The Greatest Story Ever Told

Introduction

We’ve tried to make today a solemn remembrance as we’ve used our assemblies together to remember that cross. The 9 a.m. service, we read passages and sang songs together about Jesus our Savior and his death upon that cross. We’ve gathered together as the Lord would have us to do around this table and have partaken of these emblems as a reminder of the body and the blood of our Savior. As commanded by our Savior, we did this in remembrance of Him. And I’d like for that to continue. I’d like for us to continue to contemplate the story of the cross this morning. Would you allow me to do things differently this morning? And contradictory to what I usually ask you to do, I want to ask you now to put your Bibles aside.

Your notepads and pencils away.

In my feeble attempt this morning, I’d like to use words to paint a picture and to take us back to that scene. And I want you to try to picture the events that are taking place as we just tell the story of the cross. But it’s not just a story. The story we’re about to share is a true story. It’s the greatest story ever told. I want you to imagine that you’re able to witness these events. Maybe from a distance. You can see these images and these people.

1. Not My Will, but Thine Be Done

It’s Jesus and his apostles. They go into this familiar place. And Jesus tells those apostles, sit here and watch with me while I pray. And you pray also.

And he says, sit here while I pray. And you pray lest you be led into temptation. And Jesus goes further alone into that garden.

And he does just that. He prays. He falls down upon the ground, praying to his father. He says, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but thine be done. After a period of prayer, he goes back to Peter, James, and John and finds them sleeping. And he says, My soul is extremely sorrowful. Could you not watch with me but a moment? The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And he goes again into the garden to pray alone. At some point in these prayers, an angel comes to him and ministers to him, and he prays to his father again about this cup that he must drink.

2. Do You Betray the Son of Man With a Kiss?

Comes back a second time and finds Peter, James, and John still asleep. And a third time he goes and prays. His prayer was so earnest. As he lay upon the ground, his tears and sweat dropped as blood drops upon that ground. Thy will be done. He finally prays. The third time, finding Peter, James, and John and the apostles asleep, he says, Do you still sleep? It is enough. Let’s get up. Because the time of my betrayal is at hand, and the one who betrays me is near. In fact, while he was speaking those very words, the sound of the mob interrupted them. Judas was familiar with the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus going there often, and he knew the place well. And so he led this mob who came with lanterns and torches and weapons to arrest Jesus.

And they say, Jesus of Nazareth. To which he replies, I am he.

But let those who are with me go and take me. Judas, to fulfill the bargain that he had already worked out ahead of time, steps through the crowd and comes to Jesus. He’s worked out a signal with his conspirators that the one that he kisses is Jesus, who claims to be the Christ. So Judas approaches Jesus, and Jesus says, Do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? What you’ve come to do, do. So Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss. And the mob takes Jesus. And as they began to take Jesus, his apostles say, Lord, would you have us to fight? And before Jesus can even reply, Peter, his impetuous selves, grabs the sword out of the sheath and slings it toward the direction of the servant of the high priest by the name of Malchus and lops off his right ear.

And Jesus says, That’s enough. Put the sword away, Peter, because those who live by the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father, and he would send down twelve legions of angels to escape me from this moment, but I must drink the cup that my father has given me to its rightful place and submits to the arrest. The mob binds him and begins to take him away, and the disciples, once ready to fight, now just flee and leave him alone with his arrests. It’s the middle of the night, and they take Jesus to Annas. Annas had previously been the high priest, and he’s now father-in-law to Caiaphas the high priest. And they bring him to Annas, and Annas asked him questions about who he is and what he had taught and the things that he had done.

3. Are You the Christ, the Son of God?

And Jesus simply replies, I’ve spoken openly in the temple and among the people.

So false that their testimony can’t even agree. They contradict one another, but finally, two agree enough to say, this man said he would destroy the temple and build it again in three days. But even their testimony didn’t completely agree. Jesus, during these proceedings, is silent. And the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas the high priest asked him, Do you have nothing to say? To which Jesus is silent. The high priest says, I put you under oath. Are you the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus simply replies, I am. And the time is near when you will see me seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. To which the high priest tore his clothes and said, It’s blasphemy. You’ve heard enough. He is worthy of death.

And their anger knew no bounds. They blindfolded Jesus and spat upon him and slapped him and taunted him by saying, Prophesy, who just struck you. Sometime during these proceedings, two of the disciples had followed along. One unnamed disciple and one Peter who followed at a greater distance. The unknown disciple was known by the high priest, and so he asked a servant girl to let him into the courtyard. And when Peter finally arrived, he asked that Peter be allowed to come into that courtyard as well. As a servant girl let Peter in through the gate, she kept watching him. And Peter went with the others and began to warm himself at the fire. And the servant girl came to him and said, Don’t I know you? Aren’t you one of his disciples?

To which Peter says, I do not know the man. Then he left the fire. Before long, someone else came up to him and said, came up to him and said, Yes, I saw you with Jesus. You’re one of his disciples, to which Peter again denied even knowing Jesus. A little bit later, someone else said, Yes, yes, you have to be with him. I can tell by your speech you’re a Galilean. You have to be one of his disciples, to which Peter began to curse and to swear and said, I don’t know the man. And the rooster crowed. And maybe out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Jesus at a distance, turning and looking at him. Peter remembered that Jesus had said, This very night, you’ll deny me three times.

And at that look, Peter ran out and wept bitterly. It’s now daylight. All of the proceedings that had taken place during the night had been illegal. It was illegal to hold court and trial in the middle of the night. And so to add some semblance of legality, the Sanhedrin assembles again in the light of day. And they bring Jesus before them and said, If you’re the Son of God, tell us. And Jesus said, If I tell you, you won’t listen, and if I testify, you won’t believe what I have said. But again, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. Are you then the Son of God? I am. The high priest says, What further need do we have of testimony?

4. The Sorrow of Regret Overtakes Judas

He has condemned himself. Peter and the unknown disciple must not be the only ones who are watching these proceedings. Judas is now aware of what has happened. The sorrow of regret overtakes Judas, and he takes that dirty money, the 30 pieces of silver that he had accepted to betray his Lord, and he brings it back to the chief priest and the scribes and says, I can’t accept this. And they said, Well, we can’t accept it either. It’s blood money, and Judas throws the money down and runs away. He finds a vacant field and a rope and a tree or some kind of device, and ties that rope around his neck and takes his own life. At some point, either immediately or maybe some time later, the rope or the thing on which he had hanged himself breaks, and Judas falls upon that field, and his body bursts open.

The Jewish leaders, the irony of irony is won’t take that blood money and put it into the treasury because it’s been defiled. Actually defiled by them in their own actions. But they won’t put the money in the treasury, and so they buy a field, a potter’s field to bury the indigent. And it happens to be the very field in which Judas hanged himself. Fulfilling the prophecy both of Jeremiah and Zachariah and the Jewish leaders called that field the field of blood.

5. I Find No Crime in Him

And although they’re conspiring to kill an innocent man, they still don’t want to defile themselves by going into the Gentile area.

And he asks them, Why do you bring this man to me? What crime has he done? And they said, if he weren’t an evildoer, we wouldn’t bring him to you. We have a law, and by that law, he has blasphemed God Himself by making himself a king. Pilate goes back into Jesus and says, Here’s the accusations against you. What do you have to say? Are you a king of the Jews? Jesus says, Is that your question, or did someone tell you to ask that? And Pilate says, I’m not a Jew. I don’t know about the disputes in your law. Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my disciples fight to free me, but my kingdom is not of this world.

Pilate says, then are you a king? And Jesus says, For this purpose I was brought into the world to be a king. And to tell the truth. Because my words are truth. Pilate shrugs his shoulders and says, What is truth? And he goes back out to the Jewish leaders and says, I’ve examined this man, and I find no crime in him. And they still cry out for blood. And Pilate brings Jesus out and says, Do you hear these accusations that are railed against you? What do you have to say? And Jesus is silent. But the mob intensifies, and they say, He is stirring up trouble. He is saying that he is the king of the Jews, and he’s spreading his heresy everywhere, starting in Galilee, for he’s a Galilean.

And at those words, Pilate pauses and says, Is he a Galilean? He thinks he sees his way out. And so he sends Jesus to Herod Antipas, who was the ruler over the Galilean territory, who happened to be in Jerusalem at this time for the Passover. And so Pilate sends Jesus bound to Herod Antipas. And Herod was glad. Because Herod had heard a lot about Jesus and had always wanted to see Jesus and see him perform a miracle. And so Herod asked him several questions. But Jesus is silent. The soldiers under Herod mock Jesus. They put a purple robe on him, the garments of royalty and taunt him. Still Jesus is silent at this behavior. Finally, Herod sends him back to Pilate, and Pilate comes out to the Jews again and says, Again, I find this man guilty of no crime.

And Herod agrees with me because he sent him back to me. Some point in these proceedings, Pilate’s wife sends word to him. She says, I’ve had a dream about this man. Don’t have anything to do with this righteous man. Because he’s innocent. Pilate knows the custom of that day was to appease the Jews. It was a custom at the feast times to release a prisoner. He says, Who would you have me release to you? Barabbas, a terrorist, insurrectionist, and a murderer? Or Jesus, who calls himself the King of the Jews. It seems the Jewish leaders had anticipated this move by Pilate and had prompted the crowd to say, release unto us Barabbas. Shocked, Pilate says, Well, then what will I do with Jesus? Crucify. Crucify him.

Pilate gives the order for Jesus to be sent away to be beaten. His own clothes are taken off of him, and he is scourged. Beaten brutally.

Someone’s made a mock of a crown out of thorns and placed it upon his head and has given him a weak looking stick as a scepter, because he’s a king, isn’t he? And the soldiers mock him, beat him, spit on him, strike him in the head. And they take those mocking clothes off of him and put his own clothes back on and send him back to Pilate. Pilate brings this beaten and bloody man out before the crowd again and says, I find no crime in him. Look at him. Crucify him. Crucify him, the crowd says. Pilate says, you take him and crucify him. They say, we have a law, and by that law he should be put to death. He has made himself the Son of God.

Pilate takes Jesus and says, Don’t you have anything to say? Don’t you realize I have the power to release you or the power to crucify you? And Jesus says, The only power you have has been given to you by someone else. And so he who brought me to you is of the greatest crime.

And they use their strongest weapon against Pilate. They say, if you release this man, you’re not the friend of Caesar.

And we only have one king, and that is Caesar. Pilate says, Is he not your king? We have but one king, and that is Caesar. Crucify him. Crucify him. Pilate brings out a laver of water and washes his hands and says, I wash my hands, because I’m innocent of this righteous man’s blood. To which the crowd ominously says, Let his blood be upon us and upon our children. And so Pilate gives the order for Jesus to be crucified. They place his cross upon his own back, and maybe because of his weakened condition, he falls underneath the weight of it, and they compel a man by the name of Simon of Cyrene to carry his cross the rest of the way. And a crowd is formed that’s following Jesus as he makes his way to the place of his death.

6. It Is Finished

And they began to weep and to wail. And Jesus stops and says, Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for what is coming upon your people. And they bring him to Golgotha or Calvary, which just simply means the place of the skull. And he’s crucified with two thieves, one on each side.

And as he’s nailed to that cross, he says, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. The soldiers take his clothes that have been stripped from him and they divide it amongst themselves, and they tear it to divide it, except for the tunic, which is in such good condition, they decide to cast lots to see who will get the tunic, because a dead man doesn’t need clothes.

It’s written in Latin and Greek and Aramaic. And the people walk by and see it, and they go to Pilate and they say, Don’t say that. Say he said he was king of the Jews. But Pilate says, What I’ve written stays written. The passerbys who see Jesus hanging there on the cross continue the taunts and the ridicules. And they said, Save yourselves. Bring yourself down. You said you could destroy the temple and build it again, then save yourself. You said God was with you. Let God save you. Let God take you down from that cross. And the chief priest and the elders and even the thieves that were being crucified with him, join in in the ridicule and the taunting. But someone else was there.

Came to the cross, and surely she remembered those words some 30 years earlier that the prophet had said that a sword shall pierce through your soul. She’s standing there by another disciple that Jesus loved, and Jesus from the cross says, Woman, behold your son, meaning John. And to John he says, Son, behold your mother.

Even from the cross, seeing that his mother would be cared for after his death. The one thief continues to ridicule and mock him, but the other thief seemed to have a change of heart. And he says, Remember me, Jesus, when you come in your kingdom. Jesus, having the power to forgive sins while he was here upon this earth, said today, you’ll be with me in paradise. At about noon, darkness comes over the face of the earth for about three hours. And at the end of those three hours, Jesus cries out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He says, I thirst.

Conclusion

Some said he’s cried out for Elijah. See if Elijah will help him. Jesus simply says, It is finished. He says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. He bows his head. And he dies. That’s the story of the cross. That’s why we are here today. That’s why we partake, why we sing, and why we pray. And we’ve already seen why we live and more abundantly. Jesus died for you. If you’re subject to the gospel call this morning, if there’s anything that we can do to help you, to assist you to come to that cross, to come to the saving power of that blood that was shed. Why not believe in him? Repent of your sins, confess your faith, and be baptized this morning for the remission of your sins.

If there’s anything we can do of a spiritual nature as you come to that cross and come to Jesus and the blood that was shed on your behalf, why not come right now as together we stand and as we sing?