Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, he is paying the price, not the physical price, spiritual price. He is paying the spiritual price for all sin. See, it was this that he said in the garden, Father, let this cup pass from me.
You see, it wasn't the physical torture of the cross, which was overwhelming, that had Jesus concerned. It was this being separated from the Father, experiencing the wrath of God. 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. But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.
This is a desert road. And so he got up and he went. And there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was a proselyte. And he was returning and sitting in his chariot and he was reading, coincidentally, the prophet Isaiah. Then the spirit of the Lord said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. He apparently was reading it out loud and he said, do you understand what you're reading? And he said, well, how could I unless someone guides me?
And he invited Philip to come up and to sit with him. Now, the passage of scripture which he was reading was this. He was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb before its shear is silent.
And so he does not open his mouth in humiliation. His judgment was taken away. Who will relate? He says his generation for his life is removed from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me of whom does the prophet say this of himself or someone else? Remember, he understands this is 700 years old. I'm reading a prophet. I don't understand.
Who's he talking about here? Well, then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from the scripture, from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. And they went along the road and they came to some water in the eunuch said, look, water.
What prevents me from being baptized? He's converted right there with what text? Isaiah 53. And Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he said, he answered and he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he ordered the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water, Philip, as well as the eunuch, and he baptized them. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. That's what happens to Jesus often in the gospels. He just vanishes. And the eunuch, he said, no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. I don't know about you, but if I was with a guy and he baptized me and I come out of the water and he's gone, that'd be the big question on my mind.
Where'd he go? Maybe unless I found Christ that day. You see, he he had just experienced the forgiveness of God. Based on Isaiah 53.
You see, that's what happened to him. Now, I want to look at the actual crucifixion. Go with me to Matthew 27. And verse 27, and then the soldiers of the governor, they took Jesus into the praetorium and they gathered the whole Roman cohort around him and they stripped him and they put a scarlet robe on him. This is all mockery. Remember, the crime on which he is going to be executed is the claim to be king of the Jews. Now, the Romans saw this as a funny thing.
Pilate saw it as a ridiculous thing. But the soldiers saw it as something funny, so they mocked him and put a robe on him. And they stripped him and they put the scarlet robe on him and after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head.
And a reed, much like what would be a piece of bamboo would be, a reed in his right hand as a sort of play scepter. And they knelt on before him and they mocked him saying, hell, king of the Jews. This was fun for them. And then they spat on him. That's what Roman soldiers think of Jews anyway, but especially a condemned one. And they took the reed and they began to beat him on the head. Oh, by the way, he had already been beaten since he was arrested, slapped and punched. He was already scourged Roman style with a cat-o-nine tail, whip of about nine leather straps with pieces of metal or glass or bone sharpened, which normally took the flesh right off your body right down.
Some historians say you could see ribs when you were done with a Roman scourging. They had already done that to him and they're still mocking. And they mocked him and they took the scarlet robe off him and they put his own garments back on him and they led him the way to crucify him.
This is usually through the public arena so that people can mock you as you go. And as they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear his cross. Christ is now totally exhausted already. And they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull, and they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall.
And after tasting it, he was unwilling to drink. And he says then, when they had crucified him, nailed him to the cross. Normally, by the way, with three nails, normally one right under here, one right under here, and then across your legs, and then usually go right above the ankle, right through your Achilles tendons, and then they would nail him to the cross. And they began then, notice, they divided up his garments among themselves, casting lots. John gives us a little bit of light on that in John 19.
Apparently, it was called a quaternion, or a squad one of four, would be at each crucifixion. Jesus would have had likely five pieces of clothing. He would have had sandals on, of course. He would have had what they call a robe-like garment, but it's an undergarment, a headpiece, a belt, and then he would have had a tunic.
The tunic is seamless. It's the thing of most value that you wore. They split it up probably four ways, each one head four, and then they cast lots for that tunic.
That's what happened here. And it says, in sitting down, they began to keep watch over him there. And above his head, they put up a charge against him, which read, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews. And at that time, two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
Many believe this was probably Barabbas's cohorts, which would have been rebels. And it says then, and those passing by were hurling abuse at him and wagging their heads. Now, I want to ask you something. Have you ever watched something on the news when the newscaster will say, this is going to be so graphic that you may not want to see it? And for some of you, you don't want to look. But if you ever watch something really graphic like this, that's real, not a Hollywood version, but real, somebody brutally killed or something. Have you ever watched that?
It's horrible, isn't it? Well, that would be nothing like a crucifixion. So to see somebody as marred as he was, as beaten as he was, put up on a cross and you were there, what would your response be? Notice what their response is, passing by their hurling abuse at him.
It's astounding. And saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you're the son of God, come down from that cross. In the same way, the chief priest also, along with the scribes and the elders, were mocking him and saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now.
If he delights in him, for he said, I am the son of God. Pure mockery. Now, by the way, there have been pathetic people executed in terrible situations, POWs, et cetera.
And it's a horrible thing to see. But this isn't a pathetic person. This is the king of kings and Lord of lords.
You see, if you or I in that situation, the Romans are crucifying us, you know what I am? I'm helpless. What about him? Is he helpless?
Not at all. All things are created by him and for him. You see, he's not helpless at all. Can he change this? Any time he wanted to. You see, any time he wanted to step in, he could change any of this. He could vaporize the planet if he wanted to.
But he doesn't. It's the cost of forgiveness. Then, ironically to me, verse 44, the robbers who had been crucified with him were also insulting him with the same words.
I don't know, I'd kind of be preoccupied with my own crucifixion. It's a horrible thing. Excruciating.
By the way, if you want to know just how excruciating. In a book written in 1965, The Passion of Christ from a Medical Point of View, Truman Davis wrote this. He said, As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, nodding them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed, he says, and the intercostal muscles are unable to act.
Air can be drawn into the lungs, but it cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise himself in order to even get one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the bloodstream, and the cramps partially subside.
Spasmodically, he says, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and to bring in life-giving oxygen. Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint rending cramps, intermediate partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from the lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber, and the agony continues. A deep gushing pain in his chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart.
It's now almost over. The loss of the tissue fluid has reached critical level, and the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to grasp in small gulps of air.
The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. The Passion of the Christ captured that look, but that's not the worst part. Verse 45, and now from the sixth hour, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. Three hours of darkness. He's on the cross for six, but the three hours are now darkness. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cries out with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. In the other accounts, and especially from the book of Psalms, I actually believe personally that he cried out that for three hours from noon till three. Over and over, he screamed it out.
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, he is paying the price, not the physical price, the spiritual price. He is paying the spiritual price for all sin. See, it was this that he said in the garden, Father, let this cup pass from me. You see, it wasn't the physical torture of the cross, which was overwhelming, that had Jesus concerned. It was this, being separated from the Father, experiencing the wrath of God, the wrath of God for your sin, my sin, all sin, all time.
What is that? I have no idea. And some of those were standing there, and when they heard it, they said, This man's calling for Elijah. And immediately, one of them ran, taking a sponge filled with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the rest of them said, Let us see whether Elijah will come and save him. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. Well, we know what he cried out. Tetalestai, it is finished.
That's what John writes. Tetalestai, it is finished. What's finished? Atonement.
The cost for forgiveness is finished. You sure? Yes, look what happens. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split. If you've heard me teach on this before, Josephus writes that that veil or curtain in the temple between the holy place and the holy of holies was four inches thick of woven material. He wrote that chariots could not pull it apart. It had an enormous amount of weight to it. And he said as soon as he says it is finished, it just tears open from top to bottom.
Why? We've been reconciled with God. You see, now a human being can go into the presence of God. The whole creation has changed.
Notice he says that the earth shook and the rocks were split, and then this little symbol of what it means in the long run. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. And coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered the holy city and appeared to many. The dead were raised.
Why? The cost for forgiveness has been paid. Now the centurion who had overseen many, many crucifixions, and he says, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, they became very frightened, and they said, here's what he said, truly, he says, this was the Son of God. That's what happened. He was so moved by the event, he goes, this isn't somebody just dying of crucifixion.
This is something extremely different. That's the cost of forgiveness. You see, the question is, why did Jesus have to die?
Time Magazine, by the way, several years ago, offered that up. Why did Jesus have to die? And he asked Christians to respond, and so Christians did.
And here's what Christians said when they were asked this question in letters in an upcoming issue of Time. Jesus attempted to show us that death is not the end. Secondly, Jesus came to show us God the Father. Thirdly, Jesus died to show us how life works and to empower us to live fully now and forever. Jesus stood up to the injustices of the world and was crushed in the process. Now, in some way, almost all those statements have some truth, but that's not what Isaiah said. Isaiah said he was pierced for our transgressions. He died for our iniquities.
You see, that's what he said. You see, that's what Jesus did. Romans 3.23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 6.23, and the wages of sin is death. That's why John wrote in John 3.36, He that believes in the Son, just like the Ethiopian eunuch, has life. He that does not believe in the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him. You see, that's why Jesus Christ said something that no other religious leader has ever said, when he said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one will come to the Father but through me.
That's an incredible statement. Guys like Mohammed or Buddha, they'd say, I think I know a way. I think if you do a bunch of things and jump through religious hoops, you might be able to impress God enough, he'll let you in. There's a lot of religious ways to maybe appease God, but there's only one who said, I am the way. Because I died here physically and spiritually. I paid the price for God's forgiveness. There's no other name given among men by which we must be saved.
Let me illustrate how you do that. Gary Engrig is a Dallas Theological Seminary graduate and pastor. He's also a Canadian. And he and his wife went on a tour of Europe called the Reformation Tour. And the tour was to begin in Prague in the Czech Republic because of John Huss, who was really the first light of the Reformation. And so Engrig picks up the story as they're trying to get into Prague. He says, as the routine process dragged on, it became evident that something was wrong.
Elizabeth, that's his wife, and I are Canadians. And as it turned out, Canada and the Czech Republic did not have at that time a reciprocal arrangement that waived the need for visas. No one had told us that we needed a visa to enter the country. That seemed annoying, but surely could have been solved easy enough. Little did we know. We were sent over to the appropriate office, and I was frustrated that this was going to eat up some precious time. But I assumed that we would be given a way to deal with the problem. That wasn't to be. The immigration officer in charge had, I am convinced, failed whatever charm course such officials received.
His approach to me was very direct. You need visa to enter Czech Republic. We didn't know that. Nobody told us. Doesn't matter. Need visa. Can we get one here? Not possible. But we're booked on a tour.
We're only staying two days. Doesn't matter. Need visa.
But the rest of our group got through. Doesn't matter. Need visa. Can we talk to anyone? Need it before you came. Too late here. Need visa.
What are we supposed to do? Doesn't matter. Stay in airport. Fly away.
Need visa. He says whatever you may say about his style, he left no doubt about his meaning. We were not going to get into the Czech Republic. It didn't matter that we didn't know the rules. It didn't matter that we were sincere. It didn't matter that we were with Americans, looked like Americans, sounded like Americans, at least most of the time, lived with Americans, and were just as good and moral as the Americans. Americans got in without a visa. We were Canadians, and Canadians didn't. We made calls to the tour director, to the Canadian embassy, and to the Czech officials.
The message was unanimous. We're not getting in. We need visa. We ended up, he says, having to fly back to Germany.
We met our tour when it arrived in Leipzig. It turned out to be only a brief glitch and a very enjoyable trip. But I couldn't help but think of the spiritual parallels as I sat watching others get in while I couldn't. It doesn't matter one bit to that immigration officer what kind of person I was, or how I measured up to the other people who were going to go through. He didn't care how many degrees I had, what positions I held, what honors I had received, or what testimonials I could produce from other people. He wasn't impressed by the stamps in my passport from the other countries that allowed me to enter.
All that mattered was that I needed a visa to enter the Czech Republic, and I didn't have it. He says then, I know that the analogy is far from perfect, but I couldn't help but think about what happens when we die. One day, each one of us will stand, as it were, at passport control in heaven.
Let me warn you ahead of time so that you will not be in the position I find myself in. A visa is required. Your passport must have the stamp that says, Forgiven by God through faith in the Lord Jesus. He said the good news is the stamp isn't hard to get. He says you can get it right now by putting your trust in the Lord Jesus as your Savior and Lord. He has made available through the wonder of the cross a costly but complete forgiveness. God's forgiveness is wonderful. It's free. Boy, it's costly.
If you've never received it, get the visa. And if you have, don't take it for granted. Not ever. It's just too precious.
Let's pray. Father, I think even as Christians, sometimes we have a romantic notion of the cross. Maybe we've seen too many movies or seen pictures and books that there is this sort of quiet, subdued figure hanging on a cross and just being waited to be ushered into heaven. But, Father, that's not what the cross was like at all. It was horrible. It was brutal.
Physically, spiritually. He experienced the wrath of man and the wrath of God. And he did so for just one reason.
Not because he had to, but because he wanted to. Father, I pray that if somebody here has never really received the forgiveness that is so costly but so free to us that they do so, just like the Ethiopian eunuch. He just simply said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Father, for those of us who are believers, please, Father, have us not take it for granted. We need passages like this every once in a while to remind us just how precious we are in your sight.
The price that your Son was willing to pay for us. And the wonder of the cross and the forgiveness that is ours. We thank you in Christ's name.
Amen. 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.
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That's fbcnola.org. 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. .
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