The God Who Suffers: How Far God Will Go for Man’s Salvation

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If you would like to know how you can become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org.

That's harvest.org. Sometimes people think the cross was sort of an aberration or a tragic turn of events, where everything sort of went off the rails. No, that's not it at all. In fact, that was the plan. That was the master plan, or should I say, the master's plan. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out it was God's plan all along for the Son to give His life for our sins.

Listen to this. Calvary shows how far men will go in sin and also how far God will go for man's salvation. This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new beginning. Amazing grace how sweet the sound. Again you hear all the angels are singing. This is the day, the day when life begins. In our culture, VIPs get special treatment. Government officials fly around in special planes and drive around in motorcades.

Corporate leaders have high-rise offices and mansions in the nice part of town. So what a paradigm shift it is that God's Son would live a humble life and die a painful death for all of us. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out how each detail was carefully chosen long ago by our Heavenly Father.

And today we will find out why. This is the day, the day when life begins. Turn now to two passages. Luke 23 and John 19. Luke 23 and John 19.

And that is where we are going to land on both of those. The title of my message is The God Who Suffers. And when we think of God we consider the fact that God is righteous, God is holy, God is loving, and God is good. But here is something else to consider about God as we focus on the death of Jesus. God has suffered. Why would anyone want to suffer if they didn't have to? But He did suffer.

I mean He didn't have to if He didn't want to but He chose to suffer. Listen to Isaiah's description of what Jesus, who was God in human form, went through when He died on the cross. In Isaiah 53 we read, But why did God suffer?

Answer. Because He loved and He loves. And that means that He enters into our suffering as well. He enters into the suffering of those who have lost loved ones.

He enters into the suffering of any person who is in pain of some kind. You need to know that God cares. God understands. God suffers. He understands what you are going through. So if you are going through any kind of suffering know this.

You are not alone. Jesus has been there and He has walked in your shoes. Listen to this passage in Hebrews 2. It says it was necessary for Jesus to be made in every respect like us His brothers and sisters so He could be our merciful and faithful high priest before God and then He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since He Himself has gone through suffering and temptation He is able to help us when we are being tempted.

So you are saying, man I am being tempted right now. I am going through hardship right now. I have been abandoned by people I love. Jesus has been there. He knows what it is like. You say, I have lost a loved one.

He knows what that is like. So you are not alone in your suffering. But why did Jesus have to suffer and die? Couldn't He have just expired in a simple way? Did He have to be scourged and beaten and have the beard pulled from His face? Did He have to be insulted and mocked and ridiculed and humiliated? Why did He have to die such a cruel death?

Listen to this. Because there was no other way to satisfy the righteous demands of God. God plays by His own rules and He said, The soul that sins shall surely die. And the Scripture teaches without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. In the Old Testament when they would sacrifice these various animals that was a foreshadowing of things that were to come. It is not like the death of Jesus was sort of added onto that. That rather was pointing toward the death of Jesus. Jesus was the fulfillment of all of those sacrifices as John the Baptist said of Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So Jesus was the fulfillment of it all. All of those things were foreshadowing something to come. Or I could more accurately say someone to come. And that someone was Jesus. Listen to this. Calvary shows how far men will go in sin and how far God will go for man's salvation.

Let me repeat that. Calvary or the cross shows how far men will go in their sin and also how far God will go for man's salvation. Jesus knew He was going to die from the very beginning and He spoke of it often. No one took His life.

He laid it down of His own accord. Jesus lived in the shadow of the cross from the moment He entered the world. Sometimes people think the cross was sort of an aberration or a tragic turn of events. Where everything sort of went off the rails.

No that is not it at all. In fact that was the plan. That was the master plan or should I say the master's plan. I remember when I was a kid and I would watch movies about Jesus and I was fascinated by Jesus even as a young boy. My grandmother used to have a portrait of Christ hanging on her wall and I would just look at that many times and think about Jesus. And whenever there was a movie about Him I would watch it with great interest and I was fascinated by Him. But I always thought the story ended badly. I thought someone should rewrite this story you see.

Because everything is going at a perfect trajectory. Here comes Jesus. Born of the Virgin Mary. Performing miracles. Healing people. Raising the dead.

Doing wonderful things. The greatest teachings ever heard. He has a group of followers and then He gets arrested on false charges and He is crucified.

And yeah He rose but still that is not good. I didn't like that story. But that is the story.

That is the greatest of all stories. That was the purpose He came for. But how could something so senseless and so cruel have any purpose?

Answer. It was the ultimate purpose and it had the ultimate meaning. God the Father was the master of ceremonies at the cross.

Let me repeat that again. God the Father was the master of ceremonies at the cross. Sometimes people like to place the blame of the death of Jesus at the feet of the Jews. I will say the Jews killed Him. And sometimes that is used to justify anti-Semitism, which is always wrong. But it wasn't the fault of the Jews. It wasn't the fault in particular of the Romans.

Listen. You want to get real technical and be theological. God sent Jesus to die on the cross. It was His plan. In fact the Scripture tells us in Isaiah 53.10, It was the will of the Lord to crush Him. He has put Him to grief. Romans 8.32, God did not spare His own Son but He gave Him up for us all.

And then over in Romans 3.25, God put Christ forward by His blood to be received by faith. In Isaiah 53.10, Yet it pleased the Father to bruise Him. He has put Him to death. Pleased the Father to bruise Him. How could the Father be pleased by the death of His Son? Well He wasn't pleased by His death in particular. He wasn't pleased by the suffering.

He wasn't pleased by the pain Christ went through. The Father was pleased by the redemption that was accomplished. He was pleased that the eternal plan of salvation was now fulfilled. He was pleased that the sacrifice of His Son was complete.

And many of us could now believe in Him. For all the evil and the crucifixion it brought about an infinite good. In fact the most evil act ever perpetrated by sinful hearts, that is the sinless Son of God tortured and slaughtered and murdered, brought about the greatest good of all time. It brought about your salvation and it brought about mine.

So we can say thank you Lord for the cross. You remember the story of Joseph betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery and thought us dead. They never thought they would see him again. Of course he survived that and ended up ascending to be the second most powerful man in the kingdom of Egypt.

And one day it would have been the perfect revenge film really. His brothers are gathered before him and now Joseph is all powerful. And with a snap of his finger they would have all been executed on the spot. And instead of getting paid back he forgives them.

And he makes this amazing statement. You meant it for evil but God meant it for good to save many people alive. And that was true of the cross. The devil meant it for evil. The Bible tells us that Satan entered the heart of Judas Iscariot. So let's not let the devil off the hook here. He played a role too. And in a rare moment in human history God and the devil were moving toward the same goal.

Not with the same objective. The goal was for Jesus to die. Satan wanted Jesus to die so he would be stopped and silenced forever. God wanted Jesus to die so he would atone for the sin of the world.

But their objectives were different of course. And there was Jesus fulfilling the purposes of God. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. We hear from so many people who find Christ through these studies in God's Word. Dear Pastor Greg, I wake up to your voice on the radio each day. I've been a Christian since September 12, 1978 after hearing you speak in Riverside, California. While living in Temecula, my employers told me they were praying for me.

For many years I did not believe. But after hearing your life story and all about Jesus, I began to believe and made a decision to follow Jesus. Thank you Pastor Greg for all that you've done and continue to do for all of us who need to hear the Word daily. We hope Pastor Greg's words from scripture continue to touch lives. And if you have a comment or story to share, send it to Pastor Greg. His email address is Greg at Harvest dot org. That's Greg at Harvest dot org. Well today we're considering the sacrifice Jesus made at the cross of Calvary in Pastor Greg's message, The God Who Suffers.

You can get a permanent copy of this insight at Harvest dot org. Pastor Greg continues now. So let's think for a moment what it was like for Jesus to do this. Hebrews 12-3 says, consider Him that endured such hostility from sinners against Himself lest you be weary and discouraged in your souls.

The word consider means think it over. Consider this. Think of what Jesus went through. For Jesus the cross was a fate worse than death. Because at the cross He experienced His most painful moment. What has been your most painful moment in life so far? You know little kids scratch their knees and they get an owie and they want you to kiss them. Jonathan asked me to do that today. He's 30.

No he didn't. But you know they have their little owies and in their little world it's a great tragedy. But then as you get older you have injuries. The painful moment. What's your worst? Maybe it had something to do with a dentist and the words root canal. It might have been something to do with a doctor. It might have been an accident. Something that happened. But we are going to look at the most painful moment of Jesus.

And you will say, well yeah it's when He was crucified. As horrible as that was I don't think that was His most painful moment. Physical pain is awful.

It's dreadful. But there are actually pains that are worse than physical pain. Sometimes it's a pain of rejection or betrayal or abandonment. When the wife says to her husband, I want a divorce. When the husband says to the wife, I am having an affair. When the child says to the parent, I don't want God in my life. When the pastor after preaching two hours says and just a few more things. That was a joke.

Ok. Just wanted to see if you are listening. Or when you are betrayed by a friend or someone you did the most for. It cuts like a knife. Then there is the pain of losing a loved one. That is very deep pain. But God the Father has felt this pain. He lost a loved one if you will when He watched humanity murder His Son.

And the Son of course lost fellowship or communication temporarily with the Father. And that I believe was the most painful moment of Jesus. When He bore the sin of the entire planet upon Himself.

As awful as the crucifixion was it is nothing compared to burying the sin of all of humanity. Now understand Jesus He was a strong young man. He was in the prime of life.

33 years old. He was a carpenter by trade. And that meant that He chopped down trees and built homes and built furniture and knew how to put His back to a task. He was a strong individual. And so He was up to the task. But yet after a man has been scourged by a Roman whip 39 times opening up his body and exposing his muscle and even vital organs. And then being forced to carry a 300 pound cross beam.

That would be hard for any man no matter what shape he was in. And as bad as that was that wasn't the worst moment of all. But it was when He was hung on that cross and God's judgment had to be poured out upon Him. That brings us to John 19. We read in verse 17 that Jesus burying His cross went to a place called the place of a skull. Which is called in Hebrew Golgotha where they crucified Him. Two others with Him. One on each side. Jesus in the center.

Now this is very interesting. Why was Jesus in the center? I think you can make a pretty good case for Jesus was not supposed to go on that cross. In fact the man that was probably supposed to go on that cross was Barabbas. Understand we call these guys that were crucified next to Jesus the thieves on the cross.

And we will refer to them as that because it is familiar. But the truth is that the word used there to describe them is far more severe than a thief. Rome did not crucify thieves in general. They crucified people who were guilty of the worst crimes. And in the mind of Rome the worst crime was to be an insurrectionist. In other words to try to overthrow Rome. So these men were most likely murderers who would go out and murder Roman soldiers and try to cause chaos and confusion in the empire. They wanted Rome driven out of the land of Israel. And so they were each crucified.

And I think that center cross was probably reserved for Barabbas because he was the worst of the lot. And you remember the reason he didn't go to the cross was because he was pardoned by Pilate. Pilate was trying to get out of condemning Jesus to death.

And there was a tradition that they would release someone at the Passover. And so Pilate gave the bloodthirsty crowd a choice. Do you want Jesus spared or do you want Barabbas spared? The religious leaders infiltrated the crowd and got them to scream out for Barabbas instead of Jesus. And Jesus was then sent to die. He effectively was dying on someone else's cross.

Barabbas' cross. But really if you want to get technical he was dying on our cross. Those other guys who were crucified next to him were there for their personal crimes. Jesus was there for the crimes of all humanity. They were there against their will.

He was there because He willingly went. They were held to their crosses by nails. He was held to His cross by love. And there hanging on the cross with his back ripped open in excruciating pain.

Tongue swollen. Jesus lifts himself up on the cross and gives seven statements. Number one He said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Number two in response to the thief who turned to him and said, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. He said, Truly, truly I say to you today you will be with me in paradise. Looking down at the foot of the cross and seeing his mother Mary. He said to her, woman behold your son.

And then gesturing to John he said, Son behold your mother. Then presumably he bore the sins of the world giving the fourth statement of the cross, My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Number five I thirst.

Number six it is finished. And the seventh and last statement of the cross, To the Father into your hands I commit my spirit. Let's consider that riveting first statement of Jesus from the cross. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. It is as though Jesus is saying, Father forgive them because they need forgiveness so desperately. Forgive them because they have committed a sin that is wicked beyond all comprehension. Father forgive them.

They do not know what they do. And by the way it is implied in the original language. He said it a number of times. Not just once. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Oh Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And from this example of Jesus on the cross we are reminded that no one is beyond the reach of prayer. I don't care how wicked they are. I don't care what stuff they have done. Father forgive them.

Lord reach out to that person. And I think it is interesting to look at how three men face death. Jesus is there dying for our sin. And initially both thieves cry out. He has saved others. But He can't save Himself.

If He is really the Son of God let Him come down from there at once. They both join in the chorus of mockery. But then according to Luke's gospel Jesus says, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. And one of the thieves believes on the spot and then turns to the other thief and says, rebuking him don't you fear God seeing we are under the same condemnation. Now someone take that and say ah contradiction in the Bible.

There it is. One gospel says they both mocked Him. Another gospel says one believed. Well no that is not a contradiction friend. That is a conversion.

That is what that is. Initially both of them did mock Him. But then when Jesus said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, one of the thieves believed right on the spot. You know how long it takes to become a believer in Jesus? You probably couldn't even measure it in time. It doesn't take years. It doesn't take months. It doesn't take weeks. It can happen in a second. In a fraction of a second you can be sitting there as a nonbeliever and something happens and suddenly you say, I believe this right now.

And you are just waiting for someone to tell you what the next step is. There are a lot of people like that out there. That guy believes right on the spot.

He had never seen anything like that before. A man who had been treated as badly as Jesus. And frankly Christ probably faced worse abuse than those men. They were crucified but we don't read they were scourged. Christ was scourged.

Many people died from the scourging alone. So to survive that and then be crucified on top of it. And Jesus gave those beautiful words. And they reverberated through the hardened heart of one of those criminals. And his rebellion and bitterness and anger that had no doubt driven him for all of those years just dissolved. And his hardened heart began to soften. And his conscience was resensitized. And he believed and said, Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said, Today you will be with me in paradise.

Wow. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. Now that is a deathbed conversion or a death cross conversion.

At the last moment this guy is let in. It just shows how God's grace is so amazing. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie with insights on that epic day at Calvary. And there's much more to come from Pastor Greg's message, The God Who Suffers. If you weren't able to hear all of today's insight you can catch up by going online to harvest.org. Or for a CD copy call 1-800-821-3300.

Call anytime 24 hours a day 1-800-821-3300. And again it's a study called The God Who Suffers. You know Pastor Greg we hear about the lives that are touched every day here on A New Beginning. They write to us. They call us and their stories are just so moving.

In fact take a listen to this. Pastor Greg, I listen to you every morning on my way home from dropping my husband at work. And I've got to say you've helped me through my hardest times.

I have a little boy with moderate autism and I lost my mom to cancer a year ago. My soul has been so heavy every day. But you've helped me realize that God is who I need more than anything. Thank you for helping millions of people just like me. Well we're just so thankful to God that we can be of some help to this lady with her challenges that she's facing with her mother who went to be with the Lord and her child. And you know our hope is just to point people to the Word of God. Because we all get down. We all get discouraged.

We all get overwhelmed and sometimes it feels like life isn't really fair for us. You know on one occasion after Jesus revealed to Simon Peter that he was going to die the death of a martyr. Peter looked over at John and said, what's going to happen to that man? And the Lord said to Peter, what is that to you?

Follow me. You know we all have a lot in life that doesn't make sense to us and we wonder why certain things happened. Other people seem to be more blessed than we're blessed or their life isn't as hard as our life is.

I can't answer these things but I can tell you this. The answer is following Christ. And my objective as a pastor and as a Bible teacher is to point you to Christ. And to get your eyes off of your circumstances and put them on the Lord. Because when you have a big God you have relatively small problems. And when you have big problems maybe it's because your God is too small.

By that I simply mean you need to get your eyes on Him again. So as you know every day we open up the Word of God and every day we call people to Christ. We encourage believers to turn to Him like the lady that we just heard from. And we call non-believers to believe in Him because Jesus is the answer.

No matter what your question is, Jesus is the answer. And we're thankful to be able to do that for the lady we just heard from. And we're thankful to do it for you each and every day. And as we come to the end of one year and get ready to start another, it's very important that we finish strong financially. So I'm going to encourage you to give a generous financial gift to Harvest Ministries.

So we can finish this year strong and get ready for the opportunities that are before us next year. We have unprecedented opportunities coming our way to expand our ministry around the nation and the world. And the way we can respond to these is if you join with us in prayer and with your giving.

And then we can go into new areas we've never been in before. And it's my way of saying thanks to you for investing in our ministry. I would like to send you a DVD copy of our cinematic crusade that hopefully you saw.

And if you haven't seen it, you can see it now. We call it A Rush of Hope, a beautiful film that we made in cooperation with the Irwin brothers that present the gospel in a compelling, artistic, and powerful way. This is going to be a great tool in your hands to reach out to your neighbors, to your family, and the people that you care about. So whatever you can send will rush you your copy of A Rush of Hope, the DVD.

And thanks in advance for whatever you can do. Yeah, that's right. And we hope you'll get in touch today so we can get this DVD on its way to you. And by the way, in addition to the DVD, it comes with a digital download code. So you can watch it online right from your computer or tablet or smartphone. That way you can take it with you and share it with a friend.

It's a cinematic crusade right in your pocket or purse. So write us today at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We can take your call anytime 24 hours a day.

Again, dial 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to Harvest.org. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here, personally inviting you to join us for what we call Harvest at Home. It's a Bible study. It's a worship service. It's church in your home. Maybe you're not able to get out to your church right now. If so, join us for Harvest at Home. People are listening in from around the world.

Listen to this. We have seen thousands of people make a commitment to follow Christ. So join us this weekend for Harvest at Home at Harvest.org. Well next time, we'll consider the seven statements of Jesus from the cross. Each one carefully chosen and filled with spiritual insight. That's next time, here on A New Beginning with Pastor Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners. Helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at Harvest.org.