Signs of Love
Matthew 27:26-31 (Audio Only)
Message #2
I want to share with you a message that I call "Signs of Love." If you have a Bible, open it to Matthew Chapter 27. We will be looking at verses 26-31.
I want to thank Max Lucado for the inspiration of this message from his book called, "He Chose The Nails." My prayer is that we would grasp the depth of love that God has shown us in the signs that he's given us, as Jesus made his way to the Cross.
There was nothing that happened to Jesus on that Good Friday that he didn't sovereignly, and even unbelievably, plan. Everything had a purpose. And in every purpose was a sign. And we should ask, why? Why did these things happen, Lord? What message were you sending me when you sovereignly orchestrated every event on the way to the Cross? What was the sign you were giving me?
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, show us. Show us, Lord. And in the details that you orchestrated, God, show us the signs of love, Lord, that you were sending to us that are irrefutable. And may our hearts be open today, Lord, to receive that love that you put on display in so many ways on that Good Friday. Reveal it to us now, in your name, Jesus. Amen.
So, the path to the Cross really started outside of time, but we can't go back that far. We're going to pick it up instead in Matthew 27. This comes after the betrayal, and after the arrest, and after the mock trials. We're at the point right now where the Roman governor, Pontius Pilot, is giving in to the religious leader’s demands to have Jesus crucified.
So, if you have a Bible, look down at it and Matthew 27 verse 26, I'm reading from the NLT.
Matthew 27:26 (NLT)
26 So Pilate released Barabbas to them. (Which is another incredible sign for another time) He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
So, although he could find no fault in Jesus, and giving in to the murderous crowd, Pontius Pilate ordered two things to be done that day. One, that Jesus would be scourged with the lead-tipped whip. And two, that Jesus would be crucified.
And the soldiers first administered the scourging, which is that brutal beating using a leather whip with lead or rock tips. And it would just rip open the back and even the sides of the victim as he was tied to the post, leaving the victim as close as possible to death without actually dying.
And so, they did that and they did it with precision, with professionalism. They were expert torturers.
And then, the soldiers were to take Jesus to be crucified. Those were the two orders. Those were the only two orders. But something happened in between the two orders, which is our first sign of how great God's love for us is.
In this first sign, we see the vile ugliness of our own sin nature. Romans 8:7 says, Our sin nature is always hostile to God. Our sin nature is always at war with God. And we certainly see that as we read through these verses in Matthew 27. As we read them, look for the depth of the ugliness of our sin nature because it is on full display here. This is after the scourging. So, Jesus is already near death.
Matthew 27:27-31 (NLT)
27 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters (that’s the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment.
28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
29 They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”
30 And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it.
31 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then (only then) they led him away to be crucified.
The brutal mocking of Jesus Christ, the humiliating, demeaning, degrading attack on the person of Jesus Christ was not ordered by Pontius Pilate. It was not part of the soldier's job. It came from the dark ugliness of our sin nature. And it was a sign to you, and to me, of God's love for us.
The prophecy in Isaiah 50:6, speaking of Jesus, says, I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. This, right here, is our first sign of the love of God for each one of us. The soldier’s dehumanizing mockery in the spit running down the face of the Lord of All Creation symbolizes the dark ugliness of our own sin.
And Jesus carried that spit on his face. There's no reference, no sign, that anyone ever wiped his face off. Jesus carried that spit on his face to the Cross, sending us the shocking message that he loves us enough to carry the vile ugliness of our sin on his body to the Cross, where he would deal with it once and for all.
And it wasn't just the spit on his face. Jesus also carried the crown of thorns on his head. Again, Matthew 27:29, says that the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. And after taunting him, and mocking him, and spitting on him, they took a stick and they struck him on the head in order to beat down the thorns until they sank into his skull. Throughout the Bible, thorns symbolize the consequence of sin. And as the thorns were beaten down on the head of Jesus, soon, all the sin of the world would be crushing down upon him on the Cross.
As the blood from the crown of thorns mixed with the ugliness of the spit that was already running down his face, Jesus sends us another sign of his love for us. The spit symbolizes the ugliness of our sin. The crown of thorns symbolizes the consequences of our sin. Romans 6:23 says, For the wages (the consequences) of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. And Jesus was carrying both the ugliness and the consequences of our sin to the Cross, in order to offer us eternal life in exchange, or instead of, the justly due consequences for our sin.
What had to happen? What had to happen in the courtroom of Heaven for God to accept the price that Jesus Christ paid on the Cross as full payment for every one of our sins? It was the greatest exchange in all eternity. And it is symbolized for us in the exchange of garments that we see here in Matthew 27. After the flogging, with the back of Jesus flayed open, and even being so near death already, Matthew 27:28 says, They stripped him and they put a scarlet robe on him.
Now, Jesus had worn a one-of-a-kind, seamless garment that represented his perfect, sinless, life. But they ripped that one off of him, and they put on him, instead, a scarlet robe representing our sin. And in this exchange of the garments is a picture of exactly what happened in Heaven. It's a picture of exactly what happened for the consequences of our sin to be put on Christ, and for the righteousness of God to be put on us in Christ.
The soldiers thought they were just mocking Jesus, but Jesus knew he was sending you and me a sign of his love for us. And the message in this sign is this: that Jesus was clothed in our sin so that we can be clothed in the righteousness of God. Galatians 3:13 says, But Christ has rescued us from the curse… [by taking] upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For our sin. And 2 Corinthians 5:21, the greatest exchange of verse in the Bible, says, For God made him who knew no soon to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Why? Why would the sinless Son of God become sin for us? Because it was the only way that we could become the righteousness of God in him. The exchange of garments should shake us to the core for what it represents because it represents the picture, the sign, that Jesus Christ became your sin so that you could become the righteousness of God in him.
Guys, we can't earn this. There's nothing we can do to deserve this. This is the unconditional, sacrificial love of the God of Heaven for you. The spit symbolizes the ugliness, the filthiness of your sin. The crown of thorns symbolizes the consequence of your sin crushing down on Jesus. And the garment exchange symbolizes Jesus taking our sin upon himself so that we could take on his righteousness on ourselves.
So now we move to Golgotha, to the Place of The Skull. And the Cross is thrown down on the ground and Jesus is thrown to the ground next to the Cross. And then, in amazement, you watch as Jesus, near death, crawls onto the Cross. And then the one who John 1:3 says, the one who made all the things that were made, the one who flung every star in this space, stretches his Creator's hand out on the crossbeam of the Cross and holds it perfectly still.
And the soldier puts his knee on the forearm of Jesus, expecting him to fight. But he doesn't. The hand that crafted creation lays perfectly still. And Jesus, with blood running through his eyes, has his head turned over and he's staring at his own hand. And as a soldier raises the mallet and prepares to drive the spike through the hand of the God-Man into the Cross, Jesus is focused intently on holding his hands still. And as the soldier swings the mallet with brutal force, and the wrist of the Son of God is ripped open, a lightning bolt of pain would shoot through his body, and blood would begin to pour from the wound. And then, at that moment, the Lord of Heaven sees something that the soldier could not see. Between the hand of God and that old rugged Cross, Jesus saw a sign of his love for you.
Colossians 2:13-14 says this, …Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Between the hand of the Lord of Heaven and the Cross was a record of every sin you have or will ever commit. And when the soldier’s mallet struck, and the lightning bolt of pain shot through the Lord of Glory, that spike nailed the record of your sin between the hand of the Savior and the Cross. And the blood began to flow from the body of the Lord in order to cancel the record of your sin that had been nailed to the Cross with him. That is an immeasurable, indescribable sign of the love of God – for you.
The spit symbolizes the ugliness, the filthiness of your sin. The crown of thorns symbolizes the consequences of sin crushing down on Jesus. The garment exchanging symbolizes Jesus taking on our sin so that we could take on his righteousness. And the nails prove to you that the blood of the Son of God wiped out the record of your sin.
There are so many more signs orchestrated by God. Orchestrated by God in order to show you his love, and in order for him to claim victory over sin and death on your behalf. But maybe these are enough for today, enough to get us to think. Lord, that was my spit running down your face. It’s the ugliness of my sin. It's the consequences of my sin that were crushing down on your head in the crown of thorns. Lord, you became sin for me so that I could be seen, be clothed, in the righteousness of God in you. And Lord, every sin, every dark, unknown sin written in the heavenly record and standing against us, you nailed it to the Cross, and your own blood wiped it out.
But listen to me, guys, listen to me. Here's what we must know today. We must come to the Cross to receive these signs of God's love for us by faith alone. We must come by faith alone. We can't bring anything in response to what God has done for us on the Cross. What are we going to bring? We can't earn this love from God. We will never deserve this love from God. There's nothing we can do except receive this love of God by faith alone. The ugliness of your sin, carried by Jesus. The consequences of your sin, taken on by Jesus. The penalty of your sin, fully paid for by Jesus. And then you, receiving the righteousness of God, in return.
That can only be received as a gift. There's nothing you can do to put yourself in a place where you can earn or deserve that. It's only by receiving it, by placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, by putting your full faith and your full trust in him, by surrendering to him – who he is and what he's done.
Can we come to the Cross today? Humbly, by faith alone? Not bringing anything to try to prove our worth, but just coming as we are. Sinners whose sin killed the Lord of Glory. And can we come and receive the love of God and the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us from the Cross? If we will, if we will come by faith alone, truly surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then we will live eternally in the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on that day.
Consider the signs of love that were sent from Heaven and displayed in the path to the Cross and on the Cross.
Now would you place yourself, please, as a humble sinner, with no earning and no deserving, face down before the Cross? Would you say, “Lord, I receive your free gift”? “I repent of the sin that you carried to the Cross to pay for. I turn from anything else I put my hope in, Lord, I put my hope in you. I receive your gift of salvation. Please, forgive my sins. Fill me, Lord, with your Spirit. Make me new, give me a new life, Lord. Lead me and guide me for your name’s sake, and use me for your glory. It’s in your own name, I pray Jesus, amen.”
I want to thank Max Lucado for the inspiration of this message from his book called, "He Chose The Nails." My prayer is that we would grasp the depth of love that God has shown us in the signs that he's given us, as Jesus made his way to the Cross.
There was nothing that happened to Jesus on that Good Friday that he didn't sovereignly, and even unbelievably, plan. Everything had a purpose. And in every purpose was a sign. And we should ask, why? Why did these things happen, Lord? What message were you sending me when you sovereignly orchestrated every event on the way to the Cross? What was the sign you were giving me?
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, show us. Show us, Lord. And in the details that you orchestrated, God, show us the signs of love, Lord, that you were sending to us that are irrefutable. And may our hearts be open today, Lord, to receive that love that you put on display in so many ways on that Good Friday. Reveal it to us now, in your name, Jesus. Amen.
So, the path to the Cross really started outside of time, but we can't go back that far. We're going to pick it up instead in Matthew 27. This comes after the betrayal, and after the arrest, and after the mock trials. We're at the point right now where the Roman governor, Pontius Pilot, is giving in to the religious leader’s demands to have Jesus crucified.
So, if you have a Bible, look down at it and Matthew 27 verse 26, I'm reading from the NLT.
Matthew 27:26 (NLT)
26 So Pilate released Barabbas to them. (Which is another incredible sign for another time) He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
So, although he could find no fault in Jesus, and giving in to the murderous crowd, Pontius Pilate ordered two things to be done that day. One, that Jesus would be scourged with the lead-tipped whip. And two, that Jesus would be crucified.
And the soldiers first administered the scourging, which is that brutal beating using a leather whip with lead or rock tips. And it would just rip open the back and even the sides of the victim as he was tied to the post, leaving the victim as close as possible to death without actually dying.
And so, they did that and they did it with precision, with professionalism. They were expert torturers.
And then, the soldiers were to take Jesus to be crucified. Those were the two orders. Those were the only two orders. But something happened in between the two orders, which is our first sign of how great God's love for us is.
In this first sign, we see the vile ugliness of our own sin nature. Romans 8:7 says, Our sin nature is always hostile to God. Our sin nature is always at war with God. And we certainly see that as we read through these verses in Matthew 27. As we read them, look for the depth of the ugliness of our sin nature because it is on full display here. This is after the scourging. So, Jesus is already near death.
Matthew 27:27-31 (NLT)
27 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters (that’s the Praetorium) and called out the entire regiment.
28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
29 They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!”
30 And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it.
31 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then (only then) they led him away to be crucified.
The brutal mocking of Jesus Christ, the humiliating, demeaning, degrading attack on the person of Jesus Christ was not ordered by Pontius Pilate. It was not part of the soldier's job. It came from the dark ugliness of our sin nature. And it was a sign to you, and to me, of God's love for us.
The prophecy in Isaiah 50:6, speaking of Jesus, says, I offered my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mockery and spitting. This, right here, is our first sign of the love of God for each one of us. The soldier’s dehumanizing mockery in the spit running down the face of the Lord of All Creation symbolizes the dark ugliness of our own sin.
And Jesus carried that spit on his face. There's no reference, no sign, that anyone ever wiped his face off. Jesus carried that spit on his face to the Cross, sending us the shocking message that he loves us enough to carry the vile ugliness of our sin on his body to the Cross, where he would deal with it once and for all.
And it wasn't just the spit on his face. Jesus also carried the crown of thorns on his head. Again, Matthew 27:29, says that the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and they put it on his head. And after taunting him, and mocking him, and spitting on him, they took a stick and they struck him on the head in order to beat down the thorns until they sank into his skull. Throughout the Bible, thorns symbolize the consequence of sin. And as the thorns were beaten down on the head of Jesus, soon, all the sin of the world would be crushing down upon him on the Cross.
As the blood from the crown of thorns mixed with the ugliness of the spit that was already running down his face, Jesus sends us another sign of his love for us. The spit symbolizes the ugliness of our sin. The crown of thorns symbolizes the consequences of our sin. Romans 6:23 says, For the wages (the consequences) of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. And Jesus was carrying both the ugliness and the consequences of our sin to the Cross, in order to offer us eternal life in exchange, or instead of, the justly due consequences for our sin.
What had to happen? What had to happen in the courtroom of Heaven for God to accept the price that Jesus Christ paid on the Cross as full payment for every one of our sins? It was the greatest exchange in all eternity. And it is symbolized for us in the exchange of garments that we see here in Matthew 27. After the flogging, with the back of Jesus flayed open, and even being so near death already, Matthew 27:28 says, They stripped him and they put a scarlet robe on him.
Now, Jesus had worn a one-of-a-kind, seamless garment that represented his perfect, sinless, life. But they ripped that one off of him, and they put on him, instead, a scarlet robe representing our sin. And in this exchange of the garments is a picture of exactly what happened in Heaven. It's a picture of exactly what happened for the consequences of our sin to be put on Christ, and for the righteousness of God to be put on us in Christ.
The soldiers thought they were just mocking Jesus, but Jesus knew he was sending you and me a sign of his love for us. And the message in this sign is this: that Jesus was clothed in our sin so that we can be clothed in the righteousness of God. Galatians 3:13 says, But Christ has rescued us from the curse… [by taking] upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For our sin. And 2 Corinthians 5:21, the greatest exchange of verse in the Bible, says, For God made him who knew no soon to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
Why? Why would the sinless Son of God become sin for us? Because it was the only way that we could become the righteousness of God in him. The exchange of garments should shake us to the core for what it represents because it represents the picture, the sign, that Jesus Christ became your sin so that you could become the righteousness of God in him.
Guys, we can't earn this. There's nothing we can do to deserve this. This is the unconditional, sacrificial love of the God of Heaven for you. The spit symbolizes the ugliness, the filthiness of your sin. The crown of thorns symbolizes the consequence of your sin crushing down on Jesus. And the garment exchange symbolizes Jesus taking our sin upon himself so that we could take on his righteousness on ourselves.
So now we move to Golgotha, to the Place of The Skull. And the Cross is thrown down on the ground and Jesus is thrown to the ground next to the Cross. And then, in amazement, you watch as Jesus, near death, crawls onto the Cross. And then the one who John 1:3 says, the one who made all the things that were made, the one who flung every star in this space, stretches his Creator's hand out on the crossbeam of the Cross and holds it perfectly still.
And the soldier puts his knee on the forearm of Jesus, expecting him to fight. But he doesn't. The hand that crafted creation lays perfectly still. And Jesus, with blood running through his eyes, has his head turned over and he's staring at his own hand. And as a soldier raises the mallet and prepares to drive the spike through the hand of the God-Man into the Cross, Jesus is focused intently on holding his hands still. And as the soldier swings the mallet with brutal force, and the wrist of the Son of God is ripped open, a lightning bolt of pain would shoot through his body, and blood would begin to pour from the wound. And then, at that moment, the Lord of Heaven sees something that the soldier could not see. Between the hand of God and that old rugged Cross, Jesus saw a sign of his love for you.
Colossians 2:13-14 says this, …Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. Between the hand of the Lord of Heaven and the Cross was a record of every sin you have or will ever commit. And when the soldier’s mallet struck, and the lightning bolt of pain shot through the Lord of Glory, that spike nailed the record of your sin between the hand of the Savior and the Cross. And the blood began to flow from the body of the Lord in order to cancel the record of your sin that had been nailed to the Cross with him. That is an immeasurable, indescribable sign of the love of God – for you.
The spit symbolizes the ugliness, the filthiness of your sin. The crown of thorns symbolizes the consequences of sin crushing down on Jesus. The garment exchanging symbolizes Jesus taking on our sin so that we could take on his righteousness. And the nails prove to you that the blood of the Son of God wiped out the record of your sin.
There are so many more signs orchestrated by God. Orchestrated by God in order to show you his love, and in order for him to claim victory over sin and death on your behalf. But maybe these are enough for today, enough to get us to think. Lord, that was my spit running down your face. It’s the ugliness of my sin. It's the consequences of my sin that were crushing down on your head in the crown of thorns. Lord, you became sin for me so that I could be seen, be clothed, in the righteousness of God in you. And Lord, every sin, every dark, unknown sin written in the heavenly record and standing against us, you nailed it to the Cross, and your own blood wiped it out.
But listen to me, guys, listen to me. Here's what we must know today. We must come to the Cross to receive these signs of God's love for us by faith alone. We must come by faith alone. We can't bring anything in response to what God has done for us on the Cross. What are we going to bring? We can't earn this love from God. We will never deserve this love from God. There's nothing we can do except receive this love of God by faith alone. The ugliness of your sin, carried by Jesus. The consequences of your sin, taken on by Jesus. The penalty of your sin, fully paid for by Jesus. And then you, receiving the righteousness of God, in return.
That can only be received as a gift. There's nothing you can do to put yourself in a place where you can earn or deserve that. It's only by receiving it, by placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and your Savior, by putting your full faith and your full trust in him, by surrendering to him – who he is and what he's done.
Can we come to the Cross today? Humbly, by faith alone? Not bringing anything to try to prove our worth, but just coming as we are. Sinners whose sin killed the Lord of Glory. And can we come and receive the love of God and the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us from the Cross? If we will, if we will come by faith alone, truly surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then we will live eternally in the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on that day.
Consider the signs of love that were sent from Heaven and displayed in the path to the Cross and on the Cross.
Now would you place yourself, please, as a humble sinner, with no earning and no deserving, face down before the Cross? Would you say, “Lord, I receive your free gift”? “I repent of the sin that you carried to the Cross to pay for. I turn from anything else I put my hope in, Lord, I put my hope in you. I receive your gift of salvation. Please, forgive my sins. Fill me, Lord, with your Spirit. Make me new, give me a new life, Lord. Lead me and guide me for your name’s sake, and use me for your glory. It’s in your own name, I pray Jesus, amen.”