While We Were Yet Sinners

if God’s people would once again
take their Bibles and turn to John chapter 19. John chapter 19, you know the
scene. Jesus has just walked the gauntlet
of the injustice system. Trial before Annas, trial before
Caiaphas, a trial the next morning before the entire Sanhedrin,
then a trial before Pilate, another trial before Herod, and finally
back to Pilate for sentencing. The injustice system as we have
seen it, and without further ado and with a very specific
purpose in mind, I want to take you to John 19, our next passage,
beginning in verse 17. John 19 verse 17. They took Jesus therefore and
he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place
of a skull which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. There they crucified
him and with him two other men one on either side and Jesus
in between. Pilate also wrote an inscription
and put it on the cross. It was written, Jesus the Nazarene,
the king of the Jews. Therefore, many of the Jews read
this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was
near the city. And it was written in Hebrew,
Latin, and in Greek. 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 the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, what
I’ve written, I have written. Then the soldiers, when they
had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four
parts, a part to every soldier, and also the tunic. Now the tunic
was seamless, woven in one piece, so they said to one another,
let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose
it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture.
They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing
they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these
things. Standing by the cross of Jesus
were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas,
and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw his mother
and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his
mother, Woman, behold your son. Then he said to the disciple,
Behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple
took her into his own household. After this, Jesus, knowing that
all things had already been accomplished to fulfill the scripture, said,
I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing
there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch
of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth. Therefore, when Jesus
had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And he
bowed his head and gave up his spirit. All week long, I kept reading
those verses, thinking on them, meditating on them, and wondering why. It’s almost inexplicable, the
degree to which Jesus suffered for you and I. And I know, I know the truths
of the Scriptures. I’ve preached this passage before,
but what kept coming to my mind was Romans 5. While we were still
helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one
will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good
man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His
own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. That was to me the most astounding
thing of reviewing this passage, is that Jesus, through the course
of all that He endures in this horrid scene, is doing it for
not a pool of nice people like yourselves not a people who are
already saved and sanctified and righteous but a pool of dead
ungodly sinners such as we were while we were yet sinners what
I see in this passage of scripture is for Astounding observations
of what our Savior did While we were yet sinners First if
you would go back to verse 17 where we see that Jesus offered
up his body to be broken and mistreated and so that by His
stripes we would be healed. Look at verse 17. They took Jesus,
therefore went out bearing His own cross. It was a very common
practice for those who were condemned to death, to the punishment of
crucifixion, they were to carry their own cross to the site where
they would be crucified. In some cases, the cross beam
was already attached to them by means of ropes. And over their
shoulders would be this heavy beam, if not the entire cross
itself. John here doesn’t even mention
what all the synoptics chronicle. that the Roman soldiers eventually
singled out one man named Simon to carry Jesus’ cross. There’s
no contradiction here when John says that Jesus went out bearing
His own cross. It’s a true statement. Jesus
did carry that cross. But fatigue and injury and exhaustion
would eventually catch up with Him very quickly. And that’s
when the soldiers pressed Simon into service. The procession
carrying the cross oftentimes wove through the city. They wanted
this to be a very public demonstration. They wanted to shame not only
the prisoners, but they wanted to also put fear into the general
population. so that they would be inclined
to avoid similar crimes. We don’t know exactly how or
when. We know that Jesus began with
his cross, but we also know that Jesus has been through just a
brutal 24 hours. Remember, it started in the upper
room, the heartbreaking scene where he had to unfold to his
apostles all that he was going to endure. The betrayal by one
of the twelve, one of his dear friends, Judas. All of the agonies
that he went through, sweating drops of blood as he prayed there
in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what he was going to
endure. Ultimately, the abandonment. by his own disciples as he was taken into custody.
And then the abuse began, the tortures, the beatings, the mistreatment, ultimately ending with a flogging
before Pilate. A beating so severe that most
prisoners didn’t even survive it. There would be no crucifixion.
There would be no cause for crucifixion because the prisoner has already
expired. And so when we think of the weakness
that Jesus was in, the sheer exhaustion of having been up
now these many hours, all the suffering that He has endured,
it’s not surprising that we read from all of the synoptics that
they found a man of Cyrene named Simon. who they pressed into
service to bear his cross. Now you may be familiar with
that passage and I know that we’re not currently preaching
through the synoptic gospels, but I want you to ponder just
for a moment Simon and the role that he would play. Simon’s carrying of Jesus’ cross
gives us a proper and very, I believe, a very important pause to ponder
what must have been going through Simon’s mind. He wasn’t carrying
the cross for himself, though he very much would have deserved
such. Every one of us, every human
ever born deserves death. We deserve the wrath of God.
Jesus didn’t. He deserved to carry the cross
for himself, but he was carrying it for a Savior. no sinner in their right mind would dare say that they didn’t
deserve that fate. And yet here was this man suddenly
caught up in this unfolding drama and little could he have known
that morning that he would come face to face with the one who
would pay his sin penalty on the cross and here he has a solemn,
sobering role. It says that they carried that
cross to the place that they called the place of a skull,
which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. A lot of times we are informed
by the Scriptures. I remember one of the first lessons
I had in Bible study is that Studying the Bible will ruin
more sermons We get this idea in our head We set out We’re
really just looking for a passage to append to our idea so that
we can go and preach this great sermon that we have and then
we begin to study the scriptures and we are informed and corrected
and This place, the place of the skull, is often presented
before us as a hill, a mighty hill, one that was seen all over
the city where these three crosses stand. You’ve seen paintings
and pictures suggesting that. Nowhere in scripture is it said
to be a hill. It could have been a berm. One historian suggested
it was no more than two men high, 15, 20 feet. But it’s not a biblical idea.
all four of the gospel writers just mentioned it was a place.
It was a nondescript, it was a field for all intents and purposes,
a little scrap of earth, not a special place, not a mountain,
place of a skull. And I’m sure many of you have
studied, we don’t even know what the place of the skull is. There
have been many suggestions over the years where a couple of eye
socket like indentations in the earth presented themselves visually
to the human eye as a skull. Even from the Hebrew standpoint,
it couldn’t be that this was a place where bones lie strewn
upon the ground where they frequently did executions that would have
not only offended senses, human senses, but it would have been
contrary to Jewish law. This was a place, a nondescript
place. They hauled Him out to a lot. And verse 18 just so simply says,
and there they crucified Him. And with Him two other men, one
on either side and Jesus in between. I just want you to note Just
how sparse the words are, uncomfortably sparse. Two words in the Greek. They crucified him. There was a lot of variety in
crucifixion in Roman circles. Sometimes there was a single
stake to which a prisoner was tied. Sometimes it was a tree
that was naturally shaped like a Y and the arms would be tied
to either side of that Y and the legs affixed to the lower
portion. Sometimes there was a straight
piece of timber that was used as the cross piece and it was
affixed in some various manners, a variety of manners to the vertical
portion. But the common thread in all
of those various pieces of wood was that the prisoner’s hands
would be nailed to the cross pieces. And that his feet, usually
one nail for both feet, would be nailed to the lower portion. And then the cross was lifted
up by a host of soldiers and dropped into a hole. the pain
of which would have been extremely excruciating for the prisoner. J.C. Ryle paints a very graphic picture. It has
been well said that the person who was crucified died a thousand
deaths Large nails were driven through hands and feet among
the horrors which one suffered while suspended in this manner
were the following. Severe inflammation, the swelling
of the wounds in the region of the nails, unbearable pain from
torn tendons, fearful discomfort from the strained position of
the body, throbbing headache, burning thirst. As one said, it was the maximum
pain with the least immediate destruction of life. They didn’t
want to kill the prisoner. They wanted to drag it out. This
was torture death. Sometimes, as I said, the arms
were tied to the cross piece with ropes prior to the nails,
but the nails were a key part of the torture. Tremendous physical suffering.
drawn-out torment, just the indignity of hanging on the cross, either
completely or partially naked. The crowd gathered around. One pastor, Puritan, described
the horrific scene in these terms. Nothing could be more horrible
than the sight of this living body, breathing, seeing, hearing,
still able to feel and yet reduced to the state of a corpse by forced immobility and absolute
helplessness, stripped of his clothing, unable even to brush
away the flies which fell upon his wounded flesh, exposed to
the insults and curses of people who can always find sickening
pleasure in the sight of the torture of others. The penalty
of crucifixion combined all that the most ardent tormentor could
desire. Torture, the pillory, degradation,
and certain death distilled slowly drop by drop. And as you sit there and read
one line The only thing that suffices
while we were yet sinners makes it all the more astounding. Another said that crucifixion
was the most agonizing, most painful, most shameful form of
execution ever devised. I don’t know of another. I don’t
even want to think of another. But notice another indignity.
There they crucified him, verse 18, and with him two other men,
one on either side and Jesus in between. What they wanted,
what Pilate designed was another terrific injustice was to post
Jesus between two other criminals as if he was a criminal. It was
the last Aim of indignity at the Jews
because this after all he presents as their king now posted between
two common criminals These men were likely guilty of the very
crime that Barabbas was released for insurrection and murder These
were just the next two in the list They were robbers there were
bandits and They were murderers. And Jesus suffers with them,
as if He’s one of them. Isaiah 53, you know it well.
I will allot Him a portion with the great, I will divide the
booty with the strong, because He poured out Himself to death
and was numbered with the transgressors. And if that wasn’t bad enough
to stand Jesus in between two other murderers, Pilate issues forth one other
indignity that really is aimed more at the Jews even than it
is Christ. Pilate didn’t know how true his
words were. Jesus isn’t just the king of
the Jews, he’s the king of all the earth. Look at verse 19. Pilate also wrote an inscription
and put it on the cross and it was written, Jesus the Nazarene,
the king of the Jews. It was mockery. Pilate didn’t
believe this. He was mocking not only Christ,
but primarily he was mocking the Jews. Therefore, many of
the Jews read the This inscription for the place where Jesus was
crucified was near the city. That too was by design. He wanted
all kinds of people to come by and see this Jewish king now
crucified. Because of that, because of the
population that would come by, he wrote it in three different
languages. It was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So
the chief priests of the Jews, this hit the mark. This hit him
right between the eyes. Pilate knew exactly what he was
doing. And the Jews take umbrage. Do you not write the king of
the Jews? Are you crazy? But that he said
he was the king of the Jews. This coward, really, unprincipled
man, who at least started out of the gate trying to brush this
off, trying to have the Jews deal with the matter themselves,
trying to have Herod deal with it, trying everything that he
could think of to prevent himself from having to take action against
this man that he declared innocent three times, he decides ultimately to get
out of it completely and just have Jesus crucified. After all,
this is a potential threat to Caesar himself. And so Pilate,
in a sense, is covering his own tracks by putting this sign on
the cross. After all, this was the allegation
that the Jews had made And these signs often served the purpose
of identifying the individual, identifying his crime, so that
everyone would know exactly what he had done and how he had suffered
for his punishment. It was a deterrent, designed
as a deterrent in most cases. But in this case, the whole purpose
was to insult the Jews, not even so much Jesus. The title is given just a little
bit differently in all four of the Gospels. It’s varied, different
words. That accounts for the fact that
it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin, one writer likely
taking a portion of each. And these three languages, these
were the languages of the day. But Hebrew is clearly in transition,
and Latin is relatively new. You could say that, as one suggested,
that Hebrew was the language of the country, the nation. Latin was the official language,
and Greek was the common language of communication throughout the
entire Roman world. It’s probably even simpler just
to say that Hebrew was the language of the past. As it was passing
away, it was the original language, the language in which the scriptures
were written. The current language was that
of Greek, and for the next thousand years, Latin would hold sway.
And Pilate, insensibly, puts this message in all three languages. He didn’t even realize he was
preaching the gospel. This is the king of the Jews.
That’s where the gospel writers all agree. Matthew says this
is the king of the Jews. John says Jesus the Nazarene,
the king of the Jews. But Pilate got back at the Jews. Remember, he has been provoked
by them from the very start of this ordeal. When the Jews first
came to him, Luke recorded that they began to accuse him saying,
we found this man misleading our nation. He’s an insurrectionist. Forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar
and out and out lie. And saying that he himself is
Christ, a king. Now that one got Pilate’s attention. And so Pilate Not believing any
of this, not even any of it. Pilate has been provoking them
and pestering them and needling them and teasing them from the
very start. I take you back to John, you
don’t have to turn, just listen. Pilate first irritates him by
referring to Jesus as a king. Verse 39. You have a custom that
I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you wish that
I release to you the king of the Jews? Remember that just
sent him into dithers. Pilate’s soldiers then go on
to mock the idea of Jesus as a king, dressing him up in a
robe, beating him, hailing him as the king of the Jews. Pilate
presents Jesus after judging him. He comes out and he says,
the day of preparation, it was about the sixth hour, and he
said to the Jews, behold your king. And he goads them one last
time. When they’re crying for crucifixion,
he says, shall I crucify your king? He’s doing nothing different
here by writing this placard. that declares Jesus as the Jewish
king, that would not only serve Pilate in protecting him from
crucifying an innocent man from anything that Caesar might hear,
it would be justified in Caesar’s mind, but he also gets back at
the Jews. And so when the Jews demand that
he change this sign, Pilate just says, what I’ve written, I’ve
written. I’ve given into you. I’ve given into your demands.
I’ve heard you. I’ve dealt with you. I’ve tolerated
you these many, many, many hours. And I’ve had enough. And I will
not budge another inch. What I’ve written, I have written.
It stands for all time. while we were yet sinners. Jesus offered up his body to
be broken and mistreated and all the indignities that came
with that. But not only did Jesus offer
up his body to be broken and mistreated, Jesus yielded up,
this was the astounding one to me, Jesus yielded up even his
clothing in fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Then the soldiers,
verse 23, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments,
made four parts, a part to each soldier, and also the tunic.
This was custom, this was tradition. It’s just what they did. When
they took a guide to the gallows, when they took him to the cross,
they took his clothes. And they split them among the
four soldiers. Sandals, belt, shirt, whatever
else, perhaps headwear, There was plenty. Each person
had a part, and then they came to this tunic. The tunic, verse
23, was seamless, woven into one piece. This was a decent
garment for the day. Nice jacket. And they said to
one another, let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide
whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the scripture.
Psalm 22, they divided my outer garments among them, and for
my clothing they cast lots. They rolled the dice to see who
got his jacket. And this point just ends so matter-of-factly. This is
John’s design here in verse 25. Therefore the soldiers did these
things. John wants us to know. He wants us to know of this indignity,
but he doesn’t dwell on it. Here’s Jesus on the cross, suffering
the indignity of even having his clothes divided amongst soldiers
before he’s even dead. And John just says, therefore
the soldiers did these things. Just an image of how much Jesus
endured, how much He bore. They took everything from Him. They’re preparing to take His
life, but now they’ve taken even His last ounce of dignity, His
own clothing. While we were yet sinners, Christ
did this. Jesus offered up his body to
be broken. He yielded up his clothing. Jesus
cleared up, thirdly, unfinished family matters. Just as an example to us of graciousness,
look at the second portion of verse 25. First he mentions the
soldiers. The soldiers did these things,
but standing at the cross were these women. There’s a contrast
that John uses. He sets up there by mentioning
first the four soldiers, and now here, I believe, four women.
His mother Mary, his mother’s sister, who we know as Salome,
Mary of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. And here are these women. And
you’ll remember back that in the garden, when they arrested
Christ, one of the saddest verses in all of Scripture, they all
left Him and fled. I mean, after all, this is an
execution. This is a place of execution. Jesus is standing there, surrounded
by Roman soldiers, surrounding by those who hate him. And here are these ladies, dedicated,
devoted, unmoved, unwavering. One pastor said, even in the
midst of the crow and taunting of the Jews and tough soldiers,
these holy women were determined to stand by our Lord to the last
and to show their unceasing affection. When we remember that our Lord
was a condemned criminal, hated by the chief priests, executed
by Roman soldiers, the faithfulness and courage of these women can
never be sufficiently admired. Here are these four ladies attending
an execution, an execution not just of a dear friend, and in
Mary’s case, her son, but an execution of their Savior. But they couldn’t be anywhere
else. Now I don’t know about you, But if you and I were on the
cross, I would dare say the last thing that we would think to
accomplish is the idea of setting forth a will, a last will and
testament. We wouldn’t be concerned about
other people. We’re not usually concerned about
them until the moment of our death. But in verse 26 it says, when
Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved
standing nearby, John referring to himself as he always does
in this gospel, he said to his mother, woman, behold your son.
He said to the disciple, behold your mother. From that hour,
the disciple took her into his own household. The idea of using
the word woman is not disrespectful in the least. It’s Jesus referring
to his mother as a mere human person. She is not the queen
of heaven, as some of you have been told. This is the one who
had just asked forgiveness, remember? For those who are in the midst
of crucifying him. This is the same one that looked
to his left and to his right and interacted with his fellow
prisoners being crucified, promising one paradise even that afternoon. And now he looks with care and
concern and actually does something about it. He wanted her to have spiritual
care. He wanted John to come alongside of her and love her
and care for her and help her and protect her, provide for
her. Even in the midst of this bitter
anguish, Jesus was selfless enough to look about and care for others. No doubt. the commandments came into view.
An opportunity for Jesus to live out the commandments one last
time as the King of all righteousness. Honor your father and your mother. That’s exactly what He does on
the cross. A fitting way to honor the Old Testament standards for
the care of widows and orphans was to look on His mother who
soon would be a widow. and to look upon John who likely
was already an orphan, parents having died, and to give his
own mother another son, and to give his dear friend another
mother. Well, we know from the Synoptic
Gospels that many other things flow out at that particular scene. There is the abuse of the passers-by. There is the abuse of the criminals
next to him. There is the darkness that comes
and falls over the whole land. All the synoptics record those
particular events. But for our purposes, we come
back to the fourth. The fourth observation of what
Christ endured while we were yet sinners. While we were yet sinners, Jesus
offered up His body. He yielded up His clothing. He
cleared up unfinished family matters. Then He gave up His
spirit to complete His redemption. Look at verse 28. After this,
Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished,
all scriptures had been fulfilled, the resurrection notwithstanding,
to fulfill scripture said I am thirsty. A jar of sour wine was standing
there probably for the very purpose of feeding it to those being
crucified. If not for the soldiers themselves
who were engaged in this act, something cool to drink. They
put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop
and brought it to his mouth. What were their motives? Was
it an act of kindness? Was it an act of contrition?
Fearful that now they would be judged for having a hand in this
heinous crime? We don’t know. We’ll never know. Jesus took a sip. It says in
verse 30 that He received the sour wine. Perhaps just a couple
of drops on His parched throat. And He said it is finished. Some people look at that as kind
of a cry of weakness, a whimpering. The gospel writers together in
total say that it was a cry, a loud cry. It was a victory cry. It was
finished because Jesus knew that redemption had been accomplished. The atonement for sin had been
accomplished. The propitiation, the full payment,
never needing to be repeated. had now been rendered. This isn’t a moan. This isn’t a muttering. This
is a loud cry of victory and it just says so simply. He bowed his head. and gave up His Spirit while
we were yet sinners. You begin to see the voluntary
nature of what Jesus did even in those words. They didn’t put Him to death.
I mean in a sense they had a hand in it. But when it was all said
and done He gave up His Spirit. He yielded up His Spirit. He
yielded up. This is, after all, the giver
of all life. And it was never over until He
said it was over. Psalm 31 5 says likewise, into
your hands I commit my spirit. You have ransomed me, O Lord,
God of truth. That was the idea in Christ’s
mind. While we were yet sinners, Jesus
offered up His body, He yielded up even His clothing, He cleared
up all these unfinished family matters, and He gave up His spirit
to complete the Father’s work of redemption. Colossians 1 says it so clearly, It was the
Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.
Jesus came fully God in a human body for all the fullness to
dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself
having made peace through the blood of His cross. Through him
I say whether things on earth or things in heaven. While we were yet sinners, Jesus
Christ did this. If you’re a Christian, you cannot
come to this indifferently. You cannot come to this scene
indifferently. In fact, every single one of
us has to walk out of here changed people. that Jesus Christ did this while
we were yet sinners, that He calls us, He calls us to a life
of faith and obedience, growth in godliness. If you’re not a Christian, you
just heard the greatest news that the world has never heard.
You just heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You just
heard the one way, the only way that will ever be provided for
any person in this world to be right with a holy God, and that
is to have your sin forgiven by what Jesus Christ accomplished. He did this for sinners while
they were yet sinners. Don’t look around. Don’t look
at other people and say, well, they’re not that great anyway.
They’re hypocrites after all. Christians aren’t any different
than anybody else. They’re not. They’re sinners,
just like you. They needed the salvation and
the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, just like you. The only difference is that by
God’s grace, we’ve come to know that Jesus did this while we
were yet sinners. What about you? Do you humble
yourself before Almighty God? Our merciful King, we look at these horrible words
and we think of all the dreadful things disrespectful things,
terrible things that Jesus did and endured, even gracious things
that he did while hanging on a cross. Merciful God, we know
that it was done, those of us who have placed our faith in
Jesus Christ, we know that it was done for us. We know that
it was done while we were yet sinners. So Father God, if there
are any here who have never placed their faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, may this be the day. Do not let their eyes enjoy sleep
until they make it right by turning from their sin and placing their
faith in Christ and in Him alone. Father, for us who know our Savior,
for us who have been called to follow You, We pray that you
would stir our hearts anew. That if Jesus did these things
while we were yet sinners, is there anything that we would
do half-heartedly for the King of all righteousness? It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.