Curcifixion Sermon (1)
Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan
Crucifixion is an ancient form of execution in which the convict was nailed or bound to a cross, and was left on the cross to die of a slow death. The Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross on Friday, then he was resurrected on Sunday. Therefore Christians commemortate his crucifixion on Friday and his resurrection on Sunday.
Do you think the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is important? If you don’t believe in him, you would see that his death is not important at all, and it has nothing to do with you! But your unbelief would not reduce the importance of his crucifixion. If you don’t believe, you would simply miss the opportunity to receive the eternal blessing from his crucifixion, and you would be rejected from the Kingdom of God.
On the contrary if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, his crucifixion on the cross has changed your life completely, and the blessing you receive would last to eternity.
A brief narration of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus
Since the unbelievers who do not believe in the Lord Jesus may not know the story of his crucifixion, I would first narrate his crucifixion very briefly.
Passover is the most important festival of the Jews. Before the Passover the Lord Jesus already knew that he would be crucified on the Passover day and be with Yahweh God his Father; and he knew that one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot would betray him to the Jewish religious leaders. He then asked his disciples to prepare for the Passover meal.
During the Passover meal Jesus told Judas to go and do what he wanted to do, Judas then left the table and went to see the Jewish authorities. The other disciples thought that the Lord asked Judas to give something to the poor. After Judas had left, the Lord gave very important teachings to the eleven disciples, then he went up to the Mount of Olive with them. When they came to a place called the Garden of Gethsemane, the Lord took three disciples Peter, James and John with him and went over to pray. He asked these three disciples to keep watch, then he prayed to Yahweh God that, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as you will.”
After the prayer, the Lord came back to the three disciples and found them sleeping, he said to them, “Keep watching and pray, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And the Lord said, “The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
Judas, the disciples who betrayed the Lord led the servants of the Jewish religious leaders and elders came up. He had informed them that, “The one I kiss is Jesus, seize him.” He said to Jesus, “Rabbi!” and gave him a kiss, immediately the servants seized Jesus. One of the Lord’s disciples drew out a sword to struck the high priest’s servant, and cut off his ear. But the Lord said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen this way?” And the Lord touched the ear of the servant to heal him.
Please take notice, these statements of the Lord are very deep and meaningful, but today we won’t have time to look into them; in the future if Yahweh God is willing, we would study these statements.
All the disciples of the Lord fled, the servants of the Jewish leaders brought him to the place of the High Priest. There the Lord was put on trial by the Jewish leaders, the teachers of the Law and the priests, but he did not say a word. Finally the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of God?” The Lord answered, “You have said it yourself.” Then the high priest said, “He has blasphemed!” They spat in his face and beat him with their fists; and some slapped him.
The whole assembly arose and brought him to Pilate, the Governor of Judea; they accused the Lord Jesus with many false things, but he did not say a word. Pilate questioned him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “It is as you say.” Pilate knew that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered the Lord Jesus over to him, he asked them, “Then what shall I do with him whom you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!”
Pilate wanted to please the Jewish religious leaders, he then ordered to have Jesus scourged, and delivered him to be crucified. The soldiers took Jesus to the palace, and they called the whole cohort to mock him. They weaved a crown of thorns and put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand, then they kneeled down before him to mock him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and beat his head with the reed. After they had mocked him, they took his robe off and put his own garments on him, and led him away to crucify him.
The Lord Jesus was too weak to carry the cross, the soldiers saw someone name Simon, they asked him to carry the cross for him. When they came to a place called Golgotha, which is translated as “Place of a Skull.” There they crucified him, and divided up his garments among themselves. They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but Jesus refused to take it.
It was the third hour when they crucified him; and the inscription of the charge against him read, “The king of the Jews.” The Lord Jesus prayed that, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left; those who passed by also hurled abuse at him.
People who passed by also hurled insult at the Lord Jesus, they said, “He said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Now save yourself! If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross!” The chief priests and the elders also hurled insults at the Lord, “He has saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the king of the Jews, let him come down from the cross now, then we would believe in him. He believes in God, if God loves him, God would save him, because he said, “I am the Son of God.””
From the sixth hour to the nineth hour (from noon to 3 o’clock in the afternoon) the whole place was dark. About the ninth hour the Lord Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that means, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Someone took a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed to give Jesus a drink, but he refused to take it.
Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. Behold, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth shook; and the rocks were split.
The centurion who was guarding over Jesus saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, he was frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
The meaning of the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion
After hearing the story of the Lord Jesus’ death, do you wonder why he had to die on the cross in such a lowly way being despised by all men? He knew before hand who would betray him; When the high priest’s servants came to arrest him, one of his disciples used a sword to cut off a servant’s ear, the Lord immediately healed that servant, and he told his disciple that he could ask Yahweh God to send immediately at his disposal more than twelve legions of angels. But why didn’t he ask Yahweh God to send the angels to rescue him? The Lord Jesus has power to save others, why didn’t he use the power to save himself?
NRS 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, (1Pe 3:18 NRS)
Here this passage clearly says that Jesus Christ suffered for our sins in order to bring us, the unrightoeus people to God. He died on the cross willingly, the purpose is to bring the sinners to God. Even though his flesh died, but his spirit was made alive.
We human being all have sinned, no one is righteous before God. The consequence of sin is death, it is not simply the death of our bodies, but also the death of our spirits. Our bodies soon or later would definitely die; but the death of this body is not the end of all things, there will be judgment in the future. The spirits of all people who have lived on earth will stand before the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they would be judged according to the deeds they have done in this life on earth.
Human beings all have sinned, we are not willing to obey Yahweh God, we are selfish, we hold grudges against other people, we are covetous, we have no compassion for people, etc. The consequence of sin is death, on the Judgment day the spirit of sinners will be thrown into the lake of fire; that is the perish of the soul.
We all deserve to perish, but Yahweh God has compassion on us, He has created us, He doesn’t want us to perish; and He sent His only Son the Lord Jesus Christ to save us.
The Lord Jesus has never sinned, but all our sins were poured on him, he became sin on our behalf and was crucified on the cross.
If we believe in Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ, we repent of our sin, we commit our life totally to Yahweh God and get baptized, then Yahweh God will let us die to sin, the blood of the Lord Jesus shed on the cross will wash us clean of all sins, we will be granted a new life and become a righteous person.
When we still lived in sin, our sins hinder us from coming near to the holy and righteous God. But when the blood of the Lord Jesus washes us clean from all sins, we can come to Yahweh God and we become children of God.
Do you see the importance of the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross?
Now do you see the link between his death and your life? If you don’t believe in Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to ask you this question: Do you see your own sins?
If you don’t see your own sins, then certainly you don’t see that you need the salvation from the Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t see the importance of his death; and his death means nothing to you.
On the other hand some people do see that they have sinned, they realize that in the future there would be punishment for sins; but they think that they don’t need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they can find solution in some other ways.
My fellow human beings, there is no salvation besides the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. In this universe we cannot be saved by any other name besides the Lord Jesus Christ.
Most of the religions in the world teach people to do good deeds, but those good deeds cannot wash away our sins. Buddha is a great philosopher, but he himself says he is not God, he says he cannot save you, he teaches people to do good deeds to save themselves.
But we cannot have our sins washed away by simply doing good deeds (Please refer to my message: Why We Cannot Have Eternal Life simply by Doing Good Deeds?) Only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can wash our sins clean, there is no any other solution.
When we commit our lives to Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ, not only our past sins are washed clean, Yahweh God will grant us the power to live a new life of righteousness. The consequence of sin is death, but the reward of righteousness is eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Christians must die to sin and live to God in Christ Jesus
If you have believed in Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to ask you this question: Do you still see the death of the Lord Jesus very important to you? Or do you see the death of the Lord Jesus is simply an historical incident, it doesn’t really matter to your life now?
NAU Romans 6:10-11 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Rom 6:10-11 NAU)
Here this passage says that :
- The Lord Jesus died to sin once for all, those who believe in him must also die to sin.
- The Lord Jesus lives his life to Yahweh God, those who believe in him must live to God in Christ Jesus.
What does it mean to die to sin?
But what does it mean to die to sin? We can compare the death to sin with the death of our body. When our body dies, we have no more links with this world. Similarly when we die to sin, we have no more links with sin.
RSV Romans 6:2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Rom 6:2 RSV)
Here this passage says when we died to sin, we don’t live in sin anymore. How can we who died to sin still live in it? That’s non-sense!
Have you been free from sin? Or you still live in sin? If you are still live in sin, then you haven’t died to sin. The Lord Jesus died on the cross to free us from sin, but if you still live in sin, the death of the Lord doesn’t mean anything to you!
If you have believed in the Lord Jesus and have repent of your sins; but unfortunately you went back to sin again, you have been ensalved by the power of sin once more, then the death of the Lord Jesus doesn’t mean anything to you! You have forsaked your love for Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to repent and come back to Yahweh God and the Lord Jesus
ESV 2 Corinthians 4:10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2Co 4:10 ESV)
This passage says that we have to carry in our body the death of Jesus, that means we continue to die to sin, we cut off every link with sin, we don’t live in sin anynore, so that the life of Jesus would be manifested in us.
Conclusion
The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus is an utmost important thing in human history. He has defeated the death of human being, therefore the life of mankind has been changed completely through his deah. When we believe in the Lord Jesus now, we die to our sin just as the Lord has died to sin; we will not be perished; and we will be granted eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Gospel and Salvation 