The Cross on the Billboard of Eternity - Part A

This is Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com. That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching with Pastor Skip Heitzig.

I'm on my way to church here. One billboard was of a musician who's coming to town. The other billboard was of a lawyer who is already in town.

The third was a casino not far out of town. And the fourth that sticks in my mind was a billboard to buy a watch that they think you need to buy and wear. Sometimes, and I'll show you examples on the video boards here, but sometimes advertisements can be clever like this one. That's clever to put a guy who needs to lose a little weight on the end of a billboard and slant it like that. Other billboards are, well look at this one, they're political.

You drive by that and you'd get the point pretty quickly. Other billboards are spiritual billboards. I don't know if you can read that, but can you read that? It says, well you did ask for a sign, sign God. So you have a sign. Other billboards are not so subtle.

That's sobering as you drive by. It says hell is real. And finally there are billboards that when they're up you wonder what on earth were they thinking to even put that up. It's upside down. It says if you can read this, you've just had an accident.

I don't think that's very cool, do you? There's a billboard that God has displayed throughout the centuries on the pages of the Scripture. It's called the cross. It's that one message He has been advertising throughout the corridors of time. He's announced it on the lips of His prophets and His preachers. The message, the billboard of God throughout all of eternity is that God loves the world. For God so loved the world that He gave His own Son. We are introduced to this thought as the banner billboard truth of God throughout the ages in two verses in John chapter 19. So turn with me to John 19 and look at verse 23 and 24 and yes, those are the only two verses we will cover.

That's because there are certain scenes that we dare not move through too quickly and this is one of them. Then the soldiers when they had crucified Jesus took His garments and made four parts to eat soldier apart and also the tunic. Now the tunic was without seam woven from the top in one piece. They said therefore among themselves, let us not tear it but let us cast lots for it whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots therefore the soldiers did these things. Immediately in these two verses were introduced to a thought that the cross wasn't a new unexpected event but that God had anticipated it throughout history because it was quoted in a psalm, the event itself. Somebody once said and I remember the saying, no other religion has at its heart the humiliation of its God.

I would only add to that and say that no other religion has anticipated in advance the humiliation of its God and made that the very focal point of all that it is about. We're introduced to that thought here. I saw a painting many years ago, I still recall it. It's a painting of Jesus standing in the carpentry shop at Nazareth.

He's an adult by this time. He has laid down his tools in the shop. He is facing a window through which the sunlight, the afternoon, evening sunlight is filtering through. In the picture, Jesus is looking up toward heaven with his hands raised, the sunlight is coming through, hitting him and casting a shadow on the back wall of the carpentry shop. And if you look at the shadow, it looks like the perfect form of a cross and a man on it. The point of the painting as you study it is that the shadow of the cross was cast throughout the very life of Christ. The question is how far back does that shadow go? How deep and how long does that shadow run?

I want to explore that with you today. Now we look at these two verses and we discover the soldiers divided Jesus' garments. Why did they do that and why is it written? That was a Roman custom and a Roman law that before a man was executed by way of crucifixion, that he was stripped completely bare. It was the ultimate and final humiliation and that the garments of the prisoner would become the property of the soldiers. That was Roman law. The executioners would own any belongings that that victim had. They would divide them.

The executioners, the soldiers, regarded the clothing or the possessions of Christ as their spoil, their keep, their urn. And so they took them. Now how many soldiers were they?

Do you remember? We told you last week and the week before there were four. And that was given the name quaternion. A quaternion was a squad of four soldiers. But the average Jewish male wore five pieces of clothing, an outer robe, below that a tunic, a belt, sandals and a turban or a head cover. There's four soldiers, five pieces of clothing. Each soldier got one piece.

The fifth piece, the tunic, they decided to throw dice for, cast lots for it. And they would decide who would get it. These soldiers were hardened men. They had to be. They fought wars.

They quelled riots. They had killed many people like they were killing Jesus at this point. You've got to be a pretty hardened individual to not only take a dying man's possessions, but before he's dead, to gamble for them at the foot of where he can watch the whole event, the foot of the cross. But the point of including these two verses isn't just to speak of human hatred and human revulsion, but rather divine anticipation. That is why John says all of this was done, that the scripture, Psalm 22, might be fulfilled. What John is showing you is that this cross cast a long shadow all the way back to David who wrote about it. Psalm 22, an amazing piece of literature. When David penned Psalm 22, he knew nothing about crucifixion, hadn't been invented yet. But in vivid detail, in Psalm 22, David writes about the exhaustion, the physical torment of crucifixion, the unnatural position of the body during crucifixion, the raging thirst that ensues, nails that go through the hands and through the feet, several incredible details that could have only been known in the mind of God and then revealed to David.

And that's why John makes mention of it. So today I want to take a journey with you based on these two verses. Let's see how far back that shadow goes. And I'm going to walk back with you from the cross backwards through time. First off, it was Jesus himself who predicted his own death. I just want you to imagine what that would be like to live knowing exactly when you were going to die and exactly how you were going to die.

Imagine what that would be like to live with that knowledge. On six different occasions in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus predicted his death. Three more times in the Gospel of Mark, then you have Luke and John.

It's all recorded. I'm going to take you back, if you have a Bible and you care to turn there, I'm going to take you to a few places today. The 16th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. If you don't have a Bible or you forgot yours or you simply don't want to turn, no problem, I understand.

I've cheated. I pre-marked my Bible. Matthew 16.

It's a famous setting. Jesus asks his disciples two questions. Peter gets the A on the test. The questions are, who do men say that I am? The second is, who do you say that I am? Peter gets it right when he says, you're Christ, the Son of the living God. Now I think Peter feels a freedom to speak up because he got an A on the test.

Doesn't go so well for him in the second round. In verse 21 of Matthew 16. From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third day. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, if you've ever wondered what the Bible has to say about some of our culture's big issues, we have a great resource for you. When you give a gift of $50 or more this month to support the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you God Speaks, biblical answers for today's issues. This special resource bundle contains six of Pastor Skip's booklets that address topics like suicide, why the truth matters, heaven and hell, and the church's response to racism. You'll gain valuable insight into what God's word says about the big questions in our culture and get equipped to stand for the timeless truth of scripture.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give $50 or more. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, Far be it from you, Lord, this shall not happen to you. Again, I think Peter felt emboldened, empowered to speak up and say, Lord, we've got this one covered. We're going to protect you.

Not going to happen to you. He did not expect what he's about to hear. Verse 23, but he turned, he, Jesus, turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.

You are an offense to me. You are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men. Oops.

Ouch. There were more times. If you just turn the page to chapter 17 of Matthew, if you're there, different place this time. Verse 22, Now while they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And on the third day he will be raised up, and they were exceedingly sorrowful. Death was Jesus' constant companion. He knew how, he knew when, he knew where. He told them. He predicted his own death. The shadow of the cross fell upon his path every single day. Just try to imagine what that is like. If you knew when and where you would die and how, you would live differently.

You would live a very focused life, a very intentional life. And that's important to realize because there's a lot of scriptures that won't make sense unless you realize that. For example, in John chapter 7, it says, They, the ruler, sought to take Jesus, but his hour had not yet come.

So they didn't take him. In John chapter 13, John begins, And Jesus, knowing that the hour had come for him to depart from this world and go to the Father, girded himself with a towel and started washing his disciples' feet. Or John chapter 17, as Christ prays, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son may now glorify you. Or John chapter 12, as Jesus tells his own men. He says, And now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour?

No, for this very cause I have come to this hour. For dealing with somebody who predicted his own death, knew exactly where, knew exactly when, and lived with that constant knowledge. That was his focus. And because that was his focus, Jesus regarded as any suggestion to move him away from that focus as being satanic. That's why he said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You're not thinking like God thinks.

You're thinking like men think. Actually, when Jesus heard Peter say, Lord, Lord, this is never going to happen to you. It was as if Jesus was thinking, I've heard that voice before.

I know where that voice is coming from. That's coming from Satan, because it was Satan who suggested the same thing. While Christ was being tempted 40 days and 40 nights out in the wilderness, the Bible says Satan appeared to him and showed him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory. And Satan said, All of these I will give to you if you'll just bow down and worship me. Just give me a momentary pleasure.

Indulge me. Just worship me for a second. I know why you have come.

I know what you came for. You came to buy this world back, redeem this world. I'll give it to you. You don't have to go the way of the cross. You don't have to suffer.

You don't have to shed your blood. Just worship me, and I'll give it to you. Jesus said, Away with you, Satan. And now when Peter is suggesting, This isn't going to happen to you, Jesus goes, I recognize that voice.

Get behind me, Satan. He regarded anything that would keep him away from the focus of the sacrifice of the cross as being satanic. Now that interests me that the devil, even the devil, knew how important the cross was.

It was a ladder to heaven. Jesus knew it. Satan knew it.

So we're considering how far back the shadow goes. Jesus predicted his own death. Now let's go back a little bit further in time. Not only did Jesus predict his death, Jesus' forerunner predicted his death. The prophet who announced his coming, who is that? John, I call him John the Baptizer. He really wasn't of any denomination, including Baptists at that time. It was just John the Baptizer is probably a better term. I've always loved John the Baptist because he reminds me of a lot of my old friends. I had friends who dressed weird and ate weird things. They were hippies.

And John just sort of reminds me of them. He was sort of that strange guy down by the Jordan River. He had a singular denunciatory message. Repent was his first message. Repent got people's attention.

Very powerful individual. John the Baptist believed that Jesus was the Messiah. But John the Baptist only saw Jesus as a living judge, not as a dying savior. John the Baptist, like most Jewish people, anticipated the Messiah will come in gloriously and overturn the Roman government and set up shop, set up the kingdom.

He did not expect a death at first. Now I want you to follow me in my thinking. If you were to take the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and what we call harmonize them, or give a chronological blow-by-blow rendition of all of the gospel records, this is how it comes down. Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. After he's baptized, he goes into the wilderness for about six weeks, 40 days. After that temptation, he comes back to the Jordan River and sees John again, second time. So here's John.

He's down at the Jordan River. He's saying, repent, and listen to his message. He quotes Isaiah chapter 4.

Woe unto you, you brood of slimy snakes! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come? And speaking of the Messiah, he said, his winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge the threshing floor. He will gather the grain into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. It's a fiery preacher. It's hellfire and brimstone.

And all of that would be accurate at Jesus' second coming, but not his first. So here's John bringing a very denunciatory message, but then three things happen. Number one, Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptized.

Remember John's reaction? He goes, Lord, Lord, this is wrong. I shouldn't baptize you. You should baptize me.

You have nothing to be baptized for. But now he realizes in Jesus' baptism that Jesus has come not to yell at sinners, but to identify with them. So he gets baptized.

Blows John's mind. Second thing that happens is as he is baptizing Jesus, the heavens open and the Spirit of God comes like a what? A dove. Ever wonder why a dove? You say, sure, that's so churches in the next 2,000 years can have doves in the front of their church.

No, that's not why. To John the Baptist, who was the son of a Jewish priest, he would immediately recognize the dove as an animal of sacrifice. The lamb was the animal of sacrifice, but if you couldn't even afford a lamb, if you were the poorest of the poor, you'd bring a dove. So first, Jesus gets baptized, identifies with sinners.

Second, a dove shows up. It tips him off that a sacrifice is somehow involved. The third thing is that Jesus goes away for six weeks, comes back, and the second time when John sees him coming to him, he says something very different. He says, behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.

What has happened between flee from the wrath that is to come and behold the Lamb of God? Well, six weeks have happened, and I believe that during that six weeks, John went again back to the scrolls of Isaiah, from which he had taken his cues. He had been quoting Isaiah throughout his early ministry. And he started reading some of the other passages in Isaiah, like Isaiah 52, Isaiah 53, which says of the Messiah, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. And it clicked.

He connected the dots. So as Jesus comes back, instead of a denunciation, it's an introduction. And he says, look, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. In that statement, he is announcing a sacrifice is coming. He is predicting the death, the cross of Jesus. He is the Lamb of God, the animal of sacrifice, whose blood will take away the sin of the world.

Now John the Baptist is discovering that this Jesus will do more than all of the proclamations and denunciations of the law of Moses. If you have never read Pilgrim's Progress, the book Pilgrim's Progress, please read it at least once before you die. It is worth the read. Charles Spurgeon read it twice a year. It's an old story written by John Bunyan. The main character of the story is Christian. He has left his hometown called the City of Destruction. He's on his way to the Celestial City.

You get the picture. It's an analogy of the Christian life. As Christian starts off, he's got a backpack on, and it burdens him.

It weighs him down. And the story relates to the backpack as his sin, and added to the sin is the law telling him he's a sinner. You're bad. You're a sinner.

You're wrong. You're this and that. And so the law, mixed with his sins, is the burden on his back. So listen to how John Bunyan puts it. And I saw in my dream that as Christian came up to the cross, the burden loosed from his shoulders and fell from his back and began to tumble until it reached the mouth of the sepulcher where it fell in, and I saw it no more.

It's a picture of coming to the cross of Calvary, the burden of sin, the denunciation of the law, falls off, rolls down into the tomb of Christ, risen from the dead, and I saw it no more. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you God Speaks, biblical answers for today's issues, which contain six of Pastor Skip's booklets to help you understand what the Bible says about big issues like racism, the importance of truth, suicide, and heaven and hell. To request your copy of God Speaks, biblical answers for today's issues, call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to check out the many resources available at connectwithskip.com slash store. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the crossing Cast all burdens on His word Make a connection A connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.