The One Who Loves My Soul

STUDY: # 1029 CHURCH IN THE HOUSES FROM: APRIL 30 @ MAY 6, 2019

TOPIC :"The One Who Loves My Soul" Matthew 27:26-31 Jesus was delivered so that you would obtain freedom. (1 Peter 3:18 "...the righteous for the unrighteous...") (Matthew 20:28 "...and to give His life as a ransom for many." The ransom, to rescue- is to recover by force or by price something that ended in the hands of another) (1 Timothy 2:4 "...who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.") (John 3:17 "...to save the world through Him.") They had to release Barabbas! Because if it had been Barabbas who died, nothing was going to happen in our lives, because he was another sinner! But if the Christ came to die, there was no death that would endure Him! He would resurrect because He had no guilt or sin! Thus, He paid with His death for my sins, yours and many more.

I. Jesus was scourged (Matthew 27:26 "Then he released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus FLOGGED, and handed Him over to be crucified.").

A. The Romans did this to Him.

1. To whip someone is a cruel punishment, a public affront, especially when executed by the Romans who were not subject to the Jewish law in which the punishment was moderate and was not allowed to go past forty lashes and even thirty and nine, in case the account failed (2 Corinthians 11:24).

2. Jesus was sent to capital punishment. Pilate handed Him over to be crucified. That was the Roman's way of designating a penalty, with all the cruelty in order to produce the most terrible and miserable death.

3. They laid the cross on the ground and placed the condemned man to death, whose feet and hands were nailed to it and then was lifted up so that all the weight of the body hung from those nails, until he died in the midst of a terrible agony!

4. It was a bloody death (fierce), painful, shameful and cursed; it was such a miserable death that some rulers, sometimes having a little mercy, would have them strangled previously and then nailed to the cross.

B. We read of the cruel way and the mockery in which the Master was treated by the Roman soldiers. They were at ease; they did not know who they were messing with!

1. The soldiers took Jesus to the governor's palace and gathered the whole company around Him.

2. What laughter! How much mockery! Bumping their elbows to laugh more and more, with despise and hatred.

3. There were probably several hundred men and Jesus among them completely alone. No one looked at Him to give Him even a small affection of love!

4. What followed is difficult to imagine!

5. The Creator and Sustainer of the Universe suffered indescribable indignities (it was reduced to vileness, infamy and shame) at the hands of cruel and vulgar soldiers. Indignant and sinful creatures of His!

6. Jesus was not given even ten minutes of rest.

7. While there was a law issued by Rome which ordered that the execution of the criminals be delayed for ten days from the pronouncement of the sentence, Jesus was not given that treatment.

8. Barbarism against Him continued without any interruption!

9. Where there should be a refuge against the abuses, it was turned into a theater of ridicule and barbarous cruelty.

10. They stripped Him. We know that the shame of nakedness came with sin (Genesis 3:7). Jesus bore over Himself our sin and also carried over Himself this shame!

11. The soldiers began to abuse Him by taking the matter as a game by mocking Him.

12. They placed on Him a scarlet mantle like an imitation of a royal cloak; this mantle has a message for us (Isaiah 1:18); the scarlet (crimson) color is associated with sin. I can think that my sin was casted on Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21) so that God's mantle of justice could be casted upon me!

13. Braiding a crown of thorns, they placed it on His head. He carried more than mockery; He wore a crown of thorns so that we could wear a crown of glory! They mocked Him as the King of sin; we worship Him as the Savior of sinners!

14. They gave Him a "staff"; a mocking imitation of a scepter; they did not know that the hand that held that cane is the hand that rules the world! He has the scepter of universal dominion, now and forever!

15. They "kneeled before Him" and addressed Him as King of the Jews; not happy enough with so much mockery they "spitted" on the face of the only "perfect Man" that has ever existed.

16. They took the staff and struck Him with it on the head on the crown of thorns, thorns that penetrated deeper into His head. The suffering of Jesus increased the rhythm of the soldiers' mockery!

17. Finally, they put His clothes on and took Him to crucify Him.

18. When they got tired of mocking Him, they took off the mantle and put on His garments; no mention is made of the crown, so it can be concluded that He died with it, how painful!

19. I cannot love myself more than I love Him; I cannot love more disorderly passions anymore; I cannot love my ailments; I cannot love sin anymore; I cannot love rebellions anymore, nor payback, nor revenge! NOTHING OF THESE THINGS CAN I LOVE MORE THAN THE ONE WHO LOVES MY SOUL! Amen.