Jesus' Final Week

A message Dutch spoke on ResurrectionSunday. The teaching is deeply moving and paints a picture of Christ’s last days: the week leading up to His crucifixion and His resurrection. Your faith will be renewed by the poignant lesson.

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In Luke chapter 12 verse 50, Jesus says,  "I have a baptism to undergo and how distressed I am until it is accomplished." Lord, help me to do this in a way today that honors you well. We don't have mind set here that looks for performance. Even on a day like today, we just want to tell the story and worship you just like we do every time we come together. Lor, as we focus today on this event, Calvary and then Resurrection Day, help me to do this in a way that helps us all. Do it with a little more understanding. Amen. You can be seated. Thank you. First thing I want to mention to you is the humanness of the Lord. A lot of people go through the story of the cross and the events leading up to it. Really, the whole life of Jesus, forgetting that he was very human. He was just as human as you and I, without the sin nature. He had the feelings. He knew the pain. He had the ability to experience rejection, grief, sorrow, fear, hope. And so when Jesus went through these events he didn't just turn some switch and move into his Godness in a way that this is just a piece of cake and I can just walk through this because I am God and it's no big deal. In fact, where I read to you from is a point in Luke's gospel, where a few weeks before the cross, Jesus in a very determined way, sets his focus toward Jerusalem. He's going to make it a several week journey, obviously on foot, so it takes him a while. But Luke keeps bringing us back to the fact that he's moving toward Jerusalem and when he says, "No man puts his hand to the plow and looks back or who does that is fit for the Kingdom of God." He's actually quoting from the Old Testament, which is a reference about himself. It's a good verse for us, but the context of that is Jesus setting his focus, at that point, to go to the cross, and it's just basically him looking back to the Old Testament and knowing what's coming and saying, "I won't turn back from this journey."  Luke 9:51 says that he resolutely set his face to go there. I want to bring out a few words today, once in a while, to show the emotional tearing and struggle that was going on in him at this point, as his humanity was looking toward the cross. In this passage I read when he said, "how distressed I am until it is accomplished." Distressed is not nearly a strong enough word because the word really is the same root word which we get a prisoner, one who is encompassed or held fast in a way that they just can't get out of. Various definitions of the word to be held fast, to be confined, to be pressed together to be in a mental place of anguish, he says now, several weeks before he gets to Jerusalem, "I have this baptism to undergo, and I'm in deep anguish until this happens." That was what was going the last several weeks. Luke calls us back to this picture 11 times, he was going toward Jerusalem. Luke is building toward the climax, which happens in Luke 19:41, when Jesus crested the last hill. He came around the last curve and saw the city. He was overcome with emotion and begin to weep over Jerusalem. I think at this point Jesus was a pent up ball of emotion. At this point, he was no doubt experiencing the anticipation of what he and the father and the Holy Spirit had been waiting for 1000 years to accomplish. And yet he knew the pain, he knew what he would have to endure to do that. So he was just a ball of emotion. And when it says in Luke 19 that he wept over the city, the literal Greek word there verbiage is  that he burst into tears. He just couldn't deal with it anymore. The emotion of the whole thing and he just lost it. He burst into tears, began to sob over the city because he knew the judgment that was coming to them. He knew what he was facing. It was a very difficult time for him. So I want you to just know from the start, as you think about this day, this season,  know that it was a very trying time for him. Now I'm just going to pick highlights and just tell you a little of the story. His entrance into the city, they called the triumphant entry, when they came, he finally reached his goal and made that climb up the hill and into Jerusalem. They threw the palm branches there. Of course, we celebrate Palm Sunday. But when he made that entrance into the city, he's thinking one thing. They're thinking something else. They are beginning to wonder.... Is this the man who is going to deliver us from Roman slavery just like Moses did with Egyptian slavery and give us our freedom? That was their interpretation of Messiah. They had no concept that he would die, that he would be crucified. They just didn't even think about it. It didn't cross their mind. So while they're celebrating the possibility that this is the king who is coming to free us, he is of course, again thinking about the reality of what's coming. It's interesting that he did this on the 10th day of the first month, 9 Sivan, which was the day that way back in Moses Day, the Passover lamb was taken and set apart before they came out of Egypt. The reason God chose that day for Moses to say to the people, "On that day take a lamb and set aside", is because God had already chosen the day several 100 years later when this event would take place. Jesus, of course, knew all of that. The other significant thing that has lost upon most people is that when Jesus makes this to entrance into the city, he knows that in keeping with the symbolism and prophetic typology of the old and listen to me, basically, nothing happened for this entire week that was not fulfilling some kind of purpose and prophetic symbolism in the life of Jesus, I mean everything. But of course, it was on this day that people would bring their lambs. That each family, of course or group of family, would bring a Passover lamb, and as many as 10,000 or so then would be sacrificed Passover week there in Jerusalem. But the interesting thing is that on the day they brought their lambs to be gathered and then held and inspected for the rest of the week to make sure that they were all fit sacrifices, fulfilling the obligations of Scripture that they be without flaw and without blemish. The same day that all the lambs were brought in and put there for that reason is the day, of course, that Jesus is coming into the city, being presented as THE lamb and everything that he went through for the next couple of days is more than just happened stance. He doesn't a lot of discourses. He is challenged as never before by the pharisees, sadducees and scribes. They tried desperately to trap him in some way so that they can really find a way to accuse him and destroy him. The interesting thing about all that is they could find no fault in him. And of course, that's all very prophetic because as the priests are over across town inspecting all of these sheep, the religious leaders are inspecting Jesus, trying to find some flaw. Of course, they couldn't find any fault or any flaw with him.  He goes into the temple during all of this, and in this place of great passion and intensity, he cleanses the temple for the second time. He did it at the beginning of his ministry and he did it again at the end of his ministry, picturing what he was really here to do. He was here to cleanse the temple once and for all, that temple being us.  Then move us into a place of union with him again. It's also interesting that after he cleanse the temple, he healed the sick, the blind and the lame were set free. Picturing again what would happen when the ultimate cleansing took place, just a few days later. You see me flipping a lot of pages because this syllabus is 100 and some pages, and I'm picking and choosing just a few of these things.  I love to think about Christ's last visit to the city because he would come and go into the city and fulfill certain prophetic scriptures. He would have his discourses and they would try and catch him in some sort of sin or some evil. Then he would go back out of the city at night and come back the next day. When you get to his final entrance into the city, it's very striking because he knows now that this is the day that I will be offered as the Passover lamb. As he makes that final climb into the city, it's just a incredible picture of fulfillment for what Abraham did with Issac. Isaac was being used to paint a picture for us of God, offering his only son right on down to the place and the fact that Issac carried the wood. It's all a picture of Jesus carrying the cross. But it's interesting to me that when the Lord said to Abraham, I want you to go to a certain place, I have something I need you to do and then told him, I'm going to have you offer your son. He didn't tell him where to go. He just said, "I'll tell you when you get there." And he seemed to Mount Moriah, and that's significant because not only had God chosen the day way back hundreds of years before, but he had also chosen the very place. When God let Abraham out and Isaac is carrying that bundle of wood up the hill, God is seeing something else. Isn't he? He is seeing the picture of his son several 100 years later who would be carrying the cross through the streets of Jerusalem toward the place of crucifixion. It's also significant. Well, I just don't have time. Let me not go there. I'm just skipping too much today. After he gets there, he makes plans for the Last Supper with the disciples. As I was meditating on this, this week and thinking about Jesus, who is now very close to that time, he will leave that meal and go to Gethsemane. He's very thoughtful. He's very intense in his emotions, as I said earlier. He has that meal with his disciples that he overhears them talking. To his i'm sure great sadness probably surprise, he hears them talking about which one of them will be the greatest because you see, they still don't get it. They still think maybe this is the time when he's going to overthrow that government, just like Moses. Set them free, and they will begin to rule the world. It's so striking that just hours before the cross, he hears his disciples arguing over which one of them will be the greatest. I mean, it's almost unfathomable. And as I was thinking about this, I couldn't help but think about how it still goes on today. I made the mistake of flipping on the TV this morning and going to a Christian station or two. One or two were giving just a really beautiful Easter message. And then I saw one or two who were most definitely trying to do a presentation that would make them the best. I thought about how much his heart must ache when he sees the competition and the silly, foolish games we play in the name of Christ. And in one last attempt to show them the heart they needed to have, he grabbed a towel and in Greek, the verbiage was very clear. He grabbed the towel that belonged to the lowest slave that was used to clean the dusty, dirty feet of the travelers, and it was that tell he took and knelt and began to wash their feet. It's why Peter said, "No, I won't let you do this!" You have to understand he's doing more than just proving he's a servant because we know he's a servant. Jesus didn't have to prove that what he's doing is trying to show them one more time, that this is the heart you need to have. I am about to take on the sin of the world and you're fussing over who gets to be the greatest? It's almost unfathomable. He has his last meal with them and then he goes from there to the place. I call it the place because Luke calls Gethsemane his place of prayer. That's why Judas, who had been sent earlier before Jesus took them to the garden to pray, Judas had already been dispatched to do his thing. Jesus knew what was happening, of course, and send him off to get the the soldiers. But the reason that Judas knew where to find him it's because Luke said that this was his place of prayer. Jesus would go to Gethsemane often and pray. He no doubt knew he would spend his last night there, and he of course went there at that point. This is where the agony becomes so intense. If you put all three gospel writers together and all of their accounts the words that are used to describe what Jesus experienced for those three hours, not 15 minutes. He's not over on the ground praying for a few minutes, and then he gets victory in his heart and moves on. This battle in Gethsemane lasted for three hours. That's like us, gathering at 10 and entering into this extreme prayer time until 1 o'clock. The Bible says that he knelt in prayer, and then one of the other gospel writers says he laid down, prostrated himself, in prayer. And then one of the other writer says he fell repeatedly on the ground. So if you want the full picture of what Jesus is really doing in Gethsemane, he begins by kneeling, and he starts praying. Eventually he gets up and goes to the disciples. He goes back and he's kneeling. Then he finally is on his face, crying out to the father. And then it's at some point, the turmoil gets so strong in him that he falls on his face. He gets back up, he walks, he falls on his face again, over and over and over again, he is agonizing during this time. So much so that at a certain point the pressure was so intense that the capillaries burst in his face and his eyes and his pores begin to ooze blood. When it says he was sweating great drops of blood, it is not saying that he was sweating so profusely that it looked like someone bleeding. It is saying he literally perspired or bled through the pores of his skin. It's a medical condition known as hematidrosis. It is extremely excruciating, and the words that are used let me share a few of them with you to describe. He said, I am exceedingly sorrowful. The word is "lypeo", it means to grieve. I am in grief right now. That's why he said to them, Can't you guys watch with me for a few minutes? Couldn't you help me pray this through? They had no idea what was coming. He had to face it alone. He said, i'm becoming very heavy. "Adenomeo" means to be troubled, to be in anguish, the word means to be in a state of great anxiety. It is used of a man who is rendered helpless. This word was used very seldom. It was used, the one who was rendered helpless or disoriented. The intensity of that battle was so great that listen when he said Father, is there not some way? Is there not another way? He was very serious. What was coming on him at this point was so intense. And I personally believe, because of some of the other Greek words that are used and I believe can prove that the sin of the world is already being placed upon him. Not just at the cross but it began here in the garden. When this anguish begins to take him and he begins to experience things that he's never experienced before, the dread and the anxiety and the pressure of it all becomes so great that yes, he did indeed say, "Father, is there not another way?" Let this cup pass from me. One who is helpless, disoriented, agitated, anguished by threat or fear. He said he was exceedingly sorrowful. (Perry Lupus?), which means very sad, or overwhelmed with grief or sadness. Wuest, a literal Greek translator, very good translator of the Greek New Testament, uses the phrase encircled or overwhelmed with grief. He reached a point where the passion was so intense and the anguish was so great that he says, I'm overwhelmed. I'm encircled by it. I don't know where to go, I don't know what to do and he's standing. Then he's falling. He's crying out and he's bleeding through his face. One translator that says in the King James he was (soramazed?). What is that word? We don't use that anymore, do we? It's a Greek word with a little prefects on the front of it that gives it added intensity. It's a word that already means astonished or amazed, either with wonder or fear. I'm gonna say something to you that may offend you, if you don't really let him be human. Jesus was very close at this point, to panic. He was wrestling through this thing with such intensity that the shock of the intensity of what he was feeling was affecting him. They take this word that means amazed. He is amazed at what he's feeling in what's happening. He's astonished. They throw this little prefix on it that intensifies it. So the word astonished is not enough, and amazed and overwhelmed is not enough. He is greatly overwhelmed. He is greatly amazed. Wuest translates the word  this way... He was in the grip of a shuttering horror. Another phrase from Wuest says he was thoroughly alarmed. I just want you to know that when Jesus cried out to the father and said, "Please, please let this cup pass from me." He was very, very sincere. He was desperate. Luke uses another word, he said that he was in agony. (Augoneo?), a severe emotional strain. The word that was used in the Coliseum for the sporting events, for the wrestling unto death. It means a violent struggle of body and mind. Is there any wonder that at some point he is down, he is up, he is down, he is up? He is kneeling. He is lying down, he is crying out, he is bleeding. We know the story, of course, he wins. Angels came and ministered to him. He finally said, "Not my will, but your will, father". It's still staggers in my mind to know what this went on for three hours. It was, of course, at that point, arrested before Pontius Pilot. They had him scourged, beaten with the cat of nine tails, 39 times. The only thing I've ever seen that comes close to showing us what he really did look like, was The Passion. It was said that after the beating, with those instruments by the soldiers who were trained specifically to use them, they were so skilled that they could bring a person just to the point of death without killing them. It was said that when they finished, you could take handfuls of flesh, and scoop them up. Sometimes eyes would be pulled out of the socket, part of the nose to torn off, the ears would be torn off. I want you to know that, Isaiah says he was marred beyond recognition. By his stripes, we are healed! They scourged him. They put a crown of thorns on him. That picture is him taking the curse for us because in Genesis, when we fell, the Lord said, cursed be the ground and it will bring forth thorns. So when the crown of thorns were put on his head, it was in the most literal picture that you'll ever fine of him taking the curse, but for us. They spat on him as he bore our shame. They beat him with their fists. They plucked out portions of his beard. He was a bloody, mucus covered, swollen, unrecognizable human being before he ever got to the cross. When Pilot, who didn't want to do this, and his wife had a dream, of course, saying don't do this, have nothing to do with this man. When Pilots said, "Behold the man", it is very likely that he was not saying that to turn him over to them. What Pilot was probably doing was hoping that the condition of this man now would evoke some mercy. When he said, "Behold the man", it's very, you know, if you don't  understand that this is the greatest battle between good and evil, darkness and light, God and Satan that's ever existed... If you don't understand that everything that's happening is because of the most overwhelming, satanic and demonic influence over people. You have to know that all the stops were pulled out by Satan and his cohorts, to try and win this battle. It's really the only explanation for the hatred they felt for him. He had never done anything but good. He healed lepers, opened blind eyes, forgave sinners, gave widow's grieving the loss of children back, raised the dead. There was no reason, no explanation for what happened. Other than the fact that they are under such a demonic stupor at this point. Then when Pilot said, "Look at him, this is enough." They said, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Give us Barabbas, set him free. I've already mentioned the place. It still amazes me that when they led him to Golgotha, the Latin word "Calvary" means the place of the skull. Got knew the place, as I said, when he led Abraham and Isaac up on Mount Moriah. He knew the place. He knew the day. He knew where it would happen, when it would happen. It's fascinating, isn't it? That he carved into the side of a hill the outline of a skull. Golgotha/Calvary outside the city, on Mount Mariah. He gave him wine and myrrh. He tried to give him painkillers and he wouldn't take the pain killers, Everything that happened over the next six hours, fulfilled an Old Testament scripture and or had something to do with our redemption. The clothing that he wore, his hands and feet pierced. He was probably not pierced here. He was probably pierced here. They had a crossbeam that they would attach the victim to. If they put the nails here, they would tear through when they dropped because they would put the cross beam on two poles and move it over the upright piece. When it bounced down and thudded into place, it would often tear loose so they would put the nails here, and then they would also tie the victim in place, most of the time. It did happen with him, the Old Testament tells us that when it crashed down into that position, there was a dislocation. None of his bones were broken, but his bones were out of joint. The body could not handle that, and so he hung there until death in that place of pain, obviously. This lasted for six hours with Jesus. The first three hours he suffered at the hands of man. The last three hours, his suffering was more because God had to turn his face away from him and for the first time, in eternity, the Son was separated from the Father and was bearing away our sin. There's so much we could say. The seven sayings all had significance. I don't have time to go through them just to pull out a few insightful things. I've always been fascinated by the fact that while he hung there, the earth grew dark and for three hours from noon until three (this all started at nine in the morning), lasted until three, when he yielded up his spirit. It's always fascinated me that the earth grew dark. Most people don't know that is in fulfillment of an Old Testament scripture. It's worth reading. Amos 8: It will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that I will make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight. Can you imagine what God, the father was feeling? Do you have any idea what he must have been feeling? For three hours, he wouldn't even let the sun shine. I will turn your festivals in the mourning and your songs into lamentation.I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son. And the end of it will be a better day. While he agonizes for three hours in darkness, it's the only time that he could not contain himself, when he cried out for himself. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That is the only time he ever called him God, by the way. He always called him father until this moment of separation, when he couldn't call him Father. I don't like this message. I need it, but I don't like it. The thousands of hours I spent years ago studying his life. I used to sit, shove everything out of the way and just weep. I don't like it. Those six hours must have felt like 6000 years at some point, when he knew that it was over, he cried out, "It is finished". That's probably the one place where none of the storytellers and movie writers ever get it right, because somehow Jesus knew that this process is finished. Not but not his death but the sacrifice. And the father was able to minister to him again. When Jesus said it is finished, he was not talking about his death. He did not whisper those words. The Bible says he drew a deep breath and shouted with a loud voice, "It is finished!". It is actually one word in both Hebrew and Greek. He still had the awareness enough of what was happening to quote Scripture. He still is going to make sure that every prophecy about him is fulfilled. It's amazing. It's just amazing. In this state, in this condition, he has awareness enough to say: Now I must fulfill Psalm 22:31 where his death is prophesied. The last word of that psalm is  "Asah", which means to finish or accomplished something. It's fascinating to me that it is indeed one of the two primary Hebrew words for creation. It's used over and over to describe creation, in the beginning. When he shouted this word "Asah", he may have used the Greek word to tell us. Personally I think he was probably literally quoting Psalm 22 and used the Hebrew word. I believe he was not only saying "I have finished what I came to do", but I also believe he was decreeing that the new creation could come forth. The Greek word that is used "Tetelestai", was the word used in that day to stamp on an invoice "Paid in full". So whichever word he used, he was saying, "I've accomplished my goal. I finished the task. I've brought forth a new creation, and the debt is paid in full." That's  amazing, huh? At that moment, the veil of the temple was red. Just as he cried out, Father, he's talking to Father now. He's not separated any longer. Into thy hands, I commit my spirit. Two of the Gospels say he died. But two of the Gospels want us to know he didn't just die. He was in full control, now. No one could take his life. It was still his to give. So two of them use language that let us know very specifically that he didn't just die, he gave over his spirit to death. Death could never have taken him. If he hadn't said that, he would still be hanging in there alive because death had no hold on him. He had to release his spirit because he still had to be resurrected. That's a part of it. When he said into thy hands, I commit my spirit, the earth quaked. Isn't that something? Is it a wonder that Centurion shouted: "This is the son of God". He didn't just say to forget that nonsense and the translations in the movies. He didn't say the son of a god or one of the gods, he said, literally: "This is the son of God!" When Jesus shouted that and said, I give my spirit to you, Father, the earth begin to quake and tremble. The sun began to shine again. What would you have done if you had been standing there helping crucify him? Talk about terror! The veil was ripped at that moment, from top to bottom, that separated inner cord with the whole from the Holy of Holies. Which, of course, was a picture of our inability to get into the presence of God fully because of our sin. Hebrews tells us that his body represented that veil and when it was broken for us, it was torn from top to bottom and we were given confidence once again to enter into his presence. The other significance of that veil being red is that it was no longer the Holy of Holies. Like I said, if the temple was still there and that veil was there and you had opportunity to walk into the Holy of Holies, would you be afraid to do it? No, not at all, because it was no longer where he dwelled. We became the Temple of the Holy Spirit and in Corinthians, when it says, Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? It's not the word (here Iran?), which would mean the whole Temple. The outer court, the inner court, the Holy of Holies, is the word, (Naus?), which was only used to describe the Holy of Holies. Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth and he says, "Don't you know that you are now the Holy of Holies and the spirit of God (Shakans?) in you and that's what the rending of the veil was all about. They didn't break his legs. They were going to, but he had already died, so they pierced his side and the blood and the water came forth. I usually move right now into the very own resurrection of Jesus, and I know we don't have much time, but we get enough time. I just feel like we need to let this sink in for a moment or two, not rush out.