Now I am quite well aware of the application of the death of Christ for sin, but let me point out that there is also a great application with reference to the Old Testament Scripture. When the Lord had checked, rechecked and double-checked the Law everything was accomplished, the Prophets-everything was accomplished, the Writings-everything was accomplished, the Psalms-the last thing that had to be accomplished was, "They gave me vinegar to drink." And Jesus, it says, in order "that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished" (John 19:28-29).
The era of relics came at the time of the Crusades. There were practically no relics before that time. But when the Crusades caught interest in Europe and a town raised the money to send their knight and his retainer to join the Crusades for releasing Jerusalem from the hands of the Moslems, their last words were, "Bring us a piece of the true cross." The hometown wanted a relic. Well, when these people got out of Palestine and looked around, they said to the local populace, "Have you got any relics? We want to buy relics."
Look back for a moment, if you will, to John 11:47. The chief priests and the Pharisees were in a council and they said, "What are we going to do? This man is doing so many miracles that if we let Him alone, all men will believe on Him and the Romans will come and take our place-and we'll lose our meal ticket. If there is a difficulty of any kind, we will be put out as leaders!" And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" (John 11:49-50).
So they crucified Him with a thief on either side and Jesus in between them. And Pilate wrote a title with the words Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews and he put it on the cross. Now atheists, skeptics, and agnostics have taken references to the wording of this title in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and said, "Oh, they contradict each other. They are worded differently." Well, how silly can people get in their attacks on the Bible? The reason there is a different wording is because this sign was written in three languages. John 19:20 says, "It was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin." It was written in Hebrew, the language of religion; in Greek, the language of culture and science and in Latin, the language of law and government. Matthew, who wrote to the Jews, translated the Jewish title and wrote down what was there in Hebrew. Mark, who wrote to the Romans, probably translated the Latin. Luke who wrote to the Greeks, probably translated the Greek. Thus we have it recorded in these three different ways. You can find contradictions if you are looking for them, but you can find agreements if you are willing to accept the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The minute I show you the possibility of a simple explanation, the arguments against Scripture or against the inspiration of Scripture fall apart.
Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away. And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha"-and in Latin Calvarius. It means the skull. It means a bone in the head without the flesh, a bone with two eyeholes and a hole for the nose and a grinning jaw. That was somewhat the way this hill was. The people said it looked like a skull, and so they called it Skull Peak -Calvary-Golgotha: "where they crucified him, and two others with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst" (John 19:16-18).
