For a few days we're going to study the Death of Jesus. On the Cross called "Calvary." Our Scripture today is Matthew 27:35-36. "And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: 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. And sitting down they watched him there."

Nothing in this world's history is as terrible as that deed, "crucifying" the Lord Jesus. Yet, on the other hand, nothing is as wonderfully beneficial for lost sinners!

A preacher of years ago wrote a book, a collection of sermons really, simply titled "The Glories Of The Cross." His name was A. C. Dixon. That book nearly defined his ministry! Tomorrow I want to tell you more about him and his passion, magnifying the finished Work of our Lord.

Meanwhile, two things are apparent in our Text today.

First, Jesus' Death was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Psalm 22:18, around a thousand years before the Virgin Birth, predicted of Jesus, "They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."

Wow!

God the Father, at the Cross, proved incontrovertibly that Jesus was His Son! By many Old Testament facts being centered and completed in the Saviour that Day! Christ Jesus, the Messiah!

Another thing about Jesus' Death is that it was a "public" event! Crowds gathered!  "And sitting down they watched him there."

The verb "watched" is unusual. It's only translated this specific way twice in the entire New Testament! "Tereo" historically means "to attend to something very carefully!" Even this, "to observe," not merely to notice in passing. It's translated "to keep" 57 times in the King James Bible.

I think the masses there, humanly speaking, were merely exercising natural curiosity, sort of a mob mentality. But from God's point of view, as with the casting lots for Jesus' clothes, more was at work here!

The many observers were "guarding" the Truth that Jesus indeed was crucified! That the event did occur, literally and gruesomely and bloodily, exactly as the Gospel accounts report.

An attestable fact of history!

No one doubted it, not back then anyway.

"And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: 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. And sitting down they watched him there." 

Maybe it would not hurt us to look back on His Death. To "see" Him through the eye of faith on that Cross, suffering for us, dying and shedding that Precious Blood so sinners like us could be born-again!

And this Easter week might be a great time to do that. We might then conclude as did Paul, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14

Isaac Watts, an old hymn writer reflected, "When I survey the Wondrous Cross, on which the Prince of Glory died ...." Matthew 27:36 again, "And sitting down they watched him there." 

Oh, how we should love Jesus today!

Every day!

He died for our sins!

               --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 2:

When Paul first went to the City of Corinth, a culture strongly under the influence of the nearby "intellectual" giant Athens, the great Preacher's mind was "stirred," especially in reference to the best way to present the Gospel.

Was philosophy the best avenue to use, declaring Christ?

Or dialogue?

Or maybe outright debate?

Paul was deep in thought.

Then he reached a conclusion! Though his "solution" would prove, and he knew it, "offensive" to many who heard the Story of Jesus. Especially to these Greeks, who would call the pure Gospel "foolishness," particularly if it highlighted the Crucifixion Event. In First Corinthians 1:23 Paul admitted that such preaching would be "moros" to the Greeks, really our expression "like morons!"

Still, here is the Apostle's resolution. And he implemented it in Corinth, his very next stop after Athens. Corinth, still in what would be called Greece today. "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." First Corinthians 2:1-5

Paul will only preach the Cross!

He will not use the secular tools of rhetoric alone! He will not depart from declaring the Death, Burial and Resurrection of our Lord!

He will singularly emphasize "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified!"

He will not use so-called "enticing" words, with "peithos" here meaning "alluring and persuasive," but the simple Truth of the Word of God, letting the Holy Spirit do the rest!

And if you recall, using these God-given "tools" ... Paul was blessed with a great ministry in Corinth! Eighteen months of fruitful labor! Many saved! And two great follow-up Epistles that have helped millions ever since!

Why?

Because a man stuck to the Gospel!

A man preached the Cross!

A man lived by these words, in all his journeys and travels, "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."

Oh, the Power of the Cross!

The Magnetism of the Cross!

The Centrality of the Cross!

The Saving Ability of the Cross!

The Cross, with its subsequent Burial and Resurrection, is God's Plan to save lost sinners.

Thank God for it!

            --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 3:

Man's ways of thinking almost always are at variance with God's Ways! For instance, when Jesus was dying on the Cross of Calvary!

The eye-witnesses, especially the Romans gathered around, were absolutely sure the man would want to avoid that terrible punishment! That he would want to be "off" that roughly hewn "tree" on which he was hanging!

In fact, they believed that if he were really God, like he claimed, he would come down immediately from that place of torture! "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. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him." Matthew 27:39-42

Then again immediately, quoting their leaders: "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth." Matthew 27:43-44

They thought, "Surely he wants 'down' from up there! And if he is really all-powerful, the Son of God, He can bring that to pass!"

But now here is the Truth, according to the Bible. Jesus came to die "up" there! "Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this Hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." John 12:27, the "hour" being the moment of His Death for sinners!

Jesus again, in John 18:37 now, before Pilate: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." His very Life Purpose, to die on that Cross, to obey His Father's Will!

And like Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, on a pole, Jesus said that He also must be lifted up, on the Cross of course! "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:14-15

Still again, and talking about His Cross, Jesus reveals His sheer Determination to die there, providing salvation to all who believe. "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" Luke 12:50, literally Jesus was "constrained," or "in a bind," until He could "finish" His Work, die that substitutionary Death on the Cross!

No folks, He is NOT coming down!

The masses said "If he is God ... he will come down off the cross." The Bible says, "Because He is God, He will stay there and die on that Cross!"

How thankful we should be today that He indeed did "finish" His Work on Calvary! One of the greatest verses in all Scripture, uttered by the dying Saviour, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." John 19:30

Amen!

             --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

He did not "come down!" He purposely died and was buried. Then three days later ... He was raised from the grave, to live forevermore! He today sits at the Right Hand of God His Father, praying for His Own followers! Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

LESSON 4:

We have recently been noticing the Cross, Calvary where Jesus died. Our Lord often spoke of that Ordeal, the very Purpose for which He came to earth. To lay down His Life for lost souls!

In John 12:32-33 Jesus said, with the term "lifting up" being a reference to the manner of His Death, His Crucifixion: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This he said, signifying what death He should die."

The Roman government believed they had "executed" the Lord Jesus. Putting Him to death via the most tortuous form of capital punishment ever devised. Death from having been nailed to a cross, hours of exposure and untold pain!

But instead of calling His Death a "shame," Jesus in today's Verses calls it a "lifting up!" And the Greek word used here, the verb "hupsoo," means much more than His just being "hoisted" into the air, fixed to a piece of wood!

Oh yes, "hupsoo" means "exalted!" Especially in the sense of being "magnified in honor and glory and praise!" One text says, "at the summit of dignity!"

Wow!

 Talk about a reversal!

And the parallel verb, "to draw" is spelled "helkuo." It means "to attract by an inward power!" The convicting and wooing power of the Holy Spirit likely! John 18:12 uses "helkuo" for drawing a sword out of its sheath. John 21:6 and 11 use it to refer to a fisherman pulling in his catch.

Whatever this "drawing" is ... it includes "all men!" In fact, "pas" here is a substantive word meaning "all things!" Probably all God's creation is amazed, startled, intrigued by the old rugged Cross, by Jesus' Death there!

"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. This he said, signifying what death He should die."

And the verb "signifying" is "semaino," John's basic word for the "signs" or "miracles" Jesus enacted, worked, in the forth Gospel. Thus one might say that the Cross ... is another great Miracle our Lord performed! A "pointer" to the Love of God, to the Way of Salvation, to the Blood Atonement. The very means God uses to get sinners born-again!

This Text has inspired many a sermon!

A Preacher of last century, a North Carolinian, A. C. Dixon by name ... delivered a Message called "The Magnetism of the Cross!" Surely he used John 12:32 here as part of his presentation!

Has anyone reading here today experienced the drawing power, the warmth and love and invitation ... of that dear old Cross?

If so ... you probably know Jesus Christ personally, as Saviour of your life!

Thank God for Calvary!

               --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 5:

Today's Verse is Luke 12:50. It refers to the Cross on which Jesus died. His attitude toward that ordeal.

Listen as our Lord Himself speaks. The "baptism" to which He alludes is that of "death" for mankind. "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!"

This is not a "baptism" with water either! That occurred several years earlier in Jesus' Life, at the hands of John the Baptist. Rather, this is a "baptism," the Greek noun being "baptisma" and the verb "baptizo," of fire! The fire of the wrath of God which Jesus faced for lost sinners! He suffered our punishment for us, died in our stead! Paid our sin debt! See Second Corinthians 5:21 for a concise exposition.

Jesus was on His way to the Cross when He said these very words! "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" The Cross was strongly on His mind!

And did our Lord fear that Cross?

Was he "running" from it?

Having "second" thoughts?

No!

A thousand times, No!

His very words, "How am I straitened till it be accomplished!"

The verb "straightened" is "sunecho," meaning "held tightly together" by a fact, a thought, an event!

The "Cross" had literally "captivated" Jesus, apparently nearly dominating His thoughts!

He longed for "His Hour" to come!

To finally arrive!

So He could complete His Father's Will!

So He could complete His Life Work!

He would not "quit," until it was "accomplished!" Here the verb is "teleo," just meaning "totally finished!" Brought to the end zone! Having reached the proper goal!

One of the greatest Verses in all the New Testament about Calvary! About Jesus! Old Testament too for that matter!  "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!"

Amen!

He did what He came to do!

He is a Successful Saviour!

Oh, let's magnify His Name today.

                 --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 6:

Lately we have been studying the Cross of Jesus, especially this Easter season. Today I'd like to discuss the question, "How was He fixed to the Cross?" Some archaeologists and some artists are convinced He was tied there by leather strips, merely held in place by their force.

But the Bible indicates otherwise! I firmly believe He was nailed to the Cross! There are two reasons for my stand. In John 20:25 the Holy Spirit refers to the "nail prints" in Jesus' Hands and Feet, clearly after His Death and Resurrection! What other evidence would be necessary? Listen to Thomas: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe."

And the very next week Jesus said to Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." John 20:27, the nail "scars" were still there!

But there's more. Paul in Colossians 2:14 tells us that not only was Jesus "nailed" to the Cross ... our sins were nailed there too! That very terminology suggests the use of literal nails that Day long ago. Jesus made possible on Calvary total "forgiveness" of our sins! Furthermore, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross." What a Day's Work, obeying His Father's Will! The Supreme Sacrifice!

Wow!

But much more than merely the nails holding Him to the Cross, let me say this, genuine LOVE held Him there! He cared that much for us! He loved lost souls to that degree! Calvary ... love! "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

What a Saviour!

              --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 7:

The "Cross" of Jesus, this exact word, is not only mentioned in the New Testament Gospels ... and in the early Epistles, but also later in Scripture. Its last occurrence being Hebrews 12:2. There it is used in a beautifully constructed sentence. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

He "endured" the Cross! "Hupomeno" means He "remained" there, six long hours apparently, dying for sinners!

He also there "despised" the shame associated with that terrible place! A place Rome used for public executions! The verb "despised" is "kataphroneo," to "think little, think down" on something! Being Redeemer of lost mankind was more important than a day of shame to Jesus! Obeying His Father was more important than personal comfort!

And because of His Death, His Obedience, His Atonement ... He is now sitting at His Father's Right hand, enjoying the Glory of Heaven!

No wonder every knee is going to bow to Him some day!

Paul wrote of Him, "Christ Jesus Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." Philippians 2:5-9

The Cross ... found throughout the New Testament by actual reference. And in the Old Testament too, by inference and prophecy!

It's the Theme that holds the Bible together as one unit!

Thank God for the Cross!

              --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 8:

The Cross in the Old Testament, particularly one of the Psalms ... that's today's lesson. And I'd like to use Psalm 22 as the example. Bible teachers seem assured that Jesus particularly had that Passage on His Mind as He died on Calvary!

Let me show you why. The whole chapter, the twenty-second Psalm, contains thirty-one verses. Jesus may have "meditated" his way through all of them as He died!

In Psalm 22:1 David writes: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?"

In Matthew 27:46 Jesus cried from the Cross: "And 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?"

Jesus "using" precise Scripture as He dies for sinners!

Then the last verse of Psalm 22 enters the Picture. "They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." Verse 31

That last clause, "He hath done this," is in Hebrew "key asah." Translated using strict laws of grammar, "He hath finished this!" In other words, "It is finished!"

And John 19:30 records Jesus, just before He laid down His Life, saying, "It is finished, and He bowed His Head, and gave up the ghost."

See?

Our Lord began His Ordeal of paying the sin-debt of humanity by quoting Psalm 22:1 then ended His Task by quoting Psalm 22:31.

Jesus on the Cross, using the Psalm Book of Israel!

By the way, Psalm 22 is a prophecy of a man dying ... being crucified! And that Man, we now know, is Jesus!

The Cross ... it's everywhere in the Word of God!

                   --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 9:

Jesus' Death on the Cross! What a paradoxical Event! What the world called the epitome of shame, God has transformed into the pinnacle of Glory! The great Apostle Paul wrote: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." Galatians 6:14

The literature of ancient history is replete with gory stories about the act of  crucifixion. Books have been written on the subject too. Some by scholars, others by physicians, multitudes by theologians.

Then of course there is the New Testament, its four accounts of Jesus' Death anyway. One each by a former tax-collector, a doctor, a fisherman and a younger follower of our Lord. Paul refers to the Cross as well, explaining and  interpreting it more carefully than the others.

But there is this one difference between the secular accounts of death on a cross and The Gospel Story of the Death of Christ Jesus.

They invariably give the details. Of the exposure, the shame, the physical torture, the trauma, the causes of  the certain death to come.

But the Gospels, not one of them, does such! No details! No minute by minute description! No attempt to gather public pity by describing some unfortunate "victim."

No, the New Testament emphasis is not on the minutiae of the Ordeal! Rather the simple fact ... JESUS DIED! And He died for SIN! He died for others! He died vicariously!

The New Testament, singularly and particularly and uniquely, tells us about the spiritual results of His Death! What he doctrinally accomplished for mankind on Calvary!

Examples?

Matthew 27:35-36. "And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots. And sitting down they watched him there." And soon He was dead, at verse 50 in fact! Again, very few details! People just "watched!"

The "emphasis," the "details" about our Lord's Death come later. They are spiritual in nature. Literal Death ... Literal Burial ... Literal Resurrection ... with Spiritual Results!

Here's the summary of what Jesus' Crucifixion accomplished: "For God hath made Jesus to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Second Corinthians 5:21

Jesus Death ... atonement!

Jesus' Death ... propitiation!

Jesus' Death ... new birth for sinners!

Jesus Death ... eternal life for believers!

Very few details of that six-hour event two thousand years ago! So unlike the world's accounts of such men being executed!

But tons of Books have been written about the details of what His Death accomplished in the lives of the inhabitants of earth. Sinners now saved by the Grace of God!

God told us just exactly what we needed to know!

Praise God for Calvary, for the Cross!

                   --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 10:

We do not know ALL that happened at Calvary. Just what God has revealed to us through His Word. No doubt there is much more, probably the "half" has never been told!

The Cross was not just a time of agony! Jesus there suffered immeasurably. Physically and spiritually! It was not just the place of our salvation, great as that is! Where Atonement was made, and propitiation accomplished. Forgiveness made possible.

It was too a place of defeat! Not for the Lord Jesus, but for the devil! Something happened to the works of darkness that Day, to the Ruler of iniquity!

Jesus said so! "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out." John 12:31, Jesus' Death is here called a "Judgment!" On Pilate, no doubt. On the government of Rome, on the Jewish leadership. But also ... on Satan himself!

Jesus said these words hours before the Cross, with His vicarious Death in mind, in view. "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out."

"Now" ... simply spelled "nun" in Greek, "at this present time!" It can even mean "henceforth," that is, "from now on!"

The "prince of this world" is the devil, Jesus' name for him three times in the fourth Gospel.

And "at the Cross," he was "cast out!" The verb is "ekballo," literally meaning "thrown out!" But there's another adverb Jesus spoke here, "ekballo exo!" And "exo" intensifies the "throwing out" process! It means "away," even "far away!"

Yes, in some manner the devil clearly was defeated when Jesus died for sinners! Paul in Colossians 2 has the devil at Calvary being "stripped" of all his armour! "Publicly embarrassed" too! Here's Paul's expression, Jesus "having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it."

Wow!

The Cross ... somehow Satan's "exit!" Sinners can now be saved, men and women born-again, lives changed, Heaven populated!

Like I said, the Cross accomplished a lot more than we know!

Praise the Lord!

               --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

LESSON 11, CONCLUSION:

Well, last Sunday was Easter. And multitudes had, at least remotely, on their minds the Resurrection of Jesus. So I thought a few Lessons on the Cross would be appropriate. Of course Calvary is always fitting to a real believer in Christ Jesus!

So now for eight days we've been discussing that great Theme, Jesus' Death for sinners. In our concluding Article let me emphasize that the subject of the Cross is found even in the last Book of the Bible, in Revelation!

In fact, for starters the very first verse of that great Book names itself "the Revelation of Jesus Christ." Revelation 1:1

But Preacher Bagwell, the Book of Revelation concerns Bible Prophecy! It's about "things to come." Again the first verse, "things which must shortly come to pass."

True!

But Revelation 19:10 teaches us that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." There is no true Bible prophecy apart from Jesus, what He did in the past and is doing right now and will do yet in the future!

But back to the idea of the "Cross" a minute.

John has been "carried away" to Heaven! There he sees a majestic Throne and God the Father sitting thereupon. Myriads of believers, angelic and human, are worshiping Him with all their might!

Then comes Jesus into view! John uses a word picture to depict our Lord, Revelation 5:6. "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb." That Lamb is Jesus, according to John the Baptist back in John 1:29.

The verb "beheld" is "eido" in Greek, "to see and understand, to know with discernment." And the expression "lo" is really a verb, "idou" meaning "look, see, feast your eyes!" It carries with it a hint of amazement!

But What is John seeing?

What kind of Lamb?

Back to Revelation 5:6, "Stood a Lamb as it had been slain!"

This is a sacrificial Lamb. He has been killed at an altar! Crucified on a Cross! Slaughtered is the Greek word, "sphazo," yes "slain" but in a vigorously violent sense!

Yet note this too. This once dead Lamb, this blood shedding Sacrifice, is now alive!

Standing!

In the immediate vicinity, in the "midst," of God's very Throne, "mesos," the very "center!" He belongs there!

See?

In the Bible's sixty-sixth Book, it's grand finale, we still see the Cross! And the One Who died there! And was brought back to life there!

Revelation 5:6 again, this time the whole verse. "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Seven eyes, emblematic of "knowing everything, omniscient!" Seven spirits typical of the Perfect Holy Ghost of God, ministering to every believer yet today! And the seven horns represent complete "power," vested in the Hands of our dear Saviour!

Jesus, the Cross, the Lamb, the Resurrection ... all in Heaven!

For eternity!

For all who believe to see, worship, enjoy, magnify, adore ... forevermore!

              --- Dr. Mike Bagwell

THE CROSS OF CALVARY, THE GRAND THEME THAT HOLDS ALL THE BIBLE TOGETHER!