Why Celebrate Jesus?

Approximately 2000 years ago there was an event that was unnoticed by the vast majority of people in the world. It was the death of a man named Jesus. Crucifixion is nothing new, it was a torturous process. Arguably the worst way to die ever invented by mankind.

Biblical Text -

Matthew 27:35–50 NKJV

Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” Sitting down, they kept watch over Him there. And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS Then two robbers were crucified with Him, one on the right and another on the left. And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders, said, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now if He will have Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” Even the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him with the same thing. Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Matthew 28:1–8 NKJV

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.” So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

Matthew 28:16–20 NKJV

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

-[Prayer]-

Life Principle - We’re Not Perfect, Because Of This We Need A Savior.

Life Point- What Happened?

There is a huge amount of detail about what happened. However, I am going to focus on only a few

Jesus is The God Man. 100% God and 100% Man.

People misunderstood His life and His purpose here on earth.

His purpose was to bring peace between God and man. Not between man and man, at least not yet.

Because Jesus proclaimed Himself to be equal with God the father, he really ticked off the religious leaders of the day. They wanted Him dead. They didn’t do it themselves because the common people saw Him as a popular leader.

He raised the dead, healed the sick and cast out demons with a word.

But he didn’t have such nice things to say about the hypocritical leaders.

As an example he said:

Matthew 23:27–36 NKJV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

They hated him so much that they got the Romans to do their dirty work for them! They knew he would suffer greatly, but they didn’t care. They wanted Him gone.

I did some research about the physical pain of crucifixion. Let me share with you some of things I picked up. A lot of this comes from an article at Azusa Pacific University on the subject.

“It is important to understand from the beginning that Jesus would have been in excellent physical condition. As a carpenter by trade, He participated in physical labor. In addition, He spent much of His ministry traveling on foot across the countryside. His stamina and strength were, most likely, very well developed. With that in mind, it is clear just how much He suffered: If this torture could break a man in such good shape, it must have been a horrific experience.”

“After the Passover celebration, Jesus takes His disciples to Gethsemene to pray. During His anxious prayer about the events to come, Jesus sweats drops of blood. There is a rare medical condition called hemohedrosis, during which the capillary blood vessels that feed the sweat glands break down. Blood released from the vessels mixes with the sweat; therefore, the body sweats drops of blood.” This is brought on by high anxiety and also makes the skin on a person’s body extremely tender.

Pilate orders Jesus to be flogged as required by Roman law before crucifixion Traditionally, the accused stood naked, and the flogging covered the area from the shoulders down to the upper legs. The whip consisted of several strips of leather. In the middle of the strips were metal balls that hit the skin, causing deep bruising. In addition, sheep bone was attached to the tips of each strip.

When the bone makes contact with Jesus’ skin, it tears out chunks of flesh. The flogging leaves the skin on Jesus’ back in long ribbons. By this point, He has lost a great volume of blood.

Roman soldiers place a crown of thorns on Jesus’ head and a robe on His back (Matthew 27:28-29). The robe helps the blood clot which helps to prevent Jesus from sustaining more blood loss. As they hit Jesus in the head (Matthew 27:30), the thorns from the crown push into the skin and He begins bleeding profusely. As they mock Him, the soldiers also belittle Jesus by spitting on Him (Matthew 27:30). They rip the robe off Jesus’ back, opening those wounds.

Jesus’ physical condition is extremely bad. Because of this He is unable to carry the cross and Simon of Cyrene carries it for Him.

The accused needed to be nailed to the [cross beam] while lying down, so Jesus is thrown to the ground, reopening His wounds, grinding in dirt, and causing bleeding.

The huge nail (seven to nine inches long) damages or severs the major nerve to the hand upon impact. This causes continuous agonizing pain up both of Jesus’ arms.

Jesus’ feet were nailed as well. The knees would have been about 90 degrees, the weight His body pushes down on the nails and the ankles support the weight.

Because of this His body pulls down on the diaphragm and the air moves into His lungs and remains there. Jesus must push up, which causes more pain.

This would make it extremely difficult to speak. I find it interesting that one for the final things He says is, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

All of this would lead to a slow form suffocation. This would cause the heart to beat faster and would cause fluid to build up around His heart. The lack of oxygen also damages the heart. Jesus most likely died of a heart attack.

When the soldiers came to Jesus, He was already dead so they did not break His legs (John 19:33). Instead, the soldiers pierced His side (John 19:34) to assure that He was dead. In doing this, it is reported that “blood and water came out” (John 19:34), referring to the watery fluid surrounding the heart and lungs.

While thinking about His murder, the depth of Christ’s pain emphasizes the true extent of God’s love for His creation. Learning about the crucifixion and pondering on what He went through is a constant reminder of the magnificent demonstration of God’s love for humanity.

This was always God’s plan.

Jesus was the perfect sacrifice to satisfy God’s justice and His wrath on sin and yet bring us into a right relationship with Him.

He lived a sinless life and through His blood, shed on the cross of Calvary, we have peace with God.

He died on a Roman cross for your sin and my sin, but He didn’t stay dead.

He rose from the dead. Declaring victory over death, Hell, and the grave!

He left and said He would return to judge the living and the dead. And then He will rule and reign forever.

Revelation 21:1–8 NKJV

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Life Point - Why Was This Necessary?

Exegetical -

Genesis 3:1–7 NKJV

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Romans 5:12–15 NKJV

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.

Homiletical -

Why was this necessary?

Because man is born in and lives in sin.

What is sin?

In its simplest form, it means to miss the mark.

It carries with it the image of a marksman with a bow and arrow. If he misses his shot, he has sinned or missed the mark.

How are we born in sin? Because Adam and Eve had one rule and they broke that rule. Because of their sin, their missing the mark, sin entered the world. Because we are there descendants we are born into sin.

The world is decaying day by day. Because of sin being in the world it decays us day by day.

Because one of God’s attributes is justice someone has to pay for our sin against God.

You may say, so what? What’s the big deal? Why does God require this?

Sin is about who it is against.

If I slap someone in the face. I have sinned against them. We may even get into a physical fight. After that, it is pretty much over. We each go on our way and move on.

Now, let’s say I slap the president of the United States. What will happen then? Well, Secret Service will descend on me and I will find myself on the ground hurting and handcuffed. I will then be arrested, probably never to see the light of day again.

God is much bigger than the President. Do you see what happened?

The problem is that you have to have a perfect sacrifice since God is perfect. We, however, are not perfect so we cannot be that perfect sacrifice.

Jesus was that perfect sacrifice on our behalf.

Think of it this way. You have a mortgage. You are broke and about to lose your house. You can’t pay it and you realize that due to an illness you will never be able to pay it. However, someone goes down to the bank and pays that debt.

Life Point - So What Now?

Exegetical -

John 3:16–18 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Homiletical -

Listen, you and I are born into sin. We have all sinned and our sin separates us from Christ.

Romans 3:23 NKJV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

But there is a hope. This hope came to earth, born in a manger and died to take our place.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Peter 2:24 NKJV

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever told a lie? Ever gotten wrathful at someone? According to the Bible, you are a sinner in God’s eyes because you have rebelled against His law. He did say, “You shall not lie” after all.

You are in need of punishment then and the wages for your sin is death. But we know that God has given us eternal life. What will you do today? Do you want to receive the free gift of Jesus to be saved?

It isn’t easy, it requires you to give up your entire being to Him. It requires calling upon on His name and yielding all that you are to all that He is. Let’s be honest though, is it really worth holding on to sin? Is your life really so great that you don’t need someone to take care of that sin for you? The answer is a resounding No!

So how does one receive this gift of Jesus?

Romans 10:13 NKJV

For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Is that you today? Do you need to call upon the name of the Lord?

Call to Action – altar call….

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