They Crucified Him (Part C)

When I first read this I wept and sometimes after.

I have a hard time just, you know, standing up reading and I'm saying I don't want to lose my self-control over what is going on here. Those men that recorded this event, all four of them, had no interest in detailing the horrors of it all. They loved the Lord Jesus so much.

It hurt them. They were still to write. John, over 40 years later writing, his gospel was still heard.

They were not going to dwell on it. You can find information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick concludes his study called, They Crucified Him, as he teaches through Mark Chapter 15. And he moved inland and he's ministering to all of these churches there. He's establishing churches and he writes to these churches because there would be those that would go behind Paul to undo his work. And his weapon against them was prayer and the pen, the letter.

And he talks about himself. He says, you know, I see all these people talking about you've got to do this to be right with Jesus Christ. If you want to benefit from the cross of Christ, you've got to become a Jew and you've got to follow these rites and rituals.

Also, you won't benefit from the cross of Christ. And Paul said, that's nonsense. He says, I've 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 loved me and gave himself for me. Here's this old saint never losing sight of what is so special about our faith.

Even though he caught so much hardship, so many beat downs, he never loses sight. He never says, as I am prone to say, why didn't you do more? Why didn't you bless my ministry more?

Why is this all you're doing? Paul just, if he had those bowels, he maybe did. The flesh is like that.

He wouldn't let anybody see it. Don't devalue that. You parents with children, how important it is at times to not let your children know you are afraid of something. That's fighting. You're looking out for them.

I didn't want to panic the kids. And so we move to verse 22. And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of the skull. Skull. The word escapes me. It's a paradox. It's this dark sockets where eyes once were and that ghastly grin. You look at a skull and why are they grinning at me?

Why is it, you know, it's death. And visitors to Jerusalem, you can still see the, you know, there are two sites that are claimed, that are said to be the place of Christ's crucifixion. Most maps will have the traditional one. That ain't it. It doesn't meet any of the criteria from Scripture. It's inside the city. Scripture clearly says it was outside the city. There was a garden next to it.

They're just these things that the Bible makes. It was to the north of the city. Well, there's also a bus station just outside the city walls of old Jerusalem.

And it's got the two sockets for the eyes and the nose. It's not as deep as it once were because they built it up for the bus station, laying asphalt and things. It's about, it's lost a few feet, but it's still there, right next to the garden tomb. And it is quite remarkable to say that. And you say, that's the place.

Well, if it was or was not, it's not that critical, but that's the place. Verse 23, then they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it. Again, this is a, well not again, but this is one human concession the Romans allowed the condemned soul to be crucified. They would give him this concoction with myrrh that would sort of get them a little, alter their senses, their feelings, a little drunk you could even say, to numb the nerves before they began. How come they didn't offer this before that scourging?

That would have been helpful. But the Lord refused to drink it. He did not, as I mentioned earlier, want his senses muddled.

He was going to drink the dregs of this cup. His mind was not going to be stupefied. He still had work to do in dying for us. His seven teachings that come from the cross, you know, the seven words of Christ, which are teachings, seven of them.

They're not under the influence of any substance. He had a clear mind. Just because he was impaled did not mean that he was not clearly thinking. For just one, for example, when he says to Mary about John, the apostle, John's going to take care of you now. John, you're going to take care of her now. Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. I mean, he'd just say, listen, look out for her, John. He did that with a clear mind. You couldn't go back and say, yeah, well, that was, it was under the influence of that myrrh concoction.

No, it was not. Verse 24, and when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take. All four gospels rush over this. They simply say they crucified him, not daring to emotionally work into the story with graphics, our feelings of pathos or sorrow. We don't need the graphics to know what's happening here, to feel it. When you first read this as a Christian, did you need anybody to illustrate this to you on the screen?

Or did you get it through the power of the Holy Spirit? Did you weep? When I first read this, I wept, and sometimes after.

I have a hard time just, you know, standing up reading, and I'm saying I don't want to lose my self-control over what is going on here. Those men that recorded this event, all four of them, had no interest in detailing the horrors of it all. They loved the Lord Jesus so much, it hurt them still to write. John, over 40 years later writing, his gospels still hurt, and they were not going to dwell on it. They crucified him. They crucified him, okay? That's how it is given.

Twice it's said that way in this section. They crucified him, they crucified him twice, okay? Hollywood makes money daring to illustrate what the disciples dared not to remember or record. May we remember that.

You know, emotions are useful, but they can be quite a problem, and they can mess things up. Anyway, they divided his garments, it says here in verse 25. The only material possession that we know that he owned is clothes, the clothes on his back. The birds of the hare have nests, the foxes have holes, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. These men, they felt that they were entitled to his clothing, not his family, but they were entitled for all the hard work that was going into killing him. Depravity is sin's work. Psalm 22, all written before Isaiah, a thousand years before these events. The psalmist writes, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. They gambled for my clothing.

You know, pick a straw, pick a card, some means of trying to find out who's going to be the winner. He did not only have the seamless robe that says to Christians, seamless ministry is a good thing. You just get ministered to. You don't see where all of the joints and everything is just seamless.

No, just the distractions are reduced. Be impressed with that. Well, he did not only have that garment on, he also had outer garments on top of that, and this is what they wanted. Roman Catholicism thrives on relics. This, I don't say this to be mean-spirited.

It is a fact. I mean, where else can you get thousands of dollars for the image of Mary, whatever she looked like, on a piece of grilled cheese? This happened.

This is $28,000 for that. And there are many other such things that are done like this in his name. Imagine if they could get a hold of his garments.

They would have had a cathedral for this. And if you say, well, I don't like hearing you say that. Well, why? Because you know it's true.

That's why. Because if I belong to a group that was doing something wrong and somebody pointed it out and I couldn't dispute it, I wouldn't like it either. But I wouldn't defend it, I hope.

This is shameful. To pray to Mary is bad enough. Then to claim some image of her that speaks to humanity is the devil's work, and stay away from that. Paul said to the church at Colossae, you are complete in Christ.

You are complete in him. You don't need to add to that when it comes to your spirituality. To determine, it says here in verse 24, what every man should take. So they opted out of the salvation, and they preferred haberdashery. They preferred the little ornaments that go with men's clothing over salvation.

Mark chapter 8, verse 37, we all know this verse. What will a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, they gave lots.

They got clothing. That's what they exchanged. Although, they do wisen up towards the end of all this. Verse 25, Now it was the third hour, and they crucified him. So there's a second time they crucified him.

That's it. Trial occurred at 6 a.m. about sunrise. His crucifixion at 9 a.m. By 3 p.m. he gave up the spirit. He was gone from this life and his humanity. Again, what do I do with all these Bible facts? I take them to the Lord, and I ask him what he wants to do with them.

They belong to him. My responsibility is to be diligent in giving God every opportunity to do something with me. And there's a lot that goes into that. Logistics is big. You got to stay healthy, you got to eat, you got to go to work. There's a lot of things. You have personal hygiene, haircuts, you know. There's just so much we have to do that goes into that, that's okay. Even some downtime entertainment, but all of those things exist.

They're logistical. They exist for the front line of our life is to serve Jesus Christ and to preach him. And any church that doesn't preach that, I think they have big problems. Anyway, this was the time of the morning sacrifice when they crucified him. And for the next six hours, he was finishing up ministry while suffering. I've been saying, I've said this to at least three people this week. Not that they needed to hear it, but they gave me an opportunity to speak, so that's what I said. And what I said was, ministry is suffering. If you're not minister, if you're not suffering in ministry, you're probably not ministering. I mean, non-stop.

Nobody can take that. But I mean, it's just, it's not this just, you're standing up in the pulpit sharing everybody with the deep things of Christ. There's a lot more to it. And it's the same for you.

You're no different. If you're going to be effective to Christ, for Christ, you're going to suffer. So get ready for it. And you may say, yeah, but is it meaningless suffering? That's what I ask. I always ask. I don't want a useless life or a meaningless life as a count.

And I don't always get answers. Oftentimes, God leaves me to just keep moving forward. And anyway, back to what we have. Here he is again, suffering for mankind while the entire planet went about its business. Verse 26, and the inscription of the accusation was written above, King of the Jews. It is an inclusive statement that is put over his head. Mark truncates it. He shortens it to the King of the Jews. Mark says this in chapter 19 of his gospel. Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. And many of the Jews read this title for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, end quote of John. So Pilate makes sure that this message gets out to all the dominant languages in the land.

They're very careful about this. He doesn't know God is using him. It belongs to the prerogative of God. It's written in the Greek. That's the language of the world's culture. In fact, when the Romans came into authority and defeated the Greeks, and they were now the world's superpower, they loved the Grecian culture, and they took as much of it as they could. They changed the names of God.

You know, Zeus became Jupiter and things like that. But the Greeks set the standard for culture, and the Romans knew it. Latin, the language of Rome, that's the world's power and all of its creativity. It's building, it's aqueducts, it's roads, it's armies, it's war machines. Everything is bundled into the power of the world, and we see it to this day. The world, people on earth, can do incredible things only because God has given them the ability. God withheld the knowledge just of electricity, of the harnessed electricity. He's withheld it for most of humanity.

It's just within a few hundred years that now these things have been rolling out for us. And man just thinks that he's doing it apart from God. He's wrong. Well, Hebrew is the third language. It was the language of the world's only revealed religion that is now becoming obsolete at this point in history when these events are taking place. And so, God says, the whole world, all humans, religious, cultural, powerful, they have endorsed the death of my son.

That is the statement. Again, the Greek, intelligent man, the thinker. Rome, the industrious man, the hard worker, put those two together and add to that the religious man. And there is encapsulated three dominant traits of humanity that functions very nicely without God for one lifetime.

And then that's it. Well, the crime against Christ was he was an enemy of the state. Treason. You know, he said he was king of the Jews. Well, the Romans would say, well, only Caesar is.

And that's how they went about covering themselves. Verse 27, With him they also crucified two robbers, one on his right hand and the other on his left. Oh, incidentally, when he said to the one outlaw, today you will be with me in paradise, what happened to Purgatory?

He goes to paradise. It's a doctrinal statement. It is not something that we just dismiss. It's not something that's unimportant.

It's a critical point. Injecting false teachings into what God has revealed is sin. Anyway, coming back to this, the two robbers, one will make his last choice, and it will end in eternal suffering and misery, and the other will live forever. Isaiah, again, a different verse, but still speaking of these things. Verse 9 of Isaiah 53, And they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Well, the wicked are these two outlaws, and the rich, of course, is Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and they were likely, I don't know for sure, but there may have been others also. These outlaws weren't the only wicked people there, of course. Verse 28, So the scripture was fulfilled, which says, And he was numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah 53, verse 12, He poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many. And many is not used in the sense of, well, not everyone, but just a lot. It's more like the host of the earth.

It's all inclusive. Anyway, God's word is never treated casually in God's word, and that's why you have Mark pointing out these prophecies. You see, God called this.

Nobody else fulfilled this. This is right for Jesus Christ. Fulfilled Bible prophecy is a weapon against unbelief, if we use it. Verse 29, And those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads and saying, Aha, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days. Well, they're laughing at him, not knowing he's the one that created earth and the heavens and out of space in six days, only because he was taking his time.

He could have just blinked and everything would have been there. Isaiah 40 this time, verse 12, Speaking of Messiah, of God, and again, Messiah of the Old Testament is Yahweh of the Old Testament, and Yahweh of the Old Testament is Christ of the New Testament. It says, Isaiah 40, verse 12, about him, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heavens with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth. When it says measured the heavens, God says, Now, it's anthropomorphic. Isaiah is saying, it's as if God said, Let's make the universe about that big.

That's the language that he is using. When he says he weighs the mountains and scales and the hills and balances, of course, it's poetic language. But, Psalm 22 is more direct, speaking about this mockery of him that's going on.

Psalm 22, verses 7 and 8, All those who see me ridicule me. They shoot out the lip, they shake their heads, saying, He trusted in Yahweh, let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him. If you are a Christian and you serve Jesus Christ, at some point, you're going to come to that place where you trust in the Lord. But it doesn't seem he's delivering you.

It belongs to the ministry in Christ. And that's why Job said, Though he slays me, I trust in him nonetheless. Psalm 22 again, For the dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. You can't say that about anybody.

I mean, you can't make this up. This is why the guilty, the judge, those judged by the Lord, will not have an excuse. Verse 30, Save yourself, they said to him, come down from the cross. They spoke right words with wrong meanings. Nehemiah, the great wall builder of Israel, Nehemiah was a leader, he was no politician, and he would beat you up if you got on his wrong side. I love this guy. Anyway, so what did he say? So I chasten them, I pulled their beard from their hair, I smote them.

They're just funny as anything. Anyway, not tended to be funny, but here's what he said. When they wanted to kill Nehemiah, because he had closed the wall, he built it, he didn't yet hang the doors, and so they said, okay, let's lay a trap for him, let's call him, we'll have a conference, and we'll kill him. And so they send a messenger, and this is what Nehemiah sends to the messenger that comes and says, hey, come to this meeting. So I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you, pinheads?

He didn't say pinheads, but he meant it. But anyhow, you see, why should the work cease and I come down? Save yourself, Jesus, if you're the Christ, come down from the cross and save yourself.

And the response is, why should I leave it and go down for you when I'm dying for you? Anyway, they supposed him to be weak, but it was the power of restraint. Mark's Gospel 10, verse 45, even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life ransom.

Okay, we're almost done. Verse 31, some of you might be saying, why didn't you say that 20 minutes ago? Likewise, the chief priests, also mocking among themselves with the scribes, said he saved others himself. He cannot save.

That is right. He cannot save himself if he is going to save others continuously. These men had the power to prevent all this and, of course, they didn't want to do that. And we remember that it was biblical ignorance on, they claimed to be Bible teachers, they claimed to honor the scripture, they claimed to uphold it and they didn't even know it. I don't want to be that kind of Christian.

I don't want, you know, knowledge puffs up. I don't want to learn, learn, learn and become, you know, this guy that judges everybody else with the scripture. I want to be an instrument in God's hands because of the scripture. We don't have time to get into how God dealt with them on this. Isaiah chapter 1 verses 10 through 15 is one spot where he just tried to wake them up. This is satanically inspired that these people could be stuck in ritual and dead as a doornail religion at the same time. Verse 32, Let the Christ, the king of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe, even those who were crucified with him reviled him. So they're ganging up on him while he's on the cross and they want another miracle.

Are you kidding me? Can you, I mean, if I were, just me in the flesh, I would ask from the cross, are you that stupid? You've watched me for three and a half years do countless miracles that are validated and you're asking me for another one after you're killing me.

You're killing me, smalls. I mean, it's the kind of thing that's happening here. But it's just horrid. It's spooky that people can do this with religion. And so Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And they divided his garments and cast lots. That's what's happening in this moment.

I close with this. Again, the cross of Christ is the emblem of condemnation on all sin and an invitation of salvation to all sinners. That's what the cross of Christ is supposed to be. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the book of Mark, right here on Cross Reference Radio.