The crucifixion of Jesus Christ, as recorded in John 19, marks the completion of salvation, enabling sinners to trust the Savior who paid the penalty for their sins. The sermon highlights Jesus' death, the breaking of the legs of the other crucified men but not His, and the burial by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, drawing parallels between the Garden of Eden where sin entered, the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus suffered, and the garden tomb where He was laid, signifying the place where sin is put away and forgiveness is found. The central lesson is the necessity of accepting Jesus as one's personal Savior, emphasizing that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, and urging listeners to consider when they made this crucial decision. The message concludes by connecting Jesus' sacrifice to the possibility of eternal life and deliverance from wrath for those who accept Him.
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Thank you. Greetings, friends. The Gospel by John, chapter nineteen, the great chapter in the Gospel by John, covering the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, giving us some of the events and the happenings that are not recorded elsewhere in the Gospels. But we have in the thirtieth verse When Jesus, therefore, received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. The work of salvation was completed, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost or released his spirit.
This, hence, we do not apologize for repeating, is the most awesome, the most sacred moment in the history of the world. of the universe of God. And we do well to bow our heads and reverence, and in spirit at least, remove our shoes from off our feet for the ground whereon we stand as holy ground. In this verse, the Lord Jesus, having accomplished eternal redemption for humankind, he was able to say it's finished. The work that saves is done.
The hymn writer put it once and forever done. Finish the righteous one. The righteousness that closed the unrighteous one. Sinners may now trust the Savior who died for their sins, paid their penalty on the cross. The most awesome, sacred moment in the history of the universe. Jesus died. your Savior, your Creator, and mine. And the one that we must accept by an act of faith on our part, an act of belief on our part, as our Savior, or we're going to die without Him, which means a lost eternity.
Hence the forceful question is, friend, for you to answer before God, when did you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior? You might remember when you joined some religious bodies or some church. You may remember many things in your life when you prayed, when you first started to pray, maybe if you pray. But friends, when did you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior? Because I could join all the churches it would be possible for me to join, and that wouldn't save my soul. It isn't the church that saves. It's a wonderful place to go, but The Savior is the only one who can save us, the only one who can forgive our sins.
Are we right now, are we saved by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Because Ephesians tells us, by grace, unmerited favor, by grace are ye saved through faith, belief, faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Not of works of righteousness which we have done, not good works, but not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy, His grace, His kindness. Are we saved? Oh, my friend, this is the important question. When, where and how did we accept the Lord Jesus as our Savior?
He died, and salvation is offered as a free gift to whosoever will. After he died, then in subsequent verses we find that it was the preparation for the Sabbath day, and the nation of Israel did not wish the body to be hanging there on that high day, because it was the day of Pentecost. So they sought Pilate for permission to break the legs of those that were crucified, and they did, they broke the legs of the one a malefactor on the one side and then of the other. But when they came to the Savior, he was dead already. He had released his spirit.
He bowed his own head. It didn't fall over. He released his own spirit. It wasn't taken from him. He had power over death and power over life. And so he was dead already. And they break not his legs because the Scripture says away back in the Psalms, a bone of him shall not be broken. And so they did not break any legs of his, any bones of his. They were all out of joint, but none of them were broken. And then we read in the verse thirty-eight that after this Joseph of Arimathea, he was a counselor, a lawyer, being a disciple of Jesus, that secretly for fear the Jews besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus.
And Pilate gave him leave, gave him permission to take away the body of Jesus. He came, therefore, and took the body of Jesus. Now this is the very big act. All the multitude of the world had set away with this man. If you let this man go, you're not Caesar's friend. But here, Joseph of Arimathea, although he lived secretly for fear the Jews, a disciple of Christ, he now shows his true discipleship. And he comes, and he begs the body of Jesus, and he took it down. And there came also Nicodemus, the man that came to Jesus by night. And, of course, this has always followed him whenever we mention it.
This is the man who came to Jesus by night. But, my friends, when did you come? When did I come? I came at night about ten-thirty-a-cloth. On the ninth day of May in nineteen hundred and thirteen, I accepted Christ as my Savior. I came by night. It doesn't matter whether we come by night or day or when, as long as we come, and trust him as our Savior. And here's the showing, here's proof of the fact that Nicodemus was born again that night, because he came. There came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and he brought a mixture of Mer and Allows about a hundred-pound weight.
He had a big load to bring. He had a great offering to offer to the Lord, although the Lord has died. Yet God Almighty, the omniscient, omnipresent person of the Trinity, all three are omnipresent, and they saw what Nicodemus did. Mernel is about an hundred-pound weight. Then took they, Joseph and Nicodemus, the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Then it says, Now, in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.
Yes? There are three great gardens in the Scripture. The one, the first garden, was the garden in Eden. In the great expanse of Eden God made a garden. And he planted a garden. And there he put man and woman. And they were not, they were to eat of every tree in the garden, but one. They had ample provision. They didn't need the one that was in the middle, the middle tree. But there they disobeyed God, and sin entered. Wherefore by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, So death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Death entered. That garden was the garden of death.
Then the Lord Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane, and there an anticipation of the sufferings of the cross, and of the tremendous load of your sins and mine, and the sins of all the world. He prostrated himself on the ground, and he swept, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. It was the garden of his passion, the garden of his suffering, indicative of all the time he was in this world because he was suffering all the time he was here. But it was climaxed on the cross when he endured the cross, despising the shame.
Never was so much sorrow and anguish and pain and suffering heaped upon any one human body. And his body was human as well as it was divine. He was God at the same time he was man. And that garden was the Garden of Gethsemane. And now here's the third garden. It says... In verse forty-one of John chapter nineteen, now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. So he put sins away in a garden. Back in the Garden of Eden man became a sinner. In the garden where the Lord Jesus was crucified man can be released from that sin.
He can be forgiven. He can become a child of God. And that sepulcher wherein was never a man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, therefore, because of the Jews' preparation, for the sepulcher was nigh at hand. So he was crucified in a garden, and in that garden there was the sepulcher also, and he was laid in that tomb. So it either is three gardens or four. Garden of Eden, Garden of Gethsemane, Garden of the Cross, and Garden of the Tomb.
It's possible that the last two were combined, for it says in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein it was never man yet laid. Apparently it was all one garden, which made three gardens. Garden in Eden, Garden of Gethsemane. in the garden of his crucifixion and burial. This, friends, is a part of what the Lord Jesus went through, what he endured for you and me. These are the outward sufferings, not to mention the inward sufferings, when God, Jehovah, took your sins and mine and laid them on him as upon the sin-bearer, and he died that you and I might live.
O God, our Father, with reverence we thank thee for the gift of thy beloved Son. And then we thank thee that it could be said of him, that he gave himself for us. And we are now able to receive him into our hearts and minds and souls and lives, and be saved from the wrath to come. We will not need to suffer in eternity if we accept him as our Savior. May many do so this day. Every day we pray, our far country and our president, and the rulers and authorities, in the name of the Lord Jesus.