Mountaintop Moments: When Heaven Touched Earth
Pt. 5
Mt. Calvary

Luke 23: 26, 32-33 “Now as they led Him away…32 There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. 33 And when they had come to the place called the skull (Calvary, Golgotha), there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.”

Now, Golgotha is from a Latin word meaning “skull” because the hill upon which Jesus was crucified was skull-shaped.

So Mt. Calvary or Golgotha was not a mountain, but a hill.

It’s referred to in all four of the gospels, and was also called “The hill of execution.”

It was outside the city walls of Jerusalem, apparently near a road not far from where Jesus was buried in Joseph’s tomb.

–Though only a hill, it was and is the most important geographically elevated place in all the Word of God, for it is where our Lord was crucified for our sins!
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The crucifixion of Jesus on Mt. Calvary was ground zero in the battle against good and evil.

There is no more important event in history than this one, for the eternal destiny of the entire human race hung in the balance.

–The crucifixion of Jesus is what all the OT festivals, feasts, animal sacrifices, holy days, and abundant prophecies pointed to!

It’s the event Satan had tried so hard to stop all throughout OT history, including up to and after Jesus’s birth.

The crucifixion was our salvation and the devil’s destruction.

Jesus’s crucifixion was first predicted way back at the dawn of time in the ancient Garden of Eden when God told Satan exactly how his future doom would go down.

Gen 3:15 “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The “striking of the heel” is the first mention of how Jesus’s foot would be pierced on the Cross.
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Then David the Psalmist, in an amazing prophecy before the Cross was even invented as a means of execution, predicted the Crucifixion of Jesus in great detail:

Ps 22: 14-18 “My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint (from hanging on the Cross). My heart is like wax, melting within me. 15 My strength has dried up like sunbaked clay. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth (from thirst)…16 My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on me (the Roman soldiers). They have pierced my hands and feet (crucifixion). 17 I can count all my bones (protruding). My enemies stare at me and gloat (the crowd gathered at the Cross). 18 They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing (exactly what the Roman soldiers did).”
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The Apostle Peter wrote that Jesus’s crucifixion for our sins was decided in heaven before the world was even created:

1 Pet 1:20 “God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.”
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People ask, Why the Cross? Why such a terrible death? Why did it have to happen?

Well, the crucifixion of Jesus on Calvary’s hill had to happen for several key reasons!

First, it provided:

I. Atonement

Atonement refers to the removal of sin and guilt.
You see, the Scriptures teach that all men are sinners.
Romans 3: 20,23 “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s righteous standards. No one is righteous—not even one…No one does good, not a single one.”
And the penalty for our sin is death, both physical and spiritual.
Romans 6:23 reads, “For the wages of sin (the paycheck you receive for a life of sin) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Think of it this way: The entire human race was on death row before the crucifixion of Christ.
We were all slated for execution, and our ultimate fate was to be eternally separated from God.
We all owed a sin debt to God we could in no way pay off!
But praise God, through His death on the Cross, Jesus bore the weight, shame, and judgment for our sins.
When John the Baptist first saw Jesus he cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
Peter writes, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,” (1 Peter 2:24).
On the Cross Jesus died in our place as our substitute.
–In today’s phrasing we would say He “took the fall.”
The Prophet Isaiah foresaw this, “The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”–Isaiah 53: 6
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As the song says,
“He pain a debt he did not owe,
I owed a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
But now I sing a brand new song–Amazing Grace
Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay.”
–So the ATONEMENT through Jesus’s shed blood REMOVES our sin, and the GUILT that goes with it!
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Second, Jesus became our:
II. Propitiation
1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath.
When I say God’s wrath, I mean His anger at sin.
The Bible says God’s anger at sin is “being revealed (right now and always) from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”–Ro. 1:18
Listen to what Jesus said about this:
John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
Why is this so?
Because God’s Law which mankind always breaks says:
“You are guilty of sin against a holy God–and true justice requires your life.”
But Jesus answers, “Take My life instead!”
2 Cor. 5:21 “Christ never sinned but God put our sin on Him, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.”
Listen to this incredible news:
“Because we broke God’s laws, we owed a debt—a debt that listed all the rules (commandments) we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. He took it away and nailed it to the cross” (Col 2:14).
In other words, God nailed all the accusations against us to the Cross!
And when God did this, His wrath against sin was poured out on Christ and turned away from us!
ILLUS: Though the wrath of God is ever falling, there is a place of shelter–it is found only in Jesus’s shed blood on the Cross of Calvary!
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Through his death, Jesus not only ATONED for our sin but also by being the PROPITIATION for our sins He satisfied the righteous anger of God.
In fact, Jesus’s sacrifice turned God’s wrath into favor, and paved the way for us to be:
III. Reconciled
One of the worst of sin’s consequences is to be cut off from God, separated from His presence.
–Again, in this also, Jesus took our place.
Part of Christ’s agony on the cross was the feeling of separation from the Father.
After three hours of supernatural darkness covered the land like a dark cloud, Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
God did not actually forsake or abandon Him in the way we understand the word.
This was the cry from Christ while all our sins were laid on Him!
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But here’s the good news!–Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, we need never experience the genuine separation from God sin causes!
Hebrews 13:5 “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
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And lastly, Jesus’s death on the Cross also brought:
IV. Redemption
Redeemed simply means “to buy back.”
1 Peter 1:18,19 proclaims, “You were redeemed (bought back)…with the precious blood of Christ.”
And now, “…sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”–Ro 6:14
In his death, Jesus paid the price for our freedom by delivering us from the power of sin and bringing us back to God!
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So on Calvary’s hill, crucified to a Cross, Jesus’s shed blood brought:
ATONEMENT–deliverance from sin and guilt
PROPITIATION–deliverance from God’s wrath
RECONCILIATION–deliverance from abandonment
REDEMPTION–deliverance from sin’s power