The Cross Has The Final Word, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Many of you may do this, but we wear like crosses around our neck. We have a little cross. It's kind of neat. It shows we're Christians. It's a cross.

But let me ask you, would you wear an electric chair around your neck? Oh, no, no. But this is kind of romantic. Well, it is to us.

I can get that as part of the meaning. That's why we have a cross right here. It's a great symbol, but it is unbelievably excruciating.

I don't think there's ever been any method on earth to execute people that compares with the painfulness of being crucified by the Romans. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again, he shows us how God's word meets our world. What's the greatest single day in human history?

You wonder about that. I mean, our own day. What's the greatest day in your history? The day she said yes.

The day she said no. Firstborn child. Saints won a Super Bowl. But for all of humanity, what's the best day? It's an interesting thing, because a lot of times when you think of it historically, it almost always has something to do with wars. You know, the beginning war, ending a war. FDR, December the 7th, 1941, a day that will live in infamy. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

VE day, VJ day. Napoleon had his Waterloo. Sometimes, though, it's about the things we build or accomplish. The seven wonders of the ancient world. There's only one, the Great Pyramid's the only one that's still in existence. What about the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge? When those were finished, these are great days for humanity. How about the things we discover or accomplish?

Madame Curie, Jonas Salk, you know, penicillin and heart transplants. The day we went into space, the day we walked on the moon, what was the single day that accomplished the most for humanity? It's not even close. There's not a single day that compares. In fact, it wasn't even a whole day. It was six hours on one Friday.

Six hours to sort of jut up on the plane of human history like Mount Everest on the Sahara Desert. All the hope of mankind was on display by one single act. Open your Bibles to John 19, verse 17. I want to look at this day mostly from John's perspective. The reason is we've been in John for the last seven weeks dealing with the seven signs of the Son of God. And John treats us a little bit different than the other gospels, but it's the same event. And I want to say, if I have one idea for you today, it's this, that everything that happened on that Friday was God's doing.

Everything. Often we think about, like, if I ask you the question, who crucified Jesus? You say, well, I think the Romans did it and now there's none. The Jews are behind it. Some of you are spiritual will take responsibility for yourself and say, well, I think my sins did it.

Those are all true, but you know who did it? God did it. This is God's doing this whole idea of the crucifixion. We're going to see different perspectives, how the scriptures are fulfilled, the sign that's on Jesus' head, the love that he demonstrates on the cross and his complete control over his death. Verse 16 says, So he, Pilate, then handed him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, therefore, and he went out. This isn't typical.

You have to understand some things here. When someone is about to be crucified by the Romans, there's an awful lot of hysteria, a lot of screaming, a lot of fighting. To try to get somebody to a place to crucify him is an effort in and of itself.

It usually requires a lot of whipping. People aren't going to go and experience that kind of death on their own. That just doesn't happen, but it says they took Jesus, therefore, and they went out.

It's an amazing thing. In Mark 15 and Luke 20, it says that Jesus followed them out. They didn't drive them out. They just let them out, and he walked right behind them. Isaiah 53, verse 7 says, 700 years before this event, it says that he was led as a sheep to the slaughter. Jesus wasn't driven. He was led, and they followed him. And Isaiah said, It's just like a sheep to the slaughter.

And it says he went out. And if you knew the Old Testament, whether it's Exodus 29 or Leviticus 4, the sacrifice for sin, the sacrifices are made outside the camp, outside the city. Hebrews, in the New Testament, chapter 13 says he suffered outside the gate.

They're taking him, as you'll see in just a moment here. He went out bearing his cross to the place called the skull. And it says that, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. That's what they're doing with Jesus.

And then John says something unusual. He says there they crucified him. Just like a matter of fact, there they crucified him.

Why? Jews don't crucify people. They never crucified anybody.

They only can stone people. But they crucified him. But back in John 3, Jesus said this. The Son of Man will be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. So he said, will the Son of Man be lifted up?

Jesus said that in John 3. Just like Moses, remember in the Old Testament with Moses, the people were being bitten by poisonous snakes and they were dying. So as they were dying, what ended up happening was that Moses created a snake, a serpent on a staff and he held it up.

And if you would look to the staff, you wouldn't die. And Jesus said in John 3, he said, just as Moses is lifted up, I'm going to get lifted up. So why was Jesus crucified? Because that's exactly what God wanted to do with Jesus.

Think about it from another point of view. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Over and over again, you see in the gospels that the Jews tried to stone Jesus.

They wanted to just get rid of him. And it always slipped out of their midst. This is the moment. There's something else. He says, then, as he goes on, they crucified him and with him two other men, one on either side and Jesus in between. We know the scene.

Why? Oh, in one sense, you could argue because remember, Barabbas was supposed to get it, but the people would rather have Barabbas than have Jesus. But the real reason is 700 years earlier, Isaiah 53 says, in death, he will be numbered with transgressors.

So we already know that. God, again, orchestrating that. Do you realize how excruciating crucifixion is? I'm not sure Christians are very good at this.

I don't want to offend anyone. But Christians, many of you may do this, but we wear like crosses around our neck. We have a little cross. It's kind of neat.

It shows we're Christians. It's a cross. But let me ask you, would you wear an electric chair around your neck? A noose?

Would you wear that? Oh, no, no. But this is kind of romantic. Well, it is to us. I can get that as part of the meaning. That's why we have a cross right here.

It's a great symbol. But it is unbelievably excruciating. I don't think there's ever been any method on earth to execute people that compares with the painfulness of being crucified by the Romans.

And in this case, this whole thing is illegal. If you follow Jewish law, Jewish law said that if you're trying someone for a capital offense, then after you prosecute them and make your argument, you have to wait several days for the defense to allow itself to find its own evidence before you could do anything. Roman law said that you have to wait two days between the sentence and the execution.

By the way, that's why Barabbas was in prison. He was going to be the third guy. He's waiting. They were waiting.

Jesus, there's no wait. So the whole thing is illegal. As I said before, the idea of it is to give you maximum pain for as long as possible. That's the whole idea of crucifixion. Cicero said it's the worst extreme of torture possible.

And it is. You carry your cross member. They put you on the vertical pole.

On the vertical pole, there's a little place right at your tailbone that slants, and so you can sort of rest against it, and you can try to, if you push your back against it, push yourself up. The reason you need to do that is you can't breathe. You'll die of asphyxiation. As long as you can keep pushing yourself up, you can fill your lungs up with air.

This can go on and on and on. One ancient Roman historian said that he witnessed someone who took nine days to die on the cross. Couldn't imagine what that would be like. Almost the whole time people have strength on the cross, there's screaming going on. It's unbelievably painful and humiliating. And by the way, when they took you to the cross, no matter who you were, including the Son of God, they stripped you naked. So when you went to a cross, everyone hanging on a cross was naked. You didn't get a loincloth or anything like that. It's such a humiliating kind of death and such a painful kind of death. It's an unrelenting agony that God had planned right from the beginning. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross and it said, Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews.

Okay, back story. Pilate hates the Jews. The Jews hate Pilate.

So Pilate's going to stick his thumb in their eye. This is his chance because that's all he found. Remember, he said, I can't find anything wrong with this fellow.

You see, I don't have anything. And they're saying, well, he claimed to be a king. He said, but I asked him about that and he said, his kingdom isn't of this world. So I'll put that down.

But he wanted to make sure that everyone knew who he was. He said, this is Jesus the Nazarene. Why is that? Nazareth is nowhere. Nazareth is nowhere. Remember, when he was putting disciples together, the disciple says, could anything good come out of Nazareth? It's a nowhere place.

It's a nothing place. You know, in our culture, I've often said it could be from a small town in the Ozarks or whatever you want to call it. That's Nazareth. This is Jesus and he's from Nazareth. This is a nobody from nowhere. And he's King of the Jews.

That's who he is. Now, notice how they responded. Therefore, many of the Jews read this inscription. He said, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. And it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.

You've got to love that. There's all these people in for Passover from all over that part of the world. I want everyone of them to be able to read this. If you read Greek, read it. If you read Latin, read it. If you're a Hebrew and read that, read it.

But I want everyone to know what I'm saying about that. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, do not write the King of the Jews, but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered and said, what I've written, I've written. He has hated him.

Now, you have to understand why. Pilate's been consistently in hot water with the emperor of Rome, Tiberius, because the Jews have consistently sent messages to Tiberius complaining about Pilate. After the crucifixion, they actually get to Tiberius and tell him how much they hate Pilate and how bad he is. And Tiberius brings Pilate back to Rome. When he gets him in Rome, he then deports him and isolates him in Gaul, which is modern France. And Pilate killed himself in Gaul.

He committed suicide. And so that's what this is all about. He had it written out that way. So it says then, then the soldiers, when they had crucified him, he says, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part for every soldier and also a tunic.

Now, the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. And so they said to one another, let us not tear it but cast lots for it to decide whose it shall be. And this was to fulfill the scripture. They divided my outer garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. Therefore, the soldiers did these things.

Wow. What happened here? Well, what ended up happening here that's become so evident and so clear is that they took his outer garments and there's an undergarment you wear, which is the seamless one. And they just wanted to divide it up, get something out of this if you can.

But the seamless garment, you can't. So that's why they cast lots. So why didn't all this happen? Because God said it would happen.

See, this didn't happen because that's just the way they acted. God said, no, this is going to happen. How long ago did God say that this kind of thing could possibly happen? Well, he actually said it in Psalms. He said it in Psalm 69. He said this is exactly what's going to happen.

This is the way this whole thing is going to work. That's a thousand years before Christ. Now, it's interesting that it says they just crucified Jesus in verse 23.

And we often, I think, misunderstand what this crucifixion must have looked like. There are seven sayings, and you saw them on the screen earlier, that were said by Jesus on the cross. The first one is, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing. The second one is, today you'll be with me in paradise. And the third one is, and we'll see in a moment, woman, behold your son. Those are the only three things Jesus said between nine and noon. Those take about 30, 45 seconds to say. The rest of the time, he said nothing.

But I want you to think of what he said. Now, again, what do people usually say when they're on the cross? They don't talk much. They just scream a lot. And if they do talk, they are angry because they realize what's happening to them and how terrible it is. Jesus just says these things.

The first one, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Does Pilate know what he's doing? No. Do the Jews know what they're doing?

No. You see, they don't know. I'm the only hope mankind has. This death on the cross is the only way sinful men will ever have an eternal relationship with the holy God.

I'm here. They don't know what they're doing. They're just going to kill me. And they think they're doing God's bidding when they do it. Secondly, though, he said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Now, what an interesting statement that is.

Remember the two thieves? You see this in the other gospels. When Jesus first got on the cross, typical of other people being crucified, they attacked him because they heard what he was like and what they were saying and people were saying, I think he's praying.

I think he wants to come on. If he's the son of God, he should be able to get right off the cross. So they jumped on that a little bit themselves. But one of them decided to change. The reason that he changed, he saw Jesus on the cross. Jesus didn't act like anyone on the cross.

He's completely quiet and calm. And he also saw something else. They had above their head, the crimes they committed, which were capital crimes. Jesus had above his head, Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews. So what did that thief say to him? Or the zealot? He said, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

That's an amazing statement. He saw the sign. He goes, look, the way this guy is dying, remember me when you come into your kingdom. The other thing he already knows, no one gets off a cross alive. Everyone dies. So he could imply, I know whatever's going to happen to you, you see is not of this world.

But you remember me. Now, Jesus gives no explanation, nothing. Doesn't ask for anything more. He just looks at him and says, today you'll be with me in paradise. I don't know about you, but that's a pretty comforting word if I'm being crucified.

Today? Yeah, you'll be with me in paradise. The people crucified him.

They don't know what they're doing. The third thing he says, that we see in just a moment here, as he says down in verse 26, when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby his mother, he said, woman, behold your son. And they said to him and to the disciple, he said, behold your mother.

From that hour, the disciple took her into his own household. Wow. Interesting.

It's such an interesting thing. Of all the people who follow Jesus, all the people that he saw as miracles, all the people that followed him around, there's only five people there at the cross. Now, no one wanted to get too close to the cross of a crucified person. If the Romans could put together that you were in some way implied with this other person, you could lose your own life. There's just four women and one guy.

That's it. The disciples have hid out there, hiding, they're afraid. These four women are there. Now, what I find so interesting about this is that if you notice what he says here, he makes it as clear, but standing by the cross where his mother, his mother's sister, that's Salome, Mary, the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Now, we know in the other accounts say that she had seven demons that were driven out. Now, I don't want to break your thoughts about Mary Magdalene, but there's no historical proof she was a prostitute. I hear that all the time. Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. I don't. I don't know that.

I don't think anyone else does, but we always say that. But notice the name that's used here. Mary, the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene.

Now, that's a real common name. It's Miriam. That's Moses' sister's name, Miriam.

It means bitter. There's a lot of Marys. Who isn't called Mary here? Mary. She's not called Mary. Mary is simply said the mother of Jesus.

That's kind of an interesting thing. Then it goes down and it says when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple, he said, woman, behold your son. Woman.

I've talked to you about this before. The word's gunae. It's a sign of somewhat respect. It doesn't mean woman in a way we'd use it, but it means woman. He doesn't call her Mary. He never calls her Mary after he begins his ministry, not ever. In fact, remember, we did the wedding feast at Cana Miracle and what did he call her there? First miracle he did, woman. He didn't call her Mary.

It's an interesting thought. During the gospels, when he was doing his ministry, he was in a house teaching and someone come in and said, Mary, your mother and your brothers and sisters are all outside. Jesus said, these are my brothers and sisters.

This is my family. He didn't even give notoriety to that. Not at all. He didn't say that. Now, you see, my ministry is worldwide or my ministry begins here in Israel. So, you see that. Now, I want you to think about that because in Acts 1, you get one more reference to Mary.

Just one. She's in the upper room right after the death and resurrection of Christ with the other disciples and some other people. That's the only time. Mary is never mentioned once in the epistles. Her name never comes up. Even at this crucifixion that happened, both the other accounts in Matthew and Mark, they don't even mention Mary's there. They don't even mention that she's there. Luke does, but it's interesting because in Luke's point of view, in Luke 2, Luke said that when the angel first came to Mary, he told Mary that on the basis of his life, there's going to be a time when a sword's going to pierce your soul. Standing in front of the cross is her time. She's going through that right now. She's never mentioned, by the way, in the book of Revelation.

Why is that important? What do you see in the book of Revelation? Heaven. Okay, so you get this long glimpse from John about what heaven's like. Mary's never mentioned. Not once. How could you be the queen of heaven and never get your name?

She's not. You see, that's an important thing, I think, to understand from all of this perspective. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is, as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .