CROSS TO COMMISSION | The King Crucified | Matthew 27:32-44 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

You could be seated. You could praise him right from your chair if he's still inside you. Thank you. Oh, my God. To be there E tragic We give Him all the glory. We worship Him, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised. So we give you all, we give you all the glory. Come on, can you lift your hands all over the room? I'm saying, we give you love and glory. We worship you, I know. So we give you all, we give you all the glory. We worship you, our Lord. You are worthy to be praised. Come on, clap your hands, all you people. if you are guests we welcome you to 2819 church where we are serious about the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples in this last hour of the church age to all of our digital disciples watching live across the country and around the world you are family wherever you are you are kingdom agents wherever you are the extension of 2819 church behind prison walls continents all around the world god is raising up a remnant in these last days for the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples and if you're not a follower of jesus christ and you crept into this gathering or you crept into this stream we want you to know that we are thankful that you are here we want you to know that you could belong before you believe and you could be amongst us before you believe and we pray and maybe even on this day you might feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit warming you into fellowship with Almighty God and that on this day with this short message your eternal future might be changed. We are in the end of a three-year journey through the book of Matthew and our final series called Cross to Commission, where we are studying Matthew 26 to 28 together. The final days, the final hours of the Lord Jesus Christ and the greatest event in human history, the crucifixion of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, without which we have no faith and no pardon. Our text is coming from Matthew chapter 27 verses 32 through 44. Spirit of the living God, have your way. and help your servant. I ask in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Family, what we approach today is a very serious text and is not new to you if you're a follower of Jesus. Nothing you're going to hear today is new, but I do pray what you hear today, just a reminder of what you already know would serve to just put a fresh fire up under you as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the unbeliever that it might serve to bring you to the foot of the cross. Every time I approach this text this week, man, I just burst into tears when I think about the deep implications of this text that we're about to study together. When I think about everything that is buried in this text my mind first weeps over the original sin of men and its implication for all humankind and the catastrophic damage that original sin has done to mankind and to creation how God created a man perfect in all of his ways named Adam and how Adam when he was deceived by his wife and the devil he chose to rebel against God and plunge the whole human race into sin and as a result of that original sin spread to all human beings and it has infected the entire human race and although we are different inside this room and in the overflows and across the camera we are different in color and we are different in ethnicity and we are different in backgrounds and socioeconomic status We have different place of origin and was born in different homes and have been raised with different parents. And although there is distinction among us as human beings, we all can testify that humanity, despite our distinctions, we all have been infected by a common disease that we see across the whole world. It is this disease called sin that has infected every part of the human being, has affected our mind, has infected our intellect, and has affected our heart and our lives. It is sin that is the bane of all human existence. It is because of the fallen nature of the world and humanity is the origin of all of your pain, all of your suffering, all of your trials, all of your tribulations, all of your shame, all of your insecurities, all of the abuse you suffered when you were young, all of your relational tension. for every divorce and every marriage that's in trouble, for every teenager that is astray, is the source of all of our unforgiveness, is the source of all of our problems, all of our wars, murder, is the source of killing and disease and famine and hurricanes and aging and back pain and death. Sin is the bane of all human experience. And as a result of the fact of what Adam did, what we all have inherited is not only a sinful nature, but we all have inherited the due penalty of that sin. The scripture makes it very clear theologically that because human beings were born in sin, we all have inherited eternal damnation from God. That according to these scriptures, every single person was born unrighteous in the sight of God. And as a result of that unrighteousness, we were all headed for damnation. The apostle Paul, who wrote the most sound theological document recorded anywhere in the history of the world, preserved for us in the New Testament, he writes about this plight of man to the church in Rome when he begins in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Listen to what the apostle Paul wrote. he said in verse 12 therefore he's explaining the issue of sin just as sin came into the world through one man who was adam death through sin and death spread to all men because all have sin so according to the doctrine of paul because of adam's sin which is called original sin sin nature spread to all human beings so nobody was born righteous. He goes on to tell us in Romans chapter 3 for all have sinned verse 23 and fallen short of the glory of God So if there any person who think they right in the sight of God because of good behavior or because of morality or because of piety the scripture will call you and I a liar. It says because all human beings have sinned, and because of that sin we have broken God's laws. but Paul did not stop there he said in Romans chapter 6 in verse 23 for the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ I want to draw your attention to the word wages you know that word if you've had a job it is what you have earned for what you have done and according to this doctrine Paul said because we have sinned against God, because we have broken his laws and because we have been born in sin, we have earned death from God. And not just death at a funeral, but spiritual death, i.e. we have been separated from God because of our sin nature. And because we have been separated from our God, from our sin nature, there is nothing that you and I can do to right that wrong in our own merit. No human being can earn righteousness from God in their own merit or strength, i.e. if we could we would be able to boast on the day of judgment so every human being was already born separated from god headed towards damnation with no hope apart from some pardon that comes from god let me explain it to you like this i've told this story before i'm gonna tell it a hundred times because good leaders are good repeaters when I was raised in New York my mother sent me to a day camp and consequently almost nobody in New York knows how to swim we don't have pools we don't have parks with water so people in New York don't know how to swim but my mother sends me to a day camp and on that day camp they try to teach kids how to swim on that first day and they lined all the kids up along the edge of the pool from the shortest to the tallest and I end up at the front of the line no accident there and then the instructor is walking down the line and he's telling everybody today you're going to learn your very first lesson in how to swim and I can hear him on my back talking right behind me and then he shoves me into the deep end of the pool and because I can't swim I go straight to the bottom of that pool now I'm trapped at the bottom of the deep and no matter what I'm doing, I cannot get out of that pool. I'm struggling. I'm trying to get out, but because I don't know how to swim, I can't get out from the bottom of the pool. I start to feel water rushing up my nose and I start to feel my head start to swell and out of nowhere, I feel this pole poking me in the side of my head. God, Lord, help your people. This pole was nudging me, trying to help me while I was at the bottom of the pool. And the door was hitting me at first. I didn't have enough common sense to grab that pole. Lord help you people. The water continued to fill my head. And I felt that I was about to die. And after enough pokes in my head. After enough pokes in my head. I finally had enough common sense. To grab that pole. and they yanked me from the bottom of the pool. Listen, and the news that went around the camp that day was a little black boy was saved from drowning that day. E.D., finished work. This is what we approach in our text. It is the apex of the redemption plan of God. the Lord reaching his hand down into humanity to pull lost people from the bottom of the pool because God demands payment for sin and his payment for sin is blood this is why in the old testament when the people came out of Egypt he gave them a sacrificial system and that they would have to shed the blood of animals one after the other every time they committed a sin they had to shed the blood of animals and that blood they were shedding for thousands of years was a foreshadow of a lamb that was coming in the future and that sacrificial system was meant to teach the people that because god is holy he demands a blood payment for sin and where blood is not shed the scripture says there is no forgiveness of sins. Now God does not have a body, so you have never seen him. And the Holy Spirit does not have a body, so you've never seen him. But there is a person in the Trinity. The Godhead, who had a physical body. And that body came for a purpose. And the purpose of that body was for the Father to break it. that he can reach down into your life and mine and raise us from the bottom of that pool. This is what we approach in the text. God's ultimate plan of redemption. Look at me. What we're about to read in the text was God's plan to save you. So you recall how Christ was arrested in a garden on a Thursday night. and how he was dragged out of that garden into the house of Caiaphas, a high priest, and how he endured six illegal trials through the night and never got a chance to sleep. How by the time the sun raised, those religious rulers had condemned him for the charge of being the king of the Jews. You remember that they could not crucify him, so they brought him to a governor named Pontius Pilate. You remember how they asked Pontius Pilate to crucify this man who has been blasphemous. You recall how Pontius Pilate did everything he could to exonerate Jesus because in the Roman trial, he found Jesus not guilty. You remember how he put up another notorious criminal named Barabbas and said, choose which one you want. And the people being corrupted by the religious leaders chose a murderer over the Lord Jesus. You remember how Pilate had Jesus scourged or beaten within an inch of his life and then brought him back before the people, but that was not enough for the bloodthirsty religious leaders. they said no we don't want that man yo crucify him and you know how pilot took a blood-beaten lacerated skin body bones hanging out the side face deformed the scripture says he was beaten to the point he was unrecognizable and how pilot took him and handed him over to some 200 soldiers who then mocked him put a crown of thorns on him beat him in his head spit in his face bowed a false knee a knee they will bow in the future they abused him in silent behind Pilate's back when he was supposed to be in a safe place and then they put his clothes on him and then they finally obey they carry him out of that pletorium to be crucified and then what we read right now is Matthew's account of what happened when they walked Jesus out of those doors. In verse 32, as they went out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon by name, and they compelled this man to carry his cross. So Matthew tells us that as Jesus was coming out of that room, they saw a man who they forced to help Jesus carry that cross. John tells us in his writing that Jesus came out bearing his own cross but Jesus was tired and Jesus was wary and Jesus was hurting and so they found somebody to help him carry the cross on his way to crucifixion now crucifixion share me was the most barbaric and the most torturous form of capital punishment human beings have ever invented it was created by the Assyrians or by the Persians it was perfected by Rome and what would happen during persecution or execution, they would take the prisoner. They would strip the prisoner naked. They would beat that prisoner so his blood would start to leak out. Then they would put a cross beam on the prisoner, make him walk to the place of execution, usually a public place because Rome liked to string up people in public as a deterrence against Roman law. They would then either with a rope or with nails affix that person to the cross beam. they would then affix the feet to the cross beam then they would string up that person and all throughout the roman empire you would see people on crosses on the side of the road now as a person hung on the cross they would have to reach up to breathe and come back down they would have to reach up to breathe and come back down if they did not reach up they would not be able to breathe and so every time they came back down they can feel the wood on their lacerated back most people would hang there for days watch until they died of suffocation in their own lungs it'd be foggy in their mind and then animals would come and pick their body they're left there to rot now Jesus who was tired he can't go all the way by himself and so the Roman soldiers conscript or compel a man to follow him there was a law that a Roman soldier if they wanted somebody to carry their armor they can go up to a jew and conscript him and then hand the armor to that jew to follow him for at least one mile this is where jesus taught his followers if that ever happens to you go a second mile it's where we get second mile service from it's where chick-fil-a got that from he says don't just go one mile show them that you belong to me go the second mile do what's necessary to be excellent and not last in and first out to work first in and last out to work Cyrene was a Greek colony a Roman city in northern Africa and so they tell this man help Christ carry this cross now later in the scriptures we will learn he had two sons Alexander and rufus who were prominent men in the church meaning it is very possible that because of this one encounter he had with jesus carrying the cross that whole time he was walking with him maybe he was staring at him maybe he feeling something on the inside at some point time something must have happened to that man simon because he has two sons now who are watch they beasts in the first century church They had to have learned that from somewhere. They learned that from their father. It's why we should disciple our children. And then last thing I want you to see in this verse, he was forced to help Jesus, watch this word, carry his cross. And I only pause to point that out to you because when I read his cross, it reminds me of language that Jesus used to teach you and I that you too must carry your own cross. It is language speaking of discipleship in which Christ wants us to be growing in character and in faithfulness, growing in the knowledge of who he is crucifying in our flesh all the things that he says are not for us to be doing and i just want to remind you and i who love isolation and hate community nobody's going to carry their cross all the way to the end by themselves this is a beautiful picture of what we do in biblical community every single one of you you will go through hardships trials and circumstance watch that demands other people to get involved come on i'm talking to you that demands somebody else to pray for you. Nobody in this room is going to carry their cross all the way to the finish line alone. Life will create circumstances for you that demand you saying, brother, pray for me, sister, pray for me. Would you help me with this? Life creates circumstance in which we have to help others, and life creates circumstance in which we have to be helped. This is why it's only the devil to make people say, I hate community. I hate the church. I could do God by myself until I get to the end. The devil is a lie. And when you lie to yourself like that, the Lord would just hand you a circumstance to make you see that you need other people outside of yourself. Verse 33. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall but when he tasted it he would not drink it so they come to a place called Golgotha which was a small hill it's called the place of the skull in Aramaic it's not a place with dead skulls but a place that looked like a skull it's a small hill that was just outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem now consequently I just want to say this to you it was about 2,000 years earlier another man of God named Abraham got an instruction from God to take his son his only son and carry him to the top of the hill he made his son carry the wood to the top of the hill he was told to sacrifice his son at the top of the hill when he raised his hand to kill that son he found a ram in the bush as a substitutionary death in place of his son and it is believed that Christ was crucified on the exact same hill. So they mix this cocktail, right? This ain't Henny and Coke. This ain't an old-fashioned. No, they mix up stale wine with gall, a bitter, bitter substance that they put in the wine, give it to Jesus to drink. Now they would give this substance to men to drink to sedate them. Not for compassion. That they would be so drunk they would not fight back when it's time to nail them to the cross. But the Lord chooses not to be sedated in this moment because he wants to absorb the full pain of what he's about to suffer. For you and for me. So when we read things in Isaiah 53 like he was bruised for our iniquities and he was wounded for our transgressions. When we read stuff like that, this is Jesus taking on him, the full force of the punishment that was coming, choosing not to be sedated for the fact he was thinking about you when he was headed to that cross. Verse 35. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them. casting lots then they sat down and kept watch over him there and over his head they put this charge against him which read this is jesus the king of the jews then two robbers were crucified with him one on his right and one on his left i just want to draw your attention to three things right here it says when they had divided his garments this is a very important detail that Matthew put in the text he didn't have to put that in there when they stripped Jesus naked and they crucified him four soldiers took his garments and they ripped it up and then they cast lots meaning they're gambling for his clothing like if you're from New York it's like playing sealer right so they're gambling for his clothing now you think that's an inconsequential detail but Matthew put that there for a reason Matthew put that there for a reason because he knows a thousand years earlier a man named David wrote Psalm 22 which is a psalm that prophesied about the crucifixion of the coming Messiah so if we go back to Psalm 22 in verse 18 listen to what was prophesied about the Messiah they divide my garments among them oh my god and for my clothing they cast lots. Meaning even these unsaved barbarians are fulfilling biblical prophecy as they're fighting over the clothes of Jesus. I only point that out to you because the scriptures is the only book in the world that have prophecies that have come to pass accurately and I only point that out to you that you can learn to trust the word of God. that you can trust every promise that has been made to you and everything God has said about you his words will not fall to the floor because men lie God does not so if he said it it will come to pass if he promised it it's available for you no prophecies like that in the Quran no prophecies like that in the pearl of great price no prophecies like that in any other book in the world except the inerrant infallible immutable alive active and breathing word of the living God almighty is anybody thankful for the word of God God cannot lie. If he said it, he will bring it to pass. And if I was you, I'd be searching for what he said about me. See? Come on, man. You'd be reading stuff like it's a little devotional, trying to make it cute. These are the words of God the Almighty. So when he says stuff like, you're the head and not the tail. when he calls himself a provider when he calls himself a healer when he calls himself a deliverer when he calls himself a way maker when he talks about where you will be when Christ comes back to get you when he talks about the place that Jesus went to prepare for you ain't no devil in hell gonna rob me of what the truth of God's word has already said and the scripture says they kept watch over his body watch because people had a habit and they saw their loved ones hanging on crosses soldiers would go away they go then take their bodies down and try to resuscitate them but they want to make sure this man does not come down so they hung out to watch him to make sure none of his followers could come sneak him off the cross but one more thing I want to point out to you in this it says when they had crucified him Matthew just he just breezes right past that like there's nothing one word crucify you've never seen that before because we don't use that form of capital punishment too brutal it's outlawed but Matthew doesn't tell us the details because he's concerned with only highlighting the wickedness of the men but before we leave this room today I want you to pay attention to this word crucify and I want to show you the best example we have of what a crucifixion in Rome look like turn your attention to the screen verse 39 and those who passed by they derided him wagging their heads and saying you who would destroy the temple rebuild it in three days save yourself if you are the son of God come down from that cross they question his identity like the devil did when Jesus was fasting in the wilderness. The enemy will always try to make you question your identity. So the people mock Christ as he hangs. Verse 41. So also the chief priests and the scribes and the elders mocked him saying he saved others. But he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down from the cross. and we will believe him and you trust in God that God deliver him now if it desires him for he said I am the son of God they speak with authority what they do not know it's the same way people crucify you and speak with authority what they do not know and I just want to tell you that Nails did not keep Christ fixed to the cross Love kept Christ fixed to the cross for he could have come down if he wanted to but he knows without this sacrifice you remain at the bottom of the pool you remain with no hope for heaven no hope for eternity and so the father must bruise the son like this to provide a way of escape for you to provide a pathway for you to have a right relationship with God and the last verse and the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way save yourself and Jesus is in the center they put him there as to say he is the most guilty on one side is a thief and on the other side is a thief but who was supposed to be there in the middle barabbas the lord dies in his place a perfect picture of the substitutionary death he dies in our place for you and for me but as they hung there for hours one of those robbers had a revelation as he's staring at this man saying father forgive them for they know not what they do. One of those robbers gets a revelation and he makes a simple prayer that changes the whole course of his life. Luke tells us what that robber said. In Luke chapter 23 and verse 39, one of the criminals who hang railed against him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other man rebuked him saying, do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, Well, we indeed justly, we are receiving the due reward for our deeds. But this man, he says, has done nothing wrong. And he turns to Jesus on the cross and he says, Jesus, remember me. When you come into your kingdom, a simple prayer of honesty and humility. and the Lord turns back to that man who did not deserve to get out of that situation, who did not deserve grace, who did not deserve anything that you and I have and yet while he's dying, Jesus says to him, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. And this man dies and he wakes up in glory. And so I close with two words for two groups of people. First, for the believer under the sound of my voice. I ask you, how in God's name can we read about the sacrifice of what Christ did for you and I? How could you see images of what Christ did for you and I and have no desire to love him. No desire to serve him. People gotta beg you to be in gatherings, beg you to lift a hand, beg you to be faithful, beg you to be generous. How in God's name do we read what Christ did for you and I, rescued you from damnation, saved you, recorded your name in the last book of life and have no desire to live for him? No desire to be faithful to him. No desire to walk after him. But what our response should be, my brothers and sisters, to the cross. Our response to the cross should be a life of service. A life of surrender. A life of love. A life of humility. A life of generosity. A life of gratitude. that the only right response to the cross of Christ is a life laid out on the altar for the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, my life belongs to you. Your will be done and not my own. It is the cross that compels me to be a better husband to that woman over there. It is the cross that compels me to be a better father to my children. It is the cross that compels me to be a better pastor, a better shepherd, a better leader. It is the cross that compels me to forgive people who have hurt me. Repeat. It is the cross that compels me to forgive. It's the cross that compels me to love even people who are unlovable. It's the cross that compels me to let people go who have been holding in my heart for years. How could you receive that level of forgiveness and not restore that to other people? It is the cross that compels me to be a better follower of Jesus. It's the thing that wakes me up in the morning and says, Lord, for you I live. And if they come and get me, for you I die. And for you and I who call ourselves Christians, that's easy to post. And that's easy to text. It's another thing to live like the Lord Jesus Christ. And our only response to the cross should be, Lord, my life for your sacrifice. Like how long we're going to keep playing games doing this before something in your heart says for what he has done for me. I surrender all for him. And I am moved to be a better believer in every sphere of influence. And for the unbeliever under the sound of my voice, God help you. You are headed for a punishment and a wrath you are not prepared for. But the Lord in his love for you nailed his son to the cross. That if you would just be honest and repent and say, I have committed sins. And I am sorry for what I have done. If you would just be honest like that thief on the cross and cry out, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He might hear you today. And he might respond to you today. he might reach down his hand and pull you out from the bottom of that pool like he did for me over a toilet seat when I was suicidal. So with every head bowed and every eye closed, Father, I pray first for the believer, God, that you would do a work in our hearts right now that more than just songs, more than just sermons, we will have a ferocious desire to live for you. to surrender all to you, that we will be radically loving, radically generous, radically giving, radically forgiving of others, God. I pray right now you give us grace to let people go who has hurt us, people who have abused us and mistreated us. I pray you give us the grace to let them go. It is an affront to the cross to hold them in our hearts. I pray right now somebody would get delivered from the people they've been carrying in their hearts for years and decades. I pray there will be an outpouring of forgiveness in our hearts. I pray you would increase the desire in us to be better men and better women, better disciples and better followers to be radically sold out for you. No more play in church. We want to live for you in every sphere of influence and be an agent. And Father, I pray God for the unbeliever. Listen to me right now, God, I pray. They're praying right now. They would pray in their own chair. They need nobody to touch them. That they would surrender right now. For tomorrow is not promised to them. Lord Jesus, please. I pray you would zip them up and fill them with the Holy Spirit. And that you would record their name in the Lamb's Book of Life. That they would know the pardons of their sins. And live in purpose the rest of their days. Until they meet you in eternity. I thank you you're saving some man right now some woman right now is leaving here with a different future like that thief on the cross Father I pray this right now in the mighty and the majestic and the master's name of the one who was crucified that we may be saved in his mighty name I pray and all God's people they just whisper amen and amen and amen but everybody stand to your feet and don't move Gosh, man. Thank you, Jesus! Gosh, man, Lord. Glory up! if the cross can't compel you to live for him, what is the sermon going to do? I'm just a man. I didn't die for you. Ain't nobody here shed blood for you. Man, we rise tomorrow morning striving to say, Lord, I want to love you and serve you. I want to help others and be generous. I want to be kind. I want to forgive. I want to love the way that you love. I want people to see me and you and you and me. I want them to smell the fragrance of Christ coming off of me everywhere that I go. Come on, man. Ain't that what the world needs to see? Amen.