We've heard the events of Jesus' betrayal and arrest and trial and crucifixion and final death read to us from Matthew's account. And I suppose many of us here have heard that story read on a number of occasions, perhaps more than we can remember. And when we hear things that we Here often we can sometimes grow dull in the hearing of them, but I pray that we don't grow dull to the hearing of what it actually means for the Son of God to be crucified for us. And we can sometimes think about the death of Jesus in ways that are equally wrong, if I could put it like that. We can think of Jesus' death as one of many deaths, and it was one of many deaths. We could think of Jesus' death like this, that every one of us will taste death, every one of us will die. Jesus came and he died to show us that death need not be feared, that he himself could enter death, but that means that his death would just be like one of many deaths. Or we could think of the actual manner of his death, and a lot is made of the fact that he was crucified, and sometimes we try and represent that crucifixion in very graphic terms, and you'll remember even the films that have been made of that, and not least The Passion of the Christ. And people then attach a lot to the manner of his death by crucifixion, and that is indeed important. Cursed is every man who is hanged on a tree, In the Old Testament prophecies, that manner of death was important, but so often we can focus on the actual physical pain and the untellable suffering that he experienced in his physical body, but then we would have to say, well, Jesus' death was just one of many deaths. There were thousands and thousands of people crucified under the Romans, many of them suffered on the crosses much longer than Jesus suffered on his cross. Jesus passed away or gave up his spirit very quickly compared to others who are on record as having survived on the cross for 72 hours or more. And so we can't even look at Jesus' death in terms of crucifixion or even the torture that went before it, the beating and the mocking because that too was common amongst those who were regarded as the enemies of Rome and possibly replacement kings for Caesar. So you could look at Jesus' death and you could try and magnify the physical elements of it, the terrible nature of crucifixion, the horrible nature of his taunting and the suffering, but you'd then still be left with the fact that Jesus' death would just be one amongst many deaths. Or you could say that Jesus' death was terribly unjust. He was betrayed, he was put to death as a result of cowardice and a mock trial. There was no real justice in what happened to him. But then we would still have to say Jesus' death was just one of many. There's been countless thousands of men and women who have been put to death wrongly and unjustly, not least the believers in Jesus Christ. Or we could say, well, Jesus' death was an heroic death. It was a death where he was doing something for others. And we could say, quoting Jesus' own words, greater love has no man than this, than he lays down his life for his friends. And we could think of the events that sometimes accompany a remembrance of the sacrifice that soldiers have made in the war, as here in Australia we remember them at Anzac Day coming up later this month. And we think of the great sacrifices and heroic deeds. And Jesus' death on that level you could say would just be one of many deaths. There have been thousands of men in battle, thousands of women who at a point of extremity have rescued children from their houses while they themselves sacrificed their own life. So from one point of view, we could look at the Easter story, we could become so familiar with it, we could look at Jesus' death, we could say, well his death was one of many to somehow try and tell us not to be frightened of it, or it was one of many because it was heroic, or it was one of many because of his crucifixion. But none of those actually is sufficient for us. From one point of view, we could say that Jesus' death is one of many. But the Bible will have to make us say something else. And that is this, that Jesus' death was unlike any. Jesus' death was unlike So today I don't want to concentrate on the physical sufferings of Jesus Christ. I don't want to concentrate on the injustice of it or the nobility of it. Nor do I want to concentrate on the commonality of the fact that he died like we die. Because the truth of the matter is that he did not die like we die. His death is unlike any death and what makes that death so different and what makes that death inexpressible for us is that that death and that death alone was a death for sin John the Baptist said as he came, as Jesus came to be baptised, behold the Lamb of God who takes away, what? The sin of the world. Now I have not met anyone anywhere and I have not read any theologian and I have not understood myself ever how one person can take away one sin. We just don't understand how that can happen. I mean even if we were to say here are you or I today and let's say we've not just committed a sin that might be a breaking of God's moral law but let's say we've also committed a sin which might be a breaking of the law in the land for which there's a penalty. So let's say that here among us today we have thieves and murderers And let's say that as a thief or a murderer you have paid your penalty under the law and you've come through that penal judgement. Could I ask you, is your sin taken away? The answer would be, well the penalty of the sin is being paid. But we would still find our hearts, would we not, from time to time troubled by guilt and shame, Possibly remorse, possibly not. And it would still be there. Now in our hearts and minds and memories, we have millions of recollections. Some of those involve the sin of others, some of them involve the sin of ourselves. And I bet that throughout all of your life, no matter what you tried, where you went, how far you ran, what you did, you could never actually take away one of those, could you? So we can't understand how any human being can take away even one sin. It is an impossibility for us. But how can it be that the Lamb of God can actually take away the sin of the world? And it's that which makes Jesus' death unlike any. Because the real agony and the real suffering on the cross was not simply the injustice of it, or the physical pain of it, or the abuse that he took before he was crucified, or the abuse that he took while he was dying on the cross. All of that is there, but the real pain is the fact that he and he alone as the Son of God could become sin for us. He and he alone could be the bearer of our sin. And that image that John the Baptist uses of taking away the sin of the world comes from the Old Testament. Where there were two goats offered, you remember? One of them was called the scapegoat or the goat of escape. And the sins of the nation were confessed over this animal and it was sent out into the wilderness, never to return to the camp. And that being sent out into the wilderness was a sign that Israel's sins needed to be judged in a place that was so far removed from the presence of the Holy God that it was untellable, out into the wilderness. But it was also a sign that the sins of Israel had to be taken away. And so when John says, here's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, it means that somewhere, somehow, Jesus is going to have to go out into the most wild, uncontrolled, wicked place in the universe, into the depths of the wilderness of sin, to bear away our sin. So he's the sin bearer. He is the scapegoat. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And only Jesus Christ has been that. There's only been one cross in all history. There have been thousands of crosses, but only one cross where you've had someone who's removed your sin. And so that's the real agony and the real pain and the real battle that Jesus engaged in on the cross. We're told in Isaiah, that he has borne our iniquities. The apostle Peter tells us that he took our sins up into his body on the tree. Paul tells us that God condemned our sin in his flesh. He also tells us that he who knew no sin was made sin for us. And the prophet Isaiah tells us that this one was marred beyond recognition as a man. So that if we were to try and portray the sufferings of Christ and look at the physical beating that he took and the physical disfigurement that took place because of that physical suffering, that would not even begin to touch the disfigurement that took place to him. So great was that disfigurement, as he was made sin for us, that if we were passing by and looking at him, we would say, what is that? Is that a man? Or is that a beast? Or is it a serpent? Or is it a monster? He was no longer recognisably a man, because at that point he had been made sin for us. Little wonder that the sun hid its face for three hours. and the rock split open. So you can't describe what that was. I have no words to tell you how Jesus took away sin. We can talk about him being the one through whom we're justified. We can talk about him being our Redeemer. We can talk about him being the propitiator of the wrath of God. But all of that still doesn't actually take us into what he actually experienced there on that cross. But the one thing that I want us to concentrate on out of all of that today is this. We sometimes get an impression, particularly because of the way things are portrayed in our electronic media, that Jesus was sort of somehow hanging there just passively, a victim. And if we think about him hanging there passively as a victim, we'll miss really what's going on in that great and terrible day. Jesus always did what his father had given him to do. He says in one place in John's Gospel, my father is working until now and even I am working. When he comes to that cross, And when he hangs there for us, he isn't passively hanging there as events happen around him. There's a great, see if you're to look at the cross, if you're just to hear that story read for us as we have today from the folk who've read. And if you just look at it with bare eyes, not eyes of faith, you'd have to say, well the whole lot is failure. Wherever you look, it's failure, complete and utter failure. He's betrayed, he's arrested, he's deserted, he's denied by his closest disciples. There's a suicide. Everything, I mean, imagine it today here. Imagine if in the context of this community of God's people, We came to that. And you'd look at it all and think, well, it's just complete failure. But the thing that pokes its head up through this story as we've read at least three times is, this was to fulfill. This was to fulfill what was written. This was to fulfill what had been said. And if we could today, we could go all the way back to the beginning of Matthew's gospel and we'd find in the events of his birth in the events of his returning from Egypt as a child, in all of the events that accompanied his teaching and preaching ministry, at the point where he touched the Gentiles and they were healed, at the point where Israel's heart was hardened and they rejected him, at the point where he talked in parables, time and time again you get this statement, this was to fulfill what was written, this was to fulfill what was written, this was to fulfill what was written. But don't even think of Jesus passively standing in the midst of that, just watching it all happen around him, because he is the great king, and he is actually fulfilling it. It's not just like there's an accidental circumstance that takes place. But as the Son of God, the King of the Earth, He is actually actively fulfilling all of the things that are prophesied about Him. And so when it comes to the cross, repeatedly He tells the disciples, the Son of Man must suffer, the Son of Man must be handed over to the chief priests, the Son of Man must be betrayed, the Son of Man must be crucified. He was telling them what was going to happen because he knew when what was happening, he was fulfilling the plan and purpose of God and he was working hard that it be fulfilled. And this is where we come back to the point I was making. When Jesus hung on that cross, when he seemed to be at his most passive as a victim, he was working for you. As he hung there in the weakness of the cross, refusing to take up the sword to defend himself, he was working. He was working in the depths of the spirit in a way that was perhaps transcending anything that he had ever done up until that point. He was not merely suffering, but he was working to take away your sin. Between the 6th and the 9th hours there was darkness. And at the end of that darkness, he cried out, Eloi, Eloi, lama savakthani, which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In those hours of darkness, hidden from our sight, hidden from our knowledge, hidden from our experience, Christ was working on our behalf. in a way that we can't ever fully understand. As our sins had come upon him on the cross, and as he was sent out as the scapegoat in the wilderness to take them away. He took under the weight of our sin, all of the judgment of those sins, and all of the wrath of God on those sins, and all of the wrath of God which those sins are, and in the uttermost dark recesses of the wilderness of judgment, He worked. And in the fullness of the Holy Spirit which had come to Him and enabled Him to take those sins up onto the cross, And in the fullness of the Spirit which brought those sins to him on the cross, he worked in his mind and conscience and heart until he had experienced every last drop of the terror of your sin. The only way to express it was forsakenness. Now you and I might think sometimes that events are very hard to be honest and what happens in life is very hard and sometimes we might think in the midst of our pain, God's forsaken me. I can tell you categorically that you have never ever under any circumstance been forsaken by God. There's only one man who was and he was so that you would not be. And in that place of God forsakenness, hidden from all human sight, hidden from all possibility of human experience and entering into an understanding of what went on, in the darkness of that place of judgement, you have a man who has worked for you. You have a man who in that place on the cross physically was stationary. But spiritually went to the outer darkness and there worked to cleanse, to wash, to carry, to bear away, to justify, to propitiate, to redeem. And what happened? At the end of that process it says gave another loud cry in Matthew's gospel and the other gospels tell us what that loud cry was. It is, IT IS FINISHED! And the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom and what could never be accomplished by any physical blood sacrifice of bulls and goats was now accomplished. There was access to God. And not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles, for all the nations of the earth. He's the fulfillment of the promise. In Matthew 1.1 we're told, this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham, the son of David. And why Abraham and why David? Because Abraham had a promise that kings would come to him and David was one of them. And David had a promise that a king would come from him and all of the nations would be brought under his dominion and Jesus was his son. But why Abraham and why David? Because Abraham was given a promise that all of the nations would be blessed through his seed, and Jesus was his seed. And why David? Because the son of David, who was going to be the king of the nations, would bring a blessing to the nations. And when Jesus was hanging on that cross, he was his most royal, he was his most regal. He entered into the battle. on behalf of his people. He entered in on that cross as the great royal warrior to defeat the enemies of his people, to bring us out from the slavery in Egypt, to bring about a new exodus. But everyone looking on would have thought, well that's pretty weak and pointless isn't it? Because everyone looking on thought, ah the way to win the battle is to take up the sword. But on that cross, your King, Jesus, fought for you, and he worked for you, in the outer darkness where no man could ever go. And he entered into the very depths of the wickedness of every human heart and soul, and he cleansed the lot, and he opened up the temple. He said, now, it is finished. into thy hands I commit my spirit." So when he died, when he gave up his spirit that day, he had already delivered the captives. On Easter Sunday morning we celebrate his resurrection. We say Christ is risen, he is risen indeed and it is the proof. You just need one cross in history You only need one resurrection in history. If we could put it this way, if you've got one cross and one resurrection together, you've got everything you'd ever need. He's taken away our sins, he's borne them in his body on the tree. Amen. We're going to sing number 71, is it nothing to you, all you who pass by.