Shane Kirkword - Class 6: Truly This Man Was The Son Of God

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   This is day six of the 2010 Idlewild Bible School. Our first period teacher is Brother Shane Kirkwood. His general subject is, Our Lord's Last Week. Today's topic is, Truly, This Man Was the Son of God. Brother Shane.

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   Good morning, everyone. That's nice to hear. Before we start, I've had a few inquiries about this, people interested in it. It's the parallel account of the Gospels, which you see me flipping over all the time, and it's the reason why I'm able to get to quotes faster than you can.

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   People are asking where you can get it. It was produced in Australia in 1987 for a conference over there, a youth conference. I don't know if there's copies available, but I'll try and find out for you, and if you'd like to give me your email, if you want one, I'll see what we can do for you.

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   It's not everybody's chronology, but it's certainly a chronology to work on when you're doing a study like this. So if you think you'd find it helpful, come and see me and we'll see what we can do. Thank you. Well, we come to the last study and the crucifixion.

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   When we think of what the Lord Jesus had endured, we have to remember he was a sinless man, a holy man, a man of enormous sensitivity, far more so than any of us. Who have been affected by sin and its consequences. The Lord remained unaffected because he'd never sinned. And yet, with such incredible sensitivity, he was still able to relate so wonderfully to the needs of those who had fallen by the wayside because of their sin.

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   For a moment, just reflect on what it was to this point that the Lord had suffered thus far. Jesus, by this stage, was exhausted. He had been bound. He had suffered interrogation, beating, abuse, both physical and verbal. His beard had been pulled out by the roots, his hair likewise. He'd been spat on.

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   He'd been lashed. He'd had the crown of thorns jammed on his head. His back was open wounds. He hadn't slept. He hadn't eaten. On top of that was the enormous both physical and emotional strain of the week that he'd endured. Judas had betrayed him, as he knew he must. But we have to remember, although the Lord had said it were better for this man that he'd never been born, there was also an enormous emotional drain that that took upon the Lord.

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   He had tried to save Judas. But Judas, having realised his sin and having said that I have betrayed innocent blood and racing back to the temple and scattering the 30 pieces of silver, which was the price paid for a servant that was gored by an ox, he then went out filled with remorse and hung himself.

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   So Judas had been lost, the son of perdition. But it wasn't only Judas. It was the other disciples as well. On one occasion in John chapter 6, after the multitudes were leaving him because they couldn't accept the Lord's hard sayings, he turned to the disciples and said, Will you also go away? And it was Peter who had said, Lord, to whom shall we go?

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    You have the words of eternal life. And yet here, they had forsaken him. And Peter, unable to live up to his own expectations, had denied his Lord and went out and wept bitterly. Above all that was the reaction of the nation that he came to save, who were persuaded and stirred up by the chief priests.

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    And eventually it was them who had said, we have no king but Caesar. Crucify him, crucify him. His blood be upon our heads and our children's children. And eventually, a criminal had been preferred above a sinless man. Imagine for a moment the strain of all that on the Lord Jesus. As we find, they lay upon him the cross.

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    And he has to make his way eventually to Calvary. And in Luke 23, verse 26, it says, And as they led him away, they laid hold upon one Simon, a Cyrenian coming out of the country. And on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. Mark 15, 21 says, They compel one Simon, a Cyrenian.

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    So the Lord, in a state of near collapse, was unable to carry his cross alone. Now minds go back to Isaac, carrying the wood for the sacrifice in Genesis 22.

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    And so here's a man who looks like he's coming from the country, it says, into the city, perhaps to keep the Passover. And they grab hold of him and they compel him into service.

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    And initially, that was probably an interruption he wasn't pleased about. But it changed his life completely. Absolutely. In Acts 13, verse 1, we're told of Simeon, called Niger, a man of dark complexion. And then later on, in Paul's letter to the Romans, it's 16, verse 13. It talks about Rufus. And in Mark 15, we're told that this Simon, the Cyrenian, was the father of Alexander and Rufus.

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    It was him they compelled to bear the cross. And it's sometimes that we find in people's lives an event occurs which is completely out of the blue, we would say. And that event completely changes their life. Maybe a similar thing happened to you. You weren't looking for it, but the circumstances dictated did you take a different course.

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    And that's how it was for Simon. And so, he came to the place which is called Calvary, or Golgotha, in the Hebrew, the place of a skull. And I want us to pick up the record in Mark 15.

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    Mark 15, having come to the place of a skull, verse 23, we're told, they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. And there was a tradition in Jerusalem at the time that there were women who would go out on the days of crucifixion and in an attempt to alleviate the enormous suffering of crucifixion, they would give to those who were crucified a sedative.

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    wine mixed with myrrh, a narcotic that could dull the pain, the enormous pain of crucifixion. But Jesus received it not because he said, shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? He wanted his mind to be absolutely clear as he went through these last final hours. Which of us would have refused something to deaden the pain?

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    And it says in verse 24, And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon him, what every man should take. And that was a fulfilment of Psalm 22. You can imagine it was a sort of a argument broke out among the soldiers that were crucifying Jesus because normally what would happen is they would bring in the criminal and they would say the criminal has no further need of his clothes or his sandals or any other possessions.

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    He's going to be dead shortly. We will take his garments. There's got to be some upside to doing this job which was so grisly and so gruesome. But on this occasion, obviously, there was some interest in the garment of Jesus because it was a garment woven from top to bottom without seam. It was an unusual garment.

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    garment. And so, they decided to cast lots to see who would get it. We don't know who made the garment. Perhaps it was his mother,

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    Mary, who stood with the other women at the cross. And if it was, and if you're here and you're a mother, just try and imagine for the moment the anguish of that. of seeing your son crucified and the soldiers casting lots for his garment. The incredible anguish and it had been told Mary that a sword would pierce her heart and how much more could she stand?

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    And the prophecy had come true. Do you know, when it comes to the crucifixion, there's not a lot of detail here. If we were writing this ourselves, we'd probably put an enormous amount of detail in about the agony of the crucifixion. But the language is very sparing in the Gospels because it wants to concentrate on other details.

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    In fact, in Mark 15, verse 25, it says, it was the third hour when they crucified him. And Matthew adds, in Matthew 27, 36, and sitting down, they watched him there. Can you imagine that? Crucifixion was like some sort of spectator sport in Jerusalem. Just imagine crucifying someone and sitting down and watching them slowly die.

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    It's painful enough to go through this record from a distance and to think about it. But to actually be there and to see that happen? Do you know, this was not going to be any normal crucifixion. It was about the third hour. And these men were very familiar with crucifixion. That's what they did.

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    That was their occupation. And like anything else that you do repeatedly, you eventually become hardened to what it is you have to do. But there was a day unfolding that would be like any other, like no other in human history. Because this man on the cross in the middle had attracted enormous attention.

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    His name was Jesus of Nazareth and his crime was to be the king of the Jews. A messianic pretender. And Matthew 27 tells us that on either side they crucified two thieves. One on the right hand and the other on the left. And so the prophecy of Isaiah 53 had its fulfilment. He was numbered amongst the transgressors.

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    I suggested yesterday that perhaps it was the two false witnesses that came to be on his right hand and on his left. Luke says that in that early part of the crucifixion, he says in 23 verse 34, that Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. So not only was he numbered with the transgressors, as Isaiah 53 verse 12 says, he made intercession for the transgressors.

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    Not just those that were with him, but those all around him, those who actually put him there on that cross. And the language of Isaiah 53 is the language of leprosy.

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    And to all intents and purposes, that's what he was treated like. He was treated as a leper. He was an outcast. He was despised and rejected. Isaiah 53 says, he is smitten, stricken of God and afflicted. That is the language of leprosy. And while the Lord was sinless, he was treated as a leper.

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    And he felt that. He felt that isolation from those that he came to save. And down below, they only intensified that feeling. Because Mark tells us in his gospel, Mark 15, that those below that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads and saying, ah, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself.

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    Come down from the cross. So this crucifixion had attracted a lot of attention. Psalm 22 had said they would shoot out the lip at him. They would wag their tongues at him. And that's what they were doing. But you know, it was unheard of for the chief priests to be at a crucifixion.

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    It's very interesting. Verse 31 of Mark 15 says, likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, he saved others, himself he cannot save. What were they doing at a crucifixion? Well, they had to be there. And the reason they had to be there is because of the sign that was over the cross.

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    You see, they had said to Pilate, he's not the king of the Jews. And they wanted Pilate to change the sign. But Pilate had said, what I have written, I have written. And this was Pilate's last revenge on these men because he said, I find no fault in this man. If you want to crucify him, take him yourself and crucify him.

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    But eventually, even though he tried to wash his hands of his sin, Pilate agreed to the crucifixion. And the only way he could get back at those men was to write that sign and have it placed over the cross. So that compelled them to come out to the crucifixion. Just in case, anybody coming by, and of course, Jerusalem was full of people at this time, and there was vast crowds of people who had lined the streets as Jesus had been taken to the crucifixion and then went out and witnessed it.

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    Just in case any of those people would be coming by and standing at the foot of the cross and saying, oh, he is the king of the Jews. They had to make sure that nobody believed. I want you to just hold that idea in your head. They were desperate that nobody believed that Jesus was the king of the Jews.

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    And so they cast in his face these taunts. He saved others. Himself he cannot save. And Zechariah 9 had said, as we looked at earlier in the week, he is meek and lowly, saving himself. said the prophecy. And he was. But he was also saving others.

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    Just imagine for a moment if those people that the Lord had healed were at the crucifixion. Imagine if the daughter of Jairus had been there.

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    What would she think? What would the people that had received the benefit of eyesight or hearing or resurrection from the dead think about the fact that they were crucifying the man that gave them back their life? grace? How would you feel if you were the recipient of such grace from the Son of God?

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    These men's hearts were hardened. He was the light of the world. He had saved others. Not only had he given them the benefit of his miracles, but he preached to them the gospel. And while they said himself he cannot save,

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    they were completely wrong. Because in himself, he was binding the strong man that nobody else had been able to bind. Sin. Completely bound in himself. And the apostle Paul, when commenting on this in Colossians 2, says he triumphed over them. Why? How? Because everything that was completely out of control in those men at the foot of the cross, the malice, the hatred, the bitterness, all of them works of the flesh.

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    All of those things uncontrolled and being thrown in his face were completely under control in the man on the cross. just think of that. He's in agony. He's dying. He was the one that ought to be screaming out at them in hostility.

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    And yet, no, the opposite was true. It was he that was triumphing and they that were out of control. The seed of the serpent. he could have called for 12 legions of angels. If he could have called for them in the garden, he could have called for them on the cross. And yet he didn't because he was a willing sacrifice.

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    He was laying down his life. He'd said to the disciples, no man will take it from me, I lay it down of myself. And that was the difference between him and every other person that had ever been crucified. They were dying because they were caught. Jesus was dying because he was giving. Greater love has no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.

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    While we were yet sinners, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And what God gave on that day, we don't understand. Those of us who are parents could only imagine the anguish and suffering of seeing your only son die. And if you were to ask me, could I give up one of my children for you, for myself, I couldn't.

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    as much as I love you, there are a lot of people in this world that are completely unlovable, that I could find no redeeming quality in.

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    And yet he died in due time for sinners. Which one of us as a parent would not rather say, take me, but don't take my children.

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    And yet the father laid down the life of his only son. Yes, it was a willing sacrifice, but God was willing also to give as his son died. And he suffered watching that. And if we don't think he suffered, just look at what happened as the day wore on. And then there was the thieves, one on either side.

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    And again those haunting words of James and John, grant that these may sit, the one on the right and the other on the left in your kingdom. And here was one on the right and another on the left. Why was it? that there was one on the right and one on the left and the Lord in the middle.

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    Because these men are representative men. They represent us. They represent all of humanity. The cross was to become a judgment seat in its own right. These men represent the human response to the cross in every age, life and death would be decided on this day. Not just the life and death of the Lord, but the life and death of those two men were going to be decided right here, right now, on this day.

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    This was a final opportunity. meeting. It was a last meeting and their attitudes would determine their eternal outcome. You know, the cross of Christ has two effects, doesn't it? there is one class that mocks.

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    Almost like when Paul preached in Athens and they say, oh, we'll hear you again of this matter, we haven't got time now, and it makes no impact. And so they go on their way and they're either indifferent or they actually mock with the whole idea that you could be saved by a crucified Messiah.

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    What are the other class? Well, the other class are in a distinct minority. They're very different. The other class repents. Jesus had said to Nicodemus, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men. And by that he didn't mean every man numerically. What he meant was all types, all races, a cross section of all of humanity.

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    why a crucifixion? Well, there's lots of reasons. There's a great long list of reasons why the Lord was crucified, but one of those is that nobody could say they weren't aware of what happened. Jesus could never die in his sleep. He couldn't die in a corner. He died so that nobody could say, I never knew that the Messiah was crucified.

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    I never understood this. I'd never heard about it. Everybody knew about this. So when we look at those three crosses, what do we see? we see two serpents, real serpents, and on the cross in the middle,

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    the brass serpent, the one typified in the wilderness, upon whom they had to but look and be saved. those three crosses would eventually represent humanity and its response. And eventually, when the day was finished, we would have rebellion,

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    repentance, and redemption in the middle. what a wonderful way the father demonstrated his love. And both of those men had originally acted like the servants. They'd shot out the fangs and they joined in this chorus that had been taken up by those who'd been maligning the Lord.

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    And they had said also, if you're the Christ, save yourself, come down on the cross, let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and believe, and they that were crucified with him reviled him. Matthew says, they cast the same in his teeth. Get that phrase, they cast it at him.

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    Just like serpents. Get us down off here. If you're really a saviour and you're the Messiah, what are we doing here? Come on, let's get the show on the road.

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    As the Lord hung there. How do you feel about that? How do you feel that this is your saviour and people are saying that to him?

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    It's heart-rending for those that were watching because they had no comprehension. The women stood afar off, they had no comprehension. Of what this was really meaning. Except, of course, Mary.

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    And perhaps there still lingered. The fragrance of her anointing. And the combination of that and the Lord's remarkable attitude and composure would gradually change this scene. eventually one of the thieves which railed on him changed his mind as the day wore on and the darkness descended. other continued to rail on him, continued to cast in his teeth the taunt.

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    What did he want? Think about it. What did that man want? I'll tell you what he wanted. he wanted a new lease of life without any repentance, without any change.

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    Isn't that so typical of us? Isn't that so absolutely typical of humanity? Do you know what would have happened? I'm certain of this. if Jesus had a change and had said, okay, you can come down off the cross and perform the miracle and that man suddenly had been freed off the cross and was able to escape through the crowds, I'm certain using an Australian parlance if I can, he would have got down off the cross, he would have looked back up at the Lord and he would have said, thanks mate, I'll see you later and he would have gone back into the world completely unchanged.

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    He would have gone back and found his old mates and he would have said, gee, I just got out of that. But he wouldn't have changed, I'm certain, because he never repented. He just wanted a new lease of life and he might have gained another 15 or 20 years and eventually he probably would end up back where he started.

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    And that's what people are like. He wanted a second chance without a change. And that is the majority response and has always been the majority response. If they get a second chance, they don't do anything about it. But what are the other thieves?

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    Luke 23 verse 40. The other answering rebuked him saying, does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man had done nothing amiss. And then he says the most remarkable thing. And when he's saying these words, he's gasping them.

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    He's not talking like I'm talking. They're really coming out in gasps. He says to Jesus, turning to Jesus on the cross in the middle, as much as he possibly could,

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    he says, Lord, remember me? when you come into your kingdom. Could you remember me? Me? I know I'm just a thief. I know I'm not worth anything.

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    I know I'm here because I got caught. But would it be possible to remember me? What an amazing thing. What a wonderful statement. To believe that Jesus would want to remember him. And it would make a difference if he did remember him.

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    Isn't that what we all want? That he remembers us when he comes into his kingdom. With all of our failings and our problems that he remembers us and grants to us what he did to this thief.

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    It is a wonderful scene. And Jesus said unto him, verily I say unto you, today shalt thou be with me. And of course, I've read that wrong because how it should read is, verily I say unto you, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What was he talking about? He was talking about the kingdom, he was talking about the garden and no place looked less like a garden than Golgotha.

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    It was a barren hill. this man felt absolutely convicted of his own sin. And he looked at the man on the cross in the middle and all he saw in him was a king. Can you believe that? Did any man look less like a king at that moment than Jesus? He was dying.

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    He was bleeding. He was suffering. What incredible faith. What did he believe? He believed Jesus was sinless, that he himself was worthy of death, that Jesus was the Messiah, that he would be resurrected, that he would ascend to heaven, that he would return to the earth, that he would raise the dead, he would judge the dead, and he'd establish a kingdom.

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    All of that in that statement. And some people want to argue about whether the thief was baptized. What's baptism? It's a death, burial, and resurrection.

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    What would you rather? Go under the water, or be crucified next to your Lord? Literally. I know what I'd prefer. And so Jesus grants the royal prerogative. He grants this man a position in his kingdom.

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    I want you to think about this, this is a wonderful scene. Jesus had just lost a thief in Judas, and he just gained one on the cross. Jesus.

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    And you know, all of those rulers that were aligning Jesus and saying he wasn't the king of the Jews, there was nothing they could do to stop that man believing. This was faith. This was faith generated on a barren hill outside Jerusalem. It's incredible.

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    And it's more than that. Think for a moment of what they said of the Lord. They said he didn't belong. They said he was born illegitimately.

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    They said his mother was a harlot. Where's his dad? I am a worm and no man says Isaiah 53. I want you to just think of this scene in your mind. They said he had no father. He had no wife. He had no children. He was dying. They said he's got nothing. His name will perish.

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    What have we got? when we look at the scene of crucifixion. Just paint a picture in your mind. The darkness descended we're told. Where was the father?

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    The father was there. Right above the cross. Where was his mother? father? She was there. At the foot of the cross. What did the father give him? you see I don't know anywhere in scripture that it talks about the thief on the cross.

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    Except it might be in Psalm 22. And you can look at that in your own time because there's an enormous change in the psalm.

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    And God couldn't take away the crucifixion. And he couldn't take away the suffering. But you know what he could do? He could give him a brother to die with.

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    Just think about that. They said he didn't belong. He did belong. He had a father. He had a mother. And he had a brother. On the cross next to him. That's a remarkable thing. That's powerful. That's faith in operation. And there was nothing the rulers could do or anyone else to take away that gift.

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    What did that do for the Lord? How did he feel when a man dying on a cross says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom?

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    It was the most unlikely event. He looked like he would die alone and forsaken. and yet as Isaiah 53 says, he would have a seed. He would have descendants born of his suffering and it started right there, right next to him, on a hill in Golgotha.

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    He saved a thief. And those two thieves, their bodies would be taken down and they would be cast over the city wall into Gehenna, both to be burned. one will rise on the morning of resurrection to eternal life. And the other as though he'd never been.

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    That's humanity's choice, isn't it? That's the choice we all have to make. Whether we actually look and believe and it changes our heart and it motivates us to not only believe but to follow in the footsteps of the Son of God.

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    Or whether we walk away and pretend it never happened. And it's still going on today, day after day. people have to make their own decision about this man who was crucified on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem.

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    I want to end with that remarkable saying that was offered by the Roman centurion. as the darkness descended and the veil of the temple was rent and strange things happened and people were afraid and he drew all men under him. There stood a centurion by the cross. he'd seen many crucifixions. He'd seen men suffer.

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    He'd seen them die. But he'd never seen a crucifixion like this. He'd never seen a man pray for others on the cross. He'd never seen a man on a cross repent. It was all so unreal. It was all so incredible. And you know what he noticed?

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    He noticed a family characteristic on the man on the cross in the middle. And he understood that they considered him an outcast. And he knew that the rulers were saying we don't want him and we never want to see him again. And he's a loner.

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    But he was absolutely convinced as he looked at the man on the cross. And it took a Roman centurion to do what no one else could. It took a Roman centurion to place the son of God in a family. Truly, he said, this man was the son of God. He did belong. He was the son of a father.

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    I can see the family characteristic. He's the epitome of everything I know about the God that these people worship. And what those people didn't know on that day, and what people don't know today when they read these records, and they think about what happened on that day,

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    is they've just seen the greatest story ever told unfold. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. makes a makes