The Calling of Jesus | Acts 9:1-19

• Sermon Transcript

  Good morning. Well, there had been a rural area of the country, very small country church, made up of mainly of farmers. And there had been a severe drought. And they deeply were concerned that the crops would be ruined. Of course, most of the times came at the church from the farmers. So one Sunday, the pastor said, brothers and sisters in Christ, I understand, we had this deep concern for a harvest. There's really nothing we can do about except we can pray for rain. And the Lord promises that if we pray in faith, he'll hear he'll hear us. So I want you to go to your homes now, all week long want you to fast and pray. The next Sunday, when you show up? We're going to hold a service. So we're going to claim the Lord's promise. Because I know that next week at this time, if we pray, and fast, it will rain. So people went home and they prayed and fasted during the week, and they returned on next Sunday. And as soon as the pastor saw the people filing into the church and sitting into the pews, he looked down, and he said, Go back home. And they said, What in the world what why would you tell us that? He said, How can you expect to claim the Lord's promise if you have no faith? They were kind of offended. They said that Pastor we do we fasted. We prayed, and we've come here today in faith, believing that it will rain today that God will be true to his word. The pastor said, believing right? Well, where are your umbrellas? I know it's bad. You have your umbrellas today. As we waited across town and church, glad you're here today. That's the last joke. You'll have in the sermon today as we look at a deeply ferment lot of reasons but mainly because we're looking at the crucifixion, the death of Jesus today. And I'm going to be reading in Mark chapter 15. Starting in verse 21. We're, we're preaching more but I'm gonna read today before prayer starting in verse 21. And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Go Gopher, which means place of a skull. And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he didn't take it. And they crucified Him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified. And the inscription of the charge against him read the King of the Jews. And within they crucified, two robbers went on his right when I was left, and those who pass by derided and wagging their heads and saying, uh huh, you who would destroy the temple, and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying He saved others, he can't save and let the Christ the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe those who were crucified with them, also reviled. Father in heaven. We look at this passage today. That is a difficult one for us to look at how you bled and died for us, we sang about it this morning. We're going to hear it from your word today, father. So Lord, I pray that that my words today as I read your word, reflect your heart for us to what you want us to hear today from your word, Lord, that you fill me with your Spirit, that we can have the proper, emotional, logical response today from hearing this. The conviction of sin we need the commitment to follow you wholeheartedly for your death, because you didn't know Lord that your death was followed by the resurrection. We knew that Friday came but then Sunday came and we rejoice in that truth but the day Lord has we look at this passage, that you be with us and that your your body of believers they receive your word and we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Today this passage gives us five truths. Five Truths we see about Jesus when he died. Five Truths that we see about Jesus when he died. First and Jesus died innocent. Jesus died innocent. He had just been arrested. He had been betrayed by his disciples they, they all left him. He was being held, waiting as fate. First one says as soon as it was morning, the trees priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council and they bound Jesus. And they led them away and delivered them over to Pilate. Now the Jews did not have the authority to find Jesus innocent or guilty. They could bring a charge against him, which they did, because they were under the authority of the Roman Empire. So they took them to a man who did have the authority, a man named Pontius Pilate, verse two. And Pilate asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus answered him, You have said, so now why did Jesus answer this way? Why didn't he just say yes? Or why did He say, Well, yes, but let me explain what I mean by that. Right? Well, why don't you just say, you've said so? Well, several reasons. First, Jesus had openly declared this already. Pilate, though, had no idea about what a coming messiah of the Jewish nation was supposed to be. And from other accounts, Pilate likely did not believe that Jesus really was a threat to the peace of Rome, but calling himself a king. So Jesus doesn't defend themselves for at least two reasons. First, it wouldn't make a difference. Yeah, sometimes need to defend yourself if this doesn't make a difference, and it would have made a difference. But secondly, if he did, and Pilate realized that the Jews had brought a false accusation that Jesus was not attempting to take over the Roman Empire. Then Pilate then could crucify the accusers. He could have crucify the chief priests, the Sanhedrin. And then we'd have a problem. Jesus would put more people to their death that should have gone Jesus's love for his enemies. Amen. Who are killing him? Had him answer the way that he did. You know, when we love people, sometimes we just don't say that we don't say the truth. But sometimes we just don't say what maybe we want to say Amen. We can say things a little differently, said you've said it. It didn't say yes. No, I am falsely accused. You said it. Jesus didn't want to see the people who were going to kill him die under the hands, the Roman Empire. So he says it in a way that one Jesus can say, verse three. And the chief priest accused him of many things. And Pilate again asked him, Have you answered to make, see how many charges they bring against you? But Jesus made no further answer. So Pilate was amazed, Jesus died innocent. As we know he did no wrong. But even in this fake trial, they still did not defend himself. There was no reason and he would have caused even more bloodshed than necessary. Jesus died innocent. It looks like he didn't even put up a fight, which we know why he did not. He had to go to the cross. You know, as followers of Jesus, we need not to worry about accusations from the world raised against us. Bible tells us, Jesus says in the chat and John, that they hated me. They're gonna hate you. They're gonna accuse you of all kinds of things because a servant is not above their master. So when we see something like this happening in our own lives, as Christians, as little Christ, we sometimes need to be not so quick to defend ourselves can because it doesn't matter. Amen. Let God fight your battles the innocent, do not need a defense. You choosing not to defend yourself in those times shows that your validation isn't in your own reputation and isn't in what people think about you. Your validation is in Jesus Christ, in the blood that he bought for you on the cross. Jesus died innocent. Secondly, Jesus died, sinless. sinless, now there's difference between innocence and sinless sinlessness you can be innocent and still be a sinner, are we know that Jesus was both for six. Now at the feast, he being Pilate, he used to release for them one prisoner. For him they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder, and the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. Because a murderer, verse eight, and the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them, and release a prisoner and answer them saying, Okay, well, this makes great sense. Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews, because pilot knew he had done nothing wrong. Maybe pilot will get out of it this way. versus not first 10 for he perceived and it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered Jesus up for Sullivan. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him or at least for them Barabbas instead, and Pilate against them, then what shall I do with the man you call the king of Jews? What do you want me to do with him? I'm not gonna release them what you want me to do with him? Verse 13, in a cry out again, crucifying. Pilate said, why? What evil he's not a murderer. He's not a thief. What evil has he done? And again to answer they just continue to shout, crucify. Verse 15. So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, because what was one thing the Romans feared was mobs wishing to satisfy the crowd released for them Barabbas and having scores that's whipped Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Pilate pilot tried to give the people away out. But the cons the crowd could have easily to come along. And again, one of the main goals the Roman Empire was to keep the peace. He gave the crowd what they wanted. And we see this today in our own world, amen. Our world gives gives the mob what they want. They give the crowd what they want. That's why our country's morals chant are changing. That's why our values are changing. That's why legislation changes because the world fears the mob. It favors the crowd. Now, interesting, interesting thing about the word mob. The word mob in Greek is the same word that's used for congregation. We are a mob Did you know that. But this mob acts much differently than worldly mobs. We fight with God's word. We fight on our knees in prayer. And we have a heavenly father who fights for us. We need the world to listen to our mom. Amen. Now God's ultimately in charge of all this. But the world will listen to the mob. I want to point out something here about this man Barabbas. The name Barabbas means son of God. Isn't that ironic? There were two sons of God that could have chosen Jesus Barabbas he was a real person, a real criminal, who really was released. But I think Barabbas here represents all people. All mankind he, Jesus died and took our place for our sins. He was the innocent one. He was the sinless one. Yet we are like Barabbas in that we are the guilty ones. But we get released because of what Christ has done on the cross. Martin Luther the reformer calls this the great exchange, Jesus Christ died a sinless and sinners who deserved the cross we got offering. This is the heart of the gospel. This is what makes the good news so incredibly amazing that the only sinless person in the world took on the sin of the sinners. Jesus died sinless, so that we may be seen as sinless in God's sight. Amen. Jesus died sinless. Three. Jesus died. humiliated. Jesus died humiliated. Remember the first time you were ever humiliated? I remember in first grade, lining up and this is not meant to be funny. I'm just Tell me I'm lining up. recess, right? This kid behind me pull my pants down. Make him laugh, whatever. I was humiliated. Well, six year old kid on the playground, it's pretty embarrassing. You may remember the first time you read a meal or time in your life where you are humiliated. Jesus has been there too. And much worse. Look at verse 16. And the soldiers led Him away inside the palace. That is the governor's headquarters. And they call together the whole battalion. And they clothed him and a purple cloak and twist together crown of thorns and put it on him. They're making him look like a king, right? Verse 18. And it began to salute him Hail, King of the Jews. And they were striking his head with a read, spitting on him. And they kneel down in homage to him. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak, and then put his own clothes back on and they let him out to crucify him. He was humiliated. He was bullied. He was mocked. He was stripped of his dignity. And we see in this section how evil people can actually get how evil mankind can truly be. Jesus still died for the evilness of people. First 21 And that compelled a passerby Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus to carry his cross because he couldn't carry this point he was too weak. We know from other accounts, verse 22, and they brought him to a place called Golgotha, which means place of his skull. He offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. Other accounts say that the Jesus was was thirsty as He hung on the cross, and wanted water he asked for water. And they gave him wine mixed with murderer, which would not have quench this thirst, it was another way to humiliate him to make his misery worse. So even as he was dying and thirsty, we see the humiliation of Jesus verse 24. And they crucified him. There's no description of this, just the crucified and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them to decide what each should take. And was the third hour when they crucified him, and then inscription that charged against him read the King of the Jews. Now, Mark, didn't have to go into great detail here about what it meant to be crucified to his audience. Because people knew what that meant. It'd be like saying in the electric museum, we know what happens in the electric chair. Don't describe it. These people would know. They knew what it was. They knew that his feet were nailed together. They knew that his hands were spread out and nailed on the cross. They knew that he hung on a cross gasping for air, they knew exactly what it would have looked like because they had seen it before. throughout the Roman Empire. They knew what to look like saw Mark says was and they crucified Him. So the readers would say, Oh, wow. First 27. And with him, they crucified two robbers, one on his right. And one on his left. He was further humiliated, as he was placed between two common things. First swing on, and those who, who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, Hmm, you would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Is that what you promise is that is what he said. Verse 30, then save yourself. Come off the cross, if you're the Christ. And Jesus claimed that he would rebuild the temple in three days, but he was speaking in a metaphor, not literally. He's referring to His resurrection. As he is, he was the temple, and he could have saved himself and he could have come down, but then we'd all be headed to hell. His love for mankind kept him there. Verse 31, so all the chief priests with the scribes, they mocked him to one another saying He saved others but he can't save himself. Let the Christ the King of Israel come down now from the cross come down, then we'll believe you then we'll see and believe you can save yourself. If you really are who you said you are. Then we will believe which they were just saying that. And then those who were crucified with him on his rightness left reviled him the robbers for veiled him he died humiliated even though he had the power to stop it. And we won't get humiliated the way Jesus was asked Christians, there will be times of humiliation for the cause of Christ. And there'll be times when we can stop the humiliation, we can denounce our faith. We can tuck our tail and run away. Or we can model ourselves after Jesus. And when the humiliation comes, that we suffer through it because of what he's done for us, He gives us the power to do so through the Holy Spirit, Jesus died, humiliated. And number four, the saddest part of this whole section he dies abandoned. He died abandon verse 33. When the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, from noon, until 3pm, when the sun is highest in the sky. It was eclipsed. It was dark. Now secular historians have they've they have ratified this. They said yes, there was at least a solar eclipse, that at that time, when they think around that time, they dated to 29 ad or whatever. That was at least an hour, 59 minutes small. So there's a historical reference to it outside the Bible, they realize that this happen and kind of plan that Eclipse for that moment. Amen. Unbelievable. Now that people didn't know what in the world is happening, what unlike us where we have, we understand the way the planets and suns move. And most of us here, if you were here a few years ago have experienced an eclipse. Do you remember what that was like? Even though it's a little cloudy, for a couple of minutes, it got really dark in the middle of the day. And we all remember that when people had Eclipse parties and Eclipse viewings, all those kinds of things, but we knew it was going to happen. And there was how dark it got. Just all sudden it was nighttime. That quiet night but it was close enough. Where it was weird. Right? And then it was gone. Imagine seeing Jesus hanging on the cross for three hours. And darkness rolls in. What an incredibly spooky, frightful scene. So that point where I believe people started believing when you they didn't know what eclipses were, they just know it got dark in the middle of the day. Very frightening. Verse 34, at the ninth hour, Jesus Christ alive boy say Lloyd, let us step Sentani which means My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? He's quoting scripture, verse 35. And some of the bystanders hearing it said, Behold, he's calling Elijah and someone ran and filled a sponge with sour right wine, put it on read and gave it for him to drink, saying, Let's see whether Elijah will come to take him down. And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. Then of curious thing happened in verse 38, the curtain of the temple was torn to from top to bottom. And when the Cinterion who was stood facing if you imagine Cinterion stood standing there guarding that cross stood facing Jesus and syncing everything that transpired. In this way he breathed this last he said, Truly, this man was the Son of God. How could you not standing right there the cross, amen. The curtain of the temple tour and to symbolizing that mankind has now complete access to God, God who had resided behind the curtain in the Holy of Holies, Jesus's death has brought access to us, we do not need a sacrifice anymore to bring us access to God. We don't need priests to give us access to God because of Jesus's death. We have complete unfettered access to God at all times. We can come to Him at any point and anytime and ask him for help in any way and he hears this Amen. We forget about it. We complain and we think we act with the morning we say, well, it's raining the day I got means anything is cold. What are we talking about? We have access to God who died on the cross for us to come to Him at any point. At that point, almost almost everyone had abandoned Jesus at his lowest point at the point where he needed people the most. He had been abandoned, even felt abandoned by his Heavenly Father. He died, abandoned. And number five, Jesus died, however loved he died, loved. At this point, the story takes a turn. Think start looking out for Jesus after He has done the deed. He's buried and of course we know that he's resurrected, which we can get in today. That'll be in your Bible reading tomorrow, or next couple of days. Verse 40. You know, women didn't leave Jesus. I'm not surprised. Look at verse 40. There are also women looking on from a distance among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, the younger and of Josephson Salome. When he was in Galilee, they followed him administer to him. There were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem. And when evening had come, since it was the day of preparation as the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of their Messiah, respected member of the council, who was also looking for himself for the kingdom of God. He took courage and with the pilot, and he asked for the body of Jesus, which would have been a very, you know, who knows what pilot would say this? Verse 44, pilot was surprised to hear that Jesus had already died in summoning the Cinterion. He asked him whether he was already dead. And when he learned from the Cinterion that he was dead. This is when they made sure he was dead and other accounts talk about that. He granted the corpse to Joseph. And Joseph bought a linen shroud, taking him down, wrapped him in a linen shroud and laid him in tomb that have been cut out of the rock. Do you think about that? Yesterday, a few days ago, my dog was barking out in the grass. Walked out there and there was a dead squirrel sitting out there. I don't know how died dead. So my wife's like, you're gonna move that squirrel, aren't you? I'm like, Really, I gotta go out there and do that squirrel. So I went out there and my shovel, picked it up, and it's all petrified and rolling off the shovel and everything. I like messing with dead things. Picked it up through my neighbor's yard. I removed it, but in the woods. It was bothersome enough to do that to squirrel. This man Joseph is wrapping the dead body of the Son of God. What an amazing privilege. Wrapping up the body of the man who died for your sins. Can imagine gives him his own tomb that had been cut off the rock and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. Verse 47, and Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother, Joseph Saul, he was laid that would have been extremely disrespectful for there to be no place to Barrett Jesus. And in love. Joseph gave him his own term. And the women who stayed with him, the woman that he elevated, that he loved and he gave a place to in society that I wanted to keep them now that the women that he loved as sisters of his stayed with him throughout. Amen. Never left aside. And they loved him when no one would love him. And they loved Him because He loved them. Amen. Jesus loves you. He loves you so much that he went through this for you. And it wasn't just the humiliation wasn't just the pain. It was bearing the wrath of God for our sins on his shoulders, all of that adds up to the love that Jesus had when he died. And we know that few days later that he rose from the grave. He resurrected. He raised that temple in three days like you said he would. He walked around for over a month. People touch the side he ate fish. He cooked fish did all these things and people still believe in him. But many people did. And in 2023, we're still believing in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, amen. And we look forward to the day where he comes back, not humiliated, but victorious, to take his people home. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. For what you've done for us on the cross. We look forward to that day. It can happen any point, according to your word. When you would come back Lord, to take your people to your kingdom. The Lord, we know that there are still people who've never heard your gospel, people who have heard it and haven't responded in the right way. They're not received your gospel that today, Lord, that they would see the imminence of your return and the reason that they need to receive you they've not placed their faith in you Father that today they would, you'd forgive them for their sins, they would place their faith in you today. Or as we close our time together today, let us sing this closing hymn, thinking about what you've done for us on the cross and how we have this eternal life and we have this abundant life and we have access to you at all times. While we love you. We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.