The Anatomy of the Crucifixion | Matthew 26:1-2

[00:00:00] Real Truth Daily. This is Daily Truths with Dave Ahlman.

[00:00:07] Hi everybody! Welcome back to Daily Truths. We're in Matthew 26, verses 1 and 2.

[00:00:14] When Jesus had finished all these sayings, what sayings was that? All the things that He said on the Mount of Olives with a few of His disciples.

[00:00:21] Pretty amazing stuff that He said, and we've covered that the last month or so.

[00:00:25] You know that after two days the Passover is coming. So, what day of the week was this during Holy Week?

[00:00:33] This was Tuesday. And He celebrated the Passover with His disciples, as you probably know, on Maundy Thursday.

[00:00:39] So He says, you know that after two days the Passover is coming. Listen to this.

[00:00:44] And the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified. This is the prophetic word of Jesus.

[00:00:50] He could look into the future. He knew exactly what was going to be happening.

[00:00:54] He was going to be handed over the hands of sinful men, and He would be crucified.

[00:00:58] And it happened just as He said. Interestingly, Jesus didn't say here.

[00:01:04] He did in other cases way before this. He didn't say here He was going to rise again from the dead. Interesting.

[00:01:11] Now, I want to talk about the crucifixion of Christ.

[00:01:14] Jesus said it was going to happen just three days later, right?

[00:01:17] So, what's the anatomy of the crucifixion? What's four things that we can surmise or understand about the crucifixion?

[00:01:26] First of all, Jesus faced it. He could have escaped it. He could have walked away.

[00:01:32] He could have jumped down from the cross. He could have performed a few miracles in front of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Chief Priests, and Pilate, and Herod.

[00:01:41] He could have done all of that. He could have escaped in the flash of an eye.

[00:01:44] But He faced it like a lamb, the Bible says, like a lamb before his shears is silence.

[00:01:49] So, He did not open His mouth.

[00:01:52] He faced it because our salvation was at stake. And so, He went to the cross for you and me.

[00:02:00] That's the first thing we can say about the anatomy of the crucifixion is He faced it.

[00:02:05] Secondly, the chief priests and scribes and Pharisees carried it out.

[00:02:11] They were threatened by Jesus. His popularity was increasing.

[00:02:14] He proclaimed Himself to be the Messiah.

[00:02:17] And so, for these reasons and many other reasons, the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees relegated Christ to a common criminal's death on crucifixion.

[00:02:29] By crucifixion.

[00:02:30] So, they carried it out.

[00:02:33] Jesus faced it. They carried it out.

[00:02:36] But here's another thing. God permitted it.

[00:02:40] As a matter of fact, it was God the Father's mission that Jesus would go to the cross and do what He did so we can have what we have.

[00:02:48] For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.

[00:02:52] He gave Him not only for His life, but He gave Him up on the cross.

[00:02:57] God demonstrated His own love for us in this.

[00:03:00] While we're still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.

[00:03:04] The marvelous thing is, God permitted His only Son to go to the cross, to shed His blood, to go through excruciating pain of a crucifixion so that we could be saved.

[00:03:18] So, Jesus faced it.

[00:03:20] The Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes carried it out.

[00:03:23] God permitted it.

[00:03:25] As a matter of fact, it was God's mission that Jesus would go to the cross.

[00:03:29] And here's the last one.

[00:03:30] The last anatomy of the crucifixion, we needed it.

[00:03:34] Why?

[00:03:35] Because of our sin.

[00:03:37] Our sin became a barrier between us and God.

[00:03:40] And we couldn't remove it no matter how hard we tried, no matter how good we tried to become,

[00:03:46] no matter how many times we tried to obey the laws of God and do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing.

[00:03:51] We couldn't save ourselves.

[00:03:53] And so, a sacrifice for sin, where God, Jesus would experience hell on that cross, total separation from the Father,

[00:04:03] and would become a perfect sacrifice, rendering His body, sacrificing His blood on the cross,

[00:04:11] that was the mandate for us to be saved.

[00:04:14] And so, Jesus went to the cross.

[00:04:16] Christ died once for all.

[00:04:19] The just one for we who are unjust, in order that He might bring us to God.

[00:04:23] So, the barrier of sin has been removed, and when we repent of our sin and put our trust in Jesus,

[00:04:30] we're declared righteous in the sight of God.

[00:04:33] So, we needed it.

[00:04:35] We needed Him to be the perfect, holy sacrifice for sin, and He was.

[00:04:41] And God accepted it.

[00:04:43] And God's yes and amen to the finished work of Jesus was the resurrection of Christ.

[00:04:48] Christ was crucified for our sins and raised again for our justification.

[00:04:53] God the Father's yes and amen statement was,

[00:04:56] I'm going to raise my son from the dead, and that's exactly what Jesus did.

[00:05:01] So, my friends, that's the anatomy of the crucifixion.

[00:05:05] Right?

[00:05:06] Jesus faced it.

[00:05:08] The Pharisees carried it out.

[00:05:09] God permitted it, and we needed it.

[00:05:12] I hope this comforts you today.

[00:05:15] And as we go through it, we're coming to some really exciting stuff now in the book of Matthew.

[00:05:19] Not that the whole thing isn't exciting, because it is.

[00:05:23] But we're coming to the trial, crucifixion, agony and suffering, and death of Jesus,

[00:05:29] and then His resurrection, culminating with the Great Commission.

[00:05:33] The best stuff of the book of Matthew is yet to come.

[00:05:37] And I hope you listen to every podcast about it.

[00:05:41] And that is today's Daily Truth.

[00:05:42] Have a great day in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[00:05:46] Thank you for tuning in to Daily Truths with Dave Ullman.

[00:05:49] Pastor Dave Ullman is the pastor of Mount Hope Church in Boulder, Colorado.

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[00:06:04] Come back tomorrow for your next Daily Truth.