Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday, April 6, 2014
One of the main principles that we had the privilege of studying concerning our main passage Joh 13 was the phrase having loved
His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
The greatest expressions of this love was the cross, where He would suffer physically, but even more than that, suffer a spiritual death which means to be separated from God the Father.
When was the last time that you really ever contemplated just how truly, physically painful it must have been for Him to be whipped, crowned with thorns, bear the cross, and have iron spikes driven into His hands and feet?
Not only His physical sufferings, He also underwent great emotional stress in the garden of Gethsemane the night before His death from being abandoned by friends, and the thought of His humiliation and the cruel death by crucifixion.
He was about to be forsaken by God the Father for the first time ever.
2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He was on the cross, not as a sinner dying for us in our place, but He was on the cross as a “sin offering” or an offering for sin.
Just like the innocent lamb was sacrificed in the Old Testament and had no idea what was happening to it, our Lord Jesus Christ had no idea what He was about to suffer as an offering for sin.
It was so painful and shocking for Him in His humanity, that He kept on crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?,” MAT 27:46.
God did not die for us or in our place, only Jesus, in His humanity died, not God.
GEN 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
COL 1:16-17, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”
JOH 5:23 in order that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
REV 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
REV 1:17-18, And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as a dead man. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
He also said in JOH 10:30 “I and the Father are one and the same.”
JOH 1:14 the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
ISA 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”- fulfilled in MAT 1:20-23.
Focusing in, not what those who observed the cross thought, but instead what our Lord thought when He was on the Cross.
We are taught and commanded to “keep on eating the bread and keep on drinking that cup in remembrance of Him.”
1CO 11:30 For this reason many among you are weak [MAS] and sick, and a number sleep or have died physically.
The Psalm of the Crucifixion, Psa 22.
It begins with the phrase My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?,
“kiy asah” in verse 31, translated He has performed {it.} meaning “It is finished.”
This Psalm is a photograph of our Lord’s darkest hours and a record of His dying words.
PSA 22:1 My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?, this in no way invalidates the claim that this was to be a prophecy of the TLJC upon the Cross.
There is no more accurate expression of our Lord’s thoughts and feelings during the awful six hours on the cross in all of the
Scriptures than what we have in Psalm 22.
This of course was quoted by our Lord in MAT 27:46.
This was the continued prayer of our Lord during the darkness that surrounded the cross from 12 noon ‑ 3 PM, when He was being judged for our sins.
God the Father was imputing our sins to Christ and judging them from His Justice and His Holiness. Out of all the Jewish difficulties and miseries, their faith brought them out of it by calling God to the rescue but in the case of our Lord, His perfect faith brought no assistance from Heaven.
HEB 13:5 “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
The Hebrew word for a worm is “rimmah”, which means a maggot but the Hebrew word Jesus used here for worm, is TOLAH, which means a “Crimson worm” or “Scarlet worm”.
The interesting thing about this TOLAH worm is that when it was time for the female or mother Crimson worm to have babies (which she does only one time in her life), she finds the trunk of a tree.
She is so strongly and permanently stuck to the wood that the shell can never be removed without tearing her body completely apart and killing her.
Not only does the mother’s body give protection for her babies, but it also provides them with food – the babies feed on the LIVING body of the mother.
JOH 6:50-51, “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
They are colored scarlet red for the rest of their lives.
MAT 26:28 this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
Then after three days, the dead mother Crimson worm’s body loses its crimson color and turns into a white wax which falls to the ground like snow.
It is very interesting that, just like the Crimson worm, the Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed His life on a tree so that his children might be washed with his crimson blood and their sins cleaned white as snow.
ISA 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool.”
He was being crushed for our sins, so that you and I, as members of the royal family of God, could wear the crimson robe of the royal family forever.
Our Lord felt Himself to be comparable to a helpless, powerless, down-trodden worm, passive while crushed and unnoticed and despised by those who walk upon Him.
“And I am not a man” means “I no longer even appear human.”
ISA 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you, {My people,} So His appearance was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men.
The very people who wanted to crowned Him have now condemned Him.
Man made faces at Him while the angels veil their faces and adore Him.
Priest and people, Jews and Gentiles, soldiers and civilians, all united together to hurl abuse at Him, mock Him while He was dying for those very sins.
PSA 22:8 “Commit {yourself} to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in Him.”
They didn’t understand the reason–because He was bearing their sins and our sins in His own body on the cross.
This was the only prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ that could not be answered because it was the way of our so‑great salvation, HEB 2:3.
He was being judged for our sins; He was our substitute; He was taking our place.
HEB 12:3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
“Be not far from Me” means that His great sorrow was that God had forsaken Him, His great prayer is that He would be near Him.
MAT 27:1 Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put Him to death;
MAT 26:59 Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, in order that they might
put Him to death;
MAT 26:60 and they did not find {any,} even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward,
LUK 22:44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.
His bones were out of joint but not broken, JOH 19:36 For these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.”
MAR 14:33-34, And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death;”
All His strength was dried up in the tremendous flames of divine justice just as the Passover lamb was roasted in the fire.
LUK 23:10-11, And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently. And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate.
This was a fulfillment of ZEC 12:10 and another reason why this Psalm does not ultimately refer to David like some teach.
ISA 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men.
They are those found in MAT 27:36 And when they had crucified Him, they sat down and they began to keep watch over Him there.
MAT 27:35 And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots;