Places relating to the Crucifixion

All my iniquities on Him were laid, All my indebtedness by Him was paid, All duly on Him the Lord hath said, I have everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Verily, verily, this things ever do, He that believeth on the Son is true, Hath everlasting life. Let's turn, please, in our Bibles to John chapter 18, please.

The Gospel of John. We're going to switch from ministry to a little gospel meeting from now till almost 430, and we'll look at verse number 28. John chapter 18 and verse number 28.

Then led they Jesus from Caiaphas unto the hall of judgment, and it was early. And they themselves went not into the judgment hall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. So we just want to emphasize the first part of that verse, then led they Jesus, and the little comment, and it was early.

Now come over to chapter 19 and verse number 13. They now move from the Jewish leaders, they move over to the Roman leaders. Verse number 13.

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement. Now just turn down a little bit to verse number 17. And he bearing his cross, the Lord Jesus, went forth into a place called the place of a skull.

Look down to verse number 20. This title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Verse number 30.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Finally look at verse number 40. We're now at the end of the day.

Then took they the body of Jesus and wound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulcher wherein was never man yet lay. Now that's all we're going to read, and we'll look to the Lord to bless.

A little word that we like to have in the gospel. My question really for you is what does the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus mean to you? I know I can go back 20 years in my life. I was 24 years of age.

It was April the 4th, 1990. I never really gave a lot of consideration to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, but on that day as a lost sinner on the road to hell, I understood what a tremendous day. It was a Friday.

It was roughly the year 33. I often think every week, not every week, but a lot of weeks, as I wake up on a Friday morning, it was a day just like this, Friday, when a most amazing event took place. If you've noticed how we have read what marks out the crucifixion as the most important day, the most amazing day.

Never will there be a day like it. Never was there a day like it. The sun rose up in the east, and it fell upon an amazing scene.

God's son was bound in prison. He was bound by wicked men, and as that son went across its course in the sky and settled in the western sky, do you know what the sun fell upon? The dead form, the dead body of Jesus, wrapped in linen, being placed into a tomb. That'll never happen again.

It's not a wonder that in this little day that we can read here in the Gospel of John, it's not a wonder that the Spirit of God identifies four places, and they are so amazing, as God would look down from heaven, and as he would view this scene as it began to unfold. Now, friend, if you're here today, this afternoon, in your sins, you're not saved. You're not born again.

You don't have that confidence that Jesus Christ is your Savior, that there's no peace between you and God. You need to consider this tremendous day, the crucifixion of God's son. What does it mean? Why did God allow it to happen? You see, the first thing that's amazing is the first place is that God's son was led bound before a Roman ruler.

Amazing. Here is Jesus Christ, the one that created everything in the universe, the one that was upholding everything in the universe, the one who has a title from the Old Testament that he is the governor. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and he willingly sits while a Roman man judges him.

Tremendous. A Roman governor, given a little bit of authority by another man, sits upon his judgment throne and looks down upon the form of the Son of God, and he passes judgment on him. Take him out and crucify him.

You know, there's many things that mark this day, but here's one thing that marked this day, the silence of the Son of God. You get that all the time through the Old Testament, as man stood there in his judgment against the Son of God, the sinless one, the perfect one, God from eternity. He never opened his mouth.

He never said a word in his defense. He just simply allowed that man to pass judgment on him. Take him out and crucify him.

There's silence from the heavenly aspect too. The angels heard the words of the Lord Jesus just hours before in the midnight hour as they came to arrest him, and the Lord said, could I not now call twelve legions of angels? Could I not call a myriad of angelic hosts instantaneously to my help, to my rescue? There as man spit upon him, and they beat him with their fists, and they placed a crown of thorns upon his head, and they robed him, they stripped him of his clothes, and they put a purple robe of mockery upon him, and they began to line up one after another, and began to hail him, and to mock him. You're a king! And I'm sure the silence in heaven must have been deafening as all those angelic hosts just waited for the call.

Come, help me. But there was nothing but silence from the Savior, and there was nothing but the hush up in heaven. Probably those angelic hosts, they were looking at that scene unfolding on earth, and they were looking at the Father.

Why? Why are you allowing this? Why are you allowing mankind, your creation, to murk and murr your beloved Son like that? Why? And as the blood began to trickle down, and as the bruises began to swell, not a word. You know, I don't know whether you've ever been around people that fight or get into scuffles, but you know what? You can tell the anger in the eyes, how dark they are. I love the prophecy in the Old Testament way back in Genesis.

It talks about eyes washed in milk. Lovely reference to the Son of God. You know, when the Lord Jesus looked at his accusers as they came at him one at a time, his abusers, you know why they had to blindfold him? They couldn't stand looking at those tender eyes.

There was no hatred. There was no anger. There was none of a dead-even spirit.

My day is coming. I'm gonna have my day with you. None of that.

The Son of God just willingly... I just put one thing over it. Dignified silence. Majestic silence.

As he just endured it. Friend, why? Why? You ever come to realize why? Friend, he was taking your place. Before a holy God in our sinfulness, we have nothing to say.

There's nothing that we can throw up to God, so to speak, in our defense and say, no, no, no, I am justified the way I am, the way I live. He willingly took our place. Every mouth stopped before a holy God.

I love reading about this day. I love just mulling over that picture in my mind. But we gotta move quickly to another place.

After man passed their judgment upon the Son of God, you read about the second place. Jesus bearing his cross went forth into a place. Quite a thing.

You ever see somebody carry a heavy burden? Quite a thing, isn't it? An awful lot of people on this earth were crucified. An awful lot of people were forced to take their cross. An awful lot of people were beaten to take their cross.

You know what's so unique about this? As soon as he saw the cross, he just took it. Just took it. To the point where the Word of God says, it was his cross.

He made it his own. There was no holding back. There was no trying to get away from this.

That was the whole reason why he came into this world, friend. It was to go to the cross and die for our sins. It's a tremendous day.

Never, never will there be a day like it. I wonder, how does it affect you? People try to push it off as if it never happened. People don't want to talk about it.

Listen, I love talking about the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Wonderful event. Some people, all they can do is they read about it in history, and they're all full of sorrow, and they lament over all the events.

What a tragedy! No, it wasn't. It was the greatest victory that was ever accomplished on this earth. Interesting to go through the Word of God, the Gospels particularly, and find out how many times the Lord Jesus spoke about his death and the effect it had on people.

Even one of the lead disciples, Peter, one day the Lord Jesus said, I'm going to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to be arrested and scourged and crucified. And here was one of the lead disciples, Peter, be it far from thee, Lord.

Oh, no, no, no, no, this is not good. What are you talking about? This is not going to happen. And the Lord Jesus had to rebuke him.

No, Peter, you're not thinking right. That's why I came into this world. This man, Pilate, we could have read earlier where Pilate was standing there, and he was questioning the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus was answering him nothing.

And Pilate, he gets frustrated with the Lord Jesus, and he says, do you not realize that I have power to crucify you and to release you? And the Lord Jesus just quietly had to remind him, you have power because it was given to you from heaven. I'm not here as a victim. This has all been prearranged, Pilate.

This is the whole reason. And he talks to, you realize that the only person the Lord Jesus talked to about his birth was Pilate. For this cause came I into the world.

And the very man that he spoke to about his birth is the very man that signed his death certificate, take him out and crucify him. It's all perfectly arranged. Quite a thing, you know, if you go over to Israel, I've been over there seven, eight years ago, and they will take you to what is called the way of sorrow, the Via Dolorcia, and they have supposedly 14 stations.

They call them stations of the cross. And as you march out that little cobblestone winding pathway from where Pilate judged the Lord Jesus and out to the north gate, and then out to where they crucified the Lord, they got these bronze plaques, you know, in different places, and they identify station number, whatever, whatever, whatever. The Word of God doesn't do that.

But I know this, here's one place where the Lord Jesus has simply embraced the cross. And he just started moving out to the hill. You ever wonder why, friend? You know what it causes me to do? I couldn't do this when I was, before I was 24.

Now, I just bow my knees and I thank God for it. Tremendous event. But you know, it didn't stop there.

As they went out further and out into that abandoned rock quarry, what they call Gordon's Calvary, the Word of God now identifies another place. Cross was laid out on the ground. It's just wonderful to think that there's, I believe the hands of the Lord were there before they even put the nails in them.

No, no, no, no, no fighting back. And as heaven beheld this scene, you know how we like taking pictures. That's what I think the Word of God does here in John 19.

There are still pictures, the place. You can talk to archaeologists today and they have some trouble locating where the actual cross was. Some think it was in the city.

Some think it was outside the city, Gordon's Calvary. I'll tell you something. God the Father knows exactly where the spot was.

Christ himself knows exactly where the spot was. I think there's just a trail of blood right from the city, right out to the place. It was wonderful being over there in Israel, because every place you go to in Israel, the Roman Catholics have built a church upon everything.

This is where the Mary washed the body of the baby Jesus. Boom, there's a church. This is where the Lord Jesus worked in the carpenter shop.

Boom, there's a big church. Churches on everything. Pathetic.

Isn't it wonderful? A group of Baptists own Gordon's Calvary. No church. Skull Hill and an empty tomb.

And my, there was a little retired, he was a short man about this high, and he had this stick in his hand. And he was a retired Baptist preacher, and man could that full of preach. It was a breath of fresh air, having come from the city with all this Catholicism and all this, oh, whatever.

And this man, he took our little group of 30 people, and he winded through that little garden. He took us over right in the front of Skull Hill. And that little fella started with his stick and he started to preach.

And what a message. It was so refreshing. Brought tears to your eyes.

After I shook his hand and I said, that was worth the trip. And then he took us down to the little tomb. And you know, as we were approaching the tomb, all these people were crying.

All these people outside were wailing. And I was contained by my wife, but I felt like saying, what are you doing? Rejoice, he's not there. He's risen.

That's the other place here. After the crucifixion, after the hours of darkness, tender hands took the Lord Jesus off the cross, wound him in those linen, put in those spices, a hundred pound weight, and into that earth, that ground, went the body of God's Son. Tremendous.

Three days later, on the other side of death, the Lord Jesus looks back at his body. According to scriptures, three days has transpired. And he just, without any effort, he just stepped across the boundary of eternity, back into time, and up came the body.

Miracle. An absolute miracle of the power of God. You know, there's things that mark this day.

It was the only day where death obeyed the voice of a man. It'll never happen again. You know, the unique thing about the Lord, in contrast to us, you know what happened the moment you and I were born into this world? Death looked at us with its greedy little hands and went, someday I'm going to get you.

You're marked by sin. You're mine. You know, the day the Lord Jesus was born, death had to stand back and say, I can't touch him.

He's without sin. He's absolutely pure and holy. I have no claim upon this person.

And as the Lord Jesus was out, crucified, and the two thieves on either side, death, I look at it as just a circling, like a bunch of hounds circling around the cross. And at any moment, they could come in and take this thief, bang. Any moment, come in and take that thief, bang.

Because those two men were in the process of dying. Never does the Word of God say Christ was dying. He died.

And death had to stand back and wait for what? For the Son of God to bow his head and dismiss his spirit. Couldn't touch him. And death, for the first time, embraced a sinless, spotless body.

Never before did it happen. It'll never happen again. And you want to know how far this goes? You read carefully Acts 13.

As the body of the Lord Jesus lay in that tomb for three days, it saw no corruption. None. And I say this carefully.

If it had a laid there for a thousand years, it wouldn't have seen corruption. It was without sin. For that's why he had to come.

Only one without sin could bear our sin. That's the whole purpose. That's the whole theme of the Bible.

Sometimes people that come out to gospel series that we have week after week after week, and they might question, well, this being born again, we're sinners and we need to be redeemed. Is it just an isolated little truth in the Word of God? Absolutely not. That's why we read all throughout the Word of God.

It's not just a theme that God picks up in the New Testament. It's right from the book of Genesis, right to the book of Revelation. That whole theme, we are sinners, we are helpless, we deserve to go to hell, we deserve the judgment of God.

But God in his love sent his son, pictured, and it's promised all through the Old Testament. Everything of the Old Testament just all looks ahead to that one wonderful person, the incoming and the outgoing of God's son. Friend, what does he mean to you? Don't sit there and tell me he means a whole lot to me, and it doesn't change your life.

This changed my life the day I discovered that Jesus Christ died for my sin. Old habits, they fell off. Drinking with the boys lost its appeal.

Partying lost its appeal. The club life dropped, lost its appeal. Why? Because I discovered someone who loved me and gave himself for me.

Friend, it's worth living for that man. He's the only man that willingly died for you. That's got to have an effect on somebody.

I've said it many times from the platform, I say it again without apology, the older I get and the more I understand from the Word of God, and the more I see how wicked my human heart is, it's not a wonder there's a place called hell. Not a wonder. You know what else is marked by this day? Never before had such wickedness come forth from mankind.

Listen, we should never be surprised what we read in our papers and see on television of the atrocities that man will do to mankind. Never. You know why? Because this day was marked mankind took the Prince of Peace and they killed him.

They tortured him. They abused him. This was the ultimate when it came to a terrible way to die, crucifixion.

Sometimes we get this idea that the cross was like six feet above the ground. Do you know what history will tell you? The average cross was about 12 inches off the ground. Just to make the whole thing worse, you're that close to getting off the cross and you can't.

Even the way they nailed the body to bend it to one side to make sure the legs were bent out, even to put more stress on all the joints. Do you know what they'll tell you about crucifixion? Hanging on that cross, all your ligaments would stretch. That arm would go about an extra eight inches after the joints had dislocated.

And as the body began to heave, trying to get air. Listen, that was God's Son that they tortured. And to give a man in such agony, vinegar, soured wine to drink.

The gospel of John is the only gospel that records the Lord Jesus saying, I thirst. The one that created all the oceans and all the fountains of water. And he says, I thirst.

And how does the gospel of John start off? People were thirsty. They had no wine. And from the hands of the Lord comes all this wine.

Now it comes time for him to thirst. And what do they give him? Wicked humanity, sticks, soured wine, vinegar to drink. Friend, listen, you die in your sins.

That's why you're going to go to hell, friend, because you are guilty of the death of God's Son. That's what Peter did on a day when he began to preach. And he looked at that nation of Israel.

And he said, with wicked hands, you took the Son of God and you crucified them. That's what this world is guilty of. That is why this world is not working out.

And it will never work out. Because they've taken the only one that can bring order and peace. And they've killed him.

They've put him out of their life, out of the world. And there's one thing you can count on from the word of God, this whole world system will just continually keep deteriorating. More chaos, more darkness.

Why? Because this world is stained with the blood of God's Son. You know what else marked this day? The greatest cry of distress that was ever heard. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? An awful lot of people have been trapped or injured and they've cried for help.

And it's full of a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. But listen, it doesn't even come close to that cry that was heard by heaven. Why? Doesn't even come close.

But you know, I want to leave you with this cry. An awful lot of people have cried in victory. An awful lot of triumph, you know, emotion.

Yes, or whatever, what might have happened. But the words that I read after the judgment of God from heaven was completely exhausted. God had no more, a holy God had no more than he could pour out upon his Son.

All the sin of a world, worlds poured out upon his Son. There's a triumphant cry. Finished.

Still echoing in heaven. Hope you all understand that. Hope you all appreciate that.

There's no time in heaven. A lot of shouts that we do, they're past shouts. Listen, the ear of the Father in heaven is still listening to that lovely sound.

Finished. All the truths of the Old Testament all now complete. You know what God is able to do now? God is able to look at you, friend, and offer you free, complete salvation.

Why not take it? Why not just take your place as a guilty sinner and realize that's why he was there. My sin. You know, if you don't, you're going to appreciate just a little bit more a cry of distress in hell.

It won't be anything like the Lord's. I have a feeling as I read through the Word of God, don't even have to say the word feeling, that's kind of a pathetic way with the Word of God in front of us to say that. Eternity has a tremendous way of clearing the mind.

All this stuff that you're looking at in time, amazing, people can sit in the gospel meeting, I mentioned that the other night, and they can actually be texting somebody, watching a little movie on their iPod or whatever. So distracted. You know, the only thing in hell, just your whale.

That's all. Nothing else. And all kinds of time to think.

Why didn't I take my place as a sinner and acknowledge the greatest event that happened on this earth? The Son of God died for me. Let's pray. Father, we bless you once again for my son.

And we'd love to mention his name. We love to read about him. We love to think upon those events of that day.

And we thank you that we can go to a tomb and we can see that it is empty. Thank you for the Word of God that records up from the grave he arose. And we thank you that at this very moment, there isn't heaven.

Contrary to what people might think, there is a real man in heaven. He's glorified. He's a savior and he's able to save.

And we thank you for the power of God that is able even to speak to people in this meeting tonight. And he's able to save. If they would just simply call out for mercy, think of the words of Peter, Lord, save me.

So we ask for help as we sing this final hymn, take us home safely, we pray in the Savior's name. Amen. Fairly, fairly, I say unto you.

Fairly, fairly, in message ever new. He hath cleaved upon the sun, His truth and everlasting life.