 Tonight we're in Mark chapter 15. So if you guys turn to Mark chapter 15, we're gonna be looking at 32 verses tonight. And we're gonna do what we did before. I'm gonna kind of give you an overview of some sections here. We're not gonna go too much, the verse by verse, some sections I'm gonna clump up together and give you the meaning of what's going on in that. So, but we're gonna be looking at these 32 verses, verse one through 32. So let's go ahead and read. I'm gonna go ahead and read the whole section so we can have that in our minds and hearts. And then we'll get back into our study to do our verse by verse in some of the sections here. But chapter 15 of Mark, as Mark continues to write, he says, immediately in the morning, the chief priest held a consolation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus, let him away and delivered him to Pilate. Then Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? He answered and said to him, it is as you say. And the chief priest accused him of many things, but he answered nothing. Then Pilate asked him again, saying, do you answer nothing? See how many things they testify against you. But Jesus still answered nothing so that Pilate marveled. Verse six, now at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. And there was one named Barabbas who was chained with his fellow rebels. They had committed murder in the rebellion. Then the multitude crying aloud again began to ask, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered them saying, do you want me to release you the king of the Jews? For he knew the chief priest had handed him over because of envy, but the chief priest stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. Pilate answered and said to them again, what then do you want me to do with him? Whom you call the king of the Jews? So they cried out again, crucify him. Then Pilate said to them, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, crucify him. So Pilate wanting to gratify the crowd released Barabbas to them and he delivered to Jesus after he had scourged them to be crucified. Verse 16, then the soldiers led him away into the hall called Pertorium and they called together the whole garrison and they clothe them with purple and they twisted a crown of thorns and put it on his head and began to salute him. Hail king of the Jews. Then they struck him on the head with a reed and spat on him and bowing the knee, they worshiped him. And when they had mocked him, they took the purple off him, put his own clothes on him and let him out to be crucified. Then they compelled a certain man, Simon Sirenian, the father of Alexander Rufus and he was coming out to the country and passing by to bear his cross. And they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. Then they gave him wine mingled with myrrh to drink but he did not take it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments, casting lots for them to determine whatever man should take. That was the third hour and they crucified him. And the inscription of his accusation 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. And those who passed by blasphemed him, 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. Likewise, the chief priest also mocking among themselves with the scribe said, he saved others himself, he cannot save. But the Christ, the king of Israel, he said now from the cross that we may see and believe even those who were crucified with him reviled him. Do you guys remember when you heard the news that Saddam Hussein was captured? You know, when that happened, you know, obviously it hit the news. Every media outlet had the news, the breaking news that Saddam Hussein was captured. And when I heard about it, there are several things that went through my mind. One is it was it true? Because you know, there's a lot of hoax out there, things that happen, people that say things that it's not true and somehow it finds its way on social media and everybody's like, wow, look at this and that. And then they find out that it was just a joke, it was a hoax, it wasn't real. So one of the things I was thinking is like, well, is this for real? I mean, this guy, I mean, I was used to seeing this guy on television, always around his guys and talking trash to the world and to America. He was saying he was gonna rebuild the new Babylon and all this stuff. And so when they captured him, I'm like, it was that real. So when I found out it was true, the next question I asked was, where was he? And how did they catch him? And it was interesting because as they began to kind of share how he was captured and how he was now, you know, basically in the hands of US troops and all this stuff, then all of a sudden they began to show images of him. It's like, here at World Meet, you're Saddam Hussein, the man who basically bullied you. And then you realize that, wow, this is interesting. He was really captured. Now here is a man who was a man of power, a man of influence, a man who was evil, he was a criminal, he killed thousands of men and women, including children. And as the news was going through this whole entire trial, it kept us up to speed with the trial and what was going on until finally, he was handed over to Iraqis, to the officials there, and they ended up executing him. Now, Saddam Hussein deserved every bit of that because he was an evil man. And this was a man who did a lot of evil, a lot of wrong, a lot of harm to his own people. Now, the world is not really, it's really, the world's really used to seeing a lot of men that have risen up among us, as far as among us meaning in mankind, who have been powerful, influential, and who have done a lot of harm. Mussolini, you know, have a lot of different men that have done a lot of harm. So our world is not really, you know, I guess it's not foreign to this world to see things like this happen. Our world will eventually get these men once in a while that are powerful and influential, and most of them have been really evil. But Jesus, Jesus was a man of power and influence and the world met him, but they treated him wrong. They actually included him as, he actually, they said he was a criminal. And our world got a chance to meet one influential man who did good for people, who came to heal people, to deliver people, to really do a lot of good. And that was the salvation of our soul. And the world took him, apprehended him, beat him up and crucified him. And he was one of probably the only one that this world will ever see that came to this earth to deliver us from our sins. I mean, Jesus didn't do anything wrong. I mean, the Bible even says that you came here and I'll read this to you, John chapter one, verse 14. It says, the word became flesh dwelt among us, we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And Jesus was full of grace and truth. Well, 2000 years ago, Jesus, as the world embraced Jesus for a moment, they actually considered him a criminal and put him on trial as an evil doer and they crucified him. This is where we're at now in chapter 15. This is a very familiar section in the gospels. As you go through the gospels in your own personal time, you always come to this type of situation. At the end of each gospel, there's the crucifixion. There's the trial of Jesus. So most of you here are familiar with this entire section. It's nothing new to you. But the thing is this is that it's good for us to be reminded of what Jesus went through. It's easy for us to become very callous to the things that are written about Jesus. I mean, we'll read about the nice things that he said, the wonderful things that he said, you know, I mean, they're good, but we sometimes quickly go through this section when it comes to the crucifixion, when it comes to the trial of Jesus, everything that went, he went through here, he went through these things for you and for me. And it's always good for us to be reminded of the trial of Christ, of the death of Christ, so that we don't become callous to those things, so that we can appreciate Jesus in our personal life, so that we don't just ignore these things because there's a lot of power when it comes to these things, when it comes to the death of Christ, because the death of Christ has impacted your life and my life. So it's really not something to take lightly. It's something to really look into and see what really went on. And the Gospel of Mark, remember, Mark is very quick in this Gospel. He wasn't interested in the things that Jesus said, he was more interested in what Jesus did, all of his works. That's what he was presenting to us from incident to incident, what Jesus was doing. So when he goes through this section, Matthew, John, Luke, they spent a lot of time on this section, Mark will kind of brush through. He does slow down a little bit here, but he actually just kind of goes through quickly. So I'm going to be bringing in other verses from the other Gospels that kind of pin a picture to show you what really went on, but Mark kind of stays a little bit on the light side when it comes to these things. So let's look at verse one. Here's Jesus, it says immediately in the morning, this was the official daylight trial before the Sanhedrin. Now, if you remember, the Sanhedrin was basically the Jewish Supreme Court. And the legal trials in the Roman forum were customarily held shortly after sunrise. Some say that this was between 5 a.m. to 6 a.m., being on Friday. This is the time that Jesus was actually put on trial. Now, after Jesus was hit in the face, after he was spat on and they took advantage of him in a private way, then they send him to Pilate. Now, why Pilate? What's up with this guy? Well, there's several reasons why they brought him to Pilate. The very first thing is that the Sanhedrin could pronounce death on a person, but they couldn't execute it. See, the Jewish people were limited in power. So they could say to people, you're gonna die, but they could not execute that death penalty. That's where the Romans come in. They had the power to put people to death. So the very first thing that we see right away, the reason why they brought him to Pilate was because Pilate had the power to put him to death. They didn't. So they bring him to Pilate so that he can basically execute judgment on him. And the other thing is that according to secular history, it reveals that Pilate was a cruel, ruthless man, insensitive to the feelings of others. So the Jewish people thought that Pilate would have probably looked at Jesus and would have said, you know what, just get him out of here. Crucify him, kill him, that's fine. Because he didn't care, he had no emotion. He was just a man who was kind of like a stoic kind of person. He didn't care. So the Jewish people said, you know what, one, he's got the power to kill Jesus. And two, he doesn't care, he's an insensitive, cruel man. So when we present Jesus to him, he's not gonna care. He's gonna say, go for it. I'll take care of it. But notice in verse two, they bring this to him. He says, Pilate asked him, are you the king of the Jews? Of course, Jesus said, it is as you say. It's an interesting accusation. King of the Jews, the original charge, if you guys remember, was blasphemy. If you guys go back to chapter 14 and look at verse 64, he says, you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think? And they all condemned him to be deserving of death. The blasphemy claiming to be God. Remember Jesus used that phrase, I am? Well, that was the actual accusation from the Jewish people. However, if you were to tell Pilate that the reason why you wanted Jesus crucified was because he's claiming to be a God, the Messiah, Pilate would have yawned and said, oh, come on, bring me somebody else. And the reason why is because the Romans believed in a plurality of gods. You could worship any God you want as long as it didn't interfere into their basic religion. So they didn't wanna bring that accusation before Pilate to say, hey, he's claiming to be God, Pilate wouldn't care, so what? That's our society, there's a lot of gods. But when you say, it says here, the king of the Jews. You see, saying king of the Jews, saying that Jesus is a political threat becomes more of an interest to Pilate because Pilate worked for Caesar. He represented Caesar, and according to Roman law, Caesar was the only king on earth. And if you were to bring somebody that says, he's saying he's a king, Pilate had to do something about it. Because if Pilate didn't, then Pilate could have been killed, he could have been executed because he was to protect Caesar. So these Jewish guys, these religious people were very wise, very shrewd. Instead of bringing them the accusation of Jesus being the Messiah, he says, they say he's claiming to be a king. And that's where Pilate says, let me ask him this. Let's get into this a little more. Let's figure this one out. Remember that people wanted to embrace Jesus as a political leader. One of the problems that the Jewish nation had was that they were under the oppression of Rome, the Roman government, they hated it. And what they were waiting for is for one person to come on the scene to help them to get them out from under that oppression to somehow destroy the Roman government so they can have their freedom, so they can have their life instead of being under that leadership of the Roman people. So that's why when Jesus came on the scene, people said, this is it, he's the one. He's gonna help us defeat the Romans. When you remember Jesus did not allow himself to be embraced as a political leader, that's not what he came here to do. It's the same thing that's happening today. The world is looking for their king. The world's looking for a political leader that who's gonna come in and just bring peace between the Muslim world, the Jewish people, all in the Middle East, and that person, you know who he is in the book of Revelation, we call him the Antichrist. This guy is going to be an amazing charismatic leader who is going to somehow bring peace between the Muslims and the Jews and allow the Jews to go back and continue their sacrifice there where the Muslims have their mosque. It's interesting because that's what we see that the people 2000 years ago, we're waiting for somebody to come in to help them to just get them out from underneath that Roman oppression. The world today is looking for some leader who's gonna bring peace, because you guys know with ISIS and all that's going on, the world's like, what is going on here? These guys are bullies, they're cutting people's head off. Look at, they're showing it on video and everybody's like, who can do any, I mean, can somebody do something about it? Our president is not doing much about it but there are others that are doing things, they're going bombing them and all, but there's gotta be one person who's gonna stand up and say, enough is enough and globally speaking, it's going to bring some kind of peace, some remedy to this craziness that's going on in our world today. I mean, our world is pretty crazy, isn't it? We live in a very unstable world. Really, it baffles me to read the stories that are in the newspaper online and the news on television, you're like, man, our world is really corrupt. We're heading towards the end. And the scary part, I guess if you want to call it scary, is that the book of Revelation says that things have to get worse before they get better. See, a lot of people are looking for things to get better but see, we know as Christians in our eschatology view, the study of last things or last end times, that everything has to get worse before things get better. But by that time, hopefully Lord willing, we'll be raptured and we're out of here before things really get bad. But you see here, they're looking at Jesus as a political leader. And we see here very clearly that Jesus here, they're brought in Jesus, king of the Jews. Now he becomes a political threat because there were no other kings except Caesar. And now Pilate has to do something about it. So the accusation that the Jews brought to Pilate, he was accused of something Jesus refused to do. It was a lie. He did not come in to become a political leader. Remember that people wanted to embrace Jesus that way but Jesus did not allow them to do that. You know, our world still does the same thing. They accuse Jesus of things that aren't true. I mean, we're his followers. And one of the things that we're always accused of when it comes to ministering to people and whatnot is that people think that Jesus taught us to hate people when people turn the gospel down. Jesus never taught us to say, those that don't accept my gospel hate them. That's not true. And there are groups today that will believe with all their heart that Christianity is a hatred belief system. It's a system based on hatred. You know, when you talk about people who are gay, I see this all the time on Facebook and Instagram. I see the arguments that within that thread there's always a word that strikes me and it's a word, the word hatred. Christians hate people. That's not true. You know, I mean, everybody has a free will. We can give you the gospel. You accept it. If you don't accept it, hey, I still love you. I'm gonna pray for you. I don't hate you. Jesus never taught that. And the world continues to accuse Jesus of things that are not true. And we get the brunt of it because we're followers of Christ. So did Jesus teach us how to hate people? Absolutely not. Well, how do I know that? Well, turn with me to Matthew five, chapter five. I'm gonna show you this real quickly here. Matthew chapter five, verse 43. First gospel, the New Testament. Matthew chapter five, verse 43. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Some of you are like, I wish he just stopped there. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be sons of your father in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Did you get that? Is Christianity a belief system based on hatred? Absolutely not. You know, Jesus, I made it clear that Jesus says, hey, I sent rain down on both of you. I mean, were you on the way here as you were driving in the rain, did you have like sunshine over your head while the non-believers were driving in the rain? Wouldn't that be weird? You're like, oh, look at the sunshine. Whoa, that guy's not safe. He's got rain on his car, right? God says, no, I'm gonna rain on both of you. It just shows you that God is not looking at one or the other. I mean, obviously we are his children. He loves us because we've embraced him. But listen, he says to love your enemies. That's hard, of course. And I'm not gonna get into this. This is a totally different message. But going back to our texts here, that Jesus here is actually being accused of something that isn't true. And we are also accused of things that aren't true. They say, you Christians, hey people, no, we don't, we love people. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, we still love you. You're gonna go to hell, but that's up to you, you know? Verse two, I love this. Jesus says, it is as you say. Jesus gave a cryptic reply. He is a king, but in a spiritual sense. In a spiritual sense. You know, the final words here of Jesus, beginning at his trial, all the way up to the cross, are very important because they have deep meaning. In fact, let me say this. Anytime Jesus speaks in the Gospels, you better be listening. Pay attention because everything he said had a very important meaning. But you know that Jesus, when he spoke, he never took things back? Everything that came out of Jesus' mouth was 100% accurate. I never read in the Gospels, Jesus talking to his disciples, and then all of a sudden say, well, I didn't mean to say it that way. What I meant to say was, remember when I told you a couple of weeks ago, you know what I wanted to say to you? That's us, right? We don't have 100% accuracy when we speak, right? You're like, I can't believe I said that. Wait a minute, I didn't mean to, it's too late. Our Jesus, when he spoke, man, it was 100% accurate. It went out and it stayed there. He never took it back. So anytime you see that red letters in your Bible, pay attention because Jesus is saying something very important. Now if you really want to know the heart of God, if you really want to know and study the heart of God, read John 17. John 17 is what we call the high priestly prayer. A lot of people call that the Lord's prayer, but you know what, it's the high priestly prayer. Jesus Christ prays for his disciples, for the world and for you. If you really want to know the heart of God, that's the best verse, or I'm sorry, chapter, because John gives us an entire chapter of Jesus praying. That's pretty cool. That's actually, that's very private. I mean, how would you like me to walk in your time of prayer? I just want to sit there and hear you. Yeah, excuse me, can you please leave? This is my, this is very intimate here. But we have Jesus praying in an entire chapter. That's a great chapter to really learn the heart of God. Now, we see here that as he's asking him in verse three, it says that the chief priest accused him of many things and Jesus answered nothing. Now, the many things that he was accused of, and I'm going to give you a quick little look at Luke 23, verses one and two. This is what Luke shares with us. It says that the whole multitude of them arose and led him to Pilate. They began to accuse him saying, we found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that he himself is the Christ, a king. Notice how they had that. He stirs up the people teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee to this place. Man, these guys hated Jesus with a passion. Have you ever met somebody who just hated God with a passion? And you're like, dude, relax. I mean, there's something more behind those words. There's a hurt deep inside your heart that you get so upset when I bring God up. These guys hated Jesus. They did not want Jesus to exist anymore. Their heart basically crossed over to just let's kill him. They just did not care about Jesus. Hatred is a very ugly thing. Now this is a man I read recently, a man by the name of Alex Haley. He struggled with hatred. So he's an experienced man. And he said this about his own hate when he experienced this. He said this, hate at its best will distort you. At its worst, it will destroy you. But it will always immobilize you. Hatred. You know, when Pilate found out that Jesus was from Galilee, we see here very clearly that Pilate really sensed the hatred in these people. They wanted Jesus dead that bad. But Pilate knew there was something different about Jesus that what these guys wanted was a little skewed. So what Pilate does, he sends him over to Herod. Because we see that Herod, and Mark doesn't give us too much detail here, but under Herod's jurisdiction Pilate was obviously, or actually Galilee was under Herod's jurisdiction, Pilate sends him back to his own homeland, Galilee. Now Herod, obviously Herod didn't care about Jesus. That guy was just, he was a vile man. And all he wanted to see Jesus do was a miracle. It's like, oh, good Jesus, entertain me. He didn't care. And so when Jesus did not do what he wanted him to do, then he sends them back. So Jesus was like a ping ball machine, just a ping ball machine, going back and forth from these people that really didn't care. So the world is actually meeting Jesus for the first time. Herod finally meets Jesus, Pilate finally meets Jesus, but they're not really settling on a judgment. So they send him back and notice in verse six, Pilate has him again and again, there's some gaps here in the Gospel of Mark, but notice in verse six, it says at the feast he was accustomed to releasing one prisoner to them, whomever they requested. And there was one named Barabbas, who was chained with his fellow rebels, they had committed murder in the rebellion. Then the multitude crying aloud began to ask him, began to ask him to do just as he had always done for them. But Pilate answered saying, do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews? And for he knew that the chief priest had handed him over because of envy, but the chief priests stirred up the crowd so that he should rather release Barabbas to them. This was a custom during the Passover, Pilate would do this as a sign of goodwill, hoping that the Jews will ask for Jesus to be released instead of a known criminal. And the multitude in verse eight were basically just getting really rowdy. Now it's interesting to me that these people that were there, my question is who were they? Because remember it was really early in the morning. If scholars are right that it was around five or six a.m., most of the people were sleeping. They were sleeping and maybe a few barely waking up. So who were these people? Some scholars believe that was Judas who stirred them up. And Judas stirred them up so he had his little groupies there. While the rest of the crowd, perhaps the ones who said, Hosanna, Hosanna, right? Remember that? Because where are the, where are them? Where are the people? But maybe they were still sleeping. Maybe not, we don't know, there's all speculation. But we see here that it was early in the morning and yet the people that were there perhaps were stirred by Judas himself. I mean, they did not have television like today. If this was today, I mean, this would be all over Fox, CNN, CBS, Channel 4, you name it. I mean, people were just, they would just be tuned in to their TV wondering like, whoa, what's going on? Well, we see here that Barabbas in verse seven, as he said, as it was a custom to release a criminal versus a good man, Jesus Christ. And unfortunately, they end up releasing Barabbas. Now, who is Barabbas? The Bible doesn't really say much about Barabbas. Now, the name is interesting. The name means son of a father. Bar, which is son, Abba means father. Son of the father. It's interesting that he's next to the son of the father. Well, Barabbas is a son of a father. Now, who is he? We don't know, but he was involved in some kind of revolt and he was a known killer of terrorists because he was grouped and chained to this group. Perhaps he wanted to be the political leader that the Jewish people wanted what we're looking for. Maybe he went against the Romans and tried to defeat them. And unfortunately, it didn't happen. So he was chained up. So to the Jewish people, Barabbas was a hero because he did something. He would try to do something to actually get them out of that bondage that they were under the Roman guards or Roman government. So here is Barabbas, son of a father. And you have a real political enemy of Rome and a falsely accused political enemy of Rome. And the people wanted Jesus to be crucified. Notice in verse 13, they said, crucify him. Verse 14, crucify him. And finally, verse 15, Pilate gives in. So it says that Pilate released Barabbas and delivered Jesus after he had been scourged. And it says there to be crucified. So here's Jesus being led away to go through some brutal beating. And what we see here, what we see here is basically the human heart in action. What we see here is the sinful nature in action. Our sinful nature is pretty bad, isn't it? I mean, it's ugly. I mean, honestly, thank Jesus that He came to save us from that sinful nature. I mean, there are people that are still in their sinful nature and they're capable of doing the most vile things. I mean, the sinful nature is just nasty. And that's exactly what you see here. People full of hatred who wanted to see Jesus basically just killed, beat up, abused. And what we see here is the human heart in action. The depravity of the heart is very, very sick. Turn with me to Romans chapter three. I want to read this with you. Romans chapter three, speaking about the sinful nature being very bad. Paul the apostle said something about that sinful nature. The unregenerate heart. In verse nine, it says this. What then, are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin as it is written. And here it goes. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now this list, I would think shouldn't surprise you because you're like, yep, that's me. Yep, that was me. Yep, that was me. Yep, that was me. I had no fear of God. Yep, I was full of cursing and bitterness. I did hate God too. We see here that the sinful nature is seen in action here in this part of the gospel. But notice what they did. And I want to draw your attention to something here quickly in verse 15. That Jesus went through some scourging. Now there were three forms of flogging. And I'm gonna share these with you. Three forms of flogging that the Romans actually established. One was called the fustigatio. That's all Latin, okay? I practiced that word before. Fustigatio, it was a less severe beating. It wasn't as bad as the next one which is called the flogilatio. That was more brutal. That one really hurt more than the first. And then the third form of flogging was the verbaratio. That was the most brutal beating that most prisoners actually died in that process. They didn't make it because of the lost blood. And what they did is usually when you were given the judgment of crucifixion that third form of flogging was included. If you weren't crucified, if your judgment wasn't crucifixion, you would probably go through that fustigatio or perhaps the flogilatio, one of those two. But if you were actually crucified, if that was your sentence of judgment, then you would go through the third. This is a very barbaric way of dying. In fact, what they used, a prisoner would be tied over a post so that the skin would be stretched. They would use wooden handles, leather straps attached with bits of lead, glass, sometimes bones, chips bones, chips of bones embedded in this leather. Then the Romans actually called this the halfway death and they would actually have two guards on each side of the person that was tied up to this stake and then they would just take turns and if you guys I'm sure are seeing the movie, the passion, it was just like that. And they would rip the flesh all the way to the muscle and sometimes the organs would actually be exposed. That is why most of these prisoners wouldn't survive. Jesus did, amazingly. And we see that this is exactly what Jesus went through as he was heading to the cross. So verse 16, as we continue on, from verse 16 to 20, we see that Jesus is being mocked by the Romans. From verse 17 through 20, they made fun of Jesus in several ways. They put a purple robe on him, signifying royalty. They put a crown of thorns on him, obviously depicting king. They were palm spines that were put on him. Then they began to salute him, hail king of the Jews, which is considered false commitment. They were mocking him. They hit him on the head with a reed, showing their hatred. They spat on him, signifying rejection. They bowed their knee and worshiped, which was a false worship. All making fun of Jesus. Just making fun of him. Well, Jesus has led to be crucified in verse 21 through 32. We see here that it says that then they compelled a certain man, Simon, a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by to bear his cross. Now, crucifixion by death, or death by crucifixion rather, was one of the most cruel forms of capital punishment. I kind of alluded to that earlier. And it's interesting to me that crucifixion was never invented by the Romans. Actually, the Persians invented crucifixion. The Romans perfected it. You see, the Persians believed that the earth was very sacred, holy. So they did not want to kill anybody on the earth. So what they did is they actually elevated the body. And that's how they came up with crucifixion. They actually put the person on this cross above the earth because they did not want that killer or they didn't want to kill that person on the ground. The Romans came in and they perfected it. They added a lot more to it and they made it more cruel. And we see here that the cross had two pieces. It wasn't just one cross put together. There were two pieces. The first one was the crux simplex, which was actually the center stake. And then the cross beam that weighed 75 to 100 pounds. That's the beam that Jesus carried. So as you see in movies today, you see Jesus carrying the cross across, that's not biblical. Because the crux simplex, that main beam was already at the site where he would be crucified. But the actual cross beam is what Jesus actually carried. So any movie you have at home with the beam, Jesus carrying the beam, you're biblical there, it's biblical. The other ones throw away and I'm joking now. But I'm just saying, just to give you the historical background, that's what Jesus did. He carried only the cross beam, not the entire cross. So we see here very simply that a condemned person heading to be crucified carried his cross beam that 75 to 100 pound throughout the city, through the city. And the reason why the Romans did that was to show the rest of the residents that if you mess with the Roman government, this is what's gonna happen to you. And that's exactly why they allowed Jesus to carry this cross through the city. It was a lesson to the rest of the people. You mess with us, this is what's gonna happen to you. Now according to John chapter 19 verse 17, Jesus started carrying that cross beam and because of all the beating and the flogging, Jesus couldn't carry it anymore. The lost of blood, the agony. Showing us that Jesus was 100% man. That Jesus Christ felt that, he was hurting. He was actually in the same level as you and I would be. And he's carrying this cross beam and then here comes a man in verse 21, Simon. Just out of the blue, this Simon comes in. Now what's interesting to me that Mark gives him a personal introduction, Simon Assyrian. Well, how do you know that? Well, here's where scholars come in and believe that Simon perhaps was one of the disciples of Jesus. Remember, there were more than just the 12, there were a bunch of others. When you get in the book of Acts, there were 120 that were meeting. So perhaps he was an actual disciple of Jesus or he got saved afterwards. Because by now, after the fact, Mark had the right information. Hey, that Simon was the one that knows Jesus the follower of Christ, Simon from Cyrenia. So we see here again, speculating Simon, a Jewish man, just a bystander coming in. And in verse 22, he goes to this place called Golgotha. The word Golgotha means skull. It's where we get the Latin or it's from the Latin word Calvaria, where we get the word Calvary. That's right. Our church is named Skull Church. Isn't it awesome? The Skull Church. I mean, instead of saying Calvary, I say, where you go? I go to Skull Church. What is that? Sound heavy metal there. Dude, wait, wait. Skull, you know? Skull, Golgotha. It was outside of this city. Now, this place, Golgotha, was a rounded, rocky mound. It wasn't a hill. Again, here we go again. You know, again, you see in pictures a hill with three crosses. Jesus was not crucified on a hill like that. You're like, man, you're messing my theology. Robert, I'm just telling you the truth. Where Jesus was crucified was at the base of this, this rock formation that actually had the shape of a human skull. And I'm gonna give you a picture of it, what it looks like. On the far right, you see that, those two sunken eyes, you see the skull and the teeth and whatnot. If you've been to Israel, you can testify to this. Jesus Christ was actually crucified at the base of this rock formation, this skull looking thing, Golgotha. Today in Israel, there's a bus station in front of that. So it makes sense. When people were walking by, wagging their heads, spitting on him, cursing him, they couldn't be up in a hill. They were walking right along the side. It was actually an area where people traveled. So here's our Jesus on a cross and people were just walking by and they were cursing him and just really mocking him. This is where the place is at. So I just saved you $4,000. You don't have to go to Israel anymore. This is the place you want to see, right? In fact, you know, just send the money. I'm sure, okay, anyways, no, still go to Israel. Seriously, it's worth it. It's totally worth it. So we see here that Jesus is on the cross at this place, Golgotha, at the base of this rock formation and notice what happens in verse 23 that some of the women were trying to give him wine. It was according to rabbinic tradition, women provided sedative drinks for those who were being crucified to decrease the pain. Jesus did not take it because he took literally just a punishment of our sins upon him. He went through the agony and the pain for you. He didn't want to lessen it. Remember Jesus said, when he was on the ground praying, Father, if this cup can pass, remember the cup, the wrath, the judgment, Jesus took it all. He just took it all. So he did not ask for anything like this. They were trying to help them with it. And then in verse 24, we see that they divided his clothes. A victim's personal belongings became the property of the execution squad. So they would actually just divide his clothes. I mean, it would be like today with the technology that we have today, you would probably see his clothes on eBay. People would pay money for it. And we see here that little that these soldiers know that they were actually being, that they were actually fulfilling prophecy. Listen to what Psalm 22, 18 says. They divided my garments among them and for my clothing, they cast lots. So Jesus hangs on the cross in verse 25 to 32. The morning, he's there. And again, this death, the death that most people that were crucified was from extreme exhaustion, thirst, was a painful and slow. Usually two to three days they were dead. And basically sometimes death was hastened by breaking the legs of the victim. But again, Jesus, not one bone in his body was broken because it was predicted in the Old Testament that not one bone in his body would be broken. So when they came to Jesus, they didn't do it. The others obviously had to go through that. And the inscription that we see here, it was a Roman custom to write the name of the condemned man in a description of his crime on the board and attached to his cross. What was his crime? King of the Jews. That was his crime. Jesus paid a heavy price for your sins. Do you know that? I'm just reading through this. We're sitting down trying to absorb everything here. I'm trying to process this, but listen guys, Jesus Christ went through a lot for you and for me. Let me tell you what he went through. Let me give you eight things that Jesus went through just for us. One, he went through false accusation. He allowed himself to be falsely accused in verse four. He was rejected by his own. Verse 13, he was mocked. Verse 17, he was physically abused. Verse 19, he was verbally abused. Verse 29 to 32, he endured pain. Verse 23, he went through humiliation for you and for me. Verse 26, and lastly, he was labeled as a criminal. Verse 27, no wonder we read in Mark 14, 33, if you guys turned there with me. He took Peter, James and John with him and began to be troubled and deeply distressed. Then he said to them, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful even to death, stay here and watch. He went a little farther, fell on the ground, prayed that if it were possible that the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. What does this mean for us? One word, love. Love, for somebody to do, to go through what he went through. It's because he loves you. He loves you. Jesus Christ defined true love. What is true love? True love is sacrificial. And the Bible makes it clear in 1st John 316, by this we know love because he laid down his life for us. And as you read John 316, the gospel in a nutshell, for God so loved the world. The object of God's love was the world, you, you and me. And we see very clearly that God loved the world enough to die for the world. And what's even more baffling is that the love that was demonstrated on the cross, Paul says that that love has been poured out into your own hearts. Did you know that? Listen to what he says, Romans 5, 5, hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he was given to us. So ladies and gentlemen, Christians, you have the opportunity and the ability to love sacrificially. Jesus taught you how to love. The love that we see in this world is a very selfish love, isn't it? You love me and I will love you. If you don't love me, I am not gonna love you. Jesus didn't teach that. You have the ability to love your enemy. You have the ability to love those who know you. You have the ability to love those who mock you. You have been given that love. It's in your hearts. The love of God is powerful. And we see here that that's exactly what Jesus displayed on the cross is love, sacrificial love. The cross is a powerful, powerful event for us Christians. For the rest of the world is foolishness. That's what Paul says. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It's through the cross that you and I are saved, right? It's through the cross that you and I get to walk into heaven and hug Jesus and say thank you for saving me. And for keeping me out of hell. The cross is a powerful event and it has become more personal to us because we've been affected by it because we've received Christ's. We've embraced them. You see, the world will mock the cross. They're like, yeah, right, Jesus died on that cross. Wow, that's foolish. How can God send a person to die on a cross in that way for, they think it's foolish, but see for us we're being saved and for those who are saved, listen, it's the power of God for us. As the Bible says very clearly in Hebrews 4 16, that we can boldly approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace in time of need. Don't ever, ever reduce the cross to just a story. It's more than just a story. It's about you, your life, what he did for you. Personalize it. Don't distant yourself from it. Don't detach yourself from that event because Christ had you in mind when he was hanging up on that cross, amen.