On the Mountaintop With Jesus #5/6

April 4, Easter 2010
“On the Mountain Top with Jesus”
series #5/6
Stockwell Road MBC
THE MOUNTAIN OF TORTURE AND TRIUMPH
Luke 23:33
INTRODUCTION:
A. There were a lot of important places to the Lord during His life. There was Bethlehem, the place of His birth, Nazareth, the place of His childhood, the Sea of Gallilee, Capernaum and the great city of Jerusalem. All of these played important parts in our Lord’s life but each of them was just a stopping place on His way to the place mentioned in our text, Calvary. We have looked at many mountains in this series but all of them pale in comparison to what took place here on top of Mt. Calvary. Jesus declared to Pontius Pilate, on the morning of His death, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world…” (John 18:37).

B. I fully realize that Easter is a day set aside to remember the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave but we cannot forget what happened 3 nights and 3 days prior. He willingly went to the Cross to pay a price He himself did not owe and that we could not pay ourselves. He tasted, on Calvary, death for every man! On Calvary, He experienced separation from His Father for the 1st time ever. On Calvary, Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, became the satisfying sacrifice that the Father demanded for sin. Because of Calvary, on Resurrection Day we experience a hope that surpasses all other types of hope. Peter defined this hope as a “lively hope” in I Peter 1:3. Somebody once said, “Christianity rises and falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

C. Your faith and my faith also rises and falls with the resurrection. We serve a risen Savior and look for a coming King! Without the “lively hope” of the resurrection we would have nothing! With all of that being said, without the atoning death of Calvary, there would be no resurrection. This Easter morning, we need to visit Mt. Calvary and see the price that was paid to purchase our redemption. Let’s climb the Mountain of Torture and Triumph!

BODY:

I. CALVARY WAS A PLACE OF VICIOUS WOUNDS
vs. 33, Philippians 2:5-8, Isaiah 53
Note: Verse 33, sums up over 18 hours of intense suffering. Going all the way back to the Garden of Gethsemane, with the betrayal of Judas, our Lord suffered immensely! Notice the many vicious wounds that the Lord received during His crucifixion.
A. The Atrocities
1. betrayal, arrest, mock trials (6), false witnesses
2. abused by Temple Guards, scourged, beaten with a reed, spit upon, beard plucked out, crowned with thorns, mocked
3. sentenced to die, carried his cross

B. The Agony
1. nails pounded in his hands (through the median nerve)
2. hung to die for 6 hours, ridiculed, mocked, racked with pain, smothering to death

C. The Antagonists—“they”
1. they v. 18, 21, 23, 25-26, 35—look what they did? Who were they? The ones he was dying for!

II. CALVARY WAS A PLACE OF A VICARIOUS WORK
II Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:23, Hebrews 2:10
Note: You ask yourself, why? Why was Jesus enduring such torment and suffering? He was tasting death for every one of us! He was enduring this agony for us! Vicarious means that was doing this in place of another! That means he was dying in our place!
A. Our Problem of Sin

B. Our Promise of Salvation

III. CALVARY WAS A PLACE OF VICTORIOUS WORDS
John 19:30
Note: Jesus spoke 7 times from the Cross but one of those says more than the others to me! They were words of victory! Tetelestai—means it is finished but was used many ways!
--servant—work is completed (job’s done), priest—sacrifice accepted (done and accepted), farmer—harvest completed, artist—masterpiece is completed, merchant—paid in full, soldier—VICTORY!