FBCWest 685 | Jesus Mocked
Recorded On: 11/09/2025
Bulletin
Hymn # 149 “God of Our Fathers”
SCRIPTURE READING – Mark 12:26 & 27
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Endless Light”
“How Great IS Your Love”
“Behold the Lamb”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Jesus Mocked”
“How Great Is Your Love”
Sermon Notes
Mark 15:16 – 21 Soldiers mock Jesus and lead Him to be crucified
Probers 14:9 Fools mock at sin
Galatians 6:7 – 10 God is not mocked
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Ever since Adam and Eve's children, people have treated each other cruelly. So much so that there's even an expression that says, man's inhumanity to man, that we don't even treat each other as human. Today we're going to take a look at the partial conclusion of Jesus's ministry, and where it's not only man's inhumanity to man, but it's man's inhumanity to God.
I've been going through the story and ministry of Jesus' life. And so today's message will be a short one. Some people will say, well, when it's short, it's sweet. This will be short, but not so sweet. You see, rightfully so, we think about Jesus' suffering on the cross and how his death gave us redemption, and salvation. And rightfully so, we concentrate on that. But I want us to take a look at every step that Jesus suffered for you and me. And so I'm only going to spend this message on a few short verses so that we realize all that Jesus suffered for our sake and that we should contemplate that In addition to his suffering on the cross, we should contemplate his suffering during the moments leading up to that. And so if you have your Bibles, and you should, turn to the Gospel of Mark chapter 15, and we'll start with verse 16. Now the context is that Jesus had been condemned by Pilate to be crucified, even though Pilate admitted that he found nothing wrong, no guilt in Jesus, but he condemned him anyway, and he had him scourged. And then this is now the next moments in that process.
So it's in verse 16, it says this, the soldiers took him away into the palace, that is the praetorium. And that is basically where the Roman cohort held its base, if you will, in Jerusalem. So it was a particular place, and they said, and they called together the whole Roman cohort. So this was a time during the Passover celebration that all the men, Jewish men, were required to attend three times in Jerusalem, and one of those was the Passover season. And so there was a lot larger group of men in Jerusalem than normal, and the Romans wanted to make sure peace was kept, they had additional soldiers come, and they were there in the praetorium together. And they dressed him, being Jesus up in a purple, and after twisting the crown of thorns, they put it on him. Now this crown of thorns had spikes like a thorny wind. And they didn't just easily put it on. They inserted it so that in essence, it would indent into his scalp and his head, again, causing blood to flow, making a fake temporary crown because of the fact that he's king of the Jews. And so they dressed him up in purple showing, signifying his royalty. Which again, as you look at this, it just kind of cleanses it off. But if you think about it, this even besides the mockery was cruel. Why? Because he had been scourged. Having been scourged on the back means that his back is a bloody mess.
When you put things on your body that while it's been bleeding and you remove it, will cause blood and more tissue to come off unless it's been healed. And so placing this is going to eventually cause even more pain in addition to the humiliation that they're intending to give. And they began to acclaim to him, hail King of the Jews. They're mocking him because they said he's the King of the Jews. And so they pronounce hail King of the Jews, mocking Jesus' title. And they kept beating his head with a reed and speeding on him and kneeling and bowing before him. They continued to mock him with great contempt. Now, it's interesting. We are now, quote unquote, civilized. And whether you agree or disagree with the death penalty, When the death penalty is issued, we have all kinds of different things. We give them a last meal of whatever it is that they might want. We make sure that the death that happens is as painless as possible. No matter how much pain the convicted person caused, we try to make it painless. We try to give it dignity as they go from their cell to the place. This is the exact opposite of what they're doing. They are treating the Son of God with contempt and mockery and hatred. It's such that There's this expression that says that man's inhumanity to man, that we treat each other so inhumanely, we're not even human when we do do so.
And in this situation, these soldiers are treating God, not even as if he were a man. And they mocked him and ridiculed him, a man who is innocent, who came to redeem them. And after they had mocked him, they took the purple robe off of him and put on his garments on him. Now, this little simple statement can we go by. But typically what they would do when you executed somebody by a crucifixion, they led you out naked so that you carried your cross naked and you died that way. They put Jesus' clothes back on him. Why? Not because the Roman soldiers knew the prophecies, because they didn't, but the prophets said that there would be gambling, that they would cast lots for his garments and divide them up. Well, if he were naked going to the crucifixion, they couldn't do that. So these Gentiles who had no idea about the Jewish scriptures, fulfilled the Jewish scriptures, so they could be fulfilled, so they redressed Him, and they led Him out to crucify Him. Now, why I wanted to concentrate on this is that the Son of God allowed Him to do, to be treated this way. The Son of God didn't respond by saying, you're wrong, I am the King of kings. He could have stopped it. The scripture says that all he had to do is call out and 1000 angels would come and defend him.
But he didn't. The Father, God, could have stopped it. I'm sure the scriptures don't say, but I'm sure the angels are saying, let's go and rescue him. How dare they treat him this way? The one that we've known who has been in heaven, the one who said, let there be light, and there was light. The one who, the word that became flesh and dwelt among us. All of heaven is restrained because God has determined that He loved you and me enough to allow His Son to be mocked this way. To be mocked this way. I mean, we would think it's cruel and inhumane to treat any human this way, let alone the Son of God. They did so anyway. They did it with zeal and great fun, and I'm sure they had a great time. Let's put it on a human level. If you offered up your child for someone, and not only did they not appreciate it, they mocked you for it. That's the kind of love that God has for us. that even though they treated his son with contempt, he still permitted him to go to the cross. And even though they treated Jesus with contempt, he continued to be obedient to the Father and to love you and I enough to be treated that way. Again, the scriptures tell us that we his servants, we his slaves, are not above our master.
So if they treated our master this way, what makes us think that we get off so easy? When people might treat us with contempt and mockery because of our faith. Well, if you need, if you're that weak and you need faith, okay, because you must be a weakling. But yet, there are other places in this world, they don't simply mock you. They behead you. They put you in cages and burn you alive. They lock you in buildings and burn them down simply because you say, I am a Christian. Times haven't changed. Man's inhumanity to man and man's continued inhumanity to God. So, Jesus loved you so much, He didn't stop it, and God... the Father loved you so much, he didn't stop it. And heaven was restrained so much, they didn't stop it. Because all it takes is one angel to take Satan and throw him into the pit. Can you imagine what a thousand angels can do? Proverbs 14, 9 tells us this, fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is goodwill.
These soldiers were fools. They said, hail, king of the Jews, when in reality, not only was the king of the Jews, he was the king of kings and Lord of lords. Fools mock. But notice this, but the upright there is goodwill. Jesus continued to love even though he was mocked. And as his disciples, we too need to love even when we are hated and despised. We are not to act foolishly. We act as those who are righteous and upright. To learn from Jesus, they did not treat Jesus fairly. And as they say, who said life is fair? Instead of worrying about how they treat us, we should think, how do we respond? And we should respond the way Jesus did. But there is a statement in Galatians chapter 6 that says this, verse 7, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. These soldiers will reap what they sow. They mocked Now, I don't know what their punishment will be if I were God, and I'm not.
But if I were God, I'd put these soldiers in eternity on their knees to remind them for eternity what they did to humiliate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Because the scripture says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father. So God is not mocked. They sowed what they sowed and they will reap what they reap. We should also remember that. And so therefore we should sow to the Spirit so that we might reap eternal life. Now, the awesome thing about this is when you sow in the flesh, you get back exactly what you deserve. But when we sow in this, so if you sow soybeans, you get back soybeans. It's what happens. But in the spirit, if you sow in the spirit, you get peace. and love and joy and kindness and gentleness. All of these things that come forth. You get a plethora of fruits from the Spirit when we sow in the Spirit.
And on top of that, not only do we reap all of these things, we reap eternal life. So let us not lose heart in doing good. Jesus could have said, My mission is the ultimate good for mankind, our salvation. But he could have said, I'm done. I'm tired. I've been abused. I've been scourged. I've been mocked. I've been hit with reeds. I've been spit upon. I've been all of these things, and I've had it. It's enough. But you did not lose heart. He continued to do good the Father's will. For in due time, we will reap if we do not grow weary. If you're a believer, and I am one, some almost 2,000 years after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, he's still reaping souls. that we might enter the kingdom of God to give him glory and honor because he deserves it. He's entitled to it. Even if he did nothing for us as God, he's entitled to our worship. But look at what he's done. He's loved us. So don't grow weary. Jesus's life and suffering should inspire us to keep on keeping on. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good will, do good to all people. Notice didn't just say, the people who like you, the people who love you, the people who don't abuse you, the people who don't mock you, the people who, he says, let us do good to all people. But then he said, especially to those who are of the households of faith.
Now, the sad thing is, that sometimes we treat the people closest to us the worst. We tend to have a short fuse when it comes to our spouse. Our spouse will say something and will immediately yell at them or do whatever. Or our kids will frustrate us and we treat them. But yet with a stranger, we seem to find grace in whatever. We hold back our tongue. We may want to say something, but we don't. Also in us, hey guys, when you're in church, we should especially treat each other. really well. Treat the people who hate us good. But then what about treating your brothers and sisters in Christ especially well? God is not mocked. And it is interesting, we will see next message, that the Roman centurion, the officer in charge of that cohort and in charge of the crucifixion, We'll get it partially right.
When Jesus raised his last, he will say, surely this was the Son of God. He's only partially right. Surely this is the Son of God. Because 3 days later, he will raise from that tomb and will demonstrate that he is the King of Kings. and Lord of lords, that he is the Son of God, and that his offering for our sins was accepted by God, so that we are no longer burdened by those things, but that we have freedom. And see, the difference between those soldiers and you and me, As far as we know, those soldiers never repented. So I think they will spend an eternity either in self-flagellation of saying, what did I do? What did I do? Whereas today, we who believe in Christ, Satan wants to accuse us of our past. you blew it here, and you said something there, and you did that.
And Jesus' response as our advocate, those sins are covered. They don't exist anymore. Joe is justified. Joe doesn't have to give any excuses because I justified him. And if you are a believer, you no longer have to offer an excuse. You're justified.
So when Satan seeks to accuse you, say, shut up, Satan. My God has justified me. Not because I'm worth it and not because I'm special, but because He is who He is and He decided to forgive me. So I will praise Him and I will not allow you to diminish what my Savior has done, and that is to wash me as white as snow. I no longer bear my sin because His mockery proved it. His stripes proved it. His death on a cross proved it. His burial proved it, and His resurrection proved it, that I no longer bear my sins. He did. And he did so even while being mocked. How great is his love? So great that while he's being mocked, he didn't stop it. Because the Father's plan was to save you and me.
And all God's people said.
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