The sermon 'The Necessary Suffering of Jesus' explores the biblical narrative of Jesus' crucifixion, focusing on the necessity and significance of His suffering. It begins with a reading from Matthew 27, detailing Jesus' mocking and scourging by Roman soldiers, emphasizing that this suffering is not an arbitrary addition but a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a necessary part of the salvation process. The sermon parallels Jesus' suffering with the curse of sin from Genesis 3, asserting that suffering in the world traces back to sin. It discusses substitutionary atonement, illustrating it through the release of Barabbas as a metaphor for humanity's undeserved redemption through Jesus. The sermon also highlights passages from Luke 24 and Galatians 3, reinforcing the necessity of Jesus' suffering and crucifixion as a means of redeeming humanity from the curse of the law. The preacher delves into the unregenerate man's rejection of Jesus' authority, as illustrated in Psalm 2, and the sinfulness of sin, urging believers to view sin through holy eyes. Simon of Cyrene is presented as a model of bearing Jesus' reproach, symbolizing the call for Christians to take up their cross and follow Christ. The sermon concludes with reflections from Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter, emphasizing Jesus' role as the suffering servant and the exemplar for believers in enduring suffering with patience and faith in God’s justice.

Matthew 27 verse 27. Please follow along as I read. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand.

And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they took the robe off him and put his own clothes on him and led him away to be crucified. Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, place of a skull, they gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink.

But when he had tasted it, he would not drink." Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for the scriptures that you have given to us. And even this passage here which is very sobering amidst the context of what the entire crucifixion that is happening in this Gospel account. Lord, every word that you have here is important. Everything you tell us in the scriptures is necessary for us and is sufficient for us.

Would you pray that as we consider this passage and we hear the preached word that you will remove the blinders from our eyes and open up our hearts break up the stony ground that we have and help us to receive the word and as as it is preached to us this morning and may our hearts respond with joy with gladness and with conviction to do what is right and to please you lord in everything that we do we pray in jesus name amen So our text from last week had us face to face with substitutionary atonement, with Jesus Christ standing in the place of sinners. And it came to us in the form of a picture. And it was the picture of the release of Barabbas. We have a murderer and an insurrectionist, a man who was killing people in a rebellion to overthrow the governor, who is summarily released, just let off the hook. And so we were brought nose to nose with the scandal of the Gospel, because this man who is utterly unworthy of his freedom, He's guilty to the core of his crimes and he's worthy of the death that he'll undoubtedly be subjected to.

And then, inexplicably, his prison door is opened up and he is let go. And we see this man who is utterly unworthy of redemption. And the minute this rises up in our hearts, we've taken the bait. And God wants us to see the gospel through his eyes. We are the ones utterly unworthy of redemption who Jesus went to the cross in order to stand in our place.

This week, the title of the sermon is The Necessary Suffering of Jesus. This comes from a phrase that is lifted right out of Luke 24. In Luke 24, we have the account of the road to Emmaus. It's after the resurrection. And two disciples, we don't know who their names are, but they're on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus and they're joined by a stranger.

And they're not allowed by God to recognize that Jesus is the stranger who joins them. Jesus is speaking to them and in Luke 24 verse 46 in this account, Luke 24 verse 46 reads this way, Then He, Jesus said to them, thus it was written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. So as Jesus is working with these two disciples through the Scriptures saying, this one pointed to me, this one pointed to me, this one pointed to me, this one pointed to me, starting at the beginning and coming all the way forward, Jesus talks about the suffering, his suffering that had happened just a few days before and his death, and he describes it as necessary. Okay, so our texts today, when we see Jesus suffering at the hands of the Roman soldiers, this isn't just a bolt on to the crucifixion. Do you understand what I'm saying?

It's not just a tag on, just part of something that brings us to the cross. These sufferings are actually necessary. And what we're seeing in these suffering texts is Genesis 3 being played out. Genesis 3 is the curse. Genesis 3 is the curse.

It's the penalty, the consequences, the implications of sin entering into this good world that God had created. Then sin and rebellion against God comes and it brings a curse. And there's more to the curse than just death. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, But it goes beyond that. It's not like you don't get any of the wages of your sin until the time that you die.

There's all sorts of suffering in the world. And if you want to trace it back to its roots, you trace it back to sin. Maybe your sin or maybe just sin in the world in general, but you always tray suffering back to sin. So sin brings suffering and death. That's what we see in Genesis 3 as God curses Adam and Eve, but more than Adam and Eve, He curses a race for the rebellion that has come into the world.

So sin brings death, but it also brings suffering into the world. Now listen to Paul in Galatians 3.13. Here's what Paul says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. There's a curse that comes through the law because of disobedience to the law and Christ becomes a curse for us so that we can be redeemed. Now go on your free time, on your own time.

Go read Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28 is the blessings and the curses. Blessings for obedience in 1 through 15 and curses for disobedience in 15 through the rest of the chapter. So blessings 1-14, cursings 15 through the end of the chapter, and it's something that, it's in the 60s, there's lots of cursing verses. And You do see death in the cursings, but you see all manner of suffering in Deuteronomy 28.

What we are actually seeing in these chapters is Jesus taking on the curse of the law, which is death, but it's not only death, it's suffering. Suffering came into the world through the cosmic treason that has been committed by Adam and Eve and every son or daughter that has ever extended in their race since that time. So if we've thought that the Gospel was God overlooking sin, This helps us reset. The gospel is not God overlooking sin. And the cross tells us that this is so.

The cross speaks of a just God, an almighty God, a creating God who is angry that His creation would rise up in rebellion against Him and throw off God's government and sin against Him. God is not just, He is not only just, He is not just just. He is also the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. This is exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter 3. So the cross tells of the justice of an Almighty God who's created and who's offended by the sins of his creatures, but also that God is not only just, but also merciful.

And He is the justifier. He is the one who offers pardon freely through the work of the cross. So this is what we have. Jesus taking on Genesis 3 in our place, the curse that came through treason and rebellion, the sin of mankind. Jesus is taking that on himself.

And so Jesus, on the road to Emmaus says, it was necessary. The suffering is necessary. If Jesus is really going to be our substitute and really going to stand in our place, it is necessary that He be spat upon, that He be beaten, that he be mocked. Now let's look at the text. We're actually going to begin in 26 because I cheated 26 last week.

So we're going to back up about half a verse and let's read 26 through 31 again. Then he, Pilate, released Barabbas to them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.

And they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they took the robes off him, put his own clothes on him, and led him away to be crucified." So back to verse 26, it says, when Pilate had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. We just skimmed right over the surface of that last week.

But we shouldn't. There's a lot of suffering loaded into these words that the Romans scourged Jesus before they delivered Him to be crucified. In the law of God, scourging is very well regulated. It's a just punishment in the law of God. So when you go to Deuteronomy 25 Verse 3, you find that God has given beatings as part of his justice system, but that it's regulated, that it is limited to 40 blows so that you don't humiliate the person who's being beaten and that it's done with a rod.

So there will be bruising of the back. The Proverbs talks about the blueness of the wound. So that's God's kind of scourging. It is part of the law of God, but it's regulated. It's limited to 40 blows so that there's an end to it and it's to be done with a rod so that there will be the blueness of the wound, but there won't be bleeding.

This could not be further from Roman scourging. Roman scourging is nothing like the beating that God gives to us in his system of justice. The Romans used something called a flagellum and it's a whip. It's sort of like a cat of nine tails. It's multiple straps or cords of leather that have pieces of bone and metal woven into each of the cords.

Okay, so multiple cords of leather with pieces of bone and metal woven in. Why woven in? So it will tear the flesh. It's intended, it's designed, it's manufactured to tear at the flesh. And there's no limit.

Nothing like Deuteronomy 25 verse 3. You're at the mercy of the person giving the beating. So it's not 40 or 50 or 80. There is no limit. You're completely at the mercy of the one giving the beating.

It was not uncommon for men to die from being scourged by Romans. So it may or may not take your life when you're scourged by the Romans. So there's going to be a lot of blood, and your back is going to be turned to mincemeat when you're scourged by the Romans. They may scourge you all the way to the bone. Isaiah 53 verse 5 says, the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.

So this is why it's necessary that Jesus suffer in the ways that he suffered. Because our peace was purchased with his chastisement. Do you understand that from Isaiah 53? Our healing was purchased by his stripes, by his back being turned into mincemeat, into a bloody mess. This is the scene that is before us.

Isaiah spoke of it around 700 years before it ever happened. But if you love the piece that you have, know that it was purchased by his stripes. And if you value the healing that has come, it was his chastisement. It was necessary that the Christ suffer and rise again on the third day. In verses 27 through 31, Jesus is taken to the Praetorium.

This is where the governor, when he was in town, the governor, Pilate is headquartered in Caesarea, so maybe 30 miles away on the coast of the Mediterranean. But he would come to Jerusalem for the feast and when he came there, his headquarters would be the palace in Jerusalem. This is the palace that Herod the Great built for himself in Jerusalem. So there's this magnificent palace and when Pilate comes to town that's where he stays and operates out of. This is the Praetorium.

This is where Jesus is taken to be mocked and to be abused. The text says that they gathered the whole garrison. And depending on the commentator that you're consulting, the lowest estimate I saw this week, I think I consulted seven or eight different sources, The lowest estimate was 120 men. The highest estimate was more than 1, 000. So when it says that it gathered the whole garrison, you're talking about 100 plus men, maybe 1, 000 men were gathered to do this.

And you have to understand that they're going out of their way to do this. This isn't just whoever happens to be there, happens to be nearby. There's A gathering of people to participate and witness the mockery and the physical abuse of Jesus. There's a spectacle. It's to bring reproach upon this man and to humiliate him.

By design, everything that we read in this passage is conscious design to humiliate Jesus. So they strip Jesus and they put a scarlet robe on Jesus. Mark and John say that it was purple. So you have the battle of the shades of color among the gospel writers. But in any event, All this is consciously designed to humiliate Jesus.

And it's just part of a game to these Roman soldiers. In Luke 23 verse 11, Pilate has sent Jesus to Herod when he found out that Jesus was a Galilean in hopes that Herod would deal with the situation. And when Jesus won't satisfy Herod, Herod clothes Jesus in what the text calls a gorgeous robe and they mock Jesus just like these Roman soldiers are. So most of the commentators say it was probably a robe like a Roman soldier would have worn. To me it seems reasonable that they were just reusing the robe that Jesus was sent back to Pilate with, this gorgeous robe that's spoken of in Luke 23.

It doesn't really matter. What matters is that they're taking pains in the mocking of Jesus. And they're bringing out props to do it right. So they strip him and they put a robe on him to mock him and his authority. And they twist up a crown of thorns so that he'll have a mock crown to go with his mock robe.

And they'll put a mock scepter in his hand. They'll take this flimsy reed and they'll put it in his right hand and they'll say, they'll bow down before him. They bow the knee is what the text says. They bow the knee before Jesus and they say, Hail King of the Jews. But the point is, Jesus, you're a toy king.

Ha ha, Ha ha, hail King Jesus. Jesus, you're a play king. You're a fraud king. From the mockery, they progressed to physical abuse. And so they spit on him.

Now again, this is not six men gathered around Jesus. This is hundreds of men gathered around Jesus. And they're spitting on him. They're pelting him with spit. And they take the reed back that was his mock scepter and they strike him on the head.

And the tense of the verb communicates continuation. Okay, so this isn't one whack on the head. The tense of the verb communicates continuation. And so some of the Different translations pick up on this. NASB, for instance, renders it, began to beat him on the head.

Just began to do it. And so there's continuation. The NIV says, beat him on the head again and again. So these are translators wrestling with the idea that there's continuation being communicated in the language that the Gospel writers have chosen. Now listen back to or turn if you'd like back to Matthew 26.

In Matthew 26, Jesus is in front of the high priest in the Sanhedrin, and beginning in verse 65, it reads, Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, He has spoken blasphemy. What further need do we have of witnesses? Look, now you have heard his testimony. What do you think? They answered and said, he is deserving of death.

Then they spat in his face and beat him. And others struck him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy to us, Christ, who is the one who struck you. So Jesus is first mocked by the Jews as a toy Christ, as a play Christ. And he's spat upon, and he's beat. Then he's sent to Herod, and he's mocked.

And they send him back with a gorgeous robe and then this theme is picked up by the Roman soldiers and he's mocked for being a toy king, a play king, a fraud king. And when they're finished, they put Jesus' clothes back on him and they lead him away to be crucified. We'll speak all next week about the horrors of crucifixion. I want to make two observations about this portion of the text. Observation number one is natural man's rejection of the authority of Jesus.

We see this on display here in this text. The natural man's rejection of the authority of Jesus. These are not men just doing their duty. These are men going out of their way to create a spectacle and bring reproach on Jesus Christ because they despise his authority. As we heard last week, Jesus is laying claim to a spiritual kingdom.

He actually takes the trouble to explain to Pilate that he's not an earthly king or his servants would fight, but that his kingdom is a heavenly kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's a kingdom from heaven. And that's why Matthew over and over and over in the gospel uses the term, and he's the only one who uses it, kingdom of heaven. It's a spiritual kingdom.

And if you have a kingdom from heaven, you have an everlasting kingdom. And you have the right to govern the heart of every man if you have a kingdom from heaven. And this is what is being thrown off and despised and mocked and brought under reproach. Now turn in your Bibles to Psalm 2. Psalm 2.

Psalm 2 is exactly what we have been seeing and what we continue to see in our text in Matthew 27. So turn there, we'll read the whole thing. Psalm chapter 2. Why do the nations rage in vain? And the people plot a vain thing.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in heaven shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore be wise, O kings.

Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all who put their trust in him. The first thing that jumps off the page to me when I read Psalm 2 is verse 2 when God the Father and God the Son are joined never to be separated.

Listen to this. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed. So the kings are lined up not just against one but against two. They are lined up against the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's how it is in your Bible. And it's the holiest name of God, it's Jehovah, it's the existing one.

And against His anointed, This is the word for Messiah. Messiah means the anointed. And so when you mock one, you mock the other. It's impossible to mock one without mocking the other. So there is no loving Jesus Christ but mocking the Father.

That's impossible. And there is no loving the father but mocking Jesus Christ. It's impossible because if you line up against the Lord, all caps, Jehovah, the existing one, you automatically have aligned yourself against his Messiah, against his anointed one. And so you might love an imaginary Jesus, a created Jesus, an idolatrous Jesus who is nothing like God the Father, but you have not lined yourself up with the God of the Bible to do that. This happens every day in so many churches.

People lined up to worship and love a Jesus that's nowhere in the Bible. And that's the name They have fastened to this idol that they might as well have carved with their hands. They have aligned themselves against the existing God, against Jehovah God Almighty. Because you can't love Jesus without loving Jehovah God the Father. And if you mock the Jesus of the Bible, you are mocking Jehovah, the almighty maker of heaven and earth.

And so in Psalm 2 and in Matthew 27, we see the unregenerate man by nature rages against the government of God. Now in Psalm 2, it's specifically said to be kings, But look at the testimony of scripture. This is not isolated to the kings of the earth. The natural man, unregenerate man, rages in his heart against the government of God. This is what happened in Genesis 3.

It was man wanting to displace God, to be like God, to have all of the rights of God. And it is the authority of Almighty God that the natural man cannot tolerate. So they make another God that will let them have the authority of God and the standing of God so that they can govern themselves. This is the heart of everyone who's ever been born since Adam and Eve. But in verse 6 of Psalm 2, God proclaims that Jesus has been installed as king on the holy hill of Zion.

And that he'll rule with a rod of iron. That's verse 9. So there may be a small sliver of time where you can put a reed into the right hand of Jesus and mock him and take it back and strike him on the head, but it's such a small sliver of time. Jesus is the exalted King. Listen to Philippians 2, verses 9 through 11.

In Philippians 2, before verse 9, Paul has talked about the incarnation, the Son of God taking on the form of a servant and humbling himself to death, even the shameful, disgraceful death on the cross. And then we get to Philippians 2 verse 9 which reads, Therefore, because Jesus has taken on the form of a servant, because Jesus has humbled himself to death, even the disgraceful death of the cross, therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. In Philippians 2 we see the Son joined again with the Father. And it is Jesus' taking on the form of a servant and humbling himself that results in Him being given the name above every other name. Men won't just mock bow before the play king.

They'll really bow before the real king. The mocking of the authority of Jesus Christ, there's a sliver of time, just a sliver of eternity when men will be able to mock the authority of Jesus Christ, but the day is coming that all of that comes to a screeching halt, never to be revived for a million millions of years. Jesus Christ will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords for all eternity. So unregenerate man needs to know that there's a window, a small sliver of time for the mocking of the authority of Jesus, but it will come to a screeching halt. And so, the natural man's rejection of the authority of Jesus is folly.

The end is not that. The end point is every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. Here's my second observation from this section. The sinfulness of sin. The sinfulness of sin.

I love that verse that we just sang. You who view sin so lightly. I'm misquoting what we just sang, but from that song. You who view sin so lightly. Come here.

Come to this text and see what your sin requires. It was necessary that Jesus suffer these things. In Romans 7, verse 13, Paul says that sin through the commandment becomes exceedingly sinful. In other words, the commandment serves this purpose. To make sin exceedingly sinful in our eyes.

Why? Because it's exceedingly sinful in God's eyes. God wants to awaken our hearts to the exceeding sinfulness of sin. So we come to this text and we say, sin requires this. Sin requires the spitting of hundreds of soldiers on Jesus Christ.

Sin requires that the perfect God-man be beaten and that the thorns be driven into his head by the repeated hitting with the reed that had been used to mock him. Your sin requires this. Requires this. And we see this, the repeated consistent counsel of Scripture through the sacrificial system where you have to come to the temple door, to the door of the tabernacle and kill your offering. Why?

So that sin might be exceedingly sinful, so that your careless heart would be awakened to how God sees your sin. So that this thing that you have thought you could manage and that seems so small to you, suddenly it can dawn upon you how despicable it is through holy eyes. What we see in the text last week, this week, next week is what our sin deserves. It's what our sin deserves. Jesus is standing and bearing the treatment that you deserve if you've trusted in Him.

You deserve to be spat on and to be scourged and to be beaten and to be mocked because sin is utterly sinful when seen through holy eyes. And so the question has to be asked, how are you viewing your sin? Is it possible that because you're not viewing your sin through holy eyes, that you're totally disconnected from how God views your sins. And that sins that are respectable to your neighbors are vile and despicable in the eyes of a holy God. Allowing us to think well of ourselves when the Bible says that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags before Him.

The best things that we have to offer are all covered with defilement, all colored, shaded with the sin that we bring with anything that we do. Back to our text. Beginning in verse 27 through 34. Excuse me. Beginning in 32 through 34.

Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear Jesus' cross. And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, place of a skull, They gave him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when he had tasted it, he would not drink." Jesus is lead to Calvary. Calvary is actually Latin for skull.

Did you know that? I didn't know that before this week. So in Luke 23, 33, this place that Jesus is led to is called Calvary. Well that's why. It's Latin for skull.

And Latin is in use at the time of Jesus. In fact, in next week's text, when they put the charge above his head, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. They put it in Latin, in Greek, and in Hebrew. So Calvary just means the same thing Golgotha means. It means skull.

They bring Jesus to this place. Verse 32 begins, now as they came out, my guess is that it's talking about him coming out of Jerusalem. Because in John 19 verse 17, it says that Jesus bears his cross. So that's true. Jesus bears his cross.

And it's true that Simon bears Jesus' cross. And so my guess is that Simon is coming from Cyrene for the feast, and he's entering Jerusalem as Jesus is exiting Jerusalem. And Jesus, weakened by the scourging that had taken the life of some who were scourged, Jesus, weakened by that scourging, just cannot bear the heavy cross. I saw a wide range of estimates on the weight of a cross from 30 pounds to 200 pounds. I don't know.

But I do know this. If you've been scourged like that, there's not a lot left to carry a burden of any weight. This is what we see in the text. And so Simon is compelled to bear Jesus' cross. He's a man from Cyrene, a city in North Africa that had a large Jewish population, so it's not surprising at all that many from Cyrene would be coming to celebrate the Passover week.

It says that Simon was compelled. It's the same word that we saw in Matthew 5 verse 41 where Jesus said, and whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. And this goes to Roman law that allows Roman officials to press you into service and force you to carry a burden for up to a mile. The mile was the outer limit. So Jesus says If they compel you to take one mile, you take a second mile as a testimony to the world.

So this is what is happening. A Roman official is pressing this man into service and he is duty bound. He must. He is bound by law to carry this burden for up to a mile. So he carries Jesus' cross to Calvary, to Golgotha, to the place of the skull.

Now, Simon. Mentioned by name and by country in Luke, not mentioned in John. But three of the four gospel writers Talk about this man who's never talked about before and never talked about after. And not only do you get his name, you get where he's from, and Mark tells you who his sons are, Alexander and Rufus. And so the commentators speculate whether Rufus is the Rufus who's greeted by Paul in Romans 16, verse 13.

You cannot know. Maybe, maybe not. It's impossible to know. But God doesn't waste words. God put exactly and only what he intended us to know in his word.

So there are no throwaway words in the Bible. We're at a family level. We're reading in first Chronicles now. And you just, like, when are we getting out of these genealogies? But you have to know that God has given us exactly and only what he wants us to know in his revealed word.

So I don't understand why all the genealogies in first chronicles, but we're going to read every last name. And the more I read, every year as we go through these, the more I read these genealogies, every year I see connections that I didn't see last year. Every year I see connections. I see family lines that as you become more familiar with the history. So the problem when we come to places like this isn't that God's done something wrong in giving His word.

The problem is we don't understand yet, yet, why God chose to give this man and his nationality in three of the four gospels. Here's what Calvin says. Calvin says, God intended by this preparation to remind us that we are of no rank or estimation in ourselves and that it is only the cross of his son, it is only from the cross of his son that we derive eminence or renown. In other words, Calvin thinks Simon is a model, that Simon is a picture, that Simon is a picture of a man who joins Jesus in his reproach and it becomes his greatest honor. I think Calvin is right.

After thinking about it, of the possibilities I can come up with, It's speculation. You'll not find this in the text, but I think Calvin is on to something here. This is a man. I'm not saying that Simon knows the implications of this or that Simon did it voluntarily. Some of the commentators say He was probably a follower of Jesus.

How would you know that from what's given in the text? But I'm saying that God has given us a pattern, a picture, an example that this man who joined Jesus in his reproach, who was compelled to do so, that it becomes his greatest honor, that it's like Mary in Matthew 26 who pours out this fragrant, costly, very costly offering on Jesus. And Jesus says, wherever the gospel is preached, it's going to be a memorial to her, that Simon is sort of like Mary in that way. The gospel's preached, and Simon's the man who took up the reproach of Jesus Christ. He was compelled to do so, but he joined in the reproach of Jesus Christ.

Imagine how he was reproached by the crowds, forced by the occupying government to carry the implement of execution with this man who was being rejected, despised and rejected. Simon brought into that reproach. Jesus says this in Matthew 16, 24, then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. This is speculation, but I think Jesus has given us a picture. God has given us a picture in this man of a man doing literally what is figuratively spoken of.

What we must do is to join him in his reproach, to take up our cross daily and follow him. And when we join him in his reproach. It becomes our greatest honor. Listen to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verses 11 through 13.

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him, outside the camp, bearing his reproach. The requirement of a disciple of Jesus Christ is to go to Him outside the camp where He bore our reproach. We go with Him.

We take up our cross and we follow him outside the camp. Outside the camp is an incredibly historically loaded, historically rich term. Go through the Old Testament and see the things that happen outside the camp. Every time there's a stoning, It's to take him outside the gate, outside the camp. You take your refuse outside the camp.

You burn the carcasses outside the camp. Everything vile and despicable is outside the camp. The Valley of Hinnom is the place outside of Jerusalem where the fires always burned with exactly what's described in Hebrews 13. The bodies, the carcasses of the offering, the blood has been spilled and the bodies are taken outside the camp, and they're burned in the valley of Hinnom. And so when New Testament writers talk about hell, they say Gehenna, the valley of Hinnom.

So Jesus, as despised, as despicable, as vile, not because He's vile, but because you're vile and He's taking up your reproach. And then we take up His reproach And we go to Him outside the camp bearing His reproach. Here's the principle. Sharing His reproach, sharing His glory. Sharing His reproach, sharing His glory.

This is the unified counsel of the New Testament. The unified testimony of the New Testament is that all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. The student is never greater than his master. And if they call the master Beelzebub, how will they treat you? Share in his reproach, share in his glory.

That's how the Kingdom of Heaven works. Now turn to Luke 23. Luke 23. In Luke 23 it tells us something about this journey from the Praetorium to Calvary or Golgotha or the place of the skull that we don't get anywhere else. In Luke 23, beginning in verse 26 through 31, we read of an encounter where Jesus interacts with people on this journey.

Luke 23 verse 26, now as they led Jesus away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of the people followed, and women who also mourned and lamented him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For Indeed the days are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore and breasts which never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us and to the hills, cover us.

For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?" Jesus is going to Calvary and a multitude is going to watch, to watch the show. But among the multitude there are these women who are weeping and lamenting because not everyone was shouting, crucify. There was a remnant. And these women were part of that remnant. And they're mourning and lamenting that Jesus is going to be crucified and Jesus says, Don't cry for me.

And so we have in this account of Jesus' death that though that death is substitutionary, it will be avenged. Even though on one level it was for me and for you, it was part of the providence of God that the ones who carry it out are guilty of a great and mighty sin. And God, though He forsakes His Son for a very short period of time, He loves His Son. The life of His Son is precious and dear to Him, And He will avenge it. And less than 40 years later, everything that Jesus says here to these women is true.

It would be better if their wombs had not borne and if their breasts had not nursed. It would be better for the mountains to fall on them. It would be better for the hills to cover them than the things that happened in 70 AD. And so, though Jesus' suffering is very intense, you get that from these texts, is suffering, is very intense, is very transitory. And the things that we've been reciting and memorizing in Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14, Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven to stand before the Ancient of Days and being given a kingdom that will never end, an everlasting dominion is only a few days away.

Daniel 7 is about to be fulfilled and all authority in heaven and on earth will be given to Jesus Christ. In verse 34, Jesus is offered sour wine mixed with gall. Mark calls it myrrh. Gall can be anything that's bitter. It just means something that's bitter.

And myrrh is bitter. Myrrh is the sap of a plant. This is a fulfillment of Psalm 69. Listen to Psalm 69, verses 20 and 21. Reproach has broken my heart.

And I am full of heaviness. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." So Jesus is offered what might dull his suffering. But Jesus has come to drink the cup of God's wrath down to the bitter drags.

And so he refuses to drink. For the closing remarks, I want us to go to two different texts. One is Isaiah 53. Some of that's already been read, but we'll read the whole thing. Turn to Isaiah 53.

It's remarkable just to come to the suffering and crucifixion text and then go to Isaiah 53 which was written almost 700 years before this and see how closely they match up. How you just superimpose one on top of the other and marvel that God said He was going to do this and God did exactly what He said He was going to do. Isaiah 53, we're actually going to back up to Isaiah 52 verse 13. Isaiah 52 verse 13. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.

He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him. For what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider.

Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness, and when we see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. 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.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open 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. 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.

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. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering of sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 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. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This is your Jesus, and this is my Jesus." Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. Messiah means the anointed one.

This is Jesus Christ, the suffering servant and the exalted king. If God was only just, He would have left me in my sins to drink my own cup down to the bitter drag. So it's a hard thing to come to these texts and read of an innocent man and a tender man and a man who has been full of mercy and went about doing good treated in this way. But it's the bitter cup that I deserved and he drank it down to the dregs. If he was only just he would have left me in my sin, but he's also merciful.

He's just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Paul says this in Romans 3 and it's some of the most precious words in Scripture. Now we'll close in 1 Peter. So turn to 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2.

So what do we do with this? We know what Jesus has done. Now what do His disciples do? Peter, His disciple, tells us what we do. 1 Peter 2, beginning in 19.

Peter writes, For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it when you are beaten for your faults you take it patiently. But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps, who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth." That's Isaiah 53, 9. "...who when he was reviled did not revile and return, who when he suffered he did not threaten but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." See how Peter weaves this so skillfully and beautifully with Isaiah 53. What do we do this? We're like Christ. We're like Christ. Because Christ has done for this and purchased our pardon, paid the debt that in a thousand lifetimes we never could have paid, then all of a sudden, as His disciples, we have this bottomless reservoir to pull from to suffer reproach on his account.

So even when the things that are promised to us, that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, we just pull from the reservoir, the bottomless reservoir, because Jesus paid our debt. And so now we actually have the power, we have the freedom to go and be like Him. We're citizens of heaven. Jesus didn't look for comforts here. Now he calls us to be his disciples and to follow him, not to look for our comforts here, but to go to him outside the camp bearing his reproach and to look for our comforts in heaven.

I trust that as members of His kingdom, we'll find many comforts on this earth. But we can't depend on them. Jesus never depended on the comforts here. And He's training us to be like Him. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this text. It makes me want to be like you. To bear up under reproach and suffering to go to you outside the camp. Who took all of our reproaches on you.

Our reproaches everyone deserved. We should be spit upon. We should be scourged. We should be slapped, and we should be mocked, and we should be crucified. Because there is a Holy God, and through holy eyes, we are vile and abomination before you.

Oh, but the cross is such a healing balm. And your stripes have purchased us healing, and your chastisement has purchased us peace. Oh God, we want to live out of this well of gratitude for being set free from the punishment that we deserve and that you took upon yourself. We pray that it would be so in Jesus' name, Amen.