Sermon Tone Analysis

In preparing for this morning’s message, I once again viewed Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ.

As I watched it, I was once again emotionally overwhelmed, drained, and stunned by the brutality of the scourging and the crucifixion.

The violence perpetrated upon our Lord is simply unimaginable.

It’s a movie that gives vivid insight into Peter’s proclamation "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed."

(1 Pe 2:24, NIV)

We’ve come to that segment of the Apostles’ Creed that states: "I believe Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried."

It is noteworthy that the Creed passes immediately from the Virgin Birth to the death of Jesus with no mention of anything in between.

There is nothing about his sermons or his miracles.

Not a word about Jesus walking on the water or confronting the Pharisees or healing the sick.

In so doing the Creed teaches us that Jesus was born to die.

The word suffered sums up everything that happened between his birth and his death.

Isaiah prophesied that he would be “ ... a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief ... “ (Isaiah 53:3).

When he was born, King Herod tried to kill him.

When he began his ministry, the people of his hometown took offense at him, and attempted to stone him to death.

His own family tried to confine him believing he was mad.

At the end of his ministry, the crowds turned against him, Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, and his disciple forsook him.

His sufferings did not begin with his Passion Week, but they climaxed there and ultimately led to the cross.

Did Jesus really suffer and die?

Or was he merely a demigod – pretending to be human as some of the early heresies taught?

Did he truly die as the gospels maintain or did he merely faint away during his crucifixion and later resuscitate in the coolness of his tomb, and then triumphantly claim that he had come back from the dead?

These are crucial questions.

The early church sought to answer those questions in a document we now call the Apostle's Creed.

It was a systematic statement of faith that sought to refute the blossoming heresies of the day.

This morning we look specifically at the fourth great confession of the Christian faith: "I believe Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried."

This morning’s message will help us examine this great truth that is central to the faith of the believer, and a non-negotiable fundamental doctrine of the church.

!

I. JESUS CHRIST IS OUR FAITHFUL HIGH PRIEST WHO DIED FOR OUR SINS

* /"Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.

For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people."/

(Heb 2:14-17, NIV)

#. when was the last time you needed a priest?

#. unless you have been a member of a religious group that has priests, you may feel that you have never needed one

#.

Baptists in particular find the idea of a priest interceding for us especially distasteful

#. but all men need a priest

#. we need a priest because we are totally incapable of approaching a Holy God by yourself

#. we need mediation and someone to make intercession for us and to plead our case before God

* ILLUS.

When the Supreme Court of the United States listens to a case, the actual defendant is not present.

He or she is represented by a lawyer who pleads the merits of the defendant's case.

The fate of the defendant rests solely in the hands of his or her mediator and how well he argues the merits of the case.

#. without mediation ... without someone interceding with God on our behalf ... we are doomed to an eternity in hell

#. praise God, that Jesus Christ choose to be our intercessor

#.

He is our mediator before our Heavenly Father, and He has never lost a case!

!! A. JESUS REALLY LIVED AND SUFFERED

#. the forth confession of the Apostle's Creed tells us that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate

#. that simple statement fixes for us the historical certitude of the life of Jesus

#. there were many stories in that day about gods who died and were resurrected

#. most of them were perceived as myths and non-historical stories symbolic of the renewal of the vegetation every spring after the seeming death of winter

* ILLUS.

Take for example the myth of Adonis.

In Greek mythology, Adonis was a handsome young shepherd loved by Aphrodite.

Legend maintained he was the offspring of a love affair between King Cinyras of Cyprus and his daughter Myrrha, Adonis was born from the trunk of the myrrh tree into which his mother had been changed by the gods.

Aphrodite left the infant Adonis in the care of PERSEPHONE, the queen of the underworld, who also fell in love with him.

While hunting, Adonis wounded a wild boar, which turned on him and killed him.

Aphrodite pleaded that he be restored to her, but Zeus decided that both goddesses should share him for eternity: Adonis would spend the spring and summer with Aphrodite and the rest of the year with Persephone in the underworld.

Adonis came to be revered as a dying-and-rising god.

#. but if you were to ask the typical Greek on the street /"When did Adonis die?"/ they would tell you either /"Long, long ago and far, far away,"/ or else /"His death is not an event in earthly time"/

#.

Jesus, on the other hand, died at a particular time and place in history

#. if you asked a typical Christian on the street, /“When did Jesus die?”/ they would tell you, /“At the Passover, in Jerusalem, under the reign of Pontius Pilate.”/

#. and if you lived in Jerusalem and asked that question, they might just have shown you

#. how important is it to the Christian faith that we believe Jesus really lived?

#. listen to the apostle John

* /"This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,"/ (1 John 4:2, NIV)

#. and Jesus not only really lived, he really suffered

#. the sufferings of Christ are clearly outlined in Isaiah 53

* /"Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."/

(Is 53:4-5, NIV)

#. four time the prophet uses the word “our” — our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities

#. in some profound, vicarious way, we were there that day

#. it was our sin that nailed Christ to the cross

#. and in do so /“ ... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all”/ (Isaiah 53:6)

* ILLUS.

In our hymnal is a song entitled O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.

It is based on a 12th century Medieval poem by Bernard of Clairvaux.

Listen to the words of the second verse:

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered Was all for sinners’ gain:

Mine, mine was the transgression, But Thine the deadly pain:

Lo, here I fall, my Savior!

‘Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor, Vouch-safe to me Thy grace.

#. that verse captures the whole predicament of the human race — “mine, mine was the transgression”

!! B. JESUS REALLY LIVED AND SUFFERED SO THAT HE MIGHT REALLY DIE

#. not only did Jesus really live, but he also really died

#. the second part of this morning’s confession says, /"[He] was crucified, died, and was buried”/

#. here the confession hammers home the point that Jesus really was dead

#. it was not an illusion

#. he was nailed to a post

#. he died

#. he was not merely unconscious

#. his spirit left his body and went to the realm of the dead

#. he did not merely swoon or fall into a coma only to revive later in the tomb

#. the death of Jesus Christ is directly mentioned at least 175 time in the New Testament

#. he became a participant of flesh and blood in order that He might die

#. the incarnation was for the purpose of death

#. his death was not some tragic accident perpetrated upon an innocent and harmless itinerant preacher

#. his death was the supreme reason for his life

#. he became a man in order that he might die as a man for man

* /"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,"/ (1 Peter 3:18, NIV)