The Greatest News in History

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And I’ve been told every preacher has his, what they call hobby horse, his pet issue, the thing he’s most passionate about, the thing he wants to talk about the most. And you can usually tell what his pet issue is by what he does talk about the most. If his pet issue is the length of the skirt, that’s what he’s going to preach on. If his pet issue is it was a Wednesday crucifixion, he’s going to talk about that a lot.

I’ve noticed that several times in the last few months, I’ve come back to this passage that’s at the top of your handout, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, preached on it several times, where it summarizes, and Paul says, tells the people at Corinth to remember the gospel that they’d heard and they’d received, how that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and then after that was seen of many witnesses. Folks, I hope that means my pet issue is the gospel. I hope.

Because I can’t think of any story more important to tell you. I can’t think of anything more important to tell you this morning than the story we’re going to look at. And each of the four gospel writers covers it.

Covers it accurately, I believe. But covers it from a different perspective and covers different details just as any one of us would if we were standing in four corners of the room and observed something that happened in the middle. Say there was an argument in the middle of the room, and four of us were standing in four corners watching the argument.

We would all record different aspects of what was said, and we could all be right. And folks, they give different details, and they’re all right. But covering the different details, I tried to go this week and look at all four of their stories, what Matthew wrote, what John Mark wrote, what Luke wrote, what John wrote, and say, which one do I want to talk about?

And I couldn’t pick. They’re all so good. So I went through and looked up different passages from each of their Gospels to show you the whole story, I hope.

And we’re going to talk about it this morning. We start this morning in Mark chapter 15. Something I talked about last week with the crowd demanding that Jesus be crucified.

Mark 15, starting in verse 6, says, Now at that feast, Passover, Pilate released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them, that had made insurrection with him and had committed murder in the insurrection. Barabbas was a political revolutionary who killed somebody during an uprising.

And the multitude, crying aloud, began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them. Pilate had the custom. It wasn’t the law.

It was just his little tradition with the Jews. He’d release somebody during Passover, and they started crying out for him to release somebody. But Pilate answered them, saying, Will you that I release unto you the king of the Jews?

Now there he means Jesus. For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy. They had turned him over.

They had arrested him and tried him just because they were jealous of his following. But the chief priests moved the people that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call king of the Jews?

And they cried out again, Crucify him. So instead of letting Jesus go free who was innocent, the chief priests moved among the people and got them stirred up against Jesus and cried out for Pilate to release Barabbas. And Pilate says, what do you want me to do with Jesus?

And they said, crucify him. I can’t imagine hating anybody so much that I would want them to be crucified. And yet, that’s exactly what they wanted to do to Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 27, it says, Then he released Barabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. So he releases Barabbas, the guilty man, And instead arrests Jesus, or Jesus was already under arrest, and he takes him to be beaten.

And they stripped him and put on a scarlet robe. I’m sorry, I skipped a verse. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, so nobody would miss out on the fun.

And they stripped him and put on a scarlet robe. They were humiliating him. To strip him down naked and put on a scarlet robe was mocking the fact that they called him the king of the Jews.

He used to call him the king of the Jews in a sarcastic way. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head. And folks, I’ve seen the thorns from that region of the world.

They’re not like the little thorns we think of with the rose bush. They’re long, Texas-sized thorns. And they took these, and they wound them together in a crown, again mocking him, and they put it on his head.

And folks, I can’t imagine they just set it there nicely. and a reed in his right hand, mocking him. Here’s your scepter, king of the Jews.

And they bowed the knee before him, not as they should have done, in reverence, in repentance, but in mocking. They bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, king of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head.

In John chapter 19, Pilate therefore went forth again and saith unto them, Folks, Pilate was not a good man, but he tried to release Jesus. Pilate therefore went forth again and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you that you may know that I find no fault in him. That’s some great accusation after he’s just allowed his soldiers to torture and humiliate him.

Told the people, I find no fault in this man. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man. Here’s what we’ve done.

When the chief priests therefore and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.

Even Pilate knew the man was innocent. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore heard the saying, he was the more afraid, and went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou?

and Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate went back in to verify this and said, where do you come from? Seeing if he would say he was the son of God.

But Jesus gave him no answer. The reason Pilate was afraid is because Judea was an unruly province for the Romans and the Romans liked nothing better than order. And it was going to be his head on the line with Caesar if there was a revolt.

So he’s trying here to do the lawful thing but still pacify the Jews. So he says, who are you? And he didn’t answer him at all.

Then Pilate saith unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee? But you don’t have an answer for me?

Don’t you realize I hold your life in my hands? And Jesus answered, verse 11, Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above. Pilate wasn’t in charge of what was going on here.

The Roman soldiers weren’t in charge. The Jewish leaders weren’t in charge, ladies and gentlemen. God was in charge.

This is part of God’s plan all along. Therefore, he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend.

Whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar. So what they said was, This man is a traitor against Caesar. And in other words, if you’re not against the traitor, not the terrorist, but the traitor, then you’re with the traitor.

And we’re going to tell Caesar. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the pavement but in the Hebrew Gabbatha and by the way skeptics have said for years there was no such place the gospels couldn’t possibly be true they’ve discovered this within the last few years and I’ve seen the pictures this is accurate in every detail ladies and gentlemen and it was the preparation of the Passover and about the sixth hour and he said unto the Jews behold your king but they cried out away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, shall I crucify your king?

The chief priest answered, we have no king but Caesar. Then delivered he them therefore unto them to be crucified and they took Jesus and led him away. Now back again in Matthew 27.

In Matthew 27. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. So they’d had their fun with the mocking and beating and humiliation, and they decided to get right down to the matter and take him to crucify him.

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, and by the way, Golgotha and Calvary are the same place, just different languages, one being Aramaic, one being Latin, they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall, and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. What they were trying to give him was some kind of sour wine mixed with some kind of narcotic that had a bitter taste.

And folks, it wasn’t because of the awful taste that he wouldn’t drink it. If he had died on the cross and he had been numb, folks, it wouldn’t have had quite the same effect. He wanted to make it clear that he died of his own will, that he died of his own accord.

And ladies and gentlemen, everything that he suffered, Every drop of blood that he felt leave his body was for us and for our sins. So he would not drink, even to ease what I can only imagine would be the most incredible pain that any human being has ever felt. And they crucified him.

They nailed him to a cross. And these were not little nails like you’d buy at the hardware store, but long metal spikes. Now, we used to have some railroad spikes that my dad would show to classes when he’d talk about this.

I don’t know that they were that big around, but certainly that gives you a better idea of the kind of spikes we’re talking about. And drove them through his hands, possibly right here in the wrist area where it would have held him. And they crucified him.

Folks, this was not an easy way to die. I always thought growing up that it was from blood loss that would kill you. And certainly there’s part of it in that.

People who doubted the story of the crucifixion have to contend with doctors who’ve looked at the story and said what he is going through, this is consistent with a medical condition called hypovolemic shock, your body going into shock from loss of blood. But folks, that wasn’t what killed him. When you’re crucified, you’re put in such a position where your arms are behind.

. . I can’t even do it with the button.

Your arms are put in a position behind you and over you. It’s hard even to do. And you’re hung in that position.

And it puts pressure on the diaphragm muscle where you can’t breathe and eventually the lungs fill up with fluid. And for every breath you take, you have to pull up on those nails or push up on the nails in the feet. And folks, I don’t tell you this as an emotional ploy, but I want you to know what he went through for you and for me.

When they crucified him, that’s just four little words and they crucified him, but it means so much. And parted his garments, casting lots. He wasn’t going to need them.

They split up his clothes among all of them. That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. So while he’s on the cross in agony, they’re sitting at his feet gambling for his clothing.

And sitting down, they watched him there. Now it was a habit, or it was their way of doing things, that the Romans, when they put somebody on a cross, they would stay there and watch them to make sure nobody came and helped them, to make sure they didn’t get down somehow. But folks, to just sit there and watch, I can’t imagine the callousness of that.

I watch some of these crime shows, and they show somebody who’s been killed or been wounded, and even though I know it’s fake, something within me cringes. And the thought of being able to stand there and sit there and watch a man die is incredible to me. But such was the hate in their hearts.

And Jesus suffering through all this, there’s nobody there for him to turn to for sympathy, for compassion. These soldiers all around him just watched him die. And set up over his head, his accusation written, This is Jesus, the king of the Jews, put a sign above him, mocking him.

Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

Jesus had said, Destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days. They thought he meant the actual brick and mortar temple. Didn’t realize that he meant his body.

so they said you who think you have the power to tear down what was built by our forefathers and to rebuild it in just that much time bring yourself down on the cross if you really are the son of god you say you are folks the mocking hadn’t ended and it wasn’t just the roman soldiers it was his own people the same ones who’d cried out crucify him the same ones who the week before had wanted to crown him as their king and said hosanna blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord many of the same ones probably who ate at the feeding of the 5,000. Maybe some who were healed. Folks were the same ones who said, if you really are the son of God, come down off that cross.

Likewise, also the chief priest mocking him with the scribes and elders said, he saved others himself he cannot save. He said he came to save others, but he can’t even save himself. And folks, there’s truth in that.

If he couldn’t save himself, he doesn’t have the power to save anybody. But as you’ll see in just a but the cross is not the end of it. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him.

Folks know they wouldn’t. They’d already seen signs and wonders and miracles and they’d seen God at work and they wouldn’t even believe that. There’s no reason in my mind to think that if he came down off the cross that they would have believed it.

Makes as much sense as the man who says that if God will build a rock so big that he can’t lift it, then I’ll believe in him. No, you won’t. He trusted in God, they said.

Let him deliver him now, if he will have him. He trusted God. If God really cares about him at all, let God deliver him.

For he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified him, cast the same in his teeth. So the thieves mocked as well.

Now Luke, I believe it is, talks about how one of the thieves repented and was promised salvation. Now from the sixth hour, there was darkness all over the land unto the ninth hour. So that means from around noon to 3 p.

m. , there was darkness all over the land. And folks, this is also attested to by ancient historians who were not Christians.

He said there was this inexplicable darkness all over the land. We can’t figure out what happened. Yet there it was, just as the Bible said.

At about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? For the first time in history or eternity, there was a rift of fellowship to some extent in the Trinity.

You see, it was not that God the Father had actually abandoned God the Son. It was not that He was no longer God the Son, but Jesus bore in Himself the sins of mankind when He went to the cross. And folks, God the Father has no choice.

I know we don’t like to think of God in those terms, but God the Father had no choice but to turn His face away from sin, such as His holiness and His righteousness. See, for God, sin is serious business. That’s why Jesus had to go to the cross to pay for it.

And the father turned his face away from the sin of mankind, which Jesus bore at the cross. And Jesus cried out, My God, why have you forsaken me? Some of them that stood there when they heard that said, This man calleth for Elias.

And straightway one of them ran and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on a reed and gave him to drink. They brought him sour wine to drink. I don’t know if somebody suddenly had pains of conscience about letting this poor man suffer.

But they gave him some sour wine, notice this time without the narcotic. The rest said, Let us see whether Elias will come to save him. No, no, leave him alone.

Don’t help him. Let’s see whether God will come and help him or not. And Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And what he cried out loud was, It is finished.

Or in other words, paid in full. Meaning our sin debt was paid in full. And then he cried, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

And he yielded up the ghost. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. There were earthquakes.

And this matter of the temple veil being torn, there was a veil, there was a curtain between the Holy of Holies where God was said to reside and where the common people could go. And the common person couldn’t have a real relationship with God except through the priests and the sacrifices. And yet here the temple veil was torn in two because God, through Jesus’ sacrifice, became accessible to mankind.

Because he was our high priest and our sacrifice both. And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints which slept arose. There’s debate about what exactly this means.

I don’t know exactly what this means, except what it says. The graves came open, and some people who’d been asleep got up and walked around. And came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.

And what I do know is when they wrote this, within 20 to 30 years after the crucifixion and resurrection, there would have still been people around in Jerusalem who remembered these days, and if there hadn’t been dead men walking around in Jerusalem after the resurrection, somebody would have called them on it. Do I know exactly what happened? No, but I know that what the Bible says happened, happened.

Now when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, truly, this was the Son of God. And many women were there beholding afar off, which following Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him, among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children. And by the way, understatement of the millennium, truly this man was the Son of God.

To see him hang there on the cross, and there’s darkness over the whole land that they can’t explain. I mean, it wasn’t an eclipse. And the temple veil is torn.

Earthquakes, rocks are coming apart, graves are opening, people are walking around. That’s crazy stuff. Folks, that’s stuff that doesn’t happen every day.

And even the Romans, some of them recognized, oh no, what have we done? This man is exactly who he claimed to be. John 19.

Folks, all of that that he did, he did for you. And he did for me. John 19, starting in verse 31, says, The Jews, therefore, because it was the preparation for the Passover, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, for that Sabbath day was an high day, besought Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.

They wanted the legs broken. So at sundown, the Sabbath started. They couldn’t have dead bodies up there on the cross for the Sabbath.

So they said, go break their legs, because that meant they couldn’t push up and they would suffocate in just a matter of moments. Then came the soldiers and break the legs of the first and the other, which was crucified with him, the two thieves. But when they came to Jesus and saw he was dead already, they break not his legs.

And folks, there’s a prophecy in the book of Psalms that said when the Messiah was killed, Not one bone of his would be broken. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. Not necessarily in that order time-wise, but in that order of importance.

And again, doctors have said this is consistent with what they call the pericardium, the fluid sac around the heart being punctured, and the heart itself. And he saw that it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe. For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled.

A bone of him should not be broken. And again, another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced. And folks, this is important that they pierced the heart and that it exploded, for lack of a better term, because there are people I mentioned last week who talk about the swoon theory and say, Well, maybe he just appeared to pass out on the cross.

They took him, they buried him in the tomb. He got better. I’m sorry, a stab wound to the heart.

You don’t get better laying three days in a dark, damp hole in the ground, hole in the rock, and then have the strength to move away a stone that it took Roman soldiers to move. For you to do that, for him to have done that, takes more faith as far as I’m concerned than just believing what the Bible said happened. That’s not possible.

His heart was pierced. His side was pierced. And Luke tells us how he was buried in chapter 23, starting in verse 50.

And behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counselor, and he was a good man and just, the same had not consented to the counsel and deed of them. He was of Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who also himself awaited for the kingdom of God. He was a member of the Jewish council that condemned Christ, but didn’t agree with the actions because he was a follower of Christ. This man went unto Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and he took it down and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulcher in a tomb that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid.

And that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on. So just shortly before sundown, he was laid in the tomb just in time for the Sabbath. And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulcher and how his body was laid.

They were checking things out so they could come back later with the spices and things. And they returned and prepared spices and ointments and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now Matthew again tells us in Matthew 27, they posted guards in front of the tomb.

Now the next day that followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together unto Pilate, saying, Sir, we remember that deceiver said, While he was yet alive, after three days I will rise again. Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead, so the last error shall be worse than the first. And Pilate said unto him, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.

He said, they’ve said he was going to rise again in three days. We need to post a watch here so the disciples don’t go steal the body and claim he rose again. What they didn’t realize is the disciples had cut and run already.

As far as the disciples knew, he was dead. That was the end of it. So I wonder if at this point the Roman soldiers might have had more faith in Christ’s word than his own disciples.

Matthew 28, you probably don’t even have to turn from where you are. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, meaning after the Sabbath had ended, Saturday night, and it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. So what we see is Jesus rising again probably very early on Sunday morning.

And behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment was like snow. And for fear of him, the keepers did shake and became as dead men.

So there’s an earthquake and the stone is rolled away. And the angel sat on the stone. And these women who’ve headed here in Luke 24, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the sepulcher bringing the spices which they’d prepared.

It seems to me as though they were on their way. The stone rolled away and they got there shortly after. bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain others with them.

And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments.

And as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Ladies and gentlemen, they got there, and the tomb was empty.

The tomb today is still empty. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. He told you it would happen, saying the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again, and they remembered his words.

And returned from the sepulcher and told all these things unto the eleven and to all the rest. It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women that were with them which told these things to the apostles and their words seemed to them as idle tales. They believed them not. The disciples could not believe it when the women said, We’ve seen the empty tomb with our own eyes.

In John 20, and we are coming to the end of the story. In John 20, it says, Peter therefore went forth and the other disciple, meaning John, and came to the sepulcher. So they ran both together and the other disciple did outrun Peter and came first to the sepulcher.

You’ve got to love John’s humility here. And by the way, I beat Peter there. Of course, John was probably a much younger man.

And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then come and Simon Peter, following him, always the rash one, following him, went into the sepulcher, where John stood there and looked. Peter went right in, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in place by itself.

Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulcher, and he saw and believed. John believed. He’s risen.

For as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. I bet they ran.

Still in John 20. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.

And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had laid. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

She loved her master so much, she couldn’t even bear the thought of his body just having been discarded. And when she had thus said, she turned her back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?

Whom seekest thou? She supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, If you’ve taken him away, tell me where thou slayed him, and I will take him away. And Jesus said unto her, Mary.

And she turned herself and saith unto him, Rabbani, which is to say, Master. All he said was her name, and she recognized his voice. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.

But go to my brethren and say unto them, As I ascend unto my Father, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and to your God. And Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. And I always wondered, why couldn’t she touch him?

Did it mean he couldn’t ascend when I was a little kid? Thought, could he not ascend into heaven? But what it means is I haven’t ascended to the Father yet.

There’s still plenty of time. Don’t stand here and just hold me. Go and tell what you’ve seen.

And that’s what she did. Folks, the authorities tried to cover up the story. We’re running short of time.

I hope that you’ll go and read the rest of these scriptures for yourself. But the authorities tried to cover up the story when they heard the news. Folks, you know how fast news and gossip spread now.

Something like this that had never been heard before spread like wildfire. And when the authorities found out that the tomb was empty, they said, we’ve got to come up with a cover story. They said, we’ll tell the people that the disciples stole the body.

And folks, that’s where that lie began and is perpetrated even to this day. But folks, if the disciples had stolen the body and claimed for all those years afterwards that he’d risen from the dead, certainly one of them, Ten of the eleven remaining disciples died martyrs’ deaths, and John certainly was persecuted heavily. Certainly one of them would have broken the conspiracy and said, wait, don’t kill me, we lied, we made it up.

But they all went to their martyrdom, professing what they’d seen and heard. Folks, people don’t die for what they know to be a lie. And when he appeared finally to the disciples, he appeared to them, he appeared to two of them together as they walked.

He appeared to the group, and la