Between the Pieces: What Really Happened at the Cross (Part 2)

The following is Part 2 of the transcript of the sermon by Pastor Paul White titled “Between the Pieces: What Really Happened at the Cross”. Check back each day as we continue to post the transcript to this exciting sermon.

Isaiah said that Jesus was “…smitten by God and afflicted and that it pleased the Lord to bruise him…” (Isaiah 53: 4, 10). He also wrote that the Father would see the travail of Jesus on the cross and that He would be satisified (Isaiah 53:11). Why would God do this to his own Son? How could smiting Jesus bring God any pleasure? Didn’t he love Jesus? The answer to all these questions is summed up in one statement: God loves you and me so much that it pleased Him to punish our sins in Jesus so that He would not have to punish them in us.”

Now, I stop there because you caught the phrase in that opening paragraph, asking the question: Did God kill his Son? And then I try to make the point in John 10 that nobody actually killed him, Jesus laid his life down. And then come back to that thought that God punished and killed his Son. I cleaned it up a little bit with the statement: God loves you and me so much that it pleased Him to punish our sins in Jesus so that He would not have to punish them in us. So, that’s where we are. And I want to take it further today. I want to answer the question: Did God kill Jesus?

We’re going to talk about between the pieces, what really happened at the cross. To do that, we start from God’s point of view and to try to find out what God was accomplishing at Calvary’s cross, and to identify what He really did punish. If He punished anything, what did he punish at all? To do this, I think that the best way to start is to go to an eyewitness. You and I weren’t there, but we have people that were, who wrote the New Testament, who were actually standing at the cross, some who were at the foot.

John the Beloved is standing at the foot of the cross in the book of John watching Jesus die. Peter, James, Phillip, Bartholomew, all these other disciples, were in the vicinity. They were not necessarily standing at the foot of the cross. But they were eyewitnesses to the Resurrection. They saw the empty tomb. They watched Jesus walk through the wall that day in the upper room and present Himself to them, showing them the scars in His hands and His feet. They were standing there on the hill when He ascended up into Heaven, so they saw a post-Resurrection Jesus. We have a good eyewitness account.

I want to show you the eyewitness of Peter, a man who was at least in the proximity of the cross the day that Jesus died. He had spent some time the night before in the courtyard outside of where Jesus was being tried in front of Pontius Pilate. This is post-Pentecost.

In the Acts 3, when Peter and John come into Jerusalem and as they approach the Temple steps, they come in through the gate called ‘Beautiful,’ and they find a man lying on the steps who is lame and has been lame for many, many years. He shakes a proverbial cup asking for coins/alms. As Peter and John walk past him, Peter looks him in the eye and says, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give unto Thee in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Rise, take up your bed and walk…” This is the first instance in the New Testament of anybody vocalizing ‘In the name of Jesus’ and then healing someone – right there in Acts chapter 3.

Peter had already believed in the power of the Holy Ghost that he had received in Acts 2. So, he’s already having revelation. He’s already walking a little bit deeper into what he understands about God.

And we pick the text up right after the crowd goes ape. They go nuts. They see this guy stand up and get healed, and they think, ‘Oh man, we have a god in front of us.’ They think Peter and John are gods, and Peter says this (Acts chapter 3, verse 12): When Peter saw it, he answered the people, you (?) Israel, why do you marvel at this. Why do you look so earnestly on us as though by our own power or (?)
We didn’t fast enough or pray enough, give enough, do enough, it just happened because we used the right name. In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk.

13: The god of Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob. The god of our fathers has glorified his son Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied Him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let Him go.
Peter gives us our first hint. He indicates who he believes is responsible for delivering Jesus to Pontius Pilate. We also get some insight right here: Peter knew Pilate was going to let Jesus go. But he knew that the Jews that were outside the hall that night were ready to throw a riot – the religious Jews – if he let Him go. So Peter says, “You delivered Him up, you denied that you even knew Him in the presence of Pilate. You denied that He is God, and you delivered Him up because Pilate was determined to let Him go.”