In this sermon, the preacher reflects on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the reactions of different individuals to his suffering on the cross. The preacher emphasizes the significance of Jesus' sacrifice and the truth that he brought before Pontius Pilate. The centurion present at the crucifixion recognizes Jesus as the Son of God amidst the dramatic events that occur. The preacher also mentions the transformative experience of Saul of Tarsus, who later becomes the apostle Paul and proclaims the message of Jesus' crucifixion. The sermon concludes with the call for repentance and the recognition that Jesus' crucifixion is the means by which sin is crucified and eternal life is obtained.

They gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink, and they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture they did cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there, and set over him his accusation written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there two fiends crucified with him, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And they sat down and watched him there. The whole world is watching him. The whole world has been watching him now for almost 2,000 years. We had an advertisement with our tent meeting, or rather one tent meeting in Hamburg, that said, An Jesu den gekreuzigen, kom kein Mensch vorbei. The whole world has to take notice of this one great testimony, when Jesus, crowned with thorns, spat upon with bleeding, lacerated members of his body, stood before Pilate and said, To this end was I born. And for this cause came I into the world. I had a message, a powerful message, a message that humanity will not receive any other way. I've come to testify to the truth. And what a truth it was that all places grasped, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. What a testimony. Jesus Christ brought before Pontius Pilate and thus to us. And they all watched him. They sat down and they all had different reactions to that cross of Christ. Some whacked their heads and they said, He said he was the Messiah. Let him come down from the cross and we'll believe him. And others wept because they said, We thought that he was going to redeem Israel. And now here's the end of all our hopes. He has certainly disappointed us. And there were others. There was the centurion who when sky grew black and the earth was convulsed with earthquake and the rocks rent and the lightnings flashed and the thunders shook the people. He said, Surely this man was the Son of God. But you know, there was another. I don't know whether Saul of Tarsus was there and watched him. But after a while when he saw him in his great glory, he found the truth, wonderful truth. And he said, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And that is the great truth you have obeyed from the heart. That form of doctrine which was delivered to you. In other words, the truth of Christ. We heard a while ago that we cannot know anything about the cross. No, we don't until we ourselves pick it up and carry it after Jesus. He says, Any man will come after me. Let him take up his cross daily and follow me. And that is the great message. I was in that catacomb in Vienna and I saw 20,000 skeletons. And the skulls were rolling around on the floor and the shin bones and the thigh bones and all kinds of bones were lying around there like cartwood. And I thought of 20,000 people and they all are going to be raised from the dead at the voice of the Son of Man and are all going to stand attention to receive their sentence. No man will escape the crucified. And the Bible tells us that he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. And they also which pierced him. And who has pierced him? Beloved, either I go to Calvary and I eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man and receive his life, his divine life, his holy life, his righteous life, his eternal life, or I go on living careless Christ, crucifying him afresh. And the Bible says, And they shall wail because of him all the tribes of the earth. And we're sure that that hour is soon to come. What a prayer meeting that will be when all the people that are living upon this earth and those that have died and are now raised again to receive their sentence will wail. The German Bible says, They shall howl because of him. There will be reason to howl because out of his mouth they'll receive their sentence due to everlasting fire. Who are they? Why, the foolish virgins that didn't bother to take oil in their vessels. Beloved, you cannot live a holy life without the fullness of the Holy Ghost. And you cannot live a holy life by having only the baptism according to Acts 2.4 when the Bible says they took oil in their vessels. It means these bodies of ours. God has purchased these bodies with a great price. And when Jesus came and cleansed the temple, as we heard last Sunday, the high priests, the religious people, the theologians came around. And they said, Who gave you this authority? Who in the world gave you the right to come into our temple and to spoil this fine service? We just had a wonderful revival. My, the people were shouting and they were having a great time. And now you come in and you overthrow the table. And all these animals that were to be sacrificed. What right have you got to do that? He says, Break this temple and in three days I'll build it. Oh, I've got a right because this body is going to be a sacrifice for the temple of Jehovah. The only temple that God is creating is a holy temple made up of living stones. Glory to God. And you and I are called to be members of that body and living stones in that temple which God is building. And how does it come about? Break down this temple. Oh, this temple of his body had to be slain, had to be given to death. He had to abolish death. He had to... Cudgeled, not only with the money changers, but with all the enemies of humanity, the world and the flesh and the devil and what the law could not do. What Moses didn't even begin to do. Why, Moses gave us the right to divorce our wives. Sure, who in the world are you? He that divorces his wife commits adultery. And he that denies me before men in this wicked and adulterous generation. Beloved, men are doing that right and left. Pentecostal people are doing that right and left. They're doing justice they please with their bodies, but Jesus Christ died on the cross to redeem this body, to make it a temple of the living God. That's what the cross means. Like Jesus suffered, that I might know him and the power of him, that I might be made... Oh, wonder of the cross. I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Your carnal is dead. Arise unto righteousness and sin not, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but that you might experience the power of his resurrection. Beloved, my God gave his son to save us from sin, not to fill Pentecostal. Let every one of you be minded like Jesus Christ was minded. There is the mind of Christ given to me because I have taken up my cross to follow Jesus. And how do I take up my cross? You will face the need of it at every step of the way. Every spite you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say. And we go on through this life doing exactly the opposite of what he says. I've heard God speak to people so that they were trembling with conviction, and then they went out and did exactly the opposite of what they were told. I know God's will. Now I can preach about it. I can teach faith. I have been crucified with Christ, Paul was able to say. Beloved, every one of us ought to be able to say that. I glory to God. I have been crucified with Christ, opens the door. Christ liveth in me. O beloved, what the Lord could not do. Why did he have to drink that bitter cup? Why did Jesus Christ have to go that lonely path of the cross? Because he tasted, he took upon himself the form of man, and he was made sin for me that he might crucify my sin. And now he commanded all men everywhere to repent. That means to change governorship, to change kingship, change lordship. It's up to you now to repent and to be minded like Jesus Christ was, towards sin. Reckon yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. How? Why, through Jesus Christ who finished it for me, who drank that cup for me. I have no business to be a debtor to the flesh. Do you have a temper? You have no business to exercise that temper, because it was imputed to Jesus Christ, and he took it away, and he bore the penalty of it, and he has purchased for you love that suffered long at his time. And if you say the word, Jesus Christ will take the place of that old devil that has ruled in your heart. Are you troubled with lust? Oh, beloved, I tell you that sin is today destroying the body of Christ. I thought a while ago we ought to go to the Catholics to learn a lesson from them. They're having a Good Friday meeting someplace. I don't remember where, but some great Catholic teacher, who's a godly man, is gathering a lot of students around him. I believe it's the whole Easter week, if I'm not mistaken. And I don't know that there are any women among them. That would make the miracle so much greater. But they gather in perfect silence until Easter morning, just worshiping. Say they're Catholics? No, they're Protestants? No, they're Mormons? No. No, they're worshiping. They worship. They acknowledge the presence of God. And some of those students have said, and when Easter morning comes, we tremble within ourselves by the presence and power of God. Beloved, we don't believe Jesus because we don't bear the cross. We don't say no to the flesh. We don't take this roadmap of the New Testament. We don't. We drink the blood of the New Testament and then we sin against it and we trample underfoot. Daily. Thank God it's a wonderful daily experience with Jesus. Daily, I must walk with Jesus. Daily, he reveals himself to me. Daily, he that has my commandments and keepeth them. Do you do that? Oh, that's bearing your cross. That's saying no to self. Thank God. Rejoice evermore. Try that and you'll have a test before you go out of this meeting. Rejoice evermore. Delight thyself also in the Lord for we are the circumcision. Gesang gesund. That'll make you healthy. Rejoice evermore. He that has my commandments. Dear Lord, I don't care about your commandments. Oh, yes, of course. In large issues, yes, I'll obey you. Some woman says, I've had a doorknob on the back of my head now all these years. And what's the good of it? These young girls, they bob their hair. And so, you're getting inwardly so self-righteous just like the Pharisee that said, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like the other girls are. Oh, what a lot of wrath we call! Pentecost! Beloved, love that faketh no evil. Love that makes Jesus Christ rise within me. Makes me rise. Obey from the heart that form of doctrine. I have been christened to cross. And take up the battle with principalities and powers and with my own flesh. I will find out step by step. I cannot take one step of obedience without the help of the Holy Ghost. Without the resurrection power of the Son of God. And he says, and I will manifest myself to him. Why are our lives so poor? A man in Germany came to me. And he said, they told me I had the baptism. I said, where'd you get the baptism? Oh, he went into a certain revival meeting. And they got all the people up in the front benches. And they said, now just open your mouth and say boo or cuckoo or any old thing until your tongue wraps itself. And then they said, now you got the baptism. He said, and I've got nothing. Listen, if you don't take up your cross daily, you cannot be my disciple. Your speaking in tongues will be a tinkling cymbal. Your prophesying will be good for nothing. Your casting out devils will amount to nothing in that day. Depart from me, ye wicked, into eternal fire. Oh, my Lord, they shall howl. I'd like to hear that. I'd like to be there. I'll be there. Oh, but I want to be on the right side. I want to be on the side of those to whom he says, come, ye righteous. Come, ye beloved of my Father in heaven, the kingdom. Oh, beloved, the cross gives me the kingdom. That your faith might not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's where my faith must be in a Christ who doesn't only live, but who lives within me. Glory to God, a Christ who is abundantly able to save to the uttermost. Beloved, that's the kind of a Christ God has provided for us. And the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ is the ramp. Veil is the open way. A new and a living way. And because God raised him from the dead, I've got a living son of God to follow. A living champion to fight with. I've got a leader. Glory to God who is leading me to glory and guiding me and directing me day by day at making my path shine more bright day by day until the perfect day. Oh, what a call. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And it cannot be unless I understand through the Holy Ghost the secret of the cross. It crucifies me. My flesh, my lust that has so far enslaved me. Thank God they have lost their power. He has abolished death. And yet brought life and immortality. Oh, that's what it is. Taking up the cross is making my choice between life and immortality and denying the power of death. That is the devil. Oh, wonder of wonders, take up your cross daily and follow me. I said the other day that I've never had a vision except once when I tried to fast three days and I saw a bratwurst, hamburger sandwich or something like that. The only vision I ever had. But I've had dreams that God gave me. And one day I woke up weeping. My heart was broken over my dream and I couldn't remember my dream for a long time and then it all came back to me just as vividly. In my dream I was condemned to die. And this was no fiction, this was real. In my dream I really felt the pangs of death and the terror of death coming upon me. And I was condemned to die and I thought if they'd only sliced my head off it would be easy. But they were going to crucify me. I thought of all the most of death crucified to hang their nails to a cross for hours. I thought my, this is very, very terrible but they have changed me. And they were taking me out to a hill where I was going to be crucified and there was a great mob of people that wanted to see the fun. And so here I was chained and I was led and they had to drag me because I didn't want to go myself. I really didn't want to go voluntarily to the cross. But as we were being dragged up the hill a messenger came and commanded these officers that held me and they were going to crucify me to let me go! My, that was the best message I ever heard in my life. Let him go! And I found out from them that somebody thought enough of me to offer to die in my stead. Now the strange thing was I thought my, who could that be? I couldn't think of anybody in the world that thought enough of me to die for me. Sometimes people seem to like me and they send me a card for Christmas or for my birthday. But who in the world? I couldn't figure it out at all but already I saw another mob coming from another section of the hill and they were leading another man and he was the one that was going to die in my stead. And when he came closer of course I saw it was Jesus. And it hadn't dawned on me before that at all. But you know it was so very, very real there was one who was willing to die in my stead that a soul so unworthy might live! But that's it. All they said, we thought he was going to redeem Israel and what kind of ideas did they have about redemption? Not real redemption. Oh, I tell you he had to suffer these things because my fall was so very, very terrible, so terrible that I can't breathe! I can't think! I cannot imagine! In sin has my mother conceived me and I was born in iniquity the very warp and wolf of my nature was an inheritance I had from the first Adam and like every human being cannot get into this human family! I always say when I see a lot of people, my God certainly started something when he made Adam and Eve. Why? And they're all bearing the image of Adam and Eve. All of them. And they all have the sin of Adam in them. And they all have the sentence of death pronounced upon them because in Adam all die and they've all borne the image of the first Adam and beloved God provided a new Adam who is not made of earth but who is the life giving spirit. The first Adam was made a living soul and he dragged all his children down with him and the only way to become related to the second Adam is to be born by him. Born again! Born of the spirit! Thank God! They that are in the spirit! The Bible says they sin not. If any man abide in him his sin is not. Whosoever sinneth has not seen him. As we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly and how could it be? Oh he had to take that Adamic nature and give it the very blow that God intended. Had to curse him. He was made a curse for us. Oh Jesus he was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Come now if any man will follow me let him take up his cross daily and if he doesn't he cannot be my disciple. But thank God I can be his disciple. I had another dream since and in my other dream I was again to be crucified. But here was three crosses were set up and Jesus was nailed to the cross and the bad thief I hope it was the bad one and I was the good one I think. I hope so. Anyway I was the third thief. The second thief. And I was destined to be nailed to this cross at least on oh excuse me but on Jesus left side. I don't know. Maybe I was the bad one. But anyway that cross remained empty because I did it. I still remember that dream it was so real and I ran away to hide myself. Oh we heard about that this day but we can't. Today this day this day settle it. Jesus I am crucified with you.