See, Jesus died on the cross for your sins. It's one thing to say it at church on Sunday. It's simple. It's quick. It's easy. But today we're going to read about the actual crucifixion of Jesus, and we're going to study the details of his death, and we're going to see there was nothing simple, quick, or easy about it. I invite you to open the Bible, and turn with me to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 15, starting in verse 16, and we're going to read about how they crucified him. And if you don't have a Bible, these verses are printed on the handout that's there in your bulletin. And out of respect for God's Word, I want to invite everyone to stand for the public reading of Scripture. I want to encourage you to give this your full and undivided attention. If you are a believer in Jesus, this is your salvation. Please follow along as I read, starting in Mark 15 verse 16.

And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor's headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him. And when the sixth hour[f] had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. I would love for you to take notes on the handout there in your bulletin, as we go through the details of this text together. I want to go through this text, kind of looking at it from two different ways. The first way, point number one, I want you to: “See the HURT.” See the hurt. This is often what stands out to us the most, living in the United States of America in 2026. To see executions in such a torturous way like this is something that we are unfamiliar with, and so the physical punishment, the suffering that he had in his body, is something that can make a big impact on us. And so go back to verse 15, because under point number one, let's start with how they scourged him in verse 15. “So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, a known murderer, insurrectionist, gets to go free, and the innocent man is scourged. Having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. So, Pilate hands Jesus over to the Roman soldiers, who gather the whole battalion, and the first thing they do is flogging, is the scourging. It's a whipping. It could be two men, both having whips, ripping open the back of Jesus, tearing the flesh off of his back. Scourging is such a brutal experience that some people died just from being scourged like that, so that was the first kind of real hurt that came to him.

Here was where we left off last week back in verse 15 when he got scourged. But you can see what the soldiers are doing; they're treating him like the King of the Jews. So, they get this crown of thorns, in verse 17, a massive group of soldiers here, and they're saluting him. They're bowing down to him. But notice in verse 19, they're striking his head. Let's get that down. Along with the scourging, we're striking his head. Well, hold on. We've got a crown of thorns on his head, so that means we're striking his head. We're pounding these thorns into his skull. Have you ever had a head wound before? Have you ever been bleeding from your head? You get dizzy. You get discombobulated. You get disoriented. That's all happening to Jesus. His back has been ripped open and exposed. He's now bleeding from his head and feeling woozy as they pound him. And then it says, “They led him out to crucify him.”

Now, when you get to verse 21, notice they have to get Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross. So that shows us how weak Jesus already is, and we haven't even got to the cross yet. He's not even able at this point to bear up under the weight of that cross beam that they are expecting him to carry to his own execution, and so they grab Simon. Now this is really interesting because it identifies Simon as the father of Alexander and Rufus, implying that when Mark is writing this and he's sending it to his original audience, Mark thinks that some of the people there might know Alexander and Rufus, and so they might be interested to learn that it was their father who carried the cross of Jesus, implying that maybe this man Simon became a part of the Church of Jesus Christ, or at least that his sons were a part of the Church of Jesus Christ. In fact, if you're taking notes, write down Rufus in Romans 16:13. Rufus, and I don't know what happened to the name Rufus. It's kind of a cool name. Rufus in Romans 16:13 is one of the people that Paul greets there in the church. In fact, it says Rufus and his mother who's there. Rufus's mother would have been Simon's wife. So, it seems like a small world church connection here. That Simon's the one who ends up helping out carry the cross because Jesus is already so beaten down physically that he can't even carry his own cross. And then in verse 24, notice how it just says it: “They crucified him.”

So, I need you to notice how Mark is writing this, they scourged him, they struck him with a reed, they crucified him. He's just telling it to us, very as a matter of fact. He's not adding a lot of adjectives. He's not giving us a lot of details of the physical pain. That's because people at this time would have been used to crucifixion. They would have been more familiar with it, not as shocked by it as we are. For example, It just says, “They crucified him.” It doesn't say in verse 24 they nailed his hands and feet to the cross. It doesn't even say that in the Gospel of Mark. I would be saying, "Oh, they nailed his hands and feet. Oh, the blood's coming down from his head. Oh, there's a pool of blood at the foot of the cross. I would be describing all these things. I want you to observe with me that Mark is not emphasizing the physical suffering. In fact, how do we even know that he did get nailed to the cross? Well, let me give you a couple of verses about the nails. Luke 24:39. “After his resurrection,” he's like, see my hands. He's like, here you can look at the scars. Even Thomas says in John 20:25, “Unless I see the scars in his hands and feet, I won't believe.” So, we know for sure that he did get nailed to the cross. But notice how Mark is not even saying that.

So, for me and you, the physical suffering, because we're not used to seeing people get tortured and then publicly executed in a gruesome and brutal way like this that is shocking to us. It's overwhelming to us. But what we need to see, by the way Mark writes it, is that's not the point Mark is trying to make. Mark is not trying to impress upon you the physical suffering of Jesus. He's talking about it, but it's not his point of emphasis. In fact, what you and I need to realize Is, even though when we think of someone dying on the cross, we go to Jesus at this time, under the Roman Empire. Hundreds and thousands of people died on crosses. Okay, so this was a common way. I mean, crucifixion was developed before the Roman Empire, but the Romans perfected this as a way to torture and execute people. And a lot of people died this way, so even though I don't think the whole battalion is saying to everybody who dies on the cross, "Hail, King of the Jews, even though I'm sure there were some things about Jesus, like the crown of thorns, that are unique. A lot of this is what would happen to criminals at that time, and it's very important that we know how you actually die on the cross.

Let me ask it in the form of a question: What is it that actually kills you when you die on the cross? Shout it out if you know. Asphyxiation is actually the thing, right? You are not able to breathe. You run out of air because the minute they get you up on that cross and they kind of jerk the cross into the upright position, well, from that moment on, your bones are all out of joint, and in that moment on, you might have broken some ribs already, and your body is not meant to hang up by nails in your hands and feet, and so your body begins to shrink in on itself. And so, sometimes on a cross, you might notice a little piece of wood that sticks out from the cross, right about where the feet of the person would be. And the idea is they would use their feet to push on that wood to lift themselves up, so their lungs could open up, so they could get a breath. And so, that's really the agony. You have to keep lifting yourself up to get another breath, and every breath becomes so labored, and every push becomes so hard, and this goes on for a long time. Let's look at the timeline that Mark gives us. Let's start in verse 25, where he says they crucified him at the third hour.

So, if you want to get this under point number one, the timeline is the third hour, which would be 9 a.m. That's when they crucified him. So this started early in the morning, but then it says in verse 33, it says, “It was the sixth hour,” which would be noon, when darkness came over the land. So, for three hours he's there trying to get these breaths, going through this physical agony, and then clearly something supernatural happens in the middle of the day, and it becomes dark right around noontime, and that darkness goes all the way to the ninth hour at 3p.m. is when he cries out, and then that's when he dies. So, you can tell that their keeping of time was not as specific as we're into the second or the minute today. Notice how they're just keeping it by the hours, but roughly we're talking about six hours of this physical agony when they crucified him. Okay, so that is serious to us. It's shocking, but at that time, that's a common way that people are executed.

What Mark spends more of his time writing about, what you really need to see today is point number two. You need to “Feel the HATE.” That's what Mark is drawing our attention to. Mark goes through three specific groups of people that are coming after Jesus that want to see Jesus die. They are rooting for it. They are cheering his death on. You would think that if Jesus is on the cross, Mark would be giving it from Jesus' perspective. Mark would be getting us to think about why Jesus is there and what Jesus is accomplishing, the salvation for all mankind. No, Mark actually draws your attention to these Roman soldiers, and he draws your attention away from the cross all the way over to the road where people are passing by, and he actually takes you over to those guys, the chief priests, the scribes, who think they're winning and are gloating.

It's really interesting when you think about how Mark writes this. The focus is not just on Jesus being crucified; it's on all the haters gathering around, and what they all have to say. Let's start with the Roman soldiers. Circle how they “mocked” him in verse 20. Circle that word "mocked,” and this is like they gathered all the battalion. Hey, we're going to kill the King of the Jews. You’ve got to come see this, right? And they're doing this pretend like hail, King of the Jews. They put a purple cloak on him. Purple was the color of royalty or nobility. It was very hard to get the color purple with all the dye that you needed, and so probably it was one of their Roman soldier kind of cloak, their red cloaks that had been kind of faded over time that they're using to pretend. Oh, we'll give him his purple cloak. We'll give him his crown. Oh, let's bow down to him. Oh, he's the King of the Jews. But they're just mocking him.

These are strong men, these Roman soldiers. These are the guys who survived the battles. These are the hardened military men who are now on post in enemy territory. The Jews didn't want the Romans there. There were Jewish insurrectionists always looking for their chance to strike a Roman soldier, and so these guys were on edge. These guys were hardened, and now they've got somebody who's known as the King of the Jews. Yeah, they're having fun with that. They're making sport of Jesus. They're spitting on him. This is a really brutal scene here, when it says they mocked him, fake bowing down, fake hailing and saluting, pounding the crown of thorns into his skull. Even if you go down to verse 23, as they're taking him to the place of the skull, in verse 23 they offered him wine. Now, this is not them trying to help him later on by offering him this wine. No, in Luke 23:36, it makes it very clear that this is a part of the mockery. Oh, King, would you like your wine, King? We've come to bring you your wine, King of the Jews. So, they're just having fun with the idea that the King of the Jews is with us.

How do you think it felt for Jesus to be in the midst of a battalion of Roman soldiers, having them mock him? We actually get a glimpse into it. Turn with me to Psalm 69. David wrote a psalm. David, King David of Israel, lived a thousand years before Jesus, and he wrote this in Psalm 69:19-21. I think it really ties in to our text today. In fact, I think one of the reasons that Mark doesn't need to tell us this from the perspective of Jesus because David already wrote about it from the perspective of Jesus a thousand years beforehand, which is fascinating. So, everybody, look with me at Mark. Sorry, we're going from Mark to Psalm 69, verse 19. “You know my reproach. My reproach, all the hate, all the accusations, the charges against me. You know my reproach and my shame and my dishonor. My foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart.” Who's ever heard that phrase? Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Has anybody ever heard that? I wonder why that became such a common phrase when it's so false. Many of us have broken bones; they healed, but we have been hurt by words that have plagued our thoughts, and that's what Jesus is saying here, or David's writing this, but it seems like it's from Jesus's perspective. “Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none. I looked for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.” That's what connects these words of David to what these Roman soldiers just did by offering him wine as a part of their mockery.

I see that from Jesus's perspective. When people are striking you on the head and blood is flowing down, and you're feeling disoriented, and people are laughing and they're cheering, and you're just making eye contact with everyone there. You're just looking for pity. You're just looking for someone to care. You're just looking for someone to say, all right, that's enough. All right, we've had our fun. All right, let's move on. You're just looking for anyone to stand up and do what is reasonable, but there was no pity to be found, no comforter to be found. So, under feel the hate, we want to see the mockery of what these Roman soldiers made out of Jesus, and we want to get a sense of all this reproach coming against him, and the despair that he is in. It's one thing to go through physical agony; it's another thing to have people heaping it on and watching you die and wanting you to die. That's what they're doing.

Go back to Mark 15 and let's get to the second group. And this one to me is the most remarkable, in verse 29 of Mark 15, because instead of focusing on Jesus there on the cross or even his. Mother, who's there, or I know John the disciple is there, or the chief priests and the scribes that we'll get to. Like there's some key characters right around the cross. Well, now Mark takes us all the way over here to the road where people are passing by. That's our second group of people: those who passed by in verse 29, and circle the word “derided” him. Circle that derided there. You could write down that derided is the same word in the Greek for blasphemed. Remember in the trial of Jesus, when the chief priests asked him, "Are you the Son of the Blessed?” And what did Jesus say? He said, "Yes, I am the Son of the Blessed, and you will see me sitting at the right hand of power, and you will see me coming on the clouds of heaven.” And what did the chief priest say? Oh, he has blasphemed. Look, that's all we need to kill him. They thought it was so bad that he blasphemed that they should kill him for his blasphemy. It now uses the same word to describe what people are saying about Jesus, they're blaspheming him. They're saying all this evil against him falsely. They're deriding him, wagging their heads. And look at what Mark wants you to see.

This is the second time he's brought this up in verse 29. Aha! Now before we get to what they say, I need to make a public apology here today. I need to apologize to Mr. Mundane on the ESV Bible app. Does anyone listen to an audio version of the Bible? Does anybody have someone read you the Bible? Okay, who uses the ESV Bible app? Now there are a bunch of different people that read the Bible on there, the original I call him Mr. Mundane because he's always just kind of going along, and I need to apologize to him publicly, because when he was reading some of these accounts, and I had him read them to me, some of these accounts of the crucifixion, he started putting tone and inflection in his voice that I had never heard from Mr. Mundane before. His voice changed. “Oh, you the King of the Jews!” He started saying. I was like somebody who just handed Mr. Mundane a fresh cup of coffee before we got to the crucifixion, because you can't say this stuff in it. This stuff is so twisted. It's so evil. What these haters are saying. You can't even say it in your normal human voice. It's like you have to go to it. Even Mr. Mundane can't resist the urge. Aha! They said right. If they could only hear themselves. Look at what they say. “Aha, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross.” So, they're over here on the road. He's up there on the cross, and they're shouting at him, "Oh yeah, you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it, weren't you? Why don't you save yourself now? Aha!” Now this was the same false accusation that they said at the trial. Go back to 14:58. Remember when the lying witnesses came forth, and they said in Mark 14:58, we heard him say, "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another not made with hands.” So, you see, this is what's brutal about the hate of the world, is they're misquoting Jesus.

Let's get that down for our second dash under point number two. They're “misquoting” him. The passersby, even without the internet, the word is spread on the streets of Jerusalem. Oh yeah, Jesus. I know him. He said he'll destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Is that really what Jesus even said? But now it's what everybody thinks he said. And now, have you ever been misquoted before? Have you ever heard somebody twist your words and accuse you of saying something you didn't say? In fact, what they're saying you did say is kind of the opposite of what you actually said. That's what happens to Jesus. They're acting like your goal was to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.

We'll go to John, chapter 2, everybody, and let's go to what Jesus actually said in John 2:19 because clearly, this was such a false representation of Jesus that when John wrote his gospel, he wanted to make it clear what Jesus actually said and put this to rest. So, he gives it to us that Jesus had already said this in Jerusalem earlier in his ministry in John, chapter 2, verse 19. “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’” What temple is he talking about, everybody? He's not talking about the temple there in Jerusalem, right? But you can see right away they don't understand. The Jews then said it has taken 46 years to build this temple. Well. You raise it up in three day? But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. Man, isn't that so ironic that people are passing by, shouting, "Hey, he said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.” Ha! When he is literally dying in the temple of his body, and he's going to rise on the third day, he's doing what he said. They're over here misquoting him in their mockery. That's how the hate doesn't make sense. The hate's not logical. The hate doesn't come at you like, oh, we're hating you because of a good reason. That's not how hate works. No. And in fact, if there was anybody who cares about the temple in Jerusalem at this time. Who's actually the person who, in the last few days, in this week, in the city of Jerusalem, who has actually raised a ruckus and showed his care for the temple more than any other person?

Go to Mark chapter 11. Let's just remind ourselves of what Jesus had done that week in the temple. Was he there to destroy the temple? No, he was there to call out the hypocrisy that was already going down in the temple. He came in in Mark 11:15, “And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.” Verse 16, “And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, ‘Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” Zeal for his father's house consumed him. You're going to act like Jesus is against the temple. Even from the time when Jesus was a boy and his parents confined him. They ended up finding him in the temple, and what did he say to his mom and dad? That “I will be about my father's business.” Nobody cared about the temple like Jesus. And now, while they're laughing at him, while he's dying, they're acting like he was against their temple. What a twist! No, when Jesus cleared out this temple, he began teaching people the actual words of God, and all the leaders, all the hypocrites, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the chief priests, the scribes, the lawyers, they came with their best questions. They came with their toughest accusations, and in his wisdom, using the Scripture, Jesus answered every single one of them, so no one even dared to ask him any more questions.

And he began to say some of the greatest things that have ever been said, some of the most quoted truths of all time. He said, "There are two great commandments: to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself,” that's what he was shouting in the temple. He was telling people how to really worship God from the heart. And now it's going to go down while they're killing him. Like, yeah, he was against the temple anyways. Ha! What a twist! Now he said that the temple would be destroyed because of their hypocrisy and how they were conducting themselves in the temple because of how they treat him. He prophesied that the temple would be destroyed, and it was in 70 A.D. by the Romans. But Jesus wasn't against the temple, he was for the worship of his father, for those who worship him in spirit and in truth. But here they are, hating him, deriding him, blaspheming him, like he was against the temple. As they feel self-righteous, they kill the righteous one.

Go back to Mark 15 because there's a third group, and this is the group you would expect. This is the chief priests and the scribes mocking him to one another, and Mark brings us into their false, pious, snooty, gloating conversations. “He saved others, but he cannot save himself. Pity, poor chap.” You can just hear the mockery drip. Well, we've seen him save some other people. Too bad he doesn't have enough left for himself, right? Look, he saved others, which they don't really believe. He cannot save himself. Let the Christ look at this. Verse 32. Look at what they say. They don't really believe he's the Messiah, the King of Israel. They don't really believe he's the King. Let him come down now from the cross, which they don't really believe he's going to do, that we may see and believe that they're not really willing to do. It's all lies. It's all just like, oh, if you're the Messiah, oh, if you're the King, why don't you save yourself? See, everybody's assuming that Jesus's number one priority would be what the normal human being number one priority is: self-preservation, keep yourself alive, always in it for number one, which is you. And that's the thing.

Let's get it down for our third dash. They “Miss the point.” They're not getting what Jesus came to do. Jesus didn't come here to save himself. He came to save you. He didn't come to save himself. That's not. See these chief priests and these scribes that have lurked around the teaching of Jesus from the beginning of Mark, he's even directed some of his teaching to them. They sure haven't gotten the point of Jesus. The point of Jesus was that even the Son of Man came, not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. The irony of the mocker saying he saved others, but he can't save himself, when the whole point is he's dying to save others. He doesn't want to save himself. He wanted to save you.

It's very important that you and I come to understand the hate of the world. Jesus said in John 15 that if the world hates me, they're going to hate you too. And at the end of his statement about hate in John 15, he quotes, "They hated me without a cause.” When the world hates you, it will not make sense. It will not be logical. It will be a twisting of what you are about, and it will miss the point of what it really means to follow Jesus Christ. And they will unleash this reckless hate upon you, just like they did upon Jesus here. And that's what Mark wants you to see. Yeah, many people might have died on a cross, but was anybody ever hated like this? Can you feel the hate?

When I was studying this week and sitting in this week, I realized that I think Mark 15 is one of the strongest arguments I have come across as to why none of us should ever curse, none of us should ever use profanity. Do you think the Roman soldiers were using profanity when they mocked Jesus? Do you think the passerby's were using profanity when they derided him? Do you think maybe even the chief priests and the scribes let some unholy words slip from their pious mouths? Notice how Mark doesn't give us any of the vile language. Mark clearly did some editing, but he clearly wrote the hate because Mark wanted you to feel the hate. He wanted you to know that Jesus knew the hate was coming, and Jesus was willing to go through this hate, anyways. And after all this mockery, what did Jesus say? Is that your response to hate? “Father, forgive them.”

Let it be known here today that there is a love that overcomes the hate. Though he was hated, he did not hate in return. Though there was evil seeking to overcome him, he was not overcome by evil. He overcame evil with good. The response to the hate of the world is not to try to fight, because it won't be a fair fight. No, the response to the hate of the world is the love of Jesus Christ. To love your enemies. To pray for those who persecute you. You see, when Jesus died on the cross, all he had was enemies. He was surrounded by enemies. Do you realize that nobody ever starts out on Jesus's side? We all start on the enemy's side. Weak, ungodly, sinners. haters. That's a great way to define a sinner, as someone who's hateful, someone who hates others.

Let's be very careful here at church on a Sunday morning that we're not looking down at all those haters because we would be a part of the groupthink of the world. And we would be haters if it were not for the love of Jesus Christ. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? You’ve got all these people wishing you dead, and what you want to say is, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Turn with me to Luke 23, where he says that. In the Gospel of Luke, it records him saying, "Father, forgive them.” But then it goes on to talk about those two men on the cross. Now, in our passage, in verse 32, it says, "Those who were crucified with him, one on the right, one on the left, they also reviled him.” You could circle that if you're taking notes. In verse 32, there's another word used to describe the hatred, they reviled him. So even the criminals dying on the crosses next to him, as they're also gasping for breath, are using some of that breath to revile Jesus. In fact, it says in Luke 23. If you go to verse 39 of Luke 23, it says that “Even one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him.” There's another word you could add to our list: mocked, derided, reviled, railed at him. Are you not the Christ? Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us.

To be Jesus on the cross is to hear people shouting at you, “Save yourself.” Have you ever thought about that? You're up there dying for the sins of the world. He's dying for my sin, for your sin, and what is the constant thing that he's hearing in all of his disorientation and all of his pain, as he's gasping for breath, what is he hearing? People shout at him from the road or from the foot of the cross: "Save yourself!” Even the other people on the cross are shouting, "Save yourself!” It's like the voice of hate, like Satan himself speaking, "Save yourself!” But then one of the criminals changes his mind. Look at verse 40. “But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. It's like finally, somebody speaks some sense. Finally, a little bit of pity, a little bit of common sense. Yeah, finally, just somebody saying, "Yeah, well, we deserve to be up here. We're murderers. We're insurrectionists. We're thieves. But this guy, Jesus, he doesn't deserve to get treated like this. What has Jesus done wrong? What evil has he done? The one righteous man who ever lived on this planet is going to get hated and treated like this.

Finally, somebody stands up for Jesus, and it's the guy who's dying next to him who had already been saying evil about him and reviling him moments ago, but during the course of this six hours, for some reason this guy changes his mind, and he even says to Jesus in verse 42, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Finally, someone talks to Jesus like he is the King, like they believe it, and he said to him, "Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.” I wonder when you and I get to the glory of Jesus Christ, when we get to join him in paradise, I wonder how surprised we will be by how many haters we will find in paradise. How many enemies of the cross! How many mockers of the Christian faith throughout the years has the love of Jesus broken through their hate? There will be many, I think, who persecuted. We know already one of the most famous persecutors of the church, Saul. We won't call him Saul there, though we'll know him as Paul.

Have you given up on the haters in your life? Have you acted like the haters are in some different category because the haters are exactly who Jesus died for? See, I think some of us think, well, there are haters and then there's us. No, we were the haters, then Jesus loved us, and there's hope for the haters. There's hope for those who mock us this very hour. Those who are passing by the church, wagging their heads. Those who think, "Oh, those hypocrites over there. Good thing that Jesus loves them”. See, we're supposed to feel the hate because when you see how strong the hate was, it puts in perspective the love of Jesus Christ. Go back to Mark 15 because there's something that Jesus says that's widely misunderstood. And we're going to get to the fullness of Jesus dying next week. So, if you want to hear part two of the story of his crucifixion, you’ve got to come back next week. It would be a great week to bring somebody even with you to come and hear about his death for our sins. But on our way there, it gets dark in verse 33, and then in verse 34, at the ninth hour, so six hours roughly.

Jesus now cries out. So, just to remind you, right when this is a big deal that he would cry out like this, because that would take a lot of his breath, a lot of his energy. And if you keep going in verse 39, he breathed his last. So, we're getting close now to the end. And Jesus cries out, and what he says is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Now, if you've gone to church much, you know this line. It's a famous quote from Jesus. Everything Jesus says on the cross becomes famous. It's kind of like people's famous last words. Well, Jesus has a few different things that he says that are recorded for us on the cross, and everything he says on the cross took a lot of effort for him to say, and so we pay attention to it. So, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Now, usually, if you've been to church, you've probably heard somebody say, and what Jesus meant by that was, and they begin to explain to you what he means is happening to him in this moment that God is forsaking him.

But here's what I need you to hear. Point number three: you need to “Hear his REFERENCE.” This is a quote that Jesus is making here. He's quoting something. So, this is not an original statement. It's not necessarily an instructive teaching kind of a statement. Jesus is quoting a famous work of literature from King David of Israel in Psalm 22. In fact, this is the opening line of Psalm 22. So, if you've ever heard a pastor explain, Hey, here's what it means that he, when he meant, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” here's what that means, and they didn't take you to Psalm 22. Well, how can you explain a quote without going to where the quote is from? And so, I need everybody to grab your Bible and turn with me to Psalm 22, because I think in his last moments, Jesus just unlocked. Him crying out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” is a key that unlocks a whole another text of what is happening to him on the cross, and I don't think that that's the final word. I think that's just the opening line. And if you really want to know what to think about Jesus being there in his physical agony, enduring all of the hate on the cross, well, then you’ve got to go back to the source of Psalm 22 that he's quoting from, and this is an amazing thing that God would do.

We know that David was a man after God's own heart, and that God sometimes would speak through King David, and would really be speaking from the King of Israel and David about a future King of Israel. That David is a type of a Messiah, a Christ, an Anointed One that is to come, the real King of the Jews, and so someone who's being mocked for being the King of the Jews now just quoted the most famous King of the Jews in all of their history, and so why is he quoting? Well, look at what Psalm 22 actually says. “To the choirmaster, according to The Doe of the Dawn, a Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

Now, if you've read through the Psalms with us, you know a lot of the Psalms start with questions like that. But if you keep reading, the question gets answered later in the Psalms, and notice right away the tone changes in verse 3. “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel, and you our fathers trusted. They trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued, and you they trusted, and they were not put to shame. But I am a worm, and not a man. I'm scorned by mankind. I'm despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me. They wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him.” Do you think that Mark, when he wrote Mark 15, used the phrase "wag their heads" because he was quoting King David from Psalm 22? Do you see what Jesus is saying when he says, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” What He's saying is everything David wrote is happening now. And then look at verse 11. Just let's keep reading through, and just remember that this was written a thousand years before Jesus died on the cross. This was written hundreds of years before crucifixion was even a thing. And look at how specifically it describes what's happening to Jesus. Verse 11, “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death, for dogs encompass me. A company of evildoers encircles me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they” what everybody? “Cast lots.” Who is David talking about a thousand years beforehand? Who is David talking about hundreds of years before the Roman Empire? He's talking about these guys, the soldiers over here, the mockers, the ones who are like, "Oh, look at this tunic! Let's not break this into four pieces. Let's cast lots to see who gets this one. Yeah, let's do that. And these Roman soldiers who think they're in control of the execution of Jesus don't even realize that God already said what they would do a thousand years before they did it, because God wants you to know the Roman soldiers weren't in control. God is in control. And when you read it in John's gospel because John was right there at the foot of the cross, Jesus even talked to John and told John to take care of his mom. Now let's think about that because Jesus had brothers, but he's not saying to his brothers take care of mom. He's saying to the disciple whom he loved, John, take care of my mom.

So, I don't know if you knew that, but on the cross, Jesus told the disciple John to take care of his mom. So, John is right there at the cross, and it's like there's a moment where John sees the Roman soldiers, and they're not paying attention to Jesus. They're over here casting lots for his clothes, which should tell us all something. If they're casting lots for his clothes, where are his clothes? Not on him, which is a part of the shame of being exposed up there on the cross. And so, they're over here after having made a mockery of him. Who's going to get the dead King of the Jews' clothes? And when John sees that, it's like that moment in the movie when everything goes slowmo, and the numbers and the formulas and the mathematical equations start dancing all around the room, and it comes in slow motion to John, and John realizes he's seeing a thousand-year-old prophecy come true, right in front of his eyes, and that everything about this scene, the pain, the hate, the darkness, the death, God told us all before it even happened. Because this isn't the chief priest's story. This isn't the Roman soldiers’ story. This is God's story. “That the Father so loved the world he gave his one and only Son,” and he doesn't want you to think that they had power over Jesus. God wants you to know that Jesus was doing his will. I'll tell you, if I was writing the story, I don't know if I would have the main character get hated like this. But Jesus was willing to go through this hate, and for those of us who are parents, sometimes it can be even harder than going through it ourselves to watch our kids go through something. But the Father was willing to offer up his Son even to go through this hate.

Why would they go through such hate? For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God wanted to show you what love really looks like by sending his Son Jesus to die for your sins. Now, there's a part of Psalm 22 that is still ongoing. It's a part that doesn't really get talked about. But let me read to you the end of this psalm. Follow along with me. Go to verse 22. After we get this story of this brutal suffering, notice what it says in verse 22: " I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”

Hey, this story of suffering, this should go to the ends of the earth. This should go to the families of all nations. Verse 28, “For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.” Tell your children, tell the generation, tell anyone who will listen. Hey, I’ve got something to tell you, and it's not just for church on a Sunday. Jesus died on the cross for your sins. He overcame the hate, he overcame the pain, and he was willing to suffer in your place. And it's one thing to say Jesus died on the cross here today. Are you willing to say it in the face of those who might hate you for it? Because he was willing to go through that hate for you. And so, we want to remember what Jesus did right now in a time of communion. And so let me pray, and then we'll give you a chance to respond and pray, and then we'll all come and take the communion together a little later on. But let me pray for us right now.

O Father in heaven, we just confess to you here today that it's easy for us to talk about the death of Jesus. Sometimes it's almost like a cliche or a catchphrase. But God, I thank you that today we could really sit with it and consider the pain that he went through, the physical hurt that we could feel, the hate that he went through, all the mockery coming at him. Save yourself. People wanting him dead, and then God to hear him say a line from David, and to go back and read that psalm, where you knew they would wag their heads, you knew the agony he would be nailed with his hands and feet. You even knew what the soldiers would be doing with his clothes. What an amazing story you have written! There's no other story like this, where the enemies are made children, and the haters are met with a love. God, open our eyes to see the glory of the gospel. And how dare we be ashamed of Jesus when he went through so much shame for us? I pray that we would praise him in the great congregation here today. I pray that we would remember what it cost Jesus, and I pray that when we leave here, that we would speak it to the coming generation, that we would tell to those who are born so much later, two thousand years later, that on an old rugged cross on a hill far away, that's where I found out what love is. God, let us tell people he has done it. Let us see that the righteousness of Jesus Christ is available to all who believe. So, hear our prayers now as we remember Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen.