Sunday
Morning Bible Study
September 25, 2005
Introduction
Jesus had been arrested late Thursday night as He had been praying in the Garden
of Gethsemane. He was taken to the house of the high priest
were the Sanhedrin put Him on trial.
When Jesus claimed to be the Christ, they responded by condemning Him to
death for blasphemy.
(Mark 14:65 NKJV) Then some began to spit on Him, and to
blindfold Him, and to beat Him, and to say to Him, "Prophesy!" And
the officers struck Him with the palms of their hands.
Early on Friday morning, probably before sunrise, Jesus was bound and taken
to stand trial before Pilate. Pilate had
difficulty seeing how Jesus was deserving of death. Pilate tried several things to have Jesus released. Pilate even gave the crowd what seemed to be
an obvious choice of either releasing Jesus or the murderer Barabbas, but he
eventually caved in to the pressure that the high priests were putting on him
through the crowd.
(Mark 15:15 NKJV) So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd,
released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him,
to be crucified.
Scourging was typically done with a “cat-o-nine-tails”, which consisted of
leather straps with bits and pieces of wood, stone, or metal embedded into the
straps. It was designed to inflict pain and tear off your skin.
Whereas the Jews had a practice of never whipping a prisoner with more than
39 lashes, the Romans had no such practice.
The Roman practice was to keep increasing the force of the whip until
the prisoner confessed to his crimes.
Yet Jesus kept silent. It was not
uncommon for a prisoner to die of the scourging before he was sent to the
cross.
:16-20 Soldiers mocking
:16 Then the soldiers led Him away
into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison.
Praetorium – praitorion –
a Latin word; “head-quarters” in a Roman camp; in Jerusalem,
it was at Herod’s palace.
A whole band of Roman soldiers are called together to see to Jesus’
crucifixion.
:17 And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns,
put it on His head,
purple – purple was a symbol of royalty, putting a purple robe on Jesus
was a way of mocking Him.
thorns – Thorns in Israel
are pretty long. They are pretty sharp.
:18 and began to salute Him, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
:19 Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him;
This is now the third time Jesus is being beaten.
:19 and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.
bowing the knee – literally, “placing
the knee”, this is the usual way of stating this phrase
worshiped – proskuneo – to
kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence; to fall upon the knees
and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence.
:20 And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own
clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.
They took off the purple robe, but apparently left the crown of thorns in
place.
mocked – empaizo – to play
with, trifle with; to mock; from paizo –
to play like a child; to give way to hilarity, esp. by joking, singing, dancing
Lesson
Worship or mockery?
We understand that the soldiers were mocking Jesus.
But you could make a point in saying that the soldiers had a sort of
“worship service” going on. They were
doing some of the same things that real worshippers were doing, they bowed
their knees, they “worshipped”. But
nobody would be fooled to think that real worship was going on.
In John
4, when Jesus talked with the
Samaritan woman at the well, He explained to her what true worship was all
about. The Samaritans had a sort of
twisted version of Judaism. They had
mixed a bunch of other junk into their worship of God, they had twisted the
Scriptures, and as a result they were a little “off”. Jesus said,
(John 4:20-24 NKJV) "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain,
and you Jews say that in Jerusalem
is the place where one ought to worship." {21} Jesus said to her,
"Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this
mountain, nor in Jerusalem,
worship the Father.
The Samaritans felt that worship needed to be done in Samaria,
on Mt. Gerizim. The Jews held that worship needed to happen
in Jerusalem. We can get to thinking that we have to be in
a certain building. Jesus said the day
would come when location wasn’t the issue.
{22} "You worship what you do not know; we know what we
worship, for salvation is of the Jews. {23} "But the hour is coming, and
now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;
for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
God is looking for “true” worshippers. The word “worship” is the same one that was
used to describe what the soldiers did before Jesus.
{24} "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in
spirit and truth."
God is Spirit, so one aspect of true worship involves your spirit.
What do you mean when you say, “Worship was great
today”? Did you really just mean the
musicians were great?
If worship isn’t taking place inside your heart, in your
spirit, then it’s not true worship.
When we sing on Sunday morning, do you allow the songs to
express what’s in your heart? Do you
love God?
The worship doesn’t take place because you are in a building
we recognize as a church.
I think this is the mistake some people make when they get
caught up in rituals. They think that
having incense burning, saying things in Latin, having people dressed in robes,
that these are the things that God considers to be worship.
Some people feel that they haven’t been to church unless
an organ is playing and a choir is singing.
These things can be
worship, but only if the worshipper has something right going on in their
heart.
Worship takes place inside you, in your heart.
Worship must also be based in truth.
The truth about God – understanding what the
Scripture says about God. The Samaritans
had a religion with some twisted truths.
This is why we place great emphasis on learning God’s Word.
The truth about us – we are sinners in need of
help. Jesus died on the cross to take
care of our sins. We need Jesus.
:21-32 On the Cross
:21 Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of
Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to
bear His cross.
compelled – aggareuo –
(it’s from the Persian word for “letter”) to employ a courier. In Persia,
mounted couriers were kept at regular intervals throughout Persia
for carrying the royal dispatches, sort of like the “pony express” of the old
west. But if you happened to be walking
by one of these pony express offices, and they needed a message to go out right
away, and there weren’t any messengers around, they could force you to be a
postal carrier and send you off with a message.
Under Roman law, any Roman soldier could require a citizen to carry his
equipment, cloak, or other burdens for one mile. He could make you do work for him for
free. All a Roman soldier had to do was
to lay his spear or his sword on your shoulder and he could order you to help
him. The Jews weren’t too excited about
these laws.
Jesus used this word in the Sermon on the Mount:
(Mat 5:41
NKJV) "And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.
We call this “going the extra mile”.
Cyrenian – an important coastal city of Northern Africa,
with a large Jewish population. It’s
likely that Simon was in Jerusalem
for the feast of Passover. The city
would be quite full of people, so many people stayed outside of the city at
night. Simon had been sleeping out in
the fields that night and was making his way into Jerusalem
early in the morning.
Alexander and Rufus – There is a believer named “Rufus” mentioned in
Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom. 16:13). The general consensus is that Alexander and
Rufus were believers known to the readers in Rome
(remember that Mark is writing his gospel with Peter’s help, from the city of Rome).
Simon may not have been a follower of Jesus before this incident, but it
looks like he may have become one after the event.
to bear his cross – those condemned to death by crucifixion were required
to carry their cross to the place of execution.
We’re not sure as to whether it was the complete cross or just the top
cross bar. But the top crossbar alone could
weight 100 pounds, so either way, it was a heavy load. And after all the beatings and whippings
Jesus has been through, He is not physically able to carry the cross by
Himself.
If the condemned was to carry the cross, it’s interesting that Jesus didn’t
carry His cross. He was after all,
innocent.
But Simon carried it. Simon, like
us, was the real one condemned to die.
We are the sinners worthy of death.
Yet Jesus was the one to die. He
died for us.
Play video
clip from “The Passion of the
Christ” (Simon carries the cross)
Lesson
Taking up the cross
Jesus had said,
(Luke 9:23 KJV) And he
said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross daily, and follow me.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “This means to be identified with
Him in surrender, suffering, and sacrifice.”
It’s ironic that this is what Simon is now being asked to
do, except rather than taking up his own cross, he’s asked to take up
the cross of Jesus.
The cross was what Jesus had to endure in His submission to the
Father. It involved shame and suffering.
There are going to be times when our walk with the Lord is going to take us
into a place where life will no longer be comfortable. This place may involve people ridiculing you,
or giving you a hard time.
Illustration
Recently a young pastor named Tim Dearborn had to share a cab with four
other people in Bangkok, Thailand. One of the passengers was a Marxist
revolutionary on his way to India.
The Marxist quizzed Tim at length about his faith. Finally, he said, “How can you be a
Christian? Don’t you realize there’s no
way your cause can win?”
“What do you mean there’s no way my cause can win?” Tim asked.
The Marxist explained: “I am on my
way to India to
organize fishermen to overthrow their oppressors. And I am quite willing to lay down my life
for the revolution. Your American
Christianity is preoccupied with what your God can do for you. And dying for self-interest is a
contradiction in terms!”
-- World Vision,
Oct/Nov 1989, p.23
Peter’s death
Church tradition tells us that Peter was executed in Rome. From Foxe’s Book of Martyrs:
…Nero sought matter against Peter to put him to death;
which, when the people perceived, they entreated Peter with much ado that he
would fly the city. Peter, through their importunity at length persuaded,
prepared himself to avoid. But, coming to the gate, he saw the Lord Christ come
to meet him, to whom he, worshipping, said, “Lord, whither dost Thou go?” To
whom He answered and said, “I am come again to be crucified.” By this, Peter,
perceiving his suffering to be understood, returned into the city. Jerome saith
that he was crucified, his head being down and his feet upward, himself so
requiring, because he was (he said) unworthy to be crucified after the same
form and manner as the Lord was.
If following the Lord meant suffering, Peter was willing to do it.
:22 And they brought Him to the place Golgotha,
which is translated, Place of a Skull.
Golgotha – an Aramaic word meaning
“skull”. It is thought that this place,
outside of Jerusalem, had something
about it that resembled a skull. In the Latin translation of the New Testament,
this place was called “Calvaria” from
the Latin word calva meaning “skull”. So there you have it, now you know the secret
of what the name “Calvary Chapel” really means.
It means “Skull Chapel”. Sounds a
little like a biker church or maybe a pirate church doesn’t it? Do you think we should get leather jackets
with a skull on the back?
There has been some disagreement to the exact location of this place. There is a church built on top of one
location that dates back to the fourth century, the “Church of the Holy
Sepulchre”. Others prefer a place known
as “Gordon’s Calvary”, where a rock formation exists
that looks like a skull.
We don’t know which location is the correct one, but one thing we do know,
it was outside the city.
This was a fulfillment of a prophecy found in the sacrifices.
(Heb 13:11-13 KJV) For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood
is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without
the camp. {12} Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his
own blood, suffered without the gate. {13} Let us go forth therefore unto him
without the camp, bearing his reproach.
The rule for a sin sacrifice was that if the sacrifice was being made for
the whole nation, then the blood was taken into the Holy
Place and then the body of the animal was then
taken outside the camp, to the place of reproach, where the body was burned. Jesus suffered outside the city.
Lesson
Taking reproach
There may be times when you and I have to go “outside the camp”. For the Jews reading the book of Hebrews, it
might mean that they could be cut off from their family – the person may have
to leave the “fellowship” of Jews. For
you and I it might mean that we may find ourselves among the “uncool” people of
the world. It’s not always a “cool”
thing to be a Christian.
But Jesus was willing to pay for us.
He was willing to die among the “criminals”. Is it too much for us to stand up as a
Christian?