Let’s start with prayer.
Lord Jesus, once again, I want to thank You for Your precious table. Thank You that we can come and worship You and just adore You together. Lord, it’s a wonderful thing to be with the saints, worshiping our God. Lord, we bless You for it.
And now, Lord, I pray that You would just anoint this time. Lord, anoint our ears that we might hear You. Lord, anoint our eyes that we might see You afresh this morning. And Lord, anoint the speaking, I pray. Anoint Your word, in Your name I pray. Amen.
The last several months, I’ve been meditating on Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and the crucifixion accounts in Mark and Luke. We will be reading those sections, but it’s really been on my heart to share on this.
I share with much trepidation because it’s such a huge, huge thing.
There is a song that keeps coming up in my mind and heart. I’d like for you to turn in your hymnbook—don’t put it up there; just turn in the hymnbook. I’d like for us to sing “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” the first three stanzas. I remember this from childhood. It was one of my favorite hymns to sing.
It is hymn number 124.
I was raised Baptist. We used to always have, at the end of every service, an altar call. Who here was raised Baptist? We would sing this a lot, and it was one of my favorite hymns to sing at the altar call. So, would someone just start us? We’ll sing a cappella.
Congregational singing: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”
Hebrews 12:2-3 says:
Fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the Author and Perfecter of faith,
Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.
Consider Him Who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself.
This fixing our eyes on Jesus means looking away from everything else and gazing at Him—just considering, just pondering, meditating, thinking about the Lord. Consider Him.
And this morning, I feel that the Lord would have us ponder, consider, the suffering Christ on the cross—His suffering.
There was something I read from McLaren, and I don’t really know when he wrote it. He said, “Modern-day Christians”—of course, if he wrote it in 1960, that would be ancient to us and not modern-day—but I think the same thing applies. He said modern-day Christians do not like to consider the suffering of the Lord Jesus.
And I think that’s true. It kind of goes against us somehow. It rubs the wrong way.
But I’ve been meditating on it for quite a while, and there are just three lessons. Because it’s so big, I’ve just narrowed it down to three things:
So we will start by reading Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. As we read, I want you to be thinking, “Lord, You suffered for me.”
The Scripture says He suffered for you. And that’s an amazing thing. Not only did He die for you, but He suffered for you.
So let’s turn to Psalm 22. I sure hope you brought your Bibles this morning.
My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?
Far from My deliverance are the words of My groaning?
This groaning here is roaring. It’s a very intense word in Hebrew. It’s not just, “Oh.” It’s deep from within Him. There is this groaning, roaring, within His spirit: “Why have You forsaken Me?”
Verse 6:
But I am a worm and not a man,
a reproach of men and despised by the people.
He was despised.
All who see Me sneer at Me;
they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying,
“Commit Yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver Him;
let Him rescue Him, because He delights in Him.”
Oh, how our Lord was mocked on the cross—cruelly mocked.
Before I continue, Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 almost give us a better picture of what our Lord Jesus suffered on the cross than even the accounts in the Gospels. It’s an absolutely amazing thing.
In verses 9 and 10, this is the Lord’s reasoning within Himself in response to the mocking that He received:
Yet You are He Who brought Me forth from the womb;
You made Me trust when upon My mother’s breasts.
Upon You I was cast from birth;
You have been My God from My mother’s womb.
So, as He was suffering, He was considering, “You brought Me into this world. You gave Me My mother.”
Verse 11:
Be not far from Me, for trouble is near;
for there is none to help.
There was none to help the Lord on the cross. There was the great suffering of being alone, bearing what He did alone.
Our brother Stephen said that on the cross there was great spiritual suffering, great mental suffering, and great physical suffering. The Lord suffered on the cross in every way possible. With His whole being, He suffered.
Verse 12:
Many bulls have surrounded Me;
strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me.
They open wide their mouth at Me,
as a ravening and a roaring lion.
Our Lord was oppressed terribly by demonic power on the cross. The roaring lion, our enemy, had its mouth gaping wide open. The picture is the feeding frenzy of lions when they are feasting on their prey. They are roaring, and their mouths are gaping wide.
The bulls of Bashan are fierce bulls, showing the fierceness of the attack upon our Lord. Well, it was bad.
His physical suffering:
I am poured out like water,
and all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
it is melted within Me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and My tongue cleaves to My jaws;
and You lay Me in the dust of death.
Speaking of the soldiers, perhaps:
Dogs have surrounded Me;
a band of evildoers has encompassed Me;
they pierced My hands and My feet.
I can count all My bones.
They look, they stare at Me;
they divide My garments among them,
and for My clothing they cast lots.
Oh, how our Lord Jesus suffered.
Isaiah 53:
Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him,
nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and like one from whom men hide their face,
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
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.
He was despised, forsaken, full of sorrow and grief, crushed, and afflicted.
Verse 6:
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.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth;
like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
so He did not open His mouth.
We will be coming back to this verse.
Verse 10:
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.
Verse 11:
As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied.
The anguish of His soul.
I read all of that just for us to get some of the impact of the suffering of our Lord at Calvary. It was a great suffering that He went through—great pain and agony, not only physically but in every way.
All of that for us to go to 1 Peter 2, verse 21.
Peter was written to a group of believers who had been spread abroad by suffering. They had been dispersed, and they were under great stress and great suffering.
Peter kind of emphasizes suffering a lot, whereas Paul emphasizes the death of Christ. Peter emphasizes the suffering of Christ.
And we come to this verse, verse 21, and we will read through the end of the chapter:
For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,
Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;
and while being reviled, He did not revile in return;
while suffering, He uttered no threats,
but kept entrusting Himself to Him Who judges righteously;
and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.
Before we talk about Christ as our example, I want to let you know that we are not talking about the suffering of Christ in this way: He is not an example of atonement. We do not have an exemplary atonement.
Exemplary atonement means we follow His example, and that is our salvation—by being good and just doing what He did. There are some folks who believe that, and it is false.
He bore our sin in His own body on the tree. That is our atonement. So, we are not talking about the atoning suffering of our Lord, where our sins were laid upon Him on the cross.
If you’re here and you don’t know the Lord, that’s your salvation. Your sins were laid upon the Lord on the cross, and He bore your sin.
But today, we’re talking about His suffering for us.
So, back to verse 21: “Since Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example.”
This word example is a special word in the Greek. It means a writing copy.
I remember distinctly—I guess it was first grade; it might have been kindergarten—when you had to learn to write. Do you remember? You had a little booklet, and the letters were up here. They had little arrows showing which way to go to make the letter, and you had to do the same thing underneath. To fill it, you had to copy that letter.
Well, this is actually an academic term for just that. You have this copy, this pattern, and you are to copy it. It also has the idea of a painter having a sketch, and then he comes in later and paints on that sketch, filling it in.
So Christ’s suffering is a pattern, an imitation, for us to follow.
And we have been called to follow that example: “You have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you.” Follow in His steps.
Now, follow means to tread in His footsteps. Follow His footsteps in suffering.
Well, how did our Lord go through suffering? Verses 22 and 23 tell us.
He committed no sin.
When our Lord was suffering, He committed no sin—no sin that caused Him to suffer, and no sin did He commit while He was suffering. There was no bitterness, no wrath within Him, no self-absorption in suffering. Our Lord was sinless. Remember, He is our pattern.
Next, there was no deceit found in His mouth. He never was deceitful. His words, if He spoke at all, were not in self-defense and not in anger. Our Lord’s reaction to suffering is quite amazing.
While being reviled, He did not revile in return.
Consider what these people were saying about Him and doing to Him. He did not revile in return.
While suffering, He uttered no threats.
He did not threaten. We will look at some terrible, humiliating things our Lord went through. He never uttered a word of threat to anyone.
And He kept on entrusting Himself to His Father, Who judges righteously.
Brothers and sisters, this is the way we are to go through trial and suffering. It is quite unusual. It is by the Spirit that we can go through trials and suffering this way.
Turn to 1 Peter 4. There are five things we will be considering here.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.
He was telling these saints who were in foreign lands, in pagan society, “Don’t be surprised when suffering comes, when trials come.”
Brothers and sisters, do you think America, our nation, is a Christian nation anymore? It’s not. It is a pagan nation. It is as bad, I believe, as where these saints were.
Don’t be surprised. Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised at trials that are going to come and that are here now. Don’t be surprised.
Verse 13:
But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.
I was saying, “Lord, I really don’t want to share this, because it’s a downer. The saints aren’t going to like this—that we’re going to face suffering, that you have suffering in your life, and that we are to follow the Lord’s pattern for suffering.”
I think, after we consider it, we are glad that our Lord showed us the way of suffering.
But you know what? Verse 13 is actually very amazing. To the degree that we share in the suffering of Christ, we are to have hearts of rejoicing. So when we suffer, we suffer with rejoicing.
Look at verse 14:
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.
Now, how many of us would consider being reviled a blessing? It gets even better, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. You want the Spirit of glory and of God to rest on you.
Well, brothers and sisters, if you come under suffering and persecution and are reviled, despised, and rejected, the glory of the Holy Spirit will rest upon you. That’s an amazing thing.
Peter says, “Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler”—or as a grouchy old man. If anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed.
Verse 19:
Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.
Here are some other Scriptures. Just listen to them.
For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
We love to believe and to walk in life. But do you know that we are also called to suffer for His sake?
All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.
Suffering goes hand in hand with reigning, doesn’t it? We love to reign, but do we love to suffer? I don’t.
I was so convicted all the way through preparing this. I was asking myself, “Roger, will you tread in His footsteps of suffering?” And I’d like for you to ask the same thing.
Do you consider suffering for Christ a gift, a blessing, something to be rejoiced in?
How do we pray for those who are suffering? Do we really believe these Scriptures? Often, when we pray for those in great suffering, we pray, “Lord, get them out of it quick. Deliver them quickly.”
To be kind of harsh—which I shouldn’t be, so I’ll be harsh to myself—you’re depriving someone of going through something with his Lord Jesus, following in the steps of his Lord in suffering. You’re depriving him of a great blessing.
Brothers and sisters, are you willing to experience the suffering of the Lord in your life? You might say, “Well, when there becomes great persecution, yes, Lord, I’ll be willing to be a martyr for You. If we become a Muslim country and the church is like it is in Pakistan, yes, Lord, I’ll stand for You”—when everything is totally against us.
Well, in 1 Peter 2, where we first read, the context was a man having trouble with his boss. His boss was treating him unjustly. Peter says that if you endure under that unjust treatment with patient endurance, it honors the Lord. Then he goes into how you are walking in the sufferings of Christ.
You see, the sufferings of Christ are not just societal suffering or persecution. They are also in your day-to-day walk. In so many areas in your day-to-day walk, you have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Lord’s suffering. Isn’t that an amazing thing? Keep your eyes open.
While I was considering this, in my business we had someone who was treating us very unjustly, in my mind and in my heart. Of course, I’m reading this and studying this, and I said, “Okay, Lord, I’m being treated unjustly. How do I walk in Your footsteps?”
I just went through these things. I said, “Lord, I don’t want to sin with anger and bitterness. I don’t want to revile that company.” I just went through that whole thing. I said, “Spirit of God, allow me to walk through that situation in Your footsteps of suffering.”
It turned out to be a great blessing. I ended up praying for that company, praying for the owners of that company, and praying for them. You know how the Lord just redeemed that whole thing.
I don’t know how far down the list of little things this goes, but I consider a boss being unfair pretty small, considering what it could be. How many things in your life can you just commit to the Lord to suffer through with Him, to walk through with Him?
The big example is Christ’s suffering on the cross.
Next, we will be looking at the humility of Christ on the cross. I’d like you to turn back to Isaiah 53, just one verse.
Verse 7:
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
yet He did not open His mouth;
like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
so He did not open His mouth.
Twice it says in this verse, “He did not open His mouth.” He was silently obedient to His Father.
That word afflicted is what is called a passive verb. It means He allowed Himself to be afflicted. Not only was He afflicted, but He allowed Himself to be afflicted. He humbled Himself. He humbled Himself.
And what section of Scripture does that remind you of? Philippians 2, right?
Then it says, “Like a sheep that is silent before its shearers.” He was stripped of all of His clothing, and He was silent about it. We will go into Mark to look at that. So, let’s go to Mark first, Mark 15, and then we will go to Philippians 2.
Mark 15, verse 15:
Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified.
The soldiers took Him away into the palace—that is, the Praetorium—and they called together the whole Roman cohort.
This, to me, upon considering the whole trial and what the Lord went through, seems to be the most humiliating part of it: His garments.
They dressed Him up in purple.
Purple—the color of royalty.
And after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him;
and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him,
and kneeling and bowing before Him.
After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him,
put His own garments on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him.
They brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.
And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take.
He was sheared like that lamb, and He said not a word.
Brothers and sisters, consider this mocking here. In Philippians it says—well, let’s turn to Philippians.
Philippians 2, verse 6:
Although He existed in the form of God,
He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.
All the implements of authority the Lord Jesus laid down voluntarily.
Isaiah 6 says that the train of His robe filled the temple of God. The angels, the seraphim, cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” His robe was the symbol of His power, His majesty, and His royalty in Isaiah 6.
The scepter—in Hebrews, the scepter of righteousness by which He will rule His kingdom—our Lord had a scepter, a symbol of His power. And He is crowned with many crowns.
In Philippians 2, it says He laid all of that aside and became a man, wearing the garments of a man. And here in Mark, they dressed Him up in purple. They were mocking the throne room of God. They did not know how serious this mocking was.
They were mocking His kingship, His crown. They were mocking His scepter by making a little scepter out of a reed and beating Him on the head. How terrible this is. How shameful this is.
And then on the cross, they stripped off His garments and hung Him naked there.
All of that to say, in Philippians 2, verse 8:
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
How far down did our Lord go? All of His glory was taken from Him—willingly, not taken; He laid it down willingly. But this mocking, this humiliation that the Lord went through, was something we will never understand.
But verse 5 says something very amazing:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.
This humble mind was in our Lord Jesus, Who humbled Himself to that point of death on the cross.
We are to have a mind of humility, just like our Lord exhibited on the cross. Actually, all through His life, He exhibited great humility, obeying His Father and doing everything His Father told Him, even to that terrible point of death on the cross.
The command in Scripture is, “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility.” “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.”
We are to have the humility of the cross clothed as our garment at all times, whenever we are together. We are to have that garment of humility, each one of us, from top to bottom, from side to side. All of us are to be clothed in that kind of humility, one with another.
Can you imagine, saints, if we are all clothed in that kind of humility—the humility that Christ demonstrated on the cross? What a wonderful thing.
Finally, let’s look at Luke 23, verse 33.
When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.
But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Verse 35:
The people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him.
Even the two criminals were sneering at Him, mocking Him. And yet the Lord was saying, “Father, forgive them.”
That cry rang out from our Lord Jesus before anybody asked for forgiveness. Nobody was saying, “I’m sorry for what I’ve done.”
Our Father’s heart was so tender, so full of compassion. Our Lord Jesus’ heart was so full of compassion for us and for these souls around Him. He cried to His Father, “Forgive them. Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.”
Doesn’t that show the tender compassion of our Lord?
One pastor that I listened to said he thought that prayer of our Lord unleashed the Holy Spirit and softened that criminal’s heart, so that criminal could confess his sin to the Lord—the one who had just moments before been mocking the Lord.
He heard the Lord Jesus Christ say, “Father, forgive them,” and imagined, “Me? Forgive me?” Then he was speaking to the Lord.
If the Lord’s suffering is Psalm 22, the Lord’s dealing with this man is Psalm 23.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for Thou art with me.
The Lord was telling this criminal, “Don’t fear any evil. I’m with you. My goodness and My mercy are going to follow you all your days—just for a few more hours—and we’re going to be walking in paradise together.”
This reminds me of Ephesians:
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
We have a great example of the Lord’s heart here on the cross: forgiving before He was asked to forgive. He had a heart of compassion and tenderheartedness for this criminal.
Brothers and sisters, our hearts are to be the same. We are to have a heart of tenderness and compassion, one to another, that our Lord demonstrated on the cross.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, when we see You suffering on the cross, Lord, I pray that we would come to a greater appreciation for what You have done, for the price You paid.
Lord, teach us to walk, to follow the pattern of Your suffering. Lord, we are not used to thinking this way, but Lord, change our thoughts, I pray. When we are under small and great persecution, difficulty, and trouble, may we walk as You walked.
And Lord, give us the humility of Christ on the cross, Who obeyed His Father to the very end. Lord, may we clothe ourselves with humility toward each other.
And, oh Lord, grant us a tender, compassionate heart, one to another, even as You were so tender and compassionate and had great love for that criminal, even for all those who heard.
Lord, we bless Your name this morning. Amen.