Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
090620
The first slide is the 6 points from the cross.
- His Spiritual and Physical death.
- His Burial.
- His Victorious Proclamation.
- His Resurrection.
- His Ascension,
- His Session.
The first death that He died for us had to be a spiritual death because we all still die physically but we will never die spiritually or we will never be separated from God because Christ died for all and therefore, “whosoever believes in Him” can be saved.
Physical death still exists among the human race but for believers they will still die physically with the exception of those alive at the Rapture of the Church.
It was our Lord’s spiritual death which was being separated from God the Father on the cross which our Lord died for us and allows us to accept our “new position,” because of being in union with the death and burial of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I really don’t know how to put into words what it must have been like for our Lord, who had never sinned and had never been separated from God before, to have to go through spiritual death and being forsaken by God the Father.
How could I explain what it must have been like for someone who had never sinned, always had been holy, just and righteous, as well as the God of truth, mercy, and love…..and then to come into contact with the filthiness of the sin nature as He fulfilled the plan of God for His life.
Also, because of the work of our Lord on the cross, we can now think with “the new thoughts that come from having a new life” through the divine thoughts our Lord teaches us to think with.
It is these divine thoughts that give us the power to fulfill passages like the Apostle Paul said in PHI 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
If that describes your experience in the spiritual realm, such as physical death, then all you have to do is simply believe what our Lord said over 115 times in the New Testament to simply believe or to make sure that you are
Look who else could ever be pulled from the Cosmic System or systems beginning with the individual who the apostle Paul was talking about as well as his immediate trust that Satan blinds us through which is also noted in Act 16:31.
They were all living in fear because the religious leaders, such as the Pharisees, the scribes or the Sadducees taught the common people the importance of following the ways, the truth and the life; Joh 14:6.
Now, since the disciples were also living by the Word of God,” it is also an extreme change of the old man and the new man; Joh 14:1-6.
Notice what the Lord said concerning the interpretation of this passage in Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.
Because the jailors or the Guards, thought that the prisoners had escaped that meant to them “capital punishment” under Roman Law, where the Roman guards would be feared especially if they lost their prisoner.
Under Roman Law they (both Jews and gentiles) had to make some adjustments to do the right thing (salvation) in the right way; simply believe God and what He says; Eph 2:8-10.
So, the soldiers were held responsible if the prisoners had escaped and that would mean an execution to the Roman Guards because they lost their prisoners escaping from Rome and that would mean that all of them seemed to have fallen asleep while on guard.
This verse was said to be for you and for your entire household."
It is based upon one word and that one word is pistis or faith.
Now, back in PHI 2:4 do not merely be regarding your own personal interests, but also for the personal interests of others.
An Amplified translation says, “Don't try to push your way to the front or to the top; don't try to sweettalk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.”
Don't be so obsessed with getting what you want for your own advantage while you ignore the biblical responsibility you have to others, especially, as the Apostle Paul said in Gal 6:9-10.
Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand to others or those in need of help no matter what.
And then the main verse I wanted you all to see, GAL 6:10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. Or, the Royal Family of God.
Back in Phi 2:5, the Lord has about six men so far which will be the number assigned that He will invite to follow Him and to Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of Himself.
As Paul said in Phi 2:6, our Lord had equal status with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit but didn't think so much of Himself that He wanted to draw take advantages of His followers.
When the time came, our Lord set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, becoming human, and living by faith not by sight; 2Co 5:7.
MAT 20:26 "It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
In other words, our Lord wanted His disciples to know that their role will be to serve not to be served.
As our Lord was offered all the kingdoms of the world by Satan, He answered Him in MAT 4:10 by the “Word of God” when He said to Satan; 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'"
If you desire to truly follow the Lord, you need to think like this by following what our Lord has commanded in MAT 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
He tells us why He came directly from the words of the Throne as He stated in LUK 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
When the time came, He set aside the privileges of His deity and took on the status of humanity as a slave and became a member of the human race.
PHI 2:5 "Keep on thinking this [doctrine] within yourselves which was also resident in Christ Jesus,"
It is a shocker that I know how our Lord sees me and you, ….but believe it or not, it is very important and true that through the cross our Lord loves you just as much as He loved others with that virtue-love that is impersonal and unconditional.
Here is a place that we must learn about one of the cruelest and most humiliating forms of punishment in the ancient world, was, crucifixion.
The Jewish historian Josephus best described the cross following the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. And one of those important statements concerning the Cross is that the cross was considered to be, "The most wretched of deaths." And stated that Suicide is preferable to the cruel fate of being put on the cross.
Interestingly, no other time in history could or would have allowed for Our Lord to go through this form of humiliation.
And the amazing thing is that if our Lord came any other time in human history the chances are very rare that capital punishment would be a tree or a cross that the Romans used to kill those who were anti-Roman.
The crucifixion allowed our Lord to fulfill such prophecies as the brazen serpent being lifted up on a pole as predicted in Num 21:9.
Num 21:9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
The cross or the finished work that the Father demanded, was prophesied in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy by the fact that God always keeps His word.
The people would watch Him as He was suffering publicly, as Psa 22:7-8 state.
It has been shocking how many unbelievers changed their attitude toward our Lord because of prophecies that he had fulfilled such as the fact that His hands and feet would be pierced, Psa 22:16.
What were the odds that a person who would die physically, be tortured by the enemy without a bone being broken; Psa 34:20.
What were the odds that a person would offer the Lord Jesus Christ gall and vinegar, to relieve His pain? Psa 69:21.
The gall and the vinegar is not what some legalistic religious person said recently and that is the fact that he said the gall was the devil’s beer and that the vinegar was the devil’s wine.
In Psa 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Even such small details are given to identify the piercing of Jesus's side as it is mentioned in some passages, like Zec 12:10.
Zec 12:10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Look at what happens in REV 1:7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.
Now, the Old Testament talks about hanging people on the cross, but it was after they were dead as a form of humiliation.
So, our Lord’s physical death was not death on the cross but a public form of humiliation after someone was killed because of capital punishment.
The cross was the electric chair, the gas chamber, the lethal injection, the hanging, etc., all those things given capital punishment throughout human history in the first century that our Lord totally fulfilled.
The Roman cross consisted of wooden timbers and iron spikes.
Death by crucifixion was invented by the Persians which is now Iran.
Later it was adopted by the Phoenicians (Canaanites, a perverted people) and the Carthaginians (North Africa).
Both were induced to push the individual to as much as they could stand before their physical death.
The Canaanites were a very perverted people and the Carthaginians were considered to be the most perverted (North Africa).
They worshipped destroying others and pushing them so hard that they tried to push them towards mental breakdowns if they did not respond.
Under the Romans however, crucifixion degenerated into a cruel means of torture and death.
One phrase really describe death by crucifixion: and that is agony and embarrassment.
Among other things, it was humiliating, tormenting, slow, and public.
"On the cross there are only two things, pain and eternity. They tell me I was only on the cross twenty-four hours, but I was on the cross longer than the world existed. If there is no time, then every moment is forever."
Death on the cross was a form of capital punishment which lasted for around 800 years and hundreds of thousands of individuals were subject to this cruel and humiliating death.
Alexander the Great had 2,000 survivors from the siege of Tyre crucified on the shores of the Mediterranean.
In addition, during the times of Caligula, AD 3741, Jews were tortured and crucified in the amphitheater to entertain the inhabitants of Alexandria.
Many researchers have believed that death occurred as the result of a ruptured heart due to the Joh 19:34 passage of the water and blood flowing out of the wound.
So, many researchers have believed that death occurred as the result of a ruptured heart due to this passage.
Other scholars have regarded suffocation as being the cause of death.
One Roman writer wrote that, "Whenever we crucify the guilty, the most crowded roads are chosen, where most people can see and be moved by this fear."
Giving the victim a proper burial following death on the cross, during the Roman period was rare and in most cases simply not permitted in order to continue the humiliation.
The victims in many cases were simply thrown on the garbage dump of the city or left on the cross as food for wild beasts and birds of prey.
It was also common in those days for there to be a procession through the streets of Jerusalem where the criminal, along with a statement of his crime, could be publicly displayed.
Evidence shows that He carried what the Roman's called the crossbeam which would have weighed up to 150 pounds alone.
And this was done partially to further humiliate the criminal, but also as a means of further controlling the criminal.
In Jesus' case, He was carrying the crossbeam on His already raw back and raw shoulders.
And, as He carried the beam, the damaged muscles in His back and shoulders were further damaged under the weight of the crossbeam.
Around our Lord's neck hung a wooden sign bearing the condemned man's name and crime they attached to the top of the cross to embarrass the guilty and their family.
Historians also agree that to add further humiliation to the process the victim was stripped completely naked.
Eventually, the person's whole world was one sheet of burning pain after another.
Once the person was fastened to the cross, a soldier would climb a small ladder and nail above the criminal the charges.
The Latin abbreviation INRI which was hung on the top of the cross can be traced back to the sign that Pilate had nailed to the cross of Jesus.