Between the Pieces: What Really Happened at the Cross (Part 11)

The following is Part 11 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.

This is a person’s cue, standing at the cross that day, that he might be looking at Psalms 22. The sky has just grown black, and He has cried in the daytime and He has cried in the night time. Read on.

Verse 7:

“All that see me will laugh me to scorn. They will shoot out the lip. They will shake their head and say, ‘He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him. Let Him deliver Him.’ seeing that, He delighted.”

Does this sound familiar?

If a person would go home and read Psalms 22, he would think back to when he was standing at the cross, and he would then realize what he has just done. When he realizes he has just crucified the man in Psalms 22, perhaps he would realize Jesus was there for a different reason. It’s connect-the-dots, and Jesus just gave him the first dot.

What love He has for us. Read on.

“I’m poured out like water. My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. My heart melted in the midst of my bowels.”

And when those standing there watched the Roman soldier shoot his spear through the ribcage of Jesus and witnessed His heart exploding with blood and water showering the crowd, they’re going to find that the man in Psalms 22 had his heart explode like wax and burst out of his body.

Verse 15:

“My strength is dried up like a (?), my tongue will cleave to my jaws. You’ve brought me into the dust of death.”

They’ll remember because He told them what chapter to read. When they read this verse, they’ll remember that at Calvary, He said, “I thirst.” And He begged for something to drink. They will realize that they just watched that happen.

Read on.

Verse 16:

“Dogs compass me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet.”

Can it be more obvious what Jesus is trying to say? When those witnessing the crucifixion read Psalms 22 of the Torah and arrive at the sixteenth stanza, they are going to realize that the man they just watched have his hands and his feet pierced quoted the first verse of this chapter. That’s why Peter said, “The Lord of Glory, whom you killed.” So that they would know He’s the one.

This is the smoking gun of Psalms 22, but read on because it gets even better.

“I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture.”

Do you realize at the foot of the cross, the soldiers were gambling for Jesus’ garments, and the gospels told us that. Psalms 22 says, “they’re going to gamble for my clothes.”

If you don’t think it’s me with the whole heart-blowing-up, and the dying and the screaming in the dark, and the screaming in the light, and you don’t think the hands and feet are the ones, then you go to the cross where they’re gambling for the guy’s garments because that was not common practice.

The people who were dying on crosses weren’t. They were criminals: rapists, murderers, and pedophiles. These were the scum of society in Rome. They were strangers, vagabonds without citizenship. Soldiers didn’t go to the foot of the cross and gamble for their garments.