Scripture Reading: Matthew 27:32–54
Bibles to Matthew chapter 27, as we work our way through the passion narrative in Matthew's gospel. As we gather together for the supper, that's what we've been doing for the last several times. Tonight, we find ourselves in the crucifixion of Jesus specifically, verses 47 to 50. There will be just a bit of review, but I do want to begin reading in verse 32.
So, Matthew 27, beginning in verse 32. Now, as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, place of a skull, they gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink.
But when he had tasted it, he would not drink. Then they crucified him and divided his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Sitting down, they kept watch over him there.
And they put up over his head the accusation written against him, This is Jesus, the king of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking what the scribes and elders said, He saved others, Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him, now if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of God.
Even the robbers who were crucified with him reviled him with the same thing. From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Some of those who stood there when they heard that said, this man is calling for Elijah. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. The rest said, let him alone. Let us see if Elijah will come to save him.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Then behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, Truly, this was the Son of God.
Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your written Word. We pray now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and God, as we ponder the death of the Savior on our behalf, May you draw out our hearts in worship and in praise and in adoration. And God, give us a fresh appreciation of what the Savior went through on our behalf, living a life of obedience to the Father, dying a death for blood atonement, the forgiveness of sins, and as a substitute, and a sacrifice for us, and then being raised again on that third day. Truly, as the Apostle says, He was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised for our justification.
And we praise You that You've included us in this redemptive plan. We praise You for the graces that You have given to us to believe the gospel and repent from our sin. We praise you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we pray now that he would guide us and direct us to the foot of the cross, and may we marvel at our Savior King. And we pray through the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Well,
Introduction
as we work our way through the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, it begins properly in verse 32. So you have the crucifixion in verses 32 to 38, and then the mockery of Jesus while he is on the cross in verses 39 to 44, and then the death of Jesus as it's recorded here. And specifically, you have that cry of dereliction. There were seven sayings from the Savior from the cross.
Matthew records only one of them. Matthew and Mark record what we find in verse 46. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that is the cry of dereliction, verses 45 and 46.
And then you have again, mockery by the bystanders. It sounds similar to what we've already seen previously, but it does add insult to injury. Christ is suffering, the worst form of punishment in the known world at the time. And instead of manifesting any degree of compassion, any degree of civility, they conduct themselves like the beasts of Psalm 22.
Psalm 22 indicates several classes of animals that were against or targeting the Messiah of God, and that is the men involved in the crucifixion of our Lord. And then of course you have the death of Jesus specifically recorded in verse 50. And then the after effects we'll see, God willing, next time we gather together for the supper. So tonight I just want to review the cry of dereliction in verses 45 and 46. and then look specifically in more detail at the death of Jesus in verses 47 to 50.
The reason why we should review the cry of dereliction is because there's a lot of misunderstanding in terms of what Jesus' voice is here in this fourth saying of the Savior from the cross. Remember that the cry does not teach that there was a division among the persons of the Trinity. That cannot be. There is no division among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As well, this does not teach there was a dissolution or a breach in the hypostatic union. Remember the hypostatic union is simply the fact that Jesus is one person, two natures. divinity and humanity. Thirdly, this text does not teach that the three persons of the Trinity suffered on the cross. Christ, as the Word incarnate, suffered according to his humanity.
And then fourthly, it does not teach that the Son was abandoned by the Father. Nevertheless, in the midst of his suffering, in the midst of his shame, in the midst of his punishment, Jesus calls God, My God. And as we read Psalm 22, the Father does hear the Son, and the Father does respond to the Son. So Jesus uses Psalm 22.
It's a prophetic word of David, and he cries this out from the cross. As well, the Lord Jesus, according to His humanity, is suffering in our place. So all that we deserve is taken upon himself by our Lord Jesus. Just like when Jesus is in Gethsemane, again, according to his humanity, he prays that this cup, if it is possible, pass from him.
But he says, nevertheless, Father, thy will be done. But according to his humanity, as he understands what is coming in terms of the wrath of God, that is essential to humanity. When we see judgment, we cry out against it. And that is precisely what Jesus is doing.
And here he cries, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Lord expresses his agony at the temporary loss of God in the midst of his suffering and pain. So he's there as the surety. He's there as the mediator of the covenant.
And it's there that he experiences this deprivation of the close smile of God. Matthew Henry says Christ was made sin for us, a curse for us, and therefore though God loved him as a son, he frowned upon him as a surety. It's very important that we make that distinction or else we're going to mess up the doctrine of the Trinity and the relationship between the Father and the Son. John Gill says, but he was now without a sense of the gracious presence of God, and was filled as the surety of his people with a sense of divine wrath, which their iniquities he now bore.
So this cry from the cross would evoke this response from anybody that was truly man. Christ in our stead, Christ as the surety, Christ as the mediator, takes in our place, the punishment that was due for us. This is absolutely positively consistent with his humanity, with the prophetic word, but it does not teach there's any division among the Trinity of persons.
The Death of Jesus: Verses 47–50
Now let's move secondly to the death of Jesus in verses 47 to 50. You have the mockery of the bystanders in verses 47 to 49, and then the death of Jesus proper in verse 50.
Misunderstanding the Cry: Elijah
Notice in the first place their misunderstanding. So when we look at verse 46, Jesus cries, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then in verse 47, some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, this man is calling on Elijah.
Now, there was perhaps a reason why they might think that, because there was a Jewish tradition that Elijah would come to rescue persons in need at the time of distress, that he could be summoned to aid persons in grave danger. As well, it's probably a misunderstanding that was deliberate and added to the mockery. Previously, notice back in verse 39, those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. If you are the son of God, come down from the cross.
Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking what the scribes and elders said, he saved others, himself he cannot save. If he is the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. And then notice in verse 43, he trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him. For he said, I am the son of God.
So they're adding to that. God isn't coming to the rescue of the Messiah, and neither is Elijah. Ergo, he must not be the Messiah. Ergo, he is rightly and properly suffering for crimes that he did commit.
So this misunderstanding is most obvious, or most likely deliberate, and it's intended to add insult to the injury that Christ was suffering on the cross.
The Sour Wine: Prolonging Suffering
Notice as well, then, they offer this sour wine in verse 48. Immediately, one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. Now, when we compare Scripture with Scripture, as I said, there are seven sayings of the Savior. The fifth, after, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, is I thirst, in John 19, at verse 28.
So Christ cries from the cross, I thirst and now we see their response in verse 48. Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed and offered it to him to drink. Now this sour wine was a wine vinegar. It relieved thirst more effectively than water, and being cheaper than regular wine, it was a favorite beverage of the lower ranks of society and of those in moderate circumstances, and most likely something that would have been handily nearby for the soldiers that were the protectorate of this crucifixion scene.
So they dip this sponge and they bring it up to the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we might ask the question, why? Was it an act of mercy? Were they trying to genuinely assist him and slake his thirst while he's in the midst of suffering and death?
Or were they trying to prolong his suffering? A bit of wine, this kind of wine, would have given him a bit of strength and would have perhaps kept him going so that he would have been miserable longer. They were purveyors of pain and misery and destruction. And most likely that's what we should see because up to this point, there's been no mercy.
There's been no kindness. There's been no civility given to this man who is suffering crucifixion. And so most likely they want to prolong the agony of the Lord. Just like that little block of wood at the bottom of the victim's feet.
It wasn't there in order to give him relief. It was there in order to prolong his suffering. That's why typically they would break the legs so that there would no longer be support. And then the victim would asphyxiate.
It wasn't a mercy. They liked this. This was sport to them. This made them happy.
These men, these Roman soldiers were good at this, inflicting pain on behalf of the empire and killing malefactors, killing rebels, killing insurrectionists, killing those that were a potential threat to the civil polity in the Roman empire. So it was not an act of mercy. It was rather an act of a desire to prolong his suffering. But we know that it was a fulfillment of the Scripture.
Remember that all the way to the cross, all the way on the cross, and then post-cross, Christ is in control. Christ is fulfilling the prophetic Word. Christ is resolved to do the will of His Father that had been given in the prophetic Scripture. And when we come to this particular passage, we should think of the passage in Psalm 22.
I read the entirety of the Psalm, as I said, it is backdrop to what is going on here. Verse 15, my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws. You have brought me to the dust of death. And then Psalm 69, verse 21, they also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
So all along the way, Jesus Christ is fulfilling the scripture. All along the way, Jesus Christ is not the hapless victim. Christ, according to the covenant of redemption, is the willing victim. Remember that this morning.
It is the pre-temporal, intra-Trinitarian covenant wherein the Godhead purposes to save His people from their sins. The Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Jesus steps up in order to be the surety, in order to be the one who lives for them, who dies for them, and then is raised again for them. And it's the Spirit's work to take that finished work of Christ and apply it to the elect of God.
And so what we see here again, not haphazard, It isn't unfortunate, it is the predetermined plan of God Almighty and Christ is willing. Christ lays down His life for the sheep. He doesn't do so against His will. He does it with determined resolution to fulfill the obligation placed upon Him by the Father and for the glory of God in the salvation of the elect, in the salvation of the sinners that the Father had given unto Him.
The Mockery and Israel's Missed Messiah
And then notice, the mockery continues in verse 49. Verse 49, it says, the rest said, let him alone, let us see if Elijah will come to save him. So again, the mockery patterns what you see previously in verse 43, and it's designed to heighten his suffering. It's designed to increase his pain.
It's designed to show him to be a fake, to be a pretender, to not be the Messiah. Remember, these Jews missed the prophetic word. These Jews missed the prophet Isaiah. They missed Isaiah 53 11.
Yahweh was pleased to bruise him. They were not expecting that. They were expecting Messiah. to come and subjugate the Roman Empire. They were expecting Messiah to come and put a chicken in every pot and a car on every driveway.
They were expecting Messiah to bring prestige back to the nation of Israel. They were to be that geopolitical center of the earth. But that's not why Christ comes in his first coming. He comes to save his people from their sins.
He comes to live for us. He comes to die for us. He comes to be raised again for us. This is Paul's emphasis in 1 Corinthians 1.
The Jews seek after signs. The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. But to those of us who are being saved, Christ the wisdom and the power of God.
They missed it. They did not have a concept or a context for a suffering Messiah. Now we look at that and we say, how did they misread the prophet Isaiah so much? Well, Paul tells us they had a veil over their eyes.
John tells us in John chapter three, man has a veil over his eyes. Men love darkness rather than light. They don't want to come to the light lest their evil deeds are exposed. In order for men to appreciate the prophetic scripture, the spirit of God must work in their hearts.
Many a people have read the Old Testament and the New as well. And at a certain level, they might understand some of the nuances and the ins and outs and some of the history involved. But it's the Spirit-taught man that sees the significance of blood atonement. It's the Spirit-taught man that sees the Levitical system as typological.
It's the Spirit-taught man that sees that the way of approach to a thrice-holy God is through a bloody knife and a smoking altar. And then we get to John 1.29, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus' contemporaries missed that. Jesus' contemporaries denied that.
Jesus' contemporaries said no to that. Again, not all of them, but a good deal of them. The ones that at one moment cried, you know, Hosanna to the one who comes in the name of the Lord at the beginning of the Passion Week, by the end of the Passion Week are crying out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. So they missed it by a mile.
And so here again, they're mocking the Savior by invoking Elijah or suggesting that he was invoking Elijah to come and to rescue him. And so the mockery underscores as well, not only their desire to add to his suffering, but it also underscores the solitariness of Jesus' mission. You get that back in chapter 26. Notice, go back for just a moment.
You see this theme or you see this pattern. After the arrest of our Lord in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus rebukes them. Jesus says to them in verse 55, in that hour, Jesus said to the multitudes, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple and you did not seize me.
But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. then all the disciples forsook him and fled." It's a horrible statement, isn't it? And then Peter, the one who denied, or rather said, there's no way, I will go with you all the way to death. Later on in this very passage, Peter denies Jesus, the knowledge of Jesus, to this servant girl.
What's the author telling us? What are the gospel writers saying? The mission of the Son of Man was solitary. There was nobody helping him.
We study the book of Exodus at our Wednesday night study. Remember that battle against the Amalekites? As long as Moses' hands were raised, then Israel had victory over the Amalekites. As soon as his hands started to lower, and it's not because he was out of shape or Anything like that, anybody who holds their hands up long enough is going to eventually tire and start to lower their hands.
Well, what did you have? You had Aaron and Hur come right over next to him and buttress him and buoy him up and sustain his hands in that position so that Israel could gain the victory on the field of battle against the Amalekites. There was no one there with Jesus. His disciples, his closest associates, the men that had come to know and love him, the men that adored him, fled from him as soon as crunch time came.
All of their bravado notwithstanding, Peter's saying, I will go with you to the death. No, that's not what happens. That's not what happens at all. Thomas, way back in John 11 or 14, it escapes me right now.
Thomas makes the same statement. Thomas says, I'm willing to die with you. Well, Thomas was the denier. Thomas was the unbeliever.
Thomas was the doubter. We call him a doubter, but it wasn't a doubt. He says, I will certainly not believe unless he meets my qualifications, unless he jumps through my hoops. So the closest associates of our Lord Jesus Christ are not there for him in his time of suffering and grief.
And as we see from the fourth saying of the Savior, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Again, no disillusion, no division among the Trinity of persons, but as surety, as mediator, according to his humanity, Jesus is receiving in himself the punishment due for our sin. So he is not knowing intimately the smile of God. So there is no one there to assist the Lord.
So this again, there's no father at this point in terms of deliverance from the task at hand, and there's no Elijah the prophet that is going to come to his aid. So that's the mockery of the bystanders, just by way of a practical observation. Man is terrible, isn't he? We are just horrible.
Now don't think, well, we wouldn't have done that. Well, the Romans were involved, the Jews were involved, and we were involved. You know, it is the case that though we weren't present, and though we didn't nail him to the cross, and though we weren't at that mob scene where we cried away with him, away with him, crucify him, it is the reality. Romans 4.25, he was delivered up because of what? because of our offenses, and he was raised for our justification.
We all had a hand in the crucifixion of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Now, had we been present, we might like to think, well, we would have never deserted him. Peter did. We would have never denied Him.
Peter did. We would have never abandoned Him. All the disciples fled. Now, they were the good ones among humanity.
This isn't even a reflection on the beasts that are at the foot of the cross, mocking a man who is suffering for crimes he never committed. Man is totally depraved. If you ever doubt that, read the Passion Narrative of our Lord Jesus Christ. because it comes in full-blown presentation.
The Death of Jesus Proper
Now notice the death of Jesus. Two things here. First, the cry from the cross, and then secondly, the yielding up of His Spirit.
The Loud Cry: Christ in Full Control
Notice the cry from the cross in verse 50a. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice. He cried out again with a loud voice. Remember the time frame.
He's up all night Thursday night. It's in Gethsemane on Thursday night where they arrest him. So that Thursday night, he is then carted away early Friday morning to the Sanhedrin. They got to get the Sanhedrin on board in order to then go get Pilate on board.
So he's sleep deprived. Along the way, he's been scourged. Along the way, he's been suffering on the cross. Along the way, he is suffering not only the wrath of man, but the wrath of God, because he stands in the stead of sinners.
And yet in the midst of that, when he's about to yield up his spirit, he cries aloud, or he cries with a loud voice. Brethren, I'm one of those guys that if I get a sniffle and I'm laying on the couch, it's like the world has ended. Oh, honey, can you bring me some crackers? That's the energy level that I have with the sniffles.
Christ has gone through excruciating pain, excruciating suffering, excruciating difficulty, and yet he cries out? What does this demonstrate? Christ is in control. He is a willing victim because of us.
He is not there unwillingly, he is not there unwittingly, and the fact that this verb is utilized to express a loud cry from the Savior in this darkest of hours indicates that he has energy, underscores the reality that he is not engaged in the typical death rattle. R.T. Frantz says, the loud cry which precedes Jesus' death, and his equally loud shout in verse 46, indicate that, unlike most crucified men, Jesus died in full control of his faculties, perhaps even that he died when he himself chose. So again, brethren, it's easy to get all sentimental at the cross and forget the covenant of redemption and forget the willingness of our surety.
Not that we shouldn't be shaken up a bit at the wretchedness of man and the way they treat their God, but it does cause us to reflect on the fact that our God is in sovereign control, right down to the fulfilling of the scriptures and right down to the loud cry when he gives up his spirit. He goes on to say, France, the loudness of the cry at the time of death again indicates that Jesus is not just fading away, but dying while in full possession of his senses. That's a good observation. That's a good reading of the text.
We need to be careful when we read through passages like these so we don't end up as fuzzy sentimentalists. Oh, look at the poor Savior. Oh yeah, there's a sense. We're in.
That is true and accurate. But the poor Savior is the second person of the Trinity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
That doesn't diminish even in His suffering and in His death. He is in control. He is God Most High, taking on our humanity and suffering in our stead. It's at this time that the sixth saying of the Savior comes on the cross.
That's John 19 at verse 30. It's when Jesus says, get this, it is finished. Not, I am finished, but it is finished. Again, I don't know that exactly he had the covenant of redemption in his mind, but that's what he had in his mind.
The father sent the son according to his plan and purpose in order to save his people from their sins. He has completed it. He is victorious. This cry from the cross, it is finished, wasn't a feeble little statement concerning his demise, it was a triumphal statement concerning his victory in having accomplished what the Father had given him.
Spurgeon says that this particular statement was well calculated for the good of In other words, it was to encourage Him. Every other word from the cross has a different people group in terms of target. And here, specifically, Jesus triumphs in His victory over death, over sin. And then here comes the seventh saying of the Savior, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
That's in Luke's gospel at chapter 23. verse 46, and that's a fulfillment of Psalm 31, 5. Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. So David is certainly speaking as David in Psalm 31, but he's also speaking prophetically in terms of David's greater son, who is going to commit his spirit back into the care of his father.
And incidentally, there's no descent into hell at this part. Jesus' spirit goes to be with the father. Whatever the Apostles' Creed means when it says he descended into hell, the charismatics and the Pentecostals and the weirdos that suggest that he was actually physically in hell for three days is simply unbiblical. He commits his spirit into the hands of his God.
And then he says the same thing to the thief on the cross. Today, you will be with me in paradise. Not, you know, give me three days and once I finish in hell, then I'll meet you in heaven. That's not it at all.
Brethren, the idea of the descent into hell, whatever it means again, and that would take us too far afield to deal with, It does not mean that he was locally present in hell for three days after he died. No, he commits his spirit into the care of his gracious father.
The Yielding Up of His Spirit
And then notice the yielding up of his spirit. Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Again, it indicates the full possession of his senses and the language employed here indicates his control of the situation. And this is reminiscent of what Christ says in his own earthly ministry.
In John chapter 10, for instance, in verses 17 and 18, Jesus says, Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my Father. Those of us who are a bit older remember the hippie movie in the 60s called The Last Temptation, or no, Jesus Christ Superstar, that Jesus was this sort of hippie, just sort of floating around the hills of Palestine, drinking chamomile tea and not really knowing anything. about his own identity, not really knowing anything about his messianic investiture and what it was to be the Messiah.
That is so far afield. That is so far wrong. It is so blasphemous. Christ knows precisely every step of the way.
How many times in John's gospel does Jesus refer to the father who sent me? How many times does he refer to the reality that I have meat to do, that my meat is to do the will of him who sent me? I always do that which is pleasing to him. Even up until the moment of his death, including his death, he is submissive to the Father.
He is willingly doing this as our surety and as our mediator. And that, brethren, is why our hearts should be drawn out in love and worship and praise and adoration. Paul the Apostle in Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who did what? Who loved me and gave himself for me. So it pleased Yahweh to bruise him, according to Isaiah 53, verse 11. But as well, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly submits to His Father.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not some misguided, misunderstanding fellow that's just wandering around hoping for some sort of tea leaf or fortune cookie to lead him into the next particular event. No, he's always resolute. I love that passage in Luke 9. It reflects the prophet Isaiah.
When Jesus set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, there was no sort of willy-nilly possibly or perhaps. He sets his face like a flint. He is steadfast. He will not be taken aback.
In Matthew 16, 17, and 20, he announces three times that he must go to Jerusalem. He must be tried at the hands of godless men. He must be delivered up to death. He must be raised from the dead.
Again, that's a divine necessity, the must-ness of the covenant of redemption. He undertook to be our surety. He undertook to be our mediator, and he did it. with full resolution. John Gill makes the observation.
It was not taken from him. Notice verse 50a. He yielded up his spirit. He's the subject of that clause.
Jesus is the subject of the sentence. You have two things going on. Cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. So Gil makes the observation, it was not taken from him.
He laid down his life of himself as the Lord of it and gave himself freely to be an offering and sacrifice in the room of his people, which is a proof of his great love and amazing grace unto them." Again, a good careful reading of the text yields for us more fodder for praise to our great God, to our blessed Jesus. J.C. Ryle says, there never was a last breath drawn of such deep import as this. There never was an event on which so much depended.
The Roman soldiers and the gaping crowd around the cross saw nothing remarkable. They only saw a person dying as others die, with all the usual agony and suffering which attend a crucifixion. but they knew nothing of the eternal interests which were involved in the whole transaction. We know it, we understand it because we've been born from above. We have been directed by the Spirit of the living God to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Such now that when we gaze at the cross, we see what those unconverted at the cross didn't see. Ryle's right. They saw nothing remarkable. They didn't see halos.
They didn't see the attendant, you know, attendant angels upon him. They didn't see anything that was noteworthy at that time. They simply saw a man who had been punished with crucifixion give up the ghost, as it were. But as Ryle says, we who understand the transaction, we who understand the significance, we who understand what Christ did on our behalf should stand in awe and wonder.
We should respond with praise and worship and adoration that are altogether lovely. Our chief among 10,000 went to these lengths in order to save us from our sin. And this answers or this flashes out for us that statement in Matthew 1. Matthew 1, when the angel announces the arrival of Jesus, he gives Joseph the task of naming Jesus.
And he says, you shall call his name Jesus, which means Yahweh is salvation. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So if you're reading Matthew 121, you've never read the rest of Matthew, you might ask the question, how is he going to save his people from their sins? Will it be guns blazing?
Will it be with aircraft and with bombs and all that sort of thing? Is he going to be the sort of champion or Messiah that the nation of Israel was looking at to subjugate the Roman Empire? No! He will save His people from their sins by going to the cross on their behalf, by suffering in their place, by being their substitute and standing under the wrath and fury of God most high so that you and I will never ever have to.
Application
When we conclude this, or as we conclude, we ought to reflect on the cruelty of man again. Turn to Psalm 22. This is one of the primary themes. Psalm 22, obviously, it's not about David.
It's about David's greater son. It's about Jesus. and the crucifixion. Notice, Psalm 22, verse 12, many bulls have surrounded me, strong bulls, obeisant, have encircled me. He's not speaking literally.
He's not saying that bulls were my problem. He's not suggesting that at the cross, at the foot of the cross, bovines were there and engaged in whatever it was they were doing that were against it. He's describing men. He's using beastly characteristics to underscore the depravity of sinners.
Notice in verse 13, they gape at me with their mouths like a raging and a roaring lion. Drop down to verse 20, deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog. And then in verse 21, save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen. He uses that vivid imagery.
He uses that metaphorically. in order to underscore for us the cruelty of man. And again, the Lord Christ underwent that cruelty of man. He underwent the wrath and fury of God most high in order to save us from our sins. We should respond with praise and worship and adoration.
Gratitude: The Believer's Response
That's the second observation from our text. The gratitude of the believer. Guilt, grace, gratitude. Don't minimize the gratitude part.
We need to respond in worship to our God. Everything that happens to Christ on the cross, we deserve that. We deserve to be forsaken by the Father. We deserve to be cast off into hell.
We deserve to have men treat us that way because we're wicked. We are sinners, we are transgressors, that Jesus is holy, harmless, and undefiled. But for us, He undergoes on our behalf. So as a result of His redemptive work for us, we ought to praise.
We ought to be thankful. We ought to live in light of these great truths and seek by grace to live consistently.
The Glory of the Savior
Thirdly, we should see here the glory of the Savior. He's in control. He's fulfilling Scripture. He is doing what God had given Him to do.
So the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, including penal suffering, both the punishment of loss and sense, are inflicted upon the Savior while He stands in our place. Listen to John Flavel on Romans 8.32. He says, When God spared not His own Son, this was the design of it. And could you know the thoughts of his heart, they would appear to be such as these.
I will now manifest the fierceness of my heart to Christ, and the fullness of my love to believers. The pain shall be his, that the ease and the rest may be theirs. The stripes his, and the healing balm issuing from them, theirs, the condemnation his and the justification theirs, the reproach and shame his and the honor and glory theirs, the curse his and the blessing theirs, the death his and the life theirs, the vinegar and gall his, the sweet of it theirs. He shall groan and they shall triumph.
He shall mourn that they may rejoice. His heart shall be heavy for a time that theirs may be light and glad forever. He shall be forsaken that they may never be forsaken. Out of the worst miseries to him shall spring the sweetest of mercies to them.
Oh, grace, grace beyond conception of the largest mind. He is bang on, substitutionary curse bearing on behalf of sinners. Guilty, vile, helpless we, spotless lamb of God was he. Full atonement, can it be?
Hallelujah, what a savior. We're gonna close our service in a few moments with that particular hymn. It celebrates the redemptive work of Christ in terms of his substitutionary atonement where He takes in Himself the punishment that was due for us.
Gospel Proclamation
And then finally, in terms of the gospel, in terms of the good news, why do we preach that sinners should look unto the Lord Jesus Christ in faith for salvation? Because of this. because of what he went through, because of the lengths that he went. It demonstrates to us God's willingness to save needy sinners. Paul says as much in Romans 5, God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We've seen it in John 3, 16, God so loved the world. He doesn't just make the declaration, but He furnishes the demonstration. He so loved the world that He gave. He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
We preach the gospel because of the gospel. Because of the fact that Christ lived, He died, and He was raised again. Which is the gospel? This idea that the gospel is a feeling, the gospel is about me, the gospel is an experience, that is all wrong.
The gospel is about Christ, life, death, resurrection. In fact, turn to 1 Corinthians 15 in case you need reminder of this. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Verse one, moreover, brethren, I declared to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you were saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve.
After that, He was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. You see what the gospel is? Again, it's not our experience. It's not our feeling.
It's not the warm sort of corollary that follows our confession of faith. The gospel is about Jesus Christ. And with reference to this particular passage, notice that it's a historic message. It's not a cunningly devised fable.
Paul doesn't say in a land, in a galaxy far, far away, there are all these mythical creatures and all these mythical things that happen. No, the gospel is rooted in history. As well, we notice that the gospel is received by faith. That's the emphasis in verse 2, unless you believed in vain.
As well, the gospel is Christocentric. It's about Jesus, life, death, and resurrection. But as well, notice what the apostle says in terms of the power of the gospel. It is powerful.
Look at verse 9. He says, For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe.
Paul says a similar thing in 1 Timothy 1. This is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to do what? To save sinners.
See, brethren, as the church, that's our blessed privilege. It is a responsibility, but it's a privilege to be able to testify concerning the glory of Christ, to be able to look at his life, his death and his resurrection, to be able to urge sinners or exhort sinners or call sinners to believe this gospel and they shall be saved. Turn to the Song of Solomon chapter five. We'll end here in just a moment.
We'll bring it to a close, but notice what happens in Song of Solomon in chapter five. And I'll just read you while you're turning there, what the Song of Solomon is about. The whole psalm, or the whole book of canticles, rather, is designed to no other purpose but variously to shadow forth, to insinuate and represent the mutual love of Christ and the Church. Blessed is he who understands the sayings of that book and hath the experience of them in his heart.
Look over at Psalm 5, specifically at verse 10. Look at how the bride takes up to describe her man. My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand. His head is like the finest gold, his locks are wavy and black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are like a bed of spices, banks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh. His hands are rods of gold set with beryl.
His body is carved ivory inlaid with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of fine gold. His countenance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet.
Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." See, they have a proper understanding, or she has rather, a proper understanding of the bridegroom. And as a result, she preaches that. As a result, she testifies of that.
Remember John the Baptist? I'm just happy, as the friend of the bridegroom, to stand in his presence and to hear his voice, and as well to point sinners to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Now, as we follow along in the song, notice what happens. Where has your beloved gone?
This is the daughters of Jerusalem. O fairest among women, where has your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you? You see, the way that the bride describes the bridegroom evokes the response from the daughters of Jerusalem, where is he? We want to find him as well.
Brethren, when we understand the gospel, the life and the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can't help but speak it. And may God give us grace to speak it in such a way that the persons to whom we speak it will say with the daughters of Jerusalem, where is your beloved, that we may find him too. Brethren, understanding this truth will open our mouths in worship to God and in testimony concerning our beloved Christ. And may the Lord bless that evangelism.
May the Lord bless the gospel as it goes forth. And may the Lord call more out of darkness into marvelous light. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we suspect that people would hear us celebrating this and think we're some sick and twisted people. But we know this was the plan and the purpose of God most high.
This was the antitype of the sacrificial system of the old covenant, such that he is in fact the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And we praise you that our beloved Savior, our blessed Lord, went to these lengths in order to save us from our sins. May we not only worship you, but may we testify as well to others who stand in need of such a gracious Savior. And we ask in his most blessed name, amen.
Well, you can turn back