In this message, I'd like to come right to the crucifixion. We've already viewed the trials of Jesus, as well as the mockery and scorn of the death game. Now, it is time to go to the cross, and see the Saviour die.

I. IN SPITE OF THE INNOCENCE OF JESUS CHRIST, THE LOUD, URGENT CRY OF THE MULTITUDE, OVER AND OVER, WAS "LET HIM BE CRUCIFIED".

3. Folks, it's bad enough to execute, as a common criminal, any man, who is not guilty; but how much more so the perfect, sinless, holy God of heaven! Here was the one who said, "Let there be light: and there was light," Gen. 1:3. Here was the one who said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit," Gen. 1:11; "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and foul that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven," Gen. 1:20; "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beast of the earth after his kind, Gen. 1:24; and "it was so." In fact, here is the one who said with the Father and the Spirit, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" and who "created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him," Gen. 1:26-27. The very multitude that stood there before Pilate would have to admit that Jesus was the one who had healed their sick, Mark 2:3-5, cast out their devils, Mark 5:18, cured their diseases, Mark 5:25-29, and raised their dead, Mark 5:35-42. The truth is that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," James 1:17. All these people were, they were because of Him. All they had, they had because of Him. They existed because He made them; they lived on His earth, and enjoyed His natural resources (all rent free), Psa. 24:1; and He was now come to save them from their sins, yet they cried out the more "Let him be crucified." The mortal killing his maker; the guilty murdering the innocent; that is what you have in this case. You talk about cutting your own umbilical cord, killing the hen that laid the golden egg; that is what these people were doing, when they crucified Jesus. It's the worse case of ingratitude in all of time and eternity.

B. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, this mob elected to crucify the Saviour, while they let a vicious criminal go scot free:

1. Pilate had in custody a cruel, vicious criminal named Barabbas, who Matthew 27.16 called a "notable prisoner." Mark says Barabbas had caused an insurrection and was guilty of murder in the process, Mark 15:7. Luke 23:19,25 further confirmed the wickedness of Barabbas.

2. Now here was Jesus, who was only there because of the envy of the Jewish leaders, Matt. 27:18, and Jesus was totally innocent of any wrong doing; yet when Pilate asked, "Whither of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas," Matt. 27:21. And what about innocent Jesus? Pilate asked it this way, "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? " Matt. 27:22. Their answer is seen in the same verse. It is a unanimous "Let him be crucified. "Oh, what a heart breaking picture. The tender, innocent Saviour going to the bloody tree, while the vile, wicked criminal goes free.

3. But, oh, my friend, that is the picture of the cross. It is the picture of the innocent dying to free the guilty. Peter says, "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God," I Peter 3:18. Because of the death of innocent Jesus, thousands upon thousands of guilty sinners have been set free.

II. HAVING MADE THEIR WICKED CHOICE, THEY CRUCIFIED THE BLESSED SAVIOUR:

A. They led Jesus outside the city walls of Jerusalem, to a place called Golgotha:

1. John wrote, "And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he, bearing his cross went forth into a place called The place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew [or Aramaic] Golgotha: where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst," John 19:16-18.

2. There is a street in Jerusalem today known as the Via Dolorosa, which is traditionally believed to be the route Jesus took from Pilate's hall out to Golgotha. The Bible is very careful to emphasize that Jesus "suffered without the gate," Heb. 13:12. Golgotha in Latin, is Calvaria, the place we call Calvary, Luke 23:33. It is located just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. The rock formation of the place looks like a giant skull, and Calvary (Golgotha) means "skull." The Via Dolorosa (meaning the way of the cross) leads from Pilate's hall to the sheep gate in the wall of Jerusalem, where it ends. Not far outside the sheep gate, is Golgotha, or Calvary. On the way to Golgotha, Jesus passed through the sheep gate sometimes known as Herod's, gate. By using this gate, Jesus was further fulfilling the typology of Himself as God's Lamb, or sheep.

3. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all point out the fact that a man named Simon from Cyrene, a city in Libya, east of Egypt, was compelled to bear the cross of Jesus, Matt. 27:32, Mark 15:21, and Luke 23:26. It seems that Jesus, like Isaac, bearing his wood, Gen. 22:6, bore His own cross for a while. Then for some reason, perhaps He wasn't travelling fast enough in their rush to murder Him, they compelled Simon to carry the cross the remainder of the way.

B. Words seem so inadequate to describe the agony of the crucifixion of our Saviour:

1. The arrest and trials had taken time, and it was nine o'clock in the morning when they actually put Him on the tree. Mark 15:25 says, "And it was the third hour, and they crucified him." The Jews started counting day hours at 6:00 in the morning. Thus, the third hour would correspond to our 9:00 a.m.

2. At 9:00 a.m., they took the precious Lord of glory, and nailed His hands and His feet to an old rugged cross. Some of the most sensitive nerves in the body are in the hands. It is hard to imagine the excruciating pain our Saviour bore as the nails tore through the hands and feet, and into the wood of the tree. And, then when they took that cross, with Jesus nailed on it, and dropped it into the hole so that it stood upright, the pain and agony was torture.

3. Already, the Saviour had sweat great drops of blood, Luke 22:44. Now, through the wounds in His hands and in His feet, He'd bleed some, and lose more vital body fluids. Medically, this would result in potassium loss, and cause further dehydration. The inevitable result would be muscle cramps, especially in the legs. It would also cause acute thirst. You will thus find Jesus' words in John 19:28, "I thirst." And, what was the response of the multitude to this? John 19:29 says, "Now there was set a vesselfull of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it on hyssop, and put it to his mouth." Already, they had tried to force vinegar mixed with gall down Him, Matt. 27:34. The Greek indicates the vinegar was sour wine, and the gall was bitter. It was often given to those being crucified to kill pain and render them insensible to death, but Jesus refused to drink it. Although, when the vinegar was offered without the gall, He drank it, as Matthew pointed out in Matt. 27:48. Now, the vinegar alone would not kill the pain, but it would cause an electrolyte imbalance in His blood, thus adding to His agony.

4. When Isaiah the prophet said, "He was wounded for our transgressions," Isa. 53:5, and Zechariah the prophet prophetically quoted Him as saying, "I was wounded in the house of my friends," Zech. 13:6; folks, it was not idle language, or figurative talk. In His sufferings for us, Jesus Christ received almost every type of wound known to medical science:

a. He was bruised. A bruise is medically called a "hematoma." Isaiah said, "He was bruisedfor our iniquities," Isa. 53:5. When Pilate had Him scourged or beaten, Matt. 27:26, He was bruised. And, when the soldiers stood there spitting in His face, and hitting Him, no doubt more bruises occurred, Mark 15:19. And the cross upon His shoulders could have caused bruises, John 19:17.

b. The Saviour also received lacerations or cuts. The beating with the Roman whip, which Matthew mentioned in Matt. 27:26, would have left Him with multiple cuts. You see, the Roman whip had pieces of glass and sharp bone tied on the plaited ends. The lashes would not only sting and bruise; they would also cut and tear the flesh, both on the back, and on the stomach and chest.

c. This also explains that Jesus suffered lacerated whelps.

d. Furthermore, in the beating, He sustained abrasions, which are scratches.

e. Also, He suffered tears of the muscles and tendons, during this ordeal. Hanging on the cross from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., Luke 23:44, was certain to produce tears.

f. Jesus was also wounded with contusions, which is a combination of bruise and abrasion. This, too, would be sustained in such a beating and roughing as Jesus underwent.

g. A concussion is literally a shaking of the brain in the head. Dropping the cross into the ground would likely have produced at least some concussion.

h. Hanging for six hours on a cross would produce some separation of the joints, which would fill with body fluids, causing excruciating pain. King David prophetically foretold this in Psalm 22:14-17, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me."

i. Besides these wounds, the hanging would produce muscle strains, and cut off circulation, particularly in the feet and the hands. The pain would be beyond proper description.

j. The last wound we mention is the puncture wound. King David foretold it by saying, "They pierced my hands and my feet," Psa.22:16. And,they put a crown of thorns on His head, Matt. 27:29. But, the crown of thorns and the nails in the hands and the feet, was not the worst puncture. The main puncture was the one with the spear. John wrote, "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and Forthwith came there out blood and water," John 19:34. From the ground angle, the spear could have easily punctured the liver or spleen, the upper colon and small intestine, and possibly the heart; accounting for both blood and water. Of course, Jesus was already dead when this spear went in, thus making it clear that He gave His life, and it was not taken from Him.

5. Oh, what anguish and misery He suffered! Truly He was "wounded for our transgressions", and He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with giief," as Isaiah said in Chapter 53.

C. And folks, when Jesus went there in our place, to that cross, He paid it all. He did everything necessary to qualify Him as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, John 1:29. The apostle Paul said He "died according to the scriptures," I Cor. 15:3.

1. The scriptures predicted of the Messiah, "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink," Psa. 69:21. On the cross, Jesus fulfilled that, Matt. 27:34,48, and John 19:28-29.

2. The scriptures predicted the piercing of His hands and His feet, Psa. 22:16. Jesus fulfilled that in Matt. 27:35 and John 19:23.

3. The scriptures said it would be a cursed death on a tree, Deut. 21:22. It was that way with Jesus, Gal. 3:13.

4. Isaiah 53:12 said the Messiah would be "numbered with the transgressors." Jesus died between two convicted thieves, Mark 15:28.

5. Psalm 22:1 said the Messiah, in death, would utter the words, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" That's exactly what Jesus said, Matt. 27:46 and Mark 15:34.

6 . Zechariah 12:10 predicted the piercing of the Messiah. When they pierced Him with the spear in John 19:34, that scripture was fulfilled, John 19:37.

7 . Psalm 22:18 predicted, "They part my garments among them, and cast lots for my vesture." At His death, they divided His garments four ways but since His coat was woven without seam, they decided to cast lots for it, thus unknowingly fulfilling the scripture, and proving Jesus to be the one and only Messiah. Listen to John 19:23-24 tell about it. "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did."

8. The scriptures had said no bones of the Messiah would be broken, Psa. 34:20. Normally, before dark, the Romans broke the bones of those whom they hanged. Although, since Jesus was already dead, when they came to finish the kill, they did not break His bones. Listen to John 19:32-33, 36, "Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs .... for these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of him shall not be broken. "

9. Yes, my friends, they crucified the Son of God. He died on the cross, and He died "according to the scriptures." No wonder, as He hanged there, He could say, "It is finished," John 19:30. Jesus did everything the Messiah was supposed to do. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain; He washed it white as snow.