Part 1

Convinced

By Joe Denbow, April 13, 2025

Does how he died convince me?

What’s it going to take for you to be convinced?

Doubt doesn’t have to be something that drives you away from God. It can be a pathway to an even stronger faith.


Process of being convinced:

1. Exposure to a New Idea

2. Attention and Openness

3. Evaluation and Internal Debate

4. Emotional Resonance

5. Social Proof and Validation

6. Adoption and Integration


- The biggest problem is that many times, the crowd gets it wrong…

- In the process of being convinced Jesus was a threat, many realized and were convinced that He was the Savior.

IT’S EASIER TO MISTREAT SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW.

IT’S HARD TO MISTREAT SOMEONE YOU KNOW VERY WELL.

  • Not only did He not mistreat us… He was mistreated FOR US.


How did he die?

1. HE WAS TORTURED

Matthew 27:26 He (Pilate) ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

2. HE WAS TORTURED

Matthew 27:27-31 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.

Matthew 27:34 The soldiers gave Jesus wine mixed with bitter gall, but when he had tasted it, he refused to drink it.

  • Jesus CHOSE to face the pain fully conscious and aware.

Matthew 27:35-36 After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there.


3. HE WAS TORTURED

Matthew 27:46 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

Matthew 27:54 The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

It was when Jesus physically died, that the supernatural convincing happened in the life of the Roman Soldiers.

1 Peter 2:24 He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.

Mark 15:39 When the Roman officer who stood facing him saw how he had died, he exclaimed, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

Luke 23:47 When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.”

Luke 23:48 all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow.

I’m convinced when I become aware of my sin and what my sin did to Jesus.