John 19:1-7
1 – Then Pilate took Jesus and had Him flogged.
2 – The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head. They clothed Him in a purple robe
3 – and went up to Him again and again, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck Him in the face.
4 – Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing Him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against Him.”
5 – When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the Man!”
6 – As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw Him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take Him and crucify Him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against Him.”
7 – The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law He must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God.”
John 19:16-18
16 – Finally Pilate handed Him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus.
17 – Carrying His own cross, He went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called GOLGOTHA).
18 – Here they crucified Him, and with Him two others-one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
John 19:23-24
23 – When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 – Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.” This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said, “They divided My garments among them and cast lots for My clothing.”
John 19:28-30
28 – Later, knowing that all was not completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
29 – A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
30 – When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Have you ever stopped to ponder the lyrics of the old hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross?” Listen to the words of the familiar chorus:
“So, I’ll CHERISH the Old Rugged Cross, ’til my trophies at last I lay down,
I will CLING to the Old Rugged Cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.”
When I was a little boy I frowned whenever I saw that hymn in the order of service because it was too slow for my musical tastes. I liked peppier hymns like “Send the Light” or even better, one of the “hot” new choruses like “Pass It On” or “He’s Everything to Me.” But I noticed that the older people in my church loved it when we sang, “The Old Rugged Cross.” In fact many times I would see tears run down my own mother’s face as she sang it’s well-known words. I remember wondering back then, why this hymn was so popular with older people. I puzzled over what it was that my mother and her peers saw in those words because to be honest, they seemed kind of odd to me. I mean, think about it…how could a person CHERISH an apparatus of execution? It’s like singing, “So I’ll cherish the guillotine”or, “So I’ll treasure the electric chair.” And, why would anyone want to CLING to a rugged old splintery beam of blood-soaked wood?
Well, when I became a Christian and began to mature in my walk with Christ I came to understand why the words to this hymn are so moving. Now I too am moved when I sing them and as we begin HOLY WEEK this year I would like us all to remind ourselves why these words are so accurate in describing the feelings of Christians. I want us to review why it is that for 2000 years now Christians have indeed CHERISHED and CLUNG to the cross of Jesus Christ. I can think of four reasons.(1) First of all, we treasure the cross because we know that on it a SUBSTITUTION took place.
In other words, we believe that Jesus was our substitute. He died in our place. We know that on that cross Jesus took the punishment that you and I deserved. The Bible gives us a great example to help us see this truth…in the unexpected pardon of a convicted criminal named “Barrabas.” Remember? In an attempt to appease the Jews when they demanded Jesus’ death, Pilate, the Roman Governor, offered to release one prisoner: Jesus—–or Barrabas, a convicted felon. The people called for Barrabas and Jesus went to the cross. Imagine how Barrabas felt that first Good Friday. As he rubbed his wrists-chaffed by being in shackles-and looked up at the center cross standing atop Golgotha, he must have realized that Jesus was dying on that cross in his place-that our Lord was receiving the sentence he deserved.
And, you know, you and I can know exactly how Barabas felt because Jesus did the same thing for us. He died in OUR place. He paid for OUR sin. He took OUR judgement on Himself. On the cross, Jesus became our SUBSTITUTE and this is one reason that blood soaked wood is so precious to us. You see, before Christ died in our place you and I and all people were in a desperate situation. Due to our sin we were separated from our HOLY God.
In fact the Bible teaches that we were at enmity with Him. R. C. Sproul puts it this way, “The natural enemy of the sinner is One Who is holy, and not only holy but powerful, and not only powerful but just, and not only just but omniscient, not only omniscient but immutably so.” And God is all these things, so we had a problem. Because of our sin and disobedience we faced separation from God and death but God had a plan. Jesus would come and take our punishment on Himself. He would take our separation from God…our death on Himself…and this is exactly what happened on that old rugged cross. 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “[God] made Him Who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The Living Bible puts it this way, “God took the sinless Christ and poured our sins into Him.” Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” 1 Peter 3:18 says, “Christ died for our sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous.” All these verses underscore the amazing truth that on the cross Jesus paid the price for our defiance of God’s law. He WAS our substitute.
I read this week that General Dwight D. Eisenhower spent the night before the D-Day invasion with the men of the 101st Airborne Division. As the men prepared their planes and checked their equipment, Ike went from soldier to soldier offering words of encouragement. Many of the men were young enough to be his sons and he treated them as if they were. One correspondent wrote that as Eisenhower watched the C-47s take off and disappear into the darkness on their way to their destination behind enemy lines, his hands were sunk deeply into his pockets and his eyes were full of tears. Then, when the last plane was no longer visible, the general went to his quarters and sat at his desk. He took a pen and paper and wrote a message-one that would be delivered to the WHITE HOUSE in the event of a defeat on the beaches of Normandy. The note was as brief as it was courageous. He wrote, “Our landings have failed. The troops, the Air, and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches itself to the attempt, it was mine and mine alone.”
Now, with this action, General Eisenhower took responsibility for the actions of those soldiers who were far below him in rank. He modeled a quality seldom seen in our modern society of lawsuits, dismissals, and divorces. You see, most of us are willing to take credit for the good we do. SOME are willing to take the rap for the BAD they do. But few will assume the responsibilities for the mistakes of others. And even fewer still will shoulder the blame for mistakes that have not even been committed yet. But that is what General Eisenhower did.
And to a magnitude that is INFINITELY greater, this is what Jesus did for us on the cross. Long before time began in fact, He loved you and me and every human that would ever be born to the extent that He was willing to take the blame-the punishment of our sins upon Himself. So, Jesus’ death on the cross was a SUBSTITUTION because He died in our place.
And then, a second reason we cherish the cross of Christ is because….
2. …we know that it has provided us with EMANCIPATION from the power of sin.
Now, think about that…what POWER does sin have? Well, first of all, sin has the power to kill us. As Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin-the consequence of sin-is death.” And since we all sin, we all die. As someone once said, “The statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one people die.”
As a pastor, whenever I conduct a funeral, the undertaker always gives me a little card. It’s about three inches wide and six inches long. It’s called the CLERGYMAN’S RECORD and it lists the basic facts about the person who has died. It tells if they were married, how many children and grandchildren they had. It records the place and time of the funeral and burial and it also includes the individual’s birth date and their DEATH DATE. Well, the fact is some day an undertaker will hand a card with your death date on it to a clergyman like me. I know that is not a pleasant thing to contemplate. I mean death is something all sinners dread. In fact, we do all we can to avoid it.
Our culture invests billions of dollars in vain attempts to extend life because we are enslaved by this fear of death.
But Christians know that the Bible teaches a wonderful thing. It says that on the cross Jesus died so that we can live. It teaches that because of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection three days later, we need not fear death. God’s Word proclaims the wonderful, EMANCIPATING truth that whoever puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ, “…will not perish but have everlasting life.” ( John 3:16 ) 1 Corinthians 15:21 says, “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a Man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” This understanding is what inspired Paul to write, “Death where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Cor. 15:55) You see, the cross forever freed us from the fear of death. From the perspective the cross gives us, death is only gain.
A prominent citizen in town was dying. As he lay in his lovely home, the best doctors surrounding him, he whispered, with a note of despair, “I’m leaving home, I’m leaving home.” Across town there lay another person who was also on her deathbed. Her modest home was just a shack. She had no doctors tending to her as she faced death. But, in her eye there was a gleam. Before she died she was heard to say, “I’m going home. I’m going home.”
The difference between these two perspectives was of course that the poor woman was a Christian. Long ago she had “clung” to the Cross of Christ. We do the same because what happened on that cross 2000 years ago frees us from the fear of death.
But it frees us from something else. It also frees us from the fear of life. You see before Jesus died on the cross of calvary, mankind was in bondage to sin-a truly terrifying way to live. Before we became Christians every moment of every day we were powerless when it came to withstanding the temptations that come with living in a fallen world. But the cross changed all that. As Paul writes in Romans 6 Paul, “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died had been freed from sin. Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace.” ( Romans 6:6-7, 14 )
As this text and dozens of others like it say, thanks to the cross of Christ we have access to God’s power…power that enables us to say NO to sin. Through His death Jesus freed us from its tyranny and made it possible for us to pursue holiness and righteousness. We can at last be all that God intends us to be. We can now experience “…life in all its fullness.” ( John 10:10 )
Charles Swindoll puts it this way, “Each moment of every day we choose whom we wish to follow. If it’s the Savior, the benefits are many. If it is sin, the consequences are destructive and miserable. Before Christ, we had no choice. Sin was our one and only route. All of life was marked by unrighteousness. But once we came to the Cross and gave the Lord Jesus the right to rule our lives, we were granted a choice we never had before. Grace freed us from the requirement to serve sin, allowing us the opportunity to follow Christ’s directives voluntarily.”
In his book, Fresh Faith, Jim Cymbala shares the testimony of CALVIN HUNT, one of the lead tenors in their world famous Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. Calvin has a powerful voice and in fact has recorded two CD’s of his own. He has a loving wife a great job a son and three lovely daughters but things were not always this wonderful for Calvin. You see, years ago both he and his wife Miriam were addicted to crack cocaine. Every week they would spend his entire paycheck financing their habit. Eventually, due to the influence of her brothers, who were Christians, Miriam gave up her habit and put her faith in Christ. But Calvin refused to do so and continued his life of bondage to this powerful addiction. His drug use eventually caused him to lose his job. He would spend long periods on binges away from the family.
In spite of this Miriam’s faith grew and as it did she dedicated herself to praying for her husband. In fact the entire church prayed that Calvin would come to Christ and be freed from the power of sin in his life. Miriam said, “I knew Calvin was in a prison. Being an ex-addict myself-I had done heroin before I ever met him-I knew the unbelievable power of this kind of substance. That’s why I prayed so hard, crying out to God to set him free, and got all my friends to pray with me. Every mealtime prayer with my kids, every bedtime prayer included, ‘O God, please set Daddy free!'”
Three years passed and Calvin got worse instead of better. At one point he was actually sleeping in a large dog house in somebody’s backyard. It became Calvin’s practice to sneak into their apartment on the nights that he knew Miriam and the girls were at church to get food and clothing or to find things to sell to finance his habit. On one such night, he heard someone weeping. He thought that perhaps someone was home after all but he looked and found no one. He started to lie down for a nap but something inside him seemed to say, “If you go to sleep tonight, you’ll never wake up again.” This caused him to panic and he ran from the apartment to the subway where he caught the train that would take him to the church so he could find his family. When he finally arrived at the church he burst through the back doors and when he did he heard the same sounds of weeping he had heard in the apartment earlier, only much louder. He discovered that the sound of weeping was coming from the entire congregation. All of them were in earnest prayer, calling out HIS name to God in faith! He was thunderstruck as he slowly moved down the aisle, gazing at the tears running down the faces of the people as they bowed and prayed, “O God, wherever Calvin Hunt is, bring him to this building! Don’t let this family go through this horror another day. Lord, You are able! Set him free from his bondage once and for all!”
Soon Calvin found himself at the front, directly before the pulpit. The pastor in charge opened his eyes, took one glance and then gazed upward toward heaven as he said into the microphone, “Thank you Lord! Thank you Jesus! Here he is!” With that, the congregation opened their eyes and saw Calvin and when they did, they went absolutely crazy. Think about it! They had been calling upon the Lord to bring Calvin to himself and it was happening right before their eyes! Falling on his knees, Calvin burst into uncontrollable sobs. Miriam and the girls came to huddle around him as he prayed, “O God, I don’t want to be this way. Please come into my life and set me free. O Jesus I need You so much!” That night was the turning point for Calvin because that was the night that he clung to the precious Cross of Christ. It hasn’t always been easy for him. He went through a very difficult six month treatment program and there have been numerous times that he was tempted but he has found that every time he has faced temptation, when he turned to Jesus for strength, he found it.
And down through the centuries all who have turned to Christ have discovered what Calvin did that through the cross God gives us the power to be free from the bondage of sin. Thanks to Calvary when we are tempted to sin we can, “…approach the throne of grace with confidence, and receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need…” ( Hebrews 4:16 ) For this reason we cling to that wood as someone clings to a life preserver after falling overboard!
And then, a third reason we cherish the cross is because…
3. …we have found it to be the clearest REVELATION of God’s great love for us all.
I think many people know John 3:16 by heart, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” But if you have ever wondered if those familiar words were really true…if you have ever questioned whether or not God really did love humanity that much, then you need only look at the cross. For the cross leaves no room for doubt. He DOES love us! The cross is the tangible, historical evidence of this fact! It does not say WHY God loves us, but it does answer “How much?” I love the way the Contemporary English Version translates Romans 5:8 . It says, “God showed HOW MUCH He loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.”
Max Lucado writes, “When asked to describe the width of His love, Jesus stretched one hand to the right and the other to the left and had them nailed in that position, so you would know He died loving you.”
And you know, not only does the cross provide undeniable proof of God’s great love. It also shows us HOW LONG He has loved us. As I inferred earlier, Jesus’ death on Golgotha was part of the plan all along. Acts 2 records that on Pentecost Sunday the Apostle Peter included this fact in his sermon by saying, “Jesus was given to you and you put Him to death by nailing Him to a cross. But this was God’s plan which He had made long ago; He knew this would happen.”
Lucado puts it this way, “The journey to Jerusalem didn’t begin in Jericho. It didn’t begin in Galilee. It didn’t begin in Nazareth. It didn’t even begin in Bethlehem. The journey to the cross began long before. As the echo of the crunching of the fruit was still sounding in the Garden of Eden, Jesus was leaving for Calvary.” This truth is seen in the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross had been prophesied for hundreds of years. Later in his sermon Peter said, “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.” ( Acts 3:18 )
Search the Old Testament Scriptures and you will find that Peter was right. For, there are numerous prophecies, inescapable references to the death of the Savior. Some date as far back as nine centuries before the birth of Christ, a time in which crucifixion was not even known and yet they describe the death Jesus was to die in stark detail. For example in Psalm 22 David gives us this description of the Savior’s death: “For dogs have surrounded Me; a band of evildoers has encompassed Me; They pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones. They look, they stare at Me; They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” ( Psalm 22:16-18 ) So, the cross shows that God has loved each of us from the dawn of time. That cross beam helps us to understand what Jeremiah 31:3 means when it says that God has, “…..loved us with an everlasting love!”
So, we cling to-we cherish-the cross because we know that Jesus died there as our substitute and because through the cross Jesus freed us from the power of sin and because it is the clearest revelation of God’s love…
4. …but perhaps the most important reason the cross of Christ is so highly valued is because we see it as God’s INVITATION to all to enter into relationship with Him.
Through the cross God says to all people, “Turn from your sin and return to Me. I want to walk with you through life, just as I walked through the garden with Adam and Eve. I want to guide you when you face tough decisions. I want to bear your burdens and share your joys. I want you to know Me. I want things to be as they were before sin came into the world.”
This is what God said through the prophet Isaiah, “Come let us reason together…though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they be read like crimson, they shall be as wool.” ( Isaiah 1:18 ) Jesus Himself spoke of the cross as God’s invitation when He said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. When I am lifted up from the earth, [WHEN I AM LIFTED ONTO THE CROSS] I will draw all men to Myself. [In so doing I will invite all men into relationship with God.]” ( John 3:14-15, 12 ;32)
This morning I invite you to respond to God’s invitation. If you have never accepted Jesus as YOUR substitute. If you are still in bondage bound by your fear of death, enslaved by the power of sin, then I challenge you to respond to God’s great love in sending His Son to die on that OLD RUGGED CROSS. I believe that right now God’s spirit is inviting you that Jesus is knocking on your heart’s door and if that is true…then I urge you to open the door and let Him come in to your heart and life. If you are here and are a Christian in search of a good church home, and if you feel that God is inviting you to become a part of our church family then I urge you to come as well…join us as we lift high the cross of Christ in this community. However it is that God is leading you to respond, we invite you to do so right now as we stand and sing by walking forward and sharing your decision with me.