 Let's focus in our attention on Jesus Christ today in this passage in Mark chapter 15 Let's start with a quote This meat is as tender as a shoe as a leather shoe This meat this piece of meat is as tender as a leather shoe another statement Last night the fire station burnt to the ground. What are these two statements have in common? This piece of meat is as tough as leather shoe. You last night the fire station burnt to the ground You know they have in common irony They're both packed full of irony Irony is a powerful way to communicate One where one's meaning Communicates actually the opposite So I say all this meat so tender is like a tender is a leather shoe. What am I communicating? It's not tender When I say all the fire how the fire station burned down last night how ironic It's a situational irony. One is a verbal irony One is a situational irony You remember toy story where the where the toys are alive, but nobody knows it All the people don't know that toys are alive That is dramatic irony And so now when we look we come to the cross of Jesus Christ Mark in his perspective He wants us to hear something from the irony Today we'll worship the Lord in this morning and then in this evening in the morning We're going to look at verses 25 to 32 the first three hours of the cross tonight We'll focus in on verses 33 to 37 the last three hours of the cross in the first three hours on the cross Mark uses irony. It's the text is packed full of irony situational irony and Verbal irony Even dramatic irony in order to communicate something powerful to us Jesus we won't hear from Jesus this morning We'll hear from Jesus his enemies and God in his amazing wisdom will teach us something about the gospel From here the voices and the situations of Jesus his enemies So here the good news today Here the good news today Not from Jesus his voice But God using his enemies voice to preach the good news to us In our text in verses 25 to 32 We'll hear the gospel according Jesus his enemies first in verses 25 If you look on the outline that you have in your bulletin verses 25 to 27 We're going to see the setting the setting of Christ crucifixion and in the setting we see great irony and then in verses 29 to 32 we hear Jesus was mocked as he was crucified and from his enemies from their mocking in The irony they're mocking we hear the gospel So there could be no greater story than this good old story that I get to say to you today We get to worship the Lord. So let's go in and remember this good old story As we're coming up into in the mark 15 here. We we see that In verses 1 to 5 Jesus comes before Pilate and he almost says nothing mark doesn't really tell us much about what Jesus says It's just a simple little statement in verse 2 that he affirms what Pilate is saying about his Being king of the Jews. It's as you say It's a briefest statement possible that Jesus could give to affirm What when Pilate's question about whether he's the king of the Jews and then in verses 6 to 15 Jesus in Barabbas are Jesus takes a Barabbas his place and what a picture of substitutionary atonement in verses 16 to 20 We come to the scourging of Jesus Christ Where he is treated as a criminal and then in verses 21 to 24 we have the the true view Via the Rosa or the true way of suffering the true road to the cross and Then in verses 25 to 32 We come to the first three hours of the cross and so in this time is When Jesus will when he's on the cross and this time is when he'll pray things such things as Luke tells us father forgive them But they don't know what they're doing and in this prayer. He expresses a desire for his enemies to be saved and What a contrast we have here between the way Jesus is living acting speaking and what his enemies are doing in This text is a great display of the wickedness and the sinfulness of men So first and verses 25 to 27 we read about the the setting of the cross Read with it read read it again with me in verse 25 Now it was the third hour and they crucified him and the inscription of his crucifixion was written above the king of the Jews With him they also crucified two robbers one on his right and the other on his left So the scripture was fulfilled which says and he was numbered with the transgressors So when we come to verse 25 It describes the timing and the state the reality what's happened So first we look at the timing now. It was a third hour This provides us the background we need remember in the in the the way that the gospel writers met Matthew The first three gospel writers Matthew Mark and Luke that they described the timing of the events around the cross They use a different time frame than what we use when we look at the clock So here when he says the third hour, this is the third hour after the sun has risen Okay, so it's about nine o'clock about nine o'clock our time and so Mark noting the time remember that in time in the ancient world is not it like we have time like we've got a Timer on our phone or a timer on the on the clock They're just they're going by estimates by where the sun is at right So if you you consider the sun rising is the first hour and you got the the six hours right when the sun is right above Above you they right remember the sun is somewhere's right in between in between Right coming up and right above you and they say more or less that the that was the timing and mark so mark notes that for us and so We remember now not only the timing But then what does it mean and they crucified him? and So I'm going to explain some of that cultural background some of that what that means because in all for us to read it We don't understand the same thing that marks audience would understand likely marks audience is in Rome and that they're When they read this they don't need any explanation. They know well what it means and So I'm just going to remind you Some of what it means When Jesus is crucified or what it means in that short statement in verse 25 Crucifixion was a very common way of Execution the Romans used it in a particular way to communicate fear to communicate a sense of humiliation and A sense that Rome rules with an iron fist The Romans then developed this form of Execution, but we can say that they perfected it and and made it very common in 8070 you remember that that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. This is like some 35 years more or less after Jesus Christ and The historian Josephus tells us that they crucified so many people they ran out of wood That when they would crucify many people they would sometimes make a scaffolding in order to crucify people so a great Structure of wood in order to crucify many people to it They crucified big people in different ways. Sometimes it'd be like an axe Sometimes it's like a traditional cross like it's like a lowercase t Sometimes it's like an uppercase t They have the form could change Depending on what suit is the people at the best The crucified person was was required to carry The plank or the whole thing to their place of execution They typically would wear their With a plaque or carry or somebody else would carry the plaque a wooden plaque Typically perhaps sometimes painted white with red letters black letters and it would have the person's crime on it And so then on the road then everyone would know publicly that crucifixions would take place in public places So that as many people could see it as possible Rome wanted to communicate to the people The the horror of opposing rule Jesus was nailed to the cross. We know that by how he did in John 20 how it describes the marks that he showed the marks And there's a resurrection that he received But some people are tied to the cross crosses Then the Jewish mind when the Jew would see a cross They would think of Deuteronomy 21 curse is anyone who hangs on the tree cursed by God is anyone who hangs in a tree So when they would see someone they'd say they would think this person's cursed by God crucifixion was In that when they would typically nail The nails would not go through the palm of the hand that would rip out They typically go, you know, you got two bones here right in your hand and you got the wrist bone typically goes in here In between these two bones and they can still consider that part of the hand What we could consider the wrist You have a nerve here cyanionic nerve That it goes the boat the nails would typically be long nails six seven inches long iron and Then they go through this nerve And so then they would they found a Jewish body of a Where the long nail goes through the both heel bones on the feet And so they place the two heels together and then the nail is going through the That heel bone or perhaps one wrapped up on the other But the body the evidence the archaeological evidence we have this through the heel bone sometimes there'd be a seat like Where the person could rest perhaps the backside on it But no the The death would come by exhaustion and suffocation Not by so much the nails not so much by the the idea is They keep you alive as long as possible So that you suffer as long as possible In order to breathe and that like that You got to lift yourself up on your nails and you're in your wrists and on your feet And so you can't breathe and you're down You got to lift yourself up to breathe and you slide back down Until you got to breathe again And so there's a constant moving a constant torture and a constant rubbing against the the wood Until you're too exhausted and you can't lift yourself up to breathe anymore Often it would take days to die Crucifixions normally took place with the person naked Sometimes the Jews hated this they opposed it We don't know whether Jesus was allowed a loincloth or no or not but the Is an all part of the shame of the event victims would often take Like I said days to die Sometimes birds dogs would come in while the person is dying And try and eat the person The muscle muscles would often have spasms Because I'm riding a nurse So the person could shake uncontrollably at times In Roman society people didn't like to say the word Cross crucifixion If you're in polite society, you're not going to talk about it. You're not going to say it. It's considered a curse word Because people know what comes to the mind what What's taking place For us, it's like Something in a story, right? For them it was something that they had seen Somebody some face Some voice they heard screaming It was brutal It was common It was for those who opposed Rome Crosses were not normally that high Sometimes the people were just off and not high enough off the ground Jesus's cross was a little higher We know that because they got in order to give him something to drink they put on the end of a stick So they get a rod stick Sponge and they lift up to his mouth So his cross is a little higher and if they would do that that would be so he could be seen farther away more of a public display The fact that Jesus is crucified is attested by five other secular historians The bible is the word of God and God's good enough to tell you that that and he'd never life But if you need to know, yeah, there's the five other historians and that record Jesus is the fact that Jesus Christ Of Jesus of Nazareth died on a cross outside Jerusalem So this is the setting This is what mark when he communicates and they crucified him That everybody in his audience would immediately know these things And so I tell them to you This is the physical suffering that Jesus faced is not the point That's not what mark wants us to focus in on But I but it's important for you to understand the historical background It's important to understand these things There's just something greater than that that God wants us to hear We pick up again In verse 27 or 26 rather the setting around the cross and so We read in verse 26 And the inscription of his accusation was written above The king of the juice Like I described this will be part of the wooden plaque That Jesus would have had to carry around his neck as it or some a Roman soldier carries with him Holding up in some way they bring it and in some way they place it above his head and because they place it above his head And the gospel writers tell us this in Matthew 27 37 And in john 1919 says it was faster than the cross It's how we know Jesus was not crucified on an x But he was crucified likely the inter-traditional way that we We communicate the cross like behind me And so mark focuses in on what does the tablet say? What does this plaque say above Jesus's head? He describes the situation for us. He describes the setting for us And this plaque is to have the basis for or the reason why Jesus is executed Why what Jesus has executed so that people walk by They would know And mark tells us here that it said the king of the juice By reading all the other gospels and you piece them together You know that it says Completely the whole message was this is Jesus the Nazarene The king of the juice This is Jesus the nazarene the king of the juice In john 19 we let's look there very briefly John 19 verses 20 to 22 we learned the background of why this was written Why was it that? This was both on the plaque nothing more nothing less You remember from going through the gospel mark this text John 19 Versus 19 to 22 We read Now pilot wrote a title and put it on the cross so pilot wrote it And the writing was Jesus of Nazareth the king of the juice Then many of the Jews read this title for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city There is the public place again, and it was written in Hebrew greek and latin So it was written in three languages in order to communicate Greek the most common trade language, Hebrew the language of the of Jerusalem the written language of Jerusalem And latin official language of the roman empire They want to communicate to everybody as much as clearly as possible like at the airport when you got the signs and they're translated into multiple languages In verse 31 therefore the chief priest of the jews Said to pilot do not write the king of the jews, but he said i am the king of the jews And pilot answers what i've written i've written Pilates had enough of the religious leaders He hates the the discussion. He hates the hypocrisy. He's a hypocrite himself. He's a compromiser himself two evils coming together They have a conflict. It's not a surprising thing, right? and so we see these Group of evil men and this evil man fighting squabbling We return back to mark mark 15 mark 15 Versus 26 and 27 looking at the setting of the cross We remember that the plaque and the accusation was written in such a way to insult the jews Pilate is trying to insult the jews petty revenge Now verse 27 In verse 27 it reads with him Describing the setting they also crucified two robbers one on his right and the other on his left So the scripture was fulfilled which says and he numbered with the transgressors So here we have the setting Jesus is not alone Jesus has a criminal on his left and right and mark uses the term for a violent man Probably associated with barabbas the rebellion leader the terrorists we would use or turn the term he would use and these men Are the language that mark uses is one who steals another's property by violence The language it's the the term that the jesus used in the story of the good samaritan with the men who come down And they beat the good samaritan and leave him for death this kind of person And so one's on the left one's on the right the situation Is is telling us jesus has the place that most of the highest place of shame His his place is not an accident. It's communicating something to us And so now we've seen this verses 20 25 to 27 verse 28 Is uh likely in the it's not in the earliest the most reliable manuscripts But luke 22 verse 37 does have this verse And so in luke's verse and so we know this is scripture. We know this is quoting isaac 53 verse 12 Communicating the meaning behind the irony And it says and he was fulfilled the scripture says and he's numbered with the transgressors So now we've seen the situation I'm going to describe this scenario to you Walk through the situation Walk through the words and then we're going to come back at the end And talk about what they mean Let's continue to walk through The scene of the cross the first three hours Now we're moving away from in your outline moving away from the situational irony Now to hear the voices Now to hear the words Now to hear the mocking in verses 29 to 32 Let's walk through again and now in verses 29 and 32 to hear again. What is just what happens? Then we'll go back. What does it mean? In verse 29 we read and those who pass by Blaspheme them wagging their heads and saying aha you who destroy the temple and build it in three days Save yourself and come down from the cross So here we recognize these who are described as people who are just passing by Again, they were by the road or by the road And the general public is expressing a general public rejection of him They may be affected here by the false teachers the false religious leaders who are hanging out by the cross And they are They read the the crime over his head and they're in their own pride. They are insulted By the crime These pastor by people passing by they read it and they think this is not my king What an insult to me This is one remember Deuteronomy 21. This is one cursed by god someone who hangs on the tree And so as mark describes those who sit who pass by He describes them as mocking insulting reviling and unknowingly blaspheming By what they do When they wag their heads like this There's a jewish way of showing contempt scorn. It's also describing their arrogance It's expressing He's nothing I'm better He's no he's not my king Psalm 109 verse 25 describes how uh, it says I also have become a reproach to them when they look at me They shake their heads Again, the jewish a jewish way of this of expressing scorn mockery When they say aha This is a this is an exclamation. It's an emotional. If you know how when your emotions Jump out and it something comes out of your mouth This is what the what came like um, like in spanish and say um, a lot of people want a mall when something bad happens Hey, hey It's like a it's an emotional exclamation. It's just it's an emotional thing and in all your mouth comes this phrase and so This what comes out with their with them this aha Is in inter it's expressing A sense of a victory Of happiness In their scorn It's like look you're getting what you deserve You call you call yourself king of the jews And they quote jesus they talk about They say In verse 29 You who destroy the temple and build it in three days Save yourself and come down from the cross Look back at john Chapter two and we remember what they are trying to say john chapter two John chapter two verse 18 So the jews answered and said to him what sign do you show us since you do these things what jesus had just done Has cleared the temple taking a whip of cords driven out the of the temple the money changers the people who were there to Corrupt the temple and gain money out of it turn the temple into a place of merchandise Prosperity preachers people trying it like people who trying to use the church to get rich And so jesus hated The evil they were they're doing and he hated the evil doers who were doing such a thing And so he chases them out and they say well what sign well, how can you do this? What authority do you have what shows who you are that you can be able to do this? And he says in verse 19 And jesus answered and said to them destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it up And the jews said it's taken 46 years to build this temple and you will raise in three days But john tells us what he was really talking about What does john say in verse 21, but he was speaking of the temple of his body In verse 22 therefore when he had risen from the dead His disciples remember that he had said this to them and they believed the scripture and the word which jesus had said So here back in mark 15 People are mocking people who are passing by on the road They don't know what they're saying they think they're quoting jesus They have a sense of victory over him And what evil it expresses That someone would die this way And then they would mock him as he dies this way and so We see in verse 30 Someone else is joining in with the mocking likewise the chief priests also mocking among themselves were described said he saved others Himself he cannot save Let the christ the king of israel descend now from the cross that we may see in belief In matthew's version 20 in chapter 27 verse 40 they also had add if you are the son of god So in matthew's version they speak to him mark's version they're speaking to each other And by mark's version Um, it's almost as if you can hear satan's voice right Through the mocking in the midst of the mocking He saved others himself. He can't save Let the christ the king of israel descend now from the cross that we may see in belief In verse 31 when we see this likewise the chief priests It's like likewise. We got another evil group likewise. We have another great expression of evil and wickedness And so they're also Mocking and they seem to be congratulating one another. They seem to be speaking to one another patting themselves on the on the back In vert in luke 23 35 they also turn their nose up at him To express their victory and how they're better What an amazing thing they say in verse 31, right? Others they say he saved others Himself he cannot save Of what an amazing thing, right? This could be a sarcastic referral to him how jesus how did he described how he forgave others or his healing ministry But but likely both likely both Look at how they acknowledge the good that he did It comes out of their own mouths and then look at how happy they are himself he cannot save In matthew's version in in chapter 27 verse 43. They say he trusts in god Let him deliver him now If he takes pleasure in him for he said i'm the son of god We see in verse 32 And they use the third person here Let the christ the king of israel to send now from the cross talking to each other In luke 23 the soldiers also mocked him coming up to him Offering him sour wine and saying if you're the king of the jews save yourself You we know they wouldn't believe anyway, right? You remember when jesus tells the parable of Lazarus and the rich man Lazarus the poor man goes to heaven rich man goes to hell What does jesus say at the end when the rich man says send somebody to go preach to my brothers Send somebody send Lazarus send somebody back from the grave and what did you just Now what does abraham say in the story? If they don't believe the bible They're not going to believe if somebody comes back from the dead If they don't believe the book god has given They're not going to believe if somebody came back from the dead If you don't if you don't believe what the bible says here You wouldn't believe if your a failing member came back out of the grave and told you about heaven and hell And so we know They wouldn't believe anyway This is just their expression of sin and so they are speaking in such a way That they're they're speaking together To and they're speaking such a way to express that he's beneath them He's lost they've won This is an extreme form of shaming him They're trying to shame him and give him the greatest possible pain Not just physically he's suffering that but now emotionally as well And so we conclude with when it was we see the pastor buyers those who passed by mock him In verses 20 in verse 29 and 30 then in verse 31 and 32 the chief priests and religious leaders mock him And then at the end of verse 32 it says even those who were crucified with him Reviled him Even those who were being crucified Couldn't hold back They thought of themselves as better than jesus They began to mock And It was an amazing thing right They're thinking something like this Well, we're criminals, but look he's a fool He's a fool They're dying for their cause against likely against rome the rebellion against rome But they think he what is he dying for? What a fool Mark doesn't care to tell us about how one repented that's not his focus One of those thieves on the cross and mark doesn't tell us about how what jesus says Here about committing mary to john's care. That's not his focus he's focusing here on All the situation all the irony. Do you see the meaning behind the irony? Do you see What the truth is Behind this situation Behind this mocking This piece of meat Is as tough as a leather shoe What am I saying to you? What what is what is the truth behind this irony? What's the the truth behind this irony? This is what we want to focus in now I've explained to you the events the events that take place in the first three hours of the cross Now let's go back through Let's go back. Let's rewind people. They won't rewind anymore. Whatever it is you do let's go You put that your finger and you bring that little line back to the video at the beginning Let's go back through or hit the restart button the re you know on youtube, right? Whatever to go back to the beginning. Let's go back and watch it again And do you get what mark is telling you you get what god is telling you through the book of mark by Using the situation and these voices of mockery Let's walk through and then you hopefully you can see some these applications Let's look at verse 26 Where they talk about the king of the juice Look at how he's mocked Look at how pilot Wants to insult the jews. Look at how pilot Wants to communicate something of hate Look at how the jews hate it But look at how god is in control Of what pilot writes So that a truth is declared By the plaque what ends up being written is the truth that Jesus really is the messiah. He really is the son of david. He really is the king of the jews He really is the The one who crushes the serpent's head and gains victory And he does this Gains this cosmic victory through the suffering He rules as the son of david Be through this suffering because of this suffering The plaque that is above his head Is true because he's on the cross And god is declaring to us That he really is The king not just king of the jews, but king of kings and lord of lords and that all the universe is his What an amazing thing That he the king of kings would die He wears a crown And they mean to mock him But he Really is will be crowned and his crowned king of kings and lord of lords Look at how amazing god is That he could he would work through evil pilot That what pilot means for all evil God means for a great good To tell us something Something that we need to see and something we need to hear That the that plaque said the truth And as well in verse 32 when the Pharisees say let the christ the king of israel to send now from the cross He is the king and displays the fact that he's the king And is and is exalted as the mediatorial lordship because of this This suffering through this suffering It's his This aspect of his kingship Comes as a result of his suffering on the cross because of his humiliation obedience even to the death on the cross The spirit does not have this aspect of his kingship. The father does not have this aspect of His mediatorial kingship. The son alone has this because of his work of staying on that cross And the apostles preach in such a way in the book of acts And paul teaches in such a way to communicate this truth In the book of romans and in philippians chapter 2 And so Look at more details. Look at more irony Don't you get it as you read it through it? Don't you see they don't they don't understand what they're saying They don't understand what they're doing Look at verse 27. Look at the situational irony They mean to say Jesus is the worst of this group by putting him in the middle By putting him with thieves They mean to say This is what happens to those who oppose wrong. This is what happens to those who who Say that they're the christ But what is god saying What is god saying by putting him between two criminals Isaiah tells us And he was numbered with the transgressors He is the true judge He's condemned at this place between criminals, but he's the one who will judge all the world God Is saying the true judge becomes treated like a criminal So that you As the true criminal might be saved He's communicating a substitutionary autonomy. He's communicating. He's taking the place of evil men That he would save many And so being in this place not just alone, but being between two other criminals And his silence, you notice Jesus didn't say anything Jesus doesn't say anything when they mock him When he takes uh in mark's account in mark's account when he takes us through chapter 15 There is a great silence No recording of screaming or suffering no recording of of words and mark has his silence on purpose To express that Jesus is quiet when they say You're a blasphemer you're a And all the things in the mocking and why is he silent because he's actually innocent But officially guilty He's in his true self and he's actually innocent, but why is he there? To take your place if you believe in him and you are guilty So when he's silent He's affirming your guilt And that he's taking your place He's being numbered In your place He's wearing the that your chains He's wearing your orange jumpsuit. He's He's not saying anything Because he's innocent But officially He must be treated as a guilty Do you see what god is saying by putting in between two criminals? He's taking our place Look at verse 29. Here's a mockery What is but what is god saying through this mockery? And they passed by him wagging their head to say, uh, you destroyed the temple and built in three days Save yourself and come down from the cross Jesus is mocked as one who would destroy the physical temple But because of his work here He is the last true and lasting sacrifice He is the lamb of god The temple exists existed To point to him He is the true object of worship The temple was supposed to be there for people to center around the worship of god and for the sacrifices He is the fulfillment of all the temple He is the object of worship. We now center around jesus christ Not to a place in jerusalem And they say to him you who destroyed the temple and raised in three days But through this death through this reserve his resurrection He is displaying he is the true temple They don't know what they're saying Do you hear what god is saying? Through their mockery What a What an amazing is our god That he wouldn't just use apostles To preach the truth Now he uses his enemies To declare the good news And they say Save yourself Verse 30 and 31 save yourself and come down from the cross and the chief priests also join it And they say he's saved others himself. He cannot say Look at the The true meaning what is god saying behind them What an amazing thing that By staying on the cross By not coming down He is the savior. He does display that he is the christ the king of the jews by doing the exact opposite of what they say He displays the great truth And he does them one better not just coming down from the cross. He three days later. He rises from the dead And he rises from the dead So declaring to all the victory is his the sacrifice is accepted And he is the lord of lords king of kings So he declares the truth by staying on the cross Do you have eyes to see ears to hear what god would have you hear today? This meat This is tough as a leather shoe What do I want? What do I want to tell you? Is this meat is tough? What does god want to tell you through this text? You see the emphasis? Think with me. How should you apply this today? We've seen today the first three hours of the cross and what mark wants this to hear Is great irony They say all evil and do all evil Well, what is god? What good what great the greatest good god is doing through this evil Should we not trust him? To in our lives When evil things happen should we not trust him? That he will work a good for his own people But shouldn't we do one greater Shouldn't we trust him for our own souls? Do you see your evil there? on the cross If you do not see that you deserve to die on the cross You cannot share in the blessings of the cross It's an easy thing to say but it is impossible to do To truly believe That I deserved To die on that cross That because of that i'm not just had not just done bad things, but I am an evil person To see that truth to believe that truth Is a gift from god And i'm declaring to you You must see it You must see it And you must believe it You must abhor yourself Turn from yourself and trust in christ to be your substitute Trust in him To save your soul To forgive you of your sins And to take you to heaven What a good savior we have trust in him believe in him repents Go on in that road persevere in that road Hearing this good news That's how you would apply today What does it mean to you today? What should it mean for you today this text this good story this good old story? Just part one part two is tonight come back If you're at all able The story does get better But apply what we've heard and seen this morning Apply it by enduring the shame To be named with christ You must be shamed today As part of walking that calvary road. It's part of what it means to be a christian To say what he said to walk as he walked You must be hated as well You must be mocked as well Know and recognize That's part of what it means to be a christian And take joy in it instead of complaining How this should be an encouragement to you To trust in him to believe upon him Let's pray Jesus christ Once again, we we think about your great sacrifice Your great obedience Your perfect life You're taking the curse in our place We bless your name Today we help help us Today we help help us this morning To hear the irony to see the irony in the situation And not just to hear that your enemy's voices Not just see what your enemies have done Help us to see what you have done Help us please use this this um This short time or to save people here And to sanctify your saints Thank you for the opportunity to worship you And glorify you So we pray lord we put this uh this time in your hands for you to Be at work through your word and we trust you Your name we pray amen