Christ Crucified

About this sermon

Introduction: Christ has been awake all night. He was arrested. He stood trial before the Sanhedrin. He was taken before Pilate. He was transferred to Herod. He was returned before Pilate. He was whipped and severely beaten (scourged). He was mocked by Herod’s soldiers. He was mocked by Pilate’s soldiers. And now, Jesus is bearing His own cross on His way to Golgotha. Jesus is on His way outside the city walls to a place where criminals were commonly executed. John describes how the journey began. ESV John 19:16 aSo he bdelivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and ahe went out, bbearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. This is the fulfillment of what Christ has known would take place from the beginning. Christ has talked with His disciples about His death reaching all the way back to the 8th chapter. ESV Mark 8:31 abAnd he began to teach them that bthe Son of Man must csuffer many things and dbe rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and eafter three days rise again. ESV Mark 9:11 And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say athat first Elijah must come?" 12 And he said to them, "Elijah does come first ato restore all things. And bhow is it written of the Son of Man that he should csuffer many things and dbe treated with contempt? ESV Mark 9:30 aThey went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, aafter three days he will rise." ESV Mark 10:33 saying, "See, awe are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will bcondemn him to death and cdeliver him over to the Gentiles. 34 And they will amock him and bspit on him, and flog him and kill him. And cafter three days he will rise." So, what Jesus has talked about with His disciples on many occasions, is now taking place. Jesus is on the road to His death. THE JOURNEY TO THE CRUCIFIXION (vs.21) Christ is weary. He has been severely beaten. So that somewhere along the journey to the place of execution, the Romans compelled someone from the crowd to help Jesus carry the cross. It may have been the cross beam. The cross beam, most commentators would say, weighed about 100 lbs. Think about what Jesus has been through. As He’s trying to carry this weight. In the garden God sent an angel to help him because he was so sorrowful that He was near death. After His trial before the Sanhedrin He was beaten and mistreated. The scourging at the hands of the soldiers would have been so brutal that death was a possibility. He has had no sleep. He has had no food. He is exhausted, weak, sick. So that, after all that, He was either physically unable to carry that cross, or He was simply moving too slow. The result was that the Romans soldiers chose someone out of the crowd to bear the weight. It was Simon of Cyrene was chosen to carry the cross for Christ. ἀγγαρεύω – It speaks of requisition. He was pressed into service. He was forced. He was compelled. He was from Cyrene, located in the northern part of Libya about 6 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. It was joined with Crete in 67 B.C. to form the Senatorial Province of Cyrenaica. Cyrene was the provincial capital. There was a large Jewish population there. There were so many, in fact, that enough Jews had returned to Jerusalem from Cyrene to form their own synagogue according to Acts 6:9. ESV Acts 6:9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. This man may have been a pilgrim who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover, or he may have been one of those who belonged to the Cyrenian community that had settled in Jerusalem. Either way, he had been out of town, was now returning in the early morning on the day of the Passover, and now found himself carrying the cross of the Savior.

Topics

• Jesus Christ