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THE PASSION EXPOUNDED

THE PASSION EXPOUNDED

By Pastor Glenn Pease

 

INTRODUCTION

 

     The following messages are a commentary on the film of Mel Gibson, The Passion. They give a deeper insight into the scenes of the movie.

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

1. THE SAVIOR IN GETHSEMANE Based on Matt. 26:30-56

 

2. LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE  Based on Matt. 27:11‑26

 

3.  A TERRIFYING VICTORY  Based on Matt. 27:39-51

 

4. TO HELL AND BACK  Based on Matt. 27:45‑54

 

5. THREE HOURS IN HELL  Based on Matt. 27:45‑56

 

6. SIMON OF CYRENE  Based on Mark 15:15-26

 

7. GUILTY BUT PARDONED    Based on Luke 23:34

 

8. LOVE’S RESPONSE TO HATE   Based on Luke 23:34

 

9.  FORGIVENESS OF SIN  Based on Luke 23:34

 

10. THE WORD OF FAITH   Based on Luke 23:39-46

 

11. THE PERFECT PROMISE   Based on Luke 23:43

 

12. PILATE'S PERPLEXING PROBLEM   Based on John 18:28-40

 

13. THE CRUELTY OF THE CROSS    Based on John 19:1‑16

 

14.  I THIRST   Based on John 19:28-29

 

15. IT IS FINISHED   Based on John 19:28-37

 

16. THE REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION Based on John 20:1-18

 

 

 

 

 


1. THE SAVIOR IN GETHSEMANE Based on Matt. 26:30-56

 

       A salesman said to me, “We all know you do not get something good for nothing.”  It turned out to be very true in regard to what he was selling.  I began to think about this in relationship to the Gospel and concluded that it is both true and false.  Salvation by grace through faith is the greatest gift man can receive, and he does nothing to deserve it.  He is getting something for nothing, but if you think a little deeper you see that someone had to pay for that free gift.  In fact, it was the most costly gift ever purchased, for it cost Jesus unimaginable agony and His very life blood.  In our text we see the beginning of the payment for our redemption.  There was a two-fold aspect of Christ’s payment for our sin.  There was one in Gethsemane, and the other on Golgotha.  The first was mainly mental suffering, and the second was mainly physical suffering.  Before we enter the garden we want to look first at-

 

I.  THE SAVIOR’S SONG.  v. 30.

 

        We often think of Jesus as a man of sorrows, and that He was, but we more often fail to see Him as a man of song as well.  No religion has been such a religion of song as Christianity.  It began as such from the beginning.  Even before His greatest sorrow we see Jesus and His disciples singing.  All were doing so except Judas who had lost the song of his life when he left Jesus.  He never sang another note. 

 

        What a delight it would be to hear this Apostolic choir singing.  Do you wonder what it was they sang?  Scholars tell us it is likely that we have the words to their song.  It was the Passover season and the Jewish custom was to sing Psa. 113 to 118.  It is likely then that Psa. 118 was part of their hymn.  A heart filled with song is better prepared to face sorrow.  As we see how rapidly Jesus went from singing to suffering, we see again how Jesus experienced life just as we do.  He knows from experience how life can have sudden and sharp contrast.  You can be happy in one moment and discouraged in the next.  You can be singing one minute and sobbing the next.  Jesus had just spoken of His joy, and in a matter of minutes He will be on His face with strong crying and tears. 

 

        Even in the darkest hours the Christian can sing, for God gives songs in the night.  The Apostle Paul and Silas were in a dark damp dungeon and they sang.  The martyrs at the stake often sang as they were perishing in the flames.  The singing of the saints even in times of great suffering and sorrow has led many an unbeliever to want to become a follower of the Christ who sang just before His greatest suffering.  If Jesus could sing just before this, and knowing the cross was soon to follow, then we ought not to be without a song.  Next we see-

 

II.  THE SAVIOR’S SORROW.  v. 37-39

 


        The hour which Jesus had so often spoken of was now approaching.  He had always escaped before because His hour had not yet come.  Now it had come and He was exceedingly sorrowful.  The mental stress was so great that Dr. Luke says He sweat drops of blood to indicate the intensity of it.  There are several records of others who had this experience.  The question comes as to why Jesus was under such stress.  What was this cup that He had to drink that was so horrible to Him? 

 

        In verse 39 we see how earnest was His desire, for He fell on His face before God.  There are times when a man does not ask what is the proper position to pray, but he just falls flat before God and pours out his heart.  I remember the first time I felt this need to cast myself down.  I was in high school and a situation came about in which I thought my father had drowned.  It was near the raging falls and his car was near by but he was nowhere around.  In fear that he had fallen in I ran to the car, fell on the seat, and cried out to God that my fears would prove to be false.  Fortunately, they were.

 

        If we have had this experience, it helps to understand Jesus, but His need was infinitely greater than what any man has ever experienced.  If your heart ever feels like breaking with a burden to heavy to bear, remember that Jesus understands from personal experience.  When no one else can understand you know He does.  We sing the song No One Understands Like Jesus, and it is true, for no one has experienced sorrows on such an infinite scale. 

 

        Was it only the death on the cross that He faced?  No, for even though this was cruelty at its worse, and even though all deserted Him, and He was hated and spat upon, whipped and crowned with thorns, this was not what caused this great sorrow of Jesus.  His anguish in the garden was basically mental, and it arose out of the fact that He who knew no sin was going to become sin for us.  Can you begin to grasp what this meant to the pure, holy and righteous soul of Jesus?  To be sin is to be separated from God, and to be separated from God is to be in hell.  Jesus was going to endure hell for us that we might escape it.  It is difficult enough to be forsaken by friends, but to be forsaken of God is the ultimate abandonment. 

 

        Other men have suffered as much as Jesus did physically.  He did not come just to bear our pain but to bear our sin, for on Him was laid the iniquity of us all.  Strong men have cracked under the burden of their own sin, but Jesus bore the sin of the whole world.  All the seething mass of wickedness from Adam to the day of judgment was placed upon Him, for His pure soul this was infinitely greater burden than any physical pain He suffered.  What Jesus suffered in Gethsemane is beyond our comprehension, and we can only say that Jesus bore hell for us. 

 

       Adding to His sorrows was the lack of support and sympathy on the part of His disciples.  Jesus, like all of us, found great comfort in the presence of those who care. 

Jesus asked only one thing of His disciples, and that was that they pray with Him and watch so that no one would intrude on Him as He prayed.  He wanted to be ready and composed when they came for Him.  Here was man’s chance to really be of help to the suffering humanity of Christ, but they failed.  How alone Jesus must have felt when He came and saw them sleeping. 

 


        Jesus had been surrounded by crowds most of His ministry, but few of them understood Him, and so He had His chosen group and inner circle, and still He was not understood.  He had to often get alone and commune with His Father.  Companionship does not necessarily mean communion, and Jesus experienced what most of us do at sometime, which is a sense of loneliness even with others around.  The true picture of loneliness is not a man on the desert alone, but a man in a crowded railroad station with people bumping him on every side, but with no one there to meet him.  Loneliness is not just lack of people, but lack of concern and understanding in the midst of people.  W. E. Sangster told of how he was ordained in New York, and all the others had families and friends around them and he had no one.  He never felt so alone in his life.  Jesus understands for He became more and more alone as He neared the cross.  Little did His disciples know that the rest of history was going to be changed by what was happening.  They were as unaware of the revolutionary nature of that hour as Rip Van Winkle was of the Revolution he slept through. 

 

        Just because we are blind to God’s working does not mean He is not working.  God is working out His plan of redemption even if we are asleep to what He is doing.  When Jesus came the third time He just told them to sleep on, for it was too late now to give Him support.  The battle is over and they did not support Him, but He does not scold for He recognizes that the flesh is weak.  They miss their chance to cooperate with God in His great plan.  They charged Jesus with not caring when the storm threatened to sink their boat, but He did care and He awoke and saved them.  Now it was their chance to show they cared, but they slept through His stormy trial.  So often we think God does not care about our needs, but the fact is, we are the ones who do not care, and we miss opportunities, like the disciples, to cooperate with God. 

 

        In verse 46 Jesus just told them to get up and they would go.  They had missed their opportunity, but Jesus did not reject them and let their present failure stop them from being a part of His future plan.  Jesus was sad that they let Him down, but He was not going to let them down.  In the midst of His sorrows He was still fully supportive of them.  Next we see-

 

III.  THE SAVIOR’S SUBMISSION.  v. 39, 42, 44

 

        Here in a garden of beauty, like the first Adam, Jesus met the temptation to exercise His own will contrary to that of the Father’s will.  Great was the temptation to escape the cross.  He knew they were coming for Him, and He could have escaped as He did on other occasions, but note His attitude: “If it is possible.”  Jesus desired desperately that He not have to become sin, but if it was the only way it was possible to save man, then He would submit.  Three times He prays the same way, just as Paul asked the Lord three times to remove his thorn in the flesh.  Both Jesus and Paul were denied their deepest desires, but they did not rebel.  They submitted to God’s will.  Submission means to continue in the way of God’s will even when God says no.

 


        It was not possible that men could be saved by any other means than the cross.  If it were possible, God would certainly have granted His Son's earnest request.  Any plan of salvation that denies the necessity of the cross is a false plan.  Jesus submitted to God’s will and said, “If I must go through the dark to get to the light, then I will go.”  He did not try to bend God’s will to fit His, but submitted Himself to God’s will.  Jesus submitted to God’s plan in the garden, and this gained Him the victory which enabled Him to lay down His life and go to the cross voluntarily in peace.  Jesus had His mental battle all won before He entered His work so that all would be voluntary and calmly accepted.  The real battles of life are spiritual, they are between serving our own will or surrendering to God’s will.  Jesus had conquered His will and surrendered to the will of the Father in the garden, and so He could freely lay down His life.  Finally we see-

 

IV.  THE SAVIOR’S SURRENDER.  v. 47-56

 

        Why would they come with swords and staves?  Jesus was someone to be reckoned with, for only a few days before He drove men out of the temple single handed, and escaped before they were able to arrest Him.  John records that those coming to arrest Him now were so amazed at His courage and calmness that they fell backwards when He said, “I am He whom you seek.”  They were not sure He would practice what He preached in turning the other cheek and loving His enemies. 

 

        How Judas could betray Him with a kiss is beyond us.  It was a common greeting, of course, and it was easier to see him doing this in the dark than if he just pointed to Jesus.  What Judas did was terrible and yet Jesus called him friend in verse 50.  Spurgeon says that we might have excused Peter if he had struck Judas instead of the servant Malchus, but Jesus not only taught us to love those who hate us, He practiced it.  His last miracle before the cross was for an enemy, as He healed the ear of Malchus.  He gave practical proof of the sincerity of His last word on the cross, which was “Father forgive them.” 

 

       Peter, as usual, tries to help out in a wrong way by striking Malchus.  He showed his desire to keep his boast of dying for Jesus, for by doing this he did risk his life.  Jesus tells him to put his weapon away and He heals Malchus. Tradition tells us that he became a believer.  If it was just a matter of power Jesus would not need His disciples to fight for Him, for He had 12 legions of angels that would have rescued Him.  That represents about 72 thousand angels, and we know that it only took one to slay an army of 185 thousand in the Old Testament.  There was no lack of power at the command of Jesus, but power could not save man, only love could do that, and Jesus laid down His life in love. 

 

        How anxious the angels must have been to see their Lord being treated by a mob as if He were a common criminal.  But Jesus did not call upon this power, for He must give himself up or give us up.  The disciples saw it later, and now we see it too.  Let us thank God that Jesus did not let the failure of His disciples lead Him to call it quits, or to call upon the angels to deliver Him.  Thank God for that victory He gained in Gethsemane that led Him to go to the cross for our salvation. 

 


     The paradox here is that this place of terrible agony and pain became also a place of comfort for our Lord as he headed for the cross. Gerald Kennedy says that in France at one of the great healing shrines where thousands of people go each year they have a number of hotels and motels to accommodate them.  One hotel is called Gethsemane.  But the additional words on the sign made it seem anything but an appropriate name, for underneath were the words, “With all modern comforts.”  My first thought was of the great contrast between Gethsemane and comfort.  They did not fit together, but then as you examine the record you realize this is not the case at all. 

 

        Jesus went to Gethsemane, not just on that Thursday night before the cross, but often to be alone in the midst of its beauty to commune with His Father.  And even this last time, though it will be filled with an agony that is beyond our grasp, it ended with Jesus being fully comforted and committed to the will of God, which meant the cross.  Gethsemane was both a place of trial and triumph.  It was a place of comfort after all, and because of the great victory Jesus won there, it is a place of modern comfort as we who benefitted by that victory look back.  It was a battleground, but also a victory garden, for here Jesus conquered the last temptation to avoid the cross. 

 

 

 

LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE  Based on Matt. 27:11‑26

 

 

     Is there a man alive whose wife has never said, "You should have listened to me?"  The pages of history are red with the blood of men who should have listened to their wives.  Calpurnia pleaded with Caesar on that fatal Ides of March not to leave the house.  She had a restless night, and three times she cried out in her dream for help.  It was a sign to her, and she urged her stubborn husband to heed her warning.  But Caesar was not about to join that pathetic minority who give credence to the silly feelings of their wives.  He would rather die than admit a woman's intuition had any validity, and so he went out for the last time and died. 

 

     In our text we are looking at another Roman leader who was equally heedless of his wife's warning.  Claudia Procula was her name, and she was the wife of Pilate. She was the only person who came to the defense of Jesus while he was on trial.  Jesus would not defend Himself, but Claudia had a dream about Jesus, and she sent word to her husband not to have anything to do with this innocent man.

 

     In typical macho fashion Pilate ignored the message and made the biggest blunder of his life.  He sent Jesus to the cross.  Because he did not listen to his wife he has been despised all through history on a level next to Judas.  Jesus would have died anyway, for it was His plan to do so, and the Jewish leaders would have defied Pilate.  Nevertheless, by listening to his wife he could have become a noble hero.  There could have been St. Pilate churches all through history, and Pilate could have become a popular Christian name.  But Pilate blew it because he would not listen to his wife. 

 


     Her lone voice said to Pilate, He is innocent, and it is wrong to condemn an innocent man.  Don't do it.  But the loud voice of the mob mobilized by the enemies of Jesus cried out for His blood.  Who do you listen to‑a mere wife or mean crowd? The majority of men in Pilate's sandals would probably make the same choice.  What does a woman know about the ways of the world and political maneuvering?  Am I supposed to  make major judgments based on her dreams?  Nonsense!  I have to deal with political realities, and this clamoring crowd is  no dream.  These people are out for blood, and if I don't give it to them it may be mine they will be after.  I know the man is innocent, and nothing He has done is worthy of death.  Yet what is to be gained by sparing one innocent man and making a mass of people mad at you.  Better one innocent man dies unjustly than risk many being hurt or killed in a riot.

 

      Pilate did resist the injustice before him.  He tried to get Jesus released, but they choose Barabbas instead.  He did wash his hands of the whole ordeal and say I am innocent of this man's blood.  But in the final analysis he refused to listen to his wife, and handed Jesus over to be crucified.  He is now infamous for being the man who sent the Savior of the world to the cross.  

 

     From the beginning of the second century Christians have recited the Apostle Creed which begins, "I  believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His Son who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate."  Caesar only died because he did not listen to his wife.  Pilate lives forever in infamy because he did not listen to his wife. It is high risk to ignore your wife.  If this verse tells us nothing else, it tells us that a wife may have insight that a husband lacks, and, therefore, it is wise to listen to her.

 

     This dream Claudia had spoke to her, and she made it clear to Pilate, but he did not listen.  It speaks to us also and we are wise if we give heed.  This dream did not come to Pilate himself, but came through his wife.  God could have just as easily had Pilate dream the dream, but He did not do so.  He gave the dream to Claudia, and she, because she was a loving and concerned wife, sent the message of it to her husband.  God makes it clear that we do not get all truth and guidance directly.  Often we get it through others who love us and want God's best for us.  It is a terrible pride that keeps men from listening to their wives or others who care about them.  If God wants to tell us something a man thinks, he can talk to me directly, and not go through my wife, mother, grandmother, or any other person in  my life. 

 

     Claudia obviously loved her stubborn husband or she would not have sent him the warning.  But Pilate was not open to advice and guidance from such a source.  Woe to the man who will not listen to the dreams of others as possible guidance for him.

 

He would not go to school

Where the teacher was his wife.

Thus, he became a fool,

And missed his greatest chance in life.

 

     Pilate did not pay any attention to the dream, and the fact is, most people pay it no attention, but we want to focus on it, for it was the only positive note in the journey of Christ to the cross.  Harold Bell Wright in, The 13 Truly Great Things Of Life says, "Of the 13 truly great things of life, dreams are first."  He goes on to say that what many of us become begins with our dreams.  This is certainly true for Pilate's wife.  She would have been a famous lady of her day, but her lasting fame for all time was due to this dream she had that put her into God's revelation. 


     It is a mystery why God allowed the record of her dream to be recorded by Matthew.  It almost seems totally irrelevant, for Pilate does not seem to have been impressed, and as far as we know it had no effect on the outcome of the trial of Jesus.  We would not expect it to prevent the cross, for that was the goal of Jesus. He would not inspire a dream to prevent His own goal.  The seeming irrelevance of the dream is what lead Martin Luther to the conviction that the dream must have been inspired by Satan as a last ditch effort to stop Jesus from going to the cross. The evidence will not support such a conviction.

 

     Pilate already knew that the Jewish leaders had handed Jesus over out of envy. He was working for the release of Jesus, but gave in to the persistent demands of the Jewish leaders and their rabble‑rousers.  The dream of his wife  only confirmed what he already knew, but it did not altar the outcome because of the bitter hatred of the leaders of Israel.  The point is, whether God or Satan inspired the dream, it does  not seem to have had any measurable impact on the situation for good or evil. 

 

     So why is it here?  For one answer we can look at Matthew's interest in dreams. He is the dream collector of the New Testament.  The word for dream here is ONAR, and it is used just six times in the New Testament, and all six come from the pen of Matthew.  If not for Matthew's interest in dreams we would have none of the four references to the dreams of Joseph by which he was guided to receive the baby Jesus as virgin born, and by which he was led to flee to Egypt, and later to bring Jesus back to Israel.  The wise men were also warned in a dream to flee from Herod. Five of the six dreams deal with the birth and childhood of Jesus.  Only the dream of Pilate's wife deals with the other end of his life‑his trial and death. 

 

     What are we to make of these facts? 

1.  It is the only dream in the Bible of a woman.

2.  It is the only dream concerning the end of Christ's life.

3.  It was a disturbing dream that was more like a nightmare. 

 

     It is only speculation, but here is what Edwin Markham, the poet, felt Claudia's dream was all about.  It appeared first in 1902 on the cover of an American magazine called Success.  It is to long to share it all, but here is the essence of it.

 

Oh, let the Galilean go, strike off his cruel bond:

Behold the fathomless silence and those eyes that look

   beyond.

There's more than mortal in that face, ‑than earthly in this

   hour:

The fate that now is in the bud will soon be in the flower.

O Pilate, I have suffered many things in dream today.

Because of this strange teacher of the strait and mystic way.

I saw Him hanging on a cross, where the stones of Golgoth

   are:

Then laid, at last, in a guarded tomb, under the evening star.

 


I saw him rise again one dawn and down a garden go,

Shining like great Apollo white, our god in the silver bow:

And then the wind of vision tore the veil of time apart,

And love of him ran greatening from camel‑path to mart;

His story was a wonder on the eager lips of men,

The scourged Galilean walked the roads of earth again.

I saw Jerusalem go down before the wrath of spears,

And turn into a field of stones under the trampling years.

World‑battles roared around this man, the world's myster‑

   ious king;

But over the storm of the ages I could hear the seven stars

   sing.

Rome crumpled and I heard a voice across the ruin laugh;

A power had risen on the world, shaking the thrones as chaff.

And down the ages ran your name, a byword and a jeer:

"He suffered under Pilate!"  sounded ever in my ear.

The deeds of some are clean forgot, but yours did breathe

   ...  ... and live;

Some are forgiven in the end, but none could you forgive.

 

     It is, as I said, only speculation, but even the great Spurgeon agrees that it is likely Claudia saw in her dream the crucifixion.  She states clearly that she suffered, and what could her suffering had been but the vision of this innocent man being crucified unjustly.  Claudia would have been the first person to witness the crucifixion.  It was in a dream, but it was very real.  Spurgeon goes on to speculate that she may have also seen in her dream that this just man would one day be sitting on a great white throne judging the world.  This man her husband was about to judge would be the judge of all men, and her husband was about to condemn the only man worthy to judge all men.  Why else would she be so disturbed, and why would she rush her message to Pilate?  It could not wait until he came home for he was making the most important decision of his life. 

 

     The second fact is that the dream is a valid channel by which God has communicated to both men and women.  The dream is still a possible channel for God's guidance in our lives.  It would be folly to suggest that all dreams have some significance, but it is equal folly to dismiss them as being irrelevant.  The great scholar Dr. Benjamin B. Warfield of Princeton Seminary wrote in, Hasting's Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels, an article on dreams.  In it he makes this statement, "We surely can find no difficulty in recognizing the possibly and propriety of occasional Divine employment of dreams for the highest ends." 

 


     What he is saying is revelation by dreams is real but rare.  We are not to look to dreams as a primary source of guidance.  God gave us His word for that.  But He may on occasion give us guidance through our dreams.  Pilate's wife could have dismissed her dream as a meaningless nightmare, but she took it seriously and sent a message to her husband because of it.  Was she a foolish woman to do so?  Not at all.  According to Christian tradition she became a believer because of her dream.  So we learn it is not only wise to listen to our wives:  It is wise to listen to our dreams, and recognize they may be conveying to us a message from God. 

 

     A. J. Gordon, the famous Baptist preacher and author of the late 19th century,  had a dream that changed his whole ministry.  He saw a stranger come into his church while he was preaching, and after the service the stranger just disappeared, but he knew it was Jesus.  He realized that if Jesus was in his service he had to preach in such a way that his Lord would be pleased.  He wrote, "It was a vision of the deepest reality.  Apparently we are most awake to God when we are asleep to the world." 

 

     John Newton, author of Amazing Grace and many other great hymns, was a captain of a ship when he had a strange dream about a ring that was to keep him secure.  But he was ridiculed for trusting in that ring, so he took it off and threw it into the sea.  Then a stranger came and offered to dive to the depths and recover the ring.  When he came up with it he did not give it back.  He said, "I will keep it for you and be forever by your side."  He knew it was Jesus, and when he awoke he left his life as a sea captain and became a pastor.  He was one of the most famous pastor's in history, and it was a dream that changed his whole life.

 

      History is full of such life changing dreams, and Pilate could have been a hero had he listened to the dream of his wife.  Modern Jews have seriously considered having a retrial of Jesus and reversing Pilate's decision.  There was so much that was illegal that the most mediocre lawyer could have secured the release of Jesus. The dream could have done it too.  The dream was the only defense Jesus had, but it was enough if Pilate would have listened.  He is innocent, he is faultless, stainless, and guiltless.  God's plea for His Son was, "Not guilty!" 

 

     Claudia believed her dream and knew Jesus was being framed.  Because she believed, she, the granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus, went on to become famous for the serving of Christ, while Pilate went on to become infamous for the suffering of Christ.  The difference being, one believed and the other disbelieved the dream. Because Claudia gave heed to her dream she wrote part of the New Testament.  It is only a sentence, but that one sentence is a powerful testimony.  She is the only female who wrote part of the New Testament.  No man spoke up for Jesus.  Only one woman did, and she said He is just and righteous, and not worthy of the vile treatment He is getting.  Without this one sentence coming from a woman's dream,  there would have been not a single word of testimony in Christ's defense.

 


     I really don't know what difference it makes, but God went out of His way to get this one testimony in His Sons defense.  However irrelevant it may seem to us, it was important to God, and Pilate's wife was apparently the only mind God could use to accomplish this task.  The mind of one woman was open to receive this revelation. That is why we need to listen to our wives.  Sometimes they are the only ones listening to God.  Let me share more illustrations of this reality. David was about to act in anger and kill the fool Nabal for his refusal to help feed his men in an emergency situation.  Abigail pleaded with him not to do this great evil.  David listened to the voice of this woman who later became his wife.  He calmed down, and got control of his emotions, and he realized she had saved him from folly.  He said, "Blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood.." 

 

     Abraham Lincoln listened to his wife Mary Todd when she refused to go to Oregon.  This kept him in Illinois where the summons reached him to go to Washington where he became the President of the United States.  Had she not intervened, G. Hall Todd says, "Lincoln might have known only the virtual oblivion of a Pacific coast outpost."  President Theodore Roosevelt once remarked that there had never been a time when he failed after listening to the intuitive suggestions of his wife.  We don't want to give a false impression that wives are not fallen sinners, for they are.  Job refused to listen to his wife when she urged him to curse God and die, and this was clearly God's will that he not listen to her.  Wives are not the infallible voice of God.  It is just that they can be a channel of God's wisdom when other channels are not open. Therefore, it is just practical wisdom to listen to your wife. She may not always be right or wise, but it is always wise to at least listen.

 

 

 

 

3.  A TERRIFYING VICTORY  Based on Matt. 27:39-51

 

 

       I remember learning a poem when I was a boy, which you will no doubt recognize.  The first lines were, “Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.”  I have been told that this poem is out of date, for the scientifically educated modern child can say, “Twinkle, twinkle little star, I know precisely what you are.”  Then they can go on and describe how much oxygen, hydrogen and other elements compose the star.  Because of the rapid advance in knowledge, that which was mysterious and awe-inspiring to one generation may be understood common knowledge to the next generation.

 

        Good Friday, however, brings us to a subject where men of all ages stand in awe, for it brings us to the cross.  Ever since that awesome event on Golgotha’s hill men have looked at the cross and thought, “Wonder of wonders that Jesus so loved me.”  Certainly any believer has experienced something of the feeling of the poet who wrote,

 

I wonder as I wander out under the sky