration of love. That we're estranged from God. God doesn't want us to be estranged, so He kills His son to win us or woo us back to Him. But there was no substitutionary atonement in his theory.

Mahatma Gandhi said this, "I could accept Jesus as a martyr and embodiment of sacrifice and a divine teacher, but not as the most perfect man ever born. His death on the cross was a great example to the world. But that there was anything like a mysterious, miraculous virtue in it, my heart could not accept. The pious lives of Christians, including Christ, did not give me anything that the lives of men of other faiths had failed to give." To Gandhi the cross of Christ is just another example of heroism, no different than any other inspirational example.

To others the cross of Christ is worthy of scorn. So it was to the philosopher elites in Athens at Mars Hill when Paul preached the crucifixion and resurrection, they mocked and scoffed. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." He also wrote, "We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

All of these people were misinterpreting the cross of Christ even to this present day. But frankly so to did Jesus' closest followers. They grieved over the death of Christ. They mourned over it, and that grief continued after accounts of His resurrection had come. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were depressed and downcast. Mary is weeping in front of the empty tomb looking directly at the evidence of His resurrection and weeping and mourning over it. None of them expected an atoning death and a bodily resurrection.  It says in Luke 9:45, when Jesus warned them ahead of time what was going to happen, it says they did not understand. It was hidden from them so that they could not grasp it. They had the opposite of those dark glasses; they had blindness over their mind so they could not see the light of the glory of God in the cross of Christ.

In the end, only God the Father can properly interpret the cross for us. He's the only one that can tell us what it really means. This lines up with one of my favorite lines from William Cooper's hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” The final stanza says this: "Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain." That's especially true when it comes to the cross of Christ. God must interpret the cross to us. He must tell us what it means, and He began to do it that very day.  He did it even more on the third day when He raised Christ from the dead, and even more after that when He inspired the apostles to write the epistles giving us the theology of the cross. But it began when Jesus was still on the cross. We're going to look at four elements of it from the account: the darkness, the cry, the curtain, and the confession. I want to seek to show how the Father was interpreting the cross through each of those elements.

First, the darkness. Look at verse 33, "At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour." This was a physical darkness, a literal physical, actual darkness that came over the land. God shut the daylight down for three hours from about noon until about three in the afternoon, usually the height of the sun's rays.  There is evidence, historical evidence that this stunning celestial event was not merely local but extended over that entire region of the inhabited world. The text says darkness came over the whole land, and that could either mean just that immediate area, Palestine, or it could go further than that. The Christian apologist Tertullian writing in the 2nd century called it a cosmic or a world event, evidently visible in Rome, Athens and other Mediterranean cities and challenged his non-Christian adversaries to explain it.  He wrote, "At the moment of Christ's death, the light departed from the sun and the land was darkened at noonday, which wonder is related in your own annals, and is preserved in your archives to this day."

The Greek writer Phlegon writing in 137 AD reported that in the fourth year of the 202nd Olympiad, that's around 32, 33 AD, there was the greatest eclipse of the sun so it became night in the sixth hour of the day so that the stars even appeared in the heavens. 2nd century chronicler Phlegon records that during the reign of Tiberius Caesar there was a complete solar eclipse at full moon from the sixth hour to the ninth hour. Eusebius of Caesarea, the historian in his chronicle quotes him, Phlegon, saying, "A great eclipse of the sun occurred at the six hour that excelled every other before it, turning the day into such darkness of night that the stars could be seen in the heaven and the earth moved in Bithynia, toppling many buildings in the city of Nicaea." He added a testimony of an earthquake. It's amazing.

How did God do this? We'll never know. Similar to the star that led the Magi to Bethlehem, it's a celestial event that we can't really explain. We know in the days of Joshua, He actually elongated the sunlight so that Joshua could finish his military work that day. God controls the cosmos. He can do this anytime he wants.

The physical darkness is also a symbol of the spiritual darkness that Jesus came to destroy. It seems reasonable that Almighty God, the ruler of the heavens and the earth, was communicating to the human race about this darkness. But what was He saying?  In the Bible, light consistently represents goodness. It represents God. In 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in Him there's no darkness at all.” God created the light and He called the light good, He didn't call the darkness good." Jesus Christ said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."

Darkness then represents sin and death, whereas light represents truth and life. As Isaiah 9:2 says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”  Satan's kingdom is called the kingdom of darkness. "He has delivered us," Colossians 1:13, "from the dominion of darkness." And also Ephesians 6:12 says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this present darkness and against the spiritual force of evil in the heavenly realms."

When Jesus entered the world at His birth, an angel appeared and the glory of the Lord shown around him. That glory that was visible light represented the glory of God. But now that Jesus is dying, it seems the physical light was taken out of the world. The misinterpretations of the cross shows that people that day were walking in spiritual darkness. They could not understand what was really going on.

The future of darkness, if we look at where we're heading in history and also in our own personal lives and the lives of the world, the day of the Lord is coming. The day of the Lord is Judgment Day and it's presented in Amos 5:20 as a day of darkness, not of light. "Will not the day of the Lord be darkness, not light, pitch dark without a ray of brightness." So to some degree, it was the day of the Lord for Jesus when He was dying, it was Judgment Day on Him.  So also the future day of the Lord in Isaiah 13 will be a day of darkness. It says, "behold," this is Isaiah 13:9-11, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sins."

But even worse is the darkness of hell itself. Hell, Jesus taught is a place of outer darkness. Matthew 25:30, "bind them, the condemned, hand and foot and throw them outside into the darkness where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth." If light represents everything good from God and the display of the glory of God and all that, there is none of that in hell.  I believe that Jesus as He was drinking the cup of God's wrath, was experiencing the darkness of hell for us. The physical darkness that surrounded, the eerie supernatural darkness was a picture of the uniqueness of that moment. Conversely, for us who believe in Christ, the new heaven, new earth and the new Jerusalem will be constantly awash, radiantly illuminated with the glory of God.

Secondly, the cry. Look at verse 34, "And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani,' which means my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This cry of Jesus of total abandonment by God is infinitely mysterious. The doxology in Romans 11 says, "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments." What does that mean? You can't get to the bottom of it. It's bottomless. You don't have enough to plumb the depths of what God has done, and that's especially true when it comes to the cross. When it comes to this cry, we'll never fully understand it.

This cry is so deep and so significant that the Holy Spirit wanted the very sounds of it, the syllables of it, what it sounded like to be permanently rendered in the gospel accounts so that every translator of the Bible into every language all over the world would have to find some way with their phonology to communicate these syllables, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."

I went and got my Japanese Bible, and sure enough, there it is in the Katakana syllables their attempt to get Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani into the Japanese language. Why? It's just incredibly significant moment. It's like a time capsule ,and an aroma comes out. It’s like you're there. Then immediately we’re told what it means. It's not enough just hear the sounds because we don't speak Aramaic. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Here is the infinite mystery of God's activity on the cross. Here we're looking down into the abyss. Number of years ago I went with my daughter, Daphne, to the Grand Canyon and they have something called the Rim Walk. You can walk along the actual rim of the Grand Canyon and there's no fence, and they have occasional signs there warning you. Effectively, your blood's on your own head. But people just keep getting too close to the edge and looking down. And every year people fall down to their death. The height of the rim above the Colorado River is about 5,000 feet.  Here we're supposed to get as close as we can and look down into that abyss and  try to understand what Jesus was experiencing at that moment. Here we have the infinite mysteries of theology, of the Trinity and of the Incarnation.

So first, the Trinity. We believe as Christians that the Bible reveals that there is one God and only one God, but that this one God has eternally existed in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And that the Father is the one God and the Son is the one God, and the Spirit is the one God. But the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. We believe that's eternal. We believe the entire universe depends on that reality.

So Jesus on the cross did not cease to be God. It's impossible. The relationship between the Father and the Son within the Trinity was not altered in any sense because the entire universe, physical and spiritual depends on that relationship forever. The universe, both physical and spiritual, is constantly upheld by the power and the will of the Trinity. The Father's will, the Son, the word of God, the Spirit, the power. By this, the universe continues to exist. That didn't stop when Jesus was dying on the cross. 

But then you've got the mystery of the incarnation, which is that Jesus is fully human and fully God.  So by Jesus' cry from the cross, we peer into the invisible spiritual world to see what God the Father is doing to Him as the son of man, as a human. Jesus cries out as if from the pit of hell, total abandonment by God and total wrath poured out on Him by God. This is, I believe, the most dreadful part of hell. Absolute final, total abandonment, forsakenness by God. God is in no sense there to bless, only to curse. It's terrifying.  In hell the damned can experience no pleasure, no joy, no friendship, no gifts, no happiness of any kind, a cold, empty terror of sheer loneliness and isolation.

Now, this was unique, this cry. Unlike anybody else that will ever experience the wrath of God in hell and the condemnation, Jesus uniquely can say these words, "My God, my God, why do this to me?”  Everyone else in hell will know that they're there because of the justice of God. They deserve what they're getting, like the thief on the cross said, “I deserve it.” I don't know if they'll come to that true recognition. It may well be they'll forever think they're there as a miscarriage of justice. I don't know. But it's not like they have no idea.

But Jesus was sinless. Not only was He sinless, He had a perfect, constant and intimate relationship with God. "The Father has not left me alone. He's always with me," He says. He said before raising Lazarus from the dead, "I thank you, Father that you heard me. I know that you always hear me.”  Many others have gone through terrible things and felt intimately close to God as they walk through, as in Psalm 23. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Why? Because you are with me." Jesus didn't feel that. Why? Because Jesus is unique. He's completely unique. He was sinless and yet completely sinful. How? By substitutionary atonement, by the mysterious transfer of guilt, by 2 Corinthians 5:21, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

Isaiah 53:5-6 are the clearest verses in the entire Bible on the transfer of guilt and substitutionary atonement, clearer than anything even in the New Testament, Isaiah 53. "He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  You could read through that in the spirit of Galatians 2:20 and make it singular. "Christ loved me and gave himself for me." You can just say that's true of me. He was pierced for my transgressions. He was crushed for my iniquities. The punishment I deserved was upon Him. I should be crying. "Why have you forsaken me? It should have been me." If we don't understand this, we don't understand the cross.

Abelard's moral example is foolishness. It's insanity. If there is no transfer of guilt, if there's no required death penalty paid, if there's nothing actually achieved, just a moral example, it's a picture of insanity rather than love.  Instead, the substitutionary atonement was essential to the salvation of sinners like you and me from all over the world. Without it, we go to hell. This is God the Father's activity at the cross.

Now a side note, and I think it's significant. In a very practical sense, as Jesus is crying this out, He's urging all people all over the world throughout all time to read Psalm 22 because He's quoting directly Psalm 22 in verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is a clear prophecy of crucifixion written 1000 years before Jesus was born. In that prophecy, David lays out clearly how the Messiah would die for the sins of the world and that would be by crucifixion.  In Psalm 22:16-18, "Dogs have surrounded me. A band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. People staring gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." Those details phrase by phrase, line by line, were fulfilled as Jesus was dying. But by Him crying out the direct quote of Psalm 22 in verse 1, He's urging us to read it.  The crowd, as was predicted in the Psalm and also in Isaiah, misinterpreted this, as I said. They didn't hear it properly, “Eloi, Eloi.” They heard like “Elijah's Elijah,” like “my God is Yahweh”. That's what “Elijah” means, so they thought He's calling for Elijah, and they wanted to see if Elijah could get Him. 

They want to go get Him a drink. In verse 36, "One man filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a stick and offered it to Jesus to drink. 'Now leave him alone. Let's see if Elijah comes and takes him down.’" The apostle John in his account tells us this drink being offered to Jesus was a direct fulfillment of a specific prophecy. John writes in John 19:28-29, "Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there.” Stop for a moment, how in the world did that get there? Who put it there? We'll never know. Some woman, some man, some boy or girl— I don't know— thought, "Hey, I think I'll fill a jar of wine vinegar and put it here at Golgotha." But it was essential to this prophecy being fulfilled. What prophecy? Psalm 69:21, "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst."

And at that moment, having received the drink, all the prophecies were now fulfilled. Mark tells us in verse 37, "with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last." Typical of Mark, he doesn't tell us what He said with the loud cry. He keeps it very simple. Luke and John, however do. Luke 23:46, "Jesus called out in a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.'" And then John said, "Jesus said, 'It is finished.' And with that, He gave up His spirit.”

Jesus is in absolute control of His death in the exact same way that He'd been in absolute control of His birth. He chose to enter the world in the fullness of time at the right time by the Virgin Mary. Then He chose to die in a way that no human could ever say, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back up again. This command I receive from my Father." He's the only one that can say that. When everything was fulfilled at just the right time, He died.

That death was essential for our salvation. Why? Because the wages of sin is death, and we deserve to die, and an actual death had to be paid for us. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Ephesians 1:7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace.”

Next we have the curtain. Look at verse 38, "The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." As I was reviewing the Gospel of Mark, memorizing it over a year and a half, a couple of years ago, something hit me, something I'd never noticed before, and that was that Mark just tells us about this event but doesn't explain its significance at all. I find that fascinating.  Why do I find it fascinating? Because most scholars say that the Gospel of Mark was written for a Gentile, probably a Roman audience. Most of them reading this— imagine it's just floating around —all you have is the Gospel of Mark, you're reading this, you would've had no idea of the significance of that statement.

But the Holy Spirit had a limited role for Mark. He had to stay in his lane. He had to just tell us what happened. He was going to give to the author of the book of Hebrews, the job of explaining it fully. It got me to think about the function of each of the 66 books of the Bible, what they're written for. I've never stopped thinking about this. It's very fascinating. Why does the Holy Spirit want us to know this? It's a very important question.

So what is the significance of the tearing of the curtain? We're told in the Jewish temple there was a Holy Place where the priest went constantly to do their daily sacrifices, animal sacrifices. But then there was a Most Holy Place where only the high priest could go once a year with the blood of the Leviticus 16 sacrifice, the date of atonement sacrifice, and separating them was a curtain.

The old covenant was all about barriers of access. It's all about this far you may come but no farther. That's what the old covenant's about. It's about walls and barriers, and you may not come. It's the first thing that the angel of the Lord said to Moses at the burning bush, "Do not come any closer." At Mount Sinai, there was a fence put around the base of the mountain, forbidding the people from going up, blocking them from going up into the presence of God, lest they be killed. The tabernacle and then later the temple was all about walls telling you you're not allowed to come.

This curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was a substantial physical thing, very substantial. It was 60 feet long, 30 feet high. It was about four inches thick. It was composed of 72 squares sewn together. It was so heavy it required 300 priests to put in place.

Right at the moment, at the tearing of the curtain, Jesus said, "It is finished.”  Right at that moment, the curtain in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This is the Father interpreting the cross for us right at that moment. It's a direct cause and effect because Jesus has finished the atoning work on the cross. The curtain was torn from top to bottom, and the text is direct cause and effect.

How did Mark the Gospel writer know that the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom? One of two possible ways. Number one, God, the Holy Spirit told it to him directly and he wrote it. There are many verses, and that's the only way we would know is that the Spirit told him. That's fine. We also know that there was a process that Luke had of accumulating testimonies and doing some research and collating in writing. That's what Luke did. In Luke 1: 3-4 he says, “Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” Mark probably did similar things.

The only way that you would know that the curtain was torn was by coming the next day and seeing that it was torn. But you would not have known that it was torn from top to bottom. You had to be there. You had to see it. You had to see it happening, and the only ones that could do that would be the priests. We're told in Acts 6 that later a large number of priests came to faith in Christ. I think that's what happened. It's significant that it was torn in two from top to bottom because we think of God as up. Jesus looked up when He broke the bread and the fish, and there's this sense that God is up and the spirit descended from above. Jesus ascended up into heaven, so God's up there. God is the one that did it. He's the one that tore it. And frankly, He's the only one that had the right to do it.

It's very significant. If you saw somebody making a point and they picked up, let's say, a significant document like the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights, and they did this to it, what are they saying? It's obsolete, it's gone. That's exactly what God was saying to the old covenant at that moment. The old covenant is obsolete. It's finished, and He's the only one that had the right to do it. Not only that, but as I said, the old covenant was about barriers of access. We're not allowed to get close to God, but God wants us close. Let me say that again, God loves you. He wants you close. He wants you intimate. He looks at sin amazingly as a temporary problem, and for us who will end up in heaven, that's what it will have been in the end, a temporary block between us and a holy God that Jesus dealt with that day.

The moment that that curtain was torn from top to bottom, God is saying, "Come in. Come close. You don't have to stay out there anymore." The author to Hebrews tells us, first of all, of the obsolescence of the old covenant [Hebrews 8:13], "by calling this covenant new, he's made the first one obsolete." What a strong word that is. What is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.  Therefore, it's all about access to God. Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Again, Ephesians 3:12, "In Christ and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence."

Now that Jesus' blood has been shed, the curtain is torn and we are invited, I would say even commanded to come close. Hebrews 10:19-22, "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." That's God the Father's interpretation of the cross.

The entire purpose of Christ's incarnation and his atonement was to bring distant sinners like you and me close to God. It's also a picture of heaven itself in which the gates will stand open forever and nothing impure or unclean will ever enter that place, but only for those who have trusted in Christ. They'll come in there, and all the enemies will be gone. There'll be no danger. The new Jerusalem gates will stand open forever and we will have full and free access to God. It says in Revelation 22:3, "His servants will see His face and serve Him forever." That's the access that we have.

Tragically, at some point, what do you think happened to those two pieces of the curtain? Someone picked it up and sewed it back together or they made a new one, and animal sacrifice continued at the temple for another generation. That's terrible. It says of marriage, what God has joined together let man not separate. Well, let me tell you something, what God has torn apart, let man not sew back together. As Jesus said in Matthew 23 of the Scribes and Pharisees, the chief priests and all the enemies, “You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves don't enter and you won't let those enter who are trying to.” It's tragic. But Jesus, it says of Him in Revelation 3:7, "What he opens, no one can shut. And what he shuts, no one can open." Amen.

Finally, the confession. Look at verse 39, “And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, ‘Surely this man was the Son of God!’” Amen.  I consider this to be kind of the omega, the alpha and the omega of the Gospel of Mark, the purpose of the whole thing. Why did Mark write the Gospel?  He says right at the start, Mark 1:1, "The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the son of God." And now here at the end, what does this onlooking centurion say? "But truly, this man was this son of God.”  I believe all four Gospels, as I've said this countless times, had the same purpose. John 20:31 tells us, "These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing that you may have life in his name."

I believe that this centurion's confession was a display of genuine saving faith on his part. He was speaking for his team, or at least some of his team at that moment. Why do I say that? Because Jesus prayed for them while He was dying on the cross. Remember? In Luke 23:34, He said, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing.”  I have a very high view of Jesus' prayer life. I believe everything Jesus asked for, He gets. Amen. Did He get this? Did they get forgiveness? Forgiven for that, but not for anything else. That's worthless. What good is partial forgiveness by God? You still go to hell. He's praying for complete forgiveness for a group of people who crucified Him not knowing what they were doing. And who was that? The centurion and his team that was there to crucify Jesus. Why do I say team? It was just the centurion that said, "Truly this man was the son of God." But Jesus said, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they are doing.”  I believe no one can make this confession, "Truly, this man was the son of God," unless the spirit of God works it in him and the Father reveals the son to that sinner. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, draws him. Just like the thief on the cross, so also this centurion, I expect to see him in heaven.

Imagine being the one who killed Jesus, who actually literally drove the nails through Him up in heaven worshiping forever. But isn't that just like God? Isn't that just like the mercy and the love of God? 

Spurgeon, when he was preaching on this passage, sums it up saying, "What manner of people ought we to be if these things are true? What kind of love should we show to Jesus if these things are true?"

Just look at the four things, the darkness. God is interpreting the cross by saying that Jesus is truly the only answer to the darkness of sin and death in hell. Jesus is the light of the world. Follow him. The cry, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Understand that is a cry, which if you believe in Jesus, you'll never make from hell, never. You will never make. As a matter of fact, you'll be able to say what the author of Hebrew says concerning his relationship with you, "Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you." Why? Because Jesus was forsaken in your place.  So if you're feeling forsaken, you're feeling abandoned, just know if you're a Christian, that's impossible. God is with you. And then you can take Psalm 23 and says, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear for you are with me."

What about the curtain? Hebrews tells you what to do. Draw near to God, draw near to him. Don't stay distant. If you feel guilty today because of some pattern of sin, read Hebrews 10:19-22. Let your faith in Christ cleanse you from a guilty conscience and let your body be washed with the pure water of the word. Repent of the sins that are making you feel guilty and draw near to God. Don't let the sin keep you far away, but draw near.

Finally, by the confession of the centurion, understand what the purpose of all of this is. It's missions. It's evangelism. It's winning lost people so they can make this same confession. Close with me in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the time we've had to study today. We thank you for the incredible truths of the cross of Christ. We'll never be able to plumb the depths. And I pray that you would take these truths and press them sweetly and powerfully into our hearts so that we may believe that we may draw near, that we may live holy lives, that we may see other people make this confession, "Truly, this man was the son of God." Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

See the signs of the cross: the hellish darkness, torn curtain, anguished cry, and heartfelt confession and believe in Jesus as the Son of God.

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Philemon is a persuasive letter from the Apostle Paul that discusses forgiveness in a situation between a former slave and his master, now brothers in Christ.

The post Class in Philemon: Paul’s Appeal to Forgiveness from a Slave Owner appeared first on Two Journeys.

Paul can't help but break out in awestruck worship as he meditates on God's unsearchable grace and wisdom bringing about the salvation of the Jewish people.

The post Class in Romans: Celebrating the Infinite Depths of God’s Plan – Part 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.

In Revelation 2:12-17, the glorified Jesus Christ gives specific letters to three churches: Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira. In this episode, the letter is a warning to the sin-tolerant church of Pergamum.

The post Revelation Episode 3: Letters to the Churches: Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira – Part 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.

Jesus bore our cursed crown of thorns and was nailed to the bloody Roman cross, his loving sacrifice for us transforms the shame of our sin into glory.

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 15:16-32. As we continue to make our way through this glorious Gospel of Mark, we come at last this morning to the account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, our savior, in the most shameful and degrading and excruciating way imaginable. Though Christ's physical sufferings were immense, they were no different than those suffered by thousands of others whom the Romans crucified in that era, even two others who died in the same way that very day.  The Gospel writers do not go into any great detail about the mechanics and physical horror of crucifixion. At the critical moment in our narrative today, Mark simply writes, "And they crucified him." Look at it right there on the page, verse 24, "And they crucified him." That's all. Simple. Nothing more.

We know that infinitely greater than Christ's physical sufferings were His spiritual ones.  He was bearing the wrath of God against the sins of the world, and the passage we will immerse ourselves, God-willing, next week in Mark's Gospel will give us an opportunity to draw that out more fully when Jesus cries out, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthaniwhich," means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God-willing, next week, we will plumb the depths of that reality for that makes Jesus' suffering literally immeasurable, immeasurable, far greater than any ever suffered by any human being in all the epochs of time.

But this morning, in addition to simply walking through the account to establish again in our mind the facts of the crucifixion and of the cross, I want to focus this morning on one dominant theme, and that is the shame that Jesus endured for us. Shame. I want to focus on the shame, the degradation, the humiliation, the mockery that Jesus went through, and how His blood shed on the cross transforms that shame into glory, eternal glory. From shame to glory, that's basically my sermon today.

My focus is on the hearts of people as they esteem Jesus, as they look upon Him, their appraisal of Him, the way they treated Him that day, and the way that the redeemed will treat Him for all eternity. The Gospel writers linger much more on the shame, the shameful degradation of Jesus Christ by sinners than they do, as I said, on the physical details of the crucifixion, so I want to unfold that shame. I want to talk about how in the hearts of those He came to save, there was an infinite movement of degradation and shame to eternal glory, praise, worship, and honor given to the crucified Lord.

For me, the main idea of the sermon came from a meditation on Hebrews 12:2. Listen to what that text says. There the author of Hebrews says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising or scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." That has been incredibly dominant in my mind the last two or three days, how Jesus thought it little to go through the kind of shame we're going to talk about this morning.

He thought it a small price to pay to bring eternal joy to you and me. Jesus endured overpowering shame for us. He did this, I'm going to make the case, because there is a reasonable shame connected with sin, and He was our sin bearer. So part of our atonement was that He should be shamed. In bearing our sin, He bore the shame connected with it. But He did it to free us from the ultimate and eternal shame of being condemned to hell. There is no shame on earth that even compares with that shame, so that we would be delivered from shame on that great and final day.

He considered it a small price to pay to do that, for the joy that was set not just before Him, but before all of us. We are, because of the atonement, the blood shed on the cross, trophies of His grace, we're going to celebrate the victories of the cross forever. It will not seem shameful in heaven. Not at all. We're going to focus briefly on one trophy of that grace, not in our account, but in Luke's account, and that is the thief on the cross. We'll talk about that. 

The cross is truly the center of Christianity.  This morning we come to the theological center of Christianity. Everywhere around the world the cross is the physical symbol of Christianity. You see it on top of churches, people wear it around their necks. It's everywhere. But the cross itself is a machine of torture and death, shameful death. Because it is so disgusting and degrading, the cross is effectively a fork in the road for human beings who learn about it.

To be able to see in the implement of torture and death, a display of glory and indeed of all the perfections of God can only happen when the Holy Spirit has worked on your heart and given you faith to be able to survey the wondrous cross and see love and joy and power and victory there. Only the Holy Spirit can work that faith and faith is the eyesight of the soul. To be able to see in a bloody dead Jewish man 2,000 years ago the greatest display of power and love and wisdom there's ever been is a supernatural act of grace to you.

The cross must ever be central. The Apostle Paul knew this. He made the cross the absolute centerpiece of his apostolic ministry. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:3, "For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance." [Top priority] Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” That's the centerpiece of everything. Then he said in 1 Corinthians 2:2, "For I resolved to know nothing, O Corinthians, while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

The theology of the cross is clearly laid out in the New Testament in many places. In other words, the explanation of what the cross achieved. You're not going to get that in Mark's Gospel, but you get it in the writings of the apostle Paul and other New Testament writings. What did it achieve? What happened at the cross? Paul writes in Colossians 1:19-22, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.  Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation." I would add in light of the sermon theme, without shame, without shame. Or as he says later in Colossians 2:13-14, "God forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us and stood opposed to us."

He took it away, nailing it to the cross. The law of God stood opposed to you because you violated it, because you broke the commands of God. It stood against you and accused you. He took all that away, nailing it to the cross. This is the theology of the cross. We don't get that in Mark 15, we get it later. This is what came. For this reason then, the Apostle Paul said that the cross was Paul's boast. It was his glory. It was his story.

I like what he says in Galatians 6:14, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world." The cross was Paul's boast and it should be ours as well. But before we even get to the theology of the cross, we need the facts of the cross. Did it happen or not? What's the history? That's what the gospel writers do for us. That's what Mark does for us. What actually happened? If it didn't happen, there's nothing to talk about, but it did happen.

Mark gives us the facts. That's what the Gospel of Mark is for, to lay out the history of Jesus' crucifixion as the basis of our faith. Now, where are we at in Mark's account? Remember, Jesus had two phases of his trial, the religious trial and the civil trial. The religious trial has concluded, the Sanhedrin led by the corrupt high priest has condemned Jesus to death and handed him over to the Romans. The civil trial is over now as well in terms of where we're at in Mark's gospel.

The Roman governor Pontius Pilate buckled to the will of the chief priest, teachers of the law and elders and of the people and handed over to be crucified a man he said three times in John's Gospel was innocent. In Mark 15:15, it says, "Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged and handed him over to be crucified." This begins then the public shaming that I've mentioned that will be the dominant theme of the sermon. Jesus is handed over to the soldiers and look what they do.  Christ is mocked by the soldiers. Look at verses 16-20, "The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace that is the praetorium and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, 'Hail king of the Jews.' Again and again, they struck him on the head with the staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they let him away to crucify him."

The palace, which Mark calls the praetorium, was the headquarters of the Roman soldiers there stationed in Jerusalem. It was Fortress Antonia. The scourging has already happened. It was part of the trial and the process is recorded in great detail in John's Gospel and just quickly mentioned in Mark 15:15. The scourging has happened, and we mentioned last time how horrible the scourging would've been. It could have been fatal if it went on long enough, ripping pieces of flesh off of Jesus' back.

He's bleeding profusely at this point, but the soldiers have no mercy on Him whatsoever. They take Him into the headquarters. They start to play games with Him. They mock Him. Verse 20, “they mock him.” They bring Him to public shame. The mocking of a prisoner like this, acting like he's a king or an emperor, this is something the Roman soldiers frequently did. I think it's a way of them venting their feelings about the emperor perhaps or about their posting there and Judea, et cetera.  They would do this. They would take a peasant or someone with special needs or just an average person and they'd put a kingly robe on him and a crown and then bow down to him like he was an emperor. They did this to Caligula right before they made him emperor thinking he was not qualified, et cetera.

 It's very interesting. They do this regularly. The soldiers may have known about Jesus' miracles and who He was. They may have heard about the triumphal entry and all that, but they definitely knew what the charge was against Him. “This is Jesus, King of the Jews.” There's no doubt about that. They're going to run with it. They take that idea and they run with it for their mockery. They called together the Roman cohort, battalion, in one translation; a cohort is about 600 soldiers. I doubt that that huge number was there, but there's a lot of soldiers there. 

They gather around. Shame is all about public exposure. Shame is horizontal societal force. They're coming to gawk at Jesus and do things to Him to bring Him shame.  To give Him the appearance of a king for their mocking game, they find probably an old scarlet robe like a king would wear, maybe a horse blanket or something like that, and they put it on Jesus' shoulders. They draped it across Him. For a crown mocking or imitating Caesar's golden laurel wreath, they wove together some thorns. Really you could picture very long thorns, and they put it on Jesus' head. These thorns we know as we look at it must be symbolic of the curse that Jesus came to bear.  God is a God of symbolism. He's a God of details. It's not an accident that thorns are pressed into the Redeemer's brow. Because we know in Genesis 3, God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you. It will produce thorns and thistles for you." We know it also says in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” This is a direct symbol of that happening, Jesus wearing the curse on His head.

To make matters worse, the soldiers took a staff, you can imagine like a broom handle or something like that, like a rod, and smashed the crown of thorns down into His scalp, into His brow, causing blood to flow. They also gave Jesus a flimsy reed as a mock scepter. So He's got the robe, the crown, the scepter, and then they fall on their knees mocking Him saying, "Hail King of the Jews." They also spat in His face. Complete degradation. It's the most disrespectful thing I think you can do.

The Jewish guards had already done it to Jesus. So it's twice that people did this to Him, complete disrespect and degradation. And for us, knowing who Jesus is, the second person of the Trinity, incarnate by the Holy Spirit, this is stunning to us that they would treat Him like this. We need to just pause and think about this. Ultimately, Christ cannot be mocked. God cannot be mocked. It says this in Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked." Jesus actually is the King of the Jews. We're told in Isaiah 49, it's too small a thing. That title is too small a thing. He's actually king of the universe. He's king of the ends of the earth. He is the king of every king and the Lord of every Lords. And when He comes in glory, He's going to be robed in glory. He'll sit on a throne in heavenly glory. And all the nations are going to be gathered before Him and He will sit in judgment on them. At that point, these same soldiers will be on their knees in front of Him, but not mocking, not at all.  So ultimately, Christ cannot be mocked, but temporarily He was. The temporary mocking is what was being poured on him. 

Next, of course, there's the shaming of the crucifixion. Look at verses 20-27,  “When they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country. And they forced him to carry the cross.  They brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull. There they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The written notice of the charge against him read the King of the Jews. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left.” 

This continues the public shaming of Jesus. He's paraded through the streets of Jerusalem.  Verse 20, “They led him out to be crucified.” Isaiah 53, “He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.” The way out of the city by this time was crowded with people. It was about nine in the morning, and they're all out. Luke 23:27 says, "A huge crowd of people followed him." They're all watching. This is the public shaming going on here. It was shameful to have everyone gawking at Him. Public humiliation is one of the greatest fears that any human being has. If you look in your heart, you know it's true.  That you would be stripped of honor in front of an onlooking hostile crowd would be one of the greatest fears we ever have. This is what was going on that dreadful morning as He's being processed through the streets of Jerusalem.

There was a shame to His physical weakness as well, because it seems He couldn't make the journey, He didn't have enough strength. It's implied that He fell under the weight of the cross. You should picture not the whole cross, but probably just the cross beam, that would've been heavy enough, and He's carrying that.  Because of the loss of blood, He needed some help apparently, so a man named Simon was pressed into the service to help Him carry His cross. 

We're told he's from Cyrene, which is a port city on the southern coast of Mediterranean Sea, modern day Libya, almost certainly a Jewish man. A pilgrim would come from that distant place to Jerusalem for the feast. Mark also tells us, interestingly, he was the father of Alexander and Rufus as though his readers would know who that is.  You know Alexander and Rufus. Most scholars believe that Mark wrote for a Roman audience, that he was the mouthpiece of Peter who was in Rome, and so that's quite likely. Putting all things together, we find another Rufus in Romans 16, verse 13. Paul greets Rufus and his mother “who has been a mother to me too.” I always picture the typical loving Jewish mother who says, "You're looking a little thin. You need a little chicken soup," or something like that. But this mother of Rufus has been a mother to Paul too.  We don't know for sure if it's the same Rufus, but it's not that common a name, so it's quite possible. It's Simon, his wife, his sons, Rufus and Alexander. All of them became followers of Christ. It wouldn't be shocking if it began that dreadful morning with Simon helping to carry Jesus' cross. 

Concerning Jesus' weakness, it is interesting that it seems quite possibly He was almost ready to die in Gethsemane. Remember how He was sweating great drops of blood and was overwhelmed with the vision, I believe, of the cup that He would drink?  God dispatched an angel from heaven to strengthen Him, but He didn't give Him supernatural power like Samson or something like that. He gave him enough physical strength to get up off the ground there in Gethsemane and go die for us. We see His frailty and His weakness as He's carrying His own cross.

 Jesus was also shamed by the location of the crucifixion. It was outside the city gate. The author of Hebrews explains this for us, the significance of this.  In Hebrews 13:11-13, it says, "The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy places, a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp." Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood. Let us then go to Him outside the camp bearing the disgrace, or I could say shame, that He bore. There's a shamefulness to being kicked out of the city, being brought beyond the city gate and dying outside the city gate like He's a piece of garbage or refuse.  It was carried outside so there wouldn't be disease in the camp and also a picture of the degradation and disgust of sin. 

The author of Hebrews urges us as Christians to be willing to stand with Him outside the gate and bear the shame that He bore. We'll get to that one more time at the end of the sermon. The place is called Golgotha, Calvary. In Aramaic it means “the place of the skull." Some scholars think it was that way because it was shaped like a skull, but it was the place of execution. To go there is ultimate shame. By the way, just in passing, the Latin word for skull is “calvaria.” The Latin translated Bible, The Vulgate, was Europe's Bible for centuries. It's interesting when scholars translated the translation that became the King James Version, they oddly kept the word Calvary in one verse in Luke 23:33, even though it's not in any way directly connected to any of the original languages, not to Hebrew or Aramaic or Greek. It's just the Latin word for skull, so it stuck there. Do you realize how big that word is? I was talking to Wes. We have like 20 Calvary hymns. I rode my bike yesterday by Calvary Baptist Church. It's everywhere, but it's only in one place. It's in the King James Version of Luke 23:33. That's where it comes from, the place of the skull. 

Again, this place was a very public place where Jesus was absolutely stripped of His dignity and His honor physically, humanly. It was a very public place. It was right by the roadside. He would not have been up very high. You probably could have gone face to face with Him. People walked by and were able to look right at Him and see Him in that degradation. They walked by and made snarky and insulting comments to Him as He was stripped and shamed. 

He was shamed also to some degree by the sedative that they offered, which He refused to drink. Often to help the prisoners, they offer a wine mixed with myrrh. It's a sedative to help dull the pain.  Jesus refused it. It seems to me He wanted the full experience. He wanted to drink the cup the Father had given Him to drink to the bottom, to the bitter dregs. He didn't want to be in any way sedated as He went through it.

 And of course, shame by the crucifixion itself. I can't imagine a more disgusting, shameful, degrading way to die. It's one of the most vicious and most cruel forms of punishment ever devised. Behind all of the shame is human wickedness. You understand that?  Behind all of this is human wickedness, human to human wickedness. There's no requirement that people who commit capital crimes be killed in such a vicious, cruel way, but that's what crucifixion was all about. It was invented it seems by the Persians somewhere around the 6th or 7th century BC. What makes crucifixion so horrible is it's both hideously painful and not directly fatal. Some victims can last for a day or more on the cross. Pilot was shocked that Jesus had died so quickly because there's nothing directly killing them.  Their bodies are laid out on the ground on the cross. Their hands are fixed to the cross by long spikes driven through the wrist, each wrist, not the hand, because I'm sure they found that the hand bones were not strong enough to support the entire weight of the body. So it went through the wrist, but it's considered hands metaphorically. Then the feet generally across one on top of the other and one long spike driven through them both. The cross is lifted up and dropped into a hole prepared for it with a jolting thud, sending spasms of pain through the victim's body.  The victim sags down on his arms under the weight. Then to breathe, he has to push up on his spiked feet to get breath, and then he sinks back down again. He has to keep doing this to breathe. Generally, the victims die through asphyxiation. They just stop making the effort to breathe. 

Death is often hastened by breaking the leg bones of the victim so that he can't push up anymore. That is exactly what the Roman soldiers wanted to do to Jesus, but Jesus, in complete control of his death, the timing of it, gave up His Spirit.  He said, "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of myself." When all the scriptures were fulfilled, He gave up his Spirit. He died. We’ll talk about that more next week. But the soldiers were just coming around to smash his leg bones and they wouldn't do it. They couldn't do it because He was already dead, thus fulfilling the scripture. Not a single one of his bones would be broken.

Jesus while being crucified is also shamed by their gambling for His clothes. “You won't be needing these anymore.  All of your worldly possessions are gone. You have no need for them anymore.” It's like the vultures circling overhead. Of course, it's a fulfillment, direct fulfillment of Psalm 22. We'll get into that next week, the fulfillment aspect. But it's shaming for them to take His clothes and in front of Him gamble for them. 

He was shamed also by the inscription. Pilate ordered a sign over His head, “The King of the Jews”, written an Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek so everybody could read it. Pilate did it to mock the whole Jewish nation.  I'm sure he was more than sick of these people, and he wanted to just stick it to the Jews. So he said, "Look at your king. This is what your king looks like. Behold your king." In John's Gospel, they're very angry about this and said, "Do not write King of the Jews, but this man claimed to be King of the Jews." He said, "What I have written, I have written." It's humbling for Jesus because the Jewish nation as a whole had directly rejected Him as king over them. "We will not have this man as our king. We have no king but Caesar," they said.

However, isn't it wonderful that I believe the text over his head, the King of the Jews, may well have been instrumental in the thief coming to faith. Because what did he say? “Remember me when you come in your kingdom.”  And so it could be that God used that to get the man thinking. We'll get to that more in a moment.

Finally, He was shamed by being killed with common thieves, with common thieves, probably highway robbers, a threat to everyone on the road. Jesus was killed with others just like He was just any other criminal.

But it's also a picture of the atonement. “He was numbered with the transgressors,” Isaiah 53 says. He was included with us. In that sense, He was no different than they were. Jesus was also shamed by the citizens and the passersby as they walked by. The passersby mocked. Look at verse 29-30, “Those who pass by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘So, you who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save yourself.’ Throwing his own words so they thought to him.” He never said He would destroy the temple. He said, "You do the destroying, I'll do the raising." They were in the process of destroying the temple, He meant, and He would raise it on the third day. But they're mocking Him, insulting Him. This is more than kicking someone when they're down. He's dying on the cross and they think they'll go by and throw a few verbal javelins at Him. The priests do the same thing. This is their hour of triumph. They've wanted Him dead for years.

Now He's dying. But they can't help but go mock Him in the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked Him among themselves. "Oh, He saved others," they said, "but He can't save himself. Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe." Of course, if He had done that, their believing wouldn't have done them any good. The entire world would sink down into hell for our sins if He had come down off the cross.  They had no way of understanding that. 

Even the thieves, plural, mocked him. Verse 32, “Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” This is wave upon wave of shame that has been laid on Him. It's absolutely over the top. I see Satan behind it, the hatred he had for this man, and he incites human beings to pour it on in this sense. But this is the shame that Jesus thought little of. Just ponder that for a moment. Jesus was willing to pay that price to save you and me.  Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross." Many translations have the words “despising its shame.” The word despise we generally think of wrongly at least in that sense of hating. Like “I despise you" means "I hate you.” But the word there, the Greek word behind it, means “thought little of it,” looked on it as a small thing. Jesus understanding full well this horizontal shaming that's going on here thought it a small price to pay to save you and me.

For the joy that was set before Him was His own joy at seeing you redeemed, seeing you around His throne in heaven. “Father, I want those whom you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory. I want you to have that joy, and I'm willing to pay this price to have it happen.”  

Let's talk about a symbolic real trophy of that cross. Go over to Luke 23:39-43, it’s not in Mark. Mark tells us both of the thieves reviled Jesus, and so they did. Every word of scripture is true.  But this is the beauty of comparing the synoptic accounts one with the other. Because it seems that though one of the thieves, though both of the thieves heaped insults on Jesus, one of them later changed his mind. Look at the account in Luke 23:39-43, “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him. ‘Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us.’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don't you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We're punished justly for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’  Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you'll be with me in paradise.’" 

This is stunning, maybe in some ways the most stunning and dramatic conversion in the Bible. I mean, right up there with Saul of Tarsus. Why? Because there was so little time and so little new evidence. Jesus didn't do any miracles, no new teachings, nothing. He was at His absolute physical visible worst. So what happened?  To get an insight of what happened, you have to go to Caesarea Philippi in Matthew 16 where Jesus asked his disciples, “'What about you? What do you say that I am?’ Peter answered for all believers saying, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’” What did Jesus say to Peter? "Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." Stop there. That is true of every genuine conversion. Every genuine conversion gets Jesus revealed to them by the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit or you're not converted.  You see Jesus with eyes of faith because the Father sends forth the Spirit to work that in you. Is that what happened with the thief? What else could happen? There's no other way to be saved. The Father revealed Jesus to the thief on the cross at the last possible instant to save his soul from hell. What did God reveal to the thief on the cross? He revealed the true identity of the bloody dying man next to him, a coming king who would have a glorious kingdom in the future.

Behind that then, apparently, this is not Jesus' final kingdom day, so that implies the possibility of resurrection from the dead. He did not expect to be saved from the cross, the thief. He just said, "When you come in your kingdom, remember me." What else did he have revealed to him? God revealed his own sinfulness. “We are getting what we deserve. This man has done nothing wrong.” 

He also revealed the possibility of grace to someone who had literally no merit, nothing to offer, nothing in his hands. Just said, "Remember me." “On what basis should I remember you?” “Because you're merciful and gracious and because you love sinners like me. Remember me.” That's an awful lot of revelation by God to that thief on the cross at the last possible moment. Therefore, He gives hope to all of us Christians who have unsaved relatives. You're going one more time to the hospital, one more time and you think, maybe, just maybe this one last time, they'll repent and believe.  The thief did it. He is a trophy and he's included in the words “for the joy that was set before him.”  “Today you'll be with me in paradise.” 

Christ won not just one but many trophies of glory that day. There's so many verses I could go to talk about this, but Revelations 7 may be the most beautiful picture. Revelation 7:9-10. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and they were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’" Many times in the Book of Revelation the redeemed in heaven are depicted wearing white robes. What are those white robes? What do they represent? You know what they represent? A covering of your sin, a covering of your shame. "I counsel you," he says to the church at Laodicea, "to buy a robe to cover your shameful nakedness.” Imagine redeemed people standing in heaven with no shame at all, covered completely in the perfect atoning work of Christ, worshiping Jesus forever. That's the joy that was set before Him.

What lessons can we take from this, what applications?  First the cross in heaven when we get there will be the center of heavenly worship. It will not be seen to be shameful at that point. It'll be seen to be radiantly glorious. Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah, but He also is the lamb looking as if it had been slain.  We'll remember the cross and we will celebrate the triumphs of the cross. It says in Revelation 5:9-12, “They sang a new song, ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.’ Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, ten thousand times ten thousand.  They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders and in a loud voice they sang, ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’" That's the esteem with which Jesus will be focused on in heaven and the cross is at the center of it. Isn’t it beautiful to go from shame to glory? Not just Jesus, but us.

Marvel at the mindset of Jesus. You ever feel like you're not loved? You feel lonely? You feel isolated? If you're a Christian, go to this. Jesus thought all of this shame, a small price to pay for the joy of bringing you to heaven. Think about that. For the joy that was set before Him, all of the things that were done, the crown of thorns and the purple robe and the spitting and the flogging and then the parade through the city and the mocking and all of that shame, small price, a small price to pay to bring you eternal joy. 

Why the shame? Ponder that. We are becoming an increasingly shameless culture.  It's like shame is a bad thing. You ought to be ashamed if you think people should be ashamed. That's about where we're at now. But sin is shameful. We should feel shame for our sin. That's why this happened to Jesus. It's not an accident. It's what we deserved for our sins. It says in Ezekiel 16:63, a horrible chapter of the degradation of the city of Jerusalem in open spiritual adultery against God. It's disgusting. Then at the end of that chapter, He talks about the atonement He'll do for His people.  He says, “'Then when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you'll remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of all your humiliation,’ declares the sovereign Lord.” 

There is a reasonable shame connected with sin. Jesus came to take that on Himself. Therefore, there is an ultimate shame that we Christians will never experience. It says in Romans 9:33, quoting the Old Testament, "Behold I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." What does that mean? I think it means Judgment Day. Judgment Day. Picture these words. When the Son of Man comes in His Father's glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him. And He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He's going to put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

What would it feel like to have all of your sins, in that text, sins of omission? “I was hungry. You gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty. You gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger. You did not invite me in.” Those are all sins of omission. But what about also your sins of commission? The wicked things that God told you not to do and you did them anyway and more times than you could count. Your sins more numerous than the hairs on your head. What will it be like to have all that read out in front of the holy angels and in front of all the people that have ever lived?

And even more, the crowning is to hear these words, "Depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepare for the devil and his angels." To hear that spoken about you, there is no greater shame than being rejected by God because of your sins. Then go back to Romans 9:33, “Behold I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him [Jesus] will never know that shame.” You will not hear the shame of "depart from me you who are cursed.”  You will not hear the shame. You will be free from condemnation, as it says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” All I can do is ask you, dear friend, is that you? Have you by faith in Jesus trusted in Him so you will not have the shame of eternal condemnation? Do you know Him? Have you trusted Him? That's the purpose of the Gospel of Mark, to bring you to faith in Jesus, to trust in Him. 

One final word as I close.  To all Christians, we are commanded to come outside of comfortable societal acceptance and stand under the cross where Jesus was shamed and bear the shame that He bore and to do it as a Christian. Let us then go to Him outside the camp bearing the disgrace He bore. He says in Mark 8:38, "If anyone is ashamed of mean and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him, will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his father's glory?"

We have a job to do and the world's going to try to shame us for proclaiming the gospel, shame us for saying, "I'm a Christ follower," shame us for sharing the gospel with lost people. Consider it a small price to pay if you could win some of those people to eternal joy in heaven. 

Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this meditation this morning on what Christ endured for us. We thank you for his willingness to drink shame to its bitter dregs so that we could not feel shame on judgment day and for all eternity.  Thank you. And Lord, I pray that you would take the seed of the word that has been scattered now throughout this time and allow it to bear fruit in our hearts by the working of your Spirit. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.