Chapter 38 Table of Contents Chapter 40 Jesus Was Crucified and Buried What we are going to talk about now is the most important event in history. No other event in history has ever affected the lives of men and women as much as this one event. We are now going to learn what Jesus did for us so that we can be fully accepted by God and never go to everlasting punishment. Jesus Was Crucified Mark 15:20-28 And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. 21 And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. 22 And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. 23 And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh: but he received it not. 24 And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 25 And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 26 And the superscription of his accusation was written over, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple clothes off of Jesus and put His own clothes back on Him. Then, they led Him out to a place called Golgotha to crucify Him. On the way, the Roman guards found a man and made him carry Jesus cross. The word Golgotha means, place of a skull. It was located just outside the walls of Jerusalem. The drink, containing myrrh, was prepared by women of Jerusalem as an act of mercy to help deaden the pain of those who were being crucified. When the victim drank it, he would not feel as much pain. But, Jesus refused to drink any of it. He felt all of the pain. 323
They laid Jesus on the cross and drove nails through His hands and feet. The cross was then placed in an upright position in a hole in the earth. There He hung in great agony. There, He awaited death. Do you remember that Jesus told Nicodemus that, just like Moses lifted up the serpent on a pole in the wilderness, even so Jesus, the Deliverer, had to be lifted up so that sinners could be saved from punishment? Jesus was nailed to the Cross and lifted up just as He said He would be. Just like the wilderness, if the people wanted to be saved from the bite of the serpent, they must look toward Jesus to provide them their protection. Psalm 22:16 For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. Mark 15:24 And when they had crucified him, they part ed his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. Nearly one thousand years before Jesus died, God guided King David to write about the Deliverer s death in a song called Psalm 22 in the Bible. In this song, King David said that the Deliverer s hands and feet would be pierced. This is a very interesting song because, as far as we know, crucifixion was not even practiced in David s time, so King David would have had no idea what a crucifixion was. This truly makes his prophecy extremely amazing. Psalm 22:18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. Mark 15:24 And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, what every man should take. 324
In the same song, David also said that the Deliverer s clothes would become the prizes in a gambling game. As with everything else in God s Word, this is exactly what happened. The soldiers gambled to see who would get His clothes. Usually, when a person was crucified, a sign was put above them to indicate what crime they had been found guilty of committing, but Jesus had committed no crime. Pilate could find nothing that he could charge Him with. So, he ordered that a nameplate stating King of the Jews had to be placed above Jesus head. Pilate did not really believe that Jesus was the King of the Jews. He probably did this to mock the Jews and their desire to be liberated from the control of the Romans and to have their own king. The Jews did not like this and did not want Pilate to put this title above Jesus head where everyone could read it. The sign on the cross would normally have listed the crime for which the person was condemned. Jesus had not sinned; his sign or title read, King of the Jews. He died and they didn t have one charge to write on His sign. He had done nothing wrong. Why then did this innocent man die? Think about what was really happening. Jesus was dying for sins: my sins, your sins, and the sins of the whole world. He was dying to pay for the punishment for sin. He was dying in our place as a substitute for us because only He was perfect and could once and for all pay for all of our sins. It is you and I who are the ones who deserved to be on that cross. He was taking our punishment for us. Quietly, before God, think of what your sign would read. What are the sins that you know separate you from God? What should be written on your sign? Jesus was taking on Himself all the shame and the full punishment for every one of those sins as well as all the sins that we can t even remember committing. He was paying the full price for us; He was paying the death penalty for me and for you. Through Isaiah the prophet, God said that the Deliverer would die in the company of evil men. When Jesus was crucified, there were two evil men, two Isaiah 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Mark 15:27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 325
criminals, who were crucified on each side of Him. He was considered to be one of them, but He did nothing wrong. Jesus Was Mocked While He Was on the Cross Mark 15:29-32 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, 30 Save thyself, and come down from the cross. 31 Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save. 32 Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him. John 2:18-21 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. 20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? 21 But he spake of the temple of his body. Even though they crucified Him, He planned to rise up from the dead three days later. Earlier, when the Jews asked Jesus for proof of who He was and by what authority He was doing these things, He told them that if they destroyed this temple that He would raise it up again in three days. They thought that He was talking about the temple in Jerusalem, but He was talking about the temple of His body. The Jews didn t understand what Jesus really meant when He answered them at that time. He meant that if they destroyed this temple (meaning His body) that He would raise it (His body), up again in three days. He was foretelling His death and His resurrection. Psalm 22:6-8 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7 All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8 He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. Mark 15:29 And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, King David had written that the Deliverer s enemies would mock Him and laugh at His sufferings. This is what was happening. God knew exactly what was going to happen to His Son long before Jesus ever came into the world. In the beginning of this lesson, we said that today we would learn about the most important event in all history. This event is the one that God s prophets had been speaking about all through the ages. It is the event of God s salvation, 326
God s way of making man acceptable to Him, God s way of restoring the broken relationship with man. God s way to do this is in the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one about whom all of the prophets had spoken and written. He is the Deliverer. His very name Jesus means, God saves. When we first began studying God s Word, we said that the Bible is God s personal letter to each and every one of us. The very heart of this letter is that God has made a way for us to have our relationship with Him restored. God wants each one of us to know that we have this way available to us and that is why He gave us the Bible. The whole reason for God the Son to visit this earth is to provide us this way. What is it exactly that God has done so that we can be delivered forever from Satan and sin and death? The first thing that God did for us is to pay for our sin. Remember that God said, the wages of sin is death? Sin demands death as its payment. God could never forgive us for our sin and accept us unless the punishment for our sin was completely paid. What is the punishment for sin? It is death. This does not only mean physical death. It is a complete death and includes our soul, which will be eternally separated from God in Hell. Therefore, the only way Jesus could deliver us was for Him to take our place before God and be punished for our sins, to die in our place so that our sin would be paid for. The second thing that we must understand is that Jesus was sinless. Jesus did not have any of His own sins for which He must die. He was perfect. When Jesus was baptized by John, God the Father said from Heaven that Jesus was His well-beloved Son with whom He was fully pleased. Because Jesus was sinless, He was able to offer Himself to God as the perfect offering for our sins. From the time that man sinned, God said that, whenever a person offered a lamb or other animals to God, the animal had to be without fault. It must not be sick or injured. Do you remember that, when Isaac lay bound on the altar and Abraham was just about to kill him, God told Abraham not to do it. Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in a bush. Do you remember which part of the ram was caught in the bush? Yes, the ram was caught by its horns. God put the ram there so it could die in the place of Isaac, but why did God make sure that the ram was caught by the horns? Because if the ram had been injured, it would not have 327
been a suitable offering instead of Isaac. It would not have been acceptable to God. God is perfect; therefore, an offering made to Him had to be without fault. Because Jesus was without fault before God, He was able to offer Himself to God in our place. Just as the ram died in place of Isaac, so Jesus came into the world to take our place before God and to die instead of us. Finally, Jesus was separated from God for our sins. Consider Jesus sufferings: He was betrayed by His own disciple, falsely arrested, falsely accused, tried without a just cause, and rejected by the very people who should have received Him as their King and Lord. He was mercilessly beaten, scourged, and crucified. Now He hung there on the cross, exhausted, bleeding in agony. But none of these things moved Him so deeply as what He now faced to complete the punishment due for OUR sins. The most difficult thing that Jesus endured for us was that He was separated from God. Jesus Paid for Sin by Death Mark 15:33-37 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? 35 And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. 36 And one ran and filled a spunge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone; let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. 37 And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. Why was the sun blotted out? Why was there darkness for three hours? It was because God turned His back on Jesus. God turned away from Jesus and left His beloved Son, Jesus, completely alone. Why did God do such a terrible thing to Jesus? Jesus had always obeyed God. Jesus had never done anything wrong. He had obeyed all the laws of God. Why did God leave Him like this? It was because God was punishing Jesus for my sins, for your sins, and for the sins of the whole world. During this time on the cross, Jesus was separated from God, His Father. This was part of the punishment for our sins because the wages of sin is death and death means separation. Jesus didn t just pay for some of our sins. He suffered the complete punishment for all of our sins, and He did this so that God could freely (without any cost to us) forgive and accept us as His children if we agree with Him and trust only in Jesus as being God s way of deliverance. In the beginning God told Adam that, if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. Adam would be separated from God, who had given him life. This meant that Adam s body would die, and after death, his soul would be separated from God in the place of terrible punishment, which God prepared for Satan and his angels. Sin must be paid for by separation from God. 328
? This is why Jesus had to be separated from God. It was the only way He could pay for our sins. When Jesus shouted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, the people around the cross misunderstood Him. They thought that He was calling for one of the prophets of old to come and help him. Little did they know that Jesus died and gave His life for them and for us too! Jesus did all that was necessary for our deliverance from Satan, sin, and death. Mark tells us that Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up His spirit, but Mark doesn t tell us what it was that Jesus said. However, John, another of Jesus disciples, wrote down what Jesus said in John 19:30, It is finished. Jesus said, It is finished. What do you think Jesus meant? Did He mean that He was finished? No, He said that He would rise again after three days. What then was finished? The work that He came into the world to do was completely finished. Jesus came into the world to deliver sinners from Satan, sin, and death. He finished this work by being separated from God and by giving His blood and His life as the full payment for our sins. Jesus paid to God all that was necessary for our sins. Because of this, all people who agree with God and trust in Jesus and His death for them are forgiven by God of all their sins. God gives them the gift of everlasting life. There is no longer any need for anyone to be separated from God. Jesus Christ did for us what we could not do ourselves to bring us to God. 329
He died for our sins The work Jesus did for us by dying on the Cross for our sins is the only work that God will ever accept as payment for our sins. Jesus was separated from God for our sakes so that, through Him, we can have a relationship with God. When we put our trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross, we are united with God through Jesus Christ. In the Garden of Eden, God promised that He would send a Deliverer, and God kept His promise. That Deliverer was Jesus Christ. Jesus came to the world to make a way for us to have our relationship with God repaired, and He finished this work which His Father had given Him to do for us. Adam s sin separated all men from God, but the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross reunites us with God forever IF we accept God s way and put our faith in Christ. The Veil in the Temple Was Ripped Mark 15:38-41 And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. 39 And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God. 40 There were also women looking on afar off: among whom was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the less and of Joses, and Salome; 41 (Who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered unto him;) and many other women which came up with him unto Jerusalem. This thick curtain, or veil, had hung in front of the inner room in the tabernacle, which the Israelites had built as God s house in the wilderness. When the temple was built, this great curtain was hung in front of the inner room in the temple. God told the Jews to put this curtain in front of the inner room so they would never forget that, because of sin, they were separated from God s presence. Behind this curtain was the Ark of the Covenant where the Shekinah 330
glory shined to show that God was there living with them. This was the place where the high priest came every year to sprinkle the blood of animals. Now, the curtain was ripped. It was torn in two. Who do you think ripped the curtain from the top down to the bottom? God Himself did, but why did He do that? God did it to show that He was fully satisfied with the payment that Jesus made to Him for sinners. There was no longer a need for animal sacrifices to be made. There was no longer a need to be separated from God. The high priest had entered the inner room every year to sprinkle the blood of animals before God. The blood of animals could never pay for sin; it only postponed God s judgment of sin. Through all of those years before Jesus died, God forgave the sins of all who trusted in Him because He knew that His own Son would come and give His blood as a complete John 3:16 For God so loved payment for all sin. When Jesus died, the world, that he gave his God ripped the curtain to show everyone only begotten Son, that that He was completely satisfied and whosoever believeth in him that there was no should not perish, but have more need to offer the blood of animals. everlasting life. The way back to God was open because Jesus gave His blood as the complete payment for sin. God has promised in John 3:16, that all who agree with Him and trust only in Jesus and His payment for their sins will be fully accepted by God, and they will never go to Hell. When Jesus died, the centurion who was standing by realized that He was truly the Son of God. A centurion was a Roman soldier who was in charge of one hundred other Roman soldiers. Whatever this centurion saw, it made him come to the realization that Jesus Christ was the true Son of God. Jesus Was Buried Mark 15:42-46 And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and went in boldly unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. 44 And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead: and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. 45 And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. 46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. Even as Jesus was buried, prophecy was being fulfilled. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man who waited for God s Deliverer to come to the earth. After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate to ask for His body. But Pilate didn t believe that Jesus had died so quickly, so he called the centurion and asked him if He was in fact dead. The Roman centurion reported to Pilate that Jesus was dead, so Pilate allowed Joseph of Arimathea to have the body. Joseph took the body off the cross and wrapped it in fine linen cloth, as was their 331
Chapter 38 Table of Contents Chapter 40 custom. Then he took it to a tomb that he had prepared for himself. There, he buried Jesus and had the tomb sealed with a large stone. In His death, Jesus was buried with the rich just like the Bible said would happen many years before Jesus was ever born on the earth. Isaiah 53:9 And he made his grave with the wick ed, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Mark 15:46 And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulc hre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. Think about Jesus Christ for a minute. He lived on earth without ever sinning. He completely fulfilled all of God s righteous laws. He endured the horrible punishment, which you and I deserve. On the cross He was separated from God because we deserve to be separated from God forever because of our sin. He made the one and only, final payment for our sin. He finished paying for all sin when He died in our place. The full payment has been made. Nothing more needs to be done or can be done to pay for our sins. The veil was torn proving that God accepted Jesus death as payment for all sin. The way is open to God for everyone through Jesus Christ. 332