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Tag: crucifixion

Crucifixion! – Scripture Fulfilled
Crucifixion! – The Spirit of Grace

.. this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Acts 2:23
And how is this the Spirit of Grace?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that He might suffer and die on a Cross for sinners like us, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com – on Christ’s Crucifixion & John 3:16

The Apostle John presents the Good News of Jesus Christ in light of the love of God the Father.

Yes, the LORD of Old Testament Scripture to which John will point IS the Almighty God who must judge sin! Yet John testifies of Jesus who reveals God as the Father, the One of relationship who willingly shows mercy for the sake of the Son and saves sinners like you and me by grace.

A brief reintroduction to John

John had unique access to witness the questioning of Jesus by the High Priests of Jerusalem. At the beginning of our journey through the Gospel of John we introduced the Apostle, this youngest Son of Zebedee who we now know was also known in the house of Herod.

It is important to note here that the Apostle John later became the last surviving Disciple of Jesus Christ, living more than fifty years more until nearly the next century.

John wrote the gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia Minor when he was advanced in age (Against Heresies 2.22.5; 3.1.1) – source

John’s Good News is NOT a News Alert to our phone, a BREAKING NEWS HEADLINE interrupting our life at home or even a well-researched story for an Ephesus News Courier.

The Apostle, therefore, has not written the Gospel of John as events unfolded at the horrific scene of the crime of Jesus’ Crucifixion.

In Conclusion

The beloved Apostle and recognized authority of witness to these historical events some decades ago will soon assure the reader of John’s Good News (Gospel): Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

.. but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:31 ESV

John now begins the conclusion of his Gospel even before the climax of the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection.

Intermingled with John’s conclusive evidence, he includes reporter-like facts (which we will address in a later post), but his purpose now is to reveal why Jesus did some of what the Lord came to accomplish.

Every mention of Scripture (of course) refers to the Old Testament. John links the events of Jesus’ crucifixion to Old Testament prophesy.

John 19:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 The soldiers also twisted together a crown of thorns, put it on his head, and clothed him in a purple robe. 3 And they kept coming up to him and saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” and were slapping his face.

Isaiah 50:

6 I gave My back to those who strike Me,
And My cheeks to those who pull out My beard;
I did not hide My face from insults and spitting.
7 For the Lord God helps Me,
Therefore, I am not disgraced;
Therefore, I have made My face like flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.

14 It was the preparation day for the Passover, and it was about noon…

17 Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.

23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, a part for each soldier. They also took the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24 So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who gets it.

This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled, John tells us.

Scripture includes more than the Law, which Jesus promises will be satisfied; but also the Psalms (or songs of worship), historical scrolls and also writings of the Prophets who Jerusalem’s religious leaders seldom heeded and like now, rarely taught.

Here is this Scripture, a Psalm most descriptive of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Psalm 22:

READ ALL of Psalm 22, if you dare. And looking upon the scene of the Place of the Skull, with Jesus’ Blood pouring forth from His broken Body on the middle Cross, know His suffering for our sin endured for the grace of God’s love.

¹⁸אֲסַפֵּ֥ר כָּל־עַצְמוֹתָ֑י הֵ֥מָּה יַ֝בִּ֗יטוּ יִרְאוּ־בִֽי׃

18 They divide my garments among them,
And they cast lots for my clothing.

This is what the soldiers did, John tells us.

John 19:

28 After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.”

Psalm 69:

21 They also gave me a bitter herb in my food,
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

31 Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath…

32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with him.

33 When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead.

John 19:

Jesus’s Side Pierced

34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.

Isaiah 53:

The Suffering Servant

Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted,
Struck down by God, and humiliated.
5 But He was pierced for our offenses,
He was crushed for our wrongdoings;
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.

John’s Testimony is True

Jesus replied [to Pilate]. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
“What is truth? ” said Pilate.
John 18:37b-38 CSB

The Apostle here answers Pilate’s earlier question before he pronounced the sentence of DEATH ON A CROSS for Christ Jesus.

John 19:35 He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth.

John 19:

36 For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken.

37 Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the one they pierced.

Psalm 34:

But the Lord rescues him from them all.
20 He protects all his bones,
Not one of them is broken.

Zechariah 12:

12:10 וְשָׁפַכְתִּי עַל־בֵּית דָּוִיד וְעַל יוֹשֵׁב יְרוּשָׁלִַם רוּחַ חֵן וְתַחֲנוּנִים וְהִבִּיטוּ אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר־דָּקָרוּ וְסָפְדוּ עָלָיו כְּמִסְפֵּד עַל־הַיָּחִיד וְהָמֵר עָלָיו כְּהָמֵר עַֽל־הַבְּכֽוֹר׃

Here is John’s Gospel GOOD NEWS of Scripture fulfilled.

“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced;
and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Zechariah 12:10 NASB

The Spirit of Grace

John began his Good News speaking of grace. He begins his conclusion by quoting Zechariah’s imagery of the Spirit of grace and of supplication.

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
John 1:16-17 NASB

Yet rather than supposing that we know what grace is, let’s look at grace through John’s eyes.
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Technical NOTE on Strong's Concordance linked here.
H-#'s = Hebrew equivalent & G-#'s = Greek equivalent 
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χάρις – charis

Even Pilate would share some understanding of this Greek concept of grace.
- that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
- of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
  - (This, of course, is that love of the Lord Jesus which John frequently shares freely as grace.)
John later greets his fellow beloved believers in his second letter (mailed in about A.D. 90–95):

Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

About 5-10 years earlier in about A.D. 80–90 John would have had his Gospel delivered to these same saints of the churches where he quotes Zechariah (from about 520 BC, five centuries after David and before Christ), whose name means: “The LORD remembers.”

“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace..,” John encourages from Scripture, as one who witneesed and had mourned for his beloved friend Jesus near the foot of the Cross.

chen – חֵן

The Hebrew meaning of grace from Zechariah understood by Jews is:
- favour, grace, elegance, kindness, acceptance, (even beauty, preciousness or gratitude)
  - But Noah found favor H2580 in the eyes of the LORD.
  - The LORD said to Moses, “I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor H2580 in My sight and I have known you by name.”
You are fairer than the sons of men;
Grace H2580 is poured upon Your lips;
Therefore God has blessed You forever.
Psalm 45:2 – A Song Celebrating the King’s Marriage.

The Spirit of Supplication

.. and of supplication, which John adds from the prophet Zechariah,

Do we even know what that is?
ἱκετηρία –hiketēria

an olive branch
supplication

Hebrews 5:

In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.
tachanuwn– תַּחֲנוּן

earnest prayer:—intreaty, supplication.
supplication for favour

Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;

And give heed to the voice of my supplications!
Grace by God in the Person of Christ Jesus

John began his Gospel by hope in the Messiah who was hung on a Cross.

No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him.
John 3:13-15 NASB

As Jesus gave up His Spirit while John and other witnesses sat beneath the Bloodied Cross with the corpse of their Messiah and Savior they must have wondered why.

John 3:35–36 “.. The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand.

The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

“It is finished.”
Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit…
They will look at the one they pierced.
The Gospel of John 19:30b,37b NASB
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To be continued... 
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November 7, 2020
Crucifixion! – The Spirit of Grace
Now Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written: “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
John 19:19 NASB

More Mockeries of the Son of Man on the Cross of Sacrifice

Even today mockery of Jesus Christ is as common as rejection of the Lord God.

In CRUCIFIXION! – The Pangs of Sin we saw the suffering Servant Jesus as punishment continued.

From John’s witness thus far…
- Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him – John 18:12 KJV
- ..one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? – John 18:22b KJV
- 24 Now Annas had sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.
- 28 Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment..
- 29 Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation..
- 33 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?
- 38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
- 19:1 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.
His scourging poured forth sinless Blood by 39 lashes upon Jesus’ back.

Pilate and the politically motivated religious leaders of Jerusalem made mockery of mercy (one less lash than Rome’s forty which should cause death) by condemning the Son of Man in whom they found no guilt.
- John 19:2 And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head..
- 3 and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapped Him in the face again and again.
- Judas & a detachment of troops & officers from the chief priests & Pharisees,
- Hosanna to the Son of David:
- Behold the Man
- Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
- The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”
- Jesus, the King of the Jews
From Glorified King to Crucifixion on a Cross
About the sixth hour [noon]

14 Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, “Look, your King!” 15 So they shouted, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”

16 So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.

17 They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between…

21 So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; rather, write that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’”

A Temporary Victory

The powerful have won the political battle of the day!

Yet complete defeat is near for political rulers of the Empire and the powerful leaders of religion in Jerusalem. For by their own shouts the preordained Sacrifice of the Lamb of God for the sins of the world is now to be fulfilled.

22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

It was nearly noon, the Passover Lamb now prepared by scourging. “CRUCIFY, CRUCIFY!” shout the crowds. We will NOT follow Jesus.

Jesus the Christ will take back the power of sin from the enemy and defeat death from a Cross of Sacrifice.

.. this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Acts 2:23

And how is this the Spirit of Grace?

For this grace you must also wait until next time.
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To be continued...
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November 6, 2020
CRUCIFIXION! – The Pangs of Sin
So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.
John 19:16 NASB

Tarrying on the road of Suffering

“Father, the hour is come,” the Lord Jesus had prayed in a most personal prayer just hours before.

Then in the darkness of Gethsemane Jesus had asked Peter, “Am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?”

It it the Cup of the Blood of His suffering; some by scourging just witnessed, when 39 times Jesus had NO SIN to confess.

“Crucify ben ‘elyown ‘elyown,” they had shouted; CRUCIFY the SON OF GOD!

And shortly Jesus will cry out from His final pain:

“ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” which is translated, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”
Mark 15:34 NASB

What Father remains silent on suffering?

And what Man must suffer silently for sin?

Crucify! Crucify!

John 19:17 They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha.

Hours before: Sanctification of the Sacrifice

Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all mankind, so that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:1-3 NASB – The Son’s High Priestly prayer

The Pangs of Death

‘I feel your pain,’ some must have mocked toward Jesus at His suffering the 39 lashes of scourging. No one ever truly feels the pain of another’s suffering.

But for His dear friends the Apostles the Son of God had assured:

“A little while, and you no longer are going to see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.”
John 16:16 NASB

Jesus had not dwelled on His prophesied suffering. Yet by the scriptures perhaps the Disciples denyingly sensed what He must suffer this day.

Isaiah 53:

Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

The Apostles did not want to believe all of it, but to them the LORD revealed the Son embraced by the Father’s right arm.

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

They also grew up near Him and even though some knew Jesus’ family, they were not attracted to Him until by Him they were called. In these three years Jesus became their Lord, Teacher and beloved friend.

He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Jesus was despised by the ruling council and leading Jews. The Disciples continually witnessed the Jews hatred for Him.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:4 NASB

John 8:

Temple officials had previously despised and did not esteem Him. These Jewish scholars had never believed His message or the Prophets.

21 Then He said again to them, “I am going away, and you will look for Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”

25 Then they were saying to Him, “Who are You?”

These politically powerful religious officials most likely asked this mockingly, as they did while striking their blindfolded Messiah during the mockery of a trial before Caiaphas High Priest of the Jews and later in the presence of Pilate.

‘Who are YOU to talk of God or teach us the Law?‘

So Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am, and I do nothing on My own, but I say these things as the Father instructed Me.
John 8:28

And the Apostle John adds this witness then in his Gospel:

30 As He said these things, many came to believe in Him.

Many believers will follow Jesus Christ in a victorious procession to the place of worship, but only a remnant remains following a captive King to the Cross of Calvary.
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

The Pangs of Pain

Returning to Jesus’ metaphor of suffering, He prophesies this day to His Apostles:

John 16:

20 Truly, truly I say to you that you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy!

As the Disciples had scattered as sheep from the wolves, surely they did not recall this at the time of Jesus’ arrest, trials, scourging and crucifixion.

Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come;

but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.

22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you.

And why this suffering? – SIN!

The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!

..Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

The LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, Cursed are you..

And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.” – Genesis 3

The Prophesy of Christ’s Suffering

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 NASB

..

‘By oppression and judgment He was taken away,‘ prophesied Isaiah in the generation of Uzziah king of Judah. It was more than seven centuries Before Christ.

Isaiah, by the mouth of the LORD, indicts those who falsely convict Jesus.

They have just sent innocence to the Cross as the Substitute Lamb of Sacrifice for their own transgressions (sins).

‘And as for His generation,
who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living
for the transgression of my people,
to whom the stroke was due?
Isaiah 53:8 NASB

The Good News of John:

1:¹⁰He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

¹¹He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

מֵעֲמַ֤ל נַפְשֹׁו֙ יִרְאֶ֣ה יִשְׂבָּ֔ע בְּדַעְתֹּ֗ו יַצְדִּ֥יק צַדִּ֛יק עַבְדִּ֖י לָֽרַבִּ֑ים וַעֲוֹנֹתָ֖ם ה֥וּא יִסְבֹּֽל׃
Yeshaiya 53: WLC

²⁹.. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

And now sinners take the sinless Sacrifice to the altar of the shedding of Blood.

They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between.
John 19:17-18 NASB
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To be continued...
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November 4, 2020