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Sermon Outline Prepared by Joseph P. Metoyer, Jr., Ph.D., Pastor/Teacher April
8, 2001 Text:
Mark 15:22-32 Subject:
“The Three Revelations Of The Cross” Introduction: Many of us know the complete story of Passion Week. We have heard about the Garden of Gethsemane, “Christ was first struck in Caiaphas’ presence, then was subjected to a series of blows as the Temple guards blindfolded Him. They taunted Him to identify them as they passed by, spitting upon Him and striking Him in the face. Next, He was scourged under Pilate. Scourging, nicknamed “the halfway death”, meant the soldiers stripped Jesus naked, tied Him down, and used a deadly flagellum to rip skin from the bone. They mocked Him by putting a Roman Robe on Him, crowned Him with thorns and beat Him more. I. The Crucifixion’s Revelation Of His Love (vv. 21-24). Jesus’ final road to the cross began with His Via Dolorosa –“Road of Sorrows”, as described in verses 21, 22: “A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull)”. A.
Remember the story of Abraham and Isaac going to Mt. Moriah to offer
Isaac as a sacrifice to God? This
could be the fulfillment of that, Jesus is carrying the patibullum, the
cross beam of the cross, weighing perhaps one hundred pounds on His torn
shoulders. A soldier marched in
front of Jesus carrying a sign (John 19:19) “Jesus of Nazareth, The King of
the Jews”. This sign was an
announcement of the crime committed by the person being crucified. The soldiers raised Jesus up onto a pole already standing
and He began His repeated genuflections as He struggled upward for breath and
folded downward again in exhaustion[1].
His hands were nailed, His feet were nailed, His back was torn, He
wore a Crow of Thorns and His face was beaten beyond recognition. B. (V.23) They offered Him wine mixed with myrrh, “but He did not take it”. This is a solution to numb the pain He was experiencing. (Proverbs 31:6) “Give strong drink to him who is perishing.” Jesus rejected any form of relief for His sufferings because He wanted to maintain clarity of mind to the end, bearing the full weight of His sufferings. HE even maintained the lucidness to minister to the dying thief and pronounce the rest of His wondrous seven last words. The cross reveals the love of God as nothing else in the universe could! Jesus takes it all, all the suffering, the pain, disrespect, rejection and yes even the cross for us. That’s love! The realness of the cross says to us that we are loved! II.
The Crucifixion’s Revelation of His Lordship (vv. 25, 26) Jesus’ persecutors were not aware of the love that was being declared through the cross, but they were aware of the assertion of His Lordship. (Vv. 25,26) “It was the third hour when they crucified Him. The written notice of the charge against Him read: The King Of The Jews.” There is a proclamation of His Lordship even when they meant it to mock Him. A. Pilate had the sigh written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek therefore there could be no mistake of the charges against Him. (John 19:19-22) Verse 21 says, “The chief priest of the Jews said to Pilate, “do not write, The King of the Jews, but, He said, I am the King of the Jews.” John’s use of the imperfect verb tense suggests that the Jews were upset with Pilate’s statement. But Pilate answered them in the Greek perfect tense (John 19:22) “What I have written, I have written.” Pilate was saying, what I have written will always remain written. This declares the Lordship of Jesus Christ! B. At His birth the Magi proclaimed His Lordship (Matt. 2:2). The crucifixion reveals the Lordship of Jesus Christ and (Revelation 19:12-16)… proclaims the eternal nature of His Lordship. III. The Crucifixion’s Revelation of His Substitutionary Atonement (Vv. 27-32)(Luke 23:39-43) gives clarity to the fact that He was our substitute. People of God if there were no cross there would be no salvation! A. Consider the three crosses and how they line up: All of us, like the thieves, have
sin in us. We are divided,
as were the two thieves. Some of us
have the penalty of sin resting on us, and others have by grace had it
shifted over to Christ. Is your
sin on you or on Christ in whom there is no sin?
Application: If you want your sin to be on Christ, you must look closely at the cross. First behold the man and His suffering. Observe how great His love for you is. Tell Jesus that you love Him. Second behold the King and His demands. Yield to His rule. Third, behold the crosses and ask Jesus to take your sins. “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” (I Peter 2:24).
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