Congratulations! You have won a wonderful prize! The holiday of a lifetime. Celebrating 110 years since Captain Scott’s doomed expedition to the South Pole, Arctic Enterprises will take you and two friends on an all expenses paid holiday in the Arctic circle, for a whole month just a few miles from the north pole! You’ll see polar bears. You’ll see the Northern Lights. You’ll see snow. Quite a lot of snow actually
And you have won unlimited spending money! Although to be fair, there aren’t any shops in the Arctic so there won’t be anything to spend your money on! But it’s the thought that counts
So who will you choose to take with you on this holiday of a lifetime. You can have two members of your family, or your closest friends. Decide for me right now – who are you going to take with you? Decided? Good.
So here you are in the Arctic on your holiday of a lifetime. We promised you snow – but I am afraid you are getting even more snow than you expected. An Arctic blizzard is raging outside your igloo. You and your two friends are trapped inside. You have just got in touch with Arctic Enterprises. And there is some good news and some bad news. The good news is that you have seven days of food for the three of you! The bad news is that is seven days of minimum rations. In that extreme cold if you don’t eat that minimum ration each day then I am very sad to say that you will die. And I have some more good news and bad news for you. The good news is that help is on its way! But the bad news is that the blizzard is so bad that the caterpillar snowmobile with more food will take ten days to reach you.
So what are you going to do? Help is ten days away. But you and your two closest friends have only seven days of minimum rations left and then you will inevitably die. What are you going to do?
I first told that story almost forty years ago. Rob was the first person to answer. He was a policeman, on the staff of the police training academy in Hendon. Rob had just been on the front line of the Brixton riots. Rob was a strong and very brave man. I asked the question – what would you do? Rob answered very honestly. “We all know what we ought to do – but how many of us would have the guts to do it?”
You probably know the story of Captain Scott’s polar expedition. Still 400 miles from safety, the party was suffering with frostbite, snow blindness, hunger and exhaustion. One of the group was Laurence Oates. He was struggling with an old war wound and almost unable to walk. To give his companions a better chance, on 1th March 1912 Laurence Oates walked out of the tent into the blizzard. His last words were, “I am just going outside and may be some time”.
Would you do it? Would you give up your life to save the lives of your family or your closest friends? I’d like to think that I would. But if it came to the crunch, would I?
If you take nothing else from this morning , I want us all to realise that it was just as hard, just as difficult and as painful, for Jesus to give up his life for us as it would be for you and for me to choose to die to save our friends. This is how we know how much God loves us.
Romans 5 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the supreme demonstration of God’s love for fallen human beings. And if we want to know just how much God’s love cost Him, we can look to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus’s most intimate time of prayer and deepest communion with His Father.
Mark 14 32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’
Luke’s Gospel helps us to appreciate even more just how much of a struggle that time of prayer in Gethsemane was for Jesus.
Luke 22 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
So in the Garden of Gethsemane we see the depths of God’s love for us, and also Jesus’s example for us of prayer and obedience, however much it costs, however much it hurts.
Mark 14 35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.’

Abba, Father, take this cup from me
Jesus prayed, “Abba, Father.” In the whole history of Israel nobody before had dared to address Almighty God in such an intimate fashion. Not “Our Father God Creator of Heaven and Earth” nor even “Our Father who art in heaven”. But “Abba”, “my Father.”
“Everything is possible for you.” Jesus recognised that God is Almighty. God is omnipotent. God is able to do ANYTHING He chooses. ANYTHING that fits in with His Divine will and eternal purposes. ANYTHING consistent with His Divine Character of love and holiness.
“Take this cup from me.” Jesus had talked to his disciples about this cup before. He had said to James and John,
Mark 10:38 38 ‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said. ‘Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with?’
That cup would be the cup of suffering.
Mark 10 33 ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ he said, ‘and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him.
Those events which Jesus had foretold were now less than twenty-four hours away. That cup of suffering would include:
Physical pain; few people in history have endured such as much agony as Jesus was going to do in the final hours of His life.
Death; Ezekiel 18:20 tells us, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.” But Jesus was without sin. Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life. Jesus did not deserve to die. Yet He did die. He died for us, in our place. Jesus said,
John 10 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
So Jesus would experience death. But more than that. Jesus was preparing to take upon Himself on the cross,
All the guilt of sin.
2 Corinthians 5 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Message In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.
So on the cross Jesus was going to take upon Himself the death penalty we deserve to pay for our sin. The prophet Isaiah foretold this about God’s suffering servant.
Isaiah 53 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
This was the cup of suffering Jesus would have to drink. In the Old Testament “the cup” was often a symbol for God’s wrath.
Isaiah 51 17 Awake, awake! Rise up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger. …
20 …. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD, with the rebuke of your God.
Ezekiel 32 ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup large and deep; it will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much.
33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, the cup of ruin and desolation,
The cup of God’s wrath. On the cross Jesus was going to experience the full force of God’s anger against sin and the full weight of God’s judgment. There on the cross Jesus would discover what it meant to be cut off from God. The consequence of sin is spiritual death, separation from God who is the source of all life and light and beauty and goodness. On the cross Jesus would be cut off from Abba, My Father, and cry out
Mark 15:33 “My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why have you abandoned me?
This is the cup Jesus was going to drink. The cup of physical pain and of death. The cup of guilt for sin and the wrath of God. This was the cup Jesus longed to be released from. That is how much it would cost for Jesus to set us free and bring us life. Jesus really didn’t want to die!!
Amazing love, O what sacrifice, the Son of God given for me.
My debt He pays and my death He dies, that I might live.
Jesus really did not want to die, any more than you or I would want to. But nevertheless Jesus prays: “Abba Father, take this cup from me,
Yet not what I will but what you will.
Jesus’s desperate plea to escape the cup of suffering was not granted! His deepest heartfelt prayer was not answered. God’s answer was NO! There was no other way we could be saved, so Jesus chose to give up his life for us. That shows us just how much God loves us!
At the same time we are reminded that
Serving God will not always be easy.
Christians can have two wrong ideas about suffering. The first wrong idea is that “God never asks us to do anything which is too difficult or too costly for us.” That is one of the devil’s lies. We have no right to assume that our lives will be any easier than Jesus’s life was. Or any easier than the lives of the first Christians, persecuted and so many martyred for their faith. We have no guarantee that our lives will be any easier than those of our brothers and sisters in the suffering church even today. If God did not spare His own Son Jesus Christ, but gave Him up for us, we should not dare to imagine that we will be spared?
Then the second wrong idea is this. Some Christians think, “Jesus has suffered in my place so I won’t have to suffer at all.” That is another of the devil’s lies. Jesus has suffered for us, but He then calls us to follow Him on the Calvary Road. Jesus calls us to deny self, to take up the cross daily and to follow Him. Jesus calls us to be obedient as He was obedient, whatever the cost. The idea that the Christian life is all health, wealth and prosperity is completely mistaken. Sometimes Christians will get ill. Sometimes they will be persecuted. Jesus was. Sometimes they will die. Jesus did!
God didn’t take that cup of suffering away from His beloved Son, and God won’t always take the cup of suffering away from us. But the Father did give the Son strength to obey. And
God WILL give us the grace to do His will.
The answer to Jesus’s prayer was that He was given the strength to do the Father’s will. Yet not what I will but what you will. Jesus came to the point of saying that He WOULD be obedient, He WOULD carry out God’s will whatever it was going to cost, however much it would hurt.
There are many things which God calls us to do which are not easy.
• To worship God and serve only Him;
• To turn our backs on sin and live Holy lives;
• To trust God in the dark times;
• To love our enemies and forgive others who have hurt us most deeply;
• To live lives of love as Jesus did, loving others as much as He has loved us;
• To tell everybody the Good News that Jesus saves, however difficult that can be.
Following Jesus in these ways is often difficult. The privilege of new life in Jesus Christ brings with it the responsibilities of discipleship and witness. In so many areas of life we need to come to that same point of unconditional obedience that Jesus did, “Not my will but yours be done.” Whatever it costs. However much it hurts. And when we are obedient, God will give us the strength to do His will. Even though, as Jesus said,
The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
In the Garden of Gethsemane what a dramatic contrast there is between the perfect obedience Jesus showed and the weakness and disobedience of every other human being who has ever lived. The disciples had such good intentions but even before the cross, even before the trials, even before the arrest, they all let Jesus down.
37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’

Jesus’s disciples and closest friends could not even stay awake to pray with him. Keep watch. Like the sentry guarding the palace or the sailor on watch as the ship sails through rocky waters. Keep watch – because there’s danger ahead. But one by one the disciples fell into temptation. As Jesus was arrested we read everyone deserted Him and fled. The disciples were no different from us. When temptation comes we often don’t do any better than they did. Even Peter would go on to deny three times that he even knew Jesus. But we deny Jesus when an opportunity comes along to tell other people about our Saviour and we remain silent. Even when we DO come to the point of saying, “Not my will but your will be done” we often still fail to do the right thing. We all have this battle going on inside us all the time. Even when we want to obey God we disobey him time and time again. We take the easy way out and give in to temptation. All because, the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Jesus knew all about this struggle we face. That was the battle He fought in Gethsemane. The temptation to take the easy way out. To run away from the cup of suffering which he would have to endure. Jesus knew all about our inner struggles. He was tempted in every way as we are, but the difference was He never sinned. He prayed, “not my will but your will be done” And He DID drink that cup of suffering to the bitter end! That is how much God loves you and me!
May God help us all to follow Jesus, obedient even to the point of death, doing God’s will whatever it costs, however much it hurts.
PRAYER

REFLECTION – a song written by a friend and mentor Dave Sewell called “Any other way”

If there’s any other way, Father,
To bring the world back to you and to give men freedom,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Please tell me so!

If there’s any other way, Father,
But to take all the sin of the world on my shoulders,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Please tell me so!

For I know that the cross will be hard to bear
And I know I will have to be strong.
And the jeers of the crowd and the heat and the thirst
And the pain will go on and on.
But it isn’t the pain of the cross that will be
The worst thing I’ll have to bear.
But to know as the sin of the world rests on me,
That for the first time in my life, You won’t be there!

So if there’s any other way, Father,
To bring the world back to you and to give men freedom,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Please tell me so!

If there’s any other way, Father,
But the cross and the shame and the pain and the dying,
If there’s any other way, Father,
Your will be done. Your will be done.

This sermon finishes the Lent sermon series “The Way to the Cross” but has not been preached in North Springfield Baptist Church (yet)

Over the past month we have been following Jesus over the last 24 hours of his earthly life from Gethsemane to the cross. All the way to the cross JESUS was choosing to give up His own life.
John 10:11, 17-18 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 18 No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
We began by recognising the depths of Jesus’s love and His obedience there in the Garden – “not my will but yours be done”. And we saw that it was at least as hard for Jesus Christ the Son of God to lay down his life for us as it would be for any of us to lay down our lives to save somebody that we loved.

And we saw Jesus facing all the injustice of this unfair world at His trials. False accusations. Condemned for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. So often, good men doing nothing!

Then Jesus was flogged and mocked
Led like a lamb to the slaughter in silence and shame;
There on your back you carried a world of violence and pain;
Bleeding, dying, bleeding, dying!

FLOGGED – 39 lashes was just one less than the 40 which were expected to lead to death. Bare flesh flogged with a scourge, a leather whip with bits of bone embedded in it which would tear the flesh away. This suffering was not “redeeming suffering” – we arent saved because they treated Jesus this way. But it is “identifying suffering” – Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us, identifying Himself with suffering people in every situation.

Flogged, then CROWNED WITH THORNS – Pure barbaric cruelty. Senseless torture. Suffering which was neither redemptive nor even identifying – but simply pointless!

And Jesus was MOCKED A purple robe, a crown of thorns, a reed in His right hand.

Along The Road to the The Via Dolorosa, the road of sorrows
BYSTANDERS – hurled insults at Him
CHIEF PRIESTS, TEACHERS of LAW, ELDERS mocked him.
WOMEN OF JERUSALEM – wept for Him
SOLDIERS – just did their job!
PILATE – standing back and doing nothing although he KNEW who Jesus really was!
DICIPLES nowhere to be seen = “lone and friendless now he climbs the cruel hill!
SIMON OF CYRENE – the only one to help Jesus!

And then as Jesus was dying on the cross we have seen how He prayed – not for Himself that He should be rescued, but for His executioners, for those who were torturing and murdering him. And he didn’t pray for their judgement, for their punishment, but for their forgiveness: Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,
However evil we are – however much we have hurt God and rejected God, however many of His laws we have broken, we can be forgiven. NO-ONE is too wicked. Our sins may be very great – but God’s mercy is greater! If those very people who crucified Jesus can be forgiven, so can we!

So we saw Jesus Christ the Messiah, God’s Son – executed as a common criminal between two thieves. On the point of suffering an agonizing death, here Jesus said some of the most wonderful words he ever spoke. Not to the religious leaders, not to his own disciples, but to a complete stranger, the criminal hanging on the next cross. A man who had NOTHING to offer God AT ALL. Absolutely nothing. Yet Jesus says to HIM, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” All this repentant thief had to do was confess his sin and ask for forgiveness. Remember me Jesus when you come as King!

Then as the end drew near, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why did You abandon me?”

We sometimes try to imagine what it was like for Jesus Christ to die for our sins. We can maybe understand some of the physical pain. But we can only begin to glimpse the anguish Jesus felt to be rejected by His own people as a blasphemer, condemned by the Romans as a dangerous rebel, deserted by His closest friends. And worse than all these things, on the cross God the Son felt the full reality of being abandoned by God the Father.

“My God, my God, why did You abandon me?” (Mark 15:34)
These were feelings of complete rejection, no apparent desertion but a real desertion. The Son had come to reveal God as the heavenly Father. He had shocked traditional Judaism by daring to address God as Abba, Daddy. But on the cross for the first time in His life Jesus cannot pray “My Father” but only “My God”. Why have you deserted me? Why have you forsaken me? Abandoned me? Handed me over? Given me up? Betrayed me? WHY? How those words would have pierced the Father heart of God!

Something very profound was happening deep within God Himself as Jesus was suffering on the cross. As Martin Luther said, “Christ saw Himself as lost, as forsaken by God, felt in His concience that He was cursed by God, suffered the torments of the damned who feel God’s eternal wrath, shrink from it and flee.”
“It was a deep division in God Himself, as God abandoned God and contradicted Himself. ”
Amazing love, oh what sacrifice, the Son of God given for me! The sacrifice of the omnipotent Father is as great as the sacrifice of the helpless Son. God’s deity is divided! The Holy Trinity, God the three-in-One, is split apart by OUR sin as Christ the Son shares our rebellion and separation from God the Father!

This is the impossibility of the cross – the paradox of the cross. Black becoming white, evil becoming good. “Christ was without sin, but God made Him to BE sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!”

“The suffering in the passion of Jesus is abandonment, rejection by God His Father. Jesus humbles Himself and takes upon Himself the eternal death of the Godless and the Godforsaken, so that the Godless and the Godforsaken can experience communion with Him.” THAT is how much it cost God to bring us back from hell! THAT is how much God loves you and me!

And at the end of all this we find Jesus saying just one word, which translates into English as, “It is finished!” What did Jesus mean by those words?

Not “I’m finished” but “IT is finished”
Not “I’m done for”, not “I’m done in”, but “It is done”, “I’ve done it!”.
It is completed. It is accomplished. It is finished!!

Jesus’s death on the cross was God’s plan of salvation. That is what was completed – THAT is what was finished!

A young man once came forward in a Gospel meeting. “What can I do to be saved?” he asked. The anxious inquirer was heartbroken to be told, “You’re too late!” “Oh, don’t say that,” exclaimed the distressed seeker, “I really want salvation; I’d do anything or go anywhere to obtain it.” “I’m sorry,” replied the counsellor, “you’re too late for that. Your salvation was completed many hundreds of years ago at Calvary. It’s all been done already! It’s finished

Behind the scenes, God had everything under His control when Jesus came to the cross. Not the Jewish leaders. Not Pilate. Not the Roman soldiers. But God was in charge.

John 19:10-11 Pilate said. “Don’t you realise I have power either to free you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.

The cross was all part of God’s master plan for salvation. Pilate could only see power and authority in limited human terms. He needed to be warned of the cosmic implications of His actions, of the “shortness of time and the vastness of eternity.” In the same way we can only understand the cross if we see it in cosmic terms, in terms of the “shortness of time and the vastness of eternity.”

Everything that happened on the cross was in fulfilment of Scripture, especially of ISAIAH 53

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 ¶ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all
.
10 ¶ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. 11 After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light [of life] and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

There on the cross Jesus was dying for sin – paying the penalty WE should pay for our rebellion against God, for our disobedience and pride, taking on Himself OUR punishment. That is what was finished as Jesus died. That is what was completed!

By current standards of success, Jesus might be considered a failure. Was he popular? No. He was not well-liked. In fact, after one of his sermons, all of his followers deserted him, except for the Twelve Apostles.
Did he have political power? No. He was a political failure. All levels of government first rejected him. Then they conspired to kill him. Did he have lots of friends? No. His friends often hurt him, eventually abandoned him, and one of them betrayed him to death.
Did he have money and possessions? No. No house, no “posh cars”, no mobile phone, no website, no world headquarters, no Christian amusement park.
Was he respected by his peers? No. His professional peers (the Pharisees) rejected his work.
And dying on a cross was the ultimate failure, the ultimate shame.

But looked at NOT from the perspective of the “shortness of time” but in terms of the vastness of eternity” the cross wasn’t failure – but success! It wasn’t defeat but victory!!! The cross was the ultimate victory over sin, over death, over the devil. It is finished!

I hate paying bills – but there’s a tremendous satisfaction in handing over the money and seeing that stamp “paid in full”. They used to have tax bills in Jesus’s time, and they used to write over the bills in latin “consummatum est”, in greek “tetelestai” “paid in full”. And that’s what Jesus cries here on the cross. “Telelestai”, “paid in full”. With sin’s account settled, our debt of guilt was indeed wiped out! It is finished!

This is the great difference between the Christian religion and every other religion in the world. Every other religion can be summed up in just two letters but the Christian faith needs four!
Every other religion says ‘DO. Do this, do that, do the other and you will find salvation”.
But Christianity says “It is DONE, it is accomplished, it is finished!”

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood: Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

Lifted up was He to die, ‘It is finished!’ was His cry:
Now in heaven exalted high: Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Scourged and mocked, nailed to a cross, crowned with thorns, on the point of suffering an agonizing death, here we see Jesus speaking some of the most wonderful words he ever spoke. Not to the religious leaders, not to his own disciples, but to a complete stranger, the criminal hanging on the next cross.

“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” LUKE 23:43

Is there anybody that God can’t forgive? Is there anybody that God won’t forgive?

Some people think “I’m too wicked – God could never forgive me”

Here on the cross we see Jesus praying for those who were torturing and murdering him. Praying not that they be condemned and punished, but that they be forgiven.
Father forgive them!

False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. Good men doing nothing!
And he prayed Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing, LUKE 23:34

Flogged, crowned with thorns, mocked
Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,

Bystanders, chief priests, elders, teachers of the law, soldiers, Pilate, even his own disciples lettting him down – “lone and friendless now he climbs the cruel hill!”
Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,

And then here on the next cross we find a thief, a common criminal. “Today you will be with me in Paradise!”

However evil we are – however much we have hurt God and rejected God, however many of His laws we have broken, we can be forgiven. NO-ONE is too wicked. Our sins may be very great – but God’s mercy is greater! If those very people who crucified Jesus can be forgiven, so can we! If that thief can be forgiven, so can we! Praise God!

Is there anybody that God can’t forgive? Is there anybody that God won’t forgive? Some people think

“I’m not good enough for God – I’ve nothing to offer God”

Some people think they have to earn God’s forgiveness. Some people think that they can only be forgiven if they turn their lives round and live perfect lives full of good works from then on!

But think of that thief on the cross? What did he have to offer God? What could he ever do to repay God? A few hours to live – no more! Hung on a cross – not a lot of room for good works there! He had NOTHING to offer God AT ALL. Absolutely nothing. Yet Jesus says to HIM, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Forgiveness is NOTHING to do with anything we can offer God!! It’s not about repaying God by living a perfect life full of God works once we are forgiven. It’s all about GRACE, just grace!

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see

I’ve quoted before, “Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.” John R. W. Stott (1921– ) /

A. W. Tozer : “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. It is a self-existent principle inherent in God’s nature and appears to us as a self-caused inclination to pity the wretched, spare the guilty, welcome the outcast, and bring into favor those who were before under just condemnation. Its effects to us miserable sinners is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

When we sin – receiving the punishment we deserve would be justice. Not getting what we deserve would be mercy. But getting what we don’t deserve – eternal life, the hope of heaven, the gift of the Holy Spirit, getting all these blessings we dont deserve – that’s what the Bible means by grace.

If someone brutally murders your son and you take things into your own hands, that’s revenge. If you’re content to allow the law and the courts to arrest and punish the offender, that’s justice. But if you pardon the murderer, adopt him, and take him home to live with you as your son, that’s grace! And that’s what God has done for us!!

1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

All any of us deserve from God is punishment for rejecting Him and running away from Him. But instead we are alive with Christ, raised up with him, seated in the heavenly realms with Him – THAT’s grace!!

When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high acheivements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award–yet despite that he receives all these and much much more – that is God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the grace of God. We could never earn or deserve our salvation – it’s all of grace! Praise God!
Eph 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- 9 not by works, so that no-one can boast.

And that’s what this thief receives – amazing grace!
I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.

With me in paradise! A man judged unworthy to live amongst men is called to eternal life in the presence of Christ in glory. That’s grace!

But there’s one important word I don’t want us to miss in that glorious promise! The word is YOU! In English that sentence could mean two different things, depending on who the “you” is. You could be plural – all of you. Or it could be singular – just that man. The greek is unambiguous. And Luke also makes the point very forcibly – Jesus answered HIM , YOU (singular) will be with me in Paradise. The promise was only for that one repentant thief. Not for all the others there. Not for the soldiers. Not for the passers by. Not for the thief on the other cross. Just this man. Why him?

Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This thief was saved for no other reason than that he asked to be saved. In his hour of need he reached out to Christ and Christ answered his prayer. This dying thief had no time to be baptized, no time to change his life style, no time to do any good works, or no time to even go to church. He could not do anything except repent, believe in Christ, and confess his faith in Christ to save Him from his sins. That is all any of us have to do. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.” (Rom 10:9)

In fact there are at least SIX things in these four short sentences which show us that this thief was repentant and did indeed have saving faith.

1 He feared God! “Do you not fear God?” It is absolutely right that we mere creatures should bow in fear before our Almighty Creator. That we sinful disobedient mortals should bow before the eternal Holy God.

2. He recognised he had done wrong. We are getting what our deeds deserve.

3. He recognised he deserved his punishment. We are punished justly,

4. He recognised Jesus’s holiness. But this man has done nothing wrong.’

5. He recognises Jesus as King! Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
This thief recognised what the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers refused to accept – that Jesus was indeed the King of the Jews, bringing God’s Kingly rule to earth.
John 1:10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- born of God.

6. And this thief cries out for help. Jesus, remember me

Not the labour of my hands Can fulfil thy law’s demands.
Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling.
Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless come to thee for grace.
Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me Saviour or I die.

Here is the scandal of grace. That a prisoner on death row, or a lifelong sinner on his death bed, can cry out to God and find forgiveness and assurance of all the blessings of heaven. Today you WILL be with me in Paradise.

So is there anybody that God can’t forgive? Is there anybody that God won’t forgive? Well, there is just one kind of person who God can’t forgive –

Any person who doesn’t want to be forgiven – who never asks for forgiveness!

Some people never get to the point of acknowledging their own sin. Like the thief on the other cross – the one who mocked Jesus and never saw the error of his ways. That other thief never found forgiveness.

But the repentant thief did! 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. People don’t like to admit that sinfulness and rebellion are at the heart of the problems in their own lives and in society as a whole. People are much more comfortable discussing imperfections, weaknesses, mistakes, errors in judgment. Phrases like this are socially acceptable. Almost everyone can identify with them.

But an outright acknowledgment of guilt before a holy God, a 100-percent acceptance of personal responsibility for our wrong-doing, that’s much harder. But that kind of honesty is the essential first step towards the freedom from sin and guilt that God longs to give us, towards that forgiveness we all desperately need and which God has provided for us by Christ dying for us.
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.
Yes Lord I AM a sinner. I DO need saving! Remember me Jesus.

Frederick II was an eighteenth-century king of Prussia. One day he went on an inspection tour of a Berlin prison. He was greeted with the cries of prisoners, who fell on their knees and protested their unjust imprisonment. There were endless tales of innocence, of misunderstood motives, and of exploitation. While listening to these pleas of innocence, Frederick’s eye was caught by a solitary figure in the corner, a prisoner seemingly unconcerned with all the commotion.
“Why are you here?” Frederick asked him. “Armed robbery, Your Majesty.”
“Well,” remarked the King, “I suppose you are an innocent victim too? Were you guilty?”
“Oh yes, indeed, Your Majesty. I entirely deserve my punishment.” At that Frederick summoned the jailer. “Release this guilty man at once,” he said. before he corrupts all these fine innocent people in here!”

1 JOHN 1:8-9 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

All this repentant thief had to do was confess his sin and reach out for forgiveness. Remember me Jesus!
43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

So which thief are you like? The one who never acknowledged his guilt and died condemned? Or the one who reached out for mercy in his dying hours and died forgiven?!

We are walking with Jesus on the way to the cross. We have seen him condemned in rigged trials, sharing in the same kind of suffering as persecuted peoples everywhere, totally alone as he walked the Via Dolorosa to Calvary. Today we think about Jesus on the cross.

Luke 23:32 ¶ Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals- one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

This morning we are going to look at one of the most amazing, almost incredible, sentences of Scripture.
Luke 23:34 “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”

Who do you pray for most? When things are going well there is probably a long list.
When you are tired or busy you probably have a shorter list of real needs and closer personal concerns. When life is at its hardest I guess most of your prayers are for yourself, although you can perhaps spare a prayer for your family or a close friend in great need.

But when Jesus’s life was almost at an end, when the pain was worst, Jesus didn’t pray for his mother Mary watching nearby. He didn’t pray for his dear disciples Peter James and John. Jesus didn’t pray for the church which would come into being as a result of His death.
At that moment of agony instead we find Jesus praying for His enemies. And not praying in revenge that God’s judgement and punishment would fall on those who were torturing and executing Him. But praying for their forgiveness!
“Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”

Praying for His enemies! We have a lot to learn from our Lord Jesus Christ about praying for our enemies. And it all comes from this:-
God changes enemies into friends

This is what the cross is all about. One man who was innocent dying in the place of those who were guilty.
Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Everybody who puts their trust in Jesus’s death and resurrection can know forgiveness of sins and the certainty of eternal life. We can share that wonderful promise, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

So it is no coincidence that the place where we find Jesus praying for His enemies is indeed the cross. Father forgive them. Punish me instead of them. Accept my death instead of theirs.

This is the good news of the gospel.
2 Cor 5:20-21 We plead on Christ’s behalf. Let God change you from enemies into His friends.
Christ was without sin, but God made Him share our sin in order that in union with Him we might share God’s righteousness.

We serve the God who changes enemies into friends. This is the Good News God we have received and believed for ourselves and it is the Good News God sends us out to share with a needy world.

Father forgive them. Jesus prayed. And Jesus forgave.
These words of Jesus don’t only point to the way of our salvation! They don’t only reveal to us the character of the God we serve. They also give us two examples to follow. The example of prayer and the example of forgiveness. And these are not optional extras for superkeen Christians, but the duty of EVERY Christian.

Just as Jesus prayed for his enemies BEFORE they received forgiveness and became God’s friends, so we are called to pray for people who are still God’s enemies, cut of from God by their sins, to pray that they will find forgiveness and new life in Christ.

But prayer without action is rehearsal without performance. We begin by praying for enemies – we must then go on to forgive them from the bottom of our hearts. But what enemies are these?

Praying for enemies in the world around us

Jesus’s enemies were those people who opposed and persecuted and rejected and murdered Him. The church today has enemies. People who set out to oppose the church of Jesus Christ and persecute its members. Christians are commanded to show the same kind of love to such people as Jesus did.

Luke 6:27 “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you. 29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.

This may be easy for us in comfortable North Springfield. It doesn’t often cost us very much to stand up and be counted as Christians or to serve Christ. It’s usually easy for us to forgive (or most of the time we can just ignore) people who oppose our Christian beliefs and practice. But we remember those places around the world where it is much harder to live the Christian life. In Pakistan, for example, where only a month ago the minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti was murdered. He was the only prominent politician who was a Christian and he was killed by the Taliban for trying to change the blasphemy law which at the moment can order the death penalty for anybody who insults Islam. In Pakistan the enemies of the gospel are giving the Christians much more to forgive. It must be much harder than we can imagine for widows and orphans to forgive the murderers of their husbands and fathers and children.
But the church is the body of Christ. If one part of the body suffers we all suffer with it. If our fellow Christians are suffering persecution from their enemies, we shouldn’t just close our eyes and ignore what is happening.
In parts of Africa, parts of Eastern Europe, some Muslim countries, Sri Lanka, parts of South America, becoming a Christian can lead to complete rejection by family and friends and community. Christians face terrible persecutions, imprisonment, unspeakable tortures, immeasurable cost in their family life and education and jobs, just for following Christ. There are many many places where Christians face enemies on every side. And there are even some churches in inner city areas of England that pay a high price of violence to people and property because of their Christian witness.

Jesus prayed for His enemies “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”
God calls us to pray for those who are persecuting our fellow Christians around the world. To pray for the Christians that they will have God’s grace to stand firm in the faith. To know enough about the situations that we can pray intelligently and meaningfully. To pray that our brothers and sisters will have the courage to share the gospel despite the great cost! But also to pray for those who are doing the persecuting! That they will find forgiveness. That God in His grace will bring them to repentance and faith and change them from enemies into friends.

And in our own situations, we may have friends or neighbours or family members who make life difficult for us as Christians They may be antagonistic or scornful or annoying. God calls us NOT to ignore them, NOT to be resentful, NOT to be angry but to love them and pray for them. The starting point for ALL our witnessing and outreach and evangelism and mission is PRAYER to the God who changes enemies into friends. If we talk to God long enough in prayer about our friends who do not know Him yet, then in the end we will find it much easier to talk to those friends about God.

And as we pray for other people so we are commanded to show forgiveness to them for any ways in which they have hurt us or made our lives difficult – to forgive them deep in our hearts.

Luke 6:35 Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

But then there is another aspect of praying for our enemies
Praying for our enemies in the church

It can happen!! Maybe its over theological issues – the work of the Holy Spirit, the timetable of the Second Coming, Creation or Evolution, Abortion and Euthanasia. At the moment in the Christian press and on the internet there is a great theological debate going on about universalism – whether God will actually punish sinners or whether in the end everybody will be saved. For years churches have had arguments about styles of worship. People argue about use of money. Maybe its disagreements or from the past, about decisions made a long time ago we still feel were wrong, or the way somebody else treated your friend or a member of your family? Sometimes churches are split by rivalries or jealousies about who does which jobs in the church, or pride or resentment or anger festering.

We shouldn’t have enemies within the church. But it can happen. Somebody else in the fellowship with whom you have differences which have built up over years into resentments and grudges which are hidden under the surface but erode away true fellowship? Folk you just don’t trust!

Our unity can sometimes be superficial. We paper over the cracks of disagreement and division. There is no place in the church for treating others as enemies, even if we only do it by ignoring them and secretly hoping they will go away. This destroys the oneness of fellowship and robs a church of power in its praying.

Colossians 3:11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.

Only one petition in the Lord’s Prayer has any condition attached to it. It is the petition for forgiveness. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. As Saint Francis of Assisi put it – It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.

Here on the cross Jesus sets us an example of forgiving. He calls us to forgive all those who have harmed us – not for their sake but for our own. As a wise man once said,
“He that demands mercy, and shows none, ruins the bridge over which he himself is to pass.”

And Love forgives AND forgets.

1 Cor 13:5 Love keeps no record of wrongs.

Forgiveness is not saying, “I will forgive, but not forget.” That is just another way of saying “I won’t forgive.” Forgiveness isn’t burying the hatchet in the other man’s head! Nor is it to bury the hatchet with the handle sticking out of the ground, so you can grasp it the minute you want it.

Forgiving and forgetting. With no grudges. No hidden resentments. No coldness. No people we aren’t on speaking terms with.

There was once a woman who was never known to hold resentment against anyone. One time a friend reminded her of a cruel thing that had happened to her some years previously. The woman seemed not to remember the incident. “Don’t you remember the wrong that was done you?” the friend asked. The woman answered calmly, “No, I distinctly remember forgetting that.”

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Christ knew just how unfair a place this world is! False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. So often, good men doing nothing! IT’S NOT FAIR!!! And he prayed
Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,
Flogged, crowned with thorns, mocked
Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,
Bystanders, chief priests, elders, teachers of the law, soldiers, Pilate, even his own disciples lettting him down – “lone and friendless now he climbs the cruel hill!”
Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,

Prayer AND forgiveness. Jesus prayed for and forgave all who hurt him by action or rejection – and he calls us to do no less.

As we prepare for Easter, we are walking with Jesus in the last 24 hours of his life on the way to the cross.

We began by looking at the trials Jesus faced, first by the Jewish Council the Sanhedrin, then by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate. We saw how Jesus experienced first-hand the essential unfairness of this fallen world. False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. And so often, good men standing by and doing nothing!

Last week we saw Jesus flogged,

Matthew 27 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers round him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

This cruel flogging was an unjust, undeserved punishment. It was not “redeeming suffering” – it contributed nothing to our salvation. But it was “identifying suffering. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us has identified Himself with suffering people in every situation.

Then the crown of thorns. Pure barbaric cruelty. Senseless torture. Suffering which was neither redemptive nor even identifying – but simply pointless! And then Jesus was mocked and taunted. He DID walk where I walk, He DID stand where I stand, He HAS felt what I feel, He DOES understand! God with us, so close to us, God with us, Immanuel!

The prophet ISAIAH foretold it so well.

He was dispised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and familiar with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

This week we will see that nowhere was this rejection more true than on that agonising journey from the trials to the cross along the Via Dolorosa, the Road of Sorrows. Let’s look at that journey from the perspective of all the different people who passed by, who saw Jesus on that road.
The WOMEN OF JERUSALEM were there

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, `Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “`they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills “Cover us!” ‘ For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Luke 23: 27-31

In the midst of all his suffering Jesus was not thinking about himself, but for those who were watching him die.

They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, where all who passed by mocked Him..

BYSTANDERS

Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, `You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God! Matthew 27:39

It was as if the whole world had turned against Jesus. Only a week ago the streets were lined with people cheering his arrival. “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” “Hosanna in the highest!”

Now only seven days later what a contrast to the triumphal entry which we celebrate on Palm Sunday. At Golgotha we read that ALL who passed by mocked Jesus. Not a supporter in sight!

And it was not only the ordinary people but especially the important people came along to pour their scorn on Jesus.

CHIEF PRIESTS, TEACHERS of LAW, ELDERS

In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, `I am the Son of God.’ ” Matthew 27: 41-43

He saved others – let Him save Himself! The irony was that Jesus WAS the King of Israel. He WAS the Son of God. And the proof that Jesus was who he claimed to be was not that He miraculously came down from the cross, but that he stayed up there. He COULD have come down – but then we would not have been saved. God the Father COULD have rescued His beloved Son from all the suffering of the cross. But then we would not have been saved!

And those who were crucifying Jesus added to the suffering of the hour.

SOLDIERS

When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots [that the word spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled: “They divided my garments among themselves and cast lots for my clothing.”] And sitting down, they kept watch over him there.
Matthew 27: 35-36.

They were just doing their jobs. The classic defence. “I was just obeying orders.” But there was at least one of them who was deeply moved by what was happening. After it was all over we read,
“When the centurion who stood there in front of Jesus heard his cry and saw how he died he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39)

But that was too late!

PONTIUS PILATE the Roman Governor knew what was really going on!

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write `The King of the Jews’, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” John 19:19-22

Good men doing nothing! Pilate KNEW Jesus was innocent. But he kept quiet. He compromised!

And what of Jesus Himself?

Mt 27: 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.

It was part of God’s plan of salvation that Jesus was determined to remain fully conscious all through his suffering. To drink the cup of suffering to the bitter end.

Just where were the DISCIPLES when all of this was happening?

While their Master and Friend was suffering in these ways, when humanly speaking Jesus needed their support most of all, where were those 11 remaining apostles? This is all that the gospels tell us about how the disciples stood by Jesus and supported him through his trials and then along the Via Dolorosa, the Road of Sorrows, to the cross.
Just as Peter was speaking, the cock crowed. The Lord turned and looked directly at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. “Before the cock crows today you will deny me three times.” And Peter went outside and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:60-62)

That’s it! Later on we find the apostle John at the foot of the cross. But not on the Via Dolorosa, the Road of Sorrows. And no sign of Peter or James or Andrew or Matthew or any of the other apostles. They are nowhere to be seen! Not even Peter, despite his rash promise, “Lord I am ready to go with you to prison and even to death!” (Luke 22:33)

“Lone and friendless now he climbs the cruel hill!”

Have you ever felt lonely and abandoned? As if all your family and friends have deserted you? As if you are all alone in the world and nobody cares what happens to you? Many people feel that way for lots of the time. Often if a loved one dies we will feel completely alone without them. But many people feel lonely even in the ordinary course of life. One person wrote, “loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.” Another wrote, “It is strange to be known so universally and yet be so lonely.” That was Albert Einstein. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being uncared for and unwanted are the greatest poverty.”

But the Via Dolorosa shows us that Jesus understands completely what it is to be alone and abandoned.

He was dispised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows, and familiar with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)

“Lone and friendless now he climbs the cruel hill!”

At the hour of his greatest need, Jesus’s disciples were not there for him.

Only one man was there for Jesus, when carrying his own cross became too much for Jesus after the flogging and the crown of thorns.
SIMON OF CYRENE
Matt:27: 32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.

I’ll bet Peter and James and John and the others spent the rest of their lives wishing THEY had been there to carry Jesus’s cross for Him – but they weren’t!!! Only one man was – a complete stranger.

Mark’s gospel tells us that Simon of Cyrene was the father of Rufus and Alexander. We can assume that these were disciples and that they were well known in the Early Church. Indeed Paul sends a greeting to Alexander in Romans 16. So we can be pretty certain that Simon’s sons Rufus and Alexander became prominent Christians.

Simon came from Cyrene (in Africa). In Acts 13 we read about a man known as “Simeon the Black” who was one of the prophets in Antioch who sent Paul and Barnabas off on their Missionary journeys. Most people think that Simeon the Black was actually Simon of Cyrene. It seems very likely that that “chance” encounter Jesus had with a passer by who was on his way in from the countryside brought Simon of Cyrene salvation.

We often say that God loves each one of us so much that Jesus would have endured the cross and all His sufferings just for one of us – just for me. Perhaps Jesus endured all the sorrows of the Via Dolorosa just for Simon of Cyrene.

WOMEN OF JERUSALEM – They wept for Him

BYSTANDERS – They hurled insults at Him

CHIEF PRIESTS, TEACHERS of LAW, ELDERS – They mocked him.

SOLDIERS – They just did their job – and murdered him!

PILATE – Stood back and did nothing!

DISCIPLES – were nowhere to be seen.

SIMON OF CYRENE

The only one to help Jesus! And the one who received blessing upon blessing, life in all its fullness from that encounter.

Were YOU there when they crucified my Lord?

HE WALKED WHERE I WALK, He stood where I stand, He felt what I feel, He understands.
God with us, so close to us, God with us, Immanuel!

But does Jesus really understand our problems? Can he really help us?

Some folk here this morning, or others that we know and love, may be struggling with illness and pain. Some are bereaved and mourning. Some may feel crushed by disappointment, or let down by others. We may feel discouraged and depressed. Does God really understand how we feel?

Last week we saw how this world is just not fair! But we also saw how Jesus Himself experienced all the injustice of the world. And we saw how trusting in God’s grace will help us to cope with the unfairness of this fallen world. Today we will see how God shares in our sufferings, that on the cross Jesus Christ the blameless Son of God took upon himself the sufferings of the world. We are going to look at some of the events which led up to the cross, some of the ways Jesus suffered even BEFORE he was crucified for the sins of the world, just some of the ways in which God shares our sufferings.

All of us suffer sometimes at the hands of others simply because this world is NOT a fair place. If we look at Jesus’s trials before Caiaphas and before Pilate, what do we see? What an unjust place this world is! False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. So often, good men doing nothing! Jesus went through all of these things and more the night before he was crucified. He has experienced the same injustice that so many human beings have experienced and are still experiencing today. But these things were just the start of Jesus’s suffering.

“Led like a lamb to the slaughter in silence and shame;
There on your back you carried a world of violence and pain;
Bleeding, dying, bleeding, dying!”

Jesus was bleeding and dying before he got to Golgotha, long before he was nailed to the cross!
First Jesus was scourged,

Jesus was FLOGGED

Matt 27: 26. Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

39 lashes was just one less than the 40 which were expected to lead to death. The body was to be laid bare and the victim flogged by a man with a leather scourge standing on a stone. According to the instructions, the reason for standing was “so that the blows came down with great force”. He who smites must smite with his one hand with all his might.” The scourge was a leather whip with bits of bone embedded in it which would tear the flesh away.

This is just one part of the suffering which Jesus Christ endured for you and me, for our salvation. And the point about Jesus’s flogging was that it was unjust, undeserved punishment. Like so many innocent people who have suffered in this world for their beliefs, or because of the colour of their skin, or simply because their face didn’t fit.
This suffering was not “redeeming suffering” – we aren’t saved because evil men treated Jesus this way. But it is “identifying suffering” – Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us, identifying Himself with suffering people in every situation. Suffering with us, and setting an example of how Christians should deal with unjust punishments and other kinds of undeserved suffering.

1 Peter 2:18 Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

Jesus shows us how to endure suffering in ways that are pleasing to God. It takes great courage to follow in Jesus’s footsteps in this way.

21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 22 “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
23 When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

And in some mysterious way, this suffering DOES play a part in our salvation.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Next Jesus was CROWNED WITH THORNS

Matt 27: 27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers round him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head.

Many people suffer through illness. But there are few illnesses which would give such intense physical pain as Jesus Christ experienced on the road to Calvary. We can imagine Jesus bravely facing capture in Gethsemane, the outrage of rigged trials, even the scourging which in some mysterious way plays a part in our salvation – by His stripes we are healed. But here surely is the part where Jesus must have been so strongly tempted to call it a day – to call for the 12 legions of angels to rescue Him. Pure barbaric cruelty. Senseless torture. Suffering which was neither redemptive nor even identifying – but simply pointless!

Like the Holocaust – concentration camps of Auschwiz, Belsen;
Like the senseless massacres at Hungerford, Dunblane, like the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
It was Robbie Burns who coined the phrase “man’s inhumanity to man”
Jesus has experienced all this!!! He really did drink the cup of suffering to the dregs!!

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with his presence. The picture of God in the Bible is of one who suffers, and when the mask is torn off life and we see all its profound and vast misery, the suffering, sorrowing God is the only one who does not mock us. He suffers with us!”

HEB 2:14-18

Then Jesus was MOCKED

Matt 27:29b They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spat on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

How ironic that the soldiers should treat Jesus as a King without ever recognising that He really WAS THE King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Yet Jesus didnt insist on that recognition, but humbly endured the insults, the derision. And He calls His disciples to follow in His footsteps.
Matt 5:11-12

We may not often experience unfair punishments. We may not often suffer innocently. Perhaps being mocked and laughed at is the close most of us come to following Jesus. Yet we run away and hide even from that. Think of the horrible deaths that most of the 12 apostles faced! Remember all the things the apostle Paul went through for proclaiming the gospel – “knocked down but not knocked out”:
2 Cor 11:23b -27.

Think of the things other Christians have endured for being followers of Christ. Perhaps it’s not that hard to stand up and be counted as a Christian in North Springfield after all! Think of all that Jesus went through for you and for me. Perhaps our pains and sadnesses and sufferings and disappointments are not that bad after all. Jesus was flogged. Jesus was crowned with thorns. Jesus was mocked. He DID walk where I walk, He DID stand where I stand, He HAS felt what I feel, He DOES understand! God with us, so close to us, God with us, Immanuel!

IT’S NOT FAIR !!!!! It’s just not fair! We see such dreadful things on the television and read them in the newspapers every day. Terrible things happen to our neighbours and friends. Things can even happen to us. People make up lies about each other. People betray each other and hurt each other and even kill each other. Evil people lie and steal their way to the top and good people are crushed under their feet. Innocent people suffer while guilty people get away with murder. Let’s face it – this world just isn’t a fair place!!!
Jesus said “the rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike.” The snow also falls upon the just and the unjust alike, after which the just slips up and breaks his leg on the snow which the unjust hasn’t bothered to clear away! That’s the kind of world we live in.
And that’s the kind of world God became man to redeem. Jesus knows all about injustice because He has experienced it first hand! Nowhere did Jesus experience the injustice, the essential unfairness of this world as much as at His trials – first before the Jewish Council of Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin, and then before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.

Jesus experienced FALSE ACCUSATIONS

Mt 26:59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

CONDEMNED FOR SPEAKING THE TRUTH

Matt 26:63b The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.

Film “A few good men” Jack Nicholson -“You don’t want the truth! You couldnt handle the truth!” All most people really want is the comfortable lie!”

RIGGED TRIALS

Matthew 27: 1. Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to the decision to put Jesus to death.

UNJUST IMPRISONMENT

27: 2 They bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.

He was bound that we might go free.

MISUNDERSTANDING

27: 11. Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied.

JEALOUSY ABOUNDS!

27: 15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the Feast to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.

THE INNOCENT DIE and the GUILTY GET OFF FREE

27: 20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. 21 “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered. 22 “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” 23 “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

GOOD MEN DOING NOTHING

27: 24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

“All it needs for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing” Edmund Burke c18

Martin Niemoller, German pastor, victim of Nazi concentration camp:-
“In Germany, they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist; then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up.” –

IT’S NOT FAIR! The world is not a fair place. False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Victims of jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. So often, good men doing nothing – so evil triumphs!

HOW DO WE COPE WITH SUCH AN UNFAIR WORLD ?

1 – TRUST IN THE GOD WHO HAS BEEN HERE !!!

Jesus has faced all this injustice. HE WALKED WHERE I WALK!
And God still IS here – suffering with us!!

HOW DO WE COPE WITH SUCH AN UNFAIR WORLD?

2 – TRUST IN THE GOD WHO ONE DAY WILL PUT RIGHT ALL WRONGS

There will come one day a personal and direct touch from God when every tear and perplexity, every oppression and distress, every suffering and pain, and wrong and injustice will have a complete and ample and overwhelming explanation. Oswald Chambers (1874–1917)

Psalms 37: 1. Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; 2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
7. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; 13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. 15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.

REMEMBER – often justice may take a long time in coming, but it isn’t over until God says its over! (x2)

27: 25 All the people answered, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

The rulers, the priests, and the people united in accepting responsibility for the death of Christ While Pilate could not be absolved from responsibility for this miscarriage of justice, the nation itself accepted responsibility for Christ’s death. Justice DID come – but not for many years.
Judas died in a loathsome suicide, the house of Annas was destroyed some years later, Caiaphas was deposed a year after the crucifixion, and Pilate was soon after banished to Gaul and there died in suicide.
Thirty years later, on this very spot, judgment was pronounced against some of the best citizens of Jerusalem. Of the 3,600 victims of the governor’s fury, not a few were scourged and crucified! When Jerusalem fell, her wretched citizens were crucified around her walls until, in the historian’s grim language, “space was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies.” The horrors of the siege of Jerusalem are unparalleled in history. “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

HOW DO WE COPE WITH SUCH AN UNFAIR WORLD?

3 – TRUST IN GOD’S GRACE

When world seems to be winning it’s easy to feel that God has abandoned us, that God has let us down, that God doesnt love us any more! We need to trust that God is still with us, even when the whole world is against us!!!

Trust that God can bring good despite evil. Trust that God can work out His purposes DESPITE the unfairness of the world.

Lewis B. Smedes, How Can It Be All Right When Everything Is Wrong? :-
“Grace does not make everything right. Grace’s trick is to show us that it is right for us to live; that it is truly good, wonderful even, for us to be breathing and feeling at the same time that everything clustering around us is wholly wretched. … Grace is not a potion to charm life to our liking …. Grace does not cure all our cancers, transform all our kids into winners, or send us all soaring into the high skies of sex and success. Grace is rather an amazing power to look earthy reality full in the face, see its sad and tragic edges, feel its cruel cuts, join in the primeval chorus against its outrageous unfairness, and yet feel in your deepest being that it is good and right for you to be alive on God’s good earth. Grace is power, I say, to see life very clearly, admit it is sometimes all wrong, and still know that somehow, in the center of your life, “It’s all right.”

The world is not a fair place. False accusations. Condemnation for speaking the truth. Rigged trials. Unjust imprisonment. Misunderstanding. Jealousy. The innocent dying while the guilty get off free. So often, good men doing nothing! IT’S NOT FAIR!!! But that’s the world Jesus has lived in! That’s the world Jesus came to save. May God give us the grace to know that deep down, even when everything is wrong, “It IS all right”, and the grace to show God’s kind of love in it!!!