2017.04.02                                     Luke 18: 31- 34

                 Jesus Predicts The Cross

Good Morning…. I am glad to be with you this morning… I have Good News for You! His name is Jesus… We are on a great adventure… We are Experiencing the Life and ministry of Jesus… Once again this morning we are studying the Gospel of John… You will remember that as we studied ch11 last week we looked at the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead… Many people saw the miracle and they believed in Him there… These same people will form the huge crowd that will soon proclaim him as King Messiah… Jesus gave another of His I am statements… He said… I am the resurrection and the life…. Let´s read it again… John 11… v25,26…

John 11: 25,26                NKJV slt 2000

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

 25 Jesus spricht zu ihr: Ich bin die Auferstehung und das Leben. Wer an mich glaubt, wird leben, auch wenn er stirbt; 26 und jeder, der lebt und an mich glaubt, wird in Ewigkeit nicht sterben. Glaubst du das?

We are approaching Resurrection Sunday… And so we will focus on the Promise of the Resurrection for the next few weeks…

The Promise of the Resurrection is so important to our Christian walk… Last week I showed you a few of the very important points contained in the Promise… Look at it with me again…

The promise of the Resurrection

1 It is the death of death

2 It is for our benefit

3 It produces  thanksgiving

4 it is why we never give up

5 It is for the Glory  of God

I want to take this opportunity to look at the last week of Jesus earthly ministry… From the very beginning… The shadow of the cross was over the manger…  He was Jesus…. Immanuel… God incarnate… He came to save us from our sins… by offering the full and final and perfect sacrifice for sin… Jesus´ ministry has always been about the cross… Look with me at Luke 9: 22-25

Luke 9 : 22-25                        NKJV  slt 2000

22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?

22 indem er sprach: Der Sohn des Menschen muss viel leiden und verworfen werden von den Ältesten und den obersten Priestern und Schriftgelehrten und getötet werden und am dritten Tag auferweckt werden. 23 Er sprach aber zu allen: Wenn jemand mir nachkommen will, so verleugne er sich selbst und nehme sein Kreuz auf sich täglich und folge mir nach. 24 Denn wer sein Leben retten will, der wird es verlieren; wer aber sein Leben verliert um meinetwillen, der wird es retten. 25 Denn was hilft es einem Menschen, wenn er die ganze Welt gewinnt, aber sich selbst verliert oder schädigt?

v23… If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me…  In this text Jesus predicts The cross and His resurrection from the dead…. He is preparing the Disciples for the very difficult events that will happen in the next 10 days… As we look at this final week in Jesus´ earthly ministry…  I want to ask us all a question… What does it really mean to deny ourselves… and take up our cross daily and follow Jesus…  What does that mean for us today… here In Wiesbaden? We will begin our study of the last week of Jesus´earthly ministry… by looking at Luke ch 18 as Jesus predicts his death and resurrection…

It is a parallel text to John 11 from last week… Jesus has been ministering in Galilee and Perea… And now as we saw last week… Jesus set His face toward Jerusalem… The  cross moved Him in that direction…  The cross is the purpose for which He came… He looks ahead now… to Calvary and to the resurrection…  It is the Passover season… Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead…. And many have believed in Him… It is only about 10 days to the cross…

We have finally come to the great climax of the earthy ministry of the Lord Jesus…  Soon we will witness the agony of His death on the cross….. and the Glory that awaits Him in His Resurrection from the dead… And we will see His great and final victory over sin and death… The  disciples are the main focus of His ministry as He approaches the final events… He wants them to know that… This death on the cross… Is the plan… He speaks clearly of His suffering… Several times Jesus warned them about the future… He wants them to know the facts… So that they will not be surprised… look with me at Luke 18: 31-34…

Luke 18: 31-34                       NKJV  slt 2000

31 Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. 32 For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”34 But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken.

31 Er nahm aber die Zwölf zu sich und sprach zu ihnen: Siehe, wir ziehen hinauf nach Jerusalem, und es wird alles erfüllt werden, was durch die Propheten über den Sohn des Menschen geschrieben ist; 32 denn er wird den Heiden ausgeliefert und verspottet und mißhandelt und angespuckt werden; 33 und sie werden ihn geißeln und töten, und am dritten Tag wird er wieder auferstehen. 34 Und sie verstanden nichts davon, und dieses Wort war ihnen zu geheimnisvoll, und sie begriffen das Gesagte nicht.

First let´s look at the plan of suffering, verse 31…

v31a… He took the Twelve aside… pulling them apart from the large crowd following Him… He is accompanied not only by the Twelve but by a very large crowd… The crowd following Jesus is even larger than normal… because this is Passover… and they are all headed to Jerusalem for the Passover… The disciples are amazed and afraid because the timing seems so bad…  Because all they can see everywhere is hostility…

They still think He's going to go to Jerusalem to establish His Kingdom… and it looks impossible… The leaders of Judaism are trying to kill Him…  And so the 12 Follow Jesus reluctantly… They are fearful… But Please notice that there's no hesitation in Jesus words……  He tells them…

v31b… all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished…  Jesus points to the cross and says It is all in God´s plan… It is God who is the primary cause of the sufferings of Christ… The Jewish leaders and the Romans did the work… but they were following God´s plan… He says it to them privately… They need to understand this… They need to know that this is all part of God´s plan…  He warned them to prepare them… Because all things need to be fulfilled… 

Jesus was not a victim…   Things did not go wrong… It was all planned by God… Everything was prophesied and pictured clearly in the Old Testament…

All of the  examples found in the Festivals and the Old Testament sacrifices provide details… Passover and the Day of Atonement… Point to the final complete Sacrifice…

They need to understand this… Because they will be His first apostles and evangelists…  and they need to know that these things were planned and fulfilled exactly…  One of the reasons they need to know it… Is because it will be so hard for them to grasp the truth that Jesus the  Messiah must die…

Jesus understands that they are afraid…  They were confused… Because they knew that Jesus was walking right in to the arms of His enemies…   So, Jesus pulls them aside and says… Listen don´t freak out… I know it's a shock… but we're going up to Jerusalem… This is God's plan and Jesus knew it…  He knew exactly that it meant His death on the cross… In fact that is why He went… 

He says we're going so that the Son of Man can claim  His Kingdom… This event, the cross…  is the high point of Scripture…  It is the main focus of biblical history…

As we think about the Cross in the Scriptures… We are talking about the Doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement…  One of them happened on the Day of Atonement… Leviticus 16…  We can go to the Word of God… and think about the many daily sacrifices for sin that are pictured… In the Passover celebration… we learn that the sacrificial lamb must to be without spot or blemish… and that The blood of the lamb protects all that are sheltered in the house… The blood of the lamb saves them from death and produces life…  And all this prepares us for the one sacrifice which ends all sacrifices… All these things were temporary…

And they all pointed to the cross… They pointed to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World... The final permanent sacrifice…. Offered by God's chosen substitute…  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World… The perfect lamb without blemish and without spot… He provides for us the only way to God… and the only covering for the guilt of sin……

It is Jesus the Messiah… The perfect sacrifice… He redeems us from our sin and rebellion…  He gives us eternal life… Jesus is the Suffering Servant of the Lord God… Isaiah 52-53… slide…

Jesus sufferings as the Lamb of God

1 Jesus is Fulfilling every Prophesy…. Both of Suffering and Glory

2 Jesus is accomplishing God´s plan from eternity past

3 Jesus will willingly lay down his life

There were many Old Testament prophecies about the Suffering Servant….. The Messiah……  I'm not going to go through all of them…. There are at least 365 of them…. One for every day of the year…

Let´s look for a moment at a few of the passages about the Suffering Servant of the Lord… The Lamb of God…    

In Isaiah 52 and 53… We have an awesome Messianic passage… We read about the Atonement… We see a perfect substitute… The Lord Jesus… He would die in our place…..for sin… The perfect and final sacrifice… Look with me at Isaiah 53… Starting at verse 4…

Isaiah 53: 4- 11               NKJV   slt 2000

4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.

4 Fürwahr, er hat unsere Krankheit getragen und unsere Schmerzen auf sich geladen; wir aber hielten ihn für bestraft, von Gott geschlagen und niedergebeugt. 5 Doch er wurde um unserer Übertretungen willen durchbohrt, wegen unserer Missetaten zerschlagen; die Strafe lag auf ihm, damit wir Frieden hätten, und durch seine Wunden sind wir geheilt worden. 6 Wir alle gingen in die Irre wie Schafe, jeder wandte sich auf seinen Weg; aber der Herr warf unser aller Schuld auf ihn. 7 Er wurde mißhandelt, aber er beugte sich und tat seinen Mund nicht auf, wie ein Lamm, das zur Schlachtbank geführt wird, und wie ein Schaf, das verstummt vor seinem Scherer und seinen Mund nicht auftut. 8 Infolge von Drangsal und Gericht wurde er weggenommen; wer will aber sein Geschlecht beschreiben? Denn er wurde aus dem Land der Lebendigen weggerissen; wegen der Übertretung meines Volkes hat ihn Strafe4 getroffen. 9 Und man bestimmte sein Grab bei Gottlosen, aber bei einem Reichen [war er] in seinem Tod, weil er kein Unrecht getan hatte und kein Betrug in seinem Mund gewesen war. 10 Aber dem Herrn gefiel es, ihn zu zerschlagen; er ließ ihn leiden. Wenn er sein Leben zum Schuldopfer gegeben hat, so wird er Nachkommen sehen und seine Tage verlängern; und das Vorhaben des Herrn wird in seiner Hand gelingen. 11 Nachdem seine Seele Mühsal erlitten hat, wird er seine Lust sehen und die Fülle haben; durch seine Erkenntnis wird mein Knecht, der Gerechte, viele gerecht machen, und ihre Sünden wird er tragen.

verse 10 says He would be a guilt offering…Then it says that God  was pleased to crush Him… He will prolong His days… This points to the resurrection…   And as a result, verse 11, "Of the anguish of His soul will see it and be satisfied.  And by His knowledge, the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many." 

He will provide the sacrifice that produces the  justification of everyone who repents of their sins and cries out to Him… and after suffering a terrible death on the Cross… He will rise from the dead and see the redemption of sinners… and be satisfied…  He will receive a portion with the great because He poured out Himself to death and bore the sin of many…

Zechariah tells us about the cross too……

Zechariah 12: 10               NKJV

10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.

10 Aber über das Haus David und über die Einwohner von Jerusalem will ich den Geist der Gnade und des Gebets ausgießen, und sie werden auf mich sehen, den sie durchstochen haben, ja, sie werden um ihn klagen, wie man klagt um den eingeborenen [Sohn], und sie werden bitterlich über ihn Leid tragen, wie man bitterlich Leid trägt über den Erstgeborenen.

Remember… The Jews didn't crucify people… They stoned them to death… That is what the scribes and Pharisees wanted to do… They were prevented from killing Jesus in this way…  The death of Christ on the cross was not an  accident……    It is the fulfillment of the very plan and purpose of God……   

He knew the kind of death He would die… Because it was all part of God´s divine plan…..

Peter wrote about the fact that the prophets themselves wanted to understand what they were writing about… Especially when they wrote about the Suffering´s of the Messiah… turn to… 1 Peter 1: 10….

1 Peter 1: 10,11       NKJV   Schlachter 2000

10 Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

10 Wegen dieser Errettung haben die Propheten gesucht und nachgeforscht, die von der euch zuteil gewordenen Gnade geweissagt haben. 11 Sie haben nachgeforscht, auf welche und was für eine Zeit der Geist des Christus in ihnen hindeutete, der die für Christus bestimmten Leiden und die darauf folgenden Herrlichkeiten zuvor bezeugte.

v11… the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow… When we study Messianic Prophesy… There are these 2  categories that the prophets wrote about....... #1suffering and #2 glory……  You can go through the Old Testament and find lots about the Messiah´s Glory… The Messiah King and His Kingdom…  It's in here…  Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah and many other places speak of the Glory of the Messiah…  The Sufferings are here too…  nevertheless… Generally speaking the Jews had a hard time with the suffering parts… They could not understand them… Even though the entire OT system of sacrifice pointed to the final atonement of Christ…

It was not the kingdom or the Cross…  It was the   Kingdom through… or by way of…  the cross… His entry into Jerusalem is described in Zechariah 9… even down to the colt that He would ride on… The rage and hatred of His enemies is described in Psalm 2…  His desertion by His friends is in Zechariah 13:7…  "When the Shepherd is smitten, the sheep are scattered… Zechariah is  talking about how the disciples will all flee… Judas betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver is oprophesied in Zechariah 11:12…   Exodus 12:46 and Psalm 34:20 says, "Not a bone of His body would be broken," and we know that was fulfilled…  They didn't break His legs… which they usually did to speed up death, because He was already dead…  Psalm 22:18 said they would cast lots for His garments…  Psalm 69:21 says they would give Him vinegar to drink…  Psalm 22:1

"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me," Were words that Jesus said from the cross… They indicate His cry of pain and suffering…

All these things are laid out in the scriptures…  Of course, the OT also prophesies that He would rise from the dead… Psalm 16:10, "Thou would not allow Thy Holy One to see corruption, but will show Him the path of life…   

And it was clear to Jesus that He was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world…   

So that's the plan… The Son of man will suffer and die… Back to Luke 18… We will look again at Jesus prophesy of his suffering and death… And resurrection… look at verses 32 and 33…

Luke 18: 32, 33          NKJV  Schlachter 2000

32 For He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.”

32 denn er wird den Heiden ausgeliefert und verspottet und mißhandelt und angespuckt werden; 33 und sie werden ihn geißeln und töten, und am dritten Tag wird er wieder auferstehen.

look at the details here…  "He will be delivered to the Gentiles and will be mocked and mistreated and spit upon.  After they have scourged Him, they will kill Him and the third day He will rise again." 

So when He says it's time for the Son of Man to go to Jerusalem so everything can be fulfilled… He is right on schedule… The religious leaders couldn't kill Him so they had to  deliver Him to the Gentiles… The Romans had the power to execute Him…  And once the Gentiles followed through… He was mocked… spit on… beaten and finally killed…  And third day He arose again…  Jesus prophesies perfectly… Just exactly the way it happened…

Well… The disciples followed Jesus to Jerusalem… And in time… They also picked up their crosses and followed Him… Many of them suffered and died for the sake of the Gospel… Heaven is full of great men and women of God who gave everything for Him… turn with me to Hebrews in closing today…

CLOSE

Hebrews 12: 1- 3         NKJV slt 2000

1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

1 Da wir nun eine solche Wolke von Zeugen um uns haben, so laßt uns jede Last ablegen und die Sünde, die uns so leicht umstrickt, und laßt uns mit Ausdauer laufen in dem Kampf, der vor uns liegt, 2 indem wir hinschauen auf Jesus, den Anfänger und Vollender des Glaubens, der um der vor ihm liegenden Freude willen das Kreuz erduldete und dabei die Schande für nichts achtete, und der sich zur Rechten des Thrones Gottes gesetzt hat. 3 Achtet doch auf ihn, der solchen Widerspruch von den Sündern gegen sich erduldet hat, damit ihr nicht müde werdet und den Mut verliert!

As I began this sermon today… I asked the question… What does it mean to deny yourself and take up your cross daily?  I think that this sermon and this text from Hebrews gives us a start in the right direction…

Let us lay aside the weight of this world… Let us deny ourselves… The lust of the eyes and the lust of the Flesh and the pride of Life… Lay sin in all of it´s forms aside too… Let´s run with endurance with our eyes on Jesus… He is our great example… Let´s pray…

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