March 23, 2025 • 39 mins
The crucifixion stands as history's ultimate demonstration of sacrificial love—a moment when the sinless Son of God willingly suffered what was rightfully ours to give us what could never be ours through our own efforts.
Journeying through the religious and political trials Jesus endured reveals a profound truth: the Creator of the universe stood silent before His accusers, accepting false charges, mockery, and brutal treatment that our sin deserved. Though declared innocent multiple times by both Pilate and Herod, the crowd demanded His crucifixion instead of Barabbas, an actual insurrectionist and murderer—a powerful picture of the substitution at the heart of our salvation.
This "great exchange" offers believers five extraordinary gifts purchased at the cross. Through expiation, our sin is completely removed, liberating us from crushing guilt and shame. Through propitiation, God's righteous anger toward sin is fully satisfied, assuring us that no sin is too grievous to be forgiven. Through justification, we're declared righteous despite our imperfections, giving us a fresh start not just once but daily. Through reconciliation, we're brought back into relationship with the Father we ran from, providing the family connection our hearts crave. Through imputation, we're clothed in Christ's perfection, addressing our deepest feelings of inadequacy.
These aren't theological abstractions but practical, life-changing realities available to anyone who comes with empty hands and an open heart. Whatever your struggle today—whether shame over past mistakes, doubt about God's forgiveness, need for a fresh start, longing for family, or feelings of never measuring up—the cross offers precisely what you need. Will you reach out and receive what Jesus suffered so greatly to give you?
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Y'all are so kind.
All right, if you would turn toyour Bibles.
We're going to be in Luke,chapter 22, starting at verse 66
, and we're going to go all theway to chapter 23, verse 7,
which is on page 883.
If you're using one of the PewBibles, you can follow along as
we read together.
I'll give you just a coupleseconds to find where you are.
(00:25):
When day came, the assembly ofthe elders of the people
gathered together, both chiefpriests and scribes, and they
led him away to their counciland they said If you are the
Christ, tell us.
But he said to them If I tellyou, you will not believe, and
if I ask you you will not answer.
But from now on, the Son of manshall be seated at the right
hand of the power of God.
(00:45):
So they all said Are you theSon of man?
Then you will not answer.
And brought him before Pilateand they began to accuse him,
saying we found this manmisleading our nation and
forbidding us to give tribute toCaesar, and saying that he
(01:08):
himself is Christ, a king.
And Pilate asked him Are youthe king of the Jews?
And he answered him you havesaid so.
Then Pilate said to the chiefpriests in the crowds.
I find no guilt in this man,but they were urgent saying he
stirs up the people teachingthroughout all Judea, from
Galilee even to this place.
When Pilate heard this, heasked whether the man was a
(01:30):
Galilean, and when he heard thathe belonged to Herod's
jurisdiction, he sent him overto Herod, who was himself in
Jerusalem at the time.
This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Amen.
Thank you, cece.
As I was getting ready for thisSunday, I knew a couple of
things.
One thing that I knew is thatmy sermon was not going to be
the best sermon of the day, andI was so on board with that.
(02:01):
And so let me just tell you Idid prepare a little bit
differently for this Sunday thanI have in Sunday's past or than
I typically do.
So I knew you were alreadygoing to have two sermons
preached to you, and I love thefact that they are two sermons
that every believer in this roomcan preach every day of their
lives.
May we be reminded, not justbecause of a baptism but of a
(02:21):
sharing of a testimony, that ifyou are a Christian, your story
may not look like this and itmay not sound like this.
It may not include 600 jumpsout of an airplane, it may not
include all kinds of details,but it includes a person who is
in need, a need that can only bemet in Christ, a willingness by
God to send his son to meetthat need and then a life after
(02:42):
that need has been met.
So sermon one is already done.
Sermon two you guys preachedlast week.
You just didn't know it.
My son came up to me after thesecond service last week and he
said, dad, you, mr, beasted theStensons.
And I was like, what are youtalking about?
And what you guys may notrealize if you came to first
(03:05):
service last week was after weasked you to give toward the
Stinson's.
By the way, if you're not surewho that is, it's a family who
is finishing up seminary withfive-year-old son and teenage
daughter who are looking to movetheir entire life to Mombasa,
kenya, live there.
Train pastors, plant churches doincredible things.
Their goal was to raise $3,000that the church would then match
(03:31):
so that we could cover theirvision trip and they wouldn't
have to worry about raisingmoney until they decided to go
full-time.
And I asked you guys, guys, ifwe can just please raise $3,000,
then we will be able to sendthem raised $3,000, then we will
be able to send them.
As it stands now, we haveraised over $9,000.
(03:52):
Yeah, praise God, and I justtell you, I told them that in
front of everybody on Sunday andAudrey immediately broke down.
So you have already been a partof sermon number two with your
generosity, your desire to seethe kingdom go.
So I have very little work todo this morning, and I am on
board with that.
What I would like to do thismorning is help you understand
(04:15):
what it takes for you to have astory like this.
What I would want to do thismorning is to remind those of us
who it's been a long time sinceWill was nine years old on June
2nd 1991, and got baptized, tobe reminded of what it was that
Christ had to do so that I couldhave this story to share.
(04:37):
Why would Jesus suffer so?
Why not, when all of this ishappening, give them some
miraculous reality of his power?
Why not give them faith byovercoming the enemy right in
front of their eyes and puttingon display 10,000 angels as a
show of force that wouldimmediately cause wonder and
(05:00):
worship?
Perhaps what I wonder the mostis why does Jesus wait for three
hours in a garden, knowing thatJudas was on his way?
How easy it would have been forhim to finish that moment just
a few minutes early and say amenand walk away, and walk away.
(05:29):
There were a million differentways that Jesus could have saved
himself, but only one way tosave you in this broken world.
Infinite number of ways Jesuscould have walked away from this
, but only one way that he couldsave you and this broken world.
We finished last week by lookingat this passage.
(05:49):
We rejoice in our sufferings,knowing that suffering produces
endurance, endurance, characterand character produces hope.
And I took a moment to just saythis is what I want us to
realize, church.
I want us to realize thatsuffering produces.
It produces good things forthose who put their trust in God
.
So here is my hope and myprayer.
(06:10):
Martin Luther puts it this way.
There's this beautiful prayerthat I'm going to encourage you
to pray before our morning ends,and Luther begins it like this
my dear brother, my dear sisterin Christ, learn Christ and him
crucified.
And this is what I want toknock out today.
I want you to learn Christ.
(06:30):
I'm not going to try to preacha ton, I'm not going to try to
draw you along in this sort ofemotional appeal.
I want to appeal to your brainsthis morning.
I want to teach you what Christis, a word that means both
savior and king.
I want to teach you what itmeans that he died on this kind
(06:51):
of a cross, in that kind of away.
What is it that it actually didfor us?
And, by the way, there's a QRcode, and some of you are
already well trained in this andyou have started pulling your
phones out.
Let me pray and then y'all canpull your phones out and I'll
tell you what that is.
Father, I want to do my absolutebest which is going to be far
(07:11):
from sufficient in teachingChrist as Savior and King.
I want to do the absolute bestthat this human male can do in
teaching the crucifixion, why itwas that your hands were
stretched out, why it was thatnails pierced them, why you were
mocked, why you were beaten,why you were scorned, why you
(07:33):
were played to dress up with.
Why were all of these thingsrealities and what does it mean
for us in 2025?
Is it a distant story or is ita promise that you made long ago
that continues to fulfillitself?
I believe it is the latter, andI would pray for every believer
(07:53):
of old in this room that youwould give us fresh wind, fresh
fire and fresh spiritual desireto pursue you, for those in this
room who are skeptical, forthose who are seeking you openly
and curious.
Thank you for Veronica'stestimony, her honesty walking
in.
I'm learning about the Bible,but I'm not sure that this is
for me, about me that I shouldbe here.
(08:15):
Thank you for that honesty.
I think it represents many inthis room, but would you meet
all of us, no matter where weare.
I pray Amen.
One of my favorite little books,devotionally, is a book written
by John Piper called 50 ReasonsJesus Came to Die.
Go ahead, take your phones out.
Sometimes when you do this itmesses up the website, so if it
does just holler at me afterward, this little here, I can
(08:37):
probably make that easier foryou.
This little QR code will giveyou a free PDF to the entire
book, which I cannot advocatefor you at a better time of the
year, as we are a number ofweeks away from Easter.
50 reasons Jesus came to die,and I will be going through all
50 right now.
You're not sure, are you?
(09:00):
You're not really sure, are you?
I want to give you five.
Like I said, we've already hadtwo good sermons.
I only have two main points,and this is the first one.
At the cross, jesus sufferedwhat was ours.
At the cross, jesus sufferedwhat was ours.
What Sarah has already read andwhat I am going to read and
(09:21):
point to.
I want you to realize thatevery picture you have that is
accurate and biblicallysupported, that is encouraged by
the Spirit.
When you imagine Christ on thecross, I want you to understand
every nail, every beating, everyspitting, every scorn, every
mocking, every nerve ending infiber that was screaming in pain
(09:45):
.
Every bit of darkness, everybit of loneliness, loss, sadness
and depression was yours first,every one of them.
For our sake, he being God,made him being Jesus to be sin.
The concept of scripture isthat the Holy One who had never
(10:08):
done anything wrong, in fact somuch so that 1 Peter would say
he committed no sin and neitherwas deceit even found in his
mouth.
Every possible sin you canimagine have committed, known,
has been committed.
Have committed, known, has beencommitted is heaped on one man
as he sits, rather is displayedon the cross.
(10:40):
For our sake, god made him tobecome sin.
There was a teacher that I hadmy first year in college.
He was a Pol Sci teacher.
I don't think I've told y'allthis story ever before.
He opened the class, which wasthe I think it was the history
of political science, from Marxthrough something, and he
started the class.
This was an older Polishgentleman, white haired, sort of
(11:03):
a taller version of the old manin up.
If that helps you, kind of justdo that, okay.
And he asked this question asthe first class opened.
He said hey, by show of hands,how many of you believe that man
is generally good and how manyof you believe that man is
(11:25):
generally evil?
That was his question.
He said I want you to raiseyour hand if you believe that
man is generally good.
Anybody want to guess how manyhands went up?
All of them save one.
Every hand in the room goes up,except for one kid, because he
grew up in a church that readthe Bible.
Except for one kid, because hegrew up in a church that read
the Bible.
(11:47):
And then question number two I'dnever been more proud in my
life to be right, and that saysa lot.
He said how many of you believethat man is inherently evil?
And I put my hand up.
I was ready, I was ready to getcalled on.
I was going to go into God, man, christ.
Response our brokenness, romans3, 23,.
(12:08):
For all of sin, finally, lord,it's my moment.
And he says he's right.
And let me tell you why.
And I was like all right, fine,you take it, you take it, he,
you take it.
He said I remember in World WarII, when the first V2 rocket
flew over my house.
From that moment on, I haveknown without a shadow of a
(12:32):
doubt that if you put a human inthe corner, if you give them
the right or, depending on howyou see it, the wrong
opportunity, every one of us,when squeezed, does not have
righteousness seep out.
It is dark, it is sinful and,for our sake, god made Jesus to
(13:07):
be sin at the cross, covering insin the one who had committed
none.
So this is the text that Sarahread.
I know it's too small for you.
We're going to do it a littlebit differently this morning,
because what I am going to tryto accomplish in quick order is
to teach you two things at onetime.
One, I want you to see and feeland know the crucifixion of
Christ.
We're not even gonna get allthe way there.
(13:27):
I want you to imagine what itwould have been like for you to
get what your sins deserve andI'll stand here when I do that
stuff and I want you to watchthe plot play out as Jesus goes
through God's perfect ordinationto be able to rescue you in a
broken world.
(13:47):
So what I'm going to do, I'mgoing to try to make this
physical.
When the plot moves, I'll bestanding on this side of the
pulpit, and when I want you tonotice what your sin actually
deserved, if you are ever tohave gotten it, I will be
standing over here.
I'm going to move fairlyquickly, though.
Now the men who were holdingJesus in custody.
(14:10):
They were mocking him as theybeat sorry, as they beat him.
They blindfolded him and askedhim prophesy who is it that
struck you?
And they said many other thingsagainst him, blaspheming him,
in other words.
Here's what you deserved youdeserve to be made fun of.
(14:33):
You deserved, because of yoursin, to be beaten physically,
painfully.
You deserved because of yoursin.
This is the sin that was placedon him.
This is what I'm trying toteach you.
You deserve to be blindfoldedand struck and have somebody say
hey, if you really have yourlife together, tell us what's
happening.
(14:53):
Jesus, you're a prophet.
Tell me, who was it that justhit you?
Blaspheming the Son of God, inother words, just hit you.
Blaspheming the Son of God, inother words, saying horrible
things about God to the face ofGod.
There's a little quote byThabiti that I think is worth
mentioning.
They play a little game.
(15:15):
They blindfold Jesus and taketurns hitting him.
They say prophesy, who was itthat hit you?
No doubt that seemed like afunny thought to them, but can
you imagine the day of judgmentwhen they appear before Christ
and he says by the way, I knowit was you who hit me.
Now one of our sins is hidden,hidden before his sight.
(15:37):
And yet here Christ remains.
This is the pre-trial.
This is them in the wilderness,this is them before it even
becomes semi-legal.
And then the trial continues.
Sorry, I'm realizing I'mmessing up my own slides here.
(16:00):
When day came, trial trialnumber one.
When day came, the assembly ofthe elders of the people
gathered together, both chiefpriests and scribes.
This will be trial number one.
It will be generally religiousin nature.
They led him away to theircouncil and they said if you are
the Christ only thing I've putin bold on this entire text,
(16:23):
because you must not miss thisto understand what is happening
If you are the Christ.
Now, this is a word that meanstwo different things it means
savior, on the one hand, and itmeans king, on the other.
Let me tell you why thismatters.
It matters because if you arethe Jewish people, jesus
claiming to be savior is themost egregious offense they can
bring against him.
This man is claiming to be Godand in their law, the Jewish law
(16:49):
, he should have been stoned todeath.
Little problem for them.
They no longer run their nation.
The Romans do.
So.
If they are going to actuallybring death to this man, they're
going to need more than areligious charge.
This is why they use the termChrist, because it not only
means savior, it also means king.
(17:10):
And if Caesar hears that thereis another one claiming to be
king, if Caesar hears that thereis another one building a
revolution, there is a zerotolerance policy for that
individual continuing to liveand to breathe.
So they look at Jesus.
Are you savior?
Are you the Messiah who haspromised to come?
Are you the king of kings?
(17:31):
But he said to them if I tellyou, you will not believe.
I want you to notice.
If I tell you he's silent,primarily in this trial, and if
I ask you, you will not answer.
But from now on, the son of manshall be seated at the right
hand of the power of God.
So they all said are you theson of God then?
(17:51):
And he said to them you saythat I am.
To us it sounds evasive.
To us, it sounds like Jesussimply says hey, that's what
you're saying about me.
Another way to read this wouldbe Jesus saying it is as you
have said that I am.
This is Jesus agreeing withthem.
(18:12):
This is Jesus saying yes, I amChrist, I am Savior, I am
Messiah.
Christ, I am Savior, I amMessiah, I am King.
Which is why the very nextthing that comes from them is
they say what further testimonydo we need?
We've heard it for ourselves.
Now Matthew does for us sort ofa wonderful thing.
(18:34):
If you read this in Matthew,you are going to come across
what's called the oath of thetestimony.
The same story in Matthew comesto this little passage.
But Jesus remained silent andthe high priest, caiaphas.
He said to him I adjure you bythe living God, tell us if you
are the Christ, the son of God.
(18:55):
And he said you have said so.
There's something you need toknow about Jewish culture.
So there's something you needto know about Jewish culture.
It is an honorable thing toremain silent when you are
accused.
It's an honorable thing forsomebody to say horrible things
about you and you trust yourselfto God, not pleading your own
case.
Side note Jesus didn't evenhave to plead his own case.
(19:17):
All of these false witnessesthat they brought their
arguments contradicted.
So both Pilate and Herod aregoing to say look, I don't know
what you guys are trying to doto this man, but none of the
arguments line up.
We have to throw this thing outof court.
But this one line by Caiaphaswas politically brilliant.
(19:39):
According to Jewish tradition,if anybody ever said to you a
law-abiding Jewish person, Iadjure you by the living God,
you either speak or you callinto question whether or not you
believe in the goodness of God.
For you to remain silent wouldbe blasphemy to God.
(20:01):
This would be similar.
I want you to tell the truth,the whole truth and nothing but
the truth.
So help you God.
Same thing.
We've taken it from a Jewishcontext and we have put it in
our own.
And when Caiaphas says thisJesus, and Caiaphas says this
Jesus, in honoring the name ofhis own father, must respond and
(20:23):
he says am I the Christ?
It is as you have said.
I am savior, I am king.
That's why when we go back tothis story, that's why when we
look here, all of a sudden theaction moves.
Then the whole company, sorryguys.
Then the whole company of themarose and brought him before
(20:45):
Pilate.
Why?
Because Caiaphas had got him.
He had finally got Jesus to sayI am a king.
And they say checkmate, takehim to Pilate.
There is no way this Romanofficer is going to let him live
.
And they began to accuse him,saying we found this man
(21:09):
misleading our nation.
Have you ever had somebody lieabout you?
Have you ever had somebody makeup a tale about you to put
themselves in a better light?
Have you ever had to go to batfor yourself because it felt
like there were numerous voicesthat were making fabricated
tales to call into question yourgoodness and your character?
(21:30):
This is what Jesus endured onthe cross.
We found this man misleadingour nation.
He forbade for us to givetribute to Caesar, which of
course he never did.
He said that he is Christ aking.
So Pilate turns and he asks himare you, are you the king of
(21:51):
the Jews?
And he answered him it is asyou have said.
Then Pilate said to the chiefpriests and to the crowd I find
no guilt in this man.
Just give me your eyes for onemoment on this.
Pilate's going to say this fourtimes, four times the judge
holding the gavel who could dropit, will say there's no guilt
here, there is nothing.
(22:12):
Do you realize?
I couldn't take one of you andput you on this stage for more
than five minutes and be able tosay that about one of us.
Jesus is 33 years into livingin a human life, living for all
of time, and one human judgeactually gets it right and he
says there's nothing here.
What are you guys doing,wasting our time with this?
(22:35):
And Pilate said to the chiefpriests in the crowd I find no
guilt in this man.
But they were urgent saying no,no, no, pilate.
He's stirring up the people.
He's teaching throughout allJudea and from don't miss this
Galilee.
And as soon as Pilate hears it,welcome to trial.
Number two I don't wanna beresponsible for this.
Pilate is thinking I can't findany guilt in this guy.
(22:58):
It just seems like a mob.
Wait a minute.
Did you just say he's fromGalilee?
Awesome flag on the field, notin my jurisdiction.
That guy was speeding inPhoenix City.
Don't look at me as a cop inColumbus to do anything about it
.
This guy's too well known.
You think I wanna be on socialmedia locking this guy up?
I don't think so.
And because it was Passover, itwas convenient, guy up, I don't
(23:22):
think so.
And because it was Passover, itwas convenient.
Who was overseeing Galilee?
Herod was so trial number threewhen Pilate heard this, he
asked whether the man was aGalilean.
Please, guys, look, I know theBible can be hard to understand
at times.
Hear me out, it's not as hardas we make it out to be.
If you are going to try to readthe Bible the way you try to
(23:45):
read a children's storybook,yeah, okay, it's going to get
you all right.
Read 10 minutes of Shakespeareand then pick up your Bible and
feel like a genius.
If you need to, I'm telling youthe Bible is not that difficult
to understand, but it doesrequire two things of you.
Number one it requires that youactually want to understand it,
not bring your ownunderstanding to it.
(24:06):
If it is your job to justifythe way that you're living, the
way that you're thinking andtrying to find that in Scripture
, it is going to be an empty,dusty, dead book to you.
Additionally, if you are goingto flip Jesus a penny with the
five seconds that you give himto give yourself credit for
reading the word of God I wouldoffer to you.
(24:28):
You ought not expect to getmuch the word of God.
We have it every day and ittakes just some time, a little
bit of thought, to understand.
He looks and he's like wait,this guy's a Galilean.
Awesome, pilate heard this.
He asked whether the man was aGalilean and when he learned
(24:49):
that he belonged to Herod'sjurisdiction, he sent him over
to Herod.
I don't want to have anythingto do with this.
Send Jesus to trial.
Number three Herod happened tobe in Jerusalem at that time.
Why was he in Jerusalem at thattime?
It was Passover.
When Herod saw Jesus one of myfavorite parts he was very glad.
Let me just go ahead and tellyou sometimes I don't mind
(25:16):
getting you high to then slamyou down.
I think it's good for your soul.
Okay, the question and then V2rockets.
You're like oh, that was unfair.
Okay, I get it.
Sometimes I think that is goodfor your soul.
I just want you to know this isabout to have a huge turn and I
don't want you to miss it,because it goes to far greater
depths than what I have alreadyhit.
Herod is so glad to see Jesus.
He had long desired to see him.
(25:37):
Why?
Because he had heard about him.
He wanted to see some sign doneby him.
So when he questioned him hedid it at some length, but Jesus
again made no answer.
Herod is thinking, hey, herecomes the one claiming to be the
Christ, and I don't know aboutall of that and I'm not that
(25:57):
upset that Pilate sent him to me.
I've wanted to meet this guy.
I heard he walked on water andfood fell from the heavens or
was multiplied in some way thatsick people were able to receive
healing.
Lame people were walking.
He's spitting in the mud andblind people are seeing Jesus,
do something for me.
Do you not know that I hold inmy hand your life or your death?
(26:18):
Herod must have been thinkingDon't you know that it is within
my authority to throw you injail, to place you on a cross or
to give you a lush lifestylethat no one else on the planet
could?
Just one little thing, jesus,one little show.
Hey, here's some water, maybemake it wine for me.
(26:38):
Dance, monkey, dance.
The chief priests and thescribes stood by vehemently
accusing him, and Herod with hissoldiers treated him with
contempt and mocked him.
This is what you deserve.
You deserve to be vehementlyaccused 24-7.
(26:59):
In fact, in case you don't knowthis, there is one called the
devil, aka the accuser, who isvery good at doing this.
In fact it's his native tongue.
He knows how to accuse you.
He knows how to accuse youbecause he has seen your stuff.
Jesus is a little bit harder toaccuse Not much there to see but
you, oh, it's so easy.
It's so easy to make fun of you.
(27:21):
You get dressed up and you looknice and you open your little
Bible.
But I know what was runningthrough your mind last night as
you went to sleep.
I know what you were pondering.
I know what you were looking aton your phone.
I know what was running throughyour mind last night as you
went to sleep.
I know what you were pondering.
I know what you were looking aton your phone.
I know what you were thinkingabout.
The accuser would sayvehemently accusing you day and
(27:42):
night.
This is what you deserve.
Notice, jesus is the one whogets it, and because Herod
doesn't get a show, he puts onhis own.
They arrayed Jesus in splendidclothing.
Jesus, if you're not going tomake a little one-act play for
(28:03):
us in your miracles, then wewill make one out of you.
And the creator of the universeis played dress up with.
This is what you and I deserve.
And Herod and Pilate becamefriends with each other that
very day, because the enemy ofmy enemy is my friend and before
(28:27):
this they had been at enmitywith each other.
Pilate then called togetherchief priests and rulers and the
people, and they said to themyou brought me this man as
somebody who is misleading thepeople, and after examining him
before you, behold, I did notfind this man guilty of any of
your charges.
Neither did Herod.
He sent him back to us.
Look, nothing deserving deathhas been done by him, so I'm
(28:50):
gonna punish him and release him, bringing us to the final part.
But they all cried out togetheraway with this man and release
to us Barabbas, a man who hadbeen thrown into prison for an
insurrection starting in thecity and for murder.
Pilate addressed them once morethis would be his third time
desiring to release Jesus.
But they kept shouting crucify,crucify him.
(29:10):
A third time he said to themwhy?
What evil has he done?
I found in him no guiltdeserving death.
I'm going to punish him andrelease him.
But they were urgent, demandingwith loud cries that he should
be crucified.
Voices prevailed, the voicesthat were formed by God himself,
(29:34):
cried for the death of the onewho spoke them into existence.
I told you I only had two points.
Point one is Jesus sufferedwhat was ours.
Point two is to give us whatwas his.
Thomas pointed to this and Ican think of no better Sunday to
show this to you For our sake.
(29:54):
He did make him to be sin, butI don't want you to miss this.
Why did he do this?
So that, unto something,suffering produces good things.
All of the beating, the mocking, the scorn, all of these things
placed on Jesus so that in himwe might become righteous
Christians.
(30:14):
This is a scandal.
Unbelievers, this does not makesense in this world.
Why would you, the furthestfrom God, not even just be
brought back to a blank canvas?
Why would you be given goodnessand righteousness?
Because this is the gift of thecross.
This is substitutionaryatonement.
(30:35):
This is the great exchange.
This is Barabbas, who was aninsurrectionist what Jesus was
accused of and a murderer.
This is a guy who spent histime taking life, being
exchanged for the one who gaveit.
This is the one who is buildinghis own kingdom, being
exchanged for the one who is it.
This is the one who is buildinghis own kingdom being exchanged
for the one who is building akingdom for others.
This ought to sound veryfamiliar.
(30:56):
This is what Christ does for uson the cross.
Martin Luther's original quoteis on the left.
If you are feeling particularlysmart today, look to the left.
I've cleaned it up on the right, my dear brother.
Learn Christ.
I've cleaned it up on the right, my dear brother.
Learn Christ, learn Savior,learn King, learn the
crucifixion, learn his pain,learn to pray like this.
(31:18):
This would be the prayer Iwould hope for all of you to
pray.
Lord Jesus, you are myrighteousness, I am your sin.
This is what you bring toChrist.
You took upon yourself what ismine and gave to me what is
yours.
You took on yourself what ismine and gave to me what is
yours.
You took on yourself what youwere not and you gave me what I
was not.
I want to close by telling youfive gifts that you get at the
(31:41):
cross and Stokesy or team.
Whenever you guys want to comeup, y'all feel free to come on
up.
Five gifts, by the way, notetakers, good luck.
All right, I'm moving quick andall of you can learn one new $5
word today.
I never try to be impressive.
You do not need to knowtheological terms, but I'm going
to try to teach you some anywayas we close out this morning.
(32:03):
Five gifts from the cross.
Number one this is calledexpiation.
First gift at the cross, yoursin is removed.
All we, like sheep, have goneastray.
We have turned every one of usto his own way and the Lord laid
on him the iniquity, the sin,the brokenness, the accusations
of us all.
(32:23):
Who is expiation for?
It's especially for those withfeelings of guilt or shame.
This morning, the first gift ofthe cross is for those who
think how could I have done this?
I'd be terrified for people toknow that I am did that.
And Jesus steps in and heoffers expiation, your sin being
(32:46):
removed.
Secondly, propitiation by theway, they're all going to end in
ation, so you can just knowthat, trying to make it easy,
god's wrath is satisfied.
Not only is your sin removed,but the wrath of God.
For God to be just, he has topunish evil.
It is satisfied and this islove.
Not that we loved God, far fromit.
(33:07):
Squeeze us and see what comesout, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the payment,the propitiation for our sins.
The second gift from the crossis that God's wrath is satisfied
.
This is especially for thosewho feel like their sins are too
numerous, their sins are tooegregious or big, for those who
(33:32):
feel that their sins areimpossible to cover.
This is the second gift thecross offers you.
Thirdly, we are offeredjustification.
You are declared righteous andthis word is a biggie because
you're not righteous On yourbest day.
You are so far from this man,but because of the work on the
(33:55):
cross, this third gift and don'tmiss that it is a gift this is
grace giving what your effortnever could.
You are declared righteous andgiven a new life, for all have
sinned by the way, that's a pasttense thing.
You have sinned and all fallshort.
You are actively falling short.
Don't miss how perfect thegospel is.
(34:16):
It's not just good enough foryour past failures, it's good
enough for your current ones too, and God, knowing this, says
you are justified by his graceas a gift through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus.
Who is this for?
It's especially for those whoknow they need a new start and
if they're honest, they needmore than one.
(34:37):
They need a new start every day, and sometimes they need three
starts in a day.
This is what justificationgives you the righteousness of
Christ and a new life.
Fourthly, it gives youreconciliation.
You are brought back to thefather that you ran from the law
, knowing right from wrong,written on your own conscience
(34:58):
from the time you were threeyears old and your mom said time
to get in the car and you ranthe other way, right into the
street.
From that moment on, written onyour heart was a recognition
that you were broken.
It existed there that untilChrist came, you would realize
that you had a problem, so thatyou would be justified by faith.
(35:19):
And now that faith has come,you are no longer under a
guardian, you are no longerunder this law.
You are no longer on the ratrace or on the hamster wheel
trying to just be good enoughfor God or better than the
person next to you.
No, in Christ you are sons anddaughters of God through faith.
This is especially for thosewho need a good family.
(35:43):
It's especially for those whodesire closeness with God and
wonder where that went, sinceyou were 15 years old.
Reconciliation and, finally, thelast gift given to us at the
cross.
By the way, you could spend amillennia building this out is
imputation.
You are clothed in Christ'sperfection and we end where we
(36:07):
began.
He made him to be sin.
Who knew no sin, so that in himyou would be seen as righteous.
This is especially for thosewho rarely feel good enough or
as though they do not measure up.
I've been walking with Christfor over 30 years of my life.
(36:31):
I have yet to graduate fromthis list, and I would be
willing to bet that everyone inthis room has yet to graduate.
So what do we do with this?
We ask, we believe, and we comewith empty hands, simply saying
if these are gifts that Christhas purchased at the cross, if
(36:52):
they truly are gifts and I donot have to earn them, jesus,
I'll take some of that.
If you're still offering, ifyou're still offering that I can
be brought back to you.
I'd like to have some of that.
If you're telling me my guiltand my shame can be removed,
might I have some of that?
A new life that begins not justwith every morning, but every
time I come to you and ask fornewness.
(37:14):
If this is a short versionpointing only to a few gifts
that are available to us at thecross, what do you need from
Jesus today?
Let this be a room of response,let it be a room of testimony
(37:34):
that we would stand and sing,that we would dismiss ourselves
to the back porch to sit in theworld that God created and just
meditate on his goodness to us.
Come forward on the back porchand talk, share good stories and
hard stories, ask for prayersabout difficult things, but know
(37:55):
this Christ has given us somuch more than five gifts at the
cross.
They're innumerable, but I giveyou enough this morning to
pursue him well, so let's pursuehim together.
Y'all are so kind.
All right, if you would turn toyour Bibles.
We're going to be in Luke,chapter 22, starting at verse 66
, and we're going to go all theway to chapter 23, verse 7,
which is on page 883.
If you're using one of the PewBibles, you can follow along as
we read together.
I'll give you just a coupleseconds to find where you are.
(00:25):
When day came, the assembly ofthe elders of the people
gathered together, both chiefpriests and scribes, and they
led him away to their counciland they said If you are the
Christ, tell us.
But he said to them If I tellyou, you will not believe, and
if I ask you you will not answer.
But from now on, the Son of manshall be seated at the right
hand of the power of God.
(00:45):
So they all said Are you theSon of man?
Then you will not answer.
And brought him before Pilateand they began to accuse him,
saying we found this manmisleading our nation and
forbidding us to give tribute toCaesar, and saying that he
(01:08):
himself is Christ, a king.
And Pilate asked him Are youthe king of the Jews?
And he answered him you havesaid so.
Then Pilate said to the chiefpriests in the crowds.
I find no guilt in this man,but they were urgent saying he
stirs up the people teachingthroughout all Judea, from
Galilee even to this place.
When Pilate heard this, heasked whether the man was a
(01:30):
Galilean, and when he heard thathe belonged to Herod's
jurisdiction, he sent him overto Herod, who was himself in
Jerusalem at the time.
This is the word of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Amen.
Thank you, cece.
As I was getting ready for thisSunday, I knew a couple of
things.
One thing that I knew is thatmy sermon was not going to be
the best sermon of the day, andI was so on board with that.
(02:01):
And so let me just tell you Idid prepare a little bit
differently for this Sunday thanI have in Sunday's past or than
I typically do.
So I knew you were alreadygoing to have two sermons
preached to you, and I love thefact that they are two sermons
that every believer in this roomcan preach every day of their
lives.
May we be reminded, not justbecause of a baptism but of a
(02:21):
sharing of a testimony, that ifyou are a Christian, your story
may not look like this and itmay not sound like this.
It may not include 600 jumpsout of an airplane, it may not
include all kinds of details,but it includes a person who is
in need, a need that can only bemet in Christ, a willingness by
God to send his son to meetthat need and then a life after
(02:42):
that need has been met.
So sermon one is already done.
Sermon two you guys preachedlast week.
You just didn't know it.
My son came up to me after thesecond service last week and he
said, dad, you, mr, beasted theStensons.
And I was like, what are youtalking about?
And what you guys may notrealize if you came to first
(03:05):
service last week was after weasked you to give toward the
Stinson's.
By the way, if you're not surewho that is, it's a family who
is finishing up seminary withfive-year-old son and teenage
daughter who are looking to movetheir entire life to Mombasa,
kenya, live there.
Train pastors, plant churches doincredible things.
Their goal was to raise $3,000that the church would then match
(03:31):
so that we could cover theirvision trip and they wouldn't
have to worry about raisingmoney until they decided to go
full-time.
And I asked you guys, guys, ifwe can just please raise $3,000,
then we will be able to sendthem raised $3,000, then we will
be able to send them.
As it stands now, we haveraised over $9,000.
(03:52):
Yeah, praise God, and I justtell you, I told them that in
front of everybody on Sunday andAudrey immediately broke down.
So you have already been a partof sermon number two with your
generosity, your desire to seethe kingdom go.
So I have very little work todo this morning, and I am on
board with that.
What I would like to do thismorning is help you understand
(04:15):
what it takes for you to have astory like this.
What I would want to do thismorning is to remind those of us
who it's been a long time sinceWill was nine years old on June
2nd 1991, and got baptized, tobe reminded of what it was that
Christ had to do so that I couldhave this story to share.
(04:37):
Why would Jesus suffer so?
Why not, when all of this ishappening, give them some
miraculous reality of his power?
Why not give them faith byovercoming the enemy right in
front of their eyes and puttingon display 10,000 angels as a
show of force that wouldimmediately cause wonder and
(05:00):
worship?
Perhaps what I wonder the mostis why does Jesus wait for three
hours in a garden, knowing thatJudas was on his way?
How easy it would have been forhim to finish that moment just
a few minutes early and say amenand walk away, and walk away.
(05:29):
There were a million differentways that Jesus could have saved
himself, but only one way tosave you in this broken world.
Infinite number of ways Jesuscould have walked away from this
, but only one way that he couldsave you and this broken world.
We finished last week by lookingat this passage.
(05:49):
We rejoice in our sufferings,knowing that suffering produces
endurance, endurance, characterand character produces hope.
And I took a moment to just saythis is what I want us to
realize, church.
I want us to realize thatsuffering produces.
It produces good things forthose who put their trust in God
.
So here is my hope and myprayer.
(06:10):
Martin Luther puts it this way.
There's this beautiful prayerthat I'm going to encourage you
to pray before our morning ends,and Luther begins it like this
my dear brother, my dear sisterin Christ, learn Christ and him
crucified.
And this is what I want toknock out today.
I want you to learn Christ.
(06:30):
I'm not going to try to preacha ton, I'm not going to try to
draw you along in this sort ofemotional appeal.
I want to appeal to your brainsthis morning.
I want to teach you what Christis, a word that means both
savior and king.
I want to teach you what itmeans that he died on this kind
(06:51):
of a cross, in that kind of away.
What is it that it actually didfor us?
And, by the way, there's a QRcode, and some of you are
already well trained in this andyou have started pulling your
phones out.
Let me pray and then y'all canpull your phones out and I'll
tell you what that is.
Father, I want to do my absolutebest which is going to be far
(07:11):
from sufficient in teachingChrist as Savior and King.
I want to do the absolute bestthat this human male can do in
teaching the crucifixion, why itwas that your hands were
stretched out, why it was thatnails pierced them, why you were
mocked, why you were beaten,why you were scorned, why you
(07:33):
were played to dress up with.
Why were all of these thingsrealities and what does it mean
for us in 2025?
Is it a distant story or is ita promise that you made long ago
that continues to fulfillitself?
I believe it is the latter, andI would pray for every believer
(07:53):
of old in this room that youwould give us fresh wind, fresh
fire and fresh spiritual desireto pursue you, for those in this
room who are skeptical, forthose who are seeking you openly
and curious.
Thank you for Veronica'stestimony, her honesty walking
in.
I'm learning about the Bible,but I'm not sure that this is
for me, about me that I shouldbe here.
(08:15):
Thank you for that honesty.
I think it represents many inthis room, but would you meet
all of us, no matter where weare.
I pray Amen.
One of my favorite little books,devotionally, is a book written
by John Piper called 50 ReasonsJesus Came to Die.
Go ahead, take your phones out.
Sometimes when you do this itmesses up the website, so if it
does just holler at me afterward, this little here, I can
(08:37):
probably make that easier foryou.
This little QR code will giveyou a free PDF to the entire
book, which I cannot advocatefor you at a better time of the
year, as we are a number ofweeks away from Easter.
50 reasons Jesus came to die,and I will be going through all
50 right now.
You're not sure, are you?
(09:00):
You're not really sure, are you?
I want to give you five.
Like I said, we've already hadtwo good sermons.
I only have two main points,and this is the first one.
At the cross, jesus sufferedwhat was ours.
At the cross, jesus sufferedwhat was ours.
What Sarah has already read andwhat I am going to read and
(09:21):
point to.
I want you to realize thatevery picture you have that is
accurate and biblicallysupported, that is encouraged by
the Spirit.
When you imagine Christ on thecross, I want you to understand
every nail, every beating, everyspitting, every scorn, every
mocking, every nerve ending infiber that was screaming in pain
(09:45):
.
Every bit of darkness, everybit of loneliness, loss, sadness
and depression was yours first,every one of them.
For our sake, he being God,made him being Jesus to be sin.
The concept of scripture isthat the Holy One who had never
(10:08):
done anything wrong, in fact somuch so that 1 Peter would say
he committed no sin and neitherwas deceit even found in his
mouth.
Every possible sin you canimagine have committed, known,
has been committed.
Have committed, known, has beencommitted is heaped on one man
as he sits, rather is displayedon the cross.
(10:40):
For our sake, god made him tobecome sin.
There was a teacher that I hadmy first year in college.
He was a Pol Sci teacher.
I don't think I've told y'allthis story ever before.
He opened the class, which wasthe I think it was the history
of political science, from Marxthrough something, and he
started the class.
This was an older Polishgentleman, white haired, sort of
(11:03):
a taller version of the old manin up.
If that helps you, kind of justdo that, okay.
And he asked this question asthe first class opened.
He said hey, by show of hands,how many of you believe that man
is generally good and how manyof you believe that man is
(11:25):
generally evil?
That was his question.
He said I want you to raiseyour hand if you believe that
man is generally good.
Anybody want to guess how manyhands went up?
All of them save one.
Every hand in the room goes up,except for one kid, because he
grew up in a church that readthe Bible.
Except for one kid, because hegrew up in a church that read
the Bible.
(11:47):
And then question number two I'dnever been more proud in my
life to be right, and that saysa lot.
He said how many of you believethat man is inherently evil?
And I put my hand up.
I was ready, I was ready to getcalled on.
I was going to go into God, man, christ.
Response our brokenness, romans3, 23,.
(12:08):
For all of sin, finally, lord,it's my moment.
And he says he's right.
And let me tell you why.
And I was like all right, fine,you take it, you take it, he,
you take it.
He said I remember in World WarII, when the first V2 rocket
flew over my house.
From that moment on, I haveknown without a shadow of a
(12:32):
doubt that if you put a human inthe corner, if you give them
the right or, depending on howyou see it, the wrong
opportunity, every one of us,when squeezed, does not have
righteousness seep out.
It is dark, it is sinful and,for our sake, god made Jesus to
(13:07):
be sin at the cross, covering insin the one who had committed
none.
So this is the text that Sarahread.
I know it's too small for you.
We're going to do it a littlebit differently this morning,
because what I am going to tryto accomplish in quick order is
to teach you two things at onetime.
One, I want you to see and feeland know the crucifixion of
Christ.
We're not even gonna get allthe way there.
(13:27):
I want you to imagine what itwould have been like for you to
get what your sins deserve andI'll stand here when I do that
stuff and I want you to watchthe plot play out as Jesus goes
through God's perfect ordinationto be able to rescue you in a
broken world.
(13:47):
So what I'm going to do, I'mgoing to try to make this
physical.
When the plot moves, I'll bestanding on this side of the
pulpit, and when I want you tonotice what your sin actually
deserved, if you are ever tohave gotten it, I will be
standing over here.
I'm going to move fairlyquickly, though.
Now the men who were holdingJesus in custody.
(14:10):
They were mocking him as theybeat sorry, as they beat him.
They blindfolded him and askedhim prophesy who is it that
struck you?
And they said many other thingsagainst him, blaspheming him,
in other words.
Here's what you deserved youdeserve to be made fun of.
(14:33):
You deserved, because of yoursin, to be beaten physically,
painfully.
You deserved because of yoursin.
This is the sin that was placedon him.
This is what I'm trying toteach you.
You deserve to be blindfoldedand struck and have somebody say
hey, if you really have yourlife together, tell us what's
happening.
(14:53):
Jesus, you're a prophet.
Tell me, who was it that justhit you?
Blaspheming the Son of God, inother words, just hit you.
Blaspheming the Son of God, inother words, saying horrible
things about God to the face ofGod.
There's a little quote byThabiti that I think is worth
mentioning.
They play a little game.
(15:15):
They blindfold Jesus and taketurns hitting him.
They say prophesy, who was itthat hit you?
No doubt that seemed like afunny thought to them, but can
you imagine the day of judgmentwhen they appear before Christ
and he says by the way, I knowit was you who hit me.
Now one of our sins is hidden,hidden before his sight.
(15:37):
And yet here Christ remains.
This is the pre-trial.
This is them in the wilderness,this is them before it even
becomes semi-legal.
And then the trial continues.
Sorry, I'm realizing I'mmessing up my own slides here.
(16:00):
When day came, trial trialnumber one.
When day came, the assembly ofthe elders of the people
gathered together, both chiefpriests and scribes.
This will be trial number one.
It will be generally religiousin nature.
They led him away to theircouncil and they said if you are
the Christ only thing I've putin bold on this entire text,
(16:23):
because you must not miss thisto understand what is happening
If you are the Christ.
Now, this is a word that meanstwo different things it means
savior, on the one hand, and itmeans king, on the other.
Let me tell you why thismatters.
It matters because if you arethe Jewish people, jesus
claiming to be savior is themost egregious offense they can
bring against him.
This man is claiming to be Godand in their law, the Jewish law
(16:49):
, he should have been stoned todeath.
Little problem for them.
They no longer run their nation.
The Romans do.
So.
If they are going to actuallybring death to this man, they're
going to need more than areligious charge.
This is why they use the termChrist, because it not only
means savior, it also means king.
(17:10):
And if Caesar hears that thereis another one claiming to be
king, if Caesar hears that thereis another one building a
revolution, there is a zerotolerance policy for that
individual continuing to liveand to breathe.
So they look at Jesus.
Are you savior?
Are you the Messiah who haspromised to come?
Are you the king of kings?
(17:31):
But he said to them if I tellyou, you will not believe.
I want you to notice.
If I tell you he's silent,primarily in this trial, and if
I ask you, you will not answer.
But from now on, the son of manshall be seated at the right
hand of the power of God.
So they all said are you theson of God then?
(17:51):
And he said to them you saythat I am.
To us it sounds evasive.
To us, it sounds like Jesussimply says hey, that's what
you're saying about me.
Another way to read this wouldbe Jesus saying it is as you
have said that I am.
This is Jesus agreeing withthem.
(18:12):
This is Jesus saying yes, I amChrist, I am Savior, I am
Messiah.
Christ, I am Savior, I amMessiah, I am King.
Which is why the very nextthing that comes from them is
they say what further testimonydo we need?
We've heard it for ourselves.
Now Matthew does for us sort ofa wonderful thing.
(18:34):
If you read this in Matthew,you are going to come across
what's called the oath of thetestimony.
The same story in Matthew comesto this little passage.
But Jesus remained silent andthe high priest, caiaphas.
He said to him I adjure you bythe living God, tell us if you
are the Christ, the son of God.
(18:55):
And he said you have said so.
There's something you need toknow about Jewish culture.
So there's something you needto know about Jewish culture.
It is an honorable thing toremain silent when you are
accused.
It's an honorable thing forsomebody to say horrible things
about you and you trust yourselfto God, not pleading your own
case.
Side note Jesus didn't evenhave to plead his own case.
(19:17):
All of these false witnessesthat they brought their
arguments contradicted.
So both Pilate and Herod aregoing to say look, I don't know
what you guys are trying to doto this man, but none of the
arguments line up.
We have to throw this thing outof court.
But this one line by Caiaphaswas politically brilliant.
(19:39):
According to Jewish tradition,if anybody ever said to you a
law-abiding Jewish person, Iadjure you by the living God,
you either speak or you callinto question whether or not you
believe in the goodness of God.
For you to remain silent wouldbe blasphemy to God.
(20:01):
This would be similar.
I want you to tell the truth,the whole truth and nothing but
the truth.
So help you God.
Same thing.
We've taken it from a Jewishcontext and we have put it in
our own.
And when Caiaphas says thisJesus, and Caiaphas says this
Jesus, in honoring the name ofhis own father, must respond and
(20:23):
he says am I the Christ?
It is as you have said.
I am savior, I am king.
That's why when we go back tothis story, that's why when we
look here, all of a sudden theaction moves.
Then the whole company, sorryguys.
Then the whole company of themarose and brought him before
(20:45):
Pilate.
Why?
Because Caiaphas had got him.
He had finally got Jesus to sayI am a king.
And they say checkmate, takehim to Pilate.
There is no way this Romanofficer is going to let him live
.
And they began to accuse him,saying we found this man
(21:09):
misleading our nation.
Have you ever had somebody lieabout you?
Have you ever had somebody makeup a tale about you to put
themselves in a better light?
Have you ever had to go to batfor yourself because it felt
like there were numerous voicesthat were making fabricated
tales to call into question yourgoodness and your character?
(21:30):
This is what Jesus endured onthe cross.
We found this man misleadingour nation.
He forbade for us to givetribute to Caesar, which of
course he never did.
He said that he is Christ aking.
So Pilate turns and he asks himare you, are you the king of
(21:51):
the Jews?
And he answered him it is asyou have said.
Then Pilate said to the chiefpriests and to the crowd I find
no guilt in this man.
Just give me your eyes for onemoment on this.
Pilate's going to say this fourtimes, four times the judge
holding the gavel who could dropit, will say there's no guilt
here, there is nothing.
(22:12):
Do you realize?
I couldn't take one of you andput you on this stage for more
than five minutes and be able tosay that about one of us.
Jesus is 33 years into livingin a human life, living for all
of time, and one human judgeactually gets it right and he
says there's nothing here.
What are you guys doing,wasting our time with this?
(22:35):
And Pilate said to the chiefpriests in the crowd I find no
guilt in this man.
But they were urgent saying no,no, no, pilate.
He's stirring up the people.
He's teaching throughout allJudea and from don't miss this
Galilee.
And as soon as Pilate hears it,welcome to trial.
Number two I don't wanna beresponsible for this.
Pilate is thinking I can't findany guilt in this guy.
(22:58):
It just seems like a mob.
Wait a minute.
Did you just say he's fromGalilee?
Awesome flag on the field, notin my jurisdiction.
That guy was speeding inPhoenix City.
Don't look at me as a cop inColumbus to do anything about it
.
This guy's too well known.
You think I wanna be on socialmedia locking this guy up?
I don't think so.
And because it was Passover, itwas convenient, guy up, I don't
(23:22):
think so.
And because it was Passover, itwas convenient.
Who was overseeing Galilee?
Herod was so trial number threewhen Pilate heard this, he
asked whether the man was aGalilean.
Please, guys, look, I know theBible can be hard to understand
at times.
Hear me out, it's not as hardas we make it out to be.
If you are going to try to readthe Bible the way you try to
(23:45):
read a children's storybook,yeah, okay, it's going to get
you all right.
Read 10 minutes of Shakespeareand then pick up your Bible and
feel like a genius.
If you need to, I'm telling youthe Bible is not that difficult
to understand, but it doesrequire two things of you.
Number one it requires that youactually want to understand it,
not bring your ownunderstanding to it.
(24:06):
If it is your job to justifythe way that you're living, the
way that you're thinking andtrying to find that in Scripture
, it is going to be an empty,dusty, dead book to you.
Additionally, if you are goingto flip Jesus a penny with the
five seconds that you give himto give yourself credit for
reading the word of God I wouldoffer to you.
(24:28):
You ought not expect to getmuch the word of God.
We have it every day and ittakes just some time, a little
bit of thought, to understand.
He looks and he's like wait,this guy's a Galilean.
Awesome, pilate heard this.
He asked whether the man was aGalilean and when he learned
(24:49):
that he belonged to Herod'sjurisdiction, he sent him over
to Herod.
I don't want to have anythingto do with this.
Send Jesus to trial.
Number three Herod happened tobe in Jerusalem at that time.
Why was he in Jerusalem at thattime?
It was Passover.
When Herod saw Jesus one of myfavorite parts he was very glad.
Let me just go ahead and tellyou sometimes I don't mind
(25:16):
getting you high to then slamyou down.
I think it's good for your soul.
Okay, the question and then V2rockets.
You're like oh, that was unfair.
Okay, I get it.
Sometimes I think that is goodfor your soul.
I just want you to know this isabout to have a huge turn and I
don't want you to miss it,because it goes to far greater
depths than what I have alreadyhit.
Herod is so glad to see Jesus.
He had long desired to see him.
(25:37):
Why?
Because he had heard about him.
He wanted to see some sign doneby him.
So when he questioned him hedid it at some length, but Jesus
again made no answer.
Herod is thinking, hey, herecomes the one claiming to be the
Christ, and I don't know aboutall of that and I'm not that
(25:57):
upset that Pilate sent him to me.
I've wanted to meet this guy.
I heard he walked on water andfood fell from the heavens or
was multiplied in some way thatsick people were able to receive
healing.
Lame people were walking.
He's spitting in the mud andblind people are seeing Jesus,
do something for me.
Do you not know that I hold inmy hand your life or your death?
(26:18):
Herod must have been thinkingDon't you know that it is within
my authority to throw you injail, to place you on a cross or
to give you a lush lifestylethat no one else on the planet
could?
Just one little thing, jesus,one little show.
Hey, here's some water, maybemake it wine for me.
(26:38):
Dance, monkey, dance.
The chief priests and thescribes stood by vehemently
accusing him, and Herod with hissoldiers treated him with
contempt and mocked him.
This is what you deserve.
You deserve to be vehementlyaccused 24-7.
(26:59):
In fact, in case you don't knowthis, there is one called the
devil, aka the accuser, who isvery good at doing this.
In fact it's his native tongue.
He knows how to accuse you.
He knows how to accuse youbecause he has seen your stuff.
Jesus is a little bit harder toaccuse Not much there to see but
you, oh, it's so easy.
It's so easy to make fun of you.
(27:21):
You get dressed up and you looknice and you open your little
Bible.
But I know what was runningthrough your mind last night as
you went to sleep.
I know what you were pondering.
I know what you were looking aton your phone.
I know what was running throughyour mind last night as you
went to sleep.
I know what you were pondering.
I know what you were looking aton your phone.
I know what you were thinkingabout.
The accuser would sayvehemently accusing you day and
(27:42):
night.
This is what you deserve.
Notice, jesus is the one whogets it, and because Herod
doesn't get a show, he puts onhis own.
They arrayed Jesus in splendidclothing.
Jesus, if you're not going tomake a little one-act play for
(28:03):
us in your miracles, then wewill make one out of you.
And the creator of the universeis played dress up with.
This is what you and I deserve.
And Herod and Pilate becamefriends with each other that
very day, because the enemy ofmy enemy is my friend and before
(28:27):
this they had been at enmitywith each other.
Pilate then called togetherchief priests and rulers and the
people, and they said to themyou brought me this man as
somebody who is misleading thepeople, and after examining him
before you, behold, I did notfind this man guilty of any of
your charges.
Neither did Herod.
He sent him back to us.
Look, nothing deserving deathhas been done by him, so I'm
(28:50):
gonna punish him and release him, bringing us to the final part.
But they all cried out togetheraway with this man and release
to us Barabbas, a man who hadbeen thrown into prison for an
insurrection starting in thecity and for murder.
Pilate addressed them once morethis would be his third time
desiring to release Jesus.
But they kept shouting crucify,crucify him.
(29:10):
A third time he said to themwhy?
What evil has he done?
I found in him no guiltdeserving death.
I'm going to punish him andrelease him.
But they were urgent, demandingwith loud cries that he should
be crucified.
Voices prevailed, the voicesthat were formed by God himself,
(29:34):
cried for the death of the onewho spoke them into existence.
I told you I only had two points.
Point one is Jesus sufferedwhat was ours.
Point two is to give us whatwas his.
Thomas pointed to this and Ican think of no better Sunday to
show this to you For our sake.
(29:54):
He did make him to be sin, butI don't want you to miss this.
Why did he do this?
So that, unto something,suffering produces good things.
All of the beating, the mocking, the scorn, all of these things
placed on Jesus so that in himwe might become righteous
Christians.
(30:14):
This is a scandal.
Unbelievers, this does not makesense in this world.
Why would you, the furthestfrom God, not even just be
brought back to a blank canvas?
Why would you be given goodnessand righteousness?
Because this is the gift of thecross.
This is substitutionaryatonement.
(30:35):
This is the great exchange.
This is Barabbas, who was aninsurrectionist what Jesus was
accused of and a murderer.
This is a guy who spent histime taking life, being
exchanged for the one who gaveit.
This is the one who is buildinghis own kingdom, being
exchanged for the one who is it.
This is the one who is buildinghis own kingdom being exchanged
for the one who is building akingdom for others.
This ought to sound veryfamiliar.
(30:56):
This is what Christ does for uson the cross.
Martin Luther's original quoteis on the left.
If you are feeling particularlysmart today, look to the left.
I've cleaned it up on the right, my dear brother.
Learn Christ.
I've cleaned it up on the right, my dear brother.
Learn Christ, learn Savior,learn King, learn the
crucifixion, learn his pain,learn to pray like this.
(31:18):
This would be the prayer Iwould hope for all of you to
pray.
Lord Jesus, you are myrighteousness, I am your sin.
This is what you bring toChrist.
You took upon yourself what ismine and gave to me what is
yours.
You took on yourself what ismine and gave to me what is
yours.
You took on yourself what youwere not and you gave me what I
was not.
I want to close by telling youfive gifts that you get at the
(31:41):
cross and Stokesy or team.
Whenever you guys want to comeup, y'all feel free to come on
up.
Five gifts, by the way, notetakers, good luck.
All right, I'm moving quick andall of you can learn one new $5
word today.
I never try to be impressive.
You do not need to knowtheological terms, but I'm going
to try to teach you some anywayas we close out this morning.
(32:03):
Five gifts from the cross.
Number one this is calledexpiation.
First gift at the cross, yoursin is removed.
All we, like sheep, have goneastray.
We have turned every one of usto his own way and the Lord laid
on him the iniquity, the sin,the brokenness, the accusations
of us all.
(32:23):
Who is expiation for?
It's especially for those withfeelings of guilt or shame.
This morning, the first gift ofthe cross is for those who
think how could I have done this?
I'd be terrified for people toknow that I am did that.
And Jesus steps in and heoffers expiation, your sin being
(32:46):
removed.
Secondly, propitiation by theway, they're all going to end in
ation, so you can just knowthat, trying to make it easy,
god's wrath is satisfied.
Not only is your sin removed,but the wrath of God.
For God to be just, he has topunish evil.
It is satisfied and this islove.
Not that we loved God, far fromit.
(33:07):
Squeeze us and see what comesout, but that he loved us and
sent his son to be the payment,the propitiation for our sins.
The second gift from the crossis that God's wrath is satisfied
.
This is especially for thosewho feel like their sins are too
numerous, their sins are tooegregious or big, for those who
(33:32):
feel that their sins areimpossible to cover.
This is the second gift thecross offers you.
Thirdly, we are offeredjustification.
You are declared righteous andthis word is a biggie because
you're not righteous On yourbest day.
You are so far from this man,but because of the work on the
(33:55):
cross, this third gift and don'tmiss that it is a gift this is
grace giving what your effortnever could.
You are declared righteous andgiven a new life, for all have
sinned by the way, that's a pasttense thing.
You have sinned and all fallshort.
You are actively falling short.
Don't miss how perfect thegospel is.
(34:16):
It's not just good enough foryour past failures, it's good
enough for your current ones too, and God, knowing this, says
you are justified by his graceas a gift through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus.
Who is this for?
It's especially for those whoknow they need a new start and
if they're honest, they needmore than one.
(34:37):
They need a new start every day, and sometimes they need three
starts in a day.
This is what justificationgives you the righteousness of
Christ and a new life.
Fourthly, it gives youreconciliation.
You are brought back to thefather that you ran from the law
, knowing right from wrong,written on your own conscience
(34:58):
from the time you were threeyears old and your mom said time
to get in the car and you ranthe other way, right into the
street.
From that moment on, written onyour heart was a recognition
that you were broken.
It existed there that untilChrist came, you would realize
that you had a problem, so thatyou would be justified by faith.
(35:19):
And now that faith has come,you are no longer under a
guardian, you are no longerunder this law.
You are no longer on the ratrace or on the hamster wheel
trying to just be good enoughfor God or better than the
person next to you.
No, in Christ you are sons anddaughters of God through faith.
This is especially for thosewho need a good family.
(35:43):
It's especially for those whodesire closeness with God and
wonder where that went, sinceyou were 15 years old.
Reconciliation and, finally, thelast gift given to us at the
cross.
By the way, you could spend amillennia building this out is
imputation.
You are clothed in Christ'sperfection and we end where we
(36:07):
began.
He made him to be sin.
Who knew no sin, so that in himyou would be seen as righteous.
This is especially for thosewho rarely feel good enough or
as though they do not measure up.
I've been walking with Christfor over 30 years of my life.
(36:31):
I have yet to graduate fromthis list, and I would be
willing to bet that everyone inthis room has yet to graduate.
So what do we do with this?
We ask, we believe, and we comewith empty hands, simply saying
if these are gifts that Christhas purchased at the cross, if
(36:52):
they truly are gifts and I donot have to earn them, jesus,
I'll take some of that.
If you're still offering, ifyou're still offering that I can
be brought back to you.
I'd like to have some of that.
If you're telling me my guiltand my shame can be removed,
might I have some of that?
A new life that begins not justwith every morning, but every
time I come to you and ask fornewness.
(37:14):
If this is a short versionpointing only to a few gifts
that are available to us at thecross, what do you need from
Jesus today?
Let this be a room of response,let it be a room of testimony
(37:34):
that we would stand and sing,that we would dismiss ourselves
to the back porch to sit in theworld that God created and just
meditate on his goodness to us.
Come forward on the back porchand talk, share good stories and
hard stories, ask for prayersabout difficult things, but know
(37:55):
this Christ has given us somuch more than five gifts at the
cross.
They're innumerable, but I giveyou enough this morning to
pursue him well, so let's pursuehim together.
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