Please remain standing and turn in your Bibles, your pew Bibles, the blue ones in front of you, page 1007, or if you're using your own Bible as I am, Mark chapter 11 and verses 1 through 10. I want you really to be struck with a contrast in these two readings from the Gospel of Mark. Mark chapter 11 and verses 1 through 10 on the day that we call Palm Sunday, the day of the triumphal entry. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately as you enter it, you'll find a colt tied on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it to me." Now, if anyone says to you, why are you doing this, say, the Lord has need of it. Not a Lord, the Lord has need of it, and will send it back immediately. And they went and found a colt and at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, what are you doing untying the colt? And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and there threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, basically Hosanna means please save. Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David. Hosanna, please save in the highest. And then the gospel according to Mark, and let's start reading at verse six. Mark 15, beginning at verse six, page 1013. Again, the contrast. We're now toward the end of the week that began with the triumphal entry. It is Friday. Now at the feast, Mark 15, verse 6, now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in the insurrection, There was a man called Barabbas. And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them, saying, Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him released for them Barabbas instead. And Pilate again said to them, Then what shall I do with the man whom you call the king of the Jews? And they cried out again, Crucify him! And Pilate said to them, Why, what evil has he done? But they shouted all the more, Crucify him! So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, And having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is, the governor's headquarters. And they called together the whole battalion, and they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! They were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they let him out to crucify him. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever, to which you respond by saying together, Hallelujah, and thanks be to God. And now, our Lord, we pray for the Spirit's assistance, enabling for the one who preaches, and for the Spirit's assistance and enabling for all who hear. Our Lord, we're dealing with the most amazing week in human history because it's the most amazing week in human history. We pray that you would not only inform us, but transform us. We pray in Christ's transforming name, Amen. Please be seated. I do think you're going to need maximum space for your notes today, so you can turn to page 10 and make use of that. Just a little P.S. regarding last night's concert. That was an overview of history, basically. A quick summary of the life of Christ from his birth on, and then highlighting many of the events we'll hear about today, above all, the death of Christ, and then his resurrection, ascension, and reign. And these are things of history. Our culture doesn't appreciate history. Our culture wants something that's immediate. Our culture wants something that works right now. And there's this massive challenge of taking these events of human history that did change the world and really change people and impressing them upon others. That's the big challenge. But here's why this is so significant. These events in human history cause the historic Christian faith to outstrip, outrun all other religions in the world. There are no other religions in the world that even get off first base when it comes to these things that the most amazing week in human history accomplished and what they did. We're talking about 33 and a half years in which the God-man was on the earth, he declared God, he showed God, and was misunderstood almost from the beginning. Was he going to be the glorious king? In time he would be. But first of all, he had to be the suffering servant. Would he have a crown? Yes, he would. but he would have a crown only when he went through the curse, and that was something of the heart of the misunderstanding people had. So we come today to the Passion Week as part of those 33 and a half years in which, in a real sense, the entire life of Christ up to the cross are distilled into a seven-day period. And keep in mind, one-third of the Gospels of Mark and John, one-fourth of the Gospel of Matthew, and one-fifth of the Gospel of Luke are all devoted to this week. That's why it's good to dwell on what really is the most amazing week in human history. And I'll use kind of a non-Presbyterian word for you. I want you to feel these things today. I don't want you just to learn them, but you will. I want you to so feel them that frankly when you get home today you'll get down on your hands and knees and ask forgiveness. And I want you to be transformed by them. Why? Well, July 4th, at least my pattern, is to take some time to read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because those are the founding documents of our nation, right? And that's important for me to kind of reboot and think about our nation again properly. And there's a sense in which we're doing the same thing in the sermon, but something far more. Because these things we're going to cover, they're things the Holy Spirit uses to transform us. And I want you to be transformed not only by the what, which is the first part of the message, but the why, okay? The what and the why of the most amazing week in human history. So we start at Mark chapter 11 in the equivalent places in Matthew and in Luke and in John. It's Sunday. It's what we call Palm Sunday or the Sunday of the triumphal entry. And Jesus fulfills prophecy coming into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey, a very humble thing, not a war horse, but a tiny donkey, and he rides into the city. And here's what I want you to be struck with. The people cry out, save, please. That's the closest translation we can get. Save, please. And he will. but not at all in the way they expected. So I want you to keep Hosanna in mind. Save, please. We come to Monday, and on Monday Jesus cleanses the temple that had been corrupted by the religious establishment. And he curses a fig tree that was not bearing any fruit, a symbol of the curse on Israel because it had not borne fruit in following the Lord faithfully. Tuesday of the most amazing week in human history. Jesus' authority is now questioned and challenged by the religious leaders. And it's no coincidence that it is at that time on Tuesday that Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for his death. And Judas betrays Jesus to the religious leaders. Wednesday is a day of rest. And when you realize what will come up on Thursday and Friday, you realize how wise God was. to give that rest, especially to the Lord Jesus. It is what is called Maundy Thursday. Maundy Thursday. Maundy is a word, a Latin word, that means a commandment, when Jesus gave the commandment to wash the feet of his disciples, as he did, so you do, a little picture of the humble service that marks the kingdom of God. And on that Thursday of the most amazing week in human history, Jesus prepares the disciples for the Passover, and what would replace it, the Lord's Supper, he does wash the feet of his disciples. And Judas now leaves the Twelve. He does it when Jesus says, now is the hour and the power of darkness. One thing for you to think about, because we're meant to think about it each day, God ordained from the beginning that there be light and that there be darkness. as a way of stating to us every single day that there is light, there is goodness, there is truth, and there is darkness, there is sin, and there is evil. Now, Jesus says to Judas, is your hour and the power of darkness. Jesus goes to a quiet garden, Gethsemane, and he prays, Father, if you're willing, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. This is the cup of the very wrath of God that is spoken of in the Psalms. Jesus is arrested, and he's brought, first of all, before the religious establishment. Annas was the high priest emeritus. I'm not being facetious. He was basically the godfather, in the bad sense of the word, the godfather of the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas was the acting high priest for that year. The Sanhedrin was the government of the religious establishment, and the Messiah is brought before them. We come to very early in the morning on Friday, and Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin, and he is beaten. Now, brothers and sisters, we really come to holy ground. Jesus is then brought before Pilate, Now it's the political establishment. He is the governor of all of Judea. He is then brought for a brief time before Herod, who is the provincial governor, and the son of the very wicked Herod, who had had children put to death at the time of the birth of Christ. He is sent back to Pilate again. And you've heard the text in the Scriptures. a custom of the time, one who had been arrested would be released at the will of the governor. But the people had a say in this. The same ones who had said, save please, preferred Barabbas, who was a murderer, to the Lord of life. Crucify him. Crucify him. Jesus is condemned and he is scourged. This scourging was done with leather strips, leather tongs that had embedded in them stone or bone, or in the worst cases, jagged pieces of lead. And our Lord's back was scourged by what was called the scorpion because of the way it dug into his flesh and caused him to bleed profusely. He is led to Golgotha, a mountain that looks very much like a skull, a symbol of death. And he's made to bear his own cross. He would get assistance for a time, but for the most of the time he bears. The carpenter's son, the one who knew what it was to work with wood, bears this heavy vertical post called the cross. Jesus is crucified to that cross. It is now about 9 a.m. And Jesus utters the last words of his earthly ministry, a word of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. A word of salvation to one of the men who was crucified alongside of him. This day, you will be with me in paradise. A word of duty, woman. Behold your son, Mary, as I am to expire, John will take my place to provide for you. Son, behold your mother. You now have an official responsibility for her, a word of duty, and the one who is to be absolutely perfect in obedience to the law right through death. It is noon. And for three hours in the most mysterious occurrence of that whole time, darkness descends at least on that area, a gross darkness which is the darkness of hell itself that descends upon Christ. Now is your hour and the power of darkness, the power of darkness enshrouds the Lord Jesus. Three o'clock p.m. comes and the darkness is lifted and Jesus gives the word of anguish, the most striking of all of the seven, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? A word of suffering. I thirst." And only then does Jesus take not vinegar with the gall as a bit of pain reliever, but the pure vinegar. Why? So that he might utter with the loudest of voices the word of victory. In the Greek it's tetelestai, which means it is finished. Not only something done in history, but something that would have its effects in an ongoing way, including today. And then, and only then, a word of peace. Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. Before 6 o'clock p.m., when the day officially would end, the body of Jesus is taken down from the cross, it was truly dead. And it was placed in a new tomb in what we know of as a burial. A beautiful note, the prophet Isaiah, after speaking of the crucifixion of Christ, said that he would be placed with a rich man in his death. And it was indeed an open tomb area that had to be one of a rich man. It was in a garden and it had never been used. The most amazing week in human history, and here's the brackets, Hosanna, please save. Jesus dies on the cross to the call of crucify him. And what I want you to be struck with is that's exactly how Jesus answered their prayer. It's amazing, most amazing week in human history. Let's now look in the second, that's what, okay? That's only the what of the week. Let's look at the why. And I'm staying very close to my notes because there's a lot in here and I could easily go off on any tangent and you don't want that. I don't think the Lord wants that either. Why? The most amazing week in human history culminating in the cross, remember Paul said, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of the Lord Jesus. The most amazing week in human history culminating in the cross exposes the depths of human wickedness. This, against the darkness of a fallen world, is a fireworks display of glaring lights and of striking thunders and of sharp breakings into that darkness that make you marvel. The most amazing week in human history culminating in the cross, exposing the depths of human wickedness. I can summarize it in one word. Deicide. Suicide is killing yourself. Homicide is killing another human being. Deicide is killing God. That fireworks display is a display of what? What was the human wickedness that was in back of Christ's crucifixion? Well, we've read some of the words in the texts. Envy, a fear of man, cowardice, hypocrisy, greed, think Judas, pitilessness, a carnal nationalism, racism, peace at any cost, and an idolatry of the establishment, whether it be religious or political. All of that is displayed in this fireworks of human depravity. But people raise the question, who was responsible for the death of Christ? And the answer is, I was. My sins through the hands and the feet and the mouth of others crucified Christ. And the greatest pain was not the scourging with the so-called scorpion, but it was my sin. He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace fell upon him. There's a famous story of the then at that time very well-known British writer G.K. Chesterton who wrote the Father Brown Mysteries and other things, a very committed Christian. And at the turn into the 20th century, I forget whether it was 1899 or early 1900s, but around that period. The Times of London ran an article asking, what's wrong with the world? And readers were invited to submit their answers. Notice, folks, the more things change, the more they stay the same. What's wrong with the world? And G.K. Chesterton, famous author, writes and says, dear sir, In response to your question of what's wrong with the world, I am. Respectfully, G.K. Chesterton. And that's exactly the point. Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon you? Alas, my treason, Jesus, has upon you. Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was who denied you. I crucified you. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Do you? were made to. Brothers and sisters, I almost wish in one second I could end at this point and we head home and get down on our hands and knees and ask the Lord to forgive us. Presbyterians don't do that. Do it. Because brothers and sisters, that's how serious our response needs to be to our part in the sin of deicide, putting God to death. But we don't stop there. The most amazing week in human history, culminating in the cross, displays the heights of the real love of God. And brothers and sisters, I want to suggest to you But 99.9% of the uses of the word love in our culture have nothing whatsoever to do with the reality. All you need is love, love, love, love, which meant sex, sex, sex, sex, which is gratifying myself. That's not love, folks. The most amazing week in human history culminating in the cross displays the heights of the real love of God. A Holocaust survivor, I can't believe in God unless he can explain to me the suffering. God says, and if God could cry, I think he would say it with tears. I take that challenge. Because in the cross, God suffered as man, as one of us. Love that truly gave itself for the good of another. See, God is sovereign, right? We sang about God's sovereignty in a wonderful hymn of God's sovereignty, it is. But you emphasize God's sovereignty alone, and that can become very, very, very cold. And when God's sovereignty comes across that way, I don't blame people for wanting to puke out that kind of Calvinism. Because God's sovereignty is united to this, and this is part of the declaration on the day of Pentecost, the God-man voluntarily submitted to the greatest holocaust. You've heard it before, the word holocaust is a word that means a burnt offering, a whole burnt offering. And that is exactly what Jesus was on the cross. In the larger catechism, question number 49 speaks of this so well. How did Christ humble himself in his death? Christ humbled himself in his death, and that having been betrayed by Judas, forsaken by his disciples, scorned and rejected by the world, condemned by Pilate, and tormented by his persecutors, having also conflicted, which really means to make war with, the terrors of death and the powers of darkness, felt and borne the weight of God's wrath. He laid down his life on offering for sin enduring the painful, shameful, and cursed death of the cross. Brothers and sisters, the main reason that you can trust Christ in the midst of suffering is that He knows your suffering firsthand. That was written by a man who was, at that very time he wrote it, a Christian dying of cancer. The main reason you can trust God in the midst of suffering is that He knows suffering firsthand, and He does. The light of the world was subject to the worst forces of darkness. This was not the glory of a throne. It was the glory of servanthood. What real love is, giving yourself for the good of another. Though he was God, Paul says in Philippians 2, he didn't regard that equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he humbled himself and made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But why? Because of his love. Because of his love. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. See, the more you really love a person, the more you take on their pain and their suffering, right? You really give yourself in love for the good of those who are part of you in their pain and suffering. And Jesus didn't just feel that. He took the source of all of that pain and suffering on himself, ascribing its consequences to himself on every single level, every thought, every word, every deed of every one of those for whom he died, sins that began at conception and that ended with death, all of them, in all people, in all ages. That's why, because he bore hell for those things, it took the infinite worth and strength of God to sustain his own manhood. It is why God and man together were necessary to redeem us. And all that was done so that God's true love can be poured out. That's how it's poured out. Not from some feeling from God, but rather the action of Christ taking all of the sins of all of his people. He made him who knew no sin, to become sin for you, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him, sin punished in Him, that you might receive forgiveness by Him. His rejection, that you might be accepted. His death, that you might have life. That's astonishing. That is truly moving and it's consoling. And it's the answer to the Holocaust survivor. It's the only answer that can be given. My God did not only explain it, my God entered into it. And while you say it respectfully and carefully, He took on himself an even greater holocaust that we might be delivered from one. Again, no other religion can say that. And you can trust him in your part in the cross because he's earned your trust by bearing the weightier end of that cross. The most amazing week in human history culminating in the cross displays the heights of the real love of God. But we don't even stop there. The most amazing work in human history culminating in the cross, placards. true messianic victory. The Israelites wanted a Messiah who would be a victor over enemies. And he was exactly that. Except they didn't have the right enemies. Rome was only a symptom. The greatest enemies of sin and the devil and death, he conquered. And back of all that happened to Jesus, is the power of the devil. John 13 and verse 27, then Judas took the morsel. Judas in the consummate act of hypocrisy, the one who has already betrayed Jesus, takes the morsel, representing the body crucified for sins, and in that consummate act of hypocrisy, Satan entered into him. And Jesus, who's still Lord of this, Jesus says, not only to Judas, but to Satan in him, what you're going to do, you go and you do it quickly. And you read that Judas went out into the night. Now is your hour and the power of darkness. The cross, one person wrote, was the worst that human and non-human evil and rebellion could do. And it was deicide. And it backfired big time. Colossians 2 and verse 15, this Jesus who was crucified on a cross disarmed principalities and powers, having made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. Cursed, Paul would write in Galatians, cursed is everyone who dies on a tree. Jesus became a curse for us. And then in almost the same breath, he goes on and he says that the blessing that was promised to Abraham, which is ultimately the blessing of salvation and a seed, that the blessing to Abraham might be sent into all the earth by his stripes, you are healed. He so defeated sin and death and the devil that those powers are now used for your good. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8, 28. And here's the catalog. Neither life nor death nor thrones nor principalities nor powers nor anything above or beneath is able to separate you from the love of God in Christ. It's what we just sang, transmuting, transmuting earthly sorrows to gold of heavenly gain. Wow, folks. I mean, again, the most amazing week in human history. In the cross, evil was turned back on itself. One modern writer, he depicts this so well. At the cross, evil is conquered as evil. No other religions really take evil seriously. None of them does. breaking some laws, not having good karma, not honoring your ancestors, uh-uh. At the cross, evil is conquered as evil. Evil is conquered as evil because God turns it back upon itself. He makes the supreme crime, the murder of the only righteous person the very operation that abolishes sin. The maneuver is utterly unprecedented. No more complete victory could be imagined. God entraps the deceiver in his own wiles. Evil, like a Judoist, tries to take advantage of the power of the good which it perverts. The Lord like a supreme champion relies by using the very grip of his own opponent to win the battle. You see the hinges of this week? Lord, please save. Crucify him. And Jesus answers their prayer in the very act of their heinous sin. That really happened, folks. That's not made up. You can't make this up. That's why this is, again, the most amazing week in all of human history. As John Kelvin put it so eloquently, destruction is destroyed. Torment is tormented. Damnation is damned. Death is dead. Mortality is made immortal. All that by the victory of the cross. Justice and love. What is that? Justice and love. Jesus in love that gives itself for the good of another. Jesus in love takes your debt. And he says to the Father, and he says to you, and he says to the devil, I paid it. Right? The glory of the gospel. Now that's not an explanation of sin and evil, but it is an answer for it. And again, there's no other... I'm saying this, folks, because you're all going to get bombarded. We're all just at the bottom of a mountain. We're all making our way up. All the religions are the same bunk. Come on. That's not even honest with the facts of history, let alone with logic. No other religion can say any of these things, let alone do them. And last, and this is just something for all of us to chew on, the most amazing week in human history culminating in the cross, God forbid that I should glory except in the cross, encourages you not to give up on anybody. Remember, the Holy Spirit inspires these incidents, and none is a chance incident. A centurion, Mark chapter 15, if you read on the text that we had this morning, centurion represented the political establishment. He was part of the political establishment hired by them. The centurion says truly this man was the son of God. The political establishment as a whole was pretty corrupt. But don't give up on anyone. God worked in that significant member of the political establishment to say grace is greater than all of your sin. Joseph of Arimathea, Joseph was part of the religious establishment. And he puts his neck on the line when he goes out and says, I want to take down that body. I want to give it a proper burial. And he does exactly that. Why? This, the power of the cross, that's the power of the gospel, to take people that you would hardly expect, from both political and religious establishment and turn them from self-centered sinners to God-centered saints." Isn't that great? What's your response to this other than to say, nowhere else can you find anything like this? I suggest to you that, number one, this is a life of continual repentance. As Martin Luther said, all of life is repentance. Constantly, day by day, turning from sin unto righteousness. Why? Because my sin is one of the spears that went into the body of the Lord Jesus. And the only response to deicide is repentance. And then really believing these things. Why? Lord, where else can we go? These are the words of eternal life, and there's no others. And I hope that you and I are struck with the fact that every man, woman, boy, and girl who's far more given to the distractions of this life than to the most important week in human history, should they die in that tranquilized state It's not Jesus who bore their punishment, they will. And that's as real as these events of human history. Repentance and faith and thankful obedience, it's not only for Paul that he could say that the love of Christ constrains me, moves me along. Does the love of Christ constrain you? Does that real self-giving love that you profess, does that draw you to obedience? Nothing less is really a godly response to the greatest week in human history. The hymn that we sing, probably we should sing it more often, O sacred head now wounded, listen to the words, this kind of summarizes it all. O sacred head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown. O sacred head, what glory, what bliss, till now was thine. Yet though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine, do you? What thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners' gain. Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain. Lo, here I fall, my Savior. "'Tis I deserve thy place. "'Look on me with thy favor. "'Vouchsafe that is guaranteed to me thy grace.'" Is that your heart, folks? What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend? For this, thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end, O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for Thee. That's the proper response to the most amazing week in all of human history. I pray that it be yours and mine. Lord, seal these words to us by the Holy Spirit. Lord, take these things of history and by the Holy Spirit work in us and our children, our children's children, all that we know and love and all the nations of the earth that they would realize that this is indeed the most amazing week of human history and all of our games and all of our recreations and all of our entertainment and all of our diversions and all of our distractions will only be means to destroy us unless we break through these things and by faith do real justice to every one of these most amazing events in the most amazing week in all of human history. Grant that work in us and in all that we love for Jesus' sake. Amen.