I.        INTRODUCTION

A.      The least that we can do for Christ is to remember how He suffered.  It may not be pleasant for us to consider the grisly details of our Lord’s death, but it is a matter of respect and appreciation that we do so.

B.      Not only should we remember how our Lord suffered, but more importantly we must remember why He suffered.  His agony was the result of His selfless love and our selfish sin.

C.      Presently, let us consider these things that are at the heart of the gospel of Christ.

II.      CHRIST’S SUFFERING

A.      The crucifixion of Christ itself was a horror, but He suffered tremendously even before His crucifixion.

                                                             1.      The first sign of our Lord’s anguish is seen in the garden of Gethsemane.

a.       Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death” (Matt. 26:38).

b.       After this, Jesus prayed three times to the Father, asking that “this cup” would pass from Him (Matt. 26:39-45).  Luke adds that He was in agony during this time, and “His sweat became like drops of blood” (Luke 22:45).

c.        At this same time, the loneliness of Christ is apparent, for the Lord’s disciples carelessly slept while He prayed in anguish (Matt. 26:40, 43, 45).

d.       While He was still in the garden, His own disciple, the betrayer Judas, brought a multitude bearing weapons to arrest Him (Matt. 26:47-50).

                                                             2.      While in the custody of the Jews, Jesus suffered at their hands.

a.       Before Jesus was even tried, He was beaten, mocked, and blasphemed (Luke 22:63-65).

b.       When He stood before the high priest Caiaphas, He was falsely maligned, beaten with fists, slapped, and spat upon (Matt. 26:67-68).

                                                             3.      When the Jews brought Jesus to Pilate, He was severely abused.

a.       At first, Pilate sent Him to Herod, whose soldiers dressed Him in a royal robe to mock Him (Luke 23:11).

b.       When Jesus was returned to Pilate, Pilate declared that he found no guilt in Jesus (Luke 23:13-16).  Yet Jesus suffered the insult of His own countrymen favoring a murderer over Him and demanding His crucifixion (Luke 23:17-23).

c.        At last, Pilate acquiesced to the Jews’ demands and pronounced the sentence of death for Jesus.  With this, He ordered that Jesus should be crucified (Luke 23:24).

i.         First, the Roman soldiers administered a scourging to the Lord (Matt. 27:26).  Scourging was a brutal beating given with a short whip that often had bits of metal or bone tied into the cords.  The blows of the whip would cut through the flesh and sometimes down to the bone.

ii.        They then stripped Jesus of His garments and put a scarlet robe on Him.  They placed a crown of thorns on His head and a reed in His hand, and they mocked His holy name (Matt. 27:27-29).  Then they spat on Him and beat Him on the head with the reed (Matt. 27:30).

iii.      Finally, the soldiers put the Lord’s garments back on Him and led Him away to be crucified.  By this time, He was so weak that Simon of Cyrene was pressed into service to bear His cross (Matt. 27:31-32).

B.      When at last Christ was crucified, He suffered an agonizing death.

                                                             1.      When Christ arrived at the site of His crucifixion, He was offered wine mingled with gall to ease His suffering.  However, He refused to drink it (Matt. 27:33-34).

                                                             2.      The Lord was then crucified between two thieves (Matt. 27:38; Luke 23:33; John 19:18).

a.       Crucifixion was a brutal form of execution that was reserved by the Romans for only the worst of criminals and slaves such as the thieves who were crucified with Jesus.

b.       Crucifixion was performed by nailing the victim through the wrists to a wooden crossbeam that was attached to a vertical pole.  Sometimes the feet were also nailed to the pole.

c.        As the victim hung on the cross, he would slowly die due to blood loss, suffocation, exposure, exhaustion, and the lack of circulation of blood to the organs.

d.       The Lord’s death on the cross happened relatively quickly (six hours – Mark 15:33-37; John 19:31-33), which gives evidence to how severely injured Jesus must have been from the beatings He suffered.

                                                             3.      As the Lord suffered on the cross, He was further mocked by the Jews and the Roman soldiers (Luke 23:35-38).  Even one of the thieves mocked Him (Luke 23:39).

                                                             4.      At last, Jesus died (Matt.27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30).

a.       The Jews requested that the legs of the crucified men would be broken so as to accelerate their deaths, but the soldiers found that Jesus was already dead (John 19:31-33).

b.       To verify His death, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and blood and water came out (John 19:34).

III.   OUR INIQUITY FELL ON HIM

A.      The most important matter for us to remember about Christ’s crucifixion is that He suffered in our place.

                                                             1.      Jesus was sinless (2Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1Pet. 2:21-22).  Just as Pilate recognized, there was no guilt in Jesus, and He deserved none of the things that He suffered.

                                                             2.      Jesus was the only man who ever walked the earth that did not deserve the wages of death (Rom. 6:23), and yet He died for us, “the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God” (1Pet. 3:18).

                                                             3.      Many men have died by crucifixion, but only one has ever died for the entire human race.

B.      Christ’s suffering allows us to be forgiven of our sins because he bore the punishment for us.

                                                             1.      Even though we who are Christians will not suffer the punishment for our sins ourselves, it is not as if our sins will go unpunished.

a.       “Forgive and forget” does not perfectly apply to our situation.  Although our sins are forgiven through Christ, they are not altogether forgotten.  They do not disappear from history.

b.       Rather, when we are forgiven, our sins are no longer associated with us.  We no longer carry the guilt and the fearful prospect of punishment because Christ has already carried them for us.

                                                             2.      Isaiah expressed this beautifully in chapter 53.

a.       The reason for the Savior’s suffering is stated in verses 4-6:

“Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”

b.       Our sins will not be forgotten as long as we remember the purpose of our Lord’s suffering.  The image of our Lord hanging on the cross is a constant reminder of the cost of sin and the price that has been paid for us.

C.      Therefore, if we love our Lord who suffered for us, then we must not sin anymore.

                                                             1.      Considering all these things, how can we sin after our Lord suffered so much for us?

a.       Jesus suffered so that we could be free from sin, not so that we would continue in it.  See Romans 6:1-13.

b.       If it was God’s will to sacrifice His Son in order to free us from sin, then certainly it should be our will to embrace the gospel and be freed from sin.

                                                             2.      For us to sin now is to add to His burden, and surely we would not desire that.

a.       Our Lord’s suffering is finished, and He will not suffer again (Heb. 9:27-28).  His sacrifice was both retroactive (covering those who came before Him) and proactive (covering those who would come after Him).

b.       Yet we must realize that we grieve and burden Him again when we sin (Heb. 6:4-6).

IV.    CONCLUSION

A.      If the story of the Lord’s sacrifice for us does not move us to godly sorrow, then nothing will.  “What more can He say than to you He has said?”

B.      Consider these things often so that you will never drift away from the one who bought you at such an awful cost.