BEHOLD THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST (Part 2)
MEMORY VERSE: - “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, He said, Father into Thy hands I commend My Spirit; and having said thus, He gave up th ghost” (Luke 23:46).
INTRODUCTION: - It was John the Baptist that first proclaimed to his hearers “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (Jh.1:29). Thus, presenting Jesus Christ as a type of Lamb used in Old Testament sacrifices especially the Passover, but provided by God Himself to pay the death penalty that all humanity deserved for rebellion against God (Isa.53:7). By beholding Him crucified, we see Him break the power of guilt and sin and opened the way to God for all who accept Jesus as forgiver of their sins and Leader of their lives.
LESSON OUTLINES
What I See As I Behold Him Crucified
1) I perceive here, an unveiling of the character of man (Eph.5:13). Now Christ is the true Light (John 1:9), the essential, divine, all-revealing light; consequently all men and all things stood exposed in His presence. The worst things predicted in the Scriptures of fallen human nature, were verified and exemplified in the days of Christ. God says that the heart of man is “desperately wicked” (Jer.17:9) and it was demonstrated to be such by the treatment meted out to the Beloved Son of God. Scarcely was He born into this world than a determined effort was made to slay Him. Though He constantly went about doing good, relieving the distressed and ministering to both the souls and bodies of the needy, yet so little was He appreciated that He had to say “The foxes have holes……… but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matt.8:20). On one occasion, “they besought Him that He would depart out of their coast” (Matt.8:34).
But not only was Christ unwelcome here, men hated Him and that “without a cause” (Jh.15:25). He gave them every reason to admire and adore Him but they had an inveterate detestation of Him. The Word of Truth declares that “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom.8:7). Men do not believe it, in fact most of them pretend the very opposite. Nevertheless, at Calvary, they gave proof of their hatred of God. Multitudes go through the form of paying homage to God, but it is a “god” of their own imagination. They hate the true and living God, and were it possible they would rid the universe of His existence. This is very clear from their treatment of Christ, for He was none other than “God manifest in the flesh” (1Tim.3:16) and Him they hated and wounded to death, and nothing short of His cruel death by crucifixion would appease them. Here at Calvary the real character of man was revealed and the desperate wickedness of his heart laid bare. There it was shown that he was capable of the blackest of all crimes. Then let us not be surprised that the history of mankind is written in tears and blood.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
The height of the wickedness of mankind was manifested in the dastard act of rejection and crucifixion of Christ at Calvary. Beholding Him crucified is to see what the Son of God went through in the hands of His creation.
QUESTIONS
What can you see as regarding the character of mankind as you behold the crucified Christ? What did man profited in crucifying Christ at Calvary?