The Death of Jesus on the Cross

Well, go ahead and take your Bible. Turn back with me to John chapter 19. John chapter 19, like I said earlier, we will be dividing verses 28 on over to verse 37. Verses 28 on over to verses 27. Now, I believe I mentioned this earlier, but truthfully, verses 28 to 37 are a continuation of what we have been studied. Specifically, the last two messages that we had out of chapter 19. Now, in our last two messages, we did study the physical, the actual crucifixion of Jesus. That started in verse 16, in verse 17. Verse 16 was a transition. It says that He, that's Pilate, delivered Him, that's Jesus to them. That's the soldiers to be crucified.

And we looked at those verses that pertain to the crucifixion in two messages. I simply called them the crucifixion of Jesus, part one, and part two. Part two had a little different twist because we looked at the people that were there at the cross. Now, I want to step back and give you some big picture information that might help you. I want us to see that all of these verses pertaining to the cross, they can be seen in what I call three phases. Three phases. Again, this helps us get our mind around Scripture, get our mind around what is before us. Now, first phase, phase one.

Phase one are the events just before the physical, the actual crucifixion. These events would be the Roman and the Jewish trials. We studied them in depth. These events would be Pilate delivering Jesus to the soldiers for crucifixion, as well as Jesus carrying His own cross there to Galgotha. We saw that in verse 17. So phase one are all of these events before the actual crucifixion. Phase two. Phase two are the events of Jesus physically on the cross. Jesus was crucified between two thieves, verse 18 tells us. And all along the soldiers, they were gambling there at the foot of the cross for Jesus' clothing.

There were the faithful ones who followed Jesus to the cross. We studied about those individuals. And then this morning we will continue with these events while Jesus is on the cross, verses 28 to verse 37. And then phase three. Phase three are those events after Jesus' body was taken off the cross. They start with Joseph of Arimathea, faithfully caring for the Lord's body. And we will begin to study phase three, these events and verses pertaining to phase three next Sunday morning as we gather to worship. Now again, this helps us get our mind around what we've learned, where we are and where we are going.

Now this morning we are seeing a transition in the story again. If you look back with me at verse 28, look at those two words at the beginning. After this, all of our translations read the same thing. This phrase speaks of a short period of time. So it denotes a transition in the story. Remember, we have the Apostle John, the one that the Lord loved in a unique way. And he is telling the story of the crucifixion. One of the commentators I studied this week said he is the narrator of these events, and that is true. So here John is making a transition in telling the story of the crucifixion. Now this leads us to our subject this morning.

I think that you've probably heard it by now, but we will be studying the death of Jesus while he is physically on the cross. Now let's go back and look at our verses together, starting in verse 28. After this, there is that transition, "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, 'I am thirsty.' And a jar full of vinegar or sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of His and they brought it up to Jesus, to His mouth.

And when Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished.' And He bowed His head and He gave up His Spirit. The Jews therefore, because it was the day of preparation, so that the body should not remain on the cross, on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day or a unique day. They asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. The soldiers, therefore they came and they broke the legs of the first man, that's the first criminal, and of the other man, the other criminal who was crucified with Him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.

But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water." Verse 35, "And He who is seen has borne witness, and His witness is true." And He knows that He is telling the truth, so that you also may believe, for these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. "Not a bone of Him shall be broken." And again, another Scripture says, "They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced." Now, I will go ahead and give you the title of the message. It's rather simple, but it does describe these verses and the theme, the major message in these verses.

We are looking at the death of Jesus on the cross. You have before you the three major truths from our outline. This is how we will divide these verses. We will see or study Jesus. He is in full control, the second part of verse 28, on over to verse 30. And then Jesus, His body is removed, verses 31 to 34. And then we see another transition. We see the faithful witnesses of these events, verses 35 to 37. I think the division of these passages is simple. I think you'll be able to follow along as we want to divide the verses.

And again, I encourage you to take notes and be good students of what we're learning today, so that we can learn and retain all that the Lord wants to give us. So let's look at our first major truth this morning, and that is Jesus is in full control. Now, you can lengthen that major truth by writing it this way. Jesus is in full control while on the cross. While on the cross. Jesus is in full control. Go back to the verses. Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, He said, "I am thirsty." Then a jar full of sour wine, it was standing there.

So they put a sponge full of sour wine on a branch of hyssop, and they brought it up to His mouth. And when Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, and then this is for the next major truth, He cried out, "It is finished." Now, I have said this all along throughout these verses. Jesus willingly surrendered to this arrest. He surrendered to the trials that we studied, those Roman trials and Jewish trials. And He willingly surrendered to death on the cross. Now, on the surface, it appears that Jesus' life was taken from Him. It appears as if Jesus was murdered, but we know better. Jesus willingly surrendered to sinful men on the cross.

Jesus, as He had been throughout all of His earthly ministry, He was in full control of these events, even to the very point of death. Now, there are two observations that I want to make here out of these verses. Our first observation is this, we will see a fulfillment of Scripture. We see a fulfillment of Scripture. Back in verse 28, "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." Now, we've learned that Jesus was fully God and fully man, being fully God, Jesus knew that there was one more prophecy yet to be fulfilled. Specifically, that is Psalm 69 verse 21.

That verse states, "They gave Me poison for food, and for My thirst, they gave Me sour wine to drink." So what does Jesus do? He cries out, knowing that the soldiers would fulfill this prophecy. Now, for me, this prompts me to ask three questions. Three questions out of these verses. First, why was this wine there at the crucifixion? The verse says, "And a jar full of sour wine was standing there." The fact that the wine was there, as well as a method for giving the wine, it reveals that this was an expected part of the crucifixion. So this was normal, if I can use this term, procedure. And then the second question, what was this sour wine?

I've already referenced the King James Version. It reads vinegar. Now, this was a cheap wine, and it was a cheap wine that was used among the common people. Now, this wine was not, and I repeat, not used for drunkenness, but it was used to quench first. And this leads us to a third question. What was the purpose? What was the purpose of this wine? Was this the dull, the pain of Jesus' crucifixion? Well, the answer to that is no. Emphatically, I say no. Because Matthew tells us that Jesus refused the drug wine that was offered before the crucifixion. So what does this giving of the sour wine, this vinegar, tell us?

Jesus did not want to dull the pain and the suffering of the crucifixion. This wine was simply for thirst. I think this speaks to His need, His physical need. I think this speaks to His physical suffering. This speaks to His humanity. To me, simply, this speaks to His humanity as well as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. So we see a fulfillment of the Scriptures. Then our second observation, we see a completion of Jesus' work. We see a completion of Jesus' work. This comes from the second part of verse 30. Jesus said, "It is finished." Then He bowed His head and He gave up the Spirit.

Here in the second part of the verse, we see two of the things take place. First, He cries out, and then second, He gives up the Spirit or He dies. Now, what is the significance of this phrase, "It is finished"? We must see that this is a shout of victory. This is a shout of triumph. The work of redemption was finished. The atoning work for sin was complete. Every righteous requirement of God's holy and just law had been satisfied. God's righteous wrath against man's unrighteous sin had been appeased or satisfied. The work of providing redemption for man was complete.

Now that this eternal plan had been accomplished, Christ could surrender His life willingly and die. Now, an interesting note that comes out of Luke's account. Luke 23, verse 46 says that Jesus cried out in a loud voice. So all that were there could hear Jesus say, "Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit." Now, I like how the Bible commentator Leon Morris captures, and I use this little word "spirit." He captures the spirit of what is taking place here, and I'm quoting, "Jesus died with the cry of the victor on His lips.

It is the triumphant recognition that He has now fully accomplished the work that He came to do." I think that's very accurate. So what does this tell us? Jesus, being the righteous Son of God, could and did complete God's great redemption plan on this very day and on this very cross through Christ.