SPIRITUAL DIARY
FOR2/6/2013 11:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Pre-Crucifixion of Jesus
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Mark
15:15-21
Message of the
verses: “15 Wishing to satisfy the
crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he
handed Him over to be crucified. 16 The soldiers took Him away into the palace
(that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. 17
They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put
it on Him; 18 and they began to acclaim Him, "Hail, King of the
Jews!" 19 They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and
kneeling and bowing before Him. 20 After they had mocked Him, they took the
purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to
crucify Him. 21 They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country,
Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.”
I got to thinking a bit more about Barabbas and it came
to my mind what happened on the Day of Atonement. It seems to me that I had heard at some time
in my past a sermon that talked about what happened to Barabbas, how he was let
go and Jesus was crucified that it is like what happened on the Day of
Atonement when two lambs are chosen and one is killed for the sins of the
nation of Israel and one is let go into the wilderness. All I can say at this time is that I do
remember the sermon and perhaps it is correct.
Charles H. Spurgeon gave a sermon on “The Day of
Atonement” on the morning of August 10, 1856 at the New Park Street Chapel,
Southwark, London, England. In that
sermon he made the following points “The person who made the atonement;
secondly the sacrifice whereby the atonement was typically made; thirdly, the
effects of the atonement; and fourthly, our behavior on the recollection of the
atonement, as well set forth by the conduct prescribed to the Israelites on
that day.” The sermon is eleven pages
long, which makes it too long to put into this Spiritual Diary, but for those
who are interested in reading it, it can be found at www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0095.jtm.
Yesterday we looked at verse fifteen but I want to go
over something else found in that verse in this SD. The verse speaks of the cowardliness of
Pilate for Mark states that the reason that Pilate sentenced Jesus to be
crucified was he wanted to satisfy the crowd.
It also says that Pilate handed Jesus over to be scourged. What Jesus went through was a horrible thing
for Him to go through and I certainly am not making light of it. However what He went through physically was
not was caused Him to sweat great drops of blood. What He went through was not totally unlike
what all 30,000 people that the Romans crucified in Israel during this
time. Jesus foretold that this would
happen: “32 They were on the road going
up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking on ahead of them; and they were amazed,
and those who followed were fearful. And again He took the twelve aside and
began to tell them what was going to happen to Him, 33 saying, "Behold, we
are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests
and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and will hand Him over to
the Gentiles. 34 “They will mock Him and spit on Him, and scourge Him and kill
Him, and three days later He will rise again.’”
(Mark 10:32-34) Isaiah said this
about the coming Messiah: “Isa 50:6 I
gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the
beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.” He also said this: “13 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will
be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. 14 Just as many were astonished at
you, My people, So His
appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.
15 Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account
of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not
heard they will understand (Isaiah 52:13-15).” I believe that Isaiah is saying
that the Messiah will not even look like a man when all of the cruel things are
finally done to Him that was done to Him.
What went on with
Jesus in verses 16-20 were the things that were really prophesied by both Jesus
and the OT prophets as we have seen.
What went on by those cruel Roman soldiers was a game to them, for they
thought that Jesus was crazy, for after all He said that He was the King of the
Jews so they would taunt Him and make fun of Him and beat Him, and spit on Him,
and put a crown of thorns on Him, and make more fun of Him by putting a robe on
Him and putting a staff in His hand to make Him out to be a king. We read in John’s Gospel that after all these
horrible things were done to Jesus that they brought Him out and Pilate said
“Behold the man.” I believe that Pilate
thought that if the Jews saw the shape that Jesus was now in that they would
feel sorry for Him, that they would believe that He was now no longer a threat
to them and would consent to let Him go.
Pilate and the Jews did not realize that it was God who was causing all
these things to come about because they were in His plan and nothing they could
do would stop the plans of God.
I want to look at the 21st verse: “They pressed into service a passer-by coming
from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear
His cross” First of all we know that all those who were being crucified had to
carry their cross, at least the cross piece of the cross. We also know that Jesus would be very weak at
this point. The Romans must have been in
a hurry to get Jesus to the place where they would crucify Him so they called
Simon to come and carry the cross of Jesus.
Now Simon, a very common name, was from Cyrene, and that is Tripoli
which is in Libya, a place that has been in the news recently. Mark writes that Simon had two sons in order
to help his readers, who are Romans, to understand who this man is. Now let us look at what Paul writes in “Ro
16:13 Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine.” John MacArthur states that there was a church
in this city that Simon and his sons came from and believes that it was started
by Simon sometime after he had carried the cross of Jesus and then became a
believer in Him. Sometime later his son
would go to Rome and perhaps all his family and thus Mark writes about him and
so does Paul.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have mentioned
in various SD’s that I am reading a book by A. W. Tozer entitled “The
Attributes of God,” and I want to quote a portion of this book in this portion
of my Spiritual Diary that seems to go well with what we are discussing in this
SD. The chapter from where this quote
comes from is on the grace of God and the section is “Some Things We Do Not
Know” “In secret, there is in the dark,
He did a once-done act never done before and never done again. And because He did that, the grace of God
flows to all men. Let’s remember that
angels and prophets and even Paul said, ‘Without controversy great is the
mystery of godliness: God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory’ (I Timothy
3:16). Many serious-minded, worthy
scholars are ready to say that Paul’s mind was the greatest that ever was known
in the human race, except of course for the perfect mind of Christ. But this mighty mind never tried to
understand it. He said, ‘Great is the
mystery of godliness’ (3:16), and that’s all.
“We’re saved by His blood, but how are we saved by His
blood? We’re alive by His death, but why
are we alive by His death? Atonement was
made in His death, but how was atonement made in His death? Let’s not vulgarize (debase something) it by
trying to understand it. But let’s stand
and gaze at the cross and say ‘Oh Lord God, Thou knowest! Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain!’
“And if angels can be envious, they look upon us ransomed
sinners and desire to look into it. But
God says to the angels, the spirits there before the throne who can bear the
burning bliss but who have never known a sinful world like this, ‘God help my
people.’ He sends them out to be
ministering spirits to them who shall be heirs of salvation. But He never explains it to them. And I doubt whether there’s an angel or
archangel anywhere in heaven who understands what happened there on that cross.
“We know He died; we know that because He died we don’t
have to. We know that He rose from the
dead and because He rose from the dead, we who believe on Him will rise from
the dead. We know He went to the right
hand of God and sat down in perfect approval amidst the acclamations of the
heavenly multitude. And we know that
because He did we’ll go there with Him.
But why? God has shut up this
secret in His own great heart forever.
And we can only say, ‘Worthy is the Lamb.’”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Praise the Lord by saying “Worth is the Lamb
who was slain,” and then stating “How blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, Whose sin is covered!”
Memory verse for the
week: Psalm 32:1
1 How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
Turning Points Wisdom for
the Day: “I do not know how much you
ought to give. I am afraid the only safe
rule is to give more than we can spare.”
(C. S. Lewis) “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not
grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful give.” (2Cor. 9:7)
2/6/2013 12:37 PM
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