Consider the Cross, Part 3

We want to continue our out this morning by looking at three more points with you. The identification with the cross. Then we're going to look at the admonition before the cross.

And then we want to look at the inscription above the cross. First of all, the identification with the cross.

If you have your Bible, I would invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. The 23rd chapter, Luke chapter 23. And we're going to look at the identification with the cross.

We're going to begin by looking at one verse, one very simple verse. But this verse Is so powerful that all three syn gospels record what happens. Matthew, Mark. And Luke. Very significant. So significant that all three writers would record what takes place on what is called the Via Dol, the road of sorrows. In looking at the identification with the cross, three things I want you to see. Number one is the moment.

Number two, the man. And number three, his message. First of all, of a moment. The text says in verse number 26 of chapter 23 of Luke, and when they led him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene. Coming in from the country and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus. First of all, the moment.

This is the road of sorrows. It's a fitting road. You can walk that road today if you were to go to Israel and understand the path that Jesus would take to go to Gog. But it's the road of sorrows, and it's fitting because Isaiah the prophet would say in Isaiah 53 that our Lord and Savior would be a man of sorrows. Acquainted with grief. So the man of sorrows would walk on the ro of sorrow. And you'd have to understand the sorrow of our Lord. He's already gone through a personal trial. He's already gone through a religious trial.

He's already gone through a Political trial. So as he begins his journey, we understand that he cannot continue on physically. And so, what happens is you go at that moment when he can't continue on any further. There's a man in the crowd. Remember, now it's Passover. There are hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem. And the Roman soldiers, as Mark's account tells us, compels one man, one man out of the crowd. Now, listen, if the Roman soldiers told you to come out of the crowd and carry something, you had to do it, or it would be immediate death.

And so they compelled this one to come out of the crowd, Simon of Cyrene. That's the man. The moment is very significant because it's on the road of sorrows. The one who was the man of sorrow was acquainted with grief. Was demonstrating the ultimate of all sorrow as he would go to bear the sins of the world in his body on Calvary, was unable to continue any further down the road. And so the soldiers, not out of mercy, Because they didn't care about Jesus. They were impatient. They wanted to get to the place of the skull.

They compelled the man to come out of the crowd. His name was Simon of Cyrene. Now, think about it. He just happened to be in Jerusalem for the Passover. He just happened to be there because that's what all good Jewish people did at Passover. And he was swept in with the crowd, and what was happening that day. Little did he know that it was an appointed day for him. Little did he know that the Roman soldiers would grab him out of the crowd, thrust him to the ground, and compel him to pick up the cross beam.

This man would come to Jerusalem for the Passover, and all of a sudden he found himself on the road of sorrows. He found himself carrying the cross beam of this one called Jesus, King of the Jews. You see, there would be a soldier who would walk in front of them. He'd have a placard, and on that placard would be written the crime of the criminal in chalk. Unfortunately, there was no crime to pin on Jesus because he was innocent. He was sinless. So there was no crime. So, what do they write? This is Jesus.

The Nazarene, king of the Jews. And so there'd be the soldier walking in front, describing to the crowd who this individual is. And of course, most of them knew. And then Simon of Cyrene would be compelled out of the crowd to pick up the cross beam and to carry it for Jesus. Now, all three gospel writers record this. Mark's account tells us about Simon's sons, Rufus. And Alexander. That is very important. Because Mark would write his gospel to the church at Rome. And in the epistle to the Romans, it would be Paul who would write these words in Romans 16, verse number 13: greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his m and mine, Paul said.

That tells us two things. One, Rufus and his mother are pillars in the Church of Rome. How do they become pillars in the church at Rome? Simply this: There was a man named Simon of Cyrene who was the father of Rufus and the husband of Rufus' mother. And this man, bearing on his body this cross beam, became a living pict. Of the reason Jesus came. And that man on the Via Dol that day would be the last sermon Jesus ever preached. Although he never said anything, he didn't have to. Because this man would be the picture of everything that Jesus said.

If any man come after me, let him deny himself, let him take up his cross and follow me. And every Jew that day, and every Roman soldier that day would see. Following Jesus, a man bearing a cross, symbolizing this is what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. That's a message. That's why those user-friendly, seeker-sensitive churches don't preach that message. Because people don't want to follow that kind of Jesus. They don't want to bear a cross. They don't understand that death is before them, that hardship and heartache awaits them.

Simon of Cyrene knew nothing. All he knew is that if he didn't pick up the cross, he would be killed instantly. And so that day, something would take place in his life. Something so significant that it would touch the life of Rufus, touch the life of Simon's wife, Rufus' mother. They would get saved. And they would become pillars in the church at Rome because their f, her husband. Would be a living illustration of what it means to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. His message? His message is simple.

If you want to be a follower of Christ, this is your route. It's the road of sorrows. You see, we want to say, come to Jesus, and everything will be okay. Everything will be fine. Everything will be rosy. Everything will change. You're right, everything will change. It might not change the way you'd like it to change, but on the road of sorrows that day, Jesus gave His final message. Not in words, but in a man of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. To Calvary. His life was a monument. His life was a living epistle of what it means to follow Jesus Christ.

And isn't that the way we should be? Our lives should be living epistles. Our lives should be, when looked at, noticeably different than everybody else's. Our lives should be ones that when people see us, they know there's something different about us. And what is different is that we Follow the cross life because that's the Christ life. One verse, one simple verse, but in that one verse, Jesus Christ preached his greatest sermon. Through one man who, when compelled out of the crowd, not knowing that that was going to happen to him that day, realized the significance of following Jesus the Messiah all the way to Calvary.

How about you? Where do you stand? That's the identification with the cross. Simon identified with Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Have you identified with him? Do you understand what it means when Jesus said, If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. The second thing I want you to notice is the ad before the cross.

That's in the next few verses in Luke 23. The admonition before the cross. Verse number,. And there were following him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves. For your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us.

And to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry? Three things I want you to see. The people, the prophecy, and the proverb. First of all, the people.

Remember, these are the only recorded words of the Via Dol. Christ has seven words for the cross. We'll look at each of them in detail in the weeks to come.

But on the road of sorrows, he speaks only once, and this is the only time he speaks. And Luke, emphasizing the humanity of our Lord, wants us to see that when life is at its worst, you need to be at your best. You need to be able to step up to the plate and say, Yes, Lord, how can I minister to somebody else? How can I reach out to somebody else? How can I use your word, Lord, to encourage those round about me and to show them the truth of your word? Because that's what Jesus did. And if you want to be like Jesus Christ, and if you're a born-again believer, you do, then you're looking for opportunities to exemplify his character.

So here is Jesus beaten so severely, beyond recognition. To these people who are weeping for him, don't weep for me. Think about it. Now I got all these mourners. Now, these people weren really sorry for Jesus, that's what they were paid to do. That's what these people did. They weren't really truly committed followers of Jesus Christ. They would just go along the road of sorrows, weeping on that road for this man, this poor man, who was going to go hang on a tree. And Jesus, seeing them and hearing them, stops and says, Don't weep for me.

Don't shed any tears for me, but weep for yourselves. And then he gives a prophecy. Listen what he says. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren in the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills. Cover us. A prophecy about a coming judgment. You see, barrenness in Jesus' day was a curse. It wasn't a blessing. And Jewish women wanted to have children. But Jesus says, there's coming a day where it would be better for you if you had no children.

It would be better for you if you were just by yourself, so that when it came time to flee, you could run without any kind of repercussions, without any kind of things hanging on to you like children, because you got to go because the day's coming. Were you going to wish for the mountains to fall on you? You're going to wish you were dead. It would happen in 8 with the destruction of Jerusalem. But it would continue on throughout the years as the Jewish people have been ridiculed, mocked, and scourged, and beaten, and killed.

It will happen even in the tribulational period. But Christ would give a prophecy, and then he gave a proverb. He said, This: He said, For if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry? Now green trees are not flammable. They're solid, they're strong, but yet the dry tree. Would be extinguished in a matter of seconds. And Christ is saying this: He says, If they're doing this to me, who is sinless, Who is innocent? Just think what they will do to you who are guilty. Just think.

And in that proverb is the whole element of the fact that he is a sinless one going to bear on Calvary their guilt. Their sin, taking in his body their sin. And what they needed to realize that in spite of their sin, they could run to him, they could flee to him, they could beg mercy from him and accept what he He was going to do on Calvary that day and appropriate the work of Christ in their lives. That's the admonition. Before the cross. Which leads us to our next point, and that is the inscription above the cross.

Turn in your Bible to John chapter 19. And Pilate wrote an inscription also and put it on the cross. And it was written, Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews. Therefore, this inscription many of the Jews read. For the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek. And so the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, Do not write the king of the Jews, but that he said. I am king of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.

The inscription above the cross. Two things I want you to see. Number one, of course, is the statement itself, and number two, its significance.

Remember, Pilate said, I find no fault in this man Jesus. So there was no crime on the placard that people could read about what this man did. So Pilate decided to do something out of spite for the Jews. And what he would do would be so profound. So significant that it would prove once again that God was in complete control of every situation, of every element of the crucifixion. E the words that were written above the cross. That inscription became so important. Because it would reveal the truth for all the world to read.

Two things about the statement: number one, Jesus the Nazarene. Jesus, the Nazarene. Remember what the Jews said in John 1:4? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? It was a hick city. Nothing good can come out of a hick city. All the Jews knew that. And Jesus was from Nazareth. And so Pilate, in his cynicism, in his spitefulness for the Jewish people, would write on that placard where this man Jesus was from. Because if he was from Nazareth and no good thing can come out of Nazareth and he is the king of the Jews, what's that make the Jews?

Nothing, right? Absolutely zeros. And so he writes: Jesus, the Nazarene, the k of the Jews. Now, the Jewish people, they didn't like that. They didn't even want that. In fact, they even said, Could you make it say he says he is the king of the Jews? And Pilate said, No, what I have written, I have written. You see, he wanted to get back at the Jewish people. He knew what they said. We have no king but Caesar. And he took offense to that. And so he was going to get the last word in. No matter what they said, he would have the last say on the crucifixion.

And fortunately, for us and for all the world, it was the greatest thing said about the crucifixion. Jesus the Nazarene, King of The Jews. He wanted to mock them in front of the world, that is, the Jewish people. He wanted to humiliate them by saying, This is your king. This is your king. Look at your king hanging there, beaten beyond recognition, in all of his humility.

Cursed is any man that hangs on a tree, and this is your king. The king that you have placed there, the one from Nazareth, the place that is despised and rejected by Jewish people. From the statement, I want you to see its significance. It says in verse number 20, Therefore, this inscription many of the Jews read. Every Jew who walked by that day would read it, see it. It was written in Hebrew, which is the language of religion, written in Greek, which was the language of the culture. and written in Latin.

So every who walked by would be able to read what Pilate had written. Now, the Bible says in Psalm 76, verse number 10, that God uses the wrath of man to praise his name.

And Pilate was out to get the Jewish nation. He wanted to humiliate them. And in his desire to humiliate them, his desire to gain the upper hand, he was fulfilling the plan of God. You see, no man, no matter how evil he is, can thwart the plan and purposes of God. God's will will always be accomplished. And God's word will always be true, no matter who's in charge, no matter who's leading, because God always has the last word. He's in charge. And so, what Pilate meant in cynicism, in reality, it was a truth of God Almighty.

This is the king of the Jews. He is the king. When the angel came to Mary back in Luke chapter 1, at the birth of the Messiah, the angel said that he will have an everlasting kingdom. Mary, the one in your womb is the Messiah. King and he will have an everlasting kingdom. When the wise men went to Herod, they said, Where is this one? Who is called the king of the Jews. Herod was so angry at that that he set out to kill every baby two years and younger. And when the wise men finally found Jesus in a house, some two years later, they would bow down before him.

They would worship him and they would give him gifts fit for a king. When Jesus came preaching, he came preaching, rep, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He came preaching about his kingdom. And the opportunity for people to respond to his kingdom. When he walked into Jerusalem on a donkey or rode in on a donkey at Palm Sunday time. They hailed him as the king of the Jews. Hail, our king! And Pilate, even in John 18, would ask. Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus will respond in verse number 34: Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about me?

And Pilate answered, I'm not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests that ever do up to me, what have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting that I might not be delivered up to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm. Pilate therefore said to him, So you are a king? Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. And Pilate said to him, What is truth? And that has been the question of people throughout the ages. What is truth? And Jesus said, I am truth. My word is truth. And Jesus said, I am a king. I am the ultimate k. And my kingdom is not of this world. It's of a different sphere. It's something greater potato than you can ever imagine. And one day, one day, he will demonstrate his kingship for all the world to see. But on this day, some 2,000 years ago, standing before Pilate, and at the base of that place called the skull.

There hung our king, the king of the Jews. And the significance of that statement. Rings throughout all eternity. For all the world to say, no, Pilate said, I'm not going to say he says he is the king of the Jews. I'm not going say that. What I have written, I have written. He is the king of the Jews. He was right. But he's more than that. He's the king of the world. For one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And one day in Revelation 19, he'll come back.

And the side of his robe are the words King of kings and Lord of lords. And you know what? That is going to be so significant. Because the Bible says that the Jewish nation, according to the book of Zach, that they will look on the one in whom they have pierced and mourn for him.

As an only child. Oh, they will mourn. They will weep because they will finally realize. That they put their king on a tree and they killed him. And he was their king. And he is their king. This very day. So important. I wonder if you've embraced Him as your King. I wonder if you've recognized Jesus as King. That's the essence of the cross. In the inscription above the cross.