Of all those invovled in the death of Jesus, it would seem that the soldiers were the least to blame. But is this true? On a re-evaluation of the texts and the soldier’s role, we find that not only were they culpable, but they reveal to us something about human nature and the masses. The evil that we can commit as individuals or as communities when the temperature is right.

<p>Of all those invovled in the death of Jesus, it would seem that the soldiers were the least to blame. But is this true? On a re-evaluation of the texts and the soldier’s role, we find that not only were they culpable, but they reveal to us something about human nature and the masses. The evil that we can commit as individuals or as communities when the temperature is right.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Great Lakes Adventist Academy

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

Sebastien Braxton

In the Midst of Chaos

The Heartless, the Spineless, and the Nameless

Reality Check

Why People Don’t Do Right

The Divine Process

Yes, Lord

The Questions of God

I Need A Miracle

Christ in Job

The Good Soldier

And so Father, because you have thought of this moment from the beginning of time, we pray that you would give us the blessing that you have chosen.

That somehow Lord, you would use this man who stands before us to preach your word, you would use him in spite of himself.

And we pray for the spirit of God to be moving in our hearts, in our ears, and in our minds, that you may awaken us to the reality of God and of eternity.

And We pray, Lord, that as he speaks, that you may help us to see Jesus.

And we trust that you will help this to be our experience.

I heard that there was an incident, people couldn't get into their dorm to get their Bibles.

I guess tomorrow you just carry it with you all day.

Luke, chapter 23, if you have your Bibles.

We're going to be beginning a series of messages tonight answering the question, Why did Jesus die?

Most of you, your immediate answer is Jesus died to pay for our sins That's your first question But I want to ask the question from a very practical standpoint How did Jesus go from ministering in Galilee and in Judea to ending up nailed to a piece of wood?

Why did he die and who decided to concede to this process?

So in Luke the 23rd chapter the Bible says in verse 13, Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers and the people, said to them, You have brought this man to me as 1 who misleads the people.

And indeed, having examined him in your presence, I have found no fault in this man concerning those things of which you accuse him.

No, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him, and indeed Nothing deserving of death has been done by him.

I will therefore chastise him and release him.

This is interesting because we'll look at Pilate tomorrow evening.

But this is interesting because it is not just Pilate that is listening to the words that he is saying.

It is the Jews, it is the chief priests, the rulers, Peter and John who are in the audience, and also the soldiers that are there.

And Tonight we're going to focus upon the soldiers The soldiers heard their governor the man who commands them The man who holds their lives in his hands they heard him say I find no fault with this man in other words Jesus is innocent Now you have to keep this in mind when you consider the behavior of the soldiers That while you stand you hear the governor who decides justice, who decides punishment, say this man right here I find no fault, not even 1.

No cause of death and not only did I find no fault, Herod found no fault with this man.

And so the Bible says in verse 26, Now as they led him away, that's the soldiers, They laid hold of a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country, and on him they laid the cross that he might bear it after Jesus.

Then we have a discussion with the multitude, so let's skip down to verse 32 and the Bible says there were also 2 others criminals led with him to be put to death And when they had come to the place called Calvary, or Golgotha, there they did what?

There they crucified Him, right there in the place called Calvary and The criminals 1 on the right hand and the other on the left in verse 34.

It says then Jesus said Father forgive them for they do not know what they do After pause here for a moment to make my first point about the soldiers.

You see in a very practical sense Jesus died because soldiers nailed him to a cross.

They physically held Jesus down to this piece of wood, they took the nails, held it above his physical hands, and they took a hammer and they began to hit the hammer until it not only went through his hands but into the wood, solidly into the wood.

These are not men who don't lift weights.

These are not scrawny little individuals who just enrolled because they're hyped up about being in the military.

And the first point to make about these Roman soldiers tonight is that these individuals were heartless Say why do you say heartless?

Because here You have an individual who knows from the very lips of the judge himself that this man is innocent.

So why then are you crucifying Jesus as a soldier if according to the governor, according to Herod, and according to yourself this man is innocent?

Well that's because the soldier would answer to you, why did you kill Jesus?

The soldier would say, I was just doing my job.

I was just following orders now this is interesting because these are the individuals that boggle our minds in terms of the murders that take place in history.

If you just take a moment to reflect for a second on all the tragedies that have taken place on this planet.

I've seen the people with the machete scars on their head.

I've been to the place where they lined up children and they divided them based upon their tribe, regardless of their age.

And to go there and ask yourself the question that men did not use rifles they use machetes You know what it takes to kill a person with a knife but not just a person a million of them in a hundred days.

They said the Hutu soldiers, when they would go out to kill Tutsis, they would leave like a job from 9 to 5.

And they were so used to slashing all day long that they would come home and they would continue Slashing into the night because their muscles were so cramping up all the time that they had to do this motion and just leaving corpses in the street.

And you ask the question to 1 of them individuals, why were you killing these Tutsi people?

They said, if you don't kill them, we will kill your family.

You go over to Nazi Germany, you're talking about putting babies in an oven just to see what happens.

You're talking about putting individuals on a certain diet upon which they can subsist And as they put them on this diet, they say I just want you to have enough food so that you don't die But I don't want you to have enough food to actually have strength.

And to do this for 4 years as a German soldier, and then after World War II was over, they asked them the question.

They say, why would you do this to individuals?

Why were you destroying their businesses?

Why were you kidnapping their children and putting them in ovens?

And you know what the response was in the courtroom?

It was voted by the leaders of a nation to exterminate a particular people group?

And when the judge got tired of hearing that answer, he turned to the man and he says, okay, you keep saying it was the law, now I have a question for you.

Something may be in harmony with the law, but is it ethical?

And the German soldier would respond and say, at first I didn't like it, but eventually you get used to it.

And so I want to suggest to you tonight that just like these soldiers, in terms of why did Jesus die?

Because people were just following orders.

Because people were just doing what they were told.

And I suggest to you tonight that there are many of us in this room right now we look back at the crucifixion and we're tired of hearing the sob stories, and please believe Jesus is right there with you.

Because right in this chapter, he tells them the women are weeping, Jesus says, don't weep for me.

The goal of the crucifixion was not for you and I to cry.

These preachers who get up try to make you see the blood and the gore.

It's to open your eyes to see that when you and I are in a situation where you're tested on right and wrong, and you decide to do wrong because you say, I'm just doing my job.

What if it became a policy of the school to mistreat individuals because of the color of their skin What do you do then?

And it wasn't too long ago that was this policy in school And there are many of you that would have killed Jesus because you're just following orders.

There are many people in the 1960s who would not refuse to serve people because of the color of their skin.

Series

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

The Heartless, the Spineless, and the Nameless

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Fall Week of Prayer 2012

Why People Don’t Do Right

39m

Experience The Power

Good People Doing Bad Things

1h 14m

GYC SE 2011 Seminar: Music

God’s Instruction on Music

1h

Sexual Purity: Lost and Found

1h 19m

The Healing Presence of Jesus

Dark, Dirty, Delivered

59m

Hands-Free Operation

56m

The Cross and the Sanctuary

The Cross and The Sanctuary- Part 1

34m

The Godhead- Part 3

1h

Clifford Goldstein Weekend

The Pre-Advent Judgment

52m

Cultivating Faith

Cultivating Faith

1h 35m

The Power of Value

59m

Why God Won’t Leave

1h

Sound Doctrine