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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