Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Well, today marks the beginning of the Passion Week. And what is a Passion Week? Well, it's the week of Jesus's life that begins on this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and ends on the next Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. It began with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and it ends with his triumphal resurrection from the grave. And you might be wondering, why is this week called the Passion Week? Some Christians have answered this question, guessing that it's called the Passion Week because the word passion is a reference to the deep love that Jesus showed to his people by giving his life for the sake of those people. And that's certainly a good guess. Jesus did, in fact, demonstrate an infinite love for his friends, as he called them, when he laid down his life. But that's not why it's called the Passion Week. We need to remember that many of the names and titles that have been ascribed to the church calendar from the historic church have been applied or find their origin from the Latin language. And in Latin, the word passio is the word that describes suffering. More specifically, it describes prolonged suffering. It's the extended suffering that is typical in like, for example, in the case of martyrs. So when the historic church labeled this week as the Passion Week, it did so in recognition of the great suffering that Jesus endured during this week. And if you can remember back to 2004, You might remember how excited many Christians were with the release of Mel Gibson's film called The Passion of Christ. And the reason Mel Gibson gave the film that name is because the film focused on a period of Christ's life which began at the Garden of Gethsemane and ended at the crucifixion on the cross. And this period of time was a time in which Jesus suffered immensely. And the film lived up to its name. Right? What is the name? The suffering of Christ. That's what it really literally means. The film lived up to its name. In fact, the film portrayed such a strong depiction of the violence that was done to Christ that the film received a rated R rating, an R rating. And there's no obscene language in the film. There's no nudity in the film. There's no substance abuse in the film. Those are all things that would typically get an R rating. The only reason it got an R rating is because of the violence. There was a lot of violence. But given the biblical account of how Jesus suffered during this period of his life, the violence that was depicted in that film was appropriate. Yes, it was graphic, but so was the treatment that Jesus received in real life. When you read the biblical accounts of Jesus's trial and crucifixion, you're reading an R-rated historical account. You're reading about Jesus being beaten and struck with fists and other objects. You're reading about how wicked men fashioned a crown of thorns. from a bush called a buckthorn, which has spikes that can grow up to two or three inches long. And they took this crown and they thrust it into his head. You're reading about Jesus being flogged with a Roman scourge. That alone is a horrendous ordeal. Listen to how one biblical commentator describes this. The Roman scourge consisted of a short wooden handle to which several throngs were attached, the ends equipped with pieces of lead or brass, and with sharply pointed bits of bone. The stripes, referring to the wivings, the stripes were laid, especially on the victim's back, bare and bent. Generally, two men were employed to administer this punishment, one lashing the victim from one side, one from the other side, with the result that the flesh was at times lacerated to such an extent that deep-seated veins and arteries, sometimes even entrails and inner organs, were exposed. He continues, one can picture Jesus after the scourging covered with horrible bruises and lacerations, with wails and welts. It is no surprise that Simon of Cyrene was compelled to bear the cross after Jesus had carried it a short distance. Scourging is a hideous torture. That's what happened to Jesus. And that's just one of the many things that happened to Jesus between the Garden of Gethsemane and his death upon the cross. And what Jesus experienced was graphic. It was violent. If anyone is going to faithfully retell the story of Jesus' crucifixion, this graphic violence cannot be avoided. And the complaint, if there is a complaint, the complaint that I have with Mel Gibson's film is that it stops short of depicting the violence that Jesus suffered. And what I mean by this is that the film does an excellent job of communicating the physical suffering Jesus endured, but it doesn't even come close to communicating the spiritual suffering that Jesus endured. And the whole reason that Jesus voluntarily submitted himself to this type of physical suffering is so that he can take upon himself the spiritual suffering of God's elect. This is why the historic church describes both the physical as well as the spiritual sufferings of Christ. Take, for example, the Apostles' Creed. It says of Jesus that he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. But then it adds another statement. It says, he descended to hell. And to say that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate and was crucified depicts his physical suffering. To say that Jesus descended into hell depicts the spiritual suffering he endured at the hand of God. And each of these statements of Jesus' experience with suffering are essential elements of the atonement which he accomplished. And therefore we need to understand that both of these elements are necessary in order for the atonement to be completed. It's not sufficient to say that Jesus' atonement was accomplished merely at the spiritual level. Take away Jesus' physical suffering and you've lost the atonement. Now at the same time, it's insufficient to say that Jesus' atonement was accomplished merely at the physical level. Take away Jesus' spiritual suffering, and you've also lost the atonement. Both are necessary. And while it's entirely appropriate to distinguish one from the other, just like the Apostles' Creed has done, it's never appropriate to divorce the two, the one from the other, as if to say the atonement could have been completed without both physical as well as spiritual suffering. Now my focus for the sermon today is to show how Jesus's physical suffering was essential to the atonement of God's elect. I hope that your Bibles are still open to Hebrews 5 because I'm going to be referencing several verses from this chapter in just a few moments. The author of this epistle explains the role that Jesus' physical suffering played in the atonement. And while it's true that Jesus was born into the world, as an innocent, sinless child not having received from Adam the corruption of human nature, Jesus was not born into this world in a position to serve as the righteous high priest that would make atonement for God's elect. He was not born in that condition. There was something Jesus's human nature had to do before it can fulfill that role. And we're told what that is in Hebrews 5.8. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Because of the heavy emphasis we often place upon the divinity of Jesus, we can overlook the fact that his human nature was not born in a state where he was immediately qualified to be that high priest that makes atonement for the sins of the people. What Hebrews 5.8 is telling us is that it was necessary for Jesus' humanity to, quote, learn obedience, end quote. And the way that he learned disobedience was through suffering, it says. The suffering that's referred to here in this verse is all the physical suffering that Jesus experienced while he was walking on this earth. And just to be clear and to have definition of terms, what I mean by physical suffering is not just the bodily sensations that Jesus experienced, a pain that he experienced when somebody hit him or when he was whipped. Physical suffering, at least in the context of this sermon, includes any emotional experiences that Jesus experienced in his body as well. Those are sufferings as well. And so when Hebrews 5.8 says that Jesus learned obedience through suffering, this is referring to everything that Jesus suffered while walking on this earth. It's not just referring to the events of the Passion Week, although those are some of the most explicit and obvious of his sufferings, but it's also referring to everything Jesus suffered from the womb to the tomb. is comprehensive of his life. So when Jesus mourned the death of Lazarus, that was suffering. And through that experience, Jesus's human nature was learning obedience. And when Jesus became tired at the end of a long day of teaching and still the people were demanding more and more of him, that was suffering. Through that experience, Jesus's human nature learned obedience. Yet in the book of Hebrews, one form of physical suffering that gets a lot of attention is the suffering Jesus endured by means of temptation. When Jesus was tempted, he suffered. Listen to what Hebrews 2.18 says. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. And the point being Jesus suffered his entire human life with every temptation, whether it was when he was a small child or when he was an adult, Jesus suffered. Hebrews 4.15 says that he was tempted at every point that you and I are tempted. Every point that you and I have been tempted, Jesus has been tempted at that point as well. which means his humanity suffered much, much more than what we just read about in the scriptures. We don't read about every temptation. We read about a couple that happened in the wilderness. But over the span of his 33 years of life, Jesus suffered immense temptation. But all that suffering had a purpose. With each situation in which Jesus was tempted to sin, he responded to that situation in perfect obedience. And in so doing, he not only remained sinless, but he learned obedience through the suffering. Arthur Pink comments on Hebrews 5.8 with these words. The incarnate Son actually entered into the experience of what it is to obey. He who personally was high above all obedience, stooped so low as to enter the place of obedience. In that place, he learned by his sufferings the actual experience of obedience. And if you're having a hard time wrapping your mind around the concept that Jesus would learn anything, it's because you're focusing only upon his divine nature. And it's true, in his divinity, there was nothing that Jesus could learn. There was nothing you could teach him. He knew everything. He created everything. So his divine nature was all-knowing, omniscient. But in his humanity, Jesus had to learn, just like you and I have to learn. Remember the story when he was a 12-year-old boy? Luke writes, and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He increased in wisdom. He increased in stature. He increased in favor, both with God and with man. Now, how did Jesus increase in wisdom? Well, by his learning, his human nature learned. And how did Jesus increase in favor with God and man? By his human nature being obedient while he suffered temptation. So even though Jesus was born sinless, in order to serve as the great high priest, he needed to learn obedience in his humanity. And that's how he grew in favor with God. And that's why we read in Hebrews 5 that his obedient behavior caused him to be perfected as the high priest who would make atonement for the sins of the people. Look again at Hebrews 5. This time I'm gonna read verses 8 through 10. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. So here's what we take away from this. Before Jesus could serve as the great high priest, it was necessary for his human nature to be made perfect, to use the words of Hebrews. And not that there was any sin in him, for he was born sinless and he remains sinless. But even as a sinless human, Jesus needed to learn obedience so that he could become the source of eternal salvation to all of God's elect. In other words, it was because Jesus was obedient through what he had suffered that he was able to serve as our high priest. He was able to offer up himself as a perfect spotless lamb of God. That is why suffering is so essential to Jesus's life. At no time in his life was the temptation and hence the suffering greater than during the hours beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane and ending at the cross. It was never greater than that moment. Remember how he was dropping sweats of blood while he was in the garden? Remember how he asked Peter, James, and John to pray for him? For Jesus said to them on that very occasion, in the context of asking them to pray, that my soul is exceedingly sorrowful. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. Without the physical suffering Jesus endured for the 33 years leading up to the cross, he could not have served as a one who received the spiritual suffering that every one of us, every single one of God's elect, deserves. He had to be the perfect and spotless lamb. And that perfection, we're told in Hebrews 5.9, came through the physical suffering he experienced while he was on this earth. And without that suffering, there would be no atonement. This is why Hebrews 2.10 reads, For it was fitting for him, from whom all things and by whom all things are all things, in bringing many sons of glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. You hear that again? It's a repetition we see all through the book of Hebrews. It was fitting for him, Jesus, to make the captain of their salvation, to make the author of their salvation, the source of their salvation, perfect through suffering. He was perfected through suffering. And so to answer the obvious question, why was physical suffering in the life of Jesus so important? It's because God's entire plan of redemption depended upon Jesus learning obedience through suffering. God's entire plan of redemption depended upon Jesus being perfected through suffering. And God's entire plan of redemption depended upon Jesus being made the captain of salvation through suffering. And so, some of you may be thinking to yourself, wow, this is some heavy stuff. And if you're thinking that, yes, you're right. This is truly some heavy stuff. But don't let that, don't let the depth and the weight of this content drive you away from it, or to discard it as something too weighty and too laborious to consider. Don't let that turn you away from a deeper and more mature understanding of these things. And in Hebrews 5, Immediately after writing about Jesus' learning obedience and being perfected to become the author of eternal salvation, the writer of this epistle begins to reprimand his audience for their unwillingness to apply themselves to these matters. I don't think we should miss the context in which those statements are made. Here he is speaking about something that I think all of us can agree upon, it is a weighty matter, and he says, You know, I have more I can say about this, but you're not ready to hear it. You can't hear it. He says in verse 11 that he would love to, that he has to hold back from what he wants to tell them, not because he doesn't have the words to say it, he doesn't have the comprehension to say it, but because his audience doesn't have the level of maturity to receive it. What he's saying to his audience is that it's difficult to explain to them any more details about how Jesus learned obedience through suffering, and how Jesus was perfected through suffering, and how Jesus had become the eternal source of salvation through suffering because of their immaturity. Had this epistle been written to a more mature audience, then we would have had more to read today about this. The author would have had more to say about this. But according to verse 11, the writer stopped short because the people he was writing to were unable to handle it. It was over their heads. They didn't have the theological framework for processing this information. A question that I like to raise here in the context of our church is, does this describe us? If we were living in the first century and this epistle was written to us, would the author have had the confidence of knowing that he could drill down into some of the even more deep and more complex theological concepts that he was writing about? Or would he say to us, like he said to the Hebrews, I'm having a hard time explaining this to you because you don't have sufficient knowledge of the scriptures, of your faith, to comprehend these things. Look at verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, yet you need somebody to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. You see, theology is not just some pie-in-the-sky academic exercise that certain intellectual-type Christians happen to enjoy, so they dedicate themselves to studying theology. Theological knowledge is not some ivory tower experience, which is only available to those who have a seminary degree. Instead, theology is something that every single Christian needs to be learning for the rest of his life. The rest of his life. Theology is nothing more than the study of God. That's what the word literally means. Theos is God. Ology indicates that it's a disciplined study. So to say that every Christian should be learning theology for the rest of their life is just another way of saying that every Christian should be growing in his knowledge and familiarity with God, who God is, the very God that he or she professes to love. It means that every Christian should grow in maturity in his faith, that every Christian should not only be capable of learning about the beauties of God, but within time should be able to teach others about the beauties of God. Every Christian, therefore, should be a theologian in the appropriate sense of that word. And how do you become this sort of theologian? By experience and practice. by experience, by practice. You become a theologian by walking in the Spirit and applying the things which he teaches you from the scriptures to your life, right? At first it's milk. Like a baby who cannot chew solid food, who lives on a diet of milk, that's the immature Christian. That's where we all begin. Every one of us began there. The milk is the elementary principles of Christ. Jesus is the Messiah. He came to save His people from sins. He rose again from the dead. Through Him we have forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God. He's coming back to get us. Those are the elementary principles of the faith. That's the milk. But over time, just as a baby matures to the point of being able to eat solid food, so the Christian should mature beyond a simple understanding of Christianity to a more mature understanding of the Christian faith. And this only happens, according to verse 14, by reason of use. By reason of use. What he means by this is that the only people who are gonna grow in their Christian maturity are those who use their faith So it goes well beyond mere study. It's not sufficient to just read about God and memorize catechism questions about God. That knowledge needs to make it from your head into your hands and into your feet. That knowledge needs to bring you into a closer experience with God so that you think God's thoughts after Him and you walk where the Spirit leads you. The reason many Christians don't grow in their faith is because many Christians, like these Hebrew Christians, don't study God's Word. And they don't take what the Bible, what God has given to them in the Bible, and consume it to make it their own, to digest it, swallow it, chew it, swallow it, make it their own. And some of those who do study the Word of God don't apply it to their lives. They don't use it in the manner in which they ought to use it. And for them, Christianity is theoretical, but not practical. What they learn stays locked up inside their brain. It never makes it to their hands and to their feet. They never put their knowledge in practice. And becoming a mature Christian happens through the study, through studying about God and putting into practice the things that you learn about God. Just like the 12-year-old Jesus who was able to amaze the learned men in the temple. We need to grow in our knowledge and favor with God. We need to grow in wisdom. And what this will ultimately mean is that we will learn obedience through suffering. By studying how Jesus was obedient through suffering, we can come away with a multitude of applications to our own life. I'll share with you just three of them. First, we learn that since Jesus was a man, since he suffered as a man, a human, he knows what it means for us humans to suffer. And therefore, he's in a position to help those who are suffering. And this point is so significant that it's a theme that we see consistently through the book of Hebrews. The first time, well, maybe not even the first time, the first time I identified it in the book of Hebrews was in chapter 2.18. I read this already. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. And the second time is in Hebrews 4.15. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. And why does that matter? Why is the author saying this? What difference does that make to you and me? Well, verse 16, let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace in the time of need. Hebrews 7.25 picks up on the same theme and carries it one step further. Therefore he is also able to save to the utmost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. And so by studying the way Christ suffered on earth, which includes the physical suffering he endured under Pontius Pilate upon the cross. We are comforted. We are comforted. Comforted to know that he understands our suffering, comforted to know that he can help us as we suffer, comforted to know that he always lives to make intercession for us while we are suffering. Don't be like the Hebrew Christians. Don't become complacent about your Christian walk. Don't become those who refuse to grow in grace and knowledge and maturity in Jesus Christ. God has given you his word so that you can read it, so that you can study it, so that you can understand it, so that you can apply it to your daily life. And if you neglect doing this, then you're stunting your Christian growth. And please hear me very clearly when I make this point. If you neglect to study your Bible, you are stunting your Christian growth. You are the reason you cannot eat the solid food of Christianity. If you're a Christian, then this means that God has given you his son, who has suffered for you so that He can deliver you from an eternity of hell of suffering. God has given you His Holy Spirit, who guides you into truth and illuminates your mind in order that you may understand the spiritual things of God. And God has given you the Bible by which you can know more of Him, what He has done, what He is presently doing, what He has promised to do. And God has graciously given you all three of these things, salvation, the ability to understand, and his written revelation. You're not going to grow into a mature Christian, the Christian that you ought to be, if you neglect these gifts. Your sanctification requires effort, your effort. This brings us to our second application from studying the sufferings of Jesus. When we notice how Jesus overcame temptation, the suffering of temptation, we see how we can overcome those same types of sufferings. And what did Jesus do when he began to suffer under the temptation to sin? Hebrews 5.7 gives us a wonderful insight into his life. In the days of his flesh and his human nature, Jesus did what? offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. So if you're wondering, why do I not have the strength to overcome the temptations that so easily beset me? If that's what you're thinking, if that's your life, then answer this question. When was the last time you offered up prayers and supplications to God with loud cries and tears? When was the last time you did that? When was the last time you poured yourself out to God in prayer, pleading with him to lead you not into temptation, but to deliver you from evil? Isn't that how Jesus taught his disciples to pray? to trust fully and completely upon God as the one who will save you from sin and death? Prayer was Jesus's first line of defense. Where does prayer fit into your life? Is prayer your first line of defense? Or is it where you go when everything else has failed? Is prayer the place you turn when your own strength and your own efforts have proved insufficient? What we learn from studying the sufferings of Jesus is that prayer must be your first line of defense against temptation. Why was Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane? To pray. Why did he take Peter, James, and John with him? To pray. Why did he keep coming back, waking them up, arousing them out of their sleep? To pray. Jesus offered up prayers to God the Father with loud cries and tears. And so should we. And the third application that we gain from studying the sufferings of Jesus is that suffering, when righteously endured, has rewards for the one who has suffered. We saw how Jesus in his humanity learned obedience and how that obedience perfected him. He grew in favor with God, we read. And you and I can learn obedience through our sufferings as well. And when we righteously endure the suffering of this present world, we learn obedience. This will have a sanctifying effect upon us. It will cause us to grow in our faith. It will cause us to increase in our favor with God. And it will bring us into closer and closer conformity with the image of Jesus Christ. It's called sanctification. And it happens through suffering. But don't be fooled into thinking that you must endure suffering and you must grow in favor with God in order that you would then be found acceptable to God. Don't make that mistake. Christ and only Christ has attained the perfection necessary to satisfy God, to appease God, to satisfy the wrath of God against sin. Only His, Christ's obedience to suffering has achieved the righteousness and the perfection required in order to stand before God. Why can't we stand before God apart from Christ? Well, because we've sinned. We're not the perfect and spotless lamb that's an acceptable sacrifice to appease the wrath of God. That's the reason Jesus had to become a man, to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. And when we consider the Passion Week and the suffering of our Savior, the things he endured on behalf of his elect, we must realize that his passio, his suffering, his passion, was not only the time that he hung upon the cross. or the abuses he endured under Pontius Pilate, or even the events of this entire Passion Week. Jesus's entire earthly life was suffering. It was 33 years of passion. Every moment of passion was a necessary moment so that he can be that perfect sacrificial lamb that qualifies to suffer an even greater passion, an even greater passion than all that preceded that. And I'm talking, of course, about the spiritual suffering of bearing the wrath of God for the sins of his elect. The passion of Christ, therefore, comprehensively speaking, is an infinite form of suffering. Infinite form of suffering. It's the infinite suffering that each one of us was born into and that many people remain in without the blood and righteousness of Christ being applied to them. You see, each one of us has in store for us an infinite passio. At least, initially, when we were conceived, we were conceived into an infinite passio, never able to fully satisfy the wrath of God. So there would be an infinite level of suffering. But because Christ was perfected in His humanity through suffering, He then is able and willing and did take upon himself that infinite passio, that infinite suffering of all God's elect. It's through faith, through Christ and Christ alone, that we are delivered from the suffering that's in store for us. So his physical suffering preceded his spiritual suffering. Without his spiritual suffering, there's no atonement. Without his physical suffering, there's no atonement. The two together comprehend the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we consider this Passion Week today, we consider all the abuses that he endured for the sake of his people. The whippings, the scourgings, the thrusting of the thorns in his head, the beatings, the nails driven into his hands and his feet, and ultimately his death upon a cross. It all served a singular purpose. to present him to God as the perfect spotless lamb that was perfected through suffering so that his perfection through suffering can remove from us the necessity of our eternal suffering. Praise be to God. May each of us have the faith necessary to understand this and to believe it and to benefit from it. Let's pray. Our dear Lord and Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the immense suffering that he endured from the womb to the tomb. Father, he was faithful at becoming the suffering servant, as Isaiah calls him. And Father, that that we would be the benefactors of such suffering. It's an incomprehensible feat of love to think that a man would do such a thing for those who are hostile to him, that while we were yet sinners, Christ came and he suffered for us, he died for us, he made atonement for us, he took upon himself our own sufferings, and he bore the full penalty of your wrath as you poured it out upon him for the sake of us. And so Father, we pray that we would never be neglectful of our study of Scripture for it's in the Scriptures that we learn these things. Father, we pray that we would never be reluctant to spend the time and mental energy in reading and studying and understanding the atonement and all the various elements pertaining to it, even some of the deep and weighty matters. Our Father, it's through the understanding of these things that we can glorify you, and that we can praise you for what you have done, not only for us, but for all of your elect, and how you have glorified and magnified your name on this earth through this magnificent, magnanimous demonstration of love. And Father, we pray that we would never be neglectful of putting into action the doctrinal, theological understandings that we have learned, that they would not remain bouncing around in our head, but that they would flow out into our hands, into our feet, into our communities, into our lives, and impact our families and others in the positive, righteous ways in which the gospel well-lived ought to be. Father, we were reminded earlier this morning that our status has become that of children of light, and therefore we ought to walk as children of light. And we understand more fully now, having studied and seen the necessity of Christ's physical suffering, that it is appropriate and indeed necessary that we would suffer as well in order that we might learn even more fully how to walk as children of light. And so, Father, give us your grace, give us your Spirit, equip us and strengthen us. to be those who walk in the light. May we be far from the fruitless, unfruitful works of darkness. And Father, may we expose those for what they are and glorify you and your Son, Jesus Christ. And this we pray in his name, our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.