Easter conference ~ april 1-8 hamilton square baptist church San ...

Dr. Dave Burggraff Sunday School — Palm Sunday, April 1, 2012
b. By means of the second cleansing of the Temple on Monday of the passion week, Jesus deliberately
galvanized Pharisaic and Sadducean hostility; once those two sects had united in their murderous
hatred of Jesus, it took them only five days to get Him on a cross.
c. By means of His carefully maintained popularity with the masses, Jesus insured that the
Sanhedrinists would have to involve the Romans in His execution, and thus that He would die not by
stoning but by being “lifted up” in crucifixion (Jn 3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34; 18:32).
10. The prospect of the cross was horrifying to Jesus. Early in His ministry He could anticipate the cross
with some measure of equanimity (Jn 4:34), but as it drew near it filled Him with terror (cf. Jn 12:23-38).
Indeed, probably the most severe temptation faced by Jesus during His lifetime was the temptation to turn
back from the cross (Mt 4:8, 9; 16:22, 23). This temptation is most graphically seen in the Lord’s
Gethsemane experience (Lk 22:41, 42, cf. :43, 44). However, that which so terrified Him was not the
physical sufferings of crucifixion (as awful as those physical sufferings were); rather, He was filled with
dread at the prospect of being made the sin-sacrifice for men, of being judicially forsaken by the Father
(Mk 15:34). Furthermore, in that temptation and during all the period of His mortality, Jesus had no more
spiritual resources than you and I have; He was submissive to the Father, dependent upon the Spirit,
obedient to the Scripture and sustained by prayer (Heb 5:7). It was thus that He “learned obedience” and
was qualified to be the believer’s high priest (Heb 5:8-9).
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