In the sermon titled 'He Bore Our Shame' by Scott Brown, the speaker delves into the crucifixion of Jesus as depicted in Matthew 27:27-34, emphasizing the profound significance of Jesus bearing the shame of humanity. The sermon highlights how Jesus' suffering and mockery by Roman soldiers were foretold in messianic prophecies like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, illustrating that Jesus endured these indignities to atone for the sins of mankind. The speaker stresses the importance of understanding Jesus' sacrifice, which not only cleanses believers of their sins but also clothes them in righteousness. This transformative act enables believers to see themselves and others as part of a holy, spotless family of God. The sermon encourages believers to embody the humility and obedience of Christ, recognizing their own sinfulness while embracing the grace and righteousness imparted through Jesus' atoning work. The speaker urges believers to let this understanding shape their interactions with fellow Christians and to live in gratitude, obedience, and unity as a redeemed family.

This morning we will be reading from Matthew chapter 27 verses 27 through 34. Please follow along with me. 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, 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, and they compelled him to bear his cross. And when they had come to a place called Gogatha, 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." Please pray with me. O Lord God, we thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and to die for sinners such as us. Lord, we thank you for your word.

We pray that you would cause the words that are spoken to be according to the scriptures and to be words of life. Lord, we pray that you would send forth your word with power, that you would bless us by sending the Holy Spirit among us, that you would open eyes and ears and give hearts of understanding this morning. Lord God, we do pray that you would build up your church, that you would confound your enemies and put them to shame, and that you would glorify and magnify your name. In Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen.

This passage of Scripture brings us into the heart of the deep mine of the Treasuries of redemption. This is the center point of redemption history that we find ourselves in. What we find here is our Lord is showing us the method by which He wins for Himself a spotless bride. How He would win for Himself sinners from every tongue and tribe and nation to make them a holy people. It's the way that God makes His people spotless.

It's the way that God has made a way for the shame of His people. And whenever we're in a passage of Scripture, I always seem to find myself asking, why are we here? Why this passage of Scripture now? Why are we all gathered before this and not something else? And, of course, The Lord knows all of the individual issues that this passage of Scripture would report on and deal with.

But I've wondered if it's possible that there may be more bearing of shame than is appropriate. Is it possible that anyone here has such a sense of shame because they haven't realized that Jesus Christ has suffered for all of their shame. I don't know. I don't know anyone's heart here, but it is possible for human hearts to gravitate toward one doctrine and neglect another one. To forget the shamelessness that exists in the heart of a believer because of the shame that Jesus Christ took.

Or maybe think of it corporately, the holiness, the purity, the spotlessness of the bride of Christ. Now, you know, we look around at one another and we see each other's flaws, we look at our own hearts and we see these flaws and we say, how could you call this a holy bride? But in reality, the Lord Jesus Christ, by His suffering on the cross, has made His bride holy. And there's a way that we should relate with each other that way. Of course, Of course we should recognize that we are sinful creatures with one another, toward one another, at the same time though God has done a miracle.

He's done it to help us to see what He's done with us and what He plans to do. He gives us a vision by declaring us holy and righteous, a holy, spotless bride of Christ. It's amazing that he would do that, but it is true that he has done that. This passage of Scripture shows the methodology by which God has chosen to purify the shame of His people. We all have so much to be ashamed of, but what do we do with that shame?

Here the shame of the believer is thrown upon the spotless Lamb of God. And it's so astonishing to me that He would do that for us. My prayer is somehow we would Understand what that means for us. As a church, when we gather together, I mean, when you came in here, were you thinking, I'm gathering with the spotless Lamb of God, His bride anyway. Were you thinking that way?

When you saw one another, were you thinking of this amazing work that God has done to make your brother spotless, to have taken care of all of his shame? You don't need to be a source of his shame. It's been taken away. Now that doesn't contradict all the other commands of God to speak the truth and love to one another, for elders to reprove, rebuke, and exhort with great patience and longsuffering. So it doesn't contradict any of those things, but it does declare a reality about the Bride of Christ.

So here we are, here we are in this passage. In the last section that we walked through last week, it was the religious people who were doing the mocking and the rejecting of Jesus Christ. In this section, it's the secular people, the Romans, who are doing such a thing. It has been a mix of lower-level governors and even the highest levels of religious leaders. And Jesus is being mocked and shamed and belittled now here by the Roman soldiers.

And their mocking has meaning for us today. Their mocking actually is interpreted for us in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 is a commentary on this passage of Scripture. Psalm 22 is a commentary on this passage of Scripture as well. Two of the towering messianic texts of Scripture, prophecies that speak of this moment, make it so clear what is happening before us.

We don't have to guess what is happening at all. And their mocking is the mocking that we deserve. He is bearing our shame. He's Receiving the marginalization, the mockery, the abuse, the indignities that we deserve. Jesus Christ is taking it all on His body.

The Lord Jesus Christ is not being dignified in this world. His obedience to his father has led him into mockings and beatings and finally an attempt to kill him. And they will stop his heart from bleeding, but they cannot kill him. Jesus, so far, has been tried six times. Three times by an ecclesiastical court, and three times by a civil court, all in a space of a very short period of time.

The six trials are now over, and now the scene shifts from that to His punishment. And the Lord Jesus has just been scorched, just before this moment, as far as I can tell from the harmony of the Gospels. And he has just endured a very frightening punishment. He's been beaten by a whip with leather thongs, with spikes and lead balls and pieces of metal tied into the ends of the strands. And he would be beaten to insensibility.

And all of these things now are going to happen as well in a short period of time here on Good Friday. And so, In the last passage of Scripture, we found the religious people proclaiming themselves to be so innocent, including Pilate himself. And they took so many pains to prove how innocent they were. And now the pagan mockers are speaking. And what they're doing is that they're proclaiming how ridiculous Jesus is.

They're declaring that there's no authority here to submit to. They're declaring that He's nothing. And their slanderous mockings are the slanderous mockings that sinners deserve, but are saved through the vicarious, atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So this symbolizes the mockery that exists in the heart of the unbeliever, the pagan mockers. It shows what it means to think like a pagan, to look at Jesus Christ and say He is nothing, and to mock His words, and to chastise Him, and to belittle his authority, to say he is nothing.

This is what the pagan does in his heart. And it is also what the devil does to Jesus Christ. And so the human depravity is here on display, and it just proves what Isaiah prophesied. He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Yet, as 1st Corinthians 15.3 says, he died for our sins. That's the essence of this passage of scripture. So let's look here in verse 27, the beginning of our text. And the first thing that we see in this defiling scene of mocking and belittling and reducing the authority of Jesus Christ down to nothing.

You see this gathering. They took him first to the praetorium. This part of the suffering of Jesus takes place in the home of, in the Praetorium. And we've seen this before where Jesus is taken into houses. He was first taken to the house of Caiaphas.

And now the mocking by the Romans takes place in another house in the praetorium, the governor's house, Pontius Pilate's house. And the use of this house is for defiling purposes. You can always use your house for various purposes. These men used their houses for defiling purposes. And they're gathering around him, it says.

They gathered the whole garrison around them. Most likely, it was 600 soldiers, 1 tenth of a Roman legion. So there are hundreds and hundreds of people gathered around in this scene. And we're witnessing the fulfillment of Psalm 22, verse 12, many bulls have surrounded me. They are like bees swarming around him to destroy him.

Prophecy is being fulfilled in this gathering in the praetorium. And then that they're now gathered, the mockings are released in verses 28 to 30. And this also is a fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy in Matthew chapter 20. In Matthew chapter 20 verse 17, Jesus was going after Jerusalem with his twelve disciples, and on the road he said this to them, behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed by the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death." And look at verse 19, and deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and to crucify, and on the third day he will rise again." There are four verbs that are used in Matthew chapter 20. As Jesus is explaining to his disciples what is going to happen, three of them are found in this section, quoted verbatim, to deliver, to flog, and to crucify.

And so they mocked him. And there are two expressions of this mockery in the big picture. There's the behavior of the Jews and the soldiers, and then there's finally the inscription on the cross that would be there to belittle him again for all to see. There are six ways that they mock him. First of all, they robe him in a scarlet robe as a symbol of royalty.

In verse 28 we read, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. So Matthew is giving attention to what's happening to his clothes. They're removed and now he is naked. Most likely, it's his outer garments that have been removed. And here the Lord Jesus Christ is shamed through nakedness.

Nakedness is always in Scripture depicted as shame, except in the context of marriage, when there is nakedness, but not shame. But in Genesis chapter 3, they were naked and ashamed. And this nakedness is designed to shame him. It's a sign of belittling. And It should help us think about the whole theology of nakedness and clothing, because God has much to say about that.

In Revelation chapter 3, the Lord says to the church in Laodicea, do you not know that you are poor and wretched and naked and blind? And he says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich in white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eye-sab that you may see." So you have the shame of your nakedness being revealed, And that is what's happening in the suffering of Christ. The shame of all believers, the spiritual nakedness that we exist in before our Savior saves us, is depicted here. And so he is made naked in the same way that every person stands before God. He sees everything.

Nothing escapes his eye. He can see straight through into your heart and know the depravity that's there. And Jesus Christ suffers for that shame. Think of it like this. If all of your thoughts were broadcast through the audio system, what would be revealed?

The shame of your nakedness would be known to all. The Lord Jesus Christ knows it, And he takes the punishment of it. He has taken the punishment of all of the shame of our nakedness from the time that we repent and believe in the gospel until the time that he takes us to heaven. That means that the nakedness that exists before God, he has taken the punishment for it. And it's astonishing that he would do that.

He knows our frame. He knows that we are but dust. And so he atones for our nakedness. It's a good thing that our words and our thoughts aren't broadcast, But God knows them and He washes them white as snow. And it's such a remarkable miracle.

And they also, they put a cloak upon Him, a short cloak worn by emperors and kings and magistrates and military officers. They put a robe on him to mock him. Perhaps just to declare there's no righteousness, there's no robe of royalty in Jesus Christ. In the same way that a sinner stands before God, he really has no robe of righteousness of his own. He has no righteousness of his own.

His only hope is to be robed by the righteousness of Christ. And here what we find is the Lord Jesus is mocked for his unrighteousness. And he takes the absence of our righteousness upon him, and he suffers for it in the mocking of the giving of this robe. Robes are an interesting study in Scripture. In Job he clothed himself in robes of righteousness and justice in Job 29 verse 14.

Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple wearing a robe with a train so long that it filled the entire building. It was such a luxurious robe and It was a picture of purity and power together in one thing there in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1. And so what we have with these robes, it's the insulting, scoffing, disrespectful, disdain and shame that we deserve. He is bearing our shame, enduring the cross, despising the shame, and making us part of his great family. Man of Sorrows, what a name!

For the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing, rude, In my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah!

What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless lamb of God was he. Full atonement can it be. Hallelujah.

What a Savior. Not only did they robe him, they crowned him. They crowned him with a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. It was a symbol of coronation. It was a symbol of favor.

They were mocking that. They were mocking that he had been favored by his father. They were mocking the fact that his father said, this is my beloved son and whom I well please. They're saying there's no pleasure in this son. There are various types of thorn bushes growing in this region with large thorns on them.

One of these was this crown of thorns. It wasn't the olive branch of the Roman Emperor or the wreath of the winning athlete, but it was a crown of thorns. It was meant to say something. There was a message in it. It was really meant to say, you are no king at all.

You are a bloody king, deserving of this. At the same time, David in Psalm 45 says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore, God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.

And here the Lord Jesus Christ, in the midst of his suffering, we know that he's doing it for the joy set before him, that he would see a crown of glory on his sons and his daughters. Because he's bringing many sons to glory, And He's doing it through the shame, through the indignation that's being heaped upon Him. The indignation that you and I deserve. The indignation that says you deserve no crown at all. You have no favor of your Father in heaven.

And Jesus Christ is contradicting it all and taking it into His own body. This is the insulting, scoffing, disrespectful disdain of shame that you and I deserve. He's bearing our shame, enduring the cross, despising the shame to make us part of his family. He's the man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah, what a Savior.

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood. Alleluia, what a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was he. Full atonement can it be.

Hallelujah. What a Savior. Not only did they robe him and crown him, they sceptered him. They put a wreath in his right hand. Another act of mockery.

A scepter is a symbol of power. They were mocking his power in the same way that the devil has reason to mock your power, to accuse you of your powerlessness and your stupidity, your insipidity. And these soldiers are mocking Christ that way. They're mocking Him the way we deserve to be mocked. For all of the occasions where we turned away from the power of God, where we rejected the power of His Holy Spirit, the convicting power, the anointing power, the loving power of His Holy Spirit, where we've set it aside, Jesus Christ is suffering for all of those times so that you would not have the shame for all the times that you've rejected His wonderful work of power toward you when you've resisted the Holy Spirit.

As the Apostle Paul says, do not quench the Holy Spirit. How often does that happen? And yet Jesus Christ takes the suffering for all of the quenchings that we have engaged in all our life long. Will we quench the Spirit sometime today? Most likely we will.

And the Lord Jesus Christ absorbs the suffering for it. Not only did they scepter Him, they adored Him. They quote unquote adored him. It wasn't a real adoration. It was a mocking adoration, bowing down to him.

They bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, King, hail, King of the Jews. This phrase, hail, King of the Jews, let me suggest to you, this is the heart of the matter. They were belittling his authority, his kingship. This is the summary of everything they were doing. They were throwing off his authority, saying he doesn't have any authority in this world or upon me or anybody.

They're belittling his authority and saying, we have no authority but Caesar. Psalm 45 speaks the truth, your throne, O God, is forever. One of the commentators says that they're like Joseph's brothers in Genesis 37, where they say, shall you indeed reign over us? Joseph has a dream where he will indeed reign over us, and his brothers say, shall you indeed reign over us? And they throw him into a pit, and they soak his garment with blood.

It's a depiction of this. It's a prophecy. It's a prefigurement. It's a shadow of what the Lord Jesus Christ is experiencing here. This shadow of the cross exists all over Scripture.

But for time, we could identify this scarlet thread of redemption that runs from Genesis to Revelation. And the term mocking or mocked him appears here in this verse. Reading out of the dictionary, the Greek dictionary, It means to play with, to dance around, to take one's sport of someone, to deceive, to defraud. It belongs to a large group of words for the disparagement or low estimation of others, or indeed of the world, or creatures, or even a deity. In word, in attitude, in act, in contemptuous speech, in scorn and insult, ridicule, speaking ill, turning up the nose, shaking the head, clapping the hands as a sign of scorn, whistling, spitting, finding fault, dragging in the dust, backbiting, dissecting, whispering, calumniating, secretly, ridiculing, disparaging, disdaining, making fun, bantering.

That's what mocking is. That's what they were doing. This is a picture of what sinners deserve from God, and yet Jesus Christ receives all of it in His own body. When we were in Bible study, I believe it was Dan who was saying that this looks so much like the punishments of hell, where God is punishing sinners who have not repented, and they are being destroyed in every possible way, emotionally, physically, everything is being tormented in hell. This torment that Jesus Christ is receiving, He receives so that repentant sinners will not receive it in hell.

He takes it upon Himself. These mockings continue on today in so many different ways. In subtle ways that you might not think of, but also in very dramatic ways. There are those who reject Christ, who belittle him, who dismiss him, who mock the Bible. Richard Dawkins is an example.

Here's what he says, the God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak of an addictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it. How jealous is he?

Well, his name is Jealous and he named himself. This is the kind of belittling of the devil, the belittling of the devil toward Jesus Christ. It is so profane, it is so noxious and it will absolutely be expunged from the universe as God casts all of this kind of unrighteousness. All of those who contradict His authority, all of those who say, You're not my king, all those who say, That doesn't apply to me, all those who say, This doesn't have any meaning in my life, these things are punished for all eternity. And Here Jesus Christ takes that punishment upon himself.

The man who says something like this can be saved if he turns to Jesus Christ. But This man, Richard Dawkins, has put into words what the actions of the Romans explain. And they're mocking his worthiness. They're mocking his authority. They're mocking his glory.

When in fact, Jesus, He's doing the opposite. He's bringing many sons to glory. In obedience to His Father, He submits in order to bring many sons to glory. How astonishing it is. And this is the insulting, scoffing, disrespectful disdain of shame that the Church of Jesus Christ deserves.

He is bearing our shame. He's enduring the cross, despising the shame, to make us part of a family. A family without shame, before God. This is probably why it can be a happy family, because we can stand exonerated by God. And then fifthly, they spat on him.

Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. Now there's so many different kinds of insults that you can hurl at people. Sometimes it just comes from the curling of a lip. You've seen that. This is common to mankind.

You can see the scorn on the face of people, and it affects them physically. You can see the slap. You know, slapping someone is a sign of such dishonor. But spitting, spitting takes it to a whole other level in terms of dishonor. And they got close enough to spit on him and to spit on his face.

You've got to be fairly close to do this. This is an in-your-face mob scene. There are 600 soldiers hurling insults and spitting on him. This is after he's been flogged and he's bloody, and now they're committing this other crime. Instead crime, instead of kissing the son, they're spitting on the son.

And they're hitting him on the head. And then they hit him on the head. They would drive the crown of thorns into his skull. They were mocking his authority, taking the symbol of authority and using it to hurt him. Isaiah 53 is a commentary on this.

I'd like you to open your Bibles to Isaiah 53. You can see the contours, you can see it all here. It's amazing how perfectly this scene fits the prophecy of Isaiah 53. 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 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.

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 there 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 for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days.

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper 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. He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." That is the commentary of this passage of scripture.

Psalm 22 does almost exactly the same thing with other colors and contours that are also very helpful. You know, how is it that they could be so blind to the perfections of Jesus? How could they miss His mercy? How could they miss His wisdom? How could they miss all the miracles?

I mean, one of these centurions just saw, most likely, the ear of the servant of the high priest healed. How could...what is happening here? How could they possibly be so hard of heart? And the answer is very, very simple. Second Corinthians speaks of it.

The God of this world has blinded their eyes. Romans 9, 8 says it so well, regarding the Jews anyway. God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and bow down their back always." So They don't see it because they're blind, because God has not chosen to open up their eyes.

And the God of this world has blinded their eyes. Their idols have so clouded their vision, they can't even see what truth and love and justice looks like. They can't recognize it. And so they continue on saying, Hail, King of the Jews, in such a snarky, belittling way, because they can't see. This should help us to understand what is going on in every conversation with an unbeliever.

He is blind until God makes him see. Until the Father draws him, he cannot know. Next week, many will be going out to this homosexual rally called Out Rally. And there will be many conversations with people whose eyes are darkened, whose hearts have been so blinded by the devil, and to engage in a rational conversation is sometimes almost impossible because of the blindness that exists. But, don't forget this, God is able to open the eyes of the blind.

There's no reason to become frustrated with a blind person. There's no reason to be angry, because God has blinded their eyes. It's so easy to get irritated with unbelievers because of their arguments or their insensibility, but this is the way that God has designed it, except that He would open their eyes. And oh how He does it. Oh how many eyes He's opened.

You know, when Paul speaks to the Corinthian Church, he names all of these sins, the sins that once so blinded these people, the idols that made it so they couldn't even see truth and love and justice. And he says, such were some of you. That means that it's possible for those eyes to be opened by the power of God. So then finally in verse 33, they clothed him with his own clothes. And when they had mocked him, they took the robe off him and put his own clothes on him.

Why put his own clothes back on? I'll give you some speculations. It doesn't tell us exactly why. Possibly the Romans were appealing to the scruples of the Jews about nakedness and put his clothes back on. I think that's highly unlikely.

Most likely they did it just to continue the mockery and just to proclaim how ordinary he was. He was a commoner. He's just another lowlife from Nazareth. Can anything good from Nazareth put your Nazarene clothes back on? Quite likely it was that.

That seems to fit the context of the mockery that has gone on during this entire engagement here. But, but here's what we know absolutely for sure, His clothes would be divided, His clothes would be divided. And so the reason the clothes were put on were to fulfill Scripture. As was the mockery, as was the trial, as was everything. All of this was to fulfill the purpose of God to rescue sinners.

That God in His love would send His Son to be a sacrifice. And God was reconciling the world through Jesus Christ. And so they put His clothes on to fulfill the will of Jesus Christ's Father. That they would take his clothes and they would cast lots after dividing his clothes and split them up among them. And then they led him away to be crucified.

The law required that executions take place outside the city. He was taken outside the city. Jesus already foretold this in Matthew chapter 21, where He speaks of the son who was belittled by the caretakers of the land of the vineyard. So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine dressers?

They said to him, He will destroy those wicked men miserably and lease the vineyard to other vine dressers who will render to Him the fruits in their seasons. And Jesus said to them, Have you never read in the Scriptures? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit of it.

And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." So he is taken outside of the city, and what looked like a victory to them would actually end up grinding them to powder. They did not know who they were dealing with. But he was taken outside the camp. To be taken outside the city, outside the camp, was also prophesied in the law as Moses in Exodus speaks of the bull being taken outside the camp to be burned in Exodus 29 verse 14. In Deuteronomy 23 verse 10, when there's an unclean occurrence in the night, then that person shall go outside the camp.

In Leviticus chapter 9 verse 11, the sin offering of a calf is taken outside the camp to be slaughtered. In Numbers 15, 35, the man who was stoned by breaking the Sabbath was taken outside the camp. In Numbers 19, verse 3, the red heifer without blemish is taken outside the camp to be sacrificed. This is why Jesus said, I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. He's now fulfilling the law.

And the Lamb of God is being led to slaughter in the same way that lambs have always been led to slaughter through the temple sacrifices. And now the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is going outside of the camp. He said He was led outside the gate. Hebrews 13 says, 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." All of this misery and shame, this fulfilling of the prophecies of the Old Testament, it all happens so that He might purchase everlasting joy, so that He might buy back a people for his own possession, that he might bring his sons to glory.

He goes outside the camp to be slaughtered for your sins and mine. This is the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. Penal, He takes the penalty. Substitution, He is your substitute. And it depicts the vicarious sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Vicarious meaning He suffers in your place. These are all words your children need to know. Penal substitution, vicarious atonement. These words sum up everything we've been talking about this whole time. And then, in verse 32, another man bears the cross from one place to another, Simon of Cyrene.

Now, as they came out, they found a man, Simon, a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him, they compelled to bear his cross. So a bystander is selected. He's not a Jew, He's from out of town. And perhaps he's doing what Jesus said. If one asks you to go one mile, go with him two.

There he was, there before the Roman authorities, and they asked him to carry this cross, and he did. It's possible that Jesus was so close to death, the Romans did not want him to die before his crucifixion. We don't know exactly why, but we do know that this man carries the cross. There's significant evidence that this man was in the church. You see him in Acts 11, perhaps.

You see him in Romans 16, and perhaps even in Acts 2. We don't know exactly why Jesus did not carry his cross, but Jesus did talk about picking up his cross and following him. It's most likely an allusion to that. And so he's a picture of those who would take up their cross and follow him to bear his shame. And then Golgotha's gall is given, verses 33 and 34, and when they had come to the place called Golgotha, that is to say, place of the skull.

This is a place where criminals were crucified. Jesus Christ takes the place of the criminal. He takes the place of every believer who ever broke a law and deserves to be punished for it. He takes the place of every believer who ever broke an ecclesiastical law and deserved to be punished for it. But Jesus was punished.

This is Golgotha. It's the place where the criminals are punished. And then they gave him sour wine, mingled with gall to drink, but when he had tasted it, he would not drink it. This is wine mixed with bile. It's a product of a gall bladder.

It's a bitter mix. With myrrh sometimes was added to it, with wine to add better flavoring. In Psalm 69 it seems to make it inedible. Maybe it was to ease pain, like in Proverbs 31. But my view is that it was an act of hatred.

It was another act of mockery and belittling. Here, drink this, You who turned your water into wine, you drink this." Jesus said, my wine gets better as the days go by. And they say, no, drink this bitter, filthy wine. This is all you get. This is all you are.

This is all you deserve. He again stands in the place of sinners who deserve to drink a filthy drink, a bitter cup, a bile contaminated poison cup with shards and glass in it. That's what we deserve. Jesus rejects this cup. He rejects this.

I don't know why. Maybe you have some ways to understand that. Now so ends the mocking of the Lord Jesus Christ that we'll consider today. But the mocking continues. In verses 39 and 40, the bystanders are blaspheming.

In verses 41 to 43, the scribes are scoffing. In verse 44, the robbers are reviling. And yet in Luke 23, the women weep and the multitudes are moved. So there it is, the mocking, the scorning, the shaming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's turn to some applications.

As is so clear, Jesus is propitiating the wrath of God towards sinners. It's the most important thing that has ever happened in the history of the world. It's undeniable that sin exists everywhere in the world, But what do you do about it? What can be done about it? God sent His Son to quell the anger of God toward sinners.

This is what propitiation is. John Owen says, propitiation includes four things. Number one, an offense to be removed. That's our sin. Number two, a person who has been offended and needs to be pacified.

That is, a holy God who cannot tolerate sin. Number three, a person who has committed the sin and is guilty. Number four, a sacrifice by means of which the sin is atoned for. And so this propitiation of the wrath of God is a rendering of compensation for sin. The compensation for your sin is being made here, the payment for your sin, in order to satisfy the wrath of God toward you.

The wrath has been satisfied. The shame has been absorbed. In order to collect a people who are happy before God, who know that their shame has been taken from them. And all of the benefit of his suffering has been credited to us. And he gives us a clean slate.

All of your sins have been cleaned. But it's not just that your sins have been cleaned. That's not the whole story. It's not just that he's suffered for your shame, but something else has happened also. He has also done something else.

Not only have your sins been blotted out negatively, but He has also added the righteousness of Jesus Christ to your soul. You're not only clean, you're also filled with the righteousness from God that is by faith and by faith alone, not by any works of man. It is a righteousness by faith. It's a being clothed in righteousness. Instead of being clothed in shame, to be clothed in His imputed righteousness.

And here we are, a people like that. And I just have to wonder, do we really grasp that? Isn't it so amazing? Is it possible that this could modify the way we think about one another? The way that we talk to one another?

The way that we talk about one another? Is it possible that we've lost the vision of the shamelessness that has been bequeathed upon us by the suffering of Jesus Christ and how His righteousness has been imputed to us, and how He has given us a real royal robe and a real scepter in heaven and even on earth when Jesus said, Even greater things shall you do than I will do." God has done something in His substitutionary atonement as He has taken our shame. I've used a phrase throughout this message a number of times that I want to comment on. It comes from Hebrews 12, he endured the cross, despising the shame. Now what does it mean that he despised the shame?

I recognize that commentators have said that it means different things. In this whole context and In view of the purpose of the suffering of Jesus Christ, I believe what he is saying in Hebrews, that he thought the shame to be such a small thing in light of the goodness that it would bring, in light of the happiness that it would bring, in light of the freedom that it would bring, in light of a whole different image that the people of God would have than the whole world, that they are clothed with righteousness, that they have a scepter of power from the Holy Spirit, that they have a crown of righteousness, that that's who they are. That he thought of that shame to be so small, he made it so little, it was so little to him to achieve so great a salvation, to bring so many sons to glory, to make them happy in their souls, to change their lives. I remember when Jesus Christ put that smile on my face and it has never left because He relieved my soul of my burden. I took His yoke upon me, and I've never been the same since.

And I am so grateful. He bore my shame, and He put His yoke upon me. And He said, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. He endured the cross, despising the shame, thinking it's such a little thing to do for such a great work for sinners. This is who we are.

Jesus Christ shed His blood. He became sin for us to make us a family. And what kind of family are we? We're a family whose shame has been paid for. And I want to know If we're too shameful in our disposition, is it possible that we are?

And we've somehow gotten disconnected. I know I've had many conversations with people in this church where I've thought they've really not seen the grace of Jesus Christ as big as it really is. They see their sin bigger than the mercies of Jesus. They see this sin that Jesus Christ said it was a small thing to suffer for, and they forget the ocean of mercy that exists for them. I don't know if that's you.

Also, people are on the other side of the scale. They don't understand their sinfulness. Those are two sides of a horse you can fall off on. Another thing I'd like to bring out here is that Jesus suffers in obedience to his father. And this is going to lead us to some other applications that I want to get to.

Jesus is doing the will of his father, and that means that he'll suffer the mockings and the scourgings and the imprisonments and the trials, and he'll be presented with so many assaults of hatred. And he suffers these things as an obedient son. He suffers because he's doing the will of his father. His father desires him to suffer. And this is one of the great lessons of the sufferings of Jesus, because we follow in his footsteps of suffering.

He does want his children to suffer. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And we're following our Savior. You know, how many times you've been discouraged because of your persecution? I know I have.

I've been rebuked by my friends for, you know, getting discouraged about the sufferings, the little dinkies, ridiculous sufferings I've had, compared to any kind of suffering that any other martyr ever had. Nothing. I've been corrected. I've been corrected by my brothers. You should be glad.

You should rejoice. How come you're not rejoicing? Jesus suffers in obedience to his father and so should we. And we should engage it in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ did and the way that we are commanded to engage it. So his example is meant to lead us in our persecutions.

Isaiah 50 tells of this. In Isaiah 50 verse 7, For the Lord will help me. At the end of verse 7, he was only put to temporary shame. Verse 8, he who is near me justifies me. It speaks, Isaiah 50 really speaks of this moment and what it was for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And it was meant to teach the church to engage their own persecutions. Now the apostle Paul takes this theme and he also applies it in Philippians Chapter 2. Paul states that one element of why this happened, that Jesus would bear the shame. It happened for a reason. It happened to spur us onto obedience.

So this taking on the shame and obedience to his father is supposed to teach us something today. It's not just about Jesus. It's about Jesus' sons and daughters. He's giving us a pattern in His suffering. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond-servant, coming in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall 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. So this mind, which was in Christ Jesus, ought to be in our minds as well, to suffer. And then he says, therefore, in verse 12, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. And then he says, all of this has happened so that you would do all things without grumbling and complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you also shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain." So he's saying This happened so that you would have the mind of Christ, that you would remember Him, and that it would make you obey Him, and that it would make you stop grumbling and complaining and disputing.

That's the application of this scene. Stop grumbling and complaining and disputing. You've seen the sufferings, he said, now stop complaining. That's what Paul is saying to the Philippian church. Here's another astonishing finding.

This scene is also used in order to teach the church to obey their leaders. How's that? Did you recognize that? No, probably not. If you turn to Hebrews 13, you'll see that it's true.

Hebrews 13, beginning of verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 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.

Then he says, why? Why did he suffer outside the gate? Therefore, verse 13, let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." So first, we're to bear the reproach. Secondly, in verse 15, that we would continue to offer the sacrifice of praise to God. Therefore, let Him, let us, continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks in His name. So another application is to give thanks. Another application in verse 16 is to do good and share. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifice God is well pleased. So this scene of his taking our shame should make us share.

It should do something to us. It should change our whole lives. And then finally, it should make us obey our leaders. How's that? Obey your leaders who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account.

Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable to you." He's using the obedience of Jesus Christ in his sufferings, in his bearing the shame, in his going outside the camp as an example for why the Church should obey its leaders, because Jesus Christ obeyed His Father. And that's why you should obey your leaders, because Jesus Christ obeyed His Father. Well, here we're shown how deep and wide the atonement reaches. It makes us part of a family. It reaches out to every sin that anyone in the church ever committed.

Every belittlement, everything. Every single thing about you, every single thing about every sinner in the world. You might not sin exactly like this person over here, but Jesus Christ is covered for both. And He's made us one family. He was delivered up for our offenses, our offenses.

Not just my offenses, yes He has. But He's been delivered up for our offenses, all of us together, your offenses and yours and yours. And since He was delivered up for our offenses, what kind of people should that make us be? When we look at each other and we see what kind of people we are in His sight, How ought we to treat one another? How should we treat our shame?

How should we treat the shameful things that others have done? He was delivered up for our offenses. He was raised for our justification, our corporately. We live in such an individualistic, narcissistic culture of Christianity that we only think about us. But we forget that this salvation was for a family, that He was redeeming a bride, a family, a people for God's own possession, to make them holy and blameless as lights in the world and that they would come together and be that way.

So, I want to close with two things. While there was such a rebellion against the authority of Jesus, against the kingship of Jesus, and they said, Hail, King of the Jews, you're nothing to us. Here's what we need to recognize. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. Here's a reality I want us to be very well aware of this morning.

God has given you two members of your body to remind you of something that you need to remember. He's given you a mouth. He's given you a mouth. Everyone here has a mouth, and it has a purpose. It's been created for a purpose.

And everybody has been given knees. You have been given knees. And your mouth and your knee have been created for one thing, to bow and to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Someday, If you don't love the Lord Jesus, if you've not been following, you have to recognize God gave you your mouth. He gave you your knee to show you every day that there will be a day where every knee will bow and every time confess.

He has that knee that you have right there with you, it will bow. So turn now. Turn now. Confess. Bow now.

Today is the day of salvation. God has given you a knee for a purpose to show you what a great salvation there is to show you what can happen to your shame. By his sacrifice he has turned the insulting, scoffing, disrespectful disdain of shame that we deserve, into a garment of praise, a crown of glory, as He brings many sons to glory. He bore Our shame. This man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah, what a Savior. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood." Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was He.

Full atonement. Can it be? Hallelujah. What a Savior. Here the Lord Jesus Christ bears our shame, taking the mocking that we deserve.

To make us what? A happy family together, whose sins have been washed away, who have been clothed in robes of righteousness. Can you see your brother that way today? Can you see it? I pray that we can.

Oh Lord, we thank you for your sufferings, for your mercy, your love, for how you would give your life for sinners. Amen.