We Believe Series 1 Lesson 4 We Believe that Jesus Suffered under Pilate, Was Cruci;ied, Dead and Buried

Transcription

1 We Believe Series 1 Lesson 4 We Believe that Jesus Suffered under Pilate, Was Cruci;ied, Dead and Buried Objective: To understand what we are called to believe as followers of Christ more precisely and more deeply. This is not just an exercise in mental acumen, but a quest to deepen and enrich our relationship with God, our relationship with His people and how we relate to His mission. We hope to understand more deeply and fully what it means to be Christian, how this means we are unique. We are called to be the people of God and this does mean that there will be some differences in how we react to situations, to others, and to each other. We are called to be a people that is set apart for God (1 Peter 2:9). Materials: The Bible, Books, journal articles, dictionaries, the internet and other resources as may be appropriate. Procedures 1. To explore why we believe certain things from a Biblical perspective. 2. Next we will hope to understand more fully the nature of our God and in so doing comprehend his call upon our existence in order to fulnill our destiny as image-bearers. 3. We will seek to Nind out how these beliefs have played a role in the history of Christianity and how they continue to impact our existence and service to Him today. 4. We will provide a sheet to take home as a reminder of what has been examined and to provide additional opportunities for consideration of these truths and application in our daily living out of our eternal destiny beginning now. This sheet can also be used as a discussion guide for small group discussion. PAGE 1 OF 18

2 In this section of the creed the issue of the suffering, the death and the burial of Christ are the topic. This is perhaps the only uncontested fact that exists about Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was crucinied in Jerusalem sometime around A.D. 30. His execution took place under pressure from the Jewish High Priest under the order of Pontius Pilate. This line of the Apostles Creed is probably the only line of this creed which even atheists can confess with a clear conscience. 1 As we examine this part of the creed there are a number of reasons that this statement is important to us, but in this historical event the most important reason that is of importance to us is that it actually happened in space and time in a way that calls us to recognize the great love of God for us. Jesus is not just about being some philosophy, or some ideology, He is real, His love is real and not just some form of abstraction. This love is demonstrated most powerfully and passionately in the cross, in real space and time, for real people (all people). It is of interest that the only reason most people even remember Pontius Pilate at all is because of his role in the death of 1 Michael F. Bird, What Christians Ought to Believe (Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2016), p PAGE 2 OF 18

3 Jesus. Why is the death of Jesus so important? After all people have been dying relentlessly throughout human history. Why then is there special signinicance in the death of Jesus? His death is remarkable for a number of reasons: 1. It is remarkable that the Son of God would die, or even could die. It is remarkable in that His death was voluntary and not forced on one that had no choice. He is the eternal Son of God and no one could take anything from Him by force. 2. It is remarkable due to the reason for His death. He died for all humanity to have a chance of restored relationship with God. 3. It is remarkable in that it is the Nirst time a truly innocent man ever died. 4. It is remarkable in its utter brutality and the humiliation that Jesus suffered in order to show us the heinous nature of sin. I will deal with each of these aspects separately. The Nirst of these is that no one takes the life of Jesus from Him. Jesus speaking about His life, says, in John 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father. Jesus, as the unique son of God has a power that is not available to other human beings, He has PAGE 3 OF 18

4 the power to lay down His life and without His consent no one has the power to take it from Him. What happens to Jesus, happens with His full consent. The Romans could do nothing to the one who spoke into existence matter, trees, iron, and even the air. No one had power, or control over Jesus. What happens to Him happens with His full consent. He lays down His life. Why would Jesus do such a thing? He does this because this was the only way for us (humanity) to have a hope of salvation and also because it shows us how much God cares. A part of us never quite believes that we can really be forgiven because our sin is so heinous. What could God do to insure that we understand that this is not true? He sent His Son to die for us, in our place, to pay our debt to sin, and the forces of darkness. That debt is fully paid and there is no sin that we could possibly commit that could overpower the magnitude of the gift of God. So often people see God as someone out to get them when they do something wrong: How far from the truth this is. God loves us so much that He lays down His life for us in Jesus. Our sin causes His death. 2 He would rather die Himself than innlict the just penalty that we deserve for 2 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 3:17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. NRSV. PAGE 4 OF 18

5 our sin. Not only does He prefer this, He does this to give us hope and a way to restore relationship. In that restored relationship is life, because God is the source of life. Jesus died in the battle raging between the kingdom of God and the powers of evil. The decisive battle in this connlict took place in Jerusalem. Many in Israel expected this to be the place of the decisive battle between the power of the Gentiles (Rome at this time) and the Kingdom of God (Israel). They expected this battle to look a lot like the battle had been almost two hundred years earlier when Judas Maccabaeus rode into Jerusalem and cleansed the temple of the denilement of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The rededication of the cleansed temple took place on the 25th of Kislev (December 14th), 164 B.C. In the battle conducted under the Maccabees the victory seemed great and the restoration of Israel seemed complete. They thought this was the beginning of the golden age when God would stand with Israel and they would rule the earth as His people, but it was not. That rebellion Nizzled and became something else, something less and the Romans came and occupied the Promised Land and Israel looked for another PAGE 5 OF 18

6 who would be their king, their liberator, their protector and their savior. In the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, Jesus does not enter with an army, or riding on a powerful steed like Judas Maccabaeus, but on a donkey, gentle and peacefully. Jesus will not Night the way men Night, He will not overcome evil with force of arms, or by killing others. Instead, Jesus takes the full force of cosmic evil upon himself and exhausts its power. His disciples did not understand His mission of love and suffering. Like most of their generation, and even ours, they want to see God s Niery wrath fall upon all those who reject His kingship. Even after all the time that the disciples spent with Jesus they still do not understand. Jesus time with His disciples is now short and there is a very urgent need for some intensive discipleship training. The disciples must learn what it truly means to be a follower of Jesus, in order to be able to continue what He has begun after He is taken from them. 3 In this intensive discipleship training the disciples are literally on their way to Jerusalem, they are on this journey, being 3 Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Second Edition (Grand Rapids MI: Baker Academic, 2004, 2014), p PAGE 6 OF 18

7 taught the way of discipleship. Their destination is the same as the destination of Jesus, (Jerusalem was always His destination, from the moment of His birth), which is suffering love, and rejection. Jesus teaches His disciples that to follow Him means to walk the way of the cross. 4 This way of the cross defeats evil by exhausting its power and relying in trust instead upon the power of God. This is the way that God defeats evil. This is evil s ultimate defeat. It takes the full force of all the force, the power and the deceptiveness that evil can muster and simply takes it until all of its force and energy are totally spent. Just as Roman power was defeated by Jesus, because it used its ultimate weapon on Jesus so too the ultimate power of evil is death, and death was defeated by Jesus. Death is not a weapon of God, it is the weapon of evil. 5 The death of Jesus brings an end to the dominion of death. His death defeated this great weapon of the enemy and brings and end to its reign of terror. Paul wrote in Romans 5:17-18 If, because of the one man s trespass, death exercised dominion 4 Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Second Edition, pp Wisdom 1:12-14 Do not invite death by the error of your life, or bring on destruction by the works of your hands; 13 because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. 14 For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. NRSV. PAGE 7 OF 18

8 through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man s act of righteousness leads to justi;ication and life for all. 6 With the death of Jesus comes the beginning of the end for the tyranny of evil. That evil is vanquished in the death of Jesus. He exhausts its full fury and on the third day He will rise to life again completely invulnerable to death, and those who would be His disciples were thus shown the way back to God in the cross. In the willingness, and in the action of laying down His life for another, Jesus shows us the way back to God. This is indeed the way of God that was out in the open for all to see from the very beginning and yet unrecognized humanity as His way. Jesus bursts that way open wide for all who would see to enter this way. 6 NRSV. PAGE 8 OF 18

9 In Genesis 2: God clearly warns man of another way, the wrong way. Yet, this was the path that all humanity took. 8 All those who have died did so as the result of sin in their life, and the sin of their ancestors Adam and Eve, and their failure to trust in God. Only one human being has ever failed to make that mistake and lived His life in total trust of God, that man was Jesus. He was the only man that death had no right to touch. Jesus trusted in God even when the way seemed hard and often there was a far easier path. The death of Jesus teaches us that the path of salvation rests in the way of the cross, the laying down of one s life for the other, the outsider, the undeserving. In truth, that is all of us, we are all unworthy, outside and part of the other. The way of discipleship is costly: it demands total commitment, complete 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 7 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. NRSV. 8 Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. NET. PAGE 9 OF 18

10 devotion and allegiance to Jesus and the kingdom of God (Luke 9:57-629). 10 To follow Jesus means to participate in His mission, to live out His purpose, to live for God and the Kingdom and to reject self and to choose Kingdom (Luke 10:1-24). Jesus says, 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. NRSV. The mission of the disciples of Christ, like that of Jesus, is to engage the powers of darkness by their words and actions. 11 The call of discipleship of Jesus is full and whole-hearted; leaving no room for complacency, or divided loyalty. 12 It is the call of Christ to the cross, to death to self, and the exhaustion of evil. Jesus died innocent, with no blood on His hands and He calls for His disciples to do the same. Evil must be resisted, but not for personal preservation, or for some 9 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. 58 And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. 59 To another he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, ;irst let me go and bury my father. 60 But Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. 61 Another said, I will follow you, Lord; but let me ;irst say farewell to those at my home. 62 Jesus said to him, No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is ;it for the kingdom of God. NRSV. 10 Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Second Edition, p Luke 10:8-9 Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9 cure the sick who are there, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. NRSV. 12 Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Second Edition, p PAGE 10 OF 18

11 selnish interest. The call of Christ is the cross. To be certain this concept gets clouded for us as Satan seeks to make it difnicult for us to follow Jesus. There are many complexities and dilemmas created by the way, as life can often be confusing, but in all of life and its complexities we must place our trust in God. None of us are truly innocent as Jesus was the only truly innocent man to die. The cross is remarkable in its utter brutality and humiliation and this is what we are called to face as Christians. The Romans had perfected the method of using the cross because it subjected those that were considered in some way a challenge to Rome to the ultimate humiliation and painful death. This was not merely a method of execution like the electric chair; it was meant to be as inhumane as possible. It was meant to innlict as much shame and humiliation as possible on those who died in this way. This was a means of execution reserved for slaves and foreigners in the Roman Empire, for the worst criminals in the view of the Romans. It served as a potent symbol of humiliation and agony to any who might even think of contesting Roman authority. To make the claim that the death of Jesus was a mighty act of God would have seemed to be utter foolishness anywhere PAGE 11 OF 18

12 within the connines of Nirst-century Roman world and likely well beyond. 13 It is within just this context that the early church made exactly this claim. They boldly and fearlessly proclaimed that the cross is the central act of God in all of human history. The crucinixion for the church stood as the great token of the spiritual connlict borne out in the cosmos. It is here that Jesus acted as a substitutionary sacrinice that derives from the Old Testament practice of offering unblemished animals in order to remove the guilt from a sinner. Jesus acts as the representative man standing on behalf of all who would be a part of the Kingdom of God. The cross represents the ultimate victory of God over evil. The root of all opposition to God s rule was human rebellion and that was destroyed on the cross when Jesus bore the sin of the world. 14 Jesus defeated evil by allowing evil to do its worst and to prove that it was not the power in the universe that it claimed to be. The darkness was overtaken by the light. 13 Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Second Edition, pp Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture, Second Edition, p PAGE 12 OF 18

13 The death of Jesus is real, it happened in real time, in real space to the real Son of God. The fact that Jesus truly suffered death, was buried under Pontius Pilate is a critical part of the Gospel message. This sets up what is to come, which is the resurrection. Without a real death of Jesus there can be no real resurrection of Jesus and upon these things the Gospel Message, the Good News, stands. Jesus died outside the walls of Jerusalem and thus opened up the way for all those who would be His disciples to follow Him and return to fellowship with God as He did. The cross stands as a beacon to light the path back to God. It calls on those who would follow Jesus as His disciples to put aside concern for self and to give their life in continuing sacrinice to others. We do this because we are disciples and disciples follow their teacher. Our teacher, as Christians, is Jesus, a man crucinied under the authority of the Roman Governor of Judea from A.D. 26 to 36. He died a death of extreme agony and humiliation and though this is part of the story it is not the end of the story. PAGE 13 OF 18

14 Synopsis The message of this section of the creed is that Jesus was crucinied in Jerusalem sometime around A.D. 30. That His execution took place under the orders of Pontius Pilate. This section of the creed insures that we see the death of Jesus as a historical event that actually happened in space and time in a way that calls us to recognize the great love of God for us. Following Jesus is not just about holding some philosophical viewpoint, or ideology, He is real, His love is real, and not just some form of abstraction. This love is demonstrated most powerfully and passionately in the cross, in real space and time, for real people, all people as He lays down His life for them. Why is the death of Jesus so important? After all people have been dying relentlessly throughout human history. Why then is there special signinicance in the death of Jesus? His death is remarkable for a number of reasons: 1. It is remarkable that the Son of God would die, or even could die. It is remarkable in that His death was voluntary and not forced on one that had no choice. He is the eternal Son of God and no one could take anything from Him by force. 2. It is remarkable due to the reason for His death. PAGE 14 OF 18

15 He died for all humanity to have a chance of restored relationship with God. 3. It is remarkable in that it is the Nirst time a truly innocent man ever died. 4. It is remarkable in its utter brutality and the humiliation that Jesus suffered in order to show us the heinous nature of our sin. In His death, Jesus shows His disciples the way of the cross and thus completes what is necessary for them to understand the nature of what it means to be a Christian (a disciple). In this death, He challenges us to perceive a new way to Night evil and to join with God in defeating it once and for all in every heart and place of hiding. He calls us to exhaust evil by resting in the power of God and trusting in Him rather than in our own strength and intellect. The cross challenges us to be willing to suffer, and to die for others as we follow the example of our Lord and our master Jesus Christ. PAGE 15 OF 18

16 Questions 1. As you think of the word victory, what are some images that come to your mind? Why? 2. Why do you think it is so hard to defeat the forces of evil? 3. What are some ways that Jesus taught His disciples that love and suffering were connected? 4. Why do you think Jesus taught His disciples that love and suffering are connected? 5. What do you think the cross teaches us about God and His love for us? 6. Why do you think it is important for us that Jesus died? 7. What are some things that we learn about God through the death of Jesus? 8. How should the death of Jesus change the way we view life? 9. What are some of the ways that the death of Jesus challenges you to live life differently than you would if you had never heard about it? 10.How does the death of Jesus for us, change how we see ourselves in relation to God? 11.How does the death of Jesus change how we understand how God perceives us as human beings? PAGE 16 OF 18

17 12.What are some ways that you see people trying to overcome evil in their lives? 13.How can we help each other take up our crosses for the kingdom of God more effectively? 14.What are some ways that you Nind the teaching of the cross to be challenging to your life? PAGE 17 OF 18

18 To Take Home What is Important to know? It is important to know that Jesus was crucinied under the Roman governor Pontius Pilate on a real cross, in a real place, and in real time. Jesus was in fact killed in this way, in humiliation, and in suffering and then buried. His death was real, and therefore the signinicance of His resurrection is astounding. Jesus was not an ordinary man, and His death was not an ordinary death. He was God s Son who willingly laid down His life to redeem that which was lost at terrible cost. What should we learn from the suffering of Jesus? Where is God in these words? God is in the entire life of Jesus as He demonstrates for us how the word of God became Nlesh and dwelt among us. Jesus lived life in such a way as to show us the nature, the love, and the terrible nature of sin through His life, and especially through His death. God is in these words showing us His heart and how much He cares. That great care causes untold suffering and agony for God and yet He never relents in His pursuit of relationship with us, no matter the personal cost to Him. What are some ways that you demonstrate your love for others as you live your life each day? What does any of this mean for how I live my life? As Jesus called His disciples he sought to teach them about the nature of God and to show them the way that would be opened for restored relationship to Him. As we seek to follow Jesus it must change how we live our lives and how we see the universe. Our goals, our attitudes, and our heart must be transformed as we are impacted by the white-hot passion of a God who would suffer so completely and passionately for His lost children. Our hearts are challenged to become like His heart and our lives like His life. What are some ways that you have deliberately chosen the hard path for the sake of the Kingdom of God? What is the word of God calling us to do? The word of God is not just a philosophy, or a great story, it is meant to impact our lives in such a way that we join God in His great plan of redemption to seek the good of others over our own good. God calls us home, and along that path our selnish natures must die, or else we cannot go home. What are some ways that you seek to live for others and to sacrinice self each day? PAGE 18 OF 18