Last week we saw that the Gospel is all about Jesus Christ and what He did for us (1 Cor. 15:1-4, NLT). Today, we want to share on “THE SUFFERINGS OF JESUS CHRIST.” Here we are going to attempt to paint a picture of what Jesus suffered for you and I.
Apostle Paul said, “That I may know (1) Him, and (2) the power of His resurrection, and (3) the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; 11 if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:10).
What things did Jesus suffer for you and I?
1. The world did everything possible to assassinate His character. They spoke ill of Him. They called Him a glutton (Lk. 7:34). They called Him a sinner (Jn. 9:24). They called Him a deceiver (Jn. 7:12). They called Him a friend of sinners (Matt. 11:19). They called Him a winebibber (Matt. 11:19). They said He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub (Matt. 12:24).
2. The world plotted evil against Jesus Christ. Matthew 12:14 says, “Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against Him, how they might destroy Him.”
John 5:16 says, “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.”
Look at Jesus’ example of suffering persecution Heb. 12:2-4; Isa. 53:3; Isa. 53:7-8; 1 Pet. 2:21-23; 1 Pet. 4:1-3).
1 Peter 4:1-3 says, “So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer, too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin.* 2 You won't spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious to do the will of God. 3 You have had enough in the past of the evil things that godless people enjoy—their immorality and lust, their feasting and drunkenness and wild parties, and their terrible worship of idols.”
3. At the Garden of Gethsemane. We tend to equate agony with great bodily pain, but even though no one had physically laid a finger on Jesus at this point, His time of great agony had begun: "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Lk. 22:44).
At the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus sweated heavy drops that were like blood. By so doing Jesus redeemed our willpower that Adam surrendered to Satan in the Garden of Eden.
This signifies that Jesus won back our willpower to resist temptation because He overcame the greatest temptation that was so intense that it caused Him to sweat blood.
Sweaty blood occurs only in extreme emotional stress. Certainly, Jesus was seriously emotionally stressed because of our sins.
Because of the fall of Adam God cursed the ground and said that man shall eat bread by the sweat of his face (Gen. 3:17-19).
But what happened when the bloody sweat dropped on the ground? After the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane during which He shed those drops of blood, the curse was immediately cancelled so that we no longer have to eat bread by the sweat of our face.
Rather we eat bread by the grace (unmerited favour) of God. It is no longer by labour, but by favour. The sweaty blood ushered us into the season of sweatless victory. The blood of Jesus replaced the sweat man was supposed to sweat and brought us into the season of sweatless victory.
That was why Jesus said, “….I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10).
Why did our Savior suddenly become very sorrowful? What was in His mind that brought such agonizing sorrow upon Him? Was it because of the despite and rejection by every generation of mankind? Or that His closest friends were either betraying Him or forsaking Him? Was it because He feared the fast-approaching hours of physical torture? Or that He dreaded the blackness of death itself?
These may have been factors, but the evidence renders it more likely that the major reasons were these:
i. The humanly unbearable weight and pain of the knowledge and burden of thousands of years of mankind's sins.
ii. The horrifying fact that, as the sins of the world were being laid upon Him, He was actually becoming the sin of the world (II Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13).
iii. The knowledge that His Father must now turn away from Him because of the sin that He—Jesus—bore and was now becoming.
iv. The thought of the fast-approaching, total separation from His Father.
v. On this last point, Isaiah 53:8 prophesies that Jesus would be "cut off from the land of the living."
vi. He was to be cut off from His human brothers and sisters who were imperfect, who enjoyed a temporary, physical life, but whose sins had caused His suffering and death.
vii. More importantly and painfully for Him, He was to be cut off from communication with His perfect, loving, and eternal Father:
viii. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’” (Matt. 27:46)
“Why have You forsaken Me” means: "Why have You deserted Me? Why have You left Me behind in this place?"
4. The Soldiers Mocked Jesus (Mk. 15:16-20). Mark 14:65 says, “Then some of them began to spit at Him, and they blindfolded Him and beat Him with their fists. "Prophesy to us," they jeered. And the guards slapped Him as they took Him away” (NLT).
Look at what they did to Jesus:
a) They dressed Him in a purple robe,
b) They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on His head,
c) They saluted Him and taunted (a remark made in order to anger, wound or provoke someone), "Hail! King of the Jews!“
d) They struck Him on the head with a reed sticke).
e) They spat at Him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship,
f) They blindfolded Him,
g) They beat Him with their fists,
h) They jeered (made rude and mocking remarks, typically in a loud voice) at Him saying, “Prophesy to us.”
i) The guards slapped Him as they took Him away from where He was facing trial at the home of the high priest.
j) When they were finally tired of mocking Him, they took off the purple robe and put His own clothes on Him again.
5. They humiliated Him (They smote Jesus’ cheek).
In Lamentations 3:30 the Bible says, “He giveth His cheek to him that smiteth Him…”
6. They buffeted Jesus’ face. “Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted (struck violently and repeatedly, battered) Him; and others smote Him with the palms of their hands” (Matt. 26:67).
Jesus gave His cheeks to those who plucked out His beards.
Jesus said, “I gave … My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting” (Isa. 50:6).
And as they pulled out His beards, blood came out with the hairs and blood was on His face.
To be continued!!
Watch out for the next edition of the Good News from the pulpit.
Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor, HOG).
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