______________________________________________________________________

It is another one of those things that is widely believed among most Christians and that is an obligatory part of every Easter play, drama, or movie. It has been so firmly affixed into our minds as a part of the Crucifixion story, that we consider it a vital part of the narrative. Indeed, if we were to have staged an Easter pageant here today and if we would forget to include this particular scene of which I speak, no doubt someone would come up afterwards and question why we forgot such an important part of the play. I have seen many such pageants and reenactments of the crucifixion in my life and I have yet to see one that does not include this particular scene. And yet, we must appeal to scripture for the truth of what happened on that fateful day of Jesus' crucifixion.

All four gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- record in detail the story of Jesus' crucifixion and we read as our text part of Matthew's account. We pick up the story as Jesus has just been beaten, and then sentenced to die by crucifixion. Pilate hands our Savior over to the Roman guards and they proceed to place a royal robe upon His head, and a platted crown of thorns upon his head and reed is given for a scepter -- all in mocking of His claim of kingship. There, in the judgment hall, they struck Jesus and spit upon Him and made fun. And then, removing the royal robe and replacing His own back upon Him, they led him out to be crucified forcing Him to carry His own cross. As the crowds lined the route to the Hill of Golgotha, the scriptures record that some of the women who followed Him, trailed along behind weeping and Jesus turned and told them to weep not for Him but instead for themselves.

Everything that I have presented to you thus far in the story is scripturally accurate, and yet it is about this point of the story that tradition is obliged to insert the obligatory scene: Jesus, weakened by a loss of blood or overburdened by the weight of the wood upon the shoulders, stumbles and falls. Then a Roman soldier prods Him to get up and then, when it is obvious that Jesus can no longer continue under such a burden, then the soldiers turn to the crowd and grab Simon the Cyrenian and order him to help carry the cross of Christ. I drove past the local Catholic church a few weeks ago when they began to put out their "stations of the cross" placards along their drive, which supposedly represent steps of the crucifixion, and I notice that they have Jesus falling with the cross not once, not twice, but three times!

I having nothing against traditions in general, but I would like to reprogram your brain at this point of the crucifixion story to match what scripture says and not what man might say. I would challenge you to find in the scripture -- using any translation or English version that you care to, even a Catholic sanctioned one -- find me a place in the scripture where it ever says that Jesus ever fell with the cross. Find me where in scripture it states that Jesus grew weak to the point that He faltered and had to have help. In my library, I personally own over forty English versions of the scripture and have on computer several programs which allow you to read the original Greek and Hebrew, and I have already checked them and can tell you the answer today: you will never find it, because it's not there!

Not to belabor the point, but I will quickly read you what the scripture says from each of the four gospels at this juncture. I will use the NIV for clarity and speed of reading, but all other major translations agree with the NIV's conclusions here:

So we know that Jesus carried His own cross at first and somewhere along the way Simon the Cyrenian was compelled to carry it for Him following along behind. But what the scripture never records is why they grabbed Simon. Man's tradition -- or should I say, probably Catholic tradition -- has given the scene of Jesus falling as an explanation, but it is not one supported by scripture anywhere. Man's legends and not scripture has given us "a fallen Jesus."

______________________________________________________________________

Somebody right about now is thinking "okay, you've made your point, preacher, so what's the big deal?" and it wouldn't be all that big of a deal, except that the added tradition of men here perfectly mirrors and evokes the message that this world would like you to believe. This world preaches a "fallen Jesus." The Christ that they teach about and believe in is a far weaker and lower version than the real One of scripture. This world seeks to demote and bring down Jesus in every way possible and many of you have believed at least part of the lie. This world would have you believe that Jesus Christ the Healer has fallen to become just a story of things that happened in the past. They would have you believe that the abundant life that He came to bring has now fallen into only religious ritual and traditions and He really cannot impact your life that much. They would have you believe that He was just a good man and a good teacher and a good prophet and that He should be admired, but that you shouldn't take some of the things that He said literally. Like Thomas Jefferson who took all of the supernatural and miraculous out of the Gospels, reducing our Savior to just a moral teacher, many people today have believed the lie that Jesus really didn't do miracles, or if He did, they are no longer for us today.

Most ministers today are preaching -- very subtly -- a fallen Jesus. They are preaching a much lower form of the Son of God than what He came as! The scripture says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever! If He did miracles then, He can and will still perform miracles now, the issue -- as it was then -- is if you will push your doubt aside and truly believe! Thomas Jefferson's version of the Bible ends with the words that they "buried Christ and rolled a great stone in front of the sepulcher." What a sad ending, but Mr. Jefferson, that's not the rest of the story! The rest of the story is that the tomb is empty because after three days and three nights, He rose again victorious over death, hell, and the grave. And He is truly alive today, and if He is alive today, then He has not changed one bit from who He was when He walked this earth! The One who calmed the wind and storm then can still deal with the winds of life blowing in your situation! The One who fed the five thousands, has what your hungry soul needs today! The One who promised the Holy Ghost to those that would believe and tarry for it, is still pouring out the Holy Ghost today on those who act upon His Words. This world believes the lie of a watered-down, fallen Jesus, but can I tell you that the only way that He has weakened and fallen is in their minds because Jesus Christ is alive forevermore and He reigns over this universe!

I'm preaching to you about a fallen Jesus and in the same way that I altered your programmed way of thinking about the crucifixion story, I also want to change your preconceived idea of Jesus Christ. When they threw the miracles out and brought Jesus down from miracle worker to good moral teacher only, what the philosophies of this world also brought down was Jesus' ability to transform your life. The vast majority of this world -- and sadly, maybe even some here today -- are convinced that Jesus is impotent to help them. They don't really believe that they can live better or change from the sinfulness of this world that has them bound. They believe that all there is to life is what they've experienced already and the Jesus that they have gotten from dead religions and rituals is all there is. That's why so many people don't make a habit of going to church, because all that they've ever experienced is man's tradition and religion; a people presenting a fallen Jesus from the Jesus of the Bible. And so they are content to stay in their sinful lifestyles and ruts -- because they really don't think that Jesus can make that much a difference. But all of this comes from them believing the lie of the world of a fallen Jesus. Let me reveal to you the many ways that this world preaches and believes in the lie of a "fallen Jesus!"

_______________________________________________________________________

One way they preach such a fallen Jesus is that the majority of the religious world has caused Jesus to fall from being God in flesh to just another person in the Godhead. The Bible declares that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Isaiah prophesied about the son born to Mary and said:

Even the angel told Mary that the son that she would bear would be conceived by the Holy Ghost and that His name would called Emmanuel, God with us. 1 Timothy 3:16 boldly declares that "God was manifest in the flesh." Jesus told Phillip "if you have seen me, you have seen the Father." Thomas fell down and touched Jesus' nail scarred feet and hands and declared "my Lord and my God!" Saul on the road to Damascus saw a great light shining down from heaven and heard the voice of God and asked "Who are thou, Lord?" And the answer was "I am Jesus!" Revelation declares that there is one throne in heaven and one that sits upon that throne. In Zechariah chapter 12, the one Jehovah God of the Old Testament, told about a future day in Israel where "they will look upon me whom they have pierced." The prophet Isaiah said that when God realized that was not another, that His right arm brought salvation. Paul warned the Colosse' church about believing man's traditions and philosophies about Jesus that would steal something important away and demote Christ in anyway and said:

All the fullness of God dwells in Christ's body! He is not in the Godhead, but rather the Godhead is in Him! But this world has gotten away from such clear teachings of scripture and have believed a tradition of man formed in the early years of the Catholic church hundreds of years after the time of the New Testament writers. And their tradition demotes Christ from the Creator of the world and the One God of Israel come in flesh to save us to just a "demi-god" or Junior God. Like the story of the crucifixion, they have preached to you a fallen Jesus.

The danger of that is once you deny Jesus as His rightful place of Lord of Lord and Chief Shepherd, then you are only one step away from denying His deity at all. And many have made that step. They say, "He was just a good man." "He was just a moral teacher." And when you reach this stage, studying the life of Jesus does you no good because if He was not God, then He is not on the throne today. If He was not deity and not the supreme God, then His words can be taken or left alone at your whim. If He was not God, then He can't truly help you today. And those who demote Him see no need to serve Him daily. Those who reduce Him to mere man do not seek His words to apply every small phrase to their life. You can always tell those who have believed the lie of a "fallen Jesus" because they are the ones that do not see the need to come regularly worship Him with other believers and be a part of the gathered church that He came to establish. They are those who are comfortable in their sin and would rather not "take the Bible too literally." Essentially what they have done is reduce their belief in Jesus so they do not have to listen to Him and so they can justify their sinfulness. They believe in a fallen Jesus.

Another way that people believe in and worship a fallen Jesus is by taking the title of King of Kings away from Him. He claims to be the King of Everything even today, but some people will not let Him be King even of their life and in their minds and lives they reduce the Almighty King to somebody whose opinion doesn't really matter. By their thoughts and actions, they have reduced Him from King of Everything to -- in their life -- King of Nothing.

Is this not what Pilate and the soldiers and the religious leaders of the day did to Jesus as they mocked Him in our text? The angle of their mocking was to act like He was a king -- and He truly was a king -- but in their minds He wasn't much of one. They made His kingship a joke by their actions, and that is exactly what many people do today. Jesus said that "unless you repent, you will die in your sins." He commanded that man must be born of the water and of the Spirit denoting both water baptism and Spirit baptism as essential for salvation. Through His apostles and prophets, He taught that we were to come out of the world and be separate. He taught that the sexual immorality, drunkeness, lying, and spiritual neglect of things that you should do would keep you out of eternal life. He taught that a Christian should be Christ-like and be completely different than the world in lifestyle and thought. He proclaimed Himself as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but people through their indifference by their actions make a mockery of His kingship.

When a person continues in their sin and in their sinful lifestyle without obeying His Word and turning to His great mercy for help, then they are essentially performing the same mocking cruelty that the Roman soldiers did that day in our text. Because if He is King, then He is to be obeyed. If He is Lord, then we must do the things that He says. But when you do the opposite you make a mockery of His royalty. You have made a joke of His kingship by your actions. And as such, you have reduced Him to just somebody with an opinion. You have caused Him to fall in your minds from King of Kings to somebody whose word means nothing. Such is the state of our world's belief and such is their theory of a fallen Jesus!

But I would like to proclaim that not everybody will mock Him! Not everybody will refuse to heed His Word, because I for one have made up in my mind that He is and will be Lord of All and King of Everything in my life! And I am convinced that there are some of you out there who will not settle less for Him being everything that He can be in your life! There will be some that will join me! Because this world needs the Jesus that I serve! He is not a fallen Jesus to me, but rather I believe He is everything that He said He is. And others will join with me in proving that true by allowing Him to be Lord of our lives! I refuse to look for excuses not to obey the scripture, but rather look for reasons to obey scripture more closely! I refuse just to do religious lip service on Sunday and then forget about Him for the rest of the week. But rather than a fallen Jesus, I exalt Him in my life! I lift Him up! I give Him all the glory and honor and praise! I want Him to sit upon the throne of my life comfortably and at home! I want Him to know that I know who He really is and what He has really done! This world may do their best to present Him as fallen, but I will present Him for who He really is: exalted! He is high and lifted up! He is a Mighty God! He is the only true God! And He is the God who loved me enough to come in flesh and die for me! He is the King of my life and I want to serve Him with complete obedience in every thing!

_______________________________________________________________________

I will not spend much time on this, but another way that people believe in a fallen Jesus is when they do not really believe that He can deliver them completely from the power of sin. Jesus came to save us, but save us from what? From our sin and sinful lifestyle and the end of such a life which is eternal death and punishment. But many people reduce Him from being the Mighty Savior because they are convinced that they can never change. They are convinced that they could never live at such a level where they obeyed all of His will and denied their sinful desires. There are some of you even right now who when you hear a message like this, a little voice begins to speak from the Father of Lies that resounds in your head at even this moment saying, "You will never be truly free from the things that bind you up." "What he is preaching is not possible for you." And you believe that lie that our Savior is only partially that: He can save and forgive us and transform somebody else, but not you. What you are really believing is that Satan's hold on your life through sin is stronger than Jesus' delivering power.

But I'm here to preach to you that you don't have to believe the lie of the devil that Jesus is powerless and pointless! In truth, the devil is the one that is the fallen foe. Jesus said this:

Satan is the one who fell! He is the one who is defeated! The very first prophecy given about the Savior in the beginning to Eve was from God when He said:

There would be a son born of the woman that would one day "crush the head" of the serpent. Satan is only strong if you believe the lie that he is in your life. In actuality, he has a crushed head and a bleak future! His power was destroyed on Calvary and his head was crushed. He only has authority over you if you give it to him by believing His lies about your life and future. And he wants you to believe in a fallen Jesus who is a Savior that cannot completely save and the Great Physician that is yet stumped by your situations and circumstances. I say to that "hogwash!" Why don't someone rip the mask off the devil's lies and realize that you've let him lie to you long enough!? Exalt Jesus in your life and you will find that the one who is fallen and weakened is the Father of Lies, himself! Jesus can still save even the most hopeless case!

______________________________________________________________________

A final way that people believe in a fallen Jesus is in their failure of understanding what drove Him to the cross. Many demote His death to just the passionate ending to a person sold out to their cause; His death was much, much more than that!

Our other text in Isaiah is a common text about the crucifixion, but it has a statement that even well-versed Christians often miss what it is trying to say. Let me read you that text again in the New Living Translation:

The mistake that the Jews made was that as they saw the suffering of Jesus, they assumed that He was getting what He deserved. They assumed that He had hidden sin. They assumed that His death could not have happened if there had not been some personal reason for it, and so when the miracle worker had to carry His cross to that hill that day and died in such a horrible manner, they assumed that the great Moral Teacher had fallen. They thought that the mighty preacher had become another statistic. As the prophet said "we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!" They thought that the cross was a sign of a fallen Jesus. Some still think that today!

But how wrong they were! He was not whipped and crucified to pay the price for His own sins, because He had no such sins! What they did not realize was that when man sinned, according to the sacrificial law of God, such sin demanded a perfect blood sacrifice. And although animal sacrifice helped man to understand that concept, the blood of bulls and goats could never make perfect atonement for man's sin. And so God looked for a sinless man to die and could find none, so He had to come and be born of woman to pay the price for us. Notice the following scriptures:

And then in that command to pastors from Paul in Ephesus:

Did you catch that? God bought this church with "his own blood!" How did Spirit have blood? It didn't until it was born of woman!

I would that someone would get the revelation today that the cross was not about Jesus falling. It was rather about the fact that He "came down" from glory to pay the price for your sin and mine! Jesus said:

And then He went out and proved it by laying down His life. So the cross was not about a "fallen Jesus," but rather about His willingness to lay down His life for you and I! That's what Pilate and the Jews of the day largely missed and it is what many miss today. The Roman soldiers did not hold him there upon the cross. It would have only taken a snap of His fingers to call down ten thousand angels to come down and make short work of the mighty Roman army. It was not fear of the crowd that caused Him to submit to the punishment of the soldiers that day. He could have easily ascended and escaped from the angry, misguided mob. An ordinary king with such means of help so readily available would never have submitted himself to such treatment. An ordinary king would have proved his kingship by a show of might. An ordinary king would have struck back and struck back hard. An ordinary king would have let the world go to hell!

But Jesus Christ did not claim to be an ordinary king, but rather the King of Kings. He is a King who cared more for you and I, His subjects, than He did His own dignity. What kind of king is this that would die for the peasant that does not know Him? What kind of king is this that would suffer the humiliation of the cross? That would allow the guilty to pronounce judgment upon Him and then without comment and without protest, pay the price for the guilty? What kind of king is that, who had every right to be the judge and yet was willing to taste death for the condemned!? He is not a king that is fallen, but rather a king far beyond and above any other! He is a king whose love for you and I goes beyond decrees and taxation, but rather who leads by example and who was willing to go to the great extremes to show how much He loved us.

The scriptures say that when He headed that final time to Jerusalem, that He "set His face like a flint" (Isaiah 50:7). He had one purpose going in and that was to pay the price of sin for you and I! Despite His flesh not wanting to die any more than your and mine does, He stayed His course. Despite the pain being so shocking that it racked His body in ways that He had not imagined, He accomplished His plan. Despite every one of His "friends" deserting Him in the moment of greatest need, he kept faithful to the reason why He had come. And so I don't see a failing or a fallen Jesus at all, but rather a victorious Jesus who accomplished despite great adversity and great pain what He had come to do! To purchase salvation for you and I!

_______________________________________________________________________

That scripture I quoted earlier about "greater love has no man than this," is often quoted but we often miss the point. Let me read it to you with the next verse as I steer toward a close:

We always preach as I have done today from the standpoint that Jesus showed His great love to us by laying down His life. But the reason that Jesus said this was that we prove whether or not we love Him with great love by whether or not we willingly lay down our life for Him! Will you go against your fleshy desires to do what it wants to do and die out to your sinful man and do His will? Will you respond to criticism and persecution and go against what the crowd in this world is doing for His sake? He showed His great love for you by sacrificing everything, but that sacrifice did no good, unless you are willing to sacrifice your life in return. He doesn't ask for a literal cross and a literal beating, but rather just simple obedience to His Word and submitting your will to His. He said "you are my friends if you do what I command." He is your friend, but are you His? Only those who obey truly are!

What did He command? We are to believe the gospel of how He died, was buried, and was resurrected. But more than believing, we must also obey the gospel. We must believe in the cross, but we must take up our own. We must believe that He died, but we must also die out to ourselves. That is called repentance. When you ask God's forgiveness for your sins and you ask Him to change you and for your will to die and His will be done. Then we are to obey His baptism and Colossians 2:11 says that we are "buried with Him in baptism." When your old sinful man has died out to itself, then you must bury that old man in the watery grave of baptism. The old man is washed away and the past buried. And then you must also rise again as He did. Your resurrection -- like His -- is a work of the Spirit of God and when you receive the Holy Ghost, the same Spirit of God that resurrected Jesus Christ comes to live within you. When you receive this precious gift -- which is free to all who repent and are baptized -- you will begin to speak with a heavenly language as the Spirit flows through you and into you. This experience -- received by all who have completely yielded their lives to Him -- is available today! And then we must "ascend" beyond this life and live according to His principles and His ways while in this world. If we do so, then we are His friends because we have done what He has asked! And He has not asked anything that He has not already done Himself!

This world would have you believe in a fallen Jesus: a Savior that cannot save, a Physician that cannot heal, a Master Preacher and Teacher that only presents tradition and religious dogma. But that is not the Jesus that I serve! And that is not the Jesus that rules and reigns over all of the universe! We serve a risen Savior of which you would only have to take a few minutes and ask around the room for proof that He can still save the most hopeless and desperate sinner. You have to look no further than around you to find proof that the Great Physician still heals and the Miracle Worker from Galilee still does the unthinkable! He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! He is very much alive and well today. And most of all He desires to know you and walk with you and reveal Himself to you today. Don't believe for a second the lie of a fallen Jesus; whatever you need, He is able to perform right here, right now!