Well, good morning, everyone. So good to hear about all the different activities going on in the church and how we're seeing so many different signs of encouragement and growth and so thankful to a great God who's given us such a good message. And as we enter the Thanksgiving season and Advent and think about what a great God we serve, what an opportunity we have. in a world covered in darkness that we can share the light and live in the light as people need to follow the light. Please make sure your cell phones are turned to silent. If not already, they're turned off so we have no interruptions going on as we spend our time in the word of God this morning. Special greeting to those of you joining us online this morning. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for wherever you are that you are now ready to enter into a study of God's word with us. I invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew 27. Study along with us as we hear what God has to say for us and to us through his word this morning. As our Lord Jesus Christ began His ministry, He did so with a shocking announcement. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And as His ministry unfolded, it became clear that His was a different type of kingdom. He was a different type of king. His kingdom was spiritual instead of political. It was emerging instead of existing. It was eternal instead of temporal. And over the course of three years, he taught, preached, and performed miracles. And those who were looking on kept wondering and waiting for the kingdom to become a revolution that would overthrow Rome and set Israel free from political oppression. But such an event never happened. Was it because the kingdom had not truly come, or at least not truly been inaugurated? Or was it because there was a misunderstanding about the nature of that kingdom? As we continue in our study of Matthew, we're reminded of an important principle that is part of the kingdom of God work that guided the Lord Jesus Christ in his own ministry and has guided the church for 2,000 years. First comes the cross, then the crown. No cross, no crown. Jesus was a king, but he was a different type of king. In his first coming to earth, he was a servant king, a meek and humble king who would accomplish the plan of God as the ultimate prophet, priest, and king. But even as he came as a humble and meek servant king the first time, he assures us that he will return one day as the mighty king of kings who will bring judgment to his enemies and rule over all of creation with an iron rod. but first he will go to the cross where he will be lifted up as the sin sacrifice for all who would believe. And then one day he will be lifted up as the exalted one before whom every knee will bow. And so with that as our introduction to focus our thoughts this morning, I invite you if you're able to stand one more time with me as I read the passage that we will look at this morning, Matthew 27, verses 27 to 44. And the precious and truthful word of God says, Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him. And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews! and they spit on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall. But when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself if you are the son of God. Come down from the cross. So also the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked Him, saying, He saved others. He cannot save Himself. He's the King of Israel. Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He desires Him. For He said, I am the Son of God. And the robbers who were crucified with Him also reviled Him in the same way. This is the Word of the Lord given to us to remind us of what Jesus went through in taking our sin and shame and being mocked for being the Son of God. May we have ears to hear and eyes to see what application that has in our lives today as we study God's Word. Please be seated. And let us pray. Oh Father, as we once again find ourselves in the place where we need to be, which is at Your feet, with Your Word open before us, so that You might teach us. We need You. We bring baggage into the service, whether in our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, activities that attempt to distract us. And so, Father, help us to discharge all of these things at Your feet now, that You might teach us as Your Spirit works in and through us and in and through Your Word. Father, help us now to hear, help us to see, help us to live out, help us to rejoice, because we now will hear from you through your Word. In Jesus' name. If you're not already done so, I encourage you to turn to your sermon outline and follow along and take notes and think about with whom you might share these notes this week as we get to our first major point, which is mocking and coronation. Mocking and coronation. As we've seen in recent weeks, as we've done a slow walk looking at the last few days of the life of Jesus, he has endured already in this very long evening, the anguish of the garden. being beaten and arrested and mocked by the Jews, abandoned by his disciples, put on trial before Pilate, and handed over to death, taking the place of a prisoner named Barabbas. He's endured the scourging at the hands of Roman guards, a beating, as we reminded ourselves last week, that was meant to humiliate and weaken the prisoner before he was brought to the cross, and yet at times the scourging itself was so brutal that the prisoner would die. Yet so far, Jesus has survived. He has endured and bared it all. And as we contemplate these sufferings, we do well that Jesus, in all of these things, is paying the price for our sins. He is enduring the holy wrath of God against the sins of all who would believe. Such a great cost was paid to show both the love of God, and the holiness of God, and the justice of God, and how they all come together in Jesus Christ, the God-man who endured it all to bridge the gap between sinful man and a holy God. It's what we remembered a few moments ago at the communion table. That's why we celebrate the Reformation, which reminds us that this is the gospel. And that brings us to the beginning of our text this morning, as we see the fake coronation, the fake coronation, and we begin in verse 27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters and they gathered the whole battalion before him. Jesus is taken to this headquarters where important trials would be taking place. It was known as the Praetorium where the Roman rule would be displayed. He was brought in front of a battalion. A battalion was a tenth of a legion. A legion was 6,000 soldiers, so a battalion would be 600 soldiers. And you can imagine, as Jesus is now brought before this gathering of 600 armed men, what the mob mentality could potentially turn into. After all, they would be aware of things that had transpired in just the previous few hours. They would be aware that Pilate had asked Jesus the important question, are you a king? And Jesus says, you have said so, meaning, yes, I'm a king, but not in the way that you understand it. We know from scripture that Jesus is, in fact, a king. He's the king of kings. He's the king of the nations. But the trials he must undergo, he must undergo them so that he will be exalted one day. and he'll be humiliated and he'll be shamed, first before the Jews and then before the Romans. He endured all of that so that he can be the savior of all types of people from all types of backgrounds, from all types of life situations, even among the Jews and the Gentiles. Verse 28 says, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. He's already been beaten and scourged. his flesh hanging open, blood dripping down, aches and wounds all over the place. And you can be assured, as they took these clothes off him, they did not do so in a gentle manner. With tremendous pain, they would roughly rip the clothes over his numerous and open wounds. The word stripping here draws attention to the fact that in those days, in order to greatly humiliate the prisoner, they would completely disrobe him. Our Jesus endured that humiliation. The soldiers hear that he is a king. Well, if he is a king, they think that it's time for a coronation, but it's not to honor him, it's to do the contrary. So if he is a king, he needs a robe. And so they put a robe on him in scarlet, within that range of colors that is seen as the color of royalty. The type of robe that's mentioned here was a robe that would be typically worn by military officers of Rome, so it would not be hard to find one that they could use. So they forcefully take his own clothes off him, they forcefully put a robe upon him. Jesus has already been up all night. He's already gone through the travails and anguishes in the garden. He's been in the trials before the Jews and the Gentiles. Without sleep, perhaps without food, he's tired and weak. Certainly, even if he wanted to resist, he would have been in no position to resist as they rip one set of clothes off and put another set on. And then twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. If he is a king, he needs a crown. So they find some thorns in the nearby foliage, and typical thorns in those days, and at that time would have been between one to two inches long, very sharp, They would twist them together to give it the formation of a typical Roman crown, which he would then place on his head, and you could be assured it would not be in a gentle manner. And so as the thorns penetrate his skin, it causes blood to trickle down his forehead and down the sides of his face. Mark 15 even says that they took a reed to beat the thorns on his head, as if to somehow make sure they sink in to his skull. The mocking that Jesus endures only increases, as they then put in his right hand a reed. Well, if he is a king, he needs a staff. So they place a reed in his right hand, in the right hand of authority. A reed is just simply a tall, slender-leaved plant with a hollow stalk that is certainly far from a scepter, which is the appropriate instrument of a king. As they mocked Jesus, this reed in their eyes would be as weak and as empty as they perceived Jesus to be at this time. And then kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. If he is a king, he needs to be revered. So they kneel before him in a display of false obeisance and respect. They cry out in traditional cry of the day, Hail, Hail. But it was only to mock him. And then they spit on him and take the reed and strike him on the head. As they continued in their mocking, they show their disdain and their hatred, and spitting as if to repudiate all that he stands for, and beating him as if to show you think you're strong will show you how weak you really are. It's hard to imagine the emotional, physical, spiritual pain that Jesus is enduring, but he did all of that, for in his own words, he said he came to give his life as a ransom for many. This was all a parody of a coronation. The king deserves a crowning service, they declared. And so in this mockery as they dress him up, this one who is bleeding and wounded and weakened, it was all the more to ridicule him and to mock him. But we, who are on this side of the story, know how much they truly missed. They missed the one who was in front of them and who he truly was. Though mocking him as a king, they did not know that in fact he is the king, the king of kings, who will return one day with a scepter in his hand and not a reed. And while they kneeled in mockery before him on that day, When He comes back, He will compel everyone to bow before Him and confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Blessed are those who on that day have already bent the knee to Him as Lord and Savior. Is that true of you today? I implore you, if you have not yet bowed the knee before Christ, to take the opportunity that you have even now and say, yes, Lord, have pity on me, even me a sinner, and forgive me and be the Lord of my life. We will all kneel one day before Jesus. The only question is when and with what disposition of heart. Well, from this fake coronation, we proceed to the cruel procession, the cruel procession. Verse 31 continues, and when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. After spitting and rejecting and beating, showing his weakness, oh, they have no idea how much they will tremble before him one day forever. After their mocking, the false coronation as king, they again strip off his robes, they put his own clothes back on him over his pain-ridden and lacerated body. You can only imagine how terrible the pain would have been, but Jesus in all of this is fulfilling the law and the prophets. For we read in Isaiah chapter 50, verse 6, it says, I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. It fulfills a verse that we read in our invocation passage this morning, Psalm 22, verse 7. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. Jesus himself had promised back in Matthew 20 that he would be handed over and mocked and crucified by the Romans. Jesus will fulfill the law and the prophets. He will not miss on anyone that had been predicted and promised of him. But he endured the mocking. so that we might become the children of the king through faith in him. But more mocking would come as he drew near to the cross, so after seeing the mocking and coronation, now we see mocking before crucifixion. The soldiers lead him away to be crucified. Normally, this would be done with the prisoner completely disrobed to bring total humiliation to the one who was accused. But perhaps here, out of consideration of Jewish considerations, they put clothes back on Jesus, at least for a time. Friends, I think Matthew would have us want to feel the shame that Jesus is experiencing here, and want us to remember that it was our shame that he bore in his body on the tree. It was the shame of our sin that now covered him, because sin exposes us to the core of our being, and Jesus took that shame and wore it so that we might be clothed with the righteousness of the Lamb one day. What a Savior. Man of sorrows, what a name. For the Son of Man who came, ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah. What a Savior. But His divine trek must continue, so we see Simon in the cross. As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. It was a common practice for the prisoner to have to carry his own crossbeam to his own execution. So Jesus begins by carrying to his own death the own instrument that would be used to put him to death. That is the way of the cross. And as we think about what Jesus did on that day, we think back to what he called all who would follow him back in Matthew 16, where he said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus traced that path before us. He did as he taught. He took up his own crossbeam and went to the cross. He did it all forsaking his own will, that he might fulfill the will of the Father. Let us not be, because of the familiarity of the story, let us not be so quick to downplay what Jesus did on the way to the cross. He was carrying my sin and yours, my sorrows and yours, my burdens and yours, my guilt and yours. Don't downplay the call for us to die to ourselves that we might truly live in Him. Following Christ is to follow the pathway of self-denial, putting aside our pride, putting to death our own ambitions, and living for the one who truly is worth it all. Those who would cheapen the grace of God and say that no repentance is required for salvation or that repentance doesn't lead to a life of fruitful obedience will find in the end that they didn't gain anything at all for they had a misunderstanding of what the gospel requires. It isn't lip service that saves. It is repentance and faith brought about by the new birth. That is what saves. But our Lord Jesus, he is wavering under the weight of the wood After a while, it could continue no longer. He's reaching the point of spiritual, emotional, and physical exhaustion. He's carrying the sins of God's people upon himself. In his spirit, he's suffering greatly, and I would say that his spiritual suffering far surpassed anything that he felt in the physical realm. There was a man named Simon of Cyrene who was compelled to carry the cross for him. This is from a region in northern Africa where there was a large population of Jews at that time. It's from a land that we know as Libya today. Simon would have been in Jerusalem because it was time for the feast and all good Jews would come to the feast to gather to bring the required sacrifices. And here it was that Simon was compelled to take up the cross for him. It was a tradition under Roman rule and oppression that they could force anyone into public service as they saw fit, at least for a period of time. You recall back in Matthew 5, Jesus said, if someone compels you to walk a mile, go with him too. That was based on the Roman custom that the Romans could compel anyone to do an act of public service. We don't know exactly what happened to Simon. In Mark 15, we are told that Simon was the father of Alexandria and Rufus, so perhaps he was known to the disciples by that time. We don't know if he was a believer or if he became a believer after seeing what Jesus would go through for his own, but we know that church history does give some indication that Simon became a believer in Jesus at some point because of what he saw. But even if he wasn't, or whether he was or not, he's a reminder that we must be ready to respond to the call and the service of our God. If we're in Christ, we all have a cross to bear. We're all called to die, Luke says, daily, and to live daily for the Lord, to seek to do His will and not ours. The Lord may call us to tasks and challenges that are uncomfortable and maybe even hidden. They may cost us something, but the one who paid it all so that we might live deserves our best, deserves our greatest effort. And so if the Lord calls us to whatever it might be, let us be those who are the first to rise up and say, yes, Lord, not my will, but your will be done. Whatever will bring you the most glory, Lord, my life belongs to you. As Jesus is moving towards the cross, the mocking will continue as now we see that he will be served up the cruel drink, the cruel drink. And when they came to a place called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. The name Golgotha is a transliteration from both the Hebrew and the Aramaic. It means place of the skull, probably with reference to it being a place of execution. What's interesting is that the Latin word for skull is calvaria, from where we get the name Calvary. This place of crucifixion would have been at a major crossroads so that all who passed by would see what happens to those who turn against Rome. That's why the charges against the crucified criminals would be placed in three languages, the main trade languages of the time, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. And as these men are being hung exposed on a cross, it was to expose them to maximum humiliation. Rome was determined to so humiliate criminals that it would force someone to even refrain from thinking about doing anything similar. So the soldiers that are there, they offer him wine to drink. Mark 15.23 says that this was wine that was mixed with myrrh, which would be an analgesic to help ease the pain. It was a Jewish tradition in those days that women would bring wine mixed with myrrh to offer to those who were crucified as an act of compassion, perhaps from their understanding of Proverbs 31.6, which says, Give wine to those in bitter distress. But when Jesus tasted the wine, he refused to drink it any further. and that there's at least two reasons that I can think of, perhaps there are more for this. One is that he would refuse anything that would reduce the pain. He was there to experience the fullness of the wrath of God on behalf of all he came to save. He had already wrestled in the garden, had come through and said, I will do what the Father wants to do. He'd already wrestled and said, I will go through it all. He'd chosen to drink the bitter cup down to the bottom. Secondly, this wine was mixed with gall, which made it very bitter. And I think in the context of mocking, this was part of the ruse and mockery of the soldiers. Someone who was weakened and perhaps thirsty, offering them wine to drink, perhaps with the promise of myrrh to help ease the pain, but the gall would simply make it bitter and would actually increase the thirst and discomfort, adding to the humiliation, adding to the mockery. And so Jesus is fulfilling Psalm 69, which tells of a righteous man who suffers for his loyalty to God, including being offered drink that was sour. Jesus is the righteous man who suffers for loyalty to God and his plan of redemption. He will carry it out fully to the end. And then we continue with clothing for all. Clothing for all. And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. There's just one word in the original that says they crucified him. In the Greek language, you can have the subject and the object, whether it's singular or plural, all in one long word, and that's what we have here. Matthew is just stating the fact of crucifixion without necessarily giving the details of it. But I think there's some things we can learn by studying the Roman method of execution by crucifixion. They would use spikes six to eight inches long They would tie the arms of the prisoner to the crossbeams, and then they would drive the spikes into the wrists of the arms, through the lower bones, the ulna and the radius, so that the weight of the hands and the arm could hold the weight of the prisoner. The spikes would rub against the median nerve that runs the length of the arm, and as it rubs against that nerve, it would cause the arm to spasm and jerk in pain. They would take the ankles of the prisoner, and they'd do one of two things. They would either turn them sideways and drive the spike through the side through both heels, or place one on top of the other and drive it through the heels, leaving the prisoner nailed to both the cross beam and to the upright beam. And they would hang the prisoner there, suspended between heaven and earth. And then they sat down and kept watch over him there. Now they would keep watch and watch him slowly die. They would also keep watch so that if there was any effort to come and rescue him, they would put down that effort. They would sit there and watch because death by crucifixion was slow and painful, since in the piercing of the nails themselves, the spikes, there would be no internal organs or important organs that would be affected. And so it would sometimes take a crucified prisoner several days to die. They would hang there by their arms, pressed up on their feet, and sagging down, the oxygen in their lungs would become stale, and they would have to lift themselves up by the nails and push up against the nail, and exhale, and then inhale to draw a fresh breath, and fall back down again. And this struggle for breath would go on, breath after breath, sometimes hour after hour, sometimes day after day. It's why we read in one account that when they came to Jesus, they were going to break His legs to speed up the process. They didn't need to. He had already expired. He had already fully suffered for the sins of God's people. He had already given up His spirit according to the perfect divine timing. But while He was on the cross, the soldiers divided up His clothes, and when they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting lots. This strikes us as an odd ritual, but in those days, clothes were rare, of great value, they're very expensive to make, and it would be considered part of the pay of the Roman soldiers to receive from the last remaining goods of the crucified man. John 19 tells us that there were at least four soldiers present. Each of them would have received an individual article of clothing from Jesus. But his outer tunic, was seamless from top to bottom. It would be very difficult to tear into pieces. Moreover, it was of great value, so for the tunic, they would cast lots. And in doing so, they would fulfill the words of Psalm 22, they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots. Jesus has literally come and given it all. so that we, by faith, might gain it all by grace, even unto eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ came and gave it all so that we who have eyes to see might cherish Him as the pearl of great price, the one who is worth the highest value." So we see that they've mocked Him. They put Him on a cross. They divided His clothes. There's just one thing left for them to do, and that is to post the fatal charge. The fatal charge. and over his head they put the charge against him, which read, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. The criminal, as he was on his way to the cross, would carry a sign around his neck with the charge against him, and this placard called the Titulus would then be placed over the person's head on the cross with the charge of why he had been crucified. And this sign would be visible to all the passers-by to look at why he was charged and to warn all to not go against the ways of Rome. The charge might be robber, it might be thief, it might be murderer. For Jesus, the charge was the king of the Jews, a crime of sedition for going against the Roman rule, the one king of Caesar who was there. That's why he was crucified. The Jews had rejected his kingship. The Romans had mocked his kingship. But one day, he will return as king of kings. And then two robbers are crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. We've looked at this already a few times. The word lestai means insurrectionist. It was those that they were guilty. That was the crime of Barabbas as well. It was a crime that was worthy of death. Jesus is on the cross in place of Barabbas. And in doing so, he fulfills Isaiah 53, which says he was numbered with the transgressors. Jesus is humiliated in every aspect, but in that humiliation, we see the glory of God. As Jesus is lifted up as the sin sacrifice, he takes the place of a sinner so that any sinner who trusts in him can believe in him as Lord and Savior and be saved. There's so much more we want to say, but let's move on and finish as we get to now, mocking and crucifixion. Mocking and crucifixion. As we said, these crosses would have been hung at a crossroads in Jerusalem where travelers and pilgrims and those doing their daily tasks would pass by. This was intentional. It was to maximize the humiliation and mockery of those on the cross for a punishment that would be emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual. Jesus would not be exempt, for we see that it were the crowds who mocked Jesus. Verse 39, and those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads. This attitude was encouraged by the Romans. The more the criminals were mocked and humiliated, the less likely they thought it would be that others would do the same. But we're told that they did something even stronger. For the word that is translated here as deride, it is often translated as blasphemed, which is to speak against the character, the nature, and the truth of God. Truly, they did not understand all that they were saying, but they were blaspheming as they mocked and condemned Jesus. In our indication passage this morning, I had us read several passages from Psalm 22. And though it was written a thousand years before the events of the cross, it reads as an eyewitness testimony of one who is being brutally punished and who's been sacrificed and who is surrounded by mockery. Jesus is the fulfillment of that as he hangs on the cross. How did the crowd blaspheme Jesus? Well, they said, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. You can almost hear the level of disgust in their voices. They're trying to turn what they understood to be Jesus' own words against Him, but as we've looked at before, did Jesus Himself say that He would tear down the temple? No, He was referring to Himself. For He came to be greater than the temple, to be all that the temple pointed to, and in His body and in His ministry, He rendered moot everything that was happening in the temple. But now they see him hanging on the cross. And you can almost imagine the mockery that's going on. After all, rumors are getting out, the stories are being told, they would have heard of one who had saved the deaf, or healed the blind, or... healed the lame, and now they're calling on Him to save Himself. If you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down. You can almost hear the hissing behind it because this was the exact same thing that Satan himself said to Jesus in Matthew chapter 4. If you are the Son of God, and then Satan put Him to the test or tried to hear the crowds or putting Him to the test, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Surely, Jesus, who had all power, must have experienced some level of temptation at this point. He surely could have come down. He surely could have put them in their place. After all, at the end of Matthew, we're told it's to him that is given all authority on heaven and earth. But he had gone through the garden, and he'd said, I surrender it all, Father, to do your will. And so he didn't. And friends, here's the hope of the gospel. They cry out, save yourself if you are the son of God, come down from the cross. But my friends, if Jesus had come down from the cross, if he had saved himself, there would be no hope for us. We can never be saved from our sins. But Jesus came for this purpose. Matthew 121, His name shall be Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. He came to give His life as a ransom, Matthew 20, verse 28. He determined to do the will of the Father in the garden. He would follow it all the way through, and for that, friends, we will be eternally grateful if we are in Christ. As Dr. Leon Morris says, those present were witnesses of the greatest saving act in the history of the world, and indeed had taken a leading part in its events, for they brought it about, but they were quite unaware of its significance. It may not be said so of us. It may be said that we understand the significance of all that is happening on that day. Well, if the crowds mock Jesus, we also see the religious leaders mock Jesus. So also the chief priest with the scribes and the elders mocked him. All of the elements of the Sanhedrin are now here. As if to say that he was rejected by all the religious leadership of Israel, indeed by the nation of Israel himself, with all of the mocking that he is enduring. He truly was the Messiah who was despised and rejected by men. And what did they mock him for? Very similar words. He saved others, he could not save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we will believe in him. In their mockery, they deny both that he was the savior and that he was the king. He saved others, but he can't save himself. They do not understand the eternal impact and import of what is happening at this point. As Jesus is hanging on a cross between heaven and earth, exposed for all the world to see, He's bearing our sin and our guilt and our shame and our pride and our silliness. If he had saved himself, as I've already said, he could not have saved us. But he came to save us. He came so that sinners could be forgiven. He came so that the dead could be brought to life. He came so that the sick would be healed. If He had come down from the cross, we would all go off to a hopeless, helpless eternity in hell, and it would be our just and deserved deserts. He says that He is the King of Israel. Come down and we will believe in Him. No, they will not. They had already seen the miracles. They had already seen the powers. They had already heard the words, and they didn't believe. It was Jesus himself who said that a wicked generation demands a sign, and here they are demanding a sign. Well, he trusts in God. Let God deliver him now. If he desires him, for he said, I'm the son of God. They question the trust that Jesus has for the Father, and the love that the Father has for the Son, and they do not even realize that they're echoing the words of the psalmist, who said, he trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. And their mockery and their arrogance, they didn't even realize they were fulfilling scripture. And see the irony. They say, if he is a king, well, Jesus was and is a king. He's the king of the whole world. He will die because He's the King of Israel, so that He might be the Savior of the world. They say, He said, I am the Son of God, but He was the Son of God, and He died so that we might become the children of God through faith and repentance. They said, well, if He trusts in the Father, but Jesus did trust in the Father at every point and came to surrender to the will of the Father. They say, well, if the Father has delight in Him, but the Father did have delight in Him and said several times, this is my beloved Son with whom I'm well pleased. And yet, in the mystery of the cross, as the holiness and the wrath and the love and the justice of God, the Father took pleasure in His Son, and yet, in this case, took pleasure in bruising Him for our iniquities and striking Him for our sins. The cross must come before the crown. Friends, the father desired to glorify the son. And one of the ways that he would glorify the son was offering the son as a sin sacrifice so that all would believe in the son and worship him. And so we find in John four that all would honor the son just as they honor the father. Is that your hope today? That you honor the son just as you honor the father. And lastly, and quickly, we see the criminals mocked Jesus. And the robbers who were with Him also reviled Him in the same way. So the Jews have mocked Him, the Romans have mocked Him, the crowds have mocked Him, even the prisoners on the cross mock Him. Jesus is the despised and rejected one by all. Those two on the cross with Him had been insurrectionists, they had fought to overturn the regime of Rome, they knew they were paying the just price. Perhaps they saw Jesus as one who had the courage to speak against the regime, but in their eyes, not enough courage to fight the regime. He volunteered to be arrested and killed. They wanted a revolutionary, even up till the end. Now, of course, we know from Luke that one of them eventually did repent, did soften his heart, did come to Jesus. But they wanted a revolutionary, not some preacher of peace. And I find it's a similar thing today. People are willing to accept Jesus as some kind of miracle worker, Jesus as some kind of teacher, Jesus as some kind of merciful and kind man, but they don't want a crucified Savior who will rule over all. But we have to accept Jesus as He truly is, not as we would like Him to be. As He hangs on the cross and is mocked and rejected by all kinds of people, The hallways of heaven, if you will, are open so that all kinds of people can come and repent and believe from all walks of life, all stations of life, all languages, all families, all traditions, all customs. He's the Savior of the Jew and the Gentile. He's the Savior of the priest and the peasant, of the religious and the riotous. All can come to Christ and be saved if they would but repent and believe. And that's the message we carry as we go forward, even into the Advent season, because the Advent season takes on its fullest meaning when we celebrate what happened in the Lenten season. Our hope and our assurance is that God will not be mocked. Those who mock Jesus on that day are, in fact, mocked themselves because they don't realize the one with whom they're dealing. Jesus, by dying, will be the greatest pathway to life the world has ever seen, He may be killed at the hands of those he created, but he will not stay dead. He will rise again and ascend to the throne and be glorified before all. Jesus bore the curse and the wrath of God so that we do not have to. He took our sins so that we do not have to be punished. He died and then rose so that we might die to sin and self and selfishness and live for him, both here on earth and then as we enter into his glorious presence forever and ever. I close with some words from Charles Spurgeon. If you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you do not know him. You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God's only begotten Son. As Jesus stooped for you, bow in humility at his feet. A realization of Christ's amazing love has a greater tendency to humble us than even a consciousness of our own guilt. Pride cannot live beneath the cross. Let us sit there and learn our lesson. Then let us rise and carry it into practice. Next week, we will consider the death of Jesus and the hours of him hanging in darkness. His death led to life. The darkness led to light. But until then, what are some lessons we can take away from today's sermon? Because Jesus is truly the King, let us enthrone him in our hearts and live joyfully under his reign for his glory. The greatest privilege we could have is to be a servant of the living God. Secondly, because we belong to him by faith, we are ready to serve him in whatever role or capacity he calls us to. We belong to him. We want to serve him. Thirdly, because Jesus bore the shame of our sin, let us turn from our own shameful behavior and live open and pure lives for him. And lastly, because Jesus trusted in God in all things, we ask him to strengthen us to also trust God in all things in our lives. Let us pray. Father, as we turn to you in these moments, I thank you for a reminder that even in the darkest moments, we have words of promise and hope. Even when things look their bleakest, we know, Father, that you're in control. For we are privileged now and blessed to know the one who is King of kings and Lord of lords, who will reign forever, who is establishing a kingdom that can never be shaken. Thank you for the reminder of those words, even as our own country, our own little kingdom faces challenges and changes this week. Thank you that we can be part of an eternal kingdom that will endure forever. Help us to walk faithfully in who you are and what you've given us, in Jesus' name.