Friday, March 23, 2012

THE VIA DOLOROSA, MESSAGE ONE

"THE PLAN OF THE CROSS"

Preached at West End Baptist Church on Sunday Morning, March 11, 2012. This is the first of five sermons under the general heading: "THE VIA DOLOROSA" (LATIN - "The Way of the Cross")


(Isaiah 53:10) - Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He (The Father) hath put Him The Son) to grief: when thou shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

In my seventy-one years, I have either participated in or observed quite a few memorable events. A touchdown catch against Jefferson City; graduation after my seven years in high school; marrying Anita; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassination of JFK; my Salvation experience; my call to preach; the births of our children and grandchildren; the salvation and baptisms of our children and grandchildren; your gift of our trip to Israel; and many wonderful experiences in forty-four years of ministry.

There is one great event, which should be at the top of every person’s list; the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The eyes and hopes of all the saints who lived before the Christian era were always directed forward to the Cross; and the eyes and faith of all the saints who have since received Jesus Christ as their Savior are always looking backwards to the Cross.

The ancient prophets spoke in future terms; and the angels in heaven are continually gazing intently upon Christ:

(1 Peter 1:10-12) - Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

This morning, we begin a series of five messages on “The Via Dolorosa” – “The Way of the Cross”. When we look at Calvary; let us try to determine in our minds why that knuckled, gnarled old hilltop is the focus of the joy and delight of all the citizens of heaven.

Let’s let the Scripture Text guide us in our visit to the “Way of the Cross”; and allow the Holy Spirit to look on the One who died there.

First: the CAUSE of Christ’s Death: "It pleased the LORD (YHWH) to bruise Him (The Son); He hath put Him to grief."

Secondly, the REASON of Christ's death: "Thou shall make His soul an offering for sin." Christ died because he was an offering for sin.

Thirdly, the EFFECTS of Christ's death: "He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand”.


THE PLAN OF CHRIST'S DEATH.

"It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief."

If we read about Jesus merely as a historical figure; if we consider His death as merely a result of the hatred of the Jewish leaders and the stupidity of Governor Pilate; we miss the entire point.

But if we look at Calvary with the eye of faith, desiring to discover its hidden secrets; we can see something more in the Savior’s death than Roman cruelty, or Jewish malice. If we really look at it, we will see that it was done by the solemn decree of God, and carried out by men who were ignorant, but guilty instruments of its accomplishment.

If we look beyond the Roman spear, whip, and rusty nails, beyond the Jewish taunts and jeers; we can follow the clearly blood-marked trail right up to the One Who not only ALLOWED it to happen; but Who actually PLANNED it to happen!

Peter stated it very clearly:

(Acts 2:22-23) - Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

I know what you are thinking! You do not want to level the charge at God; I get the heeby-jeebies myself about preaching this; but at the same time, we have to face the fact that “It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him”.

When we look at Calvary this way, we overlook both the ignorance of Pilate and the evil of Herod, and we can see the PLAN of Calvary – The Heavenly Father, the First Person in the Divine Trinity. "It pleased the LORD to bruise Him, He has put Him to grief." It was not solely the Jews or the Romans that caused Jesus to go to His death; it was us and our sin!

Now there are a lot of well-meaning, but uninformed and misguided people who attend churches all over the world; and have it firmly embedded in their minds that God the Father is just an indifferent spectator to the Plan of Salvation.

There are multitudes of others who look upon God as an unloving, severe Being, who really had no love to the human race, and could only be made loving by the death and agonies of our Savior. Where in the world did that heresy come from? That is a black mark on the fair, just, merciful, and glorious Grace of God the Father, to whom be glory and honor forever.

Jesus Christ did not die to make God loving; He died because God WAS loving!

Christ was sent into the world by his Father because God “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

The fact is, that the Father as much decreed salvation, as much effected it, and as much delighted in it, as did either God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.

And when we speak of the Savior of the world, we are usually speaking about Jesus Christ; but shouldn’t we also include the One Who Planned it (God the Father), the One Who Performed it (God the Son), and the One Who Pursued it (God the Holy Spirit) – because these Three, as one God, save us from our sins.

The Text clearly tells us that “it pleased Jehovah to bruise Jesus Christ”. The death of Christ is traceable to God the Father.

How?

I. IT WAS BY GOD’S DECREE!

The Triune God of heaven and earth wrote the “Plan” for Calvary. Nobody else helped Him, in even the smallest parts. From beginning to end, it was marked out, designed, sketched, and planned by the mind of the all-wise, all-knowing God. Because of that, not even Christ's death was exempt from it.

The God Who directs all the millions upon millions of angel hosts of heaven, and yet pays attention to one single sparrow on the immenseness of earth; the God Who created every single particle of the vastness of the universe, and yet pays attention to the very hairs of the head, the color of the eyes, and the individuality of each and every snowflake; the One Who decreed the greatest wonder of each and every one of the miracle of heaven and earth was not about to make a mistake in His generation of the greatest of the greatest wonder of the wonders of all of earth's miracles - the death of Christ!

No; through the blood-stained pages of Scripture, God Almighty “planned” the “Plan”; and the past, present, and the glorious future all the words concerning the pivotal point of it all – Cavalry!

God the Father planned and determined that Christ should be born of the Virgin Mary; He planned and determined that Christ should suffer and ultimately die an agonizing death under Governor Pontius Pilate; that He should descend into Hades to appear to all the Old Testament Believers in Paradise; that He should rise again in three days; that He should someday come again secretly to gather His Followers home and then come again publically to establish His long-awaited Kingdom; and that He should usher in eternity when He shall reign for ever at the right hand of the Majesty on high!

The death of Christ is the very center piece and main-spring by which God did fashion all His other decrees, making this the first and foundation-stone upon which the sacred architecture should be built.

Christ was put to death by the absolute foreknowledge and solemn decree of God the Father, and in this sense "it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief."


II. IT WAS IN GOD’S WILL.

Now, we come to a more difficult part to understand!

Jesus did not come into thus world on His own! No; He had been the constant companion of God the Father and God the Spirit from before all worlds, eternally delighting himself in his Father, and being himself his Father's eternal joy. But, “In the fullness of time” God sent His Son, His only-begotten Son, and freely delivered Him up for us all.

This simply cannot be understood by mankind. This was a matchless, peerless love that mankind cannot grasp – that the offended Judge should permit His co-equal Son to suffer the pains of death for the redemption of a rebellious people.

The Bible speaks of a bearded old patriarch, who took his young strapping strong young teen aged son to go on a trip - three days journey with their men; until they come to the Mountain, of which the LORD had spoken to the patriarch.

You know the patriarch; Abraham is a holy memory to both Christians and Jews, as well as Moslems. I don’t imagine the father spoke too much to the son; his heart was too full, too heavy for words; he was overwhelmed with grief. God had commanded him to take his son, his only son, and slay him upon the mountain as a sacrifice.

And so they walked together; one in anguish of soul who had heard the command and didn’t understand, and the other one who did not hear the command and maybe just beginning to understand. That son meant everything to that old father; and he knew that he was going to be his executioner. At the foothills, they told the servants to stay and they would go and worship – and return!

The son, Isaac finally asked, "Father, behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?" Can you conceive how the father, Abraham, stifled his emotions, and, with sobs, exclaimed, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb”. He was telling his son that God had demanded his life.

Isaac, who might have struggled and escaped from his old father, declared by his actions that he was willing to die, if God had decreed it. The father took his son, bound his hands behind his back, piled up the stones to make an altar, laid the wood, and had his fire ready. And now where is the artist that can depict the anguish of the father’s countenance, when the knife is unsheathed, and he holds it up, ready to slay his son?

The ram caught in the thicket supplies the substitute, and Abraham did not need to go any further physically; but we are told in Hebrews that in the Mind of God, Abraham DID go through with it:

(Hebrews 11:17-19) - By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

Now skip from this scene to a far greater one. What faith and obedience led Abraham to do; love constrained God to do!

God had but one son, His Only Begotten Son; but He covenanted to yield Him up for our redemption. He did not violate His promise; and when the fullness of time was come, He sent His Son to be born of the Virgin Mary, for the express purpose that He might suffer and offer Himself as the Sacrificed for the sins of man.

Can you explain that kind of Love that He completed in reality what Abraham only did in intention? Look up here at the facsimile of the place where God’s only Son hung dead upon the cross! Here is love indeed; and here we see how it was, that it pleased the Father to bruise him.


III. IT WAS FOR GOD’S PLEASURE!

This is the most difficult of all to understand.

Down through the years, there have been martyrs in prison with chains on their wrists; under sentence that they will die tomorrow. Unbelievably, they think, “I shall eat breakfast alone down here in fiery tribulations, but have supper with Jesus in heaven”.

History has recorded that thousands of them died; and many of them singing while the flames leapt up or wild beasts leapt out to consume their physical bodies and they slipped into eternity. Hundreds may have been in the crowds watching and praying for them!

At Calvary, the Savior is going up the Via Dolorosa; weak from the beating; His soul sad within Him. He falls under the load; and they whip Him back to His feet. He is nailed to the tree with the sound of utter silence of singing. Just a few followers are there to comfort His mother.

When He spoke, it was not a song but a cry: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The martyrs died and God was with them; but God was not with His Son when He died. You see, it was not pleasing to God that the martyrs die; but “it pleased God to bruise Him”.

The sunshine of God's countenance that has cheered many a dying saint, was withdrawn from Christ; and therefore he suffered in thick darkness of mental agony.

Underneath the church are the everlasting arms; but underneath Christ there were no arms at all, but his Father's hand pressed heavily against Him to bruise Him; and not one drop of joy or consolation was afforded to Him. "It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief." This was the climax of the Savior’s woe, that His Father turned away from Him, and put Him to grief.

And that was all according to plan!

Now what are we going to do with that?


NOTE: I am grateful to Pastor Charles Spurgeon for many of the seed thoughts contained in this message.

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