Who Killed Jesus?

This is an exegetical sermon from Romans 4:25. It explains who is to blame for the death of Jesus and what His death actually accomplished. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Justin Bragg at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA. Audio unavailable.

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::The Resolved:: 04.23.06

Justin Bragg

Romans 4:25

“Who killed Jesus?”

Don’t preach topical sermons. Don’t use texts as springboards into our own agenda. I thought that the next time I preached was going to be 5:1. But Duane and I decided, instead of just glancing over some really important phrases of the end of 4 – that we would sink in deep, and teach on a couple of issues that are brought up in this text.

Tonight – might just brush right over, need to pause and study

That phrase, “who was delivered up.” That’s tonight’s message – delivered up
Raises a fundamental and important question: Who killed Jesus?

Theological question to be sure – Who is to blame, or, if you take it to its end, and with the next phrase “for our trespasses”, It informs us “why did Jesus die?”

Practical/application question:
What does this mean about god?
What does this mean to us?

So in the case of “who killed Jesus, who are the defendants, or the accused:

The Jews – Pharisees, religious leaders
Jesus was handed over to be crucified on the grounds of blasphemy.
He claimed to be the son of god (Luke 22:70-71).
He claimed that god was endorsing him as messiah (Luke 22:67-69).
But the Jewish rulers rejected this role of god in Jesus’ life.
They called him a blasphemer.
And the punishment for such blasphemy had to be death
The Jews delivered up Jesus to be killed

Judas – who for a few dollars, sold out his teacher, his friend, his mentor,
Judas takes this money, and with a kiss, hands Jesus over to be killed.

The Romans (pilate, soldiers)
So the religious leaders brought Jesus before Pilate and the roman government to have him tried for “misleading our nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ, a king” (Luke 23:2-3)
Pilate found no fault in Jesus, and neither did Herod
And Pilate intended to release Jesus, washing his hands clean of Jesus
But the people cried for the death of Jesus, and Pilate, fearing a riot, obliged their demands
So the roman soldiers beat and bludgeoned him, mocking him, like vicious animals, stripping him of this clothes and his dignity, hanging him upon a cross, and sticking a spear in his side to ensure his death.

The roman guards and officials killed Jesus.

All of humanity. We know that Jesus died for the sins of humanity, so can we say that it was you and I who killed Jesus? Without sin, there would be no need for Jesus to die a criminal’s death as the sacrificial lamb for humanity’s sin. As a proud, card-carrying member of depraved humanity, as one who claims to be saved from sin by the death of Jesus, it can be said that you killed Jesus.

So who is to blame?
I want to go to acts, where peter is preaching at Pentecost, because here, we find peter using the same phrase “delivered up” that Paul uses in Romans 4:25,

Acts 2:22-24 “men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by god with mighty works and wonders and signs that god did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know– this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of god, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Peter is talking to several thousand Jewish people in Jerusalem
(3,000 are going to be converted! V. 41). Many of these people had nothing directly to do with the death of Jesus. But peter doesn’t seem to be worried about that. In verse 23 he says, “this Jesus you killed by the hands of lawless men.” And at the end, in verse 36, he says, “this Jesus you crucified.” How can he say that?

Back to Romans
You can see this in the two key phrases of verse 25a: “(1) he who was delivered over (2) because of our transgressions.”
Jesus “was delivered over” – by whom? By soldiers? By Pilate? By Herod? By the Jewish mob? Not, finally, by any of them
Two reasons:

1. He was delivered up to death
Greek – passive – hand over, betray, deliver, arrested
Delivered up by whom?
What comes before and after “delivered up?”
Him (god) who raised Jesus from the dead
Delivered up
Raised to life
We know from tense/mood/context – that god raised Jesus from the dead (before and after our statement) – and taken with all of the rest of scripture’s evidence – conclude that god delivered him up

2. Because it says he was delivered over “for our trespasses.”
Soldiers and Pilate and Herod and Jews did not hand Jesus over “for our trespasses.”
Motive

Acts 2:23 gives a clear and forthright answer:
“This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of god.”
God delivered him over to death.

Romans 8:3 says, “God [sent] his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.”
Romans 8:32 says, “he . . . Did not spare his own son, but gave (delivered) him over for us all.”
So the death of Jesus Christ was by the design of god. God planned his death. He did not just die.
He was delivered over to death by god.

God delivered Jesus up. God, as a display of his glory, for the reconciliation of peoples to himself, killed Jesus Christ, his son, what does scripture say?

Is 53:10-12 “it was the will of the lord to crush him, he has put him to grief…”
John 3:16 “for god loved the world in this manner, that he gave his only son
Rom 3:25 “god put Christ forward as propitiation…”
I John 4:10 “he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Make no mistake about it, the death of Jesus Christ was planned from the beginning, and god has always known that he would take the form of man to rescue his people from eternal punishment

Theological question: What does this mean for our theology? What does this say about god?
Sovereign, divine plan, in control, loving and just.

Practical/application question:
What does this mean to us?
Hope, forgiveness of trespasses, assurance

The death of Jesus Christ is not a blame game. It’s not the fault of the Jews, the Romans, Judas, or Pilate…

God sent his son to die for the sins of the world. And we can agree with peter, that “you/we crucified Jesus.” But we also agree with peter that this was according to the plan/foreknowledge of god. In the death of Jesus, god is exerting his sovereignty amidst his creation.

God endorsed Jesus by planning his death for the sins of his people.

Verse 23: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of god, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

“What kind of endorsement is this?
If god planned to hand over Jesus to be killed then all he did was link arms with lawless men and help them put Jesus to death! That’s not much of an endorsement.

Ignores everything else the bible has to say about why god planned the death of Jesus.
Why god planned his death. Luke 24:46, “thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”

In other words god planned the suffering and death of Jesus so that forgiveness of sins could be preached to all the nations (cf. Isaiah 53!).
God planned the death of Jesus not to disown him or dishonor him or reject him, but to glorify him as the perfect, flawless Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

God’s plan for Jesus to die was not an indictment like the plan of the Jews, but an endorsement of his infinite worth so that he could save the Jews.

And what is our response to this god, to this Christ?
In your life, in your need for assurance and hope? Where does that come from?
Is it from a weak and helpless, pitiful loser Christ on the cross who wished he could come down, but couldn’t?
Or is there a solid, unshakeable foundation for hope in your life knowing that god planned, ordained and caused for Jesus Christ to be delivered up, so that he could be raised up and take away your sins forever?

This is the god we worship. This is the sovereign god – the god of the reformation,
Not the passive, open, unknowing, uncaring, unmoved god who allows his creation to walk all over him and defame his name –
No, the god who raised Jesus from the dead victorious, is the same god who delivered him up to death victoriously.
This is the only god worthy of worship, and praise, and life changing
This is the god to put your faith and hope in,
Because we know that Romans 8:32 is true:
He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?