Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening everybody.
Let's sing #10 on our hymn sheet.
There is a savior.
On High in the Glory.
There is a savior.
I say nowhere else will bring to the sand now I'm alive.
I.
'LL bring it.
All.
To the greasy.
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Let's pray.
Last night the gospel was preached.
The first verse that was read.
Was the beginning.
Of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
I'm going to read another first verse of one of the gospels that has the word the beginning in it too.
John's Gospel chapter one and verse one.
In the beginning.
Was the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. So here we have the beginning again. You know, it's a lot better to go back to the beginning.
Because when you hear the message from the beginning, you can understand it. Sometimes people come in when you're telling the story about halfway through. You're telling the story, and then they don't understand very well where we're going back to the beginning and what was in the beginning.
The Word This is an interesting title of the Lord Jesus Christ and we want to focus on His person first of all.
Here is called the word not an interesting title.
Sometimes people wonder why that title?
You know what would happen if I stand up here tonight and instead of opening my mouth and saying words, I just looked at you?
You would just sit there and say, what in the world is he thinking?
You wouldn't know what I'm thinking.
Until I open my mouth and with words.
I express what I'm thinking about.
You know God is such an infinitely an eternal being that there is no way that you and I, creatures of this world, could ever understand who God was.
Until the word of God came.
Now we have it in the person of the Lord Jesus.
A man that was born into this world.
We have the word of God. He was the full expression of all that God is amazing to think that he walked through this world.
Pretty much completely unrecognized.
When he was born into this world.
His poor mother.
After making that long trip from Nazareth.
Nine months pregnant.
To Bethlehem.
Gets to the hotel or you'd say the inn in that time. Sorry, no room here.
Poor Joseph was looking for a place where he could make his wife semi comfortable.
Out there where the animals are once you go out there.
And that's where the God of the universe was born.
I'm amazed.
The angels came down. You know, I don't think the angels had ever seen their Creator before.
And for the first time, there he is.
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His mother wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a Manger.
And the angels came down.
And they suffer the first time their creator.
In the person of that little newborn baby.
And they must have thought, where are these people, these religious people that have the Bible in their hands, that know all the answers? Where are they? Don't they realize what's happened?
Religious people were not around.
It went out to the shepherds in the countryside to tell them.
This good news that today in the city of David is born to you as Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Oh what a person, this person, this one who is called the Word. But notice in this first verse, in the beginning was the Word. That's his eternity. He is an eternal person. He never had a beginning. Don't ask me to explain that please, because I cannot.
That he always was. There was a time when he came into this world as a man, but before that he always was. He's eternal, second phrase says, And the word was with God. In other words, he was a distinct person within the Trinity, God, his Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The word was not the Father, the Word was not the Holy Spirit.
The word was the son.
And then it says, And the Word was God, because he is in every sense of the Word, God manifest in the flesh. What a story.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In other words, He is not a creature, He is the Creator. He made everything that is made. You and I are creatures. He made us.
And not another incredible thing to think about when I think of the universe where we are located in the Milky Way Galaxy.
I love to look at the stars, especially when I'm on the high alteplano of Bolivia where you're about 12,000 feet.
And you miss a lot of the pollution that you get around big cities like we do here in the United States. No city lights there and.
It is so vivid, the view of the stars that you can actually see other galaxies with the naked eye besides the Milky Way Galaxy.
He made it all by the word of his power. He spoke and it was done. And here he is, laying in a Manger, a little newborn baby.
What a story, what a story, but I really want to go on to the.
Story of his crucifixion tonight because that is the crux of the whole gospel message. Before we go to that, I want to go down to verse 29 where we have another title of the Lord Jesus. Here it is John the Baptist that is speaking.
And he recognizes the Lord Jesus.
You know in the flesh John the Baptist was a cousin of the Lord Jesus, and I suppose he had known him as a person in growing up years. But here it says, the next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and Seth, behold the Lamb of God.
Which taketh away the sin of the world.
God had shown him.
Here it is, Person is the Lamb of God.
What does that mean?
You know, in the Old Testament because of sin.
God demanded sacrifice when Adam sinned. Adam and Eve sinned. The Lord clothed them with skins of animals, garments of skins of animals. Some victim had to die so that Adam could be clothed.
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And so, through the Old Testament, you have sacrifice.
Tremendously.
Major sacrifices. You read about the dedication of the temple in the time of Solomon. Do you remember how many animals died at that event?
120,000 sheep.
22,000 oxen man, I just never have seen that many animals together in my whole life.
I've seen big flocks of sheep sometimes on the altar plant of Bolivia, maybe 1000 that.
120,000.
With those animals, the shedding of their blood satisfied God's righteous demands about the sin question.
No.
Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, John the Baptist said. I'd like to go over now to John chapter 18 and 19 to speak.
Of the Lord's.
Trial his crucifixion.
His death and his resurrection.
Start in chapter 18 and we'll begin to read in verse.
33.
Then Pilate, that was the Roman governor that time, entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
Jesus answered him, says thou this thing of thyself? Or did others tell it up thee thee of me?
Pilate answered, Am IA Jew thine own nation, and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me.
What hast thou done?
Jesus answered. My Kingdom is not of this world.
If my Kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews? But now is my Kingdom not from hence? Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king? Then Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I'm a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world.
That I should bear witness unto.
The truth, everyone that is of the truth.
Here with my voice.
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?
And when he had said this, he went out.
Question of truth.
There is a standard.
Dear young lady, dear young man.
And God has established that standard. It's called truth.
And you know, in this world, people like to think your idea is just as good as mine, or my idea is as good as yours. Who are you to tell me that I'm wrong? And if it's a question of just you and me talking together, you're exactly right.
But I want to tell you that that's not the standard that God gives.
The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 14, I am the way, the truth and the life there it is in its absolute sense. Truth is absolute, in other words. Beyond that there is no appeal, there is no argument. It's the final word.
And so here's Pilate.
When the Lord Jesus speaks and says, everyone that is of the truth hears my voice.
What is truth?
And then he turns and walks out.
It doesn't even wait for an answer. I don't think he was really interested in the answer.
He was in charge there in Palestine to do the Roman Empires business and so it wasn't a matter of truth, it was a matter of what he thought was right and notice what happens.
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When he goes out again unto the Jews, Verse 38.
And says unto them, I find in him no fault.
At all.
Isn't that amazing?
That was his conclusion and I'm sure he had judged a lot of cases.
But ye have a custom that I should release unto you one at the Passover. Will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
Then cried they all again, saying, not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber, and we know that he wasn't only a robber from other gospels. We knew that he was a murderer.
And a rebellious man.
That's who they wanted, the Christ of God, not this man. Brabus, give us Barabbas.
That's what they have in the world today, Barabbas.
Not Jesus.
Now notice verse 19, chapter 19, verse one. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.
Come on, Pilot, I thought you said you didn't find any fault in him. What are you doing? Scourging him. Is this right?
No, it's not right. But when you establish your own norms, anything goes.
How dangerous that is, how important to recognize the absolute standard of truth that God.
Has given us in the person of the Lord Jesus and in His precious word.
I don't know if any of you have ever read any historical accounts of Roman scourging.
Some time ago I read the account of it.
Romans were known for their cruelty.
They were purposely cruel so people wouldn't mess with them.
So that they would obey when they talked and when they give it command.
They took the person to be scourged. They tied them.
And then?
A couple soldiers would stand behind with these whips with in the points of the whips were embedded pieces of metal and as they passed over the back of the victim it would rip open the muscles at the back.
It was called the Living Death because many criminals did not survive Scourge. They died while they're being scourged because of the shock to the human body of scourging.
Therefore, then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him.
Verse two. And the soldiers flattered the crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe and said, Hail King of the Jews.
The crown of thorns.
In Bolivia, where we lived for a number of years, they have thorns. I don't know if they're the same as they have in the land of Israel, but they have thorns 2 to 3 inches long.
And they are as tough as nails.
Fact. One time I remember going into an area where a brother lived.
And.
Evidently they recognize that I was an evangelical, and what I didn't realize that on my way back out they had spread thorns on the road.
To get me and I drove by.
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And drove home. The next morning my 4 tires were flat on the ground.
Those name, those thorns had gone right in and punctured.
Everyone of those tires ruined my 4 tires.
Can you imagine?
Those put on the head of the Lord Jesus, and those soldiers who took a stick and whacked him over the head.
As I said.
They were not known.
For sympathy, they were known for cruelty.
Into verse three, they smote him with their hands. The old English that we're used to, but it means, I think a slap. You imagine here's God's eternal Son, the creator of the universe, and they come up and slap him. Matthew's Gospel, it says the chief priests came up to him and spit square in his face.
I've had people spit at me, but I've never had anybody spit in my face. I can't think of a thing that is more demeaning. What was the reaction from the Lord Jesus?
Stood there calmly.
As that spittle ran down.
His blessed face.
Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you.
That ye may know. I find no fault in him. Here's the second time he's saying it. I find no fault in him. Well, let him go then, Pilate.
When the chief priests.
Therefore an officer saw him. They cried out, saying crucify Him, crucify him.
Pilot saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. There it is the third time he states no fault in him, not one fault.
Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
He did not make himself the Son of God. He was the Son of God.
And it would have been.
Blasphemy.
If he had made himself the Son of God, the truth was he was the Son of God.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the judgment hall, and Seth unto Jesus.
Whence art thou? Jesus gave him no answer. Then said Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Norest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except that were given thee from above. Therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.
In front thenceforth, Pilate sought to release him.
But the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend, with whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. They certainly knew how to handle Pilot by appealing to Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat. It was another step in the direction of crucifixion.
In a place that is called the pavement, and in the Hebrew gabatha, and that was the preparation of the Passover and about the 6th hour.
That would be approximately 6:00 AM in our thoughts. And he said unto the Jews, Behold your king, they cried out Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? She priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Oh, the awful treason of these Jewish leaders.
Then delivered He therefore unto them to be crucified, And they took Jesus, and led him away. And He bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha.
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We have the story and the others gospels as well.
And evidently.
They got another man to bear the cross after Jesus. After being scourged, I'm sure they realized that his body physically was in a weakened condition.
Never says the Lord Jesus fell.
Catholic tradition says he fell, but Scripture never tells us that there was another who bore it after Jesus.
But notice verse 18 now.
They get to Golgotha.
Where they crucified him.
If you look through the.
The story of history and the different.
Ways that capital punishment was carried out in different parts of the world. The most awful case is crucifixion that was used by the Romans.
There they took him.
They stretched out those wonderful hands, steaded, healed so many that had multiplied the loaves that had fed the poor, that had raised the dead, and they nailed them to the cross. Can you imagine having nails through your hands and feet? I understand it probably put through at the rest because in my palm of the hand it would have ripped out. So they did it at the wrist. You imagine that's where all the.
Nerves go into the hand and the pain that that would involve. I think sometimes we try to shy away from the awfulness, the gruesomeness of crucifixion. But there they pounded nails through his hands and his feet.
And then?
They lifted up that cross and left the foot of the cross drop into a hole that was dug there.
Imagine the jolt when it came to the bottom of the hole.
In the Psalms, he says all my bones were out of joint.
Ever had a bone out of joint? He experienced pain in every possible way.
Very hung. He was numbered with the transgressors.
And for three hours, from 9:00 in the morning to 12 noon, he suffered from the hands of man. We have some of his expressions of sufferings in the Psalms.
Psalm 69 He says reproach has broken my heart.
You know, sometimes people can sustain physical suffering, but a broken heart is another thing that is terrible to have to sustain.
They said he said he's the Son of God. If he's the Son of God, let God deliver him. And did God deliver him?
No answer from God.
Reproach broke his heart.
I have two sons, my family.
It would be terrible for me to give them up.
To be mistreated.
And executing.
God had one son.
Why didn't he come to deliver him? Because there was number other way for you and I to be saved.
But.
We need to go on from 12 noon to 3:00 in the afternoon, Scripture tells and other gospels.
That there was darkness.
Over the face of the land.
Nobody could see what was taking place there.
Isaiah 53 tells us what was happening.
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He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with His stripes we are healed. Oh, we, like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So in those three hours of darkness, God laid on His own beloved Son.
The iniquity of us all and in God.
Raised the rod of his judgment, and the fury of God's judgment fell for three hours the waves and billows of God's judgment.
Rolled over the Lord Jesus in those three hours.
It's way too awful for us to even imagine.
And that's why it's clothed in darkness for three hours.
No sound from that center cross.
Here in John's Gospel.
And I take it it's toward the end of those three hours?
There's a cry. I thirst.
In other gospels, we have the cry.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why did the Lord Jesus say my God?
Wasn't God his father? He had always addressed God as his father, but why doesn't he hear?
Oh, it's because God was settling the account of sin once and for all for the satisfaction of his holy character. It was necessary so that God could extend forgiveness to you and me, guilty sinners that we are.
Verse 28 after this Jesus knowing that all things.
Were now accomplished.
That the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said.
It is finished. And he bowed his head.
Give up the ghost.
It is finished.
Spanish it says consumables.
Consumed. All that judgment that was against us as guilty sinners is consumed. It's gone. God is satisfied with the payment that Jesus made. God's holy character has been vindicated in full. Now God can come out in the holiness of his character and extend forgiveness of sins to you and me.
Guilty sinners.
Have you not yet accepted that offer of full forgiveness from the hand of the Lord Jesus?
Right where you are sitting tonight. If you haven't settled the issue, I plead with you to accept that salvation right where you're sitting.
By believing in him who settled the account.
Who could say it is finished?
But let's go on here. Verse 31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation that the body should not repain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath was in high day, besought Pilate, that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. And came the soldiers break the legs of the 1St, and of the other, which was crucified with him.
But when they came to Jesus.
Saw that he was dead already, they break not his legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that sight bear record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he sat through that you might believe, for these things were written.
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That the Scripture should be fulfilled, The bone of him shall not be broken. And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
So that soldier came, and with his spear pierced his side, and out flowed blood and water.
You know, we've spoken of the different ones that the Lord Jesus suffered in his body. The Scripture never speaks of the blood that came from any of those wounds. It only speaks of the blood that came from the wound in His side. Why is that? Because when the wound, when that blood flowed out of his side, it showed that there was no life in that battered body.
He paid the price in full.
My redemption was paid not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
I can't forget that, dear young people, don't forget it. The the amount that was paid to redeem you to God. Is there any response from your heart to Him for having paid that awful, awful cost?
Our time is going way too fast but they in this chapter they take them down.
Verse 40 it took.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wounded in linen clothes with the spices, as it is the manner of the Jews to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. In the garden a snooze sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.
There lay they Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews, preparation day for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.
Now the next chapter, 3 days later.
Was from sobriety to Sunday.
The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene, and she sees the stone taken away from the mouth of the sepulchre as she runs to tell Peter.
And.
John. And they come running, and they go in, and they see the linen clothes line. The body of the Lord Jesus had vacated those brave clothes, and they just settled down.
And it says about Peter in verse 8 when?
They went, and then went they in that they, that other disciple, that's John, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw.
And believed the disciples went away to their own home.
And Mary stands there, and she sees in verse 12 two angels.
Sitting and they asked her, why weepest thou? She turns her back on the angels, turns around and there's Jesus standing and she doesn't recognize that it's Jesus.
And that interesting, I think that shows that the body and resurrection is not recognizable the way we know each other down here.
But when the Lord Jesus said Mary, immediately she knew who it was.
The Lord Jesus is calling each one of you tonight. Have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
Our stocking to a young sister this afternoon and telling I was seven years old. That's what you said you were too when you were saved. I was seven years old when I accepted the Lord Jesus as my Savior.
That's seventy years ago for me.
I'm not sorry I did it early. I want to encourage you to do it as well.
You know we're going to close in prayer now.
But I said sitting over there with my wife and if anybody has a question or a doubt, I want you to feel free to come over there and I'll try to help you in any doubts or questions you might have after the meeting. Let's pray.