Mark chapter 15. You can open the Word of God to Mark chapter 15. We're still looking at the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark has often been called the gospel of action. It is there that we see Jesus always portrayed as doing something. This isn't a very long gospel. This is the shortest of the four gospels. And Mark's gospel doesn't give us much dialogue, but it is filled with action. And Jesus is the prime actor. He's the one constantly speaking and working, serving others. His eyes, his mouth, His hands and feet are always at the service of those in need. That's Jesus. But suddenly now, in this narrative, as we get into the passion of Christ, we see things change. Jesus is now the one being acted upon. His face is beaten, his hands and feet nailed to the cross. You see, now it is in this text that Jesus' enemies are now acting upon him, and he is the passive recipient of their designs. So we're going to see that in the word of God. Let's stand together out of respect for the reading of God's word. Let's read our text, Mark chapter 15, verses 16 through 32. The soldiers took him away into the palace that is called the Praetorium, and they called together the whole Roman cohort. They dressed him in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to acclaim him, Hail, King of the Jews! They kept beating his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling and bowing before him. And after they had mocked him, They took the purple robe off him and put his own garments on him, and they led him out to crucify him. They pressed into service a passerby coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. Then they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. They tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. And they crucified him and divided up his garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide what each man should take. It was the third hour when they crucified him. The inscription of the charge against him read, They crucified two robbers with him. one on his right and one on his left, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, and he was numbered with transgressors. Those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, ha, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking him among themselves and saying, he saved others, Those who were crucified with him were also insulting him. That's the reading of God's holy and errant word. You may be seated. Let's pray. Our merciful Father in heaven, we ask this morning that as we approach your throne, as we open your word, that you would spiritually awaken us. Please awaken us, O God, from our lethargy, our indifference. We ask that you would give us the ability to see in a new and a fresh way the sufferings of your Son. We pray, O Father, that you would give us the grief that we should have over our sin, over what our sin did to your Son. We ask Lord that the lamb that was slain might receive the reward of his suffering and might be honored and glorified because of what it is your word effects in us as we look into it. I ask for the power of your spirit to communicate this text as I ought and I pray for your people. I pray for every single one here. I pray for even those maybe in our midst who do not know the Savior that you would give ears to hear and hearts to receive your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Eli Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor that lived through Auschwitz and Buchenwald He is best remembered perhaps for his memoir that he penned in the very brief book called A Knight. And I was thinking about that book as I was meditating upon this message. It's one of the most disturbing books you'll ever read. Because in it, Eli records the harrowing witness of how some human beings treated other human beings as less than human. They attempted to strip their fellow humans of their humanity. We're talking about human beings, just like you, with all the cares and dreams that you and I have, suddenly stripped of their belongings, stripped of their clothes, stripped of their families, stripped of their names. They received numbers tattooed on their bodies. stripped of their dignity as creatures created in God's good image and treated, yes, worse than even wild beasts. We call this cruel treatment dehumanization. That's what it was, that's what it is. And we condemn it because it is humiliation that no human being created in God's image should have to suffer. But when we look at the humiliation of Jesus' cross, we are dealing with a humiliation that is far worse than any dehumanization has ever occurred in the history of man. The cross was dehumanizing for anyone, that's true, but what we witness in Jesus' case is infinitely worse for the fact that this Son of Man was the Son of God. He laid aside the dignity that comes with being God. We've seen that when he became a man. He didn't cease to be God, but he laid aside the dignity that God deserves. He did that when he became man. And now we see that God himself is here being stripped of the dignity that comes with being human. So that God himself, we have God robed in human flesh, being treated worse. than a beast. Our text discloses the lowest point in Jesus' humiliation. It's the humiliation of the cross. And there's a couple things we should note at the outset of this study. First of all, you'll notice that everything in our text that I've just read bears the marks of eyewitness testimony. Mark is giving us specific details. The time of day, the sights and sounds beneath the cross. because he wants you to know this happened. And what he is reporting to us is through the eyes of eyewitness reports. Secondly, as we examine the crucifixion, we need to examine Jesus' suffering with a threefold perspective. We need to appreciate all three dimensions to Jesus' suffering. There is, first of all, a physical and psychological dimension to the suffering of our Lord. He was human. He was just as human as you and I. And therefore, as we look at this text, we're going to see physical and psychological torture that he underwent. But there is also, of course, a spiritual dimension to Jesus' suffering. And that will be the worst of it. Today's text will focus more on the physical, psychological aspect of suffering, while next week's text will focus more on the spiritual aspect of Jesus' suffering. But you must keep all three in mind, because anything less than that will fail to appreciate what he truly endured for us. Now finally, we can all be moved by the fact that Jesus suffered. while also failing to understand why he suffered. This happens all the time when people watch a film like The Passion of the Christ and they can weep over it and there can be much empathy in witnessing a suffering like that and yet many are clueless as to why Jesus did what he did. And so I want us to be reminded of what Jesus himself has told us in this gospel. Back in Mark chapter 8, Jesus began to tell his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to the cross, that he would be killed. And then he calls them to take up their cross and follow him. Jesus predicted in Mark 9.31, the Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him. In Mark 10.33 and 34, Jesus again predicted that he would suffer the humiliation of the cross. But why? This was the plan of God. This was the plan of Jesus Christ. But why? Why the way of suffering? Well, Jesus told his disciples this in Mark 10 45. Jesus told his disciples, I am going to the cross. I will endure the humiliation of the cross because I'm doing it for you. I am giving my life for you. Once we see the cross in the light of Mark's entire gospel message, we realize Jesus is suffering the humiliation of the cross for us. He's going to the lowest of the low for you. And so Jesus' humiliation calls us to lift high the king, exalt the king, lift high the king who was brought so low. In this initial study on the crucifixion, we have at least three reasons to exalt our humble king. Three reasons here why you want to lift high the king who was brought low for you. First, he was beaten and mocked for you, we see in verses 16 through 21. In these verses, Mark reports three tortures. Mark gives us three tortures preliminary to the cross that Jesus endured. First, I will remind you from verse 15, actually, that we examined last week, there is the scourging that disfigured his form. Verse 15 tells us, after having Jesus scourged, Pilate handed him over to be crucified. The statement here is so restrained that many moderns simply pass over this statement and fail to give it due thought. But we need to understand what our Lord endured for us. Last week I mentioned that scourging was a standard preliminary for those facing crucifixion, but the Greek word here, phragulao, denotes a Roman scourging that deserves some explanation. Ancient sources tell us the victims would first be stripped entirely naked, their entire flesh exposed. They would then be chained, hand and foot, to a post, unable to move or protect themselves. The victim would then be beaten with a leather whip woven with bits of bone and metal. And this was designed to catch and tear the flesh. It was designed to inflict maximum damage and there was no limit to the strokes that one might receive. Eusebius tells us, It was so brutal that some prisoners never even got to the cross. They never survived the scourging. No wonder the Spirit of God moved the psalmist to write of Messiah. Psalm 22, 17, I can count all my bones. This implies the protrusion and visibility of the bones. His body was stripped naked, his bones exposed. Isaiah 52, 14 says of the servant of the Lord, his appearance was marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. You see, now we, living on this side of the cross, can see what it is the Spirit of God was talking about. It's talking about Jesus. But don't miss why this happened. Isaiah 53, 5 says, Jesus was being scourged for you. The merciless scourging fell upon him that we might receive healing. Another torture preliminary to the cross was the cruel mocking that defied his authority. Verse 16 says, the soldiers took him away into the palace that is called the Praetorium, and there they called together the whole Roman cohort. Jesus was likely taken here into the fortress of Antonia, which was the Roman garrison overlooking the Jewish temple precinct. And here's where the whole cohort makes sport of him. Verse 17, they dressed him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on him. This is a parody, a mockery. Purple dye was very rare at the time, and so this would have been a very expensive robe that they draped upon the Lord. And this piece of clothing they draped over his body gave Jesus this semblance of royalty. Then they fetched and twisted together a crown of thorns. In all likelihood, this wasn't like the thorns in your backyard on your rosebush. Thorns in Palestine can be much, much larger than the typical thorns we see here. Here's some thorns woven together from Palestine. And I find this to be a powerful symbol. In Genesis 3.18, God describes thorns to be a symbol of sin's curse. Thorns represent nature's hostility to humanity because of our sin. We live in a cursed world. And it was our sin that created these thorns. And so it is fitting, isn't it, that in God's plan, the Son of God, would wear upon his brow, the Son of Righteousness, the King of Righteousness would wear upon his brow the emblem of the curse of our sin. The King of Righteousness is crowned with the curse of our unrighteousness. And Jesus did this for us. In verse 18, they began to acclaim to him, hail, king of the Jews. And they began beating his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling and bowing before him. The Roman legion would greet their Caesar as hail Caesar, hail king. And so they mock Jesus and the Jews here whose king they took Jesus to represent. And it always made me cringe to think That after plating this crown of thorns upon his head, they began to beat him with a stick. This reed was a stick. Some say it was a board. And they began to beat those thorns into our Lord's scalp. No mercy. Now they spit upon him, we're told. They were spitting on him a global sign of disrespect and utter contempt. They mocked Jesus by pretending to worship him while at the same time showing their utter contempt. It's a slap in the face of God's authority. They defy God. They defy his son. But Jesus does nothing. The Father looks on. In Isaiah 50 verse 6, Messiah says, I did not cover my face from humiliation and spitting. Verse 20 says, The route that Jesus would have taken has been traditionally called the Via Dolorosa, or the way of suffering, the way of sorrow. Whatever the route, it was the way of suffering. And this is a third torture preliminary to the cross. It was the procession. to the cross that depleted his strength. John indicates, John 19, 17, they took Jesus therefore and he went out bearing his own cross. Jesus was initially bearing his own cross, we're told. Most scholars discard the classical image of Jesus carrying the entire cross. They believe it was only the patibulum, that would be the horizontal cross beam, later affixed to the upright stake in the ground. The reasons for that being, first of all, the patibulum was said to have weighed anywhere between 75 to 120 pounds. This was very heavy. This was a rough piece of lumber. And also there's some evidence that the stakes for crucifixion were left fixed in the ground. Whatever the case, Jesus would have been placed in the center of a quaternion, that's a company of four Roman soldiers, and then paraded through the streets, packed with people. We're later told there was also two others crucified with him, and so here comes these guys carrying their crosses. And this is what the Romans designed. They chose a well populated district. They wanted everyone to look on and be struck with fear because this was a demonstration. This was a deterrent for crime. This was a warning to anyone who would be a seditionist. But due to all the beatings that Jesus has sustained, we're told, with so much blood loss, especially from the scourging, his strength was depleted so that at some point, apparently, Jesus is no longer physically able to bear the weight of his cross. He cannot carry it all the way to Calvary. So Mark says in verse 21, Someone has said that one of the profound paradoxes of Christianity is the fact that the one who is not able to carry his own cross is the one who enables us to carry ours. Just imagine that. This man Simon was from Cyrene in North Africa. He was just a passerby from the countryside. It means he's likely a proselyte, one who followed Israel's God, because he is here on this occasion of the Passover. But he is a passerby. He is not here to oppose or support Christ. He simply stumbles upon the scene. But the Romans suddenly select him. They, we're told, press him into this service, perhaps on account of his dark complexion. And you know how this is. You know what this is like. Sometimes you feel, perhaps, that you're at the wrong place at the wrong time. Like Simon, you're just passing by and suddenly some misfortune arrests you, seizes you, falls upon you. I don't think that Simon was looking for the cross. We know he wasn't looking for the cross. We know that Simon didn't want to carry the cross and yet he found it suddenly and forcibly laid upon his shoulders. Did God make a mistake? Did God know what he was doing? While Simon may have not chosen this cross, we know he would later have come to embrace it. History tells us that Simon of Cyrene later embraced Jesus as one of his disciples. And Mark not only gives us Simon's name here, but adds that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus. And that's significant, because if you've been with us through this gospel, you'll know that Mark doesn't always give names. He very rarely identifies individuals by their names. But he does name Simon, and he even identifies his two sons because apparently these were household names in the Church of Rome to which Mark is writing on behalf of Peter. And New Testament scholars generally recognize this Rufus as the same Rufus that Paul mentions at the close of Romans chapter 16 verse 13. He mentions Rufus as a choice man and a lord. Simon converted to Christ. He became a disciple of Jesus and these two boys of his became followers of Jesus Christ. In Simon's case, then we might call this interruption the greatest blessing that ever befell him. The greatest blessing that ever befell a man to be forcibly called upon to carry the cross of Christ. C.H. Spurgeon put it this way, there are no crown wearers in heaven that were not cross bearers here below. So why should you lift high the king who went so low? Well, he was beaten and mocked for you. But another reason here from our text to exalt our humble king is from verses 22 through 28, he was crucified for you. Verse 22 says, then they brought him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. You might be familiar perhaps with the term Calvary, because that's the Latinized form of Golgotha, but it means the same thing. This was a killing field, a plot of ground stained with blood. This was a field reserved for execution, specifically crucifixions. And at least two different locations have been proposed for this site of Jesus' crucifixion. We don't know exactly where that location was, but identifying the exact location is not what's important. What's important here, what Mark wants us to know, is this happened. This happened in time-space. This is a historical event. And nothing was more humiliating than crucifixion. Verse 23 says, they tried to give him wine mixed with myrrh. Now this wine mixed with myrrh was offered to Jesus as a painkiller, sort of a drug, a sedative. It could be that the Romans were offering this to Jesus as a sort of sedative, perhaps to make it somewhat easier, make the victims a bit more pliable as they nailed them into the cross. Others have suggested that the women, whom Mark will later mention, looking on and watching this whole event, Jewish women would prepare this concoction and give it to the condemned victims of crucifixion as an act of mercy. Whatever the case, we're told they tried to give it to him, but Mark says he did not take it. Jesus refuses to take this. Why? He wanted to suffer the agonies of the cross with a clear mind. Jesus didn't want to be under the influence of anything. He wanted to have a clear mind and to consciously suffer the agonies of the cross for you. And so he refuses the drug and embraces the cross. And what happens next is difficult for us to imagine. Verse 24 says, And they crucified him. Once again, Mark is very restrained in his description of what's happening here, partly because his readers knew exactly what a crucifixion entailed. But for most Americans, the cross is a symbol of a religion or it's some religious decoration you wear around your neck. I hope we understand that at this time, the cross was, in people's minds, the most ingenious and terrible instrument of torture ever conceived. At this time, the Roman statesman and philosopher, Cicero, would say of crucifixion, it was so terrible, he said, let the very word cross be far removed, not only from the bodies of Roman citizens, but even from their thoughts, their eyes, and their ears. Crucifixion was considered so terrible that the Romans, as you know how violent the Romans were, The bloody games and all those things. But the Romans would not even allow the most wicked of crimes that a Roman citizen committed to condemn that person to a cross. This method of crucifixion was only reserved for slaves or those whom they considered to have no rights. For the Jews, there was no greater humiliation than the cross. The religious establishment then wanted Jesus on a cross because they wanted to make the message plain. Jesus is accursed! You want to worship this guy? You want to follow him? He's accursed. And they got that, by the way, from the Bible. In Deuteronomy chapter 21, we're told, They wanted Jesus. to be cursed. They wanted to represent him as a curse before all. But you know what? God also wanted Jesus on a cross. And he wanted Jesus on a cross for the same reason. Because he knew that by being made a curse for us, Jesus might redeem us from the curse of the law. That's Galatians 3.13. One physician examining Jesus' crucifixion from a medical standpoint offers the following analysis of his crucifixion. And please bear with me. Jesus is quickly thrown backwards, he says, with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives the heavy square wrought iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The cross beam is then lifted in place at the top of the vertical beam. The left foot is placed backward Against the right foot, with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The victim is now crucified. As he slowly sags, down with more weight on the nails and wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails and the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places his full weight on the nail through his feet. Again, there is searing agony at the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. And with these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward. Air can be drawn into the lungs but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the bloodstream and cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain, his tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins, a deep crushing pain in the chest. As the pericardium slowly fills with serum, it begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level. The compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. That's a doctor's analysis. A lot has been done. A lot of research has been done on this subject. But we know this much. It was horrific. This was the worst of humiliation, the cross. Nothing was more horrible and humiliating than crucifixion and yet Mark gives several clues in these verses that we're looking at that all of this was happening according to God's plan. Verses 22 through 28 cite many eyewitness details and they might appear insignificant to the average reader unless you are aware of your Bible, unless you realize these details were prefigured in the Old Testament many centuries prior. We saw in verse 23, they offered him vinegar to drink, which is prefigured in Psalm 69, 21. They also gave me gall for my food, the psalmist writes, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Next, we're told they crucified him, Mark says, verse 24, so that Jesus could say what was prefigured in Psalm 22, 16. They pierced my hands and feet. Next, the soldiers gambled for his clothing. And Mark 15, 24 says, The Old Testament prefigured this event in Psalm 22, 18, where it says, And just imagine that. Beneath the cross of Jesus, In the midst of all this agony and turmoil, these men are playing a game. I think this is the epitome, the very icon of human indifference to Jesus Christ. But it continues in this world. Verse 25 says, The inscription of the charge against him read, This is so vivid again. Mark's even giving you the time of day. The third hour, that is to say 9 a.m. Pilate officially condemned Jesus as the king of the Jews. This would amount to a charge of sedition against Caesar. He's a rival. He's claiming to be a rival as the Messiah to our king, our Caesar, and so Jesus must be condemned. But if you know your Old Testament, Jesus' identity as Israel's king lies at the very heart and center of the Old Testament. It's the idea that from the beginning, God is telling his people, I'm going to send to you a king. Especially in Zechariah 9, 9, behold, Jerusalem, your king is coming to you, riding on a donkey. That was Jesus. He fulfilled that. And that same king is now put on a cross. You'll remember the religious authorities actually squabbled with Pilate because he wrote, this is the king of the Jews. They didn't like that. They said, don't say this is the king of the Jews. Say, he said he's the king of the Jews. And Pilate said, what I've written, I've written. Because ironically, that was the truth. And Jesus should be recognized as such. Certainly more than a king, but nothing less than that. Another detail that is prefigured in the Old Testament is found in verse 27 of our text. They crucified two robbers with him, one on his right and one on his left. And the scriptures was fulfilled, which says, and he was numbered with transgressors. They crucified two thieves, two criminals on either side of Jesus. And Isaiah 53, 12 would say of the servant of the Lord in his death, Luke tells us that one of the two thieves hanging here with Jesus actually comes to repent, actually comes to confess that Jesus is righteous. And he calls on Jesus for salvation. I think we can say that the salvation of the thief on the cross is an inspiration to all of us and an infallible proof that salvation is clearly by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. This thief had no other alternative. He had no other recourse. He could only be saved by grace through faith in Christ. And he was. Jesus said, this day will you be with me in paradise? Yes, God can save sinners in the 11th hour. The cross wasn't a mistake then. It wasn't a plan B. This all happened according to the Father's plan. Do you see that? Mark's giving us these clues. And this was the plan to which Jesus was obedient. Of course, Revelation 4 and 5 portrays Jesus as this lamb slain before the foundation of the world. This was God's plan from eternity. And Philippians 2.8 says, Obedient to what? Obedient to that plan. To be the lamb of God slain. He became obedient to the death, even the death of the cross. Well, that's what this is, the humiliation of the cross. Why should you lift high the king that was brought so low? Because he was beaten and mocked for you. Because he was crucified for you. But we have here a third reason to exalt our humble king from verses 29 through 32, and that is he was blasphemed for you. Verse 29 says those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, ha, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. First, the ignorant passerbys blasphemed him. And the hurling abuse here, this word from the Greek, is the verb blasphemeo. It's a word that is often used to describe slandering against God, slandering a deity. Man, isn't it true if somebody would hurl abuse at your mother, how would you respond to that? How would that make you feel? Many of us wouldn't stand for that. But here these men dare to hurl abuse at the one who made them, the one who made all things and now is on the cross for human sin. Once again, they have misunderstood Jesus' prediction. They say, you're gonna destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days? Come down, if you can do that, save yourself. Come down from the cross, but they've misunderstood Jesus' prediction about rebuilding the temple in three days. He wasn't talking about Herod's temple, he was talking about his own body. But they do continue to mock Jesus in regards to what they do not understand. And you know what, that's like every fool in this world who mocks Christianity. They mock the doctrines of the Christian faith because they mock what they cannot understand. Isn't that so common? How foolish. Their challenge is not an option for Jesus, we know, to come down from the cross and save himself. Jesus could have come down from the cross, but he won't do it. He won't. Because in doing it, it would mean damning you. It would mean you would have no hope of salvation. First, we've seen the ignorant pastorbise blaspheme him. Then, the arrogant priests blasphemed him. Verse 31, And how ironic. What they were saying was true. Do you see that? In order for Jesus to save others, his act of sacrifice meant giving himself. In 2016, it's a true story, a mother and her two-year-old son were on a boat on a family trip. It was a family boat on a lake when her son suddenly fell overboard. They weren't wearing life jackets. Two-year-old boy, the mother immediately jumped in after him and the witnesses said that both went under. The mother came up holding her son and witnesses said she placed her son on her chest. By the time they were able to pull the boy out, and then go in and get the mother. It was too late. The boy was alive. They were able to bring him to the hospital. He survived. She, the mother, she could save her son, but she couldn't save herself. She had to make a choice. And you know, that's what Jesus did here. He couldn't save himself and you. Jesus had to make a choice. Jesus made a choice. Jesus chose you. He chose you. They said, verse 32, those who were crucified with him were also insulting him. How terribly mistaken they are. They say, if we see, then we will believe. Isn't that like so many in our world today? Maybe that's like somebody in this room. God, I'll believe in you if you split open the sky and show me your glory. Then I'll believe. I've heard that from people. But you see, all such challenges to God assume that we are somehow in the place to negotiate the terms of belief. Does God want all sinners to believe and be saved? Yes, but on His terms. And only on His terms because He's God. And the moment you suppose, the moment you assume that you can dictate to God the terms for your faith in Him, you are putting yourself in the place of God. That is the height of arrogance. And God will not negotiate with non-believers. He gives us the terms. Jesus would tell Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, didn't I tell you? If you believe, you will see the glory of God. It's not, if you see, you will believe. Jesus said, if you believe, you will see. Do we believe? These men didn't. They demanded. that God step down and meet them on their terms. but God had already and has already set the terms for faith. And it's believing on his son. It's receiving him as he is and for who he's revealed himself to be. Now next week we will continue our study of Jesus' crucifixion. We're gonna be examining more of the spiritual dimension to Jesus' suffering. But today we've seen the humiliation of the cross. Jesus was lifted up on the cross. He was lifted up. And by being lifted up on the cross, he was brought lower than he ever possibly could have gone. And he did it for you. Jesus was brought low. He was lifted up on the cross and brought low for you. And if Jesus was lifted up on the cross, if he was humiliated for you, he ought to be lifted up in your life. He ought to be exalted in your life. That is, put above everything else. The text here calls us to lift high the king who was brought so low. How can you lift high the king? How can you exalt Jesus in your life? Well, the very first step that you can take to lift high the king is to bow the knee to him and to embrace him as your king and your sovereign creator, your Lord. You must surrender your life in faith to him as your king. And if you've never repented of your sin, if you've never surrendered your life in faith to Jesus Christ, you need to do so. Because anything short of that is rebellion against him. You need to admit to God that it was your sins that brought Jesus to this earth and nailed him to that cross. That's why Jesus stayed there. That you might believe. That you might have hope of forgiveness. So you must repent of that sin and transfer your trust from yourself or whatever you're trusting to Jesus alone. Now for those of us who have bowed the knee to Christ as our King, we need to lift Jesus high by surrendering to carry the cross He's called us to follow. Jesus has called you if you've put your faith in Him to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him. He said that. Are you willing to take up the cross and follow Jesus? After looking at the cross today, I think we understand this isn't gonna be easy. I think we understand the cross is hideous, the cross is horrible. The cross means the crucifixion of our selfish desires, the crucifixion of our sinful passions, the crucifixions of our own way, the death of our own way in embracing whatever God would have us to do with our lives. Maybe you bow the knee to Christ then, he's entered your life, but you admit, there's some places in my life that I've denied him access. And I hope from the message of the cross, you're willing to see he was brought so low for you. He was humiliated for you. How can you deny him right to anything in your life? It's time to exalt the king. It's time to lift up the one who was brought so low for you. Let's pray.