The last hours of Jesus
He did it alone!
· The disciples where hiding
· The church was out to get him
· The government, was hands off
· The crowd’s didn’t like the fact
that he wouldn’t do it there way
He was
all alone 8 hours one Friday! The very people he came to serve were nowhere to
be found or had turned their backs on him! There is a lot to learn from the
people involved in the death and torture of Jesus
We need to always be looking in the
mirror!
Easter
is a Good time to tell the story of the resurrection of Jesus and His ascension
into Heaven. To talk of the Hope, Grace, mercy and Love of our Jesus. But it would not help us change to be more
like Him. If you sit and call yourself a follower of Jesus you know why he died
and that without the resurrection there is no Story. He would just be another
martyr. But there is something to be said about the people in the story of the
arrest, trial, torture, humiliation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There is
something to be said about us all and our lack of compassion for all mankind.
Jesus
came to preach Love and Grace. He came to preach forgiveness. He desperately
wanted us to see the needs of the people around us.
Instead
He found a world not so different from ours today. Where people looked for the
quick fix, the next greatest scandal, People who could not even see the living
God standing among them.
Today I
want us to look at the people in the story of the crucifixion. And see if we
see anything in our lives that mirror those people. And also look at Jesus’s sacrificial love
that allows us to follow Him today.
People in the Story:
Pharisees
Mt 26:3–5
Then the chief priests and the elders of the
people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
4 and
they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him.
5 “But
not during the festival,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
· This is us today, always climbing
the ladder of Success at any cost
· Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
o Fear of Change
§ They could not See God right before
their eyes
o Loss of Power
§ Lack of humility
o Loss of Position
§ Some I’m sure did believe in Jesus
but would not sacrifice their position or social status
· The church Today is no different
· We struggle for power, struggle for
position
· Why do we always want to judge
others
· Why do we always want someone
else’s sin to be worse that our own sin
· Why as a body of believers to we
want to tear each other down why the world watches
· I have come under some huge judgment
lately
o Because I don’t do what you think I
should
o Or I do what you think I shouldn’t
o It rips at the fabric of the church
o and gives Satan a door in
The Crowd at the Trail
Mt 27:20–23
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 the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They
all answered, “Crucify him!”
23 “Why?
What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But
they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
· To concerned with their wants
o On Sunday they wanted Jesus to take
the City by force when he preached grace they wanted Him Dead
· Followed the Pharisees blindly
· Wanted change right now, not in
Gods time
· Refused to See God in all His Glory
· They never took the time to know
God intimately
Does this sound familiar to you????
· Are you looking for that quick fix
· Not letting God be God in his time
· To you want a God that makes life
easy, give you what you want or you runaway mad
· Do you follow other blindly, not
seeing What God says and following His example
Pilate
Mt 27:24–26
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!”
25 All
the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!”
26 Then
he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to
be crucified.
· The saddest line I have ever read
(to Satisfy the Crowd)
· He knew It was wrong, but did it
anyway
· Don’t we all
o Do what are friends do
o We blindly follow a broken world
thinking it will fix us
o And like Pilate all the while fall
deeper and deeper in to the wants of this world
o Only to find it leaves us more
broken, more depressed, more empty than we were before
The Soldiers
Mt 27:27–31
Then
the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole
company of soldiers around 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. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail,
king of the Jews!” they said.
30 They
spit 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.
· The flogged Him!
· The humiliated Him!
· Don’t we all Have this Evil Within us
· We see it everywhere some times
more subtle and we just turn away as if it doesn’t happen
We live in a depraved and desperate
world that desperately needs Jesus
So what
was God trying to tell us in the suffering and Death of Jesus???? The events
surrounding the last 24 hours of Jesus’s life on earth speaks of the brokenness
of humanity. Each person taking part in the tragedy of Jesus’s death is a
reflection of that brokenness.
· The disciples fell asleep; they
fled in fear as Jesus was arrested.
· Judas betrayed Him, and Peter
denied Him.
· The Pharisees and religious leaders
plotted to kill Him,
· The crowded wanted violence versus
a messiah of Love.
· The governor tried to satisfy the
crowded even when he knew it was wrong
· And the soldiers took delight in
the torture and dehumanizing of an innocent man.
What we
did when God walked this earth is a look in the soul of all human kind.
· We are meant to find ourselves in
this story and to be moved in the tragedy of it all.
· We are meant to realize that there
is something deeply wrong with us all, that we are broken and in desperate need
of forgiveness!
· The suffering and death of Jesus is
intended to be a mirror for us all to look into; a reminder of the jealousy,
pettiness, self-centeredness, spiritual blindness, and darkness that lurks in
us all.
· The accounts are meant to move us
to repentance.
The Story of Sacrificial love
We are
also meant to see the sacrificial love of the one who suffered for us, as well
as His determination to save us from ourselves.
· He hangs on the cross as if to say
“do you see the extent the Father has gone to show you His love”.
· Do you understand that I have come
to show a love so deep that it is willing to suffer, even die for you!
Jesus
demonstrates a love that refuses to give up or give in, he is willing to love
us even when we don’t love Him or even like him. He is determined to bring us
back in right relationship with God no matter what the cost!!
Ro 5:8 But
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Jn 3:16 For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
· Sacrificial love transforms Lives!
· It turns enemies in to friends,
· Turns guilt into repentance, and
melts hearts of stone.
· The world is changed by
demonstrations of true sacrificial love and selfless acts of service.
We are
to look at the cross and say I have to strive to live more like Jesus, to be
worthy of His sacrifice! We are meant to
be changed by the events of the cross and in turn to practice the same
sacrificial love demonstrated by Jesus toward others. As each new follower of
Jesus shows that same sacrificial love to the world lives will change and the
world will be transformed!!
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