LOOK AT THE CROSS.
Luke23:35 to 46
35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also
with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be
Christ, the chosen of God.
36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him,
and offering him vinegar,
37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save
thyself.
38 And a superscription also was written over him in
letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed
on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.
40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost
not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward
of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom.
43 And Jesus
said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
44 ¶ And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness
over all the earth until the ninth hour. {earth: or, land}
45 And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the
temple was rent in the midst.
46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave
up the ghost.
And in John 3:14
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
The Lord Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of
how faith, started his great work of redemption, liberation and reconciliation
on the cross.
The
message God is driving into our hearts today, is that of a clarion call to do
nothing else but to just “look at the
Cross” even though we are not required
to travel all the way to Golgotha to do this, at least not physically, or to
watch a movie of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, but what is required
of us is to humble our hearts under the
Holy spirit and let the words of the Bible give insight to our spiritual eyes
to behold Jesus and the whole event of Golgotha in perhaps a different light,
different but important.
This new
light will only come into our spirit by teachings and understanding brought
about by the works of the Holy spirit in our lives. Beginning with a proper
understanding of each word, sentence and verse of our key text and other
related verses of the bible. This is a necessity to receiving the message of
the Holy Spirit from Calvary on this glorious day.
Understanding Calvary.
A vivid
picture of Calvary on this glorious day would reveal the following parties and
activities.
Chapter 23: 35 1. The people stood looking,
2. The Rulers sneering and mocking
Verse 36 3. Soldiers mocking and offering soured wine
to Jesus Christ
They wrote an inscription of the charges brought against
him. But by the providence of God the inscription exculpated Christ and proved
to his crucifiers to be rebels against God and murderers of the king. Matt 27:37:
And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS
JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
It is not to be wondered that they wished Pilate to
alter the inscription. John 19:21 as it was recorded of their infamy.
19 And
Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF
NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
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, and Greek, and Latin.
21 Then said the chief priests of the Jews to
Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the
Jews.
22 Pilate
answered, What I have written I have written.
The Cross.
God doesn’t do things by accident, He never makes
mistakes for he is the chief planner of the entire universe, He orchestrate
everything to happen this way and under this circumstances for the scriptures says in Ecclesiastics 3: 11:
This have settled all questions that our minds might
have, these questions may include:
·
Why crowd, rulers and solders and did they acted
the way they did?
·
Why should there be only two male factors?
·
Why must they have been condemned to
crucifixion on the cross, on the same day and time as that which would mark a
change to the entire history of this world.
The answers to these questions would only mean that God
have a very important message that he wants us to learn from the cross of
Christ.
The word “robbers” as used
in the King James Version is translated as “rebel” in the today’s New Living
Translation. These two malefactors on the cross are of cause crucified for
their sins, this remains the ultimate faith of all mankind who have not been saved
for the scriptures says in:
and
Romans 6:23
For the wages
of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
The malefactors on the cross are symbolic of
the whole human races. The bible says in the book of Isaiah 53: 6:
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of
us all. {laid...: Heb. made the iniquity of us all to meet on him}
Just as sinners and rebels that we are we
deserved the punishment of sinners as prescribed by the scriptures in Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Ezekiel 18:20
The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the
father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the
wicked shall be upon him.
And James 1:15:
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth
forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
The process of death by sin is often a gradual growing
process but its effect is very devastating.
The rebels were not nailed to the cross
they were tied to it. This is significant of the fact that in
most cases, our willingness to remain in sin, that keeps us bound by sin. For
we are not nailed to sinful conducts, we are only tied to them, because of the
habitual control that sin posses and the nature of sin, Sin always find a home
in the hearts of human wherever they may be. Sin have always remain at home in
our hearts and its power is so domineering that we always find the war
unwinnable when we try in our own effort, but the great news is that we can be
loosed and set free, if we possess the willingness to depart from our sinful
ways the power of God is available wherever and whenever to set us free. To
this the Apostle Paul cried in Rom 7: 24:
We have been tied to the
cross and left for death by the greatest enemy of man (sin). The absence of God
breads Sin, for God attracts the Opposite of sin which is Holiness and
righteousness.
Christ died for the ungodly.
Jesus died along side these two criminals he bore the
sins of the world and paid the price, Hebrew 2:9:
His suffering on Calvary was great, he did not die of a
broken bone but of a broken heart, for even the charges for which he was
crucified had exculpated him of any wrong doing deserving death, but all this
happen so that the scriptures will be fulfilled, John
1:29:
The Lord Jesus Christ suffered separation from God the
father Matthew 27: 46:
He wasn’t tied to the cross like the others, but was
nailed and died suffering the ultimate fate for sins, which is death by serving
the punishment for the sins of men.
The truth
is that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, he died for the criminal
who said in Luke 23:39 “save yourself and us”
not excluding the second criminal that spoke in chapter 40:
“do you not fear God, seeing that you and I are under the same
condemnation…”
However, our response to the cross is what
determines our destiny, is it going to be a glorious victory over
the enemy of our soul or a sad condemnation to eternal darkness. The clear
result for both of the criminals actions on the cross, holds a lot for us to
learn, perhaps this is the most important message that the Holy Spirit of God
would want us to learn. One earned eternal
damnation while the other earn salvations for his soul, the salvations which he
received can never be exemplified in more beautiful words than those used they
the Lord Jesus Christ when he said “Verily I say unto
thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise..”
Here we have the opportunity to rewrite our life
history, this criminal have lived all his days in evil, he have committed so
much evil and wrong that the corrupt justice of the world have no remedy for
him, but to make him face the worst sanctions there is, which is death. For God
meet with him not when he was in the world fulfilling the lust of his heart,
not when he was caught, tried and imprisoned and not when the sentence was
issued, he earned salvation for himself right on the cross just before he died,
praise God! He wouldn’t have chosen a better time in accordance to His Wisdom. The
rebel that was called into God’s kingdom also played his part, he believed in
the Lord ship of the Lord Jesus thereby fulfilling the scriptures in John 1:12 to 13
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Today the voice of God is calling his power is available
to give that which you soul needs above else, it is the Lord Jesus that gives
salvation, the set one free, he is the only one that have won the battle
against sin, this is evident in the scriptures that he was found without sin,
and now he has offered to help us win this battle against the enemy of our soul
all that we need to do is to believe in him. Please hearken to him and let your
story be transformed from hell to heaven, remember there were two criminals and
they remained criminals but the story changed in the sense that only woke up to
find himself in hell and the other one joined the saints in paradise. Heaven is
where we do not deserve but God in his righteousness gave the opportunity to
all as he is presently doing to you. What is your response?
