CROSS TO COMMISSION | The King Crucified | Matthew 27:32-44 | Philip Anthony Mitchell

You can praise them right from your chair

if you still have saw you.

“You can praise them right from your chair”

if you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair if you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair if you still have saw you.

You can praise them right from your chair if you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair if you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair.

If you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair. If you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair. If you still have saw you.

You can praise them right from your chair. If you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair. If you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair.

If you still have saw you. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

“You can praise them right from your chair.”

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

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You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

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You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

“You can praise them right from your chair.”

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“You can praise them right from your chair.”

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

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“You can praise them right from your chair.”

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair. You can praise them right from your chair.

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(congregation speaking in foreign language) I just burst into tears

“when I think about the deep implications”

of this text that we about to study together. When I think about everything that is buried in this text,

my mind first weeps over the original sin of men

and its implication for all human kind and the catastrophic damage that original sin has done to mankind and to creation. How God created a man perfect in all of his ways name Adam and how Adam

when he was deceived by his wife and the devil, he chose to rebel against God and plunged a whole human race into sin. And as resulted that original sin spread to all human beings and it has infected the entire human race.

And although we are different inside this room and in the overflows in across the camera, we are different in color and we are different in ethnicity and we are different in backgrounds

and socioeconomic status. We have different place of origin and was born in different homes and have been raised with different parents. And although there is distinction among us

as human beings, we all can testify that humanity, despite our distinctions, we all have been infected by a common disease that we see across the whole world. It is this disease called sin

that has infected every part of the human being has affected our mind, has infected our intellect and has affected our heart and our lives. It is sin that is the pain of all human existence and it's because of the fall and nature of the world

and humanity is the origin of all of your pain. All of your suffering, all of your trials, all of your tribulations, all of your shame, all of your insecurities, all of the abuse you suffered

when you were young, all of your relational tension for every divorce and every marriage that's in trouble, for every teenager that is a stray as the source of all of our infigipness, as the source of all of our problems,

all of our wars murder, as the source of chilling and disease and famine and hurricanes and aging and back pain and death, sin is the pain of all human experience and as a result of the fact of what Adam did, what we all have inherited.

It's not only a sinful nature, but we all have inherited the dual penalty of that sin. The scripture makes it very clear theologically because human beings were born and sin.

that according to these scriptures,

“every single person was born unrighteous”

in the side of God and as a result of that unrighteousness, we were all bad headed for a damnation. The Apostle Paul, who wrote the most sounds, theological document recorded anywhere in the history of the world, preserved for us in a new testament,

he writes about this plight of man to the church and Rome when he begins in Romans chapter 5 and 1st 12. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote. He said in 1st 12, "Therefore, he's explaining the issue of sin." Just as sin came into the world through one man,

who was Adam, deaths through sin and death spread to all men because all have sin. So according to the doctrine of Paul, because of Adam sin, which is called original sin, sin nature spread to all human beings.

So nobody was born righteous. He goes on to tell us in Romans chapter 3. For all have sin, verse 23, and fallen short of the glory of God. So if there's any person who would think they're right

in the sight of God because of good behavior, or because of morality, or because of piety,

“the scripture will call you and I, a liar,”

and says because all human beings have sinned, and because of that sin, we have broken God's laws. But Paul did not stop there. He said in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, "For the wages of sin is death."

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. I want to draw your attention to the word wages. You know that word if you've had a job. It is what you have earned for what you have done.

And according to this doctrine, Paul said, because we have sinned against God, because we have broken his laws and because we have been born and sinned, we have earned death from God.

And not just death out of funeral, but spiritual death, I.E. we have been separated from God because of our sin nature. And because we have been separated from our God, from our sin nature,

there is nothing that you and I can do to write that wrong in our own merit.

“No human being can earn righteousness from God”

in their own merit or strength. I.E. if we could, we would be able to boast on the day of judgment. So every human being was already born, separated from God, headed towards damnation,

with no hope apart from some pardon that comes from God. And then being slated to you like this. I've told this story before. I'm gonna tell it a hundred times because good leaders are good repeaters.

(audience laughing) When I was raised in New York, my mother sent me to a day camp and consequently, almost nobody in New York knows how to swim, okay?

We don't have pools. We don't have parks with water. So people in New York don't know how to swim. But my mother sent me to a day camp. And when that day camp,

they trying to teach kids how to swim on that first day.

And they lined all the kids up along the edge of the pool from the shortest to the tallest. And I ended up at the front of the line. No accident there. (audience laughing)

And then they struck their ass walking down the line. And he's telling everybody today, you're gonna learn your very first lesson and how to swim. And I can share him on my back,

talking right behind me. And then he shoves me into the deep end of the pool and because I can't swim, I go straight to the bottom of that pool. Now I'm trapped at the bottom of the deep.

And no matter what I'm doing, I cannot get out of that pool. I'm struggling. I'm trying to get out, but because I don't know how to swim,

I can't get out from the bottom of the pool. I start to feel water rushing up my nose. And I start to feel my head start to swell. And out of nowhere, I feel this pool poking me in the side of my head.

Lord, help your people. This pool was nudging me trying to help me while I was at the bottom of the pool.

And no door was hitting me at first.

I didn't have enough common sense to grab that pool. (audience cheering) Lord, help your people. (audience cheering) The water continued to fill my head.

And I felt that I was about to die. And after enough pokes in my head. (audience cheering) After enough pokes in my head, I finally had enough common sense.

To drop that pool. And they yelled me from the bottom of the pool, listen. And the news that went around the camp that day was a little black boy was saved. (audience cheering)

From drowning that day, ED finished work. (audience cheering) This is what we approach in our text.

the Lord reaching this hand down into humanity

“to pull lost people from the bottom of the pool.”

(audience cheering) Because God demands payment for sin. And his payment for sin is blood. This is why in the Old Testament, when the people came out of Egypt,

he gave them a sacrificial system. And they would have to shed the blood of animals one after the other every time they committed a sin. They had to shed the blood of animals. And that blood they were shedding for thousands of years

was a foreshadow of a land that was coming in the future. (audience cheering) And that sacrificial system was meant to teach the people that because God is holy, he demands a blood payment for sin.

And where blood is not shed, the scripture says there is no forgiveness of sins. Now God does not have a body,

so you have never seen Him.

And the Holy Spirit does not have a body, so you've never seen Him, but there is a person in the Trinity. (audience cheering) The God had, who had a physical body.

And that body came for our purpose. (audience cheering) And the purpose of that body was for the father to break it. That he could reach down into your life in mind and raise us from the bottom of that pool.

(audience cheering) This is what we approach in the text. God's ultimate plan of redemption. Look at me, what we about to read in the text was God's plan to save you.

So you recall how Christ was arrested in a garden on the Thursday night. And how he was dragged out of that garden into the house of Caiaphas, a high priest. And how he endured six illegal trials through the night

and never got a chance to sleep.

How by the time the sun raised, those religious rulers had condemned him for the charge of being the king of the Jews.

“You remember that they could not crucify Him,”

so they brought him to a governor named Pontius Pilate. You remember how they asked Pontius Pilate to crucify this man who has been blasphemous? You recall how Pontius Pilate did everything he could to exonerate Jesus because in the Roman trial,

he found Jesus not guilty. You remember how he put up another notorious criminal named Barabas and said, "Jesus, when you want." And the people being corrupted by the religious leaders

chose a murderer over the Lord Jesus. You remember how Pilate had Jesus first or be in within an inch of his life? And then brought him back and forth of people, but that was not enough for the bloodthirsty religious leaders.

They said, "No, we don't want that man, you'll crucify Him." And you know how Pilate took a blood beaten, lacerated skin body, bones hanging out the sides, faced the form, the structure says, he was beaten to the point he was unrecognizable.

“And how Pilate took him and handed him over”

to some 200 soldiers who then marked him, put a crown of bones on him, beat him in his head, spit in his face, bow to force me, a knee that will bow in the future. (audience applauding)

They abused him in silent, behind Pilate's back, but he was supposed to be in a safe place. And then they put his clothes on him,

and then they finally obey the carryum out of that plutorium

to be crucified. And then what we read right now is Matthew's account of what happened when they woke Jesus out of those doors, in verse 32. As they went out, they found a man of siren,

named Simon by name, and they compelled this man to carry his cross. So Matthew tells us that as Jesus was coming out of that room, they saw a man who they forced to help Jesus carry that cross. John tells us in his writing that Jesus came out,

bearing his own cross, but Jesus was tired, and Jesus was wary, and Jesus was hurting. And so they found somebody to help him carry the cross on his way to crucifixion. Now crucifixion, share me, was the most barbaric,

and the most torturous form of capital punishment, human beings have ever invented. It was created by the siren's, or by the Persians, it was perfected by Rome, and what would happen to our persecution or execution,

they would take the prisoner. They would strip the prisoner naked. They would beat that prisoner, so his blood will start to leak out. Then they would put a cross beam on the prisoner,

make him walk to the place of execution, usually a public place, because Rome likes to string up people and public,

They would then either with a rope or with nails,

a fix that person to the cross beam,

“they would then fix the feet to the cross beam,”

then they would string up that person, and all throughout the Roman Empire, you would see people on crosses on the side of the road. Now, as a person hung on the cross, they would have to reach up to breathe and come back down.

They would have to reach up to breathe and come back down. If they did not reach up, they would not be able to breathe, and so every time they came back down, they can feel the wood on their last array to back. Most people would hang there for days, watch,

until they died of suffocation in their own lungs. They'd be soggy in their mind, and then animals would come and pick their body, they'd left there to rot. Now, Jesus, who was tired,

he can't go all the way by himself. And so the Roman soldiers conscript or compel a man to follow him. There was a law that a Roman soldier if they wanted somebody to carry their armor,

they can go up towards you and conscript him, and then hand the armor to that Jew to follow him for at least one mile.

“This is where Jesus taught his followers”

if that ever happens to you. Go a second mile.

As we get second mile service from,

as we're checked for late got that from, he says, don't just go one mile, show them that you belong to me, go the second mile. Do what's necessary to be excellent, and not last in and first out to work,

first in and last out to work. Sireen was a Greek colony, a Roman city in northern Africa, and so they tell this man, help Christ carry this cross. Now, later in the scriptures we'll learn,

he had two sons, Alexander and Rufus, who were prominent men in the church, meaning it is very possible that because of this one encounter, he had with Jesus carrying the cross,

that whole time he was walking with him, maybe he was staring at him, maybe he's feeling something on the inside. At some point, something must happen to that man,

“Simon, because he has two sons now, who are watch,”

they're beast in the first century church.

They had to learn that from somewhere, they learned that from their father, is why we should disciple our children. (audience cheering) And then, last thing I want you to see in his verse,

he was forced to help Jesus, wash his word, carry his cross. And I only paused to point that out to you, because when I read his cross, everyone reminds me of language

that Jesus used to teach you or not, that you too must carry your own cross. It is language speaking of discipleship, and what Christ wants us to be growing in character, and in faithfulness, growing in the knowledge of who he is,

crucifying in our flesh, all the things that he says, are not for us to be doing. And I just want to remind you, and I who love isolation and hate community, nobody's going to carry the cross all the way

to the end by themselves. This is a beautiful picture of what we do in biblical community. Every single one of you, you will go through hardships, trials, and circumstance, watch that demands other people to get involved.

(audience cheering) Come on, I'm talking to you. That demands somebody else to pray for you. Nobody in this room is going to carry their cross all the way to the finish line alone.

Life will create circumstances for you, that the man who's saying brother pray for me sister pray for me, which will help me with this. Life will create circumstances and which we have to help others

and life creates circumstances in which we have to be helped. This is why it's only the devil to make people say, I hate community, I hate the church. I could do God by myself until I get to the end.

The devil is alive. And when you lie to yourself like that, the Lord will just hand you a circumstance to make you see that you need other people outside of yourself.

Verse 33, "When they came to a place called Galgatha, which means the place of a skull, they offered him wine to drink mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it." So they come to a place called Galgatha,

which was a small hill. It's called the place of the skull in our remake. It's not a place with dead skulls, but a place that looked like a skull. It's a small hill that was just outside

the ancient wars of Jerusalem. Now, consequently, I just want to say this to you. It was about 2,000 years earlier, another man of God named Abraham, got a structure from God to take his son,

his only son, and carry him to the top of the hill. He made his son, carry the wood to the top of the hill. He was told to sacrifice his son at the top of the hill.

he found a ram in the bush as a substitutionary death.

In place of his son, and it is believed that Christ was crucified on the exact same hill. So it mixed this cocktail, right? They say, they say, "Hellian Coke." They say, "No, this ain't our old fashioned."

They mix a stalemine with God. A bitter, bitter substance that they put in the wine, give it to Jesus to drink. Now, they would give this substance to meant to drink to sedate them.

Now, for compassion, that they would be so drunk, they would not fight back when it's time to nail them to the cross. But the Lord chooses not to be sedated in this moment

because He wants to absorb the full pain of what He's about to suffer.

Christ, for you and for me.

“So when we read things, and I think if it's the three,”

like He was bruised for our inequities, and He was wounded for our transgressions. When we read stuff like that, this is Jesus, taking on Him, the full source of the punishment that was coming, chooses not to be sedated for the fact,

He was thinking to punch you when He was headed to that cross. Verse 35, "And when they had crucified Him, they divided His garments, among them, casting lots, then they sat down and kept watch over Him there. And over His head, they put this charge against Him,

which read, this is Jesus, the King of the Jews,

and then two robbers were crucified with Him,

one on His right, and one on His left. I just want to draw your attention to three things right here. It says, when they had divided His garments, this is a very important detail that Matthew put in the text. He didn't have to put that in there.

When they stripped Jesus naked and they crucified Him, four soldiers took His garments and they ripped it up, and then they cast lots, meaning they're gambling for His clothing.

“Like if you're from New York, it's like playing C-LOG, right?”

So they're gambling for His clothing. Now you think that's an inconsequential detail, but Matthew put that there for a reason. Matthew put that there for a reason, because he knows a thousand years earlier,

a man named David wrote Psalm 22, which is a song that prophesied about the crucifixion of the coming Messiah. So if we go back to Psalm 22 and verse 18, listen to what was prophesied about the Messiah.

They divide my garments, some of them. Oh my God. And for my clothing, they cast lots. Meaning even these unsaved barbarians are fulfilling biblical prophecy

as they're fighting over the close of Jesus.

“I only point that out to you because the scriptures”

is the only book in the law that have prophesies that have come to pass, accurate leaf, and I only point that out to you that you can learn to trust the Word of God, that you can trust every promise that has been made to you.

And everything God has said about you. His words will not fall to the floor, because men lie, God does not. So if he said it, it will come to pass. If he promised it, it's available for you.

No prophesies like that in the Quran, no prophesies like that in the Prologue Great Price, no prophesies like that in any other book in the world, except in error, infallible, immutable, alive, active, and breathing.

Words of the living God or life. Has anybody thanked you for the word of God? God cannot lie. If he said it, he will bring it to pass. And if I was you, I'd be searching for what he said about me.

See, come on, man. You'd be read of stuff like it's a little devotional. Trying to make it true. These are the words of God or mighty. So when he says stuff like you're the head and not the tail.

When he calls himself a provider, when he calls himself a healer, when he calls himself a deliverer, when he calls himself a way maker, when he talks about where you will be,

when Christ comes back to get you.

and he knows devil and hell that'll rob me

“of what the truth of God's worth has already said.”

And the scripture says, they kept watch over his body. Watch because people had to have it. And they saw their loved ones hanging on crosses. Soldiers were going away. They go then take their bodies down

and try to resuscitate them. But they want to make sure this man does not come down. So they hung out to watch him to make sure none of his followers could come sneak him off the cross. But one more thing I want to point out to you in this,

it says, when they had crucified him, Matthew just breathes his right past that like there's nothing. One word, "trusify."

You've never seen that before because we don't use that form

a capital punishment, too brutal. It's outlawed.

“But Matthew doesn't tell the details because he's concerned”

with only highlighting the wickedness of the men. But before we leave this room today, I want you to pay attention to this word, "trusify." And I want to show you the best example we have of what a crucifixion and role look like.

Turn your attention to the screen. For 39, and those who pass by did the right at him wagging their heads and saying, "You, who would destroy the temple "rebuild it in three days, save yourself." If you're the son of God, come down from that cross.

A question is identity like the devil did when Jesus was

fasting in the wilderness, enemy will always

try to make you question your identity. And so the people mock Christ as he hangs, verse 41. So also the chief priest in the scribes in the elders marked him saying, "He saved others." But he cannot save himself.

He is the king of Israel. Let them come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trust in God, that God deliver him now. If it desires him, we said, "I am the son of God." They speak with authority, what they do not know.

It's the same way people crucify you and speak with authority, what they do not know. And I just want to tell you that nails did not keep Christ fixed to the cross. Love kept Christ fixed to the cross.

For he could have come down if he wanted to. But he knows without this sacrifice, you remain at the bottom of the pool. You remain with no hope for heaven, no hope for eternity. And so the Father must bruise the Son like this

to provide a way of escape for you to provide a pathway for you to have a right relationship with God. And the last verse and the robbers who were crucified with them also reviled him in the same way, save yourself. And Jesus is in the center.

They put him there as to say, he is the most guilty on one side. There's a thief from the other side of the thief,

“but who was supposed to be in the middle of Barabas?”

The Lord dies in His place. A perfect picture of the substitution every death. He dies in our place for you and for me. But as they hung there for hours, one of those robbers had a revelation.

As He staring at this man saying, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And one of those robbers gets a revelation. And He makes a simple prayer that changes the whole course of His life.

Luke tells us what that robber said. In Luke chapter 23 and verse 39, one of the criminals who hang railed against him saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us, but the other man rebuked him saying,

do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, what we indeed just leave we are receiving the do we want

has done nothing wrong. He turns to Jesus on the cross and He says, Jesus remember me when you come into Your kingdom, a simple prayer of honesty and humility. And the Lord turns back to that man who did not deserve

to get out of that situation, who did not deserve, grace who did not deserve anything that you and I have. And yet while He's dying, Jesus says to Him, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. And this man dies and He wakes up in glory.

So I close with two words, for two groups of people.

First, for the believer under the sound of my voice,

I ask you how in God's name can we read

“about the sacrifice of what Christ did for you and I?”

How could you see images of what Christ did for you and I and have no desire to love Him, no desire to serve Him? People got to beg you to be in gatherings, beg you to live a hand, beg you to be faithful, beg you to be generous.

How in God's name do we read what Christ did for you and I, rescue you from damnation, save you, record it your name in the last book of life and have no desire to live for Him? No desire to be faithful to Him, no desire to walk after, what our response should be my brothers and sisters

to the cross. Our response to the cross should be a life of service,

a life of surrender, a life of love,

a life of humility, a life of generosity, a life of gratitude. That the only right response to the cross of Christ is a life laid out on the altar for the Lord Jesus, and the Lord, my life belongs to you.

Your will be done and not my own.

“It is the cross that compels me to be a better husband”

to that woman over there. It is the cross that compels me to be a better father to my children. It is the cross that compels me to be a better pastor, a better shepherd, a better leader.

It is the cross that compels me to forgive people who have hurt me. Repeat. It is the cross that compels me to forgive. It is the cross that compels me to love,

even people who are unlovable. It is the cross that compels me to let people go who have been holding in my heart for years. How could you receive that level of forgiveness and not restore that to other people?

It is the cross that compels me to be a better follower of Jesus is the thing that wakes me up in the morning and says, "Lord, for you I live." And if they come and get me for you, I don't. For you and I who hold ourselves Christians,

that's easy to post. And that's easy to text is another thing to live like the Lord Jesus Christ. And our only response to the cross should be lower my life for your sacrifice.

Like how long we're gonna keep playing games doing this before something in your heart says, "For what he has done for me." I surrender all for him. And I am moved to be a better believer

in every sphere of influence. For the unbeliever under the sound of my voice, God help you. You are headed for a punishment and a wrath you are not prepared for.

But the Lord and His love for you nailed his son to the cross. That if you would just be honest and repent and say, "I have committed sins." And I am sorry for what I have done. If you would just be honest like that deep

from the cross and cry out, Lord,

“remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

He might hear you today. And he might respond to you today. He might reach down his hand and pull you out from the bottom of that pool. That he did for me over toilet seat

when I was suicidal. (audience applauds) So whatever he had bound,

never I close by the eye pray.

First for the believer, God, that you would do a work and I will hurt right now and more than just songs, more than just sermons. We will have a forrocious desire to live for you

that we will be radically loving,

radically generous, radically giving, radically forgiving of others God. I pray right now you give us grace to let people go, who has hurt us.

“People have abused us and mistreated us.”

I pray you give us the grace to let them go. It is a front to the cross to hold them in our hearts. I pray right now somebody will get delivered from the people that have been carrying in their hearts for years and decades.

I pray that it will be an outpouring of forgiveness

in our hearts. I pray you an increase at desire in us to be better men and better women. Better disciples and better followers to be radically sold out for you.

“No more playing church who wanna live for you”

and every spirit of influence and be an agent and Father I pray God for the unbeliever. Listen to me right now, God I pray.

They pray right now, they would pray in their own chair

they need nobody to touch them. And they would surrender right now for tomorrow is not promised to them Lord Jesus, please. I pray you will zip them up and fill them with the Holy Spirit and then you would record

their name in the land for good life that they would know the part of their sins and live in purpose the rest of their days until they meet you in eternity. I thank you you're saving some man right now.

Some woman right now is leaving here with a different future like that deep in the cross. Father I pray this right now when the mighty and the majestic and the masters name of the one who was crucified that we may be saved

in his mighty name I pray. And all God's people, they just whisper, amen. And amen, and amen. But everybody stand to your feet and don't move. (sighs)

Gosh man. (sighs) Gosh man Lord. (sighs) If the cross can't compel you to live for him,

what is a sermon gonna do? I'm just a man, I didn't die for you. He nobody has shed blood for you. Man, we rise tomorrow morning, striving to say Lord, I wanna love you and serve you.

I wanna help others and be generous, I wanna be kind, I wanna forgive, I wanna love the way that you love. I want people to see me and you and you and me. I wanna just smell the fragrance of Christ

coming off from me everywhere that I go. Come on man.

“Hey, that's what the world needs to see.”

(ominous music)