The Purpose of His Passion | Part 2

of Jesus Christ.

Listen to Adrian Rogers. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring the insightful teaching of pastor and author Adrian Rogers. 700 years before Jesus suffered and died upon the cross for our sins. The purpose of his passion was prophesied in Isaiah chapter 53. In part one of today's message, we recognize that Jesus died on the cross as our substitute. Our sinfulness separates us from a holy God.

There is no possible way for a just God to overlook our unjust sin. In order to punish sin, yet love the sinner at the same time, God sent his only son Jesus to reconcile the world. If you have your Bible, turn to Isaiah 53 as Adrian Rogers shares part two of the purpose of his passion. The first is this, the substitutionary purpose of the cross.

Get it down. If you don't understand that the purpose of the cross was a substitution for us, then you'll miss the whole thing. doing was conditioning his people for Calvary. What he was showing them by the shed blood of these innocent animals is, without shedding of blood, it is no remission. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it must surely die. Sin means death. Sin means death. Sin means death. It is a conditioned response in the Old Testament to one of these days the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the fulfillment of all of this, came and John said, Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world and he died for the unjust that he might bring us to God.

That's what it is all about, my friend. There is the substitutionary purpose of the Gospel. And so the Lord Jesus Christ hung his head and died there on the day when the Passover lamps were being slain on Passover. Jesus died because he was the fulfillment. There on that same limestone ridge where those priests were putting to death those little innocent lambs, the Lamb of God, the Son of God was there, there on that same limestone ridge, Mount Moriah, where so long ago God told Abraham, God will provide himself a lamb. Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and was glad. That's what Abraham saw, Mount Moriah, so long ago.

Jesus dying in agony and blood and when Jesus Christ died upon that cross, he said, It's done. It's finished. Now I want to say to all you Levitical priests out there on Mount Moriah now, your work is over. You put away your knives.

Go home. We don't need any more lambs. We don't need any more sacrifice.

The Lamb has died and is paid in full. Now here's the second thing. We're talking first of all about the substitutionary purpose of the cross. The second thing I want you to see is the suffering passion of the cross, the suffering passion of the cross. Our text says Christ also hath once suffered, once suffered, Jesus suffered, in the words of another.

Tongue cannot tell, throat cannot sing, hand cannot paint the tragedy that was enacted on that hill called Calvary. Only the damned in hell can begin to know the sufferings of the Lord Jesus upon that cross. Sin brings suffering.

As night follows day. I want you to think of the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ upon that cross. Think first of all of the emotional sufferings of Jesus.

Think of dark Gethsemane. Think of Jesus there in agony in Gethsemane. I'm going to give you some scriptures.

You don't have time to turn to them, but I want you to write them down. Luke 22 verses 40 and 41. And when he was at that place, he said unto them, Pray ye that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled and prayed. This place where Jesus is praying is called Gethsemane.

The word Gethsemane literally means olive press. And you're going to see that it speaks symbolically of pressure because Jesus Christ here is going through extreme emotional pressure. Jesus has been with the disciples on Mount Zion for what we call the Last Supper. And now Jesus leaves Mount Zion and he goes across the city of Jerusalem and he goes down into a valley, the Valley of Kedron that separates Mount Zion and the Temple Mount from the Mount of Olives. As he crosses that Brook Kedron, scholars tell us that most likely it was flowing red with blood because it was there into which the extraneous blood of the sacrifices was drained. When he crossed that crimson stream, doubtless it spoke to him about his own blood that was going to be poured out very soon. He went up into a little secret place there where he prayed there beneath the old olive trees and he began to pray.

And I want you to see what he is praying. He is praying, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. He spoke of a cup. It was not a literal cup.

It is a metaphor. He had an experience that he had to partake of and it was called the cup. Now, what was in that cup? What was it that the Lord Jesus Christ was shrinking back from? What was it that Jesus was asking the Father to take from him? Now, listen, the pollution of sin was in that cup. For he, God, hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? He is the sinless, spotless, stainless Lamb of God. But he is going to be made sin.

All of the sin of the world is going to be distilled upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And that cup to drink, blasphemy settled in that cup. Rape and adultery and sexual perversion settled in that cup. Child abuse and wife beating settled in that cup. Hitler's gas ovens settled in that cup. The murder of innocent children by abortion settled in that cup. Drug abuse settled in that cup. Panic worship and murder settled in that cup. Pride, lust, envy, and self-righteousness settled in that cup. And Jesus would bear all of that. Think of your sin, my sin, alone.

That's in that cup. Compound that by the sin of all of the people in this city and then by all of the people in all of the cities. Then by that by all of the people in all of the cities in all of the world.

Compound that by all of the people who've ever lived and whoever will live. All of that sin was in that cup. The pollution of sin was in that cup, that filthy sin Jesus would put to his sinless lips. Not only was the pollution of sin, but the punishment of sin was in that cup. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

Some translations give it to crush him. Romans chapter 8 verse 32 speaks of God the Father. And it says, He spared not his own son. God the Father held back nothing. When Jesus Christ was to be our substitute, He took the full force of the Father's wrath.

Listen to me, precious friend. The fires of God's wrath burned themselves out on the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary. No one ever suffered like the Lord Jesus. He, the Son of God, who had been in the bosom of the Father for all eternity, now is not only abandoned by the Father, but has become the object of the Father's loathing and wrath. All the sin of the world was distilled into that cup. People say, how could Jesus in that period of time suffer an eternity of hell?

The reason is this. He, being infinite, suffered in a finite period of time. He, being finite, would suffer in an infinite period of time. The eternities were compressed upon Jesus. The sins of the world were distilled upon Jesus. You cannot begin to imagine the emotional suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder He lay there prostrate on the ground with red blood and black dirt on His face, saying, Father, if I see some other way, please let this cup pass from me. And the silence from heaven said, there is no other way.

And the dear Savior said, then not my will, but thine be done. The Bible says in Luke 22, verse 44, in being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. The word agony speaks of a contest.

In that language, the Agon was a wrestling match. Jesus is in agony. He is wrestling. What is He wrestling with? Not with God the Father.

He wants the will of God the Father. Who is He wrestling with? Not with Satan. Satan had nothing in him.

Who is He wrestling with? With His own humanity. Friend, don't get the idea that Jesus just strolled to the cross and said, I'm God.

This doesn't bother me. No, never, no, never, no, never, never, ever understand the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ upon that cross. Christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust. He saw you. He saw me. He saw our need. And He said, no price is too great to pay. There was the emotional suffering. There was the physical suffering upon that cross. John 19, verse 1, then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him. A scourging was a terrible thing.

A man's wrists are tied to a column. Two volunteers, probably psychopaths who volunteered for the job, demented people who took pleasure in causing pain, began to scourge the Lord Jesus Christ to whip him. One would start at the nape of the neck and work downward.

One would start at the ankles and work upward. They used rods and then they used something called a flagellum, which we call a cat of nine tails, a sturdy handle with leather thongs and bits of bone and glass and lead in there that would tear away the flesh. These were experienced soldiers.

These were artists. They knew how to lay the veins bare. They knew how to tear away the flesh without disemboweling the person. It was not meant to put him to death, but to beat him so near to death that he could never walk away.

No one ever walked away. Some crawled away. Most were dragged away. And after the scourging, then he's taken there to the dungeon and the soldiers abuse him, put a crown of thorns upon his head, beat him with bamboo clubs, blindfold him, strike him with their fists, jerk the beard from his face, spit in his face and mock him.

He's already been given false trials, six of them, every one of them a mockery of justice. They lead him out along the way of sorrows to Calvary and they nail him on the cross. A crucifixion was meant to cause the person to flirt with death, to extend death as long as they could. They would put searing nails through the separated metacarpals trying to find the median nerve because if they could touch that nerve, it would cause fiery pain to shoot up the body. They would dislocate the arms so as to stretch them out.

Can you imagine what it would be to have your shoulders dislocated? Then that individual is nailed to the cross and then also tied most of the time to the cross to keep the flesh from tearing. And then the knees are bent and the feet are nailed to a post and a protrusion so that you can push with your feet.

The idea is this. The individual has his arms extended at 90 degrees. When that cross is dropped into the hole, the arms go up to 65 degrees. The weight comes down upon the chest. The victim cannot breathe. He's suffocating so he must push with his legs in order to breathe. When he does, the pain comes up the legs and the nails that are holding him to the cross cause excruciating pain.

Again, when he's relaxed, the suffocation begins and the pain shoots through the median nerves there and this individual is there with nausea and pain and shock and loss of blood and every nerve, every nerve is a pathway for the feet of pain. Another word, excruciating. Excruciate means out of the cross. Cruse is cross, excruciating, out of the cross. The Latin word excrutiatus is put into English which means out of the cross.

Jesus is dying in agony and blood. I've talked to you, listen, I've talked to you about the substitutionary purpose. I've talked to you, friend, about the suffering passion. Now, what about the subtle provision of the cross?

Look at our text again, look at it. Christ also hath once suffered, once suffered, not twice, one time, hallelujah, it'll never happen again. When he died upon that cross, he said, it is finished. And what that means is it is paid in full. If a man were put in prison for a crime, they would take a certificate of debt and nail it to his prison door. This is what he has done, this is his crime, this is the penalty. After he pays society his debt, they take that writing that is against him and they bring it to the judge. The judge says, has he done his time? Has he paid his price?

Yes. Then the judge writes across that thing, tetelestai, paid in full, finished, and gives it to the man. And the man, if he's ever arrested again for the crime, says, now wait a minute, wait a minute, you can't condemn me.

That crime has been paid for. Now, what Jesus said on the cross when he hung his head and died is, tetelestai, it is finished, it is paid in full. And, friend, when the devil comes to taunt you, since Jesus died for you, you can say, see that? That is my bill of deliverance, my price has been paid. He hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. Now, that brings me to the final point, and that is the saving power of the cross.

Look at it again. Christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust that might bring us to God, bring us to God. The Greek word there for bring is prosego. And what it means is to take someone and bring them to another person. It was often used when a person would bring a man, a woman, into the throne room. I've had a privilege, not that I deserve it, but to be in the Oval Office.

There's not this much. If you get invited to the Oval Office, I'll tell you what will happen. You will not just go walk in. Someone will bring you in. Someone will meet you and take you and bring you in.

You don't just walk in. And I tell you, when you come into heaven's throne room, there's one who will take you by the hand and bring you in. His name is Jesus. That he might bring us, that he might bring us to God, but by the blood of his cross, he hath reconciled God and man. A man imagined himself dying and wanting into heaven. But he's watching others as they're trying to get into heaven. One man knocks on heaven's door. The voice within said, who is it that seeks entrance into heaven? And what is the password? The man said, I'm a moral man. What is the password? He said, honesty. The voice within said, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I never knew you. Another knocked, who is it that seeks entrance into heaven? And what is the password? He said, I am a humanitarian. What is the password? Charity, love for the poor. The voice within said, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I never knew you. One knocked, who is it that seeks entrance into heaven? And what is the password? I am a religious man. What is the password?

Church attendance, offerings, baptism, ritual. The voice within said, depart from me. Ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. At last one came and knocked. The voice within said, who is it that seeks entrance into heaven?

And what is the password? The man said, in my hand no price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. And the voice within said, open wide the gates and let him in. For of such is the kingdom of heaven. He also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.

That's what it's all about. Now, Jesus wants to take you by the hand and bring you to God. And the way he will do that is through the sacrifice of Calvary. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Would you like to be saved?

Would you? I mean today, now, right now, forever and ever and ever. Would you like to become a child of God? Heaven born and heaven bound. Then I invite you to pray this way. Lord Jesus, you are the just and I am the unjust. And you suffered, bled and died to bring me to God.

I open my heart. I receive you now by faith as my Lord and Savior. Save me today, Lord Jesus. I want to be your child. I want to be in the family of God.

I want you to live in my life and let me live my life through you and for you. And I want to be received into heaven. Save me, Jesus. Pray that, friends. Save me, Lord Jesus.

Did you ask him? Then pray this way. Thank you for doing it. And begin now to make me the person you want me to be. In your name I pray, amen.

Amen. And if you've prayed to receive Jesus just now, let us celebrate with you. Go to our Find God's Love page at the website. There you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith. Simply go to lwf.org slash radio and click the tab that says Find God's Love.

Welcome to his forever family. We can't wait to hear from you today. Now if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD.

Mention the title, The Purpose of His Passion. Now this message is also part of the insightful series, Victory in Jesus. For the complete collection, all seven powerful messages, call that number 1-877-LOVEGOD. Or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio. Or write us at Love Worth Finding, box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. You may not know, you can also purchase our new Bible studies, much like this message, in our online store.

For information on that, go to the website, lwf.org forward slash radio. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the atonement of our sins, whose death brings us to God and makes us alive? Remember his passion and the purpose of the cross. Share your faith with others today. And join us again next time for more from Adrian Rogers, right here on Love Worth Finding. A donor reached out to us recently and said this, For years I lived out of God's will and was a disgrace to grace. Dr. Rogers' messages have greatly turned my life around. And I now often use material from Dr. Rogers' writings and sermons in devotions I give. You know, at Love Worth Finding, our mission is to help Christians grow deeper in their faith through the timeless teachings of pastor and author, Adrian Rogers. And when you donate to Love Worth Finding right now, we'd love to send you a copy of the book, His Story. This insightful resource is sure to give hope and straightforward truth that will help you grow and mature in Christ. Request a copy when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online, again, lwf.org slash radio. And thanks for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.