For Whom Did Jesus Die? | Luke 23:26-43
Sermon Transcript
Well, welcome to our noon service today. It's the way what your body feels like. Five year olds do not get the memo about getting extra hour of sleep, because I woke up to a little voice talking in my ear at 5:56am you know, but you know, luckily, my body felt like it was seven, which is about normal for us, you know. But anyway, so maybe you've heard the fable of the Scorpion that asked a frog to carry him across the river because he couldn't swim. And so that was what happened. He couldn't swim, and so he said, I need to get across the river. Across the river. And the frog said, Well, I can do that, but how do I know you won't sting me? Right? And so the scorpion said, well, because if I do sting you, then we'll both drown. So that seemed okay to the frog. And so Scorpion hopped on the frog's back, and they climbed into the water, and they got about halfway across the river, and lo and behold, would you know that Scorpion stung the frog, and as they were fighting and in the water and starting to drown and going to the bottom, the frog cried out, what did you do? You promised me you wouldn't sting me. Now we're both going to die. Why would you do that? And the scorpion said, I couldn't not do it. It's in my nature to sting that's what scorpions. Do. Dogs bark, scorpions sting. It's in their nature. It is also human nature to do many things, and one of the things that it is human nature to do is to sin. We are sinners, both by nature, by choice, we're predisposition to sin. We willingly sin. Yet, even though we are sinners, the heart of the Gospel is that Christ died for us and our sin Amen. In his death, he gave us grace which is unmerited, unearned favor from God. It's a a free gift, and even though we're sinners by nature, God is gracious by nature. He overlooks it by nature, but he still had to deal with the sin, and that's what we're looking at today. We see this displayed in our passage on the crucifixion of Jesus. We're going through this whole Passion of Jesus. We talked about his rest, and we talked about his kind of arraignment. And last week, Pastor Jim talked on his trial. And this week, we're on his crucifixion, and then we will talk about His death and His burial. And then the next series, we'll talk all about His resurrection, which will be wonderful to preach, but we gotta get there first, as we go through the life in his life in 2024 and today we're looking at the crucifixion of Jesus as we answer this question, for whom did Jesus die? So Luke, 23 starting in verse 26 and as they led Him, being Jesus away, they seized one, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid him on the cross to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him, but turning to them, Jesus said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wounds that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say, to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us, for if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry? Verse 32 two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called the Skull there, they crucified Him, and the criminals went on his right, went on his left, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, and. Saying, He saved others, let of them save himself. If he is the Christ of God, His Chosen One, the soldiers, also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him, this is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged, railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us? But the other rebuked him, saying, Do not fear God. Since you are under this do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And He said to him, Truly, I say to you today, you will be with Me in Paradise, Father in heaven. As we look at this passage today, we spend time this November thinking about a time of gratitude and Lord, we are we are. We have gratitude. We are thankful for what you've done for us and today, specifically, as we see the events of your crucifixion right before you died, and what you had to deal with, Lord because of our sin, because we put you there, Father, let us see today what you would have us to know, Lord, I pray that that that you speak your words today through this message, and that we receive it and your Holy Spirit moves in here today, in Jesus name, Amen. I want to give you today three groups of people. We give you say three attitudes, even for whom Jesus died, three groups of people, three attitudes for whom Jesus died. Number one, Jesus died for the ignorant. Amen, you know, a lot of our a lot of our sin is done out of ignorance. A lot of our sin is done out of willful ignorance, even sometimes it's just because we want to, but a lot of it's done out of ignorance. Verse 23 talks about how they led him away. And this man, Simon, came up from the country. Can you imagine him coming up from the country to the big city? Simon, come here. You're you're taking this cross and carrying it behind Jesus. Now this point, Jesus had been flogged probably 39 times. He was almost dead. He had been beaten, he had been mocked. His beard had been pulled out, which you know, would hurt. His strength was failing, and so they picked this man named Simon to carry Jesus's cross to the place of the skull in Golgotha where he'd be crucified. Now it was only about a half mile walk, but Jesus was in no condition to carry a cross a half a mile. And as it's happening, people and women are mourning for him and crying for him, which they should be. You would think that would be the case. And I've often wondered, if I was walking to my death and people that loved me watched, would they be mourning and crying? What would I say to them? I would not say what Jesus said, Don't cry for me. It's kind of an interesting thing that Jesus says that to them. He says, Don't weep for Me. Weep for yourselves. I probably wouldn't have said that to people who were crying for me. Cry for yourselves, not me. He gives this extended discourse about the end times, or not the end times, but the judgment that is to come here very soon. He's referring specifically here to the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem and the temple that was destroyed in the year 70. AD, well, only about 40 years, less than 40 years from this moment right here, and he's letting them know about this coming hardship and this suffering that will befall the people of Jerusalem. Now, why would he mention that on the way to the cross? Why would He say now, listen, pretty soon, you're going to be crying for yourself. Why would he tell them that? Why would he tell them that? Well, first of all, the temple. The destruction of the temple in AD 70 was the result a series of events where the Jewish people revolted against the Roman Empire. Remember, they wanted a savior to lead them to victory over the evil Roman Empire. Some of them thought it was Jesus. It wasn't. He came as a savior, but not that way, not now. And finally, they rebelled enough against the Roman rule. And so the Roman forces seized Jerusalem. They destroyed this temple, this rebuilt temple. That had been rebuilt, that had already been destroyed once, and they crushed the Jewish resistance to say, No, we, we are the power. And the destruction of the temple was like ripping the heart out of the Jewish people. And there's never been a temple since. And in fact, the place where the temple is now is one of the most sacred spots for Islam. Why would he warn them about this? Well, just as the Jewish people were wrongly giving him up acquiescing to the Roman Empire, he says there will be a day where the government will not be your friend either. Said, the government's not my friend, but there'll be a day where the government's not your friend. There will be a day where the same government, who you gave me over to them, will crush you in less than 40 years. And so he's warning them who are ignorant about the future and what his death meant, overall and in the same way, we as Christians do not need to be ignorant about political things, government things. We have an election coming up in just a few days, and days. Many of you may have already voted. I like to vote on election day, so I go Tuesday, and we have the right to vote. We have the freedom to vote for the candidate by which we think will greater serve us. Greater. Serve our country for the better. Greater serve Christianity and Christians for the better, but things and governments can change very quickly. Fact, they can change every four years. As we know, things can change very quickly. In 40 years, there was going to be a drastic change from the Jewish people being buddy buddy with the Roman Empire to the Roman Empire crushing them 40 years. 40 years ago was 1984 for those of us who were alive in 1984 the country has changed a lot in those 40 years. You never know what can happen in just a generation, and you never know what side of the government you'll be on. It could be in the good graces of a government. It couldn't be on the other side of the government. So you must realize that whatever government you're living in, that Jesus alone is your king. He's alone is your Lord, whatever party, whatever candidate you like. It might be good days starting next week for you. It might be bad days starting next week for you. Whatever you feel is better, but ultimately, our lordship is to Jesus Christ, and many times we're ignorant about the future. We're ignorant about what our life's going to be like. And these people were mourning the death of Jesus, which they should and Jesus, oddly, just says, you don't even see the full picture. You've given me up to this Roman Empire. You've sold me out which had to happen. Jesus died for the ignorant. He is our king. Secondly, he died for the lawless. He died for the lawless which we've all broken God's moral law. Verse 32 says two others who are criminals were led away to be put to death with him. When they came to the place that's called the skull, it was, it looked like a skull was carved and there's a rock, and they crucified him. That's all it says. They crucified him. Didn't go into detail what that looked like, because the the the Greek and Roman readers of Luke's gospel, they knew what crucifixion was when I was right, when I was left. Now, crucifixion, if you haven't heard, was a man nailed or tied to a cross with her arms and her legs down, and they were just nailed there, left to die, starved to death. You can't breathe, extremely painful, extremely tortuous difficulty breathing eventually would suffocate the way their body hung on the cross. And crucifixion was not only a method of execution, but it was a form of humiliation. They could have executed you a far faster. But it was also a warning to everybody else. If you cross the Roman government, this is what awaits you. It was a pretty good deterrent as you're walking to work. Can you imagine this as you're driving to work upon a hill? There's people hanging on a cross for days. Rome was saying, we are in charge. That's how they kept the peace. It was a deterrent, and this is how Jesus would die. Now the irony is, they have him on the cross for all to see. But what did they do? He's on a cross for all to see. Amen. You see the beauty of the gospel as he's on the cross hanging there for all to see that he died for the sins of mankind. So even even their their way of execution somehow lifted up Jesus for all to see, amen, because it was all according to God's plan, the only way of execution that would lift someone up to cast your eyes on them. Jesus's death brought atonement for our sins, a reparation of sorts. This crucifixion, it represents that he's the ultimate sacrifice for for the sins of mankind. And so Jesus fulfills the Old Testament, sacrificial system. He is the Final Sacrifice. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It was how God made a way to people. Jesus had to die for the lawless, all who have broken God's law, so that his justice, his wrath that was meant for us, could be taken on Jesus instead. And Jesus takes it on the cross. And as he's taking that wrath and that justice for our sin, verse 34 and people are mocking him, he says, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They don't understand the extent of their sin. They know their sinning. They don't understand the extent of their sin. My little five year old, we're working on his obedience. He knows he's doing wrong, but he doesn't understand the extent of what he does and how certain things he does hurts other people in the family didn't really quite get that. This is what Jesus is saying, and they cast lots to divide his garments, even as he was dying, he's interceding on their behalf. And so we see the contrast again, of of our sin and God's grace. If I was on the cross and could come down, I probably would not be saying, Lord, forgive these people who are mocking me. Jesus says it verse 35 and the people stood by watching the rulers. I scoffed at him. I said He saved others. He raised people from the dead, healed people. He's the Christ. Let him do it to himself. And they mocked him, and they gave him wine, which is, you've been dehydrated, so water, the nice. And here's some water Jesus. And he takes the water, and it's wine, sour wine, which would be the adverse effect of what you want, a dirty trick. And they said, if you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. And they and they made this makeshift sign above his head that said, quote, unquote, the King of the Jews, making fun of his title. Look, we've crucified, we've killed the King of the Jews, they celebrated, and even as He hung on the cross, enduring the mockery and during the scorn, he pleaded to God to forgive them. Pleaded for God forgive them, that we would have the heart of Jesus when we're insulted, we would have the heart of Jesus when we're mocked. You know, when someone insults me or mocks me or has a problem with me, I wish the first step thought on my mind was Father, forgive them. I first thought is kind of hold on now. What I wish my first thought was, Father, forgive them. Jesus died for the lawless because he had to. And number three, Jesus died for the believing, the believing. Now Jesus's death on the cross is for all people. It is open to all people, but it's only effective for those who place their faith in him. Or else everybody would be saved, all people, all humanity. It's only effective for those who believe in Him. His intention was to die for all but only those who would believe will be saved. And we see this contrasted in the two thieves, the two people on the cross beside him, verse 39 one of the criminals railed at him. Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us, by the way, do something about this if You're the Messiah. I again, not understanding the gospel, not understanding God's motive. Verse 40, but the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God, since you were under the same sentence of condemnation, we indeed justly it was fair. We're receiving our due reward for our deeds. This man, he's done nothing wrong. And he said to Jesus, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly, I say to you today, you'll be with me in paradise. You see the contrast of two types of people. You have one who blames God for their situation and ask God to do something about it. If you're God, do something about my situation. The other one rightly knows that they deserve it, rightly knows that they're guilty and asks God for mercy. Ask God for grace. Believes in God's power to save one who doesn't understand the nature of God, doesn't understand the Gospels message, doesn't understand why Jesus is on the cross. The other knows exactly who he is and why he's there, and understands the nature of God and says, I believe in you. Remember me, all of humanity will fall into one of these two categories. There's no third, those who believe in God and need him to rescue us from sin, and those who blame God for their problems and want nothing to do with them and but for the grace of God, we all be in that letter, that latter category, but the humble, the spiritually self aware of our sin, the believing will be saved. This is highlighted in Isaiah, 53 prophesied, therefore, I will divide Him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors. When Jesus talks to the thief, he underscores the grace that is received simply through faith. And several things to be closed. I don't have on the screen, but I want to give them to you today, several things that that his conversation with the thief, implications that we get first is just the urgency, the necessity of repentance. Now you might say, well, he doesn't repent from her sin. He just says, save me. But faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. It's heads and tails. You can't place your faith in Jesus to save you if you don't realize you need saving and repent of that sin. It's two sides of the same coin. So when he says, Remember me, he's saying, in fact, he already says, Before I'm guilty, he can't turn over a new leaf. He'll be dead in three hours. He's repenting right then, that's his repentance as he hangs on the cross. Remember me. This is it. Remember me. It's a reminder that it's never too late to turn to Jesus for salvation. Never too late. And it shows us the power again of this simple faith statement is faith belief, and in many ways, it is incredibly easy to be saved, incredibly easy. You just have to believe. But if it was so easy, everyone would do it. We had this stubborn, stubborn heart, this pride and the Lord, our conversion, being born again is a miracle. The fact that you know Jesus today is a miracle. Somewhere somebody shared the gospel to you. It might have been a five year old Sunday school teacher, it might have been your father, might have been your grandmother, it might have been a pastor, but somewhere someone loved you enough to tell you what Jesus did, Christ did for you on the cross, and you saw it, and you received it, and you're saved. This man saw the gospel in a way that we'll never see it. He's hanging on the cross next to the gospel Himself on the Cross being crucified. There he is right there he sees God pouring out His wrath and judgment on the cross right next to him. How can you not believe? It, but the other one didn't, but it's so easy, it's so urgent, but it takes a humility and our need, or an understanding that we are sinners, and it also gives us hope and a desperation when you're on a cross, you have no hope. You're going to die. No one's getting you down, no one's taking you down. But this man, in his darkest moment, looked at Jesus said, Remember me, and Jesus did not say, I don't know, you weren't in synagogue last week. He didn't say, I mean, you haven't given this year. Give our to our November offering, and I'll think about it. He didn't say, you need to pray a few more prayers. And you know, maybe I can make a deal with the big man upstairs. He didn't say, any that kind of foolishness. He said, you'll be with me tonight. You'll be with me today. Because you believe in me. You believe in me, even for us believers, when we have dark times, difficult times. Sometimes we forget to look to Jesus and say, hey Jesus, remember me. We think he's going to say, well, you know, he did this thing last week, and I don't know about that. That's not what he says. All your sins were dealt with on the cross. Now you still have consequences for your sin, natural consequences, but all your sins were dealt with on the cross. You're forgiven. I'm here. I think this is why so many look to the cross. We have crosses everywhere we look to that cross, and we see the love of Jesus. Jesus died for the believing. Gonna have our invitation here in a few minutes. If you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, it's not too late. It's never too late. What is stopping you from making that decision today to saying, Jesus, I believe. Remember me, if you're a believer, maybe you forget to tell Jesus every now and then you get upset about things in your life, worries you have in your life, stresses you've had in your life. And my family had a really busy, stressful, October, but God worked out some really incredible things for us. And sometimes he did after I went on for a few days and was like, Oh, I really haven't talked to God about this, then I talked to God about it, boom. Sometimes it's easy for us to forget. It's easy for us to get wrapped up in things. Today, as you leave make a commitment to seek Jesus. He's there. He's there for you seek Him because He died, and he's there for the believing Heavenly Father. We thank you so much for today as we close our time together, we thank You for this display of love as you hung on the cross. Lord, as we, as we come to you in prayer today, if there is one in here that needs to call out to you that today, they would do so. And we, thank you for your grace. We, thank you for your mercy. We, thank you for your love. And how often do we Are we quick to worry and to stress and not come to you? Help us do better with that, Lord, remind us that we have an advocate in you. We have an intercessor in you. We can come to at any time, even if we don't feel that you're there, or don't feel that we're there, we know you are Lord, because your truth is bigger than feelings. It is eternal and it is there, Lord. We love you. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Amen.
