Dr. M.J. du Plessis Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville Date: 12 October 2003 (morning ).

Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: 33:1

Confession of faith

Commandments

Psalm 89:1

Prayer

Psalm 146:1, 3

Scripture reading: Luke 23:44-56
Scripture text: Luke 23:44-56; Catechism Sunday 16

Golgotha is the place of humiliation.

It is a place where so much cruelty took place that man can hardly talk about everything that happened there because so many people were executed there.
But, on the other hand, Golgotha is also the place of absolute amazement.
It was also up this hill the shouting crowd and some Roman soldiers drove the Son of God to crucify Him.
On this hill things happened that nobody ever expected, because when they hammered the nails through this exhausted man’s feet and hands, a prayer suddenly sounded:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Would any of us have expected that?

Who could have thought that, while the rulers and soldiers as well as one of the criminals hanging next to him on another cross mocked Him the other dying criminal would ask Christ to remember him when He came into his kingdom?
It is so amazing that this criminal, at this point himself exhausted from pain, loss of blood, stress and the fierce heat of the sun, could still reprimand the other criminal:

“Don't you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?”

Who could have imagined that day that the dying man on the cross was the Son of God who was in the act of saving the world?

In these moments of greatest humiliation Christ acted as Mediator – to our greatest amazement. Luke tells us that Jesus’ first and last words on the cross were a prayer to his Father.

The Lord reveals this not without reason! This is how Luke typifies Christ as the Mediator.

Even in his dying moments the Mediator was the intercessor between God and the human race.
The Mediator was prepared to forgive the people for what they were doing to Him, rather than hating them!
And then He even prays to God the Father to also forgive them.
He would rather see that people, through the forgiveness of their sins, have life with God instead of hating them and delivering his enemies to the violence of the wrath of the eternal God!

When we listen to everything that happened on that particular day, i.e. the darkness, the curtain of the temple that was torn in two, and the people who beat their breasts, we cannot but ask:

Why did there have to be a Golgotha day?
Why did the blood of Jesus Christ have to ooze away in the earth?
And that while He was so completely innocent that even a dying criminal was able to recognise his innocence and confess it?

At this point we come up against the mystery of God’s plan. We have no answer. Hebrews 2:14 says that it happened so that Christ by his death could destroy him who had power over death, and so He could deliver us from death.

But as to why God planned it to happen in this way we have no answer. It is a mystery. It was God’s will that the redemption of man should be effected like this. In our faith we must be content with that.

Our Catechism also replies without an explanation:
Christ had to humble Himself unto death, because the justice and truth of God demands that satisfaction for our sins could be made in no other way than by the death of the Son of God.

Christ’s life on earth was completely different from that of man.

To people God shows mercy time and again. But not to Christ.
When, for example, Isaac had to be sacrificed, God planned that there would be a ram to be offered in his place.
Consider all the sick and lame who came to Christ.
And for each of them there was mercy. They left Him – healthy. Healed completely.
But when Christ had to die, He was not pardoned. The demand made on Him was that He would be obedient up to his death on the cross.
The night in Gethsemane He actually prayed that, if possible, the cup of suffering would be removed from Him. But He submitted to the will of his Father.
Therefore He went to die the following day.

Jesus’ enemies craved His death. When He died, they were satisfied.

The Jewish people believed that if somebody was crucified they were not allowed to leave him on the cross on the Sabbath.
Therefore the guards would break the bones of those who had not died by late midday so that they would suffocate and die sooner.
When the guards arrived, as requested by the Jews to break the bones of the crucified (John 19:33), they saw that Jesus had already died.
Because he was already dead, they did not break his bones. They took down his body and He was buried.
This burial of Jesus was also written down for very good reason.
The Bible wants to emphasise the fact that Jesus was indeed dead.
Only dead people are buried. Jesus was buried as proof of the fact that He was no longer alive.

Because the people were satisfied that the Son of God had died, nature broke the silence.

On his last entry into Jerusalem He said the very stones would cry out that He is the Son of God, if people would not do it.
This is exactly what happened when He was crucified!
Rocks split and tombs broke open.
These occurrences preached that it was Jesus the Son of God who bore our punishment for our sins at that moment.
And also proved that Jesus would rise from the dead. Many of the righteous who had died rose from the dead.

See Matthew 27:52, 53: “The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom as sign that through the death of Jesus we would in future have entrance to the eternal kingdom of God when we pass away.

The two criminals lived longer than Christ. Their bones had to be broken to expedite their death. Why?

Because they could not lay down their lives.
They could not do what Christ did. He decided that the moment of death had arrived and then gave up his spirit to his Father.
Only Christ could control death like that.

So much God loved us.

So much that his Son Jesus Christ voluntarily laid down his life for us sinners.
Christ did this reconciliation as the Anointed of God: The One anointed as the highest Prophet, Priest and King.

With his death He confirmed what He had taught the people.

He was the Prophet who taught that the temple of his body would be demolished and that he would rebuild it in three days.
He also told them that the earthly builders of God’s kingdom would reject Him, even to be used as an ordinary building brick.
Christ wanted to point out to them that, according to their values, they could not regard Him as a worthy building block for the wall of God’s kingdom.
The people totally rejected Him as building material.
The rejection He prophesised came true on the cross.

Jesus was also the Prophet who declared that God would use this rejected building brick as the corner stone in the building of his heavenly kingdom.

Jesus also died as anointed Priest. His sacrifice was perfect. Hebrews 9:13,14 reads:

The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

On the cross Christ also showed Himself as the dignified anointed King of God.

The Prophet prophesised that Christ would return from the dead, and Christ the King proved that He, as King, truly had the power to reign over death.
He voluntarily gave Himself up to die, and He broke the power of death.
The powers of hell could not bind this King.
The resurrection from the dead was therefore the most powerful revelation of the kingly power of Christ our God.

To this we cling for our salvation!

With this, Christ teaches us, that our old man was crucified with Him. The old man is the one who hangs on to sin.
He also teaches us that He conquered death and sin for us so that we can live as free people in God.

Although we know all these things, we so easily gloss over it without really understanding what it really means. That’s why the Heidelberg Catechism further questions us about our confession of faith: Why do you confess that He descended into hell?

It is to emphasise the fact of Christ’s immense suffering. We should not ignore it.

He had to suffer the death sentence innocently.
He was condemned under the law.
He died because God punished Him personally for the sins of all people.
Completely on his own He had to endure the violent hostility of the devil. So lonely that He even called out that God had forsaken Him.

This is what Psalm 116 tells us:

The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me;
I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.

Dearly beloved brothers and sisters, we must live like redeemed, like people who have been delivered from all pangs of death.

Go through life in such a way that everybody can see and say that you find your strength in Christ the crucified.
When you are worried, or suffer from anguish of the soul, pray.
God will clear it up for you, because that is what Christ died for.
His crucifixion ensures us that nobody and nothing can take us who believe away from God, because the crucifixion and the resurrection proved

God to be the most mighty and most merciful God to all eternity.
Satan has no strength or power against Him. Our lives are guaranteed to all eternity.

Let us read Catechism Sunday 16:

Question 40: Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself even unto death?
Answer: Because of the justice and truth of God[1] satisfaction for our sins could be made in no other way than by the death of the Son of God.[2]
[1] Gen. 2:17. [2] Rom. 8:3; Phil. 2:8; Heb. 2:9, 14, 15.

Question 41: Why was he buried?
Answer: His burial testified that He had really died.[1]
[1] Is. 53:9; John 19:38-42; Acts 13:29; I Cor. 15:3,4.

Question 42: Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?
Answer: Our death is not a payment for our sins, but it puts an end to sin and is an entrance into eternal life.[1]
[1] John 5:24; Phil. 1:21-23; I Thess. 5:9, 10.

Question 43: What further benefit do we receive from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross?
Answer: Through Christ's death our old nature is crucified, put to death, and buried with Him,[1] so that the evil desires of the flesh may no longer reign in us,[2] but that we may offer ourselves to Him as a sacrifice of thankfulness.[3]
[1] Rom. 6:5-11; Col. 2:11, 12. [2] Rom. 6:12-14. [3] Rom. 12:1; Eph. 5:1, 2.

Question 44: Why is there added: He descended into hell?
Answer: In my greatest sorrows and temptations I may be assured and comforted that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His unspeakable anguish, pain, terror, and agony, which He endured throughout all His sufferings[1] but especially on the cross, has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell.[2]
[1] Ps. 18:5, 6; 116:3; Matt. 26:36-46; 27:45, 46; Heb. 5:7-10. [2] Is. 53.

Amen.

Closing prayer:

Closing hymn: Psalm 103:1, 2

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen

Dr. M.J. du Plessis
Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville
Date: 12 October 2003 (morning )