In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the crucifixion of Jesus as described in Matthew 27:34-36. He highlights the significance of the actions and reactions of different people who witnessed the crucifixion. The preacher emphasizes that what each person saw when they looked at Jesus on the cross depended on their own personal background and perspective. He encourages the audience to reflect on what they bring to their own vision of Jesus and how it shapes their understanding of his sacrifice.

Christ has risen, and then you say, Christ has risen indeed. Yes, that's a very, very, very old Christian custom, and sometimes I'm glad we have some of them, because there are so many customs that aren't worth very much. But in the very early Church history days, on Easter Sunday, every Christian who met the other, he would come out and say, Christ has risen! And the other would say, Christ has risen indeed! And he'd come to the next one, all the way around. So I'm greeting you from a European standpoint this morning, and I'm glad to be with you, to break the bread again with you. Now, our Heavenly Father, we are in thy presence. Thou hast brought us here this morning so that you could meet us, and we could meet thee. And we pray that thou will give us the bread which is adequate, and needful, helpful to us. We have nothing in our own hearts and lives to give. All that we can give is what thou hast given to us. And we ask thy blessing upon us, upon this group. Give us open hearts, and understanding hearts, and spirits that will respond to thee. We will give thee the praise and the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we're in our Holy Week, bringing it to its conclusion. And I was reading only a few days ago, Good Friday, the story of the crucifixion. And as I read it, I found four or five little words that I had never read very carefully. Perhaps you have the same experience. You just read it because it's there, by force of habit, until the Spirit checks you, and you stand and look at that. I was reading in Matthew, the story of the crucifixion. And I'll read you the verse. It's in Matthew, the 27th chapter, and say, the 34th verse. And 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 they might be filled up, which were spoken of the prophets. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. It's the fulfillment of the Scripture in its prophecy. And sitting down, they watched him there. And sitting down, they watched him there. Seven little words, but so very significant. I had read that many, many times without thinking. What a crude, cruel, terrifying vision that they would ever want to sit down and look at. The Son of God in the act of crucifixion and death becoming a spectacle. And sitting down, they watched him. Now the question comes to me when I read that. What do you see when you look? What do you see when you look? Well, what you see when you look depends very much, if not wholly, upon what you bring to the vision. The vision is one. They all looked at the same objective spectacle. The Son of God dying on Calvary. It was the same spectacle, but here was a group of people, and as I looked at it, I have taken seven different aspects. That is, seven different people who looked at him, and what did they see? Well, when you look, you carry with you, without thinking about it, your own peculiar personal reaction to that stimuli. The vision is a stimuli. It stimulates in you a whole background, perhaps a whole lifetime. And as you bring that lifetime up and expose it to that vision, something tremendous will happen. It has to happen. And what you see, I believe, is your reaction, because you bring to it what you see. You have it already in your heart. You have it already in your heart. It's like great music. You go to hear some good music. I'm a Christian, and supposed to be spiritually minded, that God never took out from me my appreciation of beauty. I like beauty in music and in art, in any field, because God is a great artist and a creator of beauty. And because he brings us out of darkness and sin into a life with him, he does not bring any dissatisfaction in us concerning the things that are beautiful in him. If we are Christians, we will respond to that beauty. I have known people who hadn't very much sense of the beautiful until they were really converted. And after they had come to God through Christ Jesus and have lived with him in the Spirit, he has aroused in their consciousness a response to beauty that they have never sensed before, because I believe that should be a normal reaction. So, when we behold, we carry with us the response. Great music. We might have this morning some very fine concerto played. I like a piece of music like that. I think it's beautiful. Well, now there may be a dozen people. Do you think every one of you people would get the same reaction? You couldn't. You say, yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's beautiful. But what part stirred you? There had to be something in your heart and life which responds instantly to the tone or the color that that music is producing. And in a moment, you're transported. You're changed. You're lifted. You're thrilled. You're carried out. Well, how? The sound of the music striking in upon what you have brought to the music. How do I know? Because of 500 reactions that come from 500 different people. Isn't that true? Do you think everyone enjoyed that music just as you did? No. Because they were not bringing what you did. I've seen some people, say, when the violins get in a piece of music. How many of you know sometimes the violins have to be used to build up your background? And some people say, why is he fiddling so? Listen. How many of you know he's building up a remarkable background? Tremendous background. Now in a minute there's going to be a flash of color and on comes the crashing thing. You wouldn't get that unless you knew what he was doing. And the man stands there, I wish he wouldn't fiddle so, and he's going to play a tune. How many of you know you don't get a Yankee Doodle played in a concerto? You get music. You get color. I'm not going to give you a lesson on music this morning, but how many of you know what I'm getting at? You bring to the music what you enjoy. This is purely the outward stimulus. And it stirs within you what you bring. You do it the same in art. I've visited the art galleries. Perhaps you have too. In London, Tate's Gallery, where they have Turner's marvelous pictures in color. They are tremendous, Turner's colors. And one day he was standing there, rather nonchalant, easy, and here were some people, and he said, well I never saw colors like that. He stepped up and he decided, he said, don't you wish you could? Well I feel like that sometimes. Yes. And sometimes when I'm reading the words, if somebody is thrilled to pieces, I say, Lord, do something in me that I will respond to you. My whole heart will respond to God. He displays himself so many times. He gives us this marvelous word. I don't want to sit down and read it as though I was reading a story out of a magazine. It's life. It's life. His words are life. I want to read it so it quickens me. Now, teaching that thought in mind, they sat down and watched him. Who are the they? Well when I looked at it, I said, I think there was quite a little group. And I think they're all going to get a different reaction as they sit down and watch him, the son of God, in the death throes, in the agony of Calvary, offering himself back to God as an offering for the sins of the world to redeem the very ones who are looking at him. So I started making a little list of these people. I don't know how far I'll get with them, but I want to talk about them this morning. I think the first group that I want to look at are these terrifyingly wicked Jews, those Pharisees and the old priests and all that hierarchy that was always antagonistic. They were always against him. They had connived in every way possible to get a hold of him and pull him out of the way. While the common people heard him gladly, they were conniving him to put him out of the picture. These Pharisees, the priests, they were all present. Our speaks of them. So there they sit. Well, what are they seeing? To them, to them, they think, I'm seeing the end of this troublemaker. He's been in our midst these years, stirring up this faction, doing everything against us, never coming to us, but out among the common people, preaching this gospel and at last claiming to be the Son of God in all such blasphemy. It's time that he's put out of the way. And so they rejoice together. But do you see what it is? They are rejoicing in their own defeat. For the cross and Calvary forever defeated the antagonism of that group and silenced them. And they were looking at their own defeat because they brought their defeat in their hearts. Do you get it? They brought their defeat in their hearts, exposing it before that Lamb of God. The whole thing was an expose. There it was. Their darkness, their hideous attitude toward him, their antagonism. And as they rejoiced, they had been shouting, crucify, crucify, crucify. Now they think, now we have crucified him. No, you Pharisees, you priests, you scribes. You're looking at your own defeat for you brought defeat. And it's exposed to you through this glorious light, the Lamb of God, the light of the world, and it exposes it. And you are there sitting in your own defeat for you shall never have the occasion again to antagonize him, to terrify him, to be ugly and kill him. This is your hour, which is an hour of defeat for you brought it with you. Now we could talk some time concerning that first group. What did they see? They saw what they saw, the accomplishment of their conniving. Well, the very accomplishment of their conniving was the defeat that silences them forever, for they have nothing, they have nothing more, nothing more. Silence. Why? That's what they brought to the cross. And they sat down and watched him. What did they see? They saw their whole moral national collapse. Now I want to talk about another group. Do you know anybody else that was there watching? If we take it from the two extremes, that of night and that of darkness, this seemed to be the darkest hour in the world, but it was giving birth to the greatest, luminous, brightest, glorious hope that we shall ever have. It was having its birth, for all life is born out of death, and there is a principle that we'll have to own if you are a Christian making your way back again to the heart of God. Remember, that in this strange and wonderful walk that we have in the spirit, moving back again to the heart of God, there are principles and laws which we must understand and follow if we make any kind of success of it, rather than some singing book theology, get a hold of the word of God. What does he say? All life issues out of death. There can be no life unless there be death as its foundation, for out of the secrets of that death life will spring. I spoke about it the other night with a little apple seed. That little apple seed was potentially a tree full of fruit, but blind people can't see that, they see a seed. Look past that! Past its potential. It is a seed, but in the hands of God that little brown seed is a terrific tree, green and fresh with leaves, laden with blossoms and with fruit, all hidden away in a little brown seed. No farmer adds anything to the tree. He cultures the tree, he waters the tree, he takes care of the tree, and out from the midst of the seed the tree grows. You don't add anything to the tree. No farmer went out and put leaves on it. The leaves are in the seed. No one went out and put limbs on the tree. The limbs are in the seed. Can you see that? That's the miracle of God in the vegetable world, growing a seed, a tiny miracle. For hidden away in that little seed are all the possibilities of the tree and the fruit. You do not add one thing. You release it. Let Him come into your heart and release you and set Himself free in your heart. All you can do is say, Come in, Jesus. I can be the ground. You are the everlasting seed. Plant Yourself in my heart. Culture it, water it, fertilize it, prune it. Do all you can, but bring the blossoms and bring the fruit, for you are the secret. Potentially in you are all the things of the here and the hereafter. So we find life issues out of death. Who else is very present watching this whole scene, but is not visible? Do you know the devil was there, or didn't you know that? The devil was there watching what he thought was a marvelous success. I will at last put this man out of the world. He had tried it when he was a little baby. That was the devil who got in that idea of slaying those little children. The devil didn't even want him to live. He said, I can do something. I can get in here, and he tried his best to get rid of him, even as a little child. For he knew, he knew, that that marvelous, wonderful Christ, born as a little babe, was the answer to the whole riddle of the universe, and the answer to God. Hallelujah. But he is defeated. He tries again, when he comes out grown, and is laboring in his synagogue, teaching and preaching. Gets a mob, says they can push him over the precipice, if possible, and kill him. And Jesus moves through them like that, and God takes him through and delivers him. He gets him out on the water, in the ship, and his disciples. The devil is the prince of the power of the air. Get his location. That's his habitat. His domain of power. He is the prince of the power of the air, and he can start a cyclone. Why? Because it is destructive. He has come to kill, to steal, to destroy. He cannot give life. Jesus says, I have come to give life and glory to God. Glory to God. I have come to give life. This enemy has come with three ideas. To steal, to kill, to destroy. And if we had a morning here for an hour, we would open up what those three things are, in relation to the human race. They are the basic disturbing things. So he says, I can stir up a storm, and drown him. And he stirs up a most terrifying storm. Jesus is aware of it. How do I know? Because he is Adam, the last, the perfected Adam, who has power over the things of nature. For God gave that original Adam power. And Christ, as that original Adam, displays his power, and reboots the storm. If that is a storm God has started, Jesus would never rebuke his father's work. Jesus never rebukes his father's work. He can rebuke the work of the enemy. And he did. And to steal. Now he says, I have tried all the way through, to dispose of this strange, marvelous man. Now we have Mount Calvary. But what does he do? Do you know what he is seeing? He is seeing his own defeat. Why? Because he is a defeated thing. How many of you can't hear, don't you? What is he seeing? He is seeing the defeat of himself. And he knows it. In connection with that, I'll put down another verse that you might like to use. It's in Colossians 2.15, if you're taking notes. Where it says, on Calvary, he disposes and exposes and demolishes all the works of evil. He says it distinctly, that at Calvary, all that work of the darkness and hell is defeated in Colossians. I'm glad we have that verse. I'm glad I have scripture for what I'm talking about. Lots of times we don't sit down and study it, but it's all there. Now let me take a third, just as I move along. How many of you remember, distinctly now, separate individuals who are mentioned in this group watching him? How many of them really could sense that he is, and must be, some kind of a supernatural being to have gone through all that he had, and now, with the thunder, crashing, and the lightning, and the whole storm, the whole hideous thing in his death, what do we find? A centurion. Not a Christian. A centurion. Now he becomes a type to me. How many can see, these are all typical groups of people that are living today. Did you know we have a centurion around us today? Yes, we have. Do you know we have the scribes? Do you know we have the Pharisees? Certainly! We have every one of these dramatic characters living right around us, all the time. And what is the centurion's reaction? He has sense enough to know this is no common thing. This is no earthly, earthbound spectacle. He must be a son of some God. Do you remember? That was his reaction, and he spoke it out. This is the son of a God. Now he has no Old Testament revelation of God, but he knows there is a God. And so he says, that this is none other than the son of God, to go through a thing like this. A response nearer to truth than those who have the Scriptures in their hands. The old scribes, and them with Scriptures in their hands, and he is centurion. Gets a reaction that's past them, because he can see through. There must be something sublime, mystical, spiritual, in this thing. He must be a son of God. I can't go on with that, but that's a lovely theme. Now I want you to look at another one. This much we have looked at is rather on the earth side. How do I know there was something else? I know from the Scripture. The Scriptures. Back in the Scriptures, when it speaks of Jesus, and his coming, and his revelation, and his marvelous death, resurrection, and the glorious homecoming. It was a spectacle that the angels desired to look into. Do you remember that? The mystery, and it says the angels desired to look into this mystery. It was quite veiled to them. God never explained to all the angelic hosts what he was doing, but the angels knew all the time as they watched this man moving, coming, going. Had they not sung at his birth? Had not someone ministered to him in the hour of temptation? Had they not come and strengthened him in the garden? They had ministered and ministered, and it says it was a wonder, a mystery to the angels that they desired to look into it. So God draws the curtain back, and he says the angelic host, here is the climax of that whole dramatic life. It was all unto this death that he may come in life back again to our home, and the angels in heaven beheld him. What a spectacle that all heaven, earth, the whole universe invited to look upon. And as it says in the scriptures, the angels desired to look into, God says you may look, and the angelic host beheld this strange, mystical episode, the Son of God passing into death. Now, there is somebody else there also. This thief on the cross is smitten with conviction, and while one of them rails against the Lord, this thief rebukes his friend over there. Do you remember how he rebuked him? He told him to be quiet. He says, we have done evil and deserve, but this man has done nothing to deserve it. Wasn't that sweet? To have that as a response from a thief, a testimony from a thief. One of the first testimonies we have of him hanging on the cross is from the lips of a thief. He takes testimony from anyone who will give it to him. The angels are filled with it, heaven is sounding with it. It echoes even in the heart of a thief whose consciousness, his inner conviction has been awakened, and he said we deserve it, but not this man, for this man has done no evil. And he turns to Jesus and he says, remember me. What did Jesus say? The only thing that a dying Savior could say, he accepted his repentance. This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. There is the first convert from the crucifixion was made on a cross. The first, first convert, the first convert is a man hanging on a cross close to Jesus. I like that. So I have another one who sat, stood, no, he was hanging, but he also lied. Do you get it? What is it? It's the repentant heart, the heart that is open and conscious of its desperate need, making its confession, and Jesus receiving him. This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. First convert hanging on a cross. Isn't it strange? Well, this whole thing is strange to me. I don't think anybody in the world could ever make a story like this story of the crucifixion. Only God could make a thing like this. The first convert from the death, all of them were by anticipation. They looked forward to Calvary, forward to Calvary. Here is one in the immediate presence of Calvary. And the very first one in the immediate presence of it after its long period of prophecy is a dying thief. Isn't that strange that that's who we are? That's broken humanity making its confession. And God says through his Christ this day shall now be. Isn't it lovely? He reads the heart when our lips can't always say what we want to. I think some of the most meaningful prayers I have ever prayed were never prayed with my lips. How many of you know prayer goes past your lips? Prayer goes past your lips. Past that. And that's what Jesus sees. So we find the thief on the cross. Now let me look at another group. Some who are very close to him. Because they are mentioned. Here are the disciples, at least some of them. The very mother of Jesus, herself, and the other Mary, the women, and Magdalene. What do we have? The most intimate friends and his relatives, the closest to him, the very closest to him, are present with him now as he hangs on the cross. I want to speak of Mary just for a moment. I don't think any of us could put ourselves in the place and get the same reaction. Not one of us. Because we can't appreciate the heart of Mary. We don't know it from reading it. We've never experienced anything like that. Here was the mother to whom the angel had announced that I will, God will give you the Savior, you shall call him Emmanuel. So she has received that word, carried it in her heart, and it was under the shadow of his wings that the little Christ child is born. It was not in the open, in some brilliant light place of explanation and analysis and all the logic in the world and the philosophy that would understand it. No. She said in amazement, how shall this thing be, seeing I know not a man. Her view was purely normal, natural, physical. I'm not married, how shall this thing be? That wasn't a question that she should have to have the incarnation explained to her. Don't be ridiculous. And God said, I will send an angel and he will sit down and explain the incarnation to you. Can you imagine anything as crazy and foolish as that? Don't let it enter your mind. She's not asking for an analysis of this idea of his incarnation. It was purely the amazement of a maiden in its quick response and saying, oh God, how can that be? He answers her just as easily. Abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Now do you see something there? He never desired a brilliant analysis. Many of our scholars have so hard tried desperately for these ages to explain the mystery of the incarnation. God never desired it. How shall it be? Abide under the shadow of the Almighty. The mystery is God's. Where will it be brought out? In the shadow, Mary. And it was only as Mary took that place of shadow, dependence, utter abandonment to God that the Christ child is born. And she carries this little Christ child and finally gives birth to it. And this is her great joy for she has brought forth at last what the angel had announced. And she brings him forth in shadow, not with an explanation for any philosopher. Truth comes by revelation. If you don't remember anything I've ever told you, remember it. I believe in education. I am a college man. I've had my seminary and college work. I have all of that. But I never put any dependence upon it at all in the field of the Spirit. In the realm of the Spirit there is where God, by the Holy Spirit, brings revelation to the heart that is open, clean, and clear, and responsive. I do not depreciate what I've had. It's good as a technique. It's good to have, to look up my verses if I want to translate in the Old and New Testament to get my Hebrew or my Greek out. That's all right. I do that. That's quite mechanical. But that's not inspirational. It's mechanical. And it's very good to lead me out in a thought processes. But the things of God are not brought to us through any thought processes. They are brought through the power of the Holy Spirit. Leave your learning where it belongs. Don't depreciate it. Get as much as you can lawfully, and keep it correctly where it belongs. Then move with the Spirit into the realm of the Spirit where the author of this Word can interpret to you in the Spirit its truth. Please remember that. I'm not against education. That would be silly. I want it in its proper place. What has brought all this strange idea of God is dead? Well, now, that isn't new. Nietzsche, our great philosopher in the German field, said that long ago. Why? Because in his little field of philosophy, and he was a philosopher. I respect philosophers. Let them alone in their field. Don't criticize them. They have their field, but don't let them in over in the field of the Spirit. They don't belong there. It is with the heart, man, believe it, not with the brains. Your brains go out and gather your material and lay it before you, but your heart has to give the assent and consent. Long ago, he had reduced all this peculiar ideas of God and Christianity. I felt it in the seminary 40, 50 years ago when I was a young man in Drew Seminary, Methodist Seminary, one of the finest we have in the East. I remember when all of that came in. I remember when Walter Rosenbusch, a great Baptist scholar, got out his book Christianity and the Social Crisis. What a furor it made. Well, I put mine in the furnace. I understood it perfectly from his standpoint because I'm a school teacher. But I said, you have no right to peddle that all upon some unsophisticated public who have no background of learning at all and you peddle that. Now that has been cooking and cooking and cooking until Nietzsche was the first one who spoke of it. God is dead. And I saw a little squib the other day and I was very much amused by it. And it says, God is dead, Nietzsche. And under it it says, Nietzsche is dead, God. I almost got blessed. I said, that's really right. How did he get the point? So he said his nice little piece and that was the end of it. He thought he was saying something brilliant. And so we have these scholars now. I'm really pathetic. I feel sorry for them. I don't feel envious that they've got such a stride in the intellect that they've reached such a point. That's the point of disaster, brother. Don't go that way. No, no. And I was just thrilled. Nietzsche is dead. God. So we still got God anyway. So I was pleased. Well now, coming back to this. Where was I? Oh, Mary. Yes. Oh, I want to finish just a little point in there too. You see, when she has acknowledged this fact that she's to become the mother of this Messiah, she takes her place in the shadow. Now, people like the things of God brought to pass in their experience. We like, as far as possible, a duplication in our hearts and lives of the life of Christ. The beauty of Christ. The loveliness of Christ. Let His image be formed in you. Let His image be formed in you. Be conformed to the image of the Son. Now that is all wonderful and beautiful. I believe it. I'm in for it. But how will you do it? Well, get all the best commentaries you can and read. And then say all the best prayers that you can pray and get blessed very hard and you'll be transformed. No, dear. You're ending in a dead alley. There's no answer to that. He told you how to do it. Abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Who wants to go into a shadow? Nobody. Oh, I don't like shadows. They're so depressing. I don't like trials. They're so terrifying. I want the light, the light, the beautiful light. I want... Now, wait a minute. You're not going to find the Christ that's revealed. He is formed in the shadow. The next time He takes you into one good, dark, deep shadow and it's the Lord who sees good to take you, go patiently with Him. Say, thank you, Lord. This is new to me. I sought to be conformed to thy image to be the one of most beautiful, illuminating, luscious, glorious experiences. Almost a translation, Lord, but I didn't seem to get translated. No, dear. Who makes the shadow? God. It's the shadow of the Almighty, not the devil. The shadow is of the Almighty. Abide, if you can, a little while in that shadow. And if you can stand it, you can take some very terrifying experiences because you know your orientation and you know your place in the shadow. What else did she see? Well, do you remember when Jesus came up from His baptism and had the power of the Holy Spirit upon Him and had been recognized by the Father with that great blessing, this is my beloved Son, in my mouth, please. And He moves up. What is the very first occasion that He meets? It's a wedding feast. The very first occasion that He meets after this acclaim is a wedding feast. Now Mary is a very anxious mother. Who wouldn't be? She had carried this secret for a long time that this is the Messiah. She said it was the Messiah. The angel told me. And if He's the Messiah, He will Messiah. And He will present Himself. And He will win the confidence of the people and our nation will be set free. Oh, my beloved Son, if you only knew what an hour is awaiting you. So He comes up to the wedding feast and Mary is there. Now they run short of wine. Who is the first one to take any initiative in this awkward situation? Well, Mary. Well, Mary has no business to speak. She is a guest. No guest with any sense of etiquette would get up and start having a time because the wine runs out. She is very much out of order. She's a sweet Virgin Mary, but how do you know she can make mistakes too? She made a horrible mistake. How do you know? Because He got right up and rebuked her. That was a key word. Son, you have no wine. You know what I mean. You have the power. Vindicate yourself. Show yourself as a Messiah. Work a miracle here and prove the whole thing. Does He say, Mother? No! He calls her woman and He said, Woman, not Mother. Woman! Fresh! Natural! Nature! Nature! What have I to do with you? I'm living on a plane in the Spirit here. My whole conduct has to be actuated with the promptings of the Spirit. And what the Spirit prompts, the Spirit executes. Now get that straight. I want an hour in there. What the Spirit indicates, the Spirit must execute. That's hard, but it's true. The Spirit often indicates and flesh gets up to execute. We'll have to close with this. This is the Mary. So, she has her hour. He merely says, My hour has not yet come. Indicating, I have an hour. But the message which will produce that hour is not myself performing a miracle with wine. That hour will come through some other medium beside that. Woman, flesh, nature, with all your good suggestions, you keep still when the Holy Spirit wants to do a spiritual ministry. For the flesh cannot execute a spiritual promise. The word is in the Spirit. It has to be executed in the same Spirit that was given. Flesh cannot do it. So flesh sits down. Now when he comes and he's with her, and he sees Calvary, do you know what he said? Now has mine hour come. How many remember that? Now has mine hour come. Mary, now is the hour. You wanted an hour there. A strange superficial thing. That is not my hour. My hour has not come. Calvary, now has mine hour come. And he goes into it. Now, just a couple minutes here. This isn't the end. You see, the death provokes a resurrection. And you cannot have a resurrection unless you have your death. But the resurrection is not the end. The resurrection anticipates an ascension and a home going. And when Elijah spoke to him on the mount, it says he spoke to him concerning his death. Your word there is the exodus. He discussed that whole program. Teens through to an ascension was all discussed by him. That word is a poor word. And so he says, as I have risen, so shall there be an ascension.