The Sign of His Humiliation

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Transcript:

Turn with me to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. I know we have some in the congregation this morning who have not been here before and some that have not been here in a while.

So if you’ve not been here in the last few weeks, we’re in the middle of a series called The Signs of His Coming. And it’s not talking about His second coming, but we’re talking about the first coming of Jesus Christ. And the fact that it wasn’t just an accident or an isolated incident of history, it was something that was talked about all through the Old Testament. It was something that really the entire Old Testament points to.

From Genesis on through Malachi, the Jewish people were looking for the Messiah, the promised anointed one of God who was going to deliver Israel. And it was to be one figure in history who was to come and eventually set everything to right, eventually set Israel free. And I believe based on study, you know, for a long time I thought, as a child I guess I thought the Old Testament is a good collection of stories, but what does it have to do with us as Christians because it’s stories about what happened before Jesus.

But as I’ve grown up, I’ve come to understand more and more that the entire Old Testament points to Jesus Christ. Because from Genesis to Malachi, they’re looking for this Messiah. They’re looking ahead toward Him. And God even gives them markers, signs that were going to point to who that Messiah was going to be.

And all of them point inextricably to Jesus Christ. And there are some signs, as we’ve talked through this series, there are some signs that, yeah, Jesus could have come and done this on purpose even if he wasn’t the Messiah. Anybody could have gone into Jerusalem on what we’ve come to know as Palm Sunday and said, yeah, I’m going to ride a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. That was one of the signs of the Messiah.

Anybody could have done that. I could go, I could hop on a plane if I had the money and the passport. I could go hop on a plane right now, fly over to Jerusalem and ride into town on a donkey.

Anybody could do that. But even that’s important because if Jesus hadn’t done that, he couldn’t have fulfilled all the signs of being the Messiah. But there were other signs that point to who the Messiah was going to be, that if somebody was not the Messiah, they could not on purpose fulfill those things.

Talked about Him being born in Bethlehem. Nobody gets to choose where they’re born. I didn’t get to choose to be born in Norman, Oklahoma.

I was glad I was, glad of the people I grew up around, but I didn’t get to choose it. It pointed to the Bible points to the family. The Old Testament points to the family that the Messiah would be born in, that He would be born of a virgin.

And Isaiah 7, 14 literally says that He would be born of a virgin if you read it in context, not just a young woman, but he would be born of a virgin because it was to be a sign from God. He didn’t get to pick, if he was not the Messiah, he didn’t get to pick what family he was born into any more than any of the rest of us did. And then there were signs that also after he was born that were difficult, if not impossible, for somebody to fulfill if they were not the Messiah.

One of those we talked about last week was the sign of his betrayal, that it was told in the book of Zechariah exactly how Jesus was going to be, exactly how he was going to be betrayed. And to give the people that were looking for Jesus coming as the Messiah and missed it, you know, a lot of times I don’t give them the benefit of the doubt. I think, how did they miss it?

Because I’m looking at it from hindsight. But even in the book of Zechariah, I would have been reading that and saying, what is this even talking about until it happened and then all of a sudden it makes sense? Things where his enemies were doing things that proved him to be who they didn’t want to admit he was.

Did that make sense the way I said that? His enemies did things that proved Him to be the Messiah when that was the last thing that they wanted to prove. Now, He couldn’t have orchestrated that if He was not the Messiah.

He couldn’t have just made that happen. Another one of those kinds of signs is what we’re going to look at today, the sign of His humiliation. In this passage, Matthew chapter 27, and in the other passage we’re going to look at today, Isaiah chapter 50, we see that Jesus’ enemies yet again did something to prove that He was the Messiah when that was completely the opposite of what they wanted to happen.

They were killing him because they did not believe he was the Messiah or because they didn’t want to believe that he was the Messiah. And in so doing, in doing it the way that they did, they proved, they pointed to the fact that he was the promised one of God, the very one that they were trying to deny that he was. In Matthew chapter 27, we’re going to look at this passage again next week from a different perspective.

But in this passage, I want to look this morning at the humiliation. We’re going to talk about his suffering next week. But this morning, I want to talk about the humiliation that they tried to put him through in the midst of his suffering.

In Matthew chapter 27, starting in verse 15, he’s already being examined by Pilate, and he’s already been betrayed, and he’s on trial now. In verse 15, it says, Now at that feast, the governor was wont to release him to the people, a prisoner, or release to the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas.

Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. And Pilate also may be one of those who, not necessarily a nice guy, not a good guy, but sometimes I think he gets judged a little too harshly when we look at this.

Pilate here realizes that he’s got Jesus, and he wants to release somebody to the crowd, whoever they’re willing to have released to them. And so he has this notorious murderer named Barabbas, this bad guy, and he has Jesus. And the Bible says here that Pilate puts Jesus up against Barabbas and says, really, who here should be released?

If I’m going to release one of these guys, a murderer, or Jesus who’s called the Christ, or the Messiah, who should I release? And it says here in verse 18, for he knew that for envy they had delivered him. He knew that the only reason Jesus was there because the religious leaders had conspired with the political leaders and put him there because they were envious.

The religious leaders were envious of his position that the people thought that he was the one to sit on David’s throne, that he was saying all of these things, teaching all of these things that contradicted not God’s law, but their interpretation of God’s law. and they were jealous of him and the political leaders were jealous of the power that they thought he was starting to have over the people. And so for envy, they had conspired together to deliver Jesus to the authorities.

So he knew, Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent and here he tries to find a way to release him. So he puts him up against Barabbas and says, who should I release? Verse 19, when he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him saying, have thou nothing to do with that just man?

For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. His wife sends him word and says, do not do anything to this just man. He’s good.

He’s innocent. I have suffered. She’d had a terrible dream.

And because of that dream, she knew that she just knew. I’m not even going to try to explain that to you. Sometimes women just know.

Men, write that down in your notes. Sometimes women just know. They see things that we don’t always see.

There have been times that I can look back and say, the Holy Spirit was trying to impress something on me, and I just wasn’t hearing it. And finally, my wife said, you know, this is what you need to do. My wife doesn’t boss me around, but she’ll tell me, this is what you need to do.

I’ll say, you know what, you’re right. And I look back and see the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me that the whole time. Sometimes he just has to use her because sometimes she sees things I don’t.

But Pilate’s wife said, this man is innocent, have nothing to do with this. But, verse 20, the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. They’re seeing their plot about to come unraveled.

If the people demand that Jesus be released, everything that they work for, this kangaroo court that they’ve just put him through, This sham trial, everything, all their work is about to come to nothing. And so the chief priests, the leaders get in there among the people and they convince them, you need to demand that he release Barabbas. And the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus.

They’re ready to get rid of Jesus once and for all. The governor, verse 21, answered and said unto them, whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? And they said, Barabbas.

So he says, who do you want me to release? Which of these two do you want me to release to you? And the people shout out Barabbas.

And Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? And they all say unto him, Let him be crucified. Not only do they tell Pilate, Release Barabbas.

But when he asked, Well, what then should I do with Jesus? They shout out, Crucify him. And the governor said, Why?

What evil hath he done? Pilate asks them, What has he done? What are the charges here?

But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. Made the crowd angrier, more emphatic. Crucify him.

They didn’t want to discuss the charges, the truth or the falsehood of the charges. They just wanted him crucified. And the governor said, why?

Oh, I’m sorry. Next verse. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, when he saw that there was nothing he could do, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.

See ye to it. When he saw that there was nothing he could do to persuade them, that there was a riot about to break out, he takes water, washes his hands. We’ve all heard the story.

He washes his hands of the whole thing, says, I’m innocent of his blood. You make sure of it. Really, he’s not innocent of his blood because he gave into the crowd and allowed Jesus to be crucified.

When he was set down on the judgment, I’m sorry, I keep looking back further than I am. Verse 24 or 25, then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. They had to have been worked up really strongly by these chief priests and elders.

That’s an incredible amount of bloodlust to want an innocent person dead so much that when the authorities say, this is out of our hands, this is all you all, for the crowd to say, that’s fine, we’ll be guilty of his blood. His blood will be on us and on our children. And yet they were in such a fit, such a frenzy, such a bloodlust that they wanted him crucified whatever the cost. And Pilate, this is where I think he does, you know, he is judged justly.

He gives in to the crowd. Then released he Barabbas unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

So he releases Barabbas to the crowd and he takes Jesus to be scourged, which means to be whipped or beaten, only a more extreme version of that. When Attila the Hun was about to sack Rome, when he was about to just go in there and pillar and plunder and lay waste to the city of Rome several hundred years after this, they called Attila the Hun the scourge of God. Because of the violence and the brutality, he was called a scourge.

That gives us some indication of what the word scourge means. It’s not just a whipping, not just a spanking. Like when one of our kids does something wrong and they get a spanking, even if it’s a bad one, not scourging.

When my dog makes a mess in the house because she still hasn’t figured out where she’s supposed to go. And I take the rolled up magazine and pop her. It may not be fun for her, but it’s not a scourging either.

Very mild compared to that. A scourging is the beating of your life. It’s like punishment with violence rolled into it.

And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

I’m going to stop right there. They took him in there and they stripped him naked, which was their attempt to humiliate him. And then they said, Well, this isn’t enough.

We’re going to mock him. And they wrapped the purple robe around him, which was a symbol of royalty, but they did it in a mocking way. It said when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head.

They didn’t have just a crown of thorns laying around. They had to go out and somebody actually had to sit down and fabricate this crown of thorns and fit it together and put big thorns and had to deal with all that and put it together in crown form. You’ve got to dislike somebody a lot.

You’ve got to have a lot of hatred for somebody to go through that kind of pain and that kind of effort yourself just for their humiliation. And they put this crown of thorns on his head and a reed in his right hand as though it were a scepter. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews.

So it’s not enough that they’re there to punish him. They’re there to try to humiliate him as well. And after that, they had mocked him.

They took the robe. I’m sorry, I skipped a verse. And they spit upon him, verse 30, and took the reed and smote him on the head.

So they spit in his face, and then they take the reed, this fake scepter, out of his hand, and they smite him on the head with it. 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.

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him, and him they compelled to bear his cross. So they had beaten him to such a point that he could not carry his own cross, and they went out and found a man from Africa, and they asked him to carry this cross, and he did this. Jesus had gone through all of these things because they were trying to humiliate him.

They were trying to mock him on purpose. The Romans were known for their brutality and crucifixion. But the crucifixion, the whole story, and we’re going to stop there because today is not about all the suffering he went through.

We’ll talk about that some next week. Today is about the humiliation that they tried to put him through. This went above and beyond the normal brutality of a Roman crucifixion.

They did these things to mock him, and they enjoyed doing it. Now, why is this important that he went through all of this humiliation? The Romans humiliated people all the time in different ways.

They put people in the arenas, in the Colosseum, to fight to the death. And they did things to. .

. And sometimes they thought it was an honor, but there were people in there that were there to be humiliated. Later on, they would humiliate the Christians and they would martyr them.

Why is it so important that he went through the humiliation that’s described here? Look with me back to Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50.

We’ve already talked about Isaiah some. The book of Isaiah is important because out of all the Old Testament books, I think it talks about Jesus Christ more than any other. Matter of fact, I’ve heard preacher friends of mine refer to it as the Gospel of Isaiah.

I think that’s a pretty good title for it, especially with, I believe it’s chapter 53 that we’re going to talk about here in a few weeks. The book of Isaiah was written, as I’ve said before, about 600 or 700 years before Jesus Christ was born, and yet chapter after chapter makes reference to Him, makes reference to His coming. Verse 50 is no exception to this.

In chapter 50, did I say verse 50? Chapter 50, verse 3, says, So the one speaking here, and it’s Isaiah writing as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. But he’s writing this as a picture of somebody else that’s to come.

And he says that this person closed the heavens with blackness, made sackcloth their covering, talks about their power over the heavens, It says, the Lord God has given him the tongue of the learned so that he would be able to speak a word in season to him that is weary. And he wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear the learned.

So he talks about somebody of great wisdom who also is able to bring great comfort to people. I challenge you to look on your own sometime at some of the sermons that Jesus preached, some of the teaching that he did, especially the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. As you read through these passages and you read through some of the other teaching that he did and some of his other interactions with people, especially people that had fallen on hard times, not so much the Pharisees and scribes.

He didn’t bring much comfort to them. But you look at some of the people who most needed comfort and most needed wisdom, and you look at some of the teachings of Jesus and his interactions with people, and I would defy you to find any wiser teaching than what he gives in his messages. I defy you to find a greater comforter than the man who stopped the leaders that were about to stone the woman caught in adultery and said, Where are your accusers?

Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. And comforted that woman and changed her life.

Jesus’ wisdom and His comfort are such that even non-believers remark at the beauty of His words. Now, I’m not saying that’s enough to just think Jesus is a wise teacher or a great teacher. But there’s something to His teachings that even people who don’t believe that He is the only begotten Son of God, as we do believe there’s great wisdom in His teachings.

That’s the kind of teacher that it talks about here in verse 4. It says, The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. Also, Isaiah talks about this person that God could speak directly to, the Father could speak directly to, and He would hear, and He would not be rebellious and not turn away back.

In the garden of Gethsemane, right before Jesus was arrested, and we talked about His arrest last week, in the garden there, Jesus prayed to the Father because He knew the suffering He was about to go through. He knew what He was about to go through. And I think probably this is just my opinion, this is not doctrine, but my opinion is the reason He prayed so fervently about not going through what He was about to go through was not the physical suffering, but it was the fact of God Himself who hates sin taking on the sins of the world.

I think that was the absolute torture of the whole thing, not to minimize His suffering at all. But He prayed in the garden and said, Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me. If there is any other way, if there is any other way to accomplish your work here, what you’ve sent me to do, Father, don’t make me go through this.

If there’s any other way of accomplishing it, nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. Jesus prayed and asked the Father if there was any other way that he could accomplish the redemption of mankind, not to make him go through the crucifixion. And then he says, but it doesn’t matter what I want.

It matters what your will is, Father, and what you’ve sent me to do. Even facing what he knew he was about to face. Folks, how many of us could be that obedient to God’s will?

I know there are Christians who have obeyed God’s will even unto death, and I would like to think that I would be one of them, but just when I’m alone with myself and honest with my own thoughts and motives, I’m not so sure that going to the kind of torture that Jesus went through, I could say, Father, whatever your will is, I’ll do it. Folks, that is an incredible, an incredible person. Incredible that he went through it.

Not many people would do something like this. And Isaiah says that this one who was to come would not be rebellious and would not turn away back. He was not rebellious because even though he asked if there’s any other way, he still submitted to the Father’s will in his prayers there.

And he did not turn away back because he submitted to the Father’s will and followed through the next day. He was in control of the situation. They thought they arrested him.

They thought they tied him up and brought him to be scourged. He allowed it all to happen. He told him, no man has the power to take my life from me, but I have the power to lay it down and to take it up again.

Jesus was in control and He willingly went to the cross. He did not rebel against His Father’s will and did not turn away back. In verse 6, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.

I hid not my face from shame and spitting. So the one that Isaiah talks about, I’ve told you people today that think Jesus was not the Messiah and they’re still looking for one say, well, the Messiah of the Old Testament came to set up an earthly kingdom. But there are so many places where the Bible, the Old Testament is clear that the Messiah, He would eventually set up an earthly kingdom.

And I believe he will eventually. But they talk about the fact that the Messiah was to be cut off, as we discussed last week. They talk about things like this that he would not, or he would give his back to the smiters and the cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and he hid not his face from shame and spitting.

That doesn’t look like a one-dimensional character of somebody who just came to be the conquering king. It looks like one who was to go through some other things first, just like Jesus did. And this passage, especially verse 6, looks so much like Matthew chapter 27 and what Jesus went through.

He said He would do these things. He would give His back to them to hit. He would give His cheeks to those who would rip out the hair.

He would allow His face to be spit on. He said, For the Lord God, verse 7, will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded.

Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He set His face like a flint. He was willing to go through all of those things.

He was bound and determined to go through all of those things willingly because he’d set his face like a flint and he was there to accomplish the Father’s will. Folks, if Isaiah chapter 50 is not talking about the person of Jesus Christ, is not talking about the incident in Matthew 27, I don’t know who it is talked about. It would be a stretch to find anybody else that fits this passage.

And in this sign of his humiliation, I see four things that we’ll look at just briefly in the next few minutes this morning about what the Messiah went through. The first thing is that the Messiah’s back would be beaten. in Isaiah chapter 50 verse 6, where he said, I gave my back to the smiters.

To be smitten is to be hit really hard. We use the word smitten in today’s English in two different ways, talking about somebody that was hit or talking about somebody who just fell in love so hard as like they got smacked across the face. They were smitten with somebody.

In either case, it’s something jarring that gets your attention. And in the case of being smitten in a physical sense, It was not just a hit. It was not just a kick or a punch.

It was that hard hit that you know you’ve been hit, and you’re going to remember it, and you’re going to feel it. It said he turned his back to the smiters. Not that he turned his back on them, but that he turned his back to them.

Here we see another picture of the Messiah willingly going through the beating that later on it talks about happening in Matthew chapter 27. When I talked about him being scourged this morning, he was smitten. He was scourged.

I don’t want to go into too much gruesome detail. They took that cat of nine tails, and they beat him until he was unrecognizable. Folks, he did that willingly.

He was beaten about his back. If you’ve seen that movie, The Passion of the Christ, I know a lot of people did when it came out. I have some issues with things that were taught in the movie.

But the crucifixion scene, I think, did a lot for people about pointing their attention to what Jesus went through. And it was bloody and it was gruesome. And I’ve seen the movie and I don’t ever want to see it again.

But even that did not do justice to what Jesus Christ went through. That was mild in comparison. He was scourged.

He was beaten. And he turned his back to the people who did it. He willingly went through this.

So the first thing that we need to see is that his back would be beaten, and he knew that, and he did it willingly. And he could not have been the Messiah if he did not go through the smiting on his back. When we say, oh, we’re looking for an earthly king who’s just going to come in triumph, and he’s not going to go through, folks, that’s not the Messiah the Bible talks about.

The Bible talks about a Messiah who would come and turn his back to be beaten, and that’s exactly what Jesus Christ did. Well, he could have fulfilled his own prophecy. No, because somebody had to be there to do the beating, And these were the people who did not want him to be the Messiah.

And they beat him. They fulfilled the prophecy too. The second thing is that the Messiah’s beard would be ripped out.

It says here that his beard would be ripped out. It says later on in Isaiah, I believe it’s in Isaiah, that he would be beaten beyond recognition. That he would be in unrecognizable form.

That beard would be ripped out. And there’s some debate over what the Hebrew words mean, debate back and forth. Some people say that means that he was just, that the Hebrew words mean he was just beaten severely around the beard area where his whole face was bruised up.

Some people say the Hebrew words mean literally that his beard was plucked out. I don’t think it matters all that much. Because the fact is he was still beaten around the face to an unrecognizable form.

This Messiah would still have been, Isaiah chapter 50, would still have been beaten about the face to unrecognizable form, as it says later on in the book of Isaiah. And we see in the gospel accounts, I looked at one just this morning on the road to Emmaus, where they saw Jesus. The people who knew him saw him and did not recognize him.

I believe there were other accounts. Folks, for him to have been beaten, and we know he was beaten about the face from the New Testament accounts, we believe his beard was ripped out, all of that would explain partly why people didn’t recognize him. Such was the severity of what he went through, and he went through it willingly.

They were trying to humiliate him. Do you remember in 2003 when Baghdad fell, and the tanks pulled down the statues of Saddam Hussein, and apparently in their culture the worst insult you could do is touch somebody with the sole of your shoe. And I guess the glory of somebody, I may not understand all this correctly, but the head and face are something you don’t mess with.

And the people that hated Saddam, they were taking their shoes and they were beating the statue about the head and face to bring disgrace to him. Folks, they beat Jesus Christ about the head and face to bring disgrace to him, and he did it willingly. Third of all, it says that the Messiah’s face in verse 6 would be spat on.

Have you ever been spat on, spit on? Anybody else? Okay, I’m not the only one.

Oh, that will make you mad like nothing else. Well, there may be other things that’ll make you madder. But for me, I think that may have been the maddest I’ve ever been.

I was in seventh grade, and I may have brought some of it on myself, but I was picked on a lot in the seventh grade. And I had to take gym class. I say had to.

A lot of people liked it. I’m not real athletic. But I had to take gym class.

And the one time I ever remember being spit on in the face on purpose was that day. And I’ve never been a fighter. I was raised in a Christian family where I was taught to turn the other cheek and to just go on.

We were in the locker room after gym. Everybody was changing clothes one day. Like I said, I was picked on, and I probably brought a lot of it on myself.

I guess I did. That’s in the story, too. But this big, hulking ninth-grade person, he was not really an athlete either.

He was one of the druggies at the school, but he was a big, hulking guy and a troublemaker. We were in the locker room changing clothes this one day. He walks up to me and spits in my face.

He didn’t like me. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and I just assumed it was an accident because I didn’t see it coming. I thought, well, maybe guys spit and do things.

I believe that after having been at camp and things like that, I believe the verse that says it’s not good for men to be alone. Men without women tend to get a little uncivilized. Anyway, they spit and do things, and I thought maybe it was an accident, and so I just gave him the benefit of the doubt.

I said, excuse me, you spat on me. He starts to cuss at me. Who the blank, blank, blank says the word spat?

Again, raised in a Christian home, I spoke King James English, I guess. I said, well, it is the past, I don’t remember, past tense, past participle of the word spit. Okay, like I said, I brought things on myself a lot.

They’re giving him an English lesson. So he rears back and he does it again. And that time I knew it was on purpose.

Like I said, I’m not a fighter. I like to get along and I’m pretty laid back and I turn the other cheek and all that kind of stuff. Well, all the other little friends of mine who got picked on too had to hold me back because I came out swinging when he spit on me.

It was disgusting. It was degrading. I felt humiliated and 

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