TRUTHS ABOUT CALVARY

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32 NKJV).

The Lord Jesus spoke these words about Calvary a few days before His crucifixion. They teach some important truths about the crucifixion. We want to note three of them:

The requirement of Calvary – “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” The ‘lifting up’ refers to the cross. Some folks seem to think that Calvary was unnecessary. But our text says Calvary was absolutely necessary if there was to be any drawing of men to Christ. While Christ lived an impeccable life, it alone could not provide salvation for the sinner. It is the death of Christ on the cross that makes salvation for the sinner possible. If salvation was dependent only on the life of Christ, then Calvary was unnecessary and a mistake. It would also mean that the crucifixion of Christ was not planned by God but was a time when God lost control and man and evil took over. But Calvary was planned before the creation of the world (I Peter 1:20; Rev. 13:8). Without Calvary, Christ could not be our Savior.

The reproach of Calvary – “If I am lifted up from the earth.” Here the Lord Jesus was speaking of a particular form of death, namely, crucifixion. The Jews used stones, but the Romans put people to death on a cross. Christ would meet death via the Roman method of punishment. The crucifixion on the cross was a very ignominious way to die. It was also humbling. The apostle Paul said, Christ “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8). He also state in Gal. 3:13, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” The cross made the death of Christ a real reproach for our Lord. Christ suffered much for us on the cross, and that suffering included much reproach.

The rebuke of Calvary – “Will draw all people to Myself.” Calvary is a real rebuke to man. It says that man have gone away from God; God did not move, man moved. As soon as man sinned he tried to leave the presence of God (Gen. 3:8; 4:16). Isa. 53:6 calls this moving “gone astray.” But God in grace would draw man back to Himself; it took Calvary. Nothing else will do it. This is the only plan of salvation that will accomplish the need of man. As the hymn writer said, ‘The way of the cross leads home.’

(Adapted from Butler Sermon Starters - Vol. 1)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“We are saved by God’s mercy, not by our merit - by Christ’s dying, not by our doing!”

Anonymous

Word Study

Lifted up

In John 12:32 we read, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself!” (NKJV)

Lifted up is the Greek word hupsoo (ὑψόω = hoop-so'-o). The word means to exalt, to raise high. In Classical Greek as well as in the Septuagint hupsoo means to exalt or raise high. Further, the Septuagint uses hupsoo to refer to the exaltations of the righteous, the exaltation of God, and to self-exaltation. Hupsoo has two basic meanings in the New Testament - one is literal, the other figurative. The figurative usage appears more frequently.

Literally, hupsoo was used by Jesus in making reference to Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. He likened this to His own lifting up and its consequent effect of delivering men to eternal life (John 3:14). By being physically lifted up, Jesus was also humiliated because the lifting took place in His execution as a criminal. Yet, this very humiliation produces eternal life for those who will look to Him just as the Israelites looked to the brazen serpent and lived. The figurative uses of the word appear for the most part in statements condemning human pride (Matt. 11:23; Luke 10:15).

Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus

Old Testament Prophecy – That He would be crucified between two thieves (Isa. 53:12) New Testament Fulfillment – Matt. 27:38; Mark 15:27-28; Luke 23:32

Bible Facts

The universe had a beginning (Gen. 1:1; Heb. 1:10-12). Starting with the studies of Albert Einstein in the early 1900s and continuing today, science has confirmed the Biblical view that the universe had a beginning. When the Bible was written most people believed the universe was eternal. Science has proven them wrong, but the Bible correct.

Bible Quiz

What was the name of one of the disciples with whom Jesus spoke on the road to Emmaus?

**Answer to last week’s trivia: In addition to the women who brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus, who also sought to anoint the body of Jesus with myrrh and aloes? Nicodemus (John 19:39).

That’s in the Bible

"What have we here?”

“Now therefore, what have I here, says the LORD, that My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them make them wail, says the LORD, And My name is blasphemed continually every day” (Isa. 52:5 NKJV).

We hear this rhetorical question asked when someone discovers something of significance or surprise. God Himself used it when musing over Israel’s captivity by another nation. Of course, this was no surprise to God; it simply showed some of the personality of God through His use of rhetorical language.

Did You Know – Christian History

Christmas Evans was born 25 December 1766 near the village of Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales. He was a Welsh Nonconformist minister, regarded as one of the greatest preachers in the history of Wales. His father, a shoemaker, died early, and the boy grew up as an illiterate farm laborer. At the age of seventeen, he became the servant of a Presbyterian minister, David Davies. Under the influence of a contemporary religious revival, he learned to read and write in English and Welsh. The itinerant Calvinistic Methodist preachers and the members of the Baptist church at Llandyssul further influenced him, and he soon joined the latter denomination.

In 1789 he went into North Wales as a preacher and settled for two years on the remote Llŷn peninsula, Caernarfonshire, from where he moved to Llangefni in Anglesey. Here, on a stipend of £17 a year, supplemented by the selling of tracts, he built up a strong Baptist community, modelling his organization to some extent on that of the Calvinistic Methodists. Many new chapels were built, the money being collected on preaching tours which Evans undertook in South Wales. In 1826 Evans accepted an invitation from a congregation at Caerphilly, where he remained for two years, moving on from there in 1828 to Cardiff. In 1832, in response to urgent calls from the north, he settled in Caernarvon and again undertook the old work of building and collecting. He was taken ill on a tour in South Wales, in 1838, and died at Swansea.

In spite of his early disadvantages and personal disfigurement (he had lost an eye in a youthful brawl), Evans was a remarkably powerful preacher. To a natural aptitude for this calling he united a nimble mind and an inquiring spirit; his character was simple, his piety humble and his faith fervently evangelical. His chief characteristic was a vivid and affluent imagination, which absorbed and controlled his other abilities, and earned for him the name “The Bunyan of Wales.”

A Little Humor

One Easter Sunday the Reverend Jones announced to his congregation, “My good people, I have here in my hands three sermons - a $100 sermon that lasts five minutes, a $50 sermon that lasts fifteen minutes, and a $20 sermon that lasts a full hour. Now, we’ll take the collection and see which one I’ll deliver.

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“The ground at the cross is level - all may come!”