Pictures of the Cross - Part 2

And now our Father, as we open the Word once again, we pray for the enlightening ministry of the Holy Spirit, the encouraging ministry of the Holy Spirit, and the enabling ministry of the Holy Spirit. May we practice what we learn. May it just warm our hearts and stir our wills. Deliver us, O God, from having big heads and cold hearts. We know that love builds up, and that knowledge can puff up. We don’t want to be people who are puffed up with knowledge; we want to be people who are built up, edified. And so minister to us. This is our prayer in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and for His sake. Amen.

We are looking together into the Gospel of John, and we’re focusing on the five pictures that John gives to us of the death of Jesus Christ. In our first study, we looked at John 1:29, the slaying of the Lamb. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." His death would be a vicarious death, that is, a substitute for the sinners in the world. He died your death for you, that you might live His life for Him—a vicarious death. It isn’t enough for you to say Jesus Christ is a lamb. Oh no. Nor is it enough to say Jesus Christ is the Lamb. You and I must be able to say Jesus Christ is my Lamb. He is your Lamb. We have made Him personally our Lord and our Savior.

So the first picture John gives us is the slaying of the Lamb. His death is a vicarious death. He died as a substitute. Then we turn to John 2:19, where our Lord said, "Destroy this temple," meaning the temple of His body, "and in three days I will raise it up." His death would not only be a vicarious death; it would be a violent death. Our Lord was mistreated, abused. His body was treated as no man ever was treated, that He might die for us on the cross. He was exposed openly, publicly. It was a death of humiliation. Paul says, "even the death of the cross." Do you see how much He loves us? The slaying of the Lamb—a vicarious death. He died in your place. That’s how much He loves you. The destroying of the temple—a violent death. That’s how much He loves you. Our Lord Jesus Christ permitted men to abuse His body. He permitted men to humiliate, harm, crucify His body. And He did it because He loves us.

Now we turn into John 3 where we have the third picture of our Lord’s death: the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. The Lord Jesus is talking to a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. Now, Nicodemus was a leading teacher of the Jews. And Nicodemus was concerned about our Lord’s message and His power. He saw that Jesus performed miracles, and he knew that God was with Him. But Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." Today that phrase "born again" is used so flippantly. But our Lord is saying to Nicodemus, "Nicodemus, being born a Jew is not enough. Being born with this great Pharisaical tradition is not enough. You must be born again." Well, Nicodemus misunderstood this. He thought he had to be born again physically. But Jesus said, "No, you must be born again spiritually." It is a spiritual birth from above, and you do this by trusting Jesus Christ as your Savior.

In order to make it clear to Nicodemus, our Lord used an Old Testament illustration. John 3:14: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." This story is recorded back in Numbers 21. The people of Israel are wandering in the wilderness, and this is the way the story reads. Numbers 21:5: "And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread," meaning of course the manna that God was giving to them day after day. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us." And Moses prayed for the people.

Let me pause to say this: you can see here the gracious spirit of Moses. They had criticized him, they had opposed him, and yet he prays for them. That’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? And the Lord said unto Moses, "Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live." And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Now, that’s the Old Testament story that our Lord uses to illustrate His death. His death is a vicarious death like the Lamb. His death is a violent death like the destroying of a temple. And His death is a vile death, like the lifting up of the serpent.

You see, all of this is a picture of sin. So the nation of Israel, in this wilderness experience, is sort of a picture, an illustration of what is going on in the world today. The serpent of sin has bitten every person. Here were the people back in their camp, and these serpents were biting people, and people were dying. You see, the wages of sin is still death. And the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And when Satan said, "You shall not surely die," he was lying because there is always a penalty for sin. Moses put that bronze serpent up on the pole, and anyone in the camp could see it. It was lifted high. "Lifted up was He to die; 'It is finished' was His cry." Anyone could look to that serpent and in looking, be saved. Oh, my friend, Jesus Christ was nailed to a tree, and He experienced on the cross a vile death. He was lifted up on the cross that you and I might be saved.

We have two more pictures to consider in our study today. So often we believers take for granted these precious truths. Our Lord Jesus established the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. And in the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded of His death. I have had loved ones to die and really, I want to remember their life, not their death. But Jesus wants us to remember His death. "Do this in remembrance of Me."

In John 10:11-18, we have the fourth picture of our Lord’s death: it is the dying of the Shepherd. "I am the good shepherd," He says in John 10:11. "The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold," that means of course the Gentiles who didn’t belong to the Jewish fold, "them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."

Five times in this passage Jesus talks about laying down His life, giving His life. You see, in the Old Testament, the sheep died for the shepherd. But in the New Testament, the Shepherd dies for the sheep. It is a voluntary death. The slaying of the Lamb—a vicarious death, a substitute. The breaking of the temple—a violent death. The lifting up of the serpent—a vile death; He was made sin for us. The dying of the Shepherd—a voluntary death. Our Lord Jesus makes it very clear that He was not murdered. Now, from the human point of view, He was. But from God’s point of view, Jesus laid down His life, and this was planned from all eternity. In Revelation 13:8, He is called the Lamb that is slain from the foundation of the world. We must keep in mind that our Lord’s death on the cross was not an afterthought. When man sinned, God didn’t say, "Oh my, what am I going to do next?" Nothing catches God by surprise. He had the marvelous plan of salvation all decreed, all worked out, even before the creation of the world. Our Lord Jesus laid down His life.

Now, you and I can take our own lives. It’s an awful thing to do and no one should do it. But you see, you and I don’t have the power and the authority voluntarily just to give up our lives. We have to use some means. It’s an awful thing when a person commits suicide. Suicide is really such a cowardly way to face life. I’m sure there are many people who have been perhaps obsessed by demonic powers or depressed by circumstances, but you know, God can see us through any problem. God can take us through any difficulty. But no one had the authority to lay down His own life. Jesus did. He was on the cross for six hours—three hours of light and three hours of darkness. The Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily gave up the ghost. It was not something that men took from Him. He voluntarily laid down His life. He said, "It is finished. Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," and He voluntarily laid down His life. Now, this had been planned from all eternity. In fact, it’s pictured all throughout the Bible.

You ought to study sometime the shepherds of the Bible. The first shepherd in the Bible was Abel. Cain and Abel were brothers, you’ll recall, and Abel was a shepherd. He took care of his flock. And Abel was slain by his brother. Now, let’s hasten to say that Abel did not lay down his life voluntarily. Oh no. He was murdered. But there’s such interesting instruction there. Abel was worshipping God at the altar. He brought his sacrifice to God. Cain, his brother, brought the wrong sacrifice with the wrong attitude. He didn’t have faith in his heart. As a consequence, God had to reject him. And when Cain discovered he was rejected by God, he took it out on his brother Abel, and he murdered him.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was rejected by His brethren. He came unto His own—His own world—and His own people received Him not. The Pharisees and the priests and the scribes, who were experts in the Old Testament law, should have known Him, but they didn’t. They said He was in league with the devil. They said that He did His miracles by the power of Beelzebub. They said He was a friend of publicans and sinners. He was a glutton, He was a drunkard, and He was a liar. They said "this deceiver," and they didn’t recognize Him. And the Shepherd was slain by His own brethren. He was slain over religion. Abel was. Here they were at the altar. It led to a disagreement between Cain and God, and Cain killed Abel over religion. John tells us in 1 John 3:12 that the reason Cain killed Abel was because Abel’s works were righteous. Abel was showing up his brother. And Jesus Christ did the same thing to those Pharisees. His righteous, holy life showed up their artificial, brittle self-righteousness. And so, just as Abel was slain by his brother, so Jesus was arrested and slain by His brethren, the Jews. And just as Abel was slain over religion, so the Lord Jesus Christ was slain for religious reasons.

But you see, Abel did not die voluntarily. Jesus did. When the mob came to arrest the Lord Jesus in the garden, Peter tried to defend Him. In fact, earlier Peter had said to the Lord, "You’re not going to go to a cross. Far be it from You to do that." But the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily, willingly turned Himself over to that mob. Did He know what they were going to do? Of course He did. And He let them do it. My friend, I’m amazed at this—that Jesus Christ loved me so much that voluntarily He laid down His life. He had the power to lay it down, and He had the power to take it up again and have resurrection from the dead. Now, this is what makes His sacrifice so meaningful. None of the Old Testament sacrifices were voluntary. No ox or lamb or goat would ever say, "I want to die." My guess is that when they were led—except for the lamb, which is very, very meek—when they were led to the altar, there may have been some resistance. Not with Jesus. He said, "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, but my kingdom’s not of this world." He died voluntarily. Would you believe it? The Shepherd dying for the sheep.

Finally, in John 12:20-25, we have the fifth and final picture of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death in the Gospel of John. These Greeks came to talk to Jesus. We have no record that our Lord did speak to them, but it was an indication of the worldwide outreach of the Gospel. In John 12:23: "And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." I would have said crucified, but He looked beyond the cross and He said glorified. All throughout the Gospel of John, you find Him talking about the hour. Back in John 2, He said, "Woman, mine hour is not yet come." They came to arrest Him, but they couldn’t arrest Him; His hour had not yet come. But now the hour is going to come. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal."

Here is the fifth picture: the planting of a seed. And what does this picture teach us about the death of Jesus? It is a victorious death. It begins as a vicarious death—He is the Lamb slain for us. It was a violent death—the destroying of the temple. It was a vile death—the serpent lifted up on a tree. A voluntary death—the Shepherd dying for the sheep. But oh, when we come to this final picture, the seed planted in the ground, it is a victorious death. Now, when you plant a seed, it means darkness and death. I’m not much of a gardener. My wife enjoys gardening. And you plant a seed, a bulb, into the ground. It’s buried. What happens? It dies. To all earthly expectations, it dies. It’s buried, it’s dark, it’s cold. Oh, but out of that death comes life. And the springtime comes, and the sunshine and the rain, and out from that ground comes the plant. And then the plant comes to flower, and then to fruition, and then there’s much fruit. Our Lord is saying, "If I don’t die, there can be no fruit. I’m not going to go to heaven alone. I want to take with me much fruit to heaven." Hebrews calls this "leading many sons to glory."

The planting of a seed looks like the end for the seed, doesn't it? You put the seed in the ground and say, "Well, we'll never see it again." Oh, but God performs a miracle. God takes that seed, and out of death comes life. And out of life comes beauty. And out of beauty and life comes fruit. And that seed is no longer alone. The Lord Jesus Christ became the firstfruits of them that slept. Many times as a pastor, when I have had a committal service at the cemetery, I have used 1 Corinthians 15, beginning at verse 35, where the Apostle Paul compares the burial of a body to the planting of a seed. Now, he doesn't explain all of the intricacies and mysteries of resurrection; he just simply says, "When you sow a seed, you just plant that bare grain in the ground, but God gives it a body." He says that's what happens with the human body. When a believer dies, you plant that body into the ground. It's a seed because Jesus was a seed. And because the Lord Jesus Christ was buried and He arose again the third day, He is the firstfruits of them that slept. There's going to be a harvest one of these days. The cemetery is really God's garden. All the seeds are planted there, and one of these days when Jesus comes again, He is going to call home His harvest. He's going to reap the fruit. That's a marvelous thing.

My friend, what is your relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ? He was the Lamb slain for you—a vicarious death. His body was a temple destroyed and then raised again—a violent death. Lifted up on the tree like a serpent—a vile death. The Shepherd who laid down His life—a voluntary death. The seed planted for you—a victorious death. Oh, will you trust Him and let Him save you today?