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Guest (Male 1): The crucifixion is in a public place, so anyone and everyone coming by would have been able to read whatever the charges were.

Guest (Male 2): And they would mock them. If you put four Gospels together, people were making fun of him and the others and calling out names.

Guest (Male 1): Anyone and everyone who could read, who was able to read, saw a clear proclamation from the Roman government. The Jewish leaders were angry.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse-by-verse through the Bible. Jesus is crucified as our study of John continues in chapter 19, verse 17. Here is Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: Then Pilate delivered him to be crucified. They took Jesus and led him away. That's where we left off. Pilate wanted to let Jesus go free, but he was too big of a coward. He couldn't stand up to the people. He just couldn't stand up. He was afraid—afraid for his job, afraid of an uprising, probably afraid that it might snow. He was just afraid, like we all are with no excuse.

When you catch yourself or we catch ourselves afraid, all it really means is we're not really trusting in what God promised and what God said. And so we're choosing to go ahead and fret. Some people like that, but it's really kind of miserable. So here we go. Jesus is now in the hands of the troops and we come to verse 17.

And he, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, bearing his cross, carrying his cross, went forth to a place called the place of the skull, which is called in the Hebrew Aramaic Golgotha, where they crucified him and two others with him on either side, and Jesus in the center, in the midst. They took Jesus and they led him away to Golgotha. It means the place of the skull. The Latin form of the word is Calvary.

When you're saying Calvary Chapel, you're saying Skull Chapel in Latin. Those of you that have visited Israel, they'll take you to a spot where they do believe that's where Jesus was crucified. People take pictures because it does look like a skull. You can see the eyes and the shape, but you have to keep the camera aimed up pretty high because if you get too low, you get the bus stop that's under it and it loses everything. Remember, it is a real country and a real place and there are people waiting for the bus.

And he was carrying his own cross. It was that cross piece of the top piece of the cross, and he carried that on his back. That's the wood. Remember, it was made of wood. So he's going to be hung on that cross. In the Old Testament we see types. Types mean like symbols—a type of what Jesus Christ would say or what Jesus Christ is going to do. We see symbolically the types.

We see the type that Jesus would carry his own cross and that he would be crucified outside of the city. Those things are in the Old Testament way before you were born. Jesus was crucified. The way they write it there, it's just so simple, like Jesus' birthday or then he tied his shoes. But it was gross, it was terrible, it was ugly, and it was painful for the Father and the Son.

In Genesis 22:1-6, you see Father Abraham taking his son Isaac to be offered as a sacrifice. Now God in the law forbids human sacrifice, yet God says you take your son, your only son, your beloved son, and you take him to a hill that I will show you and there you offer him as a sacrifice to me.

I'm just going to read to you Genesis 22:6. You can read the whole chapter, but I'm just going to read verse six. Abraham was with two servants and his son Isaac. When they got to the place God said, "This is the place," Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. His son is going to carry his cross up that hill and be killed on that wood that he's taking. That will be the wood for the sacrifice.

So his boy Isaac—some say he wasn't little, some believe he was probably about 33 years old—is going to carry that cross. He's going to carry that for that burnt offering. He took the fire in his hand and a knife in his hand. Who's got the fire? Father Abraham. Who's got the knife? Father Abraham. Who is making sure that the sacrifice is going to be put to death? The Father. You see the picture that we're getting.

When people say who put Jesus to death, God said it pleased God—Isaiah 53—it pleased God to bruise him. It was God's intent all along. That's why Jesus Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. This wasn't a shock to him. Don't watch these dopey Christian movies about Jesus. He's always shocked when he does miracles. It scares him as much as it scares everybody else, and that's not the Jesus that's in the Bible. At 12 years old, he knew he was the Son of God and he was discussing deep things with the rabbis and the scholars in the temple.

His father and his mother, when they found him, she said, "Why have you done this to us?" And he said, "You should have known. Didn't you know I have to be about my Father's business?" Jesus isn't shocked that he's Jesus. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. Isaac carried his cross up to the top and was sacrificed on that wood just like Jesus. It's a type of Jesus Christ.

He took the fire in his hand and a knife and they both went together. The Father and the Son went to the top of that hill, and it's Mount Moriah, and that by the way is where Calvary is. When Jesus was crucified, he was crucified on that mountain where Isaac was taken. Isaac is not a little boy like everybody pictures him, probably the same age as Jesus Christ when he was crucified.

That makes it very interesting because Isaac says to his father, "Father, I've got the wood, I'm carrying it. You've got the fire and the knife, but where's the lamb? Where is the one that will be put to death?" And what did Abraham say? He didn't say, "It's going to be you, surprise!" He said, "The Lord will provide himself a sacrifice." When you read that, you might think it means God's going to provide. No, God will provide himself. He will be the sacrifice. That's clear. Study it and see it. He's saying God will provide himself to be that sacrifice. Isaac's happy with that. He has no idea what's coming, but Jesus does.

The Father and the Son went to that place of sacrifice. The Son will carry the wood and the Son will be put on the altar. The cross is that altar and Jesus is that sacrifice. God provided himself the sacrifice and he died on that cross.

Now the sin offering. I just want you to see that there's a type of Jesus Christ on the cross and the Father. Was the Father there? Yes, the Father was there. As soon as God turned his back on his son, Jesus noticed that the fellowship was broken and he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus knew when God turned and the place went dark—as dark as midnight or darker. Jesus hung on that cross for six hours. Three of those hours were pitch dark because the Father was on the top of the mountain with his son and then he turned because God cannot look upon sin and Jesus became sin. He who knew no sin took on my sin, and that's a load. He took on yours and the sin of the world. That's what's going on.

Now that sin offering—people say they hate reading through especially Numbers and Leviticus and Deuteronomy. You need to read those because right out of Leviticus chapter 16, verse 27, the sin offering had to be taken outside of the camp, outside of the city, and burned and sacrificed taken out there away from the city. Jesus Christ, our perfect sin offering, suffered and died outside the city.

The sin offering had to be outside the camp. Jesus Christ, our perfect sin offering, suffered and died outside the camp. God never wastes anything. The things you're reading in the Old Testament that you think are boring have a lot to learn in them. Don't give up on yourself. Sometimes it repeats itself and you're not quite sure what it means. That's okay, hang in there. God will teach you and it's just amazing what we learn.

So here goes Jesus. Verse 17: And Jesus bearing his cross went forth to a place called place of the skull, which in the Hebrew Aramaic Golgotha, where they crucified him. See all the description? There it was, they crucified him and two others with him on either side, Jesus in the center. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross and the writing was, and this is just for Jesus: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.

This title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city—he's just outside the city—and the main road comes right by there. You're going to have huge crowds because it's Passover. They're going to be walking by, they're going to see these three hanging on the cross and they can see the signs above each one. It was written in Hebrew and in Greek and in Latin.

Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, "Write not the King of the Jews, but that he said I am King of the Jews." And Pilate answered. Finally he gets some guts and stands up. Too late, but oh well. Pilate said, "What I have written, I have written." They crucified Jesus. They nailed him to that cross. That's how the Romans did it. The nails were six to nine inches long. You have to drive those things in because you have to hold someone on the cross. You don't want them falling off.

Three were crucified that morning, two who were guilty of murder, robbery, and insurrection. Jesus was in the center, one on each side of him. Jesus was completely innocent. It was the custom of the Romans in the Roman Empire to put a sign with the crime and what the charges are above the head of each individual that's crucified. So walking by, you can see exactly what those guys did. That's how we know that they were insurrectionists, murderers, and robbers.

Well, what about Jesus? There were no charges written against Jesus. There was no crime up there. He didn't steal, he didn't cheat, and he didn't do an insurrection. He'll do a resurrection, but he didn't do an insurrection. He wasn't leading people to kick out Rome or not pay taxes. There was no crime. Here are the words that were written and Pilate did this on purpose. He wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

That's just a slap in the face to everyone of those religious leaders. That offended them. "He's not our King." And the sign was written in three different languages and there's a reason for that. Aramaic is the language of the Jews. That's the language that they spoke in Israel in that day. Greek was the common language of the Roman Empire, so it was the common language of the day, just like around the world now a lot of people speak their native language and a lot of people speak English.

That's what's going on here. Three languages. Number one, Aramaic. That's for all the Jews. You have to put that on there because as they're walking by, they're all coming in for the Passover to do the offerings and it would be really crowded, so you want to put it in a language where the Jewish people can read it.

And also then the common language of the land because some proselytes would be coming from as far away as Rome or from way down south in Ethiopia. The second language is Greek and it's the common language of the Roman Empire. And Latin is the language of the legal system. By the way, if you go into any courtroom, you're going to hear all kinds of Latin words thrown around because we still use much of that in our judicial system right now. It's the language of the law.

The crucifixion is in a public place. So anyone and everyone coming by would have been able to read whatever the charges were. And they would mock them because the road wasn't far from where Jesus was crucified and they'd just come by and they'd mock. People were making fun of him and the others and calling out names. Anyone and everyone who was able to read saw a clear proclamation from the Roman government.

The Jewish leaders were angry at what Pilate had written. It was an insult to them. And so they said, "Don't write the King of the Jews. Write that he said he was the King of the Jews." It makes a big difference. And Pilate says, "I'm done with you guys. I'm not changing it. What I've written, I've written."

Anyway, verse 23: Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, now they're all three on the cross, they're all nailed to the cross, they are suffering. It is miserable and it is ugly. Once they had crucified Jesus they took his clothes and made four piles, to every soldier a part. So guess how many soldiers there were? Yes, there were four. The Romans allowed whoever's crucifying, if you're on duty today you got crucifixion duty. It's your turn, your shift. One of the benefits was that whoever they crucified, they got all their extra garments, they got their shoes, and they got all their clothes.

You say, "Well, what would I do with that?" Sell it. You do whatever you want with it. So they got the clothes and they're parting Jesus' clothes. They got them in piles here. The soldiers took his garments and made four parts, and also his coat. And the coat was without seam, woven from top to bottom. Some said it was a designer coat because Jesus was rich. No it wasn't, it was just a regular outer garment. They said to themselves—verse 24—"Let's not rip it into four pieces. It would be kind of useless. Let's just roll some dice."

They cast lots for it. So they said among themselves, "Let us not tear, but let's roll dice and cast lots whose it shall be." That the scripture might be fulfilled which says they parted my raiment among them and for my vesture, my outer garment, they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.

Do you think the soldiers were familiar with the Bible? Not at all. You think they'd even heard about a scripture where somebody's going to play dice at the foot of somebody's cross and divide the clothes up? No, they didn't know to do that. They just don't have the Word of God and they didn't know what was going on.

They've crucified Jesus. The soldiers are given permission to take anything that belongs to the prisoner. They take the clothes, they divide them up. But they didn't want to tear the outer long garment, so let's just roll dice. And they did.

Now they knew nothing about the Word of God, but they actually fulfilled the prophecy to prove that God's Word is true. They unwittingly proved that the Word of God comes straight from God. Psalm 22:16-18. The whole thing is about Messiah: "For dogs have surrounded me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can tell all my bones. They look and they stare at me. They part my garments among them and they cast dice for my outer garment."

How did those soldiers know to do that? They didn't know, God said it was going to happen and it did. You say you want proof that God's Word is solid? I just gave you some. Now see the trouble is if you refuse to believe, I could give you five more and they won't work either. The chief priests and the Pharisees would not believe. Not that they could not, they would not. It's staring you right in the face and you still say, "I refuse to see it."

That's what Jesus told the Pharisees. It's not that you cannot believe, it's that you won't. You choose not to. So watch out everybody, be careful. Don't have that kind of heart. If you say you really don't know what the truth is, then be honest and seek for the truth. I believe when you do that, you will find Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that he is alive.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho, 83854. Or call us at 1-800-572-8851. Our mobile app is available for iPhone and Android. Download it to listen to full-length studies, watch the live stream of our services, or to find out more about church events. Please join with us every Monday through Friday as we study together verse-by-verse on Apply Within, sponsored by North Country Chapel. God bless you.