Suffered Under Pontius Pilate,
Was Crucified, Dead, & Buried
We Believe – the Apostles’ Creed 6
Intro: - Series recap
- The significance of Holy Week & Good Friday (this week)
- The highlight of the church year, the focal point of all 4 Gospels (about 1/3 of each of the synoptic Gospels & nearly ˝ of John), the central event of Christianity, the pivotal event of history
Thesis: We believe that Jesus suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. Each of these statements has important
implications for our faith and our lives.
I. Jesus suffered under Pilate (15:1-19)
1. Real people, in a real time & place
2. Lends historicity to the whole Passion account
1. On the one hand, his behavior was inexcusable
a. Can’t just wash his hands of it
b. We’re all answerable to God for our choices – there are consequences
c. But we can’t judge him; ultimately only God can.
2. On the other hand, he was really a pawn
a. God was the real governor of events
b. It’s more important to remember that he was a part of the actual history of the event than to try to blame him for our Lord’s suffering.
1. A comment on our sanitized, pleasant, think-happy-thoughts religious preferences in contemporary Christianity
a. Jesus’ suffering really was gruesome & terrible
b. Illustration: the controversy of the violence in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ (that’s what really happened, but people don’t want to think or talk about it; they don’t want to face just what Christ’s suffering meant)
c. Remember that He did it for you and for me. He endured it; are we going to sit back and say that we don’t like to think or talk about it because it is unpleasant? Shame on us!
2. Mocking (Mark 15:17-20)
3. Crown of thorns (15:17b)
4. Beating & scourging
a. Humiliation and pain of spitting, slapping, smacking around (15:19)
b. 40 minus 1 lashes (15:15b)
1. The cross – an instrument of torture & execution
2. Typical Roman crucifixion procedures
3. What we know about Jesus’ time on the cross
1. The curse of hanging on a tree
2. “By His stripes we are healed”: Isaiah 53
3. The cross: ugly instrument of torture & death, or thing of beauty (ex. how we depict it in our art, jewelry)
4. Jesus endured it willingly
a. “Why did they nail His feet & hands? His love would have held Him there” (from “Why” by Michael Card)
b. Could have rescued himself; the legions of angels were probably poised & ready to jump in at any moment; He could’ve really shown all those taunters, but he was there intentionally
1. Contrary to claims that He didn’t really die
a. Islam makes this claim
b. The absurdity of the “swoon theory” (of The Passover Plot notoriety) – (How likely is it that someone who underwent the suffering, beating, and crucifixion Jesus experienced would – left in a cold place, without medical treatment, water, or food – wake up well enough to get out of tightly wrapped grave bindings, move a heavy stone, and overpower soldiers? Downright ridiculous, when you think about it)
2. Evidence for Him being dead
a. Medical evidence: blood & water from his side (JAMA article saying that the account describes someone who was certainly dead)
b. The testimony of professional executioners (the Roman soldiers knew what they were doing; it was their job to kill and to know whether someone was dead)
1. In our places: it was either Him or us; He chose himself
2. It had to be death (propitiation)
1. Death is the ultimate bully on the block of life (Max Lucado, Six Hours One Friday, pp. 131)
2. No escaping it; everyone must face it
3. Song from Handel’s Messiah “Surely” (the rhythm sounds like pounding of nails)
4. Death is what we all fear the most
1. Death & rebirth
2. He loved us to the point of death (Helmut Thielicke)
3. Burying our sins
a. Like the OT scapegoat on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16)
b. God remembers them no more
c. Symbolized in baptism (immersion in the water symbolizes the burying of sins)
d. Illus. from Pilgrim’s Progress (Paul Bunyan):
The book itself is an
allegory of a pilgrim named Christian who makes his journey from earth to
heaven. But early in the story, he carries the burden of his own sins. This is
how he is set free: (source unknown)
He ran thus till he came at
a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little
below, in the bottom, a sepulcher. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian
came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from
off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the
mouth of the sepulcher, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
e. “It Is Well with My Soul” verse 3 – “My sin– O, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin—not in part, but the whole—is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
1. Heavily debated
a. Whether it really happened
b. What it means
c. Whether it should be in the Creed
2. Late addition to the Creed (several centuries after the origin of the Creed)
1. May symbolize the suffering/ spiritual torment He went through (Calvin)
2. Some take it to mean that He went into the grave; Hebrew Sheol; emphasizing again the finality of death and that He was really dead
3. Some think He freed the OT saints and at this time they went to paradise (harrowing of hell); not supported anywhere in Scripture
4. The Catholic position (simplified) is that He really did go to hell and preached to the souls of people imprisoned there (based on misunderstanding of I Peter 3:18-20)
5. Some use it to support the false doctrine of post-mortem conversion, which is unbiblical (Heb. 9:27)
1. Lack of Biblical evidence that it took place
2. Contrary to promise to the penitent thief that they would be together in Paradise that day
3. Refusal to accept the false doctrine of post-mortem conversion
4. Can still be true to the Creed and exclude this statement, as it was a very late addition and for centuries not part of the Creed; and the only part not directly supported by Scripture
D. Conclusion:
1. Strong reasons not to use the phrase
2. Depending on your meaning, not necessarily bad to use it
3. Not usually a major source of controversies among churches or among Christians
4. We don’t use the phrase at Crossroads
· What difference does the crucifixion make… in your life? …in the way you live your life? …in your worldview?
· Jesus suffered for you. He died for you a horrible death. He was buried, burying your sins with Him. What does that mean to you?
· Exhortation: this week is Holy Week; don’t just carry on with “business as usual.” Spend as much time as possible focusing on it and its meaning.